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We do a lot of Joint Ventures here at SoftwareProjects.
Many turn out successful, some fail but every single one is carefully planned and monitored. If there's no money in it after 90 days, we're out.
Most businesses and entrepreneurs who approach SoftwareProjects for a Joint Venture, get rejected by our gatekeepers. Not because it's not a good fit, but simply because most people don't know how to position and sell a JV.
So I've decided to put together a basic "How to do a Joint Venture" guide, complete with a template JV Executive Summary document for you to download.
Step 1: Identify Potential JV Partners
Great tool to find JV partners: Google.
In a typical JV, one partner brings traffic and the other brings IP (Intellectual Property) to the table.
Traffic = Eyeballs. Ideally qualified eyeballs as in prospects who are actively looking for the product/service you're selling
IP = Software product, an ebook, a service, business know-how, a database/list, algorithm, patent etc.
Understand what you're bringing to the table and then Google for matching partners that have what you need.
Examples:
* You have a new product/service, you're looking for a partner with an existing list/website who will promote your stuff to his followers.
* You're a gifted software engineer, you're looking for a marketer to help convert your skills into mega bucks.
Important things to remember:
* Stay away from Gurus. Gurus are in the business of selling their own products and educational information to their followers. Unless you have a prior relationship, you'll have a very hard time selling your JV to a guru.
* Pick potential JV partners who are in your niche. Someone having a huge list of people who are interested in diving equipment, is not a good fit for your vitamin products.
Step 2: Crunch the numbers
Quantify what you've got and work out a business model for the Joint Venture partnership.
A joint venture is all about capitalizing on the strength of each partner, to generate more revenues than what each party could accomplish on it's own.
It is very important to attach a dollar value to what each partner brings to the table. This will help packaging the JV, keeping everyone comfortable about the agreement and determining a fair revenue split.
Examples:
* I have a product that was developed for 3 years by 2 engineers. It sells for $49/month and we've got 100 active customers. I am looking for traffic and willing to pay a 20% recurring commission.
* I have a membership site with a monthly newsletter. The newsletter is mailed out on the first of the month to 50,000 recipients with a 23% open rate and 11% click-through rate.
* I love to travel. I have been traveling around the world for the past 6 years and wrote 200 pages of tips on how to get by when you're traveling abroad.
Step 3: Package and sell the JV
Once you've identified a list of potential JV partners, analyzed what each partner can bring and attached a dollar value to your offering, it is time to approach the prospects and sell them on your idea.
Unfortunately, this is the most important yet overlooked step.
I lost count of how many times we get approached by CEOs of respectible companies, sending emails saying "financial projections are awesome", "we should really do some business together", "let's talk about a partnership" or my personal pet peeve "we have a great product, no customers yet but the market is huge!"
Wakeup call.
This is the information age. We're all suffering from information overload, all trying to accomplish 10 things at once and all have a list of projects on our ToDo list that will never get done because there's not enough time.
To sell a potential partner on the idea of doing a JV with you, send a short one page JV executive summary, outlining in a few short words what your project is about, why you feel this is a good fit and most importantly - the estimated short term opportunity cost / opportunity gain.
If you can't keep everything down to one page (without reducing font size so that I need a magnifying glass to read it), delete all and start again.
Luckily for you, I'm attaching our tried and tested JV Executive Summary. You can download this template here.
-
Remember JV is a numbers game. The more JV proposals you send out, the higher your chances are that you'll get a "yes".
Follow the steps I described, use the attached JV Executive Summary template and you'll significantly increase your chances of making it happen.
Good luck!
View 1 Comment(s)
Many turn out successful, some fail but every single one is carefully planned and monitored. If there's no money in it after 90 days, we're out.
Most businesses and entrepreneurs who approach SoftwareProjects for a Joint Venture, get rejected by our gatekeepers. Not because it's not a good fit, but simply because most people don't know how to position and sell a JV.
So I've decided to put together a basic "How to do a Joint Venture" guide, complete with a template JV Executive Summary document for you to download.
Step 1: Identify Potential JV Partners
Great tool to find JV partners: Google.
In a typical JV, one partner brings traffic and the other brings IP (Intellectual Property) to the table.
Traffic = Eyeballs. Ideally qualified eyeballs as in prospects who are actively looking for the product/service you're selling
IP = Software product, an ebook, a service, business know-how, a database/list, algorithm, patent etc.
Understand what you're bringing to the table and then Google for matching partners that have what you need.
Examples:
* You have a new product/service, you're looking for a partner with an existing list/website who will promote your stuff to his followers.
* You're a gifted software engineer, you're looking for a marketer to help convert your skills into mega bucks.
Important things to remember:
* Stay away from Gurus. Gurus are in the business of selling their own products and educational information to their followers. Unless you have a prior relationship, you'll have a very hard time selling your JV to a guru.
* Pick potential JV partners who are in your niche. Someone having a huge list of people who are interested in diving equipment, is not a good fit for your vitamin products.
Step 2: Crunch the numbers
Quantify what you've got and work out a business model for the Joint Venture partnership.
A joint venture is all about capitalizing on the strength of each partner, to generate more revenues than what each party could accomplish on it's own.
It is very important to attach a dollar value to what each partner brings to the table. This will help packaging the JV, keeping everyone comfortable about the agreement and determining a fair revenue split.
Examples:
* I have a product that was developed for 3 years by 2 engineers. It sells for $49/month and we've got 100 active customers. I am looking for traffic and willing to pay a 20% recurring commission.
* I have a membership site with a monthly newsletter. The newsletter is mailed out on the first of the month to 50,000 recipients with a 23% open rate and 11% click-through rate.
* I love to travel. I have been traveling around the world for the past 6 years and wrote 200 pages of tips on how to get by when you're traveling abroad.
Step 3: Package and sell the JV
Once you've identified a list of potential JV partners, analyzed what each partner can bring and attached a dollar value to your offering, it is time to approach the prospects and sell them on your idea.
Unfortunately, this is the most important yet overlooked step.
I lost count of how many times we get approached by CEOs of respectible companies, sending emails saying "financial projections are awesome", "we should really do some business together", "let's talk about a partnership" or my personal pet peeve "we have a great product, no customers yet but the market is huge!"
Wakeup call.
This is the information age. We're all suffering from information overload, all trying to accomplish 10 things at once and all have a list of projects on our ToDo list that will never get done because there's not enough time.
To sell a potential partner on the idea of doing a JV with you, send a short one page JV executive summary, outlining in a few short words what your project is about, why you feel this is a good fit and most importantly - the estimated short term opportunity cost / opportunity gain.
If you can't keep everything down to one page (without reducing font size so that I need a magnifying glass to read it), delete all and start again.
Luckily for you, I'm attaching our tried and tested JV Executive Summary. You can download this template here.
-
Remember JV is a numbers game. The more JV proposals you send out, the higher your chances are that you'll get a "yes".
Follow the steps I described, use the attached JV Executive Summary template and you'll significantly increase your chances of making it happen.
Good luck!
View 1 Comment(s)
When tracking affiliate IDs or SIDs, there are two popular methodologies you can choose from:
1. First Cookie
The first affiliate to refer traffic to your website earns credit for the sale.
Example:
Andrew refers Robert
Jim refers Robert
Robert buys
- Andrew earns the credit
2. Last Cookie
The last affiliate to refer traffic to your website earns credit for the sale.
Example:
Andrew refers Robert
Jim refers Robert
Robert buys
- Jim earns the credit
--
Choosing which methodology you would like to go with is strictly a business decision. Once you've made your selection, be sure to communicate this to your affiliates and motivate them accordingly.
Below are the two different scripts to implement first cookie vs last cookie tracking:
Track affiliate referrals by First cookie:
Track affiliate referrals by Last cookie:
1. First Cookie
The first affiliate to refer traffic to your website earns credit for the sale.
Example:
Andrew refers Robert
Jim refers Robert
Robert buys
- Andrew earns the credit
2. Last Cookie
The last affiliate to refer traffic to your website earns credit for the sale.
Example:
Andrew refers Robert
Jim refers Robert
Robert buys
- Jim earns the credit
--
Choosing which methodology you would like to go with is strictly a business decision. Once you've made your selection, be sure to communicate this to your affiliates and motivate them accordingly.
Below are the two different scripts to implement first cookie vs last cookie tracking:
Track affiliate referrals by First cookie:
<?php
// If we have an affiliate ID cookie, use it
if (!empty($_COOKIE['aff_id'])) $aff_id = $_COOKIE['aff_id'];
else
// (No cookie)
// If we have an affiliate ID in the URL, use it
if (!empty($_GET['aff_id']))
{
$aff_id = $_GET['aff_id'];
// Save affiliate ID cookie for 90 days
@session_register("aff_id");
@setcookie("aff_id",$aff_id,time()+3600*24*90,"/",".YOURDOMAIN.COM");
} ?>
Track affiliate referrals by Last cookie:
<?php
// If we have an affiliate ID in the URL, use it
if (!empty($_GET['aff_id']))
{
$aff_id = $_GET['aff_id'];
// Save affiliate ID cookie for 90 days
@session_register("aff_id");
@setcookie("aff_id",$aff_id,time()+3600*24*90,"/",".YOURDOMAIN.COM");
}
// If we have an affiliate ID cookie, use it
else
if (!empty($_COOKIE['aff_id'])) $aff_id = $_COOKIE['aff_id']; ?>
Getting quality traffic to your website is one of the biggest challenges you'll face as an online marketer.
Sure, knowing how to convert traffic to paying customers is super important too. But without traffic, there are no leads, no customers and no business to run...
As part of this 3 part post, I would like to touch on the other side of the traffic equation - "Having more traffic than you can handle".
Some say it's a good problem to have.
Most ignore it until it's too late.
But the sad truth is: a single digg submission, media mention, or a link from a prominent site, can easily drive more traffic than your website can handle, bringing your server down.
Think loss of business and damaging your site's reputation.
Here's how to avoid it -
Part 1: Media Files
Every static image, PDF file, video, mp3 or other media file which can be accessed by visitors to your website, should be stored on Amazon S3.
Amazon S3 is a robust unlimited remote storage solution, that can scale well beyond your needs.
Blue Origin is one small company with a big idea that successfully scaled its web site using Amazon S3. On January 2, 2007, the company posted information and videos on its web site about a test launch for a new vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle.
Within the next day, the news was covered by both SlashDot and Boing Boing, sending a tremendous amount of traffic to its web site. With its media files stored in Amazon S3, it was able to instantly scale and handle the 3.5 million requests and 758 GBs in bandwidth in a single day.
Here at Software Projects, we have been beta testing Amazon solutions for over two years now. These days S3 is sufficiently stable and scalable, to a point where we roll out "all media stored on S3" with every new client.
Storing a file on S3 is as easy as calling three php lines:
Amazon generates a unique URL where your file will be stored forever (until you delete it).
You are charged based on the total storage volume and bandwidth.
Rates are dirt cheap, allowing you to store 20GB for around $3 a month.
We've tested all popular hosting platforms, including grid hosting, multi homed hosting and Akamai. Nothing comes close in terms of ease of use, scalability and affordability.
You have no business storing a single video file on your server if you ever expect to get decent traffic. A typical webserver will start crawling once you have more than 50 users per second streaming video/audio.
Signup for Amazon S3 today and start migrating all your media over. This is one decision you'll be happy about when the next big wave of traffic hits your site.
--
Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3.
View 1 Comment(s)
Sure, knowing how to convert traffic to paying customers is super important too. But without traffic, there are no leads, no customers and no business to run...
As part of this 3 part post, I would like to touch on the other side of the traffic equation - "Having more traffic than you can handle".
Some say it's a good problem to have.
Most ignore it until it's too late.
But the sad truth is: a single digg submission, media mention, or a link from a prominent site, can easily drive more traffic than your website can handle, bringing your server down.
Think loss of business and damaging your site's reputation.
Here's how to avoid it -
Part 1: Media Files
Every static image, PDF file, video, mp3 or other media file which can be accessed by visitors to your website, should be stored on Amazon S3.
Amazon S3 is a robust unlimited remote storage solution, that can scale well beyond your needs.
Blue Origin is one small company with a big idea that successfully scaled its web site using Amazon S3. On January 2, 2007, the company posted information and videos on its web site about a test launch for a new vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle.
Within the next day, the news was covered by both SlashDot and Boing Boing, sending a tremendous amount of traffic to its web site. With its media files stored in Amazon S3, it was able to instantly scale and handle the 3.5 million requests and 758 GBs in bandwidth in a single day.
Here at Software Projects, we have been beta testing Amazon solutions for over two years now. These days S3 is sufficiently stable and scalable, to a point where we roll out "all media stored on S3" with every new client.
Storing a file on S3 is as easy as calling three php lines:
<?php
$s3svc = new S3();
$s3svc->putBucket( 'jherr_video' );
$out = $s3svc->putObject( $_FILES['file']['name'], $contents); ?>
Amazon generates a unique URL where your file will be stored forever (until you delete it).
You are charged based on the total storage volume and bandwidth.
Rates are dirt cheap, allowing you to store 20GB for around $3 a month.
We've tested all popular hosting platforms, including grid hosting, multi homed hosting and Akamai. Nothing comes close in terms of ease of use, scalability and affordability.
You have no business storing a single video file on your server if you ever expect to get decent traffic. A typical webserver will start crawling once you have more than 50 users per second streaming video/audio.
Signup for Amazon S3 today and start migrating all your media over. This is one decision you'll be happy about when the next big wave of traffic hits your site.
--
Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3.
View 1 Comment(s)
Email Marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to convert leads to paying customers.
SoftwareProjects is an Email Marketing powerhouse, currently delivering 5 million emails a day on behalf of our clients.
One of the most popular questions we keep getting asked about Email Marketing is:
"What is the best day of week and time of day to email?"
While there is no absolute answer to this question, as you should test your market/list and check what works best, our experience shows that -
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are the best days of the week to email.
On Monday, your email gets caught up with the weekend's junkmail.
On Friday, everyone are thinking about the weekend.
As for time of day -
Business offers work best during early morning (9am to 11am)
Consumer offers work best during late afternoon to evening (5pm to 9pm)
SoftwareProjects is an Email Marketing powerhouse, currently delivering 5 million emails a day on behalf of our clients.
One of the most popular questions we keep getting asked about Email Marketing is:
"What is the best day of week and time of day to email?"
While there is no absolute answer to this question, as you should test your market/list and check what works best, our experience shows that -
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are the best days of the week to email.
On Monday, your email gets caught up with the weekend's junkmail.
On Friday, everyone are thinking about the weekend.
As for time of day -
Business offers work best during early morning (9am to 11am)
Consumer offers work best during late afternoon to evening (5pm to 9pm)
Google PPC is a great way to generate instant traffic to your landing page.
Too many rookie AdWords advertisers fail to understand the importance of "Negative keywords".
Negative keywords are words and phrases where if appearing as part of the user's search query, will get your ad excluded from the search results.
Why is this important?
Imagine you are promoting "blue widgets". Your goal is to target users who are actively searching to "buy blue widgets".
Without negative keywords, anyone looking for "free blue widgets", "blue widgets manual", "blue widgets replacement" will see your ad, click on it, end up costing you money but probably not convert to a paying customer.
Google's keyword tool includes a tab to help you find negative keywords. But don't stop there.
I would urge you take the time to develop your own list of negative keywords and continue adding to this list on a regular basis, based on the search queries that don't convert.
Remember the keywords you buy on Google don't tell the whole story.
Always consult your analytics software to see what users are really searching for when they land on your site.
To get you started, here's a seed list of negative keywords we use with new PPC accounts. Review this list and make sure nothing here takes away from your target audience.
Too many rookie AdWords advertisers fail to understand the importance of "Negative keywords".
Negative keywords are words and phrases where if appearing as part of the user's search query, will get your ad excluded from the search results.
Why is this important?
Imagine you are promoting "blue widgets". Your goal is to target users who are actively searching to "buy blue widgets".
Without negative keywords, anyone looking for "free blue widgets", "blue widgets manual", "blue widgets replacement" will see your ad, click on it, end up costing you money but probably not convert to a paying customer.
Google's keyword tool includes a tab to help you find negative keywords. But don't stop there.
I would urge you take the time to develop your own list of negative keywords and continue adding to this list on a regular basis, based on the search queries that don't convert.
Remember the keywords you buy on Google don't tell the whole story.
Always consult your analytics software to see what users are really searching for when they land on your site.
To get you started, here's a seed list of negative keywords we use with new PPC accounts. Review this list and make sure nothing here takes away from your target audience.
Did you ever wonder how Google decides what sites are "spam" and should be removed from their index?
Google is now more of a human assisted algorithm than it ever has been before.
Google's "secret sauce" have always been known to be their integration of humans into the ranking process.
They continue to recruit reviewers both in the US as well as offshore, with some reports indicating Google now employing more than 10,000 active reviewers.
When you have 10,000 reviewers, it's only a matter of time until one of them starts talking...
So, without further ado, I present to you: Google's Spam Guide
Study it carefully and understand what guidelines you have to keep to avoid your site from getting labeled as spam.
Google is now more of a human assisted algorithm than it ever has been before.
Google's "secret sauce" have always been known to be their integration of humans into the ranking process.
They continue to recruit reviewers both in the US as well as offshore, with some reports indicating Google now employing more than 10,000 active reviewers.
When you have 10,000 reviewers, it's only a matter of time until one of them starts talking...
So, without further ado, I present to you: Google's Spam Guide
Study it carefully and understand what guidelines you have to keep to avoid your site from getting labeled as spam.
Day 3 of Affiliate Summit Vegas was devoted to meeting with prospects and discussing several Joint Venture projects.
I had to leave around noon to San Diego, but we had 2 additional members of SoftwareProjects fly-in from Florida for a technology show later this week.
Tip: If you're going to have any meetings at Affiliate Summit, better plan those for day 1 or day 2. By day 3, most folks are exhausted and some fly back in the morning.
To be effective, the SoftwareProjects entourage split to groups and dedicated the day for one-on-one meetings with prospects and potential new partners.
Meetings Galore
Before you head out to any convention like Affiliate Summit, it is very important to have clear goals. Define exactly what it is that you are looking to accomplish.
Good goals are quantifiable ones that you can track as you go along.
For example:
* Meet and introduce myself to affiliate managers from the top 5 affiliate networks.
Our goals were -
(1) Meet with all recognized super affiliates (we prepared a list beforehand) and discuss more ways to work together.
(2) Meet with new potential partners (again we had a list of companies and prescheduled meetings).
(3) "Spy" on what our competition is up to.
Having clear goals helps you maintain focus.
Why did we pick these goals?
It's simple really.
As of this writing, 3 out of 5 attendees to Affiliate Summit use tools and services designed by SoftwareProjects. By this time next year, we'd like to be able to say 100% of Affiliate Summit attendees use our tools. To get there, we're targeting the super affiliates. The idea is to provide an excellent service and help these influencers generate a lot of money so that they communicate the benefits of using SoftwareProjects to their circle of influence.
While it was definitely great getting together with existing clients and meeting new people, the entire SoftwareProjects team was focused on our predefined goals.
By the end of day 3, more than 70% of the checklist was covered.
It was great to meet with super affiliates Amit Mehta, Felix Leshno, Vinny Lingham, Liron Rose, Miles Baker and several others who will remain nameless at this point.
We are excited and look forward to working together with this phenomenal group of professionals.
Also met with several companies that are likely going to form a strategic partnership with SoftwareProjects in the very near future.
Didn't get a chance to have a one-on-one with Zac Johnson, Jeremy Palmer, Paul Bourque, Joel Comm and Anik Singal - we'll hook up in Boston.
Affiliate Summit Sessions
The highlight of the day was undoubtly the "Super Affiliate Strategies that Work" Q&A session by Amit Mehta, Kris Jones, John Chow and Zac Johnson.
Amit Mehta fielded most questions from the audience and recommended a few great tools he uses every day -
* EfficientPPC, brain child of super affiliate Felix Leshno, is the best way to quickly generate tightly focused AdWords campaigns with a single keyword per adgroup.
* WinnerAlert, lets you automate the art of continually improving your ad creatives CTR and conversion rate.
* KeyCompete, lets you spy on your competition and find out what keywords they use.
Each panel member shared their personal story of how they found success online. Zac Johnson created MySpaceNow - a MySpace resources site with free content (that went viral), John Chow created The Tech Zone - a hardware comparison shopping site and Amit Mehta focused on a few profitable affiliate offers and built extensive content sites around those niches.
The one thing they all had in common was focusing on building sites that deliver true value to the visitor, then arbitraging the traffic using PPC, AdSense and direct ad placements.
Other good sessions this day included -
"Getting Editorial Coverage: The Inside Scoop"
Start small, get covered in your local newspaper and move up from there.
Introduce yourself to journalists, establish yourself as an expert in your field and offer free help.
"Social Media Strategies in Affiliate Marketing"
While Google is struggling to monetize on their social media inventory, others like Zac Johnson are making a fortune ($800k in 4 months). Provide true value and the viral effect will take care of the rest.
-
My personal favorite session of the day was "Ask the Expert" where experts in various fields held open discussions in an informal environment. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to network.
Highlights from this session:
WordPress: Always upgrade to the latest version right away, to avoid your blog getting hacked.
PPC: MSN AdCenter traffic (and spend) fluctuates heavily, about 30% on a daily basis.
Global Affiliate Marketing: Think global. Less competition
Widget Marketing: You better be hiring a software development company to create a monetized FaceBook application. The window of opportunity is wide open.
In Summary
If you're into Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media marketing, whether you're just starting out or trying to learn how super affiliates design systems and processes to break the $100,000/month barrier, you simply cannot afford not to attend Affiliate Summit.
Have clear goals, be sociable and brand yourself with a unique selling point (USP). It can be something as simple as "the evil blogger" (John Chow), "the social media expert" (Neil Patel), "the one-stop-shop" (Software Projects) or "the guy with the yellow shoes" (Rand Fishkin). As long as it helps you stand out above the noise.
The networking and contacts you'll make during Affiliate Summit are absolutely priceless.
Kudos to Shawn Collins and Missy Ward on putting together the best affiliate summit ever!
I had to leave around noon to San Diego, but we had 2 additional members of SoftwareProjects fly-in from Florida for a technology show later this week.
Tip: If you're going to have any meetings at Affiliate Summit, better plan those for day 1 or day 2. By day 3, most folks are exhausted and some fly back in the morning.
To be effective, the SoftwareProjects entourage split to groups and dedicated the day for one-on-one meetings with prospects and potential new partners.
Meetings Galore
Before you head out to any convention like Affiliate Summit, it is very important to have clear goals. Define exactly what it is that you are looking to accomplish.
Good goals are quantifiable ones that you can track as you go along.
For example:
* Meet and introduce myself to affiliate managers from the top 5 affiliate networks.
Our goals were -
(1) Meet with all recognized super affiliates (we prepared a list beforehand) and discuss more ways to work together.
(2) Meet with new potential partners (again we had a list of companies and prescheduled meetings).
(3) "Spy" on what our competition is up to.
Having clear goals helps you maintain focus.
Why did we pick these goals?
It's simple really.
As of this writing, 3 out of 5 attendees to Affiliate Summit use tools and services designed by SoftwareProjects. By this time next year, we'd like to be able to say 100% of Affiliate Summit attendees use our tools. To get there, we're targeting the super affiliates. The idea is to provide an excellent service and help these influencers generate a lot of money so that they communicate the benefits of using SoftwareProjects to their circle of influence.
While it was definitely great getting together with existing clients and meeting new people, the entire SoftwareProjects team was focused on our predefined goals.
By the end of day 3, more than 70% of the checklist was covered.
It was great to meet with super affiliates Amit Mehta, Felix Leshno, Vinny Lingham, Liron Rose, Miles Baker and several others who will remain nameless at this point.
We are excited and look forward to working together with this phenomenal group of professionals.
Also met with several companies that are likely going to form a strategic partnership with SoftwareProjects in the very near future.
Didn't get a chance to have a one-on-one with Zac Johnson, Jeremy Palmer, Paul Bourque, Joel Comm and Anik Singal - we'll hook up in Boston.
Affiliate Summit Sessions
The highlight of the day was undoubtly the "Super Affiliate Strategies that Work" Q&A session by Amit Mehta, Kris Jones, John Chow and Zac Johnson.
Amit Mehta fielded most questions from the audience and recommended a few great tools he uses every day -
* EfficientPPC, brain child of super affiliate Felix Leshno, is the best way to quickly generate tightly focused AdWords campaigns with a single keyword per adgroup.
* WinnerAlert, lets you automate the art of continually improving your ad creatives CTR and conversion rate.
* KeyCompete, lets you spy on your competition and find out what keywords they use.
Each panel member shared their personal story of how they found success online. Zac Johnson created MySpaceNow - a MySpace resources site with free content (that went viral), John Chow created The Tech Zone - a hardware comparison shopping site and Amit Mehta focused on a few profitable affiliate offers and built extensive content sites around those niches.
The one thing they all had in common was focusing on building sites that deliver true value to the visitor, then arbitraging the traffic using PPC, AdSense and direct ad placements.
Other good sessions this day included -
"Getting Editorial Coverage: The Inside Scoop"
Start small, get covered in your local newspaper and move up from there.
Introduce yourself to journalists, establish yourself as an expert in your field and offer free help.
"Social Media Strategies in Affiliate Marketing"
While Google is struggling to monetize on their social media inventory, others like Zac Johnson are making a fortune ($800k in 4 months). Provide true value and the viral effect will take care of the rest.
-
My personal favorite session of the day was "Ask the Expert" where experts in various fields held open discussions in an informal environment. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to network.
Highlights from this session:
WordPress: Always upgrade to the latest version right away, to avoid your blog getting hacked.
PPC: MSN AdCenter traffic (and spend) fluctuates heavily, about 30% on a daily basis.
Global Affiliate Marketing: Think global. Less competition
Widget Marketing: You better be hiring a software development company to create a monetized FaceBook application. The window of opportunity is wide open.
In Summary
If you're into Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media marketing, whether you're just starting out or trying to learn how super affiliates design systems and processes to break the $100,000/month barrier, you simply cannot afford not to attend Affiliate Summit.
Have clear goals, be sociable and brand yourself with a unique selling point (USP). It can be something as simple as "the evil blogger" (John Chow), "the social media expert" (Neil Patel), "the one-stop-shop" (Software Projects) or "the guy with the yellow shoes" (Rand Fishkin). As long as it helps you stand out above the noise.
The networking and contacts you'll make during Affiliate Summit are absolutely priceless.
Kudos to Shawn Collins and Missy Ward on putting together the best affiliate summit ever!
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