As penetration rates of those entering the US internet market increase, the portion of the US online audience continues to diminish.  Internet users, especially in the US are so cluttered in their in-boxes, banners, and search queries that it is almost getting to the point of desensitization. 

For example if you mail 100,000 names to a US list you might get 10k opens vs mailing to a European country such as France or Poland, where one can see 60k in comparison.  Also look at PPC marketing - the ROI is higher because international key words are cheaper.  

As the US market gets saturated it might be worth the resources to find out how to start tapping into foreign markets.

One thing to keep in mind even if you are selling a product or service focused on targeting US only, your site is still be ending up in other countries, if you are not setting up an international redirect then you are essentially wasting that traffic. This can be a good source of additional revenue. One can set up a free google analytics site to see all the countries that are viewing your site. I would select the top 3 countries besides US and find other international offers that are similar to the site you are promoting and geo target those redirects.  For the rest of the international traffic a campaign that is a simple submit or download that accepts “all countries” is a good selection.

Please contact an AKMG publisher rep to find out how to best optimize your international traffic.

What the heck is a flog? It’s a fake blog. It’s a clever way to target a specific audience through a site generally built using Wordpress, which has proven itself more than just a blog platform but a means for managing an entire site. It’s “fake” because while written in the first person and told in an autobiographical point of view, e.g., “My name is Terry Smith from Sioux Falls, SD and I wanted to share my weight loss story with you,” “I’m Gary Deter and I just got a check for $14,349 in 22 days from Obama”.

Tens of millions of dollars monthly with no barriers to entry. Some call it false and misleading advertising I like to think of it as a clever way to target a specific audience to up sell your product and give yourself the flexibility to say exactly what the customer wants to hear. I mean, isn’t that what sales is, the ability to persuade someone to make a decision. The more persuasive you are the better closer you are. 

The best floggers out there put themselves in the shoes of the consumer. Why? Because the internet industry moves at the speed of light. Every year, every month, and every day products are

coming out better, faster, and closer together. Almost as soon as your campaign starts generating some big volume another great new campaign pops up. Its almost like your competition seems to think one step ahead of of you. 

Ok, I’ll say it. I’m officially addicted to Facebook. I don’t update my status frequently or upload a lot of pictures…but admittedly, I check it. A lot. And now that we have a new AKMG profile page, I find myself checking it, well, even more.

So as I was checking my status for the umpteenth time, I began to wonder just what makes web 2.0’s little darling so “sticky” and in turn, such a fantastic conduit oh so conducive to affiliate marketing. Purely my opinion here, but I think it’s because there is still an organic, un-obtrusive feel to Facebook. When we log in, we are checking up on our friends and scanning photos, and we don’t mind being gently solicited with relevant topics in the background. Keyword being gently.

And I’m not alone. As of January 2009, there were over 24 million US users.* Sixty percent of Facebook users are outside of the US, so if you do the math, you have a global audience available to reach like never before…(I did the math, that’s 60 million).

Of course, if you are reading this you are already a fan of AKMG’s facebook page and eagerly pressing the friend request to our new profile page, and are probably facebook marketing gurus already.Of course, there is always room for improvement, so here are some of AKMG’s ever-so-humble Facebook affiliate marketing suggestions (queue drumroll…)

1. Choose your landing page wisely - Make sure the offer matches the landing page in look, feel and tone.
2. Include one clear call to action.
3. Less is more when it comes to text/copy and graphics. Keep the description one sentence…or less!
4. Contests sometimes appeal more to social media users who aren’t in buying mode.
5. Segment your campaigns by gender, location and interests if possible.

What are your tips and tricks for optimizing Facebook?

Market on, merry marketers,Eleah

*Source: http://www.istrategylabs.com/2009-facebook-demographics-and-statistics-report-276-growth-in-35-54-year-old-users/

We all know why it’s important to use Adsense.  Simply put, it’s a perfect tool to monetize your site with non-intrusive and excellently targeted ads.

So, you have your account set up, and you have a few ads placed, but you’re not getting the click rate and revenue turnaround that you’d like.  Aside from making Adsense ads visually conducive to your page’s design, implementing good ad placement strategy is imperative to your success as an AdSense user.

I found the above graphic on one of Google’s strategy sites (and we actually recommend this to anyone getting into the Adsense space).  They know what works best - it’s their brainchild - trust this strategy.  They refer to this wire-framed guide as a “heat map.”  The ‘hotter’ the spot, the better it will click, and ultimately, the more money you’ll make.  This consumer-action data has been well collected and researched - and it simply works when put into every Adsense configuration.

Have any more questions about Adsense or how you can better monetize your site?  Contact me!

Josh

We all recognize the current web climate as being Web 2.0 - the rise of social media, interactive media (widgets, applications) and aggregation and syndication (RSS). Basically technology is the backbone of all evolution, especially online.

Here are some interesting Web 3.0 trends to look our for in the next decade:

Intelligent Web - the concept of this is to enable computers to process the meaning of things. Right now applications and scripts are already doing this through semantics. We should see behavioral targeting improved times 10, which means hihger targeting for increased conversions.

Mobile - iPhones are just the beginning. Everyone will have a handheld device in 10 years, I read an article stating that people in africa were buying iphones because they could not afford a computer. this to me is revolutionary as to how we can being to market. How about more localization - receiving coupons as you walk through a grocery store or mall.

Personalization - the more behavioral technology evolves the more we will begin to see ads, searches and news tailored to our interests specifically, which to advertisers means more opportunities to sell.

Online video/Internet TV - This trend has already exploded on the web and is most popular in China. We should expect to see ad networks popping up to fill the niche of advertising pre-roll and post-roll.

In conclusion we have come a long way with the advancements in technology and opportunities on the web, however expect to see even more opportunities to reach your audience in innovative highly targeted ways in upcoming Web 3.0…stay tuned..

So after work yesterday, I went to get a gift basket for an undisclosed client’s surprise, and I went to the local craft store….we’ll just call it “Mitchells.” So I go in, ask for directions because I’m eager to get home quickly and take off the fabulous but painful new shoes I was sporting, and I find the perfect basket.

Ok, next comes the filler to put in the basket. Should be right there in the basket section, right? Wrong. Baskets are kept on floor one, and “filler stuff” is kept on floor two. But not in the same aisle. Oh no my friends, because that would be too logical. You see, I could have gone with raffia, the natural grassy ribbon stuff in aisle 5, or the shredded and crinkled paper in aisle 6 or just plain old tissue paper in aisle 2.

None of this made sense.

Nothing was placed together in a logical fashion and by forcing me to hunt all over the store to find what I needed I quickly grew tired of hunting and would have pulled the ejection cord if this hadn’t been on my work “to do” list since last Friday.

Moral of the story? K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid. Advertisers, think about your landing pages. Do they clearly call the viewer to your desired action, or are they cluttered, crowded and confusing. You have less than five seconds to keep your reader’s attention before they click away. Do you invite them in, or do you scare them off with random graphics and too much copy?

In the general advertising world, we call this “whitespace.” In the affiliate marketing world, we call this “Revenue.” Here’s some tips on the house:

1. Fewer and smaller graphics
2. Shorter, easier-to-read text. Bullets can be your friends.
3. Reduced number of choices and links. Ideally, you want your viewer to do one thing and that is order the product or fill out the submit.

And affiliates…think about which creatives to pull. Don’t lazily pull the first creative without looking, look earnestly for the creative that draws you in the most. Which creatives have all the key pieces of information the consumer will want to know before investing time and money into the product? Mailing smart will give each offer the best chance for success.

Same goes for subject lines. Don’t muddle it, keep it clear and concise and you will do both the recipient and yourself a favor. As Shakespeare’s Lord Pologious of Hamlet noted, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

And with that, I bid you adeu. Good night!

The Tsarina of Blogistan

The question is always raised; Hey Affiliates? Why should you work with AKMG? When we work to recruit affiliates, we attract the best publishers possible. With the proper work, we find affiliates who will make a difference in our program. Publishers and advertisers do business with AKMG because we attract high quality advertisers and high quality publishers. We have that type of reputation because we focus on excellence first and let it naturally attract good quality publishers. Here is four ways we do it:

Website

It starts with having an effective website. You know how they say, “you only have one chance to make a first impression”. A potential affiliate can be turned off by a boring, cluttered or uninformative website right away. Your site should reflect your personality as a company. Having a fresh innovative approach to the industry and your programs is key to separating yourself for the “other guys”. The site should showcase your product or service, offer informational details to visitors and clearly state your offer and any guarantee.

Product or Service 

The product or service you offer is critical. Effective affiliates look for products or services that will sell, because they want to make money, right? When they look at your website, will they see good information for your customers and about your affiliate program? Is your website clear and concise? Many websites are cluttered and challenge the visitor to find the important information. Potential affiliates will notice these problems.

Affiliate Page

Your website needs an “Affiliates” page. Think of this as home where all the essential information is contained. Some sites seem to hide the link. If you have a good program and are seeking new affiliates, make it easy to find you. When you design the “Affiliates” page, share the following information:

• Describe your product or service.

• Clearly explain your commission and terms in an easy to understand way.

• Provide thorough details of the promotional support that you offer. 

Affiliate Mangers

They are the link between the publishers and the network. The better

the AM’s the better the publishers will perform. Affiliate must:

-Be in constant communication with there publishers

-Provide up to date information about offers, payouts, stats, etc…

-Be friendly and available to assist publishers in any way.

In summary, the proof is in the pudding. Make sure you have a quality product that will sell. Create an attractive website which is informative. Clearly state what you offer your affiliates, and how we can maximize their business versus other networks. These specific items can entice or discourage a potential affiliate. We have these things in place before you try to attract quality affiliates in order to prove you have a quality program that effective and driven affiliates would want to represent.

So how are we doing?

Talk to me,

Chris Mello 

Well well well the golden boy of Major League Baseball is all over the news this week. Why? Because he cheated by using steroids at least from 2001-2003, and then he lied about it. I was watching Sports Center this morning and they said that Commissioner Bud Selig is considering to adjusting A-Rod’s Hall of Fame statistics for those years he used steroids. That is some heavy stuff. It has created a huge uproar among all of Major League Baseball and all other professional sports.

So my question to all of you is, “Is incentivizing CPA offers like using Steroids?” Incentivizing offers definitely has it’s place. Some companies have successfully built their whole online business model on incentivizing.  If the product is widely used and desire able then there is a low risk that the user will cancel their continuity - i.e. Netflix, Blockbuster, Stamps.  When the user is shown a selection of 40 something offers and is told to choose one or 2 the user is going to select something they are actually interested in, thus still keeping the cancelation rate low.

A campaign is incentivized if you offer some sort of reward for completing an offer in the form of money, points, gifts or anything of this sort. If you provide the user with an incentive to fill out a lead form that is not a benefit caused directly by the product, such as “click here and win a free IPhone’, users are given an incentive to complete an offer.

An example of an incentivized campaign would be something like this:

To receive a free Ipod you must (1) Register with valid information, (2) Complete a survey, (3) Complete at least 3 offers, and (4) Refer five friends who also complete steps 1-3.

In short, any time you provide an incentive for the user to complete an offer (outside of whatever benefit the user will gain from using/buying the product), this is considered incentivized traffic.

A poll could easily be incentivized traffic if it reads like many of the ones you see on websites, ie:

Is Obama going to be a good president?

( ) Yes

( ) No

Vote now and receive a FREE* Ipod.

The problem is when you take an offer like a free trial and incentivize it when it is not allowed. 

Why? Because when you incentivize an offer that does not allow that type of traffic it often leads to poor lead quality and scrubbing. Lets face it the public is always going to be attracted to getting something for nothing i.e. “get paid to try offers” or “get this prize for filling out this form”, so they sign up get paid and cancel right away. 

In today’s society if its to good to be true, it probably is. 

What is your take on incentivizing campaigns when it is not allowed?

Talk to me,

Chris Mello

I recently found out there are networks out there providing supplemental content for high traffic sites. Basically if you are a blogger you sign up at a network such as Blogburst.com or PajamasMedia.com if your blog makes the cut it will be available to to site owners to syndicate your writing.

Why do it?
Syndicating your blog will bring traffic, exposure and sales. Your posts will be seen by a larger audience, which you will gain exposure and gain some readers yourself.

Worried about rankings?
If you are concerned about your rankings being damaged by duplicate content - don’t. Google crawlers are good at figuring out where the initial post was made, as search engines generally identify duplicate results and filter out all but one. They have ways to figure out the “original” post but looking at things like when it was published first and which has most links pointing to it.

Expert Advice
Create a different version of the content to syndicate than what you write for your own site. Make your version more detailed and the one you are syndicating more summarized. Always include a back link to your site, so readers and trace back to your site. As your own blog sites gains more traffic you will want to have more control over the content and the revenue generated from it, so keep you long term goals in mind (such as developing your own ranking) when negotiating syndication partnerships and don’t give up total control over your content that you’ve worked so hard to develop. Make sure your partners are merely concerned with providing content for their readers and not on using your content for rankings themselves.

As you may now, the advertising industry has been hit extremely hard with DoS(denial of service) and DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks.  The FBI recently got involved in finding where the traffic is originating from, but of course it turned out to trace to overseas locations.  This is entirely typical, even for attacks originating on-shore.

When it comes to fighting any method of attack, it is always imperative for  informations security professionals to first understand the attack at hand.  If you don’t know how it works, you can’t stop it, fight it, or most importantly, prevent it.

Basically DoS/DDoS attacks only purpose is to saturate the target servers/machines with pings/communications requests repeatedly and so quickly that the machine has no resources left.  Thus its intended processes and services can not be completed, and usually result in it’s respective ‘timing out’.  There are all sorts of ‘types’ of DoS/DDoS attacks (ICMP flooding, p2p attacks, teardop attacking, nukes, distro attacks, etc) but the main theory and processes are the same.

With this knowledge, these attacks can surely be stopped, specifically using distributed systems/computing.

First, have your systems mitigate rate limits.  If a location exceeds this rate - STOP THEM and have the traffic reviewed!  Easy enough.  You can set your firewalls/switches to do this in a heartbeat, but if it’s not done right off the beat, you’re leaving yourself open to 10-year-old attacks, as displayed by  the low-level DoS attacks the industry has recently seen.

After you’ve identified the origin, you need to have some sort of service in place (such as Prolexic) in order to intelligently scan the packets that are being sent to your systems so that any trickle DoS packets can be immediately deterred.  It all comes down to finding a reliable and intelligent way to disseminate good traffic from ‘attack’ traffic.

All in all, the best practice is to have some sort of front-end filtering in place to ‘divvy’ out the server processes intelligently across your distributed system-base.  This will categorize the packets’ content/traffic as ‘priority, OK, or attack-typical’ before they even reach your server.  There are a slew of bandwidth management options available today and any lack thereof is absolutely reckless business.

Have more questions?  Email me!