Ros' Ramblings

In today's NPT you'll learn about Linkshare's latest announcement, stupid merchant tricks (and how to avoid them), and read some NPT reader submissions, including the question 'how do I get the sale if cookies are deleted?'

Lots of good stuff, so let's get right to it.

Cheers,
Rosalind

P.S. Meet me at the System Seminar in Chicago in May!

Rosalind Gardner is author of the best-selling "Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in ONE Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online.

Super Affiliate Handbook

Linkshare Consolidates Payments

Linkshare has finally, and I do mean FINALLY, instituted consolidated payments for affiliates.

That means all your commissions, from all your Linkshare merchant partners will arrive in one check.

Hurray!

Join Linkshare's merchants today.

How's This for a Stupid Merchant Trick?

Aluria software sent out a message to its affiliates on the 8th of April.

In it they advised that "if accumulated sales have not reach 5 transactions (they speak English good) or more within the 45 days period, we will unfortunately have to terminate the account".

Not a problem. Do PLEASE cancel my affiliate account. I signed up for the affiliate program at the same time I bought the software, but never promoted the product, as their software is pure crapola. It took me hours and hours to get rid of all the adware/spyware their 'Spyware Eliminator' INSTALLED on my computer.

I asked for and got a refund. I thought I'd deleted my affiliate account.

I hadn't - but what's the big deal about receiving a message telling me that my account will be terminated when that's what I want anyway?

Well, all 800+ affiliates' email addresses were CC'd (made public), instead of being BCC'd (hidden).

Then a bunch of angry affiliates responded to Aluria, CC'ing (spamming) all 800+ affiliates.

So, what's the lesson here?

Use a different email address for each of your merchant partners.

If your web host doesn't allow unlimited addresses, find one that does. Then create a new addy for each of your merchant partners.

For example, if your domain is 'AndysAutos.com', and you join the 'BuyAutoParts.com' affiliate program, then set up buyautoparts@AndysAutos.com just for that program.

That way, if you no longer want to participate in that program, all you have to do is cancel that address.

That's a lot simpler than going back and changing your address with 10, 20 or 100 different merchant partners when everyone and his brother is spamming the heck out of that address... just because of one stupid merchant trick.

Yes, I DO Own John Reese's 'Traffic Secrets' Program.

One NPT subscriber was upset last week when I sent out a notification about John's relauch of the Traffic Secrets course.

He apparently received the same message SIX times that day, and then suggested that I don't even own the product.

Well, first of all, John specifically asked that the message be sent that day and unedited, so if you subscribe to a few Internet marketing newsletters, then you probably received the same message a number of times that day.

Secondly, I DO own 'Traffic Secrets'. I won't recommend webmaster resources that I don't own, and if I haven't tried/read/reviewed the product, or if my testing of the product isn't complete, I say so.

Here's a pic of my copy of 'Traffic Secrets' course taken on April 10th.

And yes, 'Traffic Secrets' is the best information package available on traffic generation.

Learn more about 'Traffic Secrets'.

Question: How Do I Get the Sale if Cookies are Deleted?

Here's a an email that I received this week from Winston...

Great site and book you have. I have something to ask you. In your book, you mentioned that cookies are used to track sales, however there are lots of spyware cleaner programs that will clean with the cookies with a single click. How do you still get a sale after the cookies have been deleted? Thanks in advance.

Great question, Winston!

Read the following article, 'Are Your Cookies Crumbling?' to learn the answer.

Are Your Cookies Crumbling?

Let's take a look at a scenario that shows how to keep your visitors from tossing their cookies. :-)

You have a site about fishing. You sell items as an affiliate from 'Bass Pro Shops', 'Cabela's' and 'LandBigFish.com'.

Your traffic comes from various sources, including PPC advertising at Overture and Google.

Your keyword 'spinner baits' is in the Number 3 spot for 14 cents at Overture.

A fisherman interested in 'spinner baits' clicks your ad, visits your site and clcks through to a few of your merchant partners. But he doesn't buy anything, 'cause today he's on a little 'fishing' trip, shopping for the best prices online for 'spinner baits'.

You visitor's computer is cookied with your affiliate ID, but he's a careful surfer. So, later that day he runs his adware/spyware program which deletes all the cookies on his computer.

Then the next day, he visits the merchant site directly by entering the URL in his browser address bar, and buys the spinner baits you introduced him to yesterday.

Unfortunately, you're out 14 cents AND a commission.

So, what else DIDN'T happen there?

Hmmm... give up?

He didn't sign up for your newsletter!

An avid fisherman would be sure to signup for 'Fred's Fishing Fanatics' newsletter which includes the 7-part autoresponder series '7 Secrets to Catching the Big One'.

But only IF there's a signup form on every page of your site.

If the form is not there, or you don't have a newsletter, your visitor is not coming back to your site... ever.

With the newsletter however, he'd receive the first installment of your newsletter immediately after subscribing.

Presuming 'Fred's Fishing Fanatics' newsletter is well-written and informative, it's likely still in his Inbox when he decides to buy those 'spinner baits' the following day.

So, what does your potential customer do when he goes 'spinner bait' shopping the following day?

Does he click 'Favorites' and find your site in his bookmarks?

Not likely!

No one really bookmarks sites, do they? (And even if they do, they won't be able to find your link in their disorganized list!)

Will he type the merchant's URL directly into his browser address bar?

Nope. That's WAY too much work!

Instead, after he's finished checking his email in the moring, he re-opens your email from the previous day and clicks the link back to YOUR site and then your merchant sites.

Voila!

He has cookies and you have commissions.

Start Your List Today

Everyday some poor webmaster contacts me to say that they're getting traffic but no sales.

A quick check of their site almost invariably (and immediately) points to the lack of a newsletter/ezine or autoresponder series.

Big, big, BIG mistake!

You simply MUST have a list.

To start building your list, I recommend Aweber. I've used the Aweber Autoresponder service since 1998 and can't recommend them highly enough for excellent product and service satisfaction.

Learn more about Aweber's Autoresponder service.