Author Archive

Now this is exciting.

My Son just made his very first Affiliate Commission!

No, the commission he earned wasn’t an enormous amount of money.  (Hint: It was $2.)

This single commission is not going to put my son through college, nor will it pay for a single college course — nor will it pay for a single college text book.

Heck, it won’t even pay for a Grande Mocha at Starbucks today!

What this commission lacks in quantity, it makes up for in so many ways:

• It’s his very first affiliate commission!
• This commission was earned in a highly competitive niche.
• This commission was earned selling a product in a hot category.
• This commission was earned after launching the site roughly one month ago.
• …and it’s the first of many commissions!

The website I’m making for my son, VideoGameKid.com just earned a whopping $2.00 commission, on a $20 sale of an Angry Birds Tshirt.

Evan's First Affiliate-Referred Sale, as Reported in ShareASAle

Evan was so excited when he learned that his site generated this commission!  Of course, he sees the big picture, and that single $2 commission is simply a milestone — and proof that a “newbie” can make a website that generates affiliate commissions.

If you didn’t know, I’m documenting this entire process in an affiliate marketing video training series for free AffPlan members.  If you were watching along the way, you’d have already known that I created a section of his Video Game website for “Angry Birds Merchandise“, including a sub section for “Angry Birds Tshirts” and “Angry Birds Plush Toys“.

If you’d like to see these videos, and watch “over my shoulder” as I build this website for my son — you can join AffPlan for free, and access all the videos now, if you’d like.

Have I mentioned that I’m so excited that Evan’s website made his first affiliate commission today?

Oh – and here’s another rather exciting component of this tale:

The page that promotes the Angry Birds TShirts was (a) found in google under “Angry Birds Tshirt”, and (b) was created with ShareASale’s “Make a Page” Tool.  (I document process using ShareASale’s Make a Page Tool in this video, and just wrote about it the other day in a different blog post about datafeeds.)

So, not only was the page found in google under a relatively highly competitive “hot” term, the page that I made was created by using ShareASale’s “Make a Page” tool — so I didn’t have to actually create it by hand!

What an exciting day… 

Affiliate Marketers build a lot of websites for their respective niches, and one powerful way to build a website chalked full of merchant products and content is by using datafeeds.

“But datafeeds are so complicated!”

Yes, they can be.

If you want to use data from multiple affiliate merchants across multiple affiliate networks, then yes – it can be complicated.  Great solutions for this need are provided by DataFeedr, Popshops and GoldenCan.

And, if you’re trying to pull in discounts, deals and coupons from multiple merchants across multiple networks, datafeeds can be even more complicated!  Luckily, ForMeToCoupon is a great solution that powers most of the major players in this space.

…but what about a simple datafeed?

How can Affiliates use a datafeed that doesn’t cost a dime, and is super easy to impliment?

The answer:  ShareASale’s tool called, “Make a Page”.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I am documenting the entire process of how I’m making an affiliate site for my 11 year old son, Evan.  The affiliate website he’s making is all about Video Games, and is found at VideoGameKid.com.

On this site, we decided to display some products related to Angry Birds.  (He loves Angry Birds.  I kinda do, too.)

During the documentation process, I needed a super simple solution that allowed me to pull in some Angry Birds Merchandise (from multiple merchants) and show video game enthusiasts some cool Angry Birds stuff, as well as great gift ideas for gamers.

I turned to ShareASale.

I simply logged in, and found products with “Angry Birds” in the name.  I added them to a ShareASale “basket”, then simply used the “Make a Page” tool to build me a nicely formatted page with all the Angry Birds items I wanted.

That’s pretty much it.

Datafeeds can be complicated.  They can be messy.  They can take time, energy and money to implement.

But, if you’re looking for a simple way to use datafeeds on your affiliate websites, then check out ShareASale’s “Make a Page” tool.

I have documented exactly how I implemented this on VideoGameKid.com, as part of my free video training series here at AffPlan.

Please check out the video, and let me know what you think!  And, give the “Make a Page” tool a shot. 

Related:

AffPlan Strategies Session Podcast:  “DataFeeds Galore” with Eric Nagel and Deb Carney

The term “Content Curation” has baffled me for months.

When I first heard “content curation” used as it relates to internet marketing, I assumed the name would have to change in order for regular folks like me to understand what the hell it is.

For me, the word “curation” seems to conjure images of some stuffy, stodgy old man, wearing a tuxedo in a chandelier-lit over-decorated museum, and speaking to me in a condescending tone (using far too many 6 syllable words) in his polished british accent.

Otherwise, the word “curation” simply seems so high falootin’ that it would never become part of my lexicon.  (Yes, I said “high-falootin’” and I meant it.)

I never thought I’d use the term “content curation”, unless I wanted to pretend to be sophisticated, and highly educated.

But now?  I think I get it.

Use Content to Gain Authority and Credibility.

When I build websites for my affiliate marketing business, my goal is to generate affiliate commissions.  As part of my long term affiliate marketing plan for these websites, I want many of these sites to be considered an authority in their respective niches.

A major component of building credibility, authority and the resulting long term traffic to my affiliate websites is content.

That’s where content curation comes in.

Let me explain.

Creating original, high quality content takes time.  It’s hard.  It takes passion for the topic, dedication and ambition.  (Or, if I don’t do it myself, I need to hire a quality content strategist and then pay for the content.)

And, as Scott Jangro, founder of Shareist.com recognizes in a recent video — creating original content on a topic beyond the first 19 articles (or so) becomes daunting.

So, even if you are passionate about a topic, you may run out of ideas to produce great original content yourself.

Leverage the Content of Others.

If I need to provide unique, high quality content on a topic, of course I need to create it.  But, let’s be honest:  Plenty of other people have created good quality content on the same topic.  Why can’t I leverage that content?

Well, with content curation, you can.

I’m not going to get into all the benefits of content curation, with regard to social media, SEO and other elements.  If you want to read about that, check out Lisa Picarille’s insightful post over at MyContentPro.com.

I am, however, going to recognize how Content Curation helps affiliate marketers.

Curation Adds Value.

Since there are so many articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts and more created by other experts in any given niche or topic — we, as affiliate marketers can use them to our benefit.  (And, to the benefit of the content creator.)

• Is it not unique, quality content when you manually identify good stuff around the ‘net and pull a few of them together into a decent “recap” or a simple “compilation”?  Yes.  Yes it is.
• Is it not unique, quality content when you take it further and comment on the general topic that connects all of these different items into your single blog post?  Yes.  Yes it is.
• And, is it not unique, quality content when you go even further, and provide your own perspective, opinion and feedback on any of these items that you’ve aggregated into a nice, clean list of organized videos and articles on a specific topic?  Why yes.  Yes, it is!

Maybe I’ll give some more examples soon.  Maybe I’ll ask Lisa Picarille to create a “how to curate content as an affiliate” tutorial. (Lisa? Are you reading this?)

This Ain’t No Short Cut.

Content Curation is not a short cut to quality content.  It takes time – just as writing or producing any content takes time.

However, by pulling together content items in your given niche or topic, you add value with the simple act of aggregating good stuff.  You add further value by providing perspective, commentary or an overall description of why these items are good, or related.

Is content curation the only answer?  Absolutely not.

Can content curation complement your existing content creation efforts, provide value to your audience, and help your credibility and authority on a topic?  Absolutely yes.

As I think of content curation, I realize that I’ve already learned of it, to a degree. In The Content Buffet (an educational ebook and audio series I created with Lisa Picarille), she teaches about the immense variety of content options we have as marketers.  One of these options is “content curation”, but I don’t think she used the term, “content curation”, as she would have totally confused me.  Lucky for me, and the students who follow her training in the Content Buffet, she makes it simple to understand.

Why content curation helps affiliate marketers:

• Creating unique, compelling, quality original content on a given topic is hard.
• You can leverage the efforts of others who’ve already created such content.
• Bringing together specific quality content items adds value.
• Commenting or providing perspective on such content items adds further value.
• Content curation isn’t a short cut to creating content – it’s another avenue to creating good content.
• Content curation can help your goals of gaining credibility and authority on a topic.

What do you think?  Have you used content curation successfully in your affiliate marketing business?  If not, are you going to try it?

As I announced earlier this year, my 11 year old son, Evan, wants to make an affiliate website.

Initially, it was quite a battle of wills to get him to simply write a couple basic articles that I could use for the site.  The summer came and went in a flash – and he still didn’t have a site to show for it.

So, I came to a conclusion:  I have to show him the site.  No more talk.  No more dreaming the “what if’s” and “imagine if it could do this”.  I had to give him something to look at.

And it worked!

Watch me build VideoGameKid.com for my son – his first Affiliate Website!

Now that he’s seeing the site come together, he’s more excited, more engaged — and providing content without my prodding, than I had ever dreamed.

On Saturday night, he was up late and I found him working on his “2011 Video Game Gift Guide” until almost 1 AM!

Then, on Monday evening, he was late for bed working on a list of free online video games that he plays.

(This is a very proud Affiliate-Dad Moment, folks!)

The website he’s making is “VideoGameKid.com” and it’s still very, very, very not ready for prime time.  But it’s a great start!

As part of my new AffPlan Training Series, I’m documenting the entire process!

I’ve got quite a few videos already up and available for free members now.

So, if you’d like to watch over my shoulder, behind the scenes, as I build my son his first Affiliate Website, then I can hook you up!  (Just join AffPlan for free – the videos are already there and I’m adding more constantly.)

In this AffPlan Training Series Production, I take you through every single step of this process.

• Selecting a domain.
• Creating the Webhosting Account, Setting up DNS and Installing WordPress.
• The initial tech work that needs to be done to prepare for a successful site.
• The basic plugins I use, and why.
• Deciding how the site will operate (pages and posts).
• Selecting a theme.
• SEO Considerations.
• The steps I take to get indexed in Google (and the results)
• How I customize the theme.
• All the advanced plugins and settings I use.
• How to create user generated content and user engagement.
• How to prepare for social media.
• How to make everything work and look good.
• ...and that’s just the first few videos!

There are plenty of updates to come.

Please join me now. 

If an 11 Year old kid can do it – so can you!

Have you joined Affplan?  It’s FREE and you can watch the journey from concept to complete Affiliate Website immediately!

I learned of TweetAdder type twitter marketing and automation tools in late 2008.

With all of the spammy DM’s and @messages from marketers who created twitter profiles and used twitter marketing and automation tools to grow their follower numbers and promote certain products, I thought these twitter tools were going to be a fad.

I was wrong.  (Boy was I wrong!)

Since I didn’t expect the whole “automate your twitter marketing efforts with software” to live very long, I didn’t intend to tell you about it.

Now, fast forward to August of this year.

I have three very close personal friends who have been leveraging Twitter (and other social media) substantially to drive traffic to their niche affiliate websites.

During my conversations with them, we discussed Tweet Adder and their intentions to give it a shot.  We follow-up every week or two, and they’d tell me how their twitter numbers are improving significantly.  I’d also learn of their little tips like “run it slow and steady — don’t blast it too hard“.

Now (roughly 4 months later) all three of these affiliate marketers have nothing but impressive results and rave reviews.  (Since our discussions are private, I must adhere to my “FrieNDA” — which means “A Non-Disclosure Agreement between friends” — therefore, I cannot publicly name their sites or their specific results.)

I for one, will be implementing Tweet Adder on at least one of my affiliate website social media accounts.  (I may use it for the “Building An Affiliate Website for My 11 Year Old Son” Production in the Affplan Video Training Series, and document the whole thing.)

I talked with the good folks over at Tweet Adder, and they gave me a Tweet Adder Coupon Code that I can give to my readers!

Tweet Adder is a great Twitter Marketing Tool

This Tweet Adder Promo Code is for 20% off.

All you need to do is enter “FARM20″ during the checkout process, and you’ll get a 20% off rate for any purchase of Tweet Adder.

Have you used Tweet Adder?  I’d love to hear more feedback, tips and suggestions.

There are many different learning styles.

• Some people learn best by reading and studying.
• Some people learn by watching lectures and taking notes.
• Some people learn by being told what to do, or watching as someone else does it.

Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that most people learn best when they (a) watch someone else do it, step by step and (b) try it themselves.

Sure, the ideal situation is to sprinkle in proper lectures and the ability to get specific questions answered, or work in small groups — but the core of the most successful learning style (IMHO), is through WATCHING and then DOING.

The AffPlan Video Training Series is FREE to AffPlan Members

So, I’m going to help affiliate marketers with the first part: 

You can watch me as I teach specific internet marketing and affiliate marketing topics.

I’m a total “how to” guy.

I don’t really like talking in generalities and theory.  (There’s a place for that.  I’m just not good at it.)

What I am good at, is showing you exactly “how” and the steps to accomplish specific goals and tasks.

I love when people tell me that the lessons I have taught, with my specific “how to do X” guidance,  helped pull everything together for them.

Why am I doing this?

• I love Affiliate Marketing.
• I love Internet Marketing.
• I love making websites.
• I love being a total geek.
• I love teaching and helping people.
• …and, I don’t mind making videos.

This is a perfect blending of all that I love, so I can now proudly announce the launch of:  The Affplan Video Training Series.

It’s available for FREE.

There are productions and episodes already available – instantly.

The only catch?  You have to spend 30 seconds and sign up for a free membership here at AffPlan.

Please – Join me here at AffPlan for FREE.

If you’ve been around for a while, you may have noticed some big changes (and growth) here at AffPlan.com.

The most obvious of these changes is the new look of the website.

It was quite an undertaking, as the original AffPlan.com was a simple, under-utilized, rarely-filled blog.  I had originally used Thesis Theme for this blog (as I have for many of my blogs), but I needed a massive overhaul.

In short, I ended up using my new favorite Affiliate Marketing WordPress Theme — OptimizePress.

I selected OptimizePress to power the new AffPlan.com

I’ve used OptimizePress as my WP Theme to create landing pages, squeeze pages and membership sites.  They look great (IMHO), and I didn’t have to do any of the design work.  OptimizePress does it all for me.  Want to see one of my membership sites powered by optimizepress?  Check out ContentBuffet.net.  The initial page is the squeeze page.  After you enter your email address, you go through the “sales funnel” which Optimizepress designed for me, too!.  (And, if you’re wondering, I’ve selected Wishlist Member as my membership software for all of my sites.)

Enough about OptimizePress.  Let’s just say I’m a big fan of this theme for “non-designers” like me.

With the theme selection done, I needed to begin layout of the new site.

I had some pretty hefty goals to meet.  They were:

1. Focus on a page-based layout, with the blog as a “part” of the site, instead of “the blog is the site”.
2. Recognize that AffPlan has 3 distinct audiences:  Merchants, Affiliates and “Newbies”
3. Create easy navigation for Merchants, Affiliates and “Newbies”.
4. Create complete website sections (almost ‘mini sites’) that spoke directly to all three of these audiences appropriately.
5. Create products and services for each of these audiences, and make “sales pages” for each.
6. Create a membership site component, to provide free eBooks and videos to free members.
7. Allow for upgrading memberships to premium levels, and provide premium products and services.
8. Have a nice looking blog.

As you can see, I had my work cut out for me.

Oh yeah — and all of this had to look good.  (Did I mention that I suck at design?)

Luckily, OptimizePress covered 90% of my design needs.

What bout the remaining 10% of my design needs?

That “10%” was an incredibly important “10%”.  (Yes, I made these numbers up.)

The remaining “10%” of the design was the first impression people would have of the site, and how the navigation strategy would be executed.

Thanks to Joel and Karen Garcia for this Graphic Work!

It was… the home page.

I had a vision, but absolutely no skills to make it happen.

Luckily, I have really smart, talented, and extremely generous friends.  Karen and Joel Garcia (from GTO Management) offered up their mad skillz and hooked me up with a gorgeous home page graphic, complete with my desired roll-over graphics.  I think it’s awesome!  Thanks again, Karen and Joel!

So, the site is done.  It’s live.

The membership component is done, and ready to take new members.

Have you joined yet?  It’s simple, it’s free — and I’ve already got plenty of goodies (ebooks, videos and more) available only to free members.

Join AffPlan for free.

This was a big project, and although I still have work to do, I hope you like it.

Have you gone through major re-designs like this?  Do you like how AffPlan has turned out?

…and not just in my own mind!

Affiliate Summit (the premiere Affiliate Marketing Conference) honors a few select professional Affiliate Marketers every year, in their “Pinnacle Awards” ceremony.

I like to think of them as the Oscars of Affiliate Marketing.  (Don’t agree with me?  I don’t care, darn it.

This year, the awards ceremony took place at the Affiliate Summit West Conference, in January 2011.

The Pinnacle Awards are:

• Affiliate of the Year
• Affiliate Manager of the Year
• Exceptional Merchant
• Affiliate Marketing Advocate
• Best Blogger
• Affiliate Marketing Legend

…and this year, I won the “Affiliate Marketing Legend” Award!

Whoo-hoo!

In my acceptance speech, I started with, “I told myself I wasn’t going to to cry…”

Okay, so I’m not really a “legend”, (and I didn’t give a speech) but I truly am honored to have received the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Award, “Affiliate Marketing Legend”.

“But, Todd – you won that award in January!  Why did you wait so long to make this post?”

Yes, yes – I’ve been chastised by many of my friends in Affiliate Marketing, because I haven’t publicized my award, and I didn’t even make a simple blog post about it.

Why?

Well, I have two reasons justifications for procrastination.

1)  I don’t like to toot my own horn.
I’m simply not good at it.

The way I live my life is, “The proof is in the pudding“, “Actions speak louder than words“, “Judge me on what I DO, not what I say“….  You know, the normal mid-west modesty thing.  But, I do need to learn how to do this better.

2) How do I properly acknowledge the gravity of this honor considering those who’ve previously won?
It’s crazy to see my name next to my predecessors who’ve been honored in this category.

Do you know who else has won this award over the years?  They are huge people in this industry, and I’m humbled to be counted among them.

Previous Winners are:
2006:  Wayne Porter (this award was named after him!)
2006:  Tim Storm
2007:  Todd Crawford
2008:  Brian Littleton
2009:  Kellie Stevens
2010:  Scott Jangro
2011:  Todd Farmer  <– that’s me.  Wow!

3) It’s the “Legend” Award, for goodness sake!  
It’s like a “Lifetime Achievement” Award.  So, I guess I can retire now?  (kidding! no way!)

Okay, so those are my reasons for taking so long to do this.  But today, I hit “submit” and publish this post.

Why now?

Well, the new 2012 Pinnacle Awards will be presented just over a month from now.  It would be wildly inappropriate to publish this any later than now.

So, I’m finally going on the record to (1) Tell you about this milestone in my Affiliate Marketing career, and (2) Thank you all for your support.

I hope to see you at Affiliate Summit!

Want to see the Video of the Awards:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gzfMHtk5_k

This was a ton of fun.

My good friends and I were on a webinar (recorded as a podcast to replay) recently, where we all talked about how we got started — and we shared a few fun memories to share.

“Who are these good friends of yours, Todd?”, you ask?

They are:

• Brian Littleton (ShareASale Founder and CEO)
• Scott Jangro (MechMedia Founder and CEO, and former BeFree Executive)
• Connie Arnold (a.k.a. Connie Berg, and Founder of FlamingoWorld.com)
• Todd Crawford (Co-Founder of Impact Radius, and former CJ Founding Executive)

As you can see – I was in some impressive company.

…and we really did have fun!

Special “Thanks!” goes out to my good friend Deb Carney, for taking the time to coordinate and host this event.

http://affiliateabcs.com/blog/affiliate-marketing-then-and-now-roundtable-discussion-affiliate-abcs-59/

To celebrate the launch of the new AffPlan design — I am happy to announce that I have a few Silver Passes to Affiliate Summit that will be available for my readers!

I hope to see you at Affiliate Summit!

So – want your own Silver Affiliate Summit Pass for FREE?  Just leave a comment below (or email me if you’re shy).  Winners will be randomly selected and will be notified by November 30th.