Cutting Off Your Affiliates To Spite Your Profits

October 27th, 2006

Affiliates can do a lot for a business. As well as boosting sales, affiliates can act as a customer service layer between the merchant and the customer, raise the profile of merchant by active promotion and attract other affiliates. Often compensated on a pay-per-sale basis, an army of affiliates can be the most cost-effective and zealous salesforce imagineable and yet some merchants treat their affiliates like dirt.

In my experience as an affiliate, I’ve had the disappointing experience of dealing with some unresponsive affiliate managers who couldn’t care less about treating me and my efforts with due respect. Getting overdue commissions, simple email responses and replies to forum posts (when they’re not being deleted) are apparently too much to ask for.

I have great difficulty in trying to understand the mentality of this approach.

When an affiliate has converted sales, but isn’t being paid for their efforts, what can they do?

Technorati Tags: ,

Your Contract With Me

October 24th, 2006

An interesting post from Stu about a contract I might have with you. Can’t say I agree with much of what’s suggested, though!

What would you think if I said to you,

“I’ll provide you free content, if you pop by once in a while and look at my advertisers ads.”

Read the rest of this entry »

New Music You Already Like

October 17th, 2006

If you like to listen to music when you’re at the computer then you’re probably going to like something I stumbled upon today; it’s an Internet radio service with a difference. Unlike other streaming services, Pandora caters to your tastes and suggests music based upon your own preferences and the feedback from other users with similar tastes to yours. Simply seed Pandora with a favourite song or artist and it will start streaming music to your browser. As you listen, you can submit your own feedback and fine tune your selection.

You can currently get a free, ad-sponsored account or an ad-free account for $36 per year. Note that you need to supply a US ZIP code because they’re currently only licensed to stream music to residents of the US. Considering just how easy it is to bypass this ‘enforcement’, it seems it’s just a token limitation.

You’ve had the likes of Amazon suggesting new reading material based upon yours (and others) past purchases, now you can get new music suggested to you by Pandora. It’s a great way to expand your music radar.

I wonder how long before someone in the Internet marketing world will come up with a similar service for IM products? You purchased Affiliate Project X. You might also like Super Affiliate Handbook;)

Technorati Tags:

Why You Won’t See Pay Per Post Here

October 11th, 2006

Earning money for sponsored blog posts is one of those types of income that I will not readily consider chasing. The main reason for this is because I don’t want to take on something with earnings that are restricted by my time. Blog posts take time to write and PPP only pays once per post so you have to stay on that hamster wheel to make any decent amount of money.

Being paid per post seems to me, too much like a job; you write, you get paid, you don’t write, you don’t get paid.

The Internet is an ideal vehicle for passive income. Why turn it into a cubicle?

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

My Secret Affiliate Marketing Techniques Exposed

October 9th, 2006

Of all my forays into the world of Internet marketing, earning money as an affiliate for other people’s products has been one of the most profitable and if you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you’ve probably seen me mention Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook (SAH) as a very comprehensive guide to affiliate marketing. This particular ebook spans over 274 pages and takes the reader right from the beginning, explaining affiliate marketing from the ground up.

For newbie affiliates with little Internet experience, it’s a great ebook to study.Now, as good as the SAH is, I don’t think there’s as much in it for affiliates with some experience under their belts. For those affiliates who have already cut their teeth and are looking to apply some advanced techniques there’s a new ebook just rolled into town and it’s promising to reveal a bunch of very effective techniques.

I bought a copy and I wasn’t very happy with it.

Read the rest of this entry »