Inside Affiliate

Archive for the ‘Rants & Raves’ Category

I got an email this morning with an article from mThink (Revenue Magazine) about how Hydra is dumping 15,000 affiliates off of their network.  I’m sure that every network goes through a phase where they want to tighten up their ranks and get rid of the fraud affiliates that have penetrated the approval process, but isn’t this a bit excessive?  It seems to me that the only reason Hydra would do something like this is to get some free publicity. 

The best part about all of this is that Hydra states they are doing it to separate themselves from “ad networks peddling nutraceutical diet remedies, cash grant opportunities, tooth whiteners and other non-branded campaigns of low consumer value.”  Oh, you mean the exact same type of offers that you made hundreds of millions of dollars on?  The offers that established Hydra as a force in the industry?  And now that the rug has been pulled out from under the rebill market you are focusing on other things?  How valiant of you Mr. Brandenburg!

I don’t usually post about things like this but the way that Hydra is positioning itself right now combined with their ongoing legal battles and the arrogance of their CEO has just really rubbed me the wrong way for a while now, and this new move is the icing on the cake.  I had to say something.

I feel much better now.  Back to the grind!

What is it about the Internet that brings out the worst in people?  Is it because there is so much money to be made online, and it infuriates the people that aren’t making it?  Or is it just because the anonymity provided by the computer and the distance between users that allows them to behave in outrageous ways that they never would in person?

There a lot of people that make a good living by effectively marketing a product or service to a targeted audience through many different methods including PPC, SEO, Email, PPV, and Social Media.  However, I would venture to say that there are way, way, way more people out there that are working just as hard even harder to make money by scamming & cheating their way along.

Just look at the majority of users on the Black Hat World forums, for example.  There is thread after thread on that board about how to make illegitimate monies online.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with automation or campaign optimization tools that make our jobs as marketers easier.  I’m all for those.  Every industry has its tools of the trade.  What irks me is when it goes farther than that.

Case in point: Packet Stuffer.  This is a tool that was designed to steal commissions from legitimate affiliates and give it to people lazy and stupid enough to use it.  I’m sure there are plenty of angles that could be argued in favor of a tool like this, but it rubs me the wrong way.  When you have spent a bunch of time building the perfect landing page, optimizing your ad copy, spending money on PPC until you get the campaign profitable and finally get back into the black, the last thing that you need is some idiot siphoning off your commissions.  It doesn’t matter if it’s only one here and there, every lead counts and can have a huge effect on the EPC of your campaign and whether or not it makes sense to keep it going.

So please, if you are a new affiliate (or even an experienced affiliate) that is tempted by the dark side of the industry and the allure of getting something for nothing, just remember the old adage: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.  You will not make tons of money.  You will have your affiliate accounts terminated at all of the networks that you work with, and you will have wasted your time and money.  Furthermore, you are only helping to paint the entire Affiliate Marketing industry in the type of negative light that doesn’t do any of us any favors.  If you want this industry to become more accepted in the mainstream and continue to see growth over the next decade, you need to start treating it like you would any other job: with respect.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s not that hard to be a legitimate affiliate, just do some actual marketing and you’re all set.

As a CPA network owner myself, I am a member of a lot of CPA networks.  We do business with a lot of them, others we used to business with, and some we mean to but just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  So many offers, so little time…

Anyways, when you are a member of a lot of CPA networks you get a lot of newsletters from said networks.  One thing that they always like to do is put the names and contact info (and sometimes a picture) of all the Affiliate Managers at the bottom of the email.  Over the last year, I’ve noticed an interesting trend: the number of Affiliate Managers per network is shrinking!

This trend is especially evident in large CPA networks such as Affiliate.com and MediaTrust (formerly AdValiant).  So why is this happening? I think it’s simple: the industry is evolving in favor of smaller boutique networks instead of the giants that thrived before.  With margins on offers getting cut razor-thin, it’s the companies with low overhead and lower expenses that are winning the favor of affiliates today.

The new CPA network business model isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, since new affiliates are joining the industry by the day and these boutique networks are better at training and growing the revenue of these newbies.  It’s almost getting to the point where affiliates (especially super affiliates) are becoming like superstar athletes, and CPA networks are like agents.  Can you run an agency with just a couple of key clients?  Absolutely.  That’s why this trend is not going to stop any time soon.

At some point there might be too many networks for the affiliates out there, but I think that day is a long ways away.  As long as new people keep flowing into the industry, and as long as network owners keep innovating new ways to educate and involve the affiliates in their business model, there will be a place for them in the performance economy.

In 2010, I believe we are going to see some serious changes in the online world, and the affiliate industry.  There were definitely some changes brewing throughout 2009, both on the Affiliate side of the game (see the Oprah lawsuits) and the Advertiser side of the game (merchant account madness).  Neither of these are the death knell of Affiliate Marketing, but they certainly gave the impression that business would not just continue as usual in 2010.  Will Affiliates be looking for new offers to promote when all the rebills suddenly dry up?  Will the FTC be cracking down on Affiliate Bloggers for littering their posts with unmarked Affiliate links? Doubtful.  Every time this industry and its denizens have to comply or die, they find a way to do it and still make money, if not even more than before.  They are a very resourceful bunch.

Another big shakeup that is coming (in my opinion) is in the world of Traffic Sources.  Affiliates have complained for years now about Google’s terrible practices of banning its own Advertisers with no notice, killing profitable campaigns with Quality Score changes, and just flat pushing people around.  A viable alternative became very popular in 2009 with Facebook Ads, but that opened up a whole new can of worms.  Facebook has been just as fickle as Google about what types of offers they allow, and the approval process is bad enough to give full time Affiliates recurring nightmares of the DENIED status.

So what’s next? One word: mobile.  AdMob has been busy building the biggest mobile advertising network over the last couple of years, and although some Affiliates have tested it, there aren’t a whole lot of mobile-targeted offers to promote just yet.  But don’t worry, that is on the horizon and approaching fast.  Especially since Google just snapped up AdMob, easily taking a big piece of the mobile pie for themselves.  Also, in an interesting move, Apple has put it in a bid to buy Quattro Wireless.  Apparently they were interested in AdMob too, since many of the ads are served on the iPhone, but Google beat them to the punch.  It will be interesting to see how Apple handles the responsibility of running an ad network, especially in the tumultuous new field of mobile.

Will it be more of the same, just on a smaller device?  Will it be a revolution in marketing akin to the initial launch of Google AdWords and Facebook Ads?  Or perhaps it will open up new and expansive opportunities that our feeble marketing brains haven’t even thought of yet.  Whatever the case, 2010 is going to be an interesting year, and a brilliant start to the new decade.

Oh yeah, and Facebook is going down. That’s my doomsday prediction.

In the affiliate marketing game, you get thrown some major curve balls.  Usually these only happen once or twice a year, sometimes more in a really bad year.  It’s when the status quo gets shaken up.  Things that you took for granted are either gone or severely changed, and suddenly your income is taking a major hit.  Usually the curve ball happens when a traffic source dries up or gets wise to the ways that you have been exploiting it.

Google loves to throw curve balls in the form of “quality score updates” that destroy your campaigns and take up a bunch of your time.  The latest one was thrown by Facebook after the Techcrunch Scamville Post (sorry Arrington, no link love here) and the follow ups that have been the talk of the industry this entire month.  It’s one thing to hear about it on a blog, and it’s another thing entirely to have it affect your business in a very real way.  As a network owner, the Facebook shakeup certainly put a large dent in our bottom line.

But that’s where my favorite part of the affiliate marketing business comes in: adapting to change. The people in this industry have an uncanny ability to adapt and update their business models to deal with the ever-changing online landscape, and this is no different.  Sure things will be slow for a while, but unlike your Average Joe in a 9 to 5 job, we have power to do something about it.  When Average Joe gets sent a curve ball, like getting laid off for example, it is devastating.  Suddenly his income is gone and he is completely at the mercy of somebody else to get it back.  He has to find another company to hire him and demonstrate to them that he is worth the risk.  All affiliates have to do is reach inside themselves, grab the motivation it takes to get things going again, and get back to work.

That’s why I love this business.  Sometimes it takes a curve ball to realize that there is a whole new opportunity right around the corner, or an income stream that you may have overlooked when your steady campaign was rolling.  At the end of the day, you are in control.  It’s your business and you are the boss.  Even if you are working 80 hours a week for yourself, that’s better than working 40 for someone else.  Next time you are thrown a curve ball, remember the alternative.

Justin Barr created a great little website called AffBuzz.  It is essentially a blog aggregator for the Affiliate Marketing industry.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out.  It’s a great time saver and a good way to keep up with what’s going on in the world of affiliate marketing.

There’s only one problem: INSIDE AFFILIATE IS NOT LISTED ON AFFBUZZ!  There are about 70 blogs listed, including the likes of JohnChow.com, but no love for yours truly.

As faithful readers of this blog, if I’ve helped, entertained, educated, enlightened, enraged, stupefied, or otherwise touched you with my posts, please do me a favor and CLICK HERE then fill out the form to tell Justin to add InsideAffiliate to AffBuzz.

Power to the people!

During the last few months, there has been a rash of blog posts cropping up left and right about local affiliate marketing.  There have been good ones and bad ones and then all the guest posts by Dennis Yu.  All of that aside, if you are an affiliate blogger then you owe it to yourself to write one of these bad boys.  Here’s how it is done…

1. Tell your readers how there is a whole new world of affiliate marketing right in their backyard, where they can be their own boss and not have to worry about the big bad networks and advertisers scrubbing all of their leads.

2. Make sure to mention that Dentists, Lawyers, Massage Therapists, Insurance & Real Estate Agents and anyone else who commonly works off of referrals are the best worst possible candidates because they understand the value of a good lead.

3. Explain to them that this is going to take some good old fashioned salesmanship on their part, because they most likely have not harnessed the power of the internet yet. If that doesn’t scare them away, then mention that there will always be squabbles over what counts as a lead at the end of the month.

4. Bring up the fact that Google Voice is amazing and that you have been using it for local lead gen forever, even though 99% of your readers can’t get an invite.

5. Throw some massive numbers around, like how the keyword “San Francisco DUI Attorney” is going for over $20 per click on the search engines.  If you have the stones, substitute in your own keyword or niche to scare them away from competing with you.

6. ???

7. Profit!  Enjoy shooting fish in a barrel until the next wave of young pups learns what you have been up to and spoils all the ROI for you.