Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare and Amy Ely joined Kim Salvino of buy.at and to discuss affiliate tools and sub networks.

Topics Include:

A Tools Overview – understanding the different types of affiliate “tools” and where to find them

Pros & Cons – discussing how these tools can be helpful and also a look at the risks

Spotlight On Skimlinks & VigLink – how these companies work and what program managers need to know

Industry View – recent developments, new technology and international policies

Ultimately, the discussion highlights the importance of transparency, solid relationships, good communication and making the right decisions for your program.

Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Amy Ely
Kim Salvino
Merchant 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.

BookGoodies host Deborah Carney interviews author Stacy Juba about publishing as a teen by a big publishing house, and later with a smaller publishing label and eventually independently publishing. We also discussed collaborative book promoting and KDP Select vs expanding to other ebook platforms. There is also a discussion about whether we want children reading ebooks or staying with print books. Would enjoy your comments on that issue as well!

Here is a short bio from her site, you can read the longer version here:
Although Stacy Juba specializes in writing adult novels, she has also authored books for children and young adults – she pursues whatever story ideas won’t leave her alone. Stacy’s titles include the mystery novels Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and Sink or Swim, the mystery short story Laundry Day, the children’s picture books The Flag Keeper, Victoria Rose and the Big Bad Noise, and the Teddy Bear Town Children’s E-Book Bundle (Three Complete Picture Books), and the young adult novels Face-Off and Dark Before Dawn. She is a former journalist with more than a dozen writing awards to her credit and is currently working on a contemporary fiction/romantic comedy novel, as well as a new mystery novel. Many of her titles have appeared as #1 on various Amazon Kindle Top 100 lists.

Why should affiliates care about book authors? Marketing. They are learning to market themselves just as affiliates market others. Plus many affiliates should be considering publishing books, and the collaborative promotions that authors are doing something affiliates might want to consider. Form collaborative groups that can promote without competing. And of course, if you are an Amazon affiliate, our podcasts can lead you to new authors that you can promote and be a part of their success by creating a best seller

Stacy’s Website
Stacy’s Twitter

April 19th 2012 – Give Your Child A Free Kindle Book Day

BookGoodies Twitter

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts.

BookGoodies is pleased to publish our interview with mystery writer Mike Bove, who you can find more out about at MikeBove.net Mike is involved in a really cool free book promotion day – Friday the 13th! 13 mystery and suspense authors are going to be offering a scary book for your Kindle or Kindle apps to enjoy on Friday April 13th.

Deborah Carney interviewed Mike after he contacted BookGoodies about the Friday the 13th book promotion. Join us to hear his story about publishing independently and how he got involved with the group that is sponsoring the spooky giveaway. The event is being sponsored by Stacey Juba and their press release will be posted below. In the meantime, have a listen to Mike as we explore the town and characters of Willowtree and his journey to get there.

Show Links:
Mike Bove’s Website
Stacy Juba’s Website
BookGoodies Page About the Friday the 13th (April 2012) Book Giveaway

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, please visit them for more podcasts and screencasts about all things geeky.

BookGoodies hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk to successful author Jim Kukral about the way book publishing is changing. There is a major shift from publishers and agents as gatekeepers of published books to authors being able to publish whatever they want. Is this good or bad? Listen to us to find out!

More links to Jim:
Business Around a Lifestyle
Author Marketing Club
Digital Book Launch
JimKukral.com

About BookGoodies:
BookGoodies.com
BookGoodies Facebook
Contact us to be our guest or suggest topics to cover.

All of us on Twitter:
JimKukral
BookGoodies
Deborah Carney
Vinny O’Hare

Many thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Visit them for more podcasts and screencasts about marketing and much more.

BookGoodies hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk to Recipe Book Author Kent Lorentzen about his book, his photography and why he self published.

Find Kent Lorentzen on the web:
http://kent-lorentzen.artistwebsites.com/
http://www.pixbykent.com/
http://twitter.com/NiftyGaloot
http://www.amazon.com/author/kentlorentzen

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare and Amy Ely joined Kim Salvino of buy.at and Liz Fogg of Team Loxly to answer a fundamental question for affiliate managers:  What key steps should I take when launching (or relaunching) an affiliate program?

Key Steps Include:

• Review the affiliate list – check your program’s placement on the site, understand how they’re promoting your program (and make sure they’re compliant with your PPC policy), ask industry contacts about their reputation, consult your network or OPM, review forums and search online for any positive or negative feedback about the affiliate

• Evaluate the program terms – make sure you have program-specific terms in addition to network terms, ensure they’re clear and consistent, outline search policies on using brand name in the display URL, misspellings, brand + term bidding, and consider including terms for coupon affiliates to set expectations

• Assess the creative – include a wide variety of fresh text link and banner creative in IAB standard sizes, create deep text links (deep linking should be a requirement!!), offer a well categorized, regularly updated data feed and provide content for affiliates to use on their site

• Understand the competitive landscape – is your commission structure, cookie length, conversion rate and creative suite competitive?

• Develop a communication plan – send out an introductory newsletter to affiliates and an announcement post in forums and social media,  consider including a survey to ask what they need, determine when you’ll send newsletters and if you’ll echo communications through social media, provide your full contact details and be approachable, genuine, and responsive to affiliates

• Walk through the affiliate’s shoes – sign up to the program an affiliate, identify how long it takes for network approval, understand the process for pulling creative, viewing reports, and more so you can identify pain points that may deter affiliates and consumers

• Test, test, test – test your shopping cart in all major browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome), complete a test purchase to ensure tracking and reporting are working as expected, confirm that affiliate transactions across different networks track properly

There is plenty of additional information in this information-packed podcast.  Enjoy!

Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
TeamLoxlyLiz
Amy Ely
Kim Salvino
Merchant 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.

Mom always said “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”  It sounds like simple common sense, and I followed it wholeheartedly.  After all, if one of something is good, then more is even better, especially in business.

When I first got into affiliate marketing back in 1999, I was looking to quit my regular job, and do something I could do strictly from home.  I wanted to make enough money to support my family the way they deserved and be able to be home and spend more time with them.

Common sense told me that in order to make a sustainable income, I would have to diversify as much as possible.  I thought the only way to be a success was to build multiple sites and develop a ton of content, and boy did I do that!  At one point I had nearly 90 websites running.   So much for my plans to have time to spend with my family.

Listen to Mom

I would never dispute a mother’s advice, but in this instance I should have been following a different proverb, “less is more.”  Mom always says that too, and this time that’s the advice we should all be listening to.

If I could go back in time to 1999, I wouldn’t waste my time and resources on multiple sites, and certainly not so many.  So how many is the right number?  I would say just one.  That’s right, focus on a single website.  That’s all you need to become a success and live your life they way you want to.

The Beauty of One

Still doubtful, well lets think about it for a moment….What if all the effort you put into promoting your multiple sites were focused on one single site?  Just imagine the results.

• What if all the content you created was dedicated to building up one single site?  You could showcase all your knowledge and expertise in your field, and make your site as utilitarian and attractive as possible.  In a world full of competitors, consumers look for the best, and notice it when they find it.  Then they recommend it to their friends.  Think about many more consumers you could attract to your one comprehensive site, as opposed to many half-hearted ones.
• What if all the Organic search traffic, backlinks, Twitter feeds, Facebook comments, and other promotions you created,  lead to your one site?  How huge would your audience be and how many email addresses would you get from sign ups?  Think of the countless ways you could use that volume of prospects and consumers to improve how you do business.  Think how many more sales it would generate and how it could grow your business?
• What if you only needed to spend time managing one site, instead of many?  How much more free time would you have?  What else could you be doing with all those hours?  How much dedication could you give to the things that really matter?

Get the picture now?  

When you focus on just one site, it will show in the improved quality of your content, and your audience will notice.   It won’t take long for your traffic to increase, and that leads to more sales and bigger profits.

New Toys of Today

You can use free video conferencing online to meet with those you need to handle your growing business, like suppliers, partners or prospects.   Hold meetings right from your living room without the hassle or expense of time consuming commutes.  The technologies available to you today, from webinars to phone apps, are not only designed to make things easier for you, but also easy to use.

If you want, sell your extra sites to either fund growth or invest.  Let someone else take on the extra work.  Then take your profits and go on a celebratory spree and get one of those beautiful glass computer desks for home that you’ve always wanted, or whatever else you dream about.  Or better yet, get something for Mom that say’s thanks, you were right.   Less is more.

About the Author

James Martell is the author of author of the Affiliate Marketers Handbook back in 2002.   He launched the Affiliate Buzz,  which is the first ever and longest running podcast in the industry (now on WebmasterRadio.FM)  His trainings on Internet based business opportunities can be found on his site.  He resides near Vancouver, Canada where he works from home with his wife Arlene.  They have been married for 27 years.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare and Amy Ely discussed the benefits of working with an Outsourced Program Manager (OPM) and how to find the right one for your business.

Key Takeaways:
· OPMs bring experience, relationships, and expertise that can help grow your business
· Understand the OPM’s philosophy and approach – what networks and types of affiliates do they work with?
· Determine the levels of service offered and the right fit for your business – is it best to start off as a consulting relationship? Do you need full service? Will you co-manage or leave all the work to the OPM?
· Research the OPM’s involvement in the industry and their reputation – are they active in the community? Do they provide helpful and expert information over blogs, forums, podcasts, or through speaking at conferences?
· Make sure you agree with the OPM’s approach to recruiting affiliates – will they recruit via email, phone, social media, conferences, etc?

Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Amy Ely
MerchantABCs
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.

We are pleased to announce our new BookGoodies podcast which will feature tips about self publishing (indie book publishing) in both eBook and print format. Our inaugural podcast features host Deborah Carney and “sometimes” host Vinny O’Hare, who are both delving into the world of self publishing. Both are photographers and authors that want to help other people get their content published. Book publishing is experiencing a revolution, and we want to help people publish good, well formated material.

While not necessarily affiliate marketing focused, there are a number of affiliate marketers and merchants that should be creating books to help increase their site’s reach and authority.

Our goal for our podcast is to teach, inform and to interview authors that are self publishing.

Contact us to be our guest or suggest topics to cover.

Thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting our podcast.

In this episode Debbie and Vinny talked about the Books4boobies.org fundraiser where all the money from over 20 authors will go towards the Avon walk. We also discussed the local Affiliate Summit meetup in NYC and what was discusssed.

We also delved into Google Hangouts and how Vinny is using them with affiliates.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare discuss Affiliate Summit West 2012 in Las Vegas, and how this was different from past Affiliate Summit events for both of them.

Traditionally we attend Affiliate Summit representing our merchants that we manage, and spend our time discussing our programs with affiliates, talking about industry issues with our peers and meeting new people. Sometimes we have a Meet Market table, and Deborah has spoken on many panels, This time Deborah had a Meet Market table for the Affiliate Summit Networking forum to bring attention to the fact that people can network there between affiliate summit events, and Vinny was a speaker with a solo presentation. We also had more merchants actually in attendance than we have had at one time in the past.

Some links from the podcast:
Vinny’s Slide Deck from his presentation – 25 Ways To Improve Your Website
Affiliate Summit Networking Forum
Eric Thomas Keynote
Vinny O’Hare Website
Vinny on Twitter
Deborah on Twitter
Links to our Merchants

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts!

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss ideas on engaging new customers gained from Black Friday sales.

Topics include:

• Promotion ideas to recapture the attention and dollars of Black Friday / Cyber Monday customers

·         Helpful data, creative and resources for affiliates so they can generate additional holiday sales

Key takeaways:

• Consider time-sensitive promotions that encourage customers to keep returning to the site, such as daily deals or a “Countdown to Christmas” – great examples include eBay and Amazon’s daily and weekly deals

·         As the remaining shopping days dwindle, alter promotions to feature gift cards and/or free overnight shipping

·         Promote complementary products or add-ons for gifts they’ve already purchased, such as Kindle Edition books if the original purchase was a Kindle Fire

·         Use Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales data to give affiliates top seller data and popular categories, then let them know if and when you will highlight or offer a sale on these products again

·         Supply affiliates with shipping deadline dates and when gift card sales are strongest so they can plan and promote accordingly

·         Recognize that holiday promotions don’t have to stop at Black Friday and Cyber Monday, give affiliates offers that run through the rest of December and into post-holiday shopping promotions – for example, encourage gift card spending after the holidays

Helpful statistics:

From Shawn Collins’s Affiliate Tip Blog and citing stats from comScore:

• Online shopping for Black Friday 2011 was a 26% increase versus Black Friday 2010

·         Thanksgiving Day (November 24) was also strong with an 18% increase over Thanksgiving 2010 with $479 million in online sales.

·         There was $1.25 billion in online spending on Cyber Monday 2011, which is up 22% from 2010

·         Cyber Monday 2011 was the heaviest online spending day in history and only the second day ever to surpass the billion-dollar threshold

Find us on Twitter:

Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Amy Ely
Kim Salvino
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

The Decorative Ceiling Tiles affiliate team would like you to get to know more about the products and how they can be used, and promoted. Debbie, Vinny and Liz made a presentation with Milan Jara about his products for about 30 minutes and then we had some great questions and answers.

The webinar was recorded, here is the the replay:

Please watch to learn more about this unique product that is gaining ground in the US decorating industry. Tiles like these are already very popular in Europe.

Visit http://decorativeceilingtiles.net and get your questions ready! Feel free to add questions in the forum thread.

Let us know if you find this format of getting information helpful!

Slice, Inc collaborates with some of the most innovative designers on the planet. They take everyday objects – scissors, safety knives, letter openers, ceramic knives, Safety Cutters – and rethink them. How can a safety cutter or a pair of scissors be better? What can we do to reinvent a Box Cutter so it is easier to use? How can we reconfigure beauty tools to make them into works of art?

The result is a collection of award-winning, innovative cutting tools for your home, office, and school that will help you slice in style and inspire you to create great works of art yourself.

Learn about the company, the products and how to promote them via their affiliate program on Shareasale.com

To Join the affiliate program, go to http://teamloxly.com/slicejoin

First in a series of merchant spotlight webinars from Team Loxly is Small Biz Theme by Don Campbell. The theme affiliate program is run on Shareasale and is 30% commission, 60 day cookie and managed by Team Loxly

This theme is unique in that it can be used by consultants to easily build sites for clients, or for clients to have the site set up once and then not be able to “mess it up” when they need to make updates. The blog is secondary (you can change this) with info pages for the company instead.

Built in are sections to create the mobile version of the theme… no extra charge or extra plugins… and a really cool ability to add content to facebook pages right from within your blog! There are some free apps that allow you to create pages that you have to change on facebook, but this function within small biz theme hosts the pages for your facebook tabs right on your own site. Plugins for that type of functionality start at around $40-50.

If you can make the time to watch the video you will see all kinds of goodies and get info on what’s under the hood so you can better sell this theme as an affiliate. There were many good questions asked and answered throughout the video and we welcome more questions and comments from those of you watching the replay!

Edited to add: Here is the link to the video replay:
http://creativemarketingabcs.com/252-2/

Join us for a Webinar on November 10, 2011

Title: How to convert and upload your book to Amazon for the Kindle
Date: Thursday, November 10, 2011
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST

Space is limited, reserve your Webinar seat now

In this webinar you will learn:

*The new rules of self-publishing and how anyone can do it
*What the traditional publishers of the world don’t want you to know
*How to create a book and book cover
*How to upload it to Amazon step-by-step
*More: How to price your book, How to market it, The important places to upload it to

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Listen to host Deborah Carney in a roundtable discussion about how affiliate marketing got started and how it has evolved with some of the people that have been in it since the beginning. Are they in the same place they were when they started? Where do they see the industry going?

Listen as panelists Todd Farmer, Todd Crawford, Connie Arnold, Scott Jangro and Brian Littleton have a lively discussion, history you probably don’t know, and as they answer some burning questions about the beginnings of our awesome industry. Our industry is so young that we want to capture the thoughts about it’s growth some of the leaders in the industry. No one currently in our industry wanted to grow up to be an affiliate or affiliate manager, the jobs didn’t exist. But now, there are many young people whose parents are in the industry and they kinda would like to do what Mom and/or Dad does.

If you’re new to internet marketing and you’re struggling to get your sales off the ground let me tell you this. The first $100 a day is the toughest. Once you hit that mark it’s far easier to make $200 and more per day and let me tell you why.

Like any new business there is a great deal of behind the scenes work performed before the doors even open. I your case it was researching niches, selecting products, keyword research, and website design. All of this work took time and you haven’t seen the first visitor yet.

And then you do launch and the traffic just dribbles in as the search engine indexes your site and you start building backlinks. But you know that “dribbles of traffic” are not what makes a successful affiliate marketing site so you keep plugging away adding content and backlinks.

After a while you start to see improvement in the number of visitors but sales are still disappointing and you begin to question what you are doing. And this uncertainty is going to happen regardless of the product your promoting be a family tent, Disney princess wall murals, or an infrared filter for your digital camera.

Wouldn’t it be better if you had a realistic measuring stick that you could use to judge performance?

Begin with the end in mind

Let’s take a look at just what you need to make that $100 a day. I recently spoke with an affiliate program manager about a home brewing kit that she handles. Program managers can be an important source of information and it’s a great idea to develop a sound relationship with them.

After evaluating the kit (it’s pretty slick) I wanted to know what was working best for the rest of her affiliates. Here’s how I put together what is needed to make $100 per day off this product.

• The kit sells for $116 and the commission per sale is $17 so I knew I had to average 6 sales a day to hit $100.
• The program manager said the average conversion rate for the kit was 2% meaning I need to get 300 visitors per day in order to get the 6 sales I needed.

So now I have a starting point to measure progress and I know I need at least 50 visitors a day to make a single sale. But that’s at 2% conversion and I’d like to think I can do better than that so I ask what the best affiliates are doing to increase conversion and the answer is:

• The best performers are content affiliates not PPC affiliates.
• Their landing pages are on unique domains not free domains.
• The landing pages are clean and easy to read and tell a story that encourages trust and clearly point out value. In this case, because it’s a do it yourself product, video is highly effective. Explaining the processes and showing how it’s done is exceptionally effective as a demo.
• Top producers understand the importance of social proof. People are more likely to believe endorsements from people they follow on Twitter or who are friends on FB than they are an anonymous review from Jerry L. in IA. What’s this mean? It means you need to stay engaged on the site and develop word of mouth advertising using social media.

The top producer for this beer kit is converting at 18%. That’s an exceptional conversion rate and something worth shooting at.

So that’s the rundown on how to make $100 a day on a beer brewing product but it could have just as easily been for an infrared camera.

Once you know what you have to do in terms of numbers it’s a matter of working until you hit those numbers. There’s also the issue of tweaking the landing page. Don’t be afraid to test new stuff just don’t clutter up the page in the process. Keep a close eye on your stats so you know what works and what doesn’t work as well.

And don’t forget the social media element. This is perhaps the fastest way to get qualified traffic arriving at your site.

Once you hit that $100 mark it becomes far easier to make more. You’ve done the hard part and now you’ve got momentum and you’ll be amazed at the traffic you’ll generate.

If you’re struggling and you have any questions please share them with us in the comment box below.

About the Author

James Martell is well known as an affiliate marketing specialist in outsourcing and SEO. He is a sought after speaker, affiliate marketing podcaster and trainer. James is host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the 1st and longest running podcast in the affiliate marketing industry. James is also the host of the Affiliate Marketers “SUPER BootCamp”, where he successfully shows others how to earn extra income with affiliate programs. James lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on west coast of Canada with his wife, Arlene and their 4 kids.

Blogging ABCs hosts Tricia Meyer and Deborah Carney talk about how bloggers can use gift guides to build traffic and possibly test out affiliate marketing and see if it is right for them. Regardless of whether you choose to monetize your blog or not, gift guides throughout the year can give you a topic to write about that people search for and need help with.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss ideas on how merchants can create engaging and efficient affiliate newsletters

Topics include:

·         Using subject lines, content and a format that is helpful and appealing to affiliates

·         The pros and cons of using HTML vs text, personalizing messaging, and including tracking code

·         The importance of understanding legal & illegal practices when communicating with affiliates

Key takeaways:

·         Use subject lines that make sense – don’t title “monthly newsletter” when you can include key words that relate to the information in the email

·         Consider addressing recipients by name and making the messaging personal

·         List main topics at the start of the email to immediately engage recipients on points of interest

·         Think about including code (that works!) when mentioning the great creative available for your program – if you have their attention, make their life easier by allowing for a quick copy/paste

·         Don’t bother telling affiliates about sales that started yesterday and end tomorrow

·         Engage affiliates beyond your program details, ask them what they need from you, share helpful industry stats, discuss topics with them on forums, in social media, etc.

·         Include contact details at the close of each email

·         Test before you send!  Test before you send!!!

Helpful statistics:

·         In a recent survey of 7,000+ affiliates from Affiliate Benchmarks, they listed weekly as the most preferred frequency of affiliate program newsletters

·         Further, affiliates listed direct personal email, newsletter email, and network email as the top three preferred ways to receive information from advertisers they work with

Find us on Twitter:

Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Billy Kay had an idea, for all the background go to the Country for a Cause webpage.

For those of you that are new or don’t know, Billy is an affiliate, a merchant, a musician, always speaks his mind, and when he takes on a project it generally works out In this case Billy the musician decided to do something for a woman’s shelter in Las Vegas. Here is the press release about that project. The album is for sale on both iTunes and Amazon, so you can support the cause and make some $$$s for yourself or take a bit of that extra and donate it to Shade Tree or your own favorite charity.

Please feel free to pass this press release around, let’s make this a best seller

Independent Artists Release Charity CD “Country for a Cause”

Palmetto Tree Music

The cost of living is rising, gasoline is over three dollars a gallon, unemployment is at an all time high… and country music artists are giving away the proceeds from their CD sales. Surprising? Not for a group of eleven independent country music artists who are just trying to make a difference. October 21st marked the release of their CD, “Country for a Cause”, the proceeds from which are being donated to The Shade Tree, a shelter for abused women and children in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Billy Kay, an independent country artist who added his single “Ready…Set…Gone” as the first track on the CD, is the mastermind and organizer of the project. While taking a tour of the shelter one day, he took special notice of the one outdated computer and scarcity of other resources. The kicker for him, though, was the kids. “We each consider our own childhood to be the definition of normal”, Billy says, “I didn’t want these kids to think the kid’s room with a donated TV and some donated board games was normal.” Realizing that there was only so much he could do alone, he reached out for help.

“I got a surprise email from Billy one day asking if I would like to be involved,” said C Bret Campbell of the group Stephenson Rd, who added their single “Simple Life” to the project. Citing hard times throughout his own life, Campbell was immediately attracted to the project. “That’s no way for women and children to have to live,” he says.

JTodd Burroughs received a similar e-mail. “I didn’t really even have to think about it,” he said. “He (Billy Kay) said he’d like ‘A Little More With A Little Less’ for the CD, so I told him ‘You’ve got it.” That was even before he saw the list of artists who agreed to provide singles for the CD. “It’s a tremendous group of artists on the CD – like a Who’s Who of independent country artists.” Kay said he decided to reach out to some of the artists he’d met over the last couple of years. “I fully expected to be rejected,” he related, “but each and every one opened their hearts and donated a track to the project.”

The artists chose their songs with the project in mind, as well. With respect to his song “Simple Life”, Bret Campbell stated “I hope the song adds a note of hope to the record.” Kay’s song “Ready…Set…Gone” is about the courage it takes to leave an abusive relationship. Aoede chose her ballad “I Lost, You Win” because she wanted to “contribute a song that pulls at your heart strings.”

Artists weren’t the only ones to jump on board for the project. The Nashville Universe, Team Loxly, and Butterflies Radio, signed on immediately. “Butterflies Radio set their homepage to open to a full page banner of the project as well as putting links on their main page. They’re great,” says Burroughs. “They play our songs, record and broadcast bumpers for the CD, update all of their social media sites – it would really have cost us a fortune to try to buy that kind of advertising, and they’ve done it for free!”

During a time when it seems the news is bad and times are hard, this CD represents what is good and right. Eleven artists – eleven songs – the only obvious connection being a love for country music – come together with a common purpose to try and make a difference. They write songs that tell stories about life, and they have created a CD that is “Country for a Cause”.

The Artists The Songs
Billy Kay : Ready…Set…Gone
Bobby Ray Bittle : Backyard Dancehall
JTodd Burroughs : A Little More With a Little Less
Susie Q : Fallin Star
Bosco and Peck : Lila
Aoede : I Lost You Win
Stephenson Rd : Simple Life
Tiana Star : Farther From Me
Tai Andrews : Fly With Me
Rachel Kays : Butterflies and Nursery Rhymes
Volary : Love and Tragedy

Supporting Cast
ButterfliesRadio.com
TheNashvilleUniverse.com
TeamLoxly.com
Lesruba Designs (lesrubadesigns@gmail.com)

Available on iTunes and Amazon.com.

For more information please visit
http://billykaymusic.com/country-for-a-cause/country-for-a-cause.htm

Affiliate Marketing – Then and Now
Join us for a Live Podcast via GoToWebinar on October 27 at 4 pm EST

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/730913250

Join host Deborah Carney in a roundtable discussion about how affiliate marketing got started and how it has evolved with some of the people that have been in it since the beginning. Are they in the same place they were when they started? Where do they see the industry going? We invite you to send questions to dc@merchantabcs.com be asked of the panel if you can’t attend or if you are shy

Join panelists Todd Farmer, Todd Crawford, Connie Arnold, Scott Jangro and Brian Littleton for lively discussion, history you probably don’t know, and ask them your burning questions about the beginnings of our awesome industry. Our industry is so young that we want to capture the thoughts about it’s growth some of the leaders in the industry. No one currently in our industry wanted to grow up to be an affiliate or affiliate manager, the jobs didn’t exist. But now, there are many young people whose parents are in the industry and they kinda would like to do what Mom and/or Dad does.

This will be recorded!

Title: Affiliate Marketing – Then and Now
Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees: Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh®-based attendees: Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

MommyBloggers: Changing the Face of Affiliate Marketing? panel from Affiliate Summit West 2010, which took place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV. An interesting note to this panel is that I posted a request for speakers in HARO to find the bloggers, except for Kim, who I already knew.

Another thing, for merchants that may be listening, too many merchants are carte blanche turning down “Mommy Bloggers” and bloggers in general. This is a powerful group of people that probably can hit your target markets.

Speakers:

- Deborah Carney, CEO, Team Loxly (Moderator)
- Wendy Limauge, Blogger, Sweeties Swag
- Carrie Rocha, President, Pocket Your Dollars
- Kim Rowley, President, Key Internet Marketing, Inc.
- Heather Sokol, Proprietor, Inexpensively

MommyBloggers are involved in many types of monetization strategies for their blogs, affiliate marketing being one, however they aren’t necessarily doing it in the “traditional” ways.

More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/

Many thanks to Affiliate Summit for posting the replays of sessions from past summits. Many of these are still very relevant, like this one.

If you are unable to see the video below, please go direct to YouTube and watch it there.

First in a series of merchant spotlight webinars from Team Loxly is Small Biz Theme by Don Campbell. The theme affiliate program is run on Shareasale and is 30% commission, 60 day cookie and managed by Team Loxly

This theme is unique in that it can be used by consultants to easily build sites for clients, or for clients to have the site set up once and then not be able to “mess it up” when they need to make updates. The blog is secondary (you can change this) with info pages for the company instead.

Built in are sections to create the mobile version of the theme… no extra charge or extra plugins… and a really cool ability to add content to facebook pages right from within your blog! There are some free apps that allow you to create pages that you have to change on facebook, but this function within small biz theme hosts the pages for your facebook tabs right on your own site. Plugins for that type of functionality start at around $40-50.

If you can make the time to watch the video you will see all kinds of goodies and get info on what’s under the hood so you can better sell this theme as an affiliate. There were many good questions asked and answered throughout the video and we welcome more questions and comments from those of you watching the replay!

Watch the video on the Team Loxly forum at the Affiliate Summit Networking Forum

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Topics include:

·         Important information affiliates need to promote your Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals
·         Considerations when designing a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal

Key takeaways:

·         Plan and send Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals at least 4-6 weeks in advance so affiliates have time to prepare.

·         Communicating with your affiliates is very, very important.  If your deal details won’t be available far in advance, tell your affiliates if you’re planning to run a deal at all – this way they can prepare their sites.  If you send them a deal a few days before or on Black Friday, you’ll likely be out of luck.

·         Don’t try to pass off a standard promotion (ex. Free shipping on orders over $50) as a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal if it’s something you already offer regularly.  Your customers and affiliates will find out and be disappointed if you’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and might take their business elsewhere.

·         If you’d rather not discount your entire online store, offer a special on one or a handful of items to drive traffic to your site, and keep the remaining items at regular price.

·         Ensure you have ample stock of the products you’re featuring for the deal, and if the stock runs out, be prepared to redirect the page to a similar item with a deal.

·         When sending affiliates (and/or your network) deal details, we strongly recommend providing all of the following information:

• Offer title & details
• Official deal start date & time
• Official deal end date & time
• Specific landing page URL
• Required coupon code (if applicable)

Helpful statistics:

·         Black Friday online sales totaled $595 million in 2009 and $648 million in 2010

·         The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12^th

Find us on Twitter:

Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Topics include:

·         Important information to ask merchants in preparation for Black Friday/Cyber Monday
·         Tips for communicating with merchants to ensure you’re not stuck with last-minute updates

Key takeaways:

·         Communicating with your merchants (or network rep) is key.  Explain why you need information in advance, make a case for why it’s in their best interest (stats, site traffic over Thanksgiving weekend, case studies), and describe how you promote (email, ppc, etc) so they can provide all the assets you need.

o    Give merchants a deadline and stick to it

·         If working through a network, think about asking to be part of a spotlight in newsletters sent to merchants, highlighting the value of your site for Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals.

·         Consider asking for a list of a merchant’s top sellers and the products they plan to promote during the holiday season so you can plan accordingly.

·         Ask merchants if gift cards are commissionable, as sales of these cards directly add revenue to their bottom line and many consumers don’t end up redeeming them.  This presents a high-profit opportunity for them and an up-front commission earning opportunity for you.

·         When asking merchants  (and/or your network) for deal details, consider asking for all of the following information:

• Offer title & details
• Official deal start date & time
• Official deal end date & time
• Specific landing page URL
• Required coupon code (if applicable)

Helpful statistics:

·         Black Friday online sales totaled $595 million in 2009 and $648 million in 2010
·         The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12^th
·         Americans are sitting on $30 billion in unused gift cards

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

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Affiliate ABCs host Deborah Carney joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss Q4 planning and ideas to generate the greatest revenue during one of the most lucrative times of the year.

Topics include:

·         Important information to ask merchants in order to effectively promote their program in Q4
·         Great Q4 holidays (beyond Black Friday) and niche topics to consider for promotion opportunities

Key takeaways:

·         Don’t wait on the merchant – know what you need well in advance, and don’t be afraid to ask
·         Plan out a promotional calendar and the dates you’ll need relevant creative from merchants
·         Consider creating a media kit detailing your audience demographics, planned promotions, and communications channels you use (email, PPC, etc) and send to potential merchant partners
·         Ensure your content and ads aren’t displaying expired promotions
Tricia Meyer posted a great seasonality calendar – http://www.tricia.me/SeasonalityCalendar.pdf

Helpful statistics:
·         comScore 4^th quarter sales reached $39 billion in 2009 and $43 billion in 2010 – presenting a huge revenue opportunity this year
·         The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12^th

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

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss Q4 planning, including tips on how to effectively support affiliates and generate the greatest revenue from this channel during one of the most lucrative times of the year.

Topics include:
·         Important information affiliates need to effectively promote your program in Q4
·         Great Q4 holidays (beyond Black Friday) to consider for promotion opportunities
·         Activities to avoid during Q4 that may cause your program to lose affiliates

Key takeaways:
·         comScore 4^th quarter sales reached $39 billion in 2009 and $43 billion in 2010 – presenting a huge revenue opportunity this year
·         The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12^th
·         Plan out a promotional calendar and the dates you’ll provide relevant creative to your affiliates
·         Send a list of best sellers, new Q4 products, and (for PPC affiliates) suggested keywords
·         Update data feeds daily and consider “changes file,” top sellers, and category specific sub-feeds
·         DO NOT plan major site updates or affiliate network changes in Q4
·         If your gift cards are commissionable, let your affiliates know, if they aren’t – why not?

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

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Head on over to Blogging ABCs and join the mailing list to get access to the full recorded webinar.

We also have two podcasts with Dave Cupples and David Iwanow that you might be interested in also!

Affiliate ABCs #52 – Marketing Using Facebook Ads and Pages Effectively

Marketing Using Facebook and Email Together – Affiliate ABCs #51

Drew Thorne-Thomsen from Ring Revenue, joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss the Ring Revenue service. Pay per call has been around for awhile but it is getting more traction as more affiliates are looking for ways to monetize offline advertising or other untraditional types of advertising and pay per call gives affiliates, networks and merchants a way to start tracking those sales. In addition to the call tracking, there is also a corresponding link that can track.

A little background on Drew:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen, VP of Customer Development at Ring Revenue - Drew is responsible for partner development and support, as well as new business development. Prior to joining RingRevenue, he was CMO at Trident Marketing, where he was responsible for customer acquisition for several Fortune 500 brands. Drew drove millions of phone calls to their own performance call centers through traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies. Before that, he spent nearly a decade at Commission Junction, where he launched and developed CJ Media and CJ PayPerCall. Drew spent six years on the United States Alpine Ski Team and competed at the World Cup level. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Some of the main points for Affiliates: 
- Affiliates are earning millions in commissions
- Combine calls AND clicks to earn more
- Phone calls convert between 30-50% (clicks 1-3%)
- Average payouts above $10 per call
- Access more high-value offers
- Visit RingRevenue sign up with networks: www.ringrevenue.com/partners

We would love for you to leave comments and let us know if you are using Pay per Call or what questions you have about it. We will be scheduling a webinar for later in the month and would love to have questions from you!

More information on Ring Revenue:
What is RingRevenue?
Publisher Get Started Video

Contact info:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen
drew@ringrevenue.com

Find us on Twitter:
RingRevenue
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant 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.

Drew Thorne-Thomsen from Ring Revenue, joins Merchant ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss the Ring Revenue service. Pay per call has been around for awhile but it is getting more traction as more affiliates are looking for ways to monetize offline advertising or other untraditional types of advertising and pay per call gives affiliates, networks and merchants a way to start tracking those sales. In addition to the call tracking, there is also a corresponding link that can track. Plus if you think your program is too small or you don’t have a call center, there are other options for you to accept trackable and commissionable call.

A little background on Drew:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen, VP of Customer Development at Ring Revenue - Drew is responsible for partner development and support, as well as new business development. Prior to joining RingRevenue, he was CMO at Trident Marketing, where he was responsible for customer acquisition for several Fortune 500 brands. Drew drove millions of phone calls to their own performance call centers through traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies. Before that, he spent nearly a decade at Commission Junction, where he launched and developed CJ Media and CJ PayPerCall. Drew spent six years on the United States Alpine Ski Team and competed at the World Cup level. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Some of the main points for Merchants: 
- Pay-per-call is delivering millions in new revenue for merchants
- Access increased distribution channels online, offline and mobile
- Phone sales typically worth 1.5-2X online sales.
- Define caller quality criteria
- Pay only for quality calls
- Visit RingRevenue to find out more: www.ringrevenue.com

We would love for you to leave comments and let us know if you are using Pay per Call or what questions you have about it. We will be scheduling a webinar for later in the month and would love to have questions from you!

Find out more about Ring Revenue and Pay Per Call:
What is RingRevenue?
Advertiser Get Started Video

Contact info:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen
drew@ringrevenue.com

Find us on Twitter:
RingRevenue
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant 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.

You know the importance of developing backlinks from quality websites and that’s why you work hard to develop relationships with webmasters looking for guest content. So now you got your very first guest post up and you’re waiting to see what kind of impact it has on your efforts to move up in the search engine results.

What if I told you that waiting isn’t such a hot idea?

I had conversation with a colleague of mine Laura Penekamp who specializes in free car insurance quotes online. Just like you she believes that guest posting on quality sites is a great way to build backlinks of value that Google will recognize as a legitimate vote of confidence. She had just made her first guest post and wanted to know what she could do to maximize the exposure of that post.

On the surface it would appear that she really didn’t have any control over how the website optimized the article. After all it’s not her website. But then we started looking at how you would promote a new piece of content on your own website and see if that could apply to a guest posting.

Here’s what we came up with:

• Tweet your heart out. Send a Tweet to your followers telling them how happy you are to have been invited to post an article on this fantastic website and then obviously leave a link to the article.
• Keep your hand in the game. Almost every site that accepts guest content has a comment section at the bottom of the article. It’s a wise idea to close out your article asking for comments. This encourages the readers to engage with the content (you) gives you a chance to build more interest in the subject as well as build your own brand. Make sure you check back often on the article and provide timely responses to comments.
• Get social. Digg it, Stumbleupon it, Like it and now Plus it. Use all of the social bookmarks to promote your article. Between the four services mentioned above your tapping into organizations that get over 20 million visits per month.
• Tell your list. Make sure you include the guest posted as a feature in your next newsletter or regular e-mail message going out your list. Obviously include a link back to the guest content.
• Talk it up. If you have a blog (and who doesn’t) make sure you talk up the fact that you been invited to provide content to a super site and then provide a link to the article.

You’re happy but someone else is even happier

By going the extra mile you’re ensuring maximum distribution of your guest post. Google lends a lot of credibility to recommendations made of social media and that translates into a more valuable backlink and that of course makes you happy.

But you’re not the only winner. The site where you guest posted is a big winner as well. In your effort to ensure maximum distribution and exposure you’re driving traffic and boosting the value of the site where you guest posted. You’re making the webmaster very happy and that’s a fact you can leverage later on when you want to post additional content on the site.

So what do you think?

Laura was trying to find a way to promote her site feature that can compare auto insurance quotes but the quick checklist that we provided will work regardless what you’re promoting. The concept is the same.

I’m sure that what we have listed is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to techniques to promoting a guest post. What have you done? What works for you and what doesn’t? We’d really be interested in learning just how effective other methods might be. Leave a comment below telling us what you think or if you simply have a question about any of the techniques we’ve talked about.

About the Author

James Martell is well known as an affiliate marketing specialist in outsourcing and SEO. He is a sought after speaker, affiliate marketing trainer and podcaster. James is host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast in the industry. James is also the host of the Affiliate Marketers “SUPER BootCamp”, where he teaches others how to earn extra income with affiliate programs. James lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on west coast of Canada with his wife, Arlene and their 4 kids.

For those of you that would like to get our podcasts as transcripts, we will be announcing via the Affiliate ABCs newsletter (sign up box should be over there on the right) which ones are available as free pdfs, and where you can purchase them for the Kindle. We will be adding information to the transcripts that are converted to books, so you can reread what you heard, or read instead of listening, or use the ebooks as reference. We will also be compiling some related transcripts into print books.

The first of our Kindle books is Best Practices for Coupon Sites [Kindle Edition]. If you sign up for our newsletter we will email you the link to the free pdf. Let me know what you think of it! If you read it and would like to leave a review at Amazon, that would be lovely and we’ll be inclined to send out more of the pdfs

My wife Arlene and I are blessed with four children. One of these blessings, sixteen-year-old Victoria, is now learning to drive.

While it is slightly terrifying to teach your own child to drive, I have found that the experience is a good perspective check. For instance, I’ve been watching Victoria watch the road at the expense of watching the speedometer. This is a good illustration of how one important task can often get in the way of doing another, equally important task.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that the longer she spends behind the wheel, the more relaxed Victoria becomes, and the absolute basics of driving start to become second nature. Of course, now she has to learn about changing lanes and parallel parking while still keeping “the basics” in mind.

As another example of a perspective check, I was surprised to learn that London, UK driving schools, such as the AA Driving School and BSI consider an average of 30 hours of instruction to be sufficient before a student takes a driving test. I wasn’t aware that the British were such unbridled optimists.

After 30 hours of instruction, Victoria has become better at watching her speed and attending to the brakes properly, but she really isn’t ready for the “real” road test yet. And keep in mind, she’s learning to drive on the correct side of the road!

I’m sure you’re waiting to hear what this has to do with online marketing, and I won’t disappoint you.

It has occurred to me (and to many of you, I expect) that marketing on the internet has a lot in common with driving a car. You need to learn the basics and take your road test, but even then you’re still a beginner.

However, if at any time you decide that “the basics”, or in our case, website fundamentals, no longer apply, you’re just as likely as the 16-year old driver to end up in a ditch.

Below are the three basic things that new online marketers need to know and veteran marketers need to be reminded of;

1. It’s All About the List

How many people have subscribed to your list in the last week? If you don’t know the number, you should, and if you’re happy with that number, you shouldn’t be.

You’ve heard it a hundred times; the money’s in the list. This means that if you intend to make any real money through online marketing you should not just stay focused on list development, but you should also remain constructively dissatisfied with your numbers.

For the habitual procrastinators among us, like me, there are lots of optional reinforcements. For instance, if you aren’t specifically a marketer, hiring one to help you develop an inviting optin offer would be a good idea. Additionally, aWeber has some very useful marketing software to help you manage your email traffic.

2. It’s Also About the Page

After several years spent as an affiliate marketer and a marketing teacher, I have noticed some very common mistakes made by novices and veterans alike. One very popular mistake is producing scores of informative, entertaining pages with no apparent purpose.

Before crafting a page, you should first decide what you want your website visitors to do when they view that page. Do you want them to;

• click on a Google AdSense ad?
• listen to a podcast?
• click a link and make a purchase?

Once the purpose of the page has been decided on, you will then be able to decide what the page should look like.

Of course, you’ll fill the page with great ad copy, throw in some sub-headlines to keep your readers engaged and add some bullet lists to make the important bits stand out. Then you’ll finish the page with a persuasive call to action and ensure that the button, box or link in question is prominently displayed.

The important thing to remember, though, is to keep the page free of unnecessary clutter. It’s difficult driving traffic to your site when you are simultaneously throwing up roadblocks!

3. It’s Even About the Testing

If you’ve heard about the money being in the list, then you’ve also heard about the need to measure, track and test your website.

It’s much more fun, of course, to build your site and polish your pages than it is to analyze it and figure out if it needs fixing, or worse, disassembling. This is why analytics is possibly the most neglected part of website fundamentals.

While proper analysis is both time consuming and rather boring, it is possible to speed things up with a few tools. Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer are my favorites, and they also happen to be free. Think about it.

It’s Really About Website Fundamentals

If you were to visit the websites of any London or Manchester UK driving schools, you may notice another trend, besides wildly optimistic training schedules. Many schools in the UK and on the European Continent now offer “refresher” courses for experienced drivers who want to “revisit” the basic rules of driving.

That seems rather sensible.

As a matter of fact, this concept could apply to internet marketing as well. If your sales have slumped and your lists are just limping along, it might be time to seriously consider going back to the basics.

If you just take a day or two days and concentrate on list building, purposeful page production and some ruthless measuring, tracking and testing, you might find all of your numbers suddenly rising.

In any event, it should at least keep you from running into a virtual ditch.

I can’t wait to read your feedback.

About the Author

James Martell is well known as an affiliate marketing specialist in outsourcing and SEO. He is a sought after speaker, affiliate marketing trainer and podcaster. James is host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast in the industry. James is also the host of the Affiliate Marketers “SUPER BootCamp”, where he instructs others on how to earn extra income with affiliate programs. James lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on Canada’s West Coast along with his wife, Arlene and their 4 kids.

When was the last time you started the week with a head full of ideas and the motivation to implement them?

When was the last time you attended a trade show, workshop, or conference for your business?

Could there possibly be a connection?

2002 was the year I went to my first affiliate marketing event. Since 1999 I had been working as an affiliate marketer, and was doing pretty well. Four years on, though, I needed some new ideas and a shot of inspiration. Fortunately, by then I had heard about the Commission Junction University.

Santa Barbara is a beautiful place, the hotel was great, the food was fantastic, and I met some new people. However, these were only the features of the trip I took, not the real benefits.

Some folks come home from a marketing conference and have a tough time explaining what happens there. In my case, I just felt more confident about what I was doing, how I was doing it and why.

How Marketing Conferences Lead To Success

After a week or two at home, it became apparent what was causing my newfound confidence, and why that CJU event was so worthwhile.

• First, I had a boatload of fresh ideas that I never would have come up with on my own. This was the result of many minds coming together and sharing their creativity.
• Next, I had a lot of tips on how to avoid pitfalls, setbacks and potentially expensive mistakes. This was the result of many veteran affiliates coming together and sharing their experiences.
• Finally, I had a clearer vision of where my business could go, and I knew I could get it there. This was the result of confidence by example; they did it, so I knew I could, too.

One very tangible benefit of my attending that conference, by the way, was the cost. Yes, that was a benefit. You see, the cost of attending these conferences is tax deductible. This means instead of giving that money to the government, you and I have the option of investing it into our businesses.

The next year, I had no problem convincing my wife Arlene to let me return to the conference. As a matter of fact, Arlene joined me the next year, and together we brought forty more people with us.

Nowadays, I attend several industry events every year, and I advise other marketers to attend one or preferably two online marketing events annually. Below is a list of some of the better conferences I have attended, and I recommend them for other marketers.

My Favorite Affiliate Marketing Conferences 2011

The Affiliate Summit is often labeled the premier affiliate marketing conference, and rightly so. The Summit happens in New York and Las Vegas, and includes a many different educational events in conjunction with top industry speakers and a small army of merchants and vendors.

The Blog World Expo brings in bloggers from dozens of countries for three days of networking, presentations, brainstorming, and of course, vendors and merchants in abundance. The Expo isn’t exclusively for bloggers, though. If you are just interested in different ways to incorporate online marketing into your business strategy, you ought to attend.

Webmaster World’s PubCon was originally held in a pub, so it actually is a PubCon and not a publishing convention, as the name might imply. Webmaster’s World no longer fits in the typical pub, but it still offers a friendly, comfortable venue to trade advanced SEO methods and marketing strategies.

Commission Junction University was my first industry event and remains one of my favorites, but the reasons go beyond sentimentality. This gathering of over 800 industry leaders and Commission Junction affiliates is a great place to go for information, inspiration and a good time.

The ShareASale Think Tank is different from a regular conference because it focuses on creative brainstorming rather than simply information sharing. Affiliates, managers and merchants can learn much by attending this event.

Even if you aren’t a marketer per se, your business depends on some extent to marketing, so you could benefit from any of these events. If you don’t typically go to trade shows or affiliate marketing conferences, 2011 is a great year to begin that practice.

If your primary job is not in marketing, you could easily find some industry events which are more focused on your particular industry. You may be pleasantly surprised at what’s available if you are willing to do a little research.

Finding the Right Event For Your Business

Matt Papas is an associate of mine and has a weight loss website. While I think an internet marketing conference would help his business, he should also seriously consider fitness, pharmaceutical and alternative medicine trade shows. He could get information on how to best connect with customers in search of Medifast diet coupons or an answer for the question, “Does the Nutrisystem program work?”

Arlene still attends conferences with me, but she could also check out some events that would help her with her website, epilepsymoms.com. An insurance industry event would give her some great advice to pass on to caregivers of children with epilepsy, and certain medical conferences are chock full of information about the latest studies and treatments for all kinds of pediatric conditions.

Even if you can’t see the purpose of attending any of my favorite affiliate marketing conferences, 2011 is a good year to begin finding conference and events that could benefit your particular business.

Have You Packed Yet?

Somewhere, someone is dying to show you how to bring more customers to your gym, keep customers in your store longer, or get customers to follow you on Twitter to hear about your latest shoe sale.

So, which conference are you choosing to invest in?

Maybe I’ll see you there.

About the Author:

James Martell is well known as an affiliate marketing specialist in outsourcing and SEO. He is a sought after speaker, affiliate marketing trainer and podcaster. James is host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast in the industry. James is also the host of the Affiliate Marketers “SUPER BootCamp”, where he educates those interested in learning how to make money with affiliate programs. James lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on Canada’s West Coast with his wife, Arlene and their 4 kids.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of running programs on multiple networks.

Topics include:

·         Managing creative, promotions, and information across all networks
·         Considerations: Ts & Cs, setup and monthly fees, tracking, network quality measures
·         Identifying network benefits: different affiliates, tools, verticals
·         Actions that negatively and positively impact program growth

Key takeaways:

·         Avoid confusion – be consistent with promotions and communications across networks unless you’re running separate tests to gauge performance
·         Be strategic when beginning a new network relationship – consider the added value vs. added time and effort to manage another account
·         Grow 2-3 relationships vs. joining every network – this will enable program managers to work effectively with each relationship vs. reactive program management to simply keep up
·         Avoid network hopping – affiliate marketing is a marathon, not a sprint; don’t upset affiliates by repeatedly closing on one network and opening on another
Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Affiliates, in the comments, let us know if you will work with merchants on multiple networks, and why or why not.
Merchants, in the comments, let us know if you are on multiple networks and if they perform equally.

Today’s Affiliate ABCs podcast features the MakeBeer.net affiliate program on ShareASale. Host Deborah Carney is joined by Karen Garcia from GTO Management, the OPM managing the MakeBeer.net affiliate program.

MakeBeer.net offers a full line of Cooper’s Home Brew kits, ingredients and equipment for brewing beer at home. The Cooper’s Brewery in Australia was founded in 1862 and the MakeBeer.net product line contains eighteen varieties of beer from the Master Brewers at Coopers Brewery including popular beers such as IPAs, lagers, ales and stouts and each kit makes 6 gallons of beer. Their Cooper’s DIY Beer Kit contains all the equipment and ingredients needed to brew a full batch of beer and is very popular as a gift during the holiday season as well as Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day in addition to year-round sales.

The MakeBeer.net affiliate program is exclusively on ShareASale and offers a 15% commission and a 90 day cookie as well as a full product datafeed which is also available in PopShops. They have several video creatives available as well as a Top Sellers widget that is updated weekly.

Join the MakeBeer.net Affiliate Program

Show Links:
MakeBeer.net
GTO Management

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs

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

This podcast outlines what conversion optimization is and covers the most common questions associated with how conversion optimization works. Lindsay Viscount and Sarah Bundy from All Inclusive Marketing discuss with Deborah Carney of MerchantABCs the most essential “need to knows” about conversion optimization and how it works.

An ecommerce conversion rate is one of the most important KPIs to understand and maximize when it comes to online sales. With all things being equal, if your conversion rate increases, your website sales will increase. Conversion rate impacts every channel, from your SEO to your affiliate marketing program and is a main determining factor of each channel’s success.

Here is a quick overview of the questions discussed and some of the suggested answers provided by the All Inclusive Marketing team:

Q: What is conversion optimization?
A: The process of testing and improving the conversion rate of a website. Making sure that the website is generating as many sales, leads or whatever the goal of the website is as possible.

Q: Why is conversion optimization so important for ecommerce sites?
A: Generally with an ecomm website, you want your website to be your best salesperson and when you are directing customers to your website, you want it to be able to close the deal. If your website isn’t performing at the potential that it could be, you could be losing out on large amounts of revenue daily. Especially if you are spending $$ on advertising, you want to make sure that you are getting a generous return on ad spend.

Q: What things are taken into consideration when developing a strategy for conversion optimization?
A: Website goals (primary and secondary), page goals (moving traffic to where you want it to go), target audience, the product, current landing page and trends, sales pitch, and common objections.

Q: What are the most important pages to optimize and why?
A: Home page – this page usually generates the most traffic to a website
Category page – to move traffic to the product page
Product page – close the sale
Each step of the checkout process – once you have closed the sale you don’t want to lose it during the checkout process. Measure drop off and identify issues

Q: What are some of the key elements that you test with A/B testing?
A: Long page vs short page
1 page vs multiple pages
Product imagery
Color
Content – keyword usage, language, simplicity, headlines
Call to actions – buttons, wording, placement

Tune in to hear more detail and specific examples on conversion optimization and how this strategy can help your web sales, by some of the leading conversion optimizers in the industry.

Where to Find Lindsay Viscount and Sarah Bundy:
Sarah’s LinkedIn account (bio)
All Inclusive Marketing website
All Inclusive Marketing blog
All Inclusive Marketing Twitter:
Sarah’s Twitter:
All Inclusive Marketing phone: (604) 560 2542

Find Us On Twitter:
Deborah Carney
Merchant 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.

Today’s Affiliate ABCs podcast features the OfficePlayground.com affiliate program on ShareASale. Host Deborah Carney is joined by Karen Garcia from GTO Management, the OPM managing the OfficePlayground.com affiliate program.

OfficePlayground.com carries over 1300 fun toys just for your desk and their office toys also make great gifts, party favors, and are fabulous for meetings and events. Some of their products include stress balls, slingshot flying animals, zen gardens, Hoberman spheres and Newton’s cradles. Their product line is very popular year round and their biggest holiday, Bosses Day, is coming up soon in October.

The Office Playground affiliate program is exclusively on ShareASale and offers an 8% commission and a 30 day cookie as well as a full product datafeed of over 1300 products. They have several widgets available, including a Top Sellers widget that is updated weekly, and are adding new product videos each week.

Join the OfficePlayground.com Affiliate Program

Show Links:
Office Playground
GTO Management

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs

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

Affiliate and Consultant Eric Nagel joins experienced affiliate managers (OPMs) Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney in a very important episode of Merchant ABCs. Many merchants are not aware that if they don’t have an Affiliate Agreement in place they are giving affiliates carte blanche to do whatever they want to promote your affiliate program. Eric joined us today to help explain to merchants both new and existing why they need a properly created affiliate agreement. Affiliates want you to have an agreement so they have guidelines and so they know that your affiliate manager and company have thought about the many ways affiliates can promote the merchant’s site. Affiliates will also assume that once you have an agreement in place that you will enforce it appropriately.

Topics we cover are: Search Engine Marketing – both PPC and organic, Direct to Merchant Linking in PPC and social media, Domain names – including subdomains and subdirectories, Coupon site regulations, Loyalty site regulations, Email restrictions, Social Media links and posts, iFrames and other framing of the merchant site, Policy about adware, spyware, toolbars and other downloads, Prohibited Affiliate Website Content, Unacceptable Web Sites (Banner farms, PLR sites etc).

Find us on Twitter:
Eric Nagel
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Team Loxly
Vinny O’Hare

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

Rick Calvert and Karen Garcia join Blogging ABCs hosts Tricia Meyer and Deborah Carney to discuss the dilemmas faced by bloggers about whether or not they should monetize their blogs and if yes, how. It’s a candid discussion covering both sides of the issue.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Affiliate ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
GTOMan

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

It’s about time, don’t you think?

After several frustrated attempts, Google has finally offered a platform that may effectively compete with Facebook. Whether Google Plus turns out to be the legendary Facebook killer or just another app attack is yet to be seen. However, I’m pretty sure that the new options presented by the new Google photo site will cause some Facebook users – and Facebook engineers – to take notice.

I’m in good company, by the way. Charlie Sorrel runs the Gadget Lab at Wired.com, and he recently remarked, “It has been said that the biggest feature of Google Plus is that it’s not Facebook. However, there’s another feature that may be of interest to all you Gadget Lab photo nerds out there; photo integration. It turns out that G+ is a pretty sweet way to manage and view your shared photos.”

One of Facebook’s most widely used functions is the photo gallery, and this is largely responsible for Facebook’s success. Sharing and tagging photos provides the gallery – and consequently the website – with a natural viral effect. Strategically, then, it makes perfect sense that Google would take on Facebook by improving on Facebook’s photo sharing feature.

It also makes sense, strategically, for Facebook to pay close attention to the following improvements;

The Google+ Photo Gallery Pictures Upload Quicker

Sometimes little things add up to big ones, right? Because I don’t have to toggle or configure pictures before loading them onto the Google photo site, I save a keystroke or two with each picture. Of course, if I’m just loading one picture, that isn’t a big deal, but think about a wedding photographer who posts his proofs online. One or two keystrokes times a hundred-fifty pictures adds up to a lot of time.

The Google+ Photo Gallery Pictures Look Better

Facebook is a great place for posting party pics and the occasional Avatar, but many serious photographers would rather display their craft on specialized websites that treat professional photos with the right amount of respect.

Google’s photo site offers high resolution capabilities as well as oversized thumbnails and elegant lightbox views. Consequently, the Google Plus photo album will be the perfect way to show off formal portraits, infrared photography, or even your latest party pics.

Google+ Offers Seamless Phone-To-Web Uploading

Vinny is a good friend and associate of mine from Brooklyn. He recently enjoyed a 4th of July fireworks show over the Hudson River, and was able to upload them directly from his Android onto his Google Plus photo site. He was very pleased with the way his pictures looked, but he was also pleased with how fast they posted.

At the moment, the iPhone and Blackberry apps are “in the works”, but that doesn’t bother either Vinny or my son, Justin, who is another happy Android user. Thanks to Vinny’s bragging, Justin’s evangelizing and Google’s obvious favoritism, I have already decided that my next phone may as well be an Android. I’m feeling left out.

Circling Makes More Sense than “Friend”ing

Facebook allows you some measure of privacy by letting you “friend” people or not. Your friends can see your photos and conversations, but everyone else can’t. Of course, the problem is that in real life, we have “friends” and we have friends. I might not care if all of my “friends” know when my birthday is, but only my friends need to know how I plan to celebrate it.

Google Plus offers Circles, which actually make more sense. Circles allow you to organize and share photos with specific groups of friends and acquaintances. This way, you can announce your kid’s graduation party to your friends and relatives without inadvertently inviting your entire office.

Should Facebook be Paying Attention?

Absolutely.

David Seaman from BuisnessInsider.com offered his opinion on Google Plus; “It will be a huge success, and Facebook is in trouble – although by no means obsolete.”

Facebook should be paying attention because people who work with infrared imaging cameras as well as folks who use cell phones are finding Google Plus to be a better place to organize, display and share their photos.

The fun begins, though, when Facebook responds to Google by (hopefully) becoming more inventive and more aggressive. This should lead to a better, upgraded Facebook and a more competitive Google. You see, if everyone does their jobs properly, you and I will win no matter which platform we ultimately end up using.

About the Author:

James Martell is well known as an affiliate marketing specialist in outsourcing and SEO. He is a sought after speaker, affiliate marketing trainer and podcaster. James is host of the longest running affiliate marketing podcast on WebmasterRadio.FM (since 2003), and creator of the Affiliate Marketers “SUPER BootCamp”, where he teaches others how to earn income with affiliate programs. James lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on west coast of Canada with his wife, Arlene and their 4 kids.

This should actually be the first podcast any company considering starting an affiliate program should listen to.

Karen Garcia of GTO Affiliate Management and Liz Gazer of Growthspurt Media Affiliate Management join Merchant ABCs Training Podcasts host Deborah Carney to discuss the realities of starting an affiliate program. Many merchants think it is an inexpensive channel that they can just put out an affiliate offer either in-house or on a network and the money will start rolling in. Below is a *basic* outline of what we discussed. This podcast contains so much valuable information that it will be made available in other formats, if you want to be notified when those formats are available, go to MerchantABCs.com and sign up for the mailing list.

Whether you are considering opening an affiliate program or already have one running, it would be helpful to you to spend the time to listen to three experienced OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) that want to help you be sure that an affiliate program is a good addition to your company as a marketing channel.

CAN YOU AFFORD YOUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM?

What an Affiliate Program IS:
• A Cost Effective means of growing brand/sales online
• An effective way to reach segments of the market you might not otherwise be able to reach without a LOT more time, effort or money
• A real marketing channel, requiring all the same components as any other business channel you might employ to get your product to market and grow sales over time

What an Affiliate Program is NOT:
• Magic!
• Guaranteed to double or triple your sales overnight, or within a few weeks or even a few months.
• Something you can launch and leave running on auto-pilot – it needs daily management by someone well-connected, educated/experienced/seasoned and well-versed on the ins and outs of both business management and the ever-changing needs of affiliates
• Something you can launch and then NOT expect to pay for once the sales start rolling in

Affiliate marketing has always been and still is today, one of the most cost effective ways of growing brand/sales online – aside from the costs of actively managing the channel, this method of advertising is always performance based, meaning that you only pay out the commission after the sale has been closed – and usually, verified. Despite that, there ARE costs involved and being honest about whether or not you can afford them up front, can save you thousands of dollars, in the long run.

Examples of costs involved/what to expect:
• Monthly management fees – whether you pay someone in-house on a salary or outsource to one of the many qualified OPMs available to help you run your program
◦ varies depending on experience, reputation, etc.
• One-time network registration/set up fee
◦ varies by network from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand for set up
• Monthly network usage fee and/or network transaction fees
◦ % of sales or % of amount equivalent to affiliate commissions
• Email marketing/newsletter costs (if you hire an OPM this may be covered/included for you depending on your negotiated contract)
• Affiliate commissions as set by you – a % of sales
• Bonuses tied to volume or for promotions/seasonal lift
• Advertising the program in key industry locations online as well as offline and in person (conferences/tradeshows, etc.)
◦ Conference/tradeshow booths (the space, the booth, the materials, the staff) – optional but recommended for best results

COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY MERCHANTS WHO CAN’T AFFORD THEIR AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
• Being dishonest about what kind of funding exists for the program expenditures during early talks with a prospective or newly hired AM/OPM
• Expecting the channel to pay for itself within a few weeks to a few months of launching
• Pitting internal channel managers against one another (i.e. PPC vs. AM) for “last click” so they work AGAINST one another instead of WITH one another as a team
• Looking for reasons to reverse commissions and where there are none, invent them!
• Cutting commissions – especially before you’ve been around long enough to establish presence & instill any confidence in your affiliate market that you’re “one of the good guys” or “worth promoting”
• Shutting down the program after launch – few weeks or few months in, realizing this actually costs $$

Merchants who can’t afford their affiliate channel often resort to scheming leakage/diversion tactics – excuses for not paying commissions. Remember – Affiliates are SMART – they DO pay attention and they DO expect to be paid for their efforts. Would you continue to work for free if your paycheck was withheld? Make no mistake – the expense you save by making unnecessary/uncalled for reversals to commissions today, WILL cost you down the line. The affiliate who goes unpaid today, will not promote you tomorrow.

Suggestions for managing costs and expectations:
• Look at your profit margins carefully and be realistic about what you can afford to pay, right up front.
• Be honest with your Affiliate Manager/OPM about what you can afford and let them determine if it makes sense for you to move ahead or not
• The biggest mistake you can make is by over-inflating the amount you can afford to pay in early talks with a potential or newly hired AM/OPM (claims like “sky’s the limit, there is no ceiling on what we can afford, whatever it takes to make sales, etc.). Doing so sets you, your AM/OPM AND your affiliates up for inevitable failure.

KEY TAKEAWAY POINTS:
• Be transparent with your AM/OPM about what funding is like so they can determine whether you truly can afford to make this work – not doing so will only cost you in the long run when you have to cut your losses and pull out early after having invested heavily up front to get things running
• Remember the nest-egg concept – Long term investment garners long term sustainable results that will grow year over year with good management, proper funding and careful planning/analysis
• It can often take more than one advertisement in more than one channel to motivate a consumer to close the sale. Studies have shown consumers are exposed to an ad on average, approx. 7 times before they “tune in” to it. Expect that occasionally, some sales may track as having come through more than one channel (i.e. PPC/Affiliate) by the time the sale has been closed. Reversing an affiliate commission because it tracked as a PPC sale as well, is like stealing from Peter to pay Paul and is counter-productive to the mission, in the big picture.
◦ Example: TV/Print/Outdoor advertising. Hugely successful brands like Nike don’t cut billboard campaigns just because a customer who buys shoes says they saw a commercial on TV. They understand it costs money to make money. They understand the need for an intergrated marketing mix. Your online advertising channels are part of that mix. You may have to pay them both, in some cases. Chalk it up to the cost of doing business. If you can’t, you may not be able to afford your affiliate program.
◦ If MOST sales are tracking in multiple channels it may be time to reassess but unless the majority of sales are, see above – chalk it up to the cost of doing business.

• It’s not magic – it’s marketing. Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. The R should also stand for REASONABLE. Give your affiliate program reasonable time to produce results – it can take up to a year especially if you are a new program starting from scratch.
• Know your own business strengths/weaknesses and once again – be transparent/honest with yourself and your AM/OPM so you can build on those strengths and find ways to overcome weaknesses which will in turn make you more competitive in the long run
• Competitive analysis – know what your competition is offering and expect to do your best to meet – if not exceed it.

Find us on Twitter:

• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Merchant ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about Karen and GTO Management:

GTO Management Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @GTOMan
Facebook Fan Page

To learn more about Liz and Growthspurt Media:

Growthspurt Media Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @lizgazer
Facebook Fan Page

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

Karen Garcia of GTO Management and Liz Gazer of Growthspurt Media join Merchant ABCs Training Podcasts host Deborah Carney to discuss how many merchants treat the affiliate channel as the “red headed step child” of their marketing efforts. Building on what you learned from Merchant ABCs Training Podcast #17 with Sarah Bundy of All Inclusive Marketing, this podcast goes in depth on how you need to treat your affiliate channel to be able to grow it. Below is a *basic* outline of what we discussed.

Whether you are considering opening an affiliate program or already have one running, it would be helpful to you to spend the time to listen to three experienced OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) that want to help you be sure you are giving your affiliates what they need to help your company be more successful.

YOUR AFFILIATES ARE A TARGET MARKET TOO!

• Today’s e-commerce marketplace is saturated; affiliates have a lot of choice

• It’s not always about how great your products/site/offers, it’s about the service and the total value experience you provide – to AFFILIATES.

The Painful Truth

• YOU might think your product/website/business is the best thing since sliced bread (and it may well be!) but to Affiliates, unless you’re offering them something different than your competition is, you’re just another merchant. With your Affiliate Manager or OPM, you need to strategize on how you plan to differentiate yourselves. The best way is by providing your Affiliates with a total service experience that is both interesting & rewarding

• Just like you need to be concerned about your total customer experience, you need to worry about the total affiliate experience – put some thought into what kind of “feel good” factors you can offer that might set you apart from your competition.

Cardinal Rules of Affiliate Loyalty

Loyalty is hard to come by in an industry dominated by dollar signs. Affiliates need to be kept:

▪ Educated & Informed – What/Where/When/Why/How
• Product knowledge/Pricing Changes
• Customer service policies (shipping, returns, etc.)
• Distribution Channels
• Promotional Campaigns (on site, seasonal, coupon, etc.)
• Unique Selling Proposition & Brand Positioning (what makes you stand out amongst your competition?)

▪ Engaged
• Newsletters
• Promotions
• Contests
• Communication – timely, relevant, to the point & consistent
◦ Keep your program top of mind – Affiliates often have hands in multiple projects /merchants at once – a friendly touch base can instill confidence & encourage them to bump you to the top of the priority list
• Request feedback and accept suggestions/constructive criticism positively. Be flexible to make additions/changes where need be

▪ Motivated & Inspired
• Training & Support
• Timely responses to inquiries and requests
• Get to know them, and touch base regularly with encouragement and positive feedback about their efforts.

▪ Empowered
Affiliates are like your online sales team – only they don’t work for you exclusively. Empower Them. Make them feel like they’re a PART of something. If they have a sense of ownership they are more likely to be loyal to your brand and promote you above or in place of your competition.
◦ Provide the tools necessary to help your affiliates make the most of their promotional efforts (coupons, banners/text links, video, widgets, data feeds, etc.)

▪ Rewarded
• Commission structure should be competitive
• Leave room for incremental increases either as part of a bonus structure based on performance volume/sales, on an individually negotiated basis (i.e. For better placement, exclusive terms, etc.) or ideally, both.
• Timely payments
• Flexibility – custom creative in some cases where requested
• Keep the reversal rate as low as possible – remember, if affiliates are confident they’ll actually receive proper payment for their efforts they’ll be more likely to increase ad spend and time/effort allocation for your brand

Find us on Twitter:

• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Merchant ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about Karen and GTO Management:

GTO Management Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @GTOMan
Facebook Fan Page

To learn more about Liz and Growthspurt Media:

Growthspurt Media Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @lizgazer
Facebook Fan Page

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

James Martell joins Affiliate ABCs Training Podcast hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss why article marketing is not a viable way to build backlinks. With recent changes at the search engines, article farms are looked upon differently than article directories were looked at in the past.

From a Blogging ABCs article on the subject by James:

Matt Cutts is the fellow in charge of Google’s Webspam, and in a video he recently gave a good definition of article marketing; “… you’re writing an article and you try to include a link at the bottom and you’re hoping a bunch of other people put up copies or mirrors or duplicates of that article and that those links might flow through.”

Matt also adds the following bit of advice; “Typically, the sorts of sites that just republish these articles are not the highest quality sites.”

Considering this piece of insight, one is moved to question whether article marketing is as effective as we’ve been told, and if not, why people continue to use it.

This is a long podcast with a lot of great discussion about exactly what is wrong with the old method of article marketing and some suggestions on what to do instead. One of the reasons this podcast is so detailed is because we don’t like affiliates being caught in the trap of folks still selling article marketing courses. Forewarned is forearmed

We are planning to get this podcast transcribed, if you want to be notified when the transcript is available please go to AffiliateABCs.com and use the newsletter sign up form in the top right of the home page.

Visit James’ Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp

Find us all on Twitter:
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Affiliate ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs and AffiliateABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Tricia Meyer discuss what bloggers and affiliates can learn from Tricia’s experience being unexpectedly dropped from two networks (described in her post The Ugly Side of Affiliate Marketing). The issues discussed apply when you have problems with the Affiliate Nexus Tax, Google AdSense, merchants closing, and many other aspects of affiliate marketing.

Our Four Main Tips:

1) Diversify. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  Have different types of sites in different niches. Work with different merchants across different networks.

2) Separate Accounts. Use separate network accounts when you have multiple sites or especially different types of sites (incentives, coupons, gambling, etc). It will come in handy if one of your sites gets flagged or if you decide to sell a site.

3) Use link redirecting. Redirecting will help you change out links quickly if you need to. In addition, you can use shorteners so that your domain shows up instead of someone else’s when you post your links in other places.

4) Network. Meet in person with as many people as possible. Further, after you connect with them, follow up, reinforcing your connection. When you need help, those connections may be the difference between keeping and losing your business.

Some Resources we mention:

Pretty Link Lite

YourLS Open Source shortener that you can install on your own website

Find Us On Twitter:

Blogging ABCs
Affiliate ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare were joined by Karen Garcia of GTO Management to discuss why affiliates should attend Blog World Expo.

Blog World Expo is in its 4th year and is now being held in both NYC & LA. There are different traffic strategies & ideas than typical for affiliate marketing and blogging strategies can work very well for affiliates.

You can join the affiliate program at gtomanagement.com

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about our guest:

GTO Management
Twitter: @GTOMan
Facebook Fan Page

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

Sarah Bundy of All Inclusive Marketing joins Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney to discuss why your company should have an integrated marketing plan that includes affiliate marketing as one component of many. Below are the outlines of what we discuss and links to Sarah’s sites that have more complete notes. Even with the notes, you really will want to listen to this podcast, even though it is a little longer than our average podcast.

5 Steps to Writing an Integrated Marketing Plan
By creating a strategic online marketing plan, you put your best foot (and brain, and dollar) forward in ensuring you achieve the best success for your new online presence. Here is a brief outline of what AIM usually covers in their integrated marketing plans for their clients.

1. Situation Analysis (research of the industry and online sales potential)
a) Product Description and Overview
b) Market Analysis / Potential
c) Identification of Target Groups
d) Selection of Primary Target Groups

2. Competitive Analysis
a) SWOT
b) Suggested Value Propositions

3. Positioning and Main Messaging
a) Suggested Brand Positioning
b) Suggested Main Messages (according to selected target groups)

4. Online Marketing Channel Strategy
a) Marketing Channel Analysis and Selection
b) Keyword Analysis
c) Competitive Analysis (narrowed down) with Competitive Edge
d) Customer Retention Strategy
f) Channel Rollout Plan (Setup and Execution)

5. Financial Analysis
a) Sales Projections
b) Budgets
c) Timelines

The 5 Decisions Every Customer Makes before they Buy (in this order!) are:

1. About you
2. About your business
3. About your product
4. About your price
5. About the time frame in which you can deliver.

These 5 decisions are almost ALWAYS made in this order and by almost EVERY customer. This decision process remains true whether you’re buying a car or a piece of pizza.

Where to Find Sarah:
Sarah’s LinkedIn account (bio)
All Inclusive Marketing website
All Inclusive Marketing blog
All Inclusive Marketing Twitter:
Sarah’s Twitter:
All Inclusive Marketing phone: (604) 560 2542

Find Us On Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Leave us some comments on points you agree or disagree on or how your company utilizes

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

Affiliate ABCs Podcast hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about things to look at that will get you declined in affiliate programs.

If you are an affiliate odds are you have received an email once or twice informing you that you have been declined by an affiliate program that you wanted to promote. Most networks send out a blanket email without much information on why you are declined. Here is a list of some of the reasons we decline most affiliate program applications.

1) No privacy policy on your site – We have been requiring affiliates to have a privacy policy on their site for a couple of years now. This has a few reasons, for one it tells the end user what information the affiliate sites collect. We don’t want things like email spammers in the program and the Can Spam act put this responsibility on the affiliates site and not the merchant. No merchant wants to get Can Spam complaints as they want to protect their email list. Having an affiliate jeopardize that will not be risked.

2) The affiliate site is nothing but banners and no value to the end user. If your site does nothing but put up banners and hope to get people to click on the links and buy it will not be successful. Think about the websites you visit when you are shopping. Do you shop from pages that look like this? I don’t think so. Banner farms don’t work for sales and never will.

3) The website is a cookie cutter coupon site that has a “Click To Reveal Coupon”. Most merchants feel that this is misleading the consumer especially if there is no coupon offered. They are just trying to get the end user to click and set the cookie. The merchant feels that these sites do not offer value to the end user. Most affiliate programs we run have an automatic “Click Here To Reveal Coupon” policy of automatic rejection.

4) You didn’t fill out the “More Details” section on the application. This is a big help to affiliate managers as you can tell the affiliate manager what sites you plan on promoting the affiliate program on. The affiliate manager may not be able to see all of your sites in your profile and have to guess where you are going to promote the program. This is a big help and I would say 99% of the applications that have “additional details” get approved.

5) All your sites are .wordpress.com, .blogspot, .weebly or Squidoo sites. This tells the affiliate manager that you are not serious about your business. If you can’t get a domain for $10 a year and cheap hosting of $4 a month it shows you are not serious about affiliate marketing. Plus WordPress.COM doesn’t allow affiliate links on blogs hosted there. You need to get WordPress.ORG files and install on your own domain.

6) Your content is nothing but pulling in someone elses RSS feed into your site. These are obvious to spot and half the time the content isn’t relevant to the niche they applied for. The affiliate manager sees this as a waste of time and will hit the decline button.

7) Speaking of content 90% of the time I will take a paragraph of content off an affiliate site and drop it in Google and see if it is original or scraped off another site. If we see copied content that would be an automatic decline also.

Whois information doesn’t match who you say you are on the site. We have rejected affiliate applications only to have the website reapply three weeks later with a new whois info and sometimes even a new domain. We get applications that say they are in the USA and the whois ends up being in another country. Making your site whois as private could also be seen as a red flag to the affiliate manager.

9) Parked page or Under Construction. If you don’t have a website most affiliate programs will not approve you. Unless you take advantage of that comments box and add in what your plans are and how you can fit the program into a site you are developing. Still some merchants will ask you to wait and apply when you have a site to show them.

If you are declined, email the affiliate manager and ask why. Sometimes it is a misunderstanding, sometimes your site really isn’t a good fit. By emailing the affiliate manager you also get to see if the program is being run by a real person or if it is on autopilot or the manager is just plain not responsive. In which case, you won’t want to work with them either

There is a lot more discussed in the podcast, let us know what you get declined for that irks you as an affiliate, and as a manager let us know what else you decline sites for!

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer are joined by Arlene Martell of Epilepsy Moms.

Arlene started her site over 3 years ago in order to pay forward the information that she has gained over the years.  Her son was diagnosed at 4 years old with both Epilepsy and Autism and has been drug and seizure free for over 10 years.

Arlene’s Free Ebook
Information on the Ketogenic Diet
Information on Neurotherapy

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz
Epilepsy Moms

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare were joined by Dave Cupples of Fat Cow Business and David Iwanow of The Lost Agency to discuss how to effectively market using Facebook ads and pages.

Facebook ads allow you to build a community that you can continue to market to.  Give value first in social media. Excellent information plus a great case study mentioned below.

Some resources mentioned:

TwitterFeed

Static HTML: iFrame Tabs app

Tutorial to Install the Facebook Page Reveal Tab

How to Give Value First in Social Media – Bondi Beach Photographer Aquabumps

http://www.facebook.com/aquabumps

http://aquabumps.com/

http://fatcowbusiness.com/make-money-with-facebook/aquabumps-give-value-first-in-social-media-amazing-facebook-case-study-from-bondi-beach-australia/

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about our guests:

The Lost Agency
Twitter: @TheLostAgency
Facebook Fan Page
Tour Bus

Fat Cow Business
Twitter:  @FatCowBusiness
Facebook Fan Page

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

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare were joined by Dave Cupples of Fat Cow Business and David Iwanow of The Lost Agency to discuss marketing through Facebook and email. Information packed podcast that not only affiliate marketers but anyone considering using Facebook advertising should listen to.

Engage first then try to sell based on engagement. Don’t just try to sell.

Direct traffic to own site, not direct to merchant so that you can capture visitor information and build loyalty.

Some resources mentioned:

Static HTML: iFrame Tabs app

Tutorial to Install the Facebook Page Reveal Tab

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about our guests:

The Lost Agency
@TheLostAgency
On Facebook
Tour Bus

Fat Cow Business
@FatCowBusiness
On Facebook

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

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about best practices, tools, and ideas for coupon sites in the affiliate industry.

Topics include:

• Best practices – ensuring sites are adding value and providing complete, updated coupons, removed expired deals and coupons quickly
• Tools available – such as For Me To Coupon, buy.at’s OfferCentral, Shareasale Network Deals Database
• Ideas – consider niche targeting, work with merchants to create unique coupons
• Scripts, plugins – don’t use them “out of the box”. Customize, change, build your traffic. No script or plugin is going to bring you traffic, they are only the display mechanism
• Check Merchant Rules about coupon sites – some practices like “Click to Reveal Code” are prohibited, know and follow the rules.

If managed well, these sites can tap into the massive revenue opportunity presented by digital coupons in the US market.  Specifically, eMarketer forecasts that 88.2 million US adults that will redeem online coupons or codes in 2011. That’s a huge number, but you have to build a site that gives them value to find you and not just toss up an automatically generated site and hope they find it. One example: Find a niche like fishing and find deals and coupons that appeal to fisherman.

Listen for a lot more great tips about how to run a coupon site that will bring revenue and not headaches.

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Party Beans – meet the owner Robert Sipko as he joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Liz Fogg, who also are managing Robert’s affiliate program for Party Beans.

We offer completely customized candy gifts for any occasion for purchase. Whether one has a birthday party for a son or simply wants to send a small “Get Well” gift to an ailing aunt, we provide convenient and easy online solution.

One can pick from numbers of candy containers, add icons, upload own photos, add text, pick candy types as well as candy flavors. All our products ship next business day if ordered by 4pm PT. All products shipped with Jelly Belly are Kosher (OU) certified by Orthodox Union.

Our candy is always fresh, we print photo quality vibrant colors and stand behind our service 100%. We bring over 12 years of promotional gifting experience and our mission is to offer coolest customized candy gifts for the very best price on the web.

Bring your users to our site and earn 15 -20% sales commission. Contact us if you have any questions or have any specific needs at affiliates at giftmoto.com

PartyBeans.com and Promotopia.com cross track and any visitors you send to one that end up ordering from either you will earn commission on. PartyBeans commission is 20% and Promotopia commission is 15%.

Professionally managed by Team Loxly Affiliate Management – Join the affiliate program for Party Beans

Check out our thread with cool examples of the products at the Affiliate Summit Networking Forum.

So, what is article marketing?

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam might explain it best “…you’re writing an article and you try to include a link at the bottom and you’re hoping a bunch of other people put up copies or mirrors or duplicates of that article and that those links might flow through.”

Matt goes on to say “Typically the sorts of sites that just republish these articles are not the highest quality sites.”

With that said, does article marketing work? While content like this can be picked up by search engines, it often doesn’t actually end up ranking very highly. Most times it’s discarded completely, especially by Google.

For one, it’s generally not the kind of writing that’s going to win any awards from an actual reader. It isn’t the kind of writing that a real person is going to mention on their blog, or submit to DIGG, Facebook or Tweet about.

And it doesn’t matter what a site is about. The site could be selling Yamaha piano keyboards, Kitchen Aid Mixers, or be featuring Golden lift chair reviews, regrettably, article marketing is still being touted as a viable marketing strategy.

There are, however, five danger signs you should watch for to avoid falling into this trap.

Danger Signal #1: You have ZERO input over who publishes your article.

As a writer submitting content to an article bank, you’re hoping that someone will pick up your article, and publish it on their site. The problem is, you are given exactly zero input on who uses your words the second you hit that ‘Submit’ button.

Your article might go to a good-quality site whose in good standings with Google, or it can go to a site whose standings are not so favorable and don’t want your work associated with. You have no say in the matter.

Danger Signal #2: Your content can end up duplicated on more than one site.

Article marketing doesn’t give users a monopoly on the content they choose to use on their sites. Needless to say, search engines have retaliated against this content bloating by filtering duplicates out of their searches.

Submitting content to article banks increases the odds that your writing is going to end up duplicated across the web… and completely hidden from view by search engines.

Danger Signal #3: You use duplicate anchor text.

Since search engines operate on keywords, including the keywords people are likely to search for is important, right? Sure. The problem arises when dozens or hundreds of articles use the exact same anchor text (I.e. reclining lift chairs).

The things is, in the real world, the odds of dozens or hundreds of different people linking back to a site using identical phrasing on all of their pages are roughly non-existent.

And just like other types of duplication, the only results in search engines deliberately filtering your article out of their search results.

Danger Signal #4: You’re encouraged to let anyone link back to you.

Back when link exchanges reigned, there was no such thing as bad publicity. Anyone who linked to you was helping you out. These days are gone- now it is definitely possible for your site to be hurt by being linked to the ‘wrong’ sites.

Think of you and the people who link to you as houses in a neighborhood. Just like you wouldn’t move into a bad neighborhood, you wouldn’t want just anyone linking back to your content. The trouble is, when you submit an article to an article directory, you’re actively inviting anyone and everyone to publish your article – good neighbor or bad.

Danger Signal #5: The search engines it relies on actively discourage article marketing.

Article marketing strategies are most notorious for providing two things- providing meaningless fluff content, and duplication. Considering that search engines like Google are designed to show visitors the most relevant, informative sites pertaining to their search terms, is it really that shocking to see why they would discourage this?

Is There A Future For Article Marketing?

Google, in particular, is working to fight spam with a vengeance. Sure, article marketing sites say that they’re working to more informative, quality content. The thing is, most of them wouldn’t recognize quality if it bit them in the ass.

Matt Cutts when asked “So, should you pursue article marketing?” went on to say “I would probably lean away from that and lean more towards great content that naturally has links, some good social media marketing so that people are linking to it organically for reasons that they really love it rather than someone needs five articles to put up on their website and they just go to this article bank somewhere, grab five articles and then slap it up on their website.”

He also went on to say “So if I had to make a prophecy or forecast about how Google feels or how search engines feel about them in general, the trend that I am hearing and the sort of complaints that I am hearing are that people are not huge fans of article marketing and don’t view it as an incredible value add in terms of the content that gets added to the web.”

And agreed, to those who may say that Matt paints a panacea of how Google would like to see things done, but let’s face it–when was the last time you had to click through to page two of the Google results to find what you we’re looking for?

Do you remember AltaVista, WebCrawler and Excite served up the search results? Google has come a long, long way.

Let’s face it, article marketing floods the Google’s results with millions of cheap, low-quality fluff pieces. Given Google’s attitude toward this type of content, does ticking them off sound like a viable marketing strategy to you?

Is Article Marketing Effective?

It was effective, at one time. With enhanced standards from search engines, however, there is no reason to believe that this practice is an effective, sustainable marketing strategy today.

I would love to hear your comments.

James Martell discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing in 1999. He is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur and a leading expert in affiliate marketing, outsourcing and SEO. James is the host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast. James is the host of the “Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp”, a first rate affiliate marketing training series well known for turning affiliate newbies into success stories. James resides in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada with Arlene and their four children. You’ll receive actionable tips, strategies and money making advice directly from James Martell when you subscribe to his weekly Affiliate Buzz podcast by email, RSS feed or iTunes. You can also follow James on Twitter. You’ll be glad you did!

Merchant ABCs Training podcast hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at Affiliate Network to talk about best practices when creating coupons and deals and how to effectively work with coupon affiliates.

Topics include:

·         The benefits of working with coupon affiliates
·         Best practices when creating a coupon code
·         Common concerns when working with coupon affiliates
·         Opportunities that could give your company an competitive advantage

Discussed in the podcast – when putting together a coupon code for affiliates, consider the following:

·         Test to make sure the coupon works
·         Ensure the promotion is a “real deal” vs. an everyday benefit (ex. free shipping on orders over $50)
·         Give at least 3 days notice to affiliates before the promotion goes live
·         Add time zones when defining coupon expiration dates and times
·         Clearly define any restrictions
·         Make sure the code is NOT case sensitive

Find Us On Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

This is an ABCs Plus Special edition podcast that is being posted to Affiliate ABCs, Blogging ABCs and Merchant ABCs because of the importance of the issue. Your hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney are joined by Karen Garcia, Outsourced Affiliate Program Manager to try and explain the Affiliate Nexus sales tax laws that states are enacting to attempt to get more companies to collect their state sales tax even though the companies do not have a physical presence in their state. States are trying to establish that affiliates and affiliate marketing gives companies a physical presence in their state, making the merchants liable to collect sales taxes in states they shouldn’t have to.

Some Resources we mention:
Coffee Talk with James Martell, Karen Garcia and Jeannine Crooks

PMA List of States and their status and links to their bills.

NexusAware – a listing of what companies already have to collect sales taxes in what states

There is a lot of information out there and much confusion by affiliates, merchants, bloggers and even the legislators themselves. If you are in a state that hasn’t passed this tax yet, check and see if they have a law drafted or on the table. Basically states are treating this as an amendment to their state sales tax laws and not as new laws, so they pass easier and sometimes with no press about it at all.

Please feel free to contribute additional information in the comments. We are not lawyers, so you need to check with a local lawyer familiar with internet law if you are in an affected state.

What we also discuss in this podcast is how affiliates can find merchants that already collect sales tax in their state, what types of merchants that sell items that are exempt and how to talk to your merchants to find out how they are going to handle it if their state passes such a law.

If you have a Twitter account and you are looking for more followers, listen up! I want to share with you how I grew my follower list to 5403 in a relatively short period of time.

First of all, I want you to know that I have been a full-time affiliate marketer since 1999, and after writing the Affiliate Marketers Handbook back in 2002, I became known as a top producer in the internet marketing field.

Are You Unsure of Twitter Like I Was?

That’s all well and good, but can you believe that I was very unsure about this thing called Twitter? I didn’t have a clue of what to do with it and just didn’t see how it fit into the big picture of internet marketing.

I knew that everyone was saying, “Gotta get a big following” and they implied someone was a nobody until they did.

I knew I didn’t want to grow my Twitter list with some of the questionable software that is out there to do that.

These Twitter Strategies Work No Matter What

Well, if you are pounding the pavement selling Hillsdale bar stools, truck bed liners, or chiropractic services, you are probably just like I was.

And I gotta tell you this. All the time I was thinking about how to increase Twitter followers, I was also thinking to myself, “How am I going to manage all those followers?”

If I went through all the work to create a following, how was I going to manage them?

Sidebar: TweetDeck Does All the Managing For You

So here’s my first tip to you on that subject: Check into TweetDeck. It’s free social media broadcast tool and the company has been perfecting their technology for a few years. To me it works like a charm.

3 FREE Strategies on How To Get More Twitter Followers

But on to the real things I want to tell you. I have 3 strategies for you to grow your Twitter following for free. Get ready for them. You are going to be so thankful you saw my article today and I believe you are going to remember this day for the rest of your life.

You’ll see how these strategies are EASY. You’ll kick yourself, wondering why you didn’t think of them before.

1. Thank You Pages = New Twitter Followers

Remember this one forever. In fact, take this strategy to heart and do this one TODAY.

Here’s what you’re going to do:

1. Pick a website that you have.
2. Open the thank you page in your web-page editing software program.
3. This is the page that you redirect subscribers to after the opt-in page to your newsletter.
4. Now on that page, you’ll notice that it’s pretty empty, right? Well, let’s make use of some of the white space. Add an invitation to your latest subscribers on this page – for following you on Twitter.
5. Don’t forget to give them a benefit of following your directions.
6. Upload the page back up to your website.

See how easy that is? You do realize that no matter what you are selling, this will work 100% of the time?

2. Get on the Guest Writer Circuit

Just about everyone needs guest writers for their site. And that’s where you come in. Wouldn’t you love to be in front of thousands of new people every week without having to do any suitcase packing?

This is where guest writing comes in. You can easily contact a few other website owners each week and ask them if you can provide an article for their readers. Here are a few ideas:

• Myths about _____
• Tips about _____ that save time
• Money making strategies about _____
• How to do ______

And here’s the clincher: they won’t follow you on Twitter unless you ask them. So at the end of the article in the bio section, ask! Don’t be shy. Tell them why it’s a good idea for them to follow you.

Now you know how it is in Internet Marketing. We get bombarded with good ideas all the time. The success comes when you initiate. So quick, who are a few places you can contact right now for being a guest writer? Take the challenge and start writing.

3. Be a Syndicated Newspaper Owner

For this last strategy, you don’t have to go through all the things that other online newspaper owners have to go through. You can do it with the push of a bunch of buttons.

Check this out right now: Go to http://paper.li/JamesMartell/1308523225 and view my paper called The Guest Blogging Daily. It’s easy to set-up and very powerful.

Here’s the procedure:

1. Go to www.paper.li
2. Choose your keyword, one of many different beautiful styles, etc.
3. The articles will be selected based on your keyword.
4. Publish it to Twitter daily.

It’s push button technology at its best. Set it up and spend no time trying to newspaper ads to cover some huge investment cost.

But here’s the beauty of it all: the contributing authors are automatically tweeted when each new newspaper is published. They are very often thrilled when they see that their article is being featured and many I have found retweet it to their followers. And that’s how your Twitter numbers rise and rise and rise.

I have also found that the contributing author also becomes a follower.

Why wouldn’t anyone want to do this? It’s so easy that an 8-year-old could do it. So my challenge to you is to get this going. Do it this today and don’t postpone it.

Time to Get Up Off the Couch!

Do you see just how easy it really can be to get more Twitter followers? Do you see that these methods are ways to get free Twitter followers? Do you see that it doesn’t matter if you are selling toothpaste, helicopters, dental services or kitchen bar stools?

Increasing your Twitter followers was never so easy!

So get on this today!

James Martell discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing in 1999. He is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur and a leading expert in affiliate marketing, outsourcing and SEO. James is the host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast. James is the host of the “Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp”, a first rate affiliate marketing training series well known for turning affiliate newbies into success stories. James resides in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada with Arlene and their four children. You’ll receive actionable tips, strategies and money making advice directly from James Martell when you subscribe to his weekly Affiliate Buzz podcast by email, RSS feed or iTunes. You can also follow James on Twitter. You’ll be glad you did!

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss what affiliate marketing is.

Vinny attended Blog World and had many bloggers ask what affiliate marketing is. Simply put affiliate marketing is affiliates (bloggers) putting special tracking links (affiliate links from a network or merchant) on their websites (blogs). When a visitor to a blog clicks an affiliate link and makes a purchase, the blogger makes a commission on that sale. That is the simple explanation Listen for lots more great information and how affiliate marketing can be one way to possibly monetize your blog.

Links to some affiliate networks.
ShareASale
Commission Junction
Linkshare
buy.at

We would like to challenge you to find one network or merchant that you would want to work with and see how it would fit into your blog.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz
Vinny O’Hare

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Join Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney and guest Roy Weissman as they discuss their recommendations for Plugins on your WordPress site.

Top 12 Plugins for every wordpress site

1. All-in-One SEO Pack
2. Akismet – You need an API key from Akismet.com
3. Contact Form 7
4. Easy Privacy Policy
5. Google XML Sitemap – Don’t activate until after site is done
6. Google Analytics
7. Sexy Bookmarks
8. Simple Tags
9. Wp DB Backup
10. Wp to Twitter ReTweet
11. WordPress.com Stats
12. Yet Another Related Posts

Always know where you’re getting your plugins from and that they are compatible with your version of WordPress.

Tutorials, videos, etc are available on Roy’s site, as well as a resource page at: http://BuildMySiteForFree.com/affiliateabcs

Post your favorite plugins and why below!

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

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

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss why bloggers should attend Affiliate Summit.

Attending Affiliate Summit is the dividing line between dabbling and going full time for many people.  Networking happens more in the follow up after the conference. Meet Market is most important day if you can only afford to be there one day, that is Sunday afternoon from Noon to 6pm.

If this is your first time attending, be sure to sign up for the Newcomers Program where you will be paired up with a mentor who can answer general questions and introduce you to people.  Be sure to visit the Affiliate Summit Forum to start meeting people before the conference.

The deadline for the Affiliate Summit Scholarship Program has passed for the August 2011 event, however you can still find giveaways of passes on twitter when you search for #ASE11, plus be on the lookout this fall for passes for Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas in January.

Here is an Affiliate Summit pass giveaway that ends June 30, 2011

And just as we were ready to post Shawn Collins posted this giveaway for Gold Passes to Affiliate Summit East!

Find Us On Twitter:

Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Small Business WordPress theme – meet the developer Don Campbell as he joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare, Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg, who also are managing Don’s affiliate program for his WordPress theme.

Liz has been using it on sites for local and small online businesses that don’t need a full blog but need an easy to manage website. A couple of examples:
LizFogg.com
MyConsultingPlace.com/

Don Campbell – Worked in content management systems in silicon valley but left to make his own business.  He developed a highly specialized theme from working with small local biz for 3 years and created a tool set that was developed from seeing what the sites needed and wanted and made it easy to create and manage.

You can turn a WordPress blog into a website for a local and online businesses.  You simply fill out a page and the information goes throughout the template.  There is a control center for the business owner or the consultants getting local companies online.

Choose a template, layout and instantly create a Front Page, About Us, Find Us, and Contact Us pages, plus a blog.

It also creates a mobile version of your site with click to call and click to find on a map using your smart phone gps.

There is blog capability, but it’s more for updates, not showing on the front page so your site looks like a website that has static information that people are looking for.

There is Facebook page management built in which creates your Facebook business page and updates it from your website.

Affiliates can target small businesses to sell to directly, or small business consultants to use the multisite version to use for client sites. The multisite does allow consultants to use for clients without purchasing additional licenses for each site.

Local space is huge and growing quickly. Mobile searches are for local sites. Consultants can build a site for a local business in an hour with the basic information. Easy enough for do it yourself small business owners to be able to create a web presence that is easy to manage.

If you don’t want your site to “look” like a blog, there are 8 different page layouts that are completely customizable, easily, plus you still have the blog function.

As theme develops, all new functions are added at no additional cost to those that have already purchased it. Customer service is top notch, they have a support forum, with over 60 how to videos on the site, and a very responsive development team.

Responsible merchant that is reactive to what affiliate needs. We have precoded articles ready and will be loading the videos in the Shareasale interface. Would encourage affiliates that would like to make their own videos to please contact us for a single license to try.

Program Details
30% commission, 60 day cookie, auto deposit, on Shareasale network
Average sale is $199 – combining the single and multisite licenses – average commission is $74

Join Small Biz WordPress Theme affiliate program.
Current landing page: Will update shortly to the dedicated site.

@DonCampbell
@VinnyOHare
@TeamLoxlyLiz
@TeamLoxly
@Loxly

Thanks to GeekCast.fm Podcasting Network for hosting our podcasts. Please go check them out for other podcasts about internet marketing, affiliates marketing and how to be a great merchant.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to talk about affiliate program SEO policies and important considerations when constructing terms and conditions.

Topics include:
·         The impact of placing restrictions on affiliates who rank for SEO/natural search terms
·         Understanding why advertisers may put restrictions in place and how affiliates use SEO
·         Suggestions on how to structure a search policy and additional Ts & Cs

Key takeaways:

·         Be smart – advertisers benefit by learning industry best practices and from other programs before finalizing their affiliate terms and conditions
·         Be aware – think about the impact on affiliates in addition to the impact on the advertiser
·         Be clear – write terms and conditions in a way that affiliates can clearly understand the rules

Also, be fair –affiliates are an advertiser’s marketing partners.  Great communication will go a long way in developing a profitable relationship.
Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

You know I’ve been in this business for over a decade and it wasn’t until I met Todd Tresidder, an expert financial planner who is also a client of mine, that I looked at the real wealth that is generated through affiliate marketing. It took the eyes of a financial planner to show me what my revenue streams really represented.

And Todd should know.

For years Todd was an exceptionally talented hedge fund manager consistently earning profits for his rich clients. But that got old. In other words he was tired of building wealth for the wealthy and felt that he could use his wealth building skills to greater advantage by helping people that actually needed it.

Todd sold his business…at age 35…and retired from the hedge fund business. He opened a new business as a financial coach and has built a very successful practice.

Like many “small” businesses Todd decided it was time to take his practice digital and approached Arlene and I for a little assistance with its promotion. While we were involved in that project he asked us about affiliate marketing and of course that triggered nonstop talk from me. When I finished Todd just looked at me and said “you know…

$100 per month in affiliate sales is the equivalent of having a $30,000 retirement plan”.

At first I didn’t understand what he was saying but he went on to explain that $100.00 per month is the return that a retirement program funded with $30,000 would yield. OK…so what. I was wondering where or how he was making the connection between affiliate marketing revenue and retirement income.

So I asked him and he walked me through some numbers.

• Todd’s clients averaged between 3.5% and 5% return on their retirement investments.
• That return is net earnings; they weren’t dipping into the principal to make the percentage.
• Each year that return replenished itself and the initial investment is never touched.
• $100 per month is the equivalent of a 4% return on a $30,000 retirement fund.

Great…I understood that but I still didn’t see the connection with affiliate marketing. And then Todd told me something that that turned on the light bulb. From his perspective as a financial planner, both retirement income and affiliate marketing revenue are forms of passive income.

Building income for life…not just tomorrow

Todd went on to explain that retirement investments earn indirect passive income through the interest made on the principal. Affiliate marketing revenue earns passive income directly through automated sales.

If done correctly an affiliate marketing site will make a regular, predictable income month after month without doing any additional work. This is really more profound than it sounds.

Most people in the world trade their time for money. It’s called working for somebody else and putting in hours for a paycheck. However, when those people no longer trade their time (they’ve retired or have become unemployed) the paychecks stop coming. When an affiliate marketer establishes a successful site they have built a “paycheck” that will continue to deliver even if the marketer never touches the site again.

Affiliate marketing builds “lifetime” income.

Getting over the $100 bump

If you’re just starting in the business I know how difficult it must seem to reach that first $100 per month mark but the good news is that it gets much easier after that. And here’s the reason why.

Affiliate marketing is a business and just like any other business it requires skill and experience to make it prosper. If you’re new, consider this time as your apprenticeship. This is where you learn what works (and a lot of what doesn’t work) but if you persist you will succeed. Nothing breeds success like success. When you see that first $100 you will be amazed how much more energy you will put into your business and that energy will translate into passive income.

And what if your first site gets stuck at $100 a month? What if it just can’t generate any more? Was all the work worth it? Sure it was. Think about what $100 per month buys…your internet connection and phone service? That little $100 per month site has just provided you free internet connection and phone service…for the rest of your life!

So how much do you need to retire?

Obviously that’s a very personal question but it’s one that you should answer regardless of your age. Everyone assumes you can live on less when you retire but that’s not necessarily the case. You’re going to have lots more free time and what you want to do with that time will determine what kind of income you’ll need.

It can be a tricky task but you don’t need a “how much to retire calculator” but you might want a copy of Todd’s book “How Much Is Enough To Retire”. It’s pretty simple math really, the real trick is determining what you are going to need on a monthly basis and that’s where Todd’s book comes in handy.

Let’s assume for a moment that you’ll need a retirement investment of $1,000,000 @ 3.5% interest to yield a little over $2900 per month. Now you can either find a way to squirrel away a million dollars in an interest bearing account or you can build up your affiliate income to $2900 per month, the net impact on your monthly income is the same.

Now moving from $100 per month to $2900 per month may seem like a Herculean task but it isn’t. As your business matures, as your knowledge increases and as your list grows, increasing revenue becomes far easier.

Avoid the number 1 reason that kills this dream

Actually it’s the main reason that many small businesses fail. Todd describes it as “lack of persistence” I call it quitting too soon. You have to have a commitment to the business. You have to put in the necessary effort and planning to get the business off on the right track and you have to watch it like a hawk initially tweaking what needs to be tweaked and reinforcing what’s working.

Many people either just don’t put the energy into the task or they do everything they think is right but quit before they ever see a real profit.

Affiliate marketing, like most businesses is not an overnight money maker. It takes a while to make that first sale but when it comes it means you have done it right and it can now become a source of sustainable passive income. Hang in there.

James Martell discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing in 1999. He is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur and a leading expert in affiliate marketing, outsourcing and SEO. James is the host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast. James is the host of the “Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp”, a continually updated affiliate marketing training well known for turning affiliate newbies into success stories. James resides in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada with Arlene and their four children.

As we have announced before, Team Loxly is focusing on educating affiliates, bloggers and merchants. We would like to invite you to come and be our guest at the following sites, you can submit more than one topic, or more than one site. We have guests that have discussed topics that cover all three audiences.

We have three ABCs series of podcasts where we give advice and pointers on how to achieve success as an affiliate, monetize your blog or run the perfect merchant program. Part of the success of our podcasts are listening to the people that listen to the podcasts and hear what they want to learn about or when they propose a topic that they want to share their expertise on. We encourage people to introduce us to guests we should have on our shows, and also offer to be guests and speak on a topic or ask us questions about a topic. Our podcasts are all discussion style and not necessarily interview style. We often will have a panel of up to 4 people that will discuss a topic.

We also like to keep the podcasts short and one specific topic so that our listeners have one main takeaway from our shows and are not bombarded with information that they can’t absorb. We also like our guests because we feel that the affiliate industry is in constant growth and there is no one “voice” that can keep up with all the changes. We may create some ebooks from our podcast topics and create some formal training (we are developing that on Merchant ABCs first) but we are not interested at this time in producing print books that are almost out of date by the time they are published.

Here are the links:
Be our guest on Merchant ABCs podcast: Tell merchants what you want them to know to make their programs stellar
Be our guest on Affiliate ABCs podcast: Ask us questions, tell affiliates about your timesaving tips, what things work for you
Be our guest on Blogging ABCs podcast: Ask us how to monetize your blogs, offer your style and writing tips, software and plugins you use

And on Merchant ABCs we have a very special page where you can share the things that Merchants, Affiliates, and Networks do that annoys you or makes you happy. Come share your pet peeves and your props about all aspects of the affiliate industry. We are going to start posting the responses this week. There are some very similar peeves/props that have us already thinking about future podcasts and looking for guests to cover those topics.

Finally, other places to find many affiliate voices discussing industry issues Affiliate Summit Affiliate Forum and FeedFront Affiliate Industry Magazine.

James Martell joins Merchant ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney discuss what merchants should and shouldn’t have in their newsletters and how frequently they should be sent out. They also dive into what merchants should include in recruiting emails.

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
James Martell
Merchant 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.

James Martell joins Blogging ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney discuss guest posting and how it differs from submitting articles to article directories. Article directories have too many similar articles, they are focused on quantity over quality.

Guest posts are higher quality and are related to the topic of the blog they are guest posting for. Be picky about who you guest post for, and who guest posts for you. Guest posts give a blog different voices which can give your blog a new vitality.

Listen to the audio for more great advice from our panel of experts.

Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp

Twitter:
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

When I say “KISS and tell” I’m not talking about your social life I’m talking about the one thing you can do that can double or even triple the amount of income you’re getting from your website without increasing your traffic. I’m talking about a single strategy that will put more dollars in your pocket from your existing visitors.

I’m talking about simplifying your site and taking more control over what you want your visitors to do.

Technology is a wonderful thing. It can make us much more productive both through automation and statistical analysis but it can also be too much of a good thing. Technology has a dark side. Technology can be addictive. You may find yourself using technology just for the sake of using technology without any clear idea of how that technology is going to impact the visitors to your site.

That’s a lesson I learned a while back what you got hard look at one of my websites.

WordPress and all the shiny bells and whistles

When I first started out over a decade ago I was using Drupal for my websites but then eventually converted to WordPress which just impressed the heck out of me. What really grabbed my attention was the content management system that was so simple to operate that even a non-techie like myself could create beautiful looking sites quickly, easily and for next to nothing in cost.

What a fantastic CMS platform WordPress is. But the icing on the cake is WordPress’s exceptional functionality features. Where else can you get literally thousands of widgets that you can add to your site simply by dragging and dropping? Just like that your website designing genius and it’s so easy the temptation to add more and more features is almost irresistible.

Professional website designers and developers would spend hours writing code to do it you can do in minutes. For example you can get widgets for:

• sidebars
• advertising
• archive lists
• comment clouts (don’t you just love them)
• social media buttons
• and one of my all-time favorites all the video that you could ever want

That’s just a short list, as I mentioned earlier there are literally thousands of these widgets that can turn your site into this incredibly dynamic place.

So that’s great right?

When less is best

If you’re focused on affiliate marketing and you’re promoting rocking chairs, woodworking routers, golf instruction videos or even Hillsdale bar stools you make your money on conversions. Everything on your site, every page, should lend itself to the ultimate objective of converting a visitor to a customer.

When your site is loaded down with “functionality” that functionality can actually distract a visitor from considering your product or service. If your website is offering so many options and doodads that your visitors become either confused or engaged with the doodads rather than your offer, then you have a serious problem.

Keep it simple – clean up the clutter and kick up conversions

As I mentioned earlier I’ve been in this business for over a decade but that didn’t stop me from falling victim to the widget madness once I discovered WordPress. Adding all the buttons seemed like a good idea to time but then I decided to take a hard look at my site page by page and see just how many different things a visitor to do on any single page.

The answer was… they could do a lot of things, including leaving the site.

With all the links and photos buttons I had on a page there was a very real possibility that my message was being lost by all of the distractions. I decided it was time for some spring cleaning and dropped off the widgets that didn’t make sense, cutback in the social media buttons and pared down the graphics that were overwhelming.

When I completed my little mini-makeover I was delighted to find a page that was far easier to read and more importantly, that let my message dominate the page and made it clear what I wanted my visitors to do next.

Five tips for de-cluttering your website and increasing conversions

If your website has unnecessary distractions that are either confusing your visitors or getting them engaged in activity that detracts from your prime objective of turning them into customers, then you may want consider these three tips that I use to take them by the hand and leads them down the path I want them to travel.

Tip #1: know the purpose of each page on your website. Before you put a page up make sure it’s clear your mind exactly what you want the visitor to do. Maybe it’s going from a product review page to a sales page or going from an e-mail capture page to signing up for your newsletter. You have to be certain why that page exists. If you’re not certain how can your visitors possibly know what you want them to do?

Tip #2: take your visitors by the hand. Make sure your content is designed so that there is no question in the visitor’s mind what step they should take next. This is the “”KISS and tell. If the visitor lands on an opt in page then the content has to convince him that the next logical step is to sign up not page back to read more articles.

Tip #3: keep it simple. This is the “KISS” part of KISS and tell. As much as we like the bells and whistles try keep your pages as simple as possible. Sometimes just a white background with black text and a strong header is enough to engage the visitor and get them to do what you want them to do. Less can be more.

Tip #4: have a strong call to action on every page. If each page has a reason for being then it’s obvious that each page needs a strong call to action to get that visitor to do what the page is designed to do. Don’t just write compelling text and forget to tell the visitor where to go next. Usually the call to action is at the bottom of the content but if you’ve done a strong job of pre-selling it can be near the top.

Tip #5: don’t ignore social media buttons. We talked about cutting down the number of social media buttons but that does not mean cut them all out. Social media is a great way for your visitors to share their experience with her friends who in turn can turn into new traffic for your site. Just select the social media that makes sense for your audience.

Remember people read left to right

When visitors land on your page their eyes will automatically look to the top left. What appears in the top left of your website? If it’s not your most important content you should consider editing the page. As a general rule never have a sidebar running down the left side because all I can do is distract the visitor.

Doing a mini makeover to clean out the clutter is a great strategy that can be applied to any type of website regardless of the product or service you’re promoting. It is an effective and sound tactic that can be used across a wide array of products like kitchen bar stools, auto insurance quotes, electric keyboards, chiropractic services, or even router table reviews.

So take a look at your site with an eye towards eliminating clutter and watch your conversion rates skyrocket.

Bio

James Martell discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing in 1999. He is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur and a leading expert in affiliate marketing, outsourcing and SEO. James is the host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast. James is the host of the “Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp”, a continually updated affiliate marketing training well known for turning affiliate newbies into success stories. James resides in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada with Arlene and their four children.

Join Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney and guest Roy Weissman as they discuss how to maximize using WordPress as a site building tool.

Topics discussed include:
Posts vs Pages -Pages are static & informational. Posts get you action, and are in your rss feed
Get a theme – Roy’s Directory of themes
Plug ins – Roy’s Recommended Top 14 plugins to use
Widgets

Tutorials, videos, etc are available on Roy’s site, as well as a resource page at: http://BuildMySiteForFree.com/affiliateabcs

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

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

James Martell, joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss how affiliates can work more efficiently by outsources

Can you do it all yourself? Sure, but it will be faster and more efficient to outsource to someone who specializes in what you need done. Like you can build your own home, but it would be better to hire a builder.

Do what you do best – outsource the rest.
Special offer: Email arlene.martell@gmail.com for access to first video in James’ Outsourcing Course

10 Tips to Outsourcing

1. Don’t Assume It Will Be “Too Expensive” – Many new online business owners assume outsourcing is expensive. As a result, they never get around to posting projects and their businesses suffer. Make steps to get things done and start outsourcing those projects you aren’t skilled at. You might be surprised at how little it costs, and more importantly, the time you save combined with the progress your business will make more than pays for itself. Post your projects, and if you aren’t happy with the bids you don’t have to accept any.

2. Clearly Describe Your Project – This is as simple as writing an email. Write in layman’s terms and describe your project needs as clearly and accurately as you can. The more accurate and detailed you are, the higher chance you will have finding a provider that will fulfill your needs at a reasonable price.

3. Set Milestones And Use Escrow – Elance’s escrow system is a key component for both the writer and buyer. It protects you and your money, but it also assures the provider that you are serious about paying for the job and it insures more high-quality bidders. Setting milestones also helps to keep the project on track. Break your project up into smaller milestones and pay into escrow and release payments at specific times, such as weekly payments upon completion of each milestone. This also helps with cash-flow.

4. Evaluate Feedback – Buyers and providers give feedback for many of the projects performed on Elance. Take a look at a provider’s feedback from completed projects to see what other buyers have experienced. The more positive feedback the more likely you will have a positive experience and get the quality of work you desire. If you have any questions, private message the provider to answer any questions prior to awarding the project.

5. Negotiate Price – Don’t be afraid to negotiate a better price. You may have several providers bidding on a job, and if one of them appears to be perfect for the project but their fee is too expensive, feel free to private message them and negotiate. They may not understand the project completely, and if you really want them there is a chance they will work with you on price, particularly if they feel there is a chance to build a long-term relationship with you.

6. Answer Messages – It is critical to answer provider’s messages quickly. Respond with detailed answers to help insure your project isn’t held up. Elance’s private message board system stores all communication between buyer and provider in case of any problems.

7. Pay Quickly – Providers are in the business of making money like the rest of us, and they appreciate prompt payment upon completion of their projects. This typically results in great feedback for you as well.

8. Stay Within The System – It is important to understand the power of the feedback and escrow system within Elance. Both buyers and providers gain protection when working within the system and it keeps everyone honest. There is a paper trail of all activities and communications archived on Elance and this helps in solving any disputes should they occur (they are rare – I have never had one). It is also important to leave accurate, honest feedback upon completion of projects.

9. Develop Relationships – When you come across a real gem of a provider, hire them again and again. The more they work with you and get to know you and your business, the better they will be at providing you with the quality of work you need.

10. Build Your Feedback – Make sure you ask for and provide feedback. Great feedback usually results in better prices. If providers see that you are easy to work with, communicate well and pay quickly from the feedback you earn, you will have instant trust with bidders and will have more people wanting to bid on your projects. Elance has grown into arguably the best outsourcing site for online business owners by providing an easy way to find quality providers. They also offer great telephone support for any questions you may have. Building your online business doesn’t have to be stressful and overwhelming. Finding outsourced talent at reasonable prices is a big step in building your business quickly and effectively.

Some Links:
elance
Subply
VWorker
Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp

Add more links in the comments to your favorite place to outsource to.

Twitter:
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Affiliate ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Tricia Meyer and Deborah Carney discuss why bloggers should attend conferences.

Some Conference Links:
Shareasale Network Think Tank
BlogWorld
Affiliate Summit
SheCon
CJU
AdTech
BlogHer

Follow us on Twitter:

Tricia Meyer
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more great podcasts about internet marketing.

Affiliate Summit is presenting a series of webinars leading up to Affiliate Summit East in NYC, which we were invited to participate in. Since a lot of new merchants and merchants without programs yet are always looking at why affiliates aren’t signing up or want to know how to recruit affiliates, this webinar shows the elements that super affiliates look for in a merchant’s website before they will look at joining your program or posting your links.

We have a related podcast with affiliate Eric Nagel, a super affiliate that explains what he looks for in a merchant site and why.

Join Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney and guest Roy Weissman as they discuss using WordPress as a site building tool and content management system.

WordPress isn’t just a blog, it’s a platform to manage entire website.  Wordpress.com hosting does not allow advertising, so use wordpress software from Worpress.org on your domain as a Content Management System.  Wordpress sites are better than html for affiliates.  Within an hour you can have a full site up with content, affiliate links, etc.  You can just pick a new theme and you have a whole new look for your website without losing any of your content.  Wordpress is designed to grow with your business, so it’s great for small businesses but also NY Times and CNN are using wordpress.  Make sure you back up your database and files.

Tutorials, videos, etc are available on Roy’s site, as well as a resource page at: http://BuildMySiteForFree.com/affiliateabcs

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

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

As usual Google is continuing to place more and more importance on what other websites think of your content when they calculate where a page should be located in the search results. Google realized early on that it could not evaluate the true value of content simply by looking at keyword phrase density. So they passed off the job of evaluation to other websites.

Other websites can cast a vote for your site by providing a link pointing back at it. These backlinks can play an enormous part in where your site is going to rank for a particular phrase.

I have been a full-time affiliate marketer for over a decade now and the one thing that has not changed when it comes to marketing is that the more targeted traffic your site receives the more sales you will make. Quality backlinks from relevant sites can work wonders when it comes to driving targeted traffic.

But how you get those quality backlinks? I’ve spent a great deal of time researching and gathering backlinks and teaching others to do the same through my trainings and I’ve developed a process that requires some hard work but yields major rewards.

The PAD technique

Well of course what’s the first thing you do after you develop a new technique… you give it an acronym. PAD stands for Professional Article Distribution and here are a few of the key techniques.

• Finding excellent websites on which to post articles
• Creating exceptionally good articles (content is still king)
• Analyzing and understanding the right anchor text to use for your links.
• Getting really selective about the whole process of publisher selection.

This process involves developing relationships with other webmasters and it certainly requires a little work but it’s well worth it. Once you have your relationships in place and you are regularly providing content to those publishers, you’ll be amazed at the amount traffic you get and the improvement you’ll experience in the search engines.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Publisher selection. The most important part of the pad program is finding sites that are suitable for your type of articles. Suitable doesn’t mean similar. You won’t be approaching competitors you’ll be approaching sites that have audiences that can use your product or services.

For example if you’re promoting an inflatable boat you won’t approach sites that sell boats or boating equipment. What you can do is approach sites that focus on camping or fishing or outdoor adventure. These are sites that you can easily write articles for that will appeal to their audience and will allow anchor text to be placed in a natural way.

So the real key for the pad technique starts with developing a list of relevant sites that you can target for backlinks. Remember what you’re doing is offering free content that is relevant to a site’s audience. What you want into exchange for your fabulous content is an opportunity to link back to your site using anchor text.

2. Creating your content. If you know your subject inside out and you’re a competent writer, then you can obviously reduce your own informative and engaging content. But if you’re lacking in either knowledge or writing skill you can easily outsource the content by using a freelance site like Elance.com.

Even if you are an accomplished writer you may find outsourcing to be a more productive way to go. By outsourcing you free yourself up to handle multiple tasks at the same time. I use this approach all the time and it allows me to get more done in less time.

The secret outsourcing is to ensure that you provide the contractor with the description of exactly what you want. You can find really creative talent on freelance sites at relatively inexpensive prices but they have to know just what it is you want done.

3. Identifying where your links go to. You want the links that you include in these articles to link back to the relevant page on your website and that page often is not your homepage. For example if you’re getting a review on a particular product that you want the link to go to that product page not the homepage.

Always have the link points to a page that is well-designed and has a well defined call to action. The objective here is to not only generate traffic but to maximize the opportunity to convert.

4. Anchor text is key to your success. Backlinks from anchor text carry a lot of weight in the evaluation of where your pages going to rank. It doesn’t matter what you’re promoting be it router tables, dishwashers, golf tips, free auto insurance quotes or even arc welding, the more relevant anchor text that you have pointing to your page the higher it will rank.

Create a list of potential anchor links for every page you plan to promote and keep in mind that many different ways that people may search for that anchor text topic.

A quick way to develop this anchor links list is to use Google’s keyword tool which will provide keyword alternatives to your main keyword phrase. Select 4 or 5 of the highest volume keywords to base your PAD campaign on. You’ll probably only be allowed to put in one or two backlinks but keep in mind you want to rewrite the articles and submit them to other websites and by using different anchor text you increase the opportunity to build your Google PageRank.

5. Give the webmaster what he or she wants. Remember the trade-off is backlinks for quality content so question becomes just what does the webmaster think quality content is. The easiest way to determine that is to simply ask them.

• Do they have topics in mind?
• Customize the articles to fit the style of the website is going to appear on.
• Make the content attractive and easy. Use subheadings and short paragraphs to make the article easy to scan.

6. Eye grabbing headlines. This is just article writing 101. You have to have a killer headline to grab the attention of the visitor and remember that the first visitor is going to be a webmaster that you’re submitting it to. Headlines should be informative but they also have to be exciting enough to convince a visitor to read the text. Headlines should not be over 10 words long and he most definitely should be relevant to the content.

7. Placing the anchor text. Sometimes you get so involved in writing the content that you forget about the anchor text and where it should be placed. It’s not a good idea to have it in the first paragraph and if you have the opportunity to have two anchor texts keep them separated by enough content so they don’t look spamming.

Make sure the anchor text isn’t crammed or forced into the article but rather is a natural sounding component of a sentence.

8. Get to know the webmaster. Like so many things in a successful business, relationships play an important role and that’s true with PAD campaigns. These aren’t one shot wonders they are ongoing campaigns which means your webmasters must continue to agree to post your articles.

The hardest part of the project is to get that first article up. If you are providing engaging informative articles then you’re providing that webmaster with valuable content which will help his site get ranked. Working on that relationship and ensuring that you’re getting him or her something of value will ensure that your articles will continue to be posted on that site.

9. Give a nudge. While it may be difficult to imagine, webmasters have much more on their mind than just the article you submitted. Life happens and just like you and me the webmaster is subjected to any number of distractions.

If your article is published within a week then send a friendly reminder via e-mail. Most of the time you’re going to discover that the webmaster had simply overlooked your article and will get it up shortly after you remind them.

10. Repeat, repeat, repeat. The PAD technique works best if it is constantly repeated. In other words if your first campaign consists of 10 articles don’t stop there. I try to get 20 additional articles before I take a break. And after a break it’s time for 30 more.

Think about it, with 60 articles published you have on average hundred and 20 relevant anchor texts pointing to “call to action” pages on your website. Not only are you going to rank better but you have just increased the odds of conversion.

Backlinks are the major deciding factor in the evaluation of where your pages going to rank. It doesn’t matter what you’re promoting be it copper sinks, wood routers, car parts, golf training, free car insurance quotes or even MIG welding machines, the more relevant anchor text that you have pointing to your page the higher it will rank.

I’ve been using this technique since 2004 and I can assure you that works follow these 10 steps and you’ll create relevant traffic to your site, an increase in ranking, an increase in conversions and create a steady revenue stream.

Bio

James Martell discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing in 1999. He is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur and a leading expert in affiliate marketing, outsourcing and SEO. James is the host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast in the industry. James is the host of the “Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp”, a continually updated affiliate marketing training series well known for turning affiliate newbies into success stories. James his resides in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada with Arlene and their four children.

What single thing can you do to double or even triple your income without increasing your traffic?

Clean house.

Technology is great. It lets us do all sorts of stuff, increases our efficiency, and allows us to live the sort of lifestyles we love–but technology does have a darker side.

If we let it, technology can blind us to what’s important and it can easily overwhelm us. Even us affiliate marketers have to watch out because while technology does definitely work for us, there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

That’s a hard truth I learned a while back when I took a look at one of my websites.

My Love/Hate Relationship with WordPress

I used Drupal for years but converted most of my sites to WordPress a while back because I simply love the content management system. It allows everyone—even those non-techies like me—to build beautiful-looking websites quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Within hours you can have the framework of a website up and running with a one-button install of this wonderful little CMS.

However, I also hate WordPress. It is so easy to use, so full of functionality, and so easy to integrate with social media and other technologies that it’s almost too easy to go “whole hog” when a more refined approach would more effective.

What do I mean?

With WordPress you can simply drag and drop literally thousands of widgets onto your website:

• Advertisements
• Sidebars
• Text blocks
• Archive lists
• Comment clouds
• Tag clouds
• All the pictures and video you could ever want
• Social media buttons . . .

The list goes on.

More Isn’t Always Better

So being able to add all that stuff is great, right?

Yes and no.

When you’re in the affiliate marketing industry your livelihood depends on converting your website’s visitors. If you’re promoting battery operated ride on toys, patio furniture, Nutrisystem diet plan reviews, dog training manuals, or ebook tutorials the last thing you want is your visitors to get distracted. You have to lead your prospects by the hand.

If your page is full of all those WordPress doodads I mentioned above, your visitors might get lost in all the clutter. In fact, even people who want to buy what you’re selling might have hard time doing so (or might leave your site by accident!)

That’s disastrous for an affiliate marketer.

Don’t Let Your Website Kill Your Conversions–Do Some Spring Cleaning!

Like I said, I fell victim to this very phenomenon myself after a decade or more in the business. One day I decided to count the number of different things a potential visitor could do one of my pages. I was simply amazed. My pages were too cluttered!

There were so many buttons and links and photos that it was almost impossible to hear the message I was trying to convey. That’s when I decided to do a little spring cleaning. I took out the unnecessary links, dropped a few widgets, pared down the social media buttons to the essentials, and completed a little mini-makeover.

When I was done, the pages were much cleaner, easier to read, and best of all—visitors knew what I wanted them to do!

5 Tips for Cleaning Up Your Website

If you’re website is overwhelming, I have some tips you can use to increase your conversions to the point where you can literally double your income using the same traffic you have today.

1) Know What You Want Your Prospects to Do – Every page of your site should have a concrete purpose. You need to know that purpose because if you don’t neither will your visitors.

2) Lead Your Prospects by the Hand – If your visitors are landing on an opt-in page they shouldn’t be clicking back out to read your old articles, they should be opting in. Design your page and your content in such a way that the only natural conclusion one can draw is to do exactly what it is you want them to do.

3) Keep It Simple – Sometimes a simple white background with black text and an understated but strong header graphic is all you really need.

4) Always Have a Strong Call to Action – This should go without saying but often the call to action is misplaced, overlooked, or simply doesn’t work. Put the call to action in plain sight at the bottom of the page (sometimes at the top) and always make it clear and compelling. Don’t be afraid to experiment until you find something that works either.

5) Don’t Shun Social Media Altogether – Yes I know I just told you to cut down on your social media use but don’t block it out altogether. Social media sites and services allow your prospects to spread word about your products and services, building traffic without you having to do anything. Make it easy for visitors to spread your content on social media sites but use social media in moderation.

One Last Bonus Tip: People read left to right.

Sounds simple enough but how many website have you visited where the sidebars are to the left? Always put your content (whatever it may be) to the left and toward the top of the page. That’s where your visitor’s eyes will go first and it is the logical place to have your most important content.

You can use these strategies for any type of website from those selling battery operated ride on toys, patio furniture, dog training manuals, financial planning tutorials, or even Medifast coupon codes. Use them no matter what type of affiliate site you’re running (review sites, daily deal sites, coupon sites) the tactic is sound and it works.

Have a look at your site with a critical eye, like I did mine, and do a little spring cleaning.

About James

James Martell is a successful author, podcaster, and speaker. He’s a leading expert in affiliate marketing and outsourcing as well as a specialist in SEO. James is host of the Affiliate Buzz podcast on WebmasterRadio.FM (the first ever and longest running podcast about the affiliate industry), and creator of the Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp, a very popular affiliate marketing training series. He lives in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on west coast of Canada with his wife, Arlene.

Affiliate program terms and conditions (or lack thereof) are often misunderstood. Some merchants set up in-house affiliate programs on networks without giving thought to how affiliates might promote their products.

Suddenly an affiliate is successfully promoting a merchant via a pay-per-click campaign that includes the merchant’s brand name. The merchant is shocked, quickly turns off that affiliate and then reverses commissions with the attitude that those sales would have occurred anyway from the natural search results.

But wait, the merchant didn’t specify in their terms that affiliates aren’t allowed to bid on their brand name. They quickly add that in. Problem solved? Maybe.

At the same time, the merchant is noticing that affiliates are ranking higher than the merchant themselves, in the natural search results. The merchant changes their terms to not allow affiliates to have the company’s brand name in their meta tags, titles or file names.

These are two examples of merchants actually hurting themselves.

They need to protect their brand name, but in many instances the merchants do not have an in-house PPC campaign and are not bidding on their own brand. Their competitors could very well be.

In the case of the natural search results, this is what affiliates do. They create pages to get indexed for brands. If an affiliate is ranking higher in natural results for a brand name, then the affiliate is doing their job, and the merchant isn’t doing a good job of SEO on their own.

Merchant terms need to be constructed in a way that is fair to both the affiliate and the merchant. If a merchant has internal staff that overlaps with their affiliates, the terms can be a little more strict.

But, in the case of SEO, even the affiliates that are very good at it can’t control everything the search engines include in natural results. Having terms that exclude paying affiliates that rank high in search results for company names or products will result in fewer affiliates working an affiliate program. Top affiliates won’t give these programs a second look.

Terms and conditions that acknowledge the various types of affiliates that are out there, like coupon, loyalty, and incentive sites are very helpful. Merchants need to think about how to harness the advantages of those types of sites, and encourage affiliates to promote the merchant by creating terms that allow for ethical affiliates to do so.

Balance is the key, along with understanding what you want to gain from your affiliate program.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 14 here

FeedFront issue 14 articles can be found here as well

The only thing that is absolutely certain about affiliate marketing on the Internet is the certainty that the rules of the game constantly change. In the beginning it was all about driving massive traffic to website with the idea that if you had enough traffic you is certainly snag a sale or two. Then search got more sophisticated and the idea was to drive massive targeted traffic.

Today as it turns out, you still need targeted traffic but you need that traffic to keep coming back to your site as repeat visits. If the product or service that you’re promoting is complex or priced on the high side a potential customer has to be exposed to it multiple times before they reach a buying decision. That means they have come back and visit your site again… and again. Encouraging repeat traffic is important element in increasing your conversion percentage.

Repeat traffic – just how important is it?

If you’re wondering just how important repeat traffic is all you have to do is take a look at the “deal of the day” websites like Groupon and Woott.com. Groupon.com made financial news a few months ago when it was rumored that it may sell to Google for a tidy 6 billion dollars. Not bad for site that’s been up for less than three years.

The key to the success of these types of sites is their ability to capture e-mail addresses and build a list. With that list are able to market to their potential customers daily. They’re in their lists e-mail boxes every day with a customized offer and that’s pretty powerful stuff.

I’m not suggesting that the only way you can drive repeat visits is by using the sophisticated technology that the sites use to customize offers. There are other ways to do it and it’s essential that they become a part of your operation.

In a recent interview that I did with Ryan Allis of the list management service iContact.com he revealed that his firm estimates that only three out of every 10 new visitors ever return to the site a second time. That pretty much assures that seven out of every 10 visitors will never buy from you. It also stresses the need to encourage those on your list to visit you repeatedly.

If you think that your niche or particular product can’t benefit from repeat traffic you’re wrong. It doesn’t matter if you’re promoting homemade candles, kitchen barstools, infrared cameras, car insurance quotes or a Nutrisystem diet plan review, you need to develop a relationship with your visitors that creates opportunities for multiple exposures of your offers.

Here are five strategies that I use successfully to drive repeat visits.

1. RSS to e-mail – a nifty service to keep your visitors coming back

I use RSS to e-mail (aWeber.com) to keep my visitors updated on new content on my websites. What RSS to e-mail does essentially is crawl your site for new content then send notification to your e-mail list that the new content is available.

I use it slightly different than that. Many of us like to have a weekly newsletter or some form of weekly e-mail contact with our list. I can schedule RSS to e-mail to crawl my site once a week and pick up links to all the new content. The system will then give me a proof copy of and if I like it that I simply hit the go button my entire email list is mailed. This is a fantastic way to drive traffic back to the site and even better, drive it into pages that are much deeper site.

2. Spreading the word

I am a big fan of podcasts and have been podcasting since 2003. I think podcasts are underused and misunderstood. For starters, thanks to advances in podcasts technology you can now put together a professional grade audio file in less than half the time it used to take. A full half-hour podcast takes less than one hour to produce. Of course I’m biased because I am the founder and co-host of the longest-running podcast show dealing exclusively with affiliate marketing. I also have my own podcast show “Coffee Talk with James Martell” that has been an effective influencer to generate interest in my websites and to drive repeat traffic.

When your message comes as a human voice the experience is registered any deeper emotional level than simply reading text. You can quickly deepen relationship with the visitor by using a podcast which in turn builds credibility and loyalty. Putting a voice to the website as a deeper dimension to the visit and is a great way to differentiate yourself from the competition.

3. Keep your blog buzzing

Blogs are a great way to put out informative and engaging content but they are also a fantastic way to build loyalty and generate repeat visits. If you’re doing your job you’re building a following because you’re providing true value to your visitors.

One of the ways to encourage people to become followers is to ask the question at the end of each blog post. Ask them what they think about the post, ask if they had any questions or just let them know you would personally like to hear their opinion about the topic. This is you start getting responses to that question you need to follow-up and thank them for the comment or provide the answer to any question you may have. If you do that others will chime in as well and you’ll create something of a buzz on your blog.

If your blog is built on the WordPress platform I’d highly recommend that you get the plug-in called “Subscribe to Comments”. This plug-in will notify a person who makes a comment any time that someone has responded to their comment. We all want to know what other people have to say about what we say. As a result this plug-n can give you a ton of repeat visits.

4. Chat forums

Back in the late 90s bulletin boards were extremely popular. These bulletin boards allowed easy interaction between users and the website. Today we call these bulletin boards chat forums and they are fantastic way to get your audience involved.

A perfect example of the power of chat forums is the one that is on my wife Arlene’s website EpilepsyMoms.com. Thousands of the sites members visit for her site every month to share their stories about raising children with epilepsy. The forum has become a support group of sorts and these moms are incredibly engaged and interactive.

Having the ability to share their stories and support has created a community that is loyalty each other and to the website that provides the opportunity.

5. Keep your hand in the game

Don’t spend all your time looking for the next big thing in automating marketing. Automation definitely has its place but you have to keep in mind that there’s a human being at the end of every communication be it via text, video or audio. People don’t like it if they feel they have been abandoned. Keep your face and your voice active on your website. Be certain to respond to comments and e-mails in a timely fashion and continue to offer valuable content and advice.

Build on your relationship with your list by providing the personal touch whenever you can. This not only encourages loyalty but goes a long way in building your brand.

Get the most of your investment

You’ve put in a great amount of time and maybe even a significant financial investment to build your business. New business opportunities are important but the biggest source of revenue will come from your established customer base and that means getting that base back to your site as many times as possible.

Regardless if your site is about rocking chairs, model airplanes, celebrity gossip, mountain bikes or Medifast diet coupons you need to get that list continuously visiting your site. Building that repeat visit using the strategies listed above will help you to greatly enhance your conversion rate.

Bio

James Martell has been involved in the affiliate marketing business since 1999 and has created a managed numerous successful websites as well as providing affiliate marketing training and mentoring to others. James is a sought after speaker at many prestigious affiliate marketing conventions and seminars. James, Arlene and their four reside in a seaside suburb of Vancouver BC.

Join Merchant ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney as they discuss how Jeff Grill, Vice President, Marketing at Mimeo.com decided to start their affiliate program and the steps they took to find the right fit for a network and an OPM (Outsourced Program Manager). We discussed the following:

OPM Selection/Starting a New Program – Merchant View:

1. Preparation
- Documented recruitment and revenue goals
- Affiliate ready website in terms of conversion rates
- Product margins that will allow all parties to make money
- Internal program support
- Familiarity with the Tax Nexus issue and implications for your business
- Get educated – attend affiliate summit, listen to podcasts
- Ask question in the affiliate groups on LinkedIn

2. OPM or no OPM
- Internal resource availability
- Margin allowance of your product or service
- Expertise in starting a program

3. Network, no network and OPM Selection
- Self hosted or network solution
- Networks such as CJ offer OPM services (pro/con)
- It pays to research networks and OPM’s concurrently (OPM expertise with specific networks)

3. Selection Criteria

Networks:
- Similar Merchants to your product/service and their success
- Fees, Commissions
- A la carte pricing
- Support
- Geographic Reach
- Policies regarding coupon sites etc.
- Publisher access

OPM:
- Experience with specific networks
- Familiarity with your product/service (also consumer, B to B)
- Case studies
- Track Record
- Team Chemistry/who will work on your specific business
- % of recruitment time allotted to your business
- Reporting/frequency
- Industry reputation/awards
- Fee Structure (monthly, % of revenue)
- Access to merchant/publisher events
- Documented process
- Recruitment approach (coupon sites etc.)

4. Final Selection
- Should be clear after going through above
- 3 month process
- 1 month setup prior to launch

5. About the Mimeo.com program
- Who we are
- What we offer
- Program Structure

Where to start your search for an Outsourced Program Manager or Consultant to get you stared.

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

May 13th is a special date to me. It’s the day I got engaged (1976), it’s the day I got divorced (1990), it’s the day my youngest son died (2002). Each year on May 13th I try to do something he would be proud of. He was a big supporter of my photography skills and my writing ability (although he was the one with all the writing talent ) so every year for the past several years I would go somewhere and photograph something. Some years while I was in Rochester it was the lilacs at Highland Park and other years it was Red Rock Canyon, and still others NYC parks. This year I had a bad fall this week and can’t hold a camera or go for a walk. So I challenged myself to do something I don’t normally do. I recorded a solo podcast. It is meant to be an inspiration to other parents of children with disabilities and a peek into life before the World Wide Web, when the internet was just green letters on a black screen, but that still allowed you to do research you would ordinarily take months to do.

I kept it to 20 minutes and didn’t say all that I had to say, but will add more later. For this special edition I just wanted to tell part of the tale, the part that will hopefully inspire other parents to reach out, start a blog, use online resources to make their lives and their children’s lives the best they can be.

I’m posting this under Affiliate ABCs because as the story progresses it will lead to how I became an affiliate, and eventually an affiliate manager. I’m posting this under Blogging ABCs because I want people to blog about their life challenges.

To follow my blog go to DeborahCarney.com

Join Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney and guest Jeannine Crooks as they discuss why merchants need to use an editorial calendar to provide information and creatives that are appropriately timed for affiliates to use to promote products appropriately. If you sell a product you should listen to this podcast for tips and advice on getting materials to affiliates in time for them to be able to create pages ahead of the holidays.

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Jeannine Crooks
Merchant ABCs

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O’Hare, are joined by guest Stephanie Lichtenstein to discuss how bloggers can get started with a social media strategy. Great discussion, listen and learn.

Some Facebook Like Buttons
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/share-button-on-facebook
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/topsy/
http://mashable.com/2010/05/07/wordpress-facebook-like-buttons/

Find Stephanie on the internet:
http://micromediamarketing.com/
http://facebook.com/micromediamarketing
http://twitter.com/micromediamktg
http://twitter.com/microsteph
http://facebook.com/microsteph

Follow us on Twitter:
Tricia Meyer
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more great podcasts about internet marketing.

Join Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney and guest Jeannine Crooks as they discuss the Affiliate Meetups that have been created by the Affiliate Summit founders Shawn Collins and Missy Ward. These are local events happening once a month, usually on the last Tuesday of the month in cities across not just the US but around the globe. They started them on the MeetUp.com platform, but with the number of Meetups planned and the planners involved the Meetup organizing, RSVPs and Announcements are going to be made on the Affiliate Summit Facebook Group page.

Lucretia Pruitt – presented at the Denver Meetup – Two reasons to buy: Good Feelings or Solution to a problem
The Five C’s of Content: Compelling, Community, Invite Conversation, Commitment, Conversion
Denver Meetup had a mix of affiliates, merchants, network reps and more.

NYC Meetup: Mix of affiliates, merchants, network reps, webmasters that are looking at affiliate marketing to help get traffic to their sites. Jeff Grill gave a great presentation about how he got his affiliate program started, which will be launching June 1, 2011. Jeff attended Affiliate Summit West and was able to talk to people that changed his mind and helped his process. After Jeff’s presentation we ended up doing site reviews for SEO.

Go to http://forum.affiliatesummit.com to have conversations and find people in your area.

Local networking in small groups is a very powerful way to network. Then when you go to the larger events you will be able to talk to people you already know and be able to expand your networking by meeting the other people they know as well.

Hopefully after listening you will decide to attend or help organize a Meetup in your area, and also attend Affiliate Summit.

On Twitter:
Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Jeannine Crooks
Affiliate ABCs
Vinny O’Hare

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

Someone asked so I figured it would be worth a blog post to explain what software and equipment we use to make our podcasts. Remember, not everything works for everyone, but this is what works for us.

Software
Free Resources:
GarageBand – editing software that comes with Macs
Audacity – free audio editing software. Download the lame package as well so you can convert from any format to .mp3
Skype – free for making phone calls between Skype users, if you need to you can add a number for a fee that people can call you from a phone with, or you can purchase minutes to make calls to regular phones. The charges to make calls are very reasonable, but most people should be able to install and use Skype.
Levelator – When you are recording people in different places you may need to level out the voices so one isn’t louder or much softer than the others, you can drop a .wav or .aiff file into this program and it makes everyone pretty level.

Paid:
Pamela – PC – does have a freeware version that limits calls to 15 mins
Call Recorder – Mac

We started with these headsets – Plantronics DSP400 Foldable Multimedia Headset

Recently upgraded to a stand alone mic – the Blue Yeti. I got the Yeti on sale at Amazon, so watch for deals. The the quality is unbeatable.

You’re working hard at getting quality targeted traffic to your website are you? You’re using social media to get the word out, you continue your efforts to build relevant back links from quality sites and you’ve got a great offer that you use for an e-mail capture tool. It’s and everyday task and something you simply can’t give up on.

But what if I told you there was a way to build traffic that didn’t take as much time and cost very little if anything? I’m referring to video marketing and specifically to the monster of video marketing YouTube.com.

Maybe you’re thinking that your particular niche justice and suited to video marketing. Maybe you think such a specialized niche that there couldn’t possibly be any traffic available on video site that’s famous for its goofy user content, movie trailers and music videos. Or maybe you’re a B to B business and you think there’s no value in running a video and what is undoubtedly a consumer-based site.

The difference between Google and YouTube – is there any?

I’m guessing you don’t have the same feelings about Google.com. You think, and rightly so, that Google is so enormous and has so much information indexed that it is going to snag people with an interest in virtually anything. Natural search is great traffic and you spend lots of time trying to rank for that traffic. Google is great, but Google is not alone.

Well actually maybe Google is alone in that they own YouTube the only other site that comes close to having the amount content as Google. YouTube has become a viable alternative search engine for many people.

Consider these quick facts:

• YouTube has 2 billion views per day.
• Everyday YouTube adds nearly 35,000 hours of content
• 90 of the nation’s top 100 advertisers have run display ads on YouTube.
• The first video uploaded to YouTube and 2005 was 19 seconds long and has received 1.9 million views.
• Lady Gaga makes that look like chump change with her 185 million views of “Dangerous Love”.
• On average people spend 15 min. per day on YouTube.
• The YouTube video player is embedded across tens of millions of websites.

With 60 billion views per month can there be any doubt that your audience is among my group? Try this little exercise. Use the YouTube search tool and enter three of your targeted keyword phrases and see what kind of responses you get. If your competitor showing up? If he is then you need to be there if you want compete for that traffic otherwise you’re letting him have it by default.

And if you’re a B to B check out Corning’s “a day made of glass” video. Granted this one was produced professionally but it’s been seen 10 million times since it was posted. That’s some pretty significant branding for Corning who sells glass products to other businesses.

The lesson here is it doesn’t matter what you are promoting or selling be it a router table, Hillsdale bar stool, television stands, car insurance quotes, digital cameras, or exotic travel …YouTube needs to be part of your marketing mix.

No degree in cinematography required

Maybe the reason you haven’t gotten involved with video marketing is because it’s something you simply haven’t done before. Don’t let that hold you back it really isn’t difficult at all. You don’t need expensive cameras or lighting setups, what you need is a compelling story presented in a way that’s going to engage the viewers.

I didn’t have any experience with video marketing in 2007 when I uploaded my first video on YouTube. My son had taken some footage of me tooling around in my Shelby Cobra 427 S/C and I put it up mostly for the fun of it not really expecting a big response to my kit car site.

I was truly shocked at the results.

If you check out the attached chart you’ll see that in about 3/2 years my first two-minute video resulted in excess of 318,000 views. Notice how the views continue to ramp upwards. This was no flash in the pan as it consistently delivers new views each and every month.

What I first loaded this video I was using my best educated guess as to how to optimize and that guess turned out to be pretty accurate. The reasons I’m getting consistent views is that the video is appearing on the first page of YouTube search for my targeted keywords.

7 Tips to land your video on the first page of YouTube search

1. The first secret to ranking in YouTube is to understand that unlike Google, YouTube places a lot of importance on keywords. YouTube isn’t sensitive about keyword density.
2. Like any piece of content that’s designed for SEO, you need a headline or title that grabs the attention of the visitor and that also includes your targeted keyword phrase.
3. In the video description field of the upload form, you need to use your targeted keyword phrase and as many related keywords as you can and still maintain a natural sounding description. If you look at the bottom of the description field you’ll see a link that says “see more” and if you click on it you’ll get a much larger field to play with.
4. Tags are very important on YouTube as they are one of the principal ways that YouTube learns what your video is about. YouTube gives you plenty of space and you should take advantage of that by providing five or six relevant tags.
5. Make sure that you allow ratings and comments on your video. The more buzz you can create through comments the more potential views.
6. Don’t forget a call to action. Actually you could have several calls to action. You can insert your URL as a text overlay or simply as part of the dialogue. There is a field directly below the video for your URL.
7. Lastly, the video has to deliver on the promise of the title. If the title of the video is “how to redecorate your kitchen” and the content of the video is solely about the kitchen barstools that you’re promoting then the video did not deliver on the promise of the title. People will bail when this occurs and when they bail YouTube sees it as a negative vote and may decide that your video is not an appropriate result for the search phrase entered.

What’s holding you back?

Video sites like you to represent a huge audience and one that you simply can’t ignore. We’ve already established that your audience is in that YouTube audience the only question is why you aren’t trying to tap into them. If it’s simply a lack of knowledge of how to actually make the video, don’t worry about it. Write up a test storyboard and play with your camera until you do some footage that you’re comfortable with. If you still has some anxiety about creating a video you can always outsource it.

But what can’t be outsourced is your commitment to give video marketing a shot. Set a deadline today for when you’re first video will be uploaded on YouTube.

Bio

James Martell is a recognized leader in the affiliate marketing industry. James has been creating affiliate marketing tutorials since 2001 and has assisted hundreds in starting and growing a successful affiliate marketing business. James, his wife Arlene and their four children live outside Vancouver BC in a seaside suburb.

SEO Tips for Bloggers

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O’Hare, are joined by guest Eric Nagel to discuss the basics of SEO tactics for bloggers. Eric supplied us with an excellent outline below, but be sure to listen and not just read, there is excellent discussion on each of these bullet points, plus a ton of great stuff that came out within the discussion.

1. Keyword research
   1. Take your idea, and think about how people are going to search for it
      1. “How to…”
      2. Google search suggestions
      3. AdWords tool
2. Title Tag
   1. This should be your keyword. Don’t be cute here
   2. The title tag in WordPress is inside an H1 tag, which helps with on-site SEO
   3. WordPress SEO Plugin by Joost de Valk
      1. http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/
      2. Allows you to set Title, Meta Description
         1. Meta Description is sometimes used for the snippet shown in organic search results
   4. No need to have your site name repeated in the title tag, unless your site brand is commonly searched for
3. Permalinks
   1. Don’t use default of ?p=87
   2. Choose one of the options that has %postname% (either Day and name, or Month and name)
4. Images
   1. Don’t hotlink images
   2. Use the Title, Alternate Text & Caption fields
   3. Name the image with your keyword
      1. ex: your-keyword-here.jpg
5. Social Sharing
   1. Twitter button
   2. Facebook share button
      1. If you use Thesis & want to specify the Facebook thumbnail, read
         1. http://www.ericnagel.com/2011/03/specify-thumbnail-image-sharing-link-facebook-from-thesis.html
         2. Twitter Official Instructions for Tweet Button
   3. Your social circle influences Google search results
6. Sitemaps
   1. Google XML Sitemaps by Arne Brachhold
      1. http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/
   2. Eric’s XML Image Sitemap Plugin
      1. http://www.ericnagel.com/2010/10/image-sitemap-for-wordpress.html
   3. Submit to Google Webmaster Tools
      1. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
   4. Submit to Bing Webmaster Tools
      1. http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/

Follow all of us on Twitter:
Tricia Meyer
Eric Nagel
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

People normally think “it won’t happen to them”. For this reason often people don’t think about backing up data in case of an emergence, such as a computer crash, virus or even the unthinkable; theft.

But if most people knew how easy it is to secure those important documents, such pictures & video of your loved ones as well as work related projects they do it on a regular basis.

There are plenty of options for backing up your data.

Carbonite Is Great

Carbonite does online backup for a flat annual rate – they’ll even save all your video. No limits to file size, which is fantastic.

When I first heard this I didn’t believe it. I thought how could they backup all my video and not charge extra? Well, they do. And they do it with a click of a button.

With Catrbonite installed my computer is continually monitored. Then when I add new files Carbonite seamlessly uploads these to their servers. This way if I ever lose the computer or the drive crashes I go to my account, hit restore and all my files are retrieved.

I love it!

Automatic

The moment you add or modify files, Carbonite starts backing up your data. With your computer connected to the Internet Carbonite works in the background keeping your data safe.

Convenience

Carbonite’s online backup service works quietly and continually in the background protecting your files. If something goes wrong or you delete a file by accident, we’ve still got a copy. Carbonite Online Backup now includes remote file access! Retrieve files you have backed up with Carbonite from any computer with an internet connection.

Your data is stored safely at our secure remote backup centres. No one but you can see your data, because your files are encrypted before they leave your computer, with the same encryption that banks use.

Affordable

For $54.95 per year, Carbonite can backup all your irreplaceable files. There’s nothing to learn, no hardware to buy, and no limit on backup storage.

Norton Ghost Will Back Up Files Plus Clone Your Disk

I recently had a brand new laptop unable to reboot. When I took it to the store where I bought it the clerk said they’d simply clone my disk and install it on a replacement.

This was new to me, the idea of “cloning” or “mirroring” a disk, but I was so grateful for that because although I appreciated the stores offer to replace my computer I was not looking forward to reconfiguring my settings or reinstalling programs.

You see backing up your files and cloning your disk are two different things.

With Norton Ghost installed you should never have to lose data or reinstall applications again in the event of a system failure of theft.

You simply save your entire computer to an external disk. You actually create a mirror image of your computer. Then if you get a new computer you simply transfer everything over. Boot the new computer and everything is there; exactly how you like it, even your favourite picture as your screen background.

So, take advantage of our Norton Ghost Coupon. And get the maximum protection you need to feel secure if disaster hits.

Benefits of Norton Ghost

• Multicast accelerates deployments and reduces overall network traffic.
• Enhance and leverage Microsoft’s own best practices for Vista migration.
• Simplify image management by creating fewer images.
• Accelerated imaging compared to standard OS tools using market proven technology.
• Recognize significant cost and time savings when imaging, deploying, migrating, and managing systems.

Hopefully you’ll investigate both of the options mentioned here. Protect yourself against disaster and take advantage of Norton promotional coupons. It could save you money as well as all of your important settings and files.

About The Author

Steven Papas is a writer living in Athens with his wife Elena. His goal is to write about computer software and related news to web users from around the world. Visit his website to learn more about Norton Ghost promotional coupons, presentations and reviews for anti-virus software, and Norton Ghost coupons.

As you’re setting up your home office and starting your affiliate marketing business, you’re taking the first steps towards getting organized.

Because you’re in charge of each and every aspect of your workday, it is especially important that you are able to run as seamless an operation as possible.

You’re probably excited about choosing the various elements of your home office, such as your computer, desk, chair and various decorations, including wall décor, rugs and bric-a-brac. Every aspect of your home office will work towards helping to keep you focused and organized. A solid office layout and pleasant environment will help keep your day structured.

Tools to Put You On the Right Page

Along with creating environs that are conducive to your productivity, you’ll also want to utilize various tools that will ensure your day moves forward in a positive way. Three tools that will let you focus on your work rather than retrieving lost data include:

• RoboForm: This software records and then fills in information related to forms and logins. You’ll never lose another username or password again.
• PageLeap: How many steps does it take for you to get to the website of your choice? Three or four? PageLeap will get you there in one click as your favorite and most used sites pop up on your computer screen and you simply click on them.
• Carbonite: Back up all of your work, data and various other types of invaluable information on a secure server. If your computer crashes, you’ll have everything you need to successfully run your affiliate marketing business.

Reaching Out and Bringing People In

You want to be able to bring people into your office for meetings, to make deals and to keep developing connections. Of course, it’s fairly impossible and cost prohibitive for small business owners to travel thousands of miles each and every day for meetings. The phone works to a degree, but it is visually vacant and limited.

I use Skype and two add-ons, Pamela and SnagIt, to connect with and collaborate with other professionals. Skype is a free videoconferencing tool that can connect you you to anyone with a computer and Internet connection. Pamela software that allows users to record meetings and personalized voice messages. With SnagIt, you can capture, comment on and share all types of images.

With Skype and its add-ons, you’re able to hold a robust meeting with various clients, companies and collaborators from around the world. Use your home office entertainment wall units or bookcases as a backdrop, especially if they have pictures of your family and/or awards related to your field.

On the Right Track

I’ve found two other tools that affiliate marketers can use to ensure that they are functioning at maximum efficiency. These are:

• Google Calendar: Coordinate projects, meetings and deadlines with this versatile tool. You can share your calendar with others, create alerts for meetings and much more.
• Google Documents: You can access any type of document from anywhere in the world and using any computer through Google Documents. You’ll always have every item connected with every project on-hand and will be able to share it with others.

Steps To Success

Setting up your office so that you can perform as well as possible in the setting and then incorporating the eight tools listed above will give you every opportunity to achieve success. If you’ve been procrastinating, it’s time to start working towards your future.

Once you establish your office and are up and running, you’ll be on your way to attaining your goals of working at home, developing a successful affiliate marketing company and achieving financial independence. How did I get to the point where I could drive my own replica of a 1965 Shelby Cobra? I did it one step at a time. You can do the same.

About the Author

James Martell discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing in 1999. He is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur and a leading expert in affiliate marketing, outsourcing and SEO. James is the host of the “Affiliate Buzz”, the first and longest running podcast for affiliate marketers. James is the host of the “Affiliate Marketers SUPER BootCamp”, a popular affiliate marketing training well known for turning affiliate newbies into success stories. James his resides in White Rock BC, a seaside suburb of Vancouver on the West Coast of Canada with Arlene and their four children.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O’Hare, are joined by James Martell to have a panel discussion about why bloggers should consider podcasting, plus having guests on podcasts.

Here is a link to a page where we show you the show you the basic software and equipment you need to get started podcasting.

Here are some of our notes on why you should start podcasting on your blog:

Connect on a personal level. Listen instead of read, listen while you do other things – on top of Mt Kilimanjaro, on a plane, while running, while working.

Affiliate Buzz – Every two weeks at the start, weekly now. Charles Johnston got James started as a way to get readers of James’ book to be able to hear James answer questions and let people get to know him.

Gives your blog a personality in addition to words on a page.

Affiliate Thing – another long lasting podcast that is on a regular schedule and widely listened too about issues in the affiliate marketing industry, but that covers other topics as well. Hosted by Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille.

People recognize your voice at conferences. Personalities come through better via voice or video. After listening to a podcast people can “hear” your voice when reading your posts.

She Shops Around – Podcast that Tricia produces that helped her site’s members get to know her better.

Exposure: iTunes, podcast directory, podcatchers drive traffic to website from other locations.

Be sure to leave contact information and clearly spoken links to your website at the end of your podcast so people can find your site that got the show from iTunes. Spell things out so that people have time to write it down or type it into their browsers.

Article by James that includes list of podcasting directories to submit to. (Note: after podcast Deborah started down that page adding podcast rss feeds.)

Force yourself into a schedule by having a live call and then record and post. Some conference call services:
AccuConference
Free Conference Call

Another way is to have a co-host, so you keep each other to a schedule. Plus people generally like to here different voices and different opinions. Then add guests so that you have even more voice and regularity. Discussion creates new and better ideas.

Arlene Martell’s Podcast – initially pushed back from the idea for a podcast on her site EpilepsyMoms.com. Instead of a long term podcast she decided to have interviews and have a limited series of podcasts on specific topics with specific physicians and nutritionists. Her goal with her podcast was to educate parents of children with epilepsy and have them try the diet that has made such a difference in her child’s life.

Interviews via podcast instead of print interviews are more interactive. Makes your website comes to life, and when on a podcast the participants gain from the discussion, which gives the listeners new information as well.

Blogger challenge: Think about the topic of your blog, find someone similar and just get on a call, talk about a topic and record your discussion for 20 mins. Put your contact info at the end. Post the link to your podcast here

James: Some people don’t like to hear their own voices: Get over it. Get a headset, write an outline and just do it.

Tricia: Fresh content, give new life to your site, inspire yourself with new topics

Vinny: New traffic for your site from your iTunes stream.

Vinny and Deborah’s Podcasting resources: Post with the info you need for the technical side of starting a podcast.

Twitter:
Tricia Meyer
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O’Hare, are joined by James Martell to have a panel discussion about guest posting (blogging on other people’s blogs) and have guest bloggers on their own sites.

• More exposure for you and for the guest poster
• Adds more variety of “voices” to your blog
• Guest bloggers encourage their followers to follow you as well.
• Some guest bloggers might not have their own sites, so they send you traffic so their followers can read what they wrote.
• Where you guest blog can give you instant authority if you are a guest blogger or regular contributor to a larger site in your niche.
• Multi-user blogs that share revenue
• Plan your guest blogging, so you are contributing regularly to new audience
• Guest blogging is going to be the next “big thing” other than social media

Bloggers are more open to cross promoting than traditional webmasters with static sites that take webmaster intervention to post content to.

Can outsource as long as the voice is yours. Give an outsourced writer an outline and then you edit it, so it is your content.

Common question: Do you use a unique post for each site or can you reuse articles from your own site?
James: Original content but not necessarily new topics. Change up the slant to fit the personality of the blog you are guest posting on. Duplicate content is not as issue because it is in front of a different audience. We want to get in front of more real people and not as much from search engines. Delivery of some content is different also, rss to various devices could mean people aren’t even getting to your actual site.

Google punishing the people that blast garbage content to 500-700 crappy blogs and bad article directories. People that have good content even on several locations are still going to rank for the same article at all those places.

Print publishing rules: First world rights for one-time use and electronic use, then reprint rights belong to the author once the article is published on the blog you are guest posting on.

BloggerLinkUp – Great place to hook up with potential guest bloggers
Podcast with Cathy Stucker about using BloggerLinkUp

Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out, but BLU is more focused as a tool to create relationships between webmasters/bloggers and HARO is more focused on actual media connections. They are complimentary tools, and you probably want to subscribe to both.
Affiliate Summit Panel request on HARO got posters, podcasters, and the panel members.

Tricia suggests some additional ways to find guest posters -
Twitter hashtags, follow some in a specific niche, watch the links they post and when you see writing you like, send them an @message to contact you about being a guest poster.

Tricia and James both have found writers via:
Paper.li – watch who your paper is pulling in and go see who has content you like or who you would like to write for or who you would like to write for you.

James: Watching people that comment regularly on blogs you are on and ask them to blog for you.

Nice things to do when you Guest Post:

• Include a graphic
• Promote the post
• Subscribe to the post comments so you know you have comments to respond to

More sophisticated than article marketing via article sharing sites.

Plugin that allows guest posters to set up profile, submit the posts, and manage their posts they have submitted to your site: Kish Guest Post Plugin for WordPress

Gravity Forms Contact Form Plugin for WordPress Can create guest post form templates

Twitter:
Tricia Meyer
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Deborah Carney of Merchant ABCs hosted a panel discussion that included James Martell of Affiliate Buzz and Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp,and buy.at regulars Jeannine Crooks and Amy Ely to continue the discussion on supporting affiliates with content and creative.  Moving beyond the basics, this episode focuses on creating, sharing, and using video creative.

Topics include:

• Why video is important for merchants to consider
• Tools available to create and tag video on different networks
• Video formats – product reviews and demonstrations, the manufacturing process, testimonials, and more
• Creating professional and polished clips vs. simple and personalized video
• The three main video components – the establishing shot, mid shot, and close ups
• Methods to share videos with affiliates
• Creating motion graphic videos and slide shows with audio

During the conversation, participants shared a few recommended video editing companies and software to help merchants get started.  These include: Elance, Camtasia, Jing, and ScreenFlow. Also mentioned are the Shareasale network video players for both affiliates and merchants, the buy.at video tools available through Coull.com and an article by Rosalind Gardner about how affiliates can create players with links using LinkedTube. One more not mentioned in the show, but that was posted as another alternative by Shawn Collins on the subject is ViewBix (powered by Qoof).

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
James Martell
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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

One thing that I discovered about home offices is that you must be your own efficiency expert or else you are doomed to wallow in confusion as your efforts towards success become totally ineffective. If you’re determined to be a productive and to make your living as an affiliate marketer, which will allow you to engage in a lifestyle that includes enjoying things about which you are passionate, then you must be committed to creating the perfect office environment for business which includes choosing from variously styled home office desks.

The three keys to getting your home office up and running smoothly are:

1. Total commitment to the enterprise.
2. The use of tools to enhance your performance.
3. An ability to refine your process.

Total Commitment

You’ll probably have a day job that you’ll need to keep until you have your home office set up and your affiliate marketing program running. By total commitment, I don’t mean quitting that job and working 24/7 at setting up your new business.

By “total commitment,” I mean that you must work at getting your home office together whenever possible and at least two to four days per week. Take weekends, certain evenings and odd hours of the day to get your business up and running.

Eight Tools for Enhanced Performance

Over the past few years, I’ve discovered eight different tools that have really helped me to stay more organized, efficient and, ultimately, successful. The first three are devoted to backing up information and making it easily accessible in what is in essence a paperless office. The final five are wonderful collaborative tools that are perfect in bringing together offices and people who are thousands of miles apart.

Information Access and Backup

When I first started my affiliate marketing enterprise, I found it very difficult to conduct business when I kept misplacing important information such as documents, passwords, account numbers, etc. After I discovered RoboForm, Carbonite and created PageLeap, my life became a lot easier.

RoboForm is the ultimate organizer as it remembers names, addresses, usernames, passwords and much more. It will log you into websites automatically and fill in forms quickly. I cannot live without this software.

Carbonite is essential for any office. It automatically backups important data to a secure server, which means when your hard drive crashes, you won’t lose information that’s essential to your business. Did you know that over 90% of the companies that suffer a catastrophic loss of data are out of business in less than six months? Everything you need to keep your business functioning will be secure with Carbonite.

The Internet is a huge place but PageLeap has made it a lot smaller. This software, which displays on your start page all of the major websites you regularly visit, is a major timesaver. It is a great tool.

Collaborative Tools

These five collaborative tools go a long way in ensuring that you and those with whom you’re doing business are all on the same page. They are:

1. Google Documents – You can access your documents from any computer and collaborate online in creating and revising documents.
2. Google Calendar – You can use this tool to access your calendar from any computer and set up and share your schedule with those on your team.
3. Skype – Do you “Skype?” You know an entity is important when its name becomes a verb. Conference calls, collaborative projects and onscreen work are all easily facilitated using Skype.
4. Pamela – You can use various add-ons with a Skype and Pamela is a great one. This virtual assistant allows you to record podcasts, calls and conference calls. You’re also able to dictate letters and such.
5. SnagIt – With SnagIt you can capture images, photographs, illustrations, graphs and more. Retain, edit and share images.

Refining Your Process

I know someone who found that they could be more organized by adding a second desk to their home office. They had a small space and searched through various corner computer desks until they found the right one.

That space proved to be perfect to act as the anchor for their gateway to the Internet, while their larger desk acted as a sort of holding station for projects. This configuration fit their style perfectly. The point is you need to continue to refine your process and adjust accordingly.

No Time Like the Present

I love being able to stroll to my home office, have lunch with my beautiful wife, Arlene, who also has her own home office and take a ride in my 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C. This is a kit car, which is a passion of mine and a prized possession. I’m able to do all of these things and more because I took the initiative to commit to my affiliate marketing business, accepted responsibility for my performance and continued to develop and refine my process and business. You can do the same and become a success at affiliate marketing.

About the Author

James Martell loves working as an affiliate marketer and inspiring others to start their own affiliate marketing ventures through his lectures, podcasts and affiliate marketing courses. James, who lives with his wife, Arlene, and four children just outside Vancouver, BC, in the beautiful seaside suburb of White Rock, is the host of the first and longest-running podcast devoted to affiliate marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss how to structure giveaways on your blog.

Some of the things to think about when doing a giveaway are what are you looking to get out of it and how much is your time & advertising/backlinks worth?  We suggest using Facebook likes, twitter followers, subscribe to blog rss for entries rather than newsletter subscriptions.  Always remember what your blog is about when considering giveaways and considering how many to do and be sure that your disclosure and privacy statements are thorough enough on your site.

Feel free to post links to your blog for us to take a look at in the comments below!   Also suggestions for future podcast topics or guests.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Have you ever tried running an advertising campaign to promote your website? You’ve probably heard that advertising is the fastest way to build traffic but If you’re a small business you probably don’t have the budget to go after advertising on high PR sites. If you’ve tried Adwords using the “free” coupon that Google passes out like candy for new advertisers, you learned pretty quickly that advertising on Adwords requires a separate skill set and you can lose your shirt in no time flat if you don’t know what you’re doing.

But still there is the attraction of getting your message on a mega site like Facebook or a platform like Twitter. Social media sites literally get millions of visitors daily and you just know that tapping into that stream can bring you visits and conversions. But you shake your head because you also know there is no way you could ever afford to advertise on those sites.

How to play with the big dogs of advertising on a Chihuahua budget

What if I told you there was a way to get a banner ad on these giants and it wouldn’t cost you a nickel? Would that be worth investigating? Of course it would and the truth is you are probably half way to getting the free space already.

I’m talking about your thumbnail image.

Yes that lowly, often overlooked photo of you that appears in all of your profiles and pops up every time you post or respond to a thread could turn into a traffic machine with a little modification. Right now that thumbnail is just an image. It’s silent. But with a little work we can give it a voice and invite people to the website and we can do it for free.

Does it work? Ask my wife.

My wife Arlene has done a great job of building a successful website that addresses the problems that parents face when dealing with a child struggling with epilepsy. Arlene is passionate about this issue because our son Adam came down with the condition at the age of four and was having as many as 300 seizures a day and that can be gut wrenching for parents. However Adam is 20 now and he has been seizure free and drug free for over ten years and that’s the story Arlene wants to get out through her website.

Arlene will be the first to admit that when she started the site she had absolutely no technical skills but she did know what she wanted it to look like and how she wanted it to function. She outsourced almost all of the work. But the big success story on the site is her podcast In her own voice. The podcast is available on the site and she uses it as a tool to capture emails for her newsletter.

Promoting a winner feature

Arlene knew she had a winner with that podcast and that the big challenge was simply making more people aware of it. Then it dawned on her when she was updating her Facebook that her avatar, her smiling face, was not only on Facebook but every social media platform that she subscribes to, blogs that she posts to and tons of threads in forums about epilepsy. Because she’s active on these sites she already had a following of sorts but nobody knew where to go to get more of her information.

And that’s when she decided to add her domain name at the bottom of the thumbnail. In fact she had two sets made, one with the domain name and one with the word “podcast” under the domain name. In effect she turned a thumbnail image into a banner ad. When she replaced her original thumbnail with these “ads” the results were definitely measureable.

Today Arlene’s podcast has been downloaded over 50,000 times.

What’s your potential traffic?

Take a moment and think about all of the places your thumbnail appears today. How many profiles, how many social media platforms and blogs and forums are you active on? Now take a stab at guessing how much traffic you could get if those thumbnails were branded with your domain name. Is it worth about $50 to find out just how much you can really get from these high PR sites?

If the answer is yes then you need to outsource to a graphic designer or a professional photo retouching service to get that  professional looking ad.

Here are 3 tips to consider when you’re putting your project together for outsourcing:

1. I highly recommend that the image should be of your smiling face rather than a logo or an animated avatar. Putting a face to a line of text just humanizes the whole experience and makes an emotional connection that is more likely to drive traffic than a clever logo or a cartoon.
2. Don’t make the thumbnail look like an ad by overwhelming the image with text. Keep it simple and keep in mind that the text has to be readable even in the smallest thumbnail size. A good designer can make your thumbnail look more like a branding tool while still getting across the information about the location of your site.
3. Different sites and platforms have different specifications for the size thumbnail that you can post. When you order your banner ad order multiple sizes and be sure to include a 50×50, 80×80, 100×100, 170×170 and a 200×200. These sizes should cover all of the bases.

Outsource this project don’t try to do it yourself. If you use a site like Elance.com this project shouldn’t cost more than $75 and will probably be closer to $50. If you’ve never outsourced anything you’re going to be amazed at the quality, price and cornucopia of services available. Everything from writers, to designers, to print products to specialists in photo retouching, to ghost writers to T shirt designers and manufacturers are available on these freelance sites.

Turning your thumbnail into a banner ad that directs traffic is the key to advertising on giant sites for absolutely nothing. The only thing holding you back right now is inaction so jump on it and get your traffic magnet up now.

Bio

James Martell is a much sought after speaker for conventions and seminars in the affiliate marketing industry. James started in affiliate marketing in 1999 and has been helping other marketers through his affiliate marketing trainings and his podcasts since 2001. James and Arlene and their four children call a suburb outside of beautiful Vancouver, B.C. home

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare are joined by affiliate and affiliate coach James Martell to talk about how affiliates should be using email lists as a large part of their marketing strategy.

Here are notes from this episode:
DIY vs Email marketing services – easier and they cover the legal aspects for you, take care of the optin, subscribing and unsubscribing.

Give something to get sign ups, ebook, access to podcasts, or something not available to the general public. Give them something good or you will lose them.
Example: AffiliateAnswerBook.com

JamesMartell.com
Keep subscribers engaged so they remember why they signed up.

Autoresponder – MartellNewsletter.com – monthly newsletter and subscribers get an ebook and get access to 6 CoffeeTalk podcasts right away, over the next few weeks they get one new and one archive week, then less frequent but covers 4 1/2 years.

Evergreen content that is able to be applied today the same as the day it was recorded or created. Best practices are rarely outdated. Tools may have improved but the information is based on fundamentals won’t change.

Expense is deductible as a business expense, cost should not be prohibitive. Stats show that when a newsletter goes out the actions happen and money is made. It gives you an audience to market to. Less reliance on search engine traffic.

Jonathan Diller Elance.com
Stat: 70% of people that visit your site won’t return, unless you capture their contact information.

Aweber Email Service – at the time of this recording you can sign up for one month trial for $1, lowest cost package is $19 a month. Costs go up as your list gets bigger, but you are also selling to more people. Cost is not per list, it is per account, your account can have multiple lists.

Blog broadcast capabilities, also to Twitter and Facebook. Use your site as your newsletter. Can be set to go once a week, or every time you post.

Be sure to send people to specific pages that have an action for them to take.

Text vs HTML newsletters: Text works on smartphones and tablets, html won’t display right and won’t get read. Pretty doesn’t always get attention. Graphics are so prominent that they get lost, similar to banner blindness.

Stop words: Free, extra !!!! check with spam services to find the latest lists of “trigger” or “stop” words.

Consider the timing of your newsletters. Vinny sends on Sunday nights, breaking most of the rules.

James has example of Robert Genn who was interviewed on the White Rock Reporter sends his newsletter twice a week at 8:55 on Tuesday and Fridays since 1999. Here is the link to the “Welcome Letter” to his excellent newsletter for artists.

Don’t open with inexpensive service then need to change provider once you have built a list.

Just do it. Use a service like elance to hire someone to set up your lists if you need to and get it set up inexpensively. Outsource it instead of putting it off. Have a list for each of your websites.

A couple of podcasts we did with Justin Premick of Aweber are in our archives:
Affiliate ABCs #16 Email Marketing with Aweber Part 1

Affiliate ABCs #17 Email Marketing with Aweber Part 2

Twitter:
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Affiliate ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss how to use giveaways on your blog including where to get giveaways, what are you expecting to get out of it and what are companies expecting to get out of it.

It’s easiest to start with your own product to get going.  You can then contact the affiliate managers for programs that you are an affiliate of and also contact national brands that you currently use.  When possible, request a promo code for your users so that they can place an order after the contest is over.  Be sure to set realistic expectations for both sides so that you can possibly partner again later.

Feel free to post links to your blog for us to take a look at in the comments below!   Also suggestions for future podcast topics or guests.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

How much time and effort do you put into driving traffic to your website? It’s in everyday task isn’t it? You do your best to ensure you’ve got great content, you’ve done all the onpage optimization and you spend the balance of your time building back links and using social media like Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic. But what if there was a way to get visitors on your site that was pretty much “fire and forget” would you be interested?

Did you know that the videos on YouTube get over 2 billion views each day? Two billion is an incredibly massive number. How many of those 2 billion views are driving traffic to your site? Well the answer is if you don’t have a video up it’s nothing, zero, nada. If you’re not using video to promote your website you’re really missing a fantastic opportunity.

It doesn’t matter what you are promoting or selling on your website whether it’s a wood router, data entry services, tv stands, car insurance quotes, infrared cameras, or exotic travel …YouTube needs to be part of your marketing mix.

The numbers don’t lie

Back in November of 2007 I experimented for the very first time with video on YouTube. My son had captured some footage of me driving around town in my Shelby Cobra replica and a buddy of mine edited the footage into a nice 2 minute video. The amazing thing about it is the traffic has grown steadily for the video every year. As of this writing the video has some 310,000+ views and is currently viewed more than 500 times a day on average. That’s a lot of views.

Producing a video and getting it ranked in YouTube isn’t rocket science. It’s simply a matter of telling a good story and then doing a great job of describing it when you upload the video. If done correctly that video will continue to receive views a month after month just like mine has. You can leave it as is and see a steady stream of views, or you can do some off page optimization to get the video ranked in Google natural search that will drive even more. Either way it’s a traffic driving promotion that keeps on giving.

Building the perfect video

If you’ve not done a video before don’t be intimidated by the idea. You don’t need fancy cameras, expensive lighting or degree in cinematography. When you do need is a compelling story that’s presented in an organized fashion.

The first step in creating an effective video is building a storyboard. Write down the messages you want to deliver and the order in which you want to deliver them, this becomes your “shooting schedule.” You want the film this video sequentially as this will minimize the amount of time spent in editing. Of course he only way you can do that is to know the sequence is beforehand.

Spielberg’s three shot theory

Steven Spielberg, who knows a little bit about film-making, says that there are really only three shots involved in making the film. The establishing shot sets the scene, the mid-shot gets the viewer closer to the action in the close-up sells by nitty-gritty of the scene. Imagine then if you are promoting exotic travel to an island destination your establishing shot might be a view of the island from the air, your mid-shot of you of the pristine beach in the close-up and interview with a happy mai tai sipping tourist enjoying those pristine beaches.

Of course it’s rare to do a one take video. When you’re done you’re going to have a fair amount of “footage” and not all that is going make it to the final product. Editing plays a major role when it comes to creating a tight, compelling and engaging video. You can try doing this yourself, or you can outsource it to a professional freelance video editor like those that can be found on Elance.

The 5 keys to getting ranked on the first page of YouTube search results

YouTube determines your rank differently than Google does. YouTube pays far more attention to on page optimization than it does to off page optimization. It really comes down to a handful of factors all of which can be addressed in the upload page. Here are some great tips to get ranked high:

1. YouTube’s number one consideration when ranking a video is the videos performance. It looks at what percentage of the total viewers stayed with the video to the and compared to that percentage that bailed on it. If your viewers are abandoning your video early on, they are really telling YouTube that the video was a poor match for the query that they entered. Having your video professionally edited can pay off big time.
2. Make absolutely certain that the keyword phrase that you’re targeting is in the title of the video. For example if you’re targeting router tables then your video might be titled “router tables – three mistakes to avoid”
3. when uploading your find a field for a video description. Unlike Google, YouTube doesn’t worry about keyword density. That doesn’t mean you can stuff this description with keywords but you could include keywords that are relevant to your target keyword phrase. So if your target was router tables then you would want to include router, routers, woodworking, would grooves and any other keyword that is associated with the prime keyword phrase.
4. The same thing applies to tagging. You want to provide at least four or five relevant tags for your video. And of course it goes without saying make sure you’ve selected the correct category for your video.

Recently I did a podcast with my wife Arlene co-hosting about just how important videos have become as traffic drivers to our own sites. If you’re still wondering if video is right for you, then take a look at the comment left by one of our listeners Judith Neumann:

Thanks, James & Arlene for covering this topic! YouTube has really helped me drive traffic to my website. As you mentioned, the most important thing is to have GOOD CONTENT!

It works for Judith and can certainly work for you. The only thing that’s keeping you from getting traffic off of YouTube is inaction, so put on your list of “must do’s” and start building a storyboard today. Your website will be happy that you did.

Bio

James Martell is a recognized expert in affiliate marketing, natural search and outsourcing. He’s been involved in affiliate marketing since 1999 and is a frequent speaker at affiliate marketing events. James along with his wife Arlene host the first and longest affiliate marketing podcast in the affiliate marketing industry. James and his family live in the seaside suburb of Vancouver BC.

Deborah Carney of Merchant ABCs hosted a panel discussion that included James Martell of Affiliate Buzz and Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp, as well as Kim Salvino, Jeannine Crooks and Amy Ely of buy.at.  Everyone joined in to provide guidance on content and creatives that help affiliates promote a merchant’s business more effectively.

Topics include:

·         Why supplying a variety of creative is key to program growth

·         The types of content and creative to consider

·         The value of text links, banners, and offering unique sizes

·         Providing a comprehensive list of product information, company facts, and statistics for affiliates to use when creating articles and unique content

·         Ideas for communicating creative changes and key messages

·         Best practices in the merchant-affiliate relationship

·         The under-utilized power of video

This podcast wraps up with information on video creative, which will be covered in more detail on the next episode.  Enjoy!

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Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
James Martell
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Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.