Changes in eBay's Business May Effect Some Affiliates

I've been trying to get my mind around the changes that are going on at eBay. I've posted about it over on my blog Online Seller Tips. As an affiliate of both eBay and Amazon.com I look at their business models and try to understand how they compare and how their actions effect my affiliate marketing efforts. And I recommend that other affiliates do the same.

The changes that eBay is proposing will definitely effect sellers and buyers. But it is still unclear just how. And because we can not really tell how affiliates will be effected. But I plan on keeping my eyes open as the changes happen in late October.

One question I have is how the holidays will be effected. Most eBay sellers and affiliates have their best months during this time of year.

Flip this Blog: Can an Affiliate Website or Blog be Flipped?

This article titled Find an Undervalued Asset. Fix It Up. Flip It. (Now It’s Web Sites, Not Houses) from NY Times.com got me to thinking.

Is there an opportunity here for affiliate marketers? We build websites and blogs all the time. Could an enterprising affiliate marketer build a website or blog specifically for the purpose of flipping it?

Could this be a new business model for affiliates and other publishers?

Have you ever considered what it would take to make your website or blog attractive enough to flip it?

Read the article, and talk about it with me in the comments. I'll keep my eyes open on this trend and blog more on it later.

A Different Perspective on Facebook Advertising

While doing research on Facebook advertising I came across a very interesting post about the ads themselves. The post titled Facebook advertising is from the blog of the Community Feministing.com.

The post itself is very interesting, but the comments are even more interesting. They explain what the women who read this blog don't like about many of the ads on Facebook. This kind of info is valuable to affiliate marketers and those who want to create ads for Facebook and other social networks.

Another interesting fact brought out in the comments is what some Internet users are doing to block ads. I had never consider this, and I don't know what the impact of it is. But it gave me pause.

One feature that I read about that I wish all online ads had was the ability for web surfers to rate the ads or even complain about them. This would give both affiliate marketers and affiliate managers better insight into what really works.

A Couple of Helpful Facebook Advertising Links

I've been considering getting into FaceBook Advertising and MySpce Ads.

Up until now I have just been doing the preliminary research on these two new (to me) ways of affiliate marketing. I've had a MySpace account for some time now, but FaceBook is a new deal.

Both are growing like gangbusters and will be valuable tools in the affiliate marketing tool box, once mastered. I say that because I realize that I have a lot to learn about both sites.

I just wanted to share a couple of interesting links about Facebook.

• Get $100 of free Facebook advertising Where layer and blogger Andrew Flusche explains who to get $100 in free Facebook ads.


• Profiting With Facebook Ads. A nice article by blogger and affiliate marketer, Alan LeStourgeon on how to use the free Facebook link above to make money using Facebook Ads

Amazon.com Affiliates Can Now Promote Green.

Green is the new black, or is it just another popular thing that people are into as of late.

Well I tend to lean toward it being something that we need, and I think that it will be with us for a long time to come.

Which means that it is an excellent key word to promote if you are an affiliate marketer. Amazon.com has a whole new section devoted just to Green items, click here to see Amazon's Green Section.

They list all kinds of products that customers have selected as the most environmentally-friendly. The list includes cleaning supplies as well as computers and personal solar chargers.

What Are The Opportunities For Beginning Affiliate Marketers?

A comment on a blog that I read, went something like this, "there really are not any new opportunities for new affiliate marketers to make money."

I've also noticed an AdSense ad about how "Affiliate Marketing programs are overcrowded and too complicated." If you look at the AdSense on this page you may see it.

Even though I agree somewhat with the sentiment expressed in the ad, it got me to thinking about the opportunities for new affiliate marketers.

Well let's see, there are millions of products that can be promoted. New ones are introduced every day. Probably hundreds of thousands of niches that have thousands of related products and services. So that is one opportunity.

Online sales is at an all time high. And is projected to continue growing into the foreseeable future, even in the down economy. Some marketing professionals believe that because of the down economy growth in the online sales area will grow due to high transportation cost and other increases in the cost of shopping in brick and mortar stores. So that is another opportunity.

Affiliate marketing like all things related to computers is in a constant state of flux. Continuous change is the order of the day, and while this may seem like a difficulty, it is also an opportunity in that it levels the playing field a bit. Even well established affiliates have to learn new methods.


There are challenges for sure;

- There will always be competition, that proves that this is worth doing.

- The tax situation, and other unknown factors.

- The constant state of flux.

I will address these challenges in another post, but I believe that for the most part, the opportunities out weigh the challenges.

What do you think?

Say It Ain't So: Faking AdSense Earnings

So I'm doing one of my dailies, surfing the web looking for something interesting regarding Affiliate Marketing, and I come across something that I have been thinking about for a long time now.

How do you know that the screenshots showing earnings on the blogs and websites of various Gurus are valid?

I think this post How People Fake Their AdSense, over at TopBusinessReviews.com goes a long way into shading some light on this question.

I guess the answer, which I knew all along, is that you can't really ever know. You can't know if the values are being faked, you can't know how much money went into makeing those earnings if they are real.

Just something to think about the next time you are reading some blog and some guru starts talking about their earnings.

Back To School Post

Just a friendly reminder to all you affiliates out there. Now is a great time to focus on back to school. Go through your list of advertisers, make a quick list of those who sell items that you believe can be promoted for back to school.

Start putting up your links as soon as possible. Consider the following list of items which most middle to college age students might need.

If need be, break your "back to school" post up into several versions. One for elementary school students and one for middle school and higher students.

Some items you might want to consider;

1. Backpacks, book bags
2. Lap Top computers
3. Desk Top computers
4. Media players
5. Cell phones
6. All in one fax/printer machines
7. USB Portable Hard Drives
8. Flat Screen Computer Monitors
9. George Formen Grill
10. USB Thumb Drives

Affiliate programs to join to sell these items;

Amazon.com
eBay
LinkShare.com
Buy.com
AllPosters.com

A Week Left to do a Christmas in July Campaign

One of my affiliate partners (see links below) reminded me that it is just about the end of July. If you have merchants that sell Christmas items, then now is a great time to do a Christmas in July sell.

As an affiliate you must use the calandar as your guide to when to post certain links. Each holiday should be a time to target products and merchants to post affiliate links for.




Collectibles Today Annual Sale - up to 40% on Christmas Decor!





Collectibles Today Annual Sale - up to 40% Discount!

Affiliate Marketing Sales Tax Valnerability

If you are a beginning affiliate marketer you may not have given much thought to how state taxes effect our business. But one of the problems / challenges coming down the pipe is how states are looking at affiliate marketing and how they tax sellers.

From Wikipedia;

Sales Tax Vulnerability
In April, 2008, the State of New York inserted a item in the state budget asserting sales tax jurisdiction over Amazon.com sales to residents of New York, based on the existence of affiliate links from New York-based web sites to Amazon.com.[1]New York asserts that even one such affiliate constitutes Amazon.com having a business presence in the State of New York, and is sufficient to allow New York to tax all Amazon.com sales to state residents. It is expected that Amazon.com will challenge this in court.

[1] Linda Rosencrance,15.April, 2008), N.Y. to tax goods bought on Amazon, Computerworld,

from the article;

Amazon itself doesn't have a brick-and-mortar store in the state and therefore is not required to collect state taxes under a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. However the state contends it does have a physical presence because it operates through a number of local affiliates, Bergin said.

For info on Overstock.com's response;
Overstock.com Drops NY Affiliates.

So That is Why I've Been Getting Those Warnings

I just read a very interesting forum thread over at ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forum. Interesting because it shows the thought process of some Affiliate Managers.

The Warning about inactivity thread made clear a few things that I did not understand about Affiliate Marketing. Even though I have been doing it for years.

1. Affiliate Managers will threaten you if they feel you are being inactive, what ever that means.

2. Some times Affiliate Managers will give you a carrot (increased commissions) too incentivize you to post more links for their program.

3. Some Affiliate Managers do this to increase their EPC (Earnings Per Click or Earnings Per hundred Clicks).

This all brings me to a couple of thoughts that I will write about more in the future that are important for the beginning affiliate.

1. How to choose your merchants with care.

2. How to handle merchants that threaten you.

Can Knol be a New Tool For Affiliate Marketing?

Google offers a new publishing website Knol. Which may become a tool for publishers and other affiliate marketers.

According to Wikipedia

Knol is a Google project which includes single author articles on topics ranging from "scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions," according to Google. It was announced on December 13, 2007, and was opened in beta to the public on July 23, 2008. Knol pages are "meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read", according to Udi Manber, a Vice President of Engineering at Google. The term knol, named after a "unit of knowledge", refers to both the project and an article in the project. Several experts see Knol as Google's attempt to pwn Wikipedia.

See Knol @ Wikipedia for the full article.

Official Google Blog: Encougaging people to contribute knowledge

I think the last pragraph in the blogger buzz blog article on the introduction of Knol might give affiliate marketers some ideas how to use this new tool;

All in all, we think Knol will be a great new way for you to share what you know, inform people about an issue that is important to you, raise your profile as an expert in your field, and maybe even make some money from ads. Create your Knol right now for free.

eBay Partner Network To Go Widgets

I've been experimenting with eBay's new Partner Network To Go Widget. I like it, and can imagine quite a few cool uses for it. I did not realize what the size of the widgets would be and thought I would have a problem with them. But they seem to work fine.

The above example is the search widget.

Click these other examples for ideas on how to use them;

Multiple item widget Although I only have one item in it.

Single item widget

A Question I Have Been Wondering About.

I had been wondering about the deadline for generating referrals for Adsense now that it has been retired. Well the good people over at the Inside Adsense blog answered that and many other questions in a post titled; Answers to your referrals retirement questions

What's the deadline for generating referral conversions once the program has been retired?

In order for you to be credited for a conversion, the referred user must complete the required action by the last week of September 2008. However, please keep in mind that your referral units will no longer display after the last week of August.

Amazon.com Anounces 15% on Endless.com Referrals

The Amazon.com Associates program just announced in the Officail Amazon Associate blog that Associates can now earn 15% in referral fees on Endless.com shoe and handbag purchases. With free overnight & free return shipping, 110% price guarantee, and 365-day returns window on over 500 brands, Endless.com is THE destination for shoe and accessory shoppers.

Join Amazon.com's affiliate program

Video of Interview with Larry Joseloff of Shop.org

I thought this interview with Larry Joseloff of Shop.org about how the affiliate marketing space is changing in 2008 was kind of interesting. What do you think?



This and other interesting videos can be found at The State of Affiliate Marketing in Online Retail

A Reminder: Focus on Content.

Sometimes I spend more time looking at stats, things like the number of visitors to each of my blogs. The number of impressions, clicks and purchases. But when you really get down to it, what I really need to be doing is this;

Focus on the quality of the content, and everything else will take care of itself.

Google is Retiring the AdSense Referrals Program

Google is retiring the AdSense Referrals program during the last week of August and are relaunching a new Google affiliate network.

The new Google affiliate network will actually be a new version of DoubleClick’s Performics Affiliate Network which they acquired in March.

I'm not that disappointed by this news because try as I might I could never get the AdSense Referral program fine tuned enough to work properly.

So one of this months goals will be to remove all AdSense Referrals from my various blogs by the last week of August. Then I'll have to decide what to replace them with.

I'm not sure on how the new Google Affiliate Network will work. I do have some questions about it. I am wondering if they will allow small publishers and little blogs like mine to participate in the program. But like many of the changes that occur in Affiliate Marketing there will be a learning curve to overcome. But I consider that part of the fun of Affiliate Marketing.

One feature that does not seem to be covered will be the "Google Products" links. This blog has used those in the past, but it appears that they will no longer be available. I hope that they come later because I liked trying to make money by referring people to AdSense, AdWords advertisers and other Google Products.

High Quality Affiliate Content

The most powerful part of the whole internet to me is the ability to find high quality content in the blink of an eye.

This is something that affiliate marketers have to put to good use.

I get a lot of emails from both the affiliate networks and the advertisers that I am an affiliate for. Some of this stuff has some great info in it. And is what I would call high quality content or information.

So lets see, people search the web for high quality content, and my affiliate networks send me high quality content. I wonder if there is a way that I can use that content to my advantage.

Well the answer is of course there is. If your affiliate networks are sending you emails with links and with info on the deals from advertisers then use that info. Put it out to your readers, let them decide if they want or need the info.

Of course you have to do this in a thoughtful way. Your web site or blog probably serves some niche market. You have to sort through the info that you get and apply it in the correct niche market. For example, if your advertiser sends you info on a music promotion that they are having, it want do you much good to post that in your blog about pet food.

If you do this correctly you will probably serve your customers and your advertisers by doing this.

For example;

Motorola MOTORIZR Z8 Black (Unlocked)

FOR $254.98 + Free Shipping Regular Price $274.98

Buy a LG 225 phone at TracFone and get $30 off, plus double minutes, an accessory kit and free shipping!

Whats Shakin at Buy.com!

Knowing your Advertisers so you can know their content;

As an affiliate marketer you really have to know your advertisers. If you are just starting out in affiliate marketing you may just be glad that your were accepted by the affiliate network and that you have gotten all the administrative BS out of the way.

But hold on there sparky!

One thing that you really need to understand is what the various advertisers bring to the table. And how that fits in with your website or blog.

Here are a few questions that you may want to ask.

1. Does the advertiser have links that promote their affiliate program or do they have recruitment banners? This may not seem important, but if the advertiser also promotes their affiliate program then you may be able to post these links and have it be another revenue stream.

Use Recruitment banners to endorse our program so you can earn more money! When a webmaster visits your Website and joins the program through your link, they will automatically become one of your recruited Websites. You can earn bonuses and commission on all recruited websites.

For example;


Webmasters Make $$$

2. What kind of rules does the advertiser have about paid advertising? This can be a biggie, you want to have a clear idea of how your promotional campaigns could conflict with your paid advertising.

3. Does your advertiser send out a news letter? Do you read it? Is there any valuable info of high quality that you might be able to pass on to your readers? Are there in new coupon codes?

For example OverStock.com offers monthly special coupons;






All of which come from their email news letter.

What I have tried to convey in this post is that one place that you can get high quality affiliate content is from your advertisers. By knowing what kinds of content they offer and the rules for using it you can offer your readers content from your advertisers and it should be a win, win, win situation.

Amazon.com Affiliates might want to watch the Kindle

I've been keeping my ear to the ground trying to understand how hard I should promote Amazon.com's Kindle. I think the device is really cool and want to get one soon. But aside from wanting one for myself, I wondered as an affiliate just how hard should I promote it.

Well if any of these articles are to be belived it is a device that is poised to make a really big splash. Some are talking iPod type splash.

• Andrea on Amazon.com and the business of online retail
  
• Could Kindle be the next iPod?
  
• Price will have to fall for Kindle's fortunes to rise
  
• Princeton University to publish Kindle textbooks

So it seems that the Kindle is gaining traction, and my bet is that when it takes off at full speed affiliates who take the time to promote are going to be rewarded.

So where do you start? Well first you would have to join the Amazon.com Affiliate program, if you are not a memeber already then pleas click here.

Associates earn 10% in referral fees on the Kindle portable wireless reading device and Kindle Edition books. With Kindle priced at $359 you can earn $35.90 on each Kindle purchase you refer.



The Kindle can also be promoted on eBay's affiliate program too. For example consider this eBay affiliate link;

Kindle @ eBay