| LED Digest 2383: Managing an Affiliate Program |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. April 5, 2007 Issue no. 2383 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Running an Affiliate Program ==-- ~ Jay Grossman "I run a subscription based service and am considering creating an affiliate program..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Befuddled by Bad SEO Companies ==-- ~ John Cooper "...most of the best SEO people have a 4-6 month backlog of customers..." ~ Renee Kennedy "...anytime you're spending a lot of money, you need to do your homework." ~ Jeremy Weiss "Why don't we all get together and form a certifying body of some sort." ~ John Smart "...we could...find a way to grade based on performance..." --== Selling with Amazon Merchant ==-- ~ Richard Stubbings "...there is nothing stopping you putting flyers and discount coupons in the outgoing packages..." ~ Jon Langley "Also the Pro-Merchant Account is generally an invite only..." --== Web Accessibility [was: HTML Standards...] ==-- ~ Lee Roberts "Let's not confuse the issues of accessibility with connectivity." --== Photographer Licensing ==-- ~ Gail Berg "I pay a royalty and submit reports every month on all photographic sales." ========== NEW =================================== From: Jay Grossman Subject: Running your own Affiliate Program I run a subscription based service and am considering creating an affiliate program where publishers will get a percentage of my sales. The site has 16,000+ members and we have never advertised, so word of mouth has been the reason for its success. Was wondering what folks on LED thought about the various options: - Using a commercial service like CJ or Linkshare. They seem to have setup fees. - Waiting for Google PPA to officially launch - Other software packages I could buy (instead of a service). Is there anything good Open source or .Net out there??? - Building in the functionality into my site (I am a developer) Thanks all, Jay Grossman http://www.sportscollectors.net Comment? ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: John Cooper Subject: SEO befuddled > I'm considering hiring an SE company, but who to go > with?! Quite honestly, I have been burned before by an > SE company so I'm extremely leery. - Lorien Carrillo, LED Digest 2382 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1785/55/ Hi Lorien, Wow can I relate and comment on this one. I started my business a few years ago and had one of these "SEO companies" call me too. They said for $2000 they would optimize my site for 20-30 key words and guaranteed page 1 placements. I was ignorant of the corrupt side of the SEO market... or what SEO was at all. I signed the contracts and did all the prep work to start the project... then I stumbled across an SEO forum that had a chat about this company (Traffic Power... I'm sure this rings a bell for everyone!) I fell out of my chair as I read story after story of people who lost their businesses because of using companies like them for SEO. I was able to get all of my money back since we had not officially started work... but it took a lot of negotiation to get it back. Network Solutions and many other hosting companies also offer "SEO Packages"... these are all a joke. Run away from anyone who calls you or is soliciting SEO work. As I have learned, most of the best SEO people have a 4-6 month backlog of customers and never solicit business. (They can't keep up with what they have.) Over the next 6 months I studied SEO heavily, took online classes and studied in SEO chat rooms to make sure I was very well educated in what was good and bad practices for SEO. I can't write HTML (or read it).... but I can tell you if someone's SEO ideas are good or bad. After interviewing several moderators in various SEO forums, I could not find anyone to take on my project. (I needed my project to start immediately - I could not wait 4-6 months.) Jill Whalen ( http://www.highrankings.com ) had pity on me and suggested I go to http://www.seoconsultants.com and find someone to help me. This is a private database of SEO people who have been audited for skill and best practices. Not every one gets into the list... most are rejected leaving a very good list for people like you and me to find companies to hire. (She is in there too, but could not start soon enough for me to hire her.) Now for the good part. I found a perfect resource and over the last 2 years we have built a very successful site. Although we are a small business, we are dominate in our market. Here are some stats from last month (March 2007)... we had 450,000 pages viewed, 39,000 1st time visitors, 58,000 total visit (8 pgs per visit), 11% stay 5-15 minutes plus another 10% staying 15-1hr. We have over 16,000 different key phrases logged in the search engines that drove traffic to our site and a 60% Add To Favorites - which is totally amazing (I'm not making up these numbers). Take a look at http://www.seoconsultants.com and take to time to really dig into these companies to find a good match. I know you probably don't want to start a career in SEO (nor do I), but I would suggest investing time to learn enough to be able to identify if something is good or bad SEO. FYI - There might be other lists out there, and I'm sure there are many competent SEO people who are not in the SEO Consultants directory, but this is the only resource I can comment on. It worked well for me. Good luck in your search, John Cooper Real Armor Of God.com http://www.realarmorofgod.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Renee Kennedy Subject: SEO befuddled > For those of us who do this stuff every day, knowing > who the legitimate, quality folks are is easy and automatic. > But what if you were entering this area knowing nothing > about it? What would you do? - Adam Audette, LED Digest 2382 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1785/55/ But, Adam, isn't this the case for any industry? If I go out to get quotes for adding an addition onto my house, I'm faced with the same challenges. First, I am going to ask my friends and neighbors, "Who did you use?" Then, I might choose a couple of those guys and get some estimates. I might be forced to look in the phone book. But I'm still going to ask for references and examples of their work. It's the same with SEO. First, I would ask my webmaster (if I have one) or I'd ask anyone in my industry, "Hey, who did you use or do you know of anyone." If I don't get satisfactory answers, I'm going to go out and look in the phone book or go to the internet. At this point, it's buyer beware, just like with a home builder, you have to do your homework, just like any other industry. It may be a little more difficult because there are a lot less SEOs than there are home builders, but it's the same process. And even though there may be standards for home builders, some are still better than others. You can still get a crappy professional, no matter what the industry. You are always at the mercy of those who know the industry better than you do, just a fact of life. My point is, anytime you're spending a lot of money, you need to do your homework. Renee Kennedy Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Jeremy Weiss Subject: SEO befuddled I've been seeing a lot of posts about the lack of standards and organization in the SEO industry. So why don't "we" fix it. It's my understanding that there are several hundred (if not thousands) of SEO companies on LED. Why don't we all get together and form a certifying body of some sort. Draft up a test of what we consider required knowledge and outline the rules and regs that member companies have to follow (sort of BBB type deal). I don't have the time to do it alone, but if enough people were interested I'd be more than interested in helping to get something of this nature going. Opinions? Questions? Comments? Sincerely, Jeremy Weiss Online Lead Generation & Internet Consulting http://www.bluephoenixconsulting.com Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: John Smart Subject: Befuddled by SEO It seems to may that a lot of the accreditation exists simply because someone steps up and says 'do it my way'. It seems this is a natural progression for the LED, and SEO could become LED accredited - it strikes me that this would be (relatively) easy to do. All an SEO company would need to do is supply a number (5 - 10 perhaps) of clients, who could vouch that they went from number 85 million in Google, to the third page, or not even showing in AJ, to top entry etc. Even if they stated that through the paid for links, they went from 10 web sales a month to 1,000. There would of course be some room for cheating here, but we could validate the current search engine positions, and maybe find a way to grade based on performance and/or feedback, maybe with certificates of authenticity to show they really have the grade they report - ah Adam, just what you need, more work! John Smart InternetDesign.com A Human Touch in a Digital World Comment? ============ Sponsor Message =========== Pirates of the Caribbean, what a great flick. Lots of kids want to grow up to be pirates. Some go into the web content business. They loot copy from one client and sell it to many more. The clients get to walk the plank, because duplicate copy is a big SE no-no. At http://GetWebContent.com/LED our copy is custom crafted for you and you alone. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Richard Stubbings Subject: Amazon Merchant > Recently, I have been looking at an Amazon Pro-Merchant > account... Just curious to know if anyone has any experience, > good or bad, of selling on Amazon? - Mark Roberts, LED Digest 2381 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1784/55/ I have started using Amazon Market place as an additional outlet. It woks fine if what you sell is listed on their site but if you have to create the product and it goes in your z-shop then it will never sell. Amazon fees eat into the profits and the return is not as great as you would by selling on your own site BUT it is a new market and new customers. Also there is nothing stopping you putting flyers and discount coupons in the outgoing packages advertising your real site. Amazon feedback is nowhere near as fair as Ebays. You can rate buyers but no-one really sees that. Sellers ratings are very prominent and there is no way to stop or get retracted a negative. Indeed your rating can get badly hit by a couple of 'stupid' customers who do not read descriptions or something. The favorite negative is the 'high postage' cost. Customers simply do not realise that the post cost is set by Amazon and not you. They blame the seller and not Amazon. I know that this reads negative, but on balance I would recommend using it and have never regretted using it. Richard Stubbings Kulture Shock http://www.kultureshock.co.uk and http://www.doctorwhoonline.co.uk Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Jon Langley Subject: Amazon Merchant Mark, I think the Pro-Merchant Account is out for you... Over here in the UK, you have to list with a UPC of EAN code. I notice that your Birdhouses are "Custom Built." Unless you have a Bar code, then you wouldn't be able to with a Pro-Merchant. There is however the zShops within Amazon... I "Think" you can list almost anything that way. But not sure. Also the PM Account is generally an invite only, but I am sure that if you rang them up, you could get the invite. Jon Langley jons-all-sorts.co.uk Comment? -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Lee Roberts Subject: Accessibility [was: HTML Standards...] I changed the subject from Standards to Accessibility because it simply fits better and we're not confusing Accessibility with SEO. In LED 2382, Tom Aman asks: > ... did Southwest Airlines win or lose this one? Southwest Airlines won the lawsuit. The judge ruled that the ADA did not apply to the Internet. Southwest Airlines updated their Web site to make it accessible. IMHO, Southwest Airlines wasted a lot of money fighting a case in court they could have easily avoided by making their Web site accessible when they received a complaint. This case was taken to court with the aid of Access Now. One of the cases that has successfully been processed evolved against the Olympics Committee in Australia. A blind man couldn't review the medal stats, so he sued in Australia. The Olympics Committee lost and must make their Web site accessible to the disabled. One thing to note here, The Olympics Committee is an international private business; a business that has no ties to any government and not obligated to follow any laws established by any government. Even with this position, The Olympics Committee has deemed it proper to make their Web site accessible to the disabled. Internet connectivity to the Internet has no protections under the ADA in the United States. I can't speak on other countries regarding this issue. However, the FCC and FTC, in the United States, may have a different view. You'll have to check with them on that issue. At this point no laws exist regarding whether a Web site must be available via wireless connections, e.g. PDA, cellular phone, or other wireless device. Let's not confuse the issues of accessibility with connectivity. Regards, Lee Roberts http://www.applepiecart.com/ Comment? -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Gail Berg Subject: Photo licensing > What happen at a sporting event if a sports > photographer snaps pictures of the crowd > and puts a spectator or athlete on his website? > This comes to mind... what can the spectator > do and what limits does the photographer have. - Pieter van der Vyver, LED Digest 2356 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1755/55/ The following is based on my personal experience in one sport and one league; it is not meant to be comprehensive, just a summary / generalization; speak with an intellectual property law professional if you have questions. Your mileage may vary based on venue, sport and jurisdiction. (The line between "still" photography and videography continues to blur in many ways. Below I speak of still images. This may or may not apply in another case to video.) It depends on why the image is being taken and the venue. Many sports events have the "small fine print" on the back of the ticket which allows implicit use of "crowd" images without compensation or identification. (Especially as they're usually the "background", not the subject of any image.) If the photograph is being taken by a newspaper or media source, it's usually for editorial purposes, so, no need for model releases. However, if the picture is being taken / used for commercial purposes (i.e., to sell image for profit or to promote a product), not only may model releases be needed for the players / officials in the image, but also licensing agreement with the holder of any intellectual property (i.e., league / team logo). As a photographer licensed for the ECHL (AA minor hockey), I attend games and take photographs to sell; I have been licensed by the union representing the players (PHPA, the Professioal Hockey Players Association) and the league (specifically the entity the handles the intellectual property / logos of the member franchises). The union has the appropriate "model" releases on file. I pay a royalty and submit reports every month on all photographic sales. (As for the next step, I assume that the appropriate entities receive their portion of the royalties I pay for my sales.) There's a bit of a grey area for those venues that allow fans to bring in cameras for sporting events. As fans are nominally using the images for their own enjoyment, and not seeking monetarily benefit, IMHO there isn't a lot of attention paid to the situation. Gail Berg IceBerg Pix http://icebergpix.com Comment? ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/120/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/77/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/86/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow grow..." - George Washington |
