I am on site this week with one of my consulting clients who is a merchant. Since I have been here, many things have come to light that really seemed to surprise this client. He is a smart and successful person who simply did not know some of the things relating to the affiliate marketing industry that I do and I simply figure that everyone knows about these things.

Many times I say something to the effect of, “My job is so easy that it is scary.” What I mean when I say this is that many things I do I consider second nature. Perhaps it is because I have been at this for a while that I consider these things to be simple and to be common knowledge.

When wearing my consultant hat, I have to admit that when I hear my clients refer to something I just educated them about as invaluable, it sends me back to my hotel room that night feeling good…like I have really earned my money for that day.

My point is that merchants, regardless of their size or importance, can always learn something good from a successful affiliate. These things will sometimes relate to their affiliate program, sometimes they will relate to their operation in general. Either way, a face-to-face between an informed consultant and a merchant who is willing to listen and learn will most always end up in a positive light with positive change resulting from such a session.

It is human nature to think we have control. Sometimes we have control and we become complacent and happy. An outside voice can usually shed some light on topics that the complacent ones could not see previously.

I recently published a blog with my thoughts on the trademark issue as it relates to affiliates. Of course I received some heat over this as it is a hot topic in the affiliate world right now.

Amazingly, I run in to merchants who do not bid their own trademarks and allow affiliates to do it.

My thoughts on this:
You have an affiliate program with the hopes of getting incremental traffic. This means traffic, and sales, that you would not have gotten if you did not have an affiliate program. Allowing an affiliate to bid on your domain name and on your pure trademarks means that this affiliate is only claiming sales that were already your sales to start with.

Again, affiliates are supposed to drive new traffic. When you calculate what you can afford to pay your affiliates, you should factor in the value of a new customer as that is what you should get from your affiliates…new customers. If you pay someone who only bids your trademark a 10% commission (the same as the other affiliates), and another affiliate goes out and gets a new customer who has never been to your site before and you make that sale, that sale has a MUCH greater value to you so you should pay the affiliate in the second scenario 2x to 3x as much as you pay the one who only camps out on your trademark.

My Proposal to You
If you are absolutely against using paid search and want an affiliate to cover your trademarks, I will do this for 50% (1/2) of your posted commission percentage. I will use my own funds to pay for the ads covering your trademarks. You will save money this way and you will know that you have a professional covering your trademarks and protecting the image of your company.
Your part in this arrangement is to forbid all other affiliates from bidding your trademarks and enforce this policy. Know going in that you will likely have to remove some of those who you have considered top producers. Also know that by removing these affiliates you are helping your company’s bottom line by paying 1/2 of what you once did to keep these terms covered in the PPC landscape. You will not lose any overall sales by doing this. Many of the affiliates who infringe on merchants’ trademarks will refuse to stop and will ultimately have to be removed from your affiliate program. Again, this is a good thing.

So there you have it. I will cover your trademarks for 1/2 your posted commission rate. Contact me if you want to discuss this further.

At the request of some, I am offering a site review service for merchants who either have an affiliate program or do not have one and are surveying the landscape in starting a program.

My review consists of a thorough 25-point evaluation on the web site, all of your policies, potential problems affiliates might have as well as a complete transaction (up to $25, including shipping) and a full analysis of the customer side of your site as far as the site itself, your post-transaction email communications and the fulfillment experience.

Many of my consulting clients are having me do this work twice a year or so. If you do not have a regular affiliate manager or an outsourced firm managing your program, or even if you do, an outside, unbiased eye on your operation is a good thing to have once in a while.

This service is $595** and the work commences within 2 business days of the order being placed with me (see payment links below) and is completed within a day or two of the time the test purchase arrives. The initial work is done, the order on your site is placed and the process is completed when the order arrives.

My credentials to do such an evaluation are listed below:

• I am a Super Affiliate with over 5 years in Affiliate Marketing
• I am a CJP (Commission Junction Performer). This represents me as in the top affiliates at Commission Junction in volume as well as in ethics.
• Named Affiliate of the Year by Affiliate Summit in January, 2006
• I attend many affiliate-related functions each year and keep a pulse on the affiliate marketing community
• I have been involved in online commerce full-time since 1998. This includes launching a commerce site from the ground up in 1999 as well as several other sites that were launched and later sold.
• Was featured in Revenue Magazine in 2006.

If you have any questions at all, please contact me.

What they’re saying about this service:

- Randy Stocklin - One Click Ventures LLC

“Scott’s review was extremely thorough. It covered everything from site navigation to checkout to order fulfillment. Many of Scott’s suggestions were easy-to-implement tweaks that did not require expensive design or programming costs.

We implemented Scott’s suggestions in Q3 of 2007. We saw a significant increase in our conversion rate after we made the changes. Our 2007 holiday season was our best to date. We can’t thank Scott enough. He is worth every penny and more!”

- Melissa C. Murphy - CrazyForBargains.com

My intention is not to manage your affiliate program or your web site. From time to time a trained outside eye can help your business. In a startup environment this kind of third-party evaluation is a must. I really enjoy analyzing a web site or an affiliate program and finding ways to make them better and more productive. I have done this for a long time now and know what to look for from the affiliate perspective as well as from the consumer perspective.

Use the button below to sign up, then contact me via email upon completion. I will be in touch to discuss my services and answer any questions before I get started. The charge will post as Brightside Media Inc. on your statement.

Use PayPal or Google Checkout for payment.

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** - This is an introductory price for the service and is subject to increase.

As someone who has been involved in e-commerce start-ups as well as being a full-time affiliate marketer, I am able to help you get your business running smoothly and offer sound, prudent advice for most any situation. From fulfillment channels to advertising distribution to helping an affiliate work with data-feeds, I am able to offer my 10+ years experience in the Internet marketing industry to you.

Some of the areas where I can help are:

• Research and implementation of affiliate programs for merchants
• Recruiting quality affiliates for your existing program
• Helping set up fulfillment and customer service operations
• Web site analysis to increase conversions for merchants or affiliates
• General analysis of a web site considering starting an affiliate program
• General affiliate guidance and support
• Merchant selection and implementation for affiliates

Fees for consulting vary according to estimated time spent and the complexity of the specific task. Payment up front is appreciated. Payment can be made incrementally as long as payment is complete before the work begins. A rare few exceptions are made to this policy.

I offer a special consulting package for merchants who are considering an affiliate program and want an analysis and evaluation of their site from an affiliate standpoint. If you are a merchant and wish to have me review your site and give you a detailed report on changes that should be made in order to optimize it for a successful affiliate program, I charge a flat $200. This includes a thorough written report and a 25 point affiliate analysis with specific recommendations for your site. I do this in my everyday operations when considering merchant partners and I know what affiliates will look for. When a merchant launches an affiliate program with a site that is less than acceptable for affiliate activity, the first impression you cast is potentially a negative one. It is hard to recover from negative first impressions in a world where affiliates have so many choices of merchant partners to work with.

Please contact me if you wish to further discuss my consulting services.

A pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaign can get sales rolling literally within minutes in many cases. This is one of the fastest ways to generate sales while maintaining complete control of costs, therefore being able to monitor ROI in a near real-time environment. There is a delay of at least a few hours on most PPC portal reporting. That is the only reason that results are not seen completely in real-time.

I have been active in PPC advertising since 1999 and have witnessed the changes over the years in the area, which have been many. My PPC campaign experience has been gained from both the affiliate side and from the merchant side. Margins are different between these two so different advertising strategies can come in to play. A given merchant might be interested in using PPC to build a database of customers and not be so worried about a huge return initially. Customer acquisition campaigns are very effective when using PPC since you are able to make adjustments to the campaigns on the fly. Other clients may have an established brand and simply are interested in generating more sales from the PPC channel.

I have been active with Google Adwords, MSN Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture.com) since the origins of them all. There are many variables in the search marketing arena that can drastically affect the results a given campaign will produce.

I use two different payment models in PPC consulting, a performance model and a straight hourly pay model. I have been known to use a hybrid of the two in special circumstances. Each individual situation is assessed independently. A proposal is submitted and all payment arrangements are agreed to before the work begins. I have a Google Management Account and can easily access your account from my end.

For more information, please contact me and I will be glad to speak with you and submit a proposal. I generally like to start with Google Adwords since Google has the most search volume of any search portal. If you have not done so, please

now.