Author Archive

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.

Before this summer began, my son was super excited about making an affiliate website. He couldn’t stop talking about it.

…until it required work.

I told him to write some content about his topic. He wasn’t sure where to begin.

To help him along, I wrote 5 simple questions and asked him to answer them in as much detail as he could. (These would be the first 5 blog posts.) I also wrote a question that could be used as his “about” page.

The first day — he spent an hour or two writing a couple paragraphs. (No, that’s not much, but for my 11 year old, it was a lot.)

Then, we got distracted as a family with 3 straight weeks of travel.

Now, I ask him to get back into the swing of things and write some more content.

“…but that takes WORK, Dad!”

You see, making money from affiliate marketing doesn’t just “happen”. It takes effort, dedication and focus.

And, the money doesn’t just come pouring in with the idea.

The idea means nothing, unless you execute.

In fact, the money doesn’t come pouring in after you simply “create” the site. Just having a skeleton site with some very basic content is a great starting point. But that’s what it is: a starting point.

Monetizing a website comes later.

First, you need to create quality content that is compelling, unique and engaging.

(That’s what we teach at The Content Buffet. Want a $20 coupon? Use coupon code “affplan20″ within the next 5 days.)

Then, you need to build your audience.

While you’re creating this content, you need to be conscious of the SEO factors that will bring the audience to you — but you must always be focused on the audience, not the search engines.

If you build quality content, people will like it. (And, so will the search engines.)

So, that’s where we stand.

He is writing content (begrudgingly), and I won’t even put it on the site until he has a few articles and some elements that make the site valuable.

I’m super excited about this.  (But I’ll try to keep this short.)

A month or two ago, I told my son that I’m going to teach him how to make a website this summer, and he will keep all the money that he makes from it.

School ended on Thursday, and the next day he asked me, “When are we going to start working on my site?”

I don’t think I’ve been more proud!

Over the weekend, we discussed what the site may be.  He wanted to make a “gamefudge.com” clone.  Essentially, he wanted a destination where people could play video games.

“Uhh – no,” was my response.  “I don’t know how to make video games, buddy.”

We settled on making a video game website, where the main focus will be on video games that people can buy (and use his affiliate link).  If we can include a section where we can syndicate some online video games he likes, we’ll give that a shot.

I’m going to document this entire process — so be sure to subscribe to the AffPlan.com email list to get the updates.

“We we soo essighted!”  (Thanks, Rebecca Black for these powerful lyrics  And, thanks to Glee for making a fun version of this song.)

I really don’t know how Geno does it.

Not only is he consistently blogging on Affiliate Marketing and managing his OPM Clients, he’s a dedicated family man.

So, how he found the time to squeeze in the writing of one of the most comprehensive books on Affiliate Management that I’ve ever read — is beyond me.

The way I see it, just compiling all of the information, stats, examples and screenshots should have taken forever.  Then, consider the time it would take to research all of this information — and that’s another “forever”.  And finally, the time it should have taken to write such an impressively detailed book should be yet again, forever.

But, Geno has lived this research, examples, and details for years now.  It’s in his blood.

Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a day

The only way this book could have been written in such depth and so well-organized is through Geno’s years of “living it”.

The result?  An extremely comprehensive book!

“Affiliate Program Management:  An Hour a Day” by Geno Prussakov is essentially a “How To Course in Book Form.  It covers basic and advanced topics and is an incredible reference and guide.

It is well researched, well written and well presented.  Delivered in 5 main “parts”, and broken down into 18 detailed chapters, this book is a wealth of information for Affiliate Marketers.  It includes reference guides, tips and is loaded with specific (real world) examples.

If you’re in Affiliate Marketing or want to be, this book is a must-have.  If you’re a prospective merchant looking to start an Affiliate Program, you definitely need this book.

Learn it.  Study it. Know it. (And execute!)

Great work, Geno!

Us Affiliates are a fickle bunch.

Sure, many of us professional affiliates employ media planning strategies that can accommodate your schedule. 

…But, most of us don’t.

I know that Affiliate Mangers have a lot of responsibilities.  You must answer to the merchant (your boss), and you must help your affiliates (your channel).

…but what about the new affiliates who have specifically requested to promote you?

Why do I find that days, weeks – yes, even MONTHS go by before I’m approved to have the privilege of accessing your banners and promoting your product?

Yes, that was sarcasm.

I’m not flip about the programs I choose to promote.

I chose you because you are relevant to me, at the time.  Oftentimes, you are relevant to a current post or review — an immediate need.

I don’t have a scam website.  I provide quality content, and quality recommendations to great merchants.  I don’t deviate from your rules.

…I just want to spend my money to promote YOU.

I want to spend my effort, my limited inventory, my pixel space — to promote you for FREE.  (I only ask that you pay me for sales that you make as a result.)

But please know:  My attention to you is limited.

I will move on.

If I don’t get approved within a reasonable amount of time — I will forget about you.  I promise you that.

So, Merchants – why not set a goal to approve your new affiliates as quickly as possible.?

You may not know what you’re missing.

ShareASale has been a major player in the affiliate marketing space for years.  They offer an impressive network of high quality affiliates, and ultra-high quality network quality.  (Recently, I admitted that ShareASale is my network of choice.)

ShareASale is a leader in so many areas, that I won’t begin to list them now.  Their reputation – which is 10 Years Strong! – speaks for itself.

The only area that ShareASale has needed improvement is the user interface.

ShareASale Launches New Merchant Interface!

People like “slick” user interfaces, and often (inaccurately) judge the quality of technology based on its interface.  As a result, I feel that ShareASale may have lost a few merchants to networks that have slick interfaces.  Luckily for us, ShareASale has focused their efforts to date, on their network quality.

Well – after the launch of this new interface, there should be no under-estimating the quality of this technology and this amazing network.

I can’t wait to see the new interface.

..and you can too.

ShareASale is putting on daily webinars to introduce this new interface.  The webinars will be available twice daily for the next two weeks.  (Join me at one of the scheduled webinars!  The full list of available times are available by clicking here.  I’m going to be there on Wednesday or Thursday.  I can’t wait.)

This announcement is straight from ShareASale’s blog:

From Brian Littleton, CEO of ShareASale:

We are excited to announce the release of the ShareASale Merchant Interface Generation 6!
*insert your personal happy dance here*

You can take a look at our new makeover when you log into your merchant account.

Much of the tools within the interface have remained the same in functionality. However, the look and organization of the tools has changed dramatically. The biggest changes and newest functions to note include the following:

• The ShareASale Hockey Puck: Located in the upper left hand corner, the hockey puck guides merchants to the Home Page, Help Center, Deposit Page, and/or Saved Reports.
• Saved Reports: Merchants now have the ability to save recent report queries. You may opt to save the settings of favorite reports and recall them later for use.
• Search Function: With the new search function, merchants can search their affiliates, groups, text links, banners, widgets, videos, transactions, the help center and more in one central area.
• Quick Navigation Sidebar: Easily find all the tools and resources you need with the visual pull out menus organized by affiliate program management tasks.
• Main Page Social Announcements: Keep up to date on all the latest ShareASale Blog news and happenings in the ShareASale Affiliate Aquarium with the homepage realtime scroll.
• Homepage Graphs: These graphs quickly pull from your reports to graphically display Program Vitals (EPC, Voids, Avg. Commission, etc) and Weekly Progress (Clicks, Gross Sales, Net Sales, etc).

In conjunction with the new merchant interface, ShareASale Client Services will host training webinars twice a day for the next two weeks. Webinars will be held daily at 12:00pm and 4:00pm Central Time.

Every now and then, I get really inspired by this industry.  Today was one of them.

My good friend, and Amazing Affiliate Marketer, Tricia Meyer blogged about the “Amazing Women in Affiliate Marketing” earlier.  She listed a ton of my closest friends, with a quick reason she finds them amazing.

Clearly, I couldn’t have said it better myself – so I’m sharing her blog post with you.

Here’s her post:  Amazing Women in Affiliate Marketing, by Tricia Meyer.

Thank you, Tricia, for acknowledging the “Best of the Best” in the industry we love:  Affiliate Marketing.

Be sure to read the comments — you’ll see that everyone has acknowledged that Tricia herself belongs on this list.

Man (err, woman) — I love Affiliate Marketing, and the many great friends I’ve grown so close to within it.

I’ve heard this more often than I care to admit from aspiring merchants. “I’m about ready to launch my site (or offer), and before I start spending money on traffic, I’ll just launch an affiliate program and work out the kinks“.

Sure, I’m paraphrasing, but that’s basically what they’ve all said.

Don’t work out the kinks with your affiliates!

Are you crazy?

…That’s how I respond.

The idea that a merchant can simply throw up an affiliate program before optimizing for conversions is so short-sighted and such a ridiculous concept, that I’d laugh if it wasn’t so appalling.

Affiliates are not guinea pigs.

On the contrary, an affiliate program is only appropriate to launch after, and only after, you’ve already confirmed your conversions are optimized. That includes everything starting with your shopping cart, your on-site messaging, your followup system, your marketing material and messaging – everything.

Also, you need to be sure that your site is exclusively focused on converting traffic into direct sales. By direct sales, I mean no “leaks” into indirect revenue such as Adsense, or any other non-commissionable actions.

Affiliates spend their hard earned time, energy, and money to drive traffic to your site. And they do it for free.

The only thing they expect, and demand, out of you — is that you’ll convert their traffic, accurately track their sales, and pay their deserved commissions.

So don’t experiment with Affiliates.

Experiment with your own money. Experiment first. Perfect and optimize everything – first.

Then, and only then, launch an affiliate program that you can be proud of.

I’ve been in Affiliate Marketing since late 1997, early 1998.

The company I founded (and sold in 2005 to “Inuvo”) was the first In-House Affiliate Tracking and Management Solution for Merchants. Essentially, we helped merchants start and run their own Affiliate Programs.

And it was very successful, too. Over 3,000 different Merchants started their Affiliate Program on the platform my company created.

So, looking back, roughly 13 years later, it seemed to me that everyone knows what Affiliate Marketing is, and what an Affiliate Program is.

Boy, was I wrong.

My good friend Deborah Carney has put together a great video series to teach Merchants all about Affiliate Marketing, and how to leverage an Affiliate Program for their business.

For those of you new to this growing industry, I think you’ll find the information in this initial video, “What is an Affiliate Program”, invaluable in your research.

This video is an introduction to creating a merchant affiliate program. There are lots of videos out there to teach affiliates about affiliate marketing, this one is to educate the merchants that are interested in starting an affiliate program.