How to Promote a Web Site or Product without an Affiliate Program

What if you have a product that you really like and want to tell others about it, or even create a web site around it and attempt to try and earn a few dollars in the process. The first thing you would do, would be to visit their web site and see if they have an affiliate program. Let’s use Myoplex (energy / protein drink) for example. Before or after going to basketball everyday, I make sure to grab a Myoplex. I love the drink, so I don’t mind giving them some promotion… but when I visit their web site, I see that they don’t have an affiliate program…. what’s a blogger/site owner to do? Here are a few choices you have.

1.) Find another Site with an Affiliate Program
Myoplex is growing in popularity fast, and one of the most popular places to buy the high protein drink is through GNC stores. Let’s head over to GNC.com and see what they have available. As expected, they have over 35 different products for sale on Myoplex. They have the product, but now we need an affiliate program to make it work. Yes, they have one! Now you can earn a nice 11% commission on every referred sale. Now, instead of that free promotion you were just going to give to Myoplex, (or any other desired product), you can now be earning a nice commission on all referred sales. (and not just on myoplex)

2.) Contextual Advertisers
Myoplex was a great example and luckily for this case study, the largest provider (GNC.com), had an affiliate program. What if you can’t find any sites with your product that have their own affiliate program? Visit Google.com and do a search for your desired product. When you search on “myoplex” you will see a ton of advertisers on the page. Instead of promoting an affiliate program directly, you can run Adsense or Yahoo Publisher Network. Based off your heavy content site, Adsense or YPN should trigger exact or related ads. (If you search “myoplex” on Google, you will see both GNC.com and the parent company, EAS.com, both advertising through Adwords. You may not be able to promote EAS.com directly through an affiliate program, however through adsense you can promote them on a per click basis.)

There are many retailers advertising on Google Adwords for “Myoplex”

3.) Direct Contact
If all else fails and the product or company you are looking to promote, doesn’t have an affiliate program and there are no relevant advertisers on Adsense… try contacting the company directly. The only thing you have to lose by contacting the company, is that they don’t reply back or they say “not interested”… and you are back where you started anyway. On the other hand, if they are interested, you can sell them advertising on your site, possibly work out a deal for any referred sales, or at the least, ask them to send you samples or some freebies for your time and promotion.

There is nothing better than a web site that offers a true testimonial. I have no problem telling others about the Myoplex protein shake because I actually use it and would recommend it to others. With the combination of a real testimonial site and information to back it up, the ability to push traffic and sales to the related advertisers should not be a problem at all. Not only is there a high demand for Myoplex out there, but since they don’t have a “direct” affiliate program, it may make it that much easier for you to succeed with promotion. Now think about what other type of products and programs are out there that you can take this same method to and apply it.

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Stay Motivated and Get Out of that Slump

One of the big advantages to making money online and running your own business, is that you are in total control of your schedule and work hours. Likewise, you are also the one deciding how much work you put forth and how much money you earn. Over the past several days I found myself not that motivated to be online, work or even write a blog post update. This can also be seen just by how many people have asked me what’s going on, or why there hasn’t been any new blog posts over the past few days. (Don’t worry, I have some great new posts on the way!) It wasn’t so much that I wasn’t motivated, but my interests and time were spent elsewhere.

Many writers and bloggers out there experience “writer’s block“… the same hold true for business owners and entrepreneurs, except it may be more of a lack of motivation, interest or getting worn down. For those times when you feel in a slup, here are just a few ways you can get yourself motivated and back on track again.

Past Projects
- If you feel you are in a slump and just don’t feel like working on what you have going on, take a step back and look at what you’ve done in the past. What previous sites, ideas or marketing campaigns have you run that made money. Try and incorporate any old ideas with your new or existing plans and see what new ideas you can stir up.

Connect with Others
- One of the best ways to get some ideas flowing, is to talk with your friends or other marketers online. Not only do you have instant chat access through programs like AIM or GMail chat, but you can see what thousands of people are talking about on Twitter.

Reward Yourself!
- You are your business, and how you work and reward yourself will reflect in your progress and earnings. A couple weeks ago I went out and purchased a new 24-inch: 3.06GHz iMac. I have it right along the side of my Sony Vaio PC. While I mainly use a PC, it’s still cool to have a new computer and I love working with a Mac as well…. but even more so, it was a new motivational item which increased productivity. Is there anything you would like to reward yourself with?

These are just a few ideas on how to get yourself motivated or pumped up, if you are in a slump. If I was stuck home and had to work on the computer all day, or had to manage a full staff… I would probably go crazy or get stressed out enough to effect the overall progress of my business. I play basketball at least 3-4 times a week and it’s one of my favorite benefits to running my own business and not having to work for the man… I get to work and play, or do whatever, whenever I want. Luckily, I enjoy making money online almost as much as basketball… so it all works out.

How are you managing your working schedule, while keeping yourself motivated and not overloaded at the same time.

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Where Top Affiliate Challenge Went Wrong

When Joel Comm took the leap to make the first “affiliate marketing” internet reality show, he had a ton of skeptics, but in the end it went well. Joel was the first to pave the way for an affiliate marketing reality show over the internet. With the release of Top Affiliate Challenge, by creator Thor Schrock… expectations of the show were anything but consistent. While Thor was able to pull together some well known marketers in the affiliate marketing space, without these guys, the show would probably have no viewers or media at all. Unfortunately, as much as some of us would like the show to succeed… many viewers (and even some contestants), are just surprised at how poorly the show is being run.

Here are just a few of the reasons why Top Affiliate Challenge is lacking. Should there be a season 2 for Top Affiliate Challenge, or any new affiliate marketing reality shows in the works… please make sure you cover yourself from failing again at the following.

Horrible Video Editing, Taping & hosting:
With the amount of companies and affiliate networks pulled together to sponsor Top Affiliate Challenge, I am continually surprised at how poorly the show is taped. At times the show ranks at the level of quality of being recorded on a $150 Flip Video camera. There is no reason for the lack in video quality, when you have this much sponsorship money and exposure on the line. On an ending note, how often is the video chopping, the host is cut off during mid sentence, looking at queue cards and notes on the floor.

As for hosting… once the first episode was released, it took nearly an hour and a half of constant buffering for me to view the whole 30 minute episode. (also noted by John Chow) Top Affiliate Challenge finally decided to move their videos over to Google Video. A better decision would have been to team up with a higher quality and brand able video host in exchange for exposure on the show. As of right now, you can view all past episodes on TAC… though episode 5 doesn’t seem to be working at the moment?

Location: Why Nebraska?
One thing that internet marketing and a reality show have in common, is that you can run both of them anywhere. Drop any of us off in the middle of a desert, and as long as we have a laptop and an internet connection, we can start making money. Likewise, reality shows take place all around the world… whether it be “The Apprentice” in New York, or “Survivor” on a tropical island. The point is… why Nebraska, I’m hoping it wasn’t purely for the convenience factor. To make the most of this affiliate reality show, this should have taken place at Florida, New York and California… three well known internet hot spots in the US.

Non-Relevant Awards & Prizes:
Once again… the show is called “Top Affiliate Challenge“…. not random sponsor games. Why are non-relevant prizes being awarded to affiliate marketers. For instance, in episode 4, why are Power Tools and Drill Bits being awarded as prizes. I know these prizes are from the sponsored networks, but this should be a learning experience. Give away search marketing tools, ebooks, coupons, vouchers or anything relevant to affiliate marketing!

Unknowledgeable & Untrained Host:
No offense to the host, Monica Durezo, but I think they should have a more experienced and well trained host in the affiliate marketing space. I can only imagine how hard it is to host a reality show, especially when the staff, gurus and contestants don’t have an idea about what’s going on. When is the last time you watched a reality show on TV and the host wasn’t a well known celebrity. It would have made more sense for one of the “gurus” to host the show, as they are a more prominent figure in the affiliate marketing space.

Bad Affiliate Marketing Intelligence:
In addition to the host, which may or may not have an deep background in affiliate marketing… it seems the show itself does not have the necessary knowledge as well. Just off my head, from the past couple of episodes I can think of two instances where the incorrectness of this show is just silly. First off, when one of the contestants is talking about CPM, they say it’s “cost per thousand visits“… when the standard in affiliate marketing is “cost per thousand impressions“… and this is a HUGE difference. Also, I’m would not want to be a sponsor of the show, paying thousands of dollars to unhappy viewers… then to see my affiliate network being misspelled in the ending credits. It’s a little mistakes, but shows lack of detail and professionalism. (Copeak???… I thought it was Copeac..)

This is Really The PepperJam Show
Before the show event started, John Chow and ShoeMoney were the well known gurus listed on the show. They already had the exposure and branding in the affiliate space, while many had no idea who Ken McArthur were. Luckily for PepperJam Network, Ken McArthur is the Guru for their team and he is just destroying the competition… so much so, that during episode 6, Kris Jones, of PepperJam even provides money for his team’s competition. Either way, it’s good to see PepperJam getting their sponsorship money’s worth out of the show.

Unhappy Contestants and Gurus:
To top things off… during episode 3 and 4 we start to see disgruntled affiliates/contestant ready to leave the show and start voting for themselves to leave the show. Not only does this put themselves in a bad position, but it makes the show look bad too. Ian Fernando wants off the shoe, as he also made clear on his blog. ShoeMoney has left the show due to the birth of his new baby girl. Contestants are apparently having to spend their own money to make revenue for the team challenges… In the end… I’m not sure who is happy with the show.

Unfortunately for Top Affiliate Challenge, this seems to just be the tip of the iceberg of problems and complaints around the show. While the show was in audition phrase, I had a lot of people asking if I was going to apply for the show. After seeing the results from the show so far, I can say I’m much happier on the other side as a viewer and critic. With the loss of my friend Ian Fernando (though they never seem to send anyone eliminated actually home) and co-Guru ShoeMoney from the show… I can only imagine other viewers will also continue to lose interest fast.

What are your comments on the show and is it any more or less than you initially expected?

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Creating Your Own Video Entertainment Web Site

When looking for new ways to make money online, the decision to create your own site and build up a member/visitor base is always a good one. Today I will show you how to create a video / entertainment site of your own, while setting up the necessary advertising to turn it profitable. Way before there was all of this video content available, one of the first areas I started making money online in was with freebies, celebrities and video entertainment area. Now, putting all of these methods together and utilizing the free resources at hand, you can create your own money generating entertainment site.

To give you a basic idea of how you can setup your new video entertainment site, I will use the CollegeHumor layout as an example. The key points I will focus on are Building Your Site, Adding Fresh Content, CPM Advertising, Tell a Friend Forms and Newsletter Subscriptions. I have marked several advertising and viral linking methods on the image below.

Building Your Site & Adding Content
For this article, we are going to focus on building a site around funny videos. There are already hundreds, if not thousands of funny video and humor sites out there. The main purpose of all of them is to gain the attention of the user and keep them coming back to the site. In the end, they make money by offering free content and getting paid every time banner ads are displayed. The longer a visitor stays at a web site, the more money there is to be made.

We all know that everyone loves watching videos online and there are already several huge sources that can provide you with free content. Just head over to any of the big video sites like YouTube, DailyMotion or MetaCafe and start grabbing content. These video sites want to get more viewers, and are giving you their “embed” code to place the banners on your site. Since you are grabbing content directly from their site, you don’t have to worry about copyright issues from videos or having to host them on your servers. To make your life easier, these sites already have the videos indexed and broken down into categories, you can easily create multiple categories or new sites based on each different category.

To keep your web site updated with new videos, simply visit these video site often and add new content, or visit the “What’s Hot” categories and add the most popular videos to your site. As your site continues to grow and gets spread around, you should start seeing some nice free traffic coming in through your free search engine listings. Once your site gets larger and established, you may want to host your own videos.

CPM Advertising on Your Site
Once you create your video entertainment site, you are going to try and build the site around your content, along with premium placement for advertisements. In the CollegeHumor.com example above, you can see they have a 786×60 skyscraper on top and a 300×250 banner on the side. Because of the massive traffic and branding of CollegeHumor, they are able to sell their advertising direct and on a CPM basis. Not all of us have this same branding and traffic power, so the next best solution for us, is to place CPM banner advertising on our sites from companies like CasaleMedia, ValueClick Media and CPX Interactive. If you are unable to get approved by any of these CPM networks, you can also place your regular affiliate network offers on the site. (In addition to cpm advertising, you can also play around with contextual advertising, such as Google Adsense. Placing adsense above or below video content has proven to perform well.)
- CPM Networks I Use: CasaleMedia, ValueClick Media, CPX Interactive
CasaleMedia is a more premium network and hard to get approved with. ValueClick Media is one of the largest and easier to get approved with. CPX Interactive is the easiest to get approved with, but also offer the lowest cpm rates.

Tell a Friend Forms & Social Network Marketing
Below the main video content, you should have the option for users to embed the video (if you are hosting your own videos) or link back to your web site. Offering your users the ability to link to your content, will not only give them something to add to their MySpace page, (thus sending more visitors back to your site) but it is also one of the greatest reasons to create a video site… people love to send funny stuff to their friends. In addition to social bookmarks and linking, you should also add a Tell a Friend form, which enables the visitor to send an email to a friend, with your web site url and funny video link. There area few TAF affiliate programs that will pay you to add a tell a friend form onto your web site, where you will get paid every time the form is sent. The ideal placement for a tell a friend form is right below the funny video or funny picture content.
- Tell a Friend Networks I’ve Used: TafMaster & OptMedia

Building Up Your Newsletter
Creating a newsletter for your web site is crucial to it’s growth. In most cases, people will visit your site for a few seconds, then leave. If you offer them a newsletter subscription, you can have them coming back to your site daily. In addition to sending out the latest content added to your web site, you can also feature ads or free content of the day. In most cases, this can be any type of freebie or trial offer from an affiliate network. You can send out mailings daily, once a week or once a month. Sending out daily would be best for traffic as long as you are providing quality content and mailings.
- Mailing Provider I Use: Aweber

In addition to the methods I listed about for earning revenue and increasing traffic, you can also link with partner web sites (check webmaster forums), run “free stuff” (cpa offers) sections on your site, create a forum around your site where users can submit content or even offer your own image/video hosting service. The options are limitless, and each will help in establishing your new web site’s presence.

Before jumping into the video entertainment area, make sure that you spend some time to research other sites and what may be your next competition. There are thousands of sites out there fighting to get top position in search and trying to build a visitor base. If you can create a unique or useful service around video entertainment, you might just be able to create the next hot video portal like CollegeHumor.com, Break.com or EbaumsWorld.com.

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The Emergence of PepperJam Network

It was no surprise when MarketingSherpa released their latest reporting, basically stating “PepperJam Network Explodes onto the Affiliate Marketing Scene with Unprecedented Growth and Industry Support“. In the report from MarketingSherpa, they break down some heavy numbers on the largest affiliate networks in the game today, and it’s no surprise to see PepperJam Network giving the big players a run for their money. Here are just a few of the big numbers we are seeing from PepperJam Network after just 5 months from their network launch date. (Results from Partnercentric surveyed top partners)

Networks with Active Affiliates
In the first chart, we clearly see all of the big players in the game which have had networks for years, and it’s really no surprise to see these names listed. However, in the fifth position, PepperJam Network is quickly gathering market share and soon enough, may even pass some of these well known affiliate networks.

Where Affiliates Make Money
The next chart shows which of the top networks affiliates are also working with. All of the same affiliate networks listed in the first chart appear again, but not in the same order. Shareasale affiliate activity crushes Linkshare, even though they have a larger following… and the same can almost be seen with Performics and PepperJam. Performics has a higher following in the top chart, but nearly tied with PepperJam Network in affiliate activity.

Why Affiliates Choose Some Networks Over Others
We are all members of different affiliates networks, but the majority of us only make money with a couple of the many we are affiliates with… why is that? As part of the survey, affiliates were asked the same question and their response was the following:

For more details and the full report, be sure to head over to MarketingSherpa. I’m sure in the followup report, we will see even more promising numbers from PepperJam Network.

What’s New at PepperJam Network?
Based off the report from MarketingSherpa, PepperJam Network is showing some very promising numbers. In addition to their growth in the affiliate space, I also wanted to keep you updated with some news surrounding their network.

- Make Money with eBay: If you ever made money with the eBay affiliate program, you were probably making it through Commission Junction. On April 1st, the eBay Partner Network launched as they removed themselves from Commission Junction. Just recently, eBay and PepperJam Network teamed up to offer affiliates another alternative for advertising their network. Now you can run eBay directly through PepperJam Network. (For all affiliates running Build a Niche Software, the ability to run and track through PepperJam is now available)

- Tons of New Offers: Since going live, PepperJam Network has added an amazing amount of new advertisers to the network. Now with over 250 offers, they are quickly becoming the prominent network to make serious money with. Keep in mind, the 250 offers I mentioned are each their own web site and brand name!

- $10 Signup Bonus to New Affiliates: With the explosion of growth PepperJam Network is seeing, they are only pushing harder to make this growth continue. If you aren’t currently an affiliate with PepperJam Network, join now and you will receive $10 in your account once you are approved as an affiliate. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend you join the PepperJam Network. If you’re already an affiliate, be sure to login and see what offers were recently added to the network.

As an affiliate, what makes you choose certain networks over each other and what would make PepperJam Network or any of the other networks mentioned, be your network of choice?

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