Leakage is the term most commonly used to describe the sales that might have occurred if the visitor to the site had not decided to continue looking elsewhere for more information, a better price or some other purchase “trigger” before completing a transaction.

Stopping potential sales leaking out to a third party is surely one of the most critical elements of success in Affiliate marketing. Leakage represents genuinely missed opportunities. It is hard enough to build suitable affiliations, develop the website and fight the competitors for high search engine rankings, without throwing away the sale.

Are you selling, or are they buying?
It is worth remembering the old adage that the best salespeople never actually sell anything. They merely induce the purchase by establishing a favourable environment to which the purchaser will relate and from which he or she will ultimately buy. Understanding the visitor’s intentions is as difficult as it is vital. Much depends on your keyword strategy. If your site ranks strongly for highly generic terms, you may see considerable traffic but the buying intention may not be there. The more generic the term used to find you, the less likely the visitor is to buy. Each visitor will have preconceived notions of what will meet their needs, even if they cannot articulate them. The job of the affiliate is to understand and relate to those needs by presenting information about the product or service in relevant and positive terms, also in the tone and style appropriate to the visitor’s own mindset.

Whilst it isn’t possible to directly ask the visitor how you can help them (although some affiliates are starting to engineer sites with a more interactive feel), In every market sector, there will be many commonalities of interests. Understanding these commonalities becomes the basis for effective communication. It is also a reason why the selection of a market niche in which to operate as an affiliate is so important. Your understanding of the sector and your communication of it will determine the visitor’s degree of comfort and the likelihood of a purchase.

The relevance of content and monetising links
Developing content is arguably the most important of all of the information communication skills. It has to be interesting, well written, grammatically and linguistically accurate and relevant to the mindset of the visitor. Far too many websites dwell on product features without consideration of the benefits to the purchaser. What may be obvious to the affiliate is not necessarily so to the consumer and the latter may simply not appreciate the subtle differences between competing offers without having them explained in terms that may be clearly understood. It may be a sound investment to outsource content creation to professionals to ensure that the message is clear and conveyed in a relevant way.

The balance between “pre-sell” pages and monetising pages or links is also vital. Clearly you will want to engineer your site in such a way as to drive as many visitors as possible through the “sales funnel” to click on an affiliate link and hopefully monetise. For SEO arbitrage affiliates, this may mean the placement of well-designed affiliate links at the top of most pages, accompanied by rich explanatory content underneath. It is a delicate balancing act between creating a site that is sufficiently strong to rank for SEO purposes and to instil confidence in the consumer without being SO good as to prevent them leaving via an affiliate link!

These factors are where so many affiliates struggle. The content might be worded badly or simply not include some critical piece of information. If the content is packed with monetising links for every keyword and phrase, as so often occurs, the chances of irritating or confusing the visitor and sending them to a competitor increase.

Design aspects
The “look and feel” of the site as a whole contributes hugely to the end result. For the average Internet user, the way in which a site looks and feels is integral to creating comfort and trust. “Funky” design might appeal to some user segments, but not to others. The reverse is also true, where a “neutral” design might work for some categories, yet be wrong for others. Cute graphics can also be problematic, not only because they may not appeal (or load properly in some browsers), but also because the excessive use or poor placement of graphics may create page load time problems and issues with search engine indexing and thus ranking.

As a general rule, always assume that graphics may not load and avoid relying upon them in the communication of vital messages. Design quality again is a delicate balance. For most sites, somewhere in the middle ground between Norah Batty and Elle McPherson is needed. The greater the degree of arbitrage, the less attractive the design needs to be. Conversely, the more delicately balanced and “consultative” the sale, the higher the quality needed.

Closing the sale
A vital element of any site that is to sell effectively is that it must be easy for the visitor to take action. Obvious perhaps but often ignored. Subtle designs can lead to overly subtle call-to-action monetising links or buttons. The site becomes little more than an electronic brochure, albeit attractive, and a virtual invitation for the visitor to look elsewhere before purchasing. The home page should contain all the important information about your site, links to relevant pages with offers or key products.

Clutter and irrelevancy will put off visitors instantly. Conversely, if the visitor feels comfortable with the site and the information presented, they may not only buy now to generate commission once, but may bookmark you only to come back again, recommend friends and family, all contributing to a long term business relationship and monetary value.

Critical mass and confidence
One of the most common complaints from the users of affiliate sites is that they lack a feel of ‘completeness’. With only a modest number of relevant products or merchants displayed, the consumer is left with the feeling that all of us know only too well – “nice site but maybe I need to check Pricerunner, Kelkoo, eBay . . .as well” We all know how hard it is to manage and constantly update from diverse data feeds, text links, direct merchants, networks and so forth. Using an aggregated solution such as Easy Content Units (ECU) can help in addressing these issues and demonstrating that all important completeness to the user. There are many other ways for affiliates to reduce leakage. In combination with completeness, one of the most effective is to include price comparison in the site content, again handled for you if you use solutions such as ECU. The greater the set of products, the more likely it is that comparisons will include the iconic brands within the category, therefore increasing the perception of credibility by association.

Ultimately, the reduction of traffic leakage will become an ever more important part of the affiliate game plan as competition heats for both natural and social media traffic and merchant PPC restrictions continue to bite. A well-designed strategy starting at the top with keyword focus and running through site design, link placement and affiliate data sourcing will all contribute to turning ever more of those hard won visitors into hard cash.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

What can you do to reduce leakage?

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We are always talking about how affiliate marketing can be great if you’re willing to dedicate yourself to the cause and don’t mind being patient in the early stages. We all know it is easy to become disheartened when things don’t pick up instantly. As a result, here at Lammo.net we are also constantly attempting to offer advice and support to those who are new to the business.

Everyone who gets into affiliate marketing wants to know the tricks of the trade from the outset. They want to know which pitfalls to avoid, in which areas of the market to focus and how to build a successful affiliate career from scratch. However, because most people who get into affiliate marketing already have a day job and thus have to dedicate what little spare time they have to developing their new career, there can be something of a conundrum at the start.

Because there are so many forums and blogs such as this one with veteran affiliates willing to offer advice there’s a real temptation to spend a lot of your time asking questions. However, with such limited time available to you as a ‘newbie’, some may fall into the trap of spending 90% of the available time with this interrogation of experienced sources, consequently neglecting the ‘doing’ side of affiliate marketing.

Arguably the best way in which to get ahead in affiliate marketing and to learn valuable lessons is to flip that formula on its head. As a newcomer you’re almost always better off dedicating 90% of your time to getting stuck in to the ‘doing’ side of affiliate marketing. Reserve the other 10% for when you’re well and truly stuck and about to take a long walk off a short pier. The key point here is that you are likely to already know the answers to many of the questions that you may pose.

Even if you aren’t immediately sure then it will almost certainly become clear after a few weeks of attempting to run your own affiliate site. Particular disciplines such as the correct way in which to optimise a site for improved search rankings are regularly covered and discussed in great detail here and on various affiliate and SEO forums. However, at the end of the day, much is about experimentation and a dash of common sense. You should also recognise that a technique which works brilliantly in one sector may be all but worthless in another.

Although you may be an affiliate you’re also a consumer like everyone else. As you browse the web you’ll come across content that will either inspire interest and perhaps result in you clicking a link and making someone else some commission, or you’ll read something that feels synthetic, badly written and bland in an overly-salesy kind of way. Many affiliates start off writing all of their own content for their sites and it can take some time to arrive at the most appropriate writing style. The point is that you can only learn the techniques that work by getting out there and doing it for yourself. And then doing it again and again, improving yourself as you begin to build your affiliate business.

Another area with which new affiliates are always concerned is that of keyword choice. You may feel as though you need particular help with this and that asking about the right keywords is a good way to get started. However, getting out there and trying out various keywords, phrases and combinations to see what works will be far more informative than asking a question and twiddling your thumbs waiting for a reply.

It’s not only the best way in which to learn but may result in you stumbling across a gap in the market and exploiting it before someone else does. Again, it’s the ‘doing’ that results in learning and growth. Identifying when something isn’t working and knowing when to change tactics isn’t something you can learn by asking questions. This should become instinct as your experience grows.

The problem is amplified because so many places online claim to hold the ’secret’ to affiliate success or contain several important ’steps’ that you must apparently follow in order to make a living online. Strangely enough, the first step is often to purchase an expensive e-Book. We’re not for a moment suggesting that these are all bad: quite the contrary – there are many excellent publications out there. However, the truth is that there is no single path to affiliate success and no rule book to which you must blindly adhere.

The imagination, vigour and fresh perspective you inevitably bring to the table as a new member of the affiliate marketing community may or may not bear fruit the first time around . . .or the second, but by dedicating more of your time to trying things out you’ll be learning at the same time as actually building your affiliate business, rather than spending informative but less than productive hours asking others for advice. Perhaps more importantly, you may well chance upon an entirely new opportunity in so doing – something that is by definition unlikely to happen when simply following advice.

Hopefully we have made the point that whilst asking questions is useful and indeed essential in the early stages as you get to grips with the nuts and bolts of affiliate marketing, just trying things for yourself without too much prior advice or supervision is still the best way in which to learn.

This may result in a failure or ten, but life’s biggest lessons are learned from mistakes as we have seen from the profiles of so many entrepreneurs elsewhere here at Lammo.net. Attempting to understand an abstract idea from a forum or blog post just doesn’t measure up to having first-hand experience of it.

So, what are you waiting for?

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Stop asking bloody questions and start DOING!

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So the 2010 a4uawards are nearly upon us, and today the team have announced that nominations are open for the “community choice” element of the awards. Somewhat disappointingly, only five of the 25 awards up for grabs will be decided by the coalface workers of the Affiliate Marketing industry, with the remaining 80% of the awards decided for us by a “panel of experts”. That’s why it’s even more important than ever to ensure that your voice is heard by nominating your favourite people for the following awards:

Community Choice (Publisher) – This is a new award for 2010, and one that I think could do with some narrowing of the criteria: on what grounds should we be nominating/voting in this category? Should we be looking to reward the best newbies who went from £0 to full time in 2009? Or the affiliates who took time away from their own businesses to help others out tremendously (think Smingle)? Or will the networks be voting en masse for the names that appear on the top of their balance sheets?

Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2010 – This is the category that I was somehow shortlisted in last year, although deservedly I was nowhere near the winning post, with the excellent Affiliate Stuff scooping the top prize, and Lee McCoy getting a highly commended. It’s going to be hard to dislodge those two from the top – could newcomers Affiliate Doctors or Mark Boyd get your vote?

Publisher’s Choice – Account Manager at a Network – IIRC, this was a combined network/agency/merchant award last year? There was certainly some confusion with a similarly titled award I seem to recall. Anyway, it’s clear as day this year – What account manager has gone the extra mile for you?

Publisher’s Choice – Affiliate Manager – Who’s your favourite Affiliate Manager (not at a network)? In fairness there’s at least 10 affiliate managers I can think of who would be thoroughly deserving of this award, going well beyond the day job and help make their affiliates’ lives easier.

Publisher’s Choice – Affiliate Network – Can anyone topple Affiliate Window and stop them winning for the fourth year running? I can’t see it myself, but then perhaps you think differently?

If so (and that goes for any of the awards), then you need to make your voice is heard – and the only way to do that is to nominate your favourite affiliate (sorry, I don’t agree with “publisher” but that’s a debate for another day), blog, network account manager, affiliate manager and network to ensure they make the shortlist.

Of course once the shortlist is announced, then the annoying “vote for me” campaigns begin in ernest. Now I’m not convinced that such campaigns have any effect at all, as I believe that most people cast their votes based on their own experiences and opinions over the previous 12 months (I know I do!) rather than obeying a mass email/banner/facebook campaign demanding “vote for me, even though I’ve done bugger all for you in the last 12 months”

So, get your nominations in now – you’ve got until the 1st March to do so. If you don’t nominate your favourite person/company and they’re not shortlisted, then you’ll only have yourself to blame!

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

a4uawards nominations now open – make sure your voice is heard!

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Why is it that so many people want to get into affiliate marketing? Common reasons include the lure of a working week that may potentially require just a few hours input for a huge return; the chance to work from home, to make your own hours and to fashion an online empire whilst wearing your pants and eating toast.

The great part of this idealised vision is that for many people it can become a reality with determination, skill and a little luck. However, the deciding factor that makes most people give up the day job and stick with affiliate marketing is the day job itself. Relatively few people who work in an office all day enjoy their work and affiliate marketing provides for some the ultimate escape route to do what they love every day, to wake up to something that’s as stimulating and exciting as it is frightening and adventurous.

However, it’s just as easy to get rid of the day job and then start an affiliate marketing venture that ends up becoming just as much of a chore as your previous job — only now you’ve got to rely on yourself for your income. This will cause the sense of escape and self reliance that you began to feel to drift into the crushing apprehension of yet another tedious, unlovable routine. Must it be like this? No.

There are many reasons why people end up quitting affiliate marketing because they’ve become disinterested or disillusioned by it at an early stage. This is usually because they’ve attempted to do something that a) they don’t enjoy and b) has already been done a million times by countless other affiliates with varying levels of success. For this discussion let’s use the example of voucher code sites. They’re currently a popular focus with new and existing affiliates alike, in no small part due to the relatively simple set up process and because the web is swamped with ready made ways in which to build them.

However, is there anyone out there who can say that running a voucher code site would inspire passion and interest in them? Doubtless a tiny percentage of those running them. And is there anyone who genuinely thinks that they could start a site which would be able to fend off intense competition in battling its way to the top of the search engine rankings in an already saturated market? The answer is almost certainly no. This goes for other similarly popular affiliate ventures such as shopping directories and cashback sites. Unless you have some REAL competitive advantage coupled with an all-consuming passion for these areas, consider other options.

The main point here is that there are plenty of great affiliate ideas out there already, but to avoid simply jumping on the bandwagon only to fall off and be crushed beneath its wheels, you must realise that each and every one of us has the potential to think of some original, unique and above all profitable angles of our own. The best way in which to do this is to sit down with a pen and paper and write down your main interests/hobbies/distractions or indeed vices. From the list, look at each and try to think of one or two decent affiliate ideas, then see if anyone else has thought of them.

It’s all about finding a niche in the market and filling it before someone else does. Once you’ve hit upon an idea in this way the chances are that building a site, doing the necessary research and recruiting link partners and merchants to feature on it will not just be easier, but it will be enjoyable too. If you’re already passionate about a subject and you base an affiliate site around it then adding content which is interesting and unique won’t require much effort as you’ll already be brimming with ideas and information. The key to making an affiliate site that will perform is, after all, not just to have the idea in the first place but to follow through on it.

We are not for a moment suggesting that absolute uniqueness is the only route to success. Many a good affiliate has identified existing markets where the level of competition is manageable and has simply created a site or sites that improve on those of the competition by a margin, often relatively small. Clearly for an affiliate site to be viable, there must be consumers and merchants so the market place must already exist. In many cases it is therefore about a creative approach to an existing market. Your passion and commitment to the subject may, in many cases, be the factors that distinguish you from your rather more average competitors. Visitors will recognise this, as may well the search engines over time given the ever greater importance of time on site and click-through ratios.

For many, the real prize may be nothing more than being there at school home time or being the only working parent at your toddler’s first school play. The sleepless nights over finances, the regular questioning of your own abilities, the frustration of the many failures along the way: all of these count for nothing at these moments. At the end of the day affiliate marketing can be a viable alternative to the ‘real’ world of employment and should be as much about enjoying your work as it is about making money. Many of us frequently try and define ’success’ in an affiliate marketing context. The real answer can be found quite easily by looking in the mirror each morning.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Do what you love.. Love what you do

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Many people get into affiliate marketing not just because they’ve heard about the money that’s to be made, but because they want to get away from office politics, the grumpy boss or the daily commute that can be such a pain. Or all of the above.

One of the ‘perks’ of affiliate marketing is that you can work from home, setting your own hours and sitting in your dressing gown whilst you work. Sounds great, right? Well, working from home isn’t always as peachy as it sounds. Sometimes, it just plain sucks.

First and foremost there’s the loneliness. While office work can be boring and commuting can be frustrating there’s always something to look forward to, whether it’s catching a bit of fresh air at lunch or chatting to your work mates about last night’s telly around the water cooler. Plenty of important relationships are formed at work, but working from home largely removes any chance of this happening. Of course there’s a big part of affiliate marketing that’s about forming relationships with merchants and with fellow affiliates, but there’s little chance of a face-to-face on a daily basis and reading emails or talking on the phone are not really substitutes for banter and the bustle of human proximity in an office. Interaction with other people doesn’t just have an impact on your levels of loneliness, it’s also linked to many other emotions. If you’ve gone from having a job with regular interaction to working from home there’s a high chance that your levels of motivation, productivity and general happiness could all potentially deteriorate. Being on your own in an empty house or flat doesn’t give you much incentive to get on with working and the internet itself is so full of juicy distractions that a seriously fragmented workflow can sometimes follow.

Part of this problem is a complete lack of feedback as to how you’re really doing. The size of commission payments is all very well and good as a measure of financial success but in the absence of direct feedback it can be hard to tell if you are doing as well as you could — or should. Whilst many people working from home will have family or friends around for certain portions of the day to stave off the basic loneliness, without colleagues around to give you obvious (and subliminal) hints as to your progress at work as well as your capacity as a sociable human being, some people can find themselves becoming lethargic and poorly motivated simply because they feel underappreciated and unrewarded. You may have felt under-valued in the “day job” but at least you had some feedback!

The realities of being your own boss are simple: as a boss, you tend not to treat yourself particularly kindly. Because much of the support you get from human contact at work happens at a subconscious level, when you start working from home there’s a chance that you’ll begin to feel frustrated and depressed but you simply won’t know why. Almost as mirror issue to this one, working from home might reduce your ability to cope with personal interaction as your daily conversations are limited to emails and the two dimensional medium that is the phone. Being able to interact face to face with other humans on a professional and personal level is something that needs constant practice and a home worker can all too easily lose their edge or – worse – start to actively avoid such encounters.

There are also health factors. Affiliate marketing and working from home both encourage a very sedentary lifestyle. You can spend hours writing content, seeking out keywords and scouring forums for inspiration whilst barely moving a muscle. As the old expression suggests, a healthy body is linked to a healthy mind, so your health is not something to be neglected. However, the temptation when working from home is to sit in your work area, drink sugary hot drinks and eat superficially gratifying by overly fattening foods. A lack of motivation and interaction can lead to depression and boredom which in turn lead to overeating, under exercising and an ever expanding waistline.

Finally there are the distractions. If you have a family there is a very strong chance that you’ll feel far more obliged to spend time with them that you would otherwise have spent working on your affiliate sites. This is part of the reason that so many affiliates work late into the night because their days are taken up with domestic comings and goings and other distractions: that leaking gutter can seem so appealing when faced with writing a particularly challenging piece of content . ..

Right – gutter fixed, back to work. The lack of structure to a working day and the often nocturnal working pattern can lead to irregular sleep patterns which, in turn, can exacerbate health issues and create a long term sense of weariness.

Ultimately there are plenty of drawbacks to what, on the surface of things, may seem to be an idyllic working environment. Understanding and accepting that they exist is, of course, the key to ensuring that you address them head on when embarking upon an affiliate career – or indeed any other primarily home-based role. Whilst we have to a large highlighted some of the worst-case scenarios in working from home, the truth is that your own ability to adapt to working from home is entirely subjective and different for each person. An environment which might be a struggle for some is one in which others will thrive. It’s also important to note that most people who talk about the pains of working from home are most likely still doing it many years after they gave up the office environment.

The good news is that for each and every hazard there are plenty of equally powerful positive aspects and approaches to working from home which we will examine in another post here at Lammo.net.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Working from Home sucks!

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Sometimes being an affiliate is absolutely brilliant and many of the benefits of working from home are immediately obvious to anyone who has ever had to deal with the daily grind of office work or the daily commute.

Here we are briefly exploring some of the more obvious benefits that make working from home a rocking alternative, as well as throwing in a few of the hidden benefits which aren’t as easy to identify without having experienced working from home for yourself.

Firstly there is of course the removal of the daily commute from your schedule. Not only does commuting take time out of your day and causes millions of people unnecessary stress on a daily basis but it is also a huge cost consideration. Commuting can cost thousands a year, whether you’re using public transport or covering the costs of running a car and that’s before you consider the impact it has upon the environment. Working from home makes you greener and better off – fact! It also generally improves your mental wellbeing as you won’t have to sit in traffic, endure the nuances of those particularly irritating fellow commuters or indeed base your home near to your office. This will further free you up to choose where you live. The internet is a truly global marketplace: as long as you’ve got access to a decent broadband connection you can take your work anywhere. Whether you’re working in a croft in the Highlands or a Penthouse in the City you’ll be able to make just as much money.

Next there’s the food. Working from home means you’ll never again have to guiltily munch on an overpriced, under-nourishing sandwich. You can not only reduce the costs of lunch every day but you can improve its health benefits by making your own healthy alternative every day. Even simply strolling to the shops without the constraints of a lunch hour is a huge benefit in its own right. You can also avoid the lunchtime rush and do whatever you need to keep your general health levels up. This means that off-peak gym membership is an option: you can skip the busiest times of the day for this – and indeed for everything you do. This is of course linked to managing your own working time and for many people their most productive period of the day isn’t defined by the set hours in an office. As an affiliate you can create your own timetable that suits you, with many people finding that working late or starting early is far better for them than adhering to the 9 to 5.

Choosing your working space and adapting it to your own requirements and tastes is yet another major benefit of working from home. Creating a room that functions as your office and which is organised to tease the best work out of you doesn’t need to take long or even cost very much and you should end up with something that is a far cry from the clutter, confinement and claustrophobia of the average soulless office cubicle.

Perhaps one of the less obvious benefits of working from home is the potential for serious, hard core concentration that you just can’t get in the office environment. Most people find that if they’re working without distraction at something that interests and stimulates them they will become more productive and able to maintain good productivity levels over a longer period of time. Working at home is conducive to getting your head in ‘the zone’ in contrast with so many office environments in which co-workers, time restrictions, endless meetings and other distractions sometimes make decent concentration levels all but impossible.

There is of course the worry that you’ll be negatively impacted by the lack of direct feedback from colleagues whilst working from home. In practice you will generally find that if you’re given the time and the opportunity to work on a project alone, make mistakes and learn lessons, you’ll have a far more enriching experience than one that is subjected to constant scrutiny and micro management by others.

Whilst most of us are essentially social beings and fear we may struggle in the absence of office-based human contact, the reality is that we simply find new means by which to interact. The affiliate industry offers plenty of events and opportunities for face to face networking and the building of lasting relationships. There are networks, fellow affiliates and merchants to engage with on the telephone, via various online forums and in meetings where appropriate. The point here is that YOU are setting the agenda and YOU can determine how much face to face contact you need and plan accordingly. If you are in a meeting with someone it is because you want to be there.

As you have probably gathered, I’m quite a fan of working from home, though I hope you’re aware that just as there are upsides there are always downsides to consider alongside them. Ultimately how you respond to working at home and how you change your habits to fit in with the new lifestyle depends upon your personal tastes. If you like the structure of an office day there’s no reason that you can’t apply similar constraints to your day whilst working from home, it all depends on your discipline levels and personal preferences.

For many of those working at home, there is, above all, one priceless benefit: they can structure their work around precious and irrecoverable time with their families. Not the other way around.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

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“There is no such thing as a problem, only an opportunity” is one of the oldest and arguably most over-used sales truisms. There is of course some truth in it, if only you have the imagination, skill and resilience to handle the situation objectively.

Few of us are immune from some form of criticism. We have web sites and as such we are in the public domain. With the ever increasing use of blogging and social media as a means of promotion, some of our competitors – or simply people who may not like us for some reason, however unjustified – will use these highly public channels to criticise us in some way. How we deal with this says a great deal about us and determines whether we improve or worsen the market’s perception of us.

Why do they do it?
Consider for a moment that Hitler’s propaganda minister is credited with the statement that if you tell a big enough lie and repeat it often enough, people will come to believe it. Now of course we are not suggesting lying as a strategy. Not for a moment. However, there are plenty of people out there who are not averse to using at least a highly distorted view of the truth as a means of self promotion and in some cases to launch an unwarranted attack. The more this occurs, the greater the likelihood that at least some of our target audience may start to believe that there must be some truth in it. In the social media world, support for a particular position can grow rapidly and within a matter of hours one acidic blog post may have turned into a potential PR disaster. This is particularly true if there is an association with a major brand: these are always popular targets. The motivation may be a simple as a personal grudge; it may be a misguided belief that in so doing they are in some way working for the “greater good”; there may be ethical objections; an aggressive competitive agenda; or indeed they may simply be unpleasant or nigh on certifiable. Worse still, they may be — at least in part — right!

Response or dignified silence
One of the first decisions in any such situation is a go / no-go decision. Does the attack merit a response? Does the attacker have any credibility? Does the attack appear to be gaining in momentum or visibility? What, if any, threats are involved in the attack and what are the potential outcomes? In many cases a dignified silence may well be the most appropriate response, hard as that may feel at the time. This is particularly true with “repeat offenders” who may routinely air grudges to anyone and everyone who will listen. You can be fairly sure that you are unlikely to be their only target and that their credibility is likely to be limited as their target audience recognise the repeated nature of their attacks and the underlying self-absorbed motivation. Responding to any such attack involves significant management time and resource and therefore cost, if nothing else in terms of the work sacrificed in favour of responding. If the attack can reasonably be seen as simply “noise” with little merit and the likely impact is minimal, a dignified silence will generally go further to support your credibility than wasting resource engaging in a platform with limited visibility and value.

Planning a response
Stop. The first thing you should do is ensure that you are in complete control of your own emotions. Few of us are genuinely thick skinned and whether criticism is directed at us personally or simply at the business, it is only human nature to feel that we are personally under attack. A brisk walk, a cup of tea or whatever you routinely do when stress levels reach unacceptable heights is vital. The desire to respond in fairly aggressive terms can be overwhelming but is, of course, the last thing you should do. The world’s blogs and forums are packed full of eye-wateringly aggressive posts from people who failed monumentally at this first stage.

With your “business head” now restored, assuming you have determined that the criticism merits a response, you need to plan form, structure and location. If it appears that the issue is spreading and will not be confined to one or two sites, it may be best to create a full and detailed response in one central location and to post brief, informative and relevant responses with a link to that location. This may be your own blog or forum or perhaps the highest profile web property that already appears to be engaged in the dialogue.

Perception plays a critical part in any response. This is one of the reasons why information placed in the public domain, must be handled with considerable forethought. Don’t just type directly into a post. Write your response locally and review it in a word processor, running it past any colleagues, partners or clients that are affected or named in the issue at hand. Always ensure you have consensus internally before committing it to the public domain. A retraction at a later stage can be far more damaging than the original criticism!

Response tone
First and foremost, regardless as to the degree of provocation, never allow your response to appear personal, aggressive or overly defensive. However, make sure that you “humanise” your business and practices as far as possible. The more “real” you appear, the harder it will be for others to blindly join in in pure “attack” mode. We all find it hard to be unpleasant to someone who is being courteous, if not friendly in return. Be accommodating and friendly in tone. A little humour carefully interjected into your response may also help to defuse things although should, of course, be treated with the utmost care. Your overall tone should be honest, credible, friendly, open and caring.

Less is more
Tempting as it may be, don’t write a book as your first response. Not only will those involved in the dialogues resent having to wade through it but it can appear to be pre-engineered in readiness for such a situation (not a positive sign). Stick closely to addressing the points raised and remember at all times that focus is everything. Don’t be tempted to pre-address further issues that “may” be raised. You may unwittingly start further debates or raise further concerns that may otherwise have remained unstated. Be prepared to continue the dialogue and to answer further issues raised as a result of your initial response.

Win the war, not the battle
The long game here is in creating the right view of your organisation in the minds of the wider readership of the dialogues. Don’t focus on winning the argument with the initiator and his or her supporters. Rather, acknowledge their right to raise the issue, demonstrate a clear understanding as to why they have raised it (ignoring any completely irrational arguments they may have raised) and then take each element of their criticism and explain your position and the reasoning behind it insofar as confidentiality will allow, all the while emphasising the commitment of your hard working team. If your position has inherent limitations, acknowledge these, explain the current absence of alternatives and that you are constantly working to refine and improve it. Make it clear that upsetting anyone is the last thing you ever want to do and that you don’t treat it lightly as simply a “cost of doing business”.

Building support
If a single criticism appears to be turning into a flood, it may well be worth enlisting the support of those partners and clients you know to be fully on-side (clearly avoiding those for whom making them aware of the issues raised could damage the relationship!). They may be more than happy to post responses in your defence – many will have been the object of similar attacks themselves and will sympathise deeply. Acknowledge and thank those who have expressed support or understanding for your position. The scope of the debate is hard to identify – there may be many other blogs and forums involved that you have yet to identify. It is therefore important that you thank people for their “messages of support” generally rather than singling out any individuals. Not only will this avoid leaving any supporters in the wider debate accidentally un-thanked but it will create or reinforce the impression that you have many supporters and that there is more than one possible view of the debate at hand – without having to rather lamely say so yourself.

The above approach should help greatly in handling “after-the-event” situations and with some skill, the problem really can be turned around, at least minimising and at best reversing a potentially negative outcome. Your courteous, concerned and professional approach will very often see the public sympathy turn in your favour and for those criticisms born of malice or simple ignorance and for those contributors simply throwing stones, the outcome is likely to be at best neutral and at worst negative for the complainant. While each situation will vary, experience suggests that you have far more control over the outcome than you may have originally thought. These principles really can apply to most situations and demonstrate the importance of effective communication management.

Whilst handling such situations professionally is vital, getting things right in the first place is also critical to any successful internet business. You will never entirely eradicate complaints and issues with goods or services but shaping them (or in the case of affiliates, choosing them) to the best of your ability and maintaining an open and honest dialogue with consumers should minimise most issues and defuse others from the outset before they become a public domain issue.

On the hopefully rare occasions where this fails to prevent a public complaint, you know what to do!

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Dear Webmaster… You suck!

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“Sticky” is a popular expression used to describe a website with content or functionality that ensures that visitors want to keep reading and to keep returning to the site because they find it to be of value. We are focusing here on the content element of the site rather than specific functionality. To achieve stickiness, content must be more relevant and more appropriate to the particular needs of the visitor than that found on other competing websites. There are many factors at play, not least of which is that any effective site must provide information that can ultimately generate a desired action. In the affiliate world, the translation of knowledge and credibility into action will generally take the form of a click-through via a highly relevant affiliate link with subsequent sale and commission.

Types of information
In the case of “public” information, whereas it was once necessary to use reference sources such as the local library, government documents or archives, today, such information is often freely available from multiple sources via a search engine query. Any website that provides information perceived to be at this level of quality can be regarded as sticky, encouraging visitors to use the site as a source of reference for the subject matter at hand.

Privileged information is also a powerful tool. This can easily be leveraged by creating login-protected areas that only authorised visitors may access. Doing this enhances a perception of the value of the website and can be a significant factor in building a customer database and creating traffic through return visits. We all value something more highly if we feel we are being given special privileges to use it. That said, hiding “meaty” content behind a login is of course an SEO no-no. The search engines cannot index it and thus rank you for it. The trick here is balance. If you can provide sufficiently rich “public” information to drive rankings and add to it with “privileged” information by which you create consumer loyalty, registrations and return visits, you should be onto a winner.

Providing a “reason why”
An Internet user searching a keyword or phrase has some reason for doing so, whether this is for an immediate need or a future plan. Of course, there are likely to be thousands of results listed from this search. We all know that on-page content is one of the most significant elements in generating high rankings. Let’s assume for a moment that your site has reached one of the top spots as a result. Whether it strikes the potential visitor as interesting and relevant will in no small part be determined by the wording of the title and “snippet” appearing with that listing. It is therefore vital that your on-page optimisation, use of tags and so forth, together with your page URLs clearly reinforce the focus of the content and send the right message to the user that your’s is the most relevant of the sites they are considering viewing.

The same principle applies to the on-site content. It should be immediately obvious to the visitor that it will provide the desired information in an accessible way and in terms the user can understand. One of the most effective structures promoted in most major sales and marketing training offerings is “say what you’re going to say, say it, say what you’ve said”. The visitor must be convinced as to the real value and the reasons why the goods or services offered are relevant to them. The better the content on the website, the more likely it will be to turn interest into action. There are many sites on the Internet where the content is so “thin” or the navigation so difficult that visitors are all but encouraged to leave as soon as possible!

Content creation
Regardless of how well you may know the products or services on offer, it can be difficult to communicate their real benefits effectively. It requires far more than basic writing skills. You may even need to consider outsourcing some or all content creation to professionals. The structure of information must be aided by intuitive navigation and the site must be kept “fresh” with new information that will in all likelihood include a blog, articles and perhaps a user forum. There is a fine balance between accessibility and the dumbing down of content. The deeper your knowledge of the consumer, the more appropriately the content can be structured. Don’t be afraid to ask the user for feedback: forums and social media such as Twitter provide excellent opportunities for direct interaction with your target audience. Feedback forms and similar customer research techniques may help, although judgement will be needed to differentiate between facile (11PM after the pub on Friday night!) and useful input. Feedback can be used to adjust, refine and add to the content as needed — a process of continuous improvement.

The term “positioning” doesn’t simply refer to placement of the information within the site’s pages, but also the style, the tone and the structure of the information you are providing. This is almost impossible to achieve without a deep understanding of the characteristics and needs of the visitors within your target market, the types of questions and the concerns that potential buyers may have and how best to express the benefits in terms to which they will relate. Industry forums and even established competitor websites are further useful ways in which to determine what is really important.

In the largely offline world of the 1990s, an entire Customer Relationship Management industry emerged as a result of growing recognition that firms needed to “get closer to the customer” in an integrated fashion across all functions of the business. A multi-million dollar software industry grew around these principles and many firms managed to successfully implement both process and technology, achieving greater customer retention and ultimately market share. Some have managed to translate and evolve this into their ever more online processes. Others have not. The opportunity in today’s online world is, if anything, still greater and the fairly limited interaction possible with current web technology means that those affiliates willing to go the extra mile in getting closer to their market and refining their approach and content as a result will be those that flourish as competition heats up in all sectors. Some may argue that this is the next great battleground.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

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I’ve always loved the way Amazon work as an online retailer – They analyse just about every possible part of the user journey, and do everything within their power to not only close a sale, but increase basket size, and leave feedback about the product to help close the sale for future shoppers.

They think of just about every possible user objection, and offer a solution, all on the one page – Wrong colour (here’s the other colours), Wrong size (here’s the other sizes), not what I’m looking for (here’s what you might be looking for based on what other people eventually bought after viewing this page), it might not work (user reviews telling you it does.. or user reviews telling you it DOESN’T, but then a link to a very similar product that has favourable reviews).

I really enjoyed the Conversion Rate Experts session at a4uexpo last month all about increasing the conversion rate of your landing page – The upshot of it was that longer pages (with the RIGHT info, and the RIGHT call to actions) converted 170% better in their example. This caused some disbelief in the room as it goes against everyone’s main thoughts – Those long “letter type” sales pitches don’t work do they? It’s much better to have everything above the fold and get a quick conversion. So as if to ram home the point, the average length of a page at Amazon was put on the big screen, and guess what – it was huuuuuge!

Sure, the main call to action and main info was above the fold, but for those people who need a little (and especially those people who need a LOT) persuasion or reassurance (or even a totally different product), all the information they need is on that one page, and they are able to make an informed buying decision. Well, if it’s good enough for Amazon, then it’s good enough for me!

It got me thinking about how we can use Easy Content Units to display product information in some very different ways on the same page, thus following the CRE and Amazon model of providing all buying options on the one page for a product like the slanket. Again, I present a nice big image of the product, price info and a “buy now” call to action at the top of the page as you would expect. Most of the sales will come from this, but if I can persuade the people who have objections to buy an alternative product, then I can make more from this page, allowing me to spend more promoting it!

So, looking at the objections.. “I don’t want to buy from “Merchant X” – no worries, we can present a list of all the merchants who sell slankets.. “I want a different colour”.. Lets display all the colours.. “I want a smaller one” – Display travel and kids versions.. “I want a bigger one” – show the double slankets!

Now with a little bit of merchant inside knowledge, you could also create an Amazon style “You might also like…” unit of totally different products that people might be interested in – Products that don’t replace the Slanket, but simply increase your basket sizes (and commissions) by complimenting the product well.

If you’re selling a fair few slankets for a merchant, ask them what people who buy slankets also tend to buy.. Then promote those products on the slanket page – Amazon are the kings of doing this as they are able to target this very well, but this is something you can fairly easily replicate yourself with a little merchant knowledge – If people who buy slankets also tend to like Romantic Comedies and slippers, then promote Moccasins and Hugh Grant films on your page – they’re not going to be your biggest sellers, but they stand a good chance of increasing your overall earnings from this one page.

How many ways should you skin the cat? Every way you possibly can! If it’s good enough for Amazon…

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

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Affiliate Marketing in 2009 is primarily pay-per-sale (PPS), so it can be argued that this should be part of a merchant`s sales budget, and therefore uncapped since it is performance based.

However, there is an alternative view that affiliate marketing essentially involves advertising on hundreds or even thousands of different websites, with a combination of performance-based and set-fees, and should therefore be part of the marketing budget, which in most cases is capped. The question here is which view is right?

A win-win
The structure of much of today’s affiliate marketing sector makes it a win-win for all parties. The merchant gains enhanced exposure though a highly competent sales channel. On a PPS basis this is with minimal financial risk other than any network or affiliate programme set-up and management costs. Equally, the affiliate gains access to high quality goods and services, often from recognised and respected brands, without the risks or complexity of carrying inventory, fulfilment and long term product or service strategic planning.

Even in pay-per-click scenarios, the depth of the available data and the sophistication of today’s analytical tools ensure that a merchant can gain raid and in-depth insight into the performance of all elements of such a channel and can adjust the channel mixture accordingly, pretty much in real time, thus limiting any exposure and closely controlling profitability.

Value chain and capital exposure
Exploring this question requires an understanding of the value chain. Simplistically, the merchant is the one making the sale and gross profit margin and is therefore the determinant as to the available margin when accounting for cost of sale. The timing of commission payments from the merchant to the network and from the network to the affiliate (or indeed directly to the affiliate if a direct programme) is then a major determinant in identifying operating capital requirements. In the vast majority of cases, the timings are designed to minimise financial exposure for the merchant — and necessarily so, particularly in the current climate of economic instability.

We must, however, factor in the exposure for any potential commission reversals. Given the Distance Selling Directive and ever growing consumer awareness as to the right of return, this can be a significant factor, particularly in some high touch sectors where return rates are at their highest. In the worst case scenario, a merchant may be exposed to ‘bridging’ the commission costs of reversed sales pending their replacement with fresh sales through the channel concerned. All of these arguments could reasonably be used in suggesting that the affiliate channel must fall within a capped marketing cost, albeit perhaps a rolling framework accounted over a given period as opposed to a fixed annual budget.

Unconstrained potential
In the majority of cases, the merchant is happy to get as many orders or referrals possible, so it seems reasonable not to impose a limit as to the value of commission the affiliate can potentially earn. Recognition must also be given to the fact that the income generated by the affiliate is almost never cost free. In fact, the more effort the affiliate puts into attracting customers, the more likely it is that serious skill, search-engine optimisation and potentially even paid advertising has been added into the mix.

On a pure play performance basis, it is the affiliate that is taking the capital risk here. Clearly this risk must be acknowledged and supported by the merchants in question. In the absence of financial support, imposing artificial constraints as to potential earnings may see the more professional (and effective) affiliates looking for alternative merchants.

Marketing or sales cost?
The thrust of the argument here is that both the merchant and the affiliate each have a significant part to play in the value chain. To expect only one or the other to carry the full responsibility and / or the financial cost and risk would be unrealistic. Whilst we are not privy to the internal accounting mechanisms of individual merchants, it is reasonable to assume that the truth, as always, lies somewhere in between the two. For merchants in sectors with a high returns rate exposure, there will be carefully managed financial controls to protect trading capital and to ensure stability. These may take the form of periodically controlled marketing spend caps.

Similarly neither party wants to artificially constrain sales volumes, any such limits will be adjusted in real time in accordance with the profitability identified in the affiliate channel. Since affiliate commissions are sales volume-driven and are quantifiable only per sale, it is reasonable for the merchant to account these within the cost of sale itself.

The fixed costs of affiliate channel management must also be accommodated, including programme set-up costs, marketing and communication, the use of specialist AM firms and monthly fees from the networks. In all likelihood, these will be accounted within the annual marketing budget as they are quantifiable and predictable.

In the same way that the merchant recognises the value of products being professionally promoted on highly ranked and professionally managed affiliate sites, the affiliate recognises the value the merchant brings in their brand, products or services and the time, effort and expense incurred to develop them. In science, this is referred to as a symbiotic relationship where each animal depends upon the other. As with the Shark and the Remora no one gets eaten if both work collaboratively!

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

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