Finch Sells | Affiliate Marketing Blog

How To Become A Martyr For Affiliate Networks

Nov 18 2010

Sometimes, as an affiliate, I wake up and ask myself – “Whose bitch will I become today?”

This is a contentious issue that I’ve wanted to address for a while. It involves affiliates being taken by the wrists and directed off a cliff face by profit-hungry networks. I’m talking about the networks who send out newsletters or allow their account managers to quietly nudge a publisher towards promoting an offer in a way that is harmful to the affiliate’s business interests.

Now you know I wouldn’t dare to cry “misled” when my job is often to deceive with a smile. But I feel sorry for the affiliates who fall victim to some of the gospel being thrown out there.

I regularly find emails in my inbox (funnily enough) disclosing information on the hottest new dating offers. Sky high conversion rates, I’m told. Jump on it now or forever hold your peace! I feel like I should be sitting here stroking a puppy with a tear in my eye at the thought of saying no. This is all standard procedure, of course. When you push a lot of dating leads, you’re going to get a lot of dating offers. What I find slightly disturbing is the fact that some of these newsletters actively encourage their affiliates to promote adult dating sites on strictly non-adult traffic sources.

Wait, hold on a second. Isn’t this supposed to be a two-way relationship?

Let’s not be naive. Most networks, and most affiliates who’ve been round the block, are aware that it’s possible to cloak and “game” traffic sources to make a lot of money in a short space of time. But in my opinion, this is a choice that the affiliate must shoulder.

If a network is actively encouraging a newbie affiliate to hide his links and sling Flirt leads on Facebook, there can be only one side to the relationship. The affiliate takes on the role of kamikaze missile. A helpless fucking lemming, with the sole purpose of wham bam thank you ma’am. The network may pocket a short term burst of revenue, and the affiliate may even survive a Facebook account ban by the skin of his teeth.

But it’s just another example of greed in an industry that would short-change it’s own mother for what Ryan Eagle keeps in his garage. By the way, Ryan, if you’ve got my entire team of scantily clad buxom wench cheerleaders parked in your garage, I might have to call the cops.

Affiliates face a tough choice when it comes to selecting dating offers to promote. It’s a twisted niche where the dirtier you’re prepared to play, the easier it is to get profitable. Facebook doesn’t like offers that are too sexually suggestive. PlentyOfFish hates direct competitors that are free to use. Right there you have the two easiest sells for any dating site.

“Oh so it’s free and full of sluts? BACK OF THE NET!”

Promoting the boldest offers with the boldest promises will nearly always guarantee you the boldest returns. But your scammy little dating ad is probably not what Zuckerberg had in mind when he was looking to monetize the world’s biggest college brain-fart.

Many newbie affiliates get their first taste of success by taking these dangerous paths, promoting offers that push the envelope of what’s acceptable on any given traffic source. Inspired by the words of wisdom from a generic cake-faced affiliate manager who tells you “all the ballers are cloaking on Facebook”, I can see why somebody just getting started would be turned over to the dark side.

Does the affiliate manager care that promoting Offer X is against the guidelines of Facebook or POF? Of course not. It’s this kind of shoddy affiliate management that produces all the glory of double digit profits without any of the hassle of having to maintain your now burnt-to-shit bridges.

So I’ll keep it simple. Here are two suggestions to keep everybody happy.

1. If you’re a network…

Don’t publicly encourage the promotion of adult/restricted offers on traffic sources where the affiliate’s account – and thus ability to put dinner on his family’s table – is in jeopardy. It’s just not cricket. By all means, show the way to those experimental publishers who come asking. But you shouldn’t be encouraging kamikaze marketing when we all have a responsibility to maintain some integrity in the industry.

2. If you’re an affiliate…

Don’t become a network’s Martyr for risky advertising and short-term profits. Understand that you don’t get to sleep with seven smoking hot account managers just because you sacrificed your Facebook account to the tune of 7 leads.

She may look hot in her tiny AIM pic telling you “all the bloggers are doing it”, but you really shouldn’t copy shady marketing practices unless you actually know how to use them. No matter what your affiliate manager, myself, or any other worthless blogger of this mass circle-jerk claims.

Recommended This Week:

If you haven’t read it from front to back already, snap up a copy of the brilliant 4-hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. Inspiring stuff for any affiliate marketer.
Feel free to add Finch to your Facebook. Yes, this is the right link. My real name is not actually Finch. Also follow FinchSells on Twitter.

Finch’s Guide To Riding Sleeping Giants

Nov 15 2010

“What’s your favourite niche to promote?” I’ve been asked this same question so many times that it’s a wonder I haven’t snapped up the domain FinchSellsDatingSoSTFU.com

“Whatever you’re not working on.” is my new default answer.

It sounds like a spiteful retort but it’s actually quite true. I do spend a vast amount of my time running like a little girl from the heaving masses of affiliate marketing competition.

When you first sign up with an affiliate network, you could be forgiven for assuming that the world revolves around dieting, dating, getting rich at home and MMORPGs. The large majority of my income has been generated in these niches so I’m not going to turn in to a contrarian snob by suggesting that you’re a fool for pursuing them.

What I would say, however, is that the further you run from the herd of affiliates, the easier your life will become for a number of reasons.

I’ve ventured away from the standard arbitrage mindset in recent months. I’ve been developing a business strategy of finding and mounting the sleeping giants in niches that very few affiliates dare to enter. Now what the hell does that mean? It sounds like I’ve been galivanting on some sexual adventure of epicly seedy proportions, which would probably make for a standard blog post from my pen.

By sleeping giants, I’m referring to websites that are run with all the best of intentions, and offering all the right content – but those that are simply resounding failures when it comes to the owner’s ability to monetize his creation. A sleeping giant in marketing terms is a website that COULD make the owner a fortune, if only he knew that he had a business asset on his hands.

These are my absolute favourite kind of websites. I like to invest in them, I like to copy them, and I like to sit at my desk salivating at the prospect of how my filthy affiliate paws would spend the money I’d make from them.

Do you know what happens when you try to launch an “authority” website in a niche like weight loss these days? Without an eye watering monetary investment, you’ll end up with about six hits per day. Four from your own IP and two from the poor bastard who clicked your Digged review by mistake.

There’s money in the niche but you know what? There was money in being the first man on the moon too. In relative ecommerce years, you’re about five decades too late. It’s happened. It’s gone. So get over it and find something else.

Go find yourself a sleeping giant. Some of the qualities I look for in a potential investment are as follows:

1. Is the owner likely to undervalue his website?

Because if the owner is wise enough to see the money in his creation, I might as well just use my investment to build something similar. I’ve spoken to countless forum owners about buying their creations. Many of these people simply don’t understand the potential in having an email list of 10000 active targeted users in a highly profitable niche. Forums can be great “sleeping giants”. Particularly if you search out the messageboards that have been dead for months.

Forum webmasters rarely value their sites in realistic currency. They value it by the egotistical kick they get out of being head admin. If it no longer satisfies their ego, the price drops. Somebody like me can step in and monetize their creation in the matter of hours. Blogs that have been dead for a couple of months are another of my favourite targets. If the owner was only in it for the hobby of blogging, and he’s no longer blogging, he’s likely to let the site go on the cheap.

2. How major are the changes I would need to make to see increased profit?

I recently purchased an “Adsense automated” site in an obscure niche where I had a directly relevant product to promote to the site’s audience. The owner was claiming $150/month profit from Adsense. I’ve been claming close to four times that figure just by promoting a product instead of shitty Adcents. One small change can make a wealth of difference. If somebody is selling their creation, and the only revenue stream they have is from Adsense – Take a good look! You might find yourself another of these mythical sleeping giants I’m raving about.

3. Is the niche going to present me a legitimate business opportunity?

Take a look at this list. Do you feel it inside? Come on, we’ve all felt it. The temptation to invest in some bat shit crazy microniche just because there’s an interest from 45000 local searches on Google. That feeling…is the affiliate’s desire to hoard fucking with you. It’s easy to spend a lifetime investing in new web assets. But if you’ve got no viable business plan for monetizing them, you’re not waking a sleeping giant. You’re just wasting your time. And giving GoDaddy another reason to ping you an expired domain notification twelve months from now.

Affiliate marketing is a mere tip of the iceberg when it comes to making money online. Yes, there are plenty of opportunities in following the tried and tested niches. But there’s also a lot of money to be made in taking the knowledge of referral marketing and applying it to websites where affiliates wouldn’t normally bat a glance of interest.

Once you know how to monetize assets effectively, you simply need to find the right opportunities to invest. With hundreds of forums and blogs falling abandoned every single day, are you telling me there’s not a bargain to be had out there? Put on your best Duncan Banntyne scowl and get to it.

Recommended This Week:

If you haven’t read it from front to back already, snap up a copy of the brilliant 4-hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. Inspiring stuff for any affiliate marketer.
If you’re looking to explore some very different but potentially very profitable micro-niches, take a look at ShareASale. It’s like a CJ that isn’t run by a bag of dicks.
Feel free to add Finch to your Facebook. Yes, this is the right link. My real name is not actually Finch.

Why I’m Trading London For Thailand

Nov 06 2010

The great appeal of affiliate marketing, besides scratching my balls in bed at 10am, is undoubtedly the ability to do my work anytime anyplace anywhere. For 18 months now, I’ve been preaching the harsh realities of running your own business. How the dream is not always what it’s cracked up to be. How it takes hard work, a lot of patience and no end of creativity to remain successful.

Well, it’s easy for me to sell the problems. But what about the rewards?

Make no mistake. If you succeed as an affiliate marketer, you’ll have one of the greatest freedoms a job is ever likely to afford you. It’s like having, quite literally, the world at your feet. I’ve been laying down the foundations of my business for what feels like an eternity now, and it’s only next month that I’ll finally begin reaping the rewards.

This December, I’m leaving London and embarking on some serious air-miles to see as much of the world as I can. I’ll be moving to Thailand and basing myself in Bangkok.

Now I know what a lot of you think when I say that I’m moving to Thailand.

It’s normally either:

1. Are you Justin Dupre’s new mystery housemate?
2. Are you moving for the ladycock?

The answer is no and no. Though I bet I could find both at Justin’s house. Come on, man. You don’t have 5000 friends on Facebook without at least a few gender benders slipping through the net. It’s the law of error.

The truth is, just two weeks ago, I was searching for a flat in Central London. There aren’t too many cities more expensive to rent in than London, believe me. I was staring at prices of $3000/month for a small two bedroom squat that a hooker probably died in.

I think it took me witnessing the smarmy look on an estate agent’s face as he insisted I wasn’t going to find any good deals at Â£1500/month before it dawned on me. What’s the point in even looking? I can afford to pay the premium to live like a king here in London if I really wanted to, but I’d have to be pretty retarded to make that decision. The grass really is greener away from the capital.

As affiliate marketers without office jobs, we have the luxury of moving anywhere in the world and still earning the same money. I’ve been operating with a disadvantage compared to other affiliates for the sheer fact that I live in a city where they charge you 30p to take a piss in a train station. The prices in London are sky-high and my cost of living is probably much greater than what other young affiliates are having to deal with. Obviously I’m discounting those of you with kids and families to support.

I want to get full value for my hard work. Given the choice between frosting my bollocks off in London or stomping around a five bedroom house with a private pool in 30c December heat, it’s pretty much a no-brainer. I hate frosty bollocks.

So I plan to work from a laptop and travel around Asia, experiencing different cultures and living on beaches while the rest of London skids on ice. It’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I quit my day job. And after months of posting about the brutal home truths of surviving as an affiliate, I guess I should re-address the balance. The rewards of succeeding are totally fucking worth it.

I realize most people don’t come to this blog to read about my travels or to know which corner of the earth I’m currently festering in. So don’t worry. This is just a notice to expect less posts over the next six weeks or so. I will be busy smearing suncream on my titties and getting traditionally burnt to shit like any self-respecting Brit on his travels.