With the launch of any new affiliate program you get inundated with affiliate applications in the first week.  It is both one of the most exciting times for an affiliate manager as well as a frustrating time.  It’s exciting to watch outstanding affiliates that you know join the program but it is frustrating when you wake up to 200 applications on a Monday morning.

Along with the known affiliates applying to your program, there are hundreds and thousands of applications that come through that are either suspect, fraudulent or simply incomplete.  If you are an affiliate manager reading this, you’ll probably be nodding your head and maybe even have a chuckle.  If you are an affiliate that seems to receive more denials than approvals when you apply to programs, this article is just for you.  I’d like to highlight some of the things that managers see every day that you may be doing and need to avoid in order to get your applications approved.  So let’s get started…

• “Make A Million” Shopping Malls - These are sites that someone purchases from companies that supply them an entire mall that will make them millions of dollars.  These sites are relatively cheap to buy and provide the purchaser with a complete website, they only need to reach out and join affiliate programs.  While these sites look good, I have never seen one of these make any sales for any of the programs I have run and I have managed over 35 across industries.  Most program managers recognize these with very little effort and deny these applications.  Like all things, successful endeavors take, hard work and initiative.  These sites sound too good to be true because they are.  My advice to anyone who has purchased this already, find a niche you know a lot about and start over.  I’ll write more about this in a future post.
• Blogs with no content - This is a sure way to get your application rejected.  I am sure that your new blog and your new theme hold within them your hopes and dreams, but having not one single post on your site does nothing to show affiliate managers who you are and what your site is about.  My recommendation - get ten posts on your blog, fill that first page.  After you have that done, I would make sure any customization or unique plugins that you plan to use are on the site.  Make it look unique.  We see hundreds of applications with the Wordpress default theme and no content.  Many times fraudulent affiliates use this method to get approved without raising flags.  Post your content, design it then apply to the affiliate programs.
• Different language sites - I see 20 or so applications a week for sites that are in Japaneze or other languages.  I am sure that they are great sites, but with no description in english I am not able to effectively review the site.  Most affiliate programs are no longer accept everyone and anyone, if it is too hard to evaluate your application it just gets denied.  In your affiliate account, be sure to outline your site and how you plan to promote merchants as thoroughly as possible.
• Geocities and other free sites - Sites that are hosted at Geocities, Tripod, Members.AOL.com or Freewebs will undoubtedly be denied in many programs.  Why?  Well, first off, I can’t remember when one of these sites generated any sales for any program and I can’t recall any of my colleagues saying that either.  Secondly, if an affiliate isn’t serious enough to register a domain name aren’t going to be serious enough to become a successful partner.  Some may not like me saying that, but it’s true.
• Modeling and Real Estate Sites - This seems like a pretty odd combination, but I have seen more applications from these two categories than any other.  If you are planning to do something outside of these areas but use those sites in your application, I would make sure the affiliate manager knows about it.
• No URLs - When your application shows no urls in your account, affiliate managers have no way at all to eveluate your application.  Merchants are getting much more sensitive to who they partner with, and not knowing who you are will surely lead to a rejection in quality programs.
• Google Adwords - Applications that list Adwords as the url for the applicant and only that url can be tough to approve for programs that do not allow paid search.  So if you do something else, make sure you list that too.
• Under Construction  and Parked pages - If your site is still under construction, that is a tough sell.  Merchants don’t want to partner with someone when they don’t know what their site will look like.  Maybe I have said that already :).  I have seen affiliates post a simple htlm page on their new domain that addressed the affiliate managers directly and gave a brief description of what they were doing.  I highly recommend this and I believe I have approved everyone of those applications.  The more we know, the more likely we’ll approve you.
• Banner Farms - These are almost 100% rejected.  What is a banner farm?  These are sites that have, pretty much, only affiliate banners.  They have no other content and no real benefit to the user other than a list of ads for merchants.  These are rarely approved and rarely generate sales for merchants’ programs.  They offer very little in terms of value add to the merchant as well as the consumer.  My recommendation is to spend more time developing your idea.  What consumer target are you trying to reach?  What value are you going to add to their shopping journey?  What are you going to offer that no one else does?  Answer those question then find a designer that can work with you.
• Get Rich Quick Sites - The same way you feel as a consumer when you see these sites are they same way affiliate managers do as well.  I haven’t seen these perform well.
• International Applications - This probably only goes for programs that is 99% domestic traffic.  Applications from third world countries, some Asian countries, Nigeria and some eastern block countries are suspect.  Why?  Past behavior and experience.  Many of the fraudulent affiliates have, in the past, originated from these countries.  If you are a legitimate affiliate, and don’t get me wrong, there are many from those countries, you may experience more rejections because of your location.  But  don’t fret too much.  You may be getting refused by a lot of affiliate programs but there are ways to get noticed.  You need to show affiliate managers that you aren’t interested in scamming, fraudulent behavior or abusing the program.  You have to establish trust as much as you can from your application.  Here are a few things you can do:  1.  Use your company name, if you don’t have one create one. 2.  Email the manager of the program you just applied to and let them know who you are and what your plans are.  3.  Use an email account associated with your website.  Don’t use yahoo.com, gmail, hotmail or other free services.  Having a email@yourwebsite.com email address is typical of legitimate affiliates and will help you get approved.

By no means is that list 100% complete, but it gives you a good idea of things to avoid in your applications and a few reasons why your applications would be rejected. Let me share some things I recommend that you do do in order to get approved (I included some of them above):

1. Complete Account Information - don’t leave any fields blank in CJ, LS, ShareASale, Google and others.  Fill out all the information.  The more complete the application, the more likely you’ll get approved.  Just the effort involved in filling out all the fields shows you are serious.
2. Contact Info - A little contact info goes a long way.  Include your email address and your phone number when possible.  Affiliate programs view affiliates as partners, if you can’t contact your partner, they aren’t really a partner are they?
3. Email the manager - You’d be surprised, but one of the number one things managers wish they got more of was contact from their affiliates. If you are really interested in working with someone, reach out to them, share your ideas and your plans and include your contact info.
4. Good Site Design - this goes a long long way.  With themes and Wordpress anyone can put together a pretty decent site.  Here are some themes I would look into:  One Theme, Woo Themes, Citrus Themes, Revolution.  Getting a good designer involved will lead to sales, but those themes and Wordpress will get you started with little cost.  If you need design let us know, we can help.
5. If your site is under construction, put up a simple html page that says what you are planning to do.  Affiliate managers love this and it will help you get approved and get insight and advice on your new idea.

Hope that helps!  What do you think?  Affiliate managers, did I miss anything.  Do you think I’m off on any of these items?  I’d love to hear what you have to say.

A few days ago a colleague of mine, Ed Reese of SixthManMarketing, a Spokane SEO firm, Washington, wrote a recap of a session at SMX East.  Engineers from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft were on the panel and shared some very interesting bits of information.

From Ed’s SEO Blog:

“For quite a while now I’ve held the belief that affiliate links were viewed no differently than paid links in the eyes of the search engines. Sure, there are countless affiliate links that pass link juice (just like many paid links). It’s just that I assumed this was a little loophole that would be closed any minute now and considered risky behavior.”

I think we all have really held that belief.  Paid links need nofollow tags and affiliate links are no longer helping web sites in their natural search rankings, or at least we thought.  The nofollow debate has been lengthy and healthy, but here is what the panel participants had to say, again from Ed’s blog:

“Shockingly, when asked point blank if affiliate programs that employed juice-passing links (those not using nofollow) were against guidelines or if they would be discounted, the engineers all agreed with the position taken by Sean Suchter of Yahoo!. He said, in no uncertain terms, that if affiliate links came from valuable, relevant, trust-worthy sources - bloggers endorsing a product, affiliates of high quality, etc. - they would be counted in link algorithms. Aaron from Google and Nathan from Microsoft both agreed that good affiliate links would be counted by their engines and that it was not necessary to mark these with a nofollow or other method of blocking link value.”

“Good affiliates links will be counted by their engines and that it was not necessary to mark these with a nofollow or other method of blocking link value” - Did you read that?  I think this is pretty big news for the industry.  Some affiliates can provide link value.  I’m sure merchants running affiliate programs will be very glad to hear this.  But it brings with it many questions:

• What do the search engines consider “valuable, relevant, trust-worthy sources” and affiliates of high quality?
• Do affiliate program managers start request  “nofollow” links on some affiliates sites and not others?
• How will affiliates change the way they do business?  Valuable and high quality affiliates’ links are now worth more than just the sale, right?
• Are affiliates using nofollow?  If so will that change?
• Will affiliates require more from a merchant to remove a nofollow link?

I always felt that just because a link is a paid link it shouldn’t be discounted on that fact alone.  There are very high quality affiliates out there and their links should be taken into account in the search algorithms.  I’ve also heard affiliates upset that they are not compensated for those links outside of a pay per sales arrangement, and maybe now that we have confirmation that those links, or some of them, are valued, affiliates will and should get some additional compensation.  But by getting additional compensation will they devalue their links?  It’s always great to hear from the search engines on things like this.  Laying out for us how affiliate links, or some affiliate links are judged in their eyes helps all of us.

What do you think?

On November 11th through the 14th, I  will be speaking on a panel at PubCon in Las Vegas.  The conference, put on by WebMasterWorld, is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.   I’ll be speaking on a panel discussing the ins and outs of working with the large affiliate networks like Linkshare, CJ, Performics (Google) and ShareASale.  I’ll be joining a great group of industry leaders and I’m excited to check out this conference for the first time.

What is PubCon?  “WebmasterWorld’s PubCon is an educational conference and industry trade show programmed specifically for web professionals and website site owners. Although our center piece is Search Engine Marketing, Whether your primary role is in web site marketing, corporate IT development, or as a technology business management, you will find something of value at PubCon (aka: Publishers Conference). It is also designed to be fun and entertaining with ample opportunity for quality networking.”

Here is their speaker list.

Register for PubCon.

We are very excited to announce the launch of the LuggagePoint.com affiliate program.  Now availabe in the Commission Junction network, we are offering 10% commissions as our baseline offer, but if you contact me today at Jamie@luggagepoint.com, I’ll put you in our VIP offer of 12%.  That offer expires on 10/18/08.

Here are some important links for you:

• LuggagePoint.com Affiliate Blog
• Luggage Point Affiliate Education Center
• Join Now!

We currently have a datafeed, updated daily, within CJ.  We also have four valid coupons, and for the right affiliate, we can provide you with an exclusive coupon.

We’d love to have you in this new affiliate program!

- Jamie Birch

This one gets me every time.  Your watching your Twitter stream, maybe on the web or through Tweetdeck or some other tool, and all of a sudden you get bombarded with 10 or more tweets from a corporate account, newspaper or other organization.  I’ve seen affiliates blast 15 in the space of 10 seconds and one of our local Idaho newspapers launch 5 or more.

By doing this you are very likely reducing the chance that those tweets will actually be read.  if there is a potential action solicited from your tweet, your followers are less likely to take that action.  You may also be annoying your followers, have you noticed many un-following you?  Many Twitterers use other tools to follow their friends and you, and often it only displays a few at a time, so many of your posts are most likely not even seen.

There are man Twitter plugins, if you are using a blog, that allows you to automatically update your Twitter account as posts are posted.  These may help you to update your account on the fly and without your intervention.

• Twitter Updater
• Twitter Tools

I’ve used both and they work great.  I highly recommend if you can’t use those tools to update your account as new information becomes available.  Users are more likely to ready what you have to say when there is one at a time.

Blog World Expo 2008 proved to be one of the best conferences I have been to in a long time.  I’m not sure what made it the best?  Was it the depth and breadth of the content?  Was it the openness of the presenters to share an incredible amount of information?  Was it the friendliness and willingness to chat of the attendees?  Or was it the opportunity to meet Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park?  Ya know, I’m really not sure but I think it could be a combination of each of those things.

I learned so much and met so many great people.  Here is a quick recap of some of the big points:

• Being assertive and asking for what you want is not the same as being an a$$hole.  Thanks Tim Ferris.
• Well read and successful blogs post 10 times or more a day.
• Did you read that last one, holy cow!
• Most bloggers are not aware of affiliate marketing and that there are other ways to monetize sites than Google Adsense. I’ll be writing a series on monetization for bloggers soon.
• Google Adsense is webmaster welfare.  That was one of the funniest lines.  But it’s true, there are so many other ways to make money on your site.
• Bloggers are as diverse a group as you can imagine.  I walked to the conference with some wonderful horse people and sat in the press room with a well known aussie blogger.

I’ve written a bunch of recaps over at Revenews such as:

Blog World Expo 2008 - I’m one step closer to the edge, and I’m about to blog!

Blog World Expo 2008 - Ten Things You Need to Know About Search Engines & Findability session recap

Blog World Expo 2008 - Making Money Online with a Blog - recap

Blog World Expo 2008 - Making Money Online with a Blog - recap

Is your affiliate program as effective and efficient as possible? Is it as successful as you hoped it would be? Most programs are not and in most cases, an audit of your program, your promotions, your communications and your competitors allows you to see opportunities to increase the performance of your program.  Our Affiliate Program Audit will take your affiliate program to the next level.

In August, JEBCommerce launched the Plan, Do, Check, Act! blog for a national Continuous Improvement consultancy, BCG.  BCG contracted with JEBCommerce this summer to provide them with a strategic marketing plan to expand their digital footprint.  This blog is the first step in an integrated plan whose purpose is to get more exposure for BCG and it’s principals.  JEBCommerce is very excited to be working with this cutting age consultant and helping them establish themselves as the experts in continuous improvement online.

On October 5th, the organizers of the Affiliate Summit will be hosting a Social Media Conference in NYC.    Don Crowther is delivering the keynote.  Tickets are $399 and $499 at the door.  Check out the agenda here.

I’m heading to BlogWorld on September 19th in Vegas.  I’d love to meet you if you are in the area during that weekend.