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.

 

Today I got an email from Lynn who bought “25 Ways To Improve Your Website” asking about putting a plugin on their site that puts in an affiliate disclosure. I am a big believer in running only the amount of plugins that you need. I think I run about 5-7 plugins that are essential. The more plugins you have

The plugins that you see that generate these affiliate disclosure pages are usually nothing but cookie setters or backlink builders for the affiliate that made the plugin (Those sneaky affiliates) I suggest making an affiliate disclosure page instead.

This is another great opportunity to build more trust with your website readers. You can fill the page with more things about you to get your readers more comfortable with taking out their credit card. Think of it as a second “About Us” page.

I suggest making it as personal as you can and keep any fancy lawyers words to a minimum. While I could go on all day I don't have to since Copyblogger already has a great page on affiliate disclosures. For more on this read Copybloggers thoughts.

A few years back I did a story on two guys that were not doing the right thing by people. Ben and Dave came on my radar as I was doing affiliate approval applications and saw the same lousy site every day about 20 times. I would decline the affiliate and then send an email telling them what the scam was.

Here is a link to the original story about Ben and Dave and falling for affiliate scams.

I am thinking the FTC was already acting on complaints when I originally published the article. If you lost money to these guys you should Read the update on the FTC website. Maybe you can add your name to the list and get some money back.

From the release:

“According to an FTC complaint filed in November 2012, the defendants sold the “Six Figure Program” to consumers as a purportedly no-risk, money-back guaranteed opportunity to make money via their own website, falsely claiming that, for a $27 fee, they would enable consumers to affiliate with well-known companies’ websites and earn commissions. After purchasing the program, consumers learned that they had to pay $100 or more in additional costs just to set up their websites. The court subsequently halted the allegedly deceptive practices, froze the defendants’ assets, and put the companies into receivership pending a court hearing.

The settlement order announced today permanently prohibits The Online Entrepreneur Inc., Ben and Dave’s Consulting Associates, Inc., and David Clabeaux from selling business and work-at-home opportunities, misrepresenting that consumers are likely to earn money and misrepresenting any material fact about a product or service. They also are barred from failing to clearly disclose the terms of any offer before consumers provide billing information, and making a representation unless it is true and the defendants have competent and reliable evidence to substantiate the claim. In addition, the order prohibits these defendants from selling or otherwise benefitting from consumers’ personal information, and failing to properly dispose of customer information.

The order imposes a judgment of more than $2.9 million, which will be suspended when Clabeaux has surrendered real estate, personal property, and bank and investment accounts. The full judgment will become due immediately if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition. Litigation continues against the remaining defendant, Benjamin Moskel.”

You can read the whole release here 

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.

Once again I will be attending Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas in January 2013. If you are on the fence about going take a look at this video filled with industry veterans.

I hope to see you out in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit in January.

Being in the position I am in I get to see a lot of affiliate websites when they apply into our programs. I see a lot of bad affiliate sites but what pisses me off is when I see people getting scammed. I can usually tell when these “Make money online” events happen the minute they are over.

The latest variation of scammers have infomercials on late at night where they will not only give you 1 website they will give you 3 if you call right away. Well I can tell you that these programs can give you a million sites for free but none of them will ever make you the money the infomercials promise you. Multiply anything by 0 and you still get 0. Doesn't sound like sending them $27 for a DVD course is a good idea.

There are a few guys (Ben and Dave) that really get on my nerves because they are hurting good honest people. These guys hold actual seminars where they bring in a few people that are plants and they sit next to the new people and tell them things like “Yes we make good money”. While they are up in front of the room being all sincere and showing how to make money online with stuff that doesn't work but sounds good.

They promise that for $27 a month they will give you the blogging software that made them millions and gets ranked on Google better than the rest. The first problem here is they register the web site for you so you don't really own it. They string you along for about 6 months promising that you will make money soon. All that time you are paying web hosting fees to a company they recommend. Hmm I wonder if they get a cut of that.

By the time the average person realizes it is a scam they made like $150. They move on to the next guy and don't care if you ever made money, which of course you haven't. Oh and don't try asking for a refund.

They also seem to change their name every six months. Always in a variation of the same name, just to start over again. After about 6 months people start going online in mass and post about how their system is a fraud. Most of the time while they are running these “Get rich quick” schemes they actually have the top 10 spots for the searches with their name + scam this way it looks legit. There will be videos from others that took the class and in the video they say it is not a scam. There is no way that after you watch the 3rd or 4th video you think it is a scam. It just sounds so good. After 6 months they can no longer rank in the top 10 in the search engines due to all the people complaining and they switch their business name. Sixfigurekit – Sixfigureprogram – Now its called BenandDavesprogram and I will not link to it. They just switched it last month and I don't want to help them with a backlink.

Anytime you think this is a good thing just check with the Better Business Bureau. Just looking at the amount of complaints you can see you shouldn't waste your money.

While their website looks very professional and has a video of them sounding sincere and they show a lot of things like “As seen on Fox news” and some other bullshit that makes them look credible. It is all a bunch of bullshit. Their “As seen on” was because they ran an infomercial at 3am. They were never featured as “news” if they were don't you think they would have videos of that on their website.

On their site they show a picture of them being interviewed by “An International company”  at an affiliate event. They don't even mention the name of the company that interviewed them. Sad just sad! I also saw the company interviewing people at this event. It was set up in a hallway outside the event and guess what they also wanted to interview me but I turned them down. They were just grabbing people as they walked by for interviews.

Oh and the blogging software they give you has been recognized by Google and the new site is usually penalized for it. As soon as Google sees Sixfigureprogram in the css it knows that the site isn't nothing but a thin affiliate site. So even if you did the work they say odds are you won't make a dime. At least not through the search engines. The name in the blogging software changes every 6 months also.

As I was doing research for this scam I accidentally found a page that features their whole program without having to log in. What I found was they recommend what programs to run and odds are they are all second tier so if you do accidentally sell something they get a profit. I read their PDF and it has old information and is as basic as you can get. I wouldn't even waste paper to print it out.

The nice people that fall for this usually get an email from me after I decline them out of the program they applied to. I explain to them what is actually happening and every single one of them sends me back an email saying they guys are so sincere! Yes they are sincere, they have probably both had classes on body movement also. What cracks me up is the guys claim to make millions on the internet but every video you see of them they are wearing the same clothes.

UPDATE April 2nd 2014

FTC has settled the case against these guys. Read about it here.

 

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.

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

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.

This week we talked on a few topics. I wanted to get out what I did all week since it was very interesting between taking pictures of fireworks in the Hudson river to passing out on the train from heat exhaustion.

You can see the full show notes over on Affiliate ABC's.com.

We get into talking about what affiliates are doing wrong.

1) Some things that Affiliates are still doing is making websites with 20+ affiliate links on their homepage and not linking out to anything else. Why not just write add copy on your site with the words “Hello Google this is an affiliate site”

2) These websites are not getting natural back links because no one links to websites that have 20 unrelated products on them. They also don’t get any social media love.

3) Use Google analytics to show Google how good your site is. Don’t listen to anyone that says using Google analytics hurts your rankings.

4) Stop getting easy backlinks. If they are easy to get odds are Google doesn’t count them at all. Example: article directories