Finch Sells | Affiliate Marketing Blog

Rebills I’d Like To See In 2010

Sep 14 2009

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll have noticed that ripping in to rebills is one of my favourite subject matters. I’ve got a love/hate thing going on with the rebill. I loved the fact that while I was promoting them, I was banking left right and center. And I hated the fact that I was contributing to some of the lowest customer satisfaction numbers in the world.

I’ve said over and over again that the rebill needs to change to survive. Not just the essence of the deal itself, but the entire promotion that we as affiliates use to sell them.

It’s over three months since I last pushed a mainstream CPA rebill. While I took a big hit when I decided to stop slinging them, I’ve stabilized my business with offers that I’m not too guilty to talk about when somebody asks me “so what do you actually sell for a living?”. We’ve all gotta have values as affiliates. I made a fortune without stopping to consider mine, and now I’m backtracking to make sure I do things in a way that isn’t going to end in a lawsuit.

That said, I’m thinking of dipping back in to the rebill market. I miss the sweet ca-ching of another $35 being credited to my account when I refresh the page. I don’t want to touch another Google bizopp. And I’m definitely not slinging an acai berry supplement having actually bought a bottle of the damn thing from Marks & Spencers the other day. What was I thinking? I’ve been doing this shit so long, I’ve sabotaged my own shopping habits.

It was an acai berry smoothie, if you’re wondering. No need for weight loss here. I’m a lean mean commission machine.

So, I’ve been signing up to various obscure networks in the hope that I’d find an exclusive offer. Something that inspires me to crack open Adwords. The trouble is, a lot of the offers that I’d like to promote…don’t exist.

I’ve spoken to a couple of networks about pitching a variety of new products to the advertisers. This is an open plea to any advertiser who happens to be reading. The offers I’d like to see…

The “give up smoking” rebill

I can’t believe there’s no sign of this on any of the major networks. If you asked the UK smoking population to name one habit they’d love to kick, it’s probably going to be the smoking. There’s a HUGE demand for giving up cigarettes and as we all know, a rebill works best when it appeals to the desperate nature of a poor helpless mope with nowhere else to turn.

The concept it simple. If a $39.95 monthly rebill doesn’t shock you in to kicking the habit, the $19.95 upsell certainly will. If you don’t kick that habit within 15 days, we’re gonna rebill your ass so hard that you’ll be puffing sweet nicotine forgiveness for the rest of your life.

In all seriousness, why isn’t there an offer? I can think of a million keywords that would convert. I’m practically salivating when I think of all those dating websites that list “smoker/non smoker” as an option.

Just imagine the upsells. If you’ve got somebody who wants to give up smoking, it’s likely that they want to live a healthier life. They probably want to restore some youth along the way, right? Christ, I bet that ass is ridden in cellulite.

A little persuasive “offer-shotgunning” (that’s a double barrel hit), and you could have this desperate mope eating supplements for breakfast. My ethics are escaping me fast here. But you get the idea. I’m not suggesting for an instant that we, the affiliate marketing masses, would resort to such mindless aggressive marketing – but it’s easy to see how this niche market could be jacked up and turned in to a multi-billion sunlounger fetcher for some deep pocketed son of a bitch advertiser.

Quality products delivered by quality advertisers

Now, about those ethics. I honestly do believe that most rebills are a joke. Consumers have every right to feel ripped off by some of the products that I see shoved in to my weekly newsletter.

I don’t have a problem with the weight loss vertical, or colon cleansing, or skincare – or any of them. But what the industry needs is a bunch of advertisers with products that deliver the goods. Or more importantly, products that justify their monthly rebilling structure. We have some of the best marketers in the business making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just imagine how well they’d perform if you gave them something to work with.

The Google bizopp is a prime example of a product that has no rebill value. Have you looked at the inside of these “cash kits”? I have. Pretty much everything that you see on day one, is what you will see when the merchant processes your next charge.

Likewise, I don’t think a Google bizopp is the end of the world. As a concept, it’s perfectly legit. People really DO make money on Google. But if you’re going to sling a rebill without the General Attorney baying for your bacon, you need to justify that recurring charge somehow. Give the product some accumulating monthly value. Even if it’s just staggered delivery of the existing content. Anything.

I’d be happy to accept a $15 payout on an offer that doesn’t generate a firestorm of bad press and converts better as a result.

This is all nice to talk about. But the reality is that too many people are filling their pockets with money for there to be the significant changes that would be required. Unless, of course, drastic legal action says otherwise.

Tutoring style rebills

I’d love to see some rebills that aren’t designed to cater for a) the dumb, b) the vain or c) Middle Class America.

Let’s be honest. The last time you sat down to do a character assessment of the target market for your newest rebill – did you really branch beyond those characteristics? Yet the problem with appealing to these people is that they also happen to be some of the most indecisive motherfuckers walking the land. They want to lose weight one day, and they’re stuffing their faces the next.

I’d like to see some rebills designed for people who are genuinely committed to a cause. Take learning guitar for example. A lot of people out there are looking to learn an instrument and they’d probably pay for lessons to do so, in fact I know they do. One of my friends charges Â£25/hour to teach guitar. He books them in for a lesson every week.

If an advertiser could structure a good online program, providing additional content every month, you’d have a rebill that was perfectly justifiable and maybe just maybe I’d feel like less of an asshole when I went to sleep at night.

What about learning a language? A self help program that “slowburns” over time? There are so many concepts that would sell, that don’t have to be about popping pills and posting links online. These are markets that while profitable in 2009, will ultimately, in my opinion, be found out over time.

There’s More To Life Than Affiliate Marketing

Sep 10 2009

I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for over a year now. In that year I’ve earnt more money than I made in the rest of my working life. I’ve quit my day job, gone a long way to securing my future, and made a lot of good contacts in the business. All a few months shy of my 22nd birthday.

But is it really worth it?

How much money does a man need before he’s finally happy? Everywhere I look, I see bloggers throwing out tips for how to make more cash. How to turn thousands in to tens of thousands. It’s great if you’ve got your back against the wall financially. But what is the end goal? What really makes you happy?

I’m tired of working 16 hour days, six or seven days a week. It’s gruelling. I’ve paid the ultimate price for it. I’ve lost something that actually matters.

I thought I’d get a lot of happiness out of running my own business – and I do. But it’s not what I want to be thinking about when I fall asleep at night. There’s more to life than affiliate fucking marketing.

So pro tip of the day: Take a break.

Go see the kids. Tell the wife you love her. Enjoy how far you’ve come. Whatever.

Just don’t be sitting there ten years from now with your only happiness being that split second it takes to refresh stats. I think I need to take a break and reconsider what I’m trying to achieve with my career. You don’t really hear much about it through the industry blogs – but if you’re sat at your 9-5 right now dreaming of a brighter future, this path isn’t always the right one. The life of an affiliate marketer is generally lonely.

I’ve been reading a book called Awaken The Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. Now I don’t normally buy in to the self-help bullshit that most of America seems to adore. But there’s a metaphor which is pretty fitting for what I’m trying to say:

Most people live what I call “The Niagra Syndrome”. I believe that life is like a river, and that most people jump on the river of life without ever really deciding where they want to end up. So, in a short period of time, they get caught up in the current: current events, current fears, current challenges. When they come to forks in the river, they don’t consciously deide where they want to go, or which is the right direction for them. They merely “go with the flow”. They become a part of the mass of people who are directed by the environment instead of by their own values. As a result, they feel out of control. They remain in this unconcious state until one day the sound of raging water awakens them, and they discover that they’re five feet from Niagra Falls in a boat with no oars. At this point, they say “Oh, shoot!” But by then it’s too late. They’re going to take a fall. Sometimes it’s an emotional fall. Sometimes it’s a physical fall. Sometimes it’s a financial fall. It’s likely that whatever challenges you have in your life currently could have been avoided by some better decisions upstream.

I remember interpreting that passage as people not taking a chance on their ambitions and one day realizing that they’ve achieved nothing. But there’s a different meaning when the river is money.

I used to think that making thousands of dollars every month would make me happy and open up the doors to chase opportunities that would otherwise be closed. It turns out, most of the things I was chasing were there all along.

Stop posting your links on Google and go do something worthwhile for the day. Better than living in regret.

How To Make Money On Somebody Else’s Forum (Part 2/2)

Sep 08 2009

This is the second of a two part post showing how to make some good money by marketing on forums. If you haven’t read the first part, you should probably go and do that right about now.

Hopefully you managed to muster a couple of vaguely promising ideas. But it’s gotta be said. There’s a learning curve for marketing on forums. You might not think so, but there is. You need to appreciate that marketing on somebody else’s site, somebody else’s forum, it’s the sort of activity that requires respect. Respect for other peoples’ business.

How many people read the last post and shot off to find some weight loss forum where they could cheaply sling some berries? I assumed this was what many would do. But realize before you learn the hard way – a badly thought out forum campaign will bring you more hate mail than conversions. Not least from the owner of the site you’ve just manipulated.

If you’re promoting a rebill using forum marketing, you’re walking one hell of a thin line. What do forum communities like to do like no other? They like to talk shit. Nothing’s gonna get Off Topic buzzing like a member filing a complaint over some shitty rebill he purchased through the forum’s recommendation. What I’m trying to say here is that although a forum owner may be all too happy to accept your Paypal, that’s no reason to get sloppy with your marketing.

If you’re heart set on promoting a rebill to a forum community, don’t do it directly. Use a squeeze page and build a mailing list. Transfer their email to your own list and then do your thing. Think long term. If the forum owner discovers that you’re bombarding his memberlist with direct endorsements for one of the scammiest online purchases of 2010, he’s gonna shut you down and shut you out. I don’t blame him.

That’s not to say that you can’t leverage forum memberlists for a rebill offer. You just need to shift that email in to your own database before you do it. The alternative is one profitable mailshot, one extremely unhappy community, one pissed off owner and Baby Jesus drowning in a cradle of tears.

Right, that said. What is the best way to make money on a forum? I know people love being spoonfed how-to guides and top ten tips, but I’m gonna cut the crap and list you some of your options.

Sign up, put a link in your sig and post like you’re the expert on fucking everything.

Otherwise known as The Warrior Forum Technique, this tactic can generate vast sums of income approaching $2.77 p/hour before tax. If you really want to live with the best, you should pick up an avatar from wherever the pedobears are uploading their vacation photos these days. Better yet, offer members of said forum an outrageous 70% discount coupon so they only feel 30% as ripped off when they cave in to your drivel.

Yes, this technique is followed by the masses. The masses are not rich. While I don’t doubt for a second that a little viral buzz can go a long way, you wouldn’t be reading an affiliate marketing blog if you actually had something worthwhile to sell. You can probably use a sig link to cash in a few sales – but what a joyous life to look forward to. Forum monkey. Tell the grandkids.

Blitz members with a whirlwind of Private Messages.

You know the drill. Sign up using your sister’s email, write out one massively impersonal advertising plea and then send it to everybody online. As you sit back and press the Send button on that last PM, you realize that you’ve accidentally messaged a moderator – who’s banned you, removed all your PM history and swiftly rendered the last half hour utterly meaningless. This method is another top hit at Digital Point. The worrying thing I’ve learnt from marketing is that people wouldn’t be doing this shit if they didn’t at least make some kind of return on their investment.

Buy banner space for a flat rate monthly fee.

This is more like it. Forum members are used to refreshing the same old index page and seeing the same old usernames in the same old threads. A fresh new sparkling banner WILL draw their attention – for a very short time.

I like banner campaigns on forums. But to make them work, you absolutely have to be shooting at a large forum where the number of unique visitors is high. Banner blindness will set in after the first few pageloads and you’ll see a rapid decline in CTR if you don’t have the benefit of fresh traffic.

When you’re negotiating a price with a forum owner, if he’s smart, he’ll try to catch you with the “page views per month” trick. Don’t buy in to that. A forum has an artificially inflated number of page loads in its traffic logs.

1. The same users are loyal and like to click back and forth.
2. Topics are divided in to numerous pages. Although you might receive 50 impressions, it ain’t much good if they’re all from the same old dog cruising through jailbait archives since 1995.
3. Page loads never meant shit anyway.

If you’re going to buy banner space, find out how many unique hits you’ll be getting for your buck and then DO YOUR RESEARCH. Also beware of rotating banner spaces – start dividing traffic stats if you’re placed on a rotation. Find out the exact demographics of the forum. Is it worthwhile renting out a banner space that promotes an American product when the majority of the forum’s visitors are scattered around the world?

Take the lower converting International offer, not the hot-shit-US-only product that does the business for you with search. You don’t have as much control over your targeting on a forum. If you’re going to get country-specific, make sure you have a geolocating script ready to ping your clickers to where they need to be.

Oh and don’t make the classic amateur mistake of direct linking to your offer without cloaking. If the offer gets pulled from a network, you’re the fool who should have stayed at the grocery counter.

As a rule of thumb, I prefer to target banner spaces that appear in slightly unusual areas of a forum. I like to drill down and target just one particular subforum, where the category is relevant, and then get my banner placed directly below the first post in each thread. You’ll draw on a lot of search engine eyeballs. Remember that people often ignore advertising spots instinctively. The 468×60 slot at the top of the page might look pretty, but how many people turn a blind eye to ads when they’re expecting to see ads?

Purchase a sticky thread.

This generally works a lot better on smaller forums. Or just big forums with broke ass owners. If you can provide the text for your advertisement, the topic title and the forum that you need it to go in – the admin only has to copy and paste. He’s made instant profit.

If you really want to draw some attention, pay for one of those nice global announcements and disguise your offer as an engaging “forum contest”. The prospect of a prize should get them opening the message, then it’s down to you to prove your worth with some gentle persuasion. Christ knows, I can think of at least a dozen offers that would be viable for promoting in this way. Get hold of an offer that’s pro-incentive and go nuts.

Send out a paid email to the entire forum.

I discussed this in Part 1 of the post, so go back and read that for a reminder.

One last point though – think before you email the forum owner. Back when I was getting started with forum marketing, I made the mistake time and time again of rushing my proposal. I’d be so excited at the moneymaking potential of MY side of the deal that I’d forget to sell HIS side of the deal.

Don’t portray yourself as some scratching-for-riches affiliate marketer who needs a break and wants your forum to be the launch pad. You’ve gotta put yourself across as knowledgeable and polite. But most importantly you have to sell the ease at which the owner can accept your offer.

He probably won’t want to help you come up with a good email text, so have it prepared beforehand. His job should be as simple as copy and pasting your shit in to vBulletin, pressing send, and accepting the Paypal funds on the way out. If you don’t simplify the process, you won’t get a reply. I believe Ruck had a great post about this which you should be able to dig out somewhere on the Convert2Media forum. I can’t remember what he said. But whatever it was, I bet it was shit hot.

I’m not gonna waste anymore time preaching about the money to be had using this kind of marketing so if you’ve got a question, reach me on my email.