This sale is a killer! LiLash has an amazing performance history on ShareASale, and is starting one on CJ as well. We rock sales every month, which is why you should be in this program, of course. BUT why should you join this program RIGHT THIS MINUTE? Because the Black Friday sales moves this program from rockin’ sales to ‘BOOM, IN YOUR FACE‘ sales. Last year …. 1600% increase in affiliate sales .. seriously .. over 4 days!

Do NOT leave this one off of your promo list this year. Make it a priority and you won’t be disappointed.

Join at ShareASale or Commission Junction Before it’s too Late!

Then another .. same total, same ip, same affiliate .. ugh .. duplicate tracking .. okay, added to my to do list for the day!

Then another .. and another .. Damn, we have a major issue!

I sent an email to the merchant to find out what they are seeing, and the affiliate. The affiliate didn’t see anything on their end and by now … 3 more have come in!!

Merchant emails back …

SWEET!!

Take a look for yourself:

This program is an amazing holiday performer! Amazing, Super Easy, and DELICIOUS! JOIN NOW!!

5. The Dreaded Free Domain. The first thought that is going to come into an affiliate manager’s mind is .. ‘This affiliate isn’t serious about my program.’ Why? Because you, newbie, need to invest the pocket change of $10 to purchase a domain and hosting for a year. If you can’t invest that small amount of change .. then where is your faith that affiliate marketing is going to work for you? Where is your drive … where is your #GETSOME attitude!

Additionally, there are some serious potential SEO side effects, as well as the unknown. SugarRae, Rae Hoffman, gives you a really good break down as to why this is a major no no.

4. Spelling Matters … most of the time. This one is pretty simple. If you are targeting a specific niche, product, demo, whatever, then make sure you spelled the word correctly! (yes I realize there are situations that you may say .. wise up, BUT usually not the case for newbie affiliates).

3. HowLongIsAbsolutelyTooInsanelyLongForAKeywordRichDomainName.com? That’s right .. I went there. There is a line between a nice keyword rich domain, and writing a blog post with no spaces in the address bar. When a person says, you need to have a keyword rich domain, be sensible. RedVinylRainCoat.com is a nice specific niche, but RedVinylRainCoatTwoButtonsZipperPocketsWithASash.com is bit over board and overly specific. You do want to make money, right?

The first domain gives you a bit of room to beef up your site, to find variations of red vinyl raincoats to give your users a choice within the specifics they are looking. SEO does not live and die in the domain. Your domain is only PART of the equation, so leave some of those keywords to the content, and other pages & links.**

2. Keywords Not Just Adjectives. While you are sitting in front of GoDaddy, staring at the search bar for a domain, frustrated that, Apron.com and cookware.com are taken, don’t just start adding adjectives. PrettyApron.com can potentially be a great site, but if you are just starting out, something that broad may be a bit ambitious to start with. Think about a specific type of Apron you may want to target. SilkAprons, PurpleAprons, MensAprons. **

1. Income, Money, & Malls OH MY …. God, do I have to look at another one of these?! One of my biggest pet peeves in affiliate marketing, is domains like these … JohnsCashMachine, and MelaniesMegaMall or even SonyasMoneyGenerator. Yes, of course we have to look at them. Maybe the site is actually pretty good .. maybe it’s the next FatWallet or Angie’s List, but no .. 99.9% of the time, it’s a banner farm, template that they bought off someone that said they could make a million dollars overnight, or just someone that has really put no thought into their domain, business plan, or marketing plan AT ALL. Let alone their target audience, or what it is that they want to promote.**

**The moral of the story here is, do your research before you choose your domain. What do you want to market, is there a market for it? Is there a niche inside of a niche that is exploding with searches? What do you think will do better .. JennasDepartmentStore or EyelashMakeupBeautyTips/./com.

Tools for Keyword Research:

WordTracker
Google Suggestions
Raven
WordStream
WordTracker
Just to name a few…

Halloween engulfed a whooping $4.7 billion in customer spending last year with almost half of that being CANDY! Can you imagine what $2.23 billion in candy looks like? Well, that would roughly come out to 600 million pounds, with only 90 million pounds being chocolate*. I would imagine that chocolate would account for more, but looking back at my candy stashes, and now my children’s, I would say that is proportionate.

Here is a secret, just for reading. Too many marketers are caught up in just the costume arena. Now whether you are looking for a nice seasonal niche to promote, or something to compliment your current Halloween sites, content, ect, candy is the perfect and ideal compliment or self standing niche.

Make sure you are cashing in on your portion of that $2.23 million, join the ACandyStore.com Affiliate Program.

*Sources: National Confectioners Association and National Retail Federation

Photo Taken By Ben Spark

Affiliate Summit was amazing, BUT, this post is about a book, the author of which happened to be ‘Day Two Keynote’ at Affiliate Summit, thus the event is being brought up.

I have had a couple of very brief encounters with Kukral, and I dare say he couldn’t pick me out of a line up. Fair enough, I never have exactly made myself known to him either. Anywho, I saw he was keynoting and of course, I knew about his book, so I decided on Thursday (before Summit, and the day before they announced they were giving the book away for FREE), I ordered my copy and had it overnight delivered so I could read it before the event.

‘The book?’ you ask, is Attention! This Book Will Make You Money.

Did I like the book? Well, I will get to that.

Have you ever heard Jim speak? If not, visit one of his millions of sites or www.thebizwebcoach.com and listen. The way he talks in his vlogs, is exactly the tone he takes in his book. I personally think that he is a very entertaining speaker, the only thing that is different is that instead of recording all in one spin, his book has been edited, edited, and edited so it is all very focused thoughts, and ideas.

The book doesn’t just cover Jim’s theories, proven or otherwise, or just him blabbering on about how his secrets will make you a million bucks. Does he have a few (or more) shameless plugs … sure, but who wouldn’t! The thing is, he talks about real people, and their stories. He specifically interviewed people that he may not have had any or very little contact with previously, and wrote about them. Why is this important? Because, I don’t want to hear about only his clients, and how he got them to their current state of awesomeness .. that’s a media kit .. not a book.

In this book, Jim talks about how to get attention, the good, bad and the ugly. Obviously, I took away some of the bad/ugly for the title of this post. Why? Because as Jim says in his book, ‘Go Negative. Be a jerk!’ My sediment here is, well, I find it doubtful that there are too many bad or negative reviews out there for this book or Jim, but if someone was looking for one, then I got their attention with my title, and am now telling them … YOU … to stop looking, … don’t’ be cheap, this is an awesome book!!

Plus, in regards to the title, Jim seems like a guy that can take a jab on the chin, especially when it has a positive spin.

Do yourself a favor, if you are in need of some motivation, some tips/tricks/ideas, thinking outside of the hat, want to be nosy about how others found their success, or are just bored … pick up the book. I promise you won’t regret it.

Okay, are you still reading? Goooood! I told you in the earlier in this post that they announced that they were giving away Jim Kukral’s book to the first 300 in the keynote. I walked into the room, and politely told the attendant that I didn’t need one. I had already shelled out the cash for one. She followed me half way over to where I felt the acoustics would be best for Jim’s voice, and she practically shoved the thing down my throat … seriously … ‘Oh honey, just take a copy, it’s free. You can always give it to someone else ..’ SO, here’s the scoop. I have an extra copy of the book, Attention! This Book Will Make Your Money, and I am going to give it away … to one of you.

The catch, I want to hear the most outrageous thing you have ever done to get attention for yourself to expand awareness.. good, bad, when you were a kid, or through your business ventures, adult life, or whatever! The best one will get sent a copy of Jim’s book, and maybe, just maybe, I will haul the 2 hours north (or ship it), and beg dear Jim for an autograph for you! I will also throw in a product (yes it’s tangible, and will cost money to send to you) valued at about $140, my treat. It’s not really anything related to Jim, or his book, but a shameless free product plug for one of our merchants.

P.S. Dear Mr. Kukral, this is NOT my answer to your challenge. =)

The Vanns.com Affiliate Program has always been a superb affiliate program, BUT …. it just got BETTER. The commission rate was just raised permanently from 3% to 5%!!

Vanns.com is the leading online retailer for the best name brand electronics and appliances. They have been in business since 1961 and have not only become a strong brand in the industry themselves, but have a stupendous reputation to back it up. Customer service is a top priority to Vanns.com and your users will always be treated the best.

This program is a perfect site for a vast majority of sites, including home, health, electronics, cooking, and so many more. Any site that has anything that a electronic can relate to, Vanns.com is going to have it and be a great compliment.

Why Join and Be Active? Let’s review:

• NEW! 5% Commission
• 90 Day Return Cookie
• Free Shipping
• No Sales Tax
• Auto Deposit
• Super Up-to-Date and Accurate Datafeed!
• PopShops
• Bonus Programs & Contests (Oh YES! They are coming!)

This is a top program exclusively in the ShareASale network. If you have not joined, NOW is the time to Join!

Already in this program? Call, Email, or IM anytime and let’s get rockin’!

Kristin Kinsey
e: kk@madhatterconsulting.com | o: 877.222.4481 x 111 | c: 602.803.1512 | Y! & AIM: OPMQueen

Will you be fined?

This one actually does have a clear answer, after the fact, anyhow. The answer is NO!

I am not sure where this $11,000 fine came from, but I do know, when I read through the entire FTC document, there was no mention of any fine. An interview that was done by Fast Company with the Assistant Director of the Division of Advertising Practice, Richard Cleland said the following:

That $11,000 fine is not true. Worst-case scenario, someone receives a warning, refuses to comply, followed by a serious product defect; we would institute a proceeding with a cease-and-desist order and mandate compliance with the law. To the extent that I have seen and heard, people are not objecting to the disclosure requirements but to the fear of penalty if they inadvertently make a mistake. That’s the thing I don’t think people need to be concerned about. There’s no monetary penalty, in terms of the first violation, even in the worst case.

He then went on to say that it wasn’t so much the blogger that they plan on going after, but the advertiser (or merchant in our aff marketing world). They want to emphasis merchants educating their bloggers, giving them all the information that they need, and self-monitoring.

Do I think the FTC will be going after blogs? Sure, but I imagine, it will be the large blogs at first with slaps on the wrist, or those that have received complaints. I cannot imagine that the FTC will be scouring the web to find every single blog and monitoring for compliancy, only to find the end of the web.

What About My Rights?

Another issue that seems to have come up in a few places is constitutionality. Yes, it is your first amendment right to say whatever you want to say, and yes the FTC is trying to regulate what you can say. You can choose to lie to your users, and make false claims all that you like, and either the merchant can potentially get in trouble for it, or they will end the relationship, therefore removing their liability.

How to Disclose?

The question still remains on how you should disclose. Where should you disclose, in the terms, privacy policy, after each post, within each post, after each link? Is microblogging included in this? This will likely unfold as the FTC is questioned more and more on this issue, but for you now, do what you think is right and make sure you have a sound argument to back it up, but do disclose your relationship/parternership/gain(beginning December 1st).

What Can I Do?

Affiliates, here is your checklist to make sure that you won’t have the FTC knocking on your door, and that merchants will continue their partnership with you.

1. Read the FTC document. Try to understand as much of it as you can. If there are points that you are questioning, ask your merchant, manager, other affiliate marketers, or drop me a line. It is a rather long document, and difficult to get through.
2. Decide how you are going to disclose, and make sure you stick to it. Whether you choose to disclose on each post, the T&Cs, the about me page, you might as well do it soon, before you are too wrapped up in fourth quarter. (Wow, what a bad time of the year to release this).
3. Research your merchants from here on out. Make sure that any claims that you make are typical, and can be substantiated. IE, make sure the average person can get the same results you claim. If in doubt about a product, contact the merchant. Make the merchant/manager explain to you exactly what it is that the product does or doesn’t do, and what you can and can’t claim. Check the merchants Terms and Conditions for this information too.

We don’t know the long tail that this matter will have at this point, but we do know that this takes effective December 1st of this year, and it wouldn’t be so hot of a holiday present to have FTC agents hounding you about compliancy.

This event has got to be the best in the industry. Affiliates are treated link royalty, and merchants are given the spotlight, not just to tout their program, but to learn from, meet, and teach all types and sizes of affiliates. The red carpet is truly rolled out…

Affiliates, this is your opportunity to take part of the event of the year! ShareASale invites up to 150 of the most deserving affiliates to take part, how do they choose? ….. No, not by drawing names out of a hat, silly! They have a handy dandy application process. It doesn’t matter if you are a huge affiliate or just starting out (or anywhere in between), fill out the app and make sure you give a compelling reason as to why you should be a part of this event. Make that App stand out and Good Luck!