Affiliate ABCs Podcasts

Podcast: Download (Duration: 19:58 — 18.3MB)

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk to Karen Varecka, Client Services Manager at buy.at, about SEO, SEM and PPC marketing. What are the basic differences and how to utilize SEM in your site traffic plan.

Questions we discuss are:
What is the difference between SEM, SEO and PPC
What are the pros and cons to SEO and PPC advertising
What are the major search engines and the second tier and how can you use them all.

**Yahoo search could be entirely powered by Bing as early as September

How to use 2nd tier search engines – less competition, lower conversions, but lower costs.

Miva –> used to be FindWhat
Searchfeed -> now takes you to Miva
Dogpile
Kanoodle
7search
Pageseeker
Metacrawler
Alta Vista – yep, they’re still around
Webcrawler

Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 27:03 — 24.8MB)

Join your Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare and their guest Angel Djambazov, Custom Tailored Marketing and Managing Editor for Revenews. The topic for this episode is how affiliates that think “outside the box” and get on board with local niches and social technology will be just that much ahead of the game.

Couponing on Twitter and Social Media – Not the way to go. There is too much.

Groupon – online and local

Some things affiliates can do that are “out of the box” and can be very lucrative.
Virtual Products:
Zynga, Second Life

Tie virtual products to real life products, gifts
Gift the virtual product, but let them know the real product is available
Popshops – 48 million products – make a virtual product tie to a virtual goal then link to the physical product
Prints – virtual art – create and send as a real print not just a virtual print
Loxly Gallery, CafePress, Zazzle are perfect examples of sites that can be utilized. Always check with the merchant first!

Second Life – JCPenney failed there because you can get the products locally
Virtual High End items – Create unique products only available there
Create a virtual storefront

Twitter – smart merchants use it to manage customer service

Good affiliate talks about snowboard bindings, gives good information, then tweets the link with the information in answer to questions or complaints. Offer alternatives, give links to reviews and share your experience with a product.

Mice – right handed, for left handers tell them where to find mice that are ergonomic for left handed people
Extension of review sites, more recommendations, tell why the products you recommend are better, don’t just sell. Tell people why they should buy the product you are promoting.

Jones Soda as wedding favors
Keen Shoes – why are they better than other sandals

Facebook app – needs to serve a new function with a new purpose

Set up a Facebook group vs a page – more interaction

Own local – Foursquare – have a local meeting at a place you are an affiliate for, post photos to flickr, drive customers to links on your site to sell.

Find us on Twitter:
Angel Djambazov
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 20:09 — 18.4MB)

Join your Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare and their guest Angel Djambazov, Custom Tailored Marketing and Managing Editor for Revenews. The topic for this episode is Emerging Technologies, the affiliates that think “outside the box” and get on board with new technology will be just that much ahead of the game.

Pay per Call:
Ring Revenue
Shareasale
Commission Junction
LinkShare

Plugs phone “leak” – good for merchants where shoppers make calls
Pay per lead, more frequently pay per length of call
Affiliates get their own phone number
Good for high priced merchants

Legacy Learning Affiliate Program – up 30% with pay per call

Smart Phone Apps:
Jones Soda – Affiliate created a special iPhone app
Affiliate will need to work carefully with a merchant on something like this
Needs to be something special, not just a “go buy”.

What cool interactive thing can affiliate approach merchant with, must be interactive
Game plan proposal
Acceptance, legal agreement with merchant, needs access to merchant api, graphics that wouldn’t normally be available.

Customization merchants would be good to approach, like Zazzle

Merchants don’t have the technology or time to develop themselves.

Don’t create another “coupon app” – there are enough, Apple stops allowing duplicate or similar apps.
Don’t limit to iPhone, go into other Smart Phone platforms as well – Droid, Blackberry, etc.

Site where you can build an iPhone App

We would love it if you can leave comments about other emerging technologies, and links to resources for building phone apps.

Find us on Twitter:
Angel Djambazov
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney ( a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 13:31 — 12.4MB)

Join your Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare for a discussion about HTML sites still ranking in the wave of using CMS and blog platforms. Good old html sites still rank and convert…

Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney ( a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Podcast: Download (Duration: 20:09 — 18.4MB)

Join your Affiliate ABCs host Deborah Carney and guest Eric Nagel as they talk about the importance of networks, both online and in person at conferences like Affiliate Summit. As an affiliate Eric talks about talking to your affiliate managers and to other affiliates.

Links from the Podcast:
“Worst mistake you’ve made” thread at ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forum
both sides of the tracks podcast with Eric Nagel and Jason Rubacky
Geekcast.fm

Find us on Twitter:
Eric Nagel
Deborah Carney ( a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Podcast: Download (28.5MB)

Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards “Affiliate Manager of the Year” Matt McWilliams joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare discuss how are some ways that affiliates can maximize their communication with their affiliate program managers. A lot of affiliates are shy and hesitate to talk to affiliate managers and outsourced program managers because they “aren’t big enough” or they are afraid they are interrupting the manager. In truth, lots of affiliate managers are very glad to hear from affiliates and would love to give them advise and tips about how to promote their programs.

Some highlights:

*Find out if your merchant has a dedicated affiliate manager or an OPM (Outsourced Program Manager)
*Be sure the affiliate manager/OPM is available whichever way is best for you. Good ones will be available via, phone, email, IM and forums.
*Don’t be afraid to ask for creatives, advise, tips
*If you are promoting them successfully, ask for a commission increase. If you are a promoting a competitor successfully, show them and ask for a commission increase to change some of those links for the new program.

*Advantages of using instant messaging: can drop links to each other, instant feedback for both manager and affiliate

Some links mentioned in the show:
Legacy Learning Affiliate Program Blog
ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forum
Legacy Learning Website
Join the Legacy Learning Affiliate Program

Find us on Twitter:
Matt McWilliams
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm