Site Stripe Tool At Amazon.com

Right now I'm marketing my Associate-O-Matic stores full tilt, trying to capitalize on the online shopping before Christmas. I'm tweaking on a daily basis, changing categories, focusing on keywords, etc and adding links to my blogs where I normally wouldn't bother. If you haven't been to the new Amazon.com Affiliate Dashboard recently then it's time you go back and check it out. Amazon has spent a lot of time updating the usability and tools to use to help make affiliates more successful and one new tool stuck out at me more than the others.

Amazon.com now offers a Site Stripe tool that embeds itself at the top of your browser while you are on Amazon.com. This 'Stripe' allows you to automatically generate an affiliate link for any page you are currently visiting and more.

List of Features for Amazon Site Stripe Tool

• Generate link for page viewed.
• View earnings.
• Visit discussion board.
• Add items to your aStore.

It's made a world of difference in time saved when viewing the Amazon website and looking to generate some quick links to throw in a blog. If you haven't had time to check it out yet, go now, you may be wasting your time with other methods.

GoDaddy Domain Club

Part of being an online affiliate marketer is watching deals and trying to maximize your profits, that's why I scour for every deal I can find for myself personally. Today I received an email with a special promotion to join the GoDaddy domain club, where I can receive additional discounts on buying .com domains. However, belonging to this club requires a yearly membership, which at this time is $71.99.

Specifically I'm considering this membership because of the deal you get on .com domains all year. When you join the club they lock in your .com pricing to just $7.29 per year. Not taking any other coupons or discounts the current full price of a .com domain (which is usually what you are forced to pay when renewing) is at $10.69 for one year. Well, I'm not so sure joining this club will be worth it to me, see the math below.

Savings Per .Com Domain : $10.69 - $7.29 = $3.40
$71.99 / $3.40 = 21 Domains

Basically I would have to purchase over 21 domains to just break even on the GoDaddy domain club deal. Currently I only purchase about a dozen new domains per year, so it's clearly not in my best interest to start joining their club...just yet. This formula doesn't even take into consideration that I typically don't pay full price for domains anyways, since coupons are readily available.

Keep this in mind fellow affiliate marketers, just because it's a good deal doesn't mean it's a good deal for you. Consider all options before jumping into an offer and save money at every corner.

Free Wordpress Plugin - Ad Rotator

Being an affiliate and bring fresh banners to your visitors can be a time consuming process. WP Ads is a free Wordpress plugin that automates the rotation of any type of advertisement you wish. You simply add the code, which can be banners, adsense, whatever to a banner spot, then assign it to an ad zone. Code is then displayed to be added to your posts or to your Wordpress template files where you want the banners to be shown.

The ad rotator plugin provides a basic report of how many times a specific ad is shown. WP Ads also allows tweaking of weights, so some ads can be shown more often than others. As you ad banner spots they are displayed as a list in the 'Settings' section of your WP dashboard. It's an easy process to add, delete, or edit your ads at any time. All in all it's an amazing plugin that I should have been using years ago.

It's important to continously update your banners with promotions for affiliate programs. Stale banners increase visitor ad blindness and obviously lowers your clicks and conversions. This great wordpress plugin automates the entire process so you can spend more time updating your content, not your ads.

Why PepperJam Network

I've been a member of a number of affiliate networks, including but not limited to Commission Junction, ClickBank, Affiliatefuture, and Shareasale. All of these networks offer some great programs, interesting tools, and some sort of customer service. However, in the past 3 months I've been using PepperJam they have went above and behond in all aspects of what I look for in an affiliate network.

The Programs

Pepperjam network has so many great programs in their arsenal and seem to be adding 100's monthly. Each of these programs are a great way to diversify your affiliate income sources and even give you some great ideas. Program managers can also solicit you to be their affiliate partner, not just the other way around like on other networks.

Payout

Pepperjam pays me every 2 weeks via PayPal on locked commissions. Each affiliate program has it's own requirements for what means 'locked' but generally speaking I've been keeping my plate full and who can argue with fast immediate deposits in a PayPal account?

Ease of Use

Whether I'm searching for a new program to affiliate for, checking my reports, or just finding out what the latest news is, PJN navigation and use is top notch. Almost all aspects of my account are reachable from the main dashboard and affiliate programs I've already partnered with are readily available through one click, no need to filter results. Furthermore I'm treated with 4 very distinctive reports immediately, every time I login.

Affiliate Tools

Affiliates are only as good as the tools they are given, the more tools, the happier I am. PJN offers plenty of standard tools, like banner generation, text links, and advanced javascript ads for some programs, but in the past month they released a monster tool, Pepperjam Store Builder. This tool allows you to create mini-stores through a point and click interface, then simply copy the code generated into any standard web page environment. Also, don't forget their PepperJam Ads tool as well, which will create Adsense like ads to display on your website, though all or any programs you select.

Affiliate Customer Support

I just cannot speak highly enough about the support I've received from the employees of the PepperJam Network. There have been a number of issues, not necessarily problems, that have creeped up that have allowed me to speak through email and on the phone with my account rep. Every time has been a pleasant experience and messages have been promptly responded to. Unfortunately I can't say the same thing about other networks where human contact is required. Also, what other network allows you to meet the entire Pepperjam Network team, even the bulldog on YouTube?

Closing Statements

I'm not a huge affiliate with the Pepperjam Network, on average about $400 per month, but I'm working on expanding and moving over some of my sites and replacing some other network programs. Even though I'm not what would be considered a super affiliate, I can vouche for the kind of support I have received from them, it's phenomenal and a network I can feel good about recommending to anyone.

Protecting Your Inbox

Marketing your new affiliate landing page can be a daunting task that requires special tools to make it as painless as possible. The number one marketing method I enjoy doing requires me to have a membership on multiple forums. Furthermore each membership will generally have a unique name and password, but with the same email address.

Keep in mind I'm not spamming, but honestly contributing to the forums growth, only utilizing my signature links within the forums TOS. To remain as anonymous as possible though, I don't like using my personal email account or an account associated with my affiliate site. Most public free email accounts are not allowed to sign up with forums, so using Hotmail, Yahoo, and similar accounts goes out the window. This has created a problem for my mass marketing endeavors and need to keep accounts separate and that's when I found HushMail.

HushMail.com is a trusted email service that provides free limited access to an email inbox. They do not offer HUGE storage or a lot of extra inbox options, but it does provide a spam free working environment for handling my multiple forum marketing identities. Plus HushMail uses several spam protectors for signing up as well, so it's a trusted email while signing up to forums.

Hushmail provides a high level of security combined with total ease of use. All you need is a computer with an Internet connection and a current Web browser. Just sign up for a free Hushmail address, create a passphrase, and login to your account to begin. You'll immediately be able to communicate securely with other Hush users, and you can access your Hushmail account from anywhere in the world.

Conclusion

If you are looking for an email service that you can take with you on any computer and have a trusted spam free email provider, then HushMail.com is the service for you. As long as you don't plan on archiving a ton of messages, you'll find their service top notch and rarely any spam makes it through. That's why I use HushMail as my #1 email service provider for managing my marketing campaigns.

Christmas Affiliate Programs

I'm willing to bet it's not too late to start creating an affiliate site dedicated to selling Christmas items. As a matter of fact, now is the time you can capitalize on some great deals by affiliate programs looking to hook holiday buyers early. According to industry analysts this will be a down year for Christmas and holiday sales, so the longer you wait, the less of the pie you will get.

I've broken down a few great Christmas Affiliates that I'm using through PepperJamNetwork.


ChristmasTreesGalore.com has a great affiliate program setup through PJN that is currently offering 10% revenue sharing.


ChristmasLights.com is also offering a program that pays out 5% revenue sharing.


WreathsGalore.com is currently paying out 8% revenue sharing on all purchases.

Now, these may not be the highest paying affiliate programs available right now, but they are certainly the most targeted for a quickly approaching major holiday. I'm not too up on affiliating for Thanksgiving or even Halloween, but this Christmas I will be ready with the previous affiliate offers.

Pepperjam Network Special Offer

Sign Up for Pepperjam Network and Get a $10 Sign On Bonus

Start Generating an Email List With Your WordPress Blog

WordPress is one of the greatest blogging platforms on the planet.(Yes I feel that way even though I use Blogger for this blog.) One of the best features of WordPress is it's use of Plugins or addons that allow you to modify and use the blogging software as you see fit. The latest gem I will be adding to my arsenal is a little plugin that helps you create a double opt-in email list.

WP Double Opt-In List Management is one of the strongest tools in any web marketers arsenal. Not because it creates something completely new and unheard of, but because it simplifies the process and streamlines it for consumption. Using software to build the list is the most difficult part, but this plugin automates the sending of confirmation emails so that you remain within the Can Spam act.

Not just a normal subscriber, but also list management, check out the features:

• users can subscribe to your mailing list from your blog;
• users can update their subscription details and unsubscribe;
• sends a subscription confirmation email to the user;
• sends a welcome email to each new subscriber (optional);
• sends an unsubscribe notification to the user (optional);
• saves the subscriber’s details to your internal WordPress database;
• you can customize the signup form as you like (add fields, remove fields, re-order fields);
• you can build own in-house permission based email list using a double opt-in subscription method;
• you can manage your opt-in mailing list inside WordPress (unsubscribe or delete users);
• you can export your mailing list from WordPress

The plugin is free to download and a breeze to install, but there is a lot of configuring to do once it's ready to roll. All the emails are configurable and can be tailored to the receiver with simple commands. After building your list your marketing campaign can be as simple or extravagant as you want and that's the beauty of the WP Double Opt-In List Management plugin.

Affiliate Network Referrals

What's better than finding a great affiliate network full of great programs? Well being paid to tell your friends about them, of course. The majority of networks out there will offer commissions in some manner for other affiliates you refer to their network. Furthermore, the payout for referring other merchants is even higher, but I'm just going to focus on the affiliate referrals for now.

PepperJamNetwork - Pays $7 USD per affiliate you refer to their network.



MaxBounty - Earn 5% commission on every affiliate you refer for up to 1 year.




ShareASale - Earn $1 per referred affiliate.



AffiliateFuture - Pays 5% commission on every affiliate you refer.




I currently or have used in the past all the networks mentioned above. Through my sites I've earned comparable income from all and had no issues in receiving payments through their programs or referrals.

This post was not a paid for post, however the banners do contain my affiliate link, so any support is appreciated.

Do Not Submit To Directories, Says Google

It looks like Google has went through and updated their Webmaster Guidelines and omitted a few key elements. One of which at one point encouraged the submission of your site to relevant directories, that line has now been removed.

Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

Unlike other Search Engines Google has always been down on paid link placements and other unnatural link building techniques. This type of behavior circumvents their own efforts to remove sites that attempt to game the system. Apparently they now feel that directories are a direct threat to their algorithm.

The Future Of Affiliate Programs

I tell myself on a daily basis to be positive, unfortunately I'm seeing too many changes, happening a little too fast, and I think it spells a rough road ahead for affiliate marketers. The internet is not immune to the troubles in the US and foreign economy, therefore we should start preparing for trends in online businesses just as we have seen them in 'brick 'n mortar'. I'm referring to cut-backs, lower wages (see affiliate commissions), and less accessibility.

First let's look at what companies must do to become more profitable in a failing economy. Consumer confidence is way down, so even fewer people will be buying online, therefore less impulse buying. The less impulse buying the less companies will need to rely on affiliates to bring in the long tail consumers. Either a consumer will know what they want and go to the source, or they won't be interested at all. Expect companies to withdraw existing affiliate programs and even more will wait to enter the market place with programs in place.

Lowering wages is a great way to pad your profit margin and in our case it means lower commissions. Lowering a commission on a program becomes much easier when it's spread out over thousands of affiliates, instead of just a handful of employees. Expect large cuts in commissions and new offers looking flatter than usual. I've actually lost track of how many programs are actually adjusting their commission rates from MaxBounty, luckily these have yet to effect me personally. One only needs to look at eBay for another example of 'cutting commissions', in regards to their recent hack of affiliates and the reorganization of their ACRU tiers.

Lastly, accessibility in regards to the ease of joining an affiliate program. At one time even larger affiliate managers accepted almost anyone into their programs, no matter traffic, or even visitor quality. Now things are getting tighter and bandwidth costs money, the days of sending traffic that doesn't convert to affiliate sites may be over. Expect to not be allowed to sign up unless you have a record of targeted traffic, or existing affiliates should start taking steps to record where and how their traffic is arriving on their site and where they are being sent to the affiliate sites. Finding the fine line in fewer affiliates and higher quality converting traffic will save a company countless dollars on less man power, for managing worthless affiliates(in their eyes) and remove thin affiliate competition from search engines.

The moral of this story is to start diversifying now, so if one revenue stream starts failing or making cuts you're not left out to dry. To an extent I'm speaking from experience and to another I'm kicking myself in the ass. Good luck and happy earning.

Affiliate Deals - Bigger Commisions

I've located another affiliate program that offers up some great commissions and has great brand recognition. The BlockBuster Online Rental Program is the newest program within MaxBounty with increased commissions, paired with a great offer to potential customers. BlockBuster customers can sign up for an initial price of $9.99 and receive unlimited rentals for a month. For the affiliate, you earn a commission of $44 per lead after a visitor signs up and submits their credit card to begin their membership.

What made me select this as a great affiliate deal is that it contains a number of key items I look for in any affiliate program I use:

• Brand Recognition
• Appeal to a broad base
• High payout
• Simple sign ups and lead generation
• Good support from the program manager. (MaxBounty)
• Great Creatives (banners, etc..)

It's worth taking a lot at no matter what topic your site covers. Chances are there are visitors that are interested in trying out rentals online and it's a great way to market and compete against NetFlix.

Google Chrome Add Ons

If you are a little touched in the head you may not have heard that Google had officially entered the browser market with the release of Chrome.  This new browser has been specifically designed to work with the latest javascript web applications, be faster, stronger, and basically able to leap tall buildings better than what was previously available.

But why would I be interested in leaving my tried and true Mozilla FireFox?  As it stands I have a ton of bookmarks, where I know I can find them, a sweet theme, and more add-ons than you can shake a stick at.  For the life of me I can't find any addons currently available for Google Chrome, although since it is open source I'm sure they will come along eventually.  Until I can see at a glance if I have any email, what my adsense revenue is, or what the page rank of a website is I'll be avoiding Chrome and sticking with FireFox.

Further discussion on this new Google Browser Chrome looks like there may be some issues with cookie and affiliate tracking.  The option to go incognito in chrome will keep cookies from remaining on a pertains computer, after they close the window the cookie is lost.  So maybe it's not so important whether I use it, but whether or not I can keep other potential buyers away from it.

Replies From EPN Mass Banning

As I'm sure you've heard by now, the Ebay Partner Network has issued a tremendous amount of bannings to upstanding affiliates. The word they use is expiration of partnership, but you get the idea. The ones who are now banned from EPN have received a 7 day lead time before their referrals will no longer count. Below are official responses from Steve on the EPN forums.

I wanted to address all of the board posts regarding the expiration emails that were sent last night.

These actions were part of our continued effort to focus on delivering the highest quality buyer traffic to eBay via affiliate marketing. To that end, we’ve been analyzing our program closely over the last few months. I know there have been a number of requests to provide insight into all of the metrics via which we are evaluating affiliate traffic, but unfortunately there’s an active black hat community that is pretty effective at exploiting these insights so we can’t go into details on them. However, what I can say is that in addition to earnings per click metrics (EPC), we look at a variety of metrics to see how users are behaving when they come to eBay.com – how engaged they are with our site, and whether the affiliate link clicks lead to incremental buying activity. As we’ve done this, we have seen a big discrepancy in how interested and active the traffic is that comes to eBay from different sources.

Our responsibility in the affiliate marketing channel is to allocate our resources to best drive incremental demand to our sellers. To that end, we need to focus on partners who have had the most success in engaging users who become some of our best buyers on eBay. I understand that these actions do have a very real impact on some of our affiliates who have been working with us over the years. For that, I sincerely apologize, but these decisions are made in the best interest of eBay's sellers and the overall health of our affiliate program.

We want to be very clear. Affiliates who received these messages of expiration last night are not being asked to stop sending traffic to us due to fraudulent activity or violations of the terms of service. For those of you who received the message, commissions are not being reversed, and you will be paid for all valid traffic you have sent to us to date, and for the next 7 days.

Sincerely,
Steve

Later this same thread after coming under fire, Steve decides that yep, he probably didn't say enough. Therefore he spent more time and a lot more letters pretty much still saying nothing. After all, many MANY of the affiliates that are now expired were using the methods he outlines.

At the risk of making this post too long, I’ve tried to answer a few of the key questions that have been posted in the thread. Hopefully this will provide some more useful information to the affiliates who are concerned about how we’re evaluating traffic and how they can improve their sites and monetization.

Also, I wanted to address the folks who are wondering who the person (also referred to in the thread as commie, retard, etc., etc.) is who made this decision. That person is me. I’m not posting on the boards on behalf of others who made the decision, nor am I asking anyone on my team to post on my behalf. With the gravity of this decision and the impact on the affiliates who were expired, it’s only appropriate that I’m out here doing the speaking, so here I am.

With that, I hope the information below is helpful.

Thanks
Steve



What does “engagement” mean?

Among other metrics, we measure the time that users spend on eBay after they come through an affiliate link, the number of pages that they view, and their buying activity after coming through the affiliate link. Hopefully this helps to further clarify what we mean. I know that we don’t provide reporting on all of these metrics, but we’re looking at ways that we can improve that visibility so that you can optimize your campaigns for them.

Can affiliates affect engagement and conversion?

Definitely. The metrics show that there is a wide distribution of these metrics between affiliates. To illustrate the point with an extreme example, a site that helps potential buyers find and research stereo receivers and then points them to great deals on eBay will probably drive more engaged buyers with better conversion rates than an eBay banner on a ringtone site.

How can affiliates improve engagement from their sites?

Many of you are already using these techniques and others, but for those who may not be, here are some tips to improve engagement.

• Maximize the amount of unique content to your site. Create commerce-oriented content for your site that engages the user in the shopping experience. Conversely, avoid putting eBay affiliate ads on pages that have little to do with shopping – e.g. ringtone sites, non-commerce oriented social network sites, e-mail services, etc. Also, sites that do little other than offer links to redirect to eBay generally don’t perform well. Engage people with content on your site, and make it clear to them on the affiliate links that they will be redirected to eBay to shop.
• Use more targeted creatives. If all you have is a simple text link to eBay or a static eBay banner ad on your site, consider using one of our flash creatives. Use what you know about your users and your content: consider using banners targeted to specific demographics (e.g. male vs. female) or categories – which are also available on eBay Partner Network. Also consider using our Editor Kit and eBay To Go widgets, which can be customized to show specific eBay listings for a given category or keyword right on your page.
• Integrate eBay links within your content. Sites that find a way to work eBay advertising into the content, rather than just as a simple ad at a top, side, or bottom of a page, tend to do better
• Optimize your landing pages. Use what you know about your users to help them find what they want on eBay. If your site is about tennis rackets, avoid landing your users on the eBay homepage, and instead send them to a search results page on eBay for targeted tennis queries.
• Use our geotargeting functionality. Sending a visitor on your site who is from the UK to ebay.co.uk (our British site) rather than ebay.com (our US site), will significantly improve conversion rates and engagement. You can select this option when you’re generating eBay links in the “tools” tab.
• Avoid simply incenting visits to eBay or registration with eBay – their primary motivation is typically not interest in eBay or in purchasing from eBay. If you are going to give your users cash back or points, tie those rewards to actual valid purchases on eBay.

How can affiliates test & improve their performance?

• Set up specific campaigns to test out any new sites, links, content, etc., and ideally, test these approaches at smaller volumes in comparison to your overall traffic. This way you will be able to evaluate the performance of each new campaign separately, ramp up the ones that perform the best, and prune the ones that don’t perform.
• Leverage the custom ID reports to further segment your testing. In an upcoming release targeted for September, additional category reporting will be made available that will help you see the categories that your users are converting in (at campaign, tool, and program levels) which should help you further target your content and affiliate links.

Still under fire the official EPN forums are bumping with angered affiliates, most of which seem to have had a great run with eBay affiliating in the past. It's a frustrating time for all involved, including myself. Luckily I've been able to tide over my earnings, but still affiliating for eBay through the Pepper Jam Network. As I type this I'm already thinking of new ways to leave eBay and never to return. Anyone with half a brain will be doing the same.

Free Keyword Analysis and Ranking Tool

I am constantly finding tools that are freely available to replace even the best paid versions. Freeware programs may take a few more steps to get the same outcome as paid programs, but hey, I'm cheap. Also, if you do any work online for yourself you know that your time is probably worth nothing. ;) My latest search has found a tool that has been around for quite some time, it's called Good Keywords, and it is great.

Good Keywords is a program that runs locally on your PC and offers a ton of functions. Provides countless misspellings, keyword suggestions, keyword traffic analysis, on page rankings, and even more. Furthermore the program is light weight, ad free, completely freeware, and WORKS.

Below is a quick list of what Good Keywords provides:

Keyword Phrase Builder

Version 2.0 now includes a keyword phrase builder to create hundreds of new keyword phrases from your own word sets.

Misspelled Word Generator

Type in a keyword and generate all possible misspellings for that keyword with a single click. You can also configure the misspelling generator to generate keywords based on different criteria (like keyword proximity error, missed character, double character entry, etc.)

Web Page Explorer

Use web page explorer to study web pages including keyword density. Use direct http access or a built-in internal browser to obtain the web page contents.

I use and love it and just can't believe I've went this long without finding it. It's also helped with my PPC campaigns, when finding long tail keywords, or even better yet bidding on misspelled keywords. This is a non-paid post, so this is coming straight from the heart that you owe it to yourself to start using this free program. If you find a better one, please let me know.

Visit Good Keyword Home Page

Commission Junction Changing Payment Threshold

Are you a CJ affiliate? Do you get paid via paper check? I do and it looks like the threshold for receiving a check in the mail is being raised. This change effects all locations, not just the US as well.

Starting on August 28 to receive a direct deposit for your commissions from CJ.com you must have built up earnings of $50 or more and to receive a paper check you must have earned $100 or more. Nos this isn't too big of a deal and I can see how it will vastly improve their efficiencies and even cut down on their man hours.

Just be warned, in case you were expecting a small check or deposit next month from Commission Junction.

When Is It Changing?

1. The change will be effective August 28, 2008, and will affect the checks you would receive as part of September’s payout.

Why Is Commission Junction Making This Change?

1. To streamline our publisher payment process.
2. To offer publishers an incentive to switch to direct deposit because paper checks are less efficient, more costly and slower than the electronic option.
3. To drastically cut down on paper consumption and better support environmentally conscious commerce.
4. To better align our process with the industry because our minimum commission threshold to receive payment is, almost without exception, far below the current standard.

How Will It Impact You?

1. Simply stated, beginning in September you will be paid once your earned commissions meet or exceed the amount in the chart above (based on functional currency and payout option).
2. If you wish to change payment methods, log in to your Account Manager, click the Account tab>Administrative Settings tab>Payment Information>Edit button. Changes should be made no later than August 28, 2008 to be in effect before the payments are processed in September.
3. We hope you will be able to utilize the direct deposit method of payment if you are not yet using it – it will ultimately benefit you and the environment.

MaxBounty Affiliate Referral

MaxBounty is an affiliate program management company that offers a lot of different programs to fit almost any niche. I've found that they have one of the largest selection of 'email lead' programs, where a visitor only has to register their email for a product and then you get a lead commission. This has worked great in the past on my video game blogs, especially when the Wii first came out and everyone was trying to get a free one...or get one anywhere for that matter.

Also, it's no secret that they offer a great commission to affiliates for recommending other affiliates to their website. Currently they offer 5% of earnings of the referred affiliate to the person who sent them there and this percentage is paid out for a full year. If you get a few good affiliates under you this can really add up and even suppliment some of your affiliate income.

If you are interested please sign up via my referral link below.

Targeting The Less Web Smart

Not exactly sure how to say that, but generally speaking it's easier to get leads from those who are not as familiar with the way the internet works. For example I have a MySpace Content site that provides themes, pictures, and different code to make their profiles fun and generally these visitors are not as web knowledgeable as say those visiting this site. So an ad that we see as obviously an ad, will for them be a potential score for a free product, by simply entering their email.

Lately Ive been trying to market ring tones to this crowd, but to no luck, since they have to register their text code to complete the lead and earn me a commission. Today I got an email from my affiliate manager at MaxBounty announcing a new program trying to push Rock Band 2, which as you know is a wildly popular 'younger crowd' video game. All that is required is a 2 page submit and confirmation of email, which I'm hoping will translate into some good leads and give me $2.60 per lead.

As an affiliate you know it's all about knowing your visitors and targeting what they find interesting. Obviously I'm not going to try and sell SEO services to a bunch of visitors looking to put pictures of Britney Spears on their MySpace profile. ;)

Negative Comments on EPN

You may have heard some negative comments surfacing around the net about EPN's tracking. Truth be told most forum posts in the official EPN forum are misleading, don't paint a complete picture, and are made by amateurs who fail to take into consideration the full spectrum of affiliate marketing. I feel that the majority of complaints have no founding whatsoever, generally because there is not enough data, and a few ACRU's can really throw off a week.

My biggest kick out of people are those who collect their dashboard data for a week, showing some big numbers on say Monday and Wednesday and then complain something happened in the latter part of the week with close to zero sales. When these posts claim 'sales' they are really referring to ACRU's. ACRU's payout $25 CPA in the US, which can really spike a graph. The rest of an eBay affiliate's earnings come from getting a percentage of eBay's take, which if you earn under $2500 per mont is only 55%.

I receive over 14,000 clicks per month and take home around $500. It's real easy to sway even these low numbers with a handful of ACRU's, which even if I receicved 4 could spike my monthly earnings by another $100. Do I think it's because their tracking is flawed? No, I just realize that a few big ticket CPA's can vastly obscure actual sales figures, considering only a little over half of my monthly earnings come from winning bids.



As you can see there is a trend forming, in regards to my EPN dashboard graph looking a little bit like shark fins. This is not because I have way down days in regards to actual wining bids, but because I may miss out on only 1 or 2 ACRU's. Just a reminder to keep your eyes out for where your big money is coming from in a slightly more complicated affiliate program. Furthermore, it shows me that I need to focus on a niche where people haven't heard of eBay before. Wish me luck.

ScribeFire Humps My Face

I own and operate close to a dozen blogs, which for some may not be that many, but for my time consumption it's a lot. Any way I can bring down the amount of time it takes me to produce quality unique content on each blog, the better, and because of this search and longing to spare up time I have found ScribeFire.

ScribeFire is a great little add-on for Firefox that allows you to blog directly in your browser, without actually physically visiting your blog admin panel. The tool itself supports a number of blogging services, specifically I use it for WordPress and it works awesome. The add-on is capable of adding images, categories, pages, simple posts, anything you could do from your normal admin panel.

ScribeFire is starting to grow now as well and are now offering QuickAds. This allows you to instantly add in all kinds of different ads directly to your blog through teh ScribeFire plugin. Built in management allows you to manage banners without actually needing to modify code directly on your blog, which is great for amateurs or those who just don't want to learn coding. ScribeFire is for writers first, but can be utilized by anybody.

SEOQuake For FireFox

If you are like me time is valuable and time spent researching a competitor could be better time spent marketing, fishing, sleeping, whatever. There are tools available to help with this process and SEOQuake is a great add-on for FireFox that helps automate a lot of the leg work and will produce instant data in your browser, simply by surfing to a page.

SeoQuake is a programme, which allows user to view a large number of SE parameters on the fly. SeoQuake for Mozilla Firefox consists of three functional parts: SeoToolbar (requested parameters are shown in a separate toolbar in the browser), Seobar (requested parameters are shown in a separate, fully customizable with CSS, HTML block) and output of requested parameters on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

The developers of SEOQuake were bold enough to produce the plugin for IE users as well, which can be downloaded here.

MoneyQuake FireFox Addon

I'm a stat hound and actually starting to leave a wear spot on my screen from checking my Adsense earnings so often. Furthermore, it's not just Google Adsense earnings I'm looking into, I'm actually more into affiliate marketing and having an addon that updates automatically in the bottom status bar is awesome. Saves my mouse from traveling further than it needs to and just makes life simpler. Only problem is that the old faithful Adsense Notifier plugin for FireFox no longer will log me in, so I needed an alternative.

Thanks to some recommendations I've found a great alternative to Adsense Notifier, it's MoneyQuake. Simply by hovering over the MoneyQuake logo at the bottom of the FireFox browser you can get instant updates on a large number of affiliate networks and Google Adsense.

List of Affiliate Programs Compatible With MoneyQuake

MoneyQuake is a powerful Firefox extension, which displays your real-time earning statistics from most popular advertisement systems like:

• Google Adsense
• Bidvertizer
• TraficCashGold
• StreamRay
• UmaxSearch
• PeakClick
• Buckster
• SoftwareProfit
• AdultAdsCash
• KlikVip
• AdultFriendFinderrn
• Begun
• Yandex.Direct
• Glavmed

To find out more information on MoneyQuake and download the plugin click here.

FireFox Colorzilla Addon

For me creating a stylish affiliate landing page is the most time consuming process in my business model, or at least it seems like it. ;) Often I will find a color I want to use on another site, so I need the hexadecimal color code to use in Photoshop or in my CSS style sheet. There is a great addon for FireFox that makes this process a breeze.

Colorzilla does everything I need, like rip color codes off of html pages and comes with a color picker built in. Check out all the nifty treats this FireFox Addon comes with.

• Webpage DOM Color Analyzer
  • Analyze DOM element colors on any Web page and create a corresponding palette
  • Locate elements on the page that correspond to a given color
  • Find out what CSS rules specify a given color
  • Save, bookmark and share the palettes
• Online Palette Viewer
  • Click here for an example
  • Allows viewing, bookmarking and sharing any color palette
  • Provides a permalink URL that represents any set of colors
  • Online Eyedropper shows colors in RGB, HSV and additional formats
• Use Full Page Zoom introduced in Firefox 3
• Firebug support - allows opening the selected element in Firebug
• New languages - Indonesian, Korean, Norwegian. Thanks to the BabelZilla team!
• Firefox 3 support
• Ubuntu support (gcc4 based build included)
• Minor tweaks and bug fixes

Get the official download of Colorzilla for FireFox 3 on the official Mozilla Add-On Repository. It is already receiving almost 10,000 downloads per week!

EPN 'Make Good' Issued...for some

Many affiliates for the EbayPartnerNetwork are announcing that they have received their makegood for the ACRU reporting errors earlier last month. Unfortunately there are also a number of people reporting that they have not received any makegood, I'm one of those people. I've contacted my account rep and she has verified that I should have received it by now and I qualify for one, but it just has not posted. Below is the message I got back from EPN support:

Thank you for writing us back regarding your 'make-good' field on your
Payment History page.

I have checked your account and I can confirm that this note is missing
from your 'Payment History' page. I've forwarded your email to the
Finance team at eBay Partner Network. They will review your question and
get back to you in the next few business days.

Sorry for the inconveniences you have while waiting.Thank you for your
patience and understanding.

Kind regards,

Hopefully they will be able to give me some news by the weekend. Hiccups in the system like this really effect my Adwords campaigns and other initiatives I make to promote my sites. Also, let this be a reminder to all of you affiliates, make sure and stay up on your reporting and news from the program you are affiliating for. Had I not known a makegood was to be issued, nor had I contacted my rep, I may never received my makegood payment.

I'll be reporting what I received just as soon as I know.

NewEgg Mall Affiliate Program

I'm not sure about you, but I am a massive fan of anything NewEgg. It seems like no matter what I am buying, if NewEgg.com had it, it was cheaper even with freight. The only problem was that their inventory of items was limited to electronics, but now they've got a whole line of products similar to Amazon at the NewEggMall. I've been biting the bullet waiting for them to release an affiliate program and now it looks like they are offering one through Commission Junction.

NeweggMall.com, a subsidiary of Newegg Inc., is a premier online shopping destination for general merchandise. Launched in 2008, this elegant e-commerce site boasts a wide-ranging selection of apparel, accessories, auto, home living, jewelry & watches, and outdoor & garden products to meet the demands of the most selective customers.

Building on the success of newegg.com, the second-largest online-only retailer in the United States and preferred destination for technology enthusiasts, NeweggMall.com brings the same customer-centric principles to the broader market: great product selection and pricing, fast delivery and outstanding customer service. With more than 15,000 unique products available on the site, NeweggMall.com continues to seek out, evaluate and add merchant partners who can deliver the high quality e-commerce shopping experience customers have come to associate with the Newegg brand.

Looks like the NewEggMall affiliate program will drop a 30 day cookie and earn you a 4% flat commission on whatever is purchased. This is lower than what you can get through Amazon, but a much better cookie length. Furthermore the regular NewEgg.com affiliate program only offers a 3 day cookie length, so you better get while the getting is good. Affiliate programs like Amazon only offer a 1 day action period and I think we will see NewEgg drop the length of their cookie after this site kick off as well.

Affiliate Incentives

It's important, as in any business, to familiarize yourself with the companies that you affiliate with. Knowing their business practices and strategies will help you become a better affiliate for them and also give warning to things you may want to step away from. By becoming entrenched with a certain company though, blinders can be put on to similar affiliate programs that may offer some nice incentives.

I operate a number of automotive themed websites and blogs, which I affiliate for parts warehouses and places like eBay. While eBay is my primary source of affiliate income I also subscribe to affiliate program updates in my reader from the operating affiliate network. This means that whenever an affiliate incentive is being offered by another affiliate, in this example AutoPartsWarehouse.com, I can take advantage of the bonuses they offer. Often these bonuses are time sensitive so staying on top of an offer is important.

Currently AutoPartsWarehouse.com is offering affiliates a $50 or $100 activation bonus. This means that for an accumulated sales amount of $300 or more, you will receive a one-time cash reward of $50. If you generate an accumulated sales amount of $500 or more, you receive a one-time $100 cash out reward. Obviously this can really add to a monthly income for affiliate beginners or long term marketers alike. Had I not been attentive to the updates from my Affiliate Network I would not have been privy to this great lil bonus that should be easy to accumulate for the month of July.

In addition to staying up to date with bonuses and incentives, often times companies will provide seasonal promotional material. Web graphics and banners for affiliate programs will be updated during the holidays for special promotions that the company may be running. Being July and the 4th is around the corner make sure you are using all methods possible to promote your niche and make those extra affiliate sales.

Text Link Ads Promo Code

Looking to save some money promoting that new niche site of yours, well check out this promo code for Text-Link-Ads.com where you can save 15% in the month of July. The 15% off will continue for the LIFE of the campaign you start for any order in July.

Text-Link-Ads Coupon Code : july15

Trying To Earn A Penny

It's not traditional affiliate marketing, but a new source of income for bloggers has surfaced that allows you to make some pretty good money just writing posts. There is a huge market now of companies that pay you to blog about certain sites, products, etc... as a form of advertisement for it's customers. The services differ, in regards to blog requirements and placements, but below is a list of places that pay bloggers to blog, so surely you can find one to work for you.

• V7N Contextual
• Sponsored Reviews
• ReviewMe
• Blogitive
• PayPerPost
• Blogvertise
• Smorty
• LinkWorth

Thanks to the members of v7n for coming up with the list of places that pay bloggers to blog. I'm sure as new companies arrive this thread will be updated and the potential for earning revenue while blogging will increase. I myself have had limited success with PayerPerPost, but after several frustrations and poor management in the beginning I abandoned it. But, if you are looking for a little extra filler in your blog and earn a few dollars on the side, you should definitely check out one or all of these services.

P.S. I should also note that not all of these companies will allow BlogSpot blogs and require that a blog be hosted on it's own domain. This is not a blanket statement, but be prepared to run into low paying offers and possible non-acceptance into a service using a Blogger blog.

Affiliate Store Builder Scripts

I'll admit, there are a lot of automatic website building scripts available, but personally I am only familiar with a few quality ones, so that's what I'll be discussing and comparing. The two scripts I'll be briefly covering are AOM for Amazon affiliates and BANS for EPN affiliates. While both do similar things they are extremely different in setup and functionality, and yes these scripts cost money.

Associate-O-Matic - $99 (or Free lite version where you share revenues)

This script saved my ass last holiday by providing me with a quick and easy way to throw up a store that looked like I actually kept the inventory. I'm throughly convinced that by giving the impression to visitors that I was keeping the inventory and allowing them to add items to a cart got me the majority of my sales and commissions. Keep in mind I was very clear that when they checked out they would be forwarded to Amazon, but I think putting it off till the last minute netted me some repeat business.

Associate-O-Matic's simple, yet powerful, browser-based control panel lets you customize everything from categories, colors, fonts, custom boxes, custom pages and much, much more. Below are a few screen shots of what you can find in the Admin panel of AOM and what customization can be done or achieved.





Build A Niche Store (BANS) - $97

This is simply a beautiful script to behold and if used properly can simply rake in the cash and pay for itself in a week, even on a brand new domain. The eBay affiliate store script BANS creates an SEO friendly site, built on eBay RSS feeds and categories. But in addition to adding tons of products to a store, you can easily add individual content per page and create you own content pages through the admin panel.

Setting up one of the eBay BANS affiliate stores is super simple, but maximizing it's potential can be very challenging. If all you want is a cookie cutter look a like site, a niche store can be completed in probably 15 minutes. However, if you want to create a unique site, with quality content and products, then get comfortable because building quality BANS sites is addicting.






Now, there is no way I would recommend a product on my own affiliate blog, without using the product thoroughly first. Both scripts have been put through the paces as far as I' concerned and both paid themselves off quickly and made me substantial scrilla.

I'm happy to answer any behind the scenes questions you may have on either one of my AOM Review or BANS review.

Free Affiliate Link Masking WP Plugin

It's not cloaking, but it is masking, to make your affiliate links look like there are sub folders or your site. Often times it can be a turn off to a visitor to see a big nasty non-sense redirect url, but if you can make that url pretty and look like it's tied to your site, expect higher click through's. There are paid scripts out there that will allow you to mask your affiliate links, but believe it or not there is a free Wordpress plugin that will do the same thing.

Take your affiliate link from this :
http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-2982118-5655490

To:
http://used-golf-cart.net/used-golf-cart/used-callaway

Of course the url would be redirected to your affiliate landing page, cookie intact. Studies have shown that a better looking url will result in higher click throughs and ultimately better conversions for you.

WP-Affiliate is the free plugin that automatically converts these urls for you to a more manageable and better looking link. The latest version of WP-Affiliate will allow you to search through CJ products and manage all your masked links.

WP-Affiliate on WordPress.org
WP-Affiliate Developer Page

Why Affiliates Complain About Amazon

I see it on a daily basis, affiliates complaining about Amazon.com's affiliate program. The majority of Amazon.com affiliate complaints are that they have very low payouts, but really they are above others in the same categories. While your affiliate commission for an electronics product may only be 4% that's still 1% higher than the leading electronics e-merchant on the net, NewEgg. NewEgg.com offers only 3% commissions on their entire inventory of electronics, except for cell phone plans, in which they can offer up to $25 per contract.

So, lets say you stay away from electronics on Amazon and focus on marketing other products, well then you should be earning a minimum of 6% on all sales. Furthermore this percentage will fluctuate fast, depending on how many orders you get your percentage of commission can jump up to 6.5%-8%. What's great about Amazon's commission tier is that dollars don't play a part, they simply go by the amount of items sold. That means you will increase your commission percentage if you sell 50 couches or 50 pens.

How To Get Around Low Percentage Electronic Commissions

There is an affiliate trick that I use with Amazon to maximize my commissions when dealing with electronic items. I try to focus on those sold by 3rd party members of Amazon, instead of Amazon.com's inventory. All sales through 3rd party sellers on Amazon will result in your tier commission, meaning it's possible to sell electronics and earn only as low as 6%.

Using the method above I was able to earn a staggering 8% on all the Nintendo Wii's I sold. I was able to earn that high percentage on an electronic item because Amazon did not have them in stock, all went through 3rd parties and because I was able to push more than 600 per month.

So, next time you see someone complaining about Amazon.com's affiliate program, remember the real bread winners in affiliate marketing aren't the loud ones on the forums.

GoDaddy Promo Code

Creating an affiliate empire requires domains and your yearly purchases and renewals can really add up. Recently I started dumping old domains I never found time to develop, although still really nice ones, I had to let them go. The registrar of my choice is GoDaddy, because of service, dashboard functionality, and lastly prices, which are not always competitive. That's why I utilize GoDaddy promo codes whenever I can and then I pass them on to my friends.

I just received an email from GoDaddy announcing a promo that will go on until July 3rd 2008 where you can take 25% off an order of $75 or more.

Use GoDaddy Coupon Code gdp0645y before July 3rd 2008 to qualify for 25% off. Also, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to get updates like these in the mail. Whenever I receive a discount offer on a product I think my readers will like, I'll make sure and post it here and email those on the list so that they can take advantage of the deal as well.

Affiliate News From The Web

What is my greatest tool in my arsenal of affiliate marketing endeavors, reading what others have done! That's right, take in every biscuit of knowledge you can from leading bloggers, newbies trial and erroring, anything. Just remember to apply what you know to what you read and don't expect someone to show you the Yellow Brick Road of affiliate marketing either, the best secrets are kept that way, secret.

I came across a great blog post by Dave Martinez that broke down the top 7 things to look for in an Affiliate Program. Believe it or not it's not just how much it pays and what he covers could save you some serious head aches in the long run. Furthermore, some of the topics he covers will make you more affiliate commissions than just going after something you know nothing about.

Check out 7 Things To Look For In An Affiliate Program

Affiliate Programs I Use

I'm often asked where I get access to all my affiliate programs and generally there is no one answer. I stick with a handful of companies that allow me to build partnerships and affiliate for a large number of programs. Below is a breakdown of which companies I'm signed up with and why i use them to affiliate.

• Commission Junction - They have a crazy amount of companies signed up that you can affiliate for. I originally signed up for eBay, but since then have been accepted into the NewEgg.com affiliate program and others. Many of the programs require you to signup individually for which program matches your website content, so you are not automatically accepted into their inventory of clients.
• Max Bounty - Generally speaking, they have the largest number of affiliate programs aimed at the simple 1 form, email gathering, affiliate programs. Meaning they have the $1 to $2 payouts for leading a visitor to submit their email for potential freebies and surveys.
• ebay Partner Network - They pay some of the highest commissions of any program I affiliate for. Their lowest tier of earnings makes you 50% of whatever eBay makes off an auction that ends with your affiliate cookie attached. Plus there are a lot of plugins and scripts to make building sites easy.
• Amazon - Who hasn't heard of Amazon? Some of their payouts are pretty low, but it's easily made up with the amount of volume that's possible. They also offer plenty of affiliate widgets, feeds, and store builder options.
• ClickBank - If it's a digital download, ebook, or some sort of online subscription service you can find it on ClickBank. They offer a huge inventory of these types of products that you can affiliate for with an even larger number of payout options. While I've only had limited success with this affiliate program, the potential is there if you can find a good niche.

Well, those are the affiliate programs I use in a nut shell. They have allowed me to eliminate Adsense on a number of my sites or at least not rely on the revenue from Adsense to earn a living. But remember, now matter how good a product or service may be, if you are not focusing on quality marketing you may just be wasting your time.

Affiliate Plugins for Wordpress

Yes, this is a blogger blog, but I also use WordPress for my hosted sites. What makes WordPress so great is that there are a plethora of plugins that make affiliating easy and automate a lot of the marketing process. Currently I'm utilizing EPN and Amazon affiliate programs on my WordPress blogs and I'll discuss the plugins I use to make money.

Amazon.com Affiliate WordPress Plugin

• wp-Amazon - This plugin allows you to search for Amazon items while creating a new post. By dragging and dropping you can place affiliate links to products while writing, but there are not a lot of options for customizing.

eBay Partner Network Affiliate WordPress Plugin

• phpBay - This plugin is highly customizable and automatically ads products from eBay into your post. It pulls images, titles, bids, and time left and displays it in a table anywhere within your post. The only downside is that it's not free, but it pays for itself very quickly.

I use both of the Affiliate WordPress Plugins above and both have made my life a lot easier. Specifically phpBay, which has allowed me to supplement my Adsense income and even create entire blogs around that one plugin. If you are not utilizing plugins now, it's time to start looking.
:)

Update 06/02/09 New Amazon Auto Poster Plugin

Please view my Amazon Auto Poster Plugin review.

What's Better phpBay or BANS?

Within the past year I've purchased both phpbay and BANS. Both of these scripts are affiliate scripts which allow easy marketing of eBay products but in two very different ways. PHPBay is a WordPress plugin that allows you to automatically generate eBay affiliate links in your posts. BANS is a completely standalone site builder that builds your own niche store showing eBay products of your choice.

Updates

PHPBay and BANS both update frequently and change in accordance with eBay rules and affiliate changes. I would consider both affiliate scripts equal in their upgrade frequency and ease of upgrading.

Customization

Both are easily customizable and only IONCUBE loaders limit a small portion of the code. As far as looks, both can be changed to fit your needs and there is an API available for phpBay which will allow for further customization.

Price

phpBay : $49.00
BANS: $97.00

The prices are completely worth it, if you don't expect a get rich quick. Furthermore, each price are a one time fee, all upgrades are free for life and your license never expires. Keep in mind neither license are transferrable.

Overral Closing Statements

I actually use both, fairly effectively in their own right. I have several niche blogs, which are over a year old, that i utilize phpbay for. However, on some of my new sites I'm utilizing BANS ease of site creation and customization. Both of these scripts use EPN, which is eBay's in house affiliate program, so no additional accounts are required to use both.

For a more indepth review of phpbay please read my personal blog.

Free BANs Template

Looking for a free BANs theme or template? I've just released Magazine, a free BANs theme compatible with the latest EPN version of BANs.

Anybody is free to use it, but if you are making 3 figures a day, please send me some cash. Not only have I had success with BANs but I've also been having success wit phpbay. I've got a detailed review of phpbay in my blog, if you are interested in more information or how to get started makign money through the eBay Partner Network.

Time To Switch to EPN

Don't forget all you affiliate marketers out there, it's time to finally make the switch to EPN. The deadline on earnings is May 31st through Commission Junction, which means any CRU's sent through their cookies that don't go active before May 31st will not be paid out. For some of us that could add up to a big headache.

Personally I've been using the new EPN affiliate system for over a month now and had great success. I've been selling used golf carts and used refrigerators and making a boat load of cookie stuffing. The amount of people looking for a good used golf cart right now is rising and accessories have never been easier to find. Likewise for finding a good used refrigerator or kegerator.

Sony Style Affiliate Time

Get Sony the way you want it. Only at Sony Style. Select, personalize and enjoy hundreds of thousands of products including computers, electronics, accessories and services you can’t find anywhere else. If it’s Sony, it’s at Sony Style.

As a member of the Sony Affiliate Program, you can expect a successful and profitable relationship, including:

Assoication with a #1 Brand that customers trust! Deep Linking with text link 10396361 3.5 - 4.0% commissions on all Sony computers and electronics Average Order Size over $595 45-Day Initial Visit to Return Day Cookie Access to Computer & Electronics Product Datafeed Sony commissions gift card sales at time of purchase – available at $25 up to $1000 increments Sony Logos may not be used to create a Sony replication page or website. Logos may be used only to highlight the company, reference in an email campaign, be used in place of a banner, etc. The logo is meant for recognition of the Sony name/brand and not to be used to create a “Sony” site. If you have questions regarding the use please contact us before you implement.

Looks like the time to start affiliating with Sony Style may have came and with such a recognizable name it's hard not to make the good green stuff.

Current Deals from Sony Style for Affiliates

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