Ad HustlerConfessions Of A Serial Internet Entrepreneur

It’s been years since Tracking202/Prosper202 was released.  If you were around when this tracking software first hit the market you already know how revolutionary it was.  They originally released Tracking202 and then people cried about how they were collecting data so they released Prosper202 to prove they weren’t.  Wes and his team have always been really good guys even if they’ve made some mistakes along the way.

Tracking202 has announced that they will be releasing a version 2.0 of the popular tracking software that will have a slicker interface and more features for tracking all sorts of campaigns.  I’m not 100% sure if they are releasing only a Tracking 202 update or a Prosper202 update as well.  I hope they added a sick offer rotator, faster interface when you have a lot of data and a way to easily add extensions to a prosper install.  I’m psyched to see it and wanted to share the link to get beta access to the release.

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Google is one of the most popular and successful online advertising systems on earth.  In the past they only offered traditional pricing models for ads (cost per click & cost per thousand impressions).  In a first move towards un-traditional Google pricing they are offering a product called Google Tags.  What these tags appear to be are upgrades to Google Places accounts.  Traditionally all Google Places listings look pretty much the same.  They show up in traditional search as well as on Google Maps searches.  Google Tags seem to offer higher visibility to the Google Places listings.  I would compare this best to old phone book listings.  In the phone book if you want your listing in bold or in a square or whatever you pay a premium to do so.  Google Places listings themselves are free but by adding a tag you can highlight important information you want a consumer to see about your business.  The cost is a flat rate of $25 per month.

I personally think it’s an interesting product to offer.  I don’t see it as super useful to most people but to businesses who depend on Google Places listings for their traffic it could very well be worth the investment.  I know some affiliates use Google Places so this product might be an interesting one to know about.  The big downside I see is that all the snakeoil local search & SEO salesman are going to come out and attack local businesses saying they can get them on Google for $100 per month FLAT RATE.  They’ll just sell them a Tag and technically they won’t be lying.  This should further confuse local mom and pop shops.

Have you tried Tags?

More info about Google Tags

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It’s just about Thanksgiving time which is one of my favorite holidays. The cool air, the family, the food…you just can’t beat it.  We all have a lot to be thankful for.  We work in an industry we love where there is growth unlike a lot of other sectors which are experiencing record declines.

For the last couple of years i’ve tried to do things for other less fortunate families at Thanksgiving time.  If you recall last years post Flagged & Removed For Christmas I bought a family that couldn’t afford it a full Thanksgiving dinner.  This year i’m sponsoring 2 families and buying them complete Thanksgiving dinners and all the trimmings.  This post isn’t meant to brag because in fact I never much cared what people thought of me.  The purpose of writing this is simple.

If you have the means I’d like to ask that you do something similar.  It’s not that expensive and can really lift a families spirits.  I don’t really like formal charities for a number of reasons.  Actions like these are a more direct way of helping people in your community.  We don’t need more government programs and increased taxes to help people; we just need to go out there and do it!

Are you with me?

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The cornerstone of lead generation campaigns is the form on the page.  Forms tend to be a pain in the ass to create from scratch and an even bigger pain to get them to look exactly how you want.  For instance if you have a really intricately designed landing page with a specific weird shaped area for the form.  I prefer form builders to build the form itself outside of the landing page and then import it later.  Other specifications I need is the ability for the form to

• Log the form inputs to a database or csv file
• Validation
• Custom output emails to deliver the leads in different formats
• Drag and Drop design for intricate landing pages
• Lots and lots of options
• Ability to post to 3rd party form processors
• Ability to design the form to an exact pixel height/width

There are 2 main form builder programs that i’m using right now:

CoffeeCup Form Builder – I like this app but it’s not currently my favorite.  It’s cheap and it works great.  It’s biggest negative has always been that the forms are in flash.  This causes issues with some browsers and mobile devices.  It’s a good starting point if your getting started with forms.  Free demo available.

Simfatic Forms – I just found this program a few days ago.  A free demo was available and I ended up buying the full version within a few minutes of trying the program.  It does everything Coffeecup does and more.  The forms are also NOT IN FLASH which solves the flash issue.  Simfatic has TONS of options and is really easy to use.  I just did a landing page with it and it made the form aspect a snap.

Forms are such an important aspect to internet marketing yet not often discussed.  What form building and processing utilities do you like?  Let’s discuss!

This was NOT a paid post.  All opinions are the opinion of Ad Hustler and no compensation was received for mentioning the above products.

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So in Part I & Part II of the “Stop Being So Selfish” trilogy I covered how affiliates and advertisers are both selfish and how that selfishness fuels the fire for each party to screw each other.  There is a huge missing link to this equation.  As most of you know the affiliate rarely deals directly with the advertiser and the same is true in reverse.  Let’s talk a bit about selfishness by the affiliate networks.

Affiliate networks are a middle man.  A middle man’s job is to add value (perceived or tangible) to both parties they are in the middle of.  In my opinion, here are the most basic of responsibilities that the affiliate network has to each party:

The Affiliate

• Pay out on-time assuming all posted rules were followed
• Provide a reliable tracking mechanism (Make sure ALL leads/sales are tracked)
• Bring campaigns to the affiliates to run

The Advertiser

• Make sure advertiser goals are met
• Make sure affiliates are running in compliance with the advertisers requests
• Fraud prevention
• Handle payment to affiliates

So where does the affiliate networks allegiance lie? Well….they are taking a percent of what the affiliates make but at the same time, that money is being paid by the advertiser.  Without the advertiser there is no money coming in and without the affiliate there is no percentage to take (unless they are running campaigns in-house which is a whole other topic).  You would think that as a middle man they would be looking out for both parties but often times they are only looking out for one; THEMSELVES!

Here are some ways in which affiliate networks can be selfish:

1. To the affiliate: “We can’t pay you because we haven’t been paid by the advertiser yet!” – 1 of the 3 basic responsibilities you have to the affiliate is to pay them on time regardless of if the advertiser pays you or not.  The affiliate has NO CONTROL over what advertisers you are bringing in, their credit risk or ability to pay.  The affiliate works with a network because they TRUST that NETWORK, they know nothing about the advertisers.  I don’t care what it says in your TOS, paying the affiliate on-time every-time is your job.
2. To the advertiser:  Looking the other way when affiliates run un-compliant by the advertisers requests.  After all it’s in the affiliate networks best interest for the affiliate to make more money.
3. To the affiliate: Not doing anything about shaving – Shaving can be hard to prove but if it’s blatant something has to be done.  It’s not fair to the affiliate to be driving in traffic that is CONVERTING and they just don’t see tracking.  The only way to control this would be for affiliate networks to stop working with advertisers who shave OR require that the landing page be hosted by the affiliate network so they have control over whether or not shaving is going on.
4. To the affiliate: Shaving by the network.  We all know this happens.  Affiliate networks can’t throw those big baller parties off pennies you know.
5. To the advertisers: Changing affiliates ID numbers so the advertiser thinks it’s a different affiliate running their offer even though the traffic isn’t backing out for them.

Those are just a few of the things affiliate networks do that are selfish.

Affiliate networks aren’t evil.  Not all affiliate networks are selfish.  The network is a necessary part of the equation but I think that often times they should be better looking out for both parties then just looking out for themselves.

Affiliate marketing has a lot more issues revolving around greed & selfishness then is covered in my part I, part II & part III of this series.  I hope that by publishing these 3 posts some of the parties involved start to clean up their act and focus on a long-term business mentality rather then short-term profits.  No one is perfect, but we can all try to do look out for each other a little more.

Agreed?

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