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Affiliate Classroom Blog Archives

Mobile Ads, Part II

Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 5:11 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

The other day we reported that video on cell phones is gaining popularity. (Hardly news, we admit.) eMarketer has released additional data that supports our view that this channel is going to be increasingly important to affiliate marketers.

Once dismissed as “too small” for anything but text, the small screen is growing as a source of premium video service revenue… and the ads that often accompany them. eMarketer found that six of 44.5 million users pay for premium video services and watch them on their mobile.

A large percentage of technology and Internet users are away from the computer for much of the day. Traveling sales personnel, conference attendees, executives on business trips, and others. They use their cell phones for email, (local or regular) search, and (more and more) for making purchases.

As you adapt to the changes in technology and consumer habits, don’t overlook an opportunity to follow them with your message. Others are.

Audio and video podcasts both will make their way into this medium before long, along with text. New tools allow advertisers to easily make voice and video recordings, and make them available to subscribers.

Increase your income by expanding your focus to include the consumer on the go, not just the one sitting in front of a monitor.

Mobile Ads, Affiliate Marketing Gems

Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 1:25 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Internet Ad Sales reports that just acquired JupiterResearch “has found that 41% of mobile phone users are interested in some form of video service on their mobile phone.”

Though currently a small market, revenues for video are expected to be in the $500 million range by 2010.

Couple those facts with a couple more. (1) Local Search continues to expand in various ways. (2) Ad spending in the UK increased 66% in 2005. (3) Google’s market share in the UK is 75% and their lead in the US continues to grow. (4) Luxury items continue to dominate Internet spending (in certain respects).

Picture this. Busy stock broker Jane in The City in London stops on the street because she just has to buy an anniversary present for her mate on her lunch hour.

Local Search on her cell phone shows her your ad and she watches a short video from your merchant. Your merchant has just what she needs: a stunning new watch. A few presses on the keypad and the item is delivered to her door just as she arrives home with flowers. Happy ending for all.

I know where I’m putting my bet for future affiliate marketing income growth. Eh, wot?

(To get info and advice about doing business in the UK market, see our February, 2006 issue of Affiliate Classroom magazine. You’ll find reviews of UK networks, advice about payments, etc.)

Behavioral Ad Targeting, New Income Generator

Monday, March 27th, 2006 at 3:53 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Behavioral ad targeting is as old as Homer. (The 9th century BC Greek storyteller, not the TV cartoon. Though, the latter is getting up there too.) But its online form is getting more and more popular, according to Forrester.

In essence, the idea takes contextual ads to the next level. Find out something about your potential customer by ‘observing’ their behavior and feed them ads based on that. Simple.

And effective.

Clickthrough rates increase 166%, according to one study by 24/7 Real Media. (For the non-mathematically inclined that’s less than double, more than one and a half times. Not 166 times. Still a very healthy increase.) As high as 200% according to another cited by Yahoo! Chief Data Officer, Usama Fayyad.

And, of course, there are as many ways to ‘observe’ and find out about behavior as there are men named Homer. Search queries is only the most primitive, but there are others. Clickstream analysis is another. Observing comparison shopping, trip planning, news reading… the list is endless.

And the more data the better since marketing is sometimes like talking to your dog. They don’t tell you directly what they want, so you have to gather all the clues you can to figure it out. (Now if we could only get dogs to click on PPC ads. Er, maybe we shouldn’t give the click fraudsters any ideas.)

But having lots of data isn’t the goal. There’s usually more data than you know what to do with in studying online behavior. The key is to be able to separate what’s meaningful and useful from what’s unimportant.

Fortunately, the technology and services available for doing that are getting increasingly prevalent and more sophisticated. Like the original Homer, not the cartoon one.

Why I am liking MSN a lot more…

Monday, March 27th, 2006 at 1:43 am by Anik Singal

Quick note - I am back from the Underground Seminar and will soon enough write a complete review (but I have a lot of work to catch up on first).

But, in the mean time, I want to take a second to rant about how much I love MSN (or am starting to love MSN). I recently lauched a new niche site - 10 days ago or so. I have great content on there, about 30+ pages, a good daily updated blog, etc…

Google - I’m lucky that they’ve even come by my site so far (but given, I have not started my linking campaign yet).

Yahoo - Ehh…they have some pages indexed, but not properly (They are from the old site I was working on and never finished). I almost *wish* they would DE-index me and re-index my pages to get all the titles and things right.

O…no traffic yet from Google or Yahoo.

BUT!

MSN - ALL pages indexed and within 7 days I was already ranking well for some of the best keywords in a good niche. Now, I’m not in some “really small” niche - this niche has some big players in it!

But, MSN, has indexed my pages very fast and started giving me ranking and traffic in just days!

So, if you have not yet, go to MSN and have a look and see how you are doing there.

Underground Online Seminar - Anik Report (Part II)

Sunday, March 26th, 2006 at 12:26 am by Anik Singal

“Wow again…”

Ok, I have to be completely honest - I enjoyed the seminar yesterday, yes - but had some reserves. There were areas I thought it could have been better (but the networking was still golden)!

Anyways, all that went OUT the window today. The content today was just amazing.

The first speaker - Gave me great ideas about content sites and how he/she uses them to build a much larger business and customer list

The second speaker - Out right blew me away with how he can buy MILLIONS of visitors to his sites without ever joint venturing or sucking up or waiting months. He can instantly just buy traffic.

That’s just a bit of it.

So, let’s see, what “SPECIFICALLY” did “I” get out of it besides the great speakers:

1. A meeting with Mike Filsaime - There is a funny story here that I’ll probably publish one day, this guy cracks me up. Anyways, he gave me some PRICELESS advice that may have just saved my business (not kidding…). Also, I was able to get some solid feedback and advice on a product launch ;)

2. Still chasing down Air’n - Air’n is ONE busy guy and we keep missing each other! But, we’ll eventually get a hold of each other.

Ok, to be honest, I’m dead tired so if I think of something else - I’ll post it tomorrow. Plus, a full report will come after the event (gotta check with Yanik to see how much I can reveal ;)

Google GeoAds, The Experiment Continues

Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at 6:09 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

In one way, Google is one giant experiment. Sure, it’s an established business, whose revenues are predicted to climb to over $12 billion by end of 2007.

But, bringing sites and eyes together is what Google does… and no one - not even Google - has yet determined the best way to do that.

(It took television quite a few years to develop to its current format, too.)

But the gorilla of search and PPC advertising, whatever you think of it, has one huge thing going for it. It never ceases to experiment with new products, techniques, and ideas - while continuing what it does really well: serving ads with search.

The latest incarnation is the addition of graphical ads to Google Local. Type in a search of, say “booksellers nyc”, as Shimon Sandler did recently, and you might see more than you’re used to.

There’ll be the usual several little red balloons. But, if you’re in some group defined by criteria known only to Google, you’ll see something extra: a postage stamp-sized graphic touting, for example, Barnes & Noble.

Why Google has for so long resisted adding small graphics is something of a mystery. All things considered it can’t take noticeably longer to load the page. And Yahoo! has had something like this for quite some time.

But whatever its former reasons, the genie left the bottle briefly, for some wishers. Odds are, it won’t stay in long now.

Readers of Affiliate Classroom don’t need to be told what this means. No one knows for sure anyway. After all, it’s one giant experiment.

Underground Online Seminar - Anik Reporting…

Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at 12:35 am by Anik Singal

“Wow”

For those of you who don’t know, I am at Yanik’s Underground Online Seminar this weekend. The whole weekend actually started for me on Wednesday when I spoke at a pre-event that Russell Brunson held.

Well, today, bright and early at 8 AM (yes, I was 20 minutes late), we got started. Yanik introduced us to the LONG line of speakers and boy does he have some real “doozies” - I have barely heard of anyone who is speaking here, but all seem to be making boat loads.

So far, I’ve had a chance to rub shoulders with Mike Filsaime, Air’n Manohan, Jeff Johnson, Josh Anderson, Russell Brunson, Yanik (of course), Marlon Sanders, Jeff Mulligan, the list just goes on…

My honest opinion - of all the speakers who spoke today, Air’n was the best (he went first) - his topic was on some crucial laws of internet marketing - now I can’t tell you more, or else Yanik and the other agents will assassinate me!

I’m sure many of you are wondering, “Is the event worth it Anik?”

Well, I’ll let you judge for yourself:

1. I have a potential JV in the works with Air’n now (and not just yeaa…JV JV JV - but something serious worth LOTS)
2. Russell and I brainstormed (alot) and I found out some of the things he does to sell high ticket items
3. I met Marlon (if you havn’t yet, that ALONE may be worth $2,000 - the guy is nuts!)
4. I got to re-connect with Jeff Johnson (on the coaching club) - he’s going to help me with my new site…(one of them)
5. Josh Anderson and I did some great brainstorming about Affiliate Classroom

…umm and this is just end of Day #1!!

So, what do you think, is it worth it so far?

I’ll talk more about the actual content and presentations tomorrow (once I’ve seen more).

Until then, this is Anik, reporting from the Affiliate Classroom blog…

Web 2.0 Reaching Critical Mass in 2006?

Friday, March 24th, 2006 at 3:17 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Over the coming months, we’ll be discussing Web 2.0 as the software — and the wider web-cultural phenomenon — matures.

Web 2.0 is, of course, many things to many people, but in general it revolves around taking the Internet to the next level. Creating software, services, and sites that replace or extend traditional alternatives.

Desktop software will, in some cases, give way to wholly web-based options. (Writely, AjaxWrite, OfficeLive, etc)

Social networks will expand, evolve, and be replaced with kinds not even yet forseen. (Flickr, MySpace, Yahoo! Answers, et al.)

Even TV and newspapers will continue to ‘evolve or die’ as online takes a larger percentage of the individual’s time.

Best of all, from the affiliate marketer’s perspective, Web 2.0 will get increasingly monetized. Techies aren’t the only creative innovators around, and where there’s eyeballs online money making opportunities are not far behind.

This is one case where more is more.

Google Base Items Revealed in SERPs

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 7:13 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Several recent Google offerings are apparently converging. Search Engine Watch editor, Barry Schwartz, recently reported seeing Google Base results show up in SERPs. And with a Local Search twist.

Adding Google Base items to organic results is bound to result in some controversy, but it’s a natural extension of the technique of using geographic info to provide users with more of what they’re looking for.

Some, such as WebProNews.com author Jim Hedger, are even predicting that the day of purely keyword driven search is drawing to a close.

While it’s too early to draw any hard and fast conclusions, it’s safe to say that folding demographic and user behavior information into the algorithm has clearly arrived. Considering that many continue to research online but purchase offline, the trend will undoubtedly continue. (See comScore study results here.)

As we’ve said before, there are obviously opportunities out there for affiliate marketers who can incorporate Local Search hungry elements into their sites. And the better you know your customers, the more elements you can include that appeal to their specific interests.

That’s a combination that can’t help but yield dollars.

Lyris and Return Path Agree With AC: Email Marketing Works

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006 at 4:26 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Just in case you were — and we wouldn’t blame you — skeptical about the claims in our latest issue of AC Magazine, here’s more data to back up our belief in the continuing value of email marketing.

A recent Lyris study found that: “Half of U.S. Internet users regularly purchase from opt-in commercial e-mails, and 44 percent buy from online ads on a regular basis.” (DM News, Mar 22, 2006.)

According to a Return Path survey of those who measure their campaigns, 40% of the respondents say email garners their highest ROI. Search comes in a distant, but still respectable, second at 28 percent.

Revenue per campaign is the most watched success metric, used by nearly 40%. (35% don’t set success goals. A marketing no-no. What you don’t measure, you can’t judge.)

Between 50% and 70% say they vary response elements in email. These folks are doing it right. Change, test, and measure. Change the subject line for one group, alter the anchor text in the body for another. Measure the open and clickthrough rates.

Nearly 50% segment their email list, with the result that they see the best results. (They’re doing it right! Segmentation consists of dividing a list of addresses by some criteria: income, region, past purchase history. The idea is to hit them with messages and offers of some particular interest to THEM.)

Email marketing works… for those who do it right. And how is that? Read our March issue and find out.

(Some more great tips can be found in Christopher Knight’s Email Segmentation 101. Get 11 ways to segment your email lists here.)

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