If you’re an affiliate marketer, you know all about freebie offers…Free laptops, free ipods, etc. Here, an affiliate marketer is promoting free laptops by making a commercial for GetMyFreeLaptop.com, which is a site that by entering your email and probably filling out a few different offers from “sponsors,” you will recieve a free laptop…yeah…right.

Anyway, while you may agree or disagree with the ethics of promoting such offers, I have to admit it’s a good way offline to generate leads and convert, especially with such an enticing product for consumers who will believe it.

I found out about GoldenCan, an affiliate data feed solution which is very cool. I got an account and messed around with it for a little bit. The way it works is unique.

“4th Clickâ„¢ Merchants:
You will Share every 4th click with GoldenCAN
When you use a 4th click merchant, you share 25% of your traffic with GoldenCAN. For every 4th Clickâ„¢ generated from a GoldenCAN Integration towards merchant’s web site, GoldenCAN will replace your affiliate site id with its own and subsequently receive affiliate commission should the 4th Clickâ„¢ convert into a sale/order/lead. “4th click” does not mean 4th sale. 4th click may or may never convert to a sale. ”

GoldenCan has a good amount of merchants already such as Overstock, eBags, GoToBabys.com, and many many more. You already need to be signed up to these merchants for GoldenCan to work for you.

If you want to make your life easier and want a simple way to have feeds on your site based on keyword or a site, goldencan simplified the process for you.

So for example, lets say I want to create or have a digital camera store and want to have all digital cameras from Overstock and Amazon displaying on my site. I go to Goldencan, create a keyword based “store”, choose both merchants I want to work with, and Goldencan automatically creates simple code to place on your site which creates the feeds of digital cameras to your site.

It’s really one of the best tools that I have seen for publishers in a long time.

As I still use this campaign, I can’t reveal too much but I will tell you some of the things I’ve done that have worked. This was a campaign for lead generation in the financial sector.

One Month:

One Day:

Notice the conversion rates! YES, different channels will give you different conversion rates but the trick is to have the right landing page. Testing takes lots of time. You hear everyone saying test, test, test. While I agree 100% testing is very important, reality is most people dont have the time to change a landing page a few times and A/B test each landing page. My advice, make the best, simplest, quickest way for the user to perform an action while making your landing page look nice. Try to have all your information above the fold of the monitor and centered.

How did I generate traffic?

- PPC. PPC is the quickest way you’ll generate traffic to your site. Bid on as many related keywords as possible and see how many ad groups you can make that will be relevant to your product/service. Google’s quality score is killer so make very tight ad groups and try to have dynamic text to follow the QS guidelines.

While these numbers arent GREAT, this is with one campaign and if you keep trying things, eventually, you’ll find something that sticks, and like most things, they also end…could be a short period of time…can last for a while.

I’m starting my own affiliate program for a site that is working well for me, if you’re interested, shoot me an email at pablo @ etrendmedia.com. I am only accepting certain people to join this program.

Why so much attention? It starts from the top with CEO Kris Jones. Kris has been an industry figure not only defining and shaping the industry in some ways but also being able to build the fastest growing search marketing agency in the U.S., an Inc. 500 company. Pepperjam has become a household name and has now expanded to becoming a CPA network.

I was invited to do BETA testing and I had to say, it will be one of the coolest interfaces you’ve ever seen. Also, what makes the Pepperjam network unique is its transparency which is a big issue and a concern for affiliates and I think it has been for sometime in the industry.

Here are some highlights and reasons you should join the PepperJam Network:

- Pepperjam Network addresses two of the most significant shortcomings found on other existing affiliate networks: (1) poor, unreliable communication tools and (2) lack of affiliate transparency.

With Pepperjam Network, affiliates and advertisers can communicate in real-time via Pepperjam Chatâ„¢, thereby providing a reliable communication system to build stronger, more profitable partnerships.

Pepperjam Network provides advertisers with an unprecedented measure of affiliate transparency, which helps to establish trust, protect brand integrity, and lays the groundwork for open, long-term, profitable relationships.

- Pepperjam Network uses Web 2.0 technology to provide affiliates and advertisers with an easy-to-use, clean interface.

- Pepperjam Network offers industry leading SID-level tracking and reporting (great for sophisticated search marketing affiliates)

- Pepperjam Network introduces pepperjamADSâ„¢, which is a first-ever affiliate marketing widget that affiliates can use to serve customized contextual ads from multiple Pepperjam Network advertisers at the same time.

- Pepperjam Network contains a knowledge vault, which is exclusive to Pepperjam affiliates. The vault contains exclusive access to a list of tools and educational resources used by Super Affiliates.

- Pepperjam Network represents over eight years of research and development and the combined ideas, feedback, and intelligence of hundreds of affiliate marketers and advertisers.

- Pepperjam Network launched with over 100 merchants and growing quickly, including Blockbuster, Jelly Belly, AeroGrow, Oscar de la Renta, BabyPhat, Rocawear, Ben Sherman, FlyCell, SinglesNet, SEOmoz Premium, and many more.

- Pepperjam Network has its own affiliate program that pays out up to $7 per approved publisher application

- Check out the Pepperjam Network Blog for videos, commentary and updates on Pepperjam Network and the broader affiliate marketing community

- Pepperjam Network is FREE to join.

If you’re an affiliate marketer, there is no reason why you shouldn’t sign up right now. Good luck!

Tune in to “Affiliate Marketing For The Average Joe” Now!

I was able to catch the keynote session In the morning with Mark Papia from Fox Interactive and Rob Nice (I’m not sure if that’s how you spell his last name) product manager of Pay-Per-Action from Google.

It was a great session with a lot of insight from insiders. It’s nice for a change to hear insiders talk other than people talking and speculating about the companies themselves from these two giant companies.

It lasted for about two hours so they pretty much touched on many things. I was able to capture video of Mark talking about the changes from past to present and future of Myspace. It cut off a bit but…close to the end of what he was saying. Here it is:

Here is Mark Papia talking with WebProNews a bit further on Myspace:

Shoemoney had a good show last week on Net Income regarding conferences and how each differs from others in the industry. He described last years Affiliate Summit which really hits it with how it was this year.

Due to prior commitments I couldn’t stay for the whole day but this conference is GREAT. It’s my first Affiliate Summit, and if you’re in the affiliate marketing space, you really need to make your way to one of these. There is no better and more effective way than making contacts and meeting the people behind these companies. It’s a conference you actually come out of really gaining great contacts in the biz.

I thought maybe the dates of Ad:Tech and Affiliate Summit were to close together but they are COMPLETLEY different. Affiliate Summit had many faces I recognized and a great opportunity to network. e-Mail networking will never replace the Face-to-Face interaction.

The one session I was able to attend was about monetizing your page which I will get into in a later post this week for you bloggers or webmasters that have a site that has traffic but can’t monetize on!

If you’re attending the summit and see me walking around aimlessly as I usually do…stop by and say hello. A shoutout to Shawn Collins for the pass…he put the affiliate summit together and is doing a great job. Check out his blog: Affiliate Tip Blog

Now if you’re planning on starting affiliate marketing doing PPC and have never done so…good luck. It’s going to be a bumpy ride but chances are from running a bunch of campaigns, something will give. Affiliate Marketing is like almost everything else, it’s a numbers game.

I ran a campaign for something everyone kept saying wouldn’t work and is dead and BAM. Great results…I never really tried it because I thought the market was too saturated for it, but you never know unless you try.

1- Don’t always listen to what you read or hear. Try anything and everything.
2- NEVER GIVE UP. It’s a numbers game. Have to keep going until you find the offer that sticks.

What do others have to say?

Fraser from Azoogle Ads: oh man there’s tons…
1) using the azjmp.com link as their display URL.
2)Bidding on ‘Free’ in ringtones.
3)bidding on trademarked terms.
4)having a tiny KW list, like 5 KW’s.
5)not knowing why they haven’t made any money and got 20 clicks
6)Running the offer that has the highest CPA

Gary from PrimaryAds: Beginning affiliates have an unrealistic view what it takes to make money in affilaite marketing. Their eyes are bigger than there bellies and they come into it with unrealistic expectations and in turn that affects how they actually go about what they are trying to accomplish. Affilaites need a solid foundation of the basics especially when it comes to search marketing. They need to first learn and then when it is time….. execute.

Even though the rest of the players followed into making their own algorithm changes in paid search quality score, Google is making an art of cutting affiliates out of the picture. I’m not saying affiliate marketing is dead in Google, but if you are just starting out, you’d better know exactly how to comply with Google’s quality score criteria if you want to have a reasonable bid price on keywords. Even than, as of last weeks quality score change and implementation by Google left many in the dark not knowing why some of their best compliant and converting keywords became inactive or their bid price was raised to $5 or $10 minimums.

Aaron Wall from SEOBook believes it’s Google favoring big brands and states, “As soon as enough brand advertisers find your space you are no longer needed.” Wall continues…”Thanks for sharing the keyword data needed to tell the brands what to bid on, and best of luck getting traffic from somewhere else.”

-Provide an Affiliate Marketing tip, Explain how & why it works?
-Provide a way to scale your business online, Explain how & why it works?
-Why I deserve a free ASE pass?

My Answer:
Provide an Affiliate Marketing tip, Explain how & why it works?

Jumping right into Affiliate Marketing is definitely harder than what most think. Pick an offer, create a PPC campaign, and you’re on your way to making thousands of dollars. If that was the case, I think most of us would be rich by now.

Here are three quick tips that helped me launch successful campaigns from the get-go:

1) READ BLOGS. As good as it is to attend expo’s, etc..knowledge is power..and these days, most knowledge is in member blogs. Blogs such as this one, Shoemoney.com, WickedFire.com, etc. can not only give you tips on strategies but also spark ideas in your mind to get you going. Even blogs that aren’t directly related to Affiliate Marketing are super helpful in knowing areas outside the affiliate area to get you broader ideas as to what you can do to take it one step further than the thousands of people that jump in every year and try their luck…most fail. Time and patience is key.

2) CHOOSE CAMPAIGNS YOU KNOW ABOUT. This one is super important if you’re just starting out. I remember people telling me run this offer on home loans or something I really didn’t know too much about. I never had much luck with any of that until I started running offers I actually had interest in and knew about. It’s more motivating, you can write better ad copy, and you’re more knowledgeable to better think outside the box in related area to push your offer.

3) STICK TO WHAT IS WORKING. I should have taken this advice myself from the start. It’s common to see something work and move on to the next thing. It’s not so easy to make one campaign really work and convert…so if you have that going for you..KEEP AT IT. Don’t jump around from offer to offer which is what most do. If it works, keep going…you never know how long it will last.

If you are going to spam Myspace to market your CPA offer, do it effectively and carefully. I don’t encourage spamming but Myspace is a great resource to promote a product or brand in a short period of time IF DONE RIGHT.

Every time I sign into my account I find new friend request with a picture of a girl or a comment by some guy telling me he found the best ringtone website out there, OR a comment of the Apple iPhone that you cant delete. THIS IS HOW NOT to market effectively on Myspace.

Understand the user. They are there for one reason, to interact with others. Before the spamming craze, it did work to an extent but the users have caught on and im pretty sure its ineffective to most wasting their time doing this. Again, marketing your product, even CPA offers does work, but doing it effectively.

-Build your profile to develop trust with the user. (people are actually sending request without a picture..your friend conversion should be less than 1%)
-DO NOT comment on everyone’s profiles telling them you found the hottest thing out there.
-Interact through bulletins- not comments. (easy way to get the boot—give sometime before you start doing this).
-Separate yourself from the rest. (Almost every offer that’s out looks the same).
-Target Your Audience. If you are still pushing Ringtones on myspace, dont just go and request the world myspace world, request people in groups that are into music, etc. If you are running a campaign that gives away a free XBOX, target Gamers.

If you have any questions on marketing your CPA offer effectively on Myspace or your company/product, eMail me.

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