For a while I thought maybe my wife and I were the only ones watching Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen nightmares. If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ll remember I like to post about things you can learn from watching that show that relate to your business.

To my surprise, today I saw Linkshare run with that theme as well. I love it. I’m such a reality TV junkie it’s almost embarrassing.

Well, Linkshare is putting on a free webinar titled “SEO for Business Results: Wake Up From a Kitchen Nightmare”. From their announcement: “Borrowing a theme from Chef Gordon Ramsay’s TV show, “Kitchen Nightmares”, see how your website is a lot like a restaurant. SEO specialist Sally Anne Dishong will serve up some quick take away pointers on how to turn your website into an attractive, profitable, visitor-friendly place. You’ll also learn the recipe for SEO Secret Sauce for 2010. ”

Learn more and register here.

I just got off the phone with a very close friend of mine.  I’d venture to say he is in my circle of best friends.  Definitely in the circle of trust, without a doubt.  We’ve known each other for over ten years now and actually our families spent the last weekend on vacation.

We had talked this weekend about a colleague of mine, former employee, that saw the other side of the affiliate fence and not only jumped over, but is now enjoying a nice financial benefit as well as the freedom that comes from being your own boss in affiliate marketing.

I think that story really pequed his interest.  The reason for his call was to find out how one gets started as an affiliate.  “Jamie, how did he do it, how could I make some extra cash by being an affiliate. Just how is that done?”

I love those types of questions.  In it yields so much hope and promise and optimism.  An opportunity is just waiting to be discovered and taken.  It’s a great place to be and I love walking people through it.  It’s one of the reasons we started an affiliate manager coaching program, I love to teach.  I really do enjoy seeing people take something they have learned and be successful with it. But anyway, enough about me, this blog post was to be some sort of answer to his questions.

What are you passionate about?

That was my very first question to my friend.  Since we knew each other so well, we walked through several different things he loves to do and his wife loves to do.  There were several different things they were passionate about, knew a lot about, and would love to teach others about, or simply add value to the search process for those things.  After talking a few of them through, I think we not only identified one that has great affiliate marketing potential, but one in which an online seminar or educational program would work very well for him.  So, if you are asking how to get started, start by listing out the things you are passionate about.

Here are some things I’m passionate about, love to do, or simply know a lot about, for example purposes:

• Family - I’ve got a bunch of kids and spend most of my time not spent in the office, spent with them
• Camping - Love it
• Huntin’ & Fishin’ - If I could spend my time in the woods, that is where I’d be
• Music - I so wish I could play the ax like Slash or the acoustic like James Taylor, just sayin..
• Gardening - My wife and I have a pretty big garden and love every minute spent in it and eating the harvest

So there are some of my examples.  We are actually working on a site that encompasses  few of those into one, but that’s a story for another time.

Who is your audience?

After he had more ideas than he could shake a stick at, we moved on to the next important thing, who are you trying to attract?  I recently was working with Matthew Scott of Strategic Incubator on our coaching program and this was one of the first things we did.  We identified every type of target.  We looked at who they were, what they were like, what they did and why would they need the information/product/site I was trying to build.  So I walked my friend through this briefly as well.

Identify your target market in a comprehensive and detailed manner.  Once you know who they are and how they got to the point of needing what you are thinking of building, then you can create that perfect, value added property or product and roll up affiliate marketing into it.

How can you add value?

Now that he had some great ideas, and he is working on identifying his audience, he, and you, can begin to brainstorm ideas on how you can add value to that person and become a great resource and destination for them.  So just jot down some things that you feel would be of benefit.  A great place to start is to search for those types of things.  You’ll really want to identify a gap in what is being provided already.  Adding value within a niche, value that isn’t being added already, service that isn’t being offered, is going to make you stand out and make success even that much easier.  So go ahead, jot down some ideas and search around and see what you find.

After that it is really up to you.  This wasn’t really a “three easy steps to affiliate marketing success” type of post, but if you start here, you’ll develop something that people will love to go to, tell their friends and you’ll be building a business that won’t be too worried about paid search costs, overall marketing expenditures and Google’s next update (can someone say Florida - I think I just dated myself).

What do you think?  Am I off my rocker?  Did I miss the boat?  Do you have a story to share along these lines?

Last week I had the good fortune to sit down with a good friend, super affiliate, and overall great guy, Matthew Bredel.  Matthew runs The Web Reviewer and MatthewBredel.com, among other sites, and we have worked together on several different affiliate programs over the years.

Last week we jumped on skype to catch up with each other.  I wanted to see how he was doing, see the new things he had going on and mostly to see what he thought about the affiliate industry and it’s current changes and obstacles.

We chat about how Matthew got his start in affiliate marketing with his site TheWebReviewer.com, how we moved to being an affiliate full time, and some of his new product launches. Matthew also recently did an awesome review of one of our clients’ products, LiveChime. You can read his review here.

Take a listen below, I hope you enjoy our talk and check out his projects below.

MatthewBredel.com
TheWebReviewer.com

A very typical phone call we receive, and probably at least one each week, is one from a new merchant looking for immediate sales through affiliate marketing.  We love to get calls from new prospects and enjoy meeting new people and learning of new business models.  It’s one of the reasons I love this industry.  There is always something new going on.  If it wasn’t like that, I’d probably would have taken that job at Jeld Wen out of college and not the “Search Engine Guru” position I ended up with .

Many of these callers have the same basic profile:

• they have a brand new site
• they just started selling their products
• they need sales

Does that sound like you?  We all need more sales, and more often than not, an affiliate program is a great way to increase your bottom line.  But is it right for everyone?

The answer is pretty simply, no.  It hurts a little to say that, as an outsourced affiliate management agency, we make our living launching and managing affiliate programs.  But, we’ve been doing this a long time and have launch and managed huge programs for large brands, as well affiliate campaigns for mom and pop stores and everything in the middle.  So we’ve seen that it is not always the best thing for you to do.

When we have launched affiliate programs for companies that are brand new, with no track record, we have found a few things that stand out and helped them become successful.  I’d like to share a few of them with you:

• Affiliate marketing was not their ONLY method of marketing.
• Their expectations were realistic, it takes time to build a strong program.  (for more info on expectations of a new program, see our blog post titled When should You Expect a Positive ROI from Your Affiliate Program)
• They had a long “runway” - meaning they had funds to run the business for quite a while, giving their affiliate program and other programs time to produce results.
• Their product was not only good or clever, but really filled a need that consumers had.
• They had active management - well us really
• Clear and concise rules.
• Solid standard creative.
• They were not only willing to test new things, they had a modest budget for paid placements.
• They could do coupons, discounts and promotions, not only site wide but also by category and individual product.
• Great educational content for affiliates.

Those last two have been big ones.  Having a great and clever product, and one that you could offer a discount on, opened these merchants/advertisers up to many new affiliate relationships.  Offering them solid, comprehensive and unique educational content allowed affiliates to really inform the consumer about this new product and new advertiser.  Without that, you are really just relying on a banner to entice the click.

Now, the ones that had failed?  They showed some common characteristics as well.  You can basically take that list above and write down the opposite of each one.  I’m sure many of you have worked with programs both big and large, what did you find that made one successful and the other not?

I was reading an article on InternetRetailer.com this morning titled Penny’s billion-dollar bet.  Penny’s, one of the earliest adopters of ecommerce among large retail chains, has experienced flat sales the last few years.  They are now planning and investing in a new ecommerce platform to grow their online channel to over 2.5 Billion.  Yes that is a “B”.  (when you get into Billions and Trillions, that just boggles the mind doesn’t it.

The article brought to mind something I’ve learned and been told over the years.  I can’t exactly remember who or where I heard it but it’s stuck with me.  In down times, you prepare, you plan, you build for the future.  Right now the economy isn’t all the great, but do we just sit here and take it?  Have you been doing that?

Now is the time to plan, to invest, to build your next big thing.  Now is the time to push forward your new ideas.  This concept also plays out historically.  Many of the large and successful firms we all know today, were started during the great depression.  Did you even know business were successful then?  The difficult economic times aren’t always dismal and dreary.  They can be the perfect time to try out your ideas.  If your next big thing works during this economic climate, imagine how it will be when things turn around.

It’s almost counter-intuitive, to invest millions, maybe hundreds of millions when no one is buying, you are facing increased pressure from Amazon and other retailers and this general economic malaise.  But JCPenny doesn’t see it that way.  Now is the time to re-tool, revamp and position yourself for the future.

A couple questions for you - are you cowering in the corner and just trying to survive or are you like JC Penny, investing in the future to build your business.  What have you been avoiding that could lead to a more successful venture in 2011, 2012 and beyond?

I’d love to hear your comments.

Zak Stambor wrote a great article at InternetRetailer.com about online office supply retailer Shoplet.com and their amazing feat of increasing sales by triple digits in our current economic climate.

“Even last year, in one of the worst economic environments in the past 50 years, it grew an Internet Retailer-estimated 33%, to an estimated $100 million in online sales, helping it secure the No. 134 spot among North American retailers in online sales, according to the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.”

That growth is impressive, especially when you compare it to the big box office supply retailers with established brands, offline presence and marketing machine behind them.  How did they do it?

“Key to that success were three simple principles, Tony Ellison, Shoplet CEO, said today at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition during a featured address:

• Differentiate from the competition.
• Focus on a niche market.
• Earn customer loyalty.“

Ah, differentiation.  Many companies focus on carving out their niche and their branding overall, but so many forget to allow, or force, this to bleed through to their affiliate program.  Are your affiliate’s differentiating you from the competition?  Have you provided them with the education, information, collateral, training and guidelines to allow them to do that?  If you are seeing great success by firmly differentiating yourselves like Shoplet.com has (and we’ll be watching them closely as we launch our client OfficeFrog.com soon), are you sure you are doing everything necessary to carry that through to your partners so that not only can you see added benefit (new customers, sales, etc.), but your affiliates are better able to take advantage of your position in the marketplace too?

You see, this comprehensive affiliate management strategy isn’t all that difficult to complete, it’s just takes resources, time and consistency.  If you need any help with that, call us at 1-800-208-6215 x 101 or chat With JEBCommerce Now!

AffiliateBenchMarks is looking for affiliates, agencies and advertisers to fill out their 5 minute survey on the affiliate industry and your views of it.

We’ve filled out this survey in the past, as have our clients, and the data you receive from it is fantastic.  We highly recommend you take a few minutes and fill this out.

Here is more information from them:

All we need from you is a few minutes of your time for a quick survey. Take the survey now or Read on to learn more… 

With your help 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks research study will be the most comprehensive survey of affiliate marketers ever. Last year we surveyed over 3500 affiliate marketing executives, providing real insight into this secretive space. 

That’s why we’re reaching out to you; the study only works if we get the opinions and perspectives of as many professionals as possible. As an incentive, if you complete the survey before July 16th 2010, you will receive a copy of the final report absolutely free. 

What you can gain from the 2010 study? 

- Which advertiser types produce the greatest revenue. 

- The best of all tried and tested routes to drive traffic to your affiliate page. 

- The benefit of better run campaigns as networks, agencies and advertisers read the findings of the study. 

- The opportunity to have your voice heard and contribute to a greater understanding of affiliate marketing. 

- A multidimensional look at the relationship between affiliate marketing and other online marketing channels. 

We’ve made improvements from the 2009 study 

- Our study is now simpler. We removed some questions and streamlined others to ease the burden on busy affiliates. 

- We’ve added a short survey for advertisers/merchants to collect some information on their challenges and views of affiliate marketing. 

- We added a short survey for agencies/OPMs/consultants to collect some information on their view of the industry. 

- We have even more partners who have agreed to distribute the survey and ensure that 2010 will be the largest affiliate research study ever produced (a title currently held by our 2009 report). 

- The 2010 report will feature more indepth analysis than ever before.

You get back what you put in 

As in previous studies, any participant who answers every question (not just the ‘required’ fields) will receive the full survey results and participants who answer all of the required questions will receive a copy of the executive summary. With your help, we can meet our goal of illuminating the affiliate marketing industry. 

PLEASE NOTE: The survey will close on July 16th at 5pm EST.

The Performance Marketing Association (PMA)  just announced new working group structures.  I was fortunate enough to work on one of the initial working groups during the forming of the PMA, membership fees I believe, and it was a fun experience.  I got to work with some great people and brainstorm ideas on how to make the PMA great.

From their site:

“The Performance Marketing Association is a not-for-profit trade association founded in 2008 by the leaders of the performance marketing industry, to connect, inform and advocate on behalf of this rapidly growing field.

The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) strives to raise the profile of performance marketing by demonstrating the value of this multi-billion marketing channel, which comprises more than 200,000 businesses and individuals. Continued growth of the performance marketing space is expected as advertisers, facing small budgets and big expectations, increasingly look to performance-based marketing initiatives to expand their business.”

The restructured working groups are as follows:

• Anti-Fraud/Anti-Abuse, sponsored by Online Intelligence (an Epic Advertising company)
• Advertiser Practices  to Avoid Fraud, sponsored by Adperio
• Data Feed/Content Standards, sponsored by Ebates
• Industry Pledge to Ethical Practices, sponsored by Ebay
• Convergence with Offline, sponsored by MediaTrust

To learn more, check out their blog.

The PMA has done some great work, and along side some amazing affiliates/affiliate managers/network, they have lead the amazon tax initiative and had some huge wins.  They have proved to be very valuable and a needed resource in our industry.  If you’d like to learn more about membership, click here.

Multi-channel retail affiliate programs are unique, complex and require different tactics, strengths and processes than other programs to be successful. They are a different animal altogether from lead gen, business to business and online only programs. You have to worry about things like new-to-file acquisition, channel cannibalization and margin contribution allocation. Here is a quick guide to some of the important things you should be doing, looking at, monitoring, or working towards when managing a multi-channel affiliate program.

We’ve prepared a pdf of 4 things you can be doing to optimize your retail affiliate program.  This could also be good for affiliates to understand fully what multi-channel retailers are looking for from their affiliates.

Optimizing Multi-Channel Affiliate Programs

Recently Logan Thompson published a great blog post on getting the most out of your affiliate manager.  Logan is an affiliate, affiliate manager and roots for the best dang football team on the planet, the Seahawks! (ok, we’ve had a few bad years, but Roethlisberger didn’t cross the goal line, he even said, not that we are bitter…).

I’ve been reading Logan’s blog for a little while and he writes some great stuff.  This post is no exception.    One of his statements really got to me.  As an affiliate manager for almost 12 years now, I feel old, I’ve always been waiting by the phone to talk to my affiliates.  Any questions they have we want to do our best to answer.  In his blog he points out that many of the questions affiliates ask, affiliate managers can answer.  It still surprises me that that has to be said and many affiliates don’t think they can go to their affiliate managers.  I know how proactive and responsive myself and my team are, and strive to be, so I wonder if there are a lot out there that are either just so busy, have so many other responsibilities, or simply don’t enjoy interaction…

The article is great though.  Logan interviews some great affiliate managers including Matt McWilliams, reigning Affiliate Manager of the year, of Legacy Learning and others.  Here are some of their highlights in getting the most out of your affiliate manager, some things to ask them:

• Ask them about the demographics of their users.  I love this one.  We try to provide this in our affiliate education centers and our newsletters.  Knowing who you are marketing to, your audience is so vital.
• Keywords that don’t work
• Ask for testimonials from customers.  This is a great way to add content, prequalify your users and incent the click.
• Ask for content.
• Don’t just ask “give me your best offer”…ill show you a list of our top offers in terms of revenue if that’s what you want. Get more specific….ask for the best offer for a certain niche or maybe a traffic source
• What trends are you seeing in a particular niche or in the industry in general?
• What are your best sellers?

Many of the interviewees commented on the audience and their demographics.  I would add the following items to that list of how to get the most out of your affiliate manager:

• Build a relationship with them:  Get beyond “what is the best commission rate, and can I get an exclusive offer” and learn about them.  Build trust and friendship and many other things will flow from it.
• Seasonality of products: Many advertisers’ products perform well during a certain time of the year and slow down at others.  So grab that information and plan accordingly.
• Ask for anything:  Good affiliate managers, like those interviewed, are there day in and day out ready to help you.  Some of the best relationships we have with affiliates are the ones that contact us most frequently.  When we are training new affiliate managers, both at JEBCommerce and at retailers across the country, we instruct them to be available and contact affiliates.  It goes both ways.  Frequent request will help you get more out of your manager.
• Be transparent:  Don’t hold back your marketing methods, problems, obstacles and successes.  Many affiliate managers have extensive and diverse backgrounds and can help you through problems and even brainstorm.  Our team has experience in house in affiliate management, paid search, SEO, content development, copy editing and writing, web site development, creative design, offline marketing, print marketing, catalog marketing, call center management, finance industry, the armed services and more.  That breadth of experience can help you in many different problems, and other affiliate managers can offer the same.  You’d really be surprised.
• Explain your business model:  Tell your affiliate manager how you make money and what works for you.  He may not know you make a lot of money on backend offers, upsells through email, or coaching programs.  Share those things with them and maybe you’ll spark new and improved ways to do business together.

When an affiliate and an affiliate manager start to really work together, some amazing things happen.  Hey you may even work on a project together.  Logan’s article is great and I suggest you check it out.  If you aren’t reading his blog, here you go.