At Affiliate Summit West in February, I had the chance to sit down with Geno Prussakov, the owner of AMNavigator, an outsourced program management service, and author to chat on his new book “Online Marketing Through Consumer’s Eyes” that he has just released the day before.

Geno is also the guy behind “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” that I really enjoyed as well.

Geno and I spent some time together (thanks to oneNetwork Direct for supplying the hospitality suite where we did the interview) and chatted about the new book. We talked about how the idea came to be (his lovely wife inspired it) how his data was collected (over 2700 respondants returned surveys and average Joe’s and Jane’s were interviewed) and some of the findings in the book that he considered to be key. He also talks about 5 of the key findings that he thinks are compelling to affiliate marketers. One of my favorites deals with an issue that has been debated between affiliates, merchants and affiliate managers over the ages regarding the commission leaking potential of toll free customer services numbers posted on ecommerce sites.

87% of the survey respondents reported that they would complete their order through a shopping cart on a site even if a toll free number to call and order was provided

The book is a series of graphs and explanations of findings that are presented in super practical and easy to understand form. I was able to blast through the book in the first day of Affiliate Summit in my down time and I found it really useful. I agree with Geno in that this book would be a good read and desk top resource for anyone involved in ecommerce - from merchant to affiliate to consultant.

User experience is often overlooked and is critical to successful affiliate marketing and ecommerce.

You can pick up a copy today at Amazon.

NOTE: This is a video interview from the vaults of ChristianAffiliateMarketers.com. Because of the file size, it took me forever to get it live and I am sorry - it’s good stuff and I want to thank Geno for taking the time to chat with me.   He’s a good guy, a friend and a brother in Christ.

I got a skype chat from Jason Stanley Marshall last night asking me if I would be down with helping him out in a Teleconference tonight at 6:00 ET with some folks that are following his “Petey Project”

Jason is trying to help some folks get started with online marketing and asked if I would be up for jumping on with him to talk affiliate marketing as it’s one of the easiest ways to get involved in online/internet marketing. I’m all for helping my Christian brothers and sisters out, so I am happy to be invited to participate.

I wanted to post some resource links for people who might be involved in the call to follow - here are some links to info you may find helpful:

Blogging Resources:

Sherman Hu’s WordPress Tutorials

Blog Classroom

Affiliate Networks:

Shareasale

Commission Junction

Christian Affiliate Programs:

SinglesofFaith Affiliate Program

JesusBranded Affiliate Program

Piano Wizard

Parable Christian Books and Products

ChristianBook.com

Alpha Omega

Nest Entertainment

Tradeshows and Events:

Affiliate Summit

GodBlogCon

Illuminate Conference

I’ll touch a bit on all of these links on the call.

God Bless,

Wade Tonkin

I just got a chuckle, looking at ABestWeb, one of the biggest forums in the affiliate marketing industry.

Kevin, one of the moderators discussed his experience when he applied for and was turned down (incorrectly) for an affiliate program:

So what? Don’t take it personally. Here’s my latest example.Signed up (applied) for a merchant I really wanted to work with at CJ, because they’re great for my vertical.

A few days pass, and I get the “We regret to inform you…” email in my CJ inbox.

So rather than coming here and blasting the merchant (even though my main website listed is a great fit for them), I did the human, common sense, friendly thing to do. I emailed them at the address provided at CJ.

Dear merchant:

I get 30 to 50 people a day looking for XXXX specifically. What say you reconsider?

Thanks,

Kevin

48 minutes later, I have an offer in the CJ interface. Done and done. Links are going up in a minute.

Now, this is obviously also a good merchant: attentive, responsive, and looking for value added affiliates. So it won’t always be like this, but do the smart thing before you start torching people. Send an email, pick up the phone, whatever….

I loved this post because I  feel in a lot of ways the “level of discourse” in our society and in our business is really going down the tubes.  If someone feels slighted in any way, instead of making a polite email inquiry or phone call to look into the issue, or ask for reconsideration, they launch into an angry diatribe on an industry forum or a blog.

As Christians, I think we need to set the tone here and make sure that we’re treating folks like “neighbors” even if they make a mistake that we can’t understand.   We need to take a deep breath,  maybe step away for a coffee ( sorry - was raised Lutheran,)  then respond by extending some grace.

Trust me, I know as much as anyone that it is easy to rip someone in a blog post, etc.   But we should always try to lead with some love and understanding first.

Way to go Kevin!

God Bless,

Wade

The Blog Classroom has opened it’s doors and I think it’s definitely worth checking out. Anik Singal from Affiliate Classroom and Rosalind Gardner (super affiliate and expert blogger) have really put together an awesome course delivered by video with coaching to help you become a successful blogger. Here is Anik speaking a bit on what to expect from the Blog Classroom course:

I loved the way that the free pre-course was laid out as it not only featured some great hands on content with Anik and Rosalind going through specific tasks involved in launching a blog, optimizing it for SEO using plugins and using social media bookmarking to get traffic immediately, it also spurs you to action by giving an assignment for you to perform to put what you just learned into play.

Oh - and check this out. Anik and Rosalind have offered a “double your money back” guarantee on the course

Price is $497 - but if you are serious about blogging and doing it well and using your blog to generate revenue, this is a good investment. They are even guaranteeing results. If you purchase the course, actually put their lessons to work for you, and you don’t receive traffic to your blog, Affiliate Classroom will refund your money as well as give you an extra $500 for your trouble.

That screams “confidence in product” to me.

If you’d like to check out a ton more content on what all is involved in the Blog Classroom package, check out their blog here.

Get started with Blog Classroom Today

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links - WT

I got a phone call from an affiliate newbie yesterday who was looking for some guidance on how to get started as an affiliate. Should she use a product like SiteBuildIt? Or should she do something else? What should she write/blog about?

I bump into questions like this all the time when I talk to followers of my blog and I never get tired of trying to steer people in the right direction here. I respond to their question with a question as well:

What are you passionate about?

I think this should be one of the first things we ask ourselves when it comes to any project that we undertake. Why? For a few reasons:

1. If you are passionate about a topic, it will be easier to commit yourself to blogging multiple times a week or even daily.
2. You will know more about your topic and be more willing to learn more through reading, product experimentation and online research and this means more and better content.
3. If you review and recommend products that you have experience with in an area you are an “expert” in, your recommendations will carry weight and your reviews and other content will be compelling.

Anyone can slap up a site or a blog and start writing on topics that they think will generate revenue, but if they really don’t know anything about the topic or care about it, they won’t be as effective as they could be and blogging or site building will seem like a chore. If you’re passionate about your topic, creating content won’t be a problem and it will show.

In terms of the Site Build It vs Blog question… I have to vote for blogging. Site Built It is a decent product and Dr. Ken Evoy is one of the best marketers in the business, but to really leverage his stuff, you have to be able to get through his instruction manual, which is a bit overwhelming for my ADD addled brain.

If you are new to the blogging game, and would like a kick-start, check out my post on Blog Classroom from a few days back.

I have had a few questions on this lately and I found this video from Joel Comm that addresses the issue of “What is the fastest way to make money online”

Links to some of the training tools he mentioned:

Secret Classroom

Internet Marketing Explained

One of the affiliate marketing blogs that I really enjoy is the Smart Marketing Affiliates Blog by Jason Forthofer. His message today dealt with how to market effectively as an affiliate using Squidoo. Squidoo is a social network created by user experience genius Seth Godin that allows people to build a “lens” or niche mini-site on the topic of their choice. These mini-sites are searchable from Squidoo.com and there are daily “lens of the day” spotlights given to interesting lenses generated by their users.

The really cool thing is that Squidoo allows “lens-masters” to post affiliate links in their lenses. Here are some tips that Jason posted for is readers on how to “Squidoo” for fun and most importantly PROFIT.

• Don’t spam. We all hate it and your visitors will too. Create a lens that is first, informative and engaging. Now, compliment it with a few (did you get that? A FEW) strategic affiliate links. Don’t be a SquidSpammer.
• Be specific. Don’t create a lens on weddings. Their is probably already thousands of those already. You can build hundreds of lenses so create a few that are targeted. My suggestions…create one about twin babies, baby shower cakes or spring weddings.
• A Squidoo lens can get great search engine ranking. A google search for cool laptop bags will find a Squidoo lens in the # 1 spot. So, when creating your lens, do it in a way that optimizes it best for the search engines. Remember to link to your lenses from your website.
• Have fun and be realistic! Creating a successful Squidoo lens isn’t going to allow you to quit your day job. However, creating a few done right can compliment your overall business income nicely. And remember, link back to your website from within your lens.

Jason is an affiliate manager that has programs dealing with babies and weddings (clearly) I took a look for some Christian lenses and here are a few that I found that were cool.

Official C28.com Squidoo

Cool Christian T shirts Squidoo

If you need a hand at getting started, Squidoo has a handy learning center at where else? SquidU.com

Squidoo is all about allowing folks to share their passion and experience with others, without the need for a lot of technical knowledge. If you’d like to get started in affiliate marketing and have some passion to share, check out Squidoo today.

God Bless,

Wade Tonkin

A while back I posted on what to do when your application gets turned down by a merchant or affiliate network.

One of the bits of advice I gave was to make sure to put your best foot forward. If you are applying for a Christian program, provide a link to a Christian targeting site or blog, or sample of an email newsletter. Email the merchant first (if the merchant is smart enough to provide that information) and give them a heads up as to what your plans are.

But what if you aren’t promoting the merchant with a website or blog? What if you are a PPC affiliate?

I like the approach this affiliate took. Granted, it won’t win anystyle points, but it tells merchants what they need to know to make a decision.

I’d takes things a step further than they did and list a few more things:

• list some companies that you have worked
• list a couple of references
• make sure to provide contact info including phone number, email and chat

Good PPC affiliates are worth their weight in gold and can be awesome producers, but the bad guys can give a merchant a bad name.God Bless and Happy Selling!

Wade Tonkin