Although I’ve known sports affiliate Joe Sousa for some time and have talked to him, it wasn’t until hanging out at Affiliate Summit that I got to know him better.
Joe like a quiet guy, till you become aware of the fact that he’s an affiliate marketer focused on the sports niche and does very well for himself.
Since he’s been in the affiliate marketing industry for about 10 years, it was nostalgic and interesting to have him come on the show and talk about:
- How he got started in a SEO consultant role and got involved in affiliate marketing
- A compare of the pay-per-sale versus the pay-per-lead business models
- Why forced continuity affiliate programs will come under greater scrutiny in the future
- How to get started as an SEO/content based affiliate
- The in-your-face realities of being an affiliate marketer
- How much you can realistically earn starting out as an SEO-based affiliate
- Incorporating product datafeeds into your affiliate sites
- How to break out of the rut that experienced affiliates gradually fall into
- How to incorporate video into your marketing campaigns
Joe certainly went the distance in sharing his own experiences during the call.
Check it out below:
Links:
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PS: If you haven’t yet, join the “Members Only” private podcast now, the next edition will be sent out on Saturday.
Being perceived as an expert in your niche can play a great part in generating buzz, momentum and ultimately profits from your marketing efforts. If you’re a small or medium business, being able to establish mindshare (the perception of yourself or your company as a player in your niche) is a key strategy for newer players. Here are 7 tips to achieving that goal.
Content: Identifying key issues, especially challenges and problems within your industry and offering a solution to those questions builds your reputation as a problem solver. Experts are those with expertise at solving problems.
It also builds goodwill and encourage reciprocity and a “pay it forward” mentality from those who have benefitted from your advice (which leads to a viral/linkbait effect if they distribute/syndicate your content).
Content was one of the major issues that I discussed with veteran journalist and former editor-in-chief of Revenue magazine, Lisa Picarille, for this week’s Friday Podcast. It’ll appear on Friday.
One of the easiest ways to brand yourself is by starting a blog and start putting out quality content.
One major issue I have with bloggers, especially affiliate marketing/internet marketing bloggers is a tendency to excessively sell ad-space or run banners on their blog. If more than half the screen real-estate is dedicated to ads/banners, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Are you more interested in making money, or providing information.
Looking at your signal-to-noise ratio (content vs ads) and maintaining a 80% content : 20% ad ratio will create a great user experience. Going beyond a 50% content vs 50% ad ratio is pushing the limits.
Guest author and guest post: If you’ve established a reputation and are seen as credible, take the next step to approach the top 10 channels/outlets in your niche and offer to guest author on their site – whether it’s a news site, a content aggregator or a blog.
If you are known and the site publishes guest posts, you stand a good chance. If not, it’s back to step #1.
In the affiliate marketing context, specialist magazines like FeedFront which comprises an online and print edition can provide great visibility.
Public speaking: Speaking at industry-specific events and related events are (more…)
Affiliate marketing veteran Jason Rubacky has moved to the ShareASale affiliate network and came on the Friday Podcast to talk about some of the business developments that are in the works at the network.
In his new role as Affiliate Development Manager, Jason will be recruiting established affiliates into the network and helping them integrate affiliate programs from SAS merchants.
Jason also talked about:
- His intiatives to ramp up the affiliate education elements and a tutorial system he’s working on
- Enhancements to the SAS merchant’s product datafeeds
- Availability of new business models, such as Pay-Per-Call
- Updates on SAS’ Think Tank invite-only workshop
- FTP download capability for merchant coupons
Check out the podcast below:
Links:
Jason’s IM details:
AIM: jasonrubacky
MSN: jasonrubacky[at]hotmail.com
yahoo: JasonRubacky
Former affiliate marketer, turned affiliate manager Josh Todd launched his CPA affiliate network, TriFoxMedia, a couple of months ago and came on the Friday Podcast to share some tips for new and experienced CPA affiliates.
During the call, we talked about:
- How Todd started his own CPA network
- His experience in using the HasOffers affiliate network software
- Strategies for offer selection and promotion for new affiliates
- How to get accepted by CPA networks
- A walkthrough of promoting CPA offers via polls
You can check out the podcast below:
Links:
I invited Peter Dunbar, an experienced PPC and social media affiliate on the Friday Podcast to share strategies and promotion ideas for affiliates.
Peter has been an affiliate since 2000 and has a variety of different experiences in the internet marketing/affiliate industry since then, using a variety of different strategies to generate traffic to his sites.
During his time on the podcast, he shared a number of comprehensive tips to use video hosting networks such as YouTube, Metacafe, Revver and others to generate leads for your affiliate offers.
He also shared some business management tips which he’s used to grow his own business.
Besides his role as a VIP coach for the PPC Classroom program, he consults for clients on their internet marketing strategy, and has recently launched a new training site, AffCoaches, targeted at new and experienced affiliates.
Check out the podcast below:
Links:
Rebecca Kelley, who’s established a reputation during her time at SEOMoz, as a blogger, consultant and participant in the SEO community is a bit of an engima. She has a background in communications and Spanish from the University of Washington and stumbled into the world of search engine optimization.
Rebecca’s just taken up the portfolio of Directo of Social Media at internet marketing consultancy 10e20, where she’ll be taking up blogging duties on the 10e20 blog as well as take up social media work with clients.
I had the opportunity to invite her on the Friday Podcast where we talked about:
- How she got involved with search engine optimization
- The role social media can play in job searches
- Which are the relevant social networks now
- How companies can better use social media in their branding and marketing
- Key elements that can make or break your social media campaign
- The big picture view for social media. What users are looking for, how to make that traffic work for you?
- An example of a company which is using social media effectively and how they’re doing it
- Her new role at 10e20
Check out the podcast below:
Links:
Rebecca on Twitter
10e20 blog
10e20
Mediocre Athlete
Fresh Edge Media
