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Affiliate Classroom Blog Archives

Hot Niches - Automotive and Travel

Friday, December 30th, 2005 at 12:37 pm by Anik Singal

According to Infozine.com, “JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), forecasts that online display and search advertising spending will grow at an average annual rate of 10% between 2005 and 2010…”

They are especially keen on “Automotive- 24% and Travel - 13%”

This is an interesting review, however, I would argue that their expectations are lower than what should be. Just from last year to this year, there was a 20+% increase in online advertising spending.

Either way, if you’re an affiliate - maybe it’s the right time to start working on some automotive and travel sites. We already know there are some great affiliate programs for both (especially for travel).

Maybe once your traffic starts, you can even sell some high priced banners and ad spots!

The Top Niches of 2005…

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 at 10:39 am by Anik Singal

Well, thanks to Clickz.com, we now know the most searched keywords on all the major search engines for 2005. Not all of them can really help you make products or money, but some of these are really interesting.

Analyzing what was searched just may help you un-lock some great niches for your next affiliate marketing websites!

Have a look: Click here…

Affiliate Summit 2006 Sold Out

Friday, December 23rd, 2005 at 11:08 am by Anik Singal

Talk about growth! Affiliate Summit 2006 (January) is once again sold out, but this time there are over 1,000 attendees!

Affiliate Classroom is very excited about this Affiliate Summit because it will be our first trade show appearance. If you are attending The Affiliate Summit, make sure to come visit our booth.

Also, I am personally running a 4 hour Boot Camp on “Affiliate Management/Recruiting/Training/Motivating” on January 11 (the day after the Summit). There are still seats available to do that, so go ahead and sign up!

There are also two additional workshops there:

Multiplying Your Google AdSense Income! Joel Comm, Author, Google AdSense-Secrets.com

Explode Your Business with Blogging! - Dave Taylor, Principal, Intuitive Systems, Inc.

Will absolutely be a great event!

What was Reuters Thinking?

Friday, December 23rd, 2005 at 11:02 am by Anik Singal

A couple of days ago I made a posting about a cool “affiliate program” being launched by Reuters that was going to allow webmasters to place Reuters new video feeds on their website…

I thought it was very neat, UNTIL I recently read a posting by Shawn Collins.

Shawn Collins makes a good point in his post about the limitations of the new Reuters affiliate program - that it’s not really a commission based program at all! I still feel it’s a great way to put some of the most prestigious news content, with a known brand, on your site for free (but it’s only free for a little while).

But Shawn’s point is very valid - why is Reuters calling it an “affiliate program,” if they don’t have a commission, revenue share, or PPL model in place?

Read more of Shawn’s comments on his blog posting…click here.

The Numbers Are In - $16.34 Billion!

Thursday, December 22nd, 2005 at 11:44 am by Anik Singal

Comscore is reporting a 24% increase in online holiday shopping in 2005 from 2004 (To date). And this does NOT include the following:

- Travel
- Major Auctions
- Big company purchases

What this basically means is that CONSUMERS are far more active in making online purchases for this holiday season this year than they were last year. For affiliates, that is GREAT news!

I know, for myself, I have done almost 80% of my shopping all online (I still buy clothes and shoes at the store locations). I bought anything from computers, iPods, software, games, music, etc… ALL on the internet.

I did price searches, read reviews and did comparisons before I bought a thing online - what does this mean? This means that many affiliates out there made some hefty commissions from my Christmas shopping.

Who knows, maybe one of those affiliates was you?

If it wasn’t, then this tells you the importance of writing “product reviews” and doing “product comparisons…”

If you didn’t this year, make sure you get ready to get YOUR share of the $16+ Billion shopping that happens online in just weeks.

Look For AOL Adsense Blocks?

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005 at 3:55 pm by Anik Singal

As many of you may already know, Google bought a 5% stake in AOL for $1 Billion and it looks like they did with a reason in mind - they wanted to use AOL’s ad sales force.

Here is a snippet from NY Times:

“Under the new deal, AOL’s sales force will also have the ability to sell search advertising that appears only on AOL’s sites, even though those ads will compete for placement with those sold by Google. AOL’s sales force will also have the right to sell some display advertising that will be placed on the vast network of Web sites for which Google sells ads.

AOL executives are attracted to the idea of offering marketers a full range of Internet advertisements, from splashy ads on the home page of AOL.com to text ads.”

I got this information from Revenews on a post by Beth Kirsch, have a look:
Click here to read more…

Show Live TV News on Your Blogs…

Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 3:30 pm by Anik Singal

Here’s a VERY exciting development for affiliates who operate news blogs. Reuters, the international news agency, just launched a pilot program that allows blogs and other online publishers to show Reuters news video on their Web sites.

The Reuters video affiliate program is free - for now. You can check it out at http://labs.reuters.com/video/. You can place a video player on your site and show up to 20 of Reuters’ breaking news stories from around the world. Video is updated throughout the day, is Windows and Macintosh compatible, and is reportedly very easy to integrate into a site.

During the pilot period, the Reuters player is free - but it does contain advertising. But after the service is launched commercially in early 2006, affiliate sites may have the option of showing ads or paying a license fee. Get a full report and more details at ZDNet:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6001968.html

Are You An Affiliate Marketer?

Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 2:03 pm by Anik Singal

It’s that time again - yes, you got it - another short survey!

See, as 2006 rolls around, Affiliate Classroom is preparing some amazing changes so that we can continue to better serve our students.

However, in order to do that, we need to know more about our students! The following survey has NO fill in the blank questions and is only 5 short multiple choice questions.

Please take a minute and answer them: Click here to access survey…

December 2005 Magazine Released…

Thursday, December 15th, 2005 at 1:52 pm by Anik Singal

It’s that time of the month again, the December 2005 Affiliate Classroom magazine is out and ready for you to download at absolutely NO cost.

December 2005 Magazine
Download Now!

This month we not only look at the highlights of 2005 but look into the future of affiliate marketing in 2006 and what we have in store. I have all of my personal predicitions for affiliate marketing for 2006 in this issue as well…

More specifically, here are some of the topics discussed:

- What’s coming in 2006
- How search influenced affiliates in 2005
- The top affiliate technologies of 2005
- Is SEO too tedious for you?
- Who won the AC Thanksgiving Competition?!

Click here to download the magazine immediately!

Do Traffic Exchanges Work?

Wednesday, December 14th, 2005 at 3:06 pm by Anik Singal

Alright, today’s post is not really for the “Expert” affiliate (since most of you are nose, neck and shoulders deep into SEO).

Today’s post is for the beginners who start a website and want some traffic right away. SEO can take months to kick in, so what to do in the mean time?

Unforunately, in the midst of an affiliate’s desperate search for fast traffic, many fall victim to the websites claiming to deliver 50,000, even 1 million “targeted” visitors to your website for $9.99…

Think I’m kidding? Just go to google and search for “fast traffic” or even just “website traffic.”

Just make sure to hide your wallet because even after reading this blog you may fall for their great sales pitch…

This brings us to our question of the day: “Do traffic exchanges really work?”

In a short answer: NO

In a longer answer: They don’t work for me or for any student I have ever coached. However, there almost seems to be a “underground cult” of people who have learned how to make them work.

For that reason, if you want to try it, I say “sure, go ahead…” But, more than anything it seems to be a game of volume (to have any luck at making it work).

If you want my opinion: Your time is better spent on other forms of fast and inexpensive targeted traffic:

1. Link Exchanging
2. Forum Posting
3. Article Syndication/Distribution
4. Start a Blog
5. Post Website in Directories
6. Advertise in Newsletters
7. Banner Advertising
8. Pay Per Click (Depending on your niche)

If anyone is having good experiences with traffic exchanges, I would love to hear from you!

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