Affiliate Classroom Blog Archives

April 2006 Magazine - New Look/Feel

Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 at 10:06 am by Anik Singal

New Streamlined April 2006 Affiliate Classroom Magazine!

As Affiliate Classroom continues to grow and listen to our students, we have decided to make some changes to our magazine - aimed at making it easier for you to learn from it!

A big focus this month is “Pay-Per-Click”
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Pay-Per-Click - Some affiliates live by it! The April 2006 issue of Affiliate Classroom Magazine not only has a new look and more compact size, it’s a comprehensive overview of PPC for affiliates of all levels of expertise.

* An overview of tools, tips, and top networks.
* Why and how to watch your campaign expenses.
* How to judge profitability and calculate ROI.
* Ways to protect yourself against click fraud.
* Key Campaign tips from SearchFeed.com.

Click here to download your free copy of the magazine…

PLUS THESE EXTRAS:

* A UK Network you won’t want to miss.
* The first in our ongoing series on affiliates and Web 2.0!

Download your copy right away…

Podcasting Blockbuster Opens Today

Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 5:12 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Ok, maybe I made the blockbuster part up. Nonetheless, Feedburner has now obligingly provided additional data for the claim that podcasting is growing exponentially. I predict it will soon reach the proverbial tipping point. (By soon, I mean within the next three years.)

[Note: A tipping point, the phrase popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, describes a time or set of circumstances that produce a sudden increase in the popularity of some social phenomenon.]

According to the Burning Door blog, Feedburner alone now manages more broadcasts than there are radio stations worldwide.

Also, they say, “Podcast directories are growing, and driving activity back to podcasters’ originating Web sites. As we saw with text feeds, distribution begins as a mechanism to drive traffic back to the originating source and then evolves to become its own consumption medium.”

If that’s true, and there’s good reason to believe it is, podcasting will soon (see above) become an excellent addition to the SEO toolbox. With traffic comes sales. (That’s the whole reason for caring, after all.)

And people, despite reports of (currently) low listening rates, are tuning in. 60 million feed requests and a subscriber base of 11 million must be going into ears somewhere.

Humans have learned to read (and a darn good thing for me, too), but they evolved to listen and look. That means eyeballs and auditory canals are ready to be filled with content.

That content can be crud or it can be quality. That’s up to any one of the 168,000 publishers producing them. But even crud sometimes gets a message across. And if that message is “Buy this ’cause it’s cool or useful” then money is eventually going to change hands.

Let those hands be yours.

Email Marketing — What’s Old Is New Again

Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 3:03 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

As I’ve been claiming for some time, perhaps with as much triumph of hope over experience, email deliverability may soon improve.

Microsoft plans to release data this week at the Email Authentication Summit in Chicago to support that position. The company claims that SenderID is already helping to improve delivery and open rates. (Since one is measured — at least in part — via the other, the two rising together is no surprise.)

And despite AOL and Goodmail’s recent public relations snafu, their efforts should help add to what we certainly hope is the swing back of a very heavy pendulum.

And just in time, too, as Jeanniey Mullen on ClickZ helps email marketers decide whether email marketing is an art or a science. Her views are well-reasoned and supported by ample fact; worth reading.

But whatever the answer to that question, the more important point may be that — we hope and believe — email marketing is neither dead art nor obsolete science. At Affiliate Classroom we not only practice email marketing, but have every intention of increasing the size and sophistication of those efforts.

The reasons aren’t far to seek. Email is still enormously popular — used daily by roughly 90% of regular Internet users. It drives a large percentage of sales and does so in a way that — done well — is viewed by readers as helpful, even enthusiastically welcomed.

Email informs and inflames — in the positive sense. It provides access to the latest views and products. It offers mini-reviews in easily digestible time-slices. It states — in an active way — here’s what’s out there, and why we think it’s worth a look. And it can do so in a missive that takes no more than a minute to read.

That kind of useful information and objective opinion density isn’t often found in other media. It should still be part of every affiliate marketer’s toolbox.

As terrific and exciting as many of the Web 2.0 tools are, sometimes the old-fashioned ways still work well. Especially when they’re kept fresh by the latest thinking.

Web 2.0 No Longer In Your Future

Saturday, April 15th, 2006 at 2:52 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Web 2.0 is maturing to the point that the name will probably soon be obsolete. After all, when that’s all there is there’s no need for a special qualifier.

Google Calendar was recently released and it leans heavily on Ajax for functionality. And MSN has recently announced it plans to have a Yahoo! Answers-style social search Q & A offering soon.

(For those who may be unfamiliar with the distinctive attributes of Web 2.0, the full scoop is coming in our soon-to-be released issue of Affiliate Classroom magazine. Our columnist, Kati, covers the ground like no one else around.

In the interim, three snippets:

Web 2.0 makes web-based apps behave more like desktop applications. It does this by using a combination of XML (like HTML only with funny looking tags) and JavaScript as it was meant to be. And since those apps are web-based they can easily be extended to allow easy sharing of information across the Internet. That info can be ‘tagged’ with opinions, categorization, etc by a community of users.

All those things are central to Web 2.0.)

So, what has all this to do with Affiliate marketing? Perhaps little, perhaps a great deal.

Much of the Web 2.0 “movement” is about taking the Internet to “the next level.” Naturally, any phrase like that is wide-open to interpretation. But one effect is: more users communicating more information and views in easier ways. That means more connections, both technical and social, between people who haven’t and never will meet any other way.

I’m thinking there’s money to be made out of that and, if I ever was, I’m no longer in the minority.

An Affiliate Marriage - Partnercentric & AMWSO

Thursday, April 13th, 2006 at 3:08 pm by Anik Singal

I am a couple of days late in reporting this, but very recently a BIG thing happened in the affiliate marketing industry. As Linda Buquest put it “Linda Woods from PartnerCentric and Chris Sanderson from AMWSO have finally tied the knot! (figuratively speaking of course).

According to both companies, the new partnership is designed to offer more complete and better services and also for great global penetration. Chris Sanderson is widely respected as an in the LinkShare system while Linda Woods has much experience with the CJ system.

Press Release: PartnerCentric Teams with AMWSO for Global Reach

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (April 25, 2006) – PartnerCentric Inc., a provider of managed affiliate marketing services, today announced that it will be merging forces with AMWSO, a professional affiliate management group based in Thailand, but with strong market penetration in the U.S. and Canada. The alliance will greatly expand PartnerCentric’s base of experienced affiliate managers and will allow them to offer their clients true round-the-clock attention through the addition of the English speaking Asian-based satellite office. The deal also includes bringing AMWSO’s Director, Chris Sanderson, into the fold – adding his strong reputation and wealth of experience to the company’s offering of talent. Chris’ expertise with LinkShare, combined with PartnerCentric founder Linda Woods’ specialty with Commission Junction accounts, will bring a panoply of knowledge to their account management skills allowing them to generate more affiliate-based revenue for their clients.

“For the last three years, PartnerCentric has grown at an annual rate of over 300-percent,” explains Linda Woods, president of PartnerCentric Inc. “Given this kind of fantastic growth rate, PartnerCentric is always on the lookout for talented affiliate program managers that allow us to better service our accounts and continue to grow. By merging the talent and experience of Chris Sanderson and his team with our own, our clients will benefit through unparalleled customer service in more global markets than ever before.”

“AMWSO has always put performance and customer satisfaction at the top of our agenda,” said Chris Sanderson, President of AMWSO. “Because of this reputation for excellence, we are especially pleased to be joining with PartnerCentric who enjoys an equally sterling reputation in the affiliate marketing arena.”

For more information on PartnerCentric’s programs or managed services, visit the Web site at www.partnercentric.com, email sales@partnercentric.com or call 805-569-8750.

About AMWSO
AMWSO.com is a leading provider of affiliate marketing management, development, and creative support solutions for both merchants and affiliates. The company offers a broad array of tools to assist its partners and merchants to streamline operations and increase sales. AMWSO maintains a comprehensive integrated approach to drive merchant programs through ethical marketing practices. WSO originally commenced its web services operations in 1996, later adding affiliate marketing under the division name AMWSO, and has delivered solutions for hundreds of companies, building a client portfolio that includes Internet start-ups, small businesses, and global brands.

About PartnerCentric Inc.
Founded in 2000, PartnerCentric has quickly emerged as the premiere outsourced affiliate program management group in the industry. With an annual growth rate of nearly 300-percent, PartnerCentric boasts an impressive list of clients from around the country and staffers around the world. In addition to core their affiliate expertise, PartnerCentric offers a wide array of high powered marketing services, including: Search Engine Management, Search Engine Optimization, Web site development with full creative services, eCommerce conversion & analytics, email marketing, Media Buying, “buzz” marketing and more.

Headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif., PartnerCentric specializes in working with eCommerce companies to build powerful internet marketing strategies and profitable affiliate programs that generate effortless incremental revenue. For customer testimonials and more information, contact us at 805-569-8750 or via email at sales@partnercentric.com or visit our Web site at www.partnercentric.com.

Email Deliverability Tough Nut to Croak

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 at 6:03 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Kirill Popov and Loren Baker, as they frequently do, have prepared yet another excellent study, this time of email deliverability. Among other things the survey shows that 8 out of 10 email marketers are still experiencing difficulty with deliverability. But they go beyond that and discuss some of the ways email marketers can improve those numbers.

Both these wise and experienced marketers have earned their reputations. And much of the excellent advice they offer should be Email Marketing 101. The nagging feeling persists, though, that reputable emailers really shouldn’t have to bother.

Nearly everyone can recognize spam when they see it. And, I yet believe, ISPs do a pretty good job of separating out legitimate email from unwanted trash. Still the problem persists and, like it or not, it’s email marketers’ problem.

Though there are many, one basic reason for this sticks out beyond most others: Spam complaints.

Users dislike getting a piece of email from ReputableMarketers.whomever and they hit the “This is Junk” button. Really, can’t we do better than that?

There should be a better way, a way that doesn’t require ISPs to expend huge resources to implement, nor require users to jump through flaming hoops. There might be a way to turn those complaints to some good purpose.

Well, here’s one, from bluesecurity.

While controversial, the company’s basic approach is to let end users decide who should or shouldn’t be considered a spammer, but in a way less blunt than simply hitting a button. The way the company carries this out isn’t entirely original, but it might just work. This is, after all, the Web 2.0 way - let the community decide.

The idea strikes me as one way to make spam cost the spammers more than it does everyone else. And that’s the only viable, long-term solution so far as I can see.

Apparently spammers aren’t the only ones who are unhappy with bluesecurity’s methods, so we’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

Your Piece of a $100 Billion Sales Pie

Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 5:03 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

JupiterResearch projects that online retail sales will grow to somewhere near the $100 Billion mark by the end of this year. That’s a helluva lot of money — especially considering that the overwhelming majority of that growth has happened in the last ten years.

It’s in that context that a new report on searching behavior is more than usually interesting.

An iProspect study, as reported by Chris Sherman of Search Engine Watch, “found that 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of users click on a result within the first three pages.”

Those figures are a large increase from the 48% and 81% respectively reported by iProspect in 2002.

And just when you thought SERPs were becoming less important. Well, perhaps it’s more accurate to say they aren’t less important, so much as other channels are becoming more important than they have been.

Podcasts, mobile ads, Blog ads, Social Networking… and a dozen other new channels are competing for online users attention. But that competition can only be good for affiliate marketers, who now have many new ways to drive customers to merchants.

That means you can get a piece of that $100 Billion in more ways than ever. Quite a change from ten years ago.

Do you live in the D.C. Area?

Sunday, April 9th, 2006 at 10:25 pm by Anik Singal

AC Students,

Affiliate Classroom is now hiring to have someone come in to handle aspects of our internet marketing and case study development. The perks (besides great pay) are that you will be working directly with Anik and other instructors.

The only thing is that you have to live in the D.C. area or be willing to move here.

If so, please contact us at Info AT AffiliateClassroom DOT com - and send a resume please.

Affiliate Classroom Beats Yahoo!

Saturday, April 8th, 2006 at 12:09 pm by Anik Singal

I am VERY proud to announce (and a bit stunned to be honest) that The Affiliate Classroom booth at eComXpo was the 5th most visited booth! This is very exciting news for our company (and it comes the same day we won a major business plan competition).

It was amazing to see that we had only 18 fewer visitors than MSN! Although Yahoo! Search Marketing beat us by about 65 visitors, Affiliate Classroom had more visitors than Yahoo!

I want to take a second to thank EVERY affiliate out there for giving us this honor. It may *seem* like a small deal, but to us it was absolutely HUGE.

With that said, you can continue to expect amazing things to come from AC this year…

Thank you.

Podcasts Growing

Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 5:26 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Podcasting as a medium suitable for ads is struggling. So did radio, so did Television.

Charlene Li, Forrester Analyst, says
“A Forrester Research consumer poll found that 25 percent of online consumers expressed interest in podcasts, citing the ability to listen to programming on their own schedule. Just 1 percent of households, however, said they regularly listened to podcasts and only 2 percent had sampled them.”

One of the difficulties is the ability to appropriately allocate costs. When podcasts are pooled by a network, there isn’t presently a simple way to decide how much to charge to broadcast an ad. But that will get worked out. Radio did. TV did.

Another is the fact that for nearly twenty years, the Internet has been primarily a text-based medium. Oh sure, there are graphics popping up in your face all over the place. And today there are so many animated ads it’s almost impossible to read the text on some sites. But pop-up blockers are pretty effective these days and some browsers can filter those annoying ads out.

Which leaves the field open for audio.

Audio is very easy to control. You turn the speaker on, you turn the speaker off. You want to hear and read, or just want to hear or read… easy.

That means your message may not reach as wide an audience. But, as with double opt-in email, your audience will be smaller, but more interested.

Naturally, affiliate marketers want to know first and foremost how to make money from a podcast. After all, it isn’t as if you can click on one while listening.

Here are a few ways, by analogy to other forms of income generating content.

1) It’s content. Common wisdom says that good content creates traffic and traffic leads to conversions.

2) Pay per action programs can pay on download of a podcast as easily as they can the download of an eBook.

3) You can create a podcast to advertise your merchants products, just as you have created a site with graphics and text. That podcast can reside on your site or others. The podcast can send them to your site to clickthrough for a sale.

Here are some numbers that suggest the effort may be worthwhile.

“Forrester projects that just 700,000 households in the US in 2006 will use podcasting, but that it will grow to 12.3 million households in the US by 2010.” (Charlene Li’s blog.)

Bridge Ratings thinks it will be even higher.

(Pew has yet different numbers.)

Since Yahoo! added podcast search, and others have technology that even allow searching within a podcast, I’m betting with Bridge.

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