Archive for June, 2007
New Kid On The Affiliate Block
Posted by Mark Thompson in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Programs Tuesday, 12 June 2007 15:36 2 Comments
First there was Clickbank standing alone in allowing affiliates to sell digital products. Then along came PayDotCom and took them on. Clickbank responded to this challenge by giving their site a long overdue makeover and tweaking their system a bit.
Both networks have survived in the market place and both continue to prosper. It was only a matter of time before someone decided to challenge them and create another network.
Enter SharePayNow. SharePayNow has recently gone into public beta and is fully functional, recruiting both Publishers and Affiliates.
Similar in many ways to PayDotCom, SharePayNow has looked at where the two main networks have perhaps not served their customers as best they could and tried to rectify it.
The most obvious difference is that SharePayNow doesn’t charge affiliates any fees. They also allow product images in the marketplace, which is a great help when trying to choose a product to promote. Like PayDotCom SharePayNow affiliates can be paid via PayPal. But unlike PayDotCom they insist that Publishers sign an Affiliate Payment Guarantee, which will hopefully go some way to ensuring that affiliates are paid on time and the correct amounts.
As with most start ups it is difficult to tell where SharePayNow will be a year down the line. But it’s often worthwhile getting in at the start just so so you can take advantage of all the opening offers designed to get the program off the ground as quickly as possible. There are affiliates and publishers already making sales through SharePayNow, so why not check it out.
Three Ideas to Increase Conversions
Posted by Kathy Jackson in Affiliate Marketing, Best Business Practices Friday, 8 June 2007 17:04 1 Comment
Some people are unfortunate enough to know that you can have a very popular website on the internet and still not be making any money.
In order to resolve this situation, the first thing you need to do is get traffic, and then, most importantly, sell your products and services to that traffic.
If your website visitors come to your website and read every word or every piece of content that you have posted, and then don’t buy anything, you don’t make a dime.
So the question is…are you doing everything that you possibly can to sell your products and services to your website visitors? Maybe you aren’t. Here are three ideas that just might help you to increase your conversion rate:
Idea #1 – Add data feeds to your website: It has been proven over and over again that data feeds increase the conversion rate. What you want is a merchant data feed with information about the products and services that you sell. Make it easy for your website visitors to click on a product and instantly get all of the information available about that product. Your data file can include anything and everything….photos, diagrams, specs, charts and descriptions. You can even include the price if you want to.
Idea #2 – Embed links in your pre-sell copy: This is such an obvious conversion rate builder and yet it is one that is very often overlooked…even by the most savvy of Affiliate Marketers. Almost everyone puts links in the beginning or end of pre-sell copy, but it is much, much more effective to embed those links within the pre-sell copy and do it in context. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again…people HATE advertisements but they LOVE relevant information.
Idea #3 – Optimize your site layout: Okay…maybe you don’t want to use Google AdSense advertisements…no problem. But do take a look at the Google AdSense Heat Map at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=17954. This really is the most effective layout for a website to optimize conversion rates. Google spent a lot of time and money figuring it out and you can use the information to your own best advantage.
Use the above ideas in any way that makes the most sense to you, and gets your Affiliate Marketing income coming in!
How Affiliates Can Easily Sell Their Own Products
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Best Business Practices Wednesday, 6 June 2007 16:07 2 Comments
Affiliates SHOULD sell their own products!
You’ve heard this before – it’s not new advice by any means. Being an affiliate is a great business, but if you want the quickest way to double your business – you need to also launch your own product.
Some people just don’t want the headache of developing a product (they think they don’t have great ideas!) They’re just happy marketing to their list, or making money with Google Adsense.
Do you think you don’t have good ideas – come on! As an Affiliate Marketer, you promote tons of products and services every day. You even have an upper hand because you’ve tested your traffic and know exactly what kind of offers convert the best.
Your number one problem is not idea generation, it’s probably a fear of having to deal with product fulfillment, payment processing, customer support, the technology to run/deliver the product and a million other things. Most people fear the technology part the most. HTML coding and dealing with bugs can be a real challenge for some (I learned by trial and error, and those errors cost me a lot of time and money!)
Fortunately, in the last 2 years, many new technologies have come out that make all this much easier for you. Now you can easily launch a membership site, and get recurring income, as well as market your own product. There are “already built – plug and play systems” where you can be up and running immediately.
Before you go out and buy a bunch of programs though, Affiliate Classroom has a recommendation, and some advice on what to look for:
- Make sure the script is Web 2.0 enabled – don’t buy an outdated script or use a PLR program, you’ll just be wasting your time.
- The script should include Membership Site programming (since this is the area that offers the second best income possibility, after your own product.)
- It should have Full Advertising Management – so, as your site builds itself with new members, it is programmed to be SEO friendly, automatically.
And a few other features like Automated Membership Management, Design & Page Control, Multi-Level Admin (so you can control what employees see), Full Customer Service Support, and last but not least, an Integrated AFFILIATE MANAGEMENT Program.
I guess the last thing should really be that it comes at a reasonable price, so you don’t spent your entire budget on software.
If you’re looking for something like this – If you’re even THINKING about starting a membership site, whether you’re an experienced marketer or a “newbie” – take a look at this new software that does everything I just mentioned software should do.
Either way, if you’re an affiliate and not selling your own products – you better start, you’re leaving too much money on the table.
Effective Sales and Pre-Sales Copy
Posted by Kathy Jackson in Affiliate Marketing, Content Creation Monday, 4 June 2007 20:18 No Comments
People are funny. They are so funny that years ago the late Art Linkletter even had a whole television show that was named “People are Funny.” Isn’t it funny how people HATE advertisements, but they LOVE information that they deem relevant and helpful?
The best advertisements are information. The information in an advertisement is written to convey pertinent facts about a product to prospective buyers.
But because people don’t like advertisements, your sales and pre-sales copy needs to be written in a way that doesn’t sound like advertising. Instead, it should have the appearance of information being shared and a product being recommended.
Funny how people share information all the time and don’t think they are selling. They recommend the best plumber or hair dresser to each other over back yard fences every day of the week, and they never realize that they are pre-selling their neighbors.
We can learn from that. Your sales copy and your pre-sales copy will be much more effective if you can give it the essence of sharing information – rather than that of hard selling.
One way to give your sales and pre-sales copy the appearance of helpful information rather than a blatant advertisement is to embed your affiliate links within the body of the text in a way that mimics the natural flow of conversation. Shouting, “Buy me! Buy me!” is ineffective sales and terrible pre-sales copy. Suggesting a product as a solution to a problem in context is much, much more effective. For example:
“BUY X BRAND FLEA KILLER!” is not nearly as effective as “When my dog came home with a major flea infestation, I used XBRAND and the fleas never saw another sunrise.” That blue text isn’t a live link, but on your site it would be. That’s called an inline link, and it’s one of the best ways to make your information into a sales tool.
Won’t You HUUUG Me?
Posted by Anik Singal in Affiliate Classroom Events and Products, Affiliate Marketing Friday, 1 June 2007 15:00 No Comments
When I get to The Affiliate Summit this July 7th, I’m going to first run around the hotel looking for Scott Hazard (never met him before), but apparently I’ve learned recently that he gives a mean hug.And, you know what, it was a tough last year, lots of stress – I could really use a good hug, or a “ScooterSqueeze” as he calls it (trademarked term, so be careful)!
Scott has come together with Affiliate Summit for a great cause and all affiliates, yes, including YOU, should support this. For a small donation of $20, not only will you get a comforting “ScooterSqueeze,” but you’ll get a shnazy T-shirt!
All proceeds go to the “March of Dimes” – an organization fighting to save babies from premature birth.
Show your support and help out the cause – you can get more information and make your donation at AffiliateHug.com
