I've decided to start using my Affiliate Marketing Dictionary in posts to link to terms that new affiliates might not know. I figure, this will help clarify my posts a bit more. I also plan on linking to it from the e-book I just released in its new version.

Yes, it will take more work but it's worth it to help people to understand this crazy business. The dictionary is a work in progress, so if you have a suggestion for what should be there or an alternate definition for a particular word, please let me know.

As for now, feel free to look up any of the terms I've already defined. I'm adding a suggestion feature in the next few days so that I'm not missing anything important.

Just another tool from the Affiliate Toolbox. Hope you like it.

Scott

Popularity: 31% [?]

As a nice complement to my How To Get Started Affiliate Marketing e-book, I stumbled across a post on Digital Point forums where someone had posted a link to a post by Christina Laun of the Virtual Hosting Blog on Landing Pages titled The Landing Page Design Toolbox: 100 Tools, Tips and Resources (click here to jump).

The first author referenced is Seth Godin, so you know it's good information.

If you're new to affiliate marketing, a landing page is just a fancy term for a small website that funnels traffic to a customer site through your referral link. A good landing page can be the difference between no profit and tons of profit, so they aren't to be taken lightly.

I skimmed and scanned some of the sites listed and so far, I've found some pretty good information. I recommend you take a look.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Awww yeah. Just got my new MacBook Pro lapintosh

The best part? The battery on this lasts over four hours versus the fifteen minutes on my wife's Dell laptop. Owned.

Here are a couple pics-

Sorry about the mediocre quality. I took the pics with my iPhone and the lens needs cleaning.

Isn't she beautiful?

You know .. technically, this is my first laptop. I bought it so my 47" LCD TV would stop killing my eyes. Yeah, it sounds like it'd be the cat's pajamas .. until you go blind.

Anyway - I've been a PC guy my whole life so I'm still getting used to using a Mac, but so far it's pretty sweet.

Life is good.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Lately, I've been experimenting with both single-page landing pages as well as mini sites. A single-page landing page, as you might imagine, is a landing page that links to no other sites but the jump/hop links. Mini sites are an extension of single-page landing pages in that they have other pages, such as the "about us" page, the "contact" page, and the like.

What I've discovered is that for some offers, mini sites seem to do four good things:

1. The site looks like a legitimate website vs. just a sales pitch, so people are less likely to leave right away (increases stickiness).
2. Because they look like actual websites, they increase the trust factor and therefore, increase conversions for some offers (decreases skepticism).
3. Provides a site people can actually look to and gives the search engines something to index, so your chances of getting free sales go up (increases organic traffic).
4. Search engines like sites with multiple pages as they provide a better end-user experience (increases search engine friendliness).

All these things contribute to an overall increased profit margin. However, there are a few drawbacks to mini sites:

1. They give the user a distraction from the sales pitch. Landing pages are built to be a funnel to the end goal: a sale.
2. They take longer to build. Not everyone is going to want to build a whole website for each offer they run.
3. They're harder to change for split testing. Basically, you have to adapt the whole site to a split testing environment in order to make this feasible.

So, where landing pages are a quick pitch and a quick build, mini sites are a bit more complicated to implement. And keep in mind, they don't always lead to better conversions but, of course, you know to split test everything you do. In general, mini sites lead to a better user experience and are much easier for search engines to index. And I'm a firm believer in organic traffic as it it leads to free conversions in the long-run.

One little trick I've been doing lately is making an HTML-based landing page with links to a Wordpress blog on the back-end. So if my site is http://www.awesomelandingpage.com/awesome_item.php, then it contains several links to very contextual information I post in the site's blog, located (hypothetically) at http://www.awesomelandingpage.com/blog and that does a couple of cool things. First off, it automatically gives search engines something to spider and secondly, it also does a ping-back to sites like Technorati and the like, which provides even more traffic.

Overall, my results have been positive. Just make sure you clear up any out-going links on your blog. Your site should be a funnel to the hop-link, as that's where the sale occurs.

Popularity: 24% [?]

As of this morning, I received an email from the people at Affiliate Radar, announcing that Offer Vault is now free. Yeah, that's right. You can now cross-compare offers from multiple affiliate networks for free.

Here's the email they sent out:

Dear Scott Weaver,

After much heated debate between my partner, Raakesh, and I, we have
decided to allow free access to OfferVault.

In case you are not aware, OfferVault is a research tool for
affiliate marketers that contains a database of over 10,000 offers
from the top CPA and affiliate networks, updated daily.

You can sign-up at http://www.offervault.com

With this powerful tool you can:

Compare offers and payouts between networks

Research niches

Receive optional email alerts based on your own search criteria to
stay on top of new offers as they come out

Preview landing pages (this is huge!)

Quickly sign up for new networks

This tool was formerly available only as a component of our paid
membership site, Affiliate Radar. Now you have the opportunity to
access it free at www.offervault.com, so don't pass it up!

Get your free membership now at http://www.offervault.com

What does that mean for you? It means you no longer have to log into each different network to see where the highest payout is. What it also means is that yet again, I've increased your profit margin. But hey, that's what I'm here for.

Now you can see what networks are offering before you even bother signing up. Apparently, all that OfferVault is asking in return is that, much like on my blog, you sign up using their referral links to new networks you join.

Just this morning, I've found several higher paying offers than the ones I'm currently running and those are the default prices. Not even the negotiated prices.

If you're worried about a product monopoly (even though it's free), don't worry. I'm aware of another site that is whispered to have a similar product coming out soon.

For now, Offer Vault takes the cake as the cat's pajamas. Incidentally, if you want to go right to registration, click here.

You're welcome.

Popularity: 46% [?]

Although I'm sure you've seen links out there just like these, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't try to inform every new affiliate about these bad-ass offers. If you're just getting started with affiliate marketing, you'll probably want to get your feet wet with some play money, so take advantage.

First off, we have the free $50 in clicks for Google Adwords (courtesy of the Volkswagen). This only works for new accounts, so make the most of it.

Second, we have the free $25 for Yahoo! Search Marketing. Again, this is only for new customers, so use it wisely.

Third, we've got the free $50 Microsoft Adcenter coupon for new customers only.

I just saved you $125 in ad spending. The least you can do is give affiliate marketing a try, now that it's free.

Don't worry, it won't bite. Not that hard.

But seriously, if you do use it, tell me how it goes. That would make an interesting follow-up post.

Scott

Popularity: 30% [?]

Any affiliate marketer worth his (or her) salt knows that you have to run your affiliate marketing business LIKE A BUSINESS, and as such, you should do whatever you can to increase your overall revenue and even moreso, your profit margin. One thing you'll notice as you snuggle up to your affiliate managers is that they start to put pressure where they know it will hurt if you don't give in. If you are a push-over, they will take advantage. Rightly so, as they are extremely helpful in finding you great offers and getting you paid when you need to in order to grow your business and they are very aware of that fact. They are where they are, after all, for the same reason you are -- to make money.

Don't Get Screwed

With that in mind, you should know that it's good to be tight with your affiliate managers, but never to the point where it compromises your bottom line. That's why, as a general rule, you should always price shop for every offer you come across. Put simply, you should ask EACH affiliate manager you have what price they can give you and let other affiliate managers know, just so they have the opportunity for the business. Of course, there are some managers that won't play ball, but most will. It's just like buying a car -- you want the most bang without paying too much. Just remember, don't shit where you eat. Don't ever back stab your AM's and they will be good to you.

Incent-a-Click For The Win

Firday, I was price shopping for a particular offer, and I happened to be reading UberAffiliate's post on CX Digital (formerly Incentaclick). So I decided to sign up and see what all the hubbub was over and I was happily surprised. Within the hour, I was given a confirmation call and not long after that, my new affiliate manager gave me a ring. All things considered, I was up and running within a couple of hours. I consider that a great turnaround.

Incentaclick Rewards

So check this out, not only do they have the nice 2% referral program that pays monthly, they also have a decent rewards program they call their Loyalty Program. Their loyalty program basically gives you a point for each dollar you earn and depending on how many points you earn, you qualify for certain tiers that will give you reward options. The tiers are as follows:

1. Level One - (15,000 - 37,499 points) - When you reach this level, you can get moderately cool things like a Nintendo Gamecube or a $100 Gift Card to Amazon or Star Bucks.
2. Level Two - (37,500 - 74,999 points) - At level two, the prizes take a step up. You can get things like a PSP or an Acer 19" LCD Monitor.
3. Level Three - (75,000 - 149,999 points) - Level three gives you even cooler selections - Get a PS3, an XBOX 360 or a Weber Grill.
4. Level Four - (150,000 - 299,999 points) - This is where it starts to get interesting. Choose from things like a MacBook, a Toshiba Laptop or a JVC 32" Flat Panel LCD TV.
5. Level Five - (300,000+) - Get a 50" plasma, or a Bose Home Entertainment system, or a Panasonic Home Theater Proejctor.

Or, for any of the levels you reach, you can ask for objects of equal value. In other words, these guys are really cool. You get prizes for earning what you would otherwise earn elsewhere, but they obviously want you to do it with CX Digital.

Statistics

One thing that usually bugs me about affiliate sites is that they're slow to update their statistics. I value statistics that are at least updated every five minutes, but what I've noticed about CX Digital is that their stats are updated LIVE (or as close to live as possible). This is an incredible feature that I won't soon take for granted. I honestly hope they never get rid of this feature, whatever they do. They allow filtering on SubID's as well as several other options, like date and offer.

Charts & Graphs

This is a really cool feature that I wish more affiliate-based services would take advantage of. This is just one of two graphs they offer and this alone is awesome to see. It helps put things into perspective for you. I love this feature and I think overall, it speaks for itself. The screen cap is a picture of the offer I'm running with them and so far, I'm happy with the results.

Offers

CX Digital doesn't yet have tons of offers but they do have just enough to get you started and perhaps that's the beauty of the service. You can jump on the bandwagon before it gets a bit too saturated and I recommend that you do.

Payout Terms

Another strong point to CX Digital is its payout terms. They start out at biweekly (once every two weeks) and can be arranged differently from there, depending on what you and your affiliate manager agree on. I was told you I to do around $500-600/day in order to qualify for weekly payments, so it's not such a big deal. Based on my revenue so far (as you can see in the screen cap from the last three days), it won't be a problem with just one offer.

Overall

All in all, my experience with CX Digital has been nothing short of great so far. I like my affiliate manager and all the features I mention above are a breath of fresh air. I highly recommend them and if you're interested in trying them, please feel free to sign up through my referral link (here).

Popularity: 29% [?]

I've been working a lot this weekend and as such, I've come across some pretty great things so I thought I'd tell you about two of them.

High Performance Affiliate Marketing

One of them I came across while reading my buddy Jon's blog. It's called High Performance Affiliate Marketing and it's a free, extremely thorough guide on affiliate marketing from getting started to making it big. We're talking over $100,000 per month big. The guy who wrote the guide made over $1.7 million last year and is set to make even more this year.

I definitely recommend the guide. I haven't finished reading it yet, but for something free, what I've read so far is valuable so go get yourself a copy (click here).

10 Ways To Increase Adwords Quality Score

Part of running a blog like this is finding information that is lost in the jungle we call the interweb. I found this link while perusing a few search results and it's helped me to increase my quality score on Adwords already. This sounds like an infomercial but it's true.

As we all know, the key to paying less per click on Adwords for the same position is getting a higher quality score. Sometimes, the way to getting a lower QS isn't a clear-cut path and it's actually pretty difficult to do.

If you're having difficulty, definitely give this post from RedFly Marketing called 10 Ways To Increase Adwords Quality Score. It was written in March of last year but the rules still apply today. No, there are no short-cuts per se, but it will definitely give you a better idea of how you can create a better quality website and adset so that Google will "like" your campaign enough to increase your quality score (hopefully). So far, it's worked for me and that spells profit, baby.

And profit is king.

Scott

Popularity: 29% [?]

Google Adwords advertisers! If you don't know about this, you're only hurting yourself.

This is just a cool little trick I learned from one of my friends while chatting with them today. We were talking about a dating offer and he nonchalantly pasted a link to me and, despite how long I've been marketing, I had no idea this was a feature. I was happy to find out about it though.

So basically, you can go on Google and search for any keywords you have ads for, but in the URL you place this little bad boy:

http://www.google.com/search?q=dating&adtest=on

Yup, it's that easy. Google will say the following at the top of the page to indicate that you're viewing ads in test mode:

Warning: This page is a tool for AdWords advertisers to test their ads. For full Google functionality return to the Google homepage.

How awesome is that? On top of that, you can't click on any of the ads accidentally. This is especially great for people who have max bids above $1.00, but also good for anyone who just doesn't want to get charged for clicking on their ads.

The best part is that it doesn't run up your impressions, which directly affects your CTR (Click Through Ratio) as the formula is literally Impressions / Clicks. You want as little impressions-per-clicks as possible.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know. Hope it helps.

Scott

** Update 2/1/2008 **

Okay, so I found out there's an actual URL you can go to in order to perform this search and it's even more powerful than I thought. Just go over to-

http://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool

You can preview your ad from different contexts, like location, which google search engine, display language, etc. Very cool stuff.

Popularity: 28% [?]

For those of you who didn't catch it, we recently launched a small forum to help people get started on their affiliate marketing adventure. When I say "we" I mean the community and myself of course, but I thought perhaps not everyone was aware of the fact. Of course, we're technically in a beta just to see how everyone reacts to the idea of a new affiliate marketing forum.

So far, we've had a decent amount of daily activity in there and I started it small so that it could grow as needed vs pouring tons of forums in there and hoping people would just start filling up the vast emptiness.

I'm pretty proud of how it's turning out in so little time. People are already helping each other out and I'm able to interact directly with people to give them tips and advice.

Right now we have 12, count 'em, TWELVE active members and already, we have success stories. For example, Killafawk has already seen some success with a campaign he's been helping others with (read more here).

Overall, I'm happy with our progress and hope it continues on the upward trend. If you haven't already, register on the new forum and start asking questions! Or, if you're an affiliate master, we can always use your brain.

Popularity: 15% [?]