Ian Fernando » Uncategorized

10 Ways Merchants Should Invest In Affiliate Partnerships

Ian — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:20:52 +0000

Guest Post By: Brian Hawkins

Affiliate partnerships need to be a win-win alliance. Merchants sometimes want to take all the benefit of the sales without any of the risk. As an affiliate manager, my job is to support my partners marketing efforts. Which is why I wrote an article in FeedFront Magazine that gave some solid ideas for how to help support your publishers. Because affiliates are extremely busy, just look at Ian’s quick response back to my guest post request “go for it! need some content on the blog haven’t been on there much so busy! wish I can ctrl copy myself!”. Here is a few ways that merchants should be proactive to help support its affiliate partners.

10 Ways to Invest in your Affiliates

Advice
Give as much advice as you possible can. It cost you nothing but the information can be priceless.
Design
Provide custom banners & creative support
Content
Have ghostwriters available to help produce quality content.
Landing Pages
Provide a proven tested template or custom landing page to your partners that maximizes conversion rates. You don’t always have to have the highest payout, if you have the best EPC rate with a proven affiliate sales funnel.
Keyword List
Share your best converting terms to your select PPC affiliates.
Stats
Share your stats to outline what’s happening on your site. Stat’s don’t lie in making a performance based marketing decision.
Plan
If you know what works, share it! Why not have 5 to 10 other partners applying the same plan that worked for you internally. You’re gaining additional online real estate and exposure with 5x to 10x the sales growth.
Video Production
Video has bin a huge traffic driver & conversion rate booster. So create some video’s and have a video producer on hand to provide some custom videos for your partners.
Prizes
Giveaways help build buzz, so consider sponsoring a prize. It will get you additional exposure on a publisher site while building a viral marketing campaign together.
$$ Capital $$
Affiliates are only going to test your offer with a few hundred dollars. So why not invest with some additional capital to let them really test your offer with a new creative idea. It’s kind of like an advanced commission check to help someone start an affiliate marketing business.

Since money talks, Pingo set up the $20k contest in April for the top three marketing plan finalist. First Prize gets $10,000 and 2nd to 3rd Prize gets $5,000 each. So we hope to use this investment strategy to recruit three solid affiliates to test out a new ethnic targeted marketing plan to promote Pingo.

These are just a few ways to support your affiliates. Please comment to share your wish list of what you would like from an affiliate program?

About the author:

Brian Hawkins is an affiliate marketing manager for a virtual prepaid calling card
service that pays up to $35.00 CPA for each referral. Brian blogs 140 characters a day on twitter @BrianHawkins & @TelecomAgents. Plus is an assistant organizer to the Boston SEO & Affiliate Marketing Meetup at BostonSEO.org. RSVP for the next event on May 4rth with guest speaker, super affiliate Amit Mehta from SuperAffiliateMindset.com & PPC Coach.

Blog Sales Copy vs. Lengthy Sales Letter

Ian — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:58:34 +0000

The other day I put up a product for sale which surprisingly did pretty well with the initial launch. The product was my Build a Niche Store Premium Templates. These specific templates were meant for the over saturated eBay virtual store on the internet. I personally like to be different and when I first started using BANS, I quickly went a head and customized my own layout, trying to be different. With that said I started seeing more and more store created by BANS. How did I know? Well the layout structure was the same, then it clicked – sell templates!

Since this is a new product that I have launch, I also decided to do a sales copy different from the traditional lengthy sales letter. I went ahead and did a blog post.

In the past there are a lot of people that speak of the lengthy blog post and how there seems to be a scammy feeling about it. The sales letter is way too long with way too many highlighted text and over exaggerated material. A lot of people actually frown on this type of sales letter. But personally I found it to work for me and I still use the sales copy and sales letter technique when selling a digital product. The only difference now is I decided to do a case study on blog sales letter.

I was very hesitant when creating the sales copy for a blog, especially my blog. A sales letter is more for the buyer and not the reader. Well I took a risk in trying and testing this specific technique out, which I don’t read about or hear about or even seen on other blogs. A sales copy on a blog, crazy!

The reason I did this is because I am pretty highly ranked for Build a Niche Store and I wanted to go ahead and take advantage of it. It would be harder to rank a new domain or a new subdomain for a sales letter. A blog is far easier because of several issues:

Blog has auto credibility
I already have targeted traffic
I am already ranked for the specific keyword/s
I have already spoken about BANS on this blog

These specific reasons are the reasons why I thought it would be a good idea to do a sales copy on a blog. Also I distinctly removed my blog sales copy away from the traditional context and structure of a traditional sales letter. I have done the following:

Instead of BIG Heading – I simply bolded
No Highlighted Text
No overdose of exaggerated text
No overdose of images and income results

I stuck to the simplicity of the blog and it proved to be beneficial. (I have not thoroughly tested, context, location, etc) I removed myself from the typical stereotype of a sales letter, kept the basics but also kept the simply layout. All I simply did was emphasized the sales letter within a blog. The blog already has a brand and I thought to use it.

Testimonials

As far as testimonial, I didn’t add any. The reason for this is because I would rather have live testimonials via the comments! This is, I think, far more powerful because it creates a discussion and users that may have purchased the template can leave their actual live comments on the blog post. This to me can mean the better aspect of the blog sales copy. These users are live and real people, sometimes a lot of people think testimonials on a sales letter are fake – on a blog they are real and by interested users or buyers.

These testimonials I personally think are more powerful to future buyers, they see positive comments and they have a better chance of buying. Sure they are not brandable or well known names, but the fact I can have X amount of positive comments can mean the difference of a purchase or not.

Overall

I found the blog sales copy to be pretty powerful. Maybe a review would be more powerful, but I mean I am selling a product. How else can I sell it since it is my initial product. Blog Sales Copy vs Actual Sales Letter – I would say the Blog Sales copy wins just because it has more aspects than a traditional sales letter, which I would have to longer for. A blog has everything I need – will I do more sales copy on my blog? Not sure yet, might do dual split testing or even redirect to an actual blog. So many other variations. But the results in income proved to be faster and a little more less work than a traditional sales letter.

Video, Basically what I just said Above:

When Viral Videos Attack

Ian — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:38:25 +0000

I found this video about viral videos and how each viral video is ‘competing’ for the top spot. Viral videos are the new wave and a lot of it has to do with catching the attention of people. I thought this video below of South Park shows its full potential on how viral videos are competing to be on the top list on the internet. I have viewed all the videos and one I just never seen.

South Park did a perfect re-enactment of the sound and views of each person and character. I wonder if this would really happen in real life, if these viral videos actually met they would destroy each other. You will see a lot of the familiar popular Youtube players such as Star Wars Kid, Afro Ninja, Gopher, Numa Numa, etc.

Enjoy Video!

*strong graphic violence and use of words

Your Questions, My Answers Round 1

Ian — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:52:02 +0000

Friday I logged into a very old forum that I rarely go into but I was very active in when I was just starting in the internet marketing genre. I had lots of private messages and threads that I have not visited in over 4 months. What I thought I would do was a questions and answer thread, just because I was gone from the forum and wanted to give something back for my absence. Below you will find questions ask by members of the Young Entrepreneur forum and of course my experienced answers.

Sorry for not editing my answers, just in case I misspelled or have poor grammar.

Best affiliate sites?

There are multitudes of affiliate sites and most of them tend to offer the same offer, varying payouts. You also want to see what the network can offer you besides exclusive offers and high payouts. Is the communication there and is your affiliate manager willing to help you? Are you comfortable with their interface and layout? There are just numerous questions you want to ask yourself. I personally find NeverBlueAds and Azoogle Ads work best for me. I recently started with Motive Interactive and CPA Storm – just because their account managers are great people to talk too, I like communication in a network.

Hi

I am thinking about starting my own business what would I need to do first????

First find out what you enjoy doing. This is a very important factor when trying to market/make money online. If you do not enjoy what you are doing you will not put out your heart in your business. Find a model with your idea. Research the market, see if it is viable and can be done with your finances if you are doing it by yourself. Create and brainstorm your idea making sure your idea and business model do not collide. Having a strong foundation will give you more of a benefit in the long run.

Most importantly read read read read!

making the decision on what/who’s product to sell: affiliate, order my own, make my own

Ordering your own product, I personally do not think is the most beneficial. The reason for this is because someone probably already has it and is marketing it much better than you, they already have a step up on you by simply purchasing a product to resell. I say be unique and have your own product.

Having your own product will be more of a benefit to you because you are the only one out there that has it and you know people want it (assuming you did the research). Having your own product or services easily seperates you from the competition and crowd.

Affiliate products will depend on the market and what time of year it is. Also it also depends on what you like to promote and what you will put your heart in promoting. Affiliate marketing is great since you do not need an inventory, you just promote someone else’s products and services and get a cut. Choosing a product to promote can be hard since you will have to think about a lot of things, brand, market value, the market need, seasonal item, etc.

Are all the internet marketers are liars?

I bolded this one because it is a controversial question and it is base on the marketer themselves. Personally I am not a liar which is why I have this blog to show my own experiences. But there are marketers out there that will ‘fake it to make it’ which is a bad business model but does work. More so marketers out there are trying to make the most money in as little time as possible, so they take short cuts, which is another bad reason we marketers have a bad reputation.

This question is really base on the individual marketer and their product that they are selling/promoting. It is more of a moral to that marketer/entrepreneur or maybe even ego. But I have met a lot of trust worthy and honest marketers that make their income online. I would rather associate with these types than those that want to make a quick dollar.

Do you see value in generice traffic from sites like Bux Sense

There has been a study on this by a well known marketer, you can view the forum thread here and see his results. These types of traffic are not properly done and are just thrown in front of a user. By means of overlay popups, pop unders, pop overs, etc – these service uses these tactics to give you the traffic. Is it healthy and good traffic I say no. Just because it does not convert. It just really annoys the user surfing the web.

My question is

What if you had (or was capable of producing) a perfect unique product one that has never been marketed, something that is unique and appeals to a very specific tight niche group (market easillly identified) and potentially very profitable…but you didn’t feel competitant to properly handle the marketing…

What would be the more practical way for me to waste my time… market myself or, find someone to market for me?

The best answer to this is get someone to market it, knowing if you have the money andknowing you will get a good return. If it is unique then it can be safe to say to market it. BUT I would test the market by marketing it my self first. This way you can have a feel of what is happening and see if your product/service is optimal to market at this specific time of year. Make sure you do the research – it is what the market demands. Making or providing a service does not mean it will be successful. Make sure to get in contact with people who are already successful and ask their opnions before pouring your financial into a marketing agency. But having someone else market or buying the targeted traffic (PPC) can be beneficial.

How do I get to first page on google – I have tried advertising but it doesnt seem to be working – I heard that you should link your ad to your articles – is that true – I have been using USfreeads.

There are numerous ways to get in first for Google. Since this is very general and open -I suggest reading some SEO tactics such as backlinks and keyword density. Getting first on Google is not that hard as long as you have a keyword that is not very competitive. I have blog posts that come up first or appear on the first page of Google for specific targeted keywords. Learn the foundation of SEO and have a basic understanding of SERP and you can easily be first on Google for your targeted keyword.

Have questions leave them in the comments section or contact me.

Happy Easter – Find the Eggs!

Ian — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:27:30 +0000

I want to take this and say happy easter to all. If you do not already know Caroline Middlebrook is having an Easter egg hunt right on her blog. Instead of going through grasses and bushes you are going through texts and images to find the eggs. So if you are bored go ahead and start finding the eggs because she will be giving out one of her great ebooks to you for free, once it is released.

As you know she has created a great tutorial on WordPress and goes into great details on so many aspects of wordpress. Great book.

Today, I will be with family and will continue with my posts tomorrow. I have several posts ready for this week on some internet marketing stuff and affiliate marketing. I also have an interview podcast setup this week on marketing outside of the ‘internet marketing’ niche. So stay tuned

Happy Easter!

photo credit: Sami Taipale

Affiliate Summit West 2008 T-Shirt Friday

Ian — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:59:07 +0000

I have received tons of freebies and I decided to take some and do a t-shirt Friday just like the Shoemoney! So below you will see some pictures of me wearing t-shirts from networks or services. I received multiple outerwear, since most networks are base in Canada, which for some reason not a lot know the reason as to why. But I took all these pictures pretty late in my hotel roo, so if I look tired it is because I am.

Well below are some freebie gear that I have received from services and sponsors:

Zac Johnson – MoneyReign.com

The Official Affiliate Summit 2008 T-Shirt

Twipster a geocentric mobile publishing platform

RocketProfit – Affiliate Network – I might be joining them soon

Tracking202 – the best affiliate tracking system

Adviant – Affiliate Network – this shirt is a little small I think

What Am I Doing to Win the RSS Competition?

Ian — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:25:26 +0000

As my competitors are creating their future tactics I think I might just put mine out in the open. This is a great way for my readers to know what I am providing first hand and if they want to participate if needed. Well, I posted the competition post late last night, exactly at 12:05 am the day when this RSS competition started.

This gave me a heads up prior to my competitors or my fellow bloggers. I didn’t have time to think on what prizes to span out for the month of February because I will be out on the 23-27th for Affiliate Summit West 2008, this may give my other fellow bloggers an advantage.

So what am I doing that is unique from everyone’s prizes? Well I know some are providing hard cash to get ahead of the game while others are offering ad space. So far I have offered a chance to win one of the premium templates, of course anyone who wrote a post about it will have a far better chance at winning one.

Blog Affiliate System

One unique thing about my blog is sharing my blog and income with other bloggers. My blog JV partnership system give you the chance to earn 65% of the commission from my blog! There are unique keywords with unique affiliate products. This is a first ever system to share my income with my fellow readers and for anyone that want to promote IanFernando.com. There are ClickBank Products, PayDotCom Products, and $7DollarOffer Products within this blog in which my readers can earn 65% of the earnings.

Another BEST part of this JV system is if someone downloads report, I will forward them to a product or your website of any choice and not interfere with commission if it is an affiliate product. My blog’s affiliate system is definitely unique in its own. -> Sign Up Here

What about Prizes?

I have some good prizes I will hand out. Here are the prizes I wil be handing out!

Joel Comm’s Adsense Secrets will be given out! YES, as you know Joel Comm is best known author for the Adsense Code, spilling his beans and secrets about making money on line with Adsense.

There are multiple changes within Google Adsense, yet there are still people making money out there. This is a new DVD which I will provide to you for simply just subscribing to my Feed via email. (the only way I can track real readers)

This exclusive Live seminar of Joel speaking about his tactics on creating an Adsense empire. There are tactics that are spoken and told just from this DVD that others paid hundreds to view. But Subscribe and you get a chance at grabbing it for FREE!

This is a great oppurtunity for you to learn from Joel first hand as if he is speaking to you! You get to be in the front seat of his seminar. While others have paid hundreds to be in his seminar, you get the opportunity to win it for free!

Another great prize is what you see above! I am giving away a box set of the internet series “The Next Internet Millionaire“. This includes all episodes from start to finish and has exclusive episodes and hidden episodes which was not aired on the internet. This will be a great way for you to learn some of the tactics from top 12 Internet Marketers ranging from Mike Filsaime to Mark Joyner. While many have paid thousands to spend time with some of these marketers, you get to have a sneak peek view of what the contestants are learning from these top marketers. In order to win this you have to subscribe to my feed via email as well.

These 2 prizes are very exclusive and I am awaiting one more confirmation from a ShareaSale agent to get a guestpass to anyone that will be going to affiliate summit west 2008. If this can be done then that will be another great prize I am giving out.

Any Tactics I am doing to beat the others?

Well a while ago I was working with Simon to create an adsense style advertising via feeds. Simon whom I have given the aka “Google Son” has created a great plugin called Feedvertising. This plugin installs a great adsense style feed ad to any post. If you would like to help me win, please install this plugin onto your wordpress platform and leave a comment below that you have done so and you can win a free ad spot on IanFernando.com, I am giving away 2 spots for 35 days!

These are the plans and prizes I have so far, so let us see how this turns out. I was not that much concentrated on RSS but now my competitors are pushing me to do so, this is a great push for me and learning experience.

Nintendo WII Plus Glass = Accident!

Ian — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:10:19 +0000

LOL – I just found this video and I want to go ahead and share it. This is a very funny video for the Nintendo WII. If you are looking to buy your kids Nintendo WII, make sure your kids are away from things that are breakable such as: glass!

If you are playing baseball make sure you are out in the open, baseball is a field sport which means it is an outdoor sports. Nintendo WII, this is a valuable lesson on why not to get your kids the Nintentdo WII. But the sad part is I want a Nintendo WII it looks so entertaining. Ok enough here is the video I found – again Nintendo WII plus Glass equals CRAACK!

Happy 4th of July

Win a Free Premium News Template

Ian — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:43:53 +0000

Awhile ago I wrote about magazine/newspaper template that bloggers can use. I have great news! I have got in contact with 3 authors and they agree to give out 1 template each. This means I am giving out 3 prizes again! I would like to thank Nathan Rice/ Charity Ondriezek/ Brad Mahaffey to help make this contest available to my readers.

Newspaper/Magazine templates are getting popular and I think 2008 might be a change in the blogging templates, asking for more intricate web designs such as newspaper styles or magazine look a likes. Again these types of templates are all about interaction with the end user. Providing more information in one section, giving them choices.

Today is a great day for my readers and others who may find their blog is in need of a new template. The 3 web designers will provide 1 template a winner who really wants their exclusive premium template. Here are the templates that are up for grabs:

NewsPixel Design:

CornetStone Template:

Art Culture Template:

How Can I win, The Rules:

You will need to write a post about what template you want by simply writing how one of these templates will benefit your site, linking to the authors template website. If you want to win any of the 3 then you can write how News/Magazine style will benefit bloggers.
Leave the URL in the comment below

Increase your Chances of Winning:

(Optional) Within the original post, mention this contest or link back to IanFernando.com
(Optional) Subscribe to my Feed to increase your chance of wining the desired template

Choosing the Winner:

I will choose the winner on random
Contest is for 2 weeks and will end February 10th 2008

Good Luck All! I hope to read some new great blogs!

Say Hello to my Scarface Sponge!

Ian — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:33:40 +0000

So I got an email the other day asking about my Scarface picture frame and I decided to talk about it and write something about it, why not. A reader asked me about when I got the Scarface picture that I was hanging in the back of my office, he noticed it in one of my videos and even left a comment on YouTube.

So to answer the question I always had the Scarface picture but I was super lazy to hang it up. I recently hung it up sometime maybe; I want to say a month ago? Well not it is hung up and I like it right in my home office, it fits my environment.

Besides just having a Scarface picture frame I also had a custom air brush shirt done. This shirt was made by one of my friends who owns an air brush shop. He does my shoes, shirts, button ups, fitted hats, etc. Anything you can write on he can design anything on it. He is a great artist who is really good with the air paint.

He designed it with Spongebob, because Spongebob is straight gangster. He designed the world and Spongebob with great accuracy. I can say he did real great job on my custom T-Shirt. I might think he should design one for Affiliate Summit… hmmm…

So to answer one of my reader’s questions about my Scarface picture, I recently hung it up when I had time. I always had the picture which was sitting in my closet and decided to just hang it one day.

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