Affiliate Classroom Blog Archives

Domain Names and URLs – Which Is Which?

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 1:44 pm by Matt Van Atta

One surprising source of confusion when it comes to websites has to do with distinguishing between the domain name and the URL. Because these are possibly the two most fundamental pieces of the puzzle when it comes to the building and maintaining of a website for your affiliate marketing efforts, it’s worth a moment to understand them.

A domain name is the name associated with your website - for example:

affiliateclassroom.com

A URL (which stands for “Uniform Resource Locator”) is a specific web address, of which your domain name is a part - for example:

http://www.affiliateclassroom.com

URLs tie in every piece of content you place on your website. All web pages, all graphic objects, all email addresses associated with the site each have a specific URL. But what ties all the URLs together is the domain name - not so much technologically as in terms of a mental connection in the minds of your potential customers.

Each website has its own Internet Protocol (IP) address, a series of numbers and periods that enable communication between a web visitor’s computer and the website. Names are easier to remember than a string of numbers, however, and while the IP address does the actual connecting work, the domain name enables site visitors to access your site by simply typing the name rather than a bunch of numbers. I could tattoo “69.57.146.48″ on my forehead and still not remember it, but “affiliateclassroom.com” is easy.

What’s most important to you about a domain name is that it is a marketing tool. And given that your business is web-based, the domain name is your most essential marketing tool because it helps define who you are - it’s as important as the business name itself. You want your niche market to establish a connection between the needs of that market and your ability to meet those needs - and the domain name can be the foundation of that connection.

What’s a Squeeze Page? - Building an Opt-In List

Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 5:52 pm by Matt Van Atta

squeeze page graphic

An opt-in list of email addresses can be the affiliate marketer’s “secret weapon.” With them you have a ready-made, reliable audience for your marketing efforts, including information on new products, email newsletters, special offers, and more.

Best of all, the email addresses on the opt-in list belong to individuals who voluntarily signed up because they want ready access to your content. The larger the opt-in list, the more people to whom you can directly market your products, and - if all goes well - the greater your conversion rate.

So how do you start building an opt-in list?

Easy – start collecting email addresses. (Everyone needs a hobby, right?) One way to do this is by using a squeeze page, a web page intended solely to collect the names and emails of visitors to that page.

Also known at times as a landing page (although many would argue that not all landing pages are truly squeeze pages), the squeeze page brings in visitors through offering information that appeals to the site’s intended target audience.

Say you have a report that ties to a product you are marketing on your site. The squeeze page can provide details on the report and why it’s beneficial to the visitor. It can offer the content to the visitor for “free.”

All the visitor has to do is provide his or her email address, and possibly his or her name as well. (That name could be used as part of the website’s effort to personalize the visitor’s experience on that site, thus making it more appealing. However, if your affiliate business is just getting off the ground, the email address is the nugget of gold on which to focus for now.)

Because the visitor to the squeeze page sought out your content in the first place, chances are that he or she will give you that email address. You can then send those subscribers ongoing high-quality content, such as a newsletter or a product update.

In the process, you establish a sense of trust on which the visitor can make a future purchase either from or through your site. That can be very important given online buyers’ tendencies to visit a site several times before buying.

Need some good examples of squeeze pages? Look no further than your friendly neighborhood Google search on “squeeze page.” You’ll find a number of sites that sell squeeze page-building software and other products – using squeeze pages themselves in the process!

Opinions vary as to what the squeeze page should contain. Some argue that it should contain only the email signup mechanism and the copy to persuade visitors to sign up – seemingly making it more like dangling the carrot in front of the horse. But others believe it’s OK for squeeze pages to include links to other pages that contain information as well as the email signup.

Personally, if I enter a page with next to nothing on it except an email signup, I’m less inclined to sign up than I would be if I could see what else the site has that would interest me. But that’s just me.

Since every audience responds differently, it makes sense to test one type of squeeze page over another, using a script that will rotate two different pages. Make sure you set up two separate mailing lists for each page, so you can see which one pulls the most subscribers.

In fact, how you craft a squeeze page depends on two factors: your understanding of your target audience, and how much content you’re willing to give away without getting something in return.

In other words, you may “squeeze” that email address out of the visitor… but don’t forget to consider the degree to which you yourself may need to be “squeezed” in order to get that information!

For more tips, see page 26 of the March, 2006 issue of Affiliate Classroom magazine.

Viral Marketing: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 4:47 pm by Matt Van Atta

As we enter the holiday season, which is traditionally a time of giving and sharing, what better time than now to examine the concept of viral marketing? After all, good affiliate marketers know how to develop viral marketing content. When they give it away to customers for free download, they know that a certain number of those customers will eventually give something back to them.

Viral marketing is the creation and distribution of content that gets passed on to others. Its recipients perceive it as being valuable to them, but it also serves to promote your website. Viral marketers usually make their content available online and allow it to be copied and shared with anyone. It works somewhat like marketing buzz or word of mouth, except that it streams through people’s computers more than through people themselves.

The reason for the word “viral” is that given these parameters, such marketing can spread, like a virus, to potentially millions of customers – only this kind doesn’t wreak havoc on computers throughout the land.

But if you don’t like the connection with viruses, here’s a nicer spin on this definition: Think of viral marketing as a means to generate word of mouth over email and the Internet. Word of mouth is the oldest marketing tool in the book for a reason. Viral marketing allows the electronic equivalent of word of mouth to grow at relatively low cost to you, and with relatively low resistance from recipients because they choose to accept the content.

So what kinds of viral marketing content should you produce to promote your site?

The best kind of content is information presented in a straightforward manner along with the all-important links to your website. It could be contained in a PDF that facilitates ease of downloading and assures the user that no virus or spyware is associated with downloading the content. Reports and online white papers are ideal; articles are good, too.

Sure, you could make your content more visually exciting through such formats as video clips and Flash animations. But you’re likely entering dangerous territory by taking this approach. These options result in larger file sizes that take longer to download (and the 56k modem hasn’t completely faded yet). They also give the impression that you’re providing a lot of sizzle to hide the fact that there is little or no steak.

Which leads to the most important point: Whether you are tapping into an existing niche market or creating your own, viral marketing content should show that you know your subject matter. Those who download the content should trust your site. Such trust can go a long way when it comes to promoting products or services on your site.

Once in a Lifetime (Commission, That Is)

Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 4:59 pm by Matt Van Atta

Whether you are just getting your affiliate marketing business off the ground or you are an experienced pro, you are always seeking new sources of commission income. One type of commission seems almost too good to be true: the “lifetime commission.”

The term “lifetime commission” sounds a little like hitting the lottery. And it is a pretty sweet deal – merchants who offer lifetime commissions to affiliates take the necessary steps to “attach” you permanently to the customers you bring in.

In short, this means that customers who are assigned your affiliate ID and who purchase products from the merchant’s Web site generate commissions for you. And if those customers buy regularly from the merchant, you receive the credit each and every time. The result is an ongoing revenue stream, even if it’s only a trickle, known commonly as residual earnings.

How do merchants enable these lifetime commissions? As opposed to merchants who write cookies for affiliates that last a specific, short period of time – 30 to 90 days, usually, merchants offering lifetime commissions write longer-term cookies that can last two years or even longer.

In the event that a customer’s cookie crumbles due to his or her purchase of a new computer, the merchant generally uses more sophisticated affiliate tracking tools to ensure you get the proper credit for all sales that your customers generate.

This arrangement is definitely good for you as an affiliate. The average customer will usually look at a product several times over a period of time before buying, and this arrangement ensures that you will get the credit when that customer eventually buys.

It’s also good for the merchant who relies heavily on affiliates to get the word out about his or her product. The sweeter the merchant makes the pot for affiliates, the harder those affiliates will work on the merchant’s behalf.

There aren’t that many opportunities for lifetime commissions in affiliate marketing. However, a Google search on “lifetime commissions” will give you several tremendous sources for information on lifetime commissions and the merchants who offer them.

If you’re looking for a particular niche, or a particular program within your selected niche, it’s worth a few minutes of your time to conduct such a search and see what’s possible for you in this area.

Bear two things in mind about lifetime commissions, however. One is practical – the more revenue streams you can generate through your affiliate marketing efforts, whether they are short-term or long-term revenue streams, the more successful you will be as an affiliate marketer.

The other thing to remember about lifetime commissions applies to lifetimes in general as well: The only way for something to last is to cultivate it, putting forth the time and effort required to attract customers, drive them to the merchant’s site, and generate sales for the merchant. If it isn’t successful, it won’t last – period.

SEM and SEO, What’s The Difference?

Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 7:36 pm by Matt Van Atta

An affiliate marketer’s best friend is the website; it’s the primary means for selling products or services. And if you want to increase your customer base, you need new traffic to it.

So, enhancing your website’s search engine ranking is critical. This is where the acronyms SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) — two terms that tend to be mixed together in a sort of alphabet soup — come in.

A search on both terms will result in lists of websites for companies promising to increase the number of hits to your site – for a small fee, of course. One such website offered its services within the content of its title tag: “Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.”

Now, if you’re new to affiliate marketing, SEM and SEO may be confusing. Isn’t the idea behind SEM to optimize your presence on the Internet? Well, yes, and SEO is basically one component of SEM. However, here’s the difference between the two:

- SEM is the general use of marketing methods designed to make a website more visible to Google and other search engines. These methods include paid search methods, such as pay-per-click advertising, as well as SEO.

- SEO, however, is an organic search marketing method used to make a website rank higher.

It’s easy to think of “organic” as costing more money, especially if your only exposure to “organic” is in a boutique grocery. But “organic search” is simply what comes up when you search for a term on a search engine. SEO is a way to make sure your website gets its share of the “free advertising” that the search results can provide, without necessarily having to pay for it.

Now, PPC (pay-per-click) can get your product or service prominently mentioned, if you want to spend the money. Or, you can pursue another SEM method: the link exchange – sort of a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” arrangement with another affiliate that requires finding just the right partner.

However, it’s been proven time and time again that if you want to maximize profits from your affiliate marketing, SEO is the way. And the best part is that it’s something you can achieve yourself – without having to dig deep in your wallet!

You need a website and some basic knowledge of HTML – something you should have anyway, right? You also need an understanding of what keywords your customers, real and potential, use when searching online for the kinds of products and information you can provide. Make certain your website revolves around those keywords, and make sure your site works with the search engines.

Sure, it takes some homework to see which specific keywords are used more than others. But it’s part of attempting to understand what your customers need and want, which every good affiliate marketer does already. Without that understanding of your customers, it won’t matter how much you pay for PPC – you’ll have bigger problems than just getting your website noticed!

So, to increase your business as an affiliate marketer, consider other SEM options if you wish to see if they might work for you. But trust me, it’s worth your time to work on SEO.

Fat Affiliate or Thin Affiliate: Which One Are You?

Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 10:17 pm by Matt Van Atta

How much content does your affiliate Web site have?  In the wake of Google’s “cleaning” of AdWords by changing its landing page algorithm, this question could have greater relevance for you.

As Anik stated in his blog posting of July 26, such “cleaning” has led to advertisers who have in the past spent tens of thousands of dollars a month on AdWords essentially being shown the door by Google.  And it means that advertisers wishing to stick with AdWords will have to pony up more money to do so if their Web content is deemed insufficient.

How do you stay in Google’s good graces?  According to Google, you become more of a “fat affiliate” as opposed to a “thin affiliate” – terms coined by Google, of course.  What does this mean?  Let’s start with the definitions:

  • A fat affiliate is an affiliate site that provides sufficient high-quality content to provide a satisfying user experience.
  • A thin affiliate is an affiliate site that contains no real content value and serves only to send Web traffic to a merchant site, to pages containing only affiliate links, or to pages designed primarily to obtain AdSense clicks.

In other words, content distinguishes fat affiliates from thin affiliates, in terms of both quantity and quality. And by content, I’m speaking not just of content that helps persuade your customers to buy your product or service.  I’m also speaking of content that provides informational value to your customers regardless of whether or not they eventually buy your product.

If the content on your site is both informational and persuasive, enabling customers to derive benefit from the start, it will (hopefully) provide that layer of “fat” sought by Google and generate sales for you.

So how do you “fatten up” your site? Different types of content can provide the value that Google in essence is looking for. Examples include:

  • Articles, including product descriptions, reviews, how-tos, advice, and news.
  • Pictures and photos, including diagrams, drawings, charts, illustrations, graphs, and slide shows.
  • Free downloads of digital items, such as reports, freeware, and the like.
  • Links to related sites that include detailed descriptions of what each site has to offer your visitor.

You can never completely discount the thin affiliate approach, however. Many super affiliates have become super affiliates by leveraging sites that Google might consider “too thin” and driving traffic through paid search. And one can run the risk of including too much content, causing information overload and forcing the visitor to leave your site. In a sense, it’s like playing poker – being dealt pocket aces is always a good thing, but it’s what you do with the hand you are dealt that matters more than the hand itself.

Whether you are a fat affiliate or a thin affiliate, however, depends ultimately on the degree to which you want to rely on Google to drive your business. If reliance on Google makes good business sense for you, be sure you know Google’s rules of the game, and be sure to watch the weight of your Web site!

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