I wanted to publish something quick today, hopefully, something which will be valuable to the community in a few weeks.

I published a blog today using the article review by 5 Star Affiliate Programs of Ross Goldberg’s video on how to publish a monetized blog using Blogger.

It took me about an hour, but I have the blog up and published, along with a Squidoo lens. Now I just have to come up with article content for both the lens site and the actual blog.

One of the coolest tips in the video was about the RSS Feed Generator. However, when I tested the links, my Clickbank affiliate id did not carry over into the payment screen.

As many of you know, when you get to the Clickbank payment screen at the bottom of the browser window is [affiliate = yourclickbankid] when testing it read [affiliate = none] I am going to try to get to the bottom of this, but needless to say, this could end up costing somebody a lot of money. Take 5starAffiliatePrograms advice and check your links before you go live with your site using RSS Feed Generator.

I have sent RSS Feed Gen an email with my blog name and what is happening. I will update this posting if they get back to me.

Have a great Thursday!

The U.S. Is A Brand New Market

After reading all the good reviews about Buy.at launching in the U.S. I thought I would head over on Opening Day to take a look at what they were about and to look into creating an account depending on what the folks from the U.K. had to offer. After all, I am always excited to see what sorts of innovations other affiliate networks are developing, especially from other countries because I think they have an ability to look at things from a completely different perspective than U.S. companies.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed.

We Do Not Know You Yet

There was not much description or examples of features or content on their pages, and they only have one affiliate program, CD WOW!, whose brand I did not recognize and had never heard of… (which doesn’t mean a lot – I don’t get out much:) ) – I recognize all of this could be because they are just getting off the ground – but, from what I understand they have been around for a while in the U.K. so I was hoping for more.

Note: An article about the 2003 lawsuit involving CD WOW! and the British Phonographic Industry (pronounced with an F – NOT a P) can be found here at Wikipedia and here at The Register.

Again, due to the high praise folks have been posting about But.at recently, I thought there might be more content “inside”. So, I started the account creation process where I found they wanted a Primary URL, permanent Buy.at handle which apparently cannot be changed and Financial Details – routing & account numbers.

Now, I don’t mind the URL and handle so much, but, they mention that, “…your web handle is permanent, and as such needs to be unique to yourself, and be suitable for use across all of your operations.”

It Is Better To Date Before We Get Married

I don’t even know what “operations” I’m interested in with Buy.at yet, and they want me to create some sort of permanent handle? A lot of thoughts ran through my head – should I use my common “handle”? If I do, what if they turn out to be less stellar than I have heard? I don’t want that “handle” nor do I want a Primary URL to be associated there… What if they turn out to be great? If clients will be exposed to it, I don’t want some sort of generic “xyz2468” thing to be my handle. Remember, there is nothing on any of their U.S. pages where they disclose how these pieces of information will be used in their programs.

I was also extremely uncomfortable giving an affiliate network I am not familiar with my routing & account numbers without, at least, reading a privacy disclosure statement or knowing more about what the network has to offer.

Bottom line – And this is just me– I did not create an account with them today. There may be a lot more trust in the U.K. where folks feel more comfortable making these sorts of commitments and giving away sensitive information without the full picture. But, I think for me, at least, I will wait for a little more disclosure and a lot more trust to be built by them before I jump in.

What do you think?

It is Sunday, the “official” day of rest. I thought it would be a great opportunity to write a really quick and easy article about rest, so that I can get back to my lounging around.

As new affiliates we often find ourselves becoming obsessed with the amount of work to be done along with all the opportunities out there. Personally, this week, I have been working on affiliate/blog/website things from around 6p.m. – 3a.m. after working my regular job during the day… I also have a family, church and other things in my life.

What I have heard recently from other affiliates & bloggers is that they have similar situations.

I just want to encourage folks to remember the people and things in their lives still need attention too. If you do not want to take Sunday off from affiliate marketing, schedule another day, at least once per week. Take time; get a good night’s sleep before and after your “off” day. Schedule a couple of things to do with other people AWAY you’re your computer, AWAY from your desk. Have fun!

Remember, we do not live to make money – we make money to live.

I really doubt that the majority of us would like to look back on our lives as we lay on our death bed, and say, “You know, if I had to do it over again, I really wish I had spent more time working on that website!”

I would love to hear what you folks do on your day off. Please feel free to comment; maybe we can inspire each other to keep a balance in our lives.

First of all, you should read a post by VladTheAffiliate on My Affiliate Journey called Can You Afford Pay Per Click? Also, it might not hurt to read my post below called 5 Common Sense Tips About Affiliate Marketing and the comment by Mike from InsureMe.com at the bottom of the article. The key quote being:

One thing that I’ve learned early is – don’t give Google a dime unless you can get more than a dime back. Sounds simple, but there is always the temptation of thinking you can overspend and then hoping Google will start showing you some love. Truth is – it is likely that you will never see the love you need to recover the loss.

Alright, after all of that if you are still interested in using AdWords, I am guessing you believe that if you spend a dollar on AdWords you will get two dollars back, right? Well, the answer is complicated but the bottom line is simple; if you want to have any chance at all for this thing called AdWords to work, you will have to write compelling ads.

Be careful to follow Google’s Editorial Guidelines – mainly you can accomplish this by being careful not to “trick” or “get away” with anything “sneaky” – also, no triple punctuation marks like !!! or ??? or even ?!? that is a no-no with Google.

Capitalize Every Word In The Ad

One of my affiliate sites, currently under re-development, focuses on insurance. An ad I created for it reads as follows:
Cheap Car Insurance Quote
Compare To Get Your Best Rate – Up
To 5 Agents Bid For Your Business!

Notice that I am capitalizing words which are normally not capitalized in a title or sentence. Make sure you capitalize “And”, “But”, “To”, “Up”, “All”, and all the other words in your ad.

Tell Them What Your Product/Service Is or Isn’t

Remember the client has just performed a search, hopefully, on your title keywords which are part of your keyword list. But, some of those individual keywords may only vaguely represent your service. I have had bids on specific makes and models of cars in the past. So, somebody might do a search for “BMW Series 3” and come up with my ad. I want them to know that my ad is for a Car Insurance Quote – NOT for BMW auto parts or a leather seat cover because I am probably paying $4 – $6 per click. Insurance is a VERY expensive CPC market, so not many people are crazy enough to play there.

Call To Action – Try to Compel the Reader to Action

Notice in the above ad, that we are asking the customer to “Compare To Get…” Ask them to do something.

Give Them a Benefit Statement

Let them know why they would want to click on your ad. We need to let them know that they are in the driver’s seat, so to speak by telling them that up to 5 agents will bid for their business. Agents will be competing against each other for their business. Hopefully, they will like that and click the ad.

Brainstorm The Composition Of The Title And Ad Body

Get out a pad of paper and a pencil – Write down your ideas for headlines. Try to have at least ten different ideas, where you are telling the client what your service is, or what it isn’t. Try different arrangements; Put the Call to Action in your title and the Benefit Statement and Product Description in the body, or vice versa. Mix and match, be creative. Create multiple ads and track their performance, then use the best one.

Have Fun – But Remember, It MUST Pay For Itself!

Affiliate marketing is a business, you are in it to make money, not to support Google’s stock price.

Do NOT make the mistake I made and overspend your budget. If you spend a dime, make sure you are making a quarter back. If you spend a quarter, make sure you make fifty cents back.

Boring Definitions – Stay with Me

Perception –
1. The process, act, or faculty of perceiving.
2. The effect or product of perceiving.
3. Psychology
a. Recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory.
b. The neurological processes by which such recognition and interpretation are effected.
c. Insight, intuition, or knowledge gained by perceiving.
d. The capacity for such insight.
4.
a. Insight, intuition, or knowledge gained by perceiving.
b. The capacity for such insight.

Reality –
1. The quality or state of being actual or true.
2. One, such as a person, an entity, or an event, that is actual: “the weight of history and political realities” (Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.)
3. The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence.
4. That which exists objectively and in fact: Your observations do not seem to be about reality.

Intent –
1. A course of action that one intends to follow.
2.
a. An aim that guides action; an objective.
b. intentions Purpose with respect to marriage: honorable intentions.
3. Medicine The process by which or the manner in which a wound heals.
4. Archaic Import; meaning.

Perception Is Reality?

Perception and reality can trump one another, can’t they? If we take Perception definition 2 it trumps Reality definition 4 because how can we know something exists objectively if we do not observe it or the evidence of it? Reality 1, 3 & 4 can be thought to trump perception 3 because all are based on the fact that things are real whether they can be observed or not and the definition of perception is that we must be able to perceive through our senses that something is real.

American Idol Is Full Of Good Intentions?!?!

It is said that everybody believes their intentions to be good and right. There is evidence of this every week on American Idol – where people who truly believe and intend to prove that they can sing, fail miserably. We know they fail because our perception causes us to cringe when we hear the first few notes.

So, we can ask, which is correct, the reality or the perception? Whose reality is correct, and whose perception is correct? Are they the same thing? Does it depend on our point of view?

Philosophers, Theologians and Scholars have spent years and lifetimes wrestling with the differences between perception, reality and intent. My point with regards to affiliate marketing, simply put, is this. Remembering the client is ALWAYS right we must allow our target audience the ability to perceive correctly the reality of our intent.

Courage, Courage, Courage

We must have the courage to admit our site design is not working and change it to fit the ability of our potential clients to perceive our intent

We must have the courage to admit that our current affiliate program is not converting correctly because they do not get how to allow clients the perception of an honest and safe transaction.

We must have the courage to make the hard decision to admit that we do not have the ability or the time to sing the whole song (design and write content) by ourselves.

What The Heck Does Simon Cowell Have To Do With It?

We should be the creators of the idea behind the work, not the actual laborers – Heck, as I understand it Simon Cowell cannot carry a tune to save his life – but he understands his audience and their ability to perceive what they like, and he GIVES it to them…

The Nuts of the Article

As affiliates, let’s have the courage to make the conscience decision to marry the perception of reality with our intent to present ourselves in a way that allows our current and potential clients to clearly perceive our intentions.

References:

American Psychological Association (APA):
Perception. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved February 21, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Perception

Chicago Manual Style (CMS):
Perception. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Perception (accessed: February 21, 2007).

Modern Language Association (MLA):
“Perception.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 21 Feb. 2007. dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Perception

Discouraged Affiliates Ask, “Where The Heck Is All The Money?”

I have to admit that it is fairly discouraging to get my measly $150 check from my top affiliate program when I read that the top 5 affiliates in that program each made $78,000, $78,000, $74,000, 67,000, & $60,000 last month. I mean really, why don’t we just pour salt & vinegar into an open wound?

It has occurred to me and I still at times think that with all of this money flying around out there, when do I get my share? What I try to keep in mind is the good news that I am brining home some extra $$$ albeit not much, it is consistent. I remind myself, that I have seen the potential for these ventures to pay-off. Some of what I am doing is generating a result and that is cause enough not to be discouraged.

Getting Rich Quick Is A Fantasy

Yeah, that’s right, I said it, what are you gonna do about it? “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is,” – common sense words from every hard working person/mentor I have ever met continues to ring true. Well, it seems that common sense isn’t so common.

How many affiliates have asked, begged, pleaded for the magic fairy dust which will create the income stream described above? The more I read and research, the more I find that it just doesn’t happen over night.

There Is NO Magic Fairy Dust

One of the neatest posts I watched and then read the other day was by Shawn Collins of http://www.affiliatetip.com – as he was answering the age old question “How do I make money as an affiliate marketer?” he mentions that he would WORK new sites for a couple of months before making a decision whether or not they were working. Now, in the scheme of things, most folks have probably spent years becoming proficient in their careers, so a couple of months may not seem like a long time. But, if you are not used to generating new content daily – 60 days could seem like an eternity.

Be Consistent In Your Affiliate Efforts

Bottom line, if you don’t work it, they won’t come. I know from experience, if you do not consistently write and contribute new content daily for a couple of months, you will not see the results you are looking for. Treat being an affiliate like a part time job. Invest 12 – 20 hours per week, and then see what happens after a couple of months. If you do not put in the time, do not expect a return.

Do Something You Love And The Money Will Follow

It is not hard to come up with ideas or to be creative about things that you love to do, think about, participate in, etc. There are volumes out there that would suggest that you do the thing which is going to make you the most EPC or that you need to have a plan to get rich. Here is my honest, practical advice – Make sure that you have an idea of a plan in your head before you get started. But, the most important thing to do is to get started doing something you love. You cannot learn/do/create everything at once.

Good luck and let me know where the chips fall.

And it started out innocent enough. A good blog posting from Tat called “Determining Which Crap To Take Off Your Site” where he made an innocent comment, a totally harmless comment, “BumpZee stays (it’s really BUMPZee but I’m lazy) and may go up higher on the page.”

To which Scott Jangro replied to almost immediately, being the involved community creator he is, “I’ve been thinking of changing the official spelling because I’m lazy too. I usually just spell it Bumpzee.”

“Noooooo!” I thought, “Say it isn’t so!”

I have been writing posts now for two whole days and working hard to make sure I type B-U-M-P-z-e-e-! BUMPzee! – Because I dig the name!

So, that spun me off in a whole new direction today, because, hey, who needs to work when the fate of our affiliate community hangs in the balance??? I went out and found a survey tool called Democracy 2.0.1 – Downloaded it – Tested it (well, I created a site survey and voted once… so, technically, I tested it… right?) – And now, my brothers and sisters, I present it to you – the poll for the future of BUMPzee!

*ahem* er, well, officially, this poll means nothing, heck Scott doesn’t even know I am writing this article, but let’s have a little fun, shall we?

So, without further ado: