Jerry Leventer

This post is a summary of the teleseminar call on January 2nd, 2007.

It is part of the continuing series of Workshop calls in The Internet Marketing Game (TIMG). This is a membership site and coaching club being organized by Richard East and Nick Dunin.
The IM Game
Workshop Call
1/2/2007

Jerry West SEO Interviewed by Harris Fellman

Topic: Affiliate Marketing

Previous Calls:
1. Foundations of Business
2. Foundations of SEO

Introduction:
80% of all affiliate marketers fail because they don’t treat affiliate marketing as a business.

The Internet Marketing Game

To be successful:
1. Build a relationship with the merchant.
2. Pick one product to promote at a time, at most three.
3. Use Pay Per Click (PPC) at first to test the market and see at what rate the merchant’s sales will convert.
4. Some merchants don’t allow affiliates to use competing targeted keywords. Jerry recommends you don’t promote these merchants’ products.

Harris asks Jerry W. to comment on what people should do who are just
starting out in a new business.
1. Find your market.
2. Look at your competition.
3. Find out how much PPC ads currently cost.
4. Use affiliate networks such as Clickbank and Commission Junction.
5. Go directly to the merchant and make a special arrangement for you to promote his or her product.

14:00
Harris tells us his method. He uses a teleseminar. He also creates a review site for the product he wants to promote. He reviews three products. Then he tests it using Pay Per Click.

17:25 PPC
Use PPC to test your Keyword Phrases.

4:58 What if the merchant’s sales page doesn’t convert?
Talk to the merchant about getting your own “Buy Now” button link.
This will allow customers to go from your page directly to the
merchant’s payment processor page.

20:50
Before you begin promoting a product, ask the merchant to tell you
at what levels of sales they will raise your commission percentage.
Don’t wait until after you have started making sales or the merchant
may have you go to an even higher level, or show that level for
another two months.

22:40
You need to distinguish yourself from other affiliates for the same
product.

10:45
Ways to enhance the business you already have with merchants.
- Talk to them
- Make sure you can trust them
- Be aware of Cookie Washing
This is where the merchant’s web page erases your
prospects cookie by using something such as an opt-in
popup window.
- Receiving a higher commission per sale allows you to
increase your PPC bids. This can cause your competition to
drop away. Then the PPC bid rate will drop.

28:03
Harris comments on cookie washing.

15:14
Fraud prevention is discussed. Some affiliate networks are mentioned.
- Commission Junction
- Modern Click
- Ask your merchant what they do to help prevent abuse.

30:??
When a merchant changes affiliate managers, you have to build that
relationship again. Their strategies may also change. You need to be
always vigilant and monitor your conversion rates. If there is a
sudden change you need to be aware of it and take action.

There may be times when the affiliate manager will try to “borrow” the
strategies you are using if they are highly successful. They may try
to observe, for example, from where you are generating your traffic
(prospects).

31:28 Link Bouncing
In order to avoid being reverse engineered, you can do what is called
“Link Bouncing”. This is when you send your prospects to a link that
is then redirected. You actually want to do this twice.

Link -> Redirect 1 -> Redirect 2 -> Actual Landing Page

32:30
Jerry West gives an example of when he did not do this.

34:10
A JavaScript detection routine is mentioned.

35:41
Be sure to keep your “Unique Point of Difference”. This can also be
known as “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP).

36:47
A summary is presented of the ideas mentioned so far.
You need to develop a system.

37:12 What’s Next ?

37:51
When you contact the merchant, don’t tell them it’s an affiliate
program you are looking for. In case they don’t have one, you can
become either,
- the number one affiliate,
- the affiliate manager, or
- a broker who gets commissions for other affiliates you bring in.

39:18
It’s about building relationships.
Be prepared when a change occurs.

41:00 Yahoo Example
Your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) may increase suddenly.

42:06
You can also work with the competing merchants. Tell them you will
send your subscribers to them if you like what they have to offer.
Compare several offers and take the best one. Generally, the best one
is the one whom you can trust the most.

43:00 Harris provides a summary.

43:48 Then Jerry.

46:00
Discussion of the shopping cart page. It should look similar to your
sales page so the customer feels comfortable.

50:06 Questions & Answers

Some survey tools are mentioned
- Ask the List
- Survey Monkey

56:15
Jerry W. suggests bribing your subscribers with a gift so they will be
more motivated to respond to your survey.

60:18
Ron Capps mentions that John Stiles discusses a Wordpress plugin for
conducting surveys.

61:00
Jerry W. recommends Go Try This.

63:00
Debra Arko asks about what to sell, info products or hard products.
Jerry answers to go with what you have an interest in.

1:21:50
Rhonda asks about the 301 redirect.
Jerry W. recommends we watch his video on affiliate marketing.

redirect 301 filename http://www.location.com/

Jerry provides more comments about avoiding reverse engineering your
traffic sources.

1:26:38
Jerry W. has a custom script for link cloaking, GoTryThis.com. See the
video.

1:28:15 Amir’s Question about squeeze pages.
Jerry W. mentions that Slide-Ins and popups can be a turn off to the
older age group. The younger age groups seem to be ok with them. It
depends on your market and you should test your conversion with and
without.

1:32:05
Amir Asks about 301 Redirects.
Jerry W. refers to the “Traffic & SEO” forum in TIMG.

1:34:00
Ted Chan asks a question about 301 Redirects.
Do you need separate domains or can you simply redirect to another page
on your site?

The answer is: You should use separate domains to be most secure.

1:37:00
Google can detect what’s known as a “Minus One Referral”.

1:39:50
Rhonda mentions cookies being lost and the discussion turns to giving
the prospect a bonus or incentive to use your link. Then they need to
provide proof of purchase and you need to audit your stats to confirm
that you were in fact given affiliate credit.

You can take a look at The Internet Marketing Game for yourself.

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