Enter Omnistar Mailer - the reason for many successful web client communications over the last few years. This useful software allows you to

Create and manage an email list campaign of any size

Follow up with clients with autoresponder e-mails

Track each campaign’s success by with detailed graphic stats

Make each and every e-mail “personalized” with custom forms

Automatically create mailing list registration forms for easy signup Create unlimited mailing list registration forms for easy list sign up

Easily brand product as your own so that it looks like your own email marketing solution

Manage bounced emails with built in bounce manager system

Configure option double opt-in email approval system

Resume, Pause and Play email campaign sending using email process control

Export and Import email addresses from other programs

As you can see, the features are practically endless. This program is absolutely ESSENTIAL for those who work from home.

Pick it up here for only $129. Don’t be shy, this program will pay for itself with the time you’ll save, and the repeat business you’ll get from new and existing clients.

The slang term ‘Booth Babe’ has occasionally been used to refer to a trade show model. The term focuses on physical appearance, or specifically on wardrobe, which, depending on the type of trade show, can be thematic or sexy. For example, at a builder’s convention a model may be dressed as a construction worker with cut-offs, tight t-shirt, tool belt, and hard hat. - Wikipedia

In my quest to provide Affiliate Summit exhibitors with the most productive environment possible, I set about to ask the question, “Does it impact your interest in a tradeshow booth if it is staffed by ‘booth babes’?”

I also asked the gender of respondents in the anonymous survey.

More than 180 conference goers submitted their feedback by choosing one of the following options:

• I am more likely to visit the booth
• I am less likely to visit the booth
• Doesn’t matter to me

Here are the results:

Wow. More than half of the people surveyed are less likely to visit a booth with booth babes, while just 15% are more likely to visit!

The respondents broke out by gender as follows:

Now let’s see how opinions break out by gender:

Female conference attendees are clearly repelled by booth babes at conference booths.

While that may not be earth shattering, I was a bit surprised that more male respondents had a negative view of booth babes than those who had a positive view.

My conclusion: staffing a conference booth with booth babes appears to be a calculated risk. Outsource your reputation at your own peril.

Malcolm will be answering some questions on buy.at???s offering in the US, differences between the US and UK affiliate industries, as well as European and US affiliate networks trying to crack the UK.

The Affiliate Thing show airs weekly on Wednesdays at noon EST. Tune in at http://www.WebmasterRadio.FM.

Subscribe to the Affiliate Thing RSS feed or send a blank e-mail to affiliatething@aweber.com to get each podcast delivered by e-mail.

But since I’m the curious sort, I just had to have it!

Well, there’s really nothing shady or black hat in it at all. It’s all stuff I can use.

I especially enjoyed the part where the book shows how some of the big marketing gurus copy each other’s business models. I guess that makes sense - why reinvent the wheel when someone else has already done all the research and testing.

 

Some people think his Sopranos-style character (or should I say caricature) is a bit over the top, but his video will make you laugh (if you like politically incorrect humor).

It’s informational, entertaining, and 100% legitimate. Sal, the site stealer is going to teach you how to LEGALLY steal people’s websites and make a small fortune from them - that’s his claim at least (he also threatens to hit you over the head with a bat).

But the TRUTH of the matter is that it’s not about stealing anything.

It’s a very well put together course about how to observe your market and find the business models that are working.

 

Furthermore, he shows you how to get started with re-sell rights right away. You’ll learn from Sal even if you don’t have your own product or web site.

In fact, AC will be implementing some of these tactics into their marketing very soon (so when we tell you that Sal taught us this, just know that he never really did hit anyone over the head with a bat).

PopShops, an affiliate showcase tool, recently posted a video of one of their three year old users, Lucas.

It’s a quick and easy overview of how affiliates can implement PopShops on their site.

C’mon affiliates, give it a shot. If a three year old can do it, you can, too. I’ve played around with it, and it really is that easy.

More details at http://www.popshops.com/.

What are the advantages, if any, of retaining an affiliate management company to run our new affiliate program? Would outsourced affiliate management be redundant, since we’ll be joining an affiliate network and they’ll be managing the affiliates?

It really comes down to your resources and your experience in affiliate marketing.

If you have faith in somebody who is current in-house to run your affiliate program, I’d say that’s probably the best case scenario.

Unfortunately, there is somewhat of a shortage in people who are skilled, connected, and well versed in affiliate management.

So if that’s the position you are in, I’d say it’s a good move to go with an OPM or outsourced program management firm to take care of your affiliate program.

They have the experience and know-how to do it. They’ve got the connections with the affiliates you want, because they’ve been running a number of affiliate programs for many years.

The OPM can easily introduce these desirable affiliates to your affiliate program.

As far as the network, I think there is some confusion there. By having your affiliate program in a network, you’ll have a lot of exposure and access to affiliates, but the affiliates won’t necessarily be managed unless you’re paying extra fees.

While these affiliates can easily join your program, because of your presence in an affiliate network, you need more than a stream of applications.

It’s essential to activate and educate the affiliates, too.

If you solely rely on the affiliate network, you’ll have something of a static affiliate program. It’s not going to really ever grow.

No matter which way you go, you definitely need somebody to actively manage your affiliate program.

While most any affiliate marketer knows about PPC advertising, many affiliates are timid about going into things big time as a PPC affiliate, due to the risk of spending big and earning little if not done correctly.

This issue of Affiliate Classroom Magazine is a good primer on the subject, including an article, “PPC Essentials for Affiliate Marketers,” which briefly explains the PPC concept, then gives a brief overview of the good, bad, and ugly sides of
PPC.

Then you will find four essentials that should be included in every PPC Campaign.

Affiliates who are not copywriters, which I’d guess are the vast majority, typically find that one of the hardest aspects of PPC marketing is writing effective ads.

The article, “How to Write Winning PPC Ads”, will walk you through a five-step process to craft ads that get attention and action.

Another interesting piece is “The Many Uses of PPC Marketing,” where you’ll learn a number of ways to use PPC marketing. PPC isn’t just for selling products directly. You can also harness PPC to build your opt-in list, capture leads, and grow your own business.

Lastly, you can find out how to use a PPC campaign to conduct research in “Google AdWords: The Ultimate Niche
Research Tool?”

Check out the new issue of Affiliate Classroom Magazine.

What is the definition of a data feed, and what is the difference between a dynamic and static data feed?

A data feed is a file that enables affiliates to create a database driven site that features the products for a given merchant.

There are a lot of different fields in that file. Typical fields are the product description, image, link to the product, etc.

It’s a tool for affiliates to create a robust, database driven site, like a comparison shopping site.

As far as the difference between dynamic and static data feeds, the static data feeds, as implied by the name, are not updated.

This is not a workable solution for any merchant that updates their inventory with any regularity.

On the other hand, a dynamic data feed is frequently updated to reflect changes in inventory, pricing, etc.

Anik’s little game seems to have backfired - I got tagged twice, first by Jay Berkowitz then by Rosalind Gardner. So, I guess one thing I learned at the Affilialte Summit is that when you meet people, they can make you work - LOL.

I”m one step ahead though, because I already posted Affiliate Marketing Secrets Learned. However, in the spirit of the game, I’ll give you some more information from a seminar I attended on Pay Per Click Marketing. Here are the most important things your web-site should include to make the most of your PPC marketing efforts:

1. 10-15 pages of unique content
2. Privacy Policy
3. About Us/Contact Page (Google actually looks for this now)
4. Site Map
5. Link to Resource Pages - Use web sites with “High Trust” (like .edu or .org.)
6. Add fresh content regularly. A few articles a week and a blog post should do the trick
7. Have a targeted landing page with highly relevent content
8. When setting up your site - think S.E.O. and put in proper tags and keywords.

Oh boy, now I have to tag someone else. Lets see, who else likes to blog?

Jeremy Shoemaker
Carsten Cumbrowski
Linda Buquet
Brad Waller
Jack Johnson

I am very interested in the possibilities of affiliate marketing and video, so it was exciting for me to chat with the guys from Qoof.com about what they’re doing.

Jon Stefansky, EVP of Sales and Marketing of Qoof.com explained their services…

“Basically Qoof is a video commerce company. We allow affiliates to create their own user generated videos and embed their affiliate codes in those videos.

They can take those videos and put them in their blogs, their social networking sites, and their Web sites. When a user clicks through after watching the video, the affiliate gets credit (for referred transactions).

So, it’s a way for affiliates to monetize their video content, and be able to still get tracked for the click-through when their users get redirected to the product page or service page.

We also offer professional videos for the affiliate managers who want to allow their affiliates to create their own content, but also take content created by us or by the merchant themselves.

All the affiliate has to do is embed their affiliate code in those professional videos, and they can take those videos and put them on their page.

So, it’s no longer just text banners or graphic banners. Now affiliate programs can offer their affiliates actual videos that they can put their affiliate code in, and post on their Web site, blog, or social networking site.”

Hillel Scheinfeld, Chief Operating Officer of Qoof.com, continued…

“In short, we allow people to take advantage of this huge user generated video world, combined with the affiliate world, to start generating revenue with their video.”

More details at http://www.qoof.com.