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Affiliate Classroom Blog Archives

AC Magazine: Email Marketing Issue On The Way

Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 5:10 pm by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine

Jeanne Jennings at ClickZ is continuing her great “Ten Steps for Developing an Email Strategy”. Part 3, the current installment, is particularly apropos considering the theme of the upcoming Affiliate Classroom Magazine for April.

In the interim, the advice Ms. Jennings gives is first rate, as always. Among the other topics she covers are two types of email message you can deliver to your list: Short-Form Editorial and Long-Form Editorial.

In the first type, true to the name, the messages are short and sent adhoc. As she points out, they’re great for driving traffic to your site, where you can deliver product info and pre-sales copy. They’re also good for generating qualified leads, since those who choose to visit the site after reading the email have obviously expressed an interest.

In the second type, long-form editorial, you have ample opportunity to establish your credentials as a subject-matter expert. Here you can develop, in depth, that all-important relationship with your list members that creates trust. People buy from those they trust and regard as experts.

Email marketing, though never easy, continues to be a great revenue generator. According to a recent Forrester report on email,

“Click-through rates have remained steady, about 5%, for the last four years, but those who do click through are the kind of customers marketers, especially retailers, are looking for.

Those who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than those who are non-readers of email marketing. And an astounding 50% of those who open and read email marketing messages are more likely to purchase impulse items once they get to the site.”

In the upcoming AC issue we tell you why and how. Mark Thompson will give you a full run-down on how to create, build, and maintain that ever important relationship with your list members. Evelyn Grazini will show you how to create an autoresponder that works without headaches. Kati Torok will deliver a surprise you’ll want to read.

Look for it on your virtual newsstand soon.

Google Offers Website Optimization Tool

Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at 3:10 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

Who knew that Google would be the good guy for once?

The company just released a site optimization tool, which they refer to as the “third leg” - This is an analogy to a stool that has three legs - Google’s legs being AdWords, Google Analytics, and now the Website Optimizer.

The closest thing site owners have had to this in the past is very expensive enterprise software platforms (I’m sure those guys are not happy).

The Optimizer is free to AdWords customers. It lets users test different aspects of website content until the highest possible conversions are reached. Users can test separate landing page headlines, product features and/or images to see what works the best.

This means that the idea of a static site may become a thing of the past. Now, webmasters will be able to continually change and improve their sites, with immediate information on whether that change had a positive or negative impact on visitors and sales.

For those who love analyzing, this is a great new tool. For the rest of us, it might take some time to become a user. However, the Google Analytics tool has proved to be very easy to use, so if this turns out to be a quick, easy test of site changes, it will definitely be time well spent.

Joint Ventures: What it Takes to Make It Work

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 6:17 pm by Matt Van Atta


Here’s a recap of the two joint venture examples from my March 30th post:

  • The affiliate with a product to sell, partnering with someone whose mailing list or heavy-traffic website offers strong marketing opportunities for the product.
  • The affiliate with a dried-up mailing list, partnering with the writer who brings that list back to revenue-generating life.

What does it take to enter into a joint venture and make it work? Here are three requirements:

Networking

The right partner can make the difference between a joint venture that succeeds and one that bombs. Networking with affiliates or other individuals, whose niches are similar to yours, helps in finding that partner. Once you do, cultivating a business relationship with that partner requires regular and open communication. Sure, this takes time and effort. But it’s no different from anything else you do to make money in affiliate marketing.

Revenue-Sharing

Getting the partner on board may require giving him/her as much as 75% of the profits. However, what the partner brings to the table can justify such a high price.

In the first example, the partner’s large and loyal mailing list can generate a significant increase in sales over a short time period.

In the second example, the partner’s content to your mailing list can generate new revenue without your having to spend time writing the content yourself – or paying for advertising.

25% of a much larger pie can easily work out to more revenue than 100% of crumbs.

Teamwork and Cooperation

Joint ventures emerge from the unique strengths of their participants. For your venture to work, you and your partner must work together to utilize your individual strengths. Maintain lines of communication to ensure you are both on the same page.

This can mean checking your ego at the door and realizing that sometimes your efforts alone are not enough. Given that affiliate marketing at times can be a quite solitary experience, that’s not always easy.

But in the end, you must ask yourself, “Am I in this business to bolster my pride, or to make money?” The most successful affiliates choose the latter option.

A joint venture done right is truly a win-win situation for you and your partner. The experience could lead to other successful ventures with that partner. Or it can lead to ventures with other partners as you expand your networking efforts. Even if you prefer not to pursue a joint venture, it’s often worth your time to explore the possibility.

Free Video Plus $50 PPC MSN Ad Center

Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 1:57 pm by Anik Singal

Jeremy Palmer has created a free video here on using MSN Ad Center.

In many ways MSN is becoming my favorite “affiliate-friendly” search engine - at least when it comes to indexing niche sites quickly and offering affordable PPC. If you’re not using MSN Ad Center yet, you should check out Jeremy’s video.

Many affiliates are finding they are getting HIGHER conversions from MSN Ad Center than Google Adwords - and it’s costing them a LOT less.

Jeremy walks you through the entire process of using MSN Ad Center. You don’t have to give him your e-mail to view it, either. It takes about 5-10 seconds to load, so please be patient.

To make it even easer for you to get started, we’ve for you to get $50 free dollars in PPC advertising from MSN Ad Center. This offer is only good for new accounts, and takes away all the risk of giving it a try.

Just open a new account and you get $50 worth of free traffic immediately - nice!

I encourage you to learn from Jeremy’s video and then give MSN Ad Center a try. Especially since there are no catches, no opt-ins, no upsells - just a great video on how to use MSN Ad Center and $50 of free PPC!

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