The Importance of Themed Content

How and why do you surf the 'Net?

Do you turn on your computer, open your browser, then scratch your head and wonder, "Hmm… what I should look for today?"

Hardly.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts you've got specific goals in mind when you surf the 'Net.

Imagine for a moment that you gained a couple pounds over Thanksgiving. You're concerned that the fast-approaching Christmas feast, may have you wearing a mumu on Maui this January.

There's no way you're going to let that happen, so you decide to research treadmills on the 'Net. Naturally, you start at Google.com, and type in 'treadmills'. You click on a link that reads 'Treadmill Buyers Guide - Unbeatable Low Prices & Expert Info, Buy Direct and Save 40% - 45%'.

Would it frustrate you to land on a page that has no information about treadmills, and no obvious way to get to that information?

What about when you have to click on several links?

First you click on 'Sports', then 'Running', then back up when you don't see 'Treadmills' under 'Running'. Finally after 10 clicks you find the 'Treadmill' page listed under 'Fitness Equipment', which for some reason has different stuff than 'Sports Equipment'. There are 3 treadmills listed on the page, so back you go to Google.

Fortunately, searching at Google gives much better results than depicted above.

Indeed, when searching for 'treadmills' at Google, the first page of search engine results all go to pages specifically about treadmills. Nearly all the natural and sponsored listings belong to sites that sell just treadmills, or are sports equipment sites.

So why is it that many newbie webmasters think that building an all-purpose super mall, that sells everything and anything, will bring them fame and fortune, and save them the work of having to build multiple sites?

The answer to that question is beyond me. Those sites just don't get found, unless their name is Yahoo!, Epinions, ConsumerSearch or About.com. And if a site doesn't get found, it certainly doesn't get famous.

As for saving time by building only one site – what a pipe dream! Building a 1-stop shopping directory site with universal appeal and umpteen hundred categories, requires umpteen hundred pages. That takes time - lots and LOTS of time… unless you've got a Yahoo!-sized staff and advertising budget.

Lacking that type of investment, your best bet is to focus on a single theme. A five-to-ten page site that is easy-to-navigate with excellent reviews and information beats out a willy-nilly mall site every day of the week.

So put yourself in your customers' (running) shoes, and give them treadmills when they want treadmills.

Resource Box

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too can succeed in Internet and affiliate marketing, please visit http://www.netprofitstoday.com

How to Use Foreign Currency Rate Fluctuations to Your Advantage as an Affiliate Marketer

When I started affiliate marketing back in early 1998, getting paid in U.S. Dollars was a huge bonus to me as a Canadian resident.

At that time, one US dollar was valued at $1.43 Canadian. By late 2001, the greenback translated into $1.60 Canadian.

Woohoo!

Even if my merchants' product prices and commission rates remained the same, I got a raise simply by virtue of fluctuating foreign currency rates.

For example, let's say that one month I sold 100 dating service memberships at $29.95 for a 50% commission and earned $1497.50 US. In January 1998 that $1497.50 was worth $2141.42 Canadian, and by November 2001, it was worth $2396.00 Canadian dollars, or almost $255.00 CAD more than in 1998!

Unfortunately, the U.S. greenback has been slipping steadily against other currencies since early 2002, and on January 14th, 2005, it was worth $1.20 CAD.

Using the example above, my $1497.50 USD commission check is only worth $1797.00 CAD in January 2005 - a whopping $599.00 LESS than it was worth in late 2001.

Affiliate marketers in many other parts of the world faced the same scenario.

Here are some examples of how the US dollar has been performing against various currencies since early 2002.

British Pound January 2002 - 0.698241 GBP January 2003 - 0.618284 GBP January 2004 - 0.547846 GBP January 14, 2005 - 0.53124 British Pound

Australian Dollar January 2002 - 1.93418 AUD January 2003 - 1.71592 AUD January 2004 - 1.29591 AUD January 14, 2005 - 1.30581 Australian Dollar

Euro January 2002 - 1.13226 EUR January 2003 - 0.941605 EUR January 2004 - 0.791328 EUR January 14, 2005 - 0.75643 Euro

Those are fairly sizeable drops across the board... and a pretty depressing situation for non-U.S.-based affiliates who earn their incomes in US dollars.

However, there are a couple of things affiliate marketers can do to protect their affiliate income from these disastrous declines.

The first option is to work about 25-35% harder to bolster revenues to 2001 equivalent values.

However, because I'm basically lazy, working harder is never my first choice.

The second option involves using foreign exchange rate changes to your advantage by selling products offered by merchants located in your own country, priced in your own currency.

For example, although Canadians are less resistant to purchasing in U.S. dollars now that the Canadian dollar is so strong, they still hate to see a $120.00 charge on their credit card for a $100.00 item. Logic aside, something tells you that a buck should be a buck, and anything more feels like a rip-off.

The primary benefit of promoting 'local merchants' is to help your visitors save money by reducing shipping costs and eliminating customs duties on goods imported from the U.S. Basically, most of us prefer to shop locally if we can get the same product at the same or lower price.

Your task then is to find merchants that price products and pay their affiliates in your own currency.

That unfortunately is still easier said than done.

The pickings were pretty slim when I searched Google for "Canadian" "affiliate programs".

A site that listed itself as a directory of Canadian affiliate programs - wasn't.

Furthermore, most of the Canadian merchants that set Canadian dollar prices on their sites, either pay their affiliates in U.S. dollars, or are affiliated with networks that pay affiliates in US dollars.

U.K. affiliates will have an easier time finding U.K.-based merchants that pay in Pounds Sterling.

Check out the the following UK affiliate networks and directories:

• Deal Group Media
• Affiliate Window
• Trade Doubler
• Affiliate Scheme UK

Here's something to watch for if you decide to affiliate with merchants who work in your own currency.

At Commission Junction I discovered that if you promote the Canadian Shopping Channel which sells and pays commission in Canadian dollars, your commissions are first converted to U.S. dollars for CJ�s purposes, then back into to Canadian dollars when they deposit the commissions in your Canadian dollar bank account.

You�d lose money each time the commission went through the exchange process.

To avoid being penalized by currency exchanges before the commission hits your bank, I suggest setting up a separate Commission Junction account just for affiliations with your 'local merchants'. Be sure to set the 'functional currency' on that account to your country's currency.

U.S. affiliates can also take advantage of drops in the U.S. dollar by selling for foreign-based merchants. When or if the U.S. dollar drops, you will actually get a raise on each of those promotions.

Expand your reach by taking advantage of any and all opportunities at home and abroad. It is the WORLD-WIDE web after all.

Resource Box

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too can succeed in Internet and affiliate marketing, please visit http://www.netprofitstoday.com

Affiliate Programs to Avoid

As an affiliate marketer of Internet dating services, I'm always on the lookout for good quality dating sites and products to offer my single visitors. Merchants help me out when they let me know about their new products and affiliate programs.

I was therefore thrilled when one of my friendly affiliate competitors got in touch to tell me that he'd started his own Internet dating service and affiliate program.

Having launched a community membership site myself last year, I could fully appreciate the huge amount of time and money my friend had invested to develop this new site. He was justifiably proud of his accomplishment and I was excited by the prospect of having a product to promote that would benefit everyone - my customers, my friend and myself.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way.

The first stumbling block was the low commission he offered. His top rate was 30%, with no commissions on recurring sales.

This puzzled me. As an affiliate marketer of dating programs, he should have been aware that new sites offer at least 50% on new and recurring sales to entice good affiliates to sign up. If commissions on recurring sales are not offered, then the rates on new sales should be increased to between 70 and 100 percent.

In most cases, his affiliate program would have struck out for me at that point. However, as this was my friend's site, it occurred to me that perhaps his product was so unique that the potential for high volume sales might offset the lower commission. Hoping for the best, I continued my review.

When I got to the site, the first thing I noticed was '6 registered members' prominently displayed at the top of the homepage. That normally wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that my customers are looking for friends and soul mates. If I send them to a site where there are only six people to meet, they'll likely be disappointed. Worse, by wasting their time, they lose trust in my judgement and then I will lose them as customers.

That's not good. My customers are literally my bread and butter. Giving them what they want and expect is how I stay in business. Paying for traffic that I send to a merchant site where there is nothing to buy, will put me out of business.

(This is how a membership site should be structured. When starting a dating service, the merchant pays for advertising to bring people to their site. To entice visitors to sign up as members, he will initially offer his services for fr*ee. When the database is large enough to attract paying customers, the affiliate program manager then invites potential affiliates to join their program.)

Although my friend's program had already struck out for my customers and me, I was still curious, so I kept on looking.

Next I clicked on a link labeled 'Dating Resources'. Expecting to find Internet dating tips and advice, I found links and banners pointing to Lavalife, FriendFinder and other affiliated dating sites instead. When I asked him about placing affiliate programs on his site, my friend said he simply wanted to supplement his income until the dating service got *rolling*. I can understand his motivation. However, what he doesn't understand is the concept of customer 'hijacking'.

As an affiliate, you pay good money to get visitors to your site. You presell your merchants' products and expect the merchant to honor their end of the bargain by making the sale and sending your commission check. You don't pay for the merchant to send YOUR customers to THEIR affiliated merchants.

I didn't need to look any further. I told my friend that I would hold off on signing up and why. Fortunately, he understood and has already alleviated some of the problems I mentioned.

Knowing when NOT to sign up for an affiliate program can sometimes be a tough call. However, you can simplify the process considerably. Put yourself inside your customer's head. If the product won't work for them, the program strikes out. Simple as that.

Resource Box

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too can succeed in Internet and affiliate marketing, please visit http://www.netprofitstoday.com

Affiliate Programs: NO More 'Leaky' Links!

One of the rules of affiliate marketing, is to partner with merchants that don't have too many external links on their sites. This is especially true if you pay to advertise your site.

You might just as well burn your money as send it to sites that steal your traffic.

If the site does have links out, then those links should be coded with your affiliate ID. You should be credited for sales made through those links.

As I learn and grow in this business, I get pickier and pickier about such things.

For specifically that reason, I recently stemmed the flow of traffic to one of the dating networks I've been affiliated with for years. Soon after doing so, I received a call from the president of the company, who wanted to know what it would take for me to start sending traffic back to their sites.

I asked that each of the links out to their other dating sites either be removed, or coded with my ID. Although he discounted my request as being irrelevant in terms of lost commissions, he agreed to have the links removed from my affiliate sites.

Ask and ye shall receive, right?

Not quite. I checked back a couple of weeks later, and saw that the changes hadn't been made.

Easy enough. No changes made, no traffic sent.

Shortly after that I got another call from the company, this time from the affiliate program manager. I told her about my conversation with the president, and the remaining 'leaky' links.

She, fortunately, took my request very seriously. Not only that, but she had the sense to do a little research into 'the problem'.

Today I received the following from that affiliate program manager.

" ...based on the performance, there was a 30% increase in conversions when we did remove the "other" links. Thanks to this test and your persistence in removing the "other" links, we will soon be implementing this feature for all the sites."

Here's the data:

Before:

Free Signup/Uniques: 10%

Paid/Free Signup: 3%

After:

Free Signup/Uniques: 13%

Paid/Free Signup: 4%

"I will keep you posted as to when this should take place across the board."

Those numbers may LOOK small, but they are HUGE! Have you ever had a 30% pay raise? Well, if you are an affiliate of this dating network, you just got one!

Proof positive that ANYONE can make a difference.

Be persistent and Be successful.

Resource Box

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too can succeed in Internet and affiliate marketing, please visit http://www.netprofitstoday.com

New Google Adwords Policy Benefits Affiliates

Until recently, if you did a search on the term 'satellite dish' at Google, and then surveyed the URL's in the Adwords listings, you were bound to see that most of the ads linked to just one company. You'd also note that most listings ended with the 'aff' (affiliate site) designation.

Eight ads all linking to the same site. How useless and frustrating was that?

Well, Google has just introduced a new affiliates Adwords policy that finally addresses that problem.

However, the new policy has been met with much whining on various affiliate and Internet marketing forums.

Why?

'Cause affiliates who link directly from Adwords to their merchant partners' sites will have to get to work or go home.

Well, maybe.

There seems to be a loophole in the new policy's wording.

Here's how the new affiliate policy reads:

"With this new affiliate policy, we'll only display one ad per search query for affiliates and parent companies sharing the same URL. This way, users will have a more diverse sampling of advertisements to choose from."

"Affiliates or advertisers using unique URLs in their ads will not be affected by this change. Please note that your Display URL must match the URL of your landing page, and you may not simply frame another site."

Did they mean to say 'domain', not 'URL'?

If Google did indeed intend 'URL', then there is no problem for those who engage in the 'Google Cash' method of affiliate marketing, as each affiliate URL is unique.

Here's an example.

These are URL's for 3 affiliate marketers promoting the 'FriendFinder' dating service.

http://friendfinder.com/go/p1234 http://friendfinder.com/go/p5869 http://friendfinder.com/go/p3468

Each URL is unique, ergo it should be no problem to for affiliates to link directly to Friendfinder's site with their affiliate links.

However, if in fact Google meant 'domain', that's quite a different kettle of fish.

Because each URL above points to the 'friendfinder.com' domain, only one listing will be displayed, and chosen on the basis of Ad Rank.

Here's the official wording from within the policy.

"For instance, if a user searches for books on Google.com or anywhere on the Google search and content networks, Google will take an inventory of ads running for the keyword books. If we find that two or more ads compete under the same URL, we'll display the ad with the highest Ad Rank."

Ad Rank is determined by a combination of an ad's maximum cost-per-click and clickthrough rate.

Less competition is great news for affiliates who have always linked back to their own sites... as Super Affiliates always do.

One more benefit to affiliate marketers in Google's new Adwords policy is that you no longer need to identify yourself as an affiliate in your ad text. That means no more 'aff' at the end of the ad... and 4 more spaces to add content to your listing.

I figure consumers had no idea what 'aff' meant anyway, so Google just wanted to get rid of what looked like garble in the listings.

However, your current ad text will continue to display your affiliate status until you change it.

Assuming Google DID mean 'domain', this new policy is good news for affiliates... genuine affiliate marketers.

I've always taught that affiliates with content sites enjoy much higher conversion rates.

It's simple. Spend an hour writing an endorsement, upload it to your web site, then advertise that link on Google Adwords.

Why waste advertising dollars on a .5 percent conversion, when it only takes an hour to double or even quadruple that rate?

Resource Box

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too can succeed in Internet and affiliate marketing, please visit http://www.netprofitstoday.com

Affiliate Prescription: How to Prevent 'Sudden Earnings Collapse'

What would you do if your affiliate earnings suddenly dropped from $50,000 per month to $2,000 per month; or from $2,000 per month to absolutely no income at all?

How would you pay your super-sized mortgage and auto loans?

Never mind trivial items like shelter and transportation – who's going to pay the groceries? Your mother-in-law? Forget it. She always knew you should get a 'real job' and now she's going to lord it all over you.

Don't think that such catastrophes can't or don't happen.

They can and they do.

Merchants go belly-up and the commission checks stop arriving.

Products become obsolete or illegal, and entire markets disappear. (Remember BETA video cassette players? They didn't even make good boat anchors.)

For example, let's consider the implications of the following news release from the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) in the United States, "DEA Unveils International Toll-Free Hotline to Report Illegal Prescription Drug Sales and Rogue Pharmacies Operating on the Internet".

Read the full press release.

At issue here are doctors who prescribe drugs without seeing patients in person. It's a downright dangerous practice, and the medical questionnaires on pharmaceutical web sites don't begin to solve the problem.

As a result, doctors and online pharmacies in several states had fines levied against them, and some pharmacies have had their licenses lost or revoked.

OK, but how does that affect you as an affiliate?

Well, here's a post I found on the RXAffiliateForum with the subject line "My Conversation with the FBI".

"I spoke with the Special agent in charge for the southeastern region for INTERNET pharmacies. I was told in no uncertain terms it is illegal to dispense medications without a doctor/patient relationship. The FBI, DEA and other regulatory and enforcement agencies are investigating all websites that operate in this fashion."

"In addition there is no distinction between websites (read 'affiliate websites'), Ops (Online pharmacies) and pharmacies. Just a heads up."

Just a 'heads up', indeed!

Here's another post that I found at the same forum.

"I've taken HUGE losses in the OP (Online Pharmacy) industry. ABC Merchant Site (name changed) owes me over $15,000! And XYZ Merchant Site (name changed) owes me over $5000! …There are people who have lost 2, 3, 4... even 5 times the amount that I have! And I've lost over $20,000! If you read through old posts on this forum, you will find TONS of people in the same boat. Some people have even taken legal action... but very few have got any money."

After those online pharmacies pay their fines, there probably isn't much left to cover their affiliates' commission checks.

According to Richard A. Chapo, Esq. of AdultInternetLaw.com, "it is clear that affiliates of online pharmacies can be prosecuted in states such as Nevada".

Mr. Chapo encourages webmasters of online pharmacies to "review the programs they are promoting to make sure that they are not in conflict with the Controlled Substance Acts of various states, such as Nevada. There is little doubt that the industry will see many more prosecutions in this area of the online industry."

Scarey, huh? Yes, but the point is not to scare you away from affiliate marketing.

The point is that there are potential 'problems' with any business arena you may want to enter. You simply need to be both cautious and aware.

So, what's the prescription for protecting yourself from sudden earnings collapse?

Well, just like you can't expect to stay healthy or thrive on a steady diet of cake, neither should you hope to maintain or grow an affiliate business with a single type of product.

There are thousands of merchants with affiliate programs, and tens of thousands of products in different markets from which to choose, so start choosing. Expand and diversify your product range and build a solid and healthy affiliate business!

In other words, hedge your bets - and no, that doesn't necessarily mean that you should promote online casinos. :-)

Resource Box

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too can succeed in Internet and affiliate marketing, please visit http://www.netprofitstoday.com

Are You Getting Bad Advice?

During my research this week, I came across an ezine with a subject line that read, 'Stick with One Guru Guidance'.

I fully expected that the title was crafted with shock value simply to grab the reader's attention, and expected that the article would in fact promote the opposite viewpoint.

I was wrong.

In a nutshell, the author said that although there is lots of great Internet marketing advice available, if you read the advice of too many 'gurus', you will get confused, lose focus, and that 'complete paralysis' will be the ultimate result.

My immediate reaction was to think 'how many is TOO many?'.

Without a careful survey of different viewpoints, you can't formulate your own ideas and opinions.

Although I've been marketing online since 1997, I still spend time almost everyday researching topics relevant to my Internet businesses.

I subscribe to a number of different 'gurus' newsletters.

I surf the Web to see what's new and what has changed in the Internet marteting realm. I regularly purchase and review newly-released products and services.

Above all, I seek advice and learn from both my mentors and those I mentor.

I can't imagine choosing between (the late) Corey Rudl, or Marlon, or Yanik or a dozen others to be my only eBusiness mentor.

All are extraordinarily knowledgeable and each offers a unique perspective. I learn volumes from each and every one.

While I agree that the plethora of prescriptions for internet business success can be somewhat confusing, I trust that you, my dear readers, have ample intelligence to wade through and determine whose counsel is of value to you.

Basic study and organizational skills will help you avoid confusion.

Take notes, keep a business diary and bookmark pertinent web pages. Categorize them in ways that make sense to you.

In summary, here's a prescription for your Internet business success. Get a balanced diet of advice by selecting information from all the major gurus.

Read it, digest it, then pick one guru in every major area to follow.

Choose your guru based on your sense of trust in that person, and on the advice of others.

If you are looking through the forums for other people's thoughts on a particular guru or book or course, make DARNED sure that the person making the comment:

1. Has actually READ the book. I see SO many people who make assumptions about products, and then it turns out that they haven't even bought the darned thing.
2. Has actually USED the material. You'll see comments like 'the material didn't work for me'. YA. Take a look at that person's site. 100 times out of 100, you'll see that they didn't follow the plan outlined in the course. ie. The site is UGLEEEEE, and where's the form for opt-ins? Yikes!

And before you buy a product, make sure that the material is up to date. Look for a 'freshness guarantee'. For an example, visit my Super Affiliate Handbook site, and scroll down the page.

You'll see the following headline in bolded black, "Is the information in the Super Affiliate Handbook current and up-to-date?" below which the month of the latest revision is posted.

The problem is not getting too much advice. You'll find that most of the 'gurus' cover the basics in much the same way.

The value you get from learning from more than one guru comes from picking up on their special techniques... and every 'guru' has got 'em.

So, pick a guru from who you'll learn and then apply the basics.

Then invest in other materials to 'round out your education' and put more tools in your toolchest.

Resource Box

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online". To learn how you too can succeed in Internet and affiliate marketing, please visit http://www.netprofitstoday.com