I’m excited to say that an article I wrote is included in the book Internet Marketing From The Real Experts, edited by Shawn Collins & Missy Ward.  This is the first book to be published under the Velocity NYC Press imprint by Morgan James Publishing.  The official author is “The Gang of 88″ as the book is a compilation of articles written for and printed in FeedFront Magazine.  The book was given out to attendees of Affiliate Summit West 2010 and boasts 3 minute lessons on affiliate marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, and much more!

My article on Affiliate Manager Communication Strategies appears on page 15.  Unfortunately since I wrote that article towards the beginning of FeedFront’s publication, it says I’m the marketing manager for PsPrint.com, which if you follow my blog you know that’s not true anymore.  Oh well!  I’m excited to be part of the gang of 88, and look forward to reading the entire book (well, the articles I haven’t already read in FeedFront).

From the back of the book:

What do Jay Berkowitz, Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, Jim Kukral, Ted Murphy, Jeremy Schoemaker, and Mari Smith have in comment?  They all walk the walk when it comes to their Internet marketing expertise.  And they also have joined dozens of innovators and thought shapers to share their ideas, advice, and insight.

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts is a collection of affiliate, email,  blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social network rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way.

Their voices, their ideas, their action items, and their lessons learned from mistakes – all for you to grow your business the day you start reading Internet Marketing from the Real Experts.

I know that all those flattering words are really meant for the caliber of people listed on the back cover, but I’m honored to be among them in print!  Better yet – all proceeds are going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  Maybe now I will write that book I’ve been thinking of!

 Powered by Max Banner Ads 

Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Learn advanced approaches to running a clean affiliate program. A review of the systems, processes, tools and techniques used by leading affiliate programs to keep their programs clean. The panel consisted of:

• David Naffziger, CEO, BrandVerity (Moderator)
• Jamie Birch, Owner, JEBCommerce (Twitter @JamieEBirch)
• Graham MacRobie, President & CEO, Alias Encore (Twitter @grahammacrobie)
• Joshua Sloan, CEO, Sloan Tech (Twitter @sloanzone)

This session contained a lot of useful information targeted mostly to companies with an affiliate program and also outsource program managers.  Some of the information was useful for affiliates, especially the need for a good relationship between affiliates and affiliate managers.  The session consisted of short presentations by David Naffziger and by Graham MacRobie and then the floor was opened up for questions.

The presentations gave a brief overview of some of the common forms of abuse affiliate programs need to avoid.  These include PPC violations, Cookie Stuffing, Legitimate link replacement, transaction lead fraud, and Brand Squatting.  Some of the ways given to combat abuse were to know how your partners work – know how traffic is normally sent, who else they work with, is their plan consistent with their performance, and is their traffic pattern different from the normal.  Examples of various software was give, a couple from Brand Verity and also free alternatives.

The question and answer portion gave several very good tips.  One of the first was that no program should auto-approve, that affiliates each be inspected to make sure that they are who they say they are.  Another was to go over the terms and conditions listed for the program at least once a year;  it is better to have over strict rules and regs. that are lightly enforced rather than not enough.  This will help in the long run because if abuse is found it can then be removed.  Less than desirable affiliates are likely to group in the smaller networks as they are less likely to be discovered.  More abuse is likely in a new affiliate program.  Having the highest payout can make you a target on account of greed.   Many of these comments can be used both by affiliate managers and also act as warnings to affiliates as to the relationship they should have with their manager.

 Powered by Max Banner Ads 

Guest Post By Jeremy Reeves

Writing emails in autoresponders and broadcasts has become a HUGE sensation lately and a very profitable one as well.

However, if you don’t know how to write email headlines that get opened – you’re dead in the water. In my mind, the email headline (AKA the title or subject of an email) is actually MORE important than a headline for a regular piece of sales copy.

Why?

Well think about it. If your email headline sucks, it’s not going to get the attention of your reader and you won’t get your email opened.

With a headline in regular sales copy, at least they’ll have a chance to look at the pre-head, subhead, and deck copy to see if something sparks their attention.

With that said, let me give you 5 ways to write email headlines that get read:

1.Be Original – I see emails that come to me ALL THE TIME that are pretty much duplicates of something else I’ve read. This is especially true during product launches when people are promoting other products. And guess what – they don’t get read! If you want people to open your emails, do something a little different.

2. Get Crazy! – One thing that works nearly 100% of the time for me (resulting in 35-40% open rates) is saying something a little “crazy” as the email headline. People are attracted to “shocking” things because they’re entertaining and it leaves them curious as to what it is. And you shouldn’t let that curiosity go to waste should you?

3. Pretend Like The World’s Ending – You probably know that I hate being negative, but if you really need something to work, it works like a charm. In almost all cases, a negative subject will out-pull a positive subject. Make it seem like something horrible will happen if they don’t read the email and you’ll get incredibly high clickthrough rates.

4. Be Unpredictable – Their are a lot of “gurus” out there who simply don’t catch my attention for 1 reason – they’re too predictable. Every time I get an email from them, I know what it’s about before I even read the email. Why? Because the email headline gives it away! Being unpredictable makes people curious, and curiosity makes sales.

5. Make An Incomplete Gesture – This is a fun one to try in your email headlines. Have you ever been talking to someone and they started talking, but got interrupted in the middle of the story and couldn’t finish? It drives you insane doesn’t it? Well, use this same technique in your headlines and you’ll boost your open rates like CRAZY!

Stick to even 1 of these 5 techniques and put it into your autoresponder series and you can instantly boost your income.

Because after all, getting the email read is the first and most important step.

So take these tips and put them to use. Then check your email stats and watch your open rates go through the roof.

–

For more tips on email copywriting and direct response copywriting tips, visit Jeremy’s blog at http://www.ControlBeatingCopy.com

 Powered by Max Banner Ads