Sam Harrelson

This morning at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, I had the great pleasure to spend a good deal of time with Heiko Rauch, Co-Founder and COO of Zanox, Holger Kamin, Regional Manager / Country Manager USA and Sean Cheyney, AccuQuote’s VP of Marketing and Business Development in an involved and incredibly interesting discussion about affiliate marketing, the international online marketing world and possible futures for marketing in a cross-channel and cross-border world.

Heiko, Holger and Sean were more than gracious with their time, insights and honesty about the position of Zanox in the United State affiliate marketing scene and how partnerships with companies such as AccuQuote may help to quickly make affiliates, publishers and merchants aware of the opportunities that an international approach can bring to their respective platforms.

We began by discussing why AccuQuote decided to partner with Zanox to promote its affiliate and online marketing efforts. One thing quickly became clear as Sean talked about this decision… AccuQuote is giddy with excitement over the prospect of consolidating its myriad and diaspora marketing efforts under one umbrella, while still offering the same sorts of customized and personalized platforms for promotion for which AccuQuote is famous.

Sean continually pointed to the “partnership” aspect which Zanox stresses (even within its logo) and how AccuQuote could better facilitate communications with publishers and affiliates by working with one network rather than upwards of a dozen yet offer even more flexibility and transparency than before.

Sean commented:

“Our goal is to make the process of buying life insurance as easy as possible for our customers. We do that by combining instant online quotes with the personal service of seasoned, experienced professionals. It was therefore very important to us to find an affiliate marketing partner that placed the same emphasis on customer service as we do – and we found that in Zanox.”

As Sean made his case for the AccuQuote decision, Holger was especially passionate about Zanox’s commitment to its vision of e-commerce as a global business and online marketing as the greatest exemplar of that paradigm. He articulately emphasized the point that by helping merchants and affiliates reach each other on a global scale, Zanox has placed itself in a unique position which other affiliate networks have not been able to establish.

Heiko pointed out that Zanox has well established offices in Shanghai, China and is quickly learning how to apply what is working in those offices to its European and American efforts.

That is exciting.

“Zanox was founded on the principle of performance-based marketing. Our customers only pay for results, period. That focus, combined with our comprehensive support program for affiliate partners, means that we can offer the highest-quality, most effective affiliate marketing programs around.”

Holger and Heiko continually brought up their excitement for the Zanox AdRank program as a way for search affiliates to find useful keywords and adequately monetize their programs while providing guidance for publishers, as well. I’ve taken a look at a few demo’s of that program, and it is a nice alternative to AdSense as it provides customization.

Speaking of customization, the Zanox and AccuQuote partnership is grounded in it. Sean says that is a major reason that AccuQuote has partnered with Zanox. The level of customization and immediate transparency is greater than any other affiliate network, and after taking a peek at some of the programs, I can’t argue. I’m impressed with how well Zanox has built the ability to customize banners, links, mobile creative, and web site placements while not becoming so automated in creative generation that the program loses the human touch. Rather, they have been able to provide the merchant with a welcome ability to seek out and establish that happy medium themselves.

I’m more than impressed with what I’ve seen and heard from the Zanox and AccuQuote deal, and I’ll be covering more aspects of the partnership in the coming days as I process them. I’ve got many pages of notes and many neurons full of insight that I can’t wait to share.

Thank you Sean, Holger and Heiko for an enlightening session!

Email is still around, and just as vibrant as ever. As I’ve remarked earlier, social media has helped to drive the consistent toehold of email, as it is the prerequisite vehicle for registration information and new updates. Marketers and consumers alike haven’t joined the RSS movement and “reading feeds” is still something reserved mostly for early adopters and tech geeks. It doesn’t look to be changing either. I’d love to see a study on teenage usage of RSS data, but in my university classes I’m not seeing any use of RSS or feeds by students (or colleagues).

So, where is email to go with this new found authority?

I’d suggest taking a look at Dot Email if you are a merchant, affiliate or network interested in future trends of email marketing and usage:

Dot Email is a FREE online community for email marketers to share ideas, keep up with news, learn tricks of the trade and complain about the vexing issues that hurt the industry. Just as anything communal, you get out of it what you put into it.

There are other forums discussing similar issues, but the niche style of this forum makes it particularly valuable info for anyone in online or affiliate marketing. The innovations that email will drive will come from forums such as this, so you’re doing yourself a favor by keeping on the pulse of this sector of our market.

Thanks to Alan Hume for the post idea and this link with more info on the platform!

Google Security VIP / Microsoft Security MVP / Affiliate Marketing Legend Wayne Porter and I have been spending the afternoon in a Vegas hotel blogging, thinking and creating some fantastic new paradigms for affiliate and online marketing. It is Day 0 of Affiliate Summit West and we’ve enjoyed ourselves at Affiliate Dinner and this morning’s Gospel Brunch with Wade Tonkin and the Christian Affiliate Marketers crowd.

Tonight we’re at a hotel off The Strip, preparing our gear. I think we’ve solved the whole equation of marketing, social media and how to exist on the web. Email us for the answers.

Mobile is the next big thing, right? So, AffiliateCampBeta.mobi has taken on a mobile nature, constantly moving. So, we might end up in a campsite tonight, we might end up rolling our sleeping bags out in a 7 Eleven on Flamingo Road, we may even end up in jail.

Much in the spirit of web2.0 (Wayne is speaking on that tomorrow so we’ve been trying to think of something unique and post-modern to throw out to the crowds), AffiliateCamp Beta goes to where the action is and seeks to exist in that fragile and tension filled moment between creativity and production…

As Wayne points out in his post about our beta experiment, you can try to find us out in the desert tonight or tomorrow night, but we’re not sure where we’re going to end up. We’ve got our gear, we’re mobile and we’re moving to follow where the conversation leads us.

That may be hell it may be nirvana or a mix of both. Wherever it ends up, it was the path that was the point all along.

Affiliate marketing, in all ways, is a journey of self-discovery and examination and finding a meaningful place to live and exist within that new found location. We place things like links and pageviews on top of that location, but underneath all of those trappings is a living, beating heart constantly trying to innovate and challenge barriers. That’s what our little experiment is all about, and hopefully we’ll help expose some of that delicate tissue which keeps the ingenuity going throughout the veins of the web.

There is a lot of talk about how video, social media and web2.0 applications will impact affiliate marketing.

Why should affiliates really care about web2.0 since websites that have worked to bring in healthy commissions for years continue to bring in high monthly checks?

The basic answer to that fundamental question (which was part of an interesting table conversation at this morning’s Gospel Brunch with the Christian Affiliate Marketers group at the House of Blues here in Vegas) has to do with the way users are processing and using information and services online. Affiliate marketing sites must be useful for consumers and individuals in order to keep a steady stream of traffic and a healthy community at the site.

Affiliates are beginning to turn towards web2.0 tools (and platforms associated with web2.0 apps such as php and AJAX) to better serve the more experienced and tech-saavy audiences using the web now. A practical example would be FatWallet.

Right on the front page of this heavily visited site, Tim Storm and his company have launched a wiki. A wiki is:

is a website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change available content, and typically without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring. The term wiki also can refer to the collaborative software itself (wiki engine) that facilitates the operation of such a Web site, or to certain specific wiki sites, including the computer science site (the original wiki) WikiWikiWeb and on-line encyclopedias such as Wikipedia

The FatWallet Wiki is tied in very well to the forums section and makes use of the large community that frequently visits the site. However, what the FatWallet team has accomplished with the wiki is an incentive for users to visit the site for communal and sharing purposes. That’s what web2.0 is all about.

So, visit sites that are actively using these technologies and platforms that everyone is talking about, and see how affiliate and merchant sites are actually putting these these things in their programs. There are some creative and useful applications of these new social platforms, and if you are an affiliate or a merchant involved in the affiliate space you need to see how these technologies can apply to your program.

Lots of great highlights from tonight. At the Schaaf Co. Affiliate Dinner, I sat with Wayne Porter, Revenue Magazine’s Lisa Picarille, Riya’s Beth Kirsch, Blogkits/ReveNews’ Jim Kukral and DigitalRiver’s Todd Crawford while Brian Littleton, Brook Schaaf, Missy Ward and Corey Newhouse gave Shawn Collins a proper roasting.

It was a great socializing event to kick things off here in Vegas. Lots of affiliates, merchants and a healthy dose of fun.

Tomorrow morning is the Gospel brunch with Wade Tonkin followed by Jim Kukral’s guylights treatments and the ShareASale concert show.

Wayne Porter and I are heading out to the campsite tomorrow after enjoying our last night of civilization in a hotel room off the strip. We’re waiting for a late nite pizza now.

More to come tomorrow.

Analytics, as we have known them and constructed them for our use, are stunting the growth of online, especially affiliate, marketing.

Online marketing is still very much in its infancy. This new beast of marketing is only about 12 years old, and has only been taken seriously in the last six to eight years. In order to mark the growth of this infant, we’ve attempted to translate offline metrics and analytical means to put marks on the wall every so often.

However, these translations of offline analytical methods have not enabled us to adequately record or understand many of the aspects of affiliate marketing which is the sole reason for using such measurements.

In effect, the translations of offline analytics into our online experience have held back some of the developments and keen data driven insights which could have been gained if a false analytical structure had not been superimposed on the situation.

Kowabunga’s CTO Jeff Doak, SearchingForProfit’s SEO guru Amanda Watlington, The Partner Maker’s Jeff Molander and myself discussed this issue on yesterday’s “Weekly Insight” podcast. The show is really coming into its own because we are all beginning to seriously debate one another and allow our own personalities to come out and stake their respective territories. There are many things that I disagree with Molander on, and there are many things that Jeff D disagrees with me on, and there are other things that Amanda and I don’t see eye-to-eye on. Now that we’ve exposed some of those disagreements, we’re able to mine that valuable space in between all of our opinions and experience.

That is incredibly valuable for you as well.

Here’s what we discussed:
* Future of Media Analytics, Metrics
* MSN Enters Analytics Game
* Multi-channel Marketing Challenges
* Cam Balzer & “Offline Multipliers”
* Google Acts Weak: Monopolistic AdSense Rules

On the show, I articulate my idea for how online marketing, especially the affiliate side of things, can move beyond analytics as we know them. My basic argument is that a top-down superstructure artificially imposed on human communications will never work.

This is especially true with the types of human interactions afforded by the new emerging media platforms. I see a time when everything we do is linked back to some sort of personal affiliate link that we can share both online, offline and over mobile, without having to take the time to embed any links or share any paper coupons.

So, give this week’s show a listen. It’s well worth the hour and will hopefully provoke you to think some new thoughts and help push our industry forward.

Here’s the mp3.

Google has picked the Western North Carolina town of Lenoir for its new $600 million data center.

The center will bring 210 needed jobs to Lenoir, which is a charming little town just down the street from me. Lenoir is well known for it’s furniture production, but that market has seen a collapse in recent years.

Buy.com is leveraging its relationship with the Google Checkout platform in its newest set of banner and web placement creatives.

The newest newsletter from the Buy.com affiliate program (managed through Commission Junction) includes the following banners…

The embedded link in the creatives take you to a landing page which explains the Google Checkout and Buy.com relationship…

“In an effort to provide our customers the broadest selection of checkout options, Buy.com has implemented Google’s new checkout service ‘Google Checkout’. The Google Checkout service assists customers in two distinct ways. First, it shows Google Checkout customers more relevant information in Google search results by displaying the Google Checkout badge on the sponsored links of merchants that offer Google Checkout. Second, it helps simplify the buying process.”

What follows is a graphical set of instructions on how to use Google Checkout from the consumer point of view.

Many argue that eBay’s PayPal is the undisputed champion in the consumer pay service platform, but I’ve argued in the comments here that PayPal is hampered by its close knit association with eBay and it’s inability to reach its customer base via email because of the severity of phishing scams.

Google Checkout stands to broaden the idea of an “online wallet” (though I wouldn’t use those terms because that idea is so tainted with history and baggage) with participating merchants. These co-branding campaigns, along with the placement of the Google Checkout feature on the front page of Google points towards an immenent Checkout/PayPal showdown.

I quote Hunter S…

“There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning.”

Amen.

As most of you already know, Wayne Porter and I are hoping to avoid the inevitability of the second coming which will be caused by 1700 money hungry affiliates, tax collectors, CPA networks, Whores of Babylon, and suit-cladded silver-tongued affiliate network devil reps gathering in the midst of Sin City.

It’s going to be epic, folks.

Here’s some info on our gonzo activities:

Article
5 Star Coverage
Shawn’s Take
Wayne’s Word

When we’re not burning dollars out in the desert, we will be at the conference. I fly in tomorrow (Friday) night around 10 and have already heard of a few goings on. I’d like to have a signficant level of intoxication while I attempt to set up my tent in the cold dark desert by myself (Wayne flies in on Saturday) in order to properly greet any rattlers that may be sharing the space with me. So, if you are doing any pre-partying or socializing on Friday night please let me know.

On Saturday, I think Wayne and I are doing a pod/video cast for anyone interested in joining. We’ll tape it at Bally’s for ease of use. You won’t miss us, so if you want to participate, just join in. Maybe we’ll be there to greet you at the door as you check in and we’ll push a camera in your face and ask you what you hope to accomplish at the Summit. Or maybe we’ll flush a cherry bomb down Shawn’s toilet and record the results. It will inevitably involve a camera.

Saturday night is Affiliate Dinner (sold out… great job, Brook)

Sunday morning is the Gospel Brunch with Wade (anticipating the Second Coming again and hedging my bets). Jim Kukral is buying everyone drinks on Sunday afternoon at the main Bally’s bar downstairs so make sure to be there from 3-6 for free drinks. Jim’s hair dresser has been on vacation, so I’m volunteering to do a guy-lights application at the bar. It will be on YouTube for those of you who miss it, of course.

Sunday night is the big music party, then Monday is the floor walking, hand shaking, card making experience. I have a few meetings and interviews set up but do have some free time for a chat, podcast or pontification.

I have to fly out late Monday night (around midnight) to be back in NC so that I can teach at 8:00am, but I will be at one of the Monday night parties until I have to exit.

SO, if you’d like to meet up and share a drink and some conversation you can contact me the following ways:

1) Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/samharrelson. Add me as a friend and I’ll be shooting out periodic updates and gossip (as I’m sure everyone will). ShareASale is doing some cool stuff with their twittering, so sign me up as a friend just to follow that experiment along.

2) Mobile: 803-413-6834. Feel free to text or call me on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday. I’ll have it on my possession constantly. Hopefully there is reception in the desert.

3) AIM: sbharrelson22

4) I’ll be live blogging here on CPN as well. So, check CPN while you’re sinning it up.

My advice? Stay away from the crap tables. While that normally refers to a betting game, it can also mean certain booths of companies with ill-repute. You know who they are.

My other advice? If you’re an affiliate, dress as casually as possibly. The less formal you are, the more important your affiliate status must be because it appears you aren’t trying to impress anyone. So, don’t comb your hair, wear flip flops, forgo shaving and look like you’ve been sleeping in the desert for the past few nights… oh… wait.

We’ll leave it with Gram Parsons…

This old town is filled with sin,
It’ll swallow you in
If you’ve got some money to burn.
Take it home right away,
You’ve got three years to pay
But Satan is waiting his turn

This old earthquake’s gonna leave me in the poor house.
It seems like this whole town’s insane
On the thirty-first floor your gold plated door
Won’t keep out the Lord’s burning rain

I recently posted about a new Partnercentric managed program called AdventureQuest focused on the exploding online gaming market.

Another gaming company, K2, has also opened an affiliate program with a 90 day cookie, 10% payout and PayPal only payments.

The K2 Network, Inc. Affiliate Program provides a way for you to be a part of the exciting and constantly growing universe of online gaming. K2 Network’s games have a large audience and our subscription base is increasing at a steady pace. You can make money as an affiliate of K2 Network – all you need is a website.

Until gaming companies such as Capcom and BioWare are snagged up by the large media companies, expect more gaming companies to follow suit. It only makes sense that these companies would seek to use the affiliate platform to increase word of mouth advertising and reward loyal gamers.

I think there’s a great overlap between the world of gaming and affiliate marketing in terms of metrics, performance incentives and general macro percentages. Perhaps they will implement mobile into their ad platform as well and begin to recognize the power of Jeff Doak’s “Marketing is Flat” philosophy.

Email me or comment below if you’re a merchant or network looking for affiliates and I’ll post you below…

Forums? Email newsletters? Blogs? Email blasts? Plaxo? Web2.0 stuff?

The question that merchants and networks always have is how they can they find more affiliates. Here are five quick tips I’ve been successful with while working in the network space…

1. Have attractive offers (more is not better… we all know what FreeSlide did). Attractive offers are offers that are easy to understand, are consistent in payout and can even be niche focused.

2. Blog, podcast or do videos that discuss the industry and important issues rather than just producing fluff content describing how super awesome your network or program is.

3. Participate participate participate.

4. Don’t have long and annoying signatures on your email messages. Put them in text, make them quick and easy to read and understand, and put your phone number or maybe url at the most. If an affiliate wants your AIM or your Skype info, they’ll ask.

5. Have a gimmick that makes you stand out… use Twitter for communications, have a crazy color scheme, send Lego toys to affiliates… do something different.

What did I leave out?

Here’s a short speech I did at Affiliate Summit East this past June in Orlando, FL during the “Lessons Learned” session at the end of the conference (thanks for providing this, Shawn!).

http://video.affiliatesummit.com/embed/iframe/panel/cid/P77YJ6Z3KQQGB897

I normally don’t post links without adding something original to the conversation.

However, this article by Sally Falkow on building an email list with social media is a must read…

http://falkow.blogsite.com/public/item/155255

I came across this via Andy Beal, so make sure to check out his informative discussion on the issue as well.

A company in our space will soon be releasing a platform which allows for the ability to place affiliate links in bittorrent files. Affiliates will be able to place links and check stats while advertisers will be able to select the placements depending on file type in an automated system which looks very much like a CPA network.

The company wishes to remain anonymous at this point, but will make an announcement in the next month.

I had a beta walk through tonight, and this has the potential to be huge.

Thoughts? Legal issues? Is anyone else doing something similar?

Google is ramping up its Checkout platform.

I’ve heard rumblings from my sources within the company and from a few of the merchants involved in the Checkout program that something major is on the way… soon.

Tonight, it seems that Google has added Checkout to the main search page in a very prominent way…

Here comes the fun.

I’ll release some info when I can, but let me know you opinions on how this relates to affiliate marketing. Strap in… it’s going to be a wild ride in the coming weeks.

[EDIT] Jonathan (TrustNo1) has also posted on this development over at ABestWeb.  Be sure to follow the conversation there as well!

Are you a new CPA network, or one that is trying to grow outside of its traditional box, or a merchant program courting new publishers? Then you need to know how to treat them.

My advice?

1. Be upfront about payouts, pay rates, offer types, commission structures.

2. Google them and do research. Don’t rely on a business card, word of mouth or a forum for all of your insight. Impress the publisher with how much you knew about them before you called, and they will take the hook.

3. Interact on forums with them… argue or agree on industry issues they care about… just show that you care (and if you don’t care you should look for another line of work).

4. Don’t try to throw money, iPods, stereo equipment, cruises or other gimmicks at publishers to activate and retain them. It won’t work. If it does work, it doesn’t say much about that publisher.

5. Ask them advice on a potential new offer or industry issue by phone, im or email. People love to give feedback and state their point of view. Let them know you’re interested in theirs.

6. Don’t pressure them for leads when they have a down month. Pressuring never works.

7. Send Starbucks gift cards or cheese and wine baskets out of the blue. It’s the little things.

8. Ask them tough questions about how they are promoting your program or network offers. Don’t take gloss answers, but let them know you are actively looking at every publisher with some scrutiny to keep the quality of your offer or network high.

9. Don’t pretend like you know what you don’t know or that you are smarter than you really are… be humble and accept advice and complaints from publishers. Make a detailed “ADVICE” and “COMPLAINTS” list with info on who gave the input and how you can act on it. Then, act on it and email/call/im the publisher to let them know you are on top of things. You don’t have to make all the changes or tweaks the request, but let them know that you’re at least listening and entertaining the idea.

10. Treat the smallest publisher the same way you treat the highest performing loyalty site. It’s hard, but it works.

Have more advice? Leave them in the comments or send me an email.

Shawn Collins has posted an interesting piece on AffiliateTip based on a question he received regarding the appropriate time to fold your affiliate program if it’s not working.

Here’s the question…

Ask Shawn Collins: Time to Close the Affiliate Program

After three months, my company’s CEO is getting ancy regarding our affiliate campaign. We’re a somewhat niched market and we’ve had an account with Commission Junction that has so far yielded very little activity and even fewer sales. At what point should we simply pull the plug on our affiliate campaign?

Shawn writes that 3-6 months time should be sufficient to determine if a new affiliate program will gain momentum, if it is proactively managed. That proactively managed part is the key. If you don’t have someone competent, dedicated and even zealous about getting your program off the ground, then chances are your program is going to need far longer than 3-6 months to take off (if it ever does).

Then Shawn throws out three (in my opinion) great points:

• I would recommend running your affiliate program with three ongoing directives: recruit, activate, and retain affiliates.
• It’s essential that you recruit affiliates into your affiliate program, have a process in place to activate them, and then work to retain them.
• Affiliate marketing isn’t like other marketing channels. Money alone cannot power it – you need to focus on the relationships of your affiliates, too.

Networks and merchants do a horrible job at retaining affiliates. For the most part, I think most networks and merchants have figured out the activation part since that part of the paradigm relies mostly on affiliate action. However, retaining affiliates requires skill, finese and tenacity not often seen in networks or merchant programs.

The most important point is that affiliate marketing performance is not based on how much money you throw at your program. That’s why this is an often frustrating and slippery business. As Jeff Doak cited in the last Weekly Insight podcast with Jeff Molander, Cingular spent around $1 BILLION on brand advertising last year. Even if they threw 1/100 of that at affiliate marketing, it wouldn’t suggest a successful program. You can’t quantify relationship and that’s something big brands are just realizing with the emergence of social media.

I blogged about Sidekiq’s debut a few weeks back. The meta search engine has since taken off in popularity due to rave reviews from users (for good reason). I’ve actually replaced Google with Sidekiq as my browser start page and search engine of choice.

Within the Sidekiq video directory (which is available at video.sidekiq.com or the video/tv browse category within sidekiq.com), the Sidekiq team has added a new search functionality. Founder Steve Hemmady emailed to let me know about these new functions as Sidekiq continues to kiq butt in meta searching…

I also wanted to let you know that over this weekend, we added intelligence to it’s server called Sidekiq IQ. Sidekiq IQ server, intelligently crawls the Internet space, extracts relevant links, compiles a directory of information & makes it available through the Sidekiq UI interface.

Steve and Anuta Udyawar were previously behind Onepage.com (which was sold to Sybase). Onepage had a similar model to Sidekiq’s IQ with an easy to use rich UI combined with an intelligent server. It got several great reviews and developed a following based on its ease of use.

Steve is right when he pointed out to me that:

“In general, good usability comes from a combination of easy to use rich UI with intelligent/smart & scalable server as in the classic cases of Google Maps & GMail.”

If the early versions of Sidekiq are any indication of the future direction, expect to hear lots about this meta search engine in the coming months. I’m particularly enjoying the “Domain Search” function so I can keep track of which domains Shawn Collins is snapping up!

Great job, Steve and Anuta!

Is this the future?

Rockstar Traffic is the self serve platform that directly accesses the ArcadeRockstar social gaming community. ArcadeRockstar is a 100% opt-in community of casual gamers that are both motivated and qualified consumers. With 90%+ historical advertiser retention rates our results speak for themselves.

Are other programs doing this and I just don’t know about them?

http://www.rockstartraffic.com/

If you are an affiliate or publisher, dealing with the plethora of CPA networks can seem like a daunting task. However, there is a lot of money flowing in the networks, and there is a lot of money available to publishers or affiliates with the right amount and right kind of traffic. You may have that and not even know it.

Every veteran has an opinion or a piece of advice on how to deal with these networks, and every experienced affiliate marketer will point you to their favorite two or three networks as “the best to work with.”

The truth is, if you know what you are doing, working with various networks can give you a good insight into what the current trends and highest performing CPA offers are at the moment. Working with more than one network, and with networks that are not necessarily the most talked about can also open doors to better relationships, higher payouts, quicker payouts and better offers.

The trick is to know how to get your foot in the door with these networks, and how to deal with the publisher specialist, or publisher manager, you’ll be working with.

These are networks like Hydra, AdDrive, Market Leverage, Rextopia, RocketProfits, FiliNet, NeverBlue, or eMarketMakers. Azoogle, Adteractive, Websponsors, Advertising.com etc are also out there, but there is already a tier system developing in the network space, so trying out just one of those is not representative of the CPA network genre as a whole.

So, here at five quick tips for newbie’s (and perhaps a few veterans out there) contemplating the idea of trying out a CPA network that have come from my years of experience in the network space…

1. Call and talk to a person. Don’t just send in an email. Publisher directors (comparable to affiliate managers in an affiliate network) absolutely love to get phone calls from affiliates or publishers. I promise. Ask them questions about the types of offers, payouts, or whatever is on your mind. They know all about their program and most of them love to talk about how their program is different, or better, than the competitors. Let them know the level of your interest at the beginning of the phone call and how long you have to spare in the conversation. Then just make sure you have a notebook to write down all the info they will surely give you.

2. Be upfront. If you decide to join a specific network, go through the application process and then call the network or company and speak to a publisher manager. Let them know about your application and tell them that you have a few more things you’d like to add to your application. Tell them what type of offers you are looking for, give them reasonable expectations about your traffic levels and ask them how they can help you. The networks are more than willing to give you two or three points on how their specific program can work with you as an individual. Plus, that phone call sticks you in the head of the publisher director who can later tip you off to high converting offers or bump your payout.

3. Immediately find out about payouts. You can do this before you join a network. But make sure you ask about when you will get paid. This varies from net10 to net45 based on the network. Don’t ever assume the net payout number!

4. Ask about incentivized traffic. The publisher director you speak to will surely throw out some of the network offers that have been doing well as a selling point. Whether or not you yourself have incentivized (you give your readers/users incentive to fill out a lead form with a special offer or service) traffic, you will be competing with other affiliates or publishers who do in some cases. Once you’ve joined, look for the offers that are marked as “Can Be Incentivized” or “Cannot Be Incentivized” and think about what kind of competition you may be up against. Incentivizing an offer results in lower lead quality, but higher lead counts… so keep that in mind.

5. Get to know your publisher manager or director. Affiliate marketing is all about relationship, but so are the CPA networks. Getting to know the person you are working with in a network can be a make-or-break proposition. In my experience as a publisher director, I would often give insider tips about which offers are (in reality) performing the best or which offers are going to be pulled in the upcoming weeks, or they can even bump your payout. It’s not always showbusiness… sometimes it’s showfriends.

The key to working with CPA networks is to understand the difference between how they are set up and what they can offer you as compared to affiliate networks. As a gross generalization, affiliate networks have rev-share type offers with recognizable brand names. CPA networks have performance type offers that stress lead generation and quick turnaround. So, it’s a much more efficient and upfront marketplace than the affiliate networks in that issues such as chargebacks and payout rates can be settled up front rather than after the fact.

So, do your homework, ask around and, most importantly, talk to people at the CPA networks.

I’ll be posting a “How to Deal with Publishers” later this afternoon from the CPA network side of things. Hopefully, shedding some light on the networks and how they operate will increase affiliates willing to work with them and cause some much-needed conversation in our industry/

Every network needs more publishers and affiliates.

It is wonderful to have a niche network, but in order to cover production and overhead costs, there is a statistical point on the revenue curve that you have to achieve in order to stay afloat. Since angel investors and venture capitalists still haven’t discovered affiliate marketing (yet), companies in this space have to find that statistical sweet spot quickly and efficiently in order to survive the first four months.

There is a beyond interesting conversation going on in the comments about the nature of affiliate marketers and those who need help and education and those who are educating the affiliate managers they work with. Brian Littleton of ShareASale and Jim Kukral of BlogKits have pointed out the need to help bloggers overcome the learning curve normally associated with affiliate marketing and steps they are using to do so. Jeff Molander is arguing for the need of more intelligent affiliate managers that don’t need the constant schooling from saavy affiliates.

Where is the combination for your network or merchant program? Do you rely on affiliate managers to be good salespeople and hope they know what they are talking about? Do you actively recruit people to work for your network who have industry experience on both sides of the fence?

And where do bloggers fit into all of this? Are bloggers truly the next long tailed collection of eager and willing affiliates waiting to be discovered so that they can begin to make some money from the time and effort they put into the craft? Blogging is an art, and when done well can be a beautiful thing. Is your network actively seeking out these artists to help diversify your affiliate base?

I’d go so far as to say that within three years, affiliates as we once knew them will be gone. Static sites with html banners will always have a place, but that place is constantly being eroded by the vast ocean of content. If you’re not making content or at least updating your site, you may face a daunting task as search continues to evolve and social media continues to be adopted.

Well, it’s almost a done deal for close to a billion dollars.

The ramifications are huge for Europe and potentially for working with international affiliates via Advertising.com. I still can’t believe AOL/Time Warner is the buyer, but it makes sense with their strong push towards moving from a subscription revenue model to an advertising revenue model. I wonder how many investors will dump their shares after the buyout?

I’m definitely going to be asking Zanox about their thoughts on this at the Summit.

For more info and discussion check out Fraser’s UK affiliate blog and follow the news on BUMPzee.

I’ve been experimenting with blogs and static websites for a few of the affiliate sites I run and manage.

Within the last 3 moths, the blogs have finally over taken the static web pages in terms of profit. This is utterly crazy to me because I’ve been updating the content on the blogs while the niche sites have been relatively stagnant in terms of content. Plus, it’s much easier/cheaper to build a blog affiliate site rather than a static site because the content should come easy!

Does that mean that content isn’t that important for an affiliate site?

I would argue no, because I’ve seen an increase in repeat IP’s processing repeat purchases. For instance, one of the affiliate sites I manage is a NASCAR themed site (I don’t miss a race), and the repeat buyers are about 79% higher on the blog/content site rather than the static content site.

So, if you’re going to do affiliate marketing, make sure you consider the type of content you are providing to keep the visitors coming. Repeat visitors/customers are invaluable!

Agree? Disagree?

Google Analytics or WordTracker?

I honestly enjoy the WordTracker service. Google Analytics is great for analyzing what sort of traffic is coming to your site as well.

Realizing what sort of traffic is coming to your site based on the keyword is definitely helpful. Here’s a little of my secret sauce… you must make a differentiation between what is considered a “money keyword” and a “traffic keyword.” That’s common knowledge among most of the established affiliates, but if you’re just starting out, that wisdom will save you lots of time.

I like to convert my keywords at a certain percentage, depending on which niche site I’m using. So, you have to decide which keywords are most valuable to you depending on the traffic or “money” keywords.

Keep in mind that the type of offer and the profit margin has a great deal to do with how effective your keyword might/shoudl be.

Play with keywords, check out WordTracker and Google Trends and see what you can do. This is still a relatively new market in the general world of marketing. It’s a lot of fun to experience and try to predict, but you can really break down your keywords into what is profitable and what is not.

Here’s my final tip for figuring out what keywords to include in your efforts:

Look at the backlinks of your competitors!

Let me know if you need help!