Becoming a Successful Niche Marketer

Online niche marketing is more than just an online fad. People have been earning amazing incomes from it for several years; every day, more and more people get on board and start living the dream, too. If you think that becoming a successful niche marketer is out of your reach, think again. With the right guidance, it’s truly possible for anyone to become a success in the niche marketing game. These days, the crème de la crème of the niche marketing how-to world has to be Micro Niche Finder. Get on board with that program and read the following info to get the ball rolling on your niche marketing adventure!

Step One: Researching Popular Niches

There’s a delicate balance to finding the right niche market. On the one hand, you want something that’s specific enough to keep the playing field as sparse as possible; on the other, you need a niche market that will earn you steady, reliable income. The first step to becoming a successful niche marketer is zeroing in on the right niche. There are literally thousands of them available; getting started can be quite overwhelming. Micro Niche Finder simplifies this daunting step, allowing you to pinpoint the niche that is right for you.

Key things to keep in mind when researching niches include:

Find Out what People are Looking For – To find the right niche, you need to keep your finger on the pulse of what people are searching for online. Any niche marketer will tell you that staying abreast of what’s popular in online searches is the backbone of making this venture work for you. The main ingredient to being a successful niche marketer is drawing in targeted traffic; once you have an audience, the battle is all downhill. Selecting a niche that people are seeking information about is a great first step.

Choose an Untapped Niche Market – Here’s where the balancing act comes into play: You need to select a niche that’s being searched for but that isn’t oversaturated. If there are hundreds of other niche marketers trying to get in on the action, your profits will be extremely diluted. This is why it pays to sign up for an automated system like Micro Niche Finder, which helps you zero in on emerging niches with ease. By getting in on the ground floor of a niche market, you will increase your odds of experiencing amazing success as a niche marketer.

Analyze Niches at a Glance – A big stumbling block for any niche marketing is analyzing the potential of any given niche market. Usually, doing this is extremely difficult. With MicroNicheFinder, you can size up a niche market at a glance.

Step Two: Finding the Right Product

The next step in becoming a successful niche marketer is finding the right product within the niche of your choice. In this case, it pays to get as specific as possible with your keyword research. Overly broad keywords and key phrases are going to leave you spinning your tires. You need to zero in on a product that can be found through more in-depth keywords and key phrases. Micro Niche Finder makes it a snap to analyze the usefulness and effectiveness of various keywords and key phrases, allowing you to pinpoint the products that will generate the most business for you.

Another thing to keep in mind when selecting a product as a niche marketer is gauging its potential in terms of affiliate marketing. For many niche marketers, affiliate marketing is one of their most lucrative sources of income. Some products do better than others in the affiliate marketing game. MicroNicheFinder makes it possible to get a feel for how well a product will perform for you in this regard.

Step Three: Setting Up Your Venture as a Niche Marketer

Once all of the analyzing has been done, it’s time to get the ball rolling in earnest. Yet again, Micro Niche Finder simplifies the process of getting your business off the ground. There are many ways to get going as a niche marketer. Setting up a series of small sales websites is a great first step. These sites can include forms that people can use to sign up for e-newsletters; you can then use those newsletters to expand your reach and make sales. As emphasized in the MicroNicheFinder program, diverting and converting are exceptionally important things that any niche marketer should know.

Basically:

Diverting – As a niche marketer, you need to divert as much traffic to your own sites as possible. This can be done in various ways, including press releases, pay-per-click programs, article marketing, email campaigns and backlinks.

Converting – Once the traffic’s been diverted to your site, you need to convert it into sales. You can do this by selling your products or through affiliate marketing. Another prime option you can use as a niche marketer is AdSense revenue; convert the traffic into email lists that can be used to generate income, too.

As you can see, there’s more than one way to go about becoming a wildly successful niche marketer. In fact, it pays to put as many different things to work for you as possible. If you’re really serious about becoming a niche marketer, though, you need to sign up with MicroNicheFinder. Between its indispensable assistance and the points made above, you’ll be able to skyrocket to the top in no time.

Do you operate an affiliate site related to the medical or health industries?  If you do it may prove beneficial to add a medical disclaimer to your affiliate site in order to save yourself from unnecessary headaches.  In addition, although it’s never been publicly stated (to the best of my knowledge), Google may look more favorably on an affiliate site with a medical disclaimer.

Furthermore, I feel adding a medical disclaimer to your medical or health related affiliate site also gives you more credibility and legitimacy with your potential customers in a very skeptical market sector.  And hey, at the very least you can add a little more unique content to your affiliate site.  Here’s an example medical disclaimer I use on my affiliate sites.

Example Medical or Health Related Affiliate Site Disclaimer

“AFFILIATE SITE Medical Disclaimer

The information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this web site is for general information purposes only.  AFFILIATE SITE makes no representation and assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of information contained on or available through this web site, and such information is subject to change without notice. You are encouraged to confirm any information obtained from or through this web site with other sources, and review all information regarding any medical condition or treatment with your physician.

NEVER DISREGARD PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY SEEKING MEDICAL TREATMENT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH THIS WEB SITE.

AFFILIATE SITE does not recommend, endorse or make any representation about the efficacy, appropriateness or suitability of any specific tests, products, procedures, treatments, services, opinions, health care providers or other information that may be contained on or available through this web site.

AFFILIATE SITE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY ADVICE, COURSE OF TREATMENT, DIAGNOSIS OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION, SERVICES OR PRODUCTS THAT YOU OBTAIN THROUGH THIS WEB SITE.”

So there you go people.  Copy, modify and paste to your affiliate site at your leisure!

Tax season is here, are you ready?  I hope so because there is a hungry market out there searching for e-File authorized online tax preparation services.  Just how many?  Well here’s some interesting facts and figures the IRS released on November 2, 2009 in regards to e-filing in the 2009 tax season.  (See IR-2009-99 (Nov. 2, 2009) for the entire release.

1) in 2000, 27.57% or 35,412,000 returns were e-Filed, whereas in 2009, more than two-thirds–67.18% or 94,980,000 our of 141,376,000, were e-Filed;

2) The total number of returns shrank, however, from 153,650,000 in 2008 (a drop of 8%);

3) More taxpayers were doing their own e-Filing–almost 20% more prepared and e-Filed their own returns rather than using tax preparers to do so;

4) The government gave $303.069 billion back to taxpayers in refunds this year, an increase of more than 20% over last year’s refunds; and

5) The 73 million taxpayers who got electronically deposited refunds got them at least a week sooner than those waiting for a paper check, and cost the government less at the same time..

Since the IRS e-File system meets the needs of nearly all taxpayers, no matter how complicated or simple their returns are, more and more people will turn to online tax preparation services.  Using e-File helps taxpayers take advantage of the tax credits available to them to maximize their refunds during these tough economic times and provides key benefits such as:

* Faster Refunds
* Greater Accuracy
* Secure and confidential submission
* No paper return to mail
* File now, pay later
* Quick confirmation

This is great news for affiliate marketers because there is a a variety of tax software products available commercially that offer e-File.  Here’s a selection of the top e-File authorized tax affiliate programs across some of the major networks:

	e-File authorized tax preparation services on the buyat Affiliate Network.
	Commission Value: $25 per completed filing Cookie: 30 days
	Commission Value: $3.30 per registration Cookie: Same Session Only

————————————————————————————————————

	e-File authorized tax preparation services on the Commission Junction Affiliate Network.
	Commission Value: 20% per completed filing Cookie: 120 days
	Commission Value: 20% per completed filing Cookie: 45 days
	Commission Value: 15% per completed filing Cookie: 30 days
	Commission Value: 15% per completed filing Cookie: 45 days

————————————————————————————————————

	e-File authorized tax preparation services on the LinkShare Affiliate Network.
	Commission Value: 50-65% per completed filing Cookie: ? days

————————————————————————————————————

	e-File authorized tax preparation services on the ShareASale Affiliate Network.
	Commission Value: 30% per completed filing Cookie: 120 days
	Commission Value: 60% per completed filing Cookie: 30 days
	Commission Value: 20% per completed filing Cookie: 120 days
	Commission Value: $2.00 per completed filing Cookie: 30 days

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and is one of the highest grossing holidays for online sales.  Back in 2009 consumers planned to spend an average of $102.50 on Valentine’s Day gifts and merchandise, versus $122.08 per person in 2008 according to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey.  Although times were tight the total Valentine’s Day spending in 2009 exceeded $14.7 billion.  That is a huge pot of money!

Regardless of the economic climate people will always spend their hard earned dollars on traditional Valentine’s Day gifts which include:

• jewelry
• flowers
• greeting cards
• and candy

Furthermore, the above survey indicated the majority of people (90.8 percent) spent the most on their spouse ($67.22), with other family members such as children getting about one fifth of their budget ($20.95).  Consumers also spent on friends ($4.74), children’s classmates/teachers ($3.59), coworkers ($1.94), and yes…even pets ($2.17).

So how do the numbers look this year for us affiliate marketers?  Well this past holiday season, online sales jumped 18 percent from Nov. 27 to Dec. 24, according to SpendingPulse.

“People were more comfortable doing last-minute shopping online, especially with the bad weather,” Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research for SpendingPulse, said in a telephone interview yesterday. A snowstorm on the East Coast the weekend before Christmas closed some malls early on Dec. 19 and kept shoppers at home….Jewelry sales rose 5.6 percent for November and December, while luxury retail excluding jewelry gained 0.8 percent.”

This is comforting news to online retailers and affiliates.  So here’s a list of some Valentines Day affiliate programs you may want to promote via pay per click campaigns and niche website marketing.  I broke them down by affiliate networks and the Pepperjam Network programs were compiled by my network manager Gina Nardone.

A good network manager will/should work directly with you in order to custom tailor selected affiliate programs to suit your marketing needs and preferences.  They’ll also often dig up affiliate programs that you’ve overlooked or find programs that are not heavily saturated with other affiliate marketers.  This close relationship with your network manger offers you the best opportunity to carve out a nice market share in that specific niche.  These in my opinion are just a few areas both Pepperjam Network and ShareASale have always excelled at.

So here’s some programs you may want to consider promoting:

Valentines Day Affiliate Programs on Pepperjam Network:

Flowers 48LongStems.com FlowerStore.com Teleflora.com Jewelry, Clothing & Pampering Gifts DanforthDiamond.com -*Open-Search EternalSparkles.com Ziamond.com IDoNowIDont.com -*Open-Search SuperJeweler.com Swarovski.com Tuccini.com MyFragranceRoom.com -*Open-Search Cookies, Chocolates, Wines & More GJCookies.com -*Open-Search igourmet.com GiftBaskets.com Patchi.us MonthClubStore.com TheWineMessenger.com

Valentines Day Affiliate Programs on ShareASale:

Flowers PickupFlowers 2Flowers.com Flowers Fast Flora 2000 Jewelry, Clothing & Pampering Gifts Design it Yourself Gifts and Baskets Gifts Baskets for Delivery FragranceShop.com Gifting Inc. Timeless Message HipsandCurves.com Wicked Temptations Panties.com Intimate Wholesalers SassyBax Cookies, Chocolates, Wines & More Savannah Candy Cookies in Bloom Harry London Clever Cookie Brownie Points

Valentines Day Affiliate Programs on Linkshare:

Flowers 1-800-Flowers.com (personal favorite) Martha Stewart for 1-800-Flowers.com 1-800-Baskets.com GourmetGiftBaskets.com Honest Florist Fleurop.com Just Because Baskets Flowers.com Blooms Today GiftBaskets.com, Inc. Internet Florist Jewelry, Clothing & Pampering Gifts Memorable Gifts DiViene.com Pear Tree Greetings James Allen Her Room The Body Shop Zales Vermont Teddy Bear Frederick’s of Hollywood, Inc. Perfume Worldwide, Inc. Diamonds International Mondera (personal favorite) Bare Necessities JewelryWeb.com, Inc. Cookies, Chocolates, Wines & More Chocolate.com My Wines Direct Wine.com

Valentines Day Affiliate Programs on Commission Junction:

Flowers GiftTree Organic Bouqet JustFlowers.com USAFlorist.com 1-800-Florals FlowerDelivery.com FloraQueen Jewelry, Clothing & Pampering Gifts Ross Simons James Avery Diamond.com Ashford.com Buyz.com Body Candy StrawberryNET.com FragranceX.com My Jewelry Box WaySpa.com USA and CA Couture Candy Cookies, Chocolates, Wines & More Wine Access Gevalia Ghirardelli Chocolates Vosges Chocolates RICHART Chocolates Wine Basket zCHOCOLAT.com

This is obviously not an all inclusive list.  While each affiliate network has a wide range of products suited for a solid Valentine’s Day marketing campaign, I really like the premier clientele on LinkShare to include: 1-800-Flowers/Baskets, Vermont Teddy Bear, Mondera, Bare Necessities Chocolate.com and Wine.com.

However, these are just some Valentine’s Day affiliate programs you may want to take a look at promoting via ppc marketing campaigns or whatever marketing campaign you’re developing.  Be sure to contact your affiliate or network managers and inquire what’s hot and new this season.

Incidentally, don’t stress out if you haven’t set up your Valentine’s Day campaigns already.  Valentine’s Day is predominantly what I call a perishable holiday.   Perishable in that the majority of products bought and sold during the holiday are flowers, candies and other consumable items.  This means the majority of sales occur approximately one week before the holiday.

Best of luck to you as you create/develop your Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns.  I hope this brief Valentine’s Day affiliate program list helps speed up your time to market.  Aloha!

Thanks to affiliate marketing, the concept of working from home has never been more doable or accessible.  Promoting and selling vendors’ items online – and sharing a percentage of the revenue that is generated through such efforts – is surprisingly easy and can be incredibly lucrative.  The primary thing to keep in mind when trying to break into the affiliate marketing game, though, is “marketing.”  The vast majority of the work that you’ll be doing will revolve around gaining exposure for your website and the products that are promoted within it.  Luckily, there are several great tips and strategies related to affiliate marketing; familiarize yourself with a few of the best ones below.

Sell What You Know

Passionate salespeople tend to outperform less enthusiastic ones.  When you genuinely understand and enjoy the products or services that you sell, customers can sense it and those products and services become that much more appealing.  We’ve all met the bored salesperson with the monotone drawl – unenthusiastic online affiliate marketers can come across in much the same way, repelling customers and running into dead end after dead end.

Although it may be tempting to engage in an affiliate marketing program that offers the absolute best revenue sharing percentage or other key perks, if you’re uneducated, inexperienced and unenthusiastic about the things you’ll be marketing the extra compensation isn’t going to go very far.  Instead, look for an affiliate marketing program based on something you know and love.  In turn, you will be able to write more compelling and engaging content, which will attract more customers to you. In the long run, you’ll carve out a great niche for yourself and your sales will start flooding in.

Choose A Great Domain

One of the biggest mistakes affiliate marketers make is skimping on their website.  Rather than investing in a proper domain name – something that typically costs about $10.00 per year – they try to avoid that extra cost by using a free web hosting service like Blogger.  While the platform and tools that go along with sites like WordPress and Blogger are great, having a domain that ends in “.blogspot.com” is not.  Search engines tend to overlook sites with long, convoluted extensions and yours will probably get lost in the shuffle.  Think up a clever, catchy and unique domain name and invest in it – one ending in .com is generally best.

* Note:  I personally use www.Godaddy.com for all of my domains, they’re one of the best registrars in the business.

Create Killer Content – Or Pay Someone Else To Do It For You

These days, it seems like every site on the Internet is trying to sell something.  People are fickle, and simply slapping up affiliate links along with images of the products that you sell just isn’t enough. What draws people to your site and its products and services is content.  Regurgitating something that someone else has said is pointless; you need to create compelling, well-written and informative content, and you need to update it frequently.  If you have a knack for writing, enjoy it and have the time, do it yourself.  If writing isn’t necessarily your forte, hire a professional – it is well worth the money.

* Note: For over a year I have been using www.TextBroker.com for unique conetent generation on all of my new niche affiliate web sites.  In a word this service is AWESOME!

Submit To Article Directories

Assuming that you’re heeding the first bit of advice in this article and are selling something that you know and love, writing informative articles about it should come pretty naturally.  Those articles can be submitted to various article directories around the Internet, along with links to your website or to specific landing pages. In order to attract attention and traffic, those articles will have to be professional and should include a decent percentage of strategically selected keywords.  Educate yourself about the top article directory sites, then start generating articles for them.  Over time, your affiliate marketing business will truly start booming.

* Note: Online Marketing Research has put together a good list of quality article directories ranked by their Alexa rank.  I’m not going to recreate the wheel so here’s the link: http://www.seoresearcher.com/articles-directories-list-alexa-rating-ordered.htm

Create Topnotch Landing Pages

Landing pages are the bread and butter of many top affiliate marketers.  Basically, a landing page is a place where a person is directed after clicking on a link or an ad. In a succinct and direct way, landing pages convey what the visitor can expect and don’t require a lot of reading or involvement.  They can be used in a number of different ways, too, including:

• To Direct Traffic To Your Site – The most popular and basic goal of many landing pages is to funnel visitors to your affiliate marketing site.  Such a landing site will include compelling language within a link – usually called “anchor text” – to direct people to your website.
• To Extend An Offer – Landing pages are sometimes used to direct people to special offers, deals or sales on your affiliate marketing goods.  Sometimes, clicking the link on a landing site might send a visitor directly to the sales page for a specific product; other times, clicking that link might send them to a group of related products. The choice is up to you.
• To Allow People To Participate – You can use a landing page to link people up to follow you on Twitter, sign up for an email group or to become a fan of yours on Facebook.  The possibilities are endless, and they all add up to excellent marketing tools.

* Note: One of the best free resources to learn everything about landing pages can be found here: http://www.copyblogger.com/landing-pages/

So there you go.  If you’re just starting out in affiliate marketing I hope these quick tips and resources will help you out.  Aloha!

With Christmas right around the corner Linkshare has seen an increase of online fashion retailers joining their affiliate network.  A few are well established retailers you know by name with a few new up and coming retailers.  Here’s a few new fashion retailers to get you started on the Linkshare UK affiliate network:

Faith – A leading UK fashion high street retailer specializing in affordable women’s and men’s luxury footwear and accessories.

• Up to 8% commission on net sales
• 30 day Cookie period
• Newsletters sent on a regular basis to inform you of our best sellers, new items, offers and trends
• Access to product imagery and content to ensure your visitors are the first to know about the latest must-have fashion items and accessories
• Instant access to sales reports and tracking
• Affiliate page – http://www.faith.co.uk/faith-affiliate-programme-artlaffiliate_programme/

Jigsaw – Jigsaw is a British company that has been involved in the design, manufacturing and retailing of clothes and accessories for over thirty-five years. The first store opened in Hampstead in 1972 and the company has steadily expanded to currently operate over 40 stores in the UK. In 1996 Jigsaw Junior was established to extend the product range from purely women’s fashion. The brand has also seen international expansion in the USA, where it currently trades from 7 stores on the West Coast.

• Affiliate page – http://www.jigsaw-online.com/affiliates  (Affiliate program structure not listed on website.)
  

Fenn Wright Manson -Since the launch in 1974 Fenn Wright Manson has established itself as a leading British ladieswear fashion brand and has acquired a reputation for innovative and timeless collections. An emphasis on chic and feminine styles and cuts, in exhaustible and versatile range of prints and textures, have given the seasonal collections it’s distinct profile.

The Fenn Wright Manson London based design team produces inspirational and quintessential styles season after season, appealing to an ageless fashion aware woman who wants to invest in effortlessly sophisticated and everyday flattering pieces. Every style has attention to detail and are suitable for all aspects of life – from work and day and right through to evening and occasions wear.  

• 5% Commission on all goods
• Ggenerous 60-day Cookie Window
• (Affiliate program offering not listed on website.  Had to dig up the details.)

Matches – Since the first Matches store opened near Tom and Ruth Chapman’s home in Wimbledon in 1990, it has become a brand in its own right – an iconic retail experience, trusted by London’s most fashion literate clientele, offering the best of the best in established and new international labels.  (Good website and generous affiliate structure.  Definitely worth taking a closer look at.)

• £5 bounty on full-price orders placed by new customers’
• 45 day cookie length
• Up to 10% commission
• Instant access to sales reports and bestsellers
• Daily automated product feed
• Regular newsletters to ensure you’re up to date with the latest trends and must-have buys for the season
• Access to the product catwalk imagery (Nice touch there!)
• Affiliate page – http://www.matchesfashion.com/fcp/content/JoinUs/content

Fossil – Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 25 years you’ve probably heard of Fossil.  Fossil is a design, development, marketing and distribution company that specializes in consumer products predicated on fashion and value.  The company’s principal offerings include an extensive line of fashion watches sold under the company’s proprietary and licensed brands.  The company also offers complementary lines of small leather goods, belts, handbags, sunglasses, jewelry and apparel.  The company’s products are sold in department stores and specialty retail stores in over 90 countries around the world, in addition to the company’s e-commerce website at www.fossil.com.

• 17% commission on all of our products, on every referred sale (One of the largest percentages I’ve seen for this particular market.)
• Highly recognizable retailer
• Free shipping on every order over $75
• Checks cut monthly
• Also listed on Performics and Commission Junction
• Affiliate page – http://www.fossil.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Static____affiliateNetwork_custCareNav

Radley – Radley was founded in 1998 by Lowell Harder, our Creative Director. Radley is a great, creative British brand, which makes beautiful handbags and accessories  for women to own.

• Baseline commission: 6%
• Cookie window: 30 days
• A full Merchandiser product feed is available on the program
• JPG, Flash banners and text links for all promotions
• LinkBuilder also allows you to link to any page on the Radley site.
• (Affiliate program offering not listed on website.  Had to dig up the details.)

As you’re tweaking your Christmas affiliate marketing campaigns be sure to keep an eye out on new affiliate programs your preferred affiliate networks may have recently launched.  Stay ahead of the pack and always look for new unique niches you can easily dominate.

Back in 2006 Twitter was a flourishing new social networking / micro blogging site. Today, twitter is ranked as one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide by Alexa’s web traffic analysis. Although estimates of the number of daily users vary because the company does not release the number of active accounts, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009.

So are YOU using Twitter?  Back in 2007 I posted an entry titled, ‘What’s All the Twitter About“, before what seemed like everyone on the planet decided to get a Twitter account.  I wasn’t sure how long Twitter would last but as it turns out it’s usefulness would mature over time.

Today, Twitter is used for numerous personal and business applications such as:

• Personal and Corporate Branding
• Event and Special Promotion Announcements
• Customer Service
• Feedback Requests
• Petitions
• Traffic Generation
• and much more

So let’s capitalize on the success of Twitter and help your affiliate program listings on Top Affiliate.  If you currently have a Twitter account simply cut and paste your Twitter RSS feed link into your dierctory listing.

Sure, it would be more beneficial to use your website RSS feed but if you don’t have a blog a Twitter feed will work just fine.  Please checkout the below screenshot to see where you can add an RSS feed to your listing on Top Affiliate.

Add your Twitter or Blog Feed Here

Here’s a great example of how the affiliate network Flex Offers uses Twitter to promote special promotions, incorporated into their listing on the Top Affiliate Directory:

So there you have it.  This should keep your affiliate listing page fresh in the search engines.  Happy micro blogging!

When Pepperjam launched Pepperjam Network earlier this year I was still in Iraq and only had a chance to sign up for the new affiliate network.  After returning back from my deployment and getting around to catching up on an obscene amount of backlog I finally got around to poking around the Pepperjam Network.

Logging into the affiliate control panel I was immediately impressed with the technology and detail.  Everything you need to run a successful affiliate marketing campaign is immediately at your disposal in an aesthetically pleasing layout.

Pepperjam has secured some HUGE merchant/retailer names.  Looking through their list of advertisers you’ll see many of the same wildly popular advertisers you love to promote and some interesting new advertisers in very specialized niche markets you may not be familiar with like Andy’s Airplanes.

In my opinion one of the best features of this affiliate network is pepperjamADS.

“pepperjamADS is an affiliate marketing widget that you can use to serve customized contextual ads from one or multiple Pepperjam Network advertisers at the same time. The ad units come in various shapes and sizes. You can mix and mash ads from any of your merchant partners. For instance, you can create a fashion widget by selecting various ads from multiple fashion merchants. Likewise, you can create a specific widget with ads from any one merchant.”

If you haven’t already signed up for the Pepperjam Network…what are you waiting for?  Pepperjam’s 2008 Inc. 500 ranking is #70 with three-year revenue growth of 2,447.5%.  Pepperjam ranks as one of the top 100 fastest growing privately-held companies in the United States of America!

OH HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE! Only in my wildest internet marketing dreams did I ever imagine making $4800, $9,600 heck even $19,200 per month from simply placing some silly little links on my website!  LOL.

WOW, look at the e-mail I just received!  (Your spam checker probably saved you.)

Hi,

We’ve seen your website at http://www.top-affiliate.com/blog/ and we love it!
We see that your traffic rank is 191851
and your link popularity is 226.
Also, you have been online since 8/29/2004.

With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month to advertise our links on your website.

If you’re interested, read our terms from this page: http://www.contactthem. com/affiliateLink

Sincerely,

“SPAM TEAM”
The ContactThem Network

So after having a good solid laugh at this e-mail curiosity got the best of me and off I wandered over to ContactThem to see what this nonsense was all about.

Once you get to the pitch page you find out that ContactThem (according to them) is the fastest growing program since Google Adwords.  Get out, surely you jest! But it gets better.  They also claim they are as viral as Hotmail.  Wow, that’s a pretty modest claim.  =)

Blah, blah, blah…blah, blah, blah…Oh wait a minute, what’s this asterisk?  Ahh, those were potential earnings!  You almost tricked me ContactThem!

Basically this spam and scam product is a lead generating software for, yep you guessed it, MULTI LEVEL MARKETING (MLM), which we all know preys on the new opportunity seeker or affiliate marketer.  This software extracts details out of numerous databases and allows you to do a mass mailing with the gleaned personalized information.  Talk about your laser targeted leads, LOL!

Since I really despise MLM I wanted to see who was responsible for this debacle.  Ahh it makes sense now….it’s Stephan Ducharme the notorious FreeAdGuru who’s claim to fame was repackaging free traffic generating methods as “secrets” almost 10 years ago.

Evidently these spam and scam e-mails have been flying around since late February ’08 when I was over in Iraq so this is probably old news to most.  However, hopefully someone will read this and be saved from the hype and nonsense still flying around this particular “offer” and be more inquisitive on future too-good-to-be-true offers.

Steer clear people and update your spam filters. 

Platform-A, http://www.platform-a.com, AOL’s digital advertising division, recently announced the launch of an affiliate marketing solution that links the buy.at affiliate network to the widget-based marketing tools of wildly popular Goowy Media, Inc.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years…Goowy Media, Inc. develops innovative online products and services that provide simple, intuitive tools for managing your digital life and expressing yourself on the web.  Their most popular products are yourminus.com and goowy webtop

This progressive move by AOL enables web publishers, like you and me, to generate additional revenue from a combination of affiliate, widget and viral marketing.  It will be exciting to see how Platform-A advertisers integrate/syndicate this new capability into their customized widgets for your blog, website, and even your desktop!  Very cool stuff indeed.

For more than a little while now I haven’t had too many good things to say about these blasted Widgets!  They seemed to just take up real advertising space and bleed my hard-earned web traffic.  However, I will gladly test these viral advertiser generated widgets out on my network of blogs/sites so my visitors and customers can snatch them up and redistribute them to the far corners of the Web.  Just think about the applications…MySpace, FaceBook, etc.

Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A states, “This solution combines the best of affiliate and widget advertising in a solution that benefits publishers and advertisers alike.  Publisher revenue potential, brand exposure for the advertiser, and potential conversions grow virally each time the widget is downloaded by a consumer.”

I agree Lynda!  Now this is what we collectively mean by the moniker Web 2.0 people!

http://www.Top-Affiliate.com
http://www.FreeAdvertisingBlog.com