Affiliate Spring Cleaning

1 Person Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on March 19, 2008 in Affiliate Tips  

Everyone knows as spring approaches it is time for some spring cleaning. Same goes for the affiliate side of things. In spring I look back see what has worked what hasn’t and what needs to change. Some tips for spring cleaning.

  1. Check Existing Campaigns (Are they still making good ROI? How is the ad copy (try something fresh and new), Is your page outdated? (Check out the competition & Compare)
  2. Check on your payouts on offers. (Is the same offer available for higher on another network or direct?)
  3. Check for other similar offers. (if your credit offer is doing well look for other credit offers to promote or split test with)
  4. Check you current Setup. Is it time for a new PC, new monitor, New servers to handle the massive traffic?
  5. Check Yourself. Are you being the most efficient you can be. Can you hire others to due the same tasks for cheaper? Have you rewarded your self for you hard work? (Vacation, New Car etc..)

Those are a few of my thoughts on affiliate Spring cleaning any suggestions of your own?

Affiliate Marketers can Learn From Hillary and Obama

4 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on March 3, 2008 in Affiliate Tips  

Yes you read that title correct Affiliate Marketers can Learn From Hillary and Obama. While i am not turning this blog into a political sounding board there are many things Affiliates can learn from Hillary and Obama some good some bad. So here goes.

What Affiliates can learn from Hillary:

1. Sometimes Your Associations can hurt you or help. For instance… no one will forget her husband and what happened with him in the presidency. Same applies for affiliates, if you spamed or provided bad leads… your networks and managers will take this into account when new offers come out. Just like if you rocked offers with quality leads they will come running back to you.

2. Show your sensitive side… Hillary did this by crying… But as an Affiliate Marketer you can do this by giving something back or giving an incentive… Incentives are GREAT when done properly. I have ran offers where 50% or even 90% of proceeds went to charity… what do you know they performed well.

3. Don’t Flip Easily… Hillary has flipped on a few subjects… Should you flip in Affiliate Marketing… it depends… I always test… even when the payout seems lower you should test the same offer on another network sometimes they will convert better… or maybe the one company is skimming and the other isn’t or its the system is better at tracking, who knows either way this flip could put more money in your pocket.

What Affiliates can learn from Obama:

1. Your Message doesn’t have to be different… Just promoted in a different manner… Obama has promised change… Many have done this in the past but why does he get more promotion due to this (think about the Yes we Can Video). What we can learn as affiliate marketers is … so what there is 1000’s others with the same message or offer… take that message or offer and put a spin on it… promote it with more gusto and it just might work.

2. While there are supporters of all the candidates Obama’s seem to work a little harder and push a little more… As affiliates you can learn that some of the best publicity isn’t your own but from your supporters (buyers and users) find ways to get them to help you promote your product.

3.Cross Gaps…. Obama has done this by appealing to all races… As affiliates you can do this by cross promotion just because an offer is geared towards dieting… why not cross promote it to just women or to stay at home moms, or maybe to the working women… Don’t just target the main audience, reach out across the gaps and you wil be surprised of the result.

So there you have it a few things Affiliate Marketers can Learn from Hillary and Obama… While i don’t feel this is all inclusive, it should give you some ideas… You have some ways affilaites can learn from any of the candidates (repub or Dem)? Leave a comment.

Landing Pages are Key to Making it in Affiliate Marketing

6 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on January 3, 2008 in Affiliate Tips, Landing Pages  

People ask me and in the various forums all the time - “Do I need a Landing Page?”. While you don’t need a landing page, 98% of the time i can make a campaign better and convert more with my own landing page than a direct link. Here are a 3 main reasons why a Landing Page is Key to really making it in affiliate marketing.

1. You control the content.

  • Helps with keyword/phrase stuffing
  • Placement of words and phrases for adwords quality score
  • Inform the user or just push the user to the page
  • Highlight the big points of the offer (Free Shipping, 20% off, Free Trial, Completely Free etc..)

2. You control the spin of the product. Let’s face it while some of the offers own page rocks, some just plain suck and are just a form to fill in, this is when your Landing page is critical to presell or get the user ready to hand over their information.

3. You can split test content, images, text, links.  Remember you want to split test an offer that is on several CPA networks. You will be surprised in the difference of conversions, sometimes even the lower paying network will convert better. It’s wierd how it is always different, which is why you should split test the links. Also try different landing pages and see which ones get you more clicks onto the offer page but also which ones get you the converts.

I personnally almost always use a landing page and can attest it works! Do you use landing pages?

Are You Planning for Failure?

4 People Speaking Their Mind - Put In Your Two Cents!

Posted on December 6, 2007 in Affiliate Tips, Working Online  

Are You Planning for Failure? Sounds like a stupid question but it really isn’t. What i mean is in those times you fail or in those times of downturn are you planing for them incase they come. Here are some tips that can help you through those failing and downturn times. (downturn could mean an offer gets pulled, or traffic tanks etc..)

1. Are you diversified? Are you reliant on just one offer or just one website? If so you are setting yourself up.. you need to diversify try promoting a new offer or website.

2. Have you saved anything? With the world of online marketing there are great months and there are bad months. The key is in the great months you don’t go blow all your money (on Fancy Cars and Vacatons, but do have some fun you did earn it) but put some aside for those months when things aren’t so hot. Nothing worse then living the high-life and 6 months late you are selling all your stuff so you can eat. I have seen it happen to people.

3. Do you have a plan to succeed? More than just enjoying what you are making now and where you are at, but do you have a plan to succeed in the future or do you just plan to ride that single wave… me personnally i catch as many waves as possible.

4. When you do Fail (not a downturn or offer pulled) but just cant seem to get some offers to work. Try learning from them just with every success you can learn from every failure. Maybe you found there wasn’t as much traffic as you thought or maybe there is so much traffic but people want what you are offering for free and you are selling it.

5. Don’t Give UP!   Plain and simple people try and fail in the online world everyday the beauty of it is that the online world has such LOW startup costs compared to Brick and mortar businesses.

6. You don’t have to go it alone. While in partnerships all the reward isn’t yours but with a team or partnership you can go much further than you could on your own. The key is to put people around you with great skills in where you lack. (Disclaimer WORK everything and i mean everything down to how many bathroom breaks a day … ok well maybe not that detailed… but you don’t want to do a partnership come to find our later your partner always takes off the full month of Jan to go skiing)

Hopefully this has helped you to get your mind thinking… do you have a tip of how to plan for times of failure or even how to plan to succed? let me know by leaving a comment.

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