Recently I read an article written by ProBlogger where he was discussing the concept of using Twitter and Affiliate Marketing.

The basic argument or question was…

Should affiliates use Twitter to promote products as an affiliate?

As more and more tools pop up it will inevitably attract the marketing minds who will look to find a way to get their messages out to more people (me included).

So do I think Twitter should be used for affiliate marketing?

Here is my response to the campaign that was being discussed designed by Joel Comm…

NOTE:  See the original article posted here on the ProBlogger blog:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/10/08/affiliate-marketing-on-twitter-does-it-belong/

My Response:

Personally I think the danger here is not so much for Joel but for the affiliates promoting Joel using this technique.

The best way for affiliates to promote products is to separate themselves from every other affiliate by creating a unique promotion.  If all affiliates have the exact same Tweet, it looks like spam and turns people off (as evidenced by the negative reaction posted on the ProBlogger blog).

The same principles apply to affiliate email promotions.  Joel did the right thing for his affiliates by making it easy for them to promote (just like creating an email template).   At that point it’s up to the affiliate to take what was given and personalize it so that the promotion has meaning to their list/following.

Obviously that didn’t happen and that’s why we’re having this conversation.

If these same affiliates took 30 seconds to customize the tweet, give an opinion on the book or tailored it in some way, I think you would have a different reaction.

Twitter is an intimate and personal platform.  The minute you start being “generic”, you’ll lose people.

That’s why it’s dangerous for the affiliates in this case because they stand the biggest risk of people selecting the “Remove” button after they see these generic tweets.

Marketing products on Twitter is fine (even as an affiliate) but the tweets still have to be personal – NO Generic Tweets!

What are your thoughts?

Let me know and leave a response below.

When I made the decision to go out on my own and start my own business, I did it starting from complete scratch. I had just graduated university, had a student loan and had zero contacts or experience within the industry I was looking to enter.

Sounds promising doesn’t it?

With all that said, one of the most frustrating experiences for me was having an enormous desire to learn but not having the money to invest in myself or my business.

I wanted to attend seminars, buy home study courses and receive coaching but the money just wasn’t there.

However, that didn’t mean I didn’t want to.  I would listen in on all the free teleseminars, download all the free reports and sign up to all the free email newsletters.

But I knew at some point that the only real way to get the “good stuff” was to pay for it.

So how do you get paid content for free when you don’t have any money?

I found a way and I want to share it with you

Here’s what happened and how you can do the same thing…

Many people don’t know this but when I started my own business I began as a professional speaker delivering presentations to the high school and college market.  The problem was, I knew nothing about being a professional speaker!

However, I was smart enough to recognize that in order to learn how to grow my business quickly, I needed to learn from someone who was already successfully doing what I wanted to do.  So I decided I had to go where all the “professionals” hung out – that meant I had to get to the industry conference.

The problem was, I had just graduated university, had a big fat student loan and didn’t have the money to fly to the opposite side of the country… let alone pay the entrance fee to the conference.

So I knew I had to be creative if I was to get there.

That’s when I devised a “campaign” called “Help Stu Be Like You”.

It was my desparate attempt to raise the funds I needed to pay for this trip.

The concept was simple…

Make a presentation to my fellow professional speakers (at one of our Chapter meetings – which had roughly 60-75 people there) and tell them that I was willing to do any “grunt work” jobs like making sales calls, writing letters or articles, or licking envelopes.

Heck, I was even willing to cut their grass if they wanted!

But in exchange for the work, they would provide a financial contribution of their choice and all the money would go towards getting me to this conference.  So in theory, they could have paid me $1 for a days worth of work (obviously I was hoping they wouldn’t do that otherwise it would have been a VERY long campaign…. hahahaha).

So it sounds like a win-win doesn’t it?

They get cheap labour and I hopefully earn enough to pay for this trip.

Here’s what happened…

Just as I nervously finished my speech explaining the details of my campaign, a man at the back of the room stood up and immediately grabbed everyone’s attention.

It was in that moment that I felt my heart fill with so much gratitude that tears came to my eyes while at the same time my feelings of nervousness instantly turned to excitement.

The man’s name was Bob Urichuck and he stood up and without hesitation said…

“I’ll pay for your entire flight and hotel expenses”

I couldn’t believe it.

And then, things got even better…

Juri Chabursky then stood up and followed Bob’s lead by generously offering to pay my fees to attend the entire conference.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

In less than 30 seconds, two people (who I previously didn’t know and they didn’t know me) decided to take a chance on me.

I firmly believe that was a major turning point in my life because it taught me a number of very important lessons.

Lesson #1)  No matter what you want in life, you’re always just one “creative idea” away from making it happen.

From the moment I started my business I was behind the eightball.  I knew nothing about the market I was entering, had zero experience building or running a business and had zero contacts in my industry.  To make matters worse, I had NO money to invest in myself or my business.

If you can relate to that, then hopefully this story has provided some inspiration because with some creativity, you can make anything happen.

My silly little “Help Stu Be Like You” campaign created the result I was looking for.

The key is just having the courage to go for it!

So what ideas have you been holding back on?

Now is your time.  Get creative and go for it!

Lesson #2)  If you don’t ask for something, you’ll never get it.

Immediately after Bob Urichuck offered to pay for my travel expenses, he gave me a copy of his book called “Online For Life“.  In it he circled something on page 37 that read “You Have The Right To Ask”.

Bob told me that it wasn’t the “cheap labour” that convinced him to help.  He said that he was rewarding me for having the courage to ASK for what I wanted.

He went on to tell me that he’s known many other people who thought about doing something similar to my little campaign but they didn’t have the courage to take a chance on themselves.

So many people go through life “wishing” for things but never do anything about it.

Unfortunately most of these people sit at home and bitch and moan about how “unfair” life is.

The secret I learned that day from Bob is, you’ve got to know what you want and have the courage to ask for help in order to get it.

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness.
Asking for help is actually a sign of strength.

So will you ask for help the next time you need it or will you struggle to try and figure everything out yourself?

Remember, it’s ALWAYS faster to get help from someone who has the experience you want or the resources to be able to support you.

What’s the worse that can happen?

They say “no”.

Big deal.  You’re not in any worse of a position.  So go for it!

Lesson #3)  At least once in your life, take a chance on someone

The moment Bob stood up and made a public commitment to support my efforts I knew that I wanted to someday do the same for others.

Without sounding all “dramatic”, the truth is Bob literally changed my life.  No kidding.

By getting to that conference I learned so many strategies for taking my business to the next level but even more important was that I met so many people who helped get me to the next level faster, easier and with a lot less effort.

It marked the beginning of a massive upswing in my business and life.  It helped me create a lot of momentum and it’s carried through with me even to this day.

Today I’m in a very privileged position.

I have the most amazing wife, a tremendously supportive family and I’ve been able to create the lifestyle of my dreams.  I work when I want, on the projects I enjoy most and the income potential is limitless.

The best part about that is I’ve learned (thanks in large part to my wife) that the more I make, the more I can give.  And the more I give, the more I live.

Through our charity (World Teacher Aid), we’ve been able to follow the generosity of Bob and Juri and duplicate their kind gesture over and over again.

We now feed hundreds of kids every week in countries like Ghana and Uganda, sponsor students to attend school all over the world and we even pay the full-time salary of many teachers in underprivileged countries.

I’m not telling you this to “brag” (even though I’m VERY proud of what we’ve done).

I’m telling you this because I firmly believe that because Bob and Juri took a chance on me, my life has never been the same.  Hopefully through all that Amy and I are doing with our charity, someday one of those kids will turn around and look to help others much the same way.

Now I want to do the same for you.

Yesterday I received an email from a couple of my best customers (who have HUGE hearts).  I met them last year at one of my seminars and their names are Malia and Dave McKinney.

They were scheduled to attend our upcoming Affiliate Incubator seminar but because of scheduling conflicts, they can’t make it.

But in their email, they made a suggestion that immediately made me think of the story I shared above.

They suggested that Russell and I offer their tickets to someone who normally wouldn’t be able to attend this kind of event.  They suggested we offer a “Scholarship Program” and to use their tickets as the first two scholarships.

I immediately told Russell (my business partner) about this and he said absolutely.  But then we both agreed that we would match their contribution and offer a total of 5 tickets to people who show us (in the most creative way) why they deserve to attend this event on one of our scholarship tickets.

Now is your chance.

We’re willing to take a chance on you.  Will you make the most of this opportunity or will you sit back and let another opportunity slide by?

I guess we’ll see

If you’re committed and ready, here’s what you need to do…

1)  Make a comment below and share why we should give you a VIP ticket to this year’s event

If you’ve learned anything from my story above then you know the most creative ideas usually attract the most attention.

So get creative!

You could create a video, submit it to YouTube and include the link in your comments.

Or, you could tell us a story about your worst affiliate experience…

…or…

Share your best affiliate marketing experience and why you want to learn how to make it happen again and again.

Perhaps you want to meet one of our speakers?

Tell us who and why you want to meet them.

The point is, the more creative you are the better chance you have of winning.

2)  Tell your friends to comment and say why they think you should win.

The more people you have pulling for you the better

I have always been blessed with a very supportive family and because of that I’ve had the courage to take a chance on my ideas.

So tell your friends, family, neighbors or who ever you can think of to visit this page and make a comment indicating that they think you should win.  Their support will get your creative juices flowing

3)  Have fun

It’s not possible for Russell and I to give tickets away to everyone but we do want to reward everyone who puts a valiant effort into their application.

That’s why we’ll send everyone who submits an application a surprise gift for your efforts.

So let’s be clear…

Leaving a one line sentence like “I should win because I need help” just doesn’t cut it.

But if you put some effort into it, you’ll be rewarded regardless of whether you are chosen to receive one of our scholarship tickets to the Affiliate Incubator.

Sound fair?

The deadline for entries will be:
Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 11:59pm

So now it’s up to you.

Be creative and go for it.

Hopefully I’ll see you at our event

Take care.

Recently I was interviewed by PayPal Radio on the subject of Affiliate Management. I’ve included the interview below if you’d like to take a listen.In it we discussed:

• Why affiliate management is so important for today’s online merchants
• How to measure the success of an affiliate program
• Where to focus your time when managing an affiliate program
• Common affiliate management mistakes
• and much more!

It’s always interesting being interview by the radio because you obviously have to keep your comments short and to the point. In a way I found it tough because I get so excited about this material and could go on for days

Anyway there are some golden nuggets in this brief interview so enjoy!

Before I tell you what happened today, let me set the stage by sharing a related story from 4 years ago.

Picture this…

I had just graduated university.

No money.

No contacts.

But I had a deep hunger to build my own business… even though I didn’t exactly know what that business was going to be (smile).

However, here’s what happened…

I focused on learning as much as I could about internet marketing.

Why?

Because it was the cheapest, easiest and most profitable way for me to get started as an entrepreneur.

Here was the problem…

Even though I had just completed a 4 year Honors Business degree, I didn’t learn a thing about direct response marketing or internet marketing.

Seems strange doesn’t it?

I thought so, especially when I started to see how profitable this style of marketing was (it makes traditional “brand” marketing look foolish).

So what happened?

I literally spent hundreds of hours each evening listening to as many free teleseminars as I could from people who were
sharing information on different online marketing methods.

Some of the information was good.

…AND…

Some of it was completely useless.

It was always a struggle for me to identify who was teaching based on actual experience versus those people who were full of hot air.

I bet you can relate to this today!

With that said, I did learn a tremendous amount because I was able to find a few mentors who I liked, respected and enjoyed learning from.

So what does all this have to do with today?

Well, I’ve been invited to participate in arguably the biggest (and longest) marketing event of the year.

The best part is… you can get access to every single one of the training sessions absolutely free when you click the link
below:

Marketer Of The Year

…PLUS…

These aren’t just teleseminars… they are actually full blown webinars complete with a visual presentation!

You’ll hear from marketing legends like Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, Mark Joyner, John Carlton, Carl Galletti as well as other marketing greats like Alex Mandossian, Armand Morin, Rich Schefren, Yanik Silver, Mike Filsaime, David Frey, Stone Evans, Ryan Deiss, Brad Fallon, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, and so many more!

It really is the who’s who of the marketing world and it’s all free.

The reason this made me smile is because 4 years ago I would have died and gone to heaven to be able to listen in on something like this.

This really is the cream of the crop so you won’t have to worry about wasting any of your time listening to worthless information.

I will tell you this…

It will be intense and fast paced.

However, when it’s all complete you’ll be a better marketer and business person because of it.

Follow the link below, register and mark your calendar for the dates of the presentations you most want to hear.

Marketer Of The Year

It’s going to be great!

I hope to hear you on some of the calls.

Take care.

Situations happen where a major change is needed because ‘old’ strategies are over used…

…or are they? (read on to find out)

Unfortunately this October and November caused anyone serious in the ‘affiliate’ industry a lot of grief (us included).

What use to be fairly easy became a continuous uphill battle that just seemed to get harder and harder everyday that went by during those months.

In case you haven’t guessed it, I’m referring to the barrage of product launches that flooded the marketplace.

Here’s why they caused a lot of damage…

1) Challenges For the Affiliates

No longer is it feasible to use the ‘template’ emails, tools and promotions during any kind of launch. If you do, you’re list is most likely going to laugh.

When hundreds of emails are being sent about the same product during the same 3-4 days it’s inevitable that people on your list are going to see other emails from other marketers about the same product.

That forces you into a decision…

Do I take the ‘quick and easy’ route by sending out the ‘template’ email…

…or…

Do I invest the time and energy into crafting a unique promotion?

Tough call in most cases.

Unfortunately if you want to be successful as a top affiliate, investing the time and energy is going to be a must if you want to continue getting the results.

However, there is an answer that combines both ‘quick and easy’ with ‘highly effective and profitable’ (more about that in a second).

Now on the flip side, here are the challenges from the ‘Affiliate Managers’ perspective.

2) Challenges For Affiliate Managers

People are overloaded!

It’s not easy getting in the promotion ‘queue’ as it once was. Top affiliates are bombarded with hundreds of affiliate offers and some just can’t take it anymore.

It’s true…

Some top affiliates are shutting the doors completely and are starting to focus entirely on marketing their own products (this was evidenced in Mike Filsaime’s Death of Internet Marketing report).

So what does this mean for product owners and affiliate
managers?

It means you have to work a little harder (ouch).

I know that’s not what you wanted to hear but it’s true.

Now, you’ve got to be a little more creative in how you ‘recruit’ top affiliates and get their attention.

Furthermore, you have to start approaching affiliates months before your actual launch.

Yup, I said months!

Let’s be upfront here for one second…

The reality is most of final details of these product launches are pulled together hours before the ‘official’ launch date/time.

For the most part, there is always some last minute scrambling.

Why?

Because the product owner or affiliate manager has not thought through all the details.

They’ve left a lot of the implementation to the last minute.

Now I’m not saying I’m innocent here but what I am saying is that there HAS TO BE a more well thought out plan further in advance in order to continue to get the kind of results we are seeking.

That means lining the affiliates up well in advance so that you are on THEIR marketing calendar.

If you don’t, here’s what you’ll hear…

‘Sorry I’d love to promote but I’m already scheduled to promote ‘Product X’ and ‘Product Y’ this month and I don’t want to kill my list’.

BTW – here’s a reality check – that happens even for BIG NAME marketers who would normally be able to get all top affiliates on board.

So all of this has caused some top marketers to reflect and figure out some alternatives.

Surprisingly, there is a solution right under everyone’s nose and it’s actually been tested and proven to be one of the most effective strategies for selling virtually any product or service.

It’s been around for quite some time so it’s not the latest ‘whiz-bang’, press one-button and money comes crashing into your bank account solution (wouldn’t that be nice!).

This is probably the reason it’s been overlooked.

I will tell you this…

It’s been responsible for over 44 affiliates promoting a single product during the last week for one of my clients…

…AND…

We haven’t even hit the ‘home stretch’ for this promotion.

Secondly, the affiliates are WAY more educated on how to effectively promote and we are seeing FANTASTIC numbers from everyone participating.

Thirdly, because our affiliates are more educated (not to mention motivated) it’s actually cut down our customer support in half.

Fourth and final point is this – once we used this ‘overlooked’ strategy we had affiliates sending out promotions almost IMMEDIATELY!

It was shocking.

Affiliates were sending out our promotions to their list even before we had finished explaining what to do!

So are you curious what we did?

Find out Wednesday night at 9pm EST / 8pm CST / 6pm PST.

Click here to register.

That’s when we (Russell and Stu) will be grilling the man who mastered this method of marketing – and you’re invited!

Here’s the good news… it won’t cost you a thing to discover exactly what we did and how you can use the same strategy to…

1) Massively increase your sales as an affiliate promoting someone else’s product

or

2) Excite and motivate a lot of affiliates (at the same time) to promote YOUR product (even if there are a million product launches going on).

…PLUS…

Those same affiliates will mail out for YOUR product faster and more frequently than you would ever normally experience.

Sound good?

It will be so make sure you register!

BTW – We’re a little reluctant to reveal the identity of our special guest because we’re afraid once you hear his name you’ll automatically assume ‘you’ve heard it all before’. Trust me, you haven’t which is why most marketers are completely overlooking this strategy.

Click here for details

See you on the call.

There Is A Shift In The Online Marketplace

Average marketers are getting good.

Good marketers are getting great.

Great marketers are making such a HUGE leap in their marketing that it’s making it virtually impossible to catch up – especially if you don’t recognize important trends early on.

In the affiliate marketing industry one of those important trends is starting to take place…

It’s called “Pay Per Lead” vs. “Pay Per Sale”.

Now this isn’t anything dramatically new but here’s what’s happening…

Advanced marketers are paying closer attention to their metrics and are starting to put marketing strategies into place that are much more long-term focused.

What… long-term?

Yup.

That means they are actually looking further out in their schedule and they are looking at the lifetime value of a customer.

So here’s what you need to ask yourself if you want to stay up to speed…

How much is the average customer spending on my products once they come into my marketing funnel?

If you know this number then you know how much you’d be willing to spend to aquire a new prospect.

For example, if you generate an overall average sales of $5/subscriber in a one year period, would you be willing to spend $1 to bring in new targeted subscribers?

You should because for every $1 you spend you’ll average $5 (if those are your metrics).

Russell gives several great examples in his blog post entitled “The death of affiliate commissions?” so make sure you take a few seconds to read it.

The point is this.

If you run any affiliate program of anykind then you need to start considering alternative methods of compensating your affiliates in additon to what you’re already doing. Paying on a per lead basis is growing in popularity but it only makes sense for marketers who know their metrics and what a customer is worth to them.

So start paying close attention to your metrics and spend the time to figure out the lifetime value of every subscriber and customer that enters your marketing funnel.