Affiliates: Dealing With Scammers

All affiliates know this situation: You’ve signed up, got a great deal on the traffic you’re sending and the conversions keep pouring in. The problem? You aren’t being paid for your work.

Affiliation is a great business that truly tests your abilities as a marketer and more importantly – your ability to follow up and keep track on your work and progress. The most frustrating thing that can happen is to not get paid.

Internet scams are nothing new – we’ve all been offered great rewards for helping a Nigerian prince, but we know better (you DO know better, right?). The problem is that scammers aren’t always so obvious. Affiliate scams are a great example – they provide every bit of information as any legitimate operation with one difference – the money never comes in.

How do you deal with this? Here’s a list of a few ideas to consider when figuring out who you want to offer your services to as an affiliate:

Choose Wisely – Try a more well-known affiliate program. You can always research the programs on many dedicated websites that not only detail the affiliate program’s possible deals, but also include reviews and comments from other affiliates who have had a chance to take part in the program.

Product Research – Try and understand as much as possible about the product you are promoting. You may run into user comments that can really tell you the whole story – is the product useful? Does it perform as advertised? Did the client even get the product? The answers to these questions reveal a lot about how business operates, and you can be sure that a good service on one end is a pretty good indication of how things are run in the other.

Trust Your Instincts – If something looks fishy or out of the ordinary and every bone in your body screams “no!” - don’t sign up. Even if everything looks decent but you still feel like something is a little off, you may end up saving yourself a lot of time and trouble. There are many affiliation programs out there, so there really is no need to proceed with a program that will not reward you in the end.

Be Smart – if an offer is too good to be true, it probably is. With little search you will find that there are probably many similar products out there – check out their affiliate programs and compare the deals offered. If the deal in question seems too good, you might have reason to be worried. The trick is, however, to distinguish between a scam and a genuine marketing push to out-perform the competition. Usually, the better offer will be marginally better, an not offer 4 times as much.

Cut Your Losses – If you are already on an affiliate program that isn’t paying, leave as soon as possible and let everyone know you’ve been scammed. That is the only way affiliates will be treated with more respect and dignity in the long run.

Creating the Best Landing Page

Landing pages are the mother ship of an affiliate’s invasion. Banners and mailers are usually based on them (they also direct to them) and they are you main firepower in terms of converting traffic. Furthermore, the Internet is becoming increasingly competitive in terms of how offers are presented to the client, meaning that you have to step up your game if you want to keep bringing that great traffic.

Here is a list of some of the main points to cover when creating your landing pages. If you’re choosing from a selection of ready made landing pages – be sure to follow these tips to make sure you select the one with the highest chance to convert.

Less is more – a lot of information may seem like a nice idea on paper, but in practice it does little to help conversion. In fact, it mostly does damage. When you are designing you landing page, be sure to provide as little information as possible while still delivering the main message of the offer – for example, if you are promoting an online trading service, be sure to stick to the offer without explaining the intricacies of how trading is actually done – the client does not want to be bombarded with technical information when he thinks about making a purchase – he wants the big picture.

The Banner should instantly open the landing page – there isn’t much more to say here. As an affiliate, you want your traffic easily reaching your landing page. Making things open instantly may seem a little bit aggressive in terms of a sales pitch, but it is the standard procedure at this point.

Concentrate on one product – Do not use you landing page to push more than one product – it will hurt sales. Your goal is to present a single product without over indulging in details while still maintaining necessary information. It’s hard enough achieving this balance with just one product – two is heading straight towards disaster.

Bullet points are your friend – Be sure to use bullet points when describing your products features. Paragraphs are nice, but they miss the point when it comes to landing pages.

Good graphics – You don’t have to create the flash version of Avatar, but you definitely don’t want to be looking like 1995 with tiny fonts and 3-frame GIFs. Use aesthetic imagery that is simple and serves its purpose – from there you can grow.

Be understandable – Don’t try and present the product in an overly complex way – tell your client what it does and why it’s better than the competition, but don’t try to be too clever about it – you’ll find that unless you have quite the talent for copywriting, going for something simple will bring more positive results.

Having a good landing page is one of the most important aspects to converting traffic. Following these points will ensure that your landing page is as understandable and accessible as can be.

“Waking up” Your Affiliates

While this website solely focuses on the affiliate side of things, this article is intended for the affiliate managers among us who need to shake things up a bit and get their affiliates back to making money. As an affiliate, it is important to know this side of the business and be aware of the things you can ask for as well as what would make you a favorable affiliate (beyond bringing in good traffic, of course).

Why do Affiliates Even Need to be “Woken Up”?

Affiliates earn money based on their performance – so why would they be performing at anything below their best? Sometimes, it’s down to some of the most basic elements. Often times, you’ll find that your media tools are lacking. This means that your affiliate has little to work with and feels like he’s hit a wall in terms of his ability to promote your product. As an affiliate, it’s always best to ask for more media (banners, reviews, etc) – it also shows you have the intention of working hard to bring in more traffic.

Sometimes, your affiliate may find a similar product with a better deal, leading him to move his resources to someone else. A good way to deal with this is to come up with some incentive that makes it worthwhile for the affiliate to promote your product. As an affiliate, it never hurts to ask for a better deal or exclusive promotion to run through your network.

Waking Them Up

1.     Incentives – It never hurts to give someone more to work for. While you may have a standard CPA deal, you can easily offer extra payment when your affiliate goes the extra mile. For example, if your affiliate places you in a better spot, why not make it worth his while? Eventually, a better deal will come along and you will slipped further and further down.

2.     Stay in Touch – Keeping in touch with your affiliates is a great way to make sure they know you’re watching and that business is running as usual. Furthermore, it never hurts to stay in touch – you may hear about competitors’ offerings and industry gossip.

3.     Create & Push New Media – Having great media tools is the right way to start your relationship with the affiliate, but it’s not enough. Show you’re serious by researching the different results that different texts and banners provide and let your affiliates know what works best. This shows that you are serious about your business relationship.

4.     Create Exclusive Promotions – When an affiliate has an exclusive discount to offer your clients, it means that an extra effort will be put in to bring more traffic. An affiliate earns his living by marketing – so he knows that when he has an exclusive promotion, his competitors will have a hard time pushing an inferior offer. This is why quality affiliates are the only ones who should receive such offers.

Once you’ve made contact with your affiliate, be sure to maintain communication with him – even if only twice a month – a few words go a long distance.

PageRank Myths

PageRanks are a very important aspect to determining whether a webpage generates traffic or not. Moreover, it can indicate whether a website provides an actual service, or if it’s no more than an Internet tourists’ trap.

Because of this, PageRanks are important to you – the affiliate. If you want to be able to prove that you’re worth a better affiliation deal, your pagerank will be one of the first things that will be looked at.

So what is a PageRank?

In the most basic definition, pageranks refer to the assessed importance of a webpage as provided by Google. There is a special algorithm put use by Google, but we will not delve into these technicalities here, but rather focus on what pageranks are and most importantly, what they aren’t.

MYTH #1 – Websites Have PageRanks

This is incorrect. Each specific page has a pagerank of its own and there is no median or average for the whole website. Typically, your site will be valued by your homepage’s pagerank. Even if you have a specific page that has attracted more traffic and has a higher pagerank, it does not reflect well when a specific page has a higher pagerank than the homepage – it indicates that the one article is more valued than your entire site. Furthermore, it shows that people don’t really know about your website – it only means they ran into your article via search or link.

MYTH #2 – PageRank Relies on Traffic

While traffic is undoubtedly important, it is by no means the only factor that is considered when generating your pagerank. This means that a page with a rank of 3 could potentially bring in more traffic than a page with a rank of 6. PageRanks are easily affected by good linkbuilding (more on that in a different article), content, and some more technical issues that concern domains, servers, etc.

MYTH #3 – PageRank is the Only Factor to Consider for Links

This logic is seriously flawed. It is true that a link from a low-ranked page usually hurts your pagerank, but it is NOT always true. Imagine having a link from a large and well-known website sub-page (such as MTV.com) that has a rank of 1 – this will not hurt your pagerank, it will help.

MYTH #4 – Links are Basis for PageRank

This notion is completely false. Pageranks are based on Google’s indexing, keywords and association algorithms. It is true that links are an important aspect, but quality content can be just as helpful in the long run.

MYTH #5 – High PageRanks Bring More Traffic

This is absolutely false. PageRanks only come into play when you’re doing business. The majority of end-users have no idea about pageranks and will not judge your website based on its metrics.

To conclude, pageranks are an important factor of your webpage, but it is not the only one. Quality content and good linking will naturally bring higher pageranks and not vice-versa.

Create Your Own Showroom Traffic

I get a lot of emails asking about how to get more showroom traffic and Fresh Ups, but the answer is not an easy one. It is a two part answer and one part is the responsibility of the dealership and their advertising budget for print, radio or television, but across the country more dealers are lowering their traditional media spend and raising the Internet ad budget. The Internet has changed the way that dealers and manufacturers attract customers today which has taken its toll on Fresh Ups.
The second part of the question about getting more traffic is about the car salesman and what they can do to put the odds in their favor which is what we are all about here at CarSalesProfessional.com. You have probably heard it all before, but maybe you weren’t paying attention and that is follow-up. That subject is very broad, but the main type of follow up that I am referring to is past customers that bought over a year ago.
The car buyer bought from you or your dealership once because they felt comfortable enough to make a major purchase and the odds are in your favor that they will return as showroom traffic. Almost every day I see customers come in that bought from the dealership in the past to look for a new car, but they rarely remember their salesperson so they end up working with whoever Ups them. Sometimes the car salesman that sold them in the past is no longer working at the dealership, but sometimes that salesman is still there yet they don’t remember them or don’t care to remember them because they haven’t heard from them since they bought their last car.

On the other hand I have seen a few customers come in the door and ask for a particular salesman because they received a letter, email or phone call from them about a new model, special sale or low financing rates. They felt special because their salesperson made them feel special and they returned to the same place they bought their last car and asked for the car sales professional that contacted them about the special sale or event that increased showroom traffic.
These customers typically buy their new car from the car salesman that contacted them and more often than not they paid more profit and in the end more commission to their salesperson. The customer felt comfortable last time and that is making them easier to work with this time. The end result they bought a car and you made a commission.
For you new car sales people that are trying to build a list of past customers you should know that I have seen sales people follow up with orphan customers (customers that bought from sales people that are no longer working at the dealership) and produce the same results. The customer remembered the dealer, but didn’t always remember the car salesman. If you can get your hands on some orphan customers some of your time might be better spent doing follow ups which can create more car showroom traffic for you.

Pay Per View

What is PPV (Pay Per View)?

PPV (Pay Per View) or CPV (Cost Per View) is a traffic source created by Adware Traffic.
Adware traffic is often confused by Spyware traffic. Even though they might sound similar, Adware Traffic is 100% legal and used by millions of people around the world.
PPV (Pay Per View) means you will be charged every time your landing page is viewed by a visitor who has the Adware installed on his/her computer. Visitors see your landing page as a pop up, pop under, or a full page bridge. Since PPV pop up isn’t treated as a regular pop-up, it doesn’t get blocked by most pop up blockers.
When a user who has the adware installed on his/her computer takes a specific action within their browser, such as visiting a URL or visiting Google and typing a word to search, a new browser opens up with your landing page in it. Whether this user browses your page, stays on it, clicks on a link, or simply closes it, you get charged for each view when your landing page is loaded and viewed by the users.
If you are direct linking an offer, your cookie is dropped to the user’s computer.
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What Are the Most Popular PPV Advertising Networks?

• Trafficvance
This is the first network I’ve started testing little over year ago. Traffic quality is pretty good, never had a complain about the quality.

• MediaTraffic
I’ve tested some offers with MediaTraffic. I’ve met Basil from MT during the affiliate summit in NYC. He was a great guy and I’m planning to spend some serious cash on MT during 2010.

• Adon Network
I have an account with Adon, but didn’t start testing anything yet.

These three PPV Networks are usually most recommended. But there are many other networks you can test PPV with. You can check PPV Playbook‘s 10 PPV Network Post to find more about other available networks.
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Which Affiliate Networks Can I Use with PPV Traffic

Whether it is PPV traffic, or any other type of traffic, you have to check with your affiliate managers you work with. PPV traffic is getting accepted by most affiliate networks right now.
Some affiliate networks such as Neverblue have special links (downloadable software link) to use for PPV Campaigns, and for some networks, you need to use the contextual link. Again, check with your affiliate manager for the correct link.
My all time 2 favorite affiliate networks are Azoogle and Neverblue. They both have great affiliate managers who are ready to help you get started.
As far as I know, CJ and Clickbank are some of the networks which don’t like direct linking from PPV traffic. Again, you have to check with your network and make sure they accept PPV traffic (if you are direct linking).
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Affiliate Market Secrets

Source Affiliate marketing is different things to different people, but essentially, affiliate marketing is the act of marketing someone else’s products or services for a portion, or commission, of each sale that you make. Some people do affiliate marketing as their full time jobs. That’s it. That’s all they do – they market other people’s products or services, collect their commissions, and live their lives as they wish. They do not have to deal with customer service, shipping orders, or anything else. All they do is promote other people’s products or services, everyday. Other people use affiliate programs in conjunction with their own products or services, using affiliate programs as front end products, upsells, and back end products. For example, if you had an information product about weight loss, you might want to market exercise equipment, exercise clothing, vitamins, or other items or services that are related to weight loss along with your weight loss information product – to increase your revenue. Obviously you would not want to create these items, so you would find these related products or services, and sign up for the affiliate programs, allowing you to promote them. Some people even low cost information products, such as ebooks, in order to sell high ticket affiliate products or services. Alternately, some people just use inexpensive affiliate products to enhance their own high ticket products or continuity programs, such as membership sites.

Some people are confused about what affiliate marketing actually is. For instance, many people who have products and offer affiliate programs for those products might say that they sell their product through affiliate marketing. What they mean is that they have affiliates who sell the product for them, but they are actually merchants or affiliate managers, in affiliate marketing terms.
But basically, affiliate marketing is selling someone else’s products or services through various means, for various reasons – either to earn an income, to enhance a product, or even to sell an additional product. In fact, many people use low end affiliate products as lead ins, or entry level products, for higher end affiliate products – never actually creating or promoting a product or service of their own.
Is money being made? You better believe there is! If you include all products and services that are sold through affiliates, affiliate marketing is essentially a billion dollar industry, even though it isn’t technically considered an industry in its own right. Many people don’t even consider it a career, but they are mistaken.
Right now, at this very moment, there are thousands of affiliate marketers that you have never even heard of quietly promoting affiliate products and collecting huge commission checks every month. Why haven’t you heard of them? You haven’t heard of them because they are not in the Internet Marketing products market. They are in other ‘consumer’ niches, such as weight loss, healthcare, sports, gambling, education, financial products, etc.
Now, if you have an active interest in those things, or any other conceivable thing, you have probably searched for information or products related to your interest on the Internet. If this is the case, you have most likely come into contact with an affiliate marketer, without even being aware of it. You may have even purchased a product through an affiliate marketer without ever knowing it.
Even Google has an affiliate program. That’s what Google AdSense is all about. It’s an affiliate program, but it isn’t technically called that. EBay has an affiliate program, as does Microsoft. There is an affiliate program available for just about any product that you can imagine, but not all ‘brands’ have affiliate programs – which of course is their mistake.
Affiliate marketing presents a win-win-win situation. The owner or maker of the product being sold is making money. The affiliate marketer is making money, and the customer is getting what they want or need. Everybody wins. Affiliate marketing has been around longer than you think it has as well.
Many people think that affiliate marketing started sometime after the Internet came into existence. This is wrong. Amway, Avon, Mary Kay – all of these are essentially affiliate programs, but the people who were actually doing the affiliate marketing were called distributors or representatives – and they are still called distributors or representatives to this day.
Affiliate marketing can even entail network marketing. Affiliate marketing is the act of selling a product for a commission. Network marketing also involves selling a product for a commission, but also focuses on bringing other resellers (or affiliate marketers, distributors or representatives) into the program as well. Sometimes, however, affiliate marketing also allows and encourages you to bring other affiliate marketers into the program.
Again, affiliate marketing is different things to different people, but the goal is the same – to make money. Affiliate marketing offers you the opportunity and ability to make money without creating a product of your own.