Q. Shawn, how would you describe your initial experiences with affiliate
marketing?

A. It was back in 1997. I had a dial-up account on AOL, a 14.4 modem and
a desire to make more money. At the time, I didn’t know a thing about
creating websites, marketing, etc. But I went through a tutorial at AOL on
writing HTML and picked up the basics. Then, I created a hideous, single
page site about New York City and put up some Amazon links. I never earned
a cent on that site.

Q. What growing pains did you endure at first? What were the biggest
obstacles and challenges from that period of time?

A. Back then, there was a monopoly on registering domains, and it cost
$35 a year. At the time, that was a bit prohibitive for me (I didn’t
realize what a good investment a short name would be). That was a trend –
an unwillingness to invest in my affiliate efforts. I was going the free
route with tools, hosting, etc. That definitely delayed my progress.

Q. What was your first “Ah-ha” moment? How did you incorporate the
lesson learned into your affiliate marketing business?

A. The first time I got my reporting via email from Amazon with
information on commission earned. Back then, there was no option to login
to an interface – just a periodic email with affiliate stats. When I
realized it was real that I could earn money this way, I was excited and
motivated. This persuaded me that I was wasting my time working in
magazine publishing – it was time for me to get into a line of work that
was stimulating and rewarding.

With my limited affiliate marketing experience, I managed to get a job
with a start-up in 1997 called Medsite.com, and I bluffed my way into
running the affiliate program there. I’ve enjoyed my work ever since.

Q. Without mentioning names, have you joined affiliate programs that did
not keep their promises and/or provide appropriate compensation? What
measures did you take when confronted with this situation and what advice
can you give others to avoid this circumstance?

A. Lots of affiliate programs lie in their recruiting efforts – they
talk about how easy it is to earn commission from them. That’s simply not
true – it’s not easy. I just don’t pay attention to most recruiting
efforts from affiliate programs. I would encourage affiliates to ignore
proclamations of easy earnings and high EPCs – the most important thing is
to test everything yourself and promote what works for you.

Q. How has affiliate marketing changed in the last seven years? What
strategies would you implement now that you would not or could not do
years ago?

A. The industry has matured greatly. Seven years ago, many affiliate
marketers were content sites which relied on 468×60 banners. The analytics
were primitive and fewer companies offered affiliate programs.

Now, the industry is so diversified. Essentially, any way to market online
is being leveraged by affiliates… including comparison shopping,
domaining, video, SEO, e-mail, social networks, PPC, rewards programs,
etc.

If I could turn back time, I would have started up multiple niche
community sites back then for popular topics. By now, if nurtured they
would have grown nicely and become lucrative affiliate sites.

Q. If one is gifted marketing an affiliate product or service, is it
likely that this individual can effectively market his/her own products or
services? Should people look into developing their own items while
marketing or instead of marketing others’ products/services?

A. I’d say anything that is already selling online can be effectively
marketed through an affiliate program. Selling your own products or
services can certainly provide more rewards in the best case scenario, but
then you’ve got a lot more risk, too.

If somebody has the infrastructure and know-how to sell a certain product
or service, I’d say to go for it. But don’t take uncalculated risks.

Q. What are crucial mistakes that newbies tend to commit?

A. Lack of investment and understanding. It’s really difficult to
succeed in affiliate marketing if you are unwilling to spend the time and
money required to develop a long-term strategy. And affiliate marketing is
most certainly not a quick endeavor – it takes patience to endure and
succeed.

Q. What are some of the creative (perhaps seldom used) strategies to
employ in the affiliate marketing field?

A. Simply going beyond the banner. There are a lot of exciting
opportunities out there with Web 2.0. It’s just a matter of figuring out a
unique angle.

Q. How long does it realistically take to build a full-time income with
affiliate marketing, assuming “full-time commitment”?

A. I don’t think you can qualify and quantify passion. And to me,
passion is an essential ingredient in affiliate marketing success. Also,
there are so many variables, like the size of a given vertical, the
margins involved, competition, etc.

Q. Is it easier to build income from this type of marketing now or was
it easier years ago? (Please consider competition, Internet usage, advent
of Adwords and Pay Per Click, etc.)

A. It was never easy. There was certainly less competition in the past,
but also less in the way of options of advertisers to choose and methods
to promote them. Plus, there is the continuing growth of ecommerce. I
think the opportunities for success are just as healthy now as they were
years ago.

Q. While I know that you do not recommend any particular affiliate
marketing programs, in your estimation, what are the “hottest fields?”

A. The “hottest fields” are a slippery slope. They change over time. I
think the hottest field for any given person should be the area that
interests them most. You can certainly go out there as a mercenary and
promote the most lucrative thing at the moment, like ringtones or debt
consolidation, but I suggest going with a long-term plan in an area that
interests you.

Q. Is there any affiliate marketing software that is a “must” when one
pursues an affiliate marketing venture?

A. This really depends on the type of affiliate. There are software
programs that help optimize affiliate efforts for different affiliates.
For instance, if you’re working with data feeds, you should check out
WebMerge.

Q. What are your views concerning affiliate marketing networks such as
LinkShare and Commission Junction?

A. I think they’re the backbone of the industry. The affiliate networks
account for the majority of large affiliate programs, and they also
provide a level of convenience in that you can consolidate a lot of your
activity under a few logins.

I would like to see them work together to establish standards. For
instance, there is a lack of standards in data feeds, which is a challenge
for the folks using them.

Q. Can any absolute statements be made regarding the most lucrative type
of affiliate marketing payment system (e.g pay per sale, pay per click,
etc.)?

A. In general, CPA seems to be more profitable, especially offers for
products and services that are not physical items.

Q. What influence, if any, will blogs make on the affiliate marketing
landscape?

A. I think some are influencial in the way networks, merchants and
affiliates operate. For instance, Jangro.com is considered to have had an
impact in the decision by Commission Junction to change their plans on the
Link Management Initiative (LMI).

Q. What are, statistically, the best avenues to market an affiliate
program?

A. It depends on the vertical. Email and PPC work well for some CPA
offers, while an established web presence can be more important for
selling goods on a revenue share.

Q. Do you see any future trends in the affiliate marketing field?

A. Smaller affiliate programs. Affiliate managers are focusing on
working more closely with fewer affiliates. Also, I think we’ll see an
increasing number of affiliates embrace the opportunities out there with
Web 2.0 and innovate with the new tools that roll out.

Q. What current projects are you undertaking in affiliate marketing, including
your work with the Affiliate Summit?

A. My main focus is Affiliate Summit, the largest affiliate marketing
conference. Our last show had over 2,000 this past January in Las Vegas.
We also have events scheduled in Miami (July 8-10) and London (September
28) this year.

Additionally, I provide affiliate management and consulting services as
Shawn Collins Consulting, and I publish an annual report on affiliate
marketing benchmarks called AffStat.

I also have a blog at http://blog.affiliatetip.com where I post daily
about issues in affiliate marketing. And I’m the co-host with Lisa
Picarille, Editor-in-Chief at Revenue Magazine, for the weekly show,
Affiliate Thing, on WebmasterRadio.FM.

Q. What do you attribute your affiliate marketing success to (e.g.,
building content, writing articles, following footsteps of a mentor, forum
participation, etc.)? Please include any last words of advice for one who
aspires to succeed/excel in the affiliate marketing field.

A. It’s all about dedication, tenacity, and relationships. I don’t look
at my affiliate marketing activity as a job, but rather a fun, profitable
hobby. Over the decade I’ve been involved in the industry, there are way
too many factors to list that have contributed to my success. But I’d say
the most important of all is to constantly endeavor to learn from others.

_____________________

Conclusion – Do’s and Don’ts of successful affiliates

Analyzing the success stories, we may conclude the following do’s and
don’ts of being a successful affiliate:

Do’s

Don’ts

With successful identification of customer needs, providing a way to
fulfill those needs, and collaborating with established affiliate
programs, it is possible to create your own affiliate success story. You
just need to manifest a methodical, patient approach and perform lots of
hard work. But raising an affiliate program cash cow is certainly worth
the effort!

Author, Andy Lax, is an account manager at IntelliCollect a merchant account company that provides merchants with credit card processing and electronic check processing capability. This credit card processing company, http://www.intelli-collect.com, offers the best rates, exemplary service and their own potentially lucrative merchant account affiliate program http://www.intelli-collect.com/affiliates.html

Author: Andy Lax
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

http://www.sitepronews.com/2010/03/29/compare-article-marketing-and-pay-per-click-marketing-for-your-internet-based-opportunities/

Technorati Tags: article marketing

The tool is very easy to use and has almost a “Google-esque” user interface that makes it very intuitive. Basically, all we did was plug in the url of one of our sites and voila! The Link Report Tool produced a report that showed linked with any of these attributes:

• All: All links on the page.
• Broken: Links which report an HTTP error code or that are malformed.
• Internal: Links that belong to the same web site.
• Outbound: Links that link to different domain.
• Redirected: Links which return a 3xx HTTP response code.
• NoFollow: Links which include the rel=”nofollow” attribute. Search engines won’t follow these.
• Unknown: Links which could not be analyized.

What’s particularly nice about the tool is that you can filter the report by link type. So let’s say you’re trying to find all the broken links on your site. The Link Report Tool does it in a snap. What’s also cool about this tool is that you can download the report. So if you’re a webmaster or developer and need documentation of broken links and the like, you should check this out.

OUR TEST

We decided to test the tool on this site. We plugged in our URL and the Link Report Tool produced a comprehensive report, detailing all of the links on our site and their anchors. We sorted the report by broken links (which we were most concerned with) and the tool not only showed links that propagated 404 codes, but also links that were connected to pages that were slow to load. We also filtered by the other attributes with the same results.

VERDICT

We think there are probably more robust tools out there, that have a link report tool type service embedded within a larger one, but if you’re looking for a FREE (did I say Free?) tool that just details that link landscape of your site, The Link Report Tool is worth using.

LINK REPORT TOOL

Technorati Tags: Review, SEO Tools

Google’s purchase of Admob (for a whopping $750M), a provider of mobile ad technologies, could give the underdeveloped mobile device ad market a huge boost and provide another outlet for affiliate marketers like us to serve up the products of our merchant partners. Google hasn’t gone too deeply into how this will help users of Adwords or Adsense, but I’m sure this will tie into some perfect bundle for online marketers. This could also potentially mean more revenue and avenues for us and of course Google. However, it also poses a threat as Google begins to swallow more and more market share of the online advertising space – what will happen if Google takes over the mobile ad market as well? Only time will tell.

Google Buys Admob – Businessweek Article

Technorati Tags: Admob, Google

• Commission Junction
• Clixgalore
• Shareasale.com
• Paid on Results

Technorati Tags: ad networks, Affiliate Networks

Technorati Tags: contact us

The Watch Company is a company based out of Wisconsin that sells all types and styles of designer watches included Seiko, Wittnauer (my fave), Seiko, Puma, Kenneth Cole and more. They offer great deals year round and for various holidays. Take advantage of posting this deal to your website or sending it to friends. Offer ends October 31st of course!

Technorati Tags: indie offers, jewelry affiliate programs, watchco.com

Technorati Tags: art affiliate programs, art.com, offers

There are advantages and disadvantages of running and managing an affiliate program in-house. Like any other business, the merchant is the point person for all relations. Meaning, when business is booming, the merchant is responsible for making sure commissions are paid and paid on time.  However, if there is an unhappy affiliate in the camp, the merchant is the only one responsible for figuring out a solution. Additionally, with an in-house program, merchants have to do their own scouting for affiliates. The plus side is that running a program in-house may save a merchant some big-bucks since they are not outsourcing the work to a marketing company or network.

In essence, indies are independent from any hierarchies and politics that may come with partnering with a marketing company or network. The best part is that affiliates are able to build relationships directly with the merchant without having to go through a middle-man. Though some affiliates may claim that they can build strong relationships with merchants, middle-man or no middle-man, for newbies just venturing into the online marketing world having that direct contact with the merchant from the beginning can save you from major hassles in the long-run.

Though we operate in both the indie and non-indie worlds, we feel the relationships we have built with our independent affiliate partners have been invaluable to our success.

Best,

The A.I.A. Squad

Technorati Tags: independent affiliate programs, marketing info