While I’ve been in the industry a little over ten years now, I’ve been able to experience the best-of-the-best and the worst-of-the-worst affiliate networks.  From companies that don’t pay  to companies that pay weekly (even some daily) I’ve seen it all.  Today, in somewhat of a rant, I want to talk about what I like to see in a network as an affiliate.

To obtain an affiliate…
- This is one of the hardest things for some networks.  How do you convince an affiliate to join your network over the next?  Are you offering a prize or a contest?  Do you have a rewards program?  What separates your network with the others.  Below are some of the things I like to see.

* First, the most important thing each network should do is treat every affiliate like they’re a ’super’ or ‘high volume’ affiliate.  I’ve personally known guys go from $5 or less one month to nearly a million the next.  Just because an affiliate is not pushing traffic to your network doesn’t mean they don’t have traffic or the potential to drive serious volume.

* Don’t annoy the affiliate to try to get business.  Approach them as a friend, make a personal connection.  Don’t block your number or call during dinner hour (you seriously would not BELIEVE what some people will do).  To get business, the best way is to send email updates.  Keep your affiliates in the loop of what’s hot and what’s not, and if something catches their eye, they’re going to contact you.  I personally don’t have the entire day to devote to just affiliate marketing (I own other businesses too) so I can’t always respond to an instant message or chat on the phone.  Send an email with hot offers, be down to earth, and business will come.

* Take advantage of Affiliate Summit, Ad Tech, and other conferences.  This one is big.  If you know an affiliate that you want on your network is going to be attending a conference make it a point to speak with them.  I cannot tell you how many networks just stand behind the booth and wait for business to come to them.  Find out who’s going to be there and personally go up to them.  How bad do you want that affiliate’s traffic?  If you want business bad enough you can get it.  It just depends how hard you work for it.

* Don’t make promises you can’t keep.  If you can’t make it for drinks don’t say you will.  If you can’t provide a certain offer, don’t say that you can.  I can’t tell you how many times my plans have been thrown off because I scheduled to meet up with a network for them to ‘forget’ to call.  I’ve also spent HOURS creating landing pages for campaigns only to have the network say they ‘don’t have that offer anymore.’  Ugh…

To keep an affiliate…
- Once you get an affiliate’s business it is essential that you take necessary actions to keep that affiliate.  This industry is cut-throat, and at the end of the day, business comes first.

* Customer service must be priority.  Many networks use Link Trust to track commissions.  While this is OK software, you can only place one pixel per offer.  This is the most aggravating thing in the world to me!  I seriously will run offers with networks that use Direct Track before Link Trust, just because I like to add/edit/delete my tracking pixels on my own time.  I don’t want to email anyone.  With that said, if you do use Link Trust, you MUST have an affiliate manager available 24/7/365 to place pixels.  There is no substitute, affiliate don’t like to wait.

* Pay on time every time.  No matter WHAT you must see that your affiliates are paid (as long as they are in compliance with your TOS) and paid on time.  If an affiliate earns commissions you have to pay them.  If the advertiser shorts you, that’s the risk you have to take.  If there is a bank holiday on the day you send out wires, be sure to notify the affiliate that their payment is going to be early or delayed.

* Don’t focus on one niche.  I don’t have to tell anyone that this business changes daily.  Campaigns are going to come and go but not affiliates.  Bring on multiple offers in multiple niches and keep several backups.  If one offer goes down, you better have another one ready to back it up.  If not, you are likely to lose that affiliate to another network.  Don’t just focus on re-bills and/or lead generation.  Have a mixture of all the top campaigns in various niches.

* Maintain open communication.  It is always VERY important to keep affiliates in the loop.  If you’re going to be re-directing an offer let affiliates know as soon as you can.  I personally like to have 12 hours notice, but I realize sometimes that’s impossible.  The absolute worst thing you can do though is redirect an offer without notice.

So who do I recommend?
I couldn’t end this post without mentioning some of my favorite affiliate networks.  While no network is perfect, in my experience, these are the best!

* Eagle Web Assets

* Convert 2 Media

* Azoogle Ads

* COPEAC

* CX Digital

In conclusion, you can have the best rewards program or the sickest parties in the world, but if the above items aren’t fulfilled it’s likely your going to have a hard time getting or keeping business.  I’m not writing this post with any particular affiliate network in mind nor am I ‘calling anyone out’.  I’m fairly happy with every network we currently work with and have been very impressed with some of the newer networks that have came on.  I felt that this post would be an interesting post to share with other affiliates what we like to see with affiliate networks.

Happy Presidents Day everyone!  Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and a day that many affiliate marketers made a lot of money.  Over the year’s I’ve known affiliates that plan all of their campaigns on certain Holidays, tax season, etc.  They spend months analyzing data, preparing landing pages, and come into ‘attack’ once the Holiday hits.  Some of my pay-per-click friends come in and make $1,000+ an hour on the day before and the day of Valentine’s Day promoting flowers!

While the ideas for Holiday/special occasion campaigns are limitless, I’m personally glad to see this one go.  Over the year’s we’ve promoted some of these campaigns, however I’m personally not a huge fan.  While the money can certainly be rewarding, it really frustrates me to see it disappear a day later.  I would much rather spend my time and energy promoting several smaller-scale campaigns that make a few hundred each day consistently rather than promoting a handful of campaigns that have a very short lifespan.  Also while media buying, companies such as Pro Flowers, come in and suck up a lot of our impressions (they had a huge campaign running this year)!

If you’ve followed our blog, you probably know, I’m a huge fan of optimization.  I like to test several different variations of landing pages, creatives, etc to find the winning pair.  It’s a challenge to me to up the conversion rate just a few percent.  I get a rush out of it!  With campaigns such as Valentine’s Day you really don’t have much time to optimize.  You have to come in strong, base your data on your experience, and cash in while the time allows.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s very doable, but with a short lifespan.

With that said, I hope you all had an excellent Valentine’s Day and spent it with someone special.  I surprised my girlfriend with a cruise to Mexico for next month:).  Now it’s time to get back to making money!

Well yet another stupid mistake cost us twins $1,026.47 (60% of the price of my new MacBook I just ordered). Let me explain what happened. About two weeks ago I loaded up four new campaigns on Google’s Content Network. These campaigns were all niches we were already in, but we were doing some advanced geo-targeting to try to explore some new areas to expand. Using a combination of image and text ads, I had thousands of keywords and the campaigns setup just the way I wanted them.

Right off the bat three of the four campaigns started getting impressions/clicks. I let things ride and the very next morning I woke up to the famous “Google Slap.” I really wasn’t expecting it this time, as all of the sites had established page ranks as well as tons of unique content. But that’s Google for you; a slap for no logical reason at all. I went ahead and paused those three campaigns and decided to “clean up the mess” after I finished another list of projects. However, I forgot about one thing. The FOURTH campaign… I assumed it was slapped from the beginning as it just continued to get a $2 – $5 trickle everyday from the beginning. Rather than pausing it, I decided to let it run to see if it would ever garner traffic.

Busy with all the new projects we have coming up (some exciting stuff btw), I honestly forgot about that one campaign. Of course, I logged into my Adwords account daily, but it was always that $2 – $5 trickle. Yesterday, it was about 50 degrees here, so I decided to take a quick one-hour break and wash my car. When I got back home I noticed traffic FLOODING into our tracking system. Honestly, we have a lot of stuff going on, so it took me a few minutes to discover the culprit. Once I logged into our Adwords account my heart SUNK. Since I wrote that campaign off, I had removed that landing page from our server. So we had thousands of clicks going nowhere.

This made for a very frustrating day due to a stupid mistake on my end. One simple click on ‘pause’ would have saved us this money. I’m not going to continue to cry over spilled milk, but I did want to type this post to let you know, amateur, professional, or newbie, we’re all human and we make mistakes. We must learn from this and move forward even stronger!

One of my BIGGEST pet peeves about working online is people think it’s a quick way to instant millions. I know Richard has touched on this in many of his posts, but recently, I received a Facebook message I decided to share with everyone. Before I begin with my rant here is the message:

OK so here’s what got her attention. When I purchased my new Mercedes Benz CLS550 I posted some pictures on my Facebook. I’m not the type of person that likes to brag about things, but like most people, I have family spread out across the United States. They all wanted to see my new car, so the easiest way was to upload a few pictures to Facebook (since then I’ve removed them). I knew that it was very likely I was going to receive a message like this.

The girl that sent this message is a pretty nice person. I knew her back in high school, but haven’t talked to her a day since I graduated (in 2002). Seven years later she emerges on Facebook to try and “pick my brain.” I’m sure many of you reading this that currently work online have been asked this a million times! People hear work + Internet/Online and think automatic, easy millions. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

If you’re currently sitting behind your computer reading this and are not yet making money online, don’t let me discourage you. It is VERY possible to begin making LOTS of money online. But it’s not going to come without hard work. Working online is no different than starting a “bricks & mortar” business. While you need to be prepared for several long days, you also need to have a clear plan, set goals, have money to invest, and be willing to take risks. Success often does not come without failure. Before I became a successful affiliate, I failed. I built HUNDREDS of campaigns that all tanked. But I was willing to work hard, invest money, and I wouldn’t accept failure. I cannot tell you the many nights I went to sleep discouraged with Richard yelling at me about how much money I burned through on Google Adwords.

Just like any other business, you get out of it what you are willing to put into it. This young lady that messaged me wants me to give her a shortcut to quit her secular 9-5 job to “work online” and “travel”. I really wish I knew what she meant by “travel”. Sure, I get to go on business trips as well as trips with networks, but when I get back in the office I cannot tell you how behind I am. I wish I could lounge around a 5-star beach resort every week and check my email once or twice a day, but it simply does not work like that. While some of our campaigns do go on a certain “autopilot” mode, that doesn’t mean that we’re not working hard everyday looking for the next successful campaign. And guess what? We still fail on some campaigns even to this day.

I’m going to close this with one more example. Two years ago I was laying out at the local resort pool near my home. A neighbor of mine said “you work online full-time?!?” I answered politely “yes, I have for several years.” She said “make me a website; I have a great idea, blah, blah, blah.” I kind of laughed it off, only to get back to my computer to see her husband had sent me a message on MySpace explaining to me how good he was with his computer and Photoshop. Richard was even asked once, “So does this website make enough money to live on?”

Successful people did not become successful instantly. They did not become successful without failure. Besides being able to work out of your bedroom in your boxers, working online is no different than opening a “bricks and mortar” business. Work hard; don’t accept failure, and when you think you can’t work any harder, work harder. Don’t be influenced by people who don’t want to see you prevail. You CAN do this, you CAN build a successful business, and you CAN become a multi-millionaire. Now, how bad do you want it?

OK my last post was pretty harsh on a network.  I do hope many networks will see that and learn from those mistakes.  One network that has made an excellent first impression on us is COPEAC.  While working on some summer campaigns with John (several months ago), my affiliate manager from COPEAC called out of the blue during the exact day we were looking for a certain offer.  I told him what we were looking for and he immediately made several suggestions and said they’d beat any network’s payout.  At the time, we didn’t take him up on the offer.  Unlike 99.999% of affiliate managers he didn’t bomb me with IM’s every morning.  Instead he had the Marketing Manager for COPEAC, Stephen, message me.  Stephen took a different approach than an affiliate manager.  He made it seem to me that I was “so important” that I had two people assigned to my account; an affiliate manager and the marketing manager for the entire company.  This was an excellent first impression.

One day an offer we were running went down unexpectedly.  John and I both agreed that we should swap it out with COPEAC until it came back up.  Within 5 minutes the offer was back up but we did see 1 conversion while running COPEAC.  Later that afternoon I missed a call from New York.  I listened to my voicemail and it was Stephen along with our affiliate manager congratulating us on our first sell. This was the relationship we were looking for.  These guys didn’t know we were “super affiliates” or that we had a blog.  All they knew is we made ONE sale on their network.  Towards the end of August we were one of the top affiliates promoting offers on COPEAC.

Monday, Richard and I have been invited by Stephen and our affiliate manager, to meet up in New York City and then go to Atlantic City for a few days of enjoyment.  Unfortunately, John cannot make this trip, but I know it’s KILLING him he’s going to miss it!  Without further ado here is our trip itinerary:

* Monday, September 28, 2009

- Richard and I will land at JFK airport in New York City.  From there, a limousine will take us to the London in downtown Manhattan to a two Bedroom, 1 King, 1 Queen bed, with Living Room suite.  I’m sure we’ll be meeting up with several people from the company.

* Tuesday, September 29, 2009

- On Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. we’ll be taking the following luxury limousine to Atlantic City, New Jersey:

Richard and I will spend two nights at the Borgata Hotel Casino in the Fiore Suite.  Stephen and our affiliate manager will also be joining us for the trip! It’s going to be one crazy, helluva a time!  I can’t wait!  Stay tuned to our blog all next week as we’ll be posting some videos/pictures of the trip!

COPEAC is awesome and every network out there should be envious of them.  They know how to treat their affiliates and this is what is going to keep them in business for years to come!

“First impressions last.”  This is what they pounded in our heads during business school in college.  First impressions…  What is so valuable about this and business?

Operating online businesses for almost ten years I’ve learned that one of the key aspects in any business is to have strong interpersonal relationships with the companies you do business with.  This is especially the case in affiliate marketing.  If you notice almost every affiliate network has the same offers, the payouts are relatively close, and most of them use the same tracking software (ie: Direct Track, Link Trust, etc.).  What really separate them are their interpersonal relationships with affiliates.  Some networks have tried to utilize special features such as a prize system, a cool contest, etc. but without the interpersonal relationship it’s all useless.

Most recently there was a network we decided not to work with.  Let me explain.  John and I were researching for some higher paying offers and ran across a network that seemed to be pretty legit.  We signed up and waited.  Two weeks later still nothing.  So I called them and asked why we hadn’t been approved?  They said it would be taken care of shortly.  When I checked my email I noticed that had approved us, but they required us to take a QUALIFICATION TEST before we could join their network.  OK that’s the dumbest thing I’ve EVER heard of.  The email informed me that if I didn’t score 80% or above I would be unable to join their network.  The last part of the email contained about a 20 minute “training seminar.”  So you’re telling me I have to go through all of this just to be part of your network?  Just for the heck of it I took the test (without studying) and scored an 84%.  I was accepted, but told John I no longer felt like running them period.  Their first impression SUCKED!

Even though this network was recently ranked in INC Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States, if they continue to treat people like that, they will fall as quick as they rose.  Very shortly, I’m going to make another post showing what a good affiliate network is like.  Trust me, you WON’T want to miss it!

Today I’d like to continue my Because you work online… series. For those that missed my first part of this series I give myths people have about people that work online and try my best at a witty response to that myth. Without any further ado:

Because you work online…

You never leave your house. Super affiliates do not even come close to fitting the mainstream stereotype of a webmaster but this one is even more ridiculous. We put a whole new meaning to the term “frequent flyer” with conferences coast-to-coast not to mention the traveling we do for leisure. Our occupations give us great freedom in the amount we can travel which is why I got to watch the Braves play a three game series in Atlanta in June and am going to the new Cowboys Stadium in November to watch my Cowboys play the Redskins. I’ll also be attending Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas staying here. We’re the jerks that get to board the airplane first and sit in the front without paying a dime extra.

You don’t what the real world is like. Maybe it’s because we’re from a blue-collar coal mining town but I can’t tell you how many times someone says because I work online I have no conception of the “real world”. First of all I have an issue with the term “real world” as college professors frequently used it when explaining the transition into the workforce. So you’re saying my world now is “not real”? When does my “fake” world become “real”? I know it’s not meant to be taken literal but the adage makes no sense. Ryan, John and I deal with Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies, participate in conference calls with top executives and negotiate very profitable deals. If that isn’t the “real world” I don’t know what is. Just because we don’t get up at the crack of dawn to breath harmful coal dust all day doesn’t mean we aren’t hard workers. Our work might not be demanding from a physical standpoint but it is demanding and stressful. We haven’t had the success we’ve had by sleeping all day.

You inherited your money, you don’t really work. Some drunk idiot actually came up to me when I was out at a bar last year and said this to me. Again, this might be a product of where we’re from, but a lot of people just don’t get it. They think because my occupation does not have a physical address, it doesn’t exist. I guess it’s the same people that believe in the big bang theory or evolution. I was blessed to grow up in an upper middle class family but I’ve never asked anyone for anything. People that inherit their wealth make me sick. If you don’t work for your money, you should have to give it all the government so I don’t have to pay such high taxes.

Feel free to share your myths and stereotypes about working online, I’m sure this series will continue…

What do you do for a living? This is probably the most common question I’m asked upon meeting someone. It’s always fun studying someone’s reaction after I tell them I’m an Internet marketer. Older people usually stare off into space, afraid I’m going to start talking over their head and leave it at that while others start asking questions. When they start asking questions is when it gets fun.

While there are a million stories I could tell in response to this question, there is one I find particularity entertaining. One day this past spring Ryan and I were working out in our local gym when a somewhat attractive female approached us. She said she heard how we “worked on the Internet” and that she too worked online. I’m always cautious when someone in our small town in West Virginia says they work online – this generally means they have an eBay account and might make a couple hundred dollars cleaning out their garage.

Being as I’m polite, I listened to what she had to say. She explained how she markets household products by compiling lists, uses the Internet, and blah, blah, blah. Ryan and I both had a feeling where this was going but as she explained how highly motivated of an individual she was she recommended we go to a meeting with her. She told us we just had to go and she’d even drive us there.

OK, so there’s the ultimate red flag. We just met this person yet she’s so sold on this “Internet business” she is going to drive us to a meeting. The conversation finished and we did our workout. As soon as we got home, we researched what she was doing. You guessed it – she wasn’t involved with Internet marketing – she was part of a pyramid scheme. Needless to say, we never made it to her meeting.

Ryan, John and I work in high performance marketing. We create campaigns, send traffic to them and make money off the conversions. We do not sell toilet tissue to our entire household, praying to get someone to sign up under us so we can make some type of profit under a pyramid scheme.

So many people out there are looking to get rich quick they will do just about anything. They do not care if what they do is moral, ethical or even legal. They want money and want money now. There is no shortcut in Internet marketing. If you want to make it, it’s through hard work and dedication that is going to get you there.

It’s a shame there are people out there such as this misled female that gives all us Internet marketers a bad name. I’m sure there are plenty of you have horror stories of your own, care to share them with us?

Working online is quite a bit different from working in what some people call “the real world.” Not only am I self employed but I have no set schedule. One of the things I like best about being an Internet entrepreneur is the flexibility the lifestyle offers me. I can take the afternoon off and play Xbox or plan a trip months in advance without having to clear things with my boss. The lifestyle of an Internet entrepreneur has several positives. You can work from home, there is no dress code, you can sleep until 10 AM, you can relax with an afternoon workout, etc.

I love my career and the flexibility it gives me. However, there are several miss-conceptions about working online that annoy me. There are also downfalls to working online. I just wanted a chance to rant about some of the myths about working on the Internet.

Because you work online…

You are an instant millionaire. A lot of people think just because I work online I’m guaranteed hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with little to no effort. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Ryan, John and I spend more hours working in three days than most people do in two weeks. Our jobs literally never stop. There is always work to be done and there is no excuse not to get it done because we can work wherever we have a computer with Internet access.

You are a computer genius. This is one of the most irritating myths about working online. I have extraordinary knowledge in HTML, website development, creating profitable campaigns, etc. but I am in no way a computer expert. If you’re computer breaks, don’t call me. I don’t know how to fix nor do I care how to fix it. When something goes wrong with my computer, I call a computer repair specialist. You should do the same. I don’t know what’s wrong with your wireless router or why you are getting the blue screen of death. I’m not A+ certified and never intend to be.

You have no social life. Most people stereotype a webmaster as a 400 pound virgin that is 40-years-old and working out of their mother’s basement. Not us. Ryan, John and I all go to the gym regularly, dress fashionable and love to have a great time. We have beautiful girlfriends and are able to carry on conversations with anyone. We do not spend our weekends at LAN/computer parties trying to beat some ridiculous video game.

You are lazy. A lot of people think because of my job I have no conception of how the “real world” works. They think because I can take time off whenever I want or go to the gym at 2 in the afternoon I don’t have a “real job.” Again, this is another irritating myth. I may sleep until 10 in the morning but that’s most likely because I was up half the night tweaking a campaign or following up on a story for my wrestling website. I might have time to lift weights in the middle of the day or sneak in a game of Madden 2010 on my Xbox but while you’re sprawled out on your Lazy Boy eating Doritos at night, I’m expanding my company.

You must be into pornography. I cannot tell you how many people upon first meeting me think I’m some type of smut peddler because I work online. First of all I do not look at porn. I have no desire to start looking at porn nor do I have the time to do anything on the computer that does not involve business. I will not help you start a porn website because no amount of money is worth burning in hell for. If you’re into this sort of thing, there is nothing I can do to help you and I find it offensive when I’m accused of doing such.

I’m sure this blog post will continue sometime in the future but this is all for now. If you work online, feel free to share your myths and rant along with me.

One of the hardest and most frustrating things in Internet marketing is being able to establish a large enough credit line with your credit card company.  According to news reports, the United States is facing the toughest economic challenge since the great depression.  While that is certainly debatable, credit card companies are being stricter to who they provide accounts to and what limits are set.

Most all of the paid traffic sources online require either pre-pay or post-pay with a credit card.  It is not until you establish a good credit history before companies will begin to invoice you with net terms.  When I first started promoting CPA offers with pay-per-click, I called American Express and told them my limit would not work.  I needed to be able to spend at least $2,000 a day every day.  They laughed in my face and said this would “no way be possible.”  To make things work I had to simply charge my cards up to the limit and then pay them off to be able to keep things running.

On the other side of things, affiliate networks usually are pretty good about working with affiliates on pay terms.  Once you begin doing around $1,000 a week with most networks they will pay you weekly.  With enough volume, some networks will even pay you daily.  Without affiliate networks doing this, I know I would not be where I am today.

In conclusion, there is not an easy solution to solve the credit card company saga.  American Express does offer a Plum Card to businesses that allows higher levels of spending, plus 2% cash back, but you must have an excellent credit history to qualify.  For larger affiliates (such as myself) we’re in the process of getting the American Express Centurion Card (also known as the “Black Card”).  While the fees on the card are pretty intense, and you must spend at least $250,000 a year, but according to several of my colleagues, the benefits are well worth it!  Good luck!