Force Visitors To Wait

If you decide to feature a great logo, a video, graphics, and other multimedia on your website, you might actually be causing more harm than good. The internet audience expects to have fast loading websites. If your website takes those few extra seconds to load, they can easily hit the back button and visit another similar website. Streamline your affiliate website and retain those visitors.

Assuming Everyone Is Up To Date

How many times have you left a website after being informed that you needed to install a plugin or update your browser. Change is good, but do not have your entire website redesigned every few months to the latest standards. If you do, be sure to have options built in for website visitors, who, on average, do not update their systems often.

Stop With The Questions

It is understandable that you want to collect enough information about your visitors to make a sale in the near future. However, studies have shown that for every extra question you require on a form, you lose about seven to ten people from finishing the completion of the form. Get the basics and move forward.

If you take the time to research online, you will notice that there are a wide variety of plugins and customization techniques designed to improve the performance of WordPress powered affiliate websites. These techniques are constantly evolving, so be sure to take a few minutes once or twice a week to see if your installation is currently up to the standards.

From IM (Internet Marketing) to CPC (Cost Per Click), there are acronyms for literally every aspect of internet marketing and affiliate website design and development. As a beginner, you definitely need to learn these terms as thouroughly as possible.

Aside from acronyms, there are also plenty of terms that are used in the world of internet marketing. Things such as “niche research”, “social bookmarking”, “second tier affiliates”, etc. While most of them describe themselves, we all have our moments where we just cannot figure out what something means. This guide aims to clear these things up as early as possible so that beginners can start their personal journeys to internet marketing success.

There are tons of resources available on the web that teach internet marketing extremely well. Unfortunately, for every good resource, there are at least ten bad ones. Knowing internet marketing terminology allows you differentiate between both, and it helps make sure that you gain the most knowledge from the good resources that you come across.

Below you will find a giant list of commonly used terms within internet marketing. I will do my best to update this list as often as possible. On that note, remember that the internet is a constantly evolving thing. New terms develop every few months and sometimes old terms are discarded even faster than that. Just stay on top of the latest in internet marketing, shameless plug for my rss feed found by clicking here, and you will notice the new trends within the industry.

Commonly Used Terms and Their Meaning

CPC – Acronym for Cost Per Click. Used with affiliate programs that pay you for each individual affiliate link clicked on your website. Biggest examples are Google Adsense and Chikita.

CPI – Acronym for Cost Per Impression. It is closely related to the Cost Per Click described above. Often used for banner advertisements, it usually works around the number 1,000. For example, a $25.00 CPI banner advertisment will bring in $25.00 for every 1,000 impressions (views).

SEO – Acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It is the catch all term for anything related to the art of making a web site rank well within the search engines.

Backlink(s) – Backlinks are a commonly discussed aspect of SEO. A backlink is simply a link to your general website, ie. www.sabaschapa.com, or a specific page, ie. www.sabaschapa.com/specific-page. They are important because the more backlinks your website has, the higher it will rank. Search engines regularly scan the Internet and tally up how many times other websites backlink to your website. This gives your website an “authority status”.

Authority Status – A commonly discussed aspect of SEO. Authority status is the state of having a website that is seen as prominent and important by search engines. It is generally accomplished by having a large number of backlinks, especially from other authority or high “Page Rank” websites.

Page Rank – A commonly discussed aspect of SEO. Page Rank, or PR for short, is Google’s unique way of giving your website a ranking based on how important it is according to the Google search engine. A variety of SEO factors determine your Page Rank, especially backlinks. Do note that a website with a higher Page Rank may not necessarily rank higher than one with a lower Page Rank in search results.

Affiliate Program – An Affiliate Program is a way of generating income online by promoting the products or services of a third-party. Generally, you will be provided with HTML code for a banner based advertisement or a direct link to place on your website. If the program is click based, then you will be paid a predetermined amount (CPC) each time someone clicks on your affiliate link. If the program is commission based, then you will earn a percentage based on the total sale price. This can range from 1% to as high at 60%, depending on the program.

Affiliate Network – An Affiliate Network is website that allows you to signup and participate in a large number of affiliate programs all at once. Instead of calling and asking a company to allow you to promote their products, most companies have already signed up with various affiliate networks. By creating one account with an affiliate network, you instantly have access to hundreds of affiliate programs to promote. Two popular affiliate networks are Commission Junction and Linkshare.

CTR – Acronym for Click Through Rate. It is usually expressed as a percentage and shows you how many times your affiliate link is clicked as a ration against how many times it is viewed. For example, if your website had 100 visitors and 25 of them clicked on a specific affiliate link, your CTR is 25%. For most affiliate programs, you will be given a report showing the average CTR on a monthly basis. This is useful in determining whether or not it is worth your effort to send more traffic to the website.

There they are. I wanted to call this post “The Top Ten Internet Marketing Terms For Beginners”, but I only felt that these nine terms are really necessary for a beginner to know. There will be plenty more that you will come across, but you will deal with that bridge later on down the road. These set of nine however allow you to read through an SEO article and understand it. Likewise, you can also get started exploring affiliate programs, which are the bread and butter of internet marketing.

Please leave any other terms that I have missed and their explanations in the comment box below. Try to make it as easy as possible for beginners to understand, and thanks for your contribution .

Commission Junction? ClickBank? ShareASale? (add your favorite network here….)

The answer is…… All of them.

Let me ‘splain it to ya Lucy.

When you promote any affiliate program you are in fact putting forth some risk. At the very least you might be promoting a product or service that, in the end, might not payoff. First of all, it might not be a productive program, but you also have to consider whether or not you are going to get paid.

Yup, that’s right, sometimes affiliate programs suck, and find a reason not to pay you. Some of them even pay a ton of money to high powered attorneys so that they can write up super tricky terms of service policies, with the intention of shafting some of their affiliates.

It’s called business boys and girls, and even though it sucks, it is what it is. If it’s more profitable to screw some people, then there are companies out there that will do it.

So you have to spread out the risk on your end, where you can. This is why you want to put your eggs in a lot of different baskets. Promote several programs and networks. Because if any ONE program or network decides not to pay you, you’re still in business.

Consider this. You are a small time affiliate, promoting ONE program you love. It converts well, so you put all your time into it. It seems to be working, because you see the sales racking up in your affiliate statistics. Let’s say that at the end of the month you have three grand coming your way. A decent chunk of change.

But most affiliate programs take a little while to pay off. So you being gung ho for the product, start promoting it even more, because you want six grand next month. You put a few dollars of your own into some Adwords advertising, pimping their product with your own cash.

Then payday comes and goes. You run out to the mailbox every day, but sorry Sparky, that check ain’t coming.

To your surprise, you login one day to see your stats, and your password doesn’t work any more.

Or maybe it does. Doesn’t matter, let’s just say you learn that you AIN’T gettin’ paid.

Think about it. It’s devastating.

Even more so if you were counting on that cash, like so many new affiliates are.

But if you had spread the risk around, and had the same three grand coming from 10 different programs or networks, and only one of them went down the shitter, then you might have only lost a few hundred bucks.

You’d still make a few dollars, be able to pay your advertising costs, and live to tell the story another day.

That’s the difference boys and girls. Spread that risk out a little. Never put all your eggs in one affiliate basket, no matter how great the program is. It will come back to bite you, and let me tell you, those bites can hurt if you weren’t prepared for them.

Until I read the program’s policy / affiliate agreement. Let me just say this, there’s not a snowballs chance in hell I would promote this affiliate program with it’s current terms.

Because their team of lawyers decided that we can in NO way compete with GOVIOS for any keywords. Now it’s pretty common when it comes to keyword bidding, aka Adwords and similar programs. But their policy goes on to say that you can in no way use any SEO techniques for their terms.

Let me get this straight GOVIOS geniuses… I can go out and get cellular phone targeted traffic, as long as I don’t use ANY terms that might take away from your website.

Here’s a clip of that legalese:

Search engine optimization: GoVios.com and GoViosMobile.com does not allow search engine optimization techniques using merchant trademark keywords by affiliates for search engines including but not limited to Google, Yahoo and MSN, for the GoVios and GoViosMobile brand terms or for any brands featured on GoVios and GoViosMobile. Direct Affiliates are also not to use any of the above brand names in their Meta tags. This includes the Meta title, description and keywords. Affiliate agrees not to draw traffic away from the merchant by any means through search engine optimization. Affiliates found in violation of this policy are subject to punitive actions by us, without notice, including but not limited to: suspension of affiliate account; termination of affiliate account; withholding of payments to affiliate; and public notification of affiliate’s suspected malfeasance.

Dumbasses.

Understand this, GOVIOS powers that be. Your affiliates want to use those terms TO SELL YOUR PRODUCTS. Don’t let your greed get in the way of that fact. If we are allowed to do some basic SEO around those terms, we can fill up the first ten pages of the search engine results WITH LINKS TO YOUR SITE, YOUR PRODUCTS…

D.
U.
H.

Stop listening to your the lawyers you bought with that VC money and listen to some pro marketers. Now, while you’re beginning.

We can and will send you the traffic to make you a star.

But don’t be court crazy with your affiliate contract. Don’t tell me you’re going to sue me if I’m working on selling your product.

No thanks. At this point, I won’t be promoting the GOVIOS affiliate program. Not unless they change the program participation agreement. And I don’t suggest any other affiliate marketers do so either. Not now.

Step up GOVIOS. Looking for a comment in return in the comments below from the GOVIOS staff. Splain’ it to me Lucy!

Dumbass Affiliate Managers

***Update May 26, 2009***
****GOVIOS has since changed their TOS, which I have covered in this blog post about their program.***
*************************************************

After a large vacation, we’re back. And we’re better than ever!

What have we been up to, you might be asking? Well, it’s simple. I’ve been building a bunch of affiliate websites and blogs, developing their traffic, and getting them ready for resale.

You heard it right, we’re doing all the work for you! Finding the niche, the domain, setting up the site, and even building the traffic. We’re building turnkey affiliate websites for you to add to your site portfolio.

Want to know what sites we currently have available? Here’s the short list:

www.uan.me
www.buzzup.org
www.bluefootchicken.com
www.magicjackscam.net
www.toolvendingmachine.com

And several more. We’ll put the new sites up over the next few days. So let’s get ready to rumble, and let’s go make some money. If you are interested in purchasing any of these websites, you can look us up on Sitepoint, or you can call us directly at (956) 622-4965 in the U.S.A. and we’ll setup the transfer.

Once again, a really great program was developed with lots of thought for the marketers. (this is in no way a slam on their program, it looks great. That’s why I wanted to signup.) But they missed out on a very important factor to every affiliate on the planet.

How we get paid.

Once again, a promising program has assumed that all affiliates and companies that could and should promote their product can only have Paypal as a payment option. A huge mistake. One that I keep seeing time and time again.

Let me explain this to the powers that be over at Blog i360 and other programs that miss this important part of setting up an affiliate program. You see, there are lots of companies and marketers that do not accept Paypal in any way, shape, or form. Some of the biggest sites on the web do not market programs that require Paypal because it’s part of their payment acceptance policy. As far as solo marketers go, many just want to see a check each month.

Like me.

I have had issues with Paypal that have made me make it a policy not to do business with them. In turn, this policy extends to companies that only offer the option for Paypal. I won’t go into the reasons why, but if you are looking for Paypal horror stories, you can find them here.

Bottom line is this. I want to have a check mailed to me each and every month from every affiliate program I promote. It helps with accounting and lots of other things.

Plus, there’s just something about that feeling of accomplishment when you walk out to the mailbox and find those checks waiting for you.

So come on Blog i360 ! Add some options and let this pro affiliate market your program. I’m chomping at the bit to get a piece of those great recurring payouts your affiliate page offers.

At either rate, I’m here today.

Has anyone else besides me noticed that there seems to be a giant increase in credit card affiliate sales? I’ve noticed a huge jump in credit card program conversions this week. Don’t get me wrong, I do pretty well in this area anyway, but this week I’ve seen at least a 150% increase in sales in this niche.

To be more specific, it seems that the high risk, bad credit affiliate programs are rocking and rolling right now. If I had to guess, I would say that there are a ton of people out there looking for credit options knowing that Christmas is just around the corner.

Not sure what the reason is, and to be honest, I really don’t care. As long as the sales are coming in, that’s what it’s all about. If you don’t have an affiliate website that promotes bad credit, I suggest you get one and start pimping it as soon as you can. Get in while the gettin’ is good.

You can always call me, I’d be happy to have my boys build you a nice affiliate website.

(559) 761-0910

I look forward to hearing from you soon. And happy promoting to one and all.

Charles Crawford,

The leaves have started to fall and so have the
prices for many of our advertisers. The holiday
season is already upon us, which means you should
already be promoting some incredible Halloween and
fall discounts. In this issue, we’ve got advertisers
who are offering scary specials for Halloween and
great offers for those early holiday shoppers. Check
back in next month so we can help you combine the
best possible holiday links for your readers. And
don’t forget to view our new promotions each Monday
in the What’s Hot – Weekly edition at CJU Online:

To access the weekly offers, just make sure you are
logged in to the CJ Marketplace first. For the
offers shown in this and future monthly newsletters,
simply click on “Get Links” under an advertiser
name and find ways to start maximizing your business.

Note: If you are having difficulty viewing the CJ
Account Manager(TM) after clicking “Get Links,” you
may need to adjust your browser’s pop-up settings.

————————————————–
ADVERTISER PROMOTIONS
————————————————–

*** eDressMe.com ***

15% off and a free Halloween mask

Get 15% off the hottest selling club dresses at
eDressMe.com. In addition to 15% off, shoppers get
a free Halloween mask with every purchase, instantly
transforming these dresses into stylish 20′s Flapper
costumes. This offer expires on October 31, 2008.

6% of sale

*** CostumeDiscounters.com ***

Guaranteed low price plus free shipping

When customers shop at CostumeDiscounters.com, they
will receive the lowest costume price guaranteed.
If a customer finds a costume for a lower price
within 10 days of purchase, we will beat it by 20%.
Customers also receive free shipping on all orders
of $70 USD or more. This offer expires on October
31, 2008.

15% of sale

*** Lensmart ***

Save 10% on Halloween lenses

Consumers won’t be scared to spend with these
savings! Save 10% on all Halloween lenses at
Lensmart. Buy blood red lenses, sexy cat eyes, and
more. Use coupon code SCARED10 at checkout. This
offer expires on October 31, 2008.

8% of sale

*** Pink Mascara ***

10% off all boots

Get ready for the holidays and save 10% at Pink
Mascara. Use coupon “Boots10″ to receive 10% off
all Women’s fashion boots. These boots are hot and
big sellers this time of year. Pink Mascara’s
average order is $245 USD. This offer expires on
October 31, 2008.

7% of sale

*** Mrs. Beasley’s Bakery ***

15% off all gourmet and baked goods

Just in time for the holidays, Mrs. Beasley’s
Bakery freshly baked gourmet sweets are perfect
for anyone, including yourself! Get some sweets
today. 15% off discount excludes sale and
promotional items. Use code CJOCT15 to receive your
special discount. This offer expires on October 31,
2008.

10% of sale

*** BuyCostumes.com ***

$10,000 sweepstakes + 10% off

Take 10% off orders of $50 USD or more at
BuyCostumes.com. Remember, sales are counting
toward wishes you can claim the Affiliate Prize
Catalog. Again this year, you have a chance to win
a $10,000 cash prize. Promote Halloween costumes
galore from the web’s most popular costume store.
This offer expires on October 31, 2008.

10% of sale

*** TheSpeakerCompany.com ***

Earn triple commissions

TheSpeakerCompany.com is turning up the heat by
offering our new publishers triple the normal
commission rate! Earn 9% on all sales of our
quality speakers that we sell at half the normal
price. You will keep this triple commission rate
until the end of November.

9% of sale until end of November (3% of sale default)

*** Tracfone ***

$3 off phone accessories

TracFone is helping you make your Halloween treat
extra special by offering their first ever coupon
code. Get $3 USD off any phone or accessory of
$19.99 or more. Use coupon code 23444 at the order
checkout. This offer expires October 31, 2008.

8% of sale

Commission Junction
530 East Montecito Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93103

If you have an affiliate program you would like featured on this site, just shoot me an email:

webmaster “at” affiliatewebsite “dot” com (replace the “at” and the “dot” accordingly…)

We’ll give your program a good look see and post our results right here on this blog.

There is NO cost for these reviews at this time. So if you are confident you’re running an awesome affiliate program that you want the world to know about, get in touch with us today.

If it rocks we’ll say so. (if it sucks…. well, you know what we’re gonna do, right?)