Top Internet Offers Net

This is brand new, a new money making method for websites owners and for  smart affiliate marketers - it is called “Pay Per Play”.  

I want to show you how to get a 100% conversion rate on your website traffic. This is not a sales pitch and there is nothing to buy.

 There is no squeeze page that is designed
to sell you anything later either.This is an event that you should know about…First there was Pay Per Click advertising which pays you on the small percentage of website visitors that actually click on an advertisement.Now there is “Pay Per Play” advertising that will pay you on 100% of your website traffic… NO CLICKS NECESSARY!Pay Per Play caters to an audience that is larger than radio, television and print media combined!Billions of dollars are being spent by big brand advertisers and they are ready to pay you. Will you claim your share of the pie?

Or will you let someone else have it?

To learn more about Pay Per Play visit:

payperplay.2tunes.com

On our free webinar this week I mentioned “thin affiliate sites” and we also discussed it a bit on the latest IMTW Podcast (episode #11).

This is an important topic for those of you in Affiliate Marketing, so I wanted to expand on it a bit and explain exactly what it means and why you should avoid it…

Thin Affiliate Sites are basically doorway pages, or web pages/sites created solely for the purpose of being the go-between from the visitor to the merchant with no real other value added to the visitor experience.

Perry Marshall calls them an illegitimate businesses, Allan Gardyne talks about why “thin affiliate sites” are offensive to Google, and Michelle MacPhearson recently put out a video about a Social Media Slap. I put out a series last Fall on the Social Media Marketing Warning myself as well.

They’re all worth a study, and they all go hand in hand for Affiliate Marketers.

Why?

Allan Gardyne explained it well in his article, discussing Google’s perspective on Thin Affiliate Sites:

Google says: “We differentiate between affiliates that produce extra service, value, or content, and those that simply are duplicates of other sites, set up to boost traffic to other sites and earn a commission for it. The former ones are not Offensive and should be rated on the merits to the query. The latter ones are Offensive…

“Thin affiliate doorways are sites that usher people to a number of Affiliate programs, earning a commission for doing so, while providing little or no value-added content or service to the user. A site certainly has the right to try to earn income; we’re attempting to identify sites that do nothing but act as a commission-earning middleman.”

Google also says: “Do not call a page affiliate spam when an affiliation is only incidental to the message and purpose of a website. To determine whether participation in affiliate programs is central or incidental to the site’s existence, ask yourself this question: Would this site remain a coherent whole if the pages leading to the affiliate (merchant) were taken away?”

That probably counts out most affiliate sites. -source

These quotes were pulled from an internal document that Google uses to train human agents they hire to evaluate their search results for accuracy. You can read more about that document at the source.

The bottom line is that to be a successful affiliate, you have to add value to the sales process - and for your target market. You have to bring something to the table to add to the buying experience, whether that be helping in the decision making process, product reviews, tips on how to use the product, unique applications of the product, etc.

Otherwise you’re just throwing out affiliate links, or creating what is called “thin affiliate sites”. If there’s no added value, what reason would someone come through your link instead of just going straight to the source themselves?

And if there’s no added value for human visitors, what reason would Google have to rank your affiliate pages well?

Look at ways that you can add value to the process. Make sure your affiliate sites, or even affiliate pages on your site, could stand on their own content-wise even without the affiliate links.

Best,

One of the best examples of the convergence happening between search engine optimization, social media and digital public relations is online reputation management. This is a topic very close to home not only because our marketing agency emphasizes these practice areas, but because the need for brand and reputation management continues to increase in importance as consumer time spent on the social web replaces traditional media.

Recently I presented on a panel at Affiliate Summit West on the topic of online brand management and it was eye opening for many merchants and networks what goes into a good brand monitoring program. Companies spend huge budgets, time and resources building their brands and reputation. Not paying attention to that investment can be disasterous.

In my presentation at ASW09, I worked to answer several question. The first of which was, “Why is brand and reputation management important in Affiliate Marketing?” Here are six reasons to consider:

Current affiliates are online - It’s important to know how current affiliates are representing the merchant’s brand. Affiliates become the “face of the brand” for those consumers interacting. However, in many cases, there are very specific limitations to brand name use and both merchants and affiliate networks need to monitor what’s being promoted and how. It’s important to know about how affiliates are using brand names and whether there are anti-marketers or infringement issues.  

On the flip side, affiliate marketers that are allowed to promote specific brand names AND follow terms of use, can provide a huge advantage for a proactive online reputation management effort. The ideal situation would involve thousands of affiliates promoting unique product/service information under their own domain names. Such a scenario could facilitate the “ownership” of the top few pages of search results in a relevant way.

Prospective affiliates are online - While the world of affiliate marketing is growing fast, many more enterprising marketers are not involved. Established web sites are now, more than ever, looking for ways to monetize content and affilate marketing is an attractive channel for that. How a merchant’s brand is being represented by affiliates has everything to do with the impression potential affilates have towards a program. Participation on the social web and the intentional effort towards building a positive brand representation is important and best not left to chance or you may get a “bad rap“. The same goes for affiliate networks.

Customers are online - Customers who find products and services via affiliate marketing channels have various experiences. Many consumers blog, write reviews, make comments and share opinions on social networks. It’s important to have a good handle on customers that are publishing both negative and positive information so the brand can monitor and engage in the right way.

Journalists are online - Public and media relations is an effective marketing/communications channel for merchants, networks and in some cases, affilaites. Journalists are increasingly researching stories online and the way affiliates represent brands can influence whether a particular company is considered for a story or not.

Competitors are online - Brand monitoring online and within digital media provies companies a real opportuniy for competitive research. Discover what other affiliate programs are doing to be effective and whether their affilaites and publishing negative information about your brand in order to attract sales from products and services that offer a higher commission. In fact, it may be the realization that not having an affiliate program leads to affiliate marketers presenting certain brands negatively in order to promote the products that do, to motivate the start of an affiliate program.

Future of your brand is online - However you look at it, the trend towards commerce and information consumption will increasingly involve online and digital communication channels. Where consumers can be influenced, companies need to be present and engaged from both a brand monitoring/management perspective as well as participation.

OK, so reputuation mangement is clearly important for merchants, networks and affiliates, what should they do about it? We’ve posted a number of reputation management articles here on Online Marketing Blog addressing online and digital reputation management from a variety of perspectives:

• Basics of Online Reputation Management
• PubCon: Online Reputation Management
• When SEO Isn’t For Increasing Sales
• Digital Reputation Management with SEO, Social Media & PR
• Online Reputation Management for Individuals
• Online Reputation Management for Direct Marketers
• Book Review: Radically Transparent by Andy Beal & Dr. Judy Strauss

What should affiliate managers monitor?  Here’s some sage advice from UK based Envisional Affiliate Monitoring:

• Police inappropriate content and keywords (indecency, obscenity, hate or politics) on your affiliates’ websites
• Enforce compliance with regulatory requirements, company policies and industry codes of practice
• Identify out-of-date or fraudulent offers, wrong or inappropriate marketing material or keywords (e.g. free money)
• Hit back at competitors and criminals who pose as affiliates, divert traffic to their sites and use your domain name or logo to imply authorised status
• Detect copies of your logo, trade marks or domain names that have been adapted or faked and detect any out-of-date logos that are being used
• Evaluate comment on your brand in blogs, forums, news media and IRC sites
• Recruit new affiliates by targeted searching of websites, blogs and forums
• Proactively deal with SPAM from your affiliates

The bottom line for merchants is that by the time a groundswell of negative activity has built momentum and “yourbrandsucks.com” types of sites are starting to rank top ten on the major search engines, it’s going to be VERY time consuming and expensive to deal with. Better to be proactive and begin monitoring more effectively now, as well as pay attention to the creation of content and the aspects of your business that might result in negative experiences. Monitoring can provide an early warning, but it’s best to engage in content creation, the optimization of digital asssets, community building and engangement with the social web to foster relationships that result in the publishing of a better picture of what your brand stands for.

If you work in the affiliate marketing world as an affiliate/publisher, part of a network or as a merchant, we’d love to hear your opinions and experiences with online brand management. Challenges and successes are equally welcome.

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One of the best examples of the convergence happening between search engine optimization, social media and digital public relations is online reputation management. This is a topic very close to home not only because our marketing agency emphasizes these practice areas, but because the need for brand and reputation management continues to increase in importance as consumer time spent on the social web replaces traditional media.

Recently I presented on a panel at Affiliate Summit West on the topic of online brand management and it was eye opening for many merchants and networks what goes into a good brand monitoring program. Companies spend huge budgets, time and resources building their brands and reputation. Not paying attention to that investment can be disasterous.

In my presentation at ASW09, I worked to answer several question. The first of which was, “Why is brand and reputation management important in Affiliate Marketing?” Here are six reasons to consider:

Current affiliates are online - It’s important to know how current affiliates are representing the merchant’s brand. Affiliates become the “face of the brand” for those consumers interacting. However, in many cases, there are very specific limitations to brand name use and both merchants and affiliate networks need to monitor what’s being promoted and how. It’s important to know about how affiliates are using brand names and whether there are anti-marketers or infringement issues.  

On the flip side, affiliate marketers that are allowed to promote specific brand names AND follow terms of use, can provide a huge advantage for a proactive online reputation management effort. The ideal situation would involve thousands of affiliates promoting unique product/service information under their own domain names. Such a scenario could facilitate the “ownership” of the top few pages of search results in a relevant way.

Prospective affiliates are online - While the world of affiliate marketing is growing fast, many more enterprising marketers are not involved. Established web sites are now, more than ever, looking for ways to monetize content and affilate marketing is an attractive channel for that. How a merchant’s brand is being represented by affiliates has everything to do with the impression potential affilates have towards a program. Participation on the social web and the intentional effort towards building a positive brand representation is important and best not left to chance or you may get a “bad rap“. The same goes for affiliate networks.

Customers are online - Customers who find products and services via affiliate marketing channels have various experiences. Many consumers blog, write reviews, make comments and share opinions on social networks. It’s important to have a good handle on customers that are publishing both negative and positive information so the brand can monitor and engage in the right way.

Journalists are online - Public and media relations is an effective marketing/communications channel for merchants, networks and in some cases, affilaites. Journalists are increasingly researching stories online and the way affiliates represent brands can influence whether a particular company is considered for a story or not.

Competitors are online - Brand monitoring online and within digital media provies companies a real opportuniy for competitive research. Discover what other affiliate programs are doing to be effective and whether their affilaites and publishing negative information about your brand in order to attract sales from products and services that offer a higher commission. In fact, it may be the realization that not having an affiliate program leads to affiliate marketers presenting certain brands negatively in order to promote the products that do, to motivate the start of an affiliate program.

Future of your brand is online - However you look at it, the trend towards commerce and information consumption will increasingly involve online and digital communication channels. Where consumers can be influenced, companies need to be present and engaged from both a brand monitoring/management perspective as well as participation.

OK, so reputuation mangement is clearly important for merchants, networks and affiliates, what should they do about it? We’ve posted a number of reputation management articles here on Online Marketing Blog addressing online and digital reputation management from a variety of perspectives:

• Basics of Online Reputation Management
• PubCon: Online Reputation Management
• When SEO Isn’t For Increasing Sales
• Digital Reputation Management with SEO, Social Media & PR
• Online Reputation Management for Individuals
• Online Reputation Management for Direct Marketers
• Book Review: Radically Transparent by Andy Beal & Dr. Judy Strauss

What should affiliate managers monitor?  Here’s some sage advice from UK based Envisional Affiliate Monitoring:

• Police inappropriate content and keywords (indecency, obscenity, hate or politics) on your affiliates’ websites
• Enforce compliance with regulatory requirements, company policies and industry codes of practice
• Identify out-of-date or fraudulent offers, wrong or inappropriate marketing material or keywords (e.g. free money)
• Hit back at competitors and criminals who pose as affiliates, divert traffic to their sites and use your domain name or logo to imply authorised status
• Detect copies of your logo, trade marks or domain names that have been adapted or faked and detect any out-of-date logos that are being used
• Evaluate comment on your brand in blogs, forums, news media and IRC sites
• Recruit new affiliates by targeted searching of websites, blogs and forums
• Proactively deal with SPAM from your affiliates

The bottom line for merchants is that by the time a groundswell of negative activity has built momentum and “yourbrandsucks.com” types of sites are starting to rank top ten on the major search engines, it’s going to be VERY time consuming and expensive to deal with. Better to be proactive and begin monitoring more effectively now, as well as pay attention to the creation of content and the aspects of your business that might result in negative experiences. Monitoring can provide an early warning, but it’s best to engage in content creation, the optimization of digital asssets, community building and engangement with the social web to foster relationships that result in the publishing of a better picture of what your brand stands for.

If you work in the affiliate marketing world as an affiliate/publisher, part of a network or as a merchant, we’d love to hear your opinions and experiences with online brand management. Challenges and successes are equally welcome.

            Subscribe to this Feed

Reputation Management for Affiliate Marketing originally appeared on the Online Marketing Blog. © 2009. http://www.toprankblog.com

Mark your calendar, because in just a few weeks there is a big weekend workshop happening in Atlanta, GA that you’re going to want to attend!

www.nicheaffiliatemarketingsystems.com

David Perdew is putting on this live event so that you can learn Niche Affiliate Marketing from some of the top affiliate marketers in the industry. Unlike a conference where you listen and take notes, this event will include live hands-on workshops so that you can implement the strategies you learn on the spot.

And here’s a huge plus… I’ll be there to help you personally

Date: Jan 30 - Feb 2, 2009
Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia
Airport: Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
Details: www.nicheaffiliatemarketingsystems.com

This workshop is completely different from anything else out there. The four main leaders - Willie Crawford, Mark Hendricks, Jeff Herring, and Alex Sysoef - will do 60-90 minutes teaching a technique.

Afterwards everyone breaks into small groups (based on niche interest) and will spend 2 to 2.5 hours implementing those techniques.

We’ll all get to work together - creating, promoting, and making sales that weekend!

I’ll be leading one of those groups. I’ll also be staying at the conference hotel for the duration of the event, so it will be a great opportunity to talk one-on-one during breaks or over dinner.

What better way to start the New Year and kick off 2009 with a bang?!

The early-bird special is still available, at only $197 for the entire workshop. You simply cant get that kind of hands-on training and personal assistance for that price anywhere else…

I hope to see you there!

Best,

p.s. Once you register, leave a comment below and let us know you’ll be there. Be sure to include your Twitter ID in your comment if you have one, so we can all stay in touch

Complete details are at: www.nicheaffiliatemarketingsystems.com