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Affiliate Classroom Blog Archives

Increase Profits - Put Your AdWords Account On Autopilot!

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 5:29 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

As a writer for Affiliate Classroom, sometimes I get to do those dreaded “other duties as assigned” that you see at the end of most job descriptions. And, I wasn’t too thrilled when I was asked to test some new software.

But I decided to be a trooper and give it a try.

The software was developed by IntelliResponse and has the power to dynamically optimize the return you receive from your AdWords advertising. Hence the name “Dynamic ROI Optimizer.”

AdWords gurus will tell you that when you’re advertising in AdWords, you need to use hundreds of keywords in order to get any results. And, you need to sort all of these keywords into the proper “Campaigns,” and then separate all the keywords into various “Ad Groups.”

After that’s all done, you have a LOT of groups to track, and the keywords can go on for pages and pages. This becomes a problem because it takes a lot of time to click through those pages twice a day (or more), and see what keywords are performing, and whether you have been outbid since the last time you checked in.

Well, it’s not a problem anymore with the Dynamic ROI Optimizer.

This software makes managing even the largest Adwords account quite fun - in fact, you don’t have to manage it at all!

You just automatically import your keywords (no manual re-entry) and then tell the software how much you want to make. You can set it for Pofit Otimization, or to optimize CPA, Profit Margin, or ROI.

Then, the software AUTOMATICALLY raises or lowers your bids to make sure your goals are met.

You don’t have to constantly check in - though you will probably want to at first because it will teach you what you have been doing wrong, if you watch its actions.

Anyway, that’s only one thing the software can do. And, I know some people are paying accountants big money to do this management for them. But now they don’t have to, it can all be done with just a few clicks.

The software has another valuable feature. It will track visitors through your site so you can see EXACTLY - at what step of your process, your visitors either purchase from you, or go elsewhere.

In my test, I found out that a lot of people were signing up for my free newsletter, but very few of them were taking advantage of the ebook offer on the Thank You page (you DO have a offer on your Thank You page, don’t you?). So, I re-wrote this page to make sure people at least moved on to the sales letter for the book.

I could go on and on with my review, but I’ll stop by saying that I’ve never used a software product that was so easy to set up, and gave me such powerful information and profits. You can take a look at a report and screen shots here:

Check it out, and see what you think!

Affiliate Summit - Vegas Update

Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 8:26 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

I just flew back from the Affiliate Summit and boy are my arms tired! (Sorry, I just had to say that.). Actually my feet are really tired. The Affiliate Classroom had a booth at the event, and I’ve never seen so many people! I overheard one person say that this was the best attendance they had ever seen.

There was a Meet and Greet (cleverly called the Meet Market) late Friday, which was the first networking opportunity of the event. A lot of people attended, and were given a preview of some of the companies that would be exhibiting the next day. Again, I heard people say that at the last Affiliate Summit, this was not a popular event. I guess it pays to try again – even if there is a football game going on!

The Event Hall opened on Monday and lasted through Wednesday. There were a LOT of exhibits to look at – three long rows, with exhibitors on each side. Everyone had something to give away, or something to attract people into their space. I enjoyed the little person dressed up like Elvis, and was more than a little annoyed when I missed the fresh Pretzels that were given away while I was at a seminar :-)

I was surprised to see some very big names staffing their own booths. It’s hard to believe the President of the company would want to stand and talk to people all day, but that’s what I found in some places.

It was a great opportunity to meet some of the people who are making big money in this business, and sneak in a few questions during a discussion.

It was nice that everyone was available and eager to tell you what he or she knew. Even though we had a booth at the event, we were openly greeted by other vendors and freely given their cards, toys and food. I’ve been to some events where the exhibitors think other vendors are just the competition; this was a nice change.

Everyone made the best of the networking opportunities and I’m sure there were a lot of connections made.

There were seminars throughout the entire day. The only thing I didn’t like about them was that there were several going on at the same time, so I had to choose between them. The nice thing though, was that it was very clear whom the seminar was targeted to (Merchants or Affiliates), so I could at least narrow it down to the ones that would be of most benefit. Unfortunately, the big-wigs were not speaking at the seminars, but I guess you can’t have everything.

There were also networking events planned after the exhibits closed. This is nice because it provides something for everyone. If you aren’t an exhibitor, you can go to one of these events and meet other people in a relaxed setting. There are games to play and mixers that require everyone to shuffle around and make the best of the time available.

Overall, I would have to say that the Summit was a success! As an affiliate, I now have a lot of new ideas to add to my web sites. And, as an exhibitor, there are a lot of new merchants and business partner connections that will definitely be useful in future projects.

I can’t wait until the next one in July!

Something Is Rotten in the State of Links. . .

Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 5:02 pm by Matt Van Atta

And that something is called linkrot. It’s an ugly term (then again, any word with “rot” in it is never pretty) that describes a problem for affiliate marketing websites.

Linkrot is the process by which links from one website to another slowly become less accurate, or extinct.

As an affiliate marketer, you drive business to a merchant’s website, so your website will contain links to that site. Say you set up a link to a destination page on the merchant’s site, and turn your attention to other matters. Over time, that link could “break” or become irrelevant due to one of the following:

  • The destination page’s URL may have changed.
  • The destination page may have been deleted.
  • The destination page’s website may have gone down temporarily – or disappeared permanently.
  • The destination page’s content may have changed – the link would still work, but your supporting marketing content may not.

Those who worry about the “big picture” of the Internet – as an interconnected venue for both social interaction and commerce – consider linkrot a serious threat. It’s particularly serious for affiliate marketers.

Broken links on your website can lead your target audience to distrust your ability to deliver accurate, up-to-date information or customer service. This negatively impacts not only your revenue stream, but also your reputation – which could persist even if the merchant broke the links, and even if you sign on with another merchant.

Short-term website offers provide a breeding ground for linkrot. Once such offers expire, remove the related links immediately. Otherwise, your site will have either a broken link (because the merchant removed the page) or an active link to obsolete content. Either way, you look bad, because it appears to customers that you’re not tending to business.

Combating linkrot may be drudgery, but you should regularly do the following:

  • For a new link on your site, confirm that the destination page URL is correct – especially if the merchant assigns the URL specifically to you.
  • Check your site’s links (even links to other pages on your site) and remove those that are broken or no longer relevant.
  • Communicate with the merchant to ensure that your links to the merchant’s website are active and that your descriptions of the destination pages match the content on those pages.

Success in affiliate marketing depends on your effectiveness at communication and information delivery. Keeping linkrot off your website will make you more effective in this regard.

How To Make Your Spouse Happy

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 7:20 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

According to eMarketer, adults are now spending more time with their computer than their “significant other”.

According to the “Cyber Stress” study from Support.com, conducted by Kelton Research, 65% of US consumers over the age of 18 spend more time with their computers than with their significant others.

That may be bad news for relationships, but it’s good news for affiliate marketers.

There’s one other significant item in the eMarketer article:

“A majority of Americans (52%) describe their most recent experience with a computer problem as one of anger, sadness or alienation.”

That gives affiliate marketers a clue to how to take advantage of the information. If you can devise a site that, instead, provides the user with an experience that makes him or her excited, cheerful, and connected then you’ve got one winning combination. When I say “winning”, of course, I mean “profitable.”

I’m betting that will make your “significant other” quite happy.

What Odor Is Your SEO?

Saturday, January 20th, 2007 at 8:01 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Kevin Lee, in a column on ClickZ, has written a terrific piece on an important SEO idea: SEO scent.

“Search scent is an extension of the information scent concept, initially developed by scientists at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Information scent centers on the how users navigate the Web, both within sites and from one site to the next while pursuing information on a specific topic. The research illustrates that humans forage for information on the Internet in much the same way animals follow scent and visual cues to find food. Scent is essentially an application of user interface optimization best practices, and search scent is a specific niche based on the fact searchers are even more wedded to a particular information-gathering mission than surfers or casual browsers.”

The idea is that you should go beyond simply defining good keywords (which is certainly essential) and trying to get good backlinks (which is really helpful). If you want to direct visitors to your site — and just as importantly, keep them there while you deliver your message — spread things around that the user will want to forage for.

The research suggests that to keep them wedded to your landing page you need to keep the visitor interested in what’s there. Sounds obvious, no? Easier said than done, of course. Designing a page that has lots of interesting content creates sticky pages. If they feel motivated to move away, give them someplace to go that moves them where you want. The goal is to keep them from hitting the back button and moving off your site.

How to do that will vary with product to product, naturally.

One key method is to be different. You have many competitors who sell the same item. Outfox them by offering content that’s different. Instead of splashing your pages with recommendations from people the visitor has never heard of, make up a wacky character of your own. Find a jpeg or create one that represents that character. Give him or her a voice. (No talking paper clips, please!… unless you sell office supplies.)

It’s no accident that “different” and “differentiate” look so similar. You need to stand out. Your odor has to be attractive and unique.

Autoresponding to Your Opt-In Needs – Part 1

Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 6:37 pm by Matt Van Atta

In my post on December 7, I explained how a squeeze page can help affiliate marketers build those all-important opt-in lists of email addresses. Once you begin collecting those email addresses, the autoresponder becomes an absolute must-have tool for your email marketing efforts.

In its basic form, an autoresponder is a software program that receives a message or inquiry from an email address and automatically, almost instantaneously, sends a reply to that address. No humans are used in the sending of such replies, so you can arrange to send them whenever you want.

Microsoft Outlook contains a classic example of this. Outlook’s “Out of Office Assistant” (available to Microsoft Exchange Server email account users) is an autoresponder that allows you to reply to anyone who sends you an email while you’re away. That way you can get away from it all and not have people think you’ve flown the coop.

But for affiliate marketers, autoresponders go way beyond just sending the “I’m not here” message; they serve as means through which to deliver marketing content to your opt-in list, keeping potential customers engaged in what you have to offer.

Say you’ve built out that squeeze page, offering a report or other piece of free content to the visitor if he or she provides an email address. When the visitor submits the email address, an autoresponder can reply right away, sending the content and thanking the recipient for his or her interest.

Through an autoresponder, regularly scheduled content delivery is easy – whether it’s a monthly or weekly newsletter, a series of report segments, or other content that helps to promote what you are selling. Simply prepare your emails for distribution, set up the autoresponder to send the emails on your schedule, and you’re good to go.

Autoresponder software enables you not only to communicate and maintain your message to your target audience, but also to maintain your overall opt-in list. However, your opt-in list will hopefully grow (and one would expect it will if your website is well thought out and well built). It may become difficult to write content, program the autoresponder, and keep track of unsubscribes.

Also, there are other matters related to your opt-in list to attend to, all while you’re working on other aspects of your business. That means you have more to do than time in which to do it.

That’s where an autoresponder service can come in… which I’ll cover in Part 2.

Do You Have A Great Product… That No One Knows About?

Thursday, January 18th, 2007 at 8:59 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

I just had a real-life experience that I think can teach us all a good marketing lesson.

During the holidays I decided to get my friend one of those cool Black & Decker Power Scissors. You may have seen the ads. They are the battery powered ones that can cut through anything!

However, since they were highly advertised, I couldn’t find one anywhere! Everyone was sold out of them (and still are). So, I printed off a picture and gave that to her - and have been looking for them ever since.

Today I went into Home Depot and asked about them for about the fifth time. The girl there was very nice; she said that they had them last year, but they all went out on the clearance rack recently.

I was surprised that they were on clearance already, so I asked - “These were just released this year, why were they on clearance so fast?”

The lady doing inventory told me that they actually came out for the 2005 Holiday Season, but Black & Decker didn’t advertise them so they just sat around for a year until they finally put them on clearance. Then, when they finally decided to advertise, they sold out almost immediately.

Ohh, the power of advertising! My experience with this little gift brought up a few questions that I wanted to ask fellow affiliates.

Do you have a great product to sell, but no one knows about it?

If so, you need to get better at marketing and advertising. You need to get the word out as quickly as possible, before you get tired of the product and give up on it. At the very least, make sure you have done the following to get exposure:

  1. Write articles and submit them to article directories.
  2. Use PPC advertising for more exposure.
  3. Contact other marketers who have complementary products in your niche and ask them to promote your product.
  4. Post messages on other people’s forums and blogs with a signature line that leads back to your product
  5. Get some business cards made up and leave them wherever you go (even in bathrooms, gas stations, and grocery stores if possible).

Never just sit on a product and hope that the buyers will come. It won’t happen. Unless you are actively out there promoting the product, you may find yourself selling it for less than it’s worth. And that’s never a good thing!

Microsoft’s Outlook 2007 - Why Affiliates Should Care

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 2:40 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

If you’re doing Affiliate Marketing correctly, you have at least one subscriber list developed and are sending regular newsletters to your subscribers. Now, there’s something new to consider before you set up future newsletters.

HTML or Text?

Most of my newsletters are basic text messages. I’ve done this for the sake of convenience, but I find that sometimes I would like to add a banner or another form of advertising to make my message a little “prettier,” and more clickable.

That’s why I made the decision to ”step up to the plate” and develop the newsletter for my next website in HTML format. However, now, due to the changes Microsoft is making with the release of Outlook 2007 (which is only a couple weeks away), I may have to reconsider.

Here are a few things you need to know to make sure your newsletter continues to be readable by subscribers who have updated their Outlook programs:

For security reasons (I guess) Outlook will use the Word 2007 HTML parsing and rendering engine to display HTML emails - NOT Internet Explorer. That will cause a major problem in how messages and images are displayed when viewed.

Here are a few things you will NOT be able to add to your HTML if you want them retain their format:

  • Background images (HTML or CSS)
  • Forms
  • Flash, or other plugins
  • CSS floats
  • Images instead of Bullets in lists
  • Animated GIFs

It looks like all of the things that would make my new HTML message “pretty” will now make my messages practically unreadable!

So what does this mean for you? I’m thinking it means that your HTML emails now need to go back to (or remain) being very simple; almost text-like again.

I guess it’s back to the drawing board!

If you have a lot of HTML based emails, Microsoft has a tool to let you know which parts of your eZine will become unreadable in their new software.

Oh, thank you so much Microsoft!

Affiliate Classroom Magazine January 2007 Released

Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 at 12:08 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

At Affiliate Classroom Magazine, we’ve decided to make affiliate marketing fundamentals our focus in 2007. In the January issue we’ll help you choose the right programs and merchants.

Our cover story illustrates how a working affiliate goes through the process of selecting a good program. Beginners will find useful tips for merchant selection, and intermediate and advanced marketers may learn a thing or two as well!

For non US-based affiliates, there’s an article on international program selection. No theory here, just practical advice on finding programs, getting accepted, and increasing conversions from international buyers.

And if you’re curious about who won Affiliate Classroom Magazine’s Product of the Year Award, don’t miss this issue. It’s not just the most versatile marketing product of the year… it’s free!

Determining if your SEO is Successful

Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 7:29 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

I’ve read a lot of literature that explains how to set up web pages for the best natural Search Engine Optimization. However, there is very little written on how to measure that success.

You spend a lot of time optimizing the pages, so here are a few things you can do to see if that time was spent wisely.

Check your Rankings. If you are using a large number of keywords to bring traffic to your site, it will not be feasible to track each one. For this reason, pick a subset of the large list - the main keywords that are increasing sales - and track them.

To best select your keywords, use the words that are ranking high for traffic and revenue in your PPC campaign. Then you can easily measure success by watching for words that climb or drop in search-engine rankings.

Revenue: One might think that measuring Revenue is the easiest way to determine if your SEO is working. But you need to do it right. You can’t just put up the new pages and start tracking money coming in. Revenue is the most important, and most accurate thing to try to compare, but it has to be an ANNUAL comparison.

Since different times of the year have highs and lows, when you track annually, you can get a good average and determine if the overall strategy is working.

Traffic: It’s sometimes hard to measure traffic exactly. Use your web site’s Administrative Control Panel as the best resource. The charts and graphs show monthly traffic, so it should be easy to compare current traffic to last year’s traffic during that same time period.

Just be sure to take into account any special promotions that may have been done during that time that would skew the numbers.

If you’ve done your homework correctly, and have your pages highly optimized for the search engines, all of these areas should show increases throughout the year. And, you’ll be well on your way to effective SEO!

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