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Affiliate Millions Newsletter 4/27/2007

June 30, 2007 on 8:45 pm | In Newsletter Archives | No Comments

Hi Everybody,   

Any big plans for the weekend?   

I’m hoping to drive up to my new ranch with my boys and pitch in with the hay cutting, if the weather holds.  You might not believe it, but working just an hour or two a day for a few years can get pretty tiresome, no matter how lucrative it is.  I’m counting on this new horse farm I’ve bought to provide me with some sorely needed chores.  Maybe that sounds a little crazy to you right now, but when you hit it big, you’ll know what I’m talking about. 

Speaking of hitting it big, let’s get on with the advice. 

Tips for Beginners 

Slow and Steady Wins the Race 

If you are just getting started, don’t expect instant success.  It takes time and patience to learn the ropes and to develop the skills – the most important of which is ad writing – which you will need to set yourself apart from the competition.  Focus on making small campaigns profitable, not on making small campaigns into bigger campaigns.  When you start writing better ads than your competition, your campaigns will grow almost on their own.   

If you have read my book, Affiliate Millions: Make a Fortune using Search Marketing on Google and Beyond, then you know that my originally modest goals for the business did not prevent me from making more money than I ever dared to dream I would.  In fact, my early attention to profitable campaigns, no matter how small, and my focus on improving the ad text for these campaigns (as opposed to complicated bidding strategies and burdensomely granular performance monitoring techniques) are what ultimately led me to the highest levels of success. 

Quick Start Guide 

Go slow, but get started quickly!   

Although I recommend a slow and cautious approach to building up your first campaigns, that doesn’t mean you should relax on the couch instead of getting the ball rolling.  My Quick Start Guide will take you step by step through the initial startup process of starting your own Search Marketing business. 

New Affiliate Networks & Programs 

This week’s focus is on two affiliate networks newly added to the Affiliate Millions site; LeaderMarkets.com and AzoogleAds.com. 

LeaderMarkets.com – With over 500 quality affiliate program offers, an intuitive interface and high conversion rates, LeaderMarkets.com is a veritable cornucopia of potential money making offers for you to take advantage of.  And, unlike some other affiliate networks, their sign up process is both quick and easy.  

AzoogleAds.com – Another vast network of affiliate programs with competitive payouts and high conversion rates, also with a quick and easy sign up process. 

As you are signing up for these networks, remember, if you are planning on running their ads on search engines (like I do) instead of on a website of your own, then when they ask you for your website address, simply type in the address of one of the search engines you will use (i.e. www.google.com) and explain in the website description that although you are obviously not the owner, you intend to promote these affiliate programs on this and other search and content networks.  If you do have a website of your own, however, feel free to use its address in the application process. 

Search Engine Marketing Tips 

Ad-Tuning 

No single technique has contributed more to my success then my habit of carefully writing ads and then testing them against similar ads to try and identify possible improvements.  Unless you firmly establish an ad at the very top of the search results for your keywords, with the lowest possible CPC (under three cents on Google, for instance), you should continuously try to improve your ads by creating new, almost identical ads to run alongside the current best performing ad.  Make small changes to a word or two, or replace a whole line in the title or description, then run that ad alongside the other to see if it performs better or worse than the original.  I have a number of helpful suggestions for this process in my book, but I have one important addition you cannot find in the book, as the feature is new.   

Google AdWords now allows you to pause an ad, rather than delete it, when you wish an ad to stop showing within an ad group.  This feature is important because ad history is important to the Google algorithm, and I have occasionally deleted an ad I thought I had improved upon, only to find that I had either incorrectly interpreted the results, or that the ad history itself was still critical to the success of the ad group.  If you pause an ad, and then experience a sharp drop in performance, you can correct the problem by simply resuming the ad.  If, however, you delete ads when you believe you are done with them, you will not be able to undo this, and although you can recreate an ad that is identical to the old one, you cannot recreate the ad history. 

Search and Content Networks 

This newsletter is still so new, I am hesitant to begin suggesting third tier search engines to an audience I believe is still comprised largely of beginners, so I am continuing to feature just the two largest and most reliable sponsored search programs in the world.  For those of you with more experience, who understand the challenges that these third tier search engines present, but believe you can improve your bottom line with an increase in volume, you can see a complete list of recommended search engines at www.AffiliateMillions.com. 

Google AdWords – The pioneer in pay-for-performance search marketing. Google’s AdWords program is one of the top pay-for-performance search engines. 

Yahoo/Overture Sponsored Search – Yahoo! represents one of the largest and oldest search engines on the web. They are currently running a promotion offering $25 worth of free advertising to new customers.  That could translate to as many as 250 free clicks through to the affiliate programs you choose to advertise.  Click on the link below to take advantage of this great offer. 

Yahoo! Sponsored Search connects businesses and customers online. Sign up and get a $25 credit.  

Website Design & Marketing Tips 

The bulk of my success with affiliate programs has been with search marketing, and I believe it is the easiest and quickest path to profitability.  But for those of you with the skills and inclination, I want to offer what help and advice I can.  To that end, I do maintain some pages on my site to support website based affiliate program marketing, and I try to include some of this information in my newsletter.   

Website Promotion 

One thing to keep in mind when you are promoting a website of your own is that there are many different options, some of which are not available when using search marketing just to promote affiliate programs.  Search engine optimization (SEO) is a good example.  With a site of your own, you should focus some of your efforts toward getting your site to appear in the natural search engine results.  If you can successfully climb near to the top of a few key searches, you will begin getting the best kind of traffic…  FREE!  Add to that the relevancy of the traffic you get from appearing at or near the top of a few relevant search phrases, and you will likely have established a significant revenue stream. 

A great book about promoting your own website that I read in preparation for launching the Affiliate Millions website is Insider Seo & Ppc: Get Your Website to the Top of the Search Engines, available now on Amazon. 

Website Templates 

As I have mentioned before, one of the services we are providing that I am most proud of is our FREE website templates.  These templates are professionally designed, and include simple instructions for incorporating your own affiliate advertisements into the html code.  Simply download the files from my site and unzip them to your root directory on your web server.  Don’t have a web server?  Don’t worry, just skip down a few paragraphs and you’ll find affordable and reliable web hosting services you can use to publish your new website. 

Presently, as Affiliate Millions is only just getting started, we have only one template available.  It is a template for an online college degree selection site, and it is available at www.AffiliateMillions.com/web-design.html.  You can view a working example of the website at www.Great-Colleges.com. 

I strongly suggest Affiliate Fuel for your source of education offers to list on this site, as they have a large number of high paying, high converting college degree offers. 

Good Luck, Affiliate Millionaires in training! 

Anthony Borelli

Affiliate Millions Newsletter 4/20/2007

June 30, 2007 on 8:31 pm | In Newsletter Archives | No Comments

Hi Anthony, and welcome to the very first edition of the Affiliate Millions Newsletter.   

Thank God it’s Friday, right!  Well, since striking it rich in Affiliate Marketing, I can thank God that everyday is Friday for me now.  This Friday is even better than most, though, because it’s also payday.  Wondering what sort of income Search Marketing and Affiliate Advertising can generate for you?  I’ll cash checks for over $116,000 this month, and this is the worst month I’ve had so far this year!

So how can you start making your own Affiliate Millions?  Hopefully, this weekly newsletter will provide some of the critical information you’ll need to start you on your way to financial freedom.  I’ll be organizing the newsletter into four parts; Tips for Beginners, New Affiliate Networks & Programs, Search Engine Marketing Tips, and Website Design & Marketing Tips.

Tips for Beginners 

Recommended Reading 

If you are just getting started, the first thing I have to recommend, naturally, is that you read my new book, Affiliate Millions: Make a Fortune using Search Marketing on Google and Beyond available now on Amazon.  Pay particular attention to Chapter 10: Dealing with Mistakes.  It can be difficult, at first, to make your campaigns profitable, and an expensive mistake is often all it takes to end someone’s search marketing career before it even begins.  I myself thought of quitting early on when a careless budgeting error cost me thousands of dollars in just a few short hours.  Had I thrown in the towel, I would never gone on to eventually succeed and earn literally millions of dollars.  I still shudder when I think of how close I came to quitting.  In Chapter 10, you read about some common, but sometimes costly, mistakes that could end your career before it has a chance to begin.

Quick Start Guide 

Obviously, since you have signed up for the Affiliate Millions Newsletter, you have visited the Affiliate Millions Website, but did you notice the Quick Start Guide I have developed to help you get started?  Although I cannot provide the same level of instructional detail on the website as I do in the book, my Quick Start Guide is an excellent resource for quickly and simply taking you step by step through the process of starting your own Search Marketing business.

New Affiliate Networks & Programs 

This week’s focus is on Commission Junction, one of the largest and most profitable affiliate networks on the web.  It can be difficult, however, to navigate their sign-up process, and once you have joined, it can be difficult to choose from the thousands of affiliate programs available. Signing Up 

To sign up, you may click on this link for Commission Junction, which will take you to their Publishers page.  To navigate from there to the actual application, you will need to scroll down and click on their link “Learn more about the CJ Marketplace”.  This will take you to the About Us > CJ Marketplace page.  Scroll down to the last paragraph on this page, the Publishers section, and click on the “Click Here” text in that paragraph.  Now you are finally at the application itself, which is not so difficult once you get there.   Remember, if you are planning on running these ads on search engines (like I do) instead of on a website of your own, then when they ask you for your website address, simply type in the address of one of the search engines you will use (i.e. www.google.com) and explain in the website description that, although you are obviously not Larry Page (Co-Founder of Google), you intend to promote these affiliate programs on this and other search and content networks. 

Recommended Commission Junction Affiliate Programs Once you are signed up, selecting the right affiliate programs to promote can be a daunting task, but don’t worry, I can help.  Since this week I expect most of my subscribers are probably new to affiliate advertising and search marketing, I have selected a couple of affiliate programs to recommend that I found relatively easy to make profitable early in my own career.  They are Napster and Monster. 

Napster – Currently offering $5 for each person you drive to their site that signs up for their free – that’s right, FREE – 7 day trial.  Anytime you see a program willing to pay you a commission based on selling anything for free, you should give the program a try.  This deal is even better than most, though, because if the user signs up for the service after the 7 day free trial is over, you earn another $5.  They have programs for the US, UK and Canada.  Be careful selecting keywords, however.  Like most programs, Napster does not allow affiliates to bid on their trademark names (like NAPSTER) and you should view the complete list of protected keywords before launching your campaign.  You can check out this offer before promoting it if you like: Click here to get a 7-day FREE trial of Napster 

Monster – This jobs list site was one of my early favorites because it is always easier to market a strong brand, and unlike other affiliate programs, Monster does allow some bidding on their trademarks (view their keyword policy first for details). You earn $1 for every resume posted, and 50 cents for each person who joins My Monster, plus, if you drive employers to the site as well, you receive a percentage commission from Monster.  I have received commissions for a single referral that have exceeded $100. You can check out this offer before promoting it if you like: Post Your FREE Resume Today to attract top employers! 

Always read the Terms & Conditions of each program carefully.  There is nothing worse than investing time and money in a program, and then not receiving commissions because you inadvertently broke the rules. Search Engine Marketing Tips 

Continuing to assume that this week I have a high concentration of newcomers, I am focusing strictly on top tier, pay-for-performance based search engines this week.  Until you gain some experience, you will want to steer clear of the second-tier search engines and pay-for-placement models. Search and Content Networks 

Google Adwords – The pioneer in pay-for-performance search marketing. Google’s AdWords program is one of the top pay-for-performance search engines. Yahoo/Overture Sponsored Search – A newcomer to pay-for-performance, but Yahoo! represents one of the largest search engines on the web. With Yahoo! Sponsored Search you target customers actively searching for what you sell. Yahoo! Sponsored Search connects businesses and customers online. Sign up and get a $25 credit.  

As always, you can see a complete list of recommended search engines at www.AffiliateMillions.com. Website Design & Marketing Tips 

For those of you brave souls who want to manage your own websites, I have some tools and tips as well. Website Templates 

One of the services we are providing that I am most proud of is my FREE website templates.  These templates are professionally designed, and include simple instructions for incorporating your own affiliate advertisements into the code.  Simply download the files from my site and unzip them to your root directory on your web server.  Don’t have a web server, don’t worry, just skip down a few paragraphs and you’ll find affordable and reliable web hosting services you can publish your new website too. Presently, as Affiliate Millions is only just getting started, we have only one template available.  It is a template for an online college degree selection site, and it is available at www.AffiliateMillions.com/web-design.html.  You can view a working example of the website at www.Great-Colleges.com. 

I strongly suggest Affiliate Fuel for your source of education offers to list on this site, as they have a large number of high paying, high converting college degree offers. Web Hosting, Design & More 

Assuming again that this week many of you are just getting started, I am including this short list of full service web hosting companies, each of which can affordably assist you in finding and securing domain names, designing a website (or just publishing one of my templates), and professionally hosting a site on a secure and reliable web server. 

Dotster – Low cost domain registration, plus hosting and building solutions. Dotster does it all!           

GoDaddy – GoDaddy.com is the world’s largest domain registrar, and they are a full service provider of web design and hosting services.

Good Luck, Affiliate Millionaires in training! 

Anthony Borelli