Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

The continuing M&A battle between Google, Microsoft and Yahoo continues on… this time with Google picking up another winner. Earlier today I was reading an article on the possibility of Google acquiring Feedburner for around$100 Million. TechCrunch has just made a new post on the possible deal and now say it’s a “confirmed deal“.

With the pickup of Feedburner, Google now has control over the massive RSS datafeeds running on the majority of blogs online. How long will it be before we start seeing Google Adsense built in our own feeds, and what pros/cons will this bring to the blogging market place?

I remember a few years ago when I first saw Kelly Felix’s The Rich Jerk. At first I wasn’t sure if it was a sales page or just someone being funny. Actually it was both! After going through the site I quickly realized it was a fully functioning business model. It’s really funny because he boasts about how much money he has right he has in your face, but still makes the user want to buy the product. The site is based on the guy being a “jerk” about how much money he has. One of my favorite parts of the site is in the FAQ section, it says:

Q: Why would a multi-millionaire jerk even bother selling a book online?
A: Because obviously I’m getting even richer from sales of my book, even while reclining in my lounge chair in Fiji. When you offer a kick-ass product that makes money for both the buyer and seller, it’s a no-brainer.

The site is funny and tells it like it is, and for the longest time it was one of the best selling products on ClickBank. The site says they are still in the Top 10, but I did not see them listed. In addition to no longer being a top selling ClickBank program, it looks like the Rich Jerk himself is having some financial problems. As first reported on Shoemoney, apparently Kelly is nearly bankrupt and trying to work his way out. The site/business is now up for sale for $8 million.

I would not be surprised if the site sells, then to see Kelly in big money again. The thing about entrepreneurs and us online money makers, is it’s hard to keep us down!

Google Adsense… coming to a video near you soon! Today I received an email from "Inside Adsense" on their announcement to start releasing AdSense to web sites offering videos. Unfortunately right now they are only testing with a small select group of partners.

Google Adsense already offers text ads, graphic ads and they also show video ads in place of the image ads sometimes. Confused already on what the new video AdSense will offer? Here’s a quick explanation Google had to offer on each:

Since Google is only testing with a select group of partners, I’m sure it won’t be long before they have video AdSense spread throughout Google Video and YouTube. It will be interesting to see when the program is released to the public and what type of earnings we might see.

Since starting this blog, I have been testing the "Review Me" and "PayPerPost" market places and seeing what type of quality reviews are being performed. Usually you get what you pay for, but there have been some surprises along the way. One of the first sites I requested a blog review from was Kumiko’s Cash Quest. For only $40, this was a great review, she took the time to add images and post her opinions on other sections of the site. Another great review was from John Chow. Since John Chow has a large following and some heavy traffic to his blog, this review cost $300, but was worth it. Like Kumiko’s review, John Chow also listed the ZacJohnson.com logo and went into detail about the blog and many of it’s posts. In addition to the write up, he was able to send a decent amount of traffic and new readers as well.

Kumiko and John Chow were two great blogs to get reviews from, but unfortunately you will come across some bad reviews or low quality ones. The other day I was in Review Me looking for some new high ranking blogs to review my blog. I saw a listing for NicheGeek.com (Alexa: 29,977), the review price was $150. I decided to add this site to my cart and waited to see how the review went. A couple days later I receive an email telling me that my review from the site is now live. Anxious and excited to see what was written, I immediately went to the site. You can read firsthand the original blog post here, then refer to below for my "review" of the review.

In the first portion of the review (shown above), Dmriti Davydov writes how he comes across a decent amount of interesting people through review me orders. After his intro, it seems Dmriti is making the accusation that I am not a so-called "super affiliate", based on AOJon’s blog post. (which briefly states…"Monthly affiliate marketing revenues should be no less than $250k a month (revenue, not profit)…. Annual profits should be no less than $1 million based on your total affiliate marketing revenues"). I don’t know why Dmriti would assume that I do not meet super affiliate status … if he was to fully read through the blog (as one would expect a reviewer to do), it is made clear that I have published figures to back this up. Not to mention, I feel super affiliates come in all different sizes and variations. What about the smaller affiliate networks and programs… if their top affiliate is making $50,000 a month in commissions, they are definitely considered a "super affiliate" among the other affiliates within the network.

In this section, Dmriti writes about my network of sites and the fact that I have indeed paid out a decent amount of money to affiliates over the years. After reading the review over a couple times, I thought to myself… why was Dmriti questioning whether I was a "self-proclaimed" super affiliate, and then post that I have paid out over a million dollars in commissions to affiliates of my own. Wouldn’t this just further justify super affiliate status?

Dmriti’s next section talks about how the blog has too much personality too it and that the blog has too little "affiliate marketing" information. True, I do make personal posts… but if I am not for letting the blog reader know who I am as well as what I do, I might as well just write an ebook, sell it for $97 and not care what my blog readers get. I’m here to provide useful information to help you make money… while giving you a glimpse of who I am. (Funny, Dmriti’s comment on "too little specific content" is exactly my take on his review of my blog.) As for mergers, Jim Cramer and stock related posts… these are still all related. Most people making money online are also interested in what might be happening with the companies that feed them. You may also be looking for information on how to invest your money, I’m providing you with real life figures from Jim Cramer’s program and my person portfolio.

Lastly, Dmriti wants me to start posting my monthly income figures and how much I make off the blog, (like John Chow does), rather than just claims of being a super affiliate. Unfortunately for me, but good for you… I don’t have ads blasted all over the site, and am not looking to make money off the blog right now. I want to provide useful content and help you make money. Since the blog itself isn’t here to make me money, I have no figures to post. As for other income sources, I have plenty and have mentioned several… posts of checks, Affiliate Fuel Review and AuctionAds Performance to list a few. To end the review, Dmriti says it may be a bit premature to do any forecasting on the blog (despite his negative comments)… but has a feeling I will become popular and join the ranks of numerous internet marketing gurus.

What bothered me most about the blog review was not it’s negative comments (all positive reviews do little to improve your blog), but the lack of "specific content" as Dmriti refers to it, and research done by the reviewer. For $150 I was hoping for a more in-depth review and not so much a comparison to other posts or a review on how I am not up to "super affiliate" status.

Why did I write this post? You might think that I wrote this post to let out some anger or disgust from the review, but it’s completely the opposite. I don’t want YOU to have someone review your site and post something similar to this review and get you discouraged. Quality criticism is a great thing! Superficial criticism on the other hand rarely helps improve anything. John Chow had a review done the other day on a money making program. He ripped the site apart and told everyone how to make money, but also how the guy running the site was making his money off the site. Not only did the post focus attention on his site, but the post also received almost 200 reply comments. The owner of the site even posted a comment, saying thanks for the publicity !

As I was putting the finishing touches on this blog entry I received an additional review me from another popular blog, which I signed up for the same time as Dmriti’s review. This review, while also costing me $150, provided details evidencing that the reviewer had thoroughly looked over the blog. This review me also started out with a healthy dose of skepticism (as all review me’s should) regarding "just another blog" from a self proclaimed "super affiliate", but then relied on the actual blog information/data to form his own conclusions.   

As a valued blog reader, please post your comments to this post and let me know if you feel the same way as this reviewer, what type of review me experiences you have had? (the good, the bad… and even the ugly!)

I’m going to try and start focusing on writing up some reviews of individual ad networks that I used to work with and still do a lot of business with. Today I’m going to do a review on Affiliate Fuel. I signed up to Affiliate Fuel back in August of 2001. At this time I was heavily focusing on the free stuff marketing and building opt-in email lists for free stuff promotions. Networks like Affiliate Fuel have a lot of offers targeted to this niche area.

From the screenshot above you will see that Affiliate Fuel has a lot of different offers targeted towards many different categories. What’s really great about Affiliate Fuel is that they had/have a lot of unique offers available that most of the other network don’t. You will find some very high quality offers like BowFlex, Scholastic, Zoobooks and more, along with some of the highest payouts as well. Some other networks might have 200-400 different offers for you to choose from, but might not offer the same high quality advertisers and offers.

Since joining Affiliate Fuel back in 2001 I have done a decent amount of revenue with them, and I would consider them one of my better affiliate networks partnerships. Below you will find a monthly revenue chart of my activity with Affiliate Fuel from 2001 through 2004.

Fluctuations in the chart simply are from choosing different offers from Affiliate Fuel and offers from other networks. This may also be from new offers that went live and performed very well. Business models change and around mid-2004 I wasn’t focusing on the free stuff market or mailing lists as much anymore, so my activity with Affiliate Fuel also diminished. I previously wrote a post about "Why do Affiliate Networks Let Super Affiliates Leave?". I feel like Affiliate Fuel could fall into this article as well. After averaging six figures for two years with Affiliate Fuel, then only pushing $5000+ in 2004, I was amazed they were not more concerned about keeping the same activity we used to have. While I was producing high volume with them every month they were awesome, and always offering advice on new offers and commission boosts with volume… but except for an email here or there and they didn’t seem too concerned with the loss of my account activity. I would occasionally talk to them over email, but nothing came up that changed my activity with them.

Even though I am not still making a lot of money with Affiliate Fuel, I have made a lot with them. It seems that Affiliate Fuel does not get the exposure and credit it should, compared to the other big networks out there. I would highly recommend you signing up for their program and see what offers might start making you money. Payment, stats tracking and support have never been an issue. I’ve even met with this guys a few times at Ad:Tech!

Let me know if you are running Affiliate Fuel or have any other questions. I’d love to see every start making a few extra bucks!