Your Affiliate Marketing Questions Answered

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Hey everybody!

I'll make this brief. I'm really into affiliate marketing! I haven't seen that much dealing with affiliate marketing in threads here on the Warrior Forum, so I figured I'd start one.

Currently, I make my living from Clickbank and Amazon with a splash of Adsense, so I'm wondering...do you have any questions about Affiliate Marketing or related topics? I start with thread with the humblest of intentions and I realize that there are going to be questions that I can't answer but there are going to be a lot that I can after 4 years of testing and toiling over affiliate marketing strategies.

So, in the purpose of making this brief..what's your affiliate marketing question?

Thanks guys.

Thomas Kearo
#affiliate #answered #marketing #questions
  • Profile picture of the author Rickling
    Originally Posted by Glassjaw009 View Post

    Hey everybody!

    I'll make this brief. I'm really into affiliate marketing! I haven't seen that much dealing with affiliate marketing in threads here on the Warrior Forum, so I figured I'd start one.

    Currently, I make my living from Clickbank and Amazon with a splash of Adsense, so I'm wondering...do you have any questions about Affiliate Marketing or related topics? I start with thread with the humblest of intentions and I realize that there are going to be questions that I can't answer but there are going to be a lot that I can after 4 years of testing and toiling over affiliate marketing strategies.

    So, in the purpose of making this brief..what's your affiliate marketing question?

    Thanks guys.

    Thomas Kearo
    Hey, What's the pro and cons and how does one succeed as is very hard when there are literally millions maybe doing the samething product and routine, I'm currently in one and doing social media and autorepsonders and articles and adverts to build my list?
    Rick.
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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      Rickling,

      One thing I've learned during my affiliate marketing career is to never worry about the others who are doing the same thing you are. Whether it's choosing a Clickbank product with high gravity (so you know people are doing the same thing) or creating you Internet Marketing Blog, there is always room for a newcomer. This is especially true if you're better than all the rest. One of the things that got me through this Internet Marketing life when I was living on nothing but Ramen noodles and water was that I knew that I was going to make it. If you know you're going to make it..you will.

      The other people that are promoting the same products might have a nine to five job. They might have children. They might have a life that is already laid out for them and doesn't require them to make any money online. These are things that I've used for fuel. These are things that have sparked my passion. These are things that I've used to set myself apart from the rest.

      I'll tell you this my friend. There were days when I sat for 8 hours at a time writing articles to make my rent and nothing more. There were days when I sat begging for work, but nothing compares to when you can launch multiple affiliate marketing campaigns that will make you auto-pilot income. Believe you me, there is a day rapidly approaching where you'll sit back and watch movies and make money while all your friends are at work. You'll smile.

      If this doesn't answer your question on why you should promote when there are other promoting, this will.

      Learn more than your competitors. Learn their tactics and use them against them. Go into Yahoo! Site Explorer, find out what backlinks they've used and use them against them. Stay up late, drinking caffeine and energy drinks until you literally pass out. These are the tools that make a successful Internet Marketer, and these are the tools that will give you success.

      As far as an exact method - Blog Comments work best. I kid you not. I've launched several of my niche Clickbank sites on blog comments alone. Articles are over rated and everybody under the sun knows about them. If you want to outrank your competitors, you must have the knowledge they don't. Here are a couple things you can use to blow your competitors out of the water:

      Blog Comments
      Authority Emails
      Profiles

      These are the three most under-used linking strategies in the game today. Use them and you'll earn yourself as much money as you need. I hope this helps. If it didn't, please reply again and I will answer again.

      Thanks,

      Thomas Kearo

      P.S. - I'd like to give you a free copy of my WSO free of charge - How To Bank With Clickbank. I feel that the tips outlined in here will help you in your affiliate marketing career. Thanks so much for the question and have a great day. I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavours! What is your email address so I can sent it to you?
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      • Profile picture of the author Rickling
        Originally Posted by Glassjaw009 View Post

        Rickling,

        One thing I've learned during my affiliate marketing career is to never worry about the others who are doing the same thing you are. Whether it's choosing a Clickbank product with high gravity (so you know people are doing the same thing) or creating you Internet Marketing Blog, there is always room for a newcomer. This is especially true if you're better than all the rest. One of the things that got me through this Internet Marketing life when I was living on nothing but Ramen noodles and water was that I knew that I was going to make it. If you know you're going to make it..you will.

        The other people that are promoting the same products might have a nine to five job. They might have children. They might have a life that is already laid out for them and doesn't require them to make any money online. These are things that I've used for fuel. These are things that have sparked my passion. These are things that I've used to set myself apart from the rest.

        I'll tell you this my friend. There were days when I sat for 8 hours at a time writing articles to make my rent and nothing more. There were days when I sat begging for work, but nothing compares to when you can launch multiple affiliate marketing campaigns that will make you auto-pilot income. Believe you me, there is a day rapidly approaching where you'll sit back and watch movies and make money while all your friends are at work. You'll smile.

        If this doesn't answer your question on why you should promote when there are other promoting, this will.

        Learn more than your competitors. Learn their tactics and use them against them. Go into Yahoo! Site Explorer, find out what backlinks they've used and use them against them. Stay up late, drinking caffeine and energy drinks until you literally pass out. These are the tools that make a successful Internet Marketer, and these are the tools that will give you success.

        As far as an exact method - Blog Comments work best. I kid you not. I've launched several of my niche Clickbank sites on blog comments alone. Articles are over rated and everybody under the sun knows about them. If you want to outrank your competitors, you must have the knowledge they don't. Here are a couple things you can use to blow your competitors out of the water:

        Blog Comments
        Authority Emails
        Profiles

        These are the three most under-used linking strategies in the game today. Use them and you'll earn yourself as much money as you need. I hope this helps. If it didn't, please reply again and I will answer again.

        Thanks,

        Thomas Kearo

        P.S. - I'd like to give you a free copy of my WSO free of charge - How To Bank With Clickbank. I feel that the tips outlined in here will help you in your affiliate marketing career. Thanks so much for the question and have a great day. I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavours! What is your email address so I can sent it to you?
        Hellos sent PM and was just curious as to your meaning of the 3 things I need to do extra and I hope is good I continue with what I am already doing and have my url is rickling really basic as my knowledge to build is little and dreamweaver is not too easy! My affiliate is in sig.
        Rick.
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        • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
          Rickling,

          Blog Comments - Posting your name (keyword) and URL as a comment on a blog. This will give you a link back to your site

          Emails - Emailing people asking for links. This actually works.

          Profiles - Making your own "space" on sites that allow you to. Your warrior forum profile would be a profile.

          Thanks Rickling,

          Thomas
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          • Profile picture of the author Rickling
            Thomas
            Ok blog yep got that obviously related to what I'm promoting or any is fine also.
            Emailing people asking for links who are oyu talking about here anyones email or which links?
            Profiles ok so joining sites etc but at the sametime put my link etc yeh?
            Thanks heaps
            Rick Ling.
            ----------


            Blog Comments - Posting your name (keyword) and URL as a comment on a blog. This will give you a link back to your site

            Emails - Emailing people asking for links. This actually works.

            Profiles - Making your own "space" on sites that allow you to. Your warrior forum profile would be a profile.
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            Rick Ling


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            • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
              Rickling,

              As far as emails are concerned, it really just depends on how strong the site is. Obviously I wouldn't email sites with only a few incoming links asking because they wouldn't benefit my site as much. The emails you want to send are to sites which are extremely strong and have a lot of incoming links. By default, these sites are harder to get links on without asking, therefore making them the perfect candidate for an email campaign.

              As far as profiles are concerned, you're exactly right. Join the site, make a post or two and put your link in your profile. That's it! Hope this helps Rickling and thanks for the great question!

              Best,

              Thomas
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              • Profile picture of the author UncleDiddy
                Hi Thomas,



                Your the first thread I read on here since I joined today. Very interesting and informative... I am new to the affiliate marketing program and working under Playgirl Inc. We are launching several products very soon and need some good affiliates.

                Just a quick questions Thomas, how long were you in this business before you became comfortable knowing how to make this a successful career?

                Thanks Thomas,


                Andy
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                • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
                  Diddy,

                  I'm glad you like the thread. I can remember the turning point exactly as it were yesterday. I was working my day job and doing Internet Marketing on the side for a couple years and making very slow progress. Eventually I had so many Clickbank sites, Adsense ventures and CJ blogs that I could afford to quit working and it because more financially sound for me to do so, with the increasing demand of upkeep of these sites.

                  My recommendation to anybody here would be to keep your day job until your IM efforts require such an amount of time that you would make more if you didn't work.

                  P.S. - Starting up an affiliate program is always challenging. I'm very interested to talk with you about the subject.

                  Thanks Diddy,

                  Thomas
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                  • Profile picture of the author UncleDiddy
                    Originally Posted by Glassjaw009 View Post

                    Diddy,

                    I'm glad you like the thread. I can remember the turning point exactly as it were yesterday. I was working my day job and doing Internet Marketing on the side for a couple years and making very slow progress. Eventually I had so many Clickbank sites, Adsense ventures and CJ blogs that I could afford to quit working and it because more financially sound for me to do so, with the increasing demand of upkeep of these sites.

                    My recommendation to anybody here would be to keep your day job until your IM efforts require such an amount of time that you would make more if you didn't work.

                    P.S. - Starting up an affiliate program is always challenging. I'm very interested to talk with you about the subject.

                    Thanks Diddy,

                    Thomas


                    Thanks Thomas for your response. You see we here at Playgirl Inc is developing a natural male enhancement pill called HardKnight. It is created by a division of Playgirl called BainBridgeandKnight Laboratories. We are giving 50% across the board (anyone who buys first time and renews). I am glad I seen your thread and can learn from an experienced guy like you.

                    I am not sure if 'adult' affiliates are different from 'mainstream' type of affiliates or are they all the samething... Sorry to ask such newbie questions..


                    Andy
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                    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
                      Diddy,

                      To be honest with you, I don't have much experience in the world of adult affiliate marketing so the opinion that I can give I can only speculate on. I would say that one of the downsides to adult affiliate marketing is that you are less likely to be able to place links on community sites and the venue seems smaller. This means that some of the more traditional SEO tactics might have to be excluded, making adult affiliate marketing harder. Therefore, If I were to promote It I would require a much higher payout that average...but that's something you've already nailed. 50% is nice!

                      I don't think you're going to have a problem gaining affiliates, especially because the company's branding is going to go a long way for you. Hope this helps.

                      Thomas
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              • Profile picture of the author Rickling
                Hmmm ok so I would guess one googles what I'm affiliating then use the tool I have seoquake to find the stats of that site then how or where do I email from whatever link or email they provide there? Sorry maybe sound dumb but I guess I'm lost?
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                • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
                  Rickling,

                  Yep that's about it! Just email strong sites asking for a link and don't appear too cocky or tell them why you want the link. You'll be surprised at how many of them give you a link. There are a lot of webmasters out there that care truly for their visitors interests (me being one of them) and if they feel your site is an addition to theirs with valuable information, they'll give you a link.

                  Best,

                  Thomas
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  • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
    cjmo,

    You've got a lot of good tips! Thanks for posting in the thread. As Cjmo said, affiliate marketing is not easy, but it's really what separates the men from the boys when it comes to marketing online. While you have a point with the "why promote somebody else's product when you can make it your own", you also have to remember that affiliate marketing allows the internet marketing family do what they do best...market products.

    Affiliate Marketing can be a dreadnaught in terms of sales because the vendor has already done the research necessary to increase conversion rates and lay out the sales pages in a pleasing fashion. As long as I'm promoting a stand up product, I love the affiliate marketing relationship as I've made many friends during the process and have been able to turn to them for favors, etc.

    Networking is key.

    Best,

    Thomas Kearo
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  • Profile picture of the author Igor Pauer
    Do you have also experience with affiliate marketing of "physical" products or only "digital" and "services"?
    Signature

    114.000 pcs of silver jewelry physically in stock. Diamond jewelry also available (in stock).
    We are direct producer. We dropship worldwide. Details of our affiliate, dropship and wholesale program find here.

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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      Igor,

      I have expertise in the digital marketing field, but I am currently contracting an offline fortune 500 company to promote their offline goods digitally...therefore I consider myself experienced in both fields. Again, I am humbly starting this thread.

      I would like nothing more than you help you with your question Igor.

      Best of luck to you!

      Best Regards,

      Thomas Kearo
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      • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
        Saru,

        I'd like nothing more than to help you with your decision, but I need a bit more information to continue. If you'd feel comfortable giving me your website URL to examine I would be more than happy to give you affiliate network advice.

        You're right to assume that different sites need to use different types of affiliate marketing programs and I commend you for this insight. It's something that affiliate marketers often don't realize. It's amazing what you can learn about somebody from a few sentences. You're going to go far.

        Would you feel comfortable emailing me your URL? My email is t.kearo@gmail.com - this goes for anybody viewing this thread as well. If you need some advice, I'd be glad to help.

        Warmest Regards,

        Thomas Kearo
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        • Profile picture of the author saru4141
          Originally Posted by Glassjaw009 View Post

          Saru,

          I'd like nothing more than to help you with your decision, but I need a bit more information to continue. If you'd feel comfortable giving me your website URL to examine I would be more than happy to give you affiliate network advice.

          You're right to assume that different sites need to use different types of affiliate marketing programs and I commend you for this insight. It's something that affiliate marketers often don't realize. It's amazing what you can learn about somebody from a few sentences. You're going to go far.

          Would you feel comfortable emailing me your URL? My email is t.kearo@gmail.com - this goes for anybody viewing this thread as well. If you need some advice, I'd be glad to help.

          Warmest Regards,

          Thomas Kearo
          PM sent, Check out your inbox dear
          Signature

          Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five

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          • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
            Igor,

            I'm assuming that you've already got a physical product distributor lined up. If that's the case that's great! Here's what I currently expect and receive from my offline "deal":

            1) Conversion rates are extremely good. Considering that most people are skeptical about purchasing digital goods, if you go with an offline affiliate product or "physical product" you're going to be on the right track to getting an above average conversion rate. As it stands right now with my offline partner, I get a 10% conversion rate, which is substantial. The best Clickbank promoters get 5%. You're on the right track Igor.

            2) In terms of target audience, I'd really need to see your site and what you've already got in mind to give you advice there. Coffee is different than Hot Sauce and I really need to know the subtleties and nuances of your market to determine where you should be focusing your efforts. my email is t.kearo@gmail.com if you feel comfortable emailing your site URL. I will address it as soon as possible!

            3) Payment Delay really depends on the specific company you're promoting. It not only depends on how often they "as a company" take profit, but it also depends on how often they pay their employees (Which they might consider you as one). For safety, I've always asked for AT LEAST a montlhly payment (bi-weekly if applicable). This way, you know your're not being taken for granted and if they don't pay you within a month, you can focus on promoting another company.

            I hope this helps! Please post again if you have any more questions!

            Thanks,

            Thomas Kearo
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            • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
              Wow, thanks for the many responses guys. I'm more than happy to answer all of these questions. I will make these responses short as I'm sure your time is valuable, but If I don't cover it completely please don't hesitate to contact me again as that was not my intention.

              Saru,

              Thanks for emailing me your website. It looks great! I have two tips for you for increasing conversions.

              1) Link the pictures you have to your affiliate program. People love to click pictures whether it's to get a higher resolution or just out of curiosity. This can lead to sales. When people click your pictures to check out more info, they're transported to a sales page. This is known as a funnel. Once they're in the funnel, they're more likely to buy!

              2) Use more text in your articles. Bing has already stated that they don't like indexing articles or posts with less than 300 words and Google prefers more than that. I'm not saying that you won't get indexed, but the more words you use the easier it is to rank and increase sales exponentially. If you're still having troubles after implementing these two strategies please contact me again! (I have a feeling you won't be though. Your site is top notch).

              Thanks Saru.

              Gary,

              First of all I'd like to thank you for purchasing The Blogging Bible and I'm extremely grateful for that fact. I wish nothing but the best for you in the future. Allow me to address you questions in the order they were asked if you would sir.

              1) I find the blogs that I post comments on with varying methods (mostly by search query). The search queries I'm about to show you are called footprints. They are able to identify certain types of blogs solely by isolating certain text on the page.

              First, we have the Wordpress Blog Footprint. If we were searching for blogs about gardening and we were using the Wordpress footprint, we'd search this:

              Search: Gardening "Powered by Wordpress"

              Since most wordpress blogs have the words powered by wordpress in the footer, we can search for that exact term and find specifically wordpress blogs related to gardening.

              A footprint can be anything common displayed on the page of any blogging platform. Identifying these and being able to pinpoint these is key.

              2) When choosing a Blog to comment on, I go for these critera:

              PageRank: This is a general scale of importance on a blog, although not the be all end all gauge of SEO some people think it si.

              Incoming Links: This is a much better identifying of how much strength a website is going to pass as opposed to PageRank. The more incoming links a page has, the more I want the link. This isn't solely for SEO purposes, but for referral traffic. The more incoming links a page has, the more referral traffic they're going to send.

              3) Profiles. Profiles are a unique thing. Profiles are used solely for SEO purposes on my blogs. There isn't much use in promoting your direct affiliate link in them given that they're rarely visited except by admins of the site that you're currently posting to. If admins see an affiliate link, your profile will be banned. If they see a link to your site, it might not be. Affiliate Links in profiles are not recommended as they decrease SEO value and increase the chances of your profile being deleted.

              4) Manually or Automated? After 4 years of implementing SEO strategies for clients and my own sites, I've come to the (disheartening) conclusion that manual implementation works best. First, you simply cannot trust programs. keyloggers, Trojans and Malicious software is too prevalent in the world of Internet Marketing software and you don't want to end up with these on your computer. Secondly, Manual submission of links trumps automation every time because the user is able to identify problems with the submissions (software cannot). Thirdly, you build business relationships by using people versus software. You can trade favors with these people, contact them when things go wrong and make lifelong business partnerships with these people.

              I'm not saying I don't use software, but whenever possible I like to bring a human hand to my SEO and backlinking strategies. Finding a trustworthy person to do this....is another story entirely. I wish you luck in this sector, and I have only found a few reputable friends.

              Outsourcing is fine because it's manually submitted. Make sure though, that you keep a close eye on those that are doing your work for you. I require daily reports from people that I hire. Weekly or monthly reports often lead you to a road of wasted months or weeks.

              Hope this helped you two. best of luck to you!
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              • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
                Igor,

                To begin an affiliate relationship on the producer side is extremely impressive to say the least. I have never done such a thing and I may refer to you for guidance in the days to come if I ever get the inkling to implement such a strategy. Now, on to your question.

                The affiliate marketing mindset is simple. Generally, affiliate don't care much about what they're promoting (sad to say), but how much money it's going to make them. In order to achieve a substantial amount of affiliates, I would do the following:

                1) Drop the bomb then make affiliates earn it. Affiliates are immediately attracted to things they know will make them money. Start out by offering an extremely high pay rate to wipe your competitors out of the ring. I've heard that the jewelry niche provides a significant return on investment so I don't think 10% would be too much for you to pay to affiliates (though I may be wrong). Once you have a decent number of affiliates, offer incentives to those who increase sales by an amount you determine. Say...15% to those who achieve more than X dollars per quarter. I understand if your profit levels don't warrant these percentages, but it's a motivator for sure.

                2) Tighten your standards once your affiliate program gets going. Affiliates are like mercenaries (me included). If there's a paycheck in it, I'll promote anything. Call me Boba Fett =)

                Affiliate Programs like anything run off of supply and demand. If you've got a great supply of affiliates and you're not hurting for sales, this is the time to ask your mercenaries to be honest. Sales a great, but in the long run if you've got too many affiliates promoting things dishonestly, that's going to be transparent and it's going to give you all kinds of goodies like a ripoff report and damage the branding of your business. A good affiliate relationship is a discrete one and a GREAT affiliate relationship is one the customers don't mind purchasing though because they view it as a reputable source. Hope this helps!

                Please don't hesitate to contact me again if you have any more questions!

                Best,

                Thomas Kearo
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  • Profile picture of the author saru4141
    Hi @Glassjaw009, Can you please guide me how can i start affiliate market, or which product have to select, i am runing Gadgets niche site, i am confuse to select affiliate network for my site. Can you please guide me what to do?
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  • Profile picture of the author Igor Pauer
    What would you expect from "ideal" affiliate program for US market for "physical" product - by means of provision, conversion rate, target audience, payment delaym etc.? Please imagine the really ideal "physical" product affiliate program and let me know details. Thank you
    Signature

    114.000 pcs of silver jewelry physically in stock. Diamond jewelry also available (in stock).
    We are direct producer. We dropship worldwide. Details of our affiliate, dropship and wholesale program find here.

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  • Profile picture of the author GaryHarvey
    That's a valuable list you provided, Thomas... your top three promotional methods:
    Blog Comments
    Authority Emails
    Profiles

    This gives rise to many questions

    1) How do you FIND the blogs and profiles you post on?

    Your criteria for choosing one blog over another?
    Presumably you put keyword hyperlinks in those profiles, but are these linked to the vendor's CB page? or to your own squeeze pages? or...?

    2) How you DO each of these 3 promotional tasks?

    Manually?
    With software? - if so, what?
    Outsourced? - do tell us more.

    Yep, many questions but you did volunteer.
    And btw, I imagine this is going to turn into a great thread.
    It's off to a good start.

    Thanks
    Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author Igor Pauer
    Thank you for answers. The reason for asking is to CREATE best affiliate program (in-house) for US market (we have the product). We are in jewelry business (as per my signature).

    The best way for creating program is listening to successfull affiliates what they want and what they consider important.

    So can you give me idea how the ideal affiliate program from your point of view is look like (what you need and what you don´t). Is jewelry interesting for affiliates?

    BTW: conversion rate 10% is extremely impressive.

    Thank you very much.
    Signature

    114.000 pcs of silver jewelry physically in stock. Diamond jewelry also available (in stock).
    We are direct producer. We dropship worldwide. Details of our affiliate, dropship and wholesale program find here.

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  • Profile picture of the author Igor Pauer
    Thank you for valuable suggestions.

    1. 10% is OK. We can make 15% as an special individual agreement for best partners (which in i.e. diamond jewelry makes really impressive amounts). 30 days cookies are default.

    2. Would you mind, if I send you link to our in-house affiliate SW (we have to upgrade it), so you can tell me what is missing in the program or if it is good or we have to change it completely?

    3. I was very impressed by the 10% conversion rate - our rate is much lower yet. Can this fact daunt affiliates? Or they are more looking at absolute provision then percentage?
    How can we make better conversion rate according your opinion on our eshop? - so affiliates will profit from better conversion rate too?
    Is it untrustfull? More payment methods? Faster or different delivery? Too "exotic" to US customers? Or some other recomendations?

    Please do not hesitate to tell me not to waste your time if there are too many questions, or if it is OT for this thread

    Thank you.
    Signature

    114.000 pcs of silver jewelry physically in stock. Diamond jewelry also available (in stock).
    We are direct producer. We dropship worldwide. Details of our affiliate, dropship and wholesale program find here.

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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      Igor,

      I set out to answer affiliate marketing questions in this thread and that's what I intend to do. I greatly appreciate your consideration of my time and that really means a lot.

      I'd be happy to answer any questions you have and I'd be happy to address the certain questions you have regarding your affiliate page and so forth. Email me at t.kearo@gmail.com if you feel so inclined.

      Thanks Igor,

      Best Regards,

      Thomas
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  • Profile picture of the author GaryHarvey
    Thomas, thanks for going into such detail. Much appreciated.

    But let me see if I can extract even more detail...
    <wink>

    Incoming Links: This is a much better identifying of how much strength a website is going to pass as opposed to PageRank. The more incoming links a page has, the more I want the link.
    How do you find the # of incoming page links? - SEOquake plugin for Firefox or something different?

    Gary

    PS: Unrelated, but i see you're a member of the War Room. Can you give us your sales pitch about the benefits you're getting from it?
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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      Gary,

      Thanks for the question! I've used an extremely diverse amount of tools, analytics programs and everything I could find under the sun for examining backlinks and link backrubs. The best one I've found is Yahoo! Site Explorer.

      They pick up on incoming links fast, the tool is extremely intuitive and it's free! This is one of the few things that Yahoo! does better than Google and Bing. It's a great tool!

      If you've got any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

      Thanks Gary,

      Thomas

      P.S. I cannot comment on the War Room fully at this time as my recommendation or anti-recommendation would not be based in experience as I'm actually too busy with clients and projects right now to frequent the war room regularly. When I do, I will surely give an honest review of it in the thread or send you a PM. I wouldn't feel comfortable reviewing it at this time as I'm not sure I frequent it often enough to do so. Thanks Gary.
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      • Profile picture of the author roshan1
        Hello

        I am new to affiliate marketing and i want to earn some extra money from it. I want to know the basics and how to do affiliate marketing effectively?

        what are the tools for affiliate marketing which can bring good amount of traffic and sales?
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  • Profile picture of the author BaloneyTony
    I am wondering if you have any tips for preventing affiliate product review sites from getting banned from Adwords?

    I had a site up and running for 4 months, and then one day they shut down traffic for all campaigns directed to the site.

    Their reasoning was that is was a "bridge page". This page offered a review of the product along with an affiliate link.

    Any ideas on how to keep Google happy so this doesn't happen again?
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  • Profile picture of the author Vasquez11
    Hey,

    Regarding affiliate marketing, what is your best opinion for a strategy at approaching selling?

    I dont want to work endless tireless hours trying to get traffic to a blog, and I do not have an email list. So that leaves me with Adwords.

    Would you work with adwords? Or continue working on getting traffic to the blog?

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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      Baloney,

      I'd go ahead and stop my campaign. Do this. Set up a bunk site and run adwords on it. Once they approve it, set a redirect to redirect to your affiliate link. bing! Bang! you've got an Adwords auto-redirect. It's a thing of beauty.
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  • Profile picture of the author Murderface
    Glassjaw009-

    Thank you for starting this thread. You have an awesome attitude and it's always great to see people helping each other out.

    I have a few questions for you;

    Code:
    1) How are you driving traffic (primarily); SEO, PPC/PPV, videos, back-links etc.?
    2) Which traffic method do you prefer/recommend?
    3) Do you have Adsense on any of your Clickbank/Amazon sites? If so, is it really worth it/profitable?
    4) Which profit source do you prefer; Adsense, Clickbank or Amazon? Which is more profitable for you?
    5) Are you finding it difficult to compete/rank and/or get 1st position in the SERPs with your Amazon/Clickbank sites?
    6) Do you work heavily on your sites until they are on the first page of the SERPs, the first position of the SERPs - or what?
    7) How many 'exact-monthly searches' do you aim for (for your keyword/key phrase) when starting a new campaign?
    8) Do you have a set-amount of back-links/page rank that you have in mind as far as what you are willing to compete with (e.g. competitor site has 2000 back/in-links and a page rank of 4 - will you compete with them or will you move on to a new keyword that is less competitive)? -What is your threshold?
    9) Why aren't you promoting non-virtual products by going directly through various merchant websites as opposed to Amazon (thus, getting longer cookies and higher commissions)?
    10) I am going to assume that your preference regarding Clickbank products are centered towards e-commerce/money making products; that being said, what are your methods for finding workable keywords (with regard to getting on the first page of the SERPs) - since a lot of the workable keywords for these types of products are highly competitive?
    11) With regard to emailing webmasters for a link-exchange, are you finding it difficult getting back-links for your Clickbank product sites? (Assuming you do e-commerce/money making promotion)
    12) What kind of sites are you setting up for your Clickbank products? -Scam sites, review sites etc. - or are you having your visitors opt-in for email marketing?
    13) For Clickbank products, do you use the product name in your keyword(s)? What about in the domain name/url?
    14) How many websites do you have (Amazon, Clickbank and Adsense - total)? Do they all make you money?
    15) Without asking you how much you make, can you give us a ballpark figure for what your sites average (individually) per month?
    16) Are your profits relatively consistent, or are you having to build new sites regularly to maintain your current income level? (Obviously, you are probably building new sites regularly anyway, so I know that this question may be partially un-answerable)
    17) How many pages do you typically try to have for each website that you build (for each - Amazon, Clickbank and adsense)?
    18) How much content do you generally try to aim for on each page? (e.g. homepage/sub-pages - 200 words each, 500 words each etc.)
    19) I know you made mention of following your competition with respect to copying their back-link strategy, but what kind of sites do you look for (in addition to the aforementioned) when you are back-linking and doing a link-exchange (e.g. do you always look for relative pages; and do you look for a minimum PR level from those sites - or strictly the in-link quantity that those sites have)?
    Please, don't feel obligated to answer any of these questions. I understand if you are reluctant to reveal any of your methods, and I understand that you may only have so much time for posting as you are probably busy with your work. That being said, answer what you like and ignore what you want. I certainly will NOT feel offended by any means. And again, I greatly appreciate the fact that you have started this thread and are willing to help out other people.

    Good luck and take care.
    -M
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  • Profile picture of the author KeNiQ
    Here is a question
    w/ clickbank lets say I find a product and I dont want to create a site around it can I just use the little hop link deal and send track to that using PPC? If so what is the best way to do so and how do i hide that hope think or make it redirect to my .com (if i decided to use my own domain)
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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      Murderface,

      Thanks for the question. Love the name by the way.

      1. PPC when a site is new and can boast significant ROI. SEO afterwards.

      2. I recommend SEO. It's the only method that stops costing you money after a while.

      3. I stick to one monetization method per site. Too many clouds the effectiveness of all of them.

      4. I prefer Clickbank. It's easier to make money with Adsense, but if you get a well converting Clickbank product, you'll make a lot more (in general).

      5. I choose micro-niches so it's not difficult to get ranked 1st in the SERPS at this time.

      6. I have a couple phases. First, I'll work hard to get to page 1 on the site. Then I'll lump it with the rest of my sites on page 1 and do "maintainence" SEO until it jumps up there.

      7. Exact searches 10,000-15,000. I'll choose a keyword with more if there is a great competition to search potential ratio.

      8. I usually won't compete with sites with 10,000 backlinks or more in a micro niche. If I want to compete with sites like that, I'll choose a bigger niche and launch a long term campaign.

      9. I've run across too many untrustworthy non-virtual affiliate programs and I don't like talking on the phone. =)

      10. This question requires a bit more detail. I'll come back to this.

      11. My Clickbank sites look extremely legitimate and so it's not hard to get backlinks from emails. In general, people won't link to a spammy website that sells a very reputable product, but they will link to a website that looks professional that sells utterly useless items. It's all about appearance. It really doesn't matter what monetization method you're using.

      12. Review sites work best. I'm not a scammer and I won't promote a product if I don't personally see some sort of value in it.

      That's all I have the time to answer right now. Sorry I couldn't answer more, but I will definitely come back to these questions later. Thanks for the great questions!

      Best,

      Thomas
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  • Profile picture of the author Murderface
    Thomas-
    Excellent job! Thanks a bunch for the replies!

    Yes, my handle is blacker than the blackest of black times infinity.

    About the scam sites...what I mean is, sometimes, when you search for a Clickbank product on Google, you will see a site in one of the top 10 spots on the SERP's with a title like 'is CBproductX a scam?' -or- 'CBproductX is a scam!' ...then, when you look at the page, you get a clever introduction about how the webmaster heard about the product and was skeptical...but, after taking the dive and purchasing it, found out that it was actually a good, legitimate product. And of course, the rest of the 'review' is filled with anchor text that have an affiliate link to said product sales page.

    I've never done it, but it must work. It's obviously a clever way to use keywords that you know people are searching for - to get traffic to your site. I guess it's only deceitful if you haven't actually purchased the product - and you don't really believe that it's great etc.

    Thanks again,
    -M
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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      Murderface,

      I misinterpreted what you meant by scam sites. Thanks for clarifying it up! Yes. I have a few of them like that and they do work but they're basically just review sites. My "is product x a scam?" site and review sites perform at about the same conversion levels. I guess it's really just a matter of personal preference.

      Again, thanks for the questions as I'm sure they've helped others as well. Viva la Warrior Forum!

      Best,

      Thomas
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      • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
        Keniq,

        Adwords and most other PPC advertising platforms won't allow you to just send visitors directly to your hoplink. You'll have to use a redirect to get around this.

        hope this helps.

        Best,

        Thomas
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  • Profile picture of the author the rider
    What about a site where one can get a maximum of all the affiliates link or program information.
    IS there any site where all these information can be collected?
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    • Profile picture of the author jonoman1
      Hey Thomas I love this thread you have started. Good insight so far too. I am getting back into promoting CB products after relying mostly on ebay and then they terminated my account and I lost all I worked hard for. I almost forgot how much I loved clickbank and how easy it is to promote the products on there.

      I guess I will throw some questions your way too:

      Say the competition has about 500 backlinks to their sites on the 1st page of Google for the keywords you want to target and you want to start a new site promoting CB products. How long would you say it would take to start ranking on page one and how soon would you start building backlinks?

      By the way, I love your attitude about affiliate marketing because it sounds like mine. I know I can be the best at what I do and beat out any other affiliates trying to do the same thing. This is my only job (by choice) and I can devote as much time and energy as I want for IM. Looking forward to hearing great things from you and possibly pm in the future.

      Jon
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      • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
        Jonoman,

        Thanks for the terrific question. I love looking at scenarios like this, and I do it often. To generally answer your question, I would say that it will take you around 1-2 months to outrank them, but one must also analyze a few other things.

        1. Analyze the general "strength" of their backlinks. I know it's not realistic to go in and check the PR and strength of every link they have if they've got 500, but do a target sample. Perhaps check 30 of them and see how strong their inlinks are. Once you have a gauge of their strength, you can add some time until you see yourself rank or lessen some time. I've seen sites with 500 inlinks from dangling pages and you can beat that with 10 good links. No foolin'

        2. Check their strategy. Inlinks are the bread crumbs of SEO meaning that you can generally trace their rankings back to their linking strategy (for all to see in yahoo! site explorer). What's working for them? Chances are it'll work for you as well.

        3. I start building links immediately after indexation. I go slow at the beginning (a few articles, a few blog comments, maybe a directory or two if I'm feeling froggy) then increase exponentially from there. Hope this helps!

        Best of luck to you in the future Jonoman and I look forward to talking with you again!

        Best,

        Thomas
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        • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
          the rider,

          Not quite sure what you're asking. Can you ask again in more detail? Thanks for the question though!

          Thanks,

          Thomas
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        • Profile picture of the author jonoman1
          Thanks for the response, Thomas.

          Right now I think I have too many sites going at once and it's hard to focus on one thing. I have about 10 sites for clickbank but all of them are mediocre at best. Most of them are in the Home and Family category, but it's hard to know which products are really going to produce.

          Most of it seems to come down to a killer landing page. I look at the products landing page to make sure it will convert, but my own page needs to be one that gets the readers to click through to the product page or I'm toast. Right now I use wordpress for everything since it's so easy for me.

          Any advice on both choosing clickbank products you know you can do well on and also making landing pages that will produce buyers?

          Jon
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          • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
            Jonoman,

            Thanks for the question. You're absolutely correct. It's hard knowing what is going to convert, what kind of gravity is going to work the best for you, if their gravity is artificial blah blah blah. I normally choose products with 80-140 gravity because I know there is enough of a market there to where I can:

            a) Rank it quickly and see if it produces results. If not, I haven't wasted 3 months ranking it

            b) know with 100% certainty that the market isn't saturated

            c) get lower bids on PPC

            I hope this helps Jonoman. Thanks for the question and I wish you the best of luck! I love marketing clickbank and I have two WSOs about Clickbank for different purposes. I may launch another because I've been trying some new tactics out in the near future.

            Best,

            Thomas Kearo
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            • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
              I actually also want to address something that Jonoman said that I overlooked. It's very easy to get distracted in Internet Marketing and get your hands into too many cookie jars at once. (I'm even doing that right now) but if anybody is struggling with this, the general guideline is that if something is working for you, you should keep doing it. It seems simple I know.

              However, since Internet Marketers are incredibly diverse people and we need to stay on top of our game at all times to make money, we find ourselves branching out and absorbing all the information we come across like a sponge. Often this hurts more than helps.

              It's all about Scaling!

              Thanks everybody and I wish you the best of luck in the future and only the greatest of successes.

              Thomas
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              • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
                therider,

                Actually, if you're talking about getting all of the latest Clickbank information, you can get it at CBENGINE - ClickBank Marketplace, Preferred by ClickBank Affiliates

                Hope this helps and I wish you the best in the future.

                I'm looking forward to answering more questions!

                Best,

                Thomas
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                • Profile picture of the author jonoman1
                  yeah I really love CB Engine. It's so much easier to find a good clickbank product than actually using clickbank.

                  I have found a decent clickbank product that I am only using Adwords right now to drive traffic to it, and I am finding out which keywords convert. Then I plan to write some articles with those keywords in the title and anchor text and get some organic traffic going.

                  Here is a question for ya Thomas.. (if you are still in the answering mood).

                  When promoting a clickbank product with adwords, do you tend to use a landing page or squeeze page with an autoresponder set up?

                  I know it can be pain to set up emails for weeks in advance, but will it produce more sales and better results in the long run?

                  Thanks,

                  Jon
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                  • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
                    Jonoman,

                    Great Question! I normally just use a simple landing page optimized for sales with an opt in form built in. If your landing page is optimized for sales you really shouldn't need an auto responder or any sort of email marketing until you go to send out newsletters from people who have opted in.

                    That's the best answer I can give because I've never dealt with autoresponders on my landing pages for clickbank products. Hope this helps. If not feel free to post again.

                    Thanks,

                    Thomas
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                    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
                      Hey everybody!

                      I've just launched another answer thread called "Your Blogging Questions Answered". If you have any blogging questions, feel free to post in the thread!

                      Best,

                      Thomas
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                      • Profile picture of the author GaryHarvey
                        Originally Posted by Glassjaw009 View Post

                        Hey everybody!

                        I've just launched another answer thread called "Your Blogging Questions Answered". If you have any blogging questions, feel free to post in the thread!

                        Best,

                        Thomas
                        Thomas, did you intend to give us the link to this one?
                        I didnt see it in your sig yet.
                        Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author nevadajim
    Hi,
    Can anybody set me straight ? I have been promoting a bunch of different Clickbank products. I am getting steady targeted visitors to these sites and all the way to the checkout page. I have not received even one sale, it seems like I should at least get an occasional conversion. Am I wasting my time with these products or should I be looking at non digital stuff to promote ?
    Thanx
    nevadajim
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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      nevadajim,

      Thanks for the question and I apologize for not answering it in a more timely manner but here we go. This is a common problem with affiliate marketing ventures. What you're most likely seeing is people that are intrigued but aren't "serious buyers" and they're not biters in the sense of fishing. They might be curious, so they're going to check out the checkout page but they're not totally into buying right at that second.

      I would relate it to the situation where you go and buy a car. It's the sales associate's job to get you to buy right there and right then. If he doesn't present a deal that's just...spectacular and a deal you can't pass up, you're not going to buy at that time. Perfect salesman will close the deal right then and there. Then again, good salesman will lose a few leads off the lot but actually close the sale later. This is where an email opt-in comes in.

      You said you're not experiencing that many conversions or sales. If that's so, I would recommend and email opt in form to contact them with at a later date. An email opt in is like the online equivalent to a business card from a car dealership. If they decide to buy that particular product at a later date, they'll buy from you as opposed to somebody they don't know at all. This is what I can recommend right now with the information you provided.

      If you need further assistance with on-page optimization or sales conversion, let me know the site address and I'll check it out!

      Thanks,

      Thomas
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  • Profile picture of the author jontipping
    What do you use to track CB conversions from your PPC marketing efforts? IE: which ads & keywords are converting. I found tracking 202 to not be working all that well.
    Cheers!
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    • Profile picture of the author inter123
      Hi Thomas.

      I am interested in PPC but keep seeing threads about Google banning people from running adword campaigns. What precautions should be taken to stay on the straight and narrow?

      Thanks.

      Jim.
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      • Profile picture of the author baby_butler2002
        Mr.Glassjaw009. what is the best(seo) way to build amazon affiliate website.as far as pluggins and blogging platform
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        • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
          BabyButler,

          Thanks for the questions. I have not forgotten about the two previous questions but they are rather in depth and I will be contacting you via PM instead of in the forum.

          Wordpress works best for nearly all blogging related methods, including Amazon.com for me personally. This just might be because I've gotten into the habit of using it but I don't personally see an easier, more customizable platform out there right now.

          Plugins I use for Amazon are simply Adsense Now! (which you can use to insert any type of html code like Adsense (but not limited to) Statpress, KB Robots.txt and Google XML sitemaps. These are mainly just general plugins I use to set my sites up and monitor things. If you're looking for more Amazon.com related plugins or affiliate plugins, I don't use any other than these. I don't like to crowd it up too much. Thanks for the question.
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  • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
    inter123,

    I always have just used the "if it feels wrong it probably is approach". Really, as long as you're not doing extremely blackhat things Google is not going to outright ban you from adwords. They may disapprove your ads but for a first time warning they won't outright ban you. Your best bet would be to look over the TOS and make sure you're not doing anything against it. Sorry I couldn't help more.

    Thomas
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    • Profile picture of the author johnoink
      Hello All and thanks for the great thread here. I am a pure newbie who found this forum because I was investigating a product pitch which was made to me through my email. I don't want to derail the thread and I have a very simple yet complex question. I am a newbie with no practical experience in AM or website building. I love the concept and I am looking for a place to start. The amount of information, the jargon, the strategies, etc are overwhelming for a newbie. Assuming that I am a zero on a 1 to 10 scale, where do I start? Thnx in advance for any help.

      John

      P.S. the product was WP Mage which is reviewed on another thread.
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  • Profile picture of the author vintotin
    In order to become a successful affiliate marketer, your website should stand out in Google and appears in the first page of Google when somebody search for your product.
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    • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
      Johnoink,

      Great! Welcome to the forum. Let me assure you that there is no better place to learn Internet Marketing than this forum, so you're on the right track there.

      That being said, I can't particularly help you because I don't even know where to begin. If you have absolutely no background in Internet marketing or Affiliate Marketing, it would be better to read some threads where other people have posed questions first and then come back to this thread when you have a specific issue.

      I would really like to help Johnoink but I certainly can't write a book in a post on everything about Affiliate Marketing. Well, I guess I could but I don't get paid enough to do that =)

      I look forward to hearing from you again and if you have a specific question in the future I'd be glad to answer it! Thanks.

      Best of luck in your future IM career,

      Thomas
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