As part of the head up to the Affiliate Summit East show in New York city, affiliate Summit has released their 2011 Affilate Stat Report, which shares the survey results of 1400 affiliate marketers. The report is the most objective and comprehensive survey of its kind.
For the last nine years, AffStat has delivered annual affiliate marketing benchmarks that are crucial to the development of any affiliate marketing program.
The research has been designed to increase awareness and foster best-practices in the affiliate marketing industry.
The annual AffStat report is available for the entire affiliate marketing community to benefit from and data from the AffStat survey will be published in future editions of FeedFront Magazine (get a free subscription).
You don’t really need a subscription to FeedFront in order to read the report. Affiliate Summit co-founder, Shawn Collins, uploaded a copy to Scribd. It’s well worth reading, especially if you like pie charts.
This is part eight of my series on advanced email marketing for bloggers. In case you missed the past articles or need a refresher course. Here are the links to the past posts:
In this article I’m going to introduce you to one of the most powerful, yet most unused, features of Aweber: the email parser.
What is an Email Parser?
When working in your AWeber account, you may notice a menu item titled “Email Parser”, under the “List Settings” tab. If you click on it, you’ll find a page filled with checkboxes next to the names of many third party services.
An email parser is a technology that allows you to integrate your email campaigns with other services so that when a transaction is made with that service, a subscriber can be added to your list.
For example, you might use PayPal as a shopping cart for your products. You can use an email parser to automatically subscribe customers to your list when they make a purchase from you. Just think how powerful a list of PAYING customers is worth. Here’s how to do it.
First, you will need to get your list’s email address. This email address is used by PayPal to let your account know when someone makes a purchase. When logged into your account, on the left side of your page, you’ll see a dropdown menu labeled Current List.
Your list name appears in the box. Make sure you are in the right list, then write down your list’s name, followed by @aweber.com. This is your list’s email address. In the above example, the email address of the list is your-list-here@aweber.com.
Next, you should turn on the PayPal parser in this list. The parser is what does the work of reading the messages that PayPal sends to your list and adds people to your list after they make a purchase. To do this, first go to the Email Parser page under the My Lists tab.
Now just scroll down the page until you find the check box labeled “PayPal Orders” and click on it.
Now, you will add your list’s email address to your PayPal account. This will allow PayPal to send the message to your list.m Log into your PayPal account, and make sure that you are working under the “My Account” tab. On the right, click on Profile, then Add or Edit Email.
Enter your list’s email address, then click the Save button.
Once you add the address, PayPal requires that you confirm that you are the owner of that address. You’ll need to go back into your AWeber account, and make sure that you are working under the “Home” tab. Go to the Search Subscribers box under the Home tabe and search for “Email” “contains” “paypal”.
This should pull up the “service@paypal.com” address (Note: if this does not work, you may need to wait a few minutes for that to show up in your account. Also, if you are setting up parsers in multiple lists, make sure that the correct list appears under the “Listname” column). Click on the email address to access more information.
Now, further down on the page, find the line that reads “Confirmed?” and click the “No” link.
This will provide you the text of the email that PayPal sent to your list. Look for the URL that comes after “click the following link and insert your password.” Highlight the whole link and copy it.
Once you click that link, or copy and paste it to your browser, you will be taken to a page that prompts you for your PayPal password. Simply enter your password and click the Confirm button to activate your list’s email address.
Now all that you need to do is create your Buy Now Button from the Merchant services tab of your PayPal account.
After setting up the item name and price as normal, scroll down and make sure that you have selected “Use my primary email address” and chosen your list’s email address from the drop down menu.
Now you can use the code that PayPal gives you to place the button wherever you would like, and anyone who makes a purchase using it will be automatically added to your list. If you have multiple products, and want customers added to a different list for each product, just follow the steps above for each button that you would like to create.
The Tip of the Email Iceberg
This is just one example of how to use the Email parser to grow your list and increase your business. You can use the feature to integrate Aweber with dozens of services, like Clickbank, 1 Shopping Cart, Google Checkout and even the Costco Auto Program.
If you’re selling any product online and you’re not using an Email parser to capture the leads, you’re leaving a ton of money on the table. The sooner you set this up, the better off you’ll be.
Try Aweber for Only $1.00
If your blog doesn’t have an email list, you are leaving a ton of money on the table. My mailing list is the number one reason my blog makes income that it does. Aweber is the best email service I have ever used. Their feature set is beyond anything else in the industry and the Email Parser is another reason why they’re the best.
Aweber offers a $1 trial account for all new customers. The account is just like a normal Aweber account and includes unlimited email campaigns, newsletter, broadcasts and follow ups. It’s a great way to test drive Aweber to see what it can do for your blog. Your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you find that having an email list is not for you, contact Aweber within 30 days and they’ll give you the $1 back.
Entries for the Affiliate Summit Ticket Sweeps can be made by Facebook or Twitter.
There will be fifty Gold Passes to Affiliate Summit East 2011 given away, each valued at $549 per pass. Winners will be notified by email or Twitter DM.
Some details on the Affiliate Summit Ticket Sweeps:
Prize Eligibility: Only persons residing in United States who are at least 21 years of age can enter.
Sweepstakes Starts: June 23, 2011 @ 02:01 am (EDT)
Sweepstakes Ends: July 23, 2011 @ 02:59 am (EDT)
The passes cannot be transferred, and the pass codes can no longer be redeemed in the event the conference sells out.
Also, anybody registering for a complimentary pass who neither checks in at the conference nor cancels will be ineligible for future complimentary passes.
Here are the ten winners of the 2010 Affiliate Summit East Gold Passes. These passes are worth $549 each and entitles the winners admission to the Affiliate Meet Market, Exhibit Hall, Keynotes, Sunday educational sessions, access to all recorded session videos, PowerPoint presentations and Affiliate Summit Social Network.
It was tough deciding who to award the passes to because there were so many good entries. In the end, I selected a group that I think represents a nice range of experience, skill level and background. I think everyone on the list will get a lot out of Affiliate Summit and I hope you take the knowledge you learn from it and run with it. All your entries were awesome and I look forward to meeting you. Congrats to the following winners.
Zander Chance
Lori Meyer
Rick Doggett
Travis
Keith
Andrea
Kevin
Lisa
Darryl Tott
Juliet Wentworth
Congrats to all the winners. I have sent each one of you an email with the instructions on how to claim your 2011 Affiliate Summit East Gold Pass. I’ll see you guys in New York!
This week’s Dot Com Pho was filled with choices. Lots and lots of choices. Over 100 comments were posted to my Win a Gold Pass to the Affiliate Summit East in New York contest and that meant most of Dot Com Pho was consumed trying to decide which ten lucky readers would get the $595 pass to the biggest affiliate show in the world.
While we were debating, we did get a chance to flirt with our lovely Pho Thanh Vi server and even got some great news about Travis retiring from the 9 to 5 world and joining the Internet Marketing world. I like to be the first to offer a huge congratulation to Travis for achieving the dream.
Dot Com Pho Vancouver – Xperia Play Edition
Over in Vancouver, the crew bring up a very touchy subject. They also highlight the PlayStation Phone from Sony: the Xperia Play.
This is a little reminder that you today is pretty much the last day for you to enter for a chance to win one of ten Gold Passes to the Affiliate Summit East in New York City. Winners will receive the $595 pass to the biggest affiliate convention in the world and join me for some New York pizza as well.
To enter, all you have to do is make a comment in this post telling why you should be given a Gold Pass. There are 95 entries so far and I have a feeling it’s going to be tough picking the winners. If you haven’t entered yet and you planned to be in New York during the time of the Affiliate Summit East, this is your chance to go to the show, learn a great deal about affiliate marketing and network with some of the biggest affiliate marketers in the industry.
Winners will be announced tomorrow during Dot Com Pho. The cut off for entries is Saturday, June 25 at 9AM PST. Good luck and enter now.
This is a little reminder that you today is pretty much the last day for you to enter for a chance to win one of ten Gold Passes to the Affiliate Summit East in New York City. Winners will receive the $595 pass to the biggest affiliate convention in the world and join me for some New York pizza as well.
To enter, all you have to do is make a comment in this post telling why you should be given a Gold Pass. There are 95 entries so far and I have a feeling it’s going to be tough picking the winners. If you haven’t entered yet and you planned to be in New York during the time of the Affiliate Summit East, this is your chance to go to the show, learn a great deal about affiliate marketing and network with some of the biggest affiliate marketers in the industry.
Winners will be announced tomorrow during Dot Com Pho. The cut off for entries is Saturday, June 25 at 9AM PST. Good luck and enter now.
Sean Lind at Manolution has posted a FREAKING HUGE infographic highlighting the battle between Microsoft and Apple. I would have added it to this post but the infographic is 3.1 Megs in size. You can view the full image by clicking on the big thumbnail at the bottom of this post. The super long chart lists every major product launch by the two rival companies and their respective stock prices at the time (the stock price was adjusted for stock splits).
As Richard Nixon destroyed happiness with his war on drugs, the 1970’s saw the world’s first personal computers, inspiring five geeks to start a pair of companies which would go on to shape the future of computing as we know it.
In January of 1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen called up Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems claiming to have a working BASIC interpreter for the MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer. While that claim was entirely fictitious, it took Gates and Allen just two months to create the product they claimed to already have.
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded their company, Apple, on April 1st 1976, just short of one year after the inception of Microsoft. Unlike Microsoft, who chose to focus on operating systems for other people’s hardware, Apple began their business by selling bare-bones hand-built computer kits, named the Apple I.
Just thought I’ll give you a heads up that Chris Guthrie will be closing the sale on his EasyAzon WordPress plugin in less than seven days. If you haven’t taken advantage of his grand opening special, you have until the end of the month to do so. You may recall that I did webinar with Chris back in November on How To Cash In On The Holidays with Amazon Associates Program. EasyAzon has helped Chris generate generate $1.4 million in revenue from the Amazon Affiliate Program. I’ve been using the plugin on my Amazon affiliate sites and it has increased revenue greatly.
What Is EasyAzon?
EasyAzon is a premium WordPress plugin that allows you to easily add products from Amazon.com into your blog. I was an early beta tester for the plugin and I can tell you it’s the best plugin of its kind that I’ve ever used. Some of the key features include:
Search for products to promote from Amazon without leaving your WordPress dashboard. You can search by ASIN or Keyword.
Quickly add high conversion Amazon affiliate text links, image based affiliate links or insert a product information block which includes more details about the product all while providing affiliate links.
Take advantage of your preexisting international traffic.
The ability to take advantage of international traffic is a huge benefit. Amazon link localization allows many of your Amazon affiliate links to be dynamically changed to the appropriate Amazon website based on where your visitor is looking from. For example, a UK visitor would see anAmazon.co.uk affiliate link instead of Amazon.com. This ensures that you earn a commission from your International traffic.
During this grand opening period, you can pick up the plugin for only $47. This is a nice saving from the $67 the plugin will sell for once the special is over. I was able to recover the cost of the plugin in less than a day. Watch the video to see the full power of EasyAzon, then add it to your WordPress blog and watch your Amazon revenue go up. You have until the end of the month to take advantage of the grand opening price.
Last week, I did a post on how to make your iPhone app using a service call Bloapp. While Bloapp is a cool service for getting your blog on the iPhone, it doesn’t create a native iPhone app. Instead, it adds your blog to the Bloapp app. While this may be good enough for some bloggers, I imagine most would rather have their own native app. Well, if you happen to have a little money to spend, you can have your own native iPhone app for your blog thanks to a service call AppMakr.
I actually spent only $50 to create my iPhone app. I had a $149 coupon at the time. The coupon no longer works but $199 is still a lot less expensive than going the traditional route. Here’s the easy ten steps as explained by Mr. Gary Lee, my iPhone developer.
1) Go to AppMakr.com and register for an account – no affiliate link or anything. I’m not making a dime off this and neither is John (yes, he resisted, but it’s for the betterment of the blogosphere!)
2) Once you’ve created an account and logged in, you’ll be directed to your App Manager Page. To get started, you’ll want to press the “Create an App” Tab on the upper left as seen below:
3) Choose which iPhone App template you’d like to use – Since they are new, you only have one option, so press “Choose This”
4) Submit your RSS Feed of your Blog as I show you below. If you’re using wordpress, you’ll find that adding “/feed” to the end of your category URLs is going to come in very handy.
5) Now, we’re getting into the main graphics of the app. If you have any custom logos, you should get them ready. Here’s what you’re going to need:
512 x 512 pixel Logo – This will be the “button” on the iPhone Menu.
320 x 480 pixel Splash Screen – This is the loading screen which is the first graphic your app will load.
6) Creating Buttons that represent different feeds to different parts of your site. Remember when I told you that “/feed” comes in handy, well, this is where they come in. These are the feeds that I will be submitting for John’s site by pressing the “+ Add RSS/Atom Feed URL”:
After submitting each feed, make sure to press the “Validate” link to make sure your feeds work.
This is what it looks like:
Now you may think these are a crapload of categories aka buttons to put into the app, but there is a more button users can press on their iPhones and if they would like to rearrange the buttons on the bottom, it’s as simple as drag and dropping.
7) This is the final customization part of the look and feel of the app, so this is what you’re going to need here:
320 x 46 pixel Header Image – This is located at the top of the app at all times.
Color Codes for Fonts – Linked and Regular – I would suggest similar color scheme to your current blog.
Controls
And this
Controls
Monetizing your iPhone App. To get started, you’ll need to select one of these Mobile Ad Platforms. For Google’s Sake, we’re picking AdMob – Sign up with them and get your publisher ID to put here:
John has decided to make his first iPhone app Ad free, so you won’t be seeing this implemented.
9) Publish your App. The “Mashable” coupon expired a while ago. I’m not sure if it still works but feel free to try it.
10) Once you have paid for the iPhone App, you’ll be asked to submit details for your App, so that it is listed properly in the iTunes store. Submission and approval takes about 2-4 weeks even though AppMakr is claiming 1-2 week turnaround. I guess your mileage may vary.
Some details on the Affiliate Summit Ticket Sweeps:
Monetizing your iPhone App. To get started, you’ll need to select one of these Mobile Ad Platforms. For Google’s Sake, we’re picking AdMob – Sign up with them and get your publisher ID to put here:
