AssociatePrograms.com

Are you a new subscriber? Check out the archives...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/search/newsletter.shtml

Associate Programs Newsletter #159

May 17, 2001.              Subscribers: 16,400


I've been testing new software which
makes it really easy to hunt down
super affiliates.

I hope my review makes happier reading
than the news about CyberRebate.

Are you a new subscriber? Check out the archives...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/search/newsletter.shtml




CONTENTS:

1. How to hunt down super affiliates PART 2
2. Get paid for finding super affiliates
3. CyberRebate shocks affiliates and customers
4. How Richard Reitman earned a quick $925
5. Affiliate settles for 50% from PhoneFree
6. Dell Home Systems explains late payout
7. Last call on affiliate program management survey
8. Browser plug-ins make bad companions
9. Closing affiliate programs, and other news
10. Thought for today: How to be truly great


__________________________________________SPONSOR__________

E-zine Editors...Authors...Information Publishers...

NEVER BEFORE SEEN Techniques For Turning an
Electronic Newsletter Into a $20,000+ a Month Profit
Stream! I've recently developed an electronic newsletter
publishing formula that's so powerful, I can stop
marketing today - and STILL pull anywhere from
$10,000-$20,000 a month.
http://www.netbreakthroughs.com/tracker/c.cgi/Terry_3
___________________________________________________________



===========================================
1. How to hunt down super affiliates PART 2
===========================================


Last week I looked at slow ways of hunting down super affiliates
- http:/www.AssociatePrograms.com/search/newsletter158.shtml .
This week I review a better, faster way.

Neil Shearing has hired a talented Perl programmer to write a script, "Internet Success Spider", which hunts down super affiliates.

However, as affiliate program managers know, just finding super affiliates isn't enough. You also need to know how to charm them into promoting your products.

Neil has that covered, too. His "Irresistible Formula" which comes as a bonus, shows you exactly how to charm super affiliates. Neil is really good at this.

His "Internet Success Spider" and "Irresistible Formula" make a powerful combination.

I've been testing "Internet Success Spider" for a few days.

As Neil says, there's no learning curve. There's no software to download. You just access a web page and start using it - it's that simple.

Here are some ways you can use "Internet Success Spider".
  • You can use it to locate successful affiliates and learn from their techniques.

  • You can use it to find competitors' super affiliates and offer them a better deal with your affiliate program.

  • You don't even need an affiliate program. If you're selling something, you can locate a few top performers and offer them a joint venture.

  • You can use it to spy on your competitors' joint venture partners and link campaigns.

  • You can identify super affiliates or "hub" sites and persuade them to link to you, improving your rankings in search engines such as Google which place importance on link popularity.

You can run as many reports as you wish.

"Internet Success Spider" has a double-banger action.

For example, let's say I own a site about automobiles and want to find some super affiliates of http://www.CarPrices.com .

I enter "www.carprices.com" in the box provided. Then the software:

  1. Queries the search engines and finds out which sites (mainly affiliates) link to www.carprices.com.

  2. Queries the search engines AGAIN and finds out how many sites link to each affiliate site.

  3. Returns the results in order, from most links to fewest.
The top links may be a few major directories such as Yahoo! and perhaps major web hosts.

I found:

www.zdnet.com
www.geocities.com
uk.yahoo.com

etc...

You can ignore them.

Next I found several reference sites and smaller directories, universities, online newsletters, with possible super affiliates scattered among them.

Here's a SMALL part of the list I found, in order of link popularity:

www.business.com
www.fool.com
www.parentsplace.com
www.ivillage.com
www.ecommercetimes.com
www.money.com
www.smartmoney.com
www.bankrate.com
www.refdesk.com
www.lockergnome.com
www.kiplinger.com
www.abcparenting.com
www.parenthoodweb.com
www.engage.com
www.womanmotorist.com
www.adknowledge.com
www.ceoexpress.com
www.autosite.com
autos.searchbeat.com
www.bizweb.com
www.insweb.com
www.bigeye.com
tigerx.com
www.qsl.net
www.carfax.com

The sites near the top of the list had many thousands of links to them (great super affiliates if they're suitable).

Right near the bottom of the list was www.carstartpage.com. If you were looking for super affiliates, you wouldn't bother approaching it.

Using "Internet Success Spider", when you click on each link the site appears in a new window, so you can easily find your way back to the software. A quick look at each site will help you decide whether they're the sort of sites you want to do business with, or learn from.

You're also likely to discover useful links on those sites. For example, at http://autos.searchbeat.com I noticed a very handy list of "Essential Auto Sites" - all potential affiliates for an auto site.

I must warn you that using "Internet Success Spider" can be addictive. It not only helps you find super affiliates or joint venture partners. It also tends to lead you to useful sites you've never seen before.

The software has one disadvantage. It tracks only links which lead directly to a site, so it won't help you find affiliates of companies whose programs are tracked by networks such as CJ, LinkShare and Be Free. For them, try their competitors.

If you wonder if that disadvantage reduces the value of the software significantly, consider Neil's money-back guarantee.

He says it's the boldest guarantee on the Net for a digital product.

"When you place your order, I won't charge your card!" Neil says.

"If you request a refund within two days of purchase, your credit balance won't be touched..."

And you don't have to decide within 48 hours. It's an "open- ended", risk-free guarantee.

Whether you're an affiliate or an affiliate program manager, you'll have a lot of fun with this tool. It will also help you earn a lot of money.

Try it now, risk-free:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/spider


__________________________________________SPONSOR__________

Here Is A Way To Make Money That Has Never Yet Failed!

Marketing Information Products has for years been the key to Riches. It still is the best and easiest way for you to make money. You can use your own product or resell someone else's.

Best of all, Five Millionaire Marketing Experts are waiting to help you. For more information send a blank email to:
mailto:AssocPro@infogeneratorpro.com
___________________________________________________________

Back to TOP


========================================
2. Get paid for finding super affiliates
========================================


Are you good at finding super affiliates?

If so, Phil Tanny of http://subscription-service.com is willing to pay you.

He defines super affiliates as web site owners who can display his pop-up to at least 500 unique visitors a day.

"Payment to the referring agent is 5 cents for each unique person who submits a subscribe request from the partner site.

"Payment to the partner site is 30 cents for each unique person who submits a subscribe request."

Phil says his partners earn an average of $8 CPM.

He's happy to answer questions at info@subscription-service.com

Back to TOP


==============================================
3. CyberRebate shocks affiliates and customers
==============================================


CyberRebate.com has sacked most of its employees, suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11.

"Questions regarding customers, vendors and others affected by today's action will be resolved as the bankruptcy process proceeds," says a brief statement on the web site -
http://www.cyberrebate.com .

I wonder if a lawyer the company hired to contact me will be paid. He didn't like my article "CyberRebate takes a hammering" - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/search/newsletter156.shtml - which highlighted complaints about the company.

CyberRebate says: "Customers will be contacted regarding their rights and remedies."

Affiliates weren't mentioned.

Feel sorry for the thousands of affiliates who not only are worrying about their commissions, but are also now frantically redesigning web sites.

The CyberRebate program was tracked by LinkShare. Judging by the commissions CyberRebate has been reporting, LinkShare has lost a major client.

Back to TOP


==========================================
4. How Richard Reitman earned a quick $925
==========================================


Richard Reitman, who is the affiliate program manager for Planet Holiday - http://www.planetholiday.com - has been trying his hand as an affiliate, with speedy success.

In its first 12 days online, his new site has earned $925 in commissions.

"It was not an uphill battle, it was not difficult," he says. "It was listening to someone who knew what he was doing and following his recommendations."

Richard says one of his affiliates gave him the idea for the site.

"The first month he cleared over $8,000 in commissions, the second month over $22,000! Now I am sure it will drop a bit as he gave me and one other guy the idea and we jumped on it."

Richard doesn't want to reveal the URL of his little gold mine or the name of the merchant he is promoting.

One thing he will reveal - the site's theme is not one in which he has a passionate interest. In fact, he has NO interest at all in it.

"I did it for the money," he says.

He says the question to ask yourself is: "If I was a consumer, what would I want? With millions and millions of consumers online the choice is wide open."

Richard taught himself how to build the site.

"It is not what I would call a great site but it is a short, to the point six-page web site that has very good content and info. I sell three items ONLY from one merchant. Good colors. Good keyword percentage, and excellent meta tags."

To get traffic, by far the best deal is Yahoo!, he says.

He paid $199 to submit the site to Yahoo! using Business Express and $199 to submit it to LookSmart. After three days it was in Yahoo! and another three days later it appeared in LookSmart.

"The $199 is steep but well worth it if your site is original and written right (i.e. there can be no affiliate links in or out)."

NO affiliate links. Then how can he earn commissions?

"My site is an original site, i.e. not a doorway or mirror. I merely have my order page as their page! It works. I will be adding one additional affiliate link in a week or so... I was told by someone in the know that your site must sell something on its own, not merely be an affiliate of someone else. So I took his advice to heart.

"I know one person who did what we did but he had an affiliate link to the supplier and Yahoo! turned him down flat with a response that affiliate sites will not be accepted into Yahoo!"

Richard also went to ineedhits.com and submitted the site to 300 search engines - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/hits - for the surprisingly low price of $2.50. Two days ago he received confirmation that all the submissions had been made.

Just to make sure, he submitted it manually to Google, HotBot, Excite "and the rest of them" on May 8 "but so far no listing and I am sure it will take time".

Richard isn't a search engine expert. It was only this week that he found out about Inktomi, and he plans to pay to submit it to Inktomi - http://www.positiontech.com/inktomi/ .

"For $30 how can I lose?"

Here's a surprise from an affiliate program manager - Richard hasn't analyzed his stats. He hasn't looked at any numbers except sales.

"The numbers of hits/impressions etc doesn't interest me at all - only the bottom line."

Richard, who is very busy with Planet Holiday, says the site will not change.

"I am selling something that is in high demand and that will not change. Many of the buyers will be repeats. I hope to achieve all of my sales through search engines and later I will get into some discussion groups," he says.

WARNING: Before submitting to Yahoo! do some careful research. Once Yahoo! lists your site, it is VERY difficult to get such things as the title, description and category changed. Decisions rushed today could be expensive mistakes which will linger for years.

Robert Woodhead offers some sound advice on Yahoo! here:

http://www.selfpromotion.com/

Back to TOP


===========================================
5. Affiliate settles for 50% from PhoneFree
===========================================


If you're still owed money by PhoneFree, try contacting the company and arranging a deal.

On March 21, PhoneFree announced it was terminating its affiliate program "effective February 28" and that it would immediately pay affiliates 75% of commissions owed.

One affiliate, who wishes to remain anonymous, writes:

"I was owed over $10,000 from PhoneFree. Finally realizing I would never see the money through LinkShare, I contacted PhoneFree directly.

"They offered to pay me 50% of what they owed me as long as I faxed them a signed release form relieving them of their responsibility to pay me the rest. I faxed the form yesterday and they immediately wired the money into my checking account.

"I suggest the rest of you contact PhoneFree if you ever hope to see any of your money. The offer they gave me was good until May 15th."

Back to TOP


=========================================
6. Dell Home Systems explains late payout
=========================================


Charlie Bartholomew of http://www.clbmarketing.com/ is a Dell Home Systems affiliate - and an unhappy one.

"We have yet to be paid for Dell Home sales for December, January, February, March and April," Charlie says.

"Considering we have over $170,000 worth of sales in the last quarter alone, we are wondering if Dell and or LinkShare are having financial problems."

I contacted LinkShare chairman Stephen Messer, who persuaded Dell to issue an explanation.

The Dell letter is published in full on the message board under D
- http://www.associateprograms.com/discus/

In the Dell letter, John Poulter says the Dell Home Systems affiliate program has been a great success and has driven a "tremendous volume" of sales.

"...we have also experienced our share of growing pains, one of which has been the delayed payments to our Affiliate Partners. In short, the old payment process created a bottleneck and we have re-designed the entire process to function more efficiently and pay your commissions more quickly... Dell will mail payments for December transactions to LinkShare on May 14 and for January and February transactions on May 28, with payments to affiliates to be mailed by LinkShare shortly thereafter.

"Finally, just to clarify, the net 60-day term of our affiliate payment policy will not change."

I think Dell can still afford to pay affiliates. Analysts expect the company to earn 77 cents a share this year and report revenue of $35 billion. However, it's in the middle of a price war and is cutting 10% of its workforce. Full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/08/technology/08DELL.html

It's ludicrous that a merchant needs to be contacted and persuaded to explain to its affiliates - its business associates - why they haven't been paid.

It's that sort of cavalier attitude which infuriates affiliates.

Memo to affiliate program managers: If you want loyal affiliates, don't copy Dell.

Back to TOP


===================================================
7. Last call on affiliate program management survey
===================================================


Just a friendly reminder...

Ralph Wilson of http://www.wilsonweb.com - is conducting a survey of affiliate program management software, and would like to get wide user feedback.

"If your company is currently using affiliate program software, PLEASE take a few minutes to give me feedback on your experience with it," Ralph says.

http://www.wilsonweb.com/survey/affiliate-software.cfm

The more people who take part in this survey, the more valuable the results will be.




__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
      Who the heck are these guys?

Talking about kicking butt, expecting greatness, taking no
prisoners - don't they read the papers? Are they crazy?
Are they geniuses? Are they kidding themselves?

Find out --- http://www.emarketnsights.com
___________________________________________________________


Back to TOP


=======================================
8. Browser plug-ins make bad companions
=======================================


From time to time, affiliates get stirred up about browser plug- ins which seem to be doing their best to lure visitors away from their site, depriving affiliates of sales and commissions.

Manny Cristia of http://www.oxyfilters.com is worried about what he calls an intrusive service, NBCi's "Quick Click" - which is promoted high on the main page at http://www.NBCi.com .

The links takes you to http://www.quickclick.com/ .

"The minute you enter my site with Quick Click, the names and any words connected to my competitors, or competing site, become hot links," Manny says.

"I work very hard to get people to my site, and to make sure they stay there once they come. For this reason I am very careful which links I place on my site and where I place them. Yet, Quick Clicks totally destroys this, and the worst part is that some of the links superimposed on my site by Quick Clicks lead directly to competitors' sites.

"My wife said I should delete those words that become hot links, but to do this, in most cases would dilute the meaning of what I am trying to communicate. And besides, should Quick Click be allowed to have such power over my property?"

Manny says that many sites set conditions of use when someone enters their site. "Could a condition be written into a site that would prevent Quick Clicks from creating these hot links on a site?

"For instance, Ebay has the following in their user agreement:

'You agree that you will not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, create derivative works, or publicly display any content (except for your information) from our website without the prior expressed written permission of eBay or the appropriate third party'.

"OOPS! I just violated that agreement. Sorry, Ebay," Manny says.

I could be wrong, but I think that unless you're going to install a device to identify users of such browser plug-ins and stop them from visiting your site, there's not much you can do about them.

Perhaps the less publicity given to them the better.

Chris Sherman of SearchEngineWatch examines three browser "companions" in this article:

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/01/sd0515-companion.html

Back to TOP


=============================================
9. Closing affiliate programs, and other news
=============================================

Back to TOP


============================================
10. Thought for today: How to be truly great
============================================


"We can never be truly great, we can never fulfill ourselves
truly unless we are working for the welfare of our fellow men."

Karl Marx, when he was 17.

All the best

Allan Gardyne

Back to TOP
Solutions
 
 
Directions Business Systems Development Business Development Systems