Affiliate Marketing

This past Monday I had the honor of speaking at Affiliate Summit East. My Affiliate Summit roundtable session was well received and we even went into overtime. When I looked around our table still had about 7 people at it and the others were all finished.

We had a good crowd come and go from the table as well as 2 or 3 people that heard me explain my system for making blog posts a few times. It was a little challenging when it came to questions as they were on many topics all at once but a lot of the people had the same questions so it was good they were asked.

One thing I wasn't expecting was to have affiliates from all over the world. At one time I had someone from Portugal, India, and Germany all asking questions. Combine that with my Brooklyn accent and we had a lot of fun. Everyone walked away with either a game plan or a way of taking my notes and putting it into their existing business.

It is always hard to judge how a session went but later on that day and the next day I had numerous people come up to me and tell me they really enjoyed the session. With all the note taking I saw there is no doubt that in a few months there will be affiliates creating content using the methods I explained in my session.

One affiliate wanted me to build their system for them and go partners on it. He was not happy when I declined but I have enough projects of my own that my content system has not been applied to and I have no time to build websites for partners.

Now I have to plan something for Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas.

Before I get on with the post I want you to see where I am writing this post right now. I am on a NYC subway train traveling through Brooklyn. This weekend I had a roundtable at the Affiliate Summit conference and it was all about making blog post. The post below was typed on my phone and saved in Evernote. If you have an hour commute make the most of that time by writing a blog post or at least starting one. Now on to the post.

Meeting people
Affiliates normally work by themselves in their home office or whatever part of the world they call their writing home.

Even though it happens from time to time it is always kind of strange when you are at a conference and someone you don't know comes up to you like they know you because they read your blog.

Today that happened to me at Affiliate Summit. As I was browsing the show floor a nice guy looked at my badge and zoomed across the aisle and says my name and puts his hand out to shake mine. At first you think you know them and you try to place the face in your memory bank but you never do. The guy explains that he reads my site, is on my newsletter list and bought my book.

I stood there flattered and excited. I asked him what he liked about the site and what he wanted to see more of. We probably talked about a 1/2 hour.  Then he told me what his biggest problem was and let's just say my solution made his trip to Affiliate Summit totally worth it.

I could see it in his eyes as he dropped his stuff on the floor as if he was in shock at how simple it was.

I told him if he had sent me an email with the problem I could of answered him years ago.

 This past week I was honored to be a guest on James Martell's Affiliate Buzz Podcast. James and I have been friends for about 10 years now since we met at an affiliate event sponsored by Shareasale in Manhattan in 2004.

While we did have a plan on what we were going to talk about when James and I get going we covered a lot of topics. We mentioned taking photos and getting traffic back to your website.

Our ordeal with Hurricane Sandy was another topic we discussed. I had no idea James was watching my Klout score during the storm. I still find that funny.

Sit back and have a cup of coffee or two and listen to James and I discuss affiliate marketing.

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Super Affiliate Newsletter

Affiliate News For The Week June 2nd This week Pat Flynn talks about what a new visitor is doing just before they visit your site and how to optimize for their visit. He also talks about looking at your site on a mobile device. Something we always seem to forget about. SPI 111 : The Life of a Brand New Visitor The better …

I know I said I would never do public speaking again. I made it well aware that I was retiring from public speaking after my Affiliate Summit West 2012 session. Well a topic has been bothering me for a few months and I have to flush it out. While I could do an hour (or three) on the topic I decided to do a roundtable instead. I felt it was the best way to be able to field more questions by more people.

My topic is about publishing blog posts. Every day I get someone who tells me they have no time to blog. Every time I hear it I want to scream! In case you didn't know 2013 was one hell of a year for us.

In October 2012 Hurricane Sandy decided she was going to put 6 to 8 feet of water in our single story home. Trying to get back on our feet from Hurricane Sandy was no easy feat and it still isn't over actually. What most people don't know is while there were nights I didn't have walls or a floor or even heat I was still publishing blog posts. In a way I think it was what kept me sane at times.

One site that I started a few weeks before the storm hit decided it was going to take off and become a major site for me. Just what I needed since we had no electric, clothes, food or good shelter for that matter. In the days that followed I had Debbie's daughter Liz publish the blog post from Arizona until I could find a computer that worked.

The first few days after the storm for me was like the movie “Groundhog Day” I don't remember much which is a good thing. It was the same thing over and over. Wake up under a cold blanket as soon as the sun rises, throw away whatever we owned, find food, and go back to sleep under the same cold blanket.

Anyway while Debbie and our cats went out to Arizona near Liz I stayed back and destroyed the house some more before building it back. My schedule consisted of building the house by day, publish blog post at night. It was exhausting! The picture was taken after I returned from Affiliate Summit West 2013. The milk was in the window because there was no fridge yet. It was the best I could do to keep it cold.

In 2013 there were over 15,000 blog post made either at the house or when I went to Arizona to take breaks from breathing in mold. The point is if I found time to publish 15,000 blog post and build a house you can find time to put blog post on your site. I will be showing the methods that I used and a few new ones that I have discovered.

Looking forward to sharing some of the things that I did last year and continue to do today.

As an affiliate manager I see tons of websites as they are applying to the affiliate programs that we manage. I must say that lately the applications we are seeing are all kind of the same thing. Between the cash-back sites that you have to use a social media plug in for or the 100's of coupon sites that are all using the same “Click to Reveal” coupon code setting it is quite disturbing.

Where is the ingenuity? What makes your site different? I am not here to bash these type of sites but to make any money in affiliate marking you have to have some sort of POD (Point of difference) to make your site the “Go To” site where users will flock to.  Odds are the click to reveal websites can all be knocked off in a Google algorithm change.

To be honest with you I am not seeing any new coupon sites getting any search engine traffic at all. If you are thinking about starting the next big “Click to Reveal Website” I suggest you rethink that plan. The market you think you can capture using social media is already to crowded for your best-coupons-ever-in-the-world.com website. A new site having the word coupon or coupons in your domain is a red flag to begin with. The Google search results already have enough coupon sites and Google knows it. Google knows who the big branded coupon sites are and trying to start the next big one is a mistake in my opinion.

I am sure at the next Affiliate Summit I will be introduced to a newbie starting a new coupon site. It is bound to happen, it happens to me at every Summit and the person always thinks it is a unique idea they have. Save yourself some time and don't order your LeftHandedElephantCoupon.com business cards just yet. Come and meet with me and I will give you 5 better ideas for a website. Like I said I am not bashing coupon sites I just want to see someone come up with an idea that knocks it out of the park.

There is a lot of affiliate programs that are lowering commissions to coupon sites. There are companies that don't want to have their brand on coupon sites at all. Does this sound like a good long term idea for your next website? I don't think so.

Affiliate Marketers Are Smart People

Affiliate marketers are some of the smartest people I know. Where is that ingenuity? I think it has been lacking of late. There needs to be more websites out there that offer a great service first and the affiliate products second. I have seen this model creep into affiliate marketing lately. I have seen more affiliates adapting by making videos, that is great.  I am seeing more get into mobile or at least making their sites mobile friendly.

There use to be a time when having a proper SEO'd article on like “saving money on gas” on your automotive site would get you traffic and make you some money. Now if you had an automotive site a free “find cheap gas” service lookup app would probably be a better idea. Be helpful and think outside the box. In my example you would have users on your site while they are in their car and not necessarily on their computer at home. Stop thinking about how you can get a user on your website, think how can I get my website/product into their pocket.

If you haven't seen Google Now you are already behind the 8 ball. It should be scaring affiliate marketers like there is no tomorrow.  Yesterday I was in Scottsdale Arizona and pulled up my Google Now which btw is just pulling up Google at this point since it is in my phone. In an instant I had the nearest restaurant, the weather, reviews, things to do etc. All with directions on how to get to each place. Under all these things on the phone I had the url to check out these things but I really didn't need to as I was just playing around.

What it showed me is I would be wasting my time if I was going to try and build the next best new local site about Scottsdale as my site wouldn't get on Google Now as it isn't actually located in Scottsdale. You could get a PO box in Scottsdale but doing that would only give people directions to your P.O. box. Doesn't sound like a long term win either.

I could go on all day with examples of Google Now but that is for another day. Thinking outside the box may be the best way to get your site into the users pocket.

This question comes from David who answered me on a G+ post when I was asking for topics.

If you find yourself getting declined from a lot of affiliate programs that you apply for there must be a reason. I am wondering if the site you are applying with is put together poorly or is it one of the many other things that I generally decline applications for. You may be getting a lot of automatic declines because a lot of affiliate programs only want USA publishers.

It could be that you are applying and you have a coupon site listed in your bunch of sites in your profile. Some merchants don't want to work with coupon sites and having one listed will get you declined. The affiliate manager may have no choice in the matter. Some merchants don't offer coupons and they feel that it weakens their brand being on coupon sites.

To get approved into affiliate programs more often I would only put one or two sites in your profile when you are applying. There is no reason to have 35 half done sites in there. You may think it looks good but after I go in and see the 5th site that is not close to done and hasn't been updated in 2 years odds are you will be declined.

If there is an area in the application like Shareasale has make sure you add something into that box. One or two sentences about what site you will use and how you get traffic is hugely helpful. Just having something in the application gets you on the affiliate managers radar quicker.

I can tell you when I log in to approve affiliates in the affiliate programs if they used the additional information box to put in some information they go to the top of the list. It shows that you are serious  and probably can't wait to put up links and make some money. This puts you ahead of your competition I am amazed that everyone doesn't do this. It is always good to have a leg up on the competition.

Affiliate managers go through hundreds of sites a day and most are either not a fit for the program or have other issues.

Some things that will get you declined:

• Banner farm
• Old non updated website
• Copied content
• Wrong Whois information
• Private registration
• Click to reveal coupon site
• Not having a website
• Using blogspot or Squidoo pages
• Saying your website is Google.com (I love that one)

If all else fails shoot the affiliate manager a quick email and tell him you should be approved and ask why you were declined. I bet you will end up getting into the program. If the affiliate manager doesn't respond then it is a program that you don't want to be in in the first place. Go find the competition and promote them.

If you are serious about affiliate marketing as a business you should have a handful of affiliate managers that you get to know and you work on their programs. Applying to programs hoping you get in will be a thing of the past.

Today's post is inspired by David Iwanow who wanted this question answered after I asked for topics on G+

Finding affiliate programs are not that hard, but finding good ones can take a good amount of time. (Good fit for a clock picture)

This is especially true if you are really deep into a niche. Back in the day when I was making new websites there would be a few places I would go to find affiliate programs.

Keep in mind that I am very picky about what programs I would join. I choose to work with honest affiliate managers first and build sites around their programs. I come from a CPS background so if you are looking for CPA programs this list isn't for you.

I have a folder on my browser called “Affiliate Program Managers” In this folder is the clients pages for all the affiliate managers that I trust.

Some Trusted Affiliate Managers:

• GTO Management – Karen and Joel
• ebove & Beyond – Jennifer Myers Ward
• Snow Consulting – Roger Snow
• Affiliate Manager.com – Mike Nunez
• Andy Rodriguez Consulting – Andy Rodriguez
• Growthspurtmedia.com – Liz Gazer
• Chateau 20 – Kim Salvino
• Team Loxly – You know I had to include this 🙂

I would also be on their email newsletter list so I am aware of any new programs they may start managing. You can get a good jump on your competition by knowing what programs they are running asap. Of course after you get in friendly with the affiliate managers odds are you have them on Skype so you can learn about new programs quickly.

I would also have the Shareasale Merchants bookmarked as well as the new programs on Shareasale. The reason for this would be to see if any merchants were leaving another network and coming to Shareasale. You can also put these into an rss reader and have it alert you when it updates.

Finding Affiliate Programs Through Search

Of course you can use Google to find affiliate programs. Odds are you can put the product that you are thinking about selling and add the word “Affiliate program” and you will get some ideas. As you go along you can just search the product and click on a few results in the search engines and see what programs the future competition is using to sell their products. This of course doesn't mean that the people they are using is a good affiliate program. You have to do your due diligence there.

You can also look to Affiliate forums to find affiliate programs. I would go to the Affiliate Summit forum and see who is active there and has a forum (Disclaimer I am active there). You can get a good feel from the merchants over there when it comes to who you want to work with.