1) When choices become too many.
Q - I've had 301 visitors to my site this month, however the number of sales is zero. I guess that it may be due to the wide choice presented to the reader, 37 marketing experts. Even so,
no sales in 301 hits is very disappointing. (Any thoughts?)
A - Yes, too many choices often lead to inaction when dealing with info products. If it's merchandise like cell phones, flowers or batteries, lots of choice is a good thing. Sales will
be high because people can find what they're looking for.
Marketing "internet marketing" guru products is a little trickier. Having 37 names listed on your site is very overwhelming. You might consider putting each guru on their own site.
If you'd rather stick with just one site, differentiate between the gurus and brand them each in a different category like, the search engine guy, the direct email king, the conversion master, copywriting gal, sales letter dude. Don't just list a bunch of names, tell you visitors "why" they are gurus and why you endorse them.
BTW, after peeking at your site, many products you list are rather tired and have been around the block a few times. Some are more than three years old. You might consider taking some of those old ebooks and products down, replacing them with what's hot on the market right now.
What's hot? Just read my ezine, Phil Wiley's, Neil Shearing's and Allan Gardyne's. Just look at what we're selling.
2) Sell and advertise in context, unless....
Q - My affiliate number is (12345). I have had an ad on my site for about a year and have not had a sale. Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong?
A - That number looks like it's for the Active MarketPlace affiliate program. They publish my first book, Nothing but 'Net and a host of other internet marketing related ebooks.
You don't have any sales of those products because they do not match the content of your site, which appears to be self defense items only. They are totally different audiences or target markets.
As I always say, market in context with your content. But if you can't, try and sell generic things that everyone needs. It's ok to match a targeted audience with generic one. It's difficult to
match two targeted markets on the same web site.
What I mean by that is, people coming to your site to buy stun guns or pepper spray are not likely to be interested in internet marketing. Maybe only 1 in about 10,000 people are.
However, they may be interested in cell phones (1 out of 3 people have one), or dating services, gardening or golf. Popular generic items may be a better fit for your site. Try advertising some of these items and I'll bet you'll start making some sales.
3) Monetize everything
Q - I am a veterinarian and have expanded our business online. My site is fairly unique but is certainly not very profitable. Any comments or suggestions you have would be gratefully received.
A - A quick peek at your site revealed you are not monetizing your visitors. They are going to leave your site after getting the info they want, so why not provide them with choices to do so? Remember, monetize everything!
A quick search at cj.com found several affiliate programs and potential revenue channels for pets. These are the types of links and banners you should weave into your site. I saw pet magazines, pet prescriptions, pet food and accessories. All of these could be bringing you revenue.
In one spot you talk about flea control and mention a few product names. You even mention a vacuum cleaner. That's perfect! Now provide links to those products (including the vacuum) where people can buy them and you get all the commission.
All you need to do is join CJ.com as a publisher. Then a few minutes later you'll have access to thousands of advertisers. Just cut and paste the code they give you into your web pages and start making money.
4) Being all things to all people is impossible... almost
Q - I'm spending tons of nights searching for info products. I want to set up a directory, an online shop for ebooks, courses, private sites and tools for internet marketing and business. What do you think of my idea? Could it work? Or not? I saw your 1 Internet Marketing Store and my idea is similar.
A - The 1-internet-marketing.com site is a catalog, not a directory. It's modeled on dirt world catalogs and does quite well in terms of sales. It features a dozen or so selected items. Products that I used to make my clients successful.
Being a directory of everything would include hundreds or thousands of items. It would be a tough haul. It would be hard to set up. Take lots of time to maintain. And there are many of them out there already.
Actually it's one of the basic mistakes affiliate make. They join every program and try to sell everything, often listing hundreds of items on a single page. I think its better to focus on one or two things that really make money.
To get started, I recommend setting up a 5 to 10 page catalog style site, with one product per page. Then set up 5 one page mini sites and link those into the internal pages of the catalog site. This will help boost your link popularity and search engine positioning.
If you're really bent on creating a directory, you might try looking at Allan Gardyne's associateprograms.com. It is a huge directory of affiliate programs. There are also thousands of products listed in directories like clickbank.com and cj.com. Like I said, trying to be all things to all people is a lot of
hard work.
5) Deciding on your guru or mentor
Q - I'm in the process of deciding which affiliate program and product I want to sell. There's hundreds of affiliate programs and great products on the Internet. My time and money is limited. So, why should I invest and sell you? What makes your package better than say... (insert 10 famous names here).
A - Many of the products written by the authors you list are good. I sell a couple of the ones you mention. We're all different though, in how much we give back to the community that supports us.
Some of the names you mention don't write their own newsletters and didn't even write their own courses. (Gasp!) It's true. Don't be surprised. They spend their time flying around the world doing speeches. They'll only talk to you 1,000 people at a time. Most gurus you can't get a hold of, or even approach.
Others - a handfull of names come to mind - sit in front of their computers, slogging it out on a daily basis, humble as pie, just like you and me. If I had to dig deep and take an honest evaluation, I think I
have a loyal following for two reasons:
1) I write my own stuff from experience, it's not theory and I don't have ghost writers writing for me.
2) I answer questions (as many as I can) by phone and email personally, not with autoresponders or secretaries.Yep, it's really me.
Reporters report on what they see, but often do not understand.
Teachers (many never left the campus) tell us in theory what should work.
Gurus have done it, they say, here's what worked for me.
Mentors take others under their wings and show them step by step, until the student can outperform the master.
6) Nothing but Net or Clickin it Rich
Q - I'm familiar with the online world pretty well...but want to see how you play the affiliate game, which of your books is better? How do they compare?
A - Nothing but Net is went offline.
Clickin it Rich is all about setting up a home business with mini sites and creating multiple affiliate revenue strategies, without touching any physical inventory.
In this case you are working on your own, with no customers, or suppliers, or shipping issues. You simply capture and direct web traffic for profit.
7) Weave affiliate links into the content
Q - I'm looking at becoming a Super Affiliate, after floundering the last couple years building a portal oriented to those responsible for running a family household. Our visitors are primarily female, mother, a house to run, 2 kids, aged 25 – 45.
I'm writing to you today to see what you would suggest on how to tap this market. Our site is made up of groceries for free and free coupons. We also have articles from experts on many home and life issues.
A - Your demographic (single mom two kids) does not have much in the way of time or disposable income. It's also difficult for a free or discount coupon site to generate sales.
People are using you and your site to find free stuff. Perhaps they'll read an article while they are there. To quote my friend Declan Dunn, "Free traffic sucks.... for free."
The articles on your site are your best selling tool. Weave affiliate links into the articles from the experts. If you are talking about vitamins, provide links to a site selling the vitamins. Same goes for water, link to a site selling filter systems. Talking about pets? Link to pet food, pet toys and pet vitamins.
Unless you have so much traffic, that advertisers are beating a path to your door, one of the only ways free traffic sites can make money, is by selling in context with their content.
Just FYI, after looking at your site, it needs a designers touch. I found it hard to navigate and could not find the articles I was looking for. Looking at the business books brought up way too many choices. Focus on a few best sellers that you really endorse.
I also noticed that you purchased my books today. They will definitely help you convert visitors into sales. But don't just read the books, be sure to apply the information they contain. Then - if you still need me ;-) - you can phone me for coaching.
8) A cost to join means multi level
Q - I wanted to share with you a new program that was just recently released. It's a mini site builder- up to 10 pages per site, search engine submission, pop unders, e-book library, members forum, and more.
This program pays out 75% on two levels Affiliates and Sub Affiliates. I thought would not mind if I provided you info on a new product that you can offer.
A - How could it possibly pay 75% on TWO levels. Shields up! Red Alert!
Ok, I looked at it but its not an affiliate program. It is a multi tier operation that you need to PAY 40 bucks every three months to have the "rights" to promote it. You don't need to pay to join true affiliate programs.
Be very careful that if you join such an operation that you can afford it. It may sound like easy cash, but someone is ultimately going to be at the bottom of the list and losing money.
9) Exactly what a beginner needs
Q - As a beginner I want to make the fewest mistakes. I want a web page and link to affiliate sites. I have Evoy's and Rudl's books. I also know I need software, but don't want to spend more than $500. I was thinking of getting SEMAX and OptiLink. Is this the right course of action?
A - Ok, you want a web site, you want to link to affiliate sites, you don't want to spend more than $500. None of the stuff you mentioned will be worthwhile - at first - in my opinion.
For $500, get yourself a domain name, hostica.com buck a month hosting, Nothing but 'Net and some html software like DreamWeaver. Perhaps even take a night school course in html or get yourself
some training videos.
That's all you really need in terms of software and knowledge. Then join cj.com affiliate network. Find some product links and graphics for your site. They've got advertisers with everything from guitars to pet food.
The next step is to pay for clicks, or pay for ads, to get immediate traffic to your site. You can use Overture or Google Adwords. The key is to test and see how many clicks and $$$ it takes to get a sale.
After testing and tracking for a month you'll have your answer.
1) It failed. You're no good at sales. Give it up go back to brick laying. Cut your losses before spending too much time and money on the internet game.
2) You broke even or made money. Try to improve your sales messages and get more visitors to click on the affiliate links. Bottom line... try to get better at persuasion.
Now if you have the time and want to play the search engine game, get SEMAX (at this date, is out of business -- editor's note), WPG, Planet Ocean and the rest of the search engine tools.
10) Hide those big long affiliate urls
Q - What are you using to redirect visitors to your websites? Are you using a meta refresh? It seems to be too fast for that!
A - I use a server side redirect. It's a plain ascii text file in the root directory of the Unix server called .htaccess. Yes the period is required in the file name. The contents of the text file looks like this:
Redirect /aca http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/academy/
Redirect /msf http://www.higherresponse.com/track/t.cgi/
Redirect /wsr http://www.wordspot.com/
ErrorDocument 404 /404.html
All you need to do is to be sure to include all spaces and slashes. You can also specify your own custom "404 page not found" error page as well. Just call it 404.html and put it in the root directory as well.
So now the links on the web site or newsletter, all look very similar, like this:
http://cdzn.com/aca
http://cdzn.com/msf
http://cdzn.com/wsr
When someone clicks on the "aca" link above the .htaccess file looks for the aca listing and redirects the browser to theAcademy site. Similar, the msf link leads to Marlon's Amazing Formula. The wsr link leads directly to wordspot, even though they don't have an affiliate program. This gives the impression
of all links being created equal.
It also has the benefit creating shorter, more memorable links. Plus, if an affiliate program goes down or gets moved, I don't have to change dozens of references in hundreds of web pages. I simply change one url in the .htaccess file.
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10 Answers to Affiliate Marketing Questions