1. Amazon.com associate makes $US100 a month
============================================ I'm constantly amazed by the number of people who tell me that they are signing up for all the programs listed in the Associate Programs Directory, or all the free ones. In other words, they are adding a shopping mall to the thousands of shopping malls already out there.
Well, if you use that tactic, you're going to have an awful lot of competition. I hope you have an absolutely brilliant marketing plan to make your site stand out from the masses.
On the other hand, the sites which are making money from associate programs tend to concentrate on only one program, or only a few programs - and they add value.
For example, many of Amazon.com's more than 100,000 associates make only a few dollars a month. I admit it, I'm one of them. I've listed a few gluten-free recipe books on my first - and now sadly neglected - site, Best Gluten-Free Recipes. I get the odd sale now and again.
In marked contrast, Sunni Freyer, President and CEO of the PR agency CFNA Inc. - http://www.cfnaonline.com - has a much smarter approach.
"I've read over and over comments on how much others are making," Sunni says. "Usually it ranges from $2 a month to about $10. Surprisingly, we pull in $100 or more on the average. It's not much and certainly nothing you can build a business on. But given that it doesn't require $100 worth of work on this end, it's a good deal for us."
Sunni says that making associate programs work is "not only a numbers game, but also requires targeting and like anything else, marketing".
Her company, CFNA, has an email newsletter, Canine Times, for dog owners. It reviews two canine books each issue.
"The link for purchase is, of course, to Amazon. Additionally, we tell readers that their purchase through our link is returning us a small commission and that commission helps us keep Canine Times free for readers," Sunni says.
"Our readers voted on this mechanism - and they do buy this way. We also asked them to use our URL (a special one provided by Amazon) any time that they want to visit Amazon for any books or CD's. That is working too.
"It helps to be delivering a product that readers want and that they are happy to pay for, but in a way other than a subscription. Seems to work for us.
"Meanwhile, our firm has several clients in the pet industry. And those clients need to reach pet owners. Thus, our email newsletter, which many find unusual for an agency to be publishing, is delivering for us, our clients and pet owners on several fronts," Sunni says.
How many readers does your newsletter have?
"Via majordomo, our count is 2000. Very targeted list of dog owners that are 'highly bonded' to their pets, in the upper income strata, well-educated, and predominately female, which is also the primary buyer of pet products. Our surveys bear this out. However, we also know that many of our readers have their own lists and forward Canine Times to it. At last count, we know we had an additional 1,000 or more from this pass-around, which we would prefer to stop but haven't been successful at yet."
Sunni's Freyer's CFNA Inc: The PR Agency is at http://www.cfnaonline.com
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2. One $10 commission from 2000 visitors
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Bay Smith of the Red Shoe Personals Flower and Gift Shop - redshoe.pcflowers.com - reports that from about 2000 visitors he sent 64 people to NextCard Internet Visa, of whom 11 applied for the card. One was approved. "I now have sitting in my hands, a check for $10," Bay says.
He says he shrugs off those who weren't approved and attributes it to "bad credit or quite possibly not-good-enough credit".
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3. Web Cards learns tough lessons
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I've received some complaints from people who tried to join the Web Cards associate program and were rejected.
Web Cards has become "a bit more restrictive about who we let into the program", says Joe Haedrich. "Initially we opened the program to everyone under the theory that only site owners and marketers would request samples and information.
"Boy were we wrong!" Joe says.
"Soon, some sites, fortunately a very small minority, saw this as a gold mine and would simply ask the people on their mailing list to request information so that they could collect the $1 to support their sites. Then a few sites started to encourage their mailing list to enter anyone's name to get the commission.
"The problem was that since we have an autoresponder that thanks them for requesting samples, we started to get spam complaints from people who had their names inserted. We got so many complaints - thousands - that our provider had given us the final notice before they took away our Internet access.
"The majority of these sites were foreign and many had nothing to do with reaching webmasters and site owners - they were just kids playing around. One site in Hong Kong devoted to a satanic cult which we should have never let join in the first place used some sort of software submission system which resulted in more than 7000 leads in a month.
"Our commission checks without the problems have gone from a few hundred dollars a month to more than $10,000. Business has increased a lot but not enough to justify the huge commissions. We now have 1300+ affiliates and are entering about 75 new sites a week.
"Except for Western Europe, all of our orders have come from the US and Canada . . . although we have sent more than 1000 of our sample packages to Australia, we have never received an order from there," Joe says.
"We will now be offering virtually everyone who is interested the opportunity to participate in our commission program which pays a site 10% for everyone who orders through them - the software is now in place. But with the commission program we are going to have to restrict it to business and marketing oriented sites with a user base that is mainly in the markets we serve best."
[UPDATE: This company started spamming. I no longer promote it.]
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4. Do people get lost at your site?
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Another problem with Web Cards - which by the way has an excellent product for promoting your site offline - it that its web site confuses people trying to find the page where they sign up to become affiliates. I guess Web Cards has tried to structure the site so that people are encouraged to explore certain pages, but visitors end up frustrated and angry and complain to me.
To investigate the problem, I clicked on my special URL
printing.com/affiliate.asp?site=associate
I clicked on page after page, hunting in vain for the associate sign-up page, and getting as frustrated as the people who have complained to me. Eventually, I clicked on "Home" although I was sure the link wasn't there. But it was! It was a *different* Home page from the one I had arrived on.
Here's how you find the sign-up page: Click on Free Samples, Click on Home, and you can see the link you want. Simple, when you know how!
Yes, I've complained to the management.
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5. AIS listens to its associates
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I received a few complaints about a restrictive exclusivity clause in the AIS Merchant Services program and passed the concerns on to Thomas Harpointner.
I was delighted when he zapped back this reply: "The clause was originally written for another area of our business. We don't feel that it would fairly apply to this program and it has therefore been removed."
It's good to see a company responding fast to the wishes of its associates. AIS pays $US175 commission, with $50 on the second tier. Looks good. I'll let you know when the first commission actually arrives.
[UPDATE: The AIS Media program has closed.]
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6. Using AdTrack to track sales
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If you have joined AIS Merchant Services, I hope you're not just posting banners and leaving it at that. Life can be much more fun than that. Simply waiting for 1% of my visitors to click on a banner isn't good enough for me. I've made a couple of posts to mailing lists - providing useful, helpful information of course - and also including those cleverly designed special AdTrack URLs to AIS.
The AIS AdTrack system allows me to alter the last four digits/letters of the URL for each post. When a new dealer signs up, or I achieve a sale, it's fascinating see whether he signed up from one of those posts, from my site or from one of my newsletters. So far, the newsletter is winning but the paragraph on my main page is also scoring well.
You could test classified ads with different headings very easily using different URLs. Are free-for-all sites really worth spending time on? This would be a good way to test.
Perhaps you could even try the URL in an appropriate newsgroup or chat session. Worried you can't get the URL past a moderator? Perhaps you can simply mention a page on your site which contains useful info on merchant facilities - and includes a link to AIS.
See how these URL differ?
aismedia.com/x/cc.cfm?AG45x0017
aismedia.com/x/cc.cfm?AG45xTRAC
You can create as many different ones as you like - one for each promotion you experiment with. I would be very interested in receiving the results of your research.
[UPDATE: The AIS Media program has closed.]
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7. Snippets
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Spree.com, which has disappointed many, says its updated Link Generator is working and that "by early-1999" it will provide "accurate, up-to-date reports about who's visiting your web site and what they're buying". Let's hope it also simplifies and improves its commission structure so that people can understand it.
AdClix told me some little fibs, and then didn't answer my email. It's a strange way to do business.
Darwin Keyboards had a sign on its site saying that its associate program "is currently closed to new members", Cheryl Jensen of designer-graphics.com reports. My email has not been answered.
Jaffer Ali of PulseTV.com told LinkExchange Digest 80% of all affiliate sales were generated by 20% of the affiliates. "When the Clinton video testimony was announced that it was going to be released in the home video marketplace, we sent our affiliates a rush email notifying them . . . Over one-third responded that they 'lost their affiliate ID#'."
ADSDAQ pays "up to" $0.75 per thousand impressions. No, that's not a misprint. It really is that ungenerous.
Corey Rudl caused a few flutters of anxiety when his server was down on Monday night (US time). He was just changing ISPs. My next commission will be $1105. I'm sure the check will arrive. It always does.
Of-the-month.com gave me a news item I used in the newsletter about a competition it's running - but forgot to mention that it has changed the URL of its associate sign-up page. Just go to of-the-month.com and click on "Become an affiliate".
[UPDATE: Of-the-month.com affiliate program has been discontinued.]
CDworld has increased its commission and now pays 10% to 20% of the selling price. The 10% sounds OK but to earn 20% you have to sell $25,000 worth in a month. Think big!
Want some ideas on how to attract visitors? Dr Harold Reis told a mailing list that Lovingyou.com, a love and romance site, is getting 4 million page views monthly, growing at half a million monthly. He must be doing something right.
Another way to attract traffic is to provide a free service. Sem Hadland of Norway told the click-l mailing list that his July commission due from Safe-Audit for one of his sites - freeguestbooks.com - was about $US600.
[UPDATE: Safe-Audit died.]
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8. 23 sites doing almost everything right
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Ever since I first read about it, I've been waiting eagerly for Jaclyn Easton's new book, Striking It Rich.com, which describes in detail 23 successful Internet companies.
Specializing in e-commerce, Jaclyn has established a devoted following as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, on-camera Internet expert for CBS 2 News in Los Angeles and host of a national radio show, LOG ON USA. The articles I've read by her have been thoroughly researched and fascinating.
StrikingItRich.com is not a how-to book. It's better, says Amazon.com. It's a "how-it-was-done book," revealing 23 unique blueprints which have led to astounding success on the Net.
Amazon.com's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, has written a foreword for the book - the first time he has done so.
The description of the book at Amazon.com says: "These aren't the well-known giants, but something far more unusual and useful: 23 sites that have learned to do almost everything right. Each one has practical and fresh ideas to share - insider information that will nourish the e-commerce ambitions of budding entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 executives.
"Every type of web-based enterprise is featured, including information sites that rely on advertising revenue, subscription sites, online retailing to consumers as well as business-to-business sales."
Here are the 23 winners Jaclyn describes in detail:
Ask the Builder
Cassette House
Coastal Tool & Supply
Discount Games
Expert Market
FragranceNet Gamesville
HorseNet IGO Golf
iPrint
Ken Crane's Laser Discs
KoreaLink
Long Island Hot Tubs
Motorcycle Online
Mountain Zone
Practical Program Product Partners
Reel.com
Ridout Plastics
The Knot
Tradeshop
U.S. Wings
Weirton Steel
"None of the sites profiled sell computer merchandise or offer computer-related information," Jaclyn says. "Ditto for adult material. These propositions are much too easy. Selling $150 hard drives on the Net is a snap compared to a $975 panel saw . . .
"What is common to all is that they were started by ordinary folks with big dreams and modest budgets."
Striking It Rich.com (hardcover, McGraw-Hill) is due out this month. The list price is $US24.95 but Amazon.com is selling it for only $17.47 - a 30% discount.
I ordered my copy today. Just one useful hint from the book would pay for it many times over.
This link will take to the right page at Amazon - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/striking-it-rich
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9. Custom made screen savers
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The highly talented Shawn Augustson of xtremeonline.com who designed a cute little gold button for AssociatePrograms.com, is now offering a new service. He is designing custom screen savers that are "really cool and multi-media".
The one Shawn wanted me to preview has "four different wild screens and is set to a hypnotic techno beat so turn your speakers up!" That sounds absolutely ghastly to me, but Shawn will design screen savers to suit any tastes, with "any music track, custom art work and logos".
You could have a screen saver custom made which includes you own logo and advertisements and provide it free to your visitors. "It's more than having just a banner!" Shawn says.
If you mention AssociatePrograms.com he will give you a discount. Contact Shawn at
shawn AT xtremeonline.com
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10. Free banner advertising winners
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I was so busy last month I forgot to draw a winner so I've drawn two winners this month. The latest winners of free banner advertising for a year on AssociatePrograms.com:
Keith Comfort
The Search Beat...The One-Stop Web Directory
http://www.search-beat.com
Joel Becker
Becker-Cline Digital Photography
Norfolk, Virginia, USA
http://www.joelbecker.com
Want a chance to be a winner? It's very easy.
See AssociatePrograms.com/search/free-advertising.shtml
[UPDATE: This offer has closed.]
Thank's For Reading :Success Amazon associate
