Shawn Collins' Blog

Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

Archives for June 2009

Vanity URLs on Facebook Starting This Saturday

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It’s been a few years since I encouraged affiliate marketers to secure their names on MySpace. Since then, tons of social media sites have cropped up, and there are services like Knowem where you can secure your user name across many social sites at once.

MacBook Pro Retina with Facebook home page on the screen stands

But one big site that hasn’t given the option to include a user name in the URL has been Facebook.

Well, that’s all changing in a few days, according to the Facebook blog.

Starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, you’ll be able to choose a username on a first-come, first-serve basis for your profile and the Facebook Pages that you administer by visiting www.facebook.com/username/. You’ll also see a notice on your home page with instructions for obtaining your username at that time.

You will be able to choose a user name for your profile, as well as each of the Pages you administer on Facebook.

So set your reminder now – don’t let this be like the domain, Gmail name, etc. that got away.

How to Make Affiliate Sales

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Q: If you joined an affiliate program and the product was digital with a price range around $20, how would you make four sales in your first month if you had a strong desire to succeed, no money (or very little), no Web site, no mailing list, and not much experience?

A: The first thing I would do would be to get a piece of paper, and I would make a “to do” list. The first item on the list would be to create a Web site.

So anyway, I don’t know how you would plan to promote affiliate links if you have no assets where you could promote them. Since you don’t have money to put into it, PPC is off the table.

I would suggest that you create a new blog around the topic of this affiliate program that you wish to promote.

There are services where you can start up a blog for free, but I would suggest getting your own hosting (~ $10/month) and domain ($10/year). And then install WordPress, which is free, to manage the site.

Then you should start creating content around the topic of the site. Don’t worry about the look of the blog – just start churning out content. Understand that nobody is going to be visiting or buying from you initially, so you’re operating in something of a vacuum.

This is the period where you can either persevere or quit. You probably won’t make four sales in the first month, unless you’re really aggressive in marketing the site.

Note: aggressive doesn’t equal spam, but rather hard work.

Later on, get a nice looking WordPress theme, and add in plugins to customize the site more.

Focus on building a quality site and eventually the sales will come.

Post Your RSS to Twitter and Facebook

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There are some quick and easy steps you can take to have your blog RSS feed posted to your Twitter account, and then also to your Facebook status.

In order to have your RSS feed tied to your Twitter account, there is a free service called Twitterfeed.

And then if you’d like to have your Tweets piped into Facebook, there is a free application to set this up at apps.facebook.com/twitter.

This way, you won’t have to double-post to Twitter and Facebook.

But don’t use RSS only to power your Tweets and Facebook status updates. The human element is essential, and importing the feeds should just be used to supplement your accounts.

Recruiting Targeted Affiliates

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Q: I need to find a directory of affiliate companies to partner with on both a CPS (cost per sale) and a CPL (cost per lead) business model. Where would I find this?

Shawn CollinsA: As far as finding relevant affiliates, there isn’t really a directory out there. There are a number of techniques you could use, including going to Google and searching for the keywords in your business.

Then reach out to the people running sites that already rank well for keywords in your niche.

Get started there, and depending on your vertical, this could be a rather big project.

Also look into which sites are promoting your competitors. One way to do this is to monitor who is bidding on keywords in your space in Google AdWords, and then check to see the sites hosting the landing pages.

These could be good leads for targeted affiliates, too.

Advertising.com Launches BidPlace Self-Serve Ad Solution

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Advertising.com has a new initiative is to make their display network more accessible to small and mid-sized advertisers.

The new product to serve this market is called BidPlace.

The monthly minimum for BidPlace is only $300, and banners are distributed across the entire Advertising.com network, which includes…

  • AOL.com
  • AutoTrader.com
  • CNBC.com
  • Discovery.com
  • InStyle.com
  • NationalGeographic.com
  • RealSimple.com
  • RollingStone.com
  • SportsIllustrated.com
  • USAToday.com

Campaigns can be targeted to specific states or cities, specific behaviors, types of sites, and user demographics.

More details at http://www.bidplacesb.com/.

Domain Typo Generator

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[audio:http://geekcast.fm/podpress_trac/web/1792/0/brandmouthing-12.mp3]

This week on the Brandmouthing podcast, I talk about using a free domain typo generator from DomainTools.com to protect your brand.

This tool can assist you in identifying domains that result from Qwerty typos, letter swaps, sticky keys, and look alikes, so you can purchase them yourself.

The domain typo generator will also enable you to find cases where other people have registered these domains to squat on your brand.

domain-typo-generator

Show Notes

Check out http://brandmouthing.com/ for a collection of all future episodes of Brandmouthing, as well as images, videos, etc. that I mention on the podcast. Subscribe to the Brandmouthing RSS feed.

UPDATE:

Since I recorded this podcast, I found out about a typosquatting scan on the homepage of Alias Encore.

This tool enable you to enter a .com domain name to see a list of infringing sites along with screenshots.

Why Can’t I Make Money in Affiliate Marketing?

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Q: My ads get about 1,400 to 1,500 impressions per day, and I’ve had an account for about three weeks with Commission Junction, yet I’ve had only four clicks and zero conversions. Any tips?

A: It’s a little hard to give advice when I don’t know your site focus and what you’re promoting. For all I know, the site may be about a type of monkey, and you’re running diet ads.

I am guessing, based on the performance of your ads that those as just are not relevant to your audience.

My first suggestion is to run your ads through an ad server. I use OpenX, which is free. You could also try Google Ad Manager and a variety of other ad servers.

By using an ad manager, you will be able to run some A/B tests to determine which ads perform best and worst for you.

Also, I suspect one of your problems is that you’re running banners, and perhaps only banners.

If that’s the case, people tend to have banner blindness (i.e. they don’t notice your banners). So, you should incorporate some contextual ads. Make links to relevant products or services from the text in your content.

Lastly, you need a heavy dose of patience. It’s only been a few weeks.

Granted, the results are horrible. But that’s typical for people when they’re getting into it. Test, learn from your mistakes, and focus on relevant, contextual ad placements.

Affiliate Marketing Job Board

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Affiliate Summit has launched a new job board for affiliate marketers.

We get lots of inquiries from companies looking to hire an affiliate manager, as well as folks looking to move on to a new affiliate marketing job.

Now you’ve all got a central location to list and find affiliate marketing jobs.

Submit your affiliate marketing job listings or look for a job at http://jobs.affiliatesummit.com/.

Affiliate Fatblogging: Music Playlist for Swimming Harder

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I tried out my new H20 Audio Amphibx Waterproof Armband to listen to music while swimming laps.

It was great to have music while swimming, and the sound was great just below the surface, but increasingly lower as I swam lower in the pool.

It’s waterproof to 12 feet, but I guess the packaging didn’t make any assurances for volume as you go deeper.

The armband was a little bulky, but I’d say it’s worth it for the music.

One thing i wasn’t sure about was whether it’s “safe” to bring this thing into hot water. I like to take a dip in the hot tub after a swim as a little treat, and I had my arm hanging out, so I wouldn’t compromise the tunes.

I don’t typically listen to music when walking – I prefer podcasts – so I had to assemble a playlist of “power songs” to keep the motion in the ocean, er, I mean pool.

Here was my playlist for the inaugural swim:

I felt like I was swimming stronger with the fast beats, rather than going without music in the pool.

I’m thinking podcasts won’t work for me in the water. I liked having the music for inspiration, especially towards the end of the workout.

One bad thing about the past week was that I managed to gain a pound. I had a three day business trip to Dallas, where I had to indulge in some of the local foods.

I also went to see the Yankees play in Arlington, TX against the Rangers (big win!) and had to sample the ballpark food.

But now it’s time to bounce back and I plan to hit 217 by next Monday.

Starting weight: 225
Last week: 218
This week: 219

a4uAwards Winners for 2009

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The a4uAwards took place June 2, 2009 in London, and the winners have been announced on the a4uAwards blog.

I had the privilege of being one of the judges for these affiliate marketing awards, so I had a chance to read the details submissions for each category.

Among the big winners were Skimlinks for Innovative Publisher of the Year, PrezzyBox for Innovative Merchant of the Year, and Affiliate Window for Innovative Affiliate Network of the Year.

Check out the photos from the a4uAwards.

See the complete list of winners at http://www.a4uawards.com/blog/a4uawards-winners/.