Author Archives: Andrew Wee

About Andrew Wee

My name is Andrew Wee. I'm 32 years old, live in Singapore and am happily married with a 2 month old daughter. I've gone through a list of various occupations including: * journalist (for a business newspaper) * Internet content developer (for one of Asia's largest media group's Singapore Press Holdings) * trainer in entrepreneurship, business building, life skills * photographer/photojournalist * real estate agent * consultant * entrepreneur (I think that's enough for now...more later!) This is a personal space to express my goals, dreams and aspirations.

Friday Podcast: Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Management Strategies with Jim Lillig

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jim lilligThe recent Affiliate Summit West marked the launch of the Offeratti affiliate network founded by affiliate veteran Jim Lillig.

I spoke to Jim at the sidelines of the affiliate summit, where Jim talked about:

  • How he got started in affiliate marketing
  • Getting involved in projects like affiliate track
  • Managing the affiliate program for an MP3 site which had 1 million paid subscribers and a budget of $500,000 each month for pay per click (PPC) traffic
  • How merchants can easily create marketing tools for affiliates
  • PPC optimization tips for affiliates
  • How you can identify quality affiliate networks and affiliate offers
  • How to get approved and accepted for affiliate programs if you are an international affiliate
  • Why affiliate managers should not auto-approve affiliate applications
  • The launch of the Offeratti affiliate network

Check out the podcast below:

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Links:

Offeratti

Affiliate Summit West 2009 Coming To An End…

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I’m in the PPC Super Affiliate session comprising Amit Mehta, Colin McDougall, Ros Gardner on the panel and Anik Singal moderating.

From the sessions I’ve attended and attendees I’ve spoken to, there seems to be a sizable contingent of new affiliate marketers (with less than a year’s experience) attending the show.

If you’re in this group, here’re my tips for getting the value after the show.

  • Connect with experienced affiliates: Find out if they have twitter accounts or blogs (here’s my twitter account). Build a relationship, read the content they’ve already published. This creates a better impression than sending a direct message or email with the request “please teach me affiliate marketing”.
  • Take advantage of resources: I had a chance to sit down with Wil Reynolds and he mentioned that all his resources are listed at Delicious. Check them out.
  • Take action: No magic beans were being given away at the show, on the tradeshow floor, or at the parties. Sorry. You need to take action, and you will get results.

Most importantly, have fun while you’re at it.

Making The Merchant-Affiliate Relationship Work

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I spoke to Amazon Product Manager Zahid Khan at their booth in the halls at the sidelines of Affiliate Summit West.

Internet marketer Steve Schaffer who was also at the booth mentioned that Amazon’s lack of analytics was hampering the efforts of affiliates.

Amazon affiliates will realized that tracking is limited to a maximum of 200 tracking IDs (which need to be created through the affiliate panel), preventing the insertion of tracking IDs.

PPC affiliates or other affiliates which dynanimically insert tracking data within the Sub ID field will find their marketing efforts seriously hampered by this.

The feedback from Zahid was that “affiliates have not requested this”.

What?

I’m not sure if Amazon is seriously listening to this, but I don’t think they are actively soliciting affiliate feedback to enhance their systems. The end result is that a growth in affiliate revenue will benefit the company.

Routinely conducting affiliate polls or focused interviews would seem to Continue reading →

Friday Podcast: PPC Keyword Strategies With John Hasson

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I invited John Hasson on the Friday Podcast to share some tips about his PPC campaigns.

john hasson

From his previous appearance on the series, you’d have heard about how he extensively uses automation in his PPC campaigns. Together with outsourcing business tasks, John has given his affiliate marketing business more room to grow.

During our discussion, John mentioned:

  • His strategies to test out keywords (as many as 30,000 at a time)
  • Keyword research and harvesting and the tools he uses
  • How you multiply and permutate your keyword list
  • Live example of constructing a keyword list
  • PPC campaign optimization tips
  • His new Keyword Grouper tool and it’s “intelligent keyword grouping” features

Check out the podcast below:

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Links:

The Affiliate Summit 2009 Survival Guide, Session Picks And Party Party

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I’m triple-barreling this post, which will also serve as a reminder of the sessions I’m planning to attend.

First the survival element:

  • Bring business cards, especially if you’d like to drop your name in the running to win a Wii, Xbox, gift card or other incentive the networks are offering. (also known as “offline lead generation”). If you’re selective, I’d think 30-50 business cards are enough. If you’re aggressively giving them out, leaving them on tables, etc, you’d probably need about 10 boxes (1,000 cards).
  • Be warm: The weather is pretty cool at this time of the year, bring a jacket if you’re going out in the evenings
  • Prep yourself: Prepare a 30 second pitch of what you do and your type of traffic generation, you’ll likely be repeating yourself walking the show floor, attending sessions, at parties, etc. Save the life story if someone is really interested, else a 15-30 second “elevator pitch/synopsis” will suffice.
  • Comfortable shoes are a must: Walking shoes: wear them. Your feet will thank you at the end of the day.
  • Hydrate yourself: “Las Vegas Throat” is a condition that strikes some, especially with the dry desert air and occasional shouting you’ll have to do. Drink lots of water (or honey and lemon if you can get ahold of it). Else you risk losing your voice at the end of day 1 or 2.
  • Max out your carrying capacity: If you’re planning to collect schwag from every exhibitor, you might want to bring a backpack as you’re walking the halls, else you could be weighed down. I think Market Leverage might be rolling out their Cashinator machine, where you grab dollar bills in a vortex of flying money. Good for a few bucks, better for more laughs.

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If you’d like to check out the comprehensive list of sessions, check out the Affiliate Summit agenda.

For parties, Jangro’s “Party A Day” Guide.

For some recommends sessions Angel’s Top 5 ASW09 session picks.

Here’s my session and party guide:

Day 1 (Sun Jan 11 2009):

Meet Market (noon till 6pm, location: Pavilion 8-11): A 1-day meet-and-greet session. You’ll think you can breeze through this area in about an hour, but the reality is that it’ll probably be about 3 hours and you’d have barely made it through half the tables. It’s a good opportunity to Continue reading →

Do You Have A Question For The Affiliate Panel?

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In about a week’s time, Affiliate Summit West will be in full swing in Las Vegas.

affiliate marketing panel

Affiliate Bloggers Speak Out Panelists: (Left to Right) Nickycakes, Geordie Carswell, Miles Baker

I’ve the honor of moderating an affiliate marketers panel with panelists: Geordie Carswell, NickyCakes and Miles Baker in attendance.

The session is geared towards newer and experienced marketers who’d like to tap on the expertise of the panel which spans search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, social media and blogging.

The panelists and I are compiling questions for the session.

If you’ve a question or issue, go ahead and list it in the comments below.