A report published earlier this week by Nielsen Online indicated that social networks and blogs are now the fourth most popular online activity.

The report, titled “Global Faces and Networked Places,” showed that “Member Communities,” which comprises social networks and blogs, is a sector attracted 66.8 percent of the global online population, putting it ahead of the “E-mail” sector, which drew 65.1 percent of the global online population.

In December 2007, these two sectors were reversed. Member communities drew 61.4 percent of the global audience, while e-mail drew 62.5 percent.

Search remained the most popular online activity, with 85.9 percent of the global online population taking part, while general interest portals and communities finished second with 85.2 percent.

“While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing,” said John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online. “Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large.”

The world’s most popular social network is Facebook, which is visited by three in every 10 people each month in the nine markets where Nielsen tracks social networking use.

Orkut, property of Google, has the largest domestic reach of any online social network in these nine markets with 70 percent, according to Nielsen.

Just think just a couple of years ago no one really knew how social networking worked. It was new different, people didn’t quite know if power and accessibility. With technology , people’s internet IQ drastically improving and the rise in popularity in social networking sites. It has become a powerhouse for affiliate marketers to advertise and make a ton of money. 

Where do you think it will be in 2, 3 or 5 years?

What are your thoughts?

Talk to me,

Chris Mello

Online advertising has to date been a bright spot in the struggling economy. When forecasts of overall spending on advertising continues to show a decline. Those monitoring the Internet keep predicting gains. Take a look at 2008: remember when the credit crisis in early 08 became clearer and mounting of big corporate losses, along with the fall of the stock market is Oct 08, Internet advertising still looked promising. 

Why do you think that is? 

Maybe its because we can switch gears at the click of the mouse. Moving from marketing as seen on TV offers to debt consolidations offers in a couple days.

Maybe its because we are such innovators and we can watch the trends and make a move before the bad economy happens. Finding opportunities within a crisis is a BIG deal in marketing. It is marketing.

I am not going to doom and gloom you with all the ugly stats of the last year the economy shed 3.4 million jobs and its looking like more will happen this year. I’m going to talk about all the opportunity this situation brings. Companies are now even more open to online advertising because of the the performance based model. There is a golden rule for the millionaire mindset, there is always a window of opportunity when a major crisis hits those who find the opportunity catapult their businesses to reach a level they never have before. So think about thriving not just surviving. 

Any Thoughts?

Talk to me,

Chris Mello 

We have quite a few SUPER AFFILIATES, by SUPER AFFILIATES I mean 100k per month potential. They make every Affiliate Managers job better. Over the last couple of months I have complied some characteristics that are common with the ultra successful. I picked some the characteristics that aren’t the obvious. These are things I notice daily that make some Affiliate much more successful then others.

Super Affiliates pick programs that they can be Successful with!

This one doesn’t happen over night. You need to become an expert in the vertical you dominate. The more you know about the offer/product the better you know how to market it. Most affiliates say, “send me your best converting offers” and then ask, “what is the EPC?”. Now yes those are important to know, but a SUPER AFFILIATE can spot right away if an offer has potential to absolutely crush it because they are a pro in the vertical. Know your vertical, stay focused and dominate your vertical. 

Super Affiliates form mutually Trusting Relationships

Tied in with Trust is Respect – the Perfect Affiliate respects the offers and abides by the rules associated with the offers.  Rules like keeping current on creatives and keeping current on suppression lists are crucial.  Following the program guidelines will keep you out of trouble with the Network you’re working with. Don’t cut corners, if an offer’s terms and conditions stipulate ‘no co-registration’ then don’t do that! Abiding by stated rules is one of the hallmarks of Super Affiliate behavior. They know it could bite them in the ….you know what.

Super Affiliates offer Actionable Feedback to Advertisers

Perhaps the most important rule for Super Affiliates is ‘Remember to Communicate!’ A Super affiliate is proactive” meaning they stay in contact and ask what offers do well and what creative works.  The Super Affiliate doesn’t just make calls, they return them, and they are forthcoming with information on their calls.  The feedback an affiliate provides to an Affiliate Manager often helps the network improve their program, leading to increased earning and increased payouts for the affiliate. The super affiliate is on top of their game and pays attention to the details of the offer.  They stay in communication, check back in and give feedback. You are down in the trenches of marketing, getting the offers out to the consumers and you are often in the best possible place to provide valuable feedback.  Networks and Affiliate Managers aren’t mind readers!  A smart Affiliate Manager will listen to your suggestions and make necessary changes.   Is the creative getting tired?  Let them know!  Are your conversions dropping?  Let them know!  Give your feedback in detail and freely, because the improvements a smart Network makes will improve your payouts!

They understand that actionable feedback will lead to successful results. 

Super Affiliates Communicate Openly and Often

To conclude, I’ve determined that Perfect Affiliates are more frequently affiliates that have been with an Affiliate Manager for a while, and like a good marriage, they’ve grown to trust and benefit from open communications.  Perfect Affiliates do not grow on trees; if they did no one would be crowding the halls at AdTech or Affiliate Summit.  If Perfect Affiliates could be ordered online at EBay, and arrived via FedEx, the face of the Performance Marketing World would be quite different, and we’d all have one or two of them under the tree this year.

So what characteristics do you have?

Are you on the right track to become a Super Affiliate?

 

Talk to me,

 

Chris Mello 

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. 

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 am contanstly amazed on how fast this industry moves. I feel it is a good and a bad thing. Good, because my day always seem to fly by. Bad, because I find myself overwhelmed at least once a day. My question to all of you is, “how do you stay focused?”. I know you get hit up constantly by Affiliate Managers interrupting your quest for TOTAL DOMINATION OF THE INTERNET MARKETING WORLD. You got your  girlfriends/wives hitting you up on aim because they are bored at work, bills to pay, dishes to clean, laundry to switch (I’m talking to the pubs like me who work at home), etc, etc, etc. 

My suggestion to all of you is to stay structured and write everything down on paper. Everyday I start my day with a daily task list. There are two pages First, is the business tasks, who to contact, follow up with, reports to revise, prospecting, etc. Second, is the personal list, you know the B.S stuff that is always there and needs to get done i.e. the things I mentioned above. What I have found if I don’t write things down I will forget. And when you forget things you take time out of your day to figure out what you forgot and that will always lead to lost time and lost money. Save and reserve your energy to be productive and not waste time on the little things. 

Another suggestion is to schedule as many things as you can. For example, if you are a publisher scouting out offers, talking with your AM’s, reviewing stats, just to name a few. The last thing you want to do is AIMing with 5 different people trying to finish an important email and the top roman is burning all at the same time!!! 

It is 2009 and time to set yourself up for success. We are in the money business if we weren’t we wouldn’t stare at a Mac 10 plus hours a day.

Any more suggestions? Post comments and suggestions.

Talk to me,

Chris Mello 

For those of you that don’t know me very well I am kind of a health nut. These days I have been working from home since I moved. So I eat a lot at home throughout the day and I always have the dilemma of cleaning my dishes right after I eat or pushing it off until later in the day. Most of the time I am good about cleaning right away but this week I have been slacking. I looked at my oatmeal dish today after I left it their most of the day and it is dried HARD! That reminded me about how procrastinating on things makes it harder than it should be. It could be anything: daily chores, assignments at work, washing your car, working out, etc etc. The longer you put things off the harder they become. 

The internet industry, especially the performance marketing, moves at the speed of light. Trends, new better performing offers, new competition enters the space, etc. Procrastinating can be a killer to anyones business. 

The next time you think about putting off that last email, waiting to call your Affiliate Manager back, or not checking your stats think it could cost you thousands of dollars in revenue. 

How do you keep yourself on track and avoid procrastinating? 

Talk to me,

Chris Mello

Lets Take a Look Back Before We Look Forward

While everyone was tuned into the presidential inauguration happening this week it really made me think about good ol’ 2008. Now let’s think for a minute, because a lot of publishers made a freaking ton of $$$ in 08 and even more publishers didn’t. Learning from our mistakes and regrets can propel us to new level’s we never thought possible. So let’s put things into perspective:

-Look back, what do you think were the most significant themes to emerge in 2008 in the performance marketing space?

-Ahhhh Acai…..

-What will be the big thing that we can expect to happen in this coming year?

-How the economy and the new prez with effect the internet space.

-Will Acai continue to burn and dominate the market?

-What are the major challenges moving forward?

-Finding your niche. We all know what is hot! Don’t get greedy and find your own 

niche. 

-What’s the one word you would use to describe the current state of online marketing?

-Opportunity is wide open. Especially in the search world you have the ability to 

switch gears instantly.

What do you think? The questions are simple but can put a lot of things in perspective about 2008 and help you kick A@#$$ in 2009!

Talk to me,

Chris  

I would like to thank everyone who stopped by our booth and had great things to say about us. It was a pleasure seeing you again and meeting those of you for the first time. 

Attending Affiliate Summit West is a very important event to be at no matter if you are a publisher or an Affiliate Manager like myself. There is something about meeting each other face to face that can rapidly speed up business ventures together. Now that we have made the connections and got a chance to hang out on a business/personal level the real opportunity happens after the show with the infamous FOLLOW UP.

Following up is the most crucial part of attending the show. What is the point of going if you don’t take your business to the next level. I will describe some keys points to following up with the valuable leads you have collected.

-”Do it now” - I know everyone is exhausted from all the long days and late nights, but do you want to make money or not. It can be very tempting to take the rest of the week off because “you work so hard at the show”. Statistics show that over 80% of the leads you collected will not be followed up with. What a waste. You have created this momentum, keep it rolling.

Have a follow up system - Something that I learned from going to my first show in Boston back in August is to organize your leads. While you are at the show and taking a prospects business card be sure to write notes on the back of their card. It will quickly and easily jog your memory to make an effective follow up. When you get back to the office start tracking the progress of contacting your leads.

Make the first follow-up. The easiest way is to send each lead an e-mail. Personalize the email with a thank you and something you remembered about them, remind them who you are and what your company does, and tell them they’ll be hearing from you again soon. 

Do what you’ve promised — immediately. If you’ve had good interactions with strong leads and promised to do something for them (like an AKMG skate deck) when you get back in the office, do that right away. These are very strong leads and you must move fast.

Follow up again. Of course, many of your contacts will also have been away from their office and will need some time to catch up, they all should be getting slammed. So you’ll probably have to follow up more than once. Don’t be discouraged get aggressive.

Trade shows are one of the most effective and efficient ways for entrepreneurs to build their businesses. But they take work — before, during, and especially AFTER the show. You’ll got to turn that pile of business cards into gold. If it was easy we would all be millionaires by now.

So what are your thoughts? Do you agree? Anything you would add to that?

Talk to me,

Chris Mello