Affiliate Summit | Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

FatWallet – The Perfect Business Model for Success

What makes a web site successful, and able to rise about the noise to become one of the top in it’s industry? It’s not just “quality content“, but also what it offers to the visitor and keeps them coming back for more. Let’s take a look at how FatWallet.com has grown over the years from a small coupon resource site, to the massive cash cow generating power house it is today.

About FatWallet
FatWallet was created back in 1999 by Tim Storm. I probably first met Tim back in 2001 when I first spoke at Affiliate Force. Since then, Tim has just been killing it year over year. In 2006, Tim Storm was also awarded with the “Affiliate Marketing Legend Award” at Affiliate Summit. The focus of FatWallet is to build a bargain hunting community web site, where anyone can access coupons and find killer deals online. Today FatWallet is one of the largest and most successful coupon sites out there today, and I’m about to break down a few reasons for their success.

It’s All About Community
You’ll hear this all the time, and it’s the truth… but it’s also one of the hardest tasks to accomplish online. There are thousands, if not millions, or sites out there with large forums and readerships, but to have the community contribution that FatWallet has, is just amazing. Users flock to FatWallet every day not only to access the latest coupons, but also to share their new findings and success stories in the FatWallet forums. Not only will you find the latest coupons and discounts, but ask Wikipedia notes, “There are several tax professionals who go on to FatWallet to answer people’s questions regarding taxes.“. FatWallet has become so large and successful, it has expanded outside of just a coupon site and now an information and referral resource to others.

FatWallet has What You Want
How many times have you done a “xxxx coupons” search on Google, then find your way to a site that doesn’t even have coupon codes. It happens to me often, and I hate it! Being in the internet marketing niche, I’m sure you’ve searched for “GoDaddy Coupons” on Google. The number one result, FatWallet of course! Not only is it the first result, but it has several pages on coupon codes that I use EVERY time I buy a domain through GoDaddy. This is just one example, can you imagine how many other listings they have number one rankings for. The quality here is priceless, and every time is a “call to action” search… people are wanting to buy!

Incentivization & Extra Savings are Key
Making FatWallet stand out even more from the competition is their ability to offer even more of a discount, on top of any coupon codes listed on the site. Because we are affiliate marketers, we know FatWallet can offer 2-6% back on several products or sales, because they get a commission on every referral. However, taking a smaller commission percentage and passing that back to the customer, has built a loyal following and huge member base at FatWallet. Most recently, FatWallet has added a FireFox Toolbar to their arsenal to keep site members updated with new coupons and access to shopping partners.

What We Can Learn from FatWallet
The success story of Tim Storm and FatWallet is a great one. While it’s taken a decade to get to where it is today, it just goes to show you once again… the little guy can compete with the big players, and over come the competition. While Tim is attacking the “coupon and discounts” niche, there are still so many other untapped markets waiting for a “FatWallet” type of site to come to rise. The success of FatWallet is due to their massive and loyal community, along with their contribution to building the site in which they love and visit daily. If you can establish this type of mentality with any business, you are destined for success!

30 March, 2009 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Summit, Blogging, Make Money, Marketing, Web Developement

5 Simple Ways to Increase Click Through Rates

No matter what type of ad campaign you are running, click through rates are an important step in measuring the success of a campaign. Having a high click through rate on ad platforms such as Facebook and Google Adwords will not only lower your costs per click, but can also increase your ad volume. Increasing your click through rates for links on your web site or blog is also important, as it usually will lead to more revenue.

I wrote up a few tips for increasing the click performance of ad campaigns. These are not focused on any one specific marketing method, but written to make your think twice about your campaigns and how you can improve them.

Tempting Your Readers
Instead of telling your viewer what a product, or service is… instead grab their attention and get them wanting to know more. When you see an awesome movie trailer, aren’t you just dieing to see the full movie? You can do the same thing with your advertising.

TEMPTING: “I Found This Amazing New Weight Loss Formula”
NOT TEMPING: “Product X Will Help You Lose Weight”

What’s the Benefit of Clicking
No matter what you are doing online, there is always an end goal or purpose. Usually people are looking for information, or simply to be entertained. Either way, if you are lucky enough to have someone take a few seconds to look at your ad, you want to make it clear to them what they are getting, in response to clicking your ad.

BENEFIT: “Click Here for Money Savings Tips”
NO BENEFIT: “Click Here to Visit My Site”

Advertising Works Best, When It’s Not Advertising
Nobody wants to see an advertisement, it’s a distraction from a users experience. Making your advertising more relevant and obtrusive to your site visitor is a major part of your sites success. This has been one of the most well known and successful methods for web sites to make money with Google Adsense. Instead of placing advertisements on your site that try and stand right out to the user, try blending in your ad copy with your articles and web content.

EFFECTIVE: “Text Placement with Content, or Side Menus”
NOT EFFECTIVE: “Big Red & Yellow 468×60 Flashing Banner Ad”

Setting Limitations on Your Offers
We’ve all seen late night infomercials, and I’ve always found it humorous when they say, “call in the next five minutes to save…“. It may seem funny, but they still wouldn’t be doing it if it didn’t work. People want to make the call within the next five minutes, because they think they are getting an extra value if they act now. Add something to your ad copy to make the user want to take action now.

LIMITED: “Today Only: Save 25% on All Orders before Midnight!”
NOT LIMITED: “Save 25% on Your Next Purchase”

Matching Up Ads with Relevant Content
Showing your advertisements along side related content is almost a no brainer. Unfortunately, so many web sites still completely ignore this issue. How many times have you visited a web site, reading an article, then you see completely non-relevant advertisements on the site. Sure, it will take more time and effort to place relevant advertisements, but in the long run, your readers interaction with the ads will increase heavily.

RELEVANT: “Insurance Ads on a Health/Finance Site”
NOT RELEVANT: “Insurance Ads on a Teen Gaming Site”

These are just a few methods you should be using to increase your click through rates. I will cover more tips in a future post.

24 March, 2009 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Summit, Contests, Marketing, Pay Per Click, Promotions, Web Developement

The Future of Advertising on Facebook

Going into this year’s Affiliate Summit West, I wasn’t looking towards anything spectacular and didn’t have any big aspirations. I was excited about being on the “Advertising on Facebook” panel, but had no idea how beneficial it would end up being.

During the first day of the summit while walking through the meet market, I was surprised to see that Facebook had their own booth, along with plenty of staff members from the company. Not only were these members from Facebook, but they were actual team members from the Ads department and they actually understood the frustrations we have been experiencing with the Facebook approval process and their advertising platform.

I met with almost all of the members from the company, but spent the most time with Alex Shultz who is the head Marketing Exec at Facebook and also has a deep background in affiliate marketing. While in the meet market we ended up talking for about an hour and it was great to hear about the changes to come.

The next day Alex Shultz, Dan Murray, Myself and Shoemoney were on the “Advertising on Facebook” panel. The room filled up quickly and ended up with standing room only. In addition to answering plenty of Q&A from the audience, the following points were discussed.

- Shoemoney briefly talked about how he is using Facebook Ads for local advertising and driving leads for car dealerships and dentists in his area. This method of advertising is extremely new and lucrative because barely anyone is doing this.

- There is a misconception by some that Facebook has a “college crowd”, but this is so far from the truth. There are currently over 150 million members on Facebook and some of the fastest growing demographics are over the age of 25.

- Facebook members from NON-US countries are one of it’s fastest growing areas, with Italy recently leading the way. Foreign clicks are cheaper along with less saturated.

- When setting up a new campaign, make sure to test multiple images and text headlines. Alex mentioned that the TEXT headlines of ads actually factor more in the overall CTR than the image used.

- While other social networks may start at .10 or .25 per click, it is possible to receive clicks in the .02 to .04 range. Price factoring comes down to a click through rate and cpm process. Continually tweaking and improving your ad campaigns for a better click rate, will result in lower click costs.

- Cloaking links is not fooling anyone at Facebook. They are aware of “black hat” methods and are in the process of taking actions against these advertisers and accounts.

- When Alex was asked what offers he would run on Facebook to make money, he said “dating” and “weight loss” offers are always in the top performers.

Overall. the “Advertising on Facebook” panel went well. More than anything else, I was thrilled to see Facebook made the effort to attend and put themselves out there to get real user experience stories and feedback. They know the ball is now in their court and they have made mistakes in the past, but are working to improve the system. There is no easy fix and this will take time, but improvements are on the way.

I know Alex and the Facebook team will be looking over the comments in response to this blog post, so please feel free to leave any comments, complaints or improvements you feel would be useful.

14 January, 2009 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Summit, Facebook, Make Money, Marketing

Gary Vaynerchuk “Brings the Thunder” to ASW09

Gary Vaynerchuk kicked off the second day of Affiliate Summit as the keynote speaker. This is the 3rd time I’ve seen Gary speak at an event and he is always great. What’s unique about Gary is that he never uses any slides or presentations, and his energy always accelerates through the room. Another highlight was being mentioned in the Affiliate Summit keynote for two years in a row!

Since so many people already know about Gary Vaynerchuk and how he speaks, I decided to do a run down of key points and ideas he offered during his keynote (video).

Hitting Singles, When You Can Hit a Home Run
Gary let everyone know that speaking at Affiliate Summit is one of his favorite events because everyone here already knows how to make money. Specifically pointing out how so many of us are settling for “single hits” of success, when we have the potential to nail home runs. Are you aiming high enough?

Building Brand Equity
Everyone can make quick money, whether it’s through legitimate methods, or shady… but the point is, it’s most likely an outside offer and when it’s over, you have to move on to something else. When you build up your own brand and name recognition, that is something you always have. Google and Twitter might not be around forever, but you will be.

Have a Goal… What are You Working Towards?
Gary wants to own the Jets. For Gary to make enough money to buy the Jets, he will need a few billion. Everything he is working towards is a step towards owning the Jets, and getting placement on Oprah, Ellen, Conan and other big name shows are what’s necessary to get him closer to his goal. Make sure you have a goal and keep moving forward every day to obtain that goal. Never settle for anything less, and aim higher than you can reach.

After Gary’s session, he went on to answer a few Q&A from the audience. Gary is one of the top guys in the industry and all about helping everyone around him. He wants you to succeed and isn’t looking to make money off anyone, but more focused on how everyone can help each other out.

This was a great keynote speaker for the Affiliate Summit crowd. View more pictures of Gary Vaynerchuk and Affiliate Summit West 09 at Shawn’s Flickr stream.

13 January, 2009 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Summit, Blogging

Long Lines, Facebook and Affiliate Summit West

Today was the first official day of Affiliate Summit West, out here in Las Vegas. Last night my plane was on the run way in Newark, NJ just as the snow was starting to come down heavy. In the end it all worked out fine, while others had some nasty delays.

Once arriving in Las Vegas, I headed over to the Rio where there was a nice long line for check in. I’m still hearing and seeing complaints on Twitter about people arriving and having waiting times of over 2 hours. I can’t complain much as it only took around 30 minutes for myself to check in and get to my room. Later that night I headed over to the Buy.at party at the Palms. It was a great party, but also super packed and only accepting “people on the list“.

That brings us to today, which was the first official day of Affiliate Summit West. After breakfast we headed down to get our badges and came to another massive line. It took around 30-45 minutes and then we were set.

Once again, Affiliate Summit has sold out and there are over 3,200+ attendees this year. I usually like to hit up a few sessions, but this time around I have been finding myself jumping in and out of them as they seem either too basic, or just not that interesting.

The meet market also was open today. While the exhibit hall is still being setup, everyone crowded into the meet market for networking and meeting with other business partners and friends.The full exhibit hall opens tomorrow, and is said to have over 100 exhibitors.

While in the meet market I met up with ShoeMoney and Alex Schultz from Facebook (both on my panel tomorrow). I actually ended up talking with Alex and the Facebook team for quite a while, and their future is looking good. Alex has deep background in affiliate marketing and understands the problems with approvals and low quality offers on the network. This topic and more will be covered in the “Advertising on Facebook” panel tomorrow.