Affiliate Blog

Do's and Don'ts

Life has always been full of "DOs" and "DON'Ts". Growing up was "DO your homework" and "DON'T talk to strangers". "DO the right thing" and "DON'T" eat yellow snow". "DO you really want to hurt me?" and "DON'T you forget about me" (come on, I'm a child of the 80s).

When being active in affiliate marketing, there are always going to be "DOs" and "DON'Ts" to pay attention to. Some may be incredibly obvious, but still have great importance. 

Here are some DOs and DON'TS to take into consideration when talking to a client or an affiliate...

DO be attentive. Have you been on those calls when you just get that feeling like the person on the other end is not paying attention? All you hear in the background are the strokes of a keyboard or the pinging of an instant messenger? Nothing is more distracting than talking with someone who is not listening. Instead of giving feedback, your questions and comments are responded to with "uh-huh" and "right....." Give legitimate responses and provide actual answers to the situation at hand.

DON'T assume anything. Your idea of a conversion regarding an offer may differ from someone else. Thoroughly explain the offer, filters, details, payout etc so that everything is out on the table. You don't necessarily have to go into the history of affiliate marketing and how incredibly savvy and smart Ryan Zimmerman is in this industry, but just don't omit the mandatory details.

DO know personalities. There are so many types of people in this wonderful world of ours. Some are just like you....and some are really, really not like you at all. I'll use "casual" terms with certain publishers I deal with, like "buddy", "homeslice" and other random terms of endearment, but it is because I know their personality and can use that nomenclature to communicate effectively. 

DON'T ignore personalities. You may like calling people "brah" or "bro" and it may work very well, but it isn't for everyone. When you are talking to someone who is strictly business (and if you listen to them, you should have no problem distinguishing between the two), you need to adapt and converse accordingly. Someone who is blunt and to the point probably doesn't want to spend time with chit chat and the joke of the day you read online. First listen and then adjust appropriately.

DO take notes. I don't mean just taking notes on the credit card offer you are discussing, or the payout you agreed to on a credit report. I mean take notes regarding that person you are talking to. If they mention they have the flu, remember it, and ask how they're feeling the next time you have them on the phone. If they just had a baby, remember to ask how the little one is doing on a future call.  If they mention that they are a Missouri Tigers fan, remember to offer your condolences the next time you have them on the phone (Rock Chalk Jayhawk!)

DON'T avoid emails or voicemails. There are going to be times to when you can't get to the phone or respond to an email immediately. However, when you see an email and you really don't have interest or don't believe it is a good fit at the time, just reply back with that information. Not replying to requests is not only frustrating to the sender, but unprofessional as a whole. It takes just a few seconds to decline a request. It takes a lot longer for both sides when communication is omitted.

There will always be "DO's" and "DON'Ts" in life. Some are those to really abide by and some are not, but you'll face the choice each day, one way or another. So, I really hope that you DO share this post today with others and DON'T write any negative comments!:)

-Ryan Zimmerman

FTC's Free Credit Report Disclosure Rule Effective April 1

On February 23, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission released its final rule on Free Credit Report offers as required under the Credit Card Accountability and Disclosure Act (CARD Act).

The Federal Trade Commission's Free Credit Reports Rule will require new prominent disclosures in all online advertisements for "free credit reports." Any site marketing free credit reports will be required to include a disclosure across the top of each page stating:

THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY LAW. Read more at FTC.GOV.
You have the right to a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com 
or 877-322-8228, the ONLY authorized source under federal law.

The disclosures must also include a clickable button to "Take me to the authorized source" and clickable links to AnnualCreditReport.com and FTC.GOV. 

Based on the new ruling, all free credit report offers advertised online have until April 1, 2010 to comply. In the meantime, sites advertising "free credit reports" are required to include a disclosure that simply states: 

“Free credits reports are available under Federal law at: AnnualCreditReport.com.”

There's really not much difference other than a few lines of text and a button, right? Wrong. The FTC is very specific about the placement and prominence of the disclosure. The following examples provided by the FTC show exactly what is expected of sites that choose to market "free credit report" offers:

   

(click images to enlarge) 

While online free credit report offers have until April 1 to comply with the new disclosure requirements, TV and radio advertisements have until September 1 to make their changes.  To read the full details on the FTC's Final Rule, download the final rule here. 

Deanna Templeton is the Director of Consumer Education for Credit.com and has more than 10 years of experience in the online credit and personal finance markets and works closely with the affiliate marketing side of the business. 

Cheaters Never Win and Winners Never Cheat...unless you play professional baseball

In elementary school I was crazy smart. I could rattle off my times tables faster than you could say "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function". However, I hit a brick wall in 8th grade and instead of being the kid that everyone copied off of during tests, I became the kid that always sat right next to the smart kid on test days. I'd put my forehead on my hand like I was concentrating, when I was actually blocking my line of vision from being noticed by the teacher as I studied the smart kid's answers and replicated them onto my own test.

Different scenario, same principle here: When my mom would cook something that I know I despised, whenever she would leave the room, I would grab an assortment of raunchy spices from the pantry and poor them into the mystery meat loaf of the day. My plan was, if I could make it taste so bad that my parents thought it was terrible, than we'd have no choice but to get take-out instead. It worked often and well, I'm reluctant to say....

So, did I ever get caught? Nope....But that's not the point!! Cheating as a whole is wrong, in pretty much every aspect of the word. So, when you are tempted to do something "cheatish" while doing affiliate marketing, think again.....

Say you have a new site and you're wanting to pump it full of content, however, aren't boiling over with creativity and would prefer to take a shortcut. So, you scour the internet, find some verbiage that is relative to your site, and copy and paste and Presto Change-o, you have yourself some worthy and interesting content. There's a word for that, and it isn't "CopyCat"....It's something way more cool sounding, and that word is Plagiarism!! Not only is it wrong, it doesn't help! Search engines favor original content, not recycled and repetitive verbiage. Don't cut corners and spend your time copy and pasting, when it really is not worth it. Take some time and be an authority on your topic and use that knowledge to provide insight on it for your viewers. If you are running a credit card offer from our Credit.com Credit Card Affiliate Program, don't just copy what other people think of the Card Act.... voice your own thoughts and review. It will help you gain credibility at the same time. On the flipside, if you think you may be a victim of others copying your work, there are great sites, such as copyscape.com, that you can utilize to check.

Have you ever watched America's Funniest Videos where they show people's reactions to a winning lottery ticket, only to be informed painfully later that they were set up by a friend (with obviously no soul) and that ticket is bogus? These people go from overwhelmed and excited to stunned and silenced in seconds-- just like when Taylor Swift was interrupted by Kanye West at the VMAs. Come on Kanye, Beyonce is good, but one of the best videos of all time? Have we forgotten a little known production entitled "Thriller"? sheesh....anyway, back to the topic at hand. What I am getting at is the same thing unfortunately happens with publishers and affiliate networks, advertisers, etc. When publishers send leads through, and volume accumulates, the sales team takes efforts and adjusts and modifies processes and forecasts to accommodate. Each lead that comes in is part of the bigger picture, and essentially, can really alter many procedures in place. The last thing you want to do is try and sneak under the radar and provide bogus leads intentionally. Not only is this entirely unethical, but it is likely to violate each and every terms and conditions you are under and the end result could be suspension of your account and potentially foregoing of any payment. Yes, some publishers have scammed some of the biggest known networks around, however, keep in mind that the affiliate world is an incredibly viral atmosphere, and wrongdoers names spread like wildfire, so some may have gotten away with it in the past, but odds are, it won't happen again. 

All in all, the main takeaway from my rambling is to just "play nice". No one wants to deal with deception. Everyone wants to deal with legitimacy. Like my mom always said, "Be honest and be true to yourself. Doing so gains the respect of others." Well said Mom!....now, about that meat loaf.....

-Ryan Zimmerman

Ryan Zimmerman is a Senior Affiliate Sales Executive for Credit.com and has worked in the affiliate marketing arena for almost a decade. Ryan shares his experience and insight on email marketing and affiliate promotional tactics.

LeadsCon West 2010 Follow Up

I wanted to follow up on the buzz going around at LeadsCon last week in Vegas.  Jay and his team put on another impressive show.  It seemed to me like the size had tripled from even last year’s event in Vegas. 

One of the topics at this year’s show was the recent emergence of the Google Comparison ads.  What will it mean to you and lead gen in your space?  So far the only vertical Google is testing this in is the Mortgage space.  Google essentially owns the top spot in all paid search locations in the mortgage space.

There was also buzz around the recent IPO of QuinStreet and what that means for all of us involved in lead gen.  It really propels our industry into the forefront.  I think that as more lead gen companies go public it will be a good thing for all of us marketers in the space.  I also found out via twitter that Reply.com recently applied for their IPO too.  Very exciting stuff for all lead gen marketers!

The last big point that I would like to share form LeadsCon West 2010 is the creation of LeadsCouncil.  The goal of this council is to advance online lead generation through the promotion of best practices.  I would strongly encourage all lead generation companies to get involved with their effort. 

Other than that there were lots of good meetings that took place.  We received more positive feedback from people about our credit card affiliate program and our credit card widgets. 

Corey Bray manages the affiliate team and focuses on business development opportunities for Credit.com. His team's goal is to grow Credit.com's site traffic and exposure in the online credit and financial space.

Do Not Forget the Long Tail

A recent post by Tom Demers on Search Engine Land caught my attention this week. The post discussed the difference in CPC and conversion rates between short and long tail queries in paid search (although this could apply to organic optimization as well) and shows some very interesting data. Tom took a random sampling of WordStream clients Adwords accounts with about a million dollars worth of spend, spread across roughly 15 million impressions and analyzed the aggregate cost, number of conversions, and cost-per conversion across the data sample.

Based upon Tom's data there is obviously enormous value in long tail search queries if used properly. As you can see from the charts below the advertisers within his data set convert 90% of their traffic from keywords that only get between 1 and 99 clicks. The majority of their conversions came from keywords getting only 1-5 clicks! The cost for conversion is also much lower when comparing the 1 to 99 click terms with the more competitive and larger traffic terms.

What does this mean? Long tail works! Get out your favorite keyword research tools and start looking at your log files to find more targeted long tail queries to add into your campaigns now. Another good article you might want to check out is Query Mining for Gold which covers some great ways to find these hidden gems. Best of luck!

Montana Thomas is a Senior Affiliate Sales Executive for Credit.com and has more than 10 years of online marketing experience in the affiliate market. Montana shares his unique insight and experience about affiliate marketing, paid search and SEO.

The Speed of Sound!

"Word of Mouth" Marketing has been around for ages. It may have just not been defined as clearly then as it is now. You know those 3 friends at poker night you told about the new sushi place up the road and how good it was? You were using "Word of Mouth" marketing. Remember the other day at Target where you bumped into an old co-worker and you couldn't stop raving about how good the movie Avatar was? Not that Avatar needs any more exposure, but yup, that too, was "Word of Mouth" marketing.

Sounds incredibly simple and obvious, but those unintentional recommendations that you make off the cuff are about as effective of advertising as any PPC or SEO team can put together. Granted, the reach may not be there right off the bat, but it eventually could be.... To quote Simone from the iconic 80s movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious." Did Kristy Swanson, the actress that played Simone, have any clue to what incredible insight and marketing foreshadowing that simple statement would provide the youth of America? Probably not, but it just may have helped her land that lead role in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie a few years later. Nothing says "Job Well Done!" like getting a role opposite "Old Sideburns" himself....Luke Perry.

The fact of the matter is, it's the influences of those around you that either knowingly or subconsciously help shape your opinions and choices. There really isn't a greater marketing "nudge" than a friend putting a buzz in your ear about the latest and greatest. How do you apply it to your site or product? Make it memorable and make it exciting! You aren't going to have the neighborhood a buzz with a website chock full of banners about numerous and blinding unrelated topics. However, if you create a site with a purpose to be informative and viral, then it can help spread itself. You're going to have much more success and credibility if you design a site with multiple options for getting your own credit report and why credit reports are important, opposed to cluttering up the site with glaring images and neglecting to list any relevant financial content. Keep in mind though, that while news travels fast, bad news travels faster...

Case in point: You work your whole professional career to be the best at what you do. In a world as incredibly tight knit, yet so huge at the same time, as internet marketing, your reputation and the way you conduct yourself is imperative to survive. Many people hear about you when you do good things....it's just that simple. However, many more people could also hear about the bad things. Don't be that girl at the Affiliate Summit After Party that thinks it's a good idea to drink 14 Grey Goose and vodkas, and then try and climb over a dozen clients seated next to you, while wearing high heels and a skirt. Or the guy that is trying to set his personal best at consumption of whiskey shots in one evening, surrounded by potential publishers who aren't even close to thinking that is impressive. Always remember, that when you're surrounded by your peers, no matter the setting, to conduct yourself responsibly. Not only is it your image and reputation that is at stake, but even worse, it could be your company or your career. 

So whether you are an affiliate, head of an affiliate program, or just someone involved in one of the many aspects of this crazy lovable internet marketing world, take advantage of your professionalism and share it positively with those around you. It's contagious, and in the marketing world, "viral" is definitely a good thing!

-Ryan Zimmerman

Ryan Zimmerman is a Senior Affiliate Sales Executive for Credit.com and has worked in the affiliate marketing arena for almost a decade. Ryan shares his experience and insight on email marketing and affiliate promotional tactics.

Adwords Support

First off, I want to start off by saying that I am in no way trying to bash Google in this post. I love Google and over the years I have found their support to be pretty good and honestly, I have never had any issues with them that I felt weren't of my own doing. With that said, I do feel like Adwords support has changed drastically in the last few months. They no longer offer phone support and I have heard from many of our affiliates that their quality scores have dropped recently for no apparent reason. And when they try and speak with an Adwords rep regarding the issue, they only get canned responses and no real clear answers to their questions. My question to Google is "How does this help anyone?"

Google has apparently changed the way they look at a site to determine a quality score. I have no issue with progress and their efforts to clean up results for a better user experience. What I do have a problem with is that they provide their advertisers no real information or clear direction on what they are looking for in terms of site quality or how to correct the issues. I understand the need for some secrecy because if everyone knew exactly what they wanted it would be very easy to game the system, but with no clear definitions outside of canned responses, how can their advertisers work to make their sites better and continue to use Adwords?

It seems to me that the lack of support and transparency will eventually cause many advertisers to move away to other advertising platforms which will result in both parties losing money. I already know several affiliates who were long term Adwords advertisers that have moved away from their platform due to pure frustration and I am hearing more and more complaints every day.

What has your experience with Adwords support been like? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

- Montana

Montana Thomas is a Senior Affiliate Sales Executive for Credit.com and has more than 10 years of online marketing experience in the affiliate market. Montana shares his unique insight and experience about affiliate marketing, paid search and SEO.

Communication Breakdown

A wise man once said, "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?!?"... Okay, so that "wise man" was Chris Tucker in the movie Rush Hour, but that still leads to an important topic: Effective Communication.

Regardless of what business or social setting you are in, clear and effective communication is essential. It's like that first time you heard the song "Loser" by Beck. The song itself was different and new and refreshing and something about it was catchy. You'd prep yourself to belt out the chorus, but there was that mysterious line that preceded "I'm a Loser Baby...". Ahoy Matador? Toy Humidor? Keep in mind that this song was released before the "internet" as we know it today, so just Googling the song wouldn't get you the answer, so you actually had to listen to it over and over for clarity. In the end, the mystery was revealed. Not only were my guesses way off, but it was Spanish! I never would have guessed "Soy un perdedor", because I really didn't pay too close attention to my Spanish teacher in 3rd period....except on "Fiesta" days (we got to bring in our own nachos, so that was cool). 

My point is this...You can't truly enjoy something or convey the appropriate message if it is not communicated properly.

The same can be said for Affiliate Marketing. Have you ever been in an "Email Tug of War"? The kind where you and another person email back and forth, back and forth, trying to verify what the other is trying to explain? Not only does it waste time, it also still puts the task at risk. If it takes multiple emails to explain the process at hand, simply pick up the phone and talk it through. You'll be surprised how easy it is. The last thing you want to happen is to have an issue come up where you or your client/affiliate have totally different expectations, which in the end could cause panic, stress, and potentially the end of that relationship.

The way you communicate isn't the only key of communication. It's your accessibility that is just as important. Think of it this way. If you are out with your friends and end up spending the whole night talking with some attractive new acquaintance, rather than playing Golden Tee like you promised your best friend you would (You know who you are!!), you want to make sure that you can be reached at a later date with minimal effort on their part. You wouldn't tell the person to send you a message in Morse code or throw a message in a bottle and hope it reaches you. You would provide that person adequate information to reach you effectively. The same can be said in Affiliate Marketing. In this world of lead generation, changes happen on the fly and many negative changes can be prevented if you were more accessible. Ignoring emails or not returning voicemails won't help you to get ahead in the affiliate arena. Get that Instant Messenger set up. Text if you need to but make the effort to be there for that person. The more failed attempts to reach you a person encounters, the more likely they are to move on to someone else or another company. I actually got a business card at a recent conference and the phone number on it was out of service!! That's about as frustrating as getting the "Domain by Proxy" information in WHOIS when trying to contact a website.

We have focused on expanding our communication channels at Credit.com by opening up our Twitter account, Facebook page, as well as this very blog. We want to provide as many means as possible to reach us for our Credit Card, Credit Report or Debt affiliates so we can be readily available for questions and provide precise and expedited answers. So email me, text me, call me, ping me-- heck even pong me, but don't hesitate to reach out......that's why we're here.

-Ryan Zimmerman

Ryan Zimmerman is a Senior Affiliate Sales Executive for Credit.com and has worked in the affiliate marketing arena for almost a decade. Ryan shares his experience and insight on email marketing and affiliate promotional tactics.

Spelling Bee Careful

Thoughts of my tenure in elementary school as a young lad brings back as many joyous memories as it does scarring ones. I got to play Danny in our 6th grade presentation of Grease, complete with the Michael Jackson infamous "Zipper Jacket", and I nailed it! Then, there was the time I heard crickets chirping and my heart pounding as I bombed while trying to entertain the class with my impersonation of Jon Lovitz's "The Liar" character during my speech for a coveted student council position. I could go on and on about the good old days of being a kid, but there are things I actually learned that still hold true to this day.

I was a somewhat smart child (at least until age 13), so I loved learning. I loved the Spelling Bee and taking my shot at proving I could spell "onomatopoeia" better than Susie Smarty Pants. En route to my inevitable seizing of the Bee Crown, I spoke with my teachers for some tips. "I" before "E", except after "C", when sounding like "A" in "neighbor" and "way". Just one of many catchy memory tools to help me in my spelling career.

While I never appeared on ESPN's Spelling Bee, nor did I letter in "Spelling" in high school, I do know that in my current career as an Affiliate Manager for Credit.com's Debt, Credit Report and Credit Card Affiliate Program, I need to always be careful of what I type and how I type it. Not only misspellings, but using the wrong words altogether. You would be shocked how many times I have been called "Bryan" or "Ron" in an email......even with my signature 2 inches below the email reply! Nothing says "I don't care enough to really focus on your real name" like an error like that. When dealing with partners, affiliates or clients it is imperative you get these things right. I know if I received a prospecting letter to do business with me and I saw a bevvy of misspellings, it would make me wonder how much effort was put into that email in the first place.

The same goes for grammar. Back to the elementary school lessons, "look before you leap" comes into play here. Prior to firing off an email to some awesome potential partner, slow down, take a breath and reread what you are about to send. Spellchecker is a great thing, but even that can change your "I would like to "chatt" sometime" error to "I would like to "chant" sometime" and let's face it..... that's creepy and weird.

So remember, you are only as good as your reputation and when communicating with people, your reputation inadvertently gets put on the line. So, do your best and focus! Now I will cross my fingers that I indeed didn't actually misspell any words in my blog about "misspelling words. "

Ryan Zimmerman is a Senior Affiliate Sales Executive for Credit.com and has worked in the affiliate marketing arena for almost a decade. Ryan shares his experience and insight on email marketing and affiliate promotional tactics.

Social Media and Affiliate Sites or Brands

I sat in on a great session at Link Share symposium that was centered on social media and its role with brands and websites.  While the session was amazing, it was geared more towards offline brands and businesses that were trying to make their presence known online.   

Over the last week, I’ve been kicking around ideas and ways that social media could be used to benefit online affiliates, or more importantly, online financial affiliates.  Here are a few tips and suggestions that I came up with that tie into the session:

Assign a Community Manager

• Make sure you have someone setup to manage and encourage people in your company to engage in social media.  But what if you’re a one-man show?  Set reminders throughout the day to stop what you’re doing and actively engage in social media marketing for 20-minutes or so and then go back to what you were working on prior to that. 
  

Benefiting from Social Media and the Results

• Set your baseline.  This is easy if you are just starting out.  You have nothing to compare it to so just RUN with it!  But if you have been pushing social media and are looking to try something new, make sure you set a baseline and watch for improvements.  This could be measuring the number of followers or fans you get, or the number of people retweeting (RT) or responding to your posts on Facebook.

• For Facebook, you’ll want to establish a fan page and include additional landing pages to keep things interesting. If you’re planning on running advertisements on Facebook, why not utilize some of the awesome free applications that Facebook offers to set up auto feeds from your blog, twitter and Youtube accounts? Over time the goal is to phase out the ads once your fan page has grown to a certain level.

Follow the Big Dogs

• Follow the big guys in your industry.  For our industry, this would mean focusing on the big financial players. Engage with them and utilize their “clout” to increase relevant followers, or those looking to engage more with other financial sites.

I would also suggest a deal of the week or hot offer promotions!  Encourage people to come to your site by talking about weekly specials, offers, or deals.

This is all just my interpretation of what I think are some good ways to utilize social media. Since it is so new, nothing is set in stone.  The best approach you can take is to test, test, and test some more!! Be social about stuff that is relevant to your site or brand and look for ways to engage and interact with your fans or followers.

Corey Bray manages the affiliate team and focuses on business development opportunities for Credit.com. His team's goal is to grow Credit.com's site traffic and exposure in the online credit and financial space.