A discussion of earning with the Best Affiliate Programs, SEO, Wordpress Blogging and General Motivational Ideas for Internet Publishers and Affiliate Marketers.

  If you haven’t seen the article at Swollen Pickels blog - 10 tips to becoming a Make Money Online sheep - go read that article first and then come back here to read the rest of today’s post. Pickles took several heartfelt jabs at the ludicrous “Make Money Online” bloggers. You know the type of bloggers I’m talking about. They’re everywhere. The putrid self-proclaimed Super Affiliates who have cartoon character mascots, post pictures of their Adsense checks and generally feed their readers a load of fecal matter every time they post in hopes of making enough affiliate cash to pay for a couple of Pumpkin Spice Crème lattes (with whipped cream, of course) at Starbucks.

Wake up people !! Real affiliate marketers do not drink Frappuccinos or Lattes and real affiliate marketers certainly would never be caught uttering some of the oozing dribble seen emanating from this overpopulated niche where brain cells have taken a back seat to palpable absurdity.

After reading through my fair share of the “Make Money Online” blogs, looking for a sanguine grain of truth but instead only finding a miserable plethora of hustle and jive sandwiched between slices of regurgitated contrivance, I decided it was time to end the silence.

Following the lead set by Swollen Pickels, I offer you 10 Secret Confessions of the Super Affiliates - a no holds barred look at what these narcissistic charlatans try to peddle you as truth and the real truth behind the misinformaton they would like to perpetuate as affiliate gospel. So, with no further brouhaha, here we go…

1. What they say - I make $100K per month in PPC Marketing with Copeac !
   What they really mean - I still live with my mom and dad because I spend all of my money on $350 an ounce hydroponic weed.
2. What they say - Look at this payment proof picture of my earnings check !
   What they really mean - My little sister in middle school is really good at Photoshop and I had here chop this picture for me.
3. What they say - Affiliate marketing pays my bills and then some !
   What they really mean - In reality, I have no bills (see #1) because I live in my parents basement.
4. What they say - I bought a Lexus from PPC marketing and now all the girls at school want to ride to lunch with me !
   What they really mean - I have a small penis but I bought a penis extender kit and a bottle of Viagra from some Russian spam email.
5. What they say - You can get rich like me if you follow my “Super Affiliate” techniques !
   What they really mean - Somebody please buy my e-book on clickbank because I’m running low on hydroponic weed that I need to be stoned to come up with crazy ideas for my new e-book.
6. What they say - I made my first million in PPC/SEM before I was out of college !
   What they really mean - I still haven’t taken my basic math courses because I spent $3 million on Adwords to make $1 million.
7. What they say - I’m so cool, someone made a cartoon character of me !
   What they really mean - I spent the money my parents sent me for Clearasil pimple creme on Adwords so I couldn’t take a real picture.
8. What they say - PPC Marketing is so super easy !
   What they really mean - Ask my parents about the $9000 per month Google Adwords charges on their credit card.
9. What they say - I make so much money online I dropped out of college !
   What they really mean - I couldn’t afford my tuition this semester because I spent my student loan on Adwords and hydroponic weed and my parents cancelled my credit card.
10. What they say - I’m a Super Affiliate !
    What they really mean - I have bondage mask, leather cape, spandex body suit, latex gloves and a can of Crisco in my dorm room closet to prove it.

Well, there you have it folks, the 10 Secret Confessions of the Super Affiliates.

If there are any secret confessions I might have missed, you know how to use a comment form.

If you liked this post, please Digg it, Sphinn it, Stumble it or pass it on !!

Happy Publishing
Dave

         

48 Comments Permalink

Affiliate marketing is just like any other business in that it has it’s ups and downs, is dictated to by economic cycles and can be hit or miss depending on the consumer spending. While in the US, we are currently experiencing a downturn in the economy and consumer spending is driving many merchants to despair, there are always niches to be exploited by clever marketers if you apply a little bit of creativity and think outside the box.

In preparation for this article, I was inspired by Kris Jones of PepperJam Network’s incredible article Affiliate Marketing - Thinking Outside the Box. Kris goes into detail with several innovative ideas he and others have used in the past to turn incredible profits by finding untapped niches by *not* following what everybody else is doing but by following gut instinct.

One example Kris shares is his experience marketing “UGG Australia Boots” in November 2006. For those who don’t know what UGG boots are, they’re the absolutely most ugly boots that are popular with teenage girls. You know, those fuzzy wuzzy boots that Bam Margera’s wife Missy loves and although Bam threw Missy’s UGG boots in the fireplace, he quickly replaced them. Jessica Simpson has also been seen sporting UGG boots in the middle of the summer when she was out grocery shopping with Tony Romo. Anyway, UGG boots are a very popular item and Kris noticed they sell the best in the winter when there is a high demand for them. Additionally, UGG boots are not cheap. Kris netted over $15,000 profit from his ad campaign marketing these luxury items that will sell even when the economy is poor because girls just want to have fun, even when they can’t afford it.

Kris also brings up the point that he is a big believer that playing seasonality, holidays and other timeframes that generally lend themselves to sales and marketing. With that knowledge in hand, it’s easy to see how thinking outside the box while paying attention to the world around you can result in a successful campaign.

While the vast majority of affiliate marketers are spinning their wheels trying to cut a piece out of the most popular niches such as mesothelioma, mortgages, poker, ringtones and online dating, the easy money lies in taking a fresh perspective and evaluating which offers might be the easiest to pitch to consumers. Remember, affiliate marketing is sales, there’s no way around it but the advantage we affiliate marketers have is that we can pick and choose whatever offers we feel comfortable with promoting.

As with Kris Jones, I tend to prefer finding opportunity through promoting trusted products or services. As much as I hear the “super affiliates” talking about how much money they make through CPA networks such as Azoogle or Copeac by promoting those scammy “Get a Free Laptop” or “Get a Free Bahamas Vacation” offers, I prefer to avoid those type of offerings. I’m not condescending on marketers profiting from these offers, but for my ethics, promoting offers where internet noobs are duped into giving their personal information to hordes of rabid marketers for a freebie they will never get is just something I want no part of.

So back to Kris again, his philospohy runs true with mine. Give people what they really want, not something they don’t need or something that will jade their experience to the internet marketplace in the future. Equally important is to adequately check out the offers you intend to promote and ask yourself “Would I buy this product or service” and more importantly “Would I sell this pitch to my friends and family” ? If you answer “no” to either of those questions, then an offer is not worth wasting your time on.

Now onto the part you’re all waiting for, the recession proof niche marketing tips. Drum roll please…

1.) Healthcare and Dental Care - It’s quite obvious why this niche is at the top of the list. In a poor economy, where many people are in between jobs, the one thing people don’t want to lose is healthcare for their family and especially for their children. There are a number of programs available to promote but here are a few that have been working well for me :

• DentalPlans.com - Bringing individuals, families and groups affordable and comprehensive discount dental plans. Their offering through PepperJam Network pays a whopping $47.50 per lead and with a 120 day tracking cookie, this one is unstoppable.
• Guaranteed Issue Health Insurance - Plans that start at $99 for the whole family. The program pays $4.50 per lead and with a 45 day tracking cookie, this one can really pay off.

2.) eBay - Yes, I know you’re thinking I’m crazy but think about it. eBay is a recession proof marketplace because even if the number of sales are down, it’s always going to exist as the premiere place for people to sell their belongings to the highest bidder. eBay’s affiliate program is lucrative in that it not only pays you for people who signup using your affiliate link, you can also earn for any auction purchases people make through your link.

3.) Guaranteed Approval Credit Cards - No matter what shape the economy is in, people are always going to be applying for credit cards even when the the interest rate is. Sure, savvy consumers will look for a low rate but when marketing on the internet, we’re looking for impulsive consumers and guaranteed credit cards are a snap to promote. My personal favorites are :

• First Universal Platinum - First Universal Platinum has the credit card marketing game downpat. All you have to dois turn traffic at their landing pages and you’re in the money. Their offering through PepperJam Network pays $22.30 per lead and the 45 day tracking cookie is a dream for promoters.
• MyFreedom Credit Cards - Pairs consumers with credit cards offers that are suitable for them. The program is offered through NeverblueAds and pays $1.15 per lead but converts after first page submit of first name, last name, email, verify email, and self credit rating. Easy Money.

If you’re not signed up to promote offers for Pepperjam Network, Neverblue Ads or Market Leverage, you can signup through the links below.

• Join Pepperjam Network today!
• Join Neverblue Ads today!
• Join Market Leverage today!

         

7 Comments Permalink

Cloaking your affililate links is a recommended practice for anybody seriously involved in affiliate marketing. Not only will affiliate link cloaking help prevent people from stealing your commissions, it can also allow a secondary mechanism to track the links going out of your site without completely relying on the affiliate program’s internal tracking. Most affiliate networks permit url cloaking and ClickBank actually encourages it to prevent hi-jacking of affiliate commissions. While there are many ways to handle affiliate link cloaking, I personally have found that using a PHP file to redirect requests is the simplest yet most effective method to accomplish this task.

Here’s how I handle affililiate link cloaking…

Create a directory named “out” in the root of your website and create a file named “index.php” with the following code :

if ( empty( $_GET['at'] ) ){
    // this is the default link if no destination is specified
    $link = "http://YourClickbankID.DefaultProgramID.hop.clickbank.net/";
}else{
    if ( $_GET['at'] == 'Program1' ){
        $link = "http://YourClickbankID.Program-1-ID.hop.clickbank.net";
    }elseif ( $_GET['at'] == "Program2" ){
        $link = "http://YourClickbankID.Program-2-ID.hop.clickbank.net";
    }

}

Note: If you have trouble copy and pasting the code above into your site, here’s a text file with the code in it.

As you can see from the example above, you will specify a default link in case there is no program specified and then you will specify two more links to whatever programs you are promoting. If you want, you can always add more program links by simply adding another “elseif” switch at the end of the second “if” statement. The “header” function causes the actual redirect to whatever url is specified in $link, so to call your cloaked link to Program1, all you have to do is write your url as follows :

http://www.mysite.com/out/?at=Program1

Which will send your visitor to :

http://YourClickbankID.Program-1-ID.hop.clickbank.net

This is the simplest method of cloaking a ClickBank affiliate link and it can be used to cloak any affiliate links whether it be PepperJam, NeverBlueAds, CJ or any CPA network that uses hop style links. You can see this script in action by clicking the Fat Rich Pig or Adwords Profits links on the sidebar of this blog.

As I stated in the beginning of this post, if you want to add additional tracking to your cloaked links, you can always create a MySQL database and populate it with data every time somebody clicks one of the cloaked links. Data you might store can be the page the link came from, the IP address of the person who clicked, the date and time of the click, the program the visitor clicked to and the affiliate network the click went to. This is especially useful if you have several sites or blogs and you’d like to track them all against the various affiliate networks you might be using. Note: To do this, you must add your code before the actual redirect happens in the “header” command.

For anybody interested in the advanced tracking script, please subscribe to my RSS feed via email and I will send you a copy free of charge. Please leave a comment on this post if you have any questions and I’ll try to help you out as best I can.

Until next time…

Happy Publishing,
Dave

         

15 Comments Permalink