Whether you’re an affiliate applying to join a network, a product owner hoping to get some publicity on a blog or website, or a consultant planning to solicit business from a new or existing client, a large proportion of your success depends on your ability to pitch your application/product/services effectively.
Hence “pitching” and the launch of the recent TV reality program, Pitchmen, featuring pitchman Billy Mays, will provide some inspiration for getting your application accepted, your product featured or a consulting contract inked.
First the bad (or possibly good news), most will do pretty terribly at promoting themselves.
One of the frequent complaints I hear about video-based traffic generation via YouTube is that conversion rates can be be in sub decimal range ( significantly less than 1%), but if you look at some of the leading lights on the network and how they’ve parlayed their popularity into opportunities (and new income), you might want to give YouTube a second look.
First the bad news. As interesting as your internet marketing technique or product is, most YouTube visitors will only be too happy to slap it down with a low rating because it’s disrupted their entertainment schedule. It might’ve been because you tagged your SEO video with “Miley Cyrus” or “Lady GaGa”. So tagging your video correctly is a function of getting qualified traffic, not just pure traffic numbers alone.
You’ve probably heard of some of the headliners at events like SxSW and BlogWorld such as Lisa Nova and iJustine, but unless you’re actively researching the tween/teen market, you might not be aware of some of the up-and-coming YouTube posters.
Savannah Outen
Oregon-based 16-year-old Savannah first started posting videos of herself singing in March 2007 and posts under the username Savannah7448.
Parlaying her online popularity of 122,000 channel subscribers and (more…)
Heather Paulson’s one of the guests I’ve been looking forward to inviting on the Friday Podcast for some time and the 6 month wait has been worth it. Besides being a very technically competent marketer, Heather founded her own full service internet marketing agency, Paulson Management Group, which offers affiliate management, search engine optimization and pay per click management services among others.
Having racked up experience at affiliate management firm PartnerCentric, as well as serving as a contractor for Microsoft’s iSEM team, Heather also sits on the boards of the Affiliate Summit and Affiliate Classroom.
During our discussion, Heather talked about:
Issues and considerations for merchants adding affiliate marketing as a new component to their marketing strategy
Advantages and disadvantages of using an outsourced affiliate program agency compared to hiring an in-house affiliate manager
How affiliate managers can enhance programs they manage with some best-of-breed industry practises
Tips for better affiliate project management (from the affiliate and affiliate manager perspective)
An insight into how super affiliates operate and key strategies and techniques they use
How affiliates can get more out of working with their affiliate managers
Resources for affiliate marketers and tips for growing and scaling your business
New podcast network Geekcast (owned by the Affiliate Summit) looks set to be a major player in the audio content game with the recent launch of two business-related podcasts.
A minor quibble I have about the Affiliate Summit is not being able to hear presentations by the event’s co-founders Missy Ward and Shawn Collins because they’re busy presenting awards or talking to folks during the 3-day event.
In launching and leading their own new podcasts on Geekcast, this should address the appetite to hear and benefit from their expertise.
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BrandMouthing, a new solo podcast by Shawn Collins, gives his take on branding strategies and marketing techniques that affiliates and internet marketers can employ in their own business. Usually featuring a 5-10 minute duration (the longest has been about 22 minutes thus far), the short, punchy format (with a high signal-to-noise ratio) gives immediate tips.
I’ve enjoyed Shawn’s synopsis of the Cast of Geeks/GeekyBunch sessions when his Skype recording software failed to activate (resulting in a loss of about 1+ hour of content) and the BrandMouthing podcasts likewise provide a short burst of actionable information.
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TheSpew, helmed by Missy Ward, is vaguely themed after popular women-themed talkshow “The View”, with an affiliate marketing slant. Featuring prominent affiliate marketing/internet marketing veterans like Lisa Picarille, Connie Berg, Karen White, Lisa Riolo, Kim Rowley and featuring guests like Brian Littleton, Scott Jangro and others, the sessions are chock full of useful content, involving issues like the California affiliate tax, Missy’s fundraising projects, insights into the affiliate industry.
Bundled together with this, you’ll also hear about how several marketers got their start, get some insights into what makes them successful. TheSpew bunch have also thoughfully included snippets into managing a healthy work-life balancing, addressing issues like dating other members of the affiliate fraternity, networking at events and balancing parental duties with running your own internet business.
Although the sessions clock in at more than an hour, the time will probably fly by and I’ll be saving the sessions to listen to again.
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I’ve certainly got a healthy fill of content and will be looking forward to more episodes from Shawn and Missy.
Josh Todd has racked up experience as both an affiliate and affiliate manager, with his pet topics being PPC (pay-per-click) and PPV (pay-per-view) forms of traffic generation.
In fact, with the scarce information available on PPV techniques, Josh has quietly been the go to guy for such information for many marketers.
Although some may loosely associated PPV with PPC or even media buyinig, there’re a number of differences and Josh came on the Friday Podcast to give specific tips on PPV. He also talked about:
What is PPV and how does it work
PPV traffic networks explained
The 2 recommended PPV networks for new marketers
Top mistakes when using PPV and how to deal with it
Convert2Media co-founder Ralph Ruckman AKA Ruck has stepped up his efforts to expose fraudulent affiliate applications, following our discussion about the issue on a recent Friday Podcast.
What has impressed me about Ruck’s approach to business is that he pulls no punches and goes for the jugular every time.
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On other news, Convert2Media has gone off the DirectTrack platform to its own proprietory platform, which should increase earnings for affiliates.
Also the coaching programs which they were to have launched earlier (mentioned in the podcast) have been rolled back a couple of weeks till after Ad:Tech SF.
Heather Paulson’s one of the guests I’ve been looking forward to inviting on the Friday Podcast for some time and the 6 month wait has been worth it. Besides being a very technically competent marketer, Heather founded her own full service internet marketing agency, Paulson Management Group, which offers affiliate management, search engine optimization and pay per click management services among others.
BrandMouthing, a new solo podcast by Shawn Collins, gives his take on branding strategies and marketing techniques that affiliates and internet marketers can employ in their own business. Usually featuring a 5-10 minute duration (the longest has been about 22 minutes thus far), the short, punchy format (with a high signal-to-noise ratio) gives immediate tips.
TheSpew, helmed by Missy Ward, is vaguely themed after popular women-themed talkshow “The View”, with an affiliate marketing slant. Featuring prominent affiliate marketing/internet marketing veterans like Lisa Picarille, Connie Berg, Karen White, Lisa Riolo, Kim Rowley and featuring guests like Brian Littleton, Scott Jangro and others, the sessions are chock full of useful content, involving issues like the California affiliate tax, Missy’s fundraising projects, insights into the affiliate industry.
Josh Todd has racked up experience as both an affiliate and affiliate manager, with his pet topics being PPC (pay-per-click) and PPV (pay-per-view) forms of traffic generation.