Affiliate Marketing Success Stories - Raising an Affiliate Program Cash Cow (Part 2)

By Andy Lax 

The following interview with Shawn Collins, a prominent expert in the
affiliate marketing field, should prove instructive to the reader. Shawn
has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the field and now runs his own affiliate
program management and consulting firm. As this interview is inherently
limited in scope, one is encouraged to read more about Shawn's experiences
in the field and the advice he dispenses through his books, conferences,
blog, articles, reports, and weekly radio show. The reader can also meet
Shawn at the Affiliate Summit, a "can't miss" conference for those
interested in excelling in the competitive world of affiliate marketing.
Q. Shawn, how would you describe your initial experiences with affiliate
marketing?
A. It was back in 1997. I had a dial-up account on AOL, a 14.4 modem and
a desire to make more money. At the time, I didn't know a thing about
creating websites, marketing, etc. But I went through a tutorial at AOL on
writing HTML and picked up the basics. Then, I created a hideous, single
page site about New York City and put up some Amazon links. I never earned
a cent on that site.
Q. What growing pains did you endure at first? What were the biggest
obstacles and challenges from that period of time?
A. Back then, there was a monopoly on registering domains, and it cost
$35 a year. At the time, that was a bit prohibitive for me (I didn't
realize what a good investment a short name would be). That was a trend -
an unwillingness to invest in my affiliate efforts. I was going the free
route with tools, hosting, etc. That definitely delayed my progress.
Q. What was your first "Ah-ha" moment? How did you incorporate the
lesson learned into your affiliate marketing business?
A. The first time I got my reporting via email from Amazon with
information on commission earned. Back then, there was no option to login
to an interface - just a periodic email with affiliate stats. When I
realized it was real that I could earn money this way, I was excited and
motivated. This persuaded me that I was wasting my time working in
magazine publishing - it was time for me to get into a line of work that
was stimulating and rewarding.
With my limited affiliate marketing experience, I managed to get a job
with a start-up in 1997 called Medsite.com, and I bluffed my way into
running the affiliate program there. I've enjoyed my work ever since.
Q. Without mentioning names, have you joined affiliate programs that did
not keep their promises and/or provide appropriate compensation? What
measures did you take when confronted with this situation and what advice
can you give others to avoid this circumstance?
A. Lots of affiliate programs lie in their recruiting efforts - they
talk about how easy it is to earn commission from them. That's simply not
true - it's not easy. I just don't pay attention to most recruiting
efforts from affiliate programs. I would encourage affiliates to ignore
proclamations of easy earnings and high EPCs - the most important thing is
to test everything yourself and promote what works for you.
Q. How has affiliate marketing changed in the last seven years? What
strategies would you implement now that you would not or could not do
years ago?
A. The industry has matured greatly. Seven years ago, many affiliate
marketers were content sites which relied on 468x60 banners. The analytics
were primitive and fewer companies offered affiliate programs.
Now, the industry is so diversified. Essentially, any way to market online
is being leveraged by affiliates... including comparison shopping,
domaining, video, SEO, e-mail, social networks, PPC, rewards programs,
etc.
If I could turn back time, I would have started up multiple niche
community sites back then for popular topics. By now, if nurtured they
would have grown nicely and become lucrative affiliate sites.
Q. If one is gifted marketing an affiliate product or service, is it
likely that this individual can effectively market his/her own products or
services? Should people look into developing their own items while
marketing or instead of marketing others' products/services?
A. I'd say anything that is already selling online can be effectively
marketed through an affiliate program. Selling your own products or
services can certainly provide more rewards in the best case scenario, but
then you've got a lot more risk, too.
If somebody has the infrastructure and know-how to sell a certain product
or service, I'd say to go for it. But don't take uncalculated risks.
Q. What are crucial mistakes that newbies tend to commit?
A. Lack of investment and understanding. It's really difficult to
succeed in affiliate marketing if you are unwilling to spend the time and
money required to develop a long-term strategy. And affiliate marketing is
most certainly not a quick endeavor - it takes patience to endure and
succeed.
Q. What are some of the creative (perhaps seldom used) strategies to
employ in the affiliate marketing field?
A. Simply going beyond the banner. There are a lot of exciting
opportunities out there with Web 2.0. It's just a matter of figuring out a
unique angle.
Q. How long does it realistically take to build a full-time income with
affiliate marketing, assuming "full-time commitment"?
A. I don't think you can qualify and quantify passion. And to me,
passion is an essential ingredient in affiliate marketing success. Also,
there are so many variables, like the size of a given vertical, the
margins involved, competition, etc.
Q. Is it easier to build income from this type of marketing now or was
it easier years ago? (Please consider competition, Internet usage, advent
of AdWords and Pay Per Click, etc.)
A. It was never easy. There was certainly less competition in the past,
but also less in the way of options of advertisers to choose and methods
to promote them. Plus, there is the continuing growth of ecommerce. I
think the opportunities for success are just as healthy now as they were
years ago.
Q. While I know that you do not recommend any particular affiliate
marketing programs, in your estimation, what are the "hottest fields?"
A. The "hottest fields" are a slippery slope. They change over time. I
think the hottest field for any given person should be the area that
interests them most. You can certainly go out there as a mercenary and
promote the most lucrative thing at the moment, like ringtones or debt
consolidation, but I suggest going with a long-term plan in an area that
interests you.
Q. Is there any affiliate marketing software that is a "must" when one
pursues an affiliate marketing venture?
A. This really depends on the type of affiliate. There are software
programs that help optimize affiliate efforts for different affiliates.
For instance, if you're working with data feeds, you should check out
WebMerge.
Q. What are your views concerning affiliate marketing networks such as
LinkShare and Commission Junction?
A. I think they're the backbone of the industry. The affiliate networks
account for the majority of large affiliate programs, and they also
provide a level of convenience in that you can consolidate a lot of your
activity under a few logins.
I would like to see them work together to establish standards. For
instance, there is a lack of standards in data feeds, which is a challenge
for the folks using them.
Q. Can any absolute statements be made regarding the most lucrative type
of affiliate marketing payment system (e.g pay per sale, pay per click,
etc.)?
A. In general, CPA seems to be more profitable, especially offers for
products and services that are not physical items.
Q. What influence, if any, will blogs make on the affiliate marketing
landscape?
A. I think some are influential in the way networks, merchants and
affiliates operate. For instance, Jangro.com is considered to have had an
impact in the decision by Commission Junction to change their plans on the
Link Management Initiative (LMI).
Q. What are, statistically, the best avenues to market an affiliate
program?
A. It depends on the vertical. Email and PPC work well for some CPA
offers, while an established web presence can be more important for
selling goods on a revenue share.
Q. Do you see any future trends in the affiliate marketing field?
A. Smaller affiliate programs. Affiliate managers are focusing on
working more closely with fewer affiliates. Also, I think we'll see an
increasing number of affiliates embrace the opportunities out there with
Web 2.0 and innovate with the new tools that roll out.
Q. What current projects are you undertaking in affiliate marketing, including
your work with the Affiliate Summit?
A. My main focus is Affiliate Summit, the largest affiliate marketing
conference. Our last show had over 2,000 this past January in Las Vegas.
We also have events scheduled in Miami (July 8-10) and London (September
28) this year.
Additionally, I provide affiliate management and consulting services as
Shawn Collins Consulting, and I publish an annual report on affiliate
marketing benchmarks called AffStat.
I also have a blog at http://blog.affiliatetip.com where I post daily
about issues in affiliate marketing. And I'm the co-host with Lisa
Picarille, Editor-in-Chief at Revenue Magazine, for the weekly show,
Affiliate Thing, on WebmasterRadio.FM.
Q. What do you attribute your affiliate marketing success to (e.g.,
building content, writing articles, following footsteps of a mentor, forum
participation, etc.)? Please include any last words of advice for one who
aspires to succeed/excel in the affiliate marketing field.
A. It's all about dedication, tenacity, and relationships. I don't look
at my affiliate marketing activity as a job, but rather a fun, profitable
hobby. Over the decade I've been involved in the industry, there are way
too many factors to list that have contributed to my success. But I'd say
the most important of all is to constantly endeavor to learn from others.
_____________________
Conclusion - Do's and Don'ts of successful affiliates
Analyzing the success stories, we may conclude the following do's and
don'ts of being a successful affiliate:
Do's

Build a useful website. Visitors must gain some benefit by visiting
your site.

Retain visitors through unique content or adding your "personal
touch." Provide something unique / personal on a consistent basis so that
visitors will be motivated to revisit your site.

Sign up with a known and established affiliate program. They have
their tracking systems updated and so you can be rest assured that you
will get your payments.

Market your affiliate program so that you can increase the number of
visitors who see your affiliate offering.

Optimize your website so that you get a high ranking in natural search
engines.

Know your competition. You have to provide something better than
them.

Choose the advertisement model that is in line with your overall
business model.

Launch your site for some time, before joining any program. Good
affiliate programs may like to see your site and study the traffic before
enrolling you.

Look for outside help. You may employ skilled people.

Use blogs and RSS feeds for promotion.

Remain active in your industry. You must know the latest trends and
needs of visitors.

Don'ts

Join just any affiliate program. Many affiliate programs are outright
frauds.

Ignore your competition. They are the best evaluators of your
products/services.

Get obsolete. Update your content regularly.

Rely only on banner ads. Experiment with all types of
advertisements.

Waste time. Be the first to capture any new opportunity.

Encourage spamming. You will get blacklisted.

With successful identification of customer needs, providing a way to
fulfill those needs, and collaborating with established affiliate
programs, it is possible to create your own affiliate success story. You
just need to manifest a methodical, patient approach and perform lots of
hard work. But raising an affiliate program cash cow is certainly worth
the effort!

Author, Andy Lax, is an account manager at IntelliCollect – a merchant account company that provides merchants with credit card processing and electronic check processing capability. This credit card processing company, http://www.intelli-collect.com, offers the best rates, exemplary service and their own potentially lucrative merchant account affiliate program http://www.intelli-collect.com/affiliates.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andy_Lax

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Four Must Have Tools for Affiliate Marketing Success In 2012

What does it takes to become a successful Affiliate Marketer? Could you tell me the essential ingredients of an affiliate marketing success story? Is there a shortcut to Affiliate Marketing glory? . All these of these questions play around in the minds of affiliate marketers who want to make it big in this business.

If you are anything like I was when I started out; excited and all set to make my fortune as an affiliate marketer and yet not knowing where to start you may have to say what I said, "I don't have a clue!" If you are new to affiliate marketing can I tell you something? There are some essentials that you must know or you will waste an incredible amount of time and money.

Although affiliate marketing is touted as one of the easiest and most effective ways to earn money online, it is not as easy as it sounds. The wise affiliate marketer plans every action and executes it the best way he can. He should also maximize the potential to earn by utilizing the right tools necessary for a successful Affiliate Marketing business. We have consulted some of the most successful affiliate marketers in the business and below are the top three necessary tools for a successful affiliate marketing business.

Important Tool #1: Your Own Website

The most important and indispensable tool in Affiliate Marketing is your own website. The first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. Your website is the jump off point of all your marketing efforts. Thus, you must first build a user-friendly website, which will appeal to your prospects and encourage them to click on the links to the products and service you are promoting and make a purchase. Therefore, you must first concentrate your efforts in building a website that will cater to what your prospects need.

Important Tool #2: Quality Content

One of the most powerful tools for building quality content for your website is writing relevant and informative articles. Consider this, almost all web users go online to look for information, not necessarily to go and buy something. Above all else, make your website full of original, relevant and useful content. People will love articles that are appealing and helpful. Keep in mind that, on the Internet, content is still king and good quality content will not only build your credibility, it can also help you achieve a higher search engine ranking. By posting relevant and useful articles, you establish yourself as a credible expert in the field, making you a more-trustworthy endorser of the product or service you promote. Establishing a good reputation on the net is a good step in building loyal customers and articles help establish credibility.

Important Tool #3: Incentives

Competition is extremely tight in the Internet world. You must always be one-step ahead of your rivals to ensure that you capture a significant share of your target market. Therefore, you must use every possible means to encourage people not only to visit your site but also to click and proceed to the websites of the products and services you are promoting. Building an opt-in email list is one of the best ways to gather prospects. Offer a newsletter or an e-zine. Better yet, offer incentives to your prospects to encourage them to subscribe to your newsletters. You can present free software, access to exclusive services and other freebies that will be helpful to your prospects.

Important Tool #4: Link Popularity

The importance of driving highly targeted traffic to your website cannot be emphasized enough. The all-important web traffic is at the top of the list of the most important success vehicles in the affiliate marketing world. Attracting people to your site should be the first step you should carry out. Do what is necessary to achieve a high search engine ranking. Link Popularity is one of the factors that search engines use to determine search engine rankings. Therefore, to enhance your link popularity, you must have an aggressive link building campaign.

One of the best ways to do this - at no cost at all - is by submitting articles as mentioned above, with your website's link in the resource box. Submit to related e-zines and free article sites. You will not only gain exposure, you will also have the opportunity to advertise for free, just include a link back to your site. The more sites you submit your articles to, the better your link popularity is. Make your articles original, relevant and useful so that more websites will pick them up and post them.

These are but four of the many tools that an affiliate marketer can use to maximize earning potential. The possibilities are endless and are limited only by your imagination, creativity, resourcefulness and determination. You can always explore other ideas and adapt other strategies, which you think might help you become an affiliate marketing success.

How to Increase Traffic To Your Site and Succeed With Your Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between an online merchant and affiliate, in which the affiliate earns a commission for generating sales, leads and/or clicks for the merchant's web site. Affiliate marketing works in a win-win situation for the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant gains opportunities to advertise his products for free to a larger market which will increase his sales. The more hard-working affiliates he gets, the more sales he can expect. By getting affiliates to market his products and services, he is saving himself time, effort and money in looking for possible markets and customers. When a client clicks on the link in the affiliate website and purchases the product, recommends it to others who look for the same item or buys it again, this way the merchant leverage his chances of earning. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer benefits from each customer who clicks on the link in his website and who actually purchases the product or avails of the service provided by the merchant. Usually the affiliate gets commission per sale, which can be fixed percentage or fixed amount. The best is that it won't cost a single dime to join an affiliate program. If you want to be an affiliate marketer and make money out of the Internet, you may follow these three most basic steps to start your effective affiliate marketing campaign. Your first step is to identify a particular niche you are interested in or passionate about so you won’t be bored and forced to develop your affiliate web site later on. Focusing on a specific area you known well, it will help you bring out your best. Here are a few places you can research on - ClickBank Marketplace, AssociatePrograms.com, LinkShare.com, CJ.com etc Secondly is to look for good paying merchants and high converting products .Make a list of good paying and high converting affiliate programs for your chosen niche and create a website. In choosing the products, you must also consider the support they are giving - Marketing materials may include articles, text links, banner ads, classified ads, reports, etc. There are many affiliate networks and affiliate solution providers that can give you info on the most profitable products and best paying merchants. So be wise enough to choose the right affiliate program. Now that you have decided which products to promote and the merchant you are supporting and have created your own web site with a domain name and reliable hosting, you are ready to promote. This is the toughest part, since it is through this that you would be able to increase traffic to the business website, sales and of course, profit. In affiliate marketing, it is possible to earn large sums of money in a short span of time if you use the right strategies and methods. On how to promote the products would need a separate discussion. You must continue to educate yourself by reading books, courses or other articles online about the best and proven advertising techniques. Remember, there is no quick path towards success. Affiliate marketing may seem very tempting due to numerous encouraging testimonies of merchants and affiliate marketers alike who have benefited from it, but it really involves in a great deal of hard work and persistence. You also need to be creative and flexible. Most affiliate marketers don’t understand this, so when they don’t make sales, they quit, look for other programs and carry on the same mistake. In the end, they said that affiliate marketing is just one of those scams in the Internet. You can work your way to great success if you employ the right strategies in affiliate marketing. You can make money as an affiliate marketer if you willing to do what it takes. see affiliate marketing in action here: https://www.bonvoyage1000.com/nudawn

4 Easy Super Duper Ways to Get Free Marketing Exposure

Are there really ways you can get valuable marketing exposure without spending any money? You bet there are. The trick to uncovering these methods is to think of creative ways you can get your products or services in front of, or in the hands of, your prospects. And that last part is critical. It is only valuable marketing if it is targeted at the people you have identified are most likely to buy your products or services. 1) Share Your Knowledge If you have specialized knowledge or expertise related to your business, think of ways to share that knowledge. Consider writing a regular column for a website or publication that targets the same customers you target. Become a regular contributor to a magazine or radio or TV program. 2) Create Information Products Package and distribute your knowledge in the form of an Ezine, Newsletter or Special Report. Build your contact list and distribute this valuable information on a regular basis. Use this as an opportunity to market your products and services and be sure to Include special offers or bonuses to recipients who act by a certain date. 3) Offer Seminars and Do Presentations Do you offer a professional or personal service? Consider booking yourself for speaking engagements where you can provide valuable information in your area of expertise to groups of people. Make sure the groups are representative of the types of customers or clients you believe are most likely to benefit from your services. This tactic serves several marketing purposes. First, it gets you out in front of your prospects. In marketing this is called “generating awareness” and it is the first step toward making a sale. Second, it allows people the opportunity to get to know you and/or your services. And with a service business, where clients are buying “you” (that really is what they are buying when they purchase your services) it is crucial that they understand the services you provide and that they get to know you. People like working with people they like. Given the choice between hiring two people with the same skills and services, most people will choose the person they like or feel the best chemistry with. Make sure to give attendees a special offer on your products or services at the end of your presentation. Give the offer a deadline to create urgency for them to take advantage of the offer on the spot. 4) Give Something Away Find a way to give away samples of your products or services. Is there an association or group meeting or any other event that is looking for donations to be given away as door prizes? Why not donate a package of your services or products? You will gain exposure (a free advertisement by the group leader) among the entire group when your package is either auctioned off, or announced and given away in front of everyone. You are also giving the person who wins the package the chance to sample your products or services at no risk. You could further leverage this marketing by offering the “winner” an incentive to refer others to you. The “winner” might also be a great person to provide feedback to you, or a testimonial regarding how they felt about your product or service, that you can use in future marketing. Yes, there may be a hard cost associated with the product you are giving away, or a “time” cost associated with the time you are donating, however when you weigh that cost against the number of people who are being exposed to your products or services, usually it is well worth it. And it certainly is cheap (and usually more effective!) in comparison to buying an ad. My advice is to incorporate this sort of activity into your operational budget and simply consider it a cost of doing business. There are all kinds of ways to generate exposure of your products and services without paying for advertising space. Yes, sometimes this does involve giving away product or service, but I don’t consider that a hard “marketing” cost. I have found that the benefits always outweigh the cost of my time or my products. The trick is to target well, or in other words, locate where your prospects congregate or what media they read or view, and then find creative ways to get yourself, your products or your services, in front of them in those places. See marketing in action here: http://bonvoyage1000.com/nudawn

7 Surefire Steps To Succeed In Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is by far the easiest and fastest way to make money from the Internet. If done properly, it might even bring you huge fortune over a short period of time. For anyone who is keen to participate, or just started in the affiliate marketing industry, here are a 7-steps system to help you get started and receive your affiliate commission in as little as 7 days. Step #1: Finding A Profitable Affiliate Niche Market This is the most important steps that you need to do. The trick to locate a profitable niche market is easy. First, compile a list of topics from your interests, hobbies or the problems that you are trying to solve. Next, use existing Internet resources such as the search engine, directories, forums, discussion groups to identify the public’s level of interest for each topic. Lastly, use keyword research tool such as Wordtracker to determine the profitability of the topic. A profitable affiliate niche market should have a high level of interest from the public with a good range of affiliate products already exist in the market. Step #2: Setting Up Your Affiliate Website The next step is to set up a website to build your mailing list and market your affiliate link. This can be a product review site, informative content site or just a one-page website with a redirect to the affiliate site. Whatever you do, do not forget to include an opt-in form to capture leads and build your mailing list. This list will bring you income over and over again in the future. Step #3: Building Relationship With Your Leads This can be achieved by setting up an auto-responder. Write content rich email message and set it up in your auto-responder system. The purpose here is to automate the whole follow up system and at the same time educate and build relationship with your leads. Step #4: Final Checking Your Website Before Launching The purpose of this step is to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Test drive your website to make sure all links are working, check for spelling and grammar mistakes, image layout, browser compatibility, check all your auto-responder messages etc. The last thing that you want to do is to scare your visitors off with bad website design and tons of broken links. Step #5: Generating Traffic To Your Website There are various strategies you can use to drive traffic to your website. The most common ones are pay-per-click advertising, article writing, forums posting, joint venture. Step #6: Back End Affiliate Marketing This is a crucial part to generate extra revenue. Make use of opportunities to market more affiliate products. Checkout page, thank you page and error404 page are good places for you to do back end affiliate marketing Step #7: Duplicating And Leveraging The last step is to duplicate your current success and apply it to another affiliate product. Once you have automated the process from step 1 to 6, this last step will become much easier. To see affiliate marketing in action click the follow the link below: www.bonvoyage1000.com/nudawn

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