High Speed Internet For Small Business

Affiliate Network

2007-11-11T11:12:00.001-08:00

There is a difference between independent affiliate program and an affiliate network. Independent affiliate program directly deals with the merchant itself and the affiliate. The affiliate specifically signs up for the program directly with the merchant. The payment is generally according to the number of clicks or sales the affiliate drives to the merchant site via the affiliate program. In affiliate network it is a third party that integrates the services like aggregation, tracking etc for affiliates and marketers. Thus it is like a spiders web, which aggregates affiliates and merchants, programmes. Through this network, affiliates get easy entry into many different kinds of programmes and vendors. This enables them to establish their own affiliate programme.

An affiliate network programme is the latest software solution that enables the novice to set up an affiliate network. The best examples in the field are Linkshare and Commission Junction. It is one of the best ways of making money by sharing revenue generated through advertising. The sharing is between the merchants and its affiliates. Merchants pay only if referred clients actually buy an item. The affiliates get a fixed proportion per click or amount of sale. It is to the interest of the affiliate to promote the sale of his or her principal. This is done through the email, text links, banner advertisements including the pop-out models and flashy advertisements. Special software tracks the number of times the link gets into action, the number of visitors that come knocking to trace the main vendor. Tracks are also kept of the commissions. In this network of marketing both the affiliate and the merchant thrive. It is the best of business tactics online.

Amazon kicked off the first ball in affiliate network business in 1996 with its programme of associates. Now it has over 450,000 sites in extended family the network. It is quite simple. The novice owner of a website registers with a giant merchant like Amazon (or any other) then inserts many links and banners on the site. A visitor coming to it may pick up a book or any item and then the giant pays the pigmy a commission and both put a jingle in their pockets.

There is another way of giving incentives to the younger sibling the affiliate. It is offering a discount price. In this way the not-so-big companies sell their products and with sales being generated money rolls in both for big and younger brother. The arrangement is positive to both and negative to none. The merchant pays only when the target is met. The efforts of the affiliate rarely go waste. Rather it is an exciting challenge to draw people into the net.

To learn swimming step into the water it is the same with affiliate network; you must dive in. So click, install and get started.

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Interview with Lily Shen - Senior Manager of eBay's U.S. Affiliate Program

2007-11-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

Shawn Collins: Thank you for joining us. Today I'm speaking with Lily Shen of eBay, and we're going to be talking about some of the different things they are doing with the affiliate program over there. I want to thank Lily for taking the time to speak with us and look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Lily Shen: Thanks, Shawn. I'm definitely excited to speak with you and definitely look forward to sharing some more information. We have a lot of exciting things going on, so, yeah, definitely looking forward to it.

Shawn: Great. One thing that I am curious about it, if you could let me know and the rest of the audience, what sets eBay's Affiliate Program apart from the other affiliate programs that are out there?

Lily: Sure. I can't really speak for other affiliate programs per se, but I do have to say that the eBay Affiliate Program offers a really competitive payout, very easy to use tools, and the unparalleled breadth and depth of products that are currently on eBay.

In terms of our compensation today, we pay out on both ACRUs, what we call Active Nearly Registered Users, and we pay anywhere from $12 to $22. We also pay on the rev share side anywhere from 40 to 65 percent of revenues generated to eBay buyer affiliates, and that launched just late last year and it's proven to be very successful for many of our publishers.

In terms of the marketplaces, we have an amazing breadth and depth of products with over 50, 000 categories, and even just in Q3 we had 584 million new listings added to eBay worldwide. We also have a global presence in over 33 markets with users from every country around the world, so we definitely provide a great playground for our affiliates and our publishers to be successful.

Shawn: Great, sounds fantastic. Can you tell me a little more about some of the tools and resources that eBay has innovated to help affiliates to succeed?

Lily: Yeah, absolutely. We actually have a dedicated team here just looking at products, tools, and infrastructure for the eBay Affiliate Program. We have a number of tools that our affiliates employ to really get them up and running quickly.

To start, we have a flexible destination tool which instantly allows affiliates to create trackable affiliate links to any eBay URL. We just this year launched an RSS feed generator that obviously creates RSS feeds that include affiliate links. We offer free APIs for our affiliates, and just a couple of months ago we launched an API plug-in tool that allows affiliates to conduct some research and become more familiar with eBay's API data in Excel.

We also have hub pages, very vibrant discussion boards, and community newsletters et cetera. I don't know if you are aware of this, but we are actually looking to launch in probably the first half of 2007 a product called AdContext, which is a contextual advertising product that will allow affiliates and our publishers to basically take some code and put the product on the site, and we'll essentially call the content from the site and surface up the most listings that will help our affiliates be most effective. We're currently in beta mode at the moment.

Shawn: So is that available to all affiliates or just a select group of affiliates?

Lily: This is currently invite-only.

Shawn: OK. Gotcha. As far as engaging the eBay affiliate community, are you using any kind of Web 2.0 methods for communication or have any events or any kinds of things to get in touch with the affiliates and keep in contact?

Lily: Yeah, absolutely. We have a dedicated team of account managers both here at eBay and on the Commission Junction side, and we manage many, many of our top accounts. We actually do have a monthly newsletter that goes out that provides best practices, trends, product information to our publishers. As I mentioned before, we have very active discussion boards, and we also hold an annual invite-only affiliate summit for our top publishers, and we run this in parallel with our developer's conference. This year we are looking to build that out even more and have an affiliate track at the developer's conference, too.

In addition to that, we have very comprehensive pages on the affiliate site that provides best practices for our affiliates who are really looking to pursue almost any type of business model. We are always looking for new ways to share information and allow affiliates to really communicate with each other as well.

The community is really the bread and butter of eBay's business, and that is absolutely the same thing for eBay's affiliate community. We feel that it is really important that we develop the relationships with them directly and learn from them.

Shawn: Great. As far as the different types of affiliates, there are so many types of affiliates out there, is there a particular kind of affiliate that is usually more successful with your affiliate program?

Lily: I wouldn't say it depends on a business model, per se. We have a very diverse portfolio of affiliates ranging from content and portals and SEO, shopping comparison sites. We have auction tools, loyalty incentive affiliates and obviously paid search affiliates.

We found what makes most affiliates successful is less about the model they engage, as a matter of fact many of them employ multiple models, but what really determines there success is there level of dedication to innovating: finding new things and really optimizing what works. The space is constantly changing as well as the marketplace, so we find that those who are really dedicated to it find huge success in it.

Shawn: Great. For affiliates from the newbies up to the experienced ones, do you have any particular tips and tricks to help them maximize their revenue with the affiliate program?

Lily: Yes. We really encourage our affiliates to always think about the end customer and stay abreast of not only industry trends but also product trends. Obviously for this holiday season it would be the PS3, Wii, the Xbox, etc. Some new top affiliates just this past month have solely built sites around these products and have simply turned the traffic to eBay. That's pretty interesting. We really encourage our affiliates to keep on top of that. I would say it's really tough to try new things and to really optimize space on the results that you see in the data that we provide you. A lot of our affiliates have been successful that way.

Shawn: OK. I know you have affiliate teams all around the world. Do you have any tips for affiliates that want to expand beyond the US borders as an affiliate?

Lily: Yes. We have programs in almost 20 countries today. We manage them in a very decentralized manner, and so we recognize the importance of localization in our affiliate program. I really encourage the affiliates to research the market itself and understand the end users there, but also spend some time understanding the programs of each of our countries.

You may find that the more mature markets may be more similar in nature. For example, you may want to start with English speaking countries if you're currently in the US. You may want to start with the UK, Australia or Canada and you've got a springboard to launch into some of the other markets. I would definitely say spend time localizing your content enough for it to appeal to the end consumer in the English market. I would say that geo-targeting has helped our affiliates a lot as well.

Shawn: OK. I've been hearing a lot about affiliates trying to play around with both video and mobile phone. Do you see either one of those playing a role with the eBay affiliate program in the near future?

Lily: Yes, absolutely. In terms of mobile it already plays a role in the program and we're looking to make that even bigger. We're actually launching a place off our API probably in the first half of next year that will really enable affiliate tracking for a lot of the folks that are building mobile apps for eBay. What we really want to do is allow affiliates to scale in this space. Certainly in terms of video, we believe it's a huge opportunity and we're just starting to work with a few affiliates now looking to plan this new and exciting space as well. We'll definitely have more information to come.

Shawn: OK, fantastic. I got some announcements in the past month that Project Rover and how the affiliate program has changed with that?

Lily: Sure. Project Rover is really a new HTML tracking methodology. We pursued this in order to decrease the number of redirects users may follow to reduce added cookie blocking and to allow for more global infrastructure improvements. The affiliate program itself hasn't really changed. We're simply looking for new ways to improve the infrastructure for our affiliates and to make things easier. Our goal is to simply provide more immediate and long-term benefits to our publishers with the project. I'd say that the program itself hasn't changed. We're just hoping to make things better for them.

Shawn: OK, that makes sense. That's all the questions I had. Do have any other updates or news about the affiliate program?

Lily: I think I covered a lot with the questions that you had. I just want to say that we really encourage our affiliates to innovate and to test and to provide us with feedback on things that we could be doing better as well. We're really here to serve our publishers and we're excited for a lot of the new and upcoming initiatives rolling out in 2007, such as ad contacts in the place off our API. Thank you.

Shawn: Thanks a lot. Thank you to Lily Shen eBay for joining us. For more information affiliates can go to affiliates.ebay.com to apply and learn more about the program. Thanks a lot, Lily.

Lily: Thank you.

Shawn: Great. Take care.

http://www.affiliatetip.com

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The 5 Most Powerful Words in internet Marketing

2007-11-09T23:57:00.000-08:00

So you want to become an internet marketer. You have been studying all the information that you can get your hands on and now you have a terrible condition known only as Information Overload. There are so many well known internet marketing gurus out there telling you that their way is the only way to have a successful internet business. So how do you know who is right?

I am going to share with you the 5 basic words that you must know to have a successful business. All successful internet marketers put these words into play every day with their sales pages, promotions and websites. So if you are ready, here we go!

1. Target. You must get your products or services in front of a targeted market. Just throwing up ads haphazardly and hoping you get traffic and sales is like trying to hit a bulls eye with a load of buckshot. Sure you might hit a couple but the rest is just scattered out aimlessly. You need to know your target market. Study who they are. Are they rich or poor? Male or female? Know what makes them tick. Create a profile of who your target market is and then advertise to them. Target forums or ezines that get a lot of traffic from your target market.

2. Traffic. So now you know who to target, the next thing to do is to get traffic. Obviously getting a lot of traffic to your site increases your chances of sales. Study up on ways to increase traffic. Implement the easiest and less expensive ones first. Once traffic increases and sales start coming in, you can use profits to do more paid advertising to your target market.

3. Conversion. You've got the traffic coming in, now you have to convert them to buy. This can be the most difficult. Make sure you have a good sales page. If you have a high amount of traffic but no sales then something is wrong with your sales copy and you have to get it changed ASAP. Hiring a good copywriter can be expensive but it can make all the difference in the world. People don't want to be sold, they want to be convinced. If you can't afford a good copywriter, study copywriting on your own and know how to set up a good sales page.

4. Backend. There is where you get repeat sales. Make sure you capture your customers email address and stay in contact with them. Send them emails with useful tips and information relating to your products. In these emails, include offers for more of your products and services. If the customer was happy with their first purchase from you they will be more likely to buy from you again. Repeat customers are worth their weight in gold. Keep them happy and you have a steady stream of income.

5.Repeat. This does not need a whole lot of explanation. Just repeat the whole process for each website or product you develop.

These are really the 5 most powerful words in internet marketing. Learn them and utilize them and you will become a successful internet marketer.

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Intranet Project Names - Some Ideas

2007-10-10T12:17:00.001-07:00

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet."

In this famous quote from Act II of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and the fact he is a Montague and she a Capulet (warring families) means nothing to their love.

However, there is some strong evidence from the UK's Cranfield University - and elsewhere - that the name one gives a project does have a marked impact on the behaviour and motivation of the people involved. It may surprise you, but the name you give to your Intranet Project could well be the most important decision you make in the early stages of mobilisation!

The Direct Approach

There is an argument in faour of naming your Intranet Project the - wait for it - "Intranet Project"! Often, so-called "secret squirrel" names (where one has to ferret out from colleagues what Project Banana is all about) serve only to create an unnecessary air of mystique (fit only for secret M&A projects). They can also serve to be divisive, by separating 'people in the know' from people outside the immediate project audience.

The functional approach

A functional name focuses on what the intranet does (e.g. search, find, access). This enjoys the same benefits as the direct approach, but affords one a little more poetic license. What about names like "Project Connect" or "Project Gateway", which serve to signal the core "must have" requirements for the project?

The conceptual approach

There is a problem with the direct or functional approaches; Research from Cranfield has demonstrated that people on projects tend to be very heavily influenced in their actions by the name of the project itself. If you call your project the Intranet project, it is a working intranet (i.e. the technology) that you will get. If your ambition was something much more visionary, such as a wholly new way of working for your people, you are likely to be disappointed!

The conceptual name targets what is achieved by the functionality, rather than the functionality itself. For example, if your company name was BigCo and your purpose was seeking to get everyone in the company working together, you could call the project "Project OneBigCo" or "Project Unity". For the aforementioned new ways of working objective, you could use "Project Future Workplace".

The abstract approach

The abstract approach deals with how the project makes people feel. For example, "Project Bliss" (for happiness), "Project Wizard" (for magic) or "Project Pulse" (for fast-pacedness). Although one world usually fails to capture all you are trying to achieve with an Intranet Portal, this approach can prove highly effective (particularly where counter-cultural).

If all else fails

Nothing grabbed you so far? Well there is no saving you, then! I suppose there are always the standard fallback options: names of greek or roman gods, names of planets, names of birds and names of dances. These have the added value that - if you spawn follow-on projects in a sequence - you have ready-made logical follow-on project titles. Incidentally, "Project Mercury" would be my recommendation for planets or gods (as Mercury was the roman god of communications).

For more ideas on project names, why not check out my presentation in chapter 10 of my (free to access) Intranet Portal Guide.

About the author:

David Viney (david@viney.com) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.

Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.

Profitable Search Engine Marketing With Blogs

2007-10-09T10:22:00.001-07:00

If you are involved in any type of affiliate program or online network marketing program then you should really be using a blog or several blogs to help you to market your opportunity and products. There are several reasons for using blogs for marketing and in this article these reasons are explained.

Stripped down a blog is nothing more than a website. However, what is it about blogs that make them a perfect tool for making money online?

A large part of this is that a blog offers an easy to use content management system that allows for quick updating in chronological order.

Because blogs are usually heavy on content and organized in an intuitve fashion their structure is perfect for producing revenue. Blogs are easy to produce as content based websites complete with the potential of well targeted pages.

Blogs have a definite advantage over traditional websites in that content can be added easily. Adding new content to a static website can be both problematic in terms of design and also difficult due to time restraints. This is an important factor to remember as your success will depend in large measure on your ability to add new content for your visitors.

Blogging solves many problems associated with traditional websites. The most common is the hassle that having to write content and then convert it or pay to have it converted into html. Since all major blog platforms allow users to create new posts and add them easily with a few clicks of the mouse webmaster can add new content in minutes. Blogs are content driven and serve to build relationships with search engines.

Search engines such as google, Yahoo and MSN reward information sites that are full of information, by giving them better positioning in search results and indexing these sites quickly. This makes these sites soar to the top of the search engine rankings. Blogs also maintain a stickiness as they draw return visitors to a website far more likely.

In conclusion using blogs to promote your affiliate marketing programs or network marketing programs and the opportunities and products that they represent may be the best business decision that you ever make. You can constantly add updates to your blog and therefore communicate with prospects. If you are involved in online money making ventures and as of yet don't have your own blog I encourage you to start one A.S.A.P.

Keith P. Stieneke is a network and affiliate marketer with a background in psychology and direct sales. You can view his ever-changing website the Opportunity Assistance at http://www.opportunityassistance.com He has also built the blog resource website Blog Smart Resources at http://www.blogsmart-resources.com