Also what merchants pay for a lead? I am sure dating sites probaly do – who else? I am not talking about mortages, insurance, credit cards etc, etc. I am thinking about e/books, dating sites and other general mdse. Also does CJ spell that out or do you have to go to the merchant”s site? Sorry to ask so many questions but inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks! Jack

Hello Jack - Many different merchants offer a pay per lead commission structure and Many different actions will qualify as leads. You’ll have to research your each merchant affiliate agreement (in or out of CJ) for specific answers to your questions. Cheers, Ros.

Hi James - and the point is that you can see through the rhetoric and appreciate the value of what he has to teach. Good for you! – Ros

It is a bit disappointing that I often print out copies of my performance reports and discover so many accounting errors. Often find click counts going backwards, impressions going backwards, and yes — on occasion commissions due going backwards without any chargebacks. This isn’t a matter of commission networks cheating. It’s a matter of poor computer programming quality control. Sure hope this improves.

Everyone loves Ros!
Jason

Hey Jason - Not everyone… you should read what ‘joe’ had to say. And as to backwards click counts, impressions and commissions… aye ya yae! I trust you’ve been in touch with the network people or the managers when you’ve found those errors? – Ros

Hi Max - My pleasure! Just happy to help. Ros

Hi Franck - Ain’t that the truth. You have to look hard to find those that DO. The other alternative is to ASK the merchant if they can do that for you if you send them enough traffic. If the answer is no, then go back to the first point. Ros

First off you were the first e/info book I bought. Got it through Amazon hope you got your cut. All in all I have bought about 6 e/info books. Two good, two average and two bad. Yours and Jeremey Palmers were the best. Jeremy is very good about answering e/mail quickly. Your site use to be, I think your quys name was Joel Bolton? but the last couple of e/mails I sent I got no response. Is he still with you ?

My question is this. Do most merchant reward you with .50 to 1.50 for sending them a lead even though they didnt make a sale? It cost us to develope that lead and Iam sure the merchant ads the lead to his e/mail list for future promotions etc. Is that something you have to bargain for or is it automatic?

Keep up the good work. You are truly one of the “good guys”
Jack

Hello Jack – Sorry, not sure why your comment wouldn’t have shown up. With the except of one (which I plan to use as fodder for a later article) all were approved. Joel is still here and he answers all questions that show up in our Support Desk. If you’re not using the Support Desk, my guess is that your email went astray.

The commission on leads varies with the market, so that question is hard to answer. Some leads pay 25 cents, others pay $50. I prefer the latter. AND yes, you can definitely negotiate better commissions.. but you usually need to prove that you can send quantities of traffic that converts first. Hope that helps. – Ros

I get emails every week from affiliates who think they know more about promoting my products than I do. I know my numbers and know what paths work.

I am currently doing a redesign to make it easier for the HTML challenged to promote my products, but I am not going to listen to someone who tells me my sales paths aren’t right, and then asks for advice on how to create a link.

I have to say, the average affiliate is an idiot. Even worse, a lazy idiot.

Do a search for pages that mention the Clickbank products with the highest gravity. It’s hilarious.

I had a guy last week email me because he wasn’t making any money promoting my products. He had copied and pasted my sales letter into his blog. Didn’t change the links either.

I have some great affiliates, but they are a small minority.

What’s the saying? “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.” With affiliate marketing, you can point out the water, give them a bucket, and they will soon be using the bucket to build sandcastles.

terry

Hey Terry - I’ve had the same experience with my sales letter. One would think that getting the ‘freebie’ links without the affiliate ID might prove beneficial, but we both know that a) that tactic hurts our SEO rankings and that you may even end up with duplicate content penalty and b) the page never sees traffic so you won’t get any sales anyway.

I don’t necessarily agree with your slant on the average affiliate being an idiot, however. Clickbank makes it easy for almost anyone to sign up to become an ‘affiiate’. Of course, most of these people aren’t affiliates – not real affiliates. They just want to make money in the fastest way possible without doing any work. Doesn’t that also define the sit-on-your-butt TV-watching masses who want to lose weight? I think it’s a societal problem – not just affiliate marketing.

I’d say “All of the Above!” Plus I’d love to use adwords to drive traffic to my site but I find all the accounts I’ve seen terminally confusing, and yes that includes Perry Marshall’s ebook.

How about a PPC Guide for the rest of us? Any ideas?

Thanks
Alex Newell

Hey Alex – Apparently so! I’ll be writing about the ‘anguish’ tomorrow. Funny what you said about writing a ‘PPC Guide for the rest of us’… I was thinking about doing exactly that. NO promises, though. But it IS a really good idea! In the meantime, I think if you go into Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing or Microsoft Adcenter (check out the DEAL) and take your time, you’ll figure it out. In most cases you create a Campaign, and under each campaign there are individual ad units. Like I said, take your time, you’ll figure it out – and there are really good help files associated with each.

I have no gripe at all with affiliate programs.If one is persistent with advertising the money will come from affiliate programs.Too many people jump on board post a few ads in the free classifieds,and wonder what happened.It takes time,and patience one must be willing to devote time into their affiliate program to make it prosper. Well that’s about it.
rgds
Steven Wilson

Hi Steven, Thanks kindly for your words of wisdom — so nice to see someone has no gripes at all! Ros