All Posts Tagged With: "Affiliate Marketing"

Okay… so this iBuzzPro post is a bit biased — what do you expect, I am an Affiliate.

I’m just now getting cranked up with iBuzzPro… been a little busy with the wife — but she seems to be doing a lot better these past few days, so I can get a little work done.

I’ll not get into all the reasons why YOU need to join iBuzzPro… I’ll let you watch this little video I did.

This one is a bit small (and a tad rough)… just wanted to see how it looked using a smaller size — almost too small for my 49 year old eyes.

Update: Just finished the video at the main site: Insidernet

Continued

This is somewhat of a hypothetical “Affiliate Marketing” scenario — but it’s a true story.

The affiliate program does exist… but before we talk about the company, I want to give you a few things to think about — something you need to think hard about.

Picture this if you will…

A company launches a new product that every Affiliate Marketer, Online Marketer, Realtor, Insurance Agent, Web Site owner, Home Improvement and Carpet Cleaning company wants — basically, it’s something that you and every business owner must have if you plan on staying in business.

This is not something that would be nice if you had it — oh no, it’s something you MUST have or you’ll go broke. Continued

In a previous post I listed some of the "Good, Bad and Ugly" parts of Affiliate Marketing. But I left this one out. I did not purposely leave it out - I had forgot about it really, as it has not happened to me in over 6 years.

What is this "Ugly"?…

Not getting paid your Affiliate Commission.

I’m not going to say I will not get paid eventually - but no need to worry. If I do not, I will post more about it and who it is on my blog. I’ll even use pay per click and "Bending the Web" methods to spread the companies name and products to expose them to everyone on the web. It will become my new mission in life.

This is not a threat to the people who owe me the money - just a statement of fact. Chances are they will never know about this post since I’m not going to name them, yet.

I have learned yet another important lesson though.

Regardless of how much I like the product I’m promoting - I’ll not promote it unless there is a third party involved paying out the commissions (i.e. clickbank, cj, etc).

The story goes something like this…

A couple weeks back I emailed the "Perp" asking them when I could expect to receive my commissions? I did not hear back from them so I shot off another email. Again, heard nothing back.

Out of the blue, I finally received an email saying something along the lines that we have to wait and see if there are any charge backs, cancellations, etc.

That is all fine and dandy - but it has been over 30 days since the sale date so the chances of them doing a charge back is not likely - one of them even made their 2nd payment - doubt he would be making his second payment if he was going to do a chargeback or cancel.

So here I sit - wondering if and when they will ever pay me. All they have to do is reply back. I gave them the benefit of doubt for the first 2 weeks - just thought maybe they were busy. Plus, do I really want to piss off someone who owes me money? It’s about to get to that point.

I should also mention that I replied to their response to me. In the email I basically stated what I posted above. They replied back basically agreeing with me and said they would look into it and see about getting me paid.

Okay… things are starting to look up - so I thought.

Here I am - 5 days later and not a single response to my last 3 emails.

Since they left it where I was on the "verge" of getting paid - I wanted to know a status. So I have sent them three emails asking for the status. I’ve not emailed them 3 times in a day - I’ve emailed them every other day for 5 days. The last email basically said that yall must not be receiving my emails, as I’m sure you would be answering them if you had (yea - right).

This is yet another "Ugly" of Affiliate Marketing.

Not only did I "finance" the sale of their product - I am now having to hound them to pay me my commissions. I should not have to do this.

I spent money (adwords ads) and time upfront promoting their product. They were my best friends when I was doing this. Now that it is time to pay me - well, you get the picture.

So once again - I learn yet another lesson.

One thing for sure - I will keep you posted on how this unfolds.

That is something you CAN take to the bank.

I just wanted to give a quick update on Google Assassin from my perspective.

To make this short and sweet.

I’ll first say how can you argue with or dis a guy (Chris) who makes a cool million bucks a year? He obviously knows what he is doing or he would not be making the kind of money that he does.

I’ve read in a few forums where people were bad mouthing Google Assassin - saying it was hyped up and over rated (guess they make a mil a year too). Like I have always said - it just depends on where you are in the Parade and your level of experience.

If you already make thousands a month (or a day) using Google Adwords and selling Affiliate products - more than likely you do not need Google Assassin - but you may pick up a few things. It is hard to be everything to everyone. You are not Chris’s target market.

On the other hand - if you are someone who needs a model to follow - a system pretty much in place to follow - tried and true methods to make money with Affiliate Marketing and Google Adwords, then Google Assassin may be a perfect fit. Like I said earlier - it is not for everyone.

If you are just starting out with Affiliate Marketing - or if you have yet to reach the level of success you want, you may want to give Google Assassin a shot. He is giving a 56 day guarantee so it is a pretty safe bet. If you do not like it, just request a refund.

That’s pretty much it on Google Assassin. Take a look and see what you think.

You may want to hurry though - I received an email he is raising the membership cost on Monday, November 26th (that is today) within 24 hours. Lets see if he does?

With so much conversation about Google Payload - and from the questions I’ve had here and email, I think an overview of how Traffic Arbitrage works is in order. But I’m not going to cover "Traffic Arbitrage" in this post - I’ll begin a series of posts in a few days.

First, let me say upfront - I am not even close to being a "Jedi Arbitrager" or "Master Yoda" by any stretch of the imagination (not even my own). Traffic Arbitrage is something I do on a day-to-day basis, in addition to affiliate marketing and "Bending the Web" to promote a few sites.

Before I dive off into my Rant - I’d like to show you a few things first.

In the screenshot below, you will see my site is listed first and second for the phrase "google payload" - it has since dropped out - but during the actual launch it was bouncing back and forth between first and second. The blogspot blog was there when I first found out about Google Payload, and I assume it was there for quite awhile and had a heads up on the launch. I found out about the launch the night before and put my "Bending the Web" glasses on and went to work.

Like I said - my site has since dropped out of the top rankings for now - but if I wanted to, I’m pretty confident I could get back into the top five fairly easy. One thing you cannot see is the competing pages - there was one million three hundred and sixty thousand pages at that time (1,360,000).

Here is another screenshot on the phrase "google payload system" that I was listed first and second for out of eight hundred thousand or so pages.

Keep in mind… there were also a few pages of Adwords Ads competing for these phrases. The only difference being, they were obviously having to pay money to be seen while myself and others listed in the organic search were not.

Even though I am not listed in the top 10 now (I don’t think) for the phrase "Google Payload", it does not matter to me at this point. My goal was to be listed there when the "conversation" started to heat up, and be in place when the product actually launched.

I accomplished this goal and everything went off as planned. Like "Click Flipping", this is not always the case. There are times when you cannot "crack the code" for whatever reason and your "Bending the Web" campaign does not pan out as you had hoped.

So you will not think this was just a lucky break or a fluke - I’ll show you another "Bending the Web" (social power linking) campaign I did when "Assaulting the Web" launched.

In the screenshot above - I am obviously listed first and second out of a million or so pages for the phrase "assaulting the web" (third was mine as well - the Shoutwire page, but I lost that listing).

I could list a few more examples, but at this point I’ll just leave it at that.

Now for the obvious question, why am I showing you this? To brag? For my ego?

No, I would be better off not showing you and just keep on quietly doing what I do - lurking in the shadows with my ears open and nose to the grindstone. Unlike the mysterious "Jedi Master Arbitrager" from Brazil, I do not have any "never discussed before" secrets.

Everything I do is in the wide open (well - most of it). I do like to think I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but that is just an ego thing.

The Good…

Unlike the people who are paying to be listed with Adwords - if I do not like a product or think it has some flaws, I have no problem with saying so. It is not costing me anything to be honest. I’ll more than likely not make as much money as someone who is giving a "fake" or "bogus" review - but I can still look people in the eye the next day.

The Bad…

I’ve seen them… you’ve seen them… Pay Per Click ads (Adwords, Yahoo, MSN, etc) where it has the word "Review" in the ad, or they are telling you how you will be a miserable failure and not be able to compete without it. If I was paying for the ad - what type of a review do you think I’m going to give? You can bet your last dollar if someone is paying for the ad - the review will be good. Who in their right mind is going to pay a buck a click or whatever and say, "oh - the product sucks - don’t get it." 

They cannot afford to be honest. There is a conflict of interest, and in most of the cases the person does not even own the product so how can they give a review anyway.

When I started talking about Google Payload - I did not own the product. I stated so in my first post. I was truly looking forward to the launch so I could buy it. Which I did.

While I do have a few issues with the product, which I also state in my posts - overall I think the product is pretty good. It was worth the money I paid. I’ll admit though - after going through it the first time I started to request a refund. I changed my mind after thinking about it, because I feel that I did receive fair value for the money I paid.

I think Alex could have done a lot better job explaining a few things in more depth, and from what I understand after reading his blog - he plans on doing some videos doing just that. Everyone that purchased Google Payload will receive them for free.

I like the fact that Alex is stepping up to the plate for his customers - continuing on with the relationship when he could just as easily end it and start spending the money he made. I do not know him, but his actions indicate he is a stand up guy (he just seems to have an issue with translating his thoughts to written form at times). If you read this Alex - don’t take it personal. I have a few issues of my own.

Enough on Google Payload already… that campaign is over (that’s me talking to me).

The Ugly…

Do I really need to cover the Ugly? Might as well.

I would say the Ugly in Affiliate Marketing is a combination of outright lies and manipulation.

I’ll just cover one Ugly for now - a recent Ugly that happened to me. Again, this is coming from my own perspective and you may disagree with me on this one.

As an Affiliate Marketer, we all know and realize that we are not only selling a product for someone else, but we are also building a "Buyers List" for the seller of the product. A list of "Buyers" is by far the most treasured item any Marketer can own. You can take away my house… my truck…  my dog or whatever you want - but if you give me a list of known "Buyers" and tell me what they bought - I can get it all back.

That is the major problem I have with Affiliate Marketing (selling products others create). While you may be getting paid - and many times very well, you are not building a sustainable business. You are building a sustainable business for the owner of the product, but not for you. You are simply being paid - somewhat like a job does.

Case in point…

A couple months back, I did a little "Bending the Web" and made a few sales of a pretty good paying product. I had maybe 4 or 5 hours invested into the project and did pretty good. The product paid so well - I also did an Adwords campaign in addition to the stuff I normally do. I did not want to take the chance of missing out on any of the action in case my organic listings got bumped.

Like the screenshots above - I was ranked pretty good. I was ranked first, second and fifth for the exact product name - and third for my Adwords ad.

It has taken me awhile to get here… but this is The Ugly of Affiliate Marketing (again - my opinion and perspective).

The same Marketer rolled out another campaign for a different, but very similar product. His target market was the same. Only this time - he did not offer an Affiliate program for this product. It was his right not to do this - but to me this is The Ugly of Affiliate Marketing.

In the previous campaign, I sent thousands of people to his opt in page. How many actually opted in, I have no idea. While I can track how many I sent there - I cannot track how many actually did opt in.

In his first campaign, more than likely he had hundreds (or thousands) of Affiliate Marketers like myself promoting his product. If a respectable number of people did in fact opt in to his list - the list more than likely from the traffic we sent numbered in the high five or six figures. Obviously, I have no way of knowing for sure - it is truly just a guess and not really important to the point I’m trying to make.

The point is this.

He no longer needed me. If he did - he would have had an affiliate program for the new product he was selling. He had a large enough list from the first campaign. Why split up the money when you do not have to. Keep in mind, I also emailed my own list,  as I’m sure every other Marketer did as well.

This is the problem I have with Affiliate Marketing. Sure… he paid me some money to sell his product the first time - but I actually helped him build his business.

I could go on and on with this Rant… but what’s the use. I’m tired of writing and tired of thinking about it - and It serves no real purpose. But there is a lesson to be learned.

For me the lesson is this. Quit making money and start building a business.

Rant Done!

Operation Black Box…

What a package, but I cannot give a real review because I have not purchased it (and it is not yet available), but I am familiar with some of the products on the site.

It is truly something I am thinking of purchasing, only because of the number of products Sean Wu is providing in the Operation Black Box package that you can resale.

This has been one of the main ways I have made money over the years - selling Private Label or products with Resale Rights.

I’ve always found it easier to resale products that are proven sellers than to create my own. In fact, this is usually the direction most people take once they have some experience under their belt as an affiliate selling products for others.

You are now able to sell your own products, because you now own resale rights to them - but you did not create them. So instead of splitting the profit, you get to keep all the money.

It is truly a great business model.

One argument I’ve heard in the past on selling "PLR or Resale" products like this is that thousands of other people will be selling the same product. Even if they did - so what. It is all about the marketing anyway. But truthfully, most people who purchase packages like Operation Black Box will never do a thing with it.

I purchased a video series months back - I know for a fact that 40 or 50 people at least (really more like a couple hundred) purchased the same package. But when I do a search for the common phrase - I only find two or three sites selling the same product. So the reality of it is, most people do nothing.

If you are tired of selling products where you get a split or small part of the selling price, this may be something worth checking out, as there are a few products that I know for a fact are really good sellers.

http://www.operationblackbox.com/mission/index.php

Only thing is… the site does not go live until November 20th - so you are getting a bit of a heads up. But check it out… watch the video on the main index page and look at everything Sean is offering.

"Stay on Target"…. the first time I ever heard that phrase was one Saturday while I was channel surfing and landed on one of those old black and white War movies.

I had forgot about that phrase until last night when I made a comment to a post on a forum.

I went off into a mild rant… nothing major - just gave my thoughts on the new ebook they were talking about.

One of the hardest things for me personally is to "stay on target" with my marketing. Every day there is something new with the latest and greatest mind blowing - traffic generating - product developing piece of software while doing it all sitting in my underwear or even while you are lounging in Hawaii.

I’ll be the first to admit, I used to be a sucker for all the latest and greatest stuff - I’d even say I was a "serial" purchaser - buying every new product and joining just about every new  membership site on the web. I was an info junkie. No… I would say I was a pure "Addict."

I’ve pretty much given up buying every latest gizmo that comes out and it has not affected me in the least - but I do at times have withdrawal symptoms.

It can truly become like an addiction that we can justify to ourselves.

I know that whenever I bought some "latest and greatest" ebook or software I knew it would benefit my business. But the reality of it is that it does not. It might sometimes - but I’d dare to say 95% of the time it doesn’t.

What buying all of this stuff really does is gives you a false sense of security in thinking you are moving forward. Some products do in fact help, but the majority do not. Most of the time - you wind up losing your focus on what you were doing, and jump off into some new direction.

As many "latest and greatest" products that come out - you will never be able to build a sustainable business changing course or methods all the time.

What you really need to do is quit buying every new product that comes down the pipe and put to use the knowledge you already have. You already know more than you think you do.

Think about it. How many of your friends or family members know how to do what you already know? In the majority of cases it will be very few.

So stop the insanity and put into practice what you already know. There is no "magic bullet"… there are no real "secrets"… maybe some methods you do not use - but not secrets.

This statement hit home with me personally, so I will share it here;

"Losers are always waiting for inspiration…. while the Winners just roll up their sleeves and do the job."

So like the title says above….

Stay on Target! and just do what you already know.

Please post your comments on this post… thanks.

The article I am referring to is not new.

In fact… it was written in July 2007 but it is some solid info on ways to make some money.

The article covers getting paid to write articles and tidbits on other blogs… getting paid to mention sites on your blog… getting paid for doing reviews of sites… selling ads on your blog, and the regular affiliate program stuff a lot of us do already.

You are more than likely doing some of the same things now and not getting paid for doing it. Might as well make a little bit of money to pay off the online gambling debts.

Mashable’s "Make Money Online: 100+ Tools and Resources"

If you told me I could only keep 5 tools - GoTryThis Blackhat would be one of them.

GoTryThis was voted the "Best Internet Marketing Product" of the year in 2006 and with good reason. I will not get into all the stuff you can do with it - you can get all that off the sales page.

John is only releasing 300 copies this go round - just checked and there is 285 left - sold 15 in just a few minutes.

So you will know - I have GoTryThis Blackhat installed on every site I own (yes, even this blog). There is a work around for using it on a blog (issues with re write mod for using it on a blog) - if you get it let me know and I’ll tell you how to set it up. He tells how in the forum, but it is not real clear.

He must need some money for something as he is selling it for $197.00 - I paid $247.00 for it myself.

Like I said… this is one product I can truly endorse.

Oh yea… watch some of what it can do in the video below - just added this today (10/26/2007).

GoTryThis BlackHat Version

 

Instead of showing all those free videos and articles on your site… get paid.

The News Room will pay you every time someone watches a video, or views one of their news articles.

I’m not sure how much you get paid - I could not find where they disclosed this fairly important bit of info. It appears they are going to follow Googles Adsense model and just pay whatever.

I guess it does not really matter for people just looking for content, but over time - the real estate on your site increases in value and it would be nice to know what they are paying you for that little tract on your site.

Just so you will know, I made something (not sure what) when you landed on this page.

If you will look below, there is a Video and a News Article from The News Room.

When you landed on this page - I was paid something because of the News Article loading. If you watch the video - I’ll make a little more. I don’t care if you watch the Video or not. I only put it on the site for demo purposes - not to make money.

I do like the model though.

Think about it. They are providing you with real content and paying you to put it on your blog or site - and it is real content. Not some morphed or spun article from a PLR site.

Lets take it a bit further.

One of the videos they provided below is on Base Jumping (and a few others). What if I had a "Niche" site or blog on Base Jumping? This would be some first rate content to use.

The News Article is on Base Jumping as well. Might not be one you would want to use though if you had a Base Jumping site.

I will keep you posted on The News Room and how the pay out goes. I think I’ll spend about an hour and throw up a niche news site and see how it goes.

Before I forget - be sure to subscribe (top right) to be notified when there are new posts. Never know - I might actually make a post worth reading one of these days.

—–  I added this - Begin Video  ——–

——- End Video ——-

——- I added this - Begin News Article ——–

——— End News Article ——–