Search Results for: ask shawn collins

Q: What are the characteristics of an affiliate network that would make it compelling for affiliates and merchants to join?

A: First things first – I don’t know that the world really needs another affiliate network. There are already so many other there, especially in the CPA network area, I’ve got to wonder how they all even survive. Why would an affiliate join so many different networks?

As far as what affiliates are looking for in a network, I’d say a competent tracking technology and quality support staff, plus compelling, unique offers for them to run.

On the merchant side, one thing you’re going to want to deliver to them, of course, is a stable of performing affiliates.

It’s sort of a Catch 22 there, because starting from scratch you won’t have either one.

Another lure for the merchants would be to already have some big name merchants on your roster.

Unless you have a lot of resources and funding, you might want to rethink whether this new affiliate network is the right move for you.

Q: Is there an updated version of your book, “Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants”?

A: There has only been one edition of my book, which was published in April 2001.

However, if you are attending the next Affiliate Summit (Miami, July 8-10), there is a seminar being conducted for affiliate managers, Affiliate Management Best Practices, instructed by Andy Rodriguez, President/CEO of Andy Rodriguez Consulting Inc.

This is an optional session, taking place Saturday, July 7th from 8:00am to 5:30pm at the Intercontinental Hotel – Miami, Flagler Room.

Andy has run a number of Affiliate Management Seminars in the past years, and we’re excited to have him on board to run this one.

The seminar is for merchants only and session fees will be charged as follows:

• $99.00 if attendee also purchases a full conference registration to Affiliate Summit.
• $199.00 if attendee also purchases an exhibit-hall registration to Affiliate Summit.
• $399.00 if attendee is not registered for Affiliate Summit or if they have received a complimentary Affiliate Summit registration.

I may write another affiliate management book in the future, but I don’t necessarily thing books are the best thing for affiliate managers these days, because the industry is not as static as it used to be.

Things are changing all the time in affiliate marketing, so I would urge affiliate managers to maintain a constant education via blogs, forums, seminars, and conferences.

Q: How can an affiliate be expected to start creating sites (each domain/hosting is around $100 for 2 years) when a profit has not even been generated from the first site? I was thinking I would launch ten domains each selling different products.

A: One thing I’d like to correct with your cost estimate is that it doesn’t have to be that expensive.

You can get a shared hosting account from a variety of hosting companies and you can put all of your domains on the same plan.

One of the hosts I use is 1&1 Internet, and they’ve got a package called the 1&1 Developer plan for less than $20/month.

With this plan, you get five domain registrations, as well as 600 sub-domains and 200 external domains. the plan also gives 300 GB of space, 4,000 e-mail accounts, and a whole laundry list of other features.

Anyhow, you’re looking at less than $250 for a year of hosting and five domain registrations. If you wanted to have ten sites, you can register domains for less than $10 each.

So you’re looking at less than $300 for hosting and registration for up to ten domains for a year.

Q: I just got an email from a merchant stating that a bunch of affiliates are violating their bid cap policies on both Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search. How could they determine that without the bidder’s permission and without violating privacy policies of the PPC accounts?

A: I’m not sure what this particular merchant is doing, but I’m still using the same old, unscientific approach of checking to see whether affiliates are ranking higher than me.

In general, when I’ve had this rule in effect, I’d bid a penny higher than the bid cap, so if affiliates were turning up higher I’d give them a call to say, “What’s up?”

Presumably, the affiliate is bidding higher than the bid cap.

While this method may not be foolproof, it’s an indicator. If any affiliate manager has a more involved way to do it, I’m not aware of it.

Q: I have a question about self-replicating Web sites… how effective are they?

A: My recommendation would be to avoid self-replicating Web sites. For the most part, I’ve seen them offered through Multi-Level Marketing schemes, rather than affiliate programs.

However, there are certainly some affiliate programs that do have them.

Anyhow, these self-replicating Web sites are geared towards people who don’t have an ability to create a Web site or any sort of presence online themselves to promote affiliate links.

These sites are so homogenized and non-unique that I would say to stray away from them.

Instead, build up your own unique experience online to sell whatever product or service it is that you are promoting. I think you’ll find that this approach is more lucrative for you.

Q: You have called out some of the “free ringtone” scammers, but the guy that runs Elite Retreat is the worst of all. Look at his forum at sprintusers.com/forum. Those sponsored ringtones are not free – why haven’t you called him out? Is he your friend? Is what he’s doing OK? Because if it is I want to do it.

A: “Janet” – I replied to the e-mail you used to submit your question to try and get more details, but it was fake and bounced back to me.

Anyhow, I’ve reported on folks that were bidding on terms related to free ringtones after some cursory searches in Google and Yahoo! There are most assuredly many more people breaking the rules than I’ve come across. I didn’t look too deep to find my examples.

As far as Lee Dodd’s SprintUsers.com forum, I am guessing you are referring to the Google AdSense ads near the top of the page, as they are focused on ringtones. If that’s the case, it’s Google who determines the ads served.

I have AdSense on the AffiliateTip.com homepage (where my latest blog headlines are featured) and there may well have been free ringtone ads displayed there at times – triggered by the content of my headlines.

As far as why I haven’t “called him out”, I am not aware of anything forbidden on his part.

Is he your friend?

Yes.

Is what he’s doing OK?

As far as I can tell.

Q: With the Affiliate Summit coming up in London, I’m curious as to which British band is your favorite?

A: That’s a sort of random, non-affiliate marketing question, but I’m game. I am still living in the 80’s when it comes to a lot of my favorite music – stuff I picked up on from the old MTV show, 120 Minutes (Sundays at midnight back in the day).

I would say the Smiths are/were my favorite group. Not just among British bands, but all over. Now don’t mistake that with being a Morrissey enthusiast. He’s had some good singles as a solo act, but it was all about his voice with Johnny Marr’s guitar.

Now if I could go with an individual, I’d say Billy Bragg. Whether it’s the early 80’s folk-punk, the more rootsy Woody Guthrie stuff or whatever, Billy is just fantastic.

Anyhow, since the door was left open here, I felt compelled to give a brief performance of each. For your listening pleasure, I’ve belted out “Greetings to the New Brunette” from Billy Bragg and “Bigmouth Strikes Again” by the Smiths.

And I do have an affiliate marketing tie-in here to bring it all on home. Back at Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, I got a gift from Liz Angus, Affiliate Marketing Manager at Studeo. It was the American Idol Singer’s Advantage kit.

It’s a vocal home study course to help mold raw talent like myself into the likes of Sanjaya Malakar. They’ve got an affiliate program for it at IdolAffiliates.com – promote it while it’s red hot in the ratings.

Q: Is the use of blogs considered one of the better ways to succeed in affiliate marketing?

A: There isn’t really a single answer here. It really depends on what topic you’re covering and what products or services you hope to sell.

I’d say you should go with blogging as an affiliate if you don’t have an ability to design a Web site. You can get setup with WordPress and install a theme to get a look and feel that works for you.

If you plan to write content that would include recommendations, I think a blog would be an ideal venue for you.

Otherwise, there are a wide variety of affiliate types out there that work in varying degrees depending on the vertical you’re focused on.

There are traditional content sites, as well as comparison shopping, coupons, rewards, etc.

Successful affiliates are also using e-mail and pay per click search engines. And there are a variety of ways you can leverage Web 2.0 as an affiliate, such as social networks, podcasts, and video.

I would say that you should go with the method that is most comfortable for you, as it will be more likely for you to stick with it if you like what you’re doing, whether it be a blog, social network, e-mail list, or whatever else.

Q: How can I monitor my affiliates who are using e-mail to be sure they are being CAN-SPAM compliant?

A: I’ve got two tools I’d recommend that you check out. First is LashBack.com, where they have a suite of tools to enable advertisers to monitor affiliate CAN-SPAM Act compliance.

Also, there is UnsubCentral.com, which enables you to manage your e-mail suppression list(s). This tool enables you to protect your suppression data via MD5-encoding, as well as controlling which affiliates can even access this information and e-mail creative.

Check out those two products and take them for a test drive.

If you don’t have the budget for LashBack.com and/or UnsubCentral.com, you can monitor your affiliates the old fashioned way – opt-in to their list(s). This is not perfect since their “real” list might not be out there for you to subscribe.

An important thing to note – be selective about which affiliates are able to send out e-mail. Don’t just make the creative and suppression list(s) publicly available, or else you may well get a call from the FTC due to spamming affiliates.

Q: Which is the best software to recruit affiliates… ARELIS or Link Capture?

A: There are a handful of software programs for affiliate recruitment. In addition to ARELIS and Link Capture, there is also the Internet Success Spider and Syntryx.

ARELIS is the most popular and lower in cost than Link Capture, but I prefer Link Capture. I also like Syntryx – it’s more expensive and more robust than the others.

It really depends on your pricepoint. If it’s between ARELIS and Link Capture, I’d go with Link Capture. If cost isn’t as much a concern, I’d suggest Syntryx.