How Google Will Dominate CPA Affiliate Marketing

Source: ReveNews

Affiliates have a lot to worry about these days. Advertisers themselves are busy divying up affiliates’ commissions among themselves. The The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division issued a ruling on the so-called Amazon Tax that wasn’t the most positive for the industry. But there’s another burning issue that the industry should be watching which deserves an update: How Google is crowding out AdWords advertisers, as well as advertisers from other affiliate networks, by swapping cost-per-click ads with cost-per-action image ads from Google Affiliate Network (GAN) advertisers.

By placing cost-per-action (affiliate) image ads in the space where AdWords ads traditionally appear, Google is elevating it’s Google Affiliate Network.  And it’s tapping into a new revenue stream.  As I see it, ValueClick’s (VCLK) Commission Junction unit is suffering, so is Rakuten’s LinkShare.  As are retail advertisers who choose to not work with Google’s GAN.  In fact, I feel, they’re under increasing pressure to make a switch.

Read more about affiliate marketing…

Google Gives AdSense a New Look

Google has just released a new interface for its AdSense platform and it is being rolled out to all publishers globally.

Almost exactly a year ago, Google (Google) started testing its new AdSense interface with a select group of AdSense publishers. The new design is a reflection on both the feedback from that group and requests for features from the existing userbase.

Read more about Google AdSense…

How Merchants are Divying up Your Commissions

Source: ReveNews

Let’s take a small scenario. What if I promised you that if you spent 8 hours a day promoting Billy’s Shoes, and I’d pay you a commission for all the shoe sales you sent me? If you did the promoting and I paid the commission in a timely manner, we would theoretically be good partners.

Now what if I also owned Billy’s Auctions, Billy’s Games and a dozen other companies – and as soon as you sent me your hard earned shoe visitor, I’d try to steer them to my other sites instead; earning myself money and not having to pay you a commission. That could hardly be called a “partnership”.

Well welcome to Affiliate Marketing 2011.

This trend has been building steadily, and has finally reached the ridiculous level of “you don’t stand a chance” of earning a commission with some merchants.

Read more about commissions…

Secrets of Adult Lead Generation

As every adult webmaster knows, it’s notoriously difficult to convince first-time website visitors to buy a subscription or product. The severity of the American recession has reduced the likelihood of obtaining impulse buyers.

Adult entertainment companies that want to survive the recession must be smart. Businesses are dropping like flies. Blockbuster Video has been closing stores and trying to avoid bankruptcy. Other companies have been laying off huge numbers of employees.

The result is that consumers are virtually tapped out. They’re being very careful about how they spend their money. That’s why showing the standard free tour and routing consumers straight to a credit card processing form won’t work anymore. It’s now more important to focus on generating leads.

Read more about lead generation…

Blending Social Media Marketing with Affiliate Marketing

Social media marketing is vital for every business professional. The Internet is, after all, a social medium in which people interact. Stimulating interactivity is the key to attracting interest to a product or service.

I’ve always viewed message boards as the original form of social media. Web sites that host their own message board forums are able to build a dedicated group of customers. Popular forum software applications include phpBB and vBulletin.

I’ve built on-site and off-site message boards for companies, and I’ve found that they generate large amounts of traffic and sales.

The key is to treat a message board like an affiliate program. Offer your members incentives to participate. For example, give out free T-shirts or other items to the member who reaches 300 posts within a specific period of time.

It’s also a good idea to offer rewards to members who refer new message board registrants. There are plenty of affiliate tracking solutions that can be used to facilitate this process. Get started today.

XBiz World Magazine Features My Article

I’m happy to announce that the new issue of the print magazine, XBiz World, features my article, The Secrets of Adult Lead Generation. The electronic edition of this issue can be viewed on Zinio.com. Click here to read it for free.

Understanding Social Media Marketing

Understanding how groups of people interact with each other and disseminate information to each other is the key to leveraging the power of social media marketing.

On social networks, people often interact with each other to share ideas about how to solve problems. If your particular product or service happens to provide a solution to an ongoing problem, that will give you an opening for mentioning it.

When you think about it, the Internet is a problem-solving tool. When Web users type search queries into the major portals like Google and Yahoo, they’re invariably looking for a solution to a problem. Why? Because life is conflict. Conflict is what ties all information together and makes it relevant.

Cost Per What?!

I like David Berkowitz’s post on Social Media Insider about “CPSA” because it prompts an important discussion about pricing models.

In proposing the possibility of “CPSA” – Cost Per Social Action – Berkowitz recognizes the fact that “social networking, when done right, achieves something much different” from the current pricing models, Cost Per Impression (CPM), Cost Per Click (CPC), and Cost Per Action (CPA). Cost Per Engagement (CPE) gets closer, says Berkowitz, but still falls short. Read more…

HustlerCash Strengthens its Brand

Hustler’s online division has undergone a major makeover since its FlyntDigital days, and with a name like HustlerCash — which the company smartly adopted in 2005 — there’s no question why the company’s web presence has grown exponentially. Read more about HustlerCash…

Affiliate Marketing Helps Companies Grow Even in a Tough Economy

Commission Junction released some data today that goes a long way to show that having an affiliate program helps you grow your business compared to competitors without programs. In the most recent Internet Retailer Top 500 guide, they look at the Office Supply category which is listed as one of the top three growth areas last year.

The Office Supply category is listed with a 14% year over year growth in online sales, but that is only half the story. Splitting the Top 500 merchants into those with affiliate programs and those without has surprising results. Just over half the group have a program and they saw a 36% year over year growth. Those of you with a better than average grasp of math should realize that to balance that figure out requires that the other half experience a decline in online sales. Read more about affiliate marketing…

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