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Affiliate Classroom Blog Archives

I’m NOT All aTwitter

Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 6:21 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine


Despite being a professional writer and editor, there is a limit to how much I want to communicate with others.

So, though maybe it’s really because I’m just too old, I don’t get Twitter.

Touted on its website as:

A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!

Ok, maybe I get it, maybe I don’t.

But, clearly, some do. There are thousands of people talking to friends and total strangers about items both strange and familiar. So, on second thought, that might actually have some value.

You want to establish a new pool of potential customers and you’ve selected a product or service to focus on. But creating an email list, then feeding it with valuable content to build relationships of trust, takes a year. Building a blogging audience can take months. Generating traffic to a new site is often quicker, but is that traffic worth anything? It depends.

So, here we have a messaging system that pretty much let’s anyone talk to anybody about anything. You can connect. You can share. You can make money… maybe.

Fad or new indispensable service? Social chaos or fertile meeting ground? Someone younger will have to tell me.

A Reader Poll With No Prize (Sort Of)

Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 5:59 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

As we prepare upcoming issues of Affliate Classroom magazine, we want to make sure we’re addressing areas important to our readers.

So, it’s (long past) time to get some feedback. We’d like to hear from you. Tell us your three top challenges, this time relating to traffic.

Do you have trouble getting it? Is it hard to analyze? Do you have trouble using it to improve your site?

Let us know your questions and hurdles. We’ll incorporate that information into future blog posts and articles.

You won’t get a prize, but you may profit in the end. At least, that’s our hope and our goal.

Announcing Private Label Product Reviews!

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 12:00 pm by Anik Singal

For affiliates, TIME is MONEY. At 12 pm EST today, we launched a new service for all you niche affiliates that should save you at least 100 hours (a good $5000 a month in opportunity cost) each month!

It’s called Private Label Product Reviews. With it you get to grab the best work of our expert product review writers - for just $0.47 per review (or even less)!

Nobody is offering anything like Private Label Product Reviews right now. Each month you get…

100 product reviews - 10 reviews in each of 10 different niches.

That’s 100 ways to make MORE money from your sites every month!

Includes products from Clickbank, CJ, and other popular networks.

Use them on your sites, blogs, landing pages, and more.

Save more than 50% with an annual membership!

Oh, and once you grab your membership, you’ll have a chance to get 200 MORE reviews right away! That means MORE easy ways to make money from your niche sites!

Private Label Product Reviews is already a big hit with our AC Students… so don’t delay. Click here now to grab 100 pre-written reviews every single month!

Are You a Reseller, or Affiliate Marketer?

Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 5:19 pm by Matt Van Atta

If affiliate marketing is based on a single thought, it could be this:

Lots of successful businesses didn’t succeed by relying solely on direct sales to customers. They outsourced at least some of the sales process to other parties. This enabled a wider product distribution in a cost-effective manner. Hence, we have affiliate marketers, and we have resellers.

Reseller programs, like affiliate programs, promote products made by somebody else. Both programs provide a great service to the product manufacturer by getting the word out about a product to an ever-growing target audience.

This leads some to think that the two are synonymous. But don’t be fooled. Resellers and affiliate marketers act on vastly different scales.

Marketing a merchant’s product is an affiliate marketer’s only job. An affiliate attracts the buying customer to his/her site, but then shepherds that customer to the merchant’s website. From there, the merchant handles everything related to completing the transaction. Resellers do more than that – they try to persuade that customer to purchase directly through them.

Resellers work with merchants under a business-to-business wholesaler relationship. Under this relationship, a reseller purchases the product from the merchant at a greatly reduced price. The reseller then sells the product to customers, usually at a discount from the retail price.

The reseller receives all the profit from the product sales. And the reseller handles all the transaction and customer service details, including credit card charges, product support, and product returns.

Many businesses use resellers – including, for instance, computer software manufacturers. (I oughta know; in a previous life, I worked for a software reseller.) And make no mistake – in terms of potential, reselling can be more lucrative than affiliate marketing.

But reselling is also riskier. Once a reseller buys the product from the merchant, that reseller is under pressure to sell it, or risk eating the cost. And once the product is sold, it could be returned by the customer. Or the customer could initiate a chargeback (a refund of the purchase price through the credit card provider), for which the reseller takes the hit. Affiliate marketers usually face none of these kinds of risks.

So, are you a reseller? Or are you an affiliate marketer? Whichever you are depends on what your goals are and what you’re willing to accept in terms of risk and reward. Given where you’re reading this post, I think I know your answer.

Don’t Miss It! Coming April 24, 2007 12 Noon EST…

Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 11:36 am by Anik Singal

Our goal here at Affiliate Classroom is to offer you information, training, and products that make your life as an affiliate easier - and increase your profits! So we’re giving our loyal blog readers a heads up about a new service we’ll be launching on Tuesday, April 24, at 12 noon EST.

I don’t want to reveal too much about this new service yet, since we’re giving AC students the first crack at it. But I will say that this new service is completely unique. Nobody is offering anything like this right now. The best part is, it will make it much easier for you to make more money from your niche web sites - with almost no effort!

So check back here on April 24, 2007, and you’ll find out how to…

Get 100 drop dead easy ways to make more money from Affiliate Programs…

Save yourself $5000 in opportunity cost every single month…

Minimize your dependence on AdSense…

All for a ridiculously low price!

And just like our Private Label Newsletter Club, this service is created by affiliates, for affiliates just like you. So make sure you check back here on April 24, 2007 at 12:00 Noon EST!

April Affiliate Classroom Magazine Hot Off The Presses!

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 5:09 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

The April Affiliate Classroom magazine is now on your virtual newsstand.

Pick up a free copy and learn some great ideas from email marketers with a proven track record of success.

  • Debi Rabin and co-author Robert Dedich give you the inside scoop from the merchant’s point of view.
  • Mark Thompson provides a dozen great ways to create, build, and maintain that all-important relationship with your list subscribers.
  • Evelyn Grazini will give you step-by-step simple instructions about how to set up an autoresponder.
  • And Kati Torok will provide what you need to know about getting started with RSS. That’s a great alternative for those struggling with email deliverability.

And, don’t forget, every AC magazine is now BRANDABLE. You can put in links to the PDF that will help you build your business by using Affiliate Classroom magazine as your revenue proven viral report.

Get your free copy here.

WordPress Bloggers - Web 2.0-ify Your Site

Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 2:26 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

We seem to be finding a lot of new freebies for you lately! It’s great to have a blog to let you know about them.

Speaking of blogs, this will be especially interesting to those who have WordPress blogs.

As you may know, the Affiliate Classroom has made a commitment to keep you up-to-date on Web 2.0 and how you, the affiliate, can better monetize your websites using new Web 2.0 ideas.

Last week we showed you how to get the excellent report by Jack Humphrey discussing the details of how Web 2.0 can make you money and generate traffic.

Today, we have located an absolutely free tool you can use to instantly convert any website into a Web 2.0 property.

If you think that Web 2.0 requires intense programming or is too “techy” - it’s time to think again. A fellow affiliate, Jason DeVelvis has just released a free plug-in for your WordPress blog that automatically converts it into a Web 2.0 property. And it’s:

  • Absolutely free - no catch
  • VERY easy to use
  • Can be added to existing blogs

If you have a blog right now, you can immediately make it interactive and start letting your visitors add pages to your site by leaving product ratings and product reviews (all of which contribute to your website’s SE rankings).

If you do not have a blog, you can instantly and very easily launch a WordPress blog on any website. (WordPress is also free.) Then, just add this plug-in and your website is instantly turned into an interactive Web 2.0 property.

Other than increasing SE rankings, having a full-blown ratings/review system is going to increase your visitor retention and repeat visits (that leads to more affiliate link clicks and that leads to more sales!)

Let someone else do the writing for once! Just go to this site, download the plug-in and watch your pages multiply.

Follow the Bouncing Email…

Friday, April 13th, 2007 at 10:35 am by Matt Van Atta

Your content masterpiece is ready to send to your email opt-in list. Perhaps it’s that first newsletter issue, information about a new product, or a special limited-time offer. Whatever it is, you know in your heart that this content will lead to increased interest and, hopefully, sales.

You hit the “Send” button, and within minutes, replies start coming in. At that point, you might enjoy one more brief moment of euphoria. More likely, however, you think to yourself, “Oh, no, my email’s not being delivered.” (You might say something more emphatic, but I’ll leave that to you.) In other words, your email has bounced.

A bounce, or bounceback, occurs when an email is returned to the sender undelivered.

An email that bounces back because an existing Inbox is full is called a “soft bounce.” In this case, you can at least hope that your email will eventually reach that destination. No such luck with the hard bounce, in which the destination email address does not exist.

How can this happen, when the recipient opted into your mailing list?

Mailing lists can be somewhat fluid. People often change email providers, and thus email addresses. And some intentionally enter a bad email address in a registration form. That way, they obtain what they want without having to give any personal information in return. (We live in a world of increasing suspicion, after all.)

Spam filters can also lead to bouncebacks. Even if they opted into your mailing list, some max out their spam filter settings to avoid spam. If one proverbial hair is out of place in your email – the wrong word in a subject line, or the omission of an opt-out link – the spam alarms can go off. The consequences of that can go well beyond the bounceback.

The following suggestions will minimize bouncebacks and make them easier to manage:

  • Regularly clean your lists of email addresses that consistently bounce back your emails. It sounds mundane, but it’s necessary. And an autoresponder service (such as AWeber.com) can handle it for you.

  • Maintain high-quality content in your emails, and avoid items that could label your email as spam.

  • Limit email deliveries to those who opted in to your mailing list.

Bouncebacks are a bummer. But if you maintain an opt-in list, it’s a daily fact of life. And the financial rewards of an opt-in list will always outweigh the bounces.

Traditional Internet Marketing May Soon Become Extinct

Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 4:40 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

Authority Black Book

Most affiliate marketers have heard of Web 2.0, but the real concept behind the thing is still a little fuzzy. So, instead of trying to grasp this new concept, we continue to use the old ways of marketing: Trying to optimize our sites and blogs, buying lots of PPC advertising, writing articles and mass submitting them to directories, etc.

Now, don’t get me wrong, these things still work - I use all three of them in my marketing strategy. However, I recently began to wonder why some big Internet marketers were beginning to eagerly push expensive eBooks on these subjects, since these methods have been around for years.

Well, after reading a free report titled “The Authority Black Book” I now realize what all the hype is about.

The Big Gurus are trying to make one last buck on what they KNOW while it still works, even if it’s not the best thing out there anymore!

Meanwhile, behind our backs, they are using new 2.0 methods to make money with their sites. This information is being kept secret for a reason. It works BETTER!

As you know, when something is making people big money, they’re not likely to tell the world about it until they’ve got a good enough head start that it doesn’t matter anymore if others know.

That’s where The Authority Black Book can help. For one thing, it’s written by Jack Humphrey, who has been behind the scenes slowly studying and teaching Web 2.0 marketing for quite some time now, and he’s not afraid to tell others what he’s doing to make money. Also, unlike other gurus, he’s going to give it all to you for free.

This black book focuses on new Web 2.0 strategies, including:

  • Links from Web 2.0 Resources
  • Video
  • RSS Feeds
  • Social Bookmarking
  • Social Networking

SEO and PPC combined can never generate the kind of traffic that Web 2.0 marketing tactics do. Even Anik (President of the Affiliate Classroom) was shocked by the results.

According to Anik, the most important parts of this book (and the strategies he uses the most) are:

  • WordPress Plug-Ins You Must Have - Page 17
  • Starting Social Buzz - Page 23
  • Bookmarking - Page 24
  • Feedburner - Page 26
  • Social Bookmarking Sites - Page 30
  • Using Video - Page 34

Get this guide and read it all. But focus on the sections above and you’ll soon be one step ahead of the gurus, for once.

Your $50 Free Lunch from MSN

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 3:59 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

When I was growing up my Mom’s favorite saying was “There’s No Free Lunch!’

She was trying to teach us that you have to work for the things you want; no one is going to just hand out riches and self-confidence.

For the most part, I’ve found her saying to be true. However, every now and then I do run across something that is entirely free! Since that doesn’t happen very often, it’s a good idea to take advantage of it when it does.

That’s why I was excited when I saw the note Anik wrote the other day. It’s about a freebie that isn’t just free, It can pay you back ten-fold.

Enough suspense! Here are two things you can get through a special arrangement that Anik made with his friend and amazing affiliate marketer, Jeremy Palmer.

  1. MSN Setup Video - If you’re not using MSN Ad Center yet, you absolutely must. The conversions for some products are HIGHER than Google AdWords, for less cost. To lower the learning curve, Jeremy has put together a special video where he walks you through the entire process of using MSN Ad Center. Learn his tricks for setting up your campaign right, and you will immediately increase traffic to your site!
  2. Special Deal. As I said, Anik arranged a special deal where you can get $50 in free advertising from MSN Ad Center (offer only good for new accounts).

So there you go. That $50 could just possibly be your free lunch! Basically, you have nothing to lose, even if you just want to try it, you can do it for free at Microsoft’s expense.

Just open a new account and you get $50 worth of free traffic immediately. Think about it, if you were advertising a product for $.05 a click, that’s 1,000 FREE visitors!

It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Get Your Free $50 today!

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