Web Marketing Today
Theme: Affiliate Income from Your Site, Part 1
Issue 61, October 1, 1999
Welcome to Web Marketing Today, Issue 61, completing our fourth consecutive year of publication. Today WMT goes out to 74,000+ subscribers worldwide.
Last month we looked at developing advertising revenue from your website. This month we turn to garnering referral income using affiliate programs on your website. This subject has been much written about, but perhaps not so candidly as you'll see here.
Articles
- How Does an Affiliate Program Work?
This is an introduction to affiliate programs that starts at ground zero and explains how it works, what the benefits are, and what the tracking URL links look like. It also explains how the merchant benefits from such a program. - Affiliates Desperately Need a Business Plan
To make an affiliate program bring in any significant revenue you have to work at it. I explain why the average affiliate doesn't earn much at all, mainly because he has no meaningful business plan to generate traffic to his site. - Finding a Webpage with an Obsolete URL
A brief article to help you find the article you were looking for, even if you get one of those foul "404 Error" messages, "page not found."
Odds and Ends
I was delighted to find that one of my articles was mentioned in "Make Your Site a Success," by Tom Giebel, in the print version of PC Magazine, September 21, 1999, p. 36. It said,
"For a final flight check before launching your promotional campaign, read "The Web Marketing Checklist: 26 Ways to Promote Your Site" found at Web Marketing Today (http://wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm)"
Jennifer Kyrnin of About.com selected the same page for its "Tip of the Day" for September 28 on the About.com Guide to HTML site (http://html.about.com). I am very honored. Thank you.
In the last issue I gave the wrong URL for Industry consultant Mark Welch of Adbility. His URL should be http://www.adbility.com Sorry, Mark.
Which Caveman Discovered the Lever?
I wonder which caveman first discovered the lever. Probably he started by prying with a branch. Then, purely by accident, he discovered that if he put a stone (a fulcrum) under the lever about a third of the way from the far end, and pulled on the longer end, he could exert great force on boulders, moving a rock much larger and heavier than himself.
Think of our subscription-based newsletter, Web COMMERCE Today, as a knowledge lever.
The newsletter you're reading, Web MARKETING Today, focuses on site promotion and marketing. But that's only half of the equation. You need to learn to sell products directly on the Web. You need to master e-commerce. That's where Web COMMERCE Today comes in. Read what our subscribers say.
"Grown ... into a seven figure business," Ray Campbell, CEO, zZounds
"Your newsletter has been the single best source of information for me as we have grown http://zZounds.com into a seven figure (and climbing fast) business. I say that even though I subscribe to and read all the major business magazines, and every online newsletter and zine I can find that has anything intelligent to say about e-commerce. I very much appreciate the way your editors cut through the flow of information and deliver the good stuff." -- Ray Campbell, CEO, zZounds Music Discovery Centers, www.zZounds.com
"Like having an extremely bright executive assistant," Chris Bain, Michael Friedman Publishing
"I continue to marvel at the depth of your site. It has become the first place I go for the most up to date information on eCommerce... You collect all the relevant ecommerce information FOR me. It's like having an extremely bright executive assistant, and assigning her/him the task of keeping me totally up-to-date on ecommerce. In monthly chunks (every day and every week pieces are usually too much to go through).
And when I need to look something up, the E-Commerce Research Room is like having an e-commerce library right at my fingertips. I KNOW I can check there and find the latest reviews on shopping cart software, or fulfillment, or store design, whatever. I've had our company's site (metrobooks.com) up for 4-1/2 years (that's about 30 web years, I'd bet), and the landscape changes every few months. I wouldn't dare go without you as a resource." -- Chris Bain, Michael Friedman Publishing Group, www.metrobooks.com
These two gentleman have found that Web COMMERCE Today provides LEVER-age to help them catapult their businesses forward. When we're in a fog, little progress is made. But when something becomes clear, the advance is almost immediate. Web COMMERCE Today sheds light on all aspects of e-commerce. It's a lever to help you move something far larger than you, and multiply your efforts many-fold.
The price of an annual subscription to WEB COMMERCE TODAY has remained fixed at $49.95 since it began in August 1997. I've agonized over raising the price, since it compares with newsletter that sell for ten times that much. But after much thought, I've decided for now to hold the two-year-old price at only $49.95, so the cost remains within the range a small to medium business can afford.
You're not a caveman. But there's no point in reinventing the lever. Subscribe today to Web COMMERCE Today, and propel your online business forward. The lever is only $49.95 for an entire year of prying and moving and business building. What a bargain! Subscribe now at http://wilsonweb.com/wct/ You'll wonder how you ever did without it.
