Here are a few ways you can tell if your current affiliate manager sucks, and what you can do about it.

- How about a Booost?!
In my last post on “My Affiliate Network Pays More than Yours!“, I focused on the different payment structures from all the networks. The public payout rates varied heavily, yet they were all for the same offer. You affiliate manager is your inside man to get you the best payout rates on an offer. I’ll tell you right now, my affiliate managers at MarketLeverage (Erick) and NeverBlueAds (Tina) are the best. On some of these other networks, affiliate managers want to see “some volume” first, before giving you a higher payout… of they will give you an increase, but you know they still have so much more room to offer. While this makes sense for affiliates and managers that do not have any prior business, or massive lead volume… it’s really just a time waster for the affiliate and the affiliate manager, when you know you are dealing with an affiliate that can deliver.

- This is the Internet… Be Available Online!
This is soo crucial… affiliate managers NEED to be accessible online, and I’m not just talking about email. While some affiliates like to pick up the phone and chat for a while, many don’t. All affiliate managers should be available by either AIM Instant Messenger, GMail Chat, MSN Messenger or whatever… just don’t rely on email. No only will this make your affiliates happier and not have to wait for an email response, but it will also grow your personal relationships with your affiliates. I talk to my affiliate managers several times a week, whether it be about network offers, or just to see how they are doing.

- Newbie Affiliate Manager
While the majority of affiliate managers I have come across are seasoned and have a pretty good idea what internet and affiliate marketing is, I sometimes feels bad for the networks and affiliates that are using/working with newbies. Every one has to start somewhere, but when you have to explain marketing methods or how other networks run and work with higher payouts, its frustrating. Your job is to market and make money with the network, not train any new affiliate managers in the process. Networks… make sure you have well trained and knowledgeable affiliate managers!

The majority of affiliate managers out there on the well known networks are really great… from time to time you will come across a newbie or someone that just isn’t as good as they could be. In a situation like this, you can ask who your friends or other business contacts that are working with at the company, if they like their manager. If you end up with a nice recommended affiliate manager, simply contact the network and ask nicely to be changed. In most cases you shouldn’t have any problems.

[This post is covering part one of the “Five Reasons Your Affiliate Program Sucks” series, and is focusing on “Bad Affiliate Managers“.]

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

1.) Profit Share for the Network
Depending on the network, they may just be taking a bigger profit margin for themselves and passing less commission off to their affiliates.

2.) Volume & Poor Sales Team
Another major factor in pricing, is how much volume the affiliate network can deliver. Usually, the more volume an affiliate or affiliate network can deliver, the better payouts they receive. Nearly as important as volume, is how well the affiliate network’s sales team works. I’ve talked with many affiliate networks over the years that weren’t aware other networks were paying more, their usual response is that they will contact sales to re-negotiate a better rate. (Shouldn’t this have been done in the first place?)

3.) Offer Type
Some affiliate networks are able to negotiate their own deals based on landing pages or processes for accepting leads. In most cases, a network accepting “incentived” leads, will pay less than an offer accepting “non-incentived” leads. Some networks also have the leway to create their own landing pages or be the only ones to offer “search” marketing.

Different Affiliate Networks, Different Payouts
Nothing speaks volumes like real life examples. The best way to do this is by giving you an actual case study on many well known networks and an offer all of them share. BlockBuster has one of the largest advertising campaigns around, and they have the ad dollars to back them up… no wonder their offer is on nearly every affiliate network out there. If you head over to BlockBuster.com, you can join their affiliate program directly through CJ.com and earn $33 per signup, or you can earn more or less with the affiliate networks below.

From the chart above, you can see there is quite a difference in cpa payouts among the networks. It is also important to note that many of the affiliate networks have different guidelines as to how you can promote the Blockbuster affiliate program. Rextopia for example has their standard Blockbuster offer available at $41.50 cpa, then another (email only) free trial version for $19.20. AzoogleAds has the lowest payout on the chart, but they also have a different landing page from the other networks. CPAEmpire only allows you to promote the program through banner placement. The rest of the networks have their own guidelines as well, whether it be if search is allowed or if they accept incentives leads. All of these guidelines will affect your bottom line as to how you promote an affiliate offer.

As an affiliate, it is YOUR job to find the best affiliate network and offer that performs best with your marketing strategies and efforts. As you may have already noticed from past advertising, going with the highest payouts isn’t the best solution. Make sure you test your advertising across all networks and compare your numbers.

The Power of Negotiation
I can tell you right now… if you are running the Blockbuster offer on RocketProfit or Hydra Network (or any network) and you are getting a lower payout than the $41.50 that Rextopia and NeverBlueAds are paying… the network will likely do everything they can to boost your payment up and at the least MATCH their rate. If in the worst case scenario, you can leave your current network and start testing (or split test) the offer else where.

EPC - Network Earnings Per Click
A feature available on many of the many of the affiliate networks, is the ability to search all offers by their EPC. While this may seem like a great idea for some, many successful affiliates already know it’s best to not judge an offer by it’s EPC ranking on affiliate networks. When you look at EPC averages from a network wide average, you are getting very general numbers, and usually very wrong. Imagine how many people on the network are running the offer to targeted traffic, but at the same time, how many are also promoting the offer to general traffic. Another way to look at is, if it’s a new offer and the person bringing in the most volume is a very targeted pay per click affiliate. If you only have basic traffic, your numbers aren’t going to be anywhere near what the network epc is showing. You must test your own affiliate offers and numbers and not rely on network wide epc charts.

Now that you understand the important of being an affiliate with as many networks as possible (to view all offers and payout rates), make sure you take advantage of your ability to split test your campaigns across other networks, negotiate better payout rates, and don’t rely too heavily on network epc averages.

[This post is covering part one of the “Five Reasons Your Affiliate Program Sucks” series, and is focusing on “Low Public Payout Rates“.]

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

Here are Five Reasons Why Your Affiliate Network Sucks!

1.) Low Public Payout Rates
- Is your affiliate network paying higher or lower than your competition?

2.) Bad Affiliate Managers
- You affiliate managers are the blood and lifeline of your business. Make sure they are working for you!

3.) Same Offers as other Networks
- What good is an affiliate network if they all offer the same thing?

4.) Direct Deposit / Wire Transfer & Paypal
- Affiliates want their money fast, especially if they are spending a lot of money (ppc) to make money!

5.) Network Running Off DirectTrack
- Is it time you moved onto your own network platform?

Remember, this was just a quick outline of the where many affiliate networks are slacking and potentially losing thousands (if not millions) of dollars in commissions. Affiliates are the key to your success, and when we have so many different networks and options to turn too.. you will only get so many chances to make a first impression.

Where does your favorite affiliate network stand?

The next post in the series will focus on the “Low Public Payout Rates” from many well known affiliate networks. You know other networks are paying more… so are the networks paying a few bucks less, pocketing your profits???

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

Below are just a few of the domains I managed to secure yesterday. I have no plans for development of them yet, but may throw something together in a couple months.

Zac.me
SuperAffiliate.me
NicheMarketing.me
AffiliateNetwork.me

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the majority of domain buyers out there. With the new buying spree of .Me names, everyone wanted the to make cool names out of the new domain extension… such as HIRE.ME, LA.ME, AWESO.ME, and of course, the much sought after FUCK.ME. After many complaints from numerous people on Twitter, and many blog posts, it seems that many people were able to register these domains, but were then given a notification from GoDaddy, that the domain was already taken. Because of the horrible response from .Me and GoDaddy sales/processing… the whole ordeal is seen by many as a big FAIL.

If you haven’t made an attempt to buy any .Me names yet, I’m sure there are still millions of good names still available. While the higher price of $19.95 per year may shy some buyers away, it may be a good opportunity for you to come across some generic names which may help with your search listings, should you create a site around the name. At the least, you might be able to grab a good or creative name, then flip it few a few hundred bucks down the road. Early in the day I was able to come across a lot of available names, then looking them over last night, almost all were taken. A great majority of celebrity names were all taken as well.

I’m really not a big fan of all the domain extensions out there, and most of them are nothing compared to .COM and .NET… but it’s still fun to grab a couple names every once in a while. So, in the end… did you walk away with any new .Me domains you were looking for?

1.) Find another Site with an Affiliate Program
Myoplex is growing in popularity fast, and one of the most popular places to buy the high protein drink is through GNC stores. Let’s head over to GNC.com and see what they have available. As expected, they have over 35 different products for sale on Myoplex. They have the product, but now we need an affiliate program to make it work. Yes, they have one! Now you can earn a nice 11% commission on every referred sale. Now, instead of that free promotion you were just going to give to Myoplex, (or any other desired product), you can now be earning a nice commission on all referred sales. (and not just on myoplex)

2.) Contextual Advertisers
Myoplex was a great example and luckily for this case study, the largest provider (GNC.com), had an affiliate program. What if you can’t find any sites with your product that have their own affiliate program? Visit Google.com and do a search for your desired product. When you search on “myoplex” you will see a ton of advertisers on the page. Instead of promoting an affiliate program directly, you can run Adsense or Yahoo Publisher Network. Based off your heavy content site, Adsense or YPN should trigger exact or related ads. (If you search “myoplex” on Google, you will see both GNC.com and the parent company, EAS.com, both advertising through Adwords. You may not be able to promote EAS.com directly through an affiliate program, however through adsense you can promote them on a per click basis.)

There are many retailers advertising on Google Adwords for “Myoplex”

3.) Direct Contact
If all else fails and the product or company you are looking to promote, doesn’t have an affiliate program and there are no relevant advertisers on Adsense… try contacting the company directly. The only thing you have to lose by contacting the company, is that they don’t reply back or they say “not interested”… and you are back where you started anyway. On the other hand, if they are interested, you can sell them advertising on your site, possibly work out a deal for any referred sales, or at the least, ask them to send you samples or some freebies for your time and promotion.

There is nothing better than a web site that offers a true testimonial. I have no problem telling others about the Myoplex protein shake because I actually use it and would recommend it to others. With the combination of a real testimonial site and information to back it up, the ability to push traffic and sales to the related advertisers should not be a problem at all. Not only is there a high demand for Myoplex out there, but since they don’t have a “direct” affiliate program, it may make it that much easier for you to succeed with promotion. Now think about what other type of products and programs are out there that you can take this same method to and apply it.

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

Many writers and bloggers out there experience “writer’s block“… the same hold true for business owners and entrepreneurs, except it may be more of a lack of motivation, interest or getting worn down. For those times when you feel in a slup, here are just a few ways you can get yourself motivated and back on track again.

Past Projects
- If you feel you are in a slump and just don’t feel like working on what you have going on, take a step back and look at what you’ve done in the past. What previous sites, ideas or marketing campaigns have you run that made money. Try and incorporate any old ideas with your new or existing plans and see what new ideas you can stir up.

Connect with Others
- One of the best ways to get some ideas flowing, is to talk with your friends or other marketers online. Not only do you have instant chat access through programs like AIM or GMail chat, but you can see what thousands of people are talking about on Twitter.

Reward Yourself!
- You are your business, and how you work and reward yourself will reflect in your progress and earnings. A couple weeks ago I went out and purchased a new 24-inch: 3.06GHz iMac. I have it right along the side of my Sony Vaio PC. While I mainly use a PC, it’s still cool to have a new computer and I love working with a Mac as well…. but even more so, it was a new motivational item which increased productivity. Is there anything you would like to reward yourself with?

These are just a few ideas on how to get yourself motivated or pumped up, if you are in a slump. If I was stuck home and had to work on the computer all day, or had to manage a full staff… I would probably go crazy or get stressed out enough to effect the overall progress of my business. I play basketball at least 3-4 times a week and it’s one of my favorite benefits to running my own business and not having to work for the man… I get to work and play, or do whatever, whenever I want. Luckily, I enjoy making money online almost as much as basketball… so it all works out.

How are you managing your working schedule, while keeping yourself motivated and not overloaded at the same time.

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

Here are just a few of the reasons why Top Affiliate Challenge is lacking. Should there be a season 2 for Top Affiliate Challenge, or any new affiliate marketing reality shows in the works… please make sure you cover yourself from failing again at the following.

Horrible Video Editing, Taping & hosting:
With the amount of companies and affiliate networks pulled together to sponsor Top Affiliate Challenge, I am continually surprised at how poorly the show is taped. At times the show ranks at the level of quality of being recorded on a $150 Flip Video camera. There is no reason for the lack in video quality, when you have this much sponsorship money and exposure on the line. On an ending note, how often is the video chopping, the host is cut off during mid sentence, looking at queue cards and notes on the floor.

As for hosting… once the first episode was released, it took nearly an hour and a half of constant buffering for me to view the whole 30 minute episode. (also noted by John Chow) Top Affiliate Challenge finally decided to move their videos over to Google Video. A better decision would have been to team up with a higher quality and brand able video host in exchange for exposure on the show. As of right now, you can view all past episodes on TAC… though episode 5 doesn’t seem to be working at the moment?

Location: Why Nebraska?
One thing that internet marketing and a reality show have in common, is that you can run both of them anywhere. Drop any of us off in the middle of a desert, and as long as we have a laptop and an internet connection, we can start making money. Likewise, reality shows take place all around the world… whether it be “The Apprentice” in New York, or “Survivor” on a tropical island. The point is… why Nebraska, I’m hoping it wasn’t purely for the convenience factor. To make the most of this affiliate reality show, this should have taken place at Florida, New York and California… three well known internet hot spots in the US.

Non-Relevant Awards & Prizes:
Once again… the show is called “Top Affiliate Challenge“…. not random sponsor games. Why are non-relevant prizes being awarded to affiliate marketers. For instance, in episode 4, why are Power Tools and Drill Bits being awarded as prizes. I know these prizes are from the sponsored networks, but this should be a learning experience. Give away search marketing tools, ebooks, coupons, vouchers or anything relevant to affiliate marketing!

Unknowledgeable & Untrained Host:
No offense to the host, Monica Durezo, but I think they should have a more experienced and well trained host in the affiliate marketing space. I can only imagine how hard it is to host a reality show, especially when the staff, gurus and contestants don’t have an idea about what’s going on. When is the last time you watched a reality show on TV and the host wasn’t a well known celebrity. It would have made more sense for one of the “gurus” to host the show, as they are a more prominent figure in the affiliate marketing space.

Bad Affiliate Marketing Intelligence:
In addition to the host, which may or may not have an deep background in affiliate marketing… it seems the show itself does not have the necessary knowledge as well. Just off my head, from the past couple of episodes I can think of two instances where the incorrectness of this show is just silly. First off, when one of the contestants is talking about CPM, they say it’s “cost per thousand visits“… when the standard in affiliate marketing is “cost per thousand impressions“… and this is a HUGE difference. Also, I’m would not want to be a sponsor of the show, paying thousands of dollars to unhappy viewers… then to see my affiliate network being misspelled in the ending credits. It’s a little mistakes, but shows lack of detail and professionalism. (Copeak???… I thought it was Copeac..)

This is Really The PepperJam Show
Before the show event started, John Chow and ShoeMoney were the well known gurus listed on the show. They already had the exposure and branding in the affiliate space, while many had no idea who Ken McArthur were. Luckily for PepperJam Network, Ken McArthur is the Guru for their team and he is just destroying the competition… so much so, that during episode 6, Kris Jones, of PepperJam even provides money for his team’s competition. Either way, it’s good to see PepperJam getting their sponsorship money’s worth out of the show.

Unhappy Contestants and Gurus:
To top things off… during episode 3 and 4 we start to see disgruntled affiliates/contestant ready to leave the show and start voting for themselves to leave the show. Not only does this put themselves in a bad position, but it makes the show look bad too. Ian Fernando wants off the shoe, as he also made clear on his blog. ShoeMoney has left the show due to the birth of his new baby girl. Contestants are apparently having to spend their own money to make revenue for the team challenges… In the end… I’m not sure who is happy with the show.

Unfortunately for Top Affiliate Challenge, this seems to just be the tip of the iceberg of problems and complaints around the show. While the show was in audition phrase, I had a lot of people asking if I was going to apply for the show. After seeing the results from the show so far, I can say I’m much happier on the other side as a viewer and critic. With the loss of my friend Ian Fernando (though they never seem to send anyone eliminated actually home) and co-Guru ShoeMoney from the show… I can only imagine other viewers will also continue to lose interest fast.

What are your comments on the show and is it any more or less than you initially expected?

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

JUNE 2008 BLOG REVENUE REPORT:

- Affiliate Sales/Referrals: $2,619.89
- Private Ad Sales: $1,300.33
- Reviews: $1,300.00
Total Revenue: $5,220.22

- Ad Spots on Blogs: $25.00
- Miva Ad Campaign: $52.50
Total Costs: $77.50

Total Blog Income for June 2008: $5,142.72

The Miva ad campaign finally sent more traffic for keywords in the “affiliate marketing” area, at a cost of around .15 per click. I also have a couple banners ads on select blogs which are sending a few visitors over. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to actually track the performance of this campaign or the quality of traffic from Miva.

Also, since my blog revenue reports started in December 2007, they have done quite well… however I think I will limit this case study to a one year report. After November’s blog earnings report, this blog post series will probably come to an end, unless I have several requests to do otherwise.

If you haven’t already, follow me on Twitter and be sure to submit your questions and requests for future posts. Thanks for being a reader!

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

This Month’s Prize is Still Up for Grabs: WIN A FREE IPOD TOUCH!

iPod Nano (Highest June Earnings) - CD8298

$200 American Express GC (Random Affiliate) - CD8179

Flip Video Camera (Random Blog Link)
Slick Affiliate

USB Pen - (Random Blog Link)
Darn Good Reviews

USB Pen - (2 Random Commenters)
About Blog Contest & Jay Geiger

Winners will be contacted by Market Leverage.

If you haven’t already signed up to Market Leverage, please do… as this month’s prize is a brand new iPod Touch, which will be going to the referred affiliate with the highest earning for July. The month has just started, so it’s game for anyone to walk away with.

Thank you and good luck!

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!

To give you a basic idea of how you can setup your new video entertainment site, I will use the CollegeHumor layout as an example. The key points I will focus on are Building Your Site, Adding Fresh Content, CPM Advertising, Tell a Friend Forms and Newsletter Subscriptions. I have marked several advertising and viral linking methods on the image below.

Building Your Site & Adding Content
For this article, we are going to focus on building a site around funny videos. There are already hundreds, if not thousands of funny video and humor sites out there. The main purpose of all of them is to gain the attention of the user and keep them coming back to the site. In the end, they make money by offering free content and getting paid every time banner ads are displayed. The longer a visitor stays at a web site, the more money there is to be made.

We all know that everyone loves watching videos online and there are already several huge sources that can provide you with free content. Just head over to any of the big video sites like YouTube, DailyMotion or MetaCafe and start grabbing content. These video sites want to get more viewers, and are giving you their “embed” code to place the banners on your site. Since you are grabbing content directly from their site, you don’t have to worry about copyright issues from videos or having to host them on your servers. To make your life easier, these sites already have the videos indexed and broken down into categories, you can easily create multiple categories or new sites based on each different category.

To keep your web site updated with new videos, simply visit these video site often and add new content, or visit the “What’s Hot” categories and add the most popular videos to your site. As your site continues to grow and gets spread around, you should start seeing some nice free traffic coming in through your free search engine listings. Once your site gets larger and established, you may want to host your own videos.

CPM Advertising on Your Site
Once you create your video entertainment site, you are going to try and build the site around your content, along with premium placement for advertisements. In the CollegeHumor.com example above, you can see they have a 786×60 skyscraper on top and a 300×250 banner on the side. Because of the massive traffic and branding of CollegeHumor, they are able to sell their advertising direct and on a CPM basis. Not all of us have this same branding and traffic power, so the next best solution for us, is to place CPM banner advertising on our sites from companies like CasaleMedia, ValueClick Media and CPX Interactive. If you are unable to get approved by any of these CPM networks, you can also place your regular affiliate network offers on the site. (In addition to cpm advertising, you can also play around with contextual advertising, such as Google Adsense. Placing adsense above or below video content has proven to perform well.)
- CPM Networks I Use: CasaleMedia, ValueClick Media, CPX Interactive
CasaleMedia is a more premium network and hard to get approved with. ValueClick Media is one of the largest and easier to get approved with. CPX Interactive is the easiest to get approved with, but also offer the lowest cpm rates.

Tell a Friend Forms & Social Network Marketing
Below the main video content, you should have the option for users to embed the video (if you are hosting your own videos) or link back to your web site. Offering your users the ability to link to your content, will not only give them something to add to their MySpace page, (thus sending more visitors back to your site) but it is also one of the greatest reasons to create a video site… people love to send funny stuff to their friends. In addition to social bookmarks and linking, you should also add a Tell a Friend form, which enables the visitor to send an email to a friend, with your web site url and funny video link. There area few TAF affiliate programs that will pay you to add a tell a friend form onto your web site, where you will get paid every time the form is sent. The ideal placement for a tell a friend form is right below the funny video or funny picture content.
- Tell a Friend Networks I’ve Used: TafMaster & OptMedia

Building Up Your Newsletter
Creating a newsletter for your web site is crucial to it’s growth. In most cases, people will visit your site for a few seconds, then leave. If you offer them a newsletter subscription, you can have them coming back to your site daily. In addition to sending out the latest content added to your web site, you can also feature ads or free content of the day. In most cases, this can be any type of freebie or trial offer from an affiliate network. You can send out mailings daily, once a week or once a month. Sending out daily would be best for traffic as long as you are providing quality content and mailings.
- Mailing Provider I Use: Aweber

In addition to the methods I listed about for earning revenue and increasing traffic, you can also link with partner web sites (check webmaster forums), run “free stuff” (cpa offers) sections on your site, create a forum around your site where users can submit content or even offer your own image/video hosting service. The options are limitless, and each will help in establishing your new web site’s presence.

Before jumping into the video entertainment area, make sure that you spend some time to research other sites and what may be your next competition. There are thousands of sites out there fighting to get top position in search and trying to build a visitor base. If you can create a unique or useful service around video entertainment, you might just be able to create the next hot video portal like CollegeHumor.com, Break.com or EbaumsWorld.com.

Don’t forget to visit www.ZacJohnson.com and comment on new posts! Top Commenters are rewarded with fun prizes every month!