Archive for November, 2008
Preparing for the Unexpected
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Best Business Practices Monday, 24 November 2008 14:10 5 Comments
None of us like to think about this, but if something happened to you — an accident, an illness, getting stranded on the other side of the globe — what would happen to your affiliate business?
Would your family or a trusted friend know how to find your affiliate IDs and passwords, FTP to your server, login to your email account, and access your Paypal and bank accounts? If you have subscribers, members, JV partners, or clients, who would take care of their needs?
Or consider your web sites and computer. What if your hosting company was wiped out by an earthquake, tornado, or hurricane? What if your PC’s hard drive suddenly died, or a flood destroyed your computer? Do you have backup copies of all your sites and IDs, both at home and in a safe place?
There’s no better time than Q4 to plan for the undesirable or the unexpected – BEFORE it happens. Here’s a checklist of items that should be kept in a secure place:
Affiliate program URLs with logins (both networks and independent programs)
Backup copies of all your web pages and redirects, with FTP and cPanel logins
Logins for paid search accounts
Logins for article syndication directories
Logins for third-party tracking services, autoresponder, etc.
List of critical business contacts (partners, affiliate managers, outsourcers, etc.) with each person’s role, email, phone number, etc.
List of advisors and mentors — people you would trust to help your family make business decisions — with contact information
Logins and instructions for paying invoices, online bill payment, etc.
Logins for online accounts, such as Paypal, Google Checkout, Moneybookers, your merchant account, etc.
Contact information for your attorney, accountant, banker, broker, etc.
Step-by-step instructions for how to use all this information if you are hospitalized or otherwise unable to work
Needless to say, like your confidential financial data, all this information shouldn’t be left lying around. One marketer we know keeps hard copies of all this information in a three-ring binder in a locked file cabinet, with two backup copies on USB jump drives (one in the locked file cabinet, the other in a safety deposit box at the local bank). His wife and parents know exactly where everything is kept.
Finally, remember that if a loved one was in an accident, was suddenly hospitalized, or otherwise needed your 24/7 care and attention, you’d naturally drop everything to attend to their needs. So be sure to develop a plan for how to keep your business running in the event you can’t manage it actively.
Next… make new friends!
Other posts in this series:
Q4 Affiliate Marketing Checklist
6 Ways to Put Dormant Domains to Use
Which Offers to Keep, Which to Dump?
5 Tips for Cleaning Up Your Opt-In List
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, E-mail Marketing Friday, 21 November 2008 10:32 1 Comment
Are you getting a lot of bouncebacks? Is your open rate sagging? Does your mailing list seem to have more bad than good email addresses? Maybe it’s time to purge those bad email addresses from your list. Here’s some tips for cleaning your lists…
#1 – Analyze bounces. If most bad addresses come from Hotmail or Yahoo accounts, it’s probably time to start blocking people with these “disposable” email addresses from signing up in the first place.
#2 – Measure size against value. Remember that too many bad or “dead” email addresses can skew your open rates and other stats. A list bloated with useless addresses can make stats look bad.
#3 – Use link tracking. Most autoresponder services will allow you to turn on a feature that sets up a unique tracking link for every link in a mailing. By activating this feature every tie you mail, you’ll be able to collect valuable statistics over time, as well as watch for correlations between subject lines and click-through rates.
#4 – Make purges automatic. If your autoresponder service offers it, turn on the “purge bounces automatically” feature. A good setting is to purge after three failed delivery attempts.
#5 – Create an “inactive” list. Some services will track bounces and allow you to move bounced addresses to “inactive” status list. This is a safe option in case the address was only temporarily unable to receive mail. By separating out these email addresses, you can send this list a mailing at a later date — and purge any undeliverables at that point.
Yes, cleaning up your list looks like you’re “losing” subscribers. But you can’t really “lose” a subscriber who wasn’t getting your emails or opening them. Remember that it’s a trade off between quantity for quality. A worthless address won’t make you any money, so there’s no point in keeping it just to have a bloated list. And after cleanup, you’ll have fewer bounces to deal with.
Next… prepare for the unexpected!
Other posts in this series:
Q4 Affiliate Marketing Checklist
6 Ways to Put Dormant Domains to Use
5 Tips for a Site Design Makeover
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Design, Upkeep Wednesday, 19 November 2008 07:50 5 Comments
Q4 may be one of the best times to review the code, the colors, and the graphics on every one of your sites, and plan a “makeover” for any site that needs its look refreshed. Here’s are five ways to approach your site revamp efforts:
#1 – Check for obvious SEO-busters. Spiders like HTML best, so look for opportunities to keyword your navigation and add search engine friendly text links. Converting to tableless layouts with CSS can also improve your rankings. It’s a big job to redesign with CSS, especially if you’re used to old-fashioned HTML coding, so we suggest that you…
#2 – Update site design. Boxy layouts have given way to a more open, fluid Web 2.0 style with liberal use of white space. But creating a Web 2.0 look isn’t easy, and requires a strong working knowledge of CSS plus some skill with graphics. And not every web designer has mastered this look. So try a site like 99Designs to find a designer who can create an updated look that will appeal to your audience.
#3 – Add a logo. If you don’t want to do a complete design overhaul, try adding a logo or updating the current logo. Outsourcing logo design is very easy.
#4 – Add “credibility graphics.” Guarantee seals, branded company logos, security certificate logos, credit card logos, and other graphics that link the products you are promoting with trusted brands. Examples include “As Seen on CNN” graphics ad trusted security certificates. Be sure to check your affiliate agreement/terms and conditions to be sure you are allowed to use the company logo on your website.
#5 – Update “hero shots” or refresh product graphics. Visitors’ eyes tend to gravitate to photos of people, so if you use these “hero shots” on your site, try changing them to see if it increases your conversions. It’s also important to check for updated product graphics from your merchant.
Next… clean up your mailing lists!
Other posts in this series:
Q4 Affiliate Marketing Checklist
6 Ways to Put Dormant Domains to Use
Test Out These Niches in Q4
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Niches Monday, 17 November 2008 16:40 2 Comments
New niche merchants are launching new affiliate programs every day. With a good Wordpress theme and some articles from an outsourcer, you can build out a small niche site in a matter of a few days.
So why not test out a few new niches during Q4? With seasonal shopping just around the corner, the time is ripe for building sites in niches that always see lots of traffic during the winter holidays:
Food Baskets
Flower Delivery
Chocolate Gifts
Jewelry & Watches
Electronic Gadgets
MP3 Players
High-Tech Cell Phones
Home Theater – TVs, DVD Player/Recorders, etc.
Keepsake Gifts
Religious Gifts
Movies, Books, Music
Toys for Infants, Toddlers, and Young Children
Gifts for Women, Men, Boys, Girls, Teens, and Seniors
Gifts for Co-Workers, Bosses, and Clients
When exploring a new niche, you don’t have to get overly ambitious. A small site of 10-15 pages is enough to test the waters. The trick is to choose good long tail keywords, drive initial traffic with articles or PPC, and (most important) be sure to track your results.
In fact, Q4 is also the perfect time to launch sites in niches that get hot in the post-Christmas season. These niches include:
Accounting Software – The start of a new year means a new accounting year, the perfect time to promote accounting software and other types of financial software.
Tax Preparation – January 1 through April 15 is the height of tax season. Be sure to check for information products, in addition to software and CPA offers.
Debt Management – The post-holiday spending “hangover” means more traffic to sites dealing with credit counseling and getting out of debt. This is a great niche for CPA offers.
Dieting, Exercise, and Fitness – Everyone puts on a few pounds during the holidays, so offer solutions to the millions who make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight.
Next… give your sites a makeover!
Other posts in this series:
Q4 Affiliate Marketing Checklist
6 Ways to Put Dormant Domains to Use
5 Ways to Update “Aging” Sites
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Upkeep Friday, 14 November 2008 08:13 5 Comments
It’s no news that the major search engines will often give sites with constantly refreshed content an edge — hence the popularily of blogs for marketing. In a very real sense, “relevance” has a lot to do with timeliness. A recently updated site certainly appears more up-to-date than a page built at the turn of the millenium.
But refreshed content isn’t just for the search engines. Visitors like it, too. Updates provide surfers with a reason to bookmark your site. That encourages repeat visits and more click throughs.
So during Q4, why not make a plan for adding or changing a few things to any sites that you haven’t updated for a while? Here are some ideas that are relatively quick and easy:
1 – Add an RSS feed. Blogs automatically include an RSS feed, but you can add RSS to any site by adding some simple code. A service like RSSPECT makes it simple. Be sure to encourage visitors to sign up for your feed.
2 – Add more content. Simply write 10-20 good articles, or outsource them to a freelancer. Do some SEO duty at the same time by researching keywords to use in your articles. The Google Keyword Tool is a great place to do this research (be sure to check the “Synonyms” box to get ideas for long tail keywords.
3 – Modify colors or layouts. You don’t need to do a complete website overhaul. Just changing the page or table backgrounds, adding a few well-placed graphics, or modifying the color of headline fonts can give your website a fresh look. It’s easy to experiment with color or font changes if your site uses an external stylesheet. If you’re not familiar with stylesheets, this CSS tutorial can help.
4 – Add or update products. If you have some mini-sites that run more or less on autopilot, consider using them to test some new product offerings. If these sites promore physical products, consider adding some complementary information products from ClickBank.
5 – Add an opt-in box and build a list. Even sites that target very small niches can increase profitabliity with an opt-in list. In fact, small lists can actually be extremely responsive. If you have a blog, Aweber allows you to email your list automatically when you add posts, as well as build lists on conventional websites.
Next… Try a new niche!
Other posts in this series:
Q4 Affiliate Marketing Checklist
6 Ways to Put Dormant Domains to Use
