Affiliate Blog

How do you make sense of the Internet noise that's coming at you from all directions?

According to Seth Godin's Squidoo.com…

Searching online should really be called poking online. Because that's what you do. You poke around. You poke in Google and you poke at some ads. After looking at a bunch of links and pages, then, finally, you get it. You understand enough to take action—to buy something or make a decision. The thing is, this takes a long time.

Squidoo's goal as a platform is to bring the power of recommendation to search. Squidoo's goal as a co-op is to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity. And Squidoo's goal as a community is to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them.

Their goal at Squidoo is to leverage the power of personal recommendation online.

That's an awesome goal, but my first visit to Squidoo left me muttering, "Huh?" I couldn't figure out how it worked. It's like being a PC user in a Mac environment with all the cute names for everything, but I just wanted to get in, do it and play. Instead, I had to do something I hate to do … I had to read the directions.

Squidoo has what they call Lenses. I call them web pages or blogs. They're listed in Lenserolls … so, in my mind that's something like a Blogroll. I came across a Lense that helped me a lot How To Squidoo.

Lensrolling is a way to share the love and create your own personal lens network. List your friends' lenses, relevant lenses on your topic, or even link to other lenses by you!"

Another must read page is thier Squidoo FAQ. There you can read about Modules, which according Squidoo are…

Modules are the building blocks of lenses. A module makes it easy for a lensmaster to point to links, images, blogs or even things to buy. Some modules are curated (you enter all the links and content manually) and others are automatic (you configure the inputs and then the lens draws on RSS feeds to update your lens without any work from you). Similarly, some modules are commerce-oriented and others are just content based.

See how this is like learning a whole new language?! But it's well worth the trouble. PC World calls Squidoo one of the top 25 websites to watch, so clearly reading the directions is going to be well worth your time.

Once you're up and running on Squidoo, you'll want to read the Hot Traffic Tips and Advice from Top Squidoo Lense Masters on how to drive that traffic to your Lense (aka web site).

Do You Squidoo? Try it!

Affiliate Blogger posts and articles are all over the Internet as resources and helpful tips for the success of other affiliates, but this blog … my Affiliate Blogger blog … is my home-base where I bring all those tools and tips together in one place.

I also have the Affiliate Guild, where I offer a ton of educational materials for new affiliates and tools to make the process easier. A lot of those tools are totally free, as are most of the affiliate classrooms and materials.

My personal goal is to help others get started in Affiliate Marketing, and not have to learn the hard way like I did.

Things are much easier these days, and then again with all the changes in technologies happening so freaking fast … maybe in some ways it's harder. That's why I take the time to create thoughtful posts as the Affiliate Blogger … to try and help you stay up with the trends of Internet Marketing.

One of the biggest trends is the movement towards more use of video, and especially interactive video. I've found an awesome tool for you and gotten a great reduction in the pricing to offer as well. It's not free, but it's close to it.

The tool is called Screen Show Pro and it's an inexpensive screen capture tool similar to Camista. Only difference is that Camista will cost you $299 and Screen Show Pro will cost you $29 …  this is a keeper!

I'm using Screen Show Pro to build my interactive videos for my various Internet businesses. I'm liking it a lot!

After I made my videos, I joined the new interactive video community site called FreeIQ. It's free to join and gives both a venue to distribute your videos, as well as your products, services and affiliate links.

FreeIQ is full of helpful and informative educational materials and products … many of which are for free.

Visit my FreeIQ website … http://freeiq.com/bobbiegrennier to learn more about all of this because the Internet is quickly moving towards a video rich world and you need to be a part of it to be successful.

No longer is content king. Now it's all about entertainment and video education.

I get a lot of emails from all sorts of Marketers. I don't post that much about those emails because, well frankly most of them are just spammy crap.

Once in a blue moon I'll get one that's really got some merit to it, and then I'll share it with you.

Your readership is valuable to me. I value your attention to the posts I blog about, and it's that attention that's given rise to the post I'm doing today.

There's a lot of discussion that we're heading into a new age of Online Marketing, pushing Permission-based Marketing to its limits.

A fairly well known marketer named Rich Schefren has released a new report called Attention Age Doctrine. This report outline's his predicitions for the near future of Online Marketing.

Like you, I said to myself … Oh great, another get rich quick scheme being hatched. I don't know about you, but I'm so sick of those tired old pitches full of hype and BS.

I decided to sign-up for Rich's free report and see what he had to say. I was expecting the same old song and dance, but that's not what I got. I was plesantly surprised.

Oh sure, there's a bit of that hype and zeal that marketers use, but there's also some meat to this dish … and it's worth the read. Very much worth the read.

If you look at Rich's list of clients, it's a "who's who" list of the top online marketers. Rich has been around awhile and has spawned some of the most widely used marketing strategies online to date.

Many of these online marketers are still doing business using traditional techniques, but they are listening to Rich's counsel and I can see how many of them are heading in this new direction that Rich's report outlines.

For the last month Rich has been writing his new Advisory report. It's called The Attention Age Doctrine.

The Attention Age Doctrine talks about the new environment of the Internet and where the Market is heading. I think he's dead-on in his analysis.

Unlike his Internet Business Manifesto Trilogy, this advisory will be available only for a limited time.

My advice … reserve your copy now: The Attention Age Doctrine.

I met Marc Chase in a affilaite focused forum. He's an Affiliate Manager trying to fire up a new affiliate program for MyCreditGroup.

Marc's got some strikes against him, as he's got a spanking new affiliate program in a niche that's flooded and really hard to rank in.

Marc's Affiliate Program is in the Finance niche with a focus on Credit Repair, Debt Settlement and Mortgages. It's one of the toughest to break into, and most expensive to participate in.

I know this niche very well as I used to own a business that generated leads for Merchants as large as Bank of America. I used to earn upwards of $50 per lead. That's per lead, not per sale. Money was good way back then, but not anymore if you're new to the game.

So, when I saw Marc's post announcing his offering to the affiliates … I saw some really good things and I saw a few things that could be better.

Marc's post read something like this…

We've put a lot of effort into building a flawless reputation before launching our affiliate program.
We put just as much effort into creating support for our affiliates. 

Some Features:
- Multi Tiered: $50.00 per 5% second tier
- $1000.00 bonus per 100 sign ups
- Additional bonuses of 500.00 for second conversion
- Huge industry and we are hands down the most trusted.

We're even working on health benefits (lots of details of course)

The affiliate page can be found here:
The Best Credit Repair Affiliate Program - My Credit Group

Feel free to research our company thoroughly and you'll see the effort we've put into ethics and integrity.

If you have any questions, or suggestions we'd love to hear from you.

Thank you in advance
Marc Chase

• They're listed with Dunn and Bradstreet.
• They have a flawless seven year old BBB record, which in that niche is unheard of.
• They are registered with the Attorney General and Secretary of State.
• They offer the affiliate a lot of incentives.
• They offer the affiliate revenue potential for the client's many possible trasactions.
• Their payout for sales seems generous.
• They offer a second tier opportunity.
• They don't compete with the affiliates.
• They are very responsive to their affiliates.

What I didn't see caused me to ask Marc a few questions and offer some suggestions:

• I wanted to see a short form for affiliates to put onto their websites to generate sales easier.
• I wanted to see a 365 day cookie set because in this niche clients take a long time to sell to.
• I wanted to see a first-in cookie so that affiliates who really work it can benefit and not have to worry about cookie theft.
• I wanted to know what states they could service, because this niche has lots of legal limitations.
• I wanted to know who owned the company.

Marc was prompt to respond to all my questions, and lightning quick to supply all the elements I suggested. He also gave me some more insights into his company and their ethics:

Debt Settlement. Its rather lengthy so I'll paint some broad strokes
1) Greed - average fee is 14% we charge 8%. It still makes a ton of money. I dont understand 14%.

2) Because we have a credit repair mentality, credit scores are first things we think of. So, while client is saving their "settlement" money, we keep the debts tied up with validation, method of validation, FCBA requests etc. What this does (not always) is prevents them from marking the accounts late while they are saving. Goal being to get them debt free and preserving their credit.

3) Greed again: Settlement companies get paid on the total amount of debt settled. Many debts that arent even necessary to settle are included because its more commissions. We work on repair first (where applicable) if we can get something removed, then its less the client has to pay. Again, still a ton of money.

4) We always attempt to pay for deletions (credit repair mentaility). Collection agents usually just care about money and will delete the tradeline entirely as long as they get paid.

Again, settlement companies don't do credit repair, so those things aren't their concern. Since we want everybody to eventually turn to a mortgage, it is in our best interest to perfect their score no matter what service we're providing.

I am impressed with company's business model, and after chatting with Marc, I'm also impressed with their attention to details and customer service for their affiliates.

I decided to join their affiliate program and if you have finance sites that focus on CPS more than CPM/CPA, this would be a good affiliate program for you too … very ethical todate.

Aug 20-23, 2007  |  San Jose Convention Center

Early Bird Special: Register by Aug. 3, and save $150.

At Search Engine Strategies San Jose delegates will be invited to focus primarily on search-related promotions – both organic and paid – for 4 full days, taking away all of the innovative search marketing strategies and tactics used to reach potential customers online. Case studies and best practices will be presented by SEM/SEO industry experts and representatives from the search engines themselves. To learn more, please visit www.SESSanJose.com.

This is our 8th annual San Jose event, and this time around, we'll be presenting 100+ exhibitors, 200+ speakers and 75 sessions. As the industry converges for a week of networking, spirited discussion and high-level learning, here's what else you can expect:

Keynote Conversation with Jim Lanzone, Ask.com
Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone talks with conference co-chair Danny Sullivan about Ask.com's challenge to its more trafficked peers to steal away searchers, including how the launch of its new Ask3D interface.

Keynote Conversation with Marissa Mayer, Google
Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience at Google, talks with conference co-chair Danny Sullivan about Google's moves in search, including recent changes to add more personalized and "universal" search results.

Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Training
Students will be provided with guided, hands-on exposure that puts theory into practice in a highly interactive environment. These workshops are taught by world acclaimed search engine marketers Shari Thurow, Matt Bailey, Jennifer Laycock, Debra Mastaler, Sage Lewis, Christine Churchill and Jim Gilbert will provide you with the practices, applications, and hands-on exposure you need to become (and remain!) a top performer in your field.

Special Events and Networking Opportunities – the Google Dance, Search Bash and more… details to be announced soon.

The Lexington Law affiliates program is going to offer a free training for their affiliates … don't miss out ….

About 30% of Internet commerce is driven by affiliate marketers.
But 90% of marketing affiliates make barely enough in commissions to pay their water bill.

WHY?

It’s not their fault. Anyone can put together a group of affiliates. But few companies take the time and effort to create a powerful cadre of affiliate marketers and provide them the specific, proven action steps that drive more business.

At Lexington Law/Progrexion, we don’t think our affiliate marketing is successful unless the program produces a healthy revenue stream for you. And we’re going to show you exactly how to do that.

On Thursday June 28th at 2:00 EST you can attend a F*REE training webinar, and learn from “super affiliate” Russell Brunson of DotComSecrets, Inc.and the Lexington Law team the closely guarded secrets for raking in huge affiliate checks.

Russell took $20 and a simple idea and created DotComSecrets, Inc, a multi-million dollar online company driven by affiliate marketing. He normally charges $1000 an hour to train the top affiliates in the world…BUT simply by registering for this Lexington Law Firm/Progrexion webinar, you can learn his affiliate tactics absolutely F*REE.

Give us 1 hour – we’ll give you the affiliate marketing secrets that will take your affiliate program to the next level, better your cash flow and boost your bottom line.

REGISTER NOW! If this link does not work copy and paste this address in your browser http://www.dotcomsecrets.com/affiliatetraining.htm

To your success,

The Lexington Law Affiliate
Management Team

P.S. Webinar slots are limited.

WordPress announces WordCamp…

It's been a pretty exciting year for WordPress, and we're pleased to top it off with another WordCamp. You can check it out here:

http://2007.wordcamp.org/

We've got some very interesting speakers lined up, and we're doing 2 days instead of 1. I hope to see many of you there again this year.

P.S. You're getting this email because you signed up for the 2006 WordCamp mailing list. This is the last message I'll send out to that list, so farewell and hope to see you again.

I just received an email that made me laugh out loud … and I had to share. Everyone needs a good belly laugh once in a while. Here's the email with a few private informational parts removed:

This email is to notify you that you have made a sale.

You have earned $0.01 in commission for this sale, which was placed by (I removed the name here).

This will be added to your total commissions for this month.
To verify your stats online please visit ….

Please note that this sale and commission is based on the approval of the order and receipt of funds. If the order cannot be confirmed, or funds are not received, your commission account will be updated accordingly.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

AC Support
Affiliate Classroom

For the record, my affiliate links to AC are more about helping other marketers. So, no I wasn't planning on getting rich off this. The funds earned will go to supporting my work on the Affiliate Guild, where I'm tying to help newbie affiliates get going in this business. But still … this is pretty funny!

Don't cry foul! Be smarter with Google's Adsense Smart Pricing.

You can't blame Google for wanting to do right by their merchants, and try to get them the best qualified traffic possible. Google's attempt to deal with the arbitrage issue has caused some problems for their legit publishers as well.

I'm talking about Adsense Smart Pricing, which was Google's original answer to dealing with arbitrage junk-clicks. It's definitely having an effect in favor of the merchants, but guess what … it's got a wicked backlash to it that is hurting those White Hat Publishers as well. Opps!

The problem is that there are poor quality advertisers/merchants out there as well. And if your site happens to run in the same keyword set that those poor quality advertisers do, then you've got problems my friend.

What happens is the the consumer comes to your site, clicks the Google ad and lands on the crappy advertisers landing page … the consumer then bails on that crappy site immediately.

What's that mean for you? Means Google is going to punish you for sending that advertiser what they percieve as bad traffic, when you were not at fault at all. Oops! 

So, there is something you can do combat the evils of the bad advertiser syndrome.

Log into your AdSense account and then wander on over to the Adsense Setup area … look for the Competitive Ad Filter and click on to it. In the box of URLs to block, paste in a copy of this list of Bad Advertisers to be Blocked.

Do this and you'll made a big dent in the amount consumers fleeing from your Google links. Life will be good again!

LinkShare announced their newest affiliate tool called Automated LinkGenerator, but boy did they make it difficult for their affiliates to understand what the heck this thing is and what it does. It's kind of a datafeed, but then again it's kind of not. Here's the email announcement I got….

LinkShare is pleased to announce a new Web services offering for affiliates, called Automated LinkGenerator. Web services are Web based applications that use open, XML-based standards and transport protocols to exchange data with clients.

Automated LinkGenerator creates LinkShare affiliate links for any product on a merchant's site that offers LinkGenerator. This new feature provides the same functionality as the LinkGenerator tool in the Individual Product Links interface, without having to log into the Affiliate Interface to get your links. This new tool does not replace Merchandiser (LinkShare's datafeed), but will be helpful for getting direct links from merchants that do not offer Merchandiser feeds.

If you are interested in using the Automated LinkGenerator, please email us at linkgen_request@linkshare.com to have this new tool enabled. Once you are enabled, the Automated LinkGenerator will be located under the LinkShare Feed Synergy Services area of the Affiliate Interface. To create an Automated LinkGenerator link, you will use a REST (Representational State Transfer) Web services to request links for a given merchant URL. You will then send a URL from the merchant's site to LinkShare using the specified link format (see the Automated LinkGenerator Help area).  The URL can be sent through a browser, a tool like wget or curl, or an automated script.  For each URL provided, LinkShare returns a click link.  You can request up to 1,000 links within an hour.

Web services applications are accessible using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST. Web Services use HTTP with XML for communication. These are ubiquitous technologies and any device capable of using these technologies is able to both host and consume Web services. Web services concepts are simple to understand and with the addition of various tool-kits provide a low barrier to entry and easy software development.

For information on setting up a Web services, please visit the following sites:
REST - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer
Web Services - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_service
Web Services & PHP - http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2004/03/24/phpws.html

With eBay holding a sweepstakes that encourages its PowerSellers to become affiliate-merchants, one has to wonder if eBay is getting into the affiliate network game. Sure looks like it to me.

eBay has expanded its affiliate program to allow their merchants/sellers to get rewarded for driving traffic to their own eBay.com listings.

The eBay Promote It Sweepstakes gives Powersellers registered as an eBay Affiliate, the chance to win any one of 25 cash prizes for using their off-eBay website, blog or online store to drive traffic to their own listings.

In typical 5 Star sytle, Linda Buquet announced today the start of several contests for her 5 Star Affiliate Forum members.

If ever there was a time to join the 5 Star Affiliate Forums, it's now!

The 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forum turns two years old on June 25, 2007 … and it's in that vein of celebration that Linda has announced her biggest give-aways to-date.

The contests offered are as follows:

“NAME THAT 5 Star MERCHANT” Contest
$200 CASH Grand Prize - $100 2nd Prize
Visit our 5 Star Sponsors to WIN!

I "HEART" 5 STAR Contest - $100 CASH Prize 

BLOG BUZZ CONTEST - $300 CASH Grand Prize $100 Runner Up
Which blog can create the biggest BUZZ and send the most traffic to the forum.

GUESS the MEMBER COUNT - $100 CASH Prize

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER - $100 CASH Prize

Thanks Linda, for a valued affiliate marketing resource and all the hard work you do for our community of affiliates and merchants. You're a class act, and with you … 5 star ratings really do mean 5 stars.

Happy Birthday to Linda and 5 Star!

John Reese is at it again, and this time he's got his eye on the sky. John's opening the doors to Income.com soon, and he's offering you a free membership.

We're hard at work creating the ultimate resource for entrepreneurs and business owners. We're building an exciting community and online 'mastermind' application as well as powerful tools, research, and a wide-range of training 'shows' and programs.

We'll be covering everything from Web 2.0, opportunity analysis, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, pay-per-click advertising, eBay, market research, domain name investing, copywriting, testing & tracking, ecommerce stores, software, information products, blogging, podcasts, and much, much more.

If you're interested in starting your own successful Internet business then you've come to the right place.

If you have an existing business that you'd like to grow online then you've also come to the right place.

John's also looking for a little link love for his new venture, so if you've got a little PR to spare … add him to your blogroll. Then, get yourself over to Income.com and get on the list to be notified when this site opens.

Heads up Amazon affiliates and cell phone affiliates, you might want to take a look at this one…  

The Associates Team has teamed up with the Amazon Cell Phone Team to create an exciting new offer for you to earn additional referral fees. Beginning May 1, 2007, when you refer a cell phone with a service plan, you will earn an extra $15 bonus on each referral! Why market Amazon Cell Phones and Service? Amazon offers the hottest phones, 30-day returns, an easy comparison shopping experience, and some of the most competitive cell phone pricing on the Web.

Learn more through your Amazon affiliates area. 

I  get so much email everyday, it's absolutely over whelming. There are things that I want to post about, but I'm too busy deleting to even have the time to post. I'm sure many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

So, I thought I'd just post an overview for your review.

Who sends me the most opted-in email? Right now, it's Russell Bronson by far. So many emails, I just don't pay attention to them anymore. Today's email was Russell promoting Mike Filsaime. I unsubscribed from Mike's email because he was just flooding my in-box.

To be honest, when I see one marketer pushing another marketers stuff, I don't pay attention to it. It's pretty clear they're just cross promoting each other to make a few bucks. One of the other guys who does this a lot is Anik Singal at AffiliateClassroom.

When I get something from Affiliate Classroom, I check to see if it's really about Affiliate Classroom or if he's doing a promo for another marketer. If it's Affiliate Classroom, I'll read it … but anything else is just not worth the time.

What I really love is when I get a bunch of emails from all the players, all promoting the same thing. I'm torn. Who's links do I click to go see what it is now that I'm supposed to go buy?

By the way, Affiliate Classroom's April eMagazine is out. Now those are worth reading. Anik does a good job on those. Visit AffiliateClassroom.com to get yours.

I was over at the 5 Star blog and saw the video tool for affiliates that Linda was impressed with. The video showcased is from The Secret. It's a powerful video … well, actually it's the trailer for the DVD so, yes a powerful video designed to get you to act on it.

What's interesting is that AMWSO used the movie trailer and laid a layer on top advertising their GAIAM client who is selling the DVD. It kind of reminds me of the branding that TV stations now do in the lower right of your TV screen … although I saw one on the top left the other day that blocked the face of the person talking.

This video overlay service is presented by webvideozone.com.  While it's impressive, my worry was that it infringes on rights of the people who made the DVD. I've been looking around to see how they've dealt with that issues, but I haven't found any info yet. Anyone know that answer? 

1: Accessibility

Search engines must be able to access your web pages. If search engines cannot parse your web pages, then they will ignore your site and you won't get good rankings.

Make sure that your web server does not return any error codes when search engine spiders visit your web pages. If your server returns an error code, search engines will not index your site.

The correct code should be "200 OK". You can check the status code that your web server returns to search engines with IBP's search engine spider simulator (free).

In addition, make sure that the HTML code of your web pages does not contain errors that prevent search engines from indexing your site.  The content of your web pages must make sense to search engines. Do not use images or Flash to present the main content of your web pages.

2: Site and information architecture

Your web site should have a good site architecture to make sure that it is not just a collection of random web pages. The pages of your web site should be related by topic and they should show search engines that your web site is relevant to a one topic or niche.

This is very important because most major search engines seem to use latent semantic indexing in their ranking algorithms.

3: Keywords choice

Choosing the right keywords is one of the most important steps that determines whether your SEO efforts are successful or not. Consider hiring an SEO Writer.

It's best to focus on 2 or 3 word keywords for search engine optimization. One word keywords are less likely to convert to a sale, and they are also much more competitive. So, focus on keyword clusters of two and three keywords together.

4: Content

Web sites that only offer articles and affiliate/AdSense links that can be found on dozens of other web sites will have a harder time getting search engine rankings.

Try to create unique and trustworthy content that separates your web site from the others. Write — and write more — unique content for your web site to make sure that your web site becomes the best resource of information for that topic/niche.

5: Inbound links

Without good inbound links, it is impossible to get high rankings on major search engines. You should get as many links as possible from related web sites. The more targeted and relevant the link, the more it will help your search engine rankings.