Meeting Notes

Hi Guys,
We had a strong turn out for the last meeting for 2010.
John Neyrot
Alex
Rich
John Mac

We talked a lot about face book and the uses.

We talked about Google Wave and the uses of it. We all agreed this would be very useful oneday.

Alex had some good suggestions about using MeetUp.com >> Search local groups of similar interest.

One step for communicating to all social sites with Ping.FM

Alex talked about his mentor, Jase Sanders and his facebook postings.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you all !!!
See you in 2010.
God Bless,
John

Speaking with Carolyn Tang from ShareASale

Shakira and I are going to the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas in Mid January 2010. Today I spoke with Carolyn Tang of Share A Sale to get a better feel of the market and understanding the their affiliate network.

We talked about the basics and she gave me some great ideas.

DataFeeds which is where you download all the products in one big Excel spreadsheet.
Webmerge is a software to merge CSV iles or Database files into a Html template. There is a free trial and then it cost $99

Carolyn recommended using this....
Using Afftrack with ShareASale
You can use the afftrack= portion of your link code to include affiliate defined tracking strings. Enter your tracking variable immediately after the afftrack= portion of your link code. This tracking variable will be echoed back to you in the Activity Details Report (http://www.shareasale.com/a-accountactivity.cfm). The tracking string must be alphanumeric, and can not contain any spaces or special characters. There is a 255 character limit. If you are using the "Shortest Code Available", Email Links or Product Links, you may need to add the afftrack= wording to your link code. A sample link would look like this:
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=70&U=XXXX&M=47
Where the XXXX is replaced with your Affiliate ID number.
You can add the afftrack= parameter to this code along with your tracking string. The tracking string must be alphanumeric, and can not contain any spaces or special characters. If your tracking string is "123ABC", then your new link would look like this:
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=70&U=XXXX&M=47&afftrack=123ABC
The afftrack= parameter may already be in your link - be sure to use the existing one and not to add an additional one.

For the Affiliate Summit, she recommended that I bring...

*Color copies of my website and to show merchants.

*Bring Plenty of business cards.

*Go to the Sharaasale party on Sunday to make contact.

Going to the Affiliate Summit and sign up for the Mentor program..

Carolyn recommended that I look into the RIU Affiliate program


Thank you for your time today, Carolyn!!!
God Bless,
John
Swim with the Dolphins in Tortola

Google Wave

Hi All,

Google Wave is coming. You should watch this youtube video to get an outline of what is going to happen.

If you want to sign up for Wave, go here

Watch Video


Also, if you want to buy a manual to understand and use better  click here

I am not sure how we can use the wave but maybe a way to carry on the meeting virtually this way.
God Bless,
John

Building a Successful Affiliate Website

Here is the chronological order of the success of Shopping-Bargains.com.

Created by Mike Allen

• 1995 Graduated College with Master Degree
• 1996 Made first online purchase
• 1997 -99 Learned about powerful coupon code ** Google is born ** Search engines are not very effective
  
• 1999 Shopping-Bargains.com is born ** Used free hosting ** Quickly moved shared hosting ** Joined two affiliates amazon.com and netgrocer ** joined 2 networks bfree and linkshare
  
• Learned in 1999 ** Meet the customers needs ** Quality webhosting is vital ** Affiliate marketing exist ** Content management is a lot of work ** Affiliate income is not automatic ** This hobby had potential ** Start setting goals
  
• 2000 - 2003 ** Joined Commission Junction ** Share A Sale ** Performic (bought by google) ** Added more retailers and content ** Moved to table layout and upgraded ** Aquired shoppingbargains.com (without dash) ** Trademark easier with dash (- ) in URL ** added first part time person ( this person did data entry only )
• Main Lesson 2000 - 03 ** Affiliate marketing works ** Merchant communication is great ** Manually updating content is painful (35,000 products - redesign site) ** Search engines become really big now ** search more accurate ** online advertising is very effective too ** This not hobby anymore and becomes a business ** need help ** become a LLC business ** Building the BRAND and investment in the company is vital
• 2003 - 04 ** The big migration ** Dynamic content ** Database driven ** Dedicated server is acquired ** Build database in Cold Fusion ( looking back I wish I did it in PHP instead) ** Standardize Layouts ** Navigation ** Read Quit my day job - Jeremy Palmer ** Started to interact with the affiliate industry ** Use Abestweb.com for resource ** Involve more with affiliate managers (building relationships)
• Main lesson learned 03 - 04 ** running a business is expensive ** I must focus on content, not developement ** Quality sites are trusted more ** web layout + usability really matter ** Read the book "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug ** Affiliate income fluctuates widely ** Search engines don't like change
• 2005 - present ** More industry involvement ** Advisory boards / service ** won several awards ** Blogging ** Added more retailers ** Created newsletter >> Like mail chimp for segmented list and not expensive ** Social Media - Blogging, RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter, Some use of Video ** Tools to use - for me to coupon.com - popshops.com (all the affiliates in one spot) - google custom search (With Google Custom Search, you can harness the power of Google to create a customized search experience for your own website.) ** Business enhancements - hired more part time people ** New revenue stream - slotting (where you put perferred products on your site and get paid for it) - google ad sense, chitika
• 2005 trends noticed ** Buiness cycles and trends produce big impacts ** Search Engines algorythmes change and it effects bottom line ** Media mentions and Social can be huge ** the ecomony impacts conversions ** Legal issues arise the bigger you get ** Infrigment and typo must be addressed ** content must be protected ** more tools - open office, aff meter , affbook.com, ** go to trade shows - affiliate summit, search engine strategy, pubcon
• Suggestions to think about ** Find a problem to Solve ** Offer creative solutions ** think long term ** build your own brand ** Invest in education ** Expect to fail
• To see the whole PDF hand out < go to >

Thank you Mike... facebook/com/mike.shoppingbargains or twitter.com/mta1
God Bless,
John
swimming with the dolphins bahamas

ShareASale - SFIMA - Other Speaker

More notes from a few speakers today.

Carolyn Tang - Share A Sale an affiliate network
This network is one of the hottest in the industry - everyone is raving about its integrity, honesty, and payments.

Big affiliate site that work within their network, FatWallet.com >> Tim Storm ( started 5 years ago and has 80 employees)

Stats to keep up on:
Raw Data

1. Impressions
2. Clicks
3. Number of Orders
4. Sales$$

Derived Data

1. Conversion Rate
2. EPC >> Earning per click
3. Returns

Jay Berkowitz 10 Golden Rules
The types of Affiliate that are out there.
SEO >> Natural and Paid
Email >> Building List
High Traffic Websites
Shopping / Bargins / Coupon
Information products pages
Lead Generation pages

You might want to see this video from Tony Robbins
In this interview I meet with two very successful students, Frank Kern and John Reese. Both of them are self-made multi millionaires who made their fortunes by selling products on the Internet. What’s particularly interesting about both of them is that neither had any “real” education. Neither one finished college and they both went from being broke to becoming wealthy.

Andy Rodriguez Consulting
I thought of Johnny Hawaiian contacting this guy. If he reads this, you might want to follow through with him.

He said a supper affiliate is someone who earns at least $10,000 a month commission.
He helps companies both with finding Affiliate Networks or Growing the Affiliate business
Tools her recomended
Wordtracker >> with word tracker you can see the cost for 1 year
Syntryx >> Find affiliates for any products

andy@andyrodriguez.com

Sites to look at:
Affiliate Tips Blog by Shawn Collins
ABestWeb is the world's largest affiliate marketing forum with 60,000 members and over 943,000 posts
Affiliate Summit conference
Geekcast - pod cast about affiliate marketing
Quit your day Job
Shoemoney.com >> Not my favorite but they showed at the show where they have a photo of this guy with a check from google adsense for $132,000 for a month check. Pretty impressive. Look at the check.
zacjohnson.com - Super affiliate blog
ReveNews Blog - Discussion of Online Advertising, CPA, SEO, Affiliate and Next Generation Marketing

More to write about>>
God Bless,
John
dolphin swims miami

Trust Agents - Affiliate Marketing SFIMA

Hi Everyone,
Wow, I went to inspiring Internet class today about affiliate marketing, which was up my alley.

The first speaker was Juliene Smith who wrote the NY times best seller Trust Agents
His books and speak was about building channels and talking to many people
Blogs > Facebook > Twitter

• Building a strong Channel of People can last forever
• Controlling your future means controlling your channel platform > your network
• Emailing will help communicate to your channel of people
• Building tribes is critical
• Social Capital > facilitate the exchange of the groups
• You need to be part of every conversation
• Create websites that are visible and indexable
• Make sure you have the inside language with your group >> connection with your group >> Buzz words that ever talks about within your group
• Your offering >> Differentiate from the Crowd
• Pattern Breaking >> Be a human artist >> so your crowd can remember you
• Understanding leverage >> Social Capital = Financial Capital >> Keep the friction friction low
• You need to be the lead dog of your group. When you are the lead dog, you have less competition >> Similar to network marketing pyramid - You at the top and the rest of your group below you.
• Habit of fear won't let you take risk to be the lead dog.
  

Chris Brogan Blog advises businesses, organizations, and individuals on how to use social media and social networks to build relationships

Book to Read:

• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant (Hardcover)
• Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives (Hardcover)

2 Website for me to look startcooking and startcooking blog

More notes to come.
God Bless,
John
swimming with the dolphins in Miami

Your offering >> Differentiate from the Crowd

Email Service Providers

Here is another story I have read about Email Service Providers (ESP) and how to use them properly. Some Companies to Look at Aweber, Listtrack, iContact, Exact Target, and Mail Chimp.

Proper Selection Process of an ESP
Real Basic....

• Handling Authentication
• Quality Control Features
• Third Party Intergration
• Foster an environment of Permission based marketing - Double Opted In emails
• Do they have Metrics to Track, opt out subscribers, spam complaints
• The ability to quickly create individual emails and campaigns
• To preview and test content and run spam checks
• Schedule delivery of Emails or Campaigns
• Set Up Autoresponders

Also, look for advanced feature ...

• Segmentation - the ability to create small email groups
• Subscribers Level of activity or interaction - Sending to the real buyers
• Abandonment - How to get those that leave your email list to come back and buy again
• Coupling emails with social media

Some ESP have autmatic RSS feeds into their email programs. I know Aweber offer this.

Some Industry with High Inbox acceptance

• Books, Music, and Movies 95%
• Food and Beverage 87%
• Sports / Outdoor 87%
• Misc Retail 82%
• Gifts and Collectables 78%

3 Basic Elements of Every Email

1. Personalization
2. Branding
3. Call to Action

Sender OK has a plug in for Outlook, Gmail, Live and Yahoo, where you add a social network into the header panel of messages

Success Story:
Dreamfields Pasta built a marketing database of excess of 280,000 brand advocates in the san of 24 months. << Check out this site

Something to think about. I have used Aweber for many years but would like to check out the other ESP to see what they offer and cost. Also, I am trying Mail Chimp for my civic association because they offer 500 email users for FREE for life. It will work great for the civic association.

God Bless,
John
Today is the perfect day to go swimming with the dolphins !!