Affiliate BizDev | Finch Sells

The Reality Of Affiliate Markeconomics

Aug 10 2011

How lucky are affiliate marketers to be financially independent?

Whichever way you look in the press, percentages of individuals are doomed. 9 percent of the population is unemployed, 95 percent is too stretched to buy a first home, 47 percent is busy looting Asda for a packet of rice. Forgive me for my number crunching cynicism, but why are we so obsessed with percentages?

Since when did the individual view his professional crisis as a colour on a pie chart?

CNN and the BBC can spend hours dissecting every last tribulation of the economy to a fine detail, but ultimately, they can only deal in averages and sweeping states of the nation. We, as individuals, have to take responsibility for rising above the insufferable fate that awaits those who aren’t personally driven to swim against the tide of national averages.

When reading the newspaper fills you with a sweeping sense of dread, maybe it’s time to put down the shit rag, turn a blind eye to the latest headlines and continue with life and business.

There’s only so much scaremongering I can handle on the subjects of unemployment and business growth before it starts to turn really fucking old really fucking fast.

It’s tempting to blame our personal failings on the condition of the state. Tempting, but ultimately beating around the bush in spectacular fashion.

If you are one of the millions who cannot find a job, how about creating one? Or locating where the demand is, and adjusting your skills to match?

If you are one of the millions who cannot pay a debt, how about living within your means? Or finding the willpower to say “No” when faced with materialistic desires that you simply can’t afford but choose to have anyway because you’re a feckless tool.

Recently I’ve seen affiliate marketing as the perfect source of income during times of economic turmoil. It’s flexible, fluid and allows me to speak from a high horse of pro-entrepreneurism that simply isn’t possible for most honest businesses.

I don’t believe it’s mere coincidence that the last recession in 2008 triggered an almighty boom in the notorious “work from home” kits. Your average family was worried about the fragility of employment, and how it would service debt if his and her jobs disappeared overnight.

Fast moving affiliates jumped on that vulnerability and made an absolute killing with home biz kit rebills. They didn’t last forever, thank god, but highlighted how recession, depression or market euphoria doesn’t matter a damn jot to the entrepreneur who can change what he sells at the flick of a switch.

We have the power to move where the money is.

Online entrepreneurs don’t have to spend months in the trenches doing research, lobbying banks for loans or calculating intricate margins to ensure their stock levels are correct. Instead we can react to market trends, create digital products in a matter of weeks and have them available to download with none of the risk of tight margins.

No matter how grave the economy becomes, people will always be buying. Where there is spending, there is the desire to spend knowledgeably. And where there is people asking these questions, there is a shit ton of affiliates queuing up with ebooks that monetize the answers.

Thanks to the rise of the Internet, we know better than most how lucrative it can be to move quickly in to those buying markets.

Our price for this flexibility is the impending sense of business instability, the castle built on sand syndrome. These are shackles that most successful affiliates learn to cast aside, either through diversifying or by removing the word ‘complacency’ from their newspeak.

Even if our domestic economies were to face total annihilation, it’s never been easier to spread the wings and set up shop elsewhere. Is it so hard to advertise to foreign countries? To translate your products in to the native tongue of a more extravagantly spending nation?

Not really, it’s just another challenge we can overcome in days while the brick and mortar business is still occupied in the prison of distribution logistics.

Affiliate marketing clearly has a lot going for it, but with such rapid movement in to new markets, we are also guilty of filling the web with more useless crap than the average surfer could sift through in a lifetime.

This is where I see affiliates biting the dust in future. Our industry has grown so fast and so profitably that we’re going to have to become much more accountable for the information we publish and any claims we make. Dare I say it, we may actually have to start slapping our names to some of this shit.

Our landing pages are typically hidden in subfolders, draped in anonymity with WHOIS protection. We anticipate customers will buy through our links because we treat them like hopeless lemmings, selling them the moon and then shoving them off the cliff face. How long can it last?

Aggressive marketing has always existed. Yet with the freedom affiliates have, there’s never been such a whirlwind of false, bad and misinterpreted information.

We specialise in creating sales, but the actual companies we sell for are becoming more and more disconnected from the selling process. This results in more and more bullshit. More and more customers being shoved off the cliff.

Affiliate marketing, despite the rising costs and legal shitstorms, is still a very lucrative industry. It always will be, by virtue of the fact that it’s an industry composed of all other industries. How can it go out of fashion?

What needs to change is the culture of anonymity and the kamikaze any bold claim will do approach to selling. The sooner affiliates focus on providing genuine quality to the industries they choose to work in, the faster the bad press will disappear and the quicker we can get on with calling ourselves actual businessmen.

Recommended This Week

If you’re working in the dating market, check out Adsimilis. Definitely one of the better networks with a wide range of dating offers, all on high payouts, including lots of stuff in Europe and South America. I think you’ll like them.
Lots of Ads is the latest service to offer spying capabilities over Facebook’s most profitable ads. The great appeal for me is the ability to spy on International markets including France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and many more. Save time on translations and tap in to the most lucrative markets on Facebook. Definitely a worthy addition to your toolkit. First 20 customers only who use code FINCH11 will receive 10% off their lifetime subscription. Enjoy!
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The Traffic Source Doesn’t Suck, You Suck

Aug 02 2011

What do successful affiliates have in common?

Is it fast cars, heavy wallets and eyes shaped like dual-screens?

Maybe, but there’s something else. I don’t think you’ll find a single successful affiliate who hasn’t shown a good knack for understanding his traffic sources. It may be one traffic source, it may be many. But without that working knowledge, you’ll find it painstakingly difficult to generate profit.

Self-serve advertising platforms like Facebook, Plentyoffish and AdWords are enduringly popular with affiliates. I mark this down to two reasons. The ease of launching a campaign, and the abundance of case studies readily available for digestion.

However, these platforms are only a small segment of the online advertising space. A few affiliates have commented on my Facebook related posts saying that, actually, it’s not even worth bothering with Facebook these days. The big money is in advertising on display networks and nailing down media buys.

While I would disagree that Facebook is no longer worth the bother, there’s definitely truth to the argument that display advertising is a lucrative and sustainable replacement.

The problem with display advertising – and by twisted logic, the incentive – is that affiliates find it much harder to launch profitable campaigns off the bat. They become disheartened when the inventory shrinks at closer inspection, many of the featured sites refusing to run ads in popular affiliate verticals. They see CPMs of $3.50 that set the alarm bells ringing.

In many cases, the control panel itself is a sprawling mass of more options than a “no bells and whistles” Facebook advertiser could shake a stick at.

So the affiliate does what could be expected of him. He runs back to Facebook’s loving arms, willing to sacrifice the great unknown for super tight margins and bitching interns. Whatever makes you feel at home, right?

There are hundreds of traffic sources that can be called upon. Why do so many affiliates choose the same two or three? In fact, let’s elaborate on that. Why do so many affiliates settle for being mediocre on the same two or three?

I’ve linked to this article countless times, but it’s value never diminishes. So once again, here is a list of traffic sources that could keep you busy for the rest of the week.

Now, back to the question of what do successful affiliates have in common?

The answer is patience, determination and perseverance to cancel out distractions, take one of those ad platforms, and sponge up every last piece of information about it.

You can do this by signing up and hacking together a campaign to test the waters. I don’t recommend it though.

Have you seen what happens when you try to port a Facebook campaign to Plentyoffish? It doesn’t work. No two traffic sources are the same, so porting a campaign to another in the hope that it will become profitable straight away is very optimistic thinking.

Before advertising on a new traffic source, I like to contact my account manager and interrogate him for some perspective on what other affiliates are doing. This shows that I need direct results and that I don’t have budget to piss my message in to the wind on a branded hope and prayer.

Once I have a good idea of how suitable the platform is for direct response marketing, I’ll make a decision on whether I want to go ahead and inject whatever holding balance is required. This is a small step, but it saves me the bother of 2009 revisited.

2009 revisited? Yeah, having a leftover balance of $982.94 in seven different traffic sources after losing my Google account and depositing a grand in to every alternative I could find. Binge depositing is bad, kids.

If you’re going to try a new traffic source, it’s only logical that you extend it the same level of patience as you would with Facebook. If the first campaign bombs, you probably had a shitty campaign. Don’t blame the foreign traffic source for your own ineptitude or one size fits all marketing.

Gather some test data and then drop your account manager another email. Ask for some advice on how you’ve configured the campaign. Does it look right? Are you missing any obvious tricks that other affiliates are cashing in on?

As always, it’s necessary to measure campaign variables in a strategic manner. You can only do this with a clean slate. I’ve been working with an adult traffic source lately, and even though I’m dealing in the same vertical (dating offers), I’ve had to assume the identity of somebody who knows nothing. I split test variables that I needn’t even worry about on Plentyoffish because I’ve had time to key in those campaigns already.

Small details cause massive ripples of change. Imagine if you’d never played with the browser targeting on Plentyoffish, or the geographic filtering on Facebook. Christ, just imagine the carnage if you showed Facebook the same disdain that these new traffic sources receive when you can’t get your first campaign profitable.

Successful affiliates know this, whether they’re advertising on Facebook, AdWords or some shitty display network based out of the Angolan jungle. The money is in the detail, the planning and the execution. Learn the traffic source and you’re halfway there.

Recommended This Week

Above All Offers has been gaining some serious traction lately and if you’re not already registered, now would be a good time to get in the door. It’s run by some of the smartest guys in the biz, with a good selection offers, weeklies and laser fast support. If you were ever a fan of Blue Hat SEO (check it out, it’s semi-alive again!), you should know that Eli most definitely knows his shit. One of the early inspirations that attracted me to the industry, it seems that his network is going to end up just as well respected. Sign up, homes!
If you’re not already registered on PPV Playbook, you are missing a beat sunshine! Easily the BEST place to learn from marketers who are actually making money. It has some awesome case studies. The catch is that you will need to pay some of your hard earned pesos to access it. I swear from the bottom of my black heart, joining is worth every penny
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Where Next For Facebook’s Refugee Affiliates?

Jul 21 2011

Have you been noticing a drop in impressions delivered to your Facebook campaigns? It seems many advertisers have, myself included, and these changes are reflected in a brand new report that illustrates just how quickly the cost of a click is rising.

Facebook’s cost-per-click rose by 22% in the second quarter, having already jumped 40% in the first, according to Efficient Frontier’s findings.

To put that in perspective, you’re spending $8.54 for the same number of clicks as you received while paying only $5 seven months ago. For affiliates like yours truly who thrive in the dating vertical, these numbers are now entering dangerous territory.

Either the payout on a lead rises, our marketing efforts improve considerably, or we flock elsewhere for cheaper traffic of a similar quality. In a dream world, all of those scenarios playing out would be very welcome indeed. But let’s be realistic.

The report, biased as it may be, suggests click prices are set to rise by a colossal 80% in 2011 alone. That’s good enough reason to foresee a mass arrival of Facebook affiliate refugees on other traffic sources.

If you’re already twitching at the lower margins, now would be a good time to broaden your horizons.

I’ve stressed this before, and I’ll stress it again. International markets represent the best opportunities for affiliates on Facebook. The reason click prices are spiraling can be attributed to a crowded marketplace. In America, every small business is rushing to get a presence on Facebook Ads. I blame those arsehole ‘social media consultants’, quite frankly.

However, by straying away from America and the UK, you can find markets that are less crowded and still viable for the majority of affiliate campaigns.

Social Bakers has a useful chart listing the average Facebook click prices per country. Norway tops the list with a average CPC of $1.60 (ouch), while the Central African Republic boasts an average of just $0.07 (about 1000% of the maximum I’d be willing to pay!)

Let’s assume that you’ve explored all international options. The click prices are still too expensive and you need to find new inventory fast. What’s your next move?

If you’re feeling brave, you can use the AdBrite Site Directory to target Facebook apps traffic. The platform lets you advertise not just on Facebook, but on a whole bunch of other mainstream websites. I’ve had some profitable campaigns running through AdBrite, but be prepared to work for them if you choose this route.

There’s also Cubics – now known as Adknowledge Super Rewards. I know, right? What a shitty name for an ads platform. Somebody’s branding brainfart clearly got taken too seriously. Cubics lets you advertise to apps users on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Friendster.

Speaking of Friendster, did you know that it used to have it’s own self-serve ads platform?

Did anybody try it?

I can visualise seven raised hands, the happy owners of about 42 combined impressions during the entire fucking lifecycle of that particular ads platform.

RIP Friendster Ads. My balls mourn your demise.

Cubics has a pretty clunky interface and the reporting leaves much to be desired, but it holds potential for the right type of offers. In any case, I appreciate poor aesthetics. They cast an aura of shiteness that helps keep heavy competition at bay.

If you’ve ever tried to monetize apps traffic, you don’t need me telling you that it’s a damn sight harder than the self-serve inventory on Facebook. Expect to be kept busy with plenty of rounds of testing before you find the magic formula where both volume and profitability thrive in tandem.

Of course, you may find it easier to simply abandon Facebook completely.

The ‘Book is just one of many social networking hubs. And while I’m sure a large number of affiliates will be waiting with bated breath for a Google+ ads platform (and to find out if they’re already banned from it), you can keep yourself busy by browsing this list of popular social networks.

If you’re sick and tired of spiraling click costs, do yourself a favour and browse through the alternatives. They’re certainly in no short supply.

Visit the sites that match your target market, scroll to the bottom of the page and nine times out of ten, you will find a link titled “Advertise”. It sounds like I’m being sarcastic, but it never ceases to amaze me how many affiliates have link-blindness to this sitting duck of an opportunity.

You can undercut 95% of affiliates by simply getting off your arse and making the effort to venture beyond self-serve ad platforms. Negotiation, a budget and being proactive can restore your margins in no time at all.

Recommended This Week

Lots of Ads is the latest service to offer spying capabilities over Facebook’s most profitable ads. The great appeal for me is the ability to spy on International markets including France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and many more. Save time on translations and tap in to the most lucrative markets on Facebook. Definitely a worthy addition to your toolkit. First 20 customers only who use code FINCH11 will receive 10% off their lifetime subscription. Enjoy!
Published today on Direct Response was a piece I wrote titled “It’s Time To Cull Some Internet Marketers“. I think I was in a shitty mood when I splurged it, but I stand by the points raised. Direct Response is a fantastic blog, by the way, one of my favourites in the biz and a must-subscribe-to if you’re not already reading it.
If you’re a new reader, please add me to your RSS. You can also follow me on Twatter if that’s your kinda thing.