Ad HustlerConfessions Of A Serial Internet Entrepreneur

AIM Conversation:

Ad Hustler: hey {AM NAME} where in the system is {OFFER NAME} i dont see it and i may try something with it
Affiliate Manager: hey
Affiliate Manager: i have to get your own link set up for you
Affiliate Manager: what kind of traffic
Ad Hustler: thinkin of {TRAFFIC TYPE}
Ad Hustler: anyone doin well with that?
Affiliate Manager: ahh
Affiliate Manager: can’t run in {TRAFFIC TYPE}
Ad Hustler: ahh ok

Listen, if an offer doesn’t accept a certain traffic type, that’s cool, and I respect the advertisers wishes.  Doesn’t sales 101 say that you would suggest to me a similar offer that DOES accept my traffic type to try to get me to run SOMETHING with you?  I haven’t ran with this network since my old AM left so you would think they would try to get me to run again.  This was the end of the conversation.  Some affiliate managers take their affiliate relationships for granted and it can bite them in the ass.  Your job as an affiliate manager isn’t to just answer a simple question, it’s to try to solve the affiliates problem as best you can.  That’s what differentiates an average affiliate manager from a GREAT affiliate manager.

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I’ve owned a successful ecommerce site since before I even knew what affiliate marketing was.  One thing i’ve always done is offered extremely limited support.  My site has no phone number you can call and only a contact form.  The honest reason for this is that I never thought there was much of a need to deal with idiots asking idiotic questions on a daily basis.  It always seemed like it would be a waste of time since at one point I worked for an ecommerce site and answered the phone calls and saw first hand how idiotic they were.  Don’t get me wrong, we offer excellent service.  You get exactly what you order, delivered quickly and we accept all returns.  We under-promise and over-deliver on every order and that has lead to a very loyal customer base.

I was ordering something from another website and saw a live help popup.  It asked me if i had any questions and indeed I did so I typed my question and got live help.  I was impressed with the service and decided to look into the software that was hosting the live help popup.  It was a company called Olark.  I found it was really easy to install, full of features and cheap so a marketing test was born.  I decided to try this live help app on my ecommerce website.

To make sure things were handled appropriately, i dealt with all of the live help chats myself over the course of 3 days.  If anyone can sell someone something it’s me so I figured having myself handle the chat’s would give us the best chance of success (for a test, i’d never do it full time).

My Process:

1. Got an Olark account and installed the script (very easy)
2. I used a function called the “welcome assistant” which initiates a conversation with the website visitor after xx seconds.  I chose 60 seconds.
3. The “welcome assistant” would send out a random message from a bunch that I entered.  Example: Hi, this is {Name}.  Can I answer any questions or help you find anything?
4. If someone answered the “welcome assistant” i would get the message in my AIM client and chat there.

One of the things that is kind of cool about these chats is that you can actually see what the person is looking at.  Just like if you were a salesperson at a store and guide them towards the best product (or the most profitable).

My test results (this isn’t the most scientific of case studies):

Time: 3 Days (Approx 24 hours logged into live chat)
Chats: 16
Increase in Immediate Sales: 0

Observations:

• The vast majority of visitors have no interest in contact by the site, however, some obviously do.
• Most of the people who want to chat are tire kickers aka window shoppers.
• None of the people I spoke to actually bought.
• A few of the people I spoke to were super appreciative of the help I gave and told me they would only buy from us from now on – but they didn’t buy anything after our chat so either they are lying, or will be buying in the future (this is where tracking becomes difficult)
• People who initiate a chat seem to spend a LOT more time on the site then people who don’t.
• People want advice about what they should do or what they should buy.

Overall, i’d consider this test a fail for live chat.  Olark is a pretty sweet service though.  Maybe it would work better on a higher priced more complicated product or service.

I would like to try another case study in the future where I put the live help on an affiliate landing page and see how it increases conversions.

Have you tested live chat on a site you own?  If so, did it lift your conversions?

P.S. My Favorite Live Chat:

Website Visitor: do you ssuck dick
Me: Yes
Website Visitor: i love yo ass
Me: thanks it is pretty sweet
Website Visitor: i was just wondering since we have some cemminstree can i ha’ yo numba showty
Me: 867-5309

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Disclaimer: NO compensation was received for mentioning Olark in this post

I get the unfortunate opportunity of speaking with a lot of medium sized businesses that have search engine marketing companies handling their paid search campaigns.  Within the last month or so the lies i’ve heard being told to these businesses have been getting more and more outrageous.  I figured i’d share some memorable ones (oh and by the way these lies come from huge companies not just some kid out of his basement selling search engine marketing):

• Everyone showing up on the page pays the same amount per click
• Ads in position 5 get 60% of the clicks
• We are best to manage your campaign because the search engines charge us less per click because we do volume
• We can sell you position 1 for “keyword” for $250/month
• We can host your landing page on our “trusted” domain and that will get you much cheaper clicks
• Most people searching for your keyword will use a geotagged keyword along with what they are looking for ie. “exterminator in San Diego, CA” (Totally not true)
• The more paid search you do the better your website will rank organically
• By having logos on your website like “featured in such and such news source” you will get more & cheaper clicks
• Your cost per click will always be the same
• We manage all of your competitors campaigns so we are obviously the best company to go with

Just a few i’ve heard lately.  Do you have any you’ve heard and would like to share?

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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A wise girl once said:

“You know you love something when the idea of it being taken away makes you want to cry.”

So, do you love what you do?

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