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Maintaining Subtlety in Social Media and Affiliate Marketing

The development of social media has been a huge boon in the world of affiliate marketing. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter make it easier for affiliate marketers to reach out to larger audiences, often with a noticeably smaller time commitment. However, some marketers fail to understand that simply logging in to a social network will not ensure success.

Social media is a tool that can be used to make great gains in the field of affiliate marketing. But as in any type of tool, the misuse of social media can bring about some terrible results. Unfortunately, a number of affiliates are privy to a variety of mistakes while advertising on social networks. Over time, seemingly small mistakes can cost affiliates big time.

While audiences are able to look past certain mistakes, there is one thing that they are rarely willing to forgive: excessive enthusiasm. This concept may initially seem counter-intuitive. Aren’t affiliate marketers supposed to remain positive at all times? The answer is yes, affiliates should maintain a positive outlook in their dealings with present and future customers. But there is a big difference between displaying a positive demeanor and browbeating audiences with a message.

There’s an old cliche that bears repeating: “It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.” This cliche certainly applies to affiliate marketing. Two different affiliates can provide the exact same message and get completely different results. The content of the message is not nearly as important as the delivery. And the right amount of subtlety is everything when it comes to providing a decent delivery.

The problem with social media is that it leaves less room for mistakes. There is a lot less room for recovery in a Tweet or a Facebook status than there is in a blog post. On Twitter, you only have 140 characters available to get your message out there. There is little room for mistakes. While a direct and concise message is a necessity on Facebook and Twitter, it does not give you license to be brash. This will only turn visitors off of your site. Instead, you’ll have to work all the harder to craft a message that is both direct and subtle.

Subtlety is most needed when inserting links into text. On a blog or website, it is easy to get links in the right place without giving visitors the wrong impression. This is a little harder on a Twitter feed, where there is less room to work. Instead of turning your Twitter account into a big advertising feed, simply use the site to post links to your blog or website. Use the Twitter or Facebook page to introduce the topic that will be covered on the blog. If visitors like what they see on your blogs, they’ll be more willing to click through the ads.

A modicum of subtlety is helpful in any business, but this is especially true for affiliate marketing. Don’t just fire off random links and tell visitors to click on them; provide some sort of material that will interest them. Social media works best with affiliate marketing when it is used as a tool for gathering audiences. Use that tool carefully and you’ll find yourself with a targeted audience that is willing to listen to what you have to say.

Affiliate Marketing Post-Panda: How to Thrive in the New Affiliate Marketing World

Did Google’s “Panda” update destroy the Internet? For some affiliate marketers, it appears so. After Panda, many successful affiliate marketers suddenly found their rankings tanking, and as a result their income dropping. Yet, others are still thriving, and even bringing in greater numbers than before the change. Understanding Panda and what these changes mean is the key to thriving in the new world governed by Google.

Who Was Hurt by Panda?

The Panda update was designed to make search results more useful to the user. Before Panda, all you had to do to get site after site filled with Google ads and weak content was search a popular keyword string. It took several clicks or advanced searching techniques to find the quality content you wanted. Panda changed this, because the new algorithm lowers the ranking for sites with thin content, while sites with relevant, quality content soared to the top. For the user, this was a welcome change. For the affiliate marketer relying on poor content, the change destroyed a once lucrative income stream.

How to Thrive in Post-Panda Affiliate Marketing

If your affiliate sites were hurt by Panda, all hope is not lost. With a few changes to your marketing and content, you can improve your rank again and start bringing in profit. Panda did not kill affiliate marketing, but your poorly written site is hurting your efforts. A few tweaks and a change in focus is what you need to thrive post-Panda.

Focus on engaging, authoritative content. Content that contains research, analysis, and reports is going to rank better than rehashed gibberish. Original content is also essential. If your content is similar or identical to the content on several other sites, even if they are your sites, you need to change it.

Remove low quality pages. Take the time to analyze the various pages to find those with a huge drop in traffic. Separate the pages with high-quality, unique content from those with auto-generated pages, placing the poorer quality pages on a separate section that is blocked from crawling or deleting them altogether. You may find that your ranking improves drastically in a very short period of time with this step.

Optimize your site for social media outlets. Do you have Twitter and Facebook share buttons on your articles? If you do not, add them to make it easy for your readers to share the posts you are writing. Google is watching the social media giants to see what users are viewing as relevant content, so the more ways you give your readers to share your web pages, the better your results will be. Of course, getting shares from readers requires valuable, engaging content.

For years, content has been king on the Internet, and in reality Panda has not changed this. Content is still king, but affiliate marketers can no longer push their sites to the top with cheap, auto-generated, or copied content. Instead, the content Panda awards is unique, authoritative, and relevant. In the end, by focusing on making the content that Panda will like, you will turn your page into a trusted resource, and this will only increase your affiliate marketing income.

Navigating the Tricky Terrain of Affiliate Marketing in Social Media

Affiliate marketing may be a simple concept, but like anything that’s worth doing, there are subtle complexities behind its successful execution. The explosion in growth of social media has made affiliate marketing easier than ever, technically speaking. You now have a broad diversity of platforms that you can utilize to achieve your aims–but this is all the more reason to tread carefully. Remember, the operative word in social media is “social.” And if there’s one great truth about affiliate marketing, it’s that the instant your motives are recognized as purely financial, all bets are off. Here are a few tips to help you navigate the tricky terrain of affiliate marketing in social media.

Stick with what you know. One of the most effective inroads to successful affiliate marketing is by working with companies that offer services or sell products that you actually know something about, and can discuss with authority. In other words, if you have a music blog or a website dedicated to the discussion of contemporary music, it makes a lot more sense to become an affiliate for Amazon.com than, say, an online merchant that specializes in wholesale medical supplies. This underlines the importance of staying relevant when picking your affiliate partners.

Stand behind your partners. This doesn’t mean that you have to take a blanket approach to the support of your affiliate partners. And it certainly doesn’t mean that you have to start using the products and services of the companies you’re engaged in a partnership with. But it does mean that you should do your homework. Never enter into a business relationship with any person or company that you’re not completely confident in, and that you wouldn’t want your brand associated with. Doing otherwise could come back to bite you.

Be up front. The last thing any of your Twitter followers or Facebook friends want to find out is that you’ve been hawking other people’s wares in exchange for a commission, and not because you were making an honest recommendation out of the kindness of your heart. If they do, they’re likely to un-friend you fast. This kind of reaction by your online followers might seem petty–but in the world of social media, pettiness has a tendency to rear its ugly head from time to time. Be aware of these dynamics. More importantly, be sensitive to them by disclosing your affiliations clearly.

Don’t let your affiliate marketing goals take over. There’s a delicate balance that has to be achieved in order to really make affiliate marketing work for you. The reason that it works so well for some people is because they have the ability (whether instinctive, taught, or picked up along the way) to pull it off without turning their website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed into the equivalent of a commercial feed. In order to accomplish that, you’ve got to keep a good amount of humanity and personality in your social marketing profiles. If all you ever do is fire off links to irrelevant services and products, your audience will tune out.

AffCon2010 Denver Agenda Posted

Earlier today we posted the preliminary agenda for AffCon2010 Denver, June 21st through 23rd at the Colorado Convention Center.

Building on the success of WebmasterRadio.FM’s experience in building an affiliate convention, we are expecting a larger, more dynamic show than we’ve been involved with in the past. We’re trying out new approaches with several of the sessions. The goal is to create a more direct and actionable experience for attendees, vendors, sponsors and presenters.

Though we expect increased attendance, we want to allow for more interaction between speakers and audience during sessions.

AffCon2010 Denver will be organized in three unique tracks, Marketing, Technology and Business, with eight topics addressed by each track. More basic sessions are featured at the start of the agenda with advanced sessions towards the end. Most of the sessions will be delivered by moderated panels but many are designed to be more interactive.

Some sessions, like the One on One Site and Campaign Clinics and the Lead Gen Super-Charged will be held in breakout group format in which we place a set of experts at the head table in a room and they begin tearing apart attendee volunteered sites, to help them better understand how they should be building their sites for maximum conversion & monetization.

Others, such as the Affiliate Ethics Round Table and the Final Debate Panel will be organized as town-hall style debates with audience participation welcome through out. The Final Debate Panel that closes out this affiliate convention will be fueled by two days of high level information and networking and two or three container trucks of free beer. Ok, maybe not that much beer!

AffCon2010 is a part of an on-going series of welcoming, community events for everyone from grassroots affiliates to network CEOs. From top level education and skill sharing sessions to premier networking opportunities, to attend a convention for affiliates that is geared to give you the greatest convention experience and an extraordinary value at a zero cost is absolutely unheard of.

Registration is now open. Working affiliates always attend AffCon2010 for free. For non-affiliates, the earlier you register, the better the discount you can receive.

Join us at AffCon2010 Denver, June 21st- 23rd at the Colorado Convention Center.

Greg Niland and Frank Watson Search for Solutions on WebmasterRadio.FM

Two more of the long-term legends of search engine marketing are coming to WebmasterRadio.FM starting next week.

Greg Niland (GoodROI.com) and Frank Watson (Smart-Keywords.com), are teaming up to present Search for Solutions debuting Monday February 1 at 7pm ET/4pm PT.

Greg Niland (aka GoodROI) was the original host of Good Karma which aired on WebmasterRadio.FM from December 2005 until December 2007. An active member of the Internet Marketers of New York and avid organizer of IMNY charity events, Greg is one of the swiftest search marketers in the world.

Frank Watson (aka AussieWebmaster), is well known in the SEO, PPC and affiliate marketing communities. He is also a staple speaker on the web marketing conference tour making frequent appearances at Search Engine Strategies and Affiliate Convention events. He is a writer, educator, lecturer and one hell of a fine web marketer. His columns can be read regularly at Search Engine Watch.

Greg and Frank will have a free wheeling sort of show where they will take and pose difficult questions on search marketing and the business of being a working webmaster. With nearly three decades of experience between them, Greg and Frank are enormous additions to the WebmasterRadio.FM family of show hosts.

Tune into Search for Solutions, weekly on WebmasterRadio.FM starting Monday February 1, 2010 at 7pm ET, 4pm PT or download podcasts from the WebmasterRadio.FM archives, from iTunes, or from other fine podcast distribution outlets.

Thoughts on a Year that will Change Everything

2010 is a officially one week old. By Internet-time standards it feels like a month has passed. Only eight days into the new year and the foundations of a new Net have already been poured, smoothed and hardened. Looking forward to new ways of accessing the Web, we know that eight or nine months from now the landscape we perceive will be very different than it is today.

A full generation has grown up digital. For the twenty-somethings of today, there is no “new technology” involved in mobile computing. Like Postman’s toaster, it has always been thus and is only getting better. There really is no “adoption” of new technologies or techniques among this cohort. Adaption has been the way of the 20-somethings for as long as they can remember, which is of course, forever. The earliest of this generation are rounding the corner on 30. Their time has come and they are driving transformation.

In the good ol’ days of the ’80s, style makers drove transformation for the hipsters. Today, geeks are hip and true geeks don’t require the services of style makers.

The most important transformation, the move from large computing devices to hand-held devices is already taking place. A number of factors allow us to access the full spectrum of the Web from anywhere one can get a 3G signal.

Cloud storage puts our personal data beyond the realm of the transportable and into the realm of the ethereal. Cloud computing gives us the ability to make that data functional with software running on a server separate from the access device. These innovations allow portable devices to grow smaller yet more powerful.

The next factor in this transformation comes from the wisdom of the technorati, the digital elite. If Internet intellectuals learned one lesson in the last decade it was this: “The masses control the content. Let them.” One of the reasons the iPhone is so successful is it is so damn useful. The main reason it is so damn useful is the thousands of applications created by the masses themselves that allow individual users to trick-out their devices to best suit their needs. A great product which is able to allow its users to make it infinitely greater at zero expense to the manufacturer. Everyone is special and everyone wins! Such a model could never work in that backwater of industrial manufacturing known as GM.

Mobile devices are now virtual Swiss Army knives. The introduction of the iPhone was the spark of a revolutionary series of innovations which resulted in this week’s unveiling of the great game-changer, the Google Phone.

The first decade of the 21st century was very very good for Google. The second decade looks to be even better. If Google plays its cards right, it could unquestionably dominate digital communications in a couple of years. The Google Phone really is that important to them.

Google has nearly perfected cloud computing for office productivity and personal use. While products like Google Wave and Google Docs appear to have a long way to go to meet the functionality and versatility of Microsoft’s Office suite, those shortcomings will be made up for in convenience while latent bugs are being squashed by super-genius technologists. Able to run the full range of Google productivity products with highly subsidized services, the G-Phone will likely replace the iPhone as the dominant mobile device over the coming couple years.

Apple, while threatened, doesn’t really need to worry too much about Google. In Apple’s two way race mentality, Google merely replaces Microsoft as dominant competitor. Apple is expected to release a Tablet Computing device by the end of January. Like the iPhone before it, this Tablet is thought to be a game-changer. More on that when it is unveiled.

Microsoft seems intent on addressing the bigbox devices. At the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft’s anticipated Windows 7 for mobile was a no-show. They did score a huge win with Xbox applications but Xbox is not terribly portable and certainly not designed for business. The closest Microsoft gets in credibly addressing portable computing is their collaboration with HP on a “Slate” computer running Windows7 which CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated during his keynote on Wednesday.

Everything is about to get a lot more personal, especially in marketing. The thing to understand about mobile access and cloud computing is that the service providers know a lot more about individual users than traditional ISPs do. Digital marketing is going to be so heavily influenced by personal choices, the only true measurement of success will be based on performance, not placement. It’s about to become even more about driving relevant traffic in the hopes of making conversions.

The online marketing world is going to undergo fundamental changes as both advertising and query responses become more personalized. An interesting area to watch will be brand based advertising and marketing. While large brands have enormous ad-budgets, those budgets have tended to be focused through fewer hands. That tendency shifted somewhat during the age of search placement marketing but, as consumers are accessing information from smaller, more focused devices, the focus of larger networks such as Google and Yahoo! are sighted on large brands.

For traditional SEO shops, that means reinvention or, more appropriately, adaptation. Savvy search marketers began shifting their focus before 2008 from strictly offering SEO and PPC services to presenting suites of services, “wholistic” digital marketing. This is the year such efforts will pay off as terrestrial advertisers continue to cross into the digital stream.

2010 feels good to write. 2009 is a collection of numbers holding way to much distasteful baggage to be written without a foul feeling on one’s fingers. 2010 feels fresh, new, invigorated and expansive. A new frontier opens with all massive changes. This week, we saw the first face of that new frontier with more known to be coming in weeks. Frontiers offer opportunity and unbridled hope along with innumerable challenges. There is never any certainty when writing about the future however in 2010 one prediction is certainly a foregone conclusion. 2010 is the year we change the way we relate to information. It is going to be interesting.

Affiliate Convention Los Angeles 2009 Coverage

WebmasterRadio.FM’s Affiliate Convention LA took over the gorgeous Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City California last week. From Wednesday until Saturday, the luxury hotel was filled with some of the finest minds from the affiliate marketing sector. Organized by WebmasterRadio.FM and AffEuro, Affiliate Convention LA was another very good show.

Here is some of our coverage from Affiliate Covention LA gathered by Shawna Fennell, David Szetela, Wade Sisson and Jim Hedger, along with our recordings of the keynote addresses by Danny Sullivan and Tim Ash.

Danny Sullivan Affiliate Convention LA 2009 Keynote Conversation
Daron Babin interviews Danny Sullivan about The State of Search and Affiliate Marketing in this keynote conversation from Affiliate Convention Los Angeles 2009.

Tim Ash Affiliate Convention LA 2009 Keynote
Site Tuners CEO Tim Ash delivers his Affiliate Convention 2009 Los Angeles Keynote to discuss How To Repel Super Affiliates With Crappy Landing Pages.

Black Hat White Hat SEO AffCon 2009 LA Panel
Black Hat versus White Hat: Shades of Gray? Listen into this discussion with panelists Greg Boser, Founder of 3 Dog Media; Patrick Sexton Founder of GetListed ; Pierre Zarokian of Submit Express and Scott Polk of Scott Polk Consulting.

Lead Generation Strategies
Adam Haber CEO of InsuranceQuotes.com discusses his panel presentation at Affiliate Convention Los Angeles 2009 on Lead Generation Strategies.

Ashley Madison Video Game
Learn about Bonetown and find about a new video game they are developing for online personals site AshleyMadison.com

Affiliate Tax Issues in 2010
Brook Schaaf, Founder of Schaaf Consulting discusses his Affiliate Convention Los Angeles 2009 presentation on the Affiliate Tax situation, Looking Forward through 2010

Ashley Madison Features Tiger Woods in Ad Campaign
Evan Back, Vice President of Sales of Ashley Madison Agency, speaks about his Affiliate Convention LA 2009 panel on Affiliate Marketing in the Dating Space, including how they have incorporated the Tiger Woods scandal into a new ad campaign.

Performance Based Affiliates
NDemand Affiliates is a performance-based affiliate network aimed at offering a better solution to internet Affiliates, and Mike Pacheco tells us all about it.

Being a Professional Affiliate Marketer
Partner Centric CEO Linda Woods discusses her participation on the Affiliate Marketing 101 panel at Affiliate Convention LA 09, and more specifically how to be a better affiliate marketer by being a better professional.

Net Guides Publishing President James Martell
Net Guides Publishing President James Martell who offers educational products to those wanting to start their own home based publishing businesses, is profiled on his works including the Affiliate Marketers Handbook, Affiliate Marketing Boot Camp and more.

Social Media Marketing and Affiliates
Jordan Kasteler of Search and Social discusses his participation on the Affiliate Convention Los Angeles 2009 panel where social media experts take a well rounded view of social media marketing and affiliates.

Super Affiliate To Affiliate: Best Advice for Growth
Super Affiliate Handbook Author Rosalind Gardner discusses her thought about speaking for the first time from AffCon LA 2009 on the Super Affiliate To Affiliate: Best Advice for Growth panel.

Insurance Recession Effects
Sean Cheyney is the vice president of marketing and business development for AccuQuote. Sean discusses how the recession has affected their business and those of their competitors.

Artificial Intelligence Chat Marketing
Upsellit.com is the original artificial intelligence chat marketing solution. We hear from Brian and Max from UpSellIt on location from Affiliate Convention LA 2009.

Affiliate Convention returns to our summer home, Denver, in mid-June. Thanks to everyone involved in Affiliate Convention Los Angeles.

Danny Sullivan to Speak at Affiliate Convention

Danny Sullivan, one of the founding fathers of the search engine marketing industry, will appear as a speaker and panelist at the upcoming Affiliate Convention Los Angeles, on December 3 – 4. He is scheduled to appear on an interactive site clinic on Thursday December 3rd.

Danny is the editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, head moderator of the online marketing social network Sphinn, co-chair of the extremely popular Search Marketing Expo series of conferences and trade-shows, and a partner in Third Door Media. Previously, Danny was the founder of Search Engine Watch and the Search Engine Strategies conference and trade-show series.

Danny also hosted the Daily Searchcast on WebmasterRadio.FM for several years. His writing originally popularized and explained search marketing both to the public and virtually every active search marketer. He is without a doubt the most oft’ quoted expert in search engine marketing and one of the most respected individuals in the industry.

Danny Sullivan joins a growing number of A-list experts from the affiliate and online marketing sectors to speak at Affiliate Convention Los Angeles. Among the other A-list speakers appearing at Affiliate Convention Los Angeles are, Tim Ash (SiteTuners), David Szetela (Clix Marketing), Heather Paulson (PMG), Shai Pritz (Unique Leads), Brent D. Payne (Tribune Company), Marshall Simmonds (New York Times), Shawna Fennell (1choice4yourstore), and Cindy Krum (Rank Mobile).

If you’re going to Affiliate Convention, Danny’s presence on the interactive site clinic is not to be missed. Please follow this link for more information on registering for Affiliate Convention.

Affiliate Convention Exceeds Expectations

“Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it…” WebmasterRadio.FM, along with AffEuro wished to throw a convention for Affiliate marketers in Denver. To make things more complicated, the idea was to make the convention free for affiliate marketers to attend.

We wanted to throw a good first show. We needed to see five to six hundred people move past the door, numbers we would have considered a victory. We had hoped everyone would have a good time. Nervously approaching the opening of our first major convention, the organizers of Affiliate Convention fretted our way through the first day of social events working at a fevered last minute pace to put everything else we could think of in its proper place.

We were nervous and there wasn’t nearly enough time to do the number of things that needed doing. By the time we rolled into the absolutely wild Affiliate.com, WickedFire, Shoemoney and GetAds party figuring the Convention would function. We knew we had good speakers and a good information line-up. We knew the organizational end was ready from registration to break-down. Fred Rumsey and Nomad provided our AV foundation so we knew that was well covered.

It was what we didn’t know that scared us. Though we knew how many had registered but we had no real idea how many actual people would actually attend. The price was FREE, a cost often taken with little to no commitment on the part of the person paying. Registering was easy, attending was a bit harder. We had no idea what was about to take place…

A large crowd stood in front of the venue, milling about the door smoking, talking and trying to deal with the party happening inside. I’m not going to write about the party happening inside. Suffice it to say the opening night event was one of the wildest industry parties I’ve had the pleasure of attending. What got us was the numbers. I walked over to the bouncer to ask if everyone in and around the building was associated with Affiliate Convention. “This is a private party sir. Everyone here is from the convention.” He might have thought he was turning me away but at that moment, I knew we had smashed far past our earlier expectations. It was going to work!

Everything seemed to work right. The inaugural Affiliate Convention was a tremendous success. Over a thousand affiliates walked through the door, past a small (soon to grow, no doubt) but excited trade show floor and into one of three concurrent sessions. Attendance in most sessions was high and folks have been heard saying good things about the speakers. One session in particular, Tim Ash’s was so over-attended he had to hold a second one.

Too many things happened to specifically mention them all in one post. I have a lot of thank-yous to write both personally and in this blog. For now, on behalf of everyone at WebmasterRadio.FM and the other organizers of the first Affiliate Convention, an enormous and emotional THANK YOU to everyone who participated, sponsored, attended, spoke and/or otherwise assisted in making the Convention a success beyond the show we wished for. The next one will be even better.

Follow this link to hear the files we broadcast live from Affiliate Convention. More files from the show coming soon.

Affiliate Convention – One more day for free registration

Next week’s inaugural Affiliate Convention is shaping up to be a great conference. The speakers list is full, the keynote presentations are ready and the vast majority of the heavy lifting on the part of the organizers is complete.

When we started planning Affiliate Convention, one of WebmasterRadio.FM’s most important goals was to make the convention free to all working affiliates. WebmasterRadio.FM has a long and extremely proud history of bringing the best information to webmasters, Internet marketers and others in the online B2B marketspace. We take the same philosophy into all our endeavors in the hopes of building a stronger and more unified industry.

As much as we love giving stuff away for free, there has to be a cut-off point to allow us time to make lists and check them twice. For Affiliate Convention, that cut-off point comes tomorrow at the end of the business day (pacific-time).

If you are interested in attending Affiliate Convention for free, sign up in the next 24-hours!

Sign-up for a free pass to Affiliate Convention here.

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