I know it has been a while since my previous post but all good things come to those who wait. This next interview is with Shaz Amin – not only does he run a tight incent network but he gives brown people a good name when it comes to ballin, a rarity indeed.

I am especially pleased to do this interview as he was one of my first publishers at AVG and delivered consistent volume and quality and was always more than willing to communicate openly and transparently. I think you will all enjoy this one immensely so here we go:

1) Shaz, tell us briefly about yourself and how you got started in this industry and moreover, your forte’ into the whole Incent arena

Rick, first I want to say that I’m honored to be featured on your blog. I’m a long-time reader and I’m proud of how far you have come as a reliable industry personality. I’m going to do my best to give you a meaningful interview about our business and about myself, might be a “tldr” type of interview in some cases though. You’ve been warned!

It’s funny how easily I can talk about myself when no one is asking, but when asked, I can’t think of anything to say. Let’s start from the beginning: I’ve been in this industry for approximately 7 years, during which time I sort of climbed up the ladder from being one of the users who would sign up to receive a “free iPod,” to starting an incentive advertising agency. I was introduced to this industry when I was a very young teen by a personal friend, whom I’m sure you know, Fehzan Ali, co-owner of Adscend Media. RocketBills and Bonus Network were some of my early companies that had great success as well as helped me to understand the incentive industry as a whole.

In early 2009, while I was in college, I was ready to move one more step up the ladder and invested my time and resources into creating Blue Track Media. Our niche remains in the incentive space and we are a full-fledged incentive advertising agency. It took a long time to develop Blue Track Media’s proprietary system because I refused to use any of the generic tracking platforms available. I like to think of myself as someone who challenges the status quo. I see things very differently and usually choose to go against the established norms, which, as our track-record shows, results in innovative features that are of real value to our clients. Therefore I made a big investment in a proprietary platform; this was necessary to satisfy my unconventional, outside-the-box ideas as well as gain some early leverage in the industry.

Today Blue Track Media has transitioned into an advertising agency that represents advertisers who are looking for a reputable company to test out incentive promotional methods. Most advertisers are hesitant to experiment in this type of traffic, but we are happy to say that so far our advertisers have had phenomenal results. We are known for our quality incentive traffic which includes Virtual Currency, Social Incentives, Mobile Incentives, Content Unlocking, Co-Registration/Offer Walls, and many other methods. We work hard to make exclusive deals with advertisers and with our proprietary platform we are able to make virtually anything a reality for them. Be on the lookout for new, clean advertisers that are exclusive to Blue Track Media in the coming months!

Oh, I almost forgot to talk about my personal interests! I’m a huge sports fan, especially for the Dallas Mavericks (MFFL), Dallas Cowboys, and recently the Texas Rangers ( though I’m not afraid to admit that I hopped on the band wagon). I’m also a very competitive basketball player, as many have witnessed from the first annual ASW Las Vegas Classic Basketball Tournament. Aside from sports, I’d like to say I’m a pretty fun, kind, and outgoing person. I also tend to have no shame which sometimes gets me in a little trouble, but I can confidently say that there is no facade and this is who I really am every time.

2) Do you think being a Pakistani in this industry has hindered or helped you achieve the level of success you currently have or anticipated?

I think most people don’t even realize I’m Pakistani. It may surprise some to learn however that I was actually born in Pakistan and moved to the United States at very young age. You can’t tell with my American accent though, I did work hard at assimilating myself with my surroundings. But I must admit that I am THAT guy who wears socks with sandals; it’s something I’ll never give up.

I’m a very proud “Pakistani,” I never shy away from telling people where I’m really from. I wouldn’t say its hurt me at all, but that’s mainly because I have grown up in America and not many people I’ve come across so far in our industry would single me out for it, which I am very happy to say. I think in our industry the people living in the South Asian countries are perceived a different way than others and sometimes that perception is not favorable. I hope people like you and me can pave the way for other Pakistanis and Indians to be taken more seriously in this industry, especially with the marketing potential that India presents, given its massive population.

I do however want to take this opportunity to let people know that I am a proud Muslim. Many of the things I hear in industry-related forums about Muslims and our faith are incorrect or taken out of context. I invite any one to get in touch with me to have a respectable and understanding discussion to clear up any misunderstandings about the faith and allow me to show them how peaceful and warm-hearted Muslims truly are. We value and respect all different types of religions, faiths, and people. Many things seen in the media are very bias and can be cleared up with a respectful and intellectual discussion.

3) What are the top 3 factors that you feel contribute to your success?

I’m going to pop in a quick Kanye lyric (huge fan), “They’re going to have to take my life before they take my drive, because when I was barely living, that’s what kept me alive.”

I honestly believe that my strong work ethic and resiliency has opened up many successful opportunities for me. I was literally that person who was at home working 24 hours a day while all my friends were out enjoying their lives. I never had much of a fun party college life either since I was running Blue Track Media and coming home regularly to take care of my mom. My father passed away when I was 16 years old and coming from a not-so-wealthy family kept me striving for a better life for me and my family.

I also believe my morals are a cornerstone of my success because without them Blue Track Media wouldn’t have gained the trust of many of our clients. I will choose ethics over greed any day, no matter how much money is in question. I’m not saying I never made any mistakes in the past or continue making them today, I have, everyone has. I think it’s important to learn from these mistakes and grow as a person everyday. I try to be someone people can look up to and trust that I have their best intentions at heart. Our clients confidently believe that we do not participate in any unethical types of business practices. You can trust Blue Track Media, we’re good people.

My family has also been a major factor in my success because without them I don’t know where or what I would be today. My father was the most generous man I knew; he would gladly help a stranger on the road. One day we were driving on the freeway when we saw an elderly man with a flat tire and pulled to the side of the road. My father looked at me and said, “Today I will teach you how to change a tire.” My sister was also essential to my early success in life by teaching me responsibility. She practically raised me when I was young because both of my parents worked low-paying full-time jobs. She made sure I always was keeping up with school and getting my homework turned in on time (sometimes I’d make her do it for me, I was a brat). The foundation of my family however is my mother. She gave up so much for our family, especially when my father passed away. She’s the reason I am what I am today and I uphold such high morals. She taught me right from wrong and worked hard every single day to support our family. I was never spoiled with the newest toys, but she spoiled me with her love. I credit my “no excuses” attitude to her and I would be happy if I could be just a fraction of what she is.

4) How important is it to you to communicate with your publishers? Is there a particular message you are wanting to convey? 

I can’t overstate the importance of regular, meaningful communication with every single client. There is no reason that any of our clients should see us as some big corporation without any personality. I genuinely care about all of our clients and I am always trying to reach out to them to let them know that I am literally just an email or phone call away if they ever need anything. It’s never hard to get a hold of me and I strive to reply to all of the emails I receive in a timely manner.

The message I want to convey to all of our current and future clients is simple. Blue Track Media does not see our clients as “walking, talking dollar signs”. They are much more to us than streams of revenue. We are eager to connect with our clients and we love to talk to them about things unrelated to business. We are glad to share their happiness and help them succeed in their ventures with our knowledge.

5) Talk to us specifically about your experience and frustrations in dealing with people in the industry. 

In the early stages my experience with the industry was different. We got burned a couple times from our advertisers for large amounts of money, which could have potentially ended us. However I wasn’t going to let that be the end of Blue Track Media. I found ways to work around it and we’ve been thriving since. I never got to enjoy our industry starting out as much as I do today because back then I was busy with college and Blue Track Media which left no time for anything else. The moment I started networking and meeting new people is the moment I started getting the most out of our industry. Networking is key to any industry and especially ours. It still amazes me to this day how intelligent and creative the people in our industry are. I never stop learning and meeting new people, it keeps the excitement going.

6) Who has been your motivation or inspiration, in other words, who is your driving force? 

Two people are my driving forces. One is my mother, whom I already elaborated on in the previous question. I just want repay her for everything she did for me and keep her happy and retired for life.

The other person that drives me is myself. I have great expectations for myself I want to make a difference in the world. I want to change many people’s lives and share my blessings with them. There is a lot I need to do to achieve my goal of becoming a philanthropist and that usually keeps my motivation in overdrive.

7) What do you think is the impact of the “new” media on today’s generation? Are they leveraging it effectively and more importantly – are they leveraging it for the betterment of our industry?

Our clients are always coming up with new and exciting ways to put a spin on incentive traffic. They usually come to me for advice and my thoughts about certain ideas they have and it amazes me how creative they can get. The best part of it is that most of their ideas involve cleaning up the incentive industry and making it valuable to advertisers. I’m not going to out any of their ideas or plans since everything is kept confidential, but I am proud to say that Blue Track Media has some of the cleanest and most intellectual clients who do their best to deliver quality incentive leads to our advertisers.

8) Being a minority myself, there are constant stereotypes that I have to overcome, have you ever experienced this? 

When I was young I used to get picked on in school because of the way I looked, spoke, and dressed. Coming to America from Pakistan was a big step for our family. I used to tell my mom I didn’t want to go to school in the beginning because I couldn’t speak English well and I wouldn’t be able to make any friends.

Fortunately I found out at an early age the secret to a popular childhood. That secret is, if you are a talented athlete, people stop stereotyping you and start respecting you. As soon as I started developing my athletic skills and making the school basketball teams every year, I stopped getting picked on. Everyone magically became my friend and wouldn’t dare to mess with me. It’s quite sad, but I guess that’s just the way it is with young people. However, nowadays those kinds of things don’t really ever happen so it’s actually not an issue anymore.

9) Thoughts about the other brown guy from your neck of the woods – Fez@Adscend?

Fehzan is a good guy, we practically grew up together and previously ran The Bonus Network together. He has done a great job with Adscend Media and I hope the best for them. As I mentioned, he introduced me to this industry several years back and helped me understand a few concepts. It was helpful having a friend in the industry to bounce ideas off of periodically. Although we are somewhat in the same industry, our companies are completely independent of one another. People frequently mix the two of us up but I want to make it clear that Fehzan is not currently, nor has he ever been, affiliated in any way with Blue Track Media. My success is solely the result of the countless hours and hard work that I have invested in the company from the beginning, not anyone else. Although it is not the case, some people in the industry do mix Fehzan and I up or think we’re related and that always brings me a bit of comic relief. Oddly enough, I believe this is one stereotype I’ve experienced in the industry!

10) What are some effective tools and products that help you keep your life organized?

Google. I love Google. I call Gmail “God’s’ Mail. It keeps me sane and organized. I use it all: Gmail, Calendar, Android, Gchat; all of it! I also have such a bad memory so I create many notes and stickies to remind myself of the important things I need to get done. I get such a sense of accomplishment when I cross things off a list!

11) If you had a money tree in your back yard and could purchase anything for your business tomorrow, what would it be?  

I’d take that money and build a bigger team to keep up with all the demand at Blue Track Media. I have a great team around me right now that works very hard, sometimes around the clock, to make sure things are running efficiently for our clients. Blue Track Media is more successful today and will be more successful in the future because of our great employees. I would definitely take that money to hire additional reliable members and ease up everyone’s stresses just a little.

12) Any words of wisdom for my readers looking to get into this space?

Wow, I feel old giving words of wisdom out at such a young age. I think my best advice would be to never settle for less and always expect the best from yourself. Once you set a high standard for yourself, your output becomes that much more valuable and impressive. Don’t make excuses of why you haven’t researched or put your new idea into effect – excuses get you nowhere. There is so much information available for free around the web and especially in forums. Research, read, take risks, get out to the conferences, meet new people and learn new things. Don’t be scared to fail, if you fail, learn from your mistakes and go at it again. You do learn a lot of things from failure, it’s a cliché because it’s true. In the end you are in control of your life and successes, no one else.

For more info on Shaz:
www.facebook.com/supershazman - Add me!

www.twitter.com/bluetrackmedia - Follow us!

www.twitter.com/supershazman - Follow me!

“Good quality traffic,” is always every advertiser’s end goal.   That’s really the key isn’t it?  It’s such a challenge, particularly these days in our performance marketing driven world to hone in on and pair down to the most relevant traffic sources for the advertiser, while staying true to the yield needs of our publishers.  This is the fine line we as a network must walk every day.   Too many times we as performance marketing networks are limited within our own scope of buying on a performance basis, when our advertisers are also selling on a performance basis.  The downside to this, mainly, is concern for quality, site validity, as well as the potential for fraud, which has a greater tendency to surface as a result.  I suggest that it’s time for a paradigm shift.  In order to achieve the diversity, quality and ultimately relevancy for our precious clients, we must do our part as networks to think outside of CPA buying.

By avoiding non CPA based buying, and focusing more on CPC, CPM and CPV buying  we will open the market up to other media types, including search, display, email, contextual, blogs, etc.  It’s critical to develop a strategy, maintain a plan and execute on action items as it relates to non CPA based buying.  If our goal is to sustain our advertiser / client relationships for the long term as well as secure an expanding budget, this is the best solution for both respective businesses to grow.  In the following article, I will cover various media buying strategies for non CPA based buying including the most basic to the more advanced.

You might think media buying is much more of a science than an art. However, I find that the reverse is actually true.  By that, I mean media buying requires much more creativity and out of the box thinking than just crunching a few numbers or following a standard equation.  True, the key measurements such as ‘click through rate’ and ‘click to conversion’ must be precisely measured.  However, the only way to really influence improving numbers is to proactively place yourself in the end user’s shoes and do your best to determine what factors are influencing this user’s surfing or browsing behavior.  This is crucial as it relates to how these same users are responding to your campaigns at any particular time. In other words, the key to any successful media plan is relevancy. The placement of the advertisements to the traffic demographics of the publisher or direct site placements are crucial.  So, before any buy or placement of creative, some key questions must be asked. For instance, what are the age demographics, gender demographics, site topics and categories, timing statistics, as well as geographical location and socioeconomic status of the users?  It is also extremely helpful when you are able to pinpoint your audience’s primary shopping behaviors’ or preferences as well as their browsing preferences. In order to proceed with the media buying process the campaign and the answers to the above questions must relate to one another. The campaign will be much more successful when determined and selected based on the psycho-graphic information and data collected beforehand.  In the next series, we will cover, key measurements for tracking and optimizing.

So really the next step is to prepare for your buy.  Ideally, you want to have the following minimum points in place before starting, first determine which campaign you are going to test. Most likely you will want to rotate with at least one or several similar campaigns.

Try to gather as much information as possible in terms of both click through rate and click to conversion rate. Next determine your publishing channels.  Remember it is not uncommon to spread a buy across at least four to five known channels as well as allocate a test budget evenly across all channels. Be sure to diversify media types to include, for download and gaming campaigns, search, display buys, parked domains and contextual. All of this of course depends entirely on which media type may work particularly well for the chosen campaigns. Set daily budget caps, per campaign per channel, out of your total test budget in order minimize your overall risk. Minimize investment risk – you will want to minimize overall investment risk in addition to setting daily budget caps, by ensuring the following: What the “out clause” is on your IO?  Typical periods are anywhere from 24-48 hours. Have your frequency caps set.  This is particularly relevant if you are doing contextual buys or CPM.  Typically, and of course depending on how much more you are willing to pay, 1/24 views or 1/12 is not uncommon. Next have your creative ready. With graphical creative’s especially, you will want to ensure that you have the correct sizes. Normally, on a display buy, it’s always good to have a good mix of creative sizes so that you have the flexibility to rotate. This includes a leader board (horizontal), skyscraper (vertical) and rectangle unit of various dimensions.  (Note: creative sizes experience greater click through, contingent of course on the campaign and media type, but 300 x 250 medium rectangles have always typically worked out best in most cases).

The following have been a basic outline of how to open up your marketplace with non-CPA buying called CPM or media buying.   It is just one way to open up your business to marketplaces and keep your revenue healthy through diversification. Remember, each buy will be different of course based on your individual terms defined by your IO. There is not an exact formula to media buying, so have patience and remember it is always a process. The key really is to ensure that you have minimized your risk by a) diversifying your publishing types b) diversifying your campaigns and c ) diversifying and minimizing your financial risk.

By: Sam Sim – Guppy Media

A lot has happened over the last week. I’m blown away when I look back at all that has transpired and yet totally not surprised. Going forward, I will try to do this on a weekly basis – Top 10 Things I Learned This Week.

To initiate this topic, I’m sharing the top 10 things I learned this last week, Late Show Top 10 style.

10) 90% of the networks are all noise while the other 10% execute

9) All this talk about “if you need an offer – we will get it for you is utter bull shit

8) All this talk about networks claiming “we will beat any payout rate” – also utter bullshit

7) Cake Marketing is an awesomely run company

6) You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet – you are going to make mistakes. No one’s perfect.

5) There are consequences to your actions – so act wisely

4) Some people can stand to take a lesson in communication

3) Some people who talk in an open forum about others who owe them money need to just shut up because odds are – they themselves owe people money

2) Some affiliates who like their ego stroked can well – go stroke themselves

And the number one thing I learned this week:

1) The end result is not going to change if you are going to keep on doing the same shit you have been doing all along. Be bold. Take risks. Learn from mistakes. Repeat.

Slayers and pretend to be Slayers, it has been quite a while since the last official rant on RickyAhuja.com.  What can I say, the Affiliate Slayer’s services and skills have been in high demand.   In other words genius’ I have been busy and I still am busy, so consider yourself lucky once again for the opportunity to embrace this rant.   So like all other rants of mine, they aren’t well thought out.  I know it’s difficult to imagine that dueto my skill, my rants aren’t planned.  So truth be told, rants are inspired by something that happens suddenly and unexpectedly, such as the subject of this fine rant- Commission withholdings of 15%.

That’s right, there is an advertiser who withholds 15% every pay period to prevent against fraud.   This is what they refer to as a “Reserve”.   Ok so you are always supposed to look at the fine print, however that freakin’ 15% is basically our profit margin and some cases more than our profit margin.   WTF,   this is a first as they are withholding 15%. It’s not a pub’s revenue; it’s just an overall temporary 15% scrub.  This is never communicated to us in the first place and I am quite surprised this is done.   Normally when we pay commissions, it’s 100% earnings based upon an agreed billing cycle.   So here is how one scenario would go if we knew going into this biz relationship that there would be a withholding.

Advertiser:  “So we want you to run our offers, but we are going to hold 15% for an extended period of time to make sure we don’t get screwed with your traffic or anybody’s traffic.

Me: That sounds like a fantastic freakin’ deal.  Thanks for the privilege of allowing me to get screwed and basically work for free.   Will our commissions at least include some Vaseline to make it a little less painful?

Advertiser: What do you mean free?  You are still getting paid 85% of your commissions.

Me: Wow thanks your generosity is overwhelming.   So basically you are hanging onto our profit margin.   Traffic and managing your offers doesn’t require any time nor resources.   My company isn’t a charity… Thanks but no thanks…

Advertiser:  Ah well this is a great opportunity for you and our offers convert very well…..

Me:  No thanks, this would also be nightmare for our accounting dept.  Managing a network is difficult let alone managing what 15% withholding is from what month that we would eventually see. “

The Internet has provided numerous ways to revolutionize how we live our daily lives. It has crawled into the different dimensions of human lives- business, communication, information dissemination, personal relationships. People have made a paradigm shift towards using the Internet to aid them in their daily activities.

With this in mind, many people are continuously struggling to get noticed in the world of the Internet. Websites are growing like mushrooms everywhere, every time. How can one’s website get past the millions of other websites and eventually be noticed by its target audience?

Search engine optimization aims to achieve the goal of getting more visitors to a website by helping it get higher rankings in the search engines. This simply means that search engine optimization’s goal is to make a website appear on the first pages, if not the first page of a search done through the search engine.

There are two ways to be able to get noticed by search engines. One is through pay-per-click-advertisements. A good example of a pay-per-click system that is employed by search engines is the Google Adwords system. It has created a hype and has given Google around 5 billion dollars in terms of revenue per year. Webmasters can place their bids to be shown when a keyword is searched by a surfer. The highest bidders will get their sites to appear first when the search is being done.

The second way of getting high rankings from search engines is through organic searches. Search engines evaluate websites by using what they call “spiders.” These programs scan the websites and collects information about them. They then collate the information and pass it on to the search engine. This area is primarily the main arena of search engine optimization. It utilizes a set of methods to be able to get search engines to list the website on high ranks.

Traffic

The main purpose of search engine optimization is to increase the traffic generated by a website. Websites are built to be seen by Internet surfers and search engines can help it achieve this goal.

The power of the search engine should not be underestimated. It is one of the building blocks of the foundation of the Internet. A survey showed that 90% of all Internet users employ search engines to aid them in their Internet-related activities. Google, the dominant player in the search engine industry, generates 70% of all search-related Internet activity.

People and Search Engines are Alike

Search engines behave like people. They like websites which contain substantive information about a certain topic. The best sites usually appear first in search engines because people like them as well as the search engines.

Search engine optimization does not only generate traffic, it helps maintain the traffic. The behavior of the search engine is indicative to the behavior of the people who visit the website. Search engine optimization leads to the optimization of a webpage or a website. It will lead to a website which is more organized and a website which contains substantive information.

Target Audience

The use of the search engine to be able to target one’s target audience is one of the most effective Internet marketing strategies. It is not like other on-line marketing techniques (such as email marketing) which can lead to a lot of leakages in terms of targeting the right audience.

Search engines segment the market and connect the right people together. People search for topics which they are interested in and this is the main strength of search engines in connecting markets together.

Cost Effectiveness

One can do search engine optimization under the assumption that he knows what he is doing. Search engine optimization is a full-time job and has a very long learning curve. This is why most people would resort to out-sourcing the job to experts who are good at what they do. One should be cautious, however, in hiring a search engine optimization company or consultant. Factors such as pricing and service should carefully be assessed before signing a deal. If done properly, search engine optimization is a very cost effective way of getting more people to know about one’s products or to know about a certain issue or event that a website is disseminating.

SEO is very important for websites since it determines the position of the website in comparison with its competitors. It does not only generate traffic from the targeted audience but is also a cost-effective way of optimizing the website.

This is a guest post by Samrath Gupta. Samrath is a young entrepreneur based out of India specializing in Affiliate Marketing and blogging. Though new to the space – he is very quickly making a name for himself in the blogosphere.

It’s First and 10; do you know where your insurance advertiser is?

1)     Gina, if you would be so kind, please tell us about yourself and what you are currently doing.

I am currently an account Manager for Firstand10 Marketing where I oversee day to day operations on both the advertiser and publisher sides.

2)     You have an amazing knack for buying traffic; care to talk to us a little bit about that experience and your trials and tribulations.

Test, Test, Test! I am a huge advocate for testing. You can’t tell if something will be successful unless you try different traffic sources and manipulate advertisements and keywords.  And with some years of experience, I can often tell within a short time what is working or not.  Sometimes within a few hours :)

3)     How did you find yourself working in the Affiliate Marketing industry? How have you found this industry to be? Was it what you thought it to be?

Honestly, the position with Firstand10 Marketing kind of luckily landed in my lap. I had done some freelance work and replied to a job posting and am here almost 5 years later with the same company (which is unheard of). I have found this industry to be ever evolving and fast growing. What is hot one minute, can be completely the opposite the next. I guess the fact that there is never a dull moment is what I love most. It’s definitely not what I thought it would be.

4)     There are more and more women playing a significant role in this industry, what do you attribute that to and more importantly – do you think that to be the case going forward?

I absolutely think it’s the case moving forward. It seems as though there are more women emerging than men in this industry. This is an industry of relationships, especially as people often move from one position to another in short spans, and I think women are better at relationship building and nurturing (I doubt most men would disagree with that). Women are more approachable and less intimidating, but, I think that we must also be aggressive in this industry to stick out.

5)     Who was or is a major influencer for you? In this industry, Ron Ossip, CEO of Firstand10 Marketing. I have studied under his wing for five years now and am amazed at how he has built a strong business that has been consistent for so many years.  He helped build a number of companies prior to Firstand10′s birth and pioneered some very important tools that are used in the industry today. I can’t seem to find anyone who has not worked with or for him at some point over the past 12 years he’s been in the space.

6)     What are your favorite must read industry blogs or websites (brownie points if you mention RickyAhuja.com)?

Obviously RickyAhuja.com, MrGreen, TechCrunch, and also the groups related to affiliate marketing on Facebook– can I mention Affiliate Slayer?

7)     Where do you see the affiliate marketing industry heading with social media in the next year? Do you think that micro blogging platforms like Pinterest, Twitter, Four Square and FB have the potential to change the entire landscape of presenting information to the public? 

I think social media has and will continue to play a large role in affiliate marketing. The audience demographic is limitless and we all know that everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, etc. The evolution of these platforms is already apparent in that most, if not all companies have Facebook and Twitter pages where users can keep up with current trends.  The key, of course, is can they convert for the advertiser.  As I’m sure many of your readers know, the jury is still out on that.

Now for a few FUN questions:

8)    When you are not making babies, you are given a free pass to Affiliate Summit, Ad Tech or Leads Con – where do you go and why? 

AdTech- it’s the largest show and I honestly feel that I get more accomplished there compared to any other. There are tons of Advertisers, Publishers, and Networks.   I do like Affiliate Summit and Leadscon because they are more intimate and people come to do business.

9)    You have a pool in your back yard and you can fill it with anything, what would it be and why? NO IDEA!! 

Mocha Frappuccino from Starbucks so I don’t have to leave the house in the winter. OR, I could go with the obvious, MONEY!!!

10)     If you could pick the brains of anyone – dead or alive, who would it be and why? 

Jeffrey Bezos– he is a genius!

11)  What advice do you have for my female readers who are looking to get into affiliate or online marketing? 

Don’t be afraid or intimidated on getting into the industry as everyone started at the bottom. Read, Read, Read, — inform yourself on as much as possible in the and always try to be one step ahead.

The stiff competition in online businesses has left many websites struggling to stay alive. The need to have more browsers and visitors can not be stressed enough. Without them, there is really no point in continuing.

Many have tried and failed to increase the number of their web traffic but it seems like a difficult task. It is not like in the real world where you can place a big banner outside your store claiming low prices and slashed off discounts.

On the internet, you have to get yourself noticed among millions of websites through expensive and costly advertising. For small and medium businesses, this is not possible. They will just have to be content with the web traffic they have now. They are also dependent on the conversion rate of each visitor as a potential customer.  For instance, the webmaster has 10 to 12 percent of conversion interest and rate (3 sales for each 20 visitors), and he gets 100 web visitors each day. How much will he get? 15 sales a day, and that’s being generous already, but he can get more than that by increasing the web traffic presence.

To double the web traffic, the webmaster must have a plan how to increase conversation rates per day but importantly, he must increase his web traffic flow.   Most of the visitors choose the best and top rated sites in the world. If the website is attractive it can easily catch the attention of the visitors and web surfers.

Here are the four great ways to optimize traffic in the website.

Search Engines Do Matter

Most of the websites focuses more on the traffic procedure in a traffic generating crack and on the rank in several search engines. From the very first day of an online business, the concentration must be on how to get on the top ten of search results. For most of the webmasters, the higher the rank of the websites the better the rates will be.

A webmaster’s primary concern is how to remain on top and what method to use. A majority of them rely on the traffic generating method of SEO or search engine optimization.

Most of the time, the right step is to optimize the website somewhere in the middle of the results page. Staying on the top of search engine ranking can be very hard to do. Especially for new websites, search engine ranking is very vital.

As an advice for the newly set-up website, their focus must be concentrated in a single part of the website. New websites should get a momentum to boost the traffic within few days with a little amount of effort.

Web traffic from search engines is almost 100 percent free of charge. Once the websites rank very high, it would be very easy for the webmasters to promote high competency. Another thing, if the website has a high ranking in search engines the preservation can be very simple.

The return of investment can easily get better if the web traffic works accurately.

On the other side of the story, web ranking can be very expensive. More than ever, a new established web site has the most expenditures. In addition, search engine rankings are also disreputably transitory because the web industry alone is a highly uncertain business enterprise.

Promotion and Marketing Method

Conventional way of advertising is frequently out of reach. It is important for any successful growing business in particular. Other than that, the Internet has a “pay for every click advertising process”. Nowadays, the budget for Internet advertisement can cost a few dollars only.

The website should get away from the conventional of advertising. Most of the traditional advertisements can cost hundreds of dollars and it is exceptionally difficult. Newly built websites must have an advertisement budget of less than 20 dollars.

Advertising on web can contribute in web traffic. It is better to grab the opportunity for each advertising network.

Recommendations and Viral Marketing

Webmasters must be concerned on how they can increase ranking through more word and mouth methods.  Viral marketing allows this to happen by using people other people trust to recommend their site.

There are many techniques on how to improve websites by word and mouth traffic procedure. First is by freebies, promos and entertaining multimedia.

Second technique is by sending several letterheads, business cards, advertisements and more to different search engines.

Most of all, by participating in online forums, by this way the website can get more visitors by talking about their websites and by giving them information about the advantages and benefits this particular website can give.

Press and Publicity

Press release can gain an extensive visibility and search engine rankings. But beware of the negative impact on the condition of publicity’s image.

Also, try to get your sites good reviews from other sites that rank online businesses.

There are many method and techniques how to generate and boost the web traffic in websites, comprehensive researching can also be helpful. Never give up, new methods and techniques keep coming out every day.  All you need to do is be on your guard and keep yourself updated.

This is a guest post by Samrath Gupta. Samrath is a young entrepreneur based out of India specializing in Affiliate Marketing and blogging.Though new to the space – he is very quickly making a name for himself in the blogosphere.

Q: Chad, tell us briefly about you and how you got your start in affiliate marketing.

Sure no problem. First thanks for the interview; I hope your readers get something out of it.

I kind of fell into it accidentally really. I was a business analyst at our telecomm up until 2008. My love at the time was MMA fighting and I had always wanted to be in the position to train full time. So my wife and I packed our bags and moved to Thailand to train and fight full time. I also had a small web design studio on the side so that’s how I’d make a few dollars here and there as we were overseas.

In early 2009, I got word that my dad got sick. It turned out to be stomach cancer, so we planned our trip back for June of ’09.

A couple months before heading back, I basically was addicted to not having a job, haha, and I definitely didn’t want to have to head back to the cubicle when I got home. So, while still in Thailand I started to research affiliate marketing and making money online in general. The first dollar I made online was $24 from a dog training e-book on Clickbank.

Eventually, I somehow came across the PPC Coach forum, and that’s how I learned about CPA marketing. When I came back in June, I had a bunch of debt, a mortgage, and baby on the way… with no job. So I just started hustling and launched over 130 campaigns in my first month. I had to learn fast.

Sorry I know you said “briefly”.

Q: When and why did you start blogging? Was it out of curiosity or something else?

I started blogging in late May of 2010… I’d had a lot of people asking me for advice so I figured I’d have one place to put my answers and such. Most of my blog posts are just spin offs of common questions I get. I don’t really blog too much, and would rather communicate with my list more frequently than blogging. Just a personal preference.

Q: You used to be an MMA fighter – how the change to AM? Was it what you expected?

I still train fighters when I can and go boxing/sparring for “therapy” when possible. My story kind of tells you why I got into AM… I still consider fighting again as I was doing alright. I have 18 fights overall and have fought some very good guys and done decent, so perhaps I’ll go back to that.

Q: How important is it to you to communicate with your readers? Do you respond to all the comments?

Well like I said I don’t blog tons, however, I do respond to just about all comments. I think if you’re going to allow people to comment the least you could do is respond, otherwise don’t have a blog just have a site of rantings.

Q: Talk to us specifically about your experience and frustrations in dealing with affiliate networks?

I don’t have a lot of frustrations with networks; I actually don’t deal with a lot of the mainstream ones on a regular basis. I have some good relationships setup with certain advertisers and merchants, and I like it that way.

That said, the only things that ever really bugged me were late payments obviously, and hyping up every offer on the network. If an offer really is killing it and doing well, then when I ask for display EPC’s vs. social EPC’s, etc., that data should be available. Yes, I know the numbers others have generated doesn’t really matter much, but I do like to have a baseline to work with.

All in all though, most networks I’ve worked with have been good, no complaints.

Q: You just came in 2^nd in that Blogging contest by AW, what method did you use to get people to vote? Was it effective?

Ya Lorenzo did a great job taking first on that, congrats to him… and congrats to you for having such a strong showing. Based on how you were moving up in the final week, I actually expected you to win it if I didn’t… honestly though I was pretty surprised I didn’t win, I sent about 1,500 clicks in those 3 final days. Just goes to show you, don’t mess with a determined Kiwi. On a side note, this isn’t the first time a New Zealander has bested me. When I played rugby, we fielded our best team against a selects squad from New Zealand and got roasted 65 to 5. Canadians should stick to Hockey when playing NZ.

So how did I do it… well I have 3 fan pages that are all pretty active and engaging with a total of about 40,000 fans, I have a private affiliate forum with close to 200 members, and my e-mail list in the IM market is close to 5,000 people, with lots of buyers on it. I have a pretty good relationship with my list and those fan pages, so it wasn’t too difficult getting the votes.

Q: What do you think is the impact of the “new” media on today’s publishers and affiliates? Are they leveraging it effectively and more importantly – are they leveraging it for the betterment of our industry?

You know I’m probably going to be looked at as a dinosaur by saying this, but I think your time is best spent where there is a LOT of volume and
responsiveness.

Display buys and e-mail.

Facebook obviously is great for volume and I’ve used it with tons of success. Pinterest seems kind of intriguing, but I’ve always thought there is only so much time in one day, and I think instead of chasing every shiny new object that comes around, picking one thing and mastering it has always brought the best results.

So, I don’t necessarily feel you need to leverage those new media sources like Twitter, etc. if that’s what you’re referring to. A ton of money is and will continue to be made in channels such as e-mail and display.

Finally, the best part about those channels is that you have far more control and longevity, imo, than you do on something like Facebook or Google, especially for the type of stuff most CPA marketers do.

The one thing these platforms such as Twitter, FB, Pinterest, etc. have is that vital social-viral component. Some affiliates are fantastic at integrating offers in a viral way to get great results for next to no spend. I honestly have never been that good at that; my methods are pretty linear and straight forward. It’s like when I coach fighters; don’t bother learning a thousand techniques, just master the high percentage techniques, of which there are few, and you’ll do great.

Q: There has been a recent craze about “content unlocking” networks and offers, do you partake in that and what is your overall feedback on it for those on the fence?

Haha, the most I’ve ever done on content locking was bidding on certain terms when UFC 100 was about to start. It was in the beginning of my CPA career and was the first time I made 3 digits. So I’d say I’m not really the guy to ask about it… I do know a couple people that do very well in it, that’s about it J

Q: Which tools/plugins do you use to efficiently manage your blog and your campaigns? Any widgets or tips you would like to share with our readers.

For my blog, nothing really fancy… I use Pop-Up Domination for my light box lead capture, but other than that it’s all pretty straight forward.

For campaigns, I use things like Prosper202 and Visual Website Optimizer daily. I use AdShuffle for direct buys, and occasionally I use CPVLab. I use several Aweber accounts regularly as well.

So as you can see, nothing overly fancy, but seems to get the job done.

Q: What are you working on nowadays? What’s the next big thing we can expect from Chad Hamzeh?

Outside of my campaigns I have about 6 projects on the go right now. This just isn’t efficient, haha, so I’m looking to strip some down. I have my Traffic BlackBook product which is being re-launched now after I updated a few key parts of it (I might be biased but imo it’s one of the only legit “guru” courses on traffic gen out there), and our forum SixMonthsFromToday.com gets new people regularly though I do want to get more promotion for it time permitting. We opened it in mid November and I personally have 2,000+ posts in it already.

I have a product in the MLM info market called “Sponsoring Power”, and a linking tool about to launch called LinkTitan, it’s very powerful in how it builds backlinks. Ha, automated stuff like that is the only way I’ll do SEO.

Moving into product creation has been a challenge… I respect advertisers more and more, especially those that provide a quality product with good support. Being an affiliate is much easier, in my opinion.

So, a lot on the plate, possibly a bit too much… that’s outside of my fitness product which I’ve had to put a bit on the backburner in order to get the rest of those projects rocking.

Anyway thanks for the interview, it was fun; hope your readers enjoyed it.

Motivation is a key ingredient to success. This is not a news flash by any means, and all managers and good leaders embrace some degree of motivational program for their employees; whether they do this consciously or subconsciously, they all do it. Motivation is not some secret society either, but the secret to motivation is the “what” behind it. So what is the “what” anyway?

It’s a great question and one that every great leader seeks to answer—although the answer is never the same twice! So that is what makes motivation part of a secret society, remembering and understanding the same employee will have different motivators at different times of her life? And yes, different times can be as often as yearly, monthly or even daily. This is the “what” behind keeping your employees motivated and feeling empowered.

Now that you’re a part of this secret motivational society and you’ve been let into the inner sanctum, you’re reading this and still thinking, “What? That isn’t a news flash, either!” And yes, you would be right—but the news flash is the remembering that translates into engaging in some form of communication with your employees regularly to ensure you’re in the know of what their current motivator is or might be. Regular communication is the real secret ingredient to realizing your success as a great motivational leader.

Think about the great leaders you know. They succeeded due to the fact they never stopped communicating, even when faced with difficulties. They, like you, have invested time, money and energy into inspirational literature and lectures, trying to properly identify role models who will help them lead their employees to success by providing their own sense of inspiration and motivation. It all sounds circular and somewhat confusing, doesn’t it? But as a great leader you have and will have clear-cut goals to reach. You’ll also need to have various sources of motivation yourself (regardless of the price tag), empowering you to forge ahead, ready to make tough decisions that might not be so warm and fuzzy or well-received. Knowing what motivates your employees to empower them to be on board with your difficult decisions will be what sets you apart from the rest.

Communication is the only way to keep your employees motivated and feeling empowered. Remember, communication is a two-way street; thus, the feeling of empowerment will come from your willingness to listen and consider their ideas, feedback and comments—all with an open ear, mind and heart. Their motivation will be derived from this sense of empowerment, as it will nourish whatever their current motivator might be.

As a great leader, you will take their input and find a way to incorporate some small element into your long-range plan (and, if appropriate into the more immediate business strategies) while communicating these “adjustments” back to your employees. Why would you share this information with employees? Not only do you want to ensure they’re aware of the changes, but empowerment comes from your employees feeling powerful. This isn’t necessarily power over people per se, but it lets them feel they’re in control and have power over their own lives.

It also gives you an opportunity to give credit where credit is due. Your great ideas are based on something you’ve read, heard or observed, and in your leadership style you need to be able to incorporate the passing on of credit to those who follow you. As you do this, you’ll easily continue to empower your employees to go the extra mile, think outside the box, and be creative within their responsibilities. By embracing this type of leadership approach, you’ll inspire as well as increase your employee loyalty—which will ultimately work to the benefit of the overall business.

This is the balancing act of a great leader: balancing the employees with the bottom line. Business goals can set the level of expected achievement for your employees and business while also serving as a source of motivation. As a great leader and a member of the inner motivational sanctum, you’ll be able to easily identify, provide for and empower your employees, which will inspire them into action—action that reinforces the bottom line.

Your investment in regular communication with your employees will continue to support your business’s growth and success. The great leaders who take it upon themselves to find better options for inspiration and motivation realize it all needs to start at the individual level with the employees ensuring the “what” in motivation resonates with each of the employees as well as your customers or clients.

Author’s Bio:

Karen Kleinwort is a certified professional coach who specializes in life, business and health coaching. Kleinwort also holds a BS in Business Management and an AA in Holistic Health & Fitness Promotion; additionally, she is a Reiki Master and CranioSacral Practitioner. Kleinwort is available for interviews and appearances.

Hey guys, here is the next one in the on going series of “Women in Affiliate Marketing”. Having met her on a couple of occasions, she came across as super nice and very intelligent (and adorably cute didn’t hurt either). So I had to have her do this interview for me – so here it is, enjoy.

1)      Libertad, if you would be so kind, please tell us about yourself and what you are currently doing.

“That’s always a tough question but, I think most of my close friends, colleagues and family would describe me as a very caring, adventurous and outgoing person who loves and enjoys life.  I am currently working as a Business Development Manager for National Web leads, LLC from Toronto and studying Photography. In my spare time, I play soccer, swim, watch films, cook and read.

2)     How did you find yourself working in the Affiliate Marketing industry?

I got introduced to the Affiliate Marketing industry through a very good friend of mine (now colleague) in New York.  After collaborating on a couple of non-Affiliate Marketing projects I became very intrigued about the industry and flew from Toronto to NY to check out Ad-Tech and see what types of opportunities there might be for me.  It only took a couple of hours of walking around the floor and talking to people before I realized I wanted to be a part of this and soon after got hired by National Web leads.

3)     How have you found this industry to be? Was it what you thought it to be?

I anticipated that the industry would grow fast and change a lot, especially now that more Advertisers recognize the importance of reaching their consumers online.  The immense growth has attracted a range of young, talented entrepreneurs who have a new and dynamic style of running successful organizations.

4)     There are more and more women playing a significant role in this industry, what do you attribute that to and more importantly – do you think that to be the case going forward?

It was just a matter of time before more women entered the industry and I foresee a lot more gender equality going forward.  I was really lucky to have become friends some very smart women in the space who welcomed me and supported me a lot. I thought it was great to briefly have had Glam Interactive because provided a hub for women to connect and build relationships.

5)     Who was or is a major influencer for you?

In this industry, I have to say that all my colleagues & friends at National Web Leads have had a huge influence on me as well as my friends in the space.  It’s important to have a group of friends who enjoy sharing lots of ideas.

6)     What are your favorite must read industry blogs or websites (brownie points if you mention RickyAhuja.com)?

Of course RickyAhuja.com! I also read 5 Star Affiliate Programs Blog, Shaun Collins and Mr.Green when I can.

7)     Where do you see the affiliate marketing industry heading with social media in the next year? Do you think that micro blogging platforms like Twitter, Four Square and FB have the potential to change the entire landscape of presenting information to the public?

These platforms are attracting a huge and powerful audience and they are changing the way we reach consumers already.  I think Social media is already transforming our industry and allowing us to better target campaigns. It will be interesting to see how legislative privacy and security concerns shape Social Media and how we present information to the public.

Now for a few FUN questions:

8)    You are given a free pass to Affiliate Summit, Ad Tech or Leads Con – where do you go and why?

I really enjoyed LeadsCon because I met a lot of people in my space.  In comparison to Ad Tech or AS, LeadsCon was smaller, not as fast and busy but most importantly, I met people I needed to meet.

9)    I notice you have a passion for photography; tell me how you got started with that and more importantly about one of your more “memorable” shoots.

Yes, I am striving to become a professional Photographer.  I got a camera as a gift a couple of years ago and I have never been able to put it down since.  I am currently shooting in N.Y. Fashion, but my passion is photojournalism and fine art photography.  My most memorable photo shoot was with my Father at a cigar shop.  He was reluctant at first but after a couple of glasses of whiskey and a cigar he was good to go and participated in my project.  It was a really fun moment.

10)     If you could pick the brains of anyone – dead or alive, who would it be and why?

I’d have to say Genghis Khan.  He was one of the youngest conquerors that have ever lived.  He covered the largest area and greater population than any other subjugator; his policies had an influence in traditional law and also he left such an impressive genetic footprint.

11)  What advice do you have for my female readers who are looking to get into affiliate or online marketing?

My advice to women and anyone interested in entering Affiliate/Online Marketing would be to dive right into it and connect with as many industry folks as possible through social media networks, forums, blogs & trade show.  Learn as much as you can about the space, people, companies and trends.  Be adaptable, aggressive and hone your salesmanship skill.