Internet Marketing Trip

Tonight, you’re going to celebrate Christmas so I wish you all a merry Christmas. I hope Santa Claus will not forgive you, anywhere you are, and hat you and all your family are happy and united.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I know I already blogged about that, it was for a merchant that (still) didn’t answer me for an order of 50 items. One of my visitor asked to have a discount for such a high order and I contacted them 3 times, still waiting.

This time, this is another merchant, and if I say they don’t care about affiliates, they may also don’t care about themselves and being promoted properly.

Okay, you may already know I have started a website and I was going to reveal the name when I make my first sale. The first sale is made, the website is Replicas Suck, Authentic Fashion Deals.

I promote apparel, jewelry, watches, handbags, shoes… only authentic stuff, cause replicas suck, that’s the direction of this blog. I also talk about emerging designers that most of us don’t know, but still offer great quality products, and cool style.

Well it sounds like a press release, it’s not, so let’s get back to the purpose of this article. One of the merchant I promote, Bosca has its affiliate program with ShareASale. I like using ShareASale, it’s easy and convenient and also merchants can publish their whole catalog, so you have affiliate codes for each products on their websites.

This is of course something really cool when you want to promote something as large as fashion, there are thousands of products. Sadly, not all the merchants use this feature, and this is the case of Bosca.

Bosca products are leather made : handbags, travel bags, briefcase, wallets, well… mainly luggage. Excellent quality, a recognized house, leather working from near a century. The products are great but there is a problem, at least for me.

On Replicas Suck, if you look at the bottom of the page, there is a banner for Bosca, that says “Bosca | Life. Luxury. Leather. ” This is the only banner they have to propose. No other formats, not any other link for a special category of products, just this.

Of course, with ShareASale, you can create a custom link to any page of a merchants store.

One banner only, the only problem ?

No. This is not the only one. Since there is no product datafeed I thought I could use pictures of their products, I would have save the pictures of the products I wanted to promote and upload them on my server. But first I needed the permission, so I asked.

Bosca affiliate program is managed by another company, so my email got to this marketing company. A nice guy answered me, said he submitted my request and I’ll get a reply soon.

Now, guess what was the reply. Negative. I can’t use their products pictures on my website to promote them.

This is really something irritating. You are doing work for them and you want to do it right. I could have used the pictures without any permission and they may never see this.

Now, if they thought a little bit they would know that when you have a product, people like to see it, especially in the fashion world, where style is something that influence our choices. Ladies, would you buy a handbag without seeing it ? Or any clothes you could buy online, (gents too) ?

At least, imagine this situation. Let’s say you have two merchants to promote, and you decide to display 10 products from each. Well you can with the first, but not with Bosca. There are 10 more chances that a visitor clicks on a picture to see more details of the product.

If a picture amazed you, or if you find something very original, you will wompletely forget about the others.

Maybe they never heard a picture speaks more than words.

Well, you can do the promotion of a merchant, without his products pictures. But will you do it more than once ? When there are 100 products, you can imagine 100 posts or articles, 1 per article.

Too bad, merchants are lazy. They could ask their affiliate marketing manager to create a product datafeed, or code for each product categories, or for some best sellers.

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The first sale made from this website was for a $139 item, not from Bosca. Damn, the commission was only 6% ($8.34). But that keeps growing

Recently, I posted an article about Buzz Marketing, a way to create buzz, or be talked about. Actually I could even add that buzz marketing is in a way a synonym of link bait.

The fact that you say something very opinonated or something shocking that goes against others thoughts, creates discussion. In the blogging world, it can be very fast to get backlinks, or comments. Don’t be affraid to read some bad things about you, it’s part of the game, but you can always explain your feelings in further posts.

Today I posted about a t-shirt I saw on Crack Smokin’ T-shirts, here is the pattern :

Crack Smokin’ T-Shirts title says “Funny and Offensive T-Shirts That Get Attention“. This is some kind of buzz marketing. If you know buzz marketing, you know how to stand out from the crowd.

This is not the most offensive T-Shirt you can see on their website but it gets you the idea. (Yeah I have seen the one that says “ASS, the other vagina”).

Don’t you have ever seen someone with a special T-Shirt and say to your friend : hey, have you seen his t-shirt, or just try to read the message, then smile or laugh.

It reminds me the Graspop Metal Meeting (Hey Metalheads !), there was a T-shirt selling there, the message was : I used to be schizophrenic, but we’re okay now. There are also t-shirts were the message starts in the front and ends in the back.

I even saw a guy without any T-Shirt, he just got written on his back : I’m single and I want to Fuck ! Quite straight to the point. I don’t know if he got what he wanted but I’m sure everyone read his back.

Here are some funny t-shirts messages you could try to modify for some of your articles titles and see if you get attention :

• Tell your boobs to quit staring at my eyes.
• I may be bald but I’ll never have a bad hairday.
• Therapy is expensive, beer is cheap. What to do ? What to do ?
• If I gave a shit, you’d be the first person I’d give it to.
• Everyone needs to believe in something, I believe I’ll have another beer.
• SMILE, if you’re not wearing any underwear.
• I’m not totally useless, I can be used as a bad example.
• Yesterday, I quit drinking !
• Your face and my ass could be twins !
• I’m multi talented, I can talk and piss you off at the same time.
• No school, no job, no problem.
• I am not as think as you drunk I am.
• Front : Sex isn’t the answer. Back : Sex is the Question and YES is the answer !
• War is not about who is right, but about who is left.
• DAMN RIGHT, I’M GOOD IN BED ! I can sleep all day !
• Front : I am not schizophrenic ! Back : Neither Am I !
• KEEPREADINGTHISTSHIRTWHILEICHECKOUTYOURTITS
• Your lips keep moving but all I hear is “Blah, Blah, Blah”
• I live in my own little world, but that’s OK, they know me here.
• NEVER KNOCK ON HEAVENS DOOR……. Ring The Bell Then Run (He Hates That)

I could add more but that’s fine… Okay just one more, just for fun (you can addy our own message in comments if you want )

I was reading some few posts on DigitalPoint when I saw the signature of a member that linked to an article titled “75 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic“. This is the kind of articles we all like, at least I do. A good list, simple to read. You just take the tips you want or experiment everything.

So as the title suggests, Tay (her name) gives you 75 tips to improve your traffic. A very quick preview here, I won’t steal her content, she developed every points she makes, so visit the link above for a guaranteed good read (sorry, no money back guarantee, it’s free).

“1. Write more content“. This is the number 1 of the list and it should be the most important one for every blogger. Yeah, me included, even if I am busy, I should at least spend few minutes every day to add one article. Focus on quality unique content, and frequency.

“4. Start using StumbleUpon“. A social bookmarking website that will bring you traffic from other people, who will rate thumbs up or down your pages. If you didn’t read my previous post about free web traffic resources, Dean Hunt, interviewed 14 of the top 30 StumbleUpon users, there is also a case study about buzz marketing that you MUST read.

“11. Link to other posts.“ & “17. Establish relationships with fellow bloggers.” That’s what I’m doing right now. I’m blogging about a very helpful article, I will comment on her blog and thank her for her efforts. Tay may be notified of a pingback from this article and may comment here if she wants it.

Just 3 ways here, there are 72 more. Read, digest, take action.

Today, I’m going to talk about an internet marketing guru. No don’t go, wait ! A real guru, yeah, a king with a crown on his head and all.

Name : Dean Hunt

If you don’t know him, then I could call you “sucker”, but I didn’t in July too. At this time I read a thread at DigitalPoint forums entitled “Buzz Marketing Case Study Part 1″. It hooked me, Dean then added a part 2 and 3, that I’ll talk about later.

For those who wonder what is buzz marketing, I think he defines it better than me, in an interview he gave to Carl Ocab. What ? You don’t know Carl Ocab ? Sorry but this time : Sucker !

“Buzz Marketing is the art and science of standing out from the crowd, being talked about and being remembered. Or in other words… it is the ability to create a buzz about a service or product.”

Why is it so interesting ? Traffic for FREE, with only words for weapons, and those can make a killing (marketing speaking of course). Maybe you already read somewhere that writing something controversial attracts people attention. It suggests interest but also creates people opinion. That’s what buzz marketing is about : make people talk about you or your company.

Okay, now where’s the free stuff ?

Dean uses Social Bookmarking websites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious to generate traffic. From his experiences (the buzz marketing 101, 202, 303), he made a Case Study that you can download for free : Web Traffic Orgasm. As you can see there is a book coming soon. If the Case Study gives you some clues, the book will bring you secrets.

Want more ?

Dean interviewed 14 of the top 30 StumbleUpon users. Yes, you can dowload that for free too. I guess you never thought about getting your buzz marketing Christmas gift in advance, so go thank Dean for his efforts, have a good read and start creating some buzz.

This is being discussed a little everywhere on the blogosphere, so I thought it was my turn. GoogleLady is actually running a case study to make money online in three months, with Amazon affiliate program. Everyone can follow her footprints or just read for inspiration.

I actually am thinking to reproduce her efforts since I just re-apply to Amazon associates, but also because I just started a new blog where I add content every day, but haven’t yet started any promotion, except some links from Yahoo! Answers.

Here is where the case study started : Make to Money Online In 3 Month . She now is in her 5th week and already achieved what we can call a success : 1 month later, almost $1500 for November, and the wesbite is still not ranked well in search engines.

What’s interesting in this case study is that not only she almost teaches people for free how to make money online, but do it with a brand new website. New domain, no traffic and no backlinks at the start of the case study, only $100 to invest.

So if affiliate marketing is something you want to start, with a low budget, then I recommend you visit her blog, and start to read. She gives you tips and resources all the way.

Congrats, Lady, I wish you all the best for this future website. You could even stop your case study, you proved how to make money in one month.

My prediction for the end of December ? It will be over $2,000, and maybe reach the $3,000. Christmas is coming, and there will be lots of sale everywhere, her new website being around coupons, she will profit from returning traffic and new one with word of mouth. Plus she can add more merchants to promote, so it’s more choice for visitors.

Today, still on the way to improve a new website (actually, powered by WordPress) and add content to it, I applied to few more merchants affiliate programs, at LinkShare.com. LinkShare is quite a big network network, with some great offers from merchants like Apple, Toshiba, Toys’R'Us, FootLocker and many more.

When you apply you are :

automatically approved

being reviewed and waiting for approval

automatically rejected

Beign automatically rejected is something I can understand, only if the merchant don’t want anymore affiliates, but I think the affiliate program shouldn’t be first available for application. It’s a waste of time for affiliates to look at conditions if they don’t need any more affiliates.

But there are other reasons that can make your application denied. So as I said at the beginning of this post, I applied to few merchants, some approved me instantly, and others approved me after a few hours. Some also reviewed me and rejected me, here are the reasons.

Actually, these are the possible reasons, they won’t tell you the exact one, you will have to find out yourself.
* inability to access web site – Wrong, I use HostGator as a web hosting, and they have a 99.9% uptime, I doubt they get the 0.1% downtime. I worked on the website today and everything was fine.
* web site not yet live – Wrong, site is live, perectly running, new content.
* traffic levels too low – Of course, the website is brand new.
* inappropriate material on site – Do they talk about pornography, racism, illegal stuff ? Nothing like this on my website.
* content not relevant to merchant – Content is exactly relevant to merchant, their offer IS the topic.
* merchant not adding any new affiliates at this point – already mentioned, I can understand that although the application shouldn’t be available)

So, the only thing I was rejected is because the website is brand new and traffic is not high enough. But, if all merchants acted like this, then I would never have something to offer ! Or I would just have to build all the traffic, but no link to any offer, no money.

I’d like to have any opinion about that matter, of course, I could re-apply when the website gets more traffic. But don’t you think that as long as a website is relevant to the merchants offer, then it should be approved.

If I only have 1 visitor a day, but this one visitor buys something, it is one sale a day for me, but for the merchant too. If my content is as good as a website getting loads of traffic, then it should convert the same, shouldn’t it ?

Yesterday, I posted here about article marketing. The articles you write have to be published of course, so you have to submit them to article directories. I only use 5 of them (there are hundreds).

You can submit one article to each of them, but search engines penalize duplicate content. That means they won’t index the page where they find the same content. That’s why I only submit to this short list :

Ezine Articles
Go Articles
Content Desk
Article Alley
Article Dashboard

Browse these websites and you’ll see how are written articles. Nothing very difficult, be sure to include a link to your website in the resource box. I know Ezine Articles ask articles have to be 250 words. This is quite short, but if you could do more that’s great. 500 is enough.

I’d also recommend that the articles you submit to article directories are different from the ones on your website

I don’t know if it’s a generality, but I have the feeling that when you do the promotion work for a merchant, trying your best t increase their sales, you should get some consideration.

Some merchants know that from a long time, and some seem to don’t care about you and. You see, I currently have a nice money-maker page that has just generated more than $1,000 in a week. This is a great achievement and I am very happy with that. The best part is I didn’t use any advertising method, so it’s pure profit, no cost.

But I’m quite frustrated with the lack of communication from the merchant. I don’t mean I want to receive congratulations, I know some are earning much more in a day. So here is the story.

The page I am talking about promotes only one product, and sometimes I receive some potential customers few questions. I always do my best to keep them happy and it seems one has been very happy with the product and, sent me an email asking to buy 50 items.

Yes, 50 ! I receive a $20 commission on the product so it could be a $1,000 more in my pocket. So what’s wrong you ask ? The  customer wants a discount for such a high order and I understand that, this is perfectly normal.

Above all, it’s a win-win-win situation, for the customer who gets a discount, for the seller who makes a huge sale and for me who get the commission. Also, this big order could be renewed by the customer, so the merchant has everything to gain.

Of course, I’m an affiliate, I don’t set prices, so I emailed the merchant to know if they could make a special deal just this time. I submitted this request through the affiliate network members area 2 days ago : no answer. So I did it again today, directly from the merchant sales page, and I’m still waiting.

You see, I can understand they need some time to see how big the discount they could make, and build a special link or something. But, I am waiting an answer, and the customer too. They could just send a message, saying they well received my request and will contact me soon. They didn’t.

To merchants : if you read this, and if you know sometimes you don’t give so much important to your affiliates, please check your stats and learn how much you could be losing without affiliates. Of course, you are running a serious business, and so are lot of affiliates.

I can’t understand why some people want so much a bad reputation…

A lot of people write articles to market their websites and get sales from the products they’re promoting. Having articles published on multiple articles directories give you free backlinks. Free SEO, Free advertising, free exposure.

Your articles can be reprinted in full by others. “In full” means with your links to your website. You not only get backlinks from free content websites, but also from others website, that are supposed to be in your niche, related to your website topic.

Writing is one of the most time consuming job for any webmaster/internet marketer. It’s also called content creation.

Of course if you are an AdWords guru, who only pays 1 cent to generate $1,000 a day, you don’t have to spend time to write articles (AdWords gurus don’t read this anyway). But article marketing is proven to be an effective way of driving traffic for free. And traffic = sales.

Well If you know really well your product, why only write only one article about it ? Why don’t you write 3 articles for it ? Go in details, talk about one specific benefit of the use of the product and tell the world how wonderful, useful, fast, easy this is. Tell why, tell your experience. Then do the same with another benefit.

It’s an important copywriting rule : write about benefits not about features. Features are characteristics of the product. Benefits are the advantage it brings to the customer. Focus on the customer, put yourself in their shoes. Now, how do you feel (shoes are too small) ? What do you expect ?

You can also create an article about how you get this or that result. (“How to” articles work good).
Why you shouldn’t use the product this or that way ? Do’s and Don’t.
Who this product will not be useful to ? Know the target.
What is the problem your product is solving ? You can talk only about the problem first without mentioning the product name. Then do the recommendation and say you solved it with it.

In the resource box you are able to put your website url. Well, if you are allowed multiple links, put the product page url + your website url, using the right keywords as anchor text. Remember that if people are reading your article to then end, you may convinced them and get their interest.

So if you don’t want your readers to search for the product page once on your website, put the link to the product page on your website, in your resource box. Plus, this is a cool SEO trick, you get a deep link. (Check if the article directory is allowing this).

It’s easy to understand that if you have many products to promote, you can multiply the number of articles. And so, the number of backlinks.

I’ll tell you more in the next post about how to write good articles.