Monthly Archives: May 2008

Is It Better To Be An Affiliate Marketer, Work In An Affiliate Network Or Be A Merchant?

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There’s a pretty active discussion on Jeremy Palmer’s Quit Your Day Job forums about whether its better to be an affiliate or a merchant. (I’m paraphrasing the intent somewhat).

I’d expand it to encompass taking on a network role in the merchant-affiliate equation too.

I don’t think any of the roles are necessarily “better”, because all the parts help to complete the system.

Trying to come to the conclusion that one is “better” than the other is like saying a car engine is more important than the tires. In that case, take off one of the tires and try driving off.

I’ve had the opportunity to take up roles in all 3 positions, and its been an educational experience.

I identify with the points several of the affiliates raised about not having to deal with customers, refunds, frustration, etc. At the same time too, once you have several products development cycles and product launches under your belt, and you create systems to deal with not only problems, but solutions at enhancing your business competitiveness, you bring your business to a new level.

I personally like being in the product owner/merchant role, because Continue reading →

Friday Podcast: Who Is Scott Jangro?

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Scott JangroAside from being one of the most respected figures in the affiliate marketing industry, Scott Jangro is a guy who’s making waves with a number of his projects over at MechMedia.

I got an insight into how he’s structured one of his web properties, CostumZee, said by top affiliate Jeremy Palmer to be the largest affiliate for costumes online.

But more importantly, the biggest takeaway is understanding how Scott thinks and how he conceptualizes and executes a project. I like his system because I have a similar approach to running my internet business too – it’s everything to do with being around a year, and even 10 years from now.

Check out the Friday Podcast:

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Scott Jangro resources:

Affiliate Marketing Tips From 2 Industry Veterans

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I have to thank Jeremy Palmer for helping introduce a new routine for me this week.

Because of the BlackInkProject, I’d been waking at 5am (later rolled back to 545am) to make it for his live affiliate training (3pm PDT is 6am in Singapore…)

If you’re already an affiliate marketing veteran, what you’ll take away from Jeremy’s lessons is not what he says on the surface, but also “what lies beneath”. Look beyond the surface and you’ll get an insight into how he strategizes his system, develops a process and applies that process with ruthless efficiency when approaching a new niche.

So if you’re on the forums asking “I want to start a shoe blog, I hear they make good money. How do I start?” you’re probably barking down the wrong track.

Instead, take a moment to map out your goals/outcomes, develop a plan of action and be prepared to change course along the way.

As someone who made it to the sophomore year as an EE/CS (electrical engineers, computer science) major before dropping out and making a minor switch to creative writing and psychology, I’d like to think that one thing I’ve carried over from my 2 years of engineering is a systems-based approach to building a business.

Which totally echoes what Scott Jangro mentioned during the recording of our Friday Podcast session.

If you haven’t read between the lines in the affiliate and internet marketing blogs out there, and go beyond the “make quick cash” ebooks you see being flouted and touted and pimped all over the place, you’ll see a trend towards building a business online. And it’s no “big shock” or suprise either.

If you look back historically at the first salesmen selling snake oil and other miracle cures, they were soon supplanted by guys who were the real deal.

Do you think the online world is going to play by different laws?

So just like the dotcom crash of 2000 wiped out the guys who had Continue reading →

Affiliate Marketing Training Program Black Ink Project Launches

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UPDATE: Check out the latest version of: The Black Ink Project

It takes a lot to get me out of bed early in the morning, but Jeremy Palmer’s Black Ink Project kicked off to a great start today.

Jeremy talked about his start in affiliate marketing and the niches he’s in (dating, web hosting, music downloads, VOIP, online marketing), as well as criteria for shortlisting and testing viable niches.

More importantly, he also talked about a number of niches he “failed” at and eventually dropped.

If you’re not already generating a 5-figure income from your affiliate marketing efforts, you ought to sign up for Jeremy’s 20 session, free (yes…it’s free) training at the Black Ink Project.

I’ll be presenting content later in the series, and as the program picks up steam, I know that more than a few Super Affiliates are going to come out of this program.

The first week of training kicked off at 3pm PDT and continues the rest of the week.

Check out the full schedule and register at: Black Ink Project (limited spaces available).

The call recordings may be available 24 hours after the initial session.

Also, find out more about Jeremy Palmer’s strategies from his appearance on a recent episode of the Friday Podcast.

Note: US and Canadian BlackInkProject members have a toll-free number to call in. I made a long distance call, but it’s great to find out that webinar provider WebEx (a Cisco company) is providing real-time audio stream too.

GoDaddy May Domain Renewal Discount Code And Web Hosting Suggestions

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I like to manage my risks by spreading my domains across multiple registrars.

My favorite domain registrar remains Namecheap. (see latest Namecheap discount code)

Although I have a couple over at GoDaddy. The latest discount code for domain renewals (working as of 2nd May 2008) is “ZINE3“. (Cuts 1 year renewal fee from $9.95 to $6.95, before taxes).

What I don’t quite like about GoDaddy is that the admin panel is somewhat clunky, it takes a while to refresh it’s settings.

Having said that, having all your domains at one registrar is probably a worse outcome – and I’d say that NameCheap and GoDaddy would be my picks among the hundreds of domain registrars and sub-registrars out there.

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On the Web Hosting front, I’d suggest newer webmasters take up a shared webhosting account (This blog ran on a shared webhost for about 2 years) – and you can expect up to 500 websites to share a single server.

My preferred choice remains BlueHost.

I’ll have a future post on higher grade webhosting accounts like: premium shared webhosting, VPS/VDS (virtual private/virtual dedicated servers) and dedicated servers.

$25,000 Worth Of Prizes In Earner’s Forum – Webmaster-Talk Merger Contest

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In case you’re wondering, I believe this contest is open to international participants.

In the last contest, Lee organized, I won an iPod Touch, $250 from CPA Network NeverBlueAds, and a bunch of other prizes in Lee Dodd’s last Earner’s Forum contest.

About a month ago, it was announced that Webmaster Talk and Earner’s Forum were merging, forming one of the largest webmaster forums (as of today, it has 57,000 registered members).

There’re a number of cool features like the publication of your blog’s RSS feed (similar to what forums like DigitalPoint currently offer) as well as Ad Revenue share (through Google AdSense).

I think everyone will be most interested in the prizes…

forum contest

They include:

  • A beautiful new Macbook Air laptop from ClickBooth valued at $1,800
  • A Copy of Interspire Shopping Cart (Professional Edition) valued at $995
  • $500 cash in a Max Bounty affiliate network account
  • Another $500 in the form of a Text Link Ads gift certificate
  • Another Apple product, the iPod Touch from Rocket Profit
  • Another $250 cash in a Pepperjam Network account
  • Custom T-shirts printed for your headline website from Ndesigns. 24 Custom Printed Shirts (color T’s, 3-4 color printing, one-sided).
  • The hottest new camera for blogging, The Flip, is provided by Advaliant
  • Speaking of blogs, the MOST AMAZING paid theme ever is now yours from Revolution Theme and it isn’t just one, but the complete multi-pack!
  • To help you relax that hard working brain of yours, we close the package out with a Nintendo DS Lite from RevResponse!
  • 3 Free months of Aaron Wall’s SEO Training can only be good for business!

Contest winners are determined by Continue reading →