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So you’ve seen the Aizatto’s Related Posts plugin that I use here and other people use as well. Which got me thinking we need one for affiliate offers too. In addition to scanning the text it would be great if it could look at tags and categories. So let’s say you run a fashion blog and you’re blogging about a pair of peep toe Mary janes you came across.

How cool would it be if at the end of the post a plugin read your tag and threw in links to several different affiliate program links based on the tags, category, and content. Imagine you are writing a post about traveling to Chicago and at the end of the post it drops in affiliate links to Expedia, Travelocity for Chicago.

Yes my conversion minded friends will tell me you should be doing this now directly in the post, and I agree for single products and offerings. The problem is links and offers change and expire and maintenance is a PIA. So if perhaps there was something a little fuzzier that made it less painful it would be easier. If it had some formatting and date activated options that would be nice too.

Please don’t suggest triggit, the interface/implementation is awful, clunky, and it locks you into the CJ/Triggit system, I want something program agnostic.

Yes you could use things which directly link words in the post, but like it or not disclosure in the aff/word of mouth world is looming on the horizon and isolating it in a discloseable way is smart planning for tomorrow.

So if you’d like to develop this project open source and want me to give you an ever so gentle nudge in the right direction, and pimp you out if you release it, get in touch.

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When your affiliate TOS looks like this it’s probably time to realize you have gone over the edge and are now in an adversarial relationship with your affiliates

When to Pull the Plug on Affiliate Marketing »

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Checking your stats and seeing stuff like this is funny.

Building my empire five cents at a time

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Sorry I’m totally not liking the new Azoogle 2.0 interface. Eye candy for the sake of eye candy. Much slower IMHO. Links aren’t underlined by default, so I have to guess where to put my mouse and hope it’s a link. I get some bizarre firefox warning error message when I try to copy the link. Putting a value in the subID field doesn’t copy down to the actual link area, so I have no idea what a properly formed link is supposed to look like. All offers really isn’t ALL OFFERS I have to page through 5 pages instead of being able to start typing which automatically actives the firefox on page search box (a really cool feature in firefox under tools> options > advanced > general > begin finding when you begin typing).

OH YEAH AND THANKS FOR MAKING ME HAVE TO CHANGE ALL THE URL’S IN 3 MONTHS !!!

I can deal with google js because it’s mostly texty, but this reminds me of the MSN interface which I loathe.

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If you’ve ever tried to convince your boss, or partners, or anyone in your organiztion that adding a blog to your website is valuable, and failed, here’s something you should watch. It’s filled with some great content and lots of ammunition to help you make your case. The video is an hour long. Dave Taylor at Affiliate Summit.

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In SEO for Product Reviews, Part I we talked about how ignoring or not addressing “keyword review” or “keyword reviews” leaves your company or product in a vulnerable position. However since I’m trying to be more positive in this post I’d like to talk about some SEO strategies for reviews.

SEO for Product Reviews, Part II »

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If you do any SEO work on branded or named products or services, hopefully you’re already optimizing for “keyword review” or “keyword reviews”. Not only is it good because people actually search for those phrases, but it’s an effective strategy for getting better placement in Google. However before we get into any tactics, I think it’s an important to show a first hand example of how ignoring this strategy can be bad for your company or product.

SEO for Product Reviews, Part I »

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If you have kids, nieces, nephews, or were ever a kid yourself chances are you’ve heard of Dr. Seuss. For most of us Dr. Seuss stories are nothing more than funny characters who help children read, learn the alphabet or teach life values. However some of his stories directly relate to business and marketing in ways that the author may may not even have intended.

Marketing Lessons from Dr. Seuss »

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If you’re a linkshare affiliate and use subID’s to track sales to different websites chances are you got an email telling you they discontinuing the program. You have to sign up for anew system and change all your links. They say everything will still work if you don’t you just won’t have reports to break it out. If this works as well as the Athena transition did last year where I didn’t get paid for 90 days I am really not going to be a happy camper. Oh and just as a point of contention I’m still not verified in the system.

Want to read more about the debacle in works visit ABestWeb.

For the record let me say Linkshare seems to have no regard for how they treat their affiliates.

Categories:( linkshare | linkshare | affiliate.marketing | affiliate.marketing | abestweb | abestweb)

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UPDATE PART II
See Top Earning Affiliate List Part II for a comment from Jeff Molander who sells the list.

Jeff Molander is selling the Top Earning Affiliates List. Now before I joined the bathrobe workforce I used to work for a large regional merchant. We managed our own email and conventional address mailing lists. So I am familiar with the concept of buying/selling lists and don’t have an ethical qualms with the practice.

When you work in direct marketing one of the things you quickly learn is the more “segmented”, “qualified”, or “targeted” the list is the more value it has. For example a list of 200,000 people is worth much less than a list of 5,000 lawyers between the ages of 30 and 45 who make over $250,000 a year and like to receive mailings about golf tournaments. So if you’re a list owner it’s in your best interest to keep qualified/interested people on the list and remove people from the list who don’t want to be on the list.

Over at threadwatch people have been discussing the Top Earning Affiliate List, and it seems some people have wanted to be removed. (A blogger asking to be removed from the Top Earning Affiliate List). Jeff Molander stopped by threadwatch and had this to say:

I’m sorry… I didn’t answer the “off the list” issue. If an affiliate who finds themselves on this list contacts us and presents us with a reason why they should not be included on the list - and we agree with this business-based reasoning - they will be removed. I actually spoke to one such affiliate (one of two that asked to be removed) this week. They had a very well-articulated, business-based reason why they should not be listed. Removing them adds value.

Simply asking to be removed because one “doesn’t want to be / feel like being on it” will probably not result in removal.

Jeff’s comments from the Threadwatch Top Earning Affiliate List

So to encapsulate what Jeff is doing, he has a list he is marketing to affiliate managers. He has people who want to be removed, but he refuses to accommodate them. So instead of selling a smaller more qualified and targeted list, he’s selling a larger one filled with irrelevant/useless data. Does this sound like something you would want to buy?

C’mon Jeff I’ve looked at your bio, you’ve worked for a lot of companies you can’t be that out of the loop. In fact you’ve got an opportunity here to actually do some good, it’s real simple:

• Admit you made a mistake
• Remove the people who want off the list

The benefits of doing something good in the industry in public’s eye is a very good thing.

UPDATE:
The thread continues and Jeff seems to getting into some murky water with comments like this:

There is one affiliate who has asked to be removed. I told her that she’d probably be removed based on the reasoning that she presented to me.

Umm … “probably be removed“, what’s up with that? Does someone have commitment issues or trouble being decisive? And really to keep suggesting that Nick should kill the thread, c’mon now.

Aaron’s also talking about the Top Earning Affilaite List on his blog.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Jeff Molander or his company selling the Top Earning Affiliate List. This post represents the authors opinion and there was no prior or future compensation, monetary or otherwise, for this post.

tags: (search engine optimization | seo | sem | search engine marketing | affiliate | top earning affiliate list | threadwatch )

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