Uncategorized

When to use Genesis vs Thesis

by Joe Sousa on January 27, 2012

in Affiliate Stuff,Uncategorized

From everything I have seen Genesis and Thesis are the two most popular premium WordPress themes out there. I use both of them regularly (this site runs on Thesis) and regularly recommend both of them (and not just because I get an affiliate commission).

Overall both of these premium themes are very SEO friendly, somewhat easy to use, flexible. But what makes me decide to use one vs the other? Here are a few strengths and weaknesses I see in each for different applications. And yeah, I know there are probably ways to make each of them do what I want in certain situations and from time to time I do mess around with the PHP code and CSS but for the most part I usually want to just install it and go.  And keep in mind I am speaking in big generalities here. But here is when I use each theme and what makes me decide to use one vs. another:

1. If I am going to update the site on a regular basis (like this site) I will use Thesis. I think overall the layout is more conducive to a “real” blog. I like the nice,  clean layout, I like how everything is displayed, and I like the simplicity. Order Thesis today

2. If I want something that looks a bit more complex I will use Genesis. With Genesis when you get the “Pro Pack” you also get access to 45 different child themes. These all look quite different, all have some cool widgets and features, and are all suitable for different projects. BTW, on February 1st the price of the Pro Plus pack will be going up. For the next few days you can get the Pro Plus pack which includes Genesis and 45 child themes (plus all future child themes) for $299.95. And if you use the code TEN you can save 10%. So if you are thinking about getting it do it now and save yourself a few bucks. Order the Genesis Pro Pack today.

3. For a datafeed based site I will usually use Thesis. I like the way the archive pages are displayed in Thesis and the layout is a bit more functional for me when I am dealing with a bigger datafeed based site. I do have some datafeed sites using Genesis but for the most part I use Thesis for those ones.

4. For a hand written content based site I will usually use Genesis. I really like some of the fancy widgets and sliders and stuff you can use on the Genesis pages with many of their child themes and think that in many cases it can add a nice finishing touch to a site.

But then again a lot of what I use is just based on what I feel like at any given time. And many times I will start building on Genesis but switch over to Thesis and vice-versa. I really do like having the flexibility of both premium themes at my disposal and I would definitely recommend having multiple options to work with whether it is these two or some other premium themes.

The Genesis Pro Pack is a bit spendy at $299.95 vs. $164 for Thesis but the abundance of child themes makes the price much more tolerable.

Order Genesis Today

StudioPress Genesis Child Theme Marketplace

Order Thesis Today

Thesis Theme for WordPress: Options Galore and a Helpful Support Community

So what factors do you consider when deciding which theme to use for your affiliate sites? Leave a comment and let me know.

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How can Netflix fix this mess?

by Joe Sousa on September 19, 2011

in General business stuff,Uncategorized

Back in December of 1999 I made my first big purchase on the Internet. I spent many days researching, reading reviews, calling customer support services, and finally I decided on my purchase: I bought a DVD player! And one of the first things I did was sign up for this new company called Neflix.

I loved Netflix. I could just sit at home and movies would get delivered right to me! I would never have to go to the video rental store again. That made me really happy because for some reason when ever I went to look at movies and rent one I would have to go to the bathroom like you wouldn’t believe. Many times I came close to wetting my pants. Not sure why it would always happen when looking for movies to rent.

Anyway, Netflix was awesome and I have been a happy customer ever since. In many ways I am probably their best customer because I usually will get a DVD in the mail and it will just sit in my house for months before I get around to returning it. I do like their streaming service and do wish I could just drop the DVDs and go strictly streaming but there are too many movies and shows that aren’t available on streaming.

This past summer Netflix announced they would be splitting the DVD and streaming subscription fees and ultimately it would cost nearly everyone an extra couple bucks a month. I am guessing they weren’t expecting the outrage people would have over an extra dollar or two but since they have lost tons of subscribers and their stock has plummeted. Why did they do this? Not sure but you can see one explanation here.

Earlier today Netflix sent out an email and apology explaining that they would be renaming and rebranding their DVD service into Qwikster. Do they really think this will help? How is this an apology for hurting their subscriber base? Is this the damage control they needed?

In the past many companies have screwed up, done their damage control, and come out the other side stronger than they were before. There is still time for Netflix to do this. Here are a couple suggestions:

1. Say they were stupid and go back to the way things were. This probably won’t happen. I think they see the DVD side of things dying off and splitting the company like this makes it easier to totally kill it off in a few years.

2. Announce a major deal that will provide new streaming content. Every time my wife and I look on Netflix instant for a decent movie to watch we are usually disappointed. If they really want their streaming service to take over for the DVD side of things they need more and better conent. A big announcement with one of the major studios would go a long way in making customers happy again.

3. Some big PR move is necessary. One idea I had: Spend a few bucks and hire some celebrities to hand deliver DVDs to some customers. They have all their users watching history so it wouldn’t be too hard for them to figure out who are the favorite actors and actresses of their customers. My wife and I have been rewatching Friday Night Lights. How cool would it be if Coach Taylor delivered a disc to my door and gave me a pep talk? Maybe someone has been watching The Big Lebowski a dozen times. Wouldn’t Walter showing up to your door, delivering a movie, and then taking you bowling be awesome? Something like this would generate a TON of good press for Netflix when they need it.

Anyway, when companies like Netflix make some strategic errors like this they need to take the steps to make it right. They can’t just send out a meaningless apology letter and think everything will be OK. BTW, their stock dropped nearly 12 points today. I am sure that has a lot to do with this lame apology. Come on Netflix. You can do better than this!

And just for the record, I am not mad they decided to split everything up. Just a bit frustrated in how they are handling the fallout. They have had and still do provide a great service. Too many people are getting too riled up over this. In reality a month of Netflix costs much less than visiting the movie theater once.

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Say No to the Ad Tax

by Joe Sousa on February 19, 2010

in Uncategorized

The Advertising Tax Hurts Affiliates

I haven’t said much about the advertising tax on this blog but I figured it is time I mentioned it. There are plenty of other people who know much more than I do about it but here is a quick video I put together explaining how this tax would be detrimental to me, to any affiliate, and to the states that try to pass this tax:

As an active member of the affiliate marketing community, I am opposed to any state legislation that would attempt to use affiliates to establish nexus for out-of state merchants.

Also the Performance Marketing Association put out this unified message that I totally agree with that will be able to state things better than I can:

I depend on my relationships with many out-of-state merchants for my livelihood. I put their advertisements on my website and earn a commission when someone clicks on that link to make a purchase or registers with that merchant. I am not an employee of any of these companies. I do not collect any money. I do not make the transaction. And I do not ship any goods. I simply advertise these offers to consumers for merchants.

This type of business model does not meet the definition of nexus.  If bills like this pass in my state, many retailers will terminate their relationships with me and I will lose a large percentage of my income. That will impact my ability to provide for my family. I t will also impact the levels of income tax I pay to the state.

In fact, a handful of states that have passed legislation of this type (such as Rhode Island) have publically admitted that the states never realized the projected revenue and lost many small businesses in the process.

I want the affiliate marketing space to continue to thrive and grow. These types of laws will put small businesses, like mine, out of business.

So please do what you can to fight this. I will do my best to learn more about this, learn how I can better fight this, and how I can support those who are fighting for us daily.

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Merchant Restrictions on their Affiliates

by Joe Sousa on September 17, 2009

in Uncategorized

Throughout my years as an affiliate marketer I have seen all sorts of different terms of service, marketing restrictions, prohibited keywords, etc. from the merchants I work with. Some of these restrictions are good for both the affiliate and the merchant and some are just outright stupid for one or both parties.  Let me break down a few different restrictions and see how the affect both the merchant and the affiliate.  I will mainly be focused on PPC restrictions, trademark bidding, and stuff like that.

Level 1:  No restrictions.  When an affiliate sees this it is like they just found an ATM, especially if it is a large, well established, well known merchant. With no restrictions the affiliates can bid on any keywords they want and many times the most profitable keywords are the brand names and trademarks of the merchant. Also the affiliate can link directly to the merchants site off their PPC ads.  In many cases this is a gold mine for the affiliates.  Let me give you a couple examples:

Back in the early days of the CPA networks most campaigns didn’t have any restrictions.  There were two in particular I remember making me a lot of money: Nutrisystem and Ebay. If I remember correctly Nutrisystem payed out $60 for a sign up and the conversion rate on keywords like “Nutrisystem” and “Nutrisystem diet” and other trademark terms like that was somewhere around 10-20%.  That would be an EPC of $6-12 and when I could get the traffic for around well under $1?  That campaign alone made me and a friend of mine many, many thousands of dollars a month.  It was a similar situation with Ebay.  The payout was around $35 for a new signup and I could get traffic for keywords like “Ebay” and “Ebay auctions” for around a quarter.  The EPC on that one was $4-5 or so.  It was like prining money.

Why would a merchant allow this?  2 reasons.  First, they don’t know.  There are a lot of clueless merchants out there.  They just see the bottom line numbers and don’t care how they get there and in many cases don’t want to know. They just see “wow, this affiliate sent me a ton of sales this month.  That is awesome”.  They don’t run their own PPC stuff so they have no idea the affiliate is bidding their keywords.  Second, they don’t care.  The smart merchants know what the lifetime value of a customer is. If they make $200 for every customer and pay out $50 in commissions they are making $150 for every new customer.  Yeah, maybe they could have got that customer for $5 if they did their own PPC and kept affiliates from bidding on their trademarks but it isn’t worth the hassle for them.  They are still making money so they aren’t too concerned.

The affiliate is making money and a good merchant is making money but still leaving a lot of money on the table (and other affiliates are potentially getting screwed. More on this later)

Level 2: No trademark bidding. This is one of the more common restrictions placed forth by merchants. A smart merchant that has good name recognition will realize that people who are searching for their store name are most likely buyers.  Maybe they visited the store in the past and want to find it again, maybe a friend told them to shop at a certain website, or whatever.  When someone searches for your stores name they are ready to buy.

A smart merchant will realize that they can make more money if they restrict affiliates from bidding on their keywords. Why pay out 10% to an affiliate when the customer aquisition cost can be 5% or something like that?

Also this keeps affiliates from creating ads like “Amazon sucks?  Don’t shop at Amazon until you read this” and having them show up when someone searches for Amazon.

There is a downside to this though. If you let affiliates bid on your trademark you can knock your competiton who is bidding on your trademark off of the first page of ads.

Level 3: No direct linking. Most smart merchants who realize the value of PPC will not allow direct linking because they are probably doing PPC themselves.  A few years ago it didn’t really matter because you could have 5 or 6 different ads out there from your affiliates all using your domain as the landing page URL but Google stopped letting that happen and there can only be one ad for any particular domian. So if a merchant is doing their own PPC and they have affiliates bidding on the same words there is a good chance that the affiliate will take that ad spot from the merchant.

But if a merchant doesn’t know what they are doing with PPC they should just let their affiliates direct link because the 10% commission or whatever they are paying out is probably less than the merchant would spend on PPC. It is also less risk for the merchant because they know they only pay on sales if they let their affiliates handle the PPC stuff and don’t have to risk sending a ton of clicks with no sales.

Level 4: No PPC at all. There are quite a few merchants I work with that don’t allow their affiliates to promote their products via PPC at all. To me this is just kind of stupid. If I want to spend my money for ads that are directing traffic to my site that is something I should be able to do. One merchant in particular has a team of people doing their own PPC which is very smart but part of their job is also to check ads to see if they are for their affiliates. I can understand no trademark bidding, no direct linking, and stuff like that but restricting affiliates from sending traffic to their own sites?  That is a bit over the top. But it gets worse.

Level 5: You can’t use our trademark names in your meta tags.   OK, now we are to the point of idiocy. I recently got an updated terms of service from a certain merchant (who will remain nameless). This was a merchant I used to promote a few years ago and I did very well with them. The conversion rate was good, the profits were good, and I really liked the product. Then the company got sold and I can’t remember if they dropped their affiliate program for a while or just restricted what I was doing with PPC but I stopped promoting them. A couple months later I realized that I was missing a check from Linkshare. They were the only merchant I was promoting on Linkshare at the time so I started to try to figure out why they didn’t pay me. They said that those payments were the liability of the previous owner and not them which is ridiculous.  So basically the fat headded new owners screwed me out of a couple grand. I quickly put them on my blacklist and decided never to promote them again.

But the problem is they are a very popular merchant with a totally unique product that fits perfectly on many of my sites.  So when they reopened their affiliate program at CJ I signed up. I still haven’t done anything in the way of driving traffic to them but I wanted to keep the option open if I changed my mind in the future.

One thing unique about this merchant that you don’t always see with others is for the most part the only keywords people would search for when looking for their products are their trademarks. So this new terms of service comes out and says you can’t use our trademarks in your meta tags on your websites or searchable keywords.  First of all this shows me that this merchant is fairly clueless about SEO. Second, it shows me that they aren’t confident in their own SEO efforts. If they need to restrict affiliates from using their keywords in meta tags that shows me they really aren’t confident in their ability to rank for their own name.

So what should a merchant do???

Well, there isn’t a cut and dry answer for every merchant. Each merchant’s situation is different and if I were to advise a merchant I would have to look at things like how strong their brand is, how good their own PPC efforts are, and other stuff like that.  But here is where I would start as a general rule of thumb:

Don’t allow affiliates to bid on your trademark and don’t allow affiliates to direct link.

Now if every merchant adopted these policies that would suck for me since I have made a decent amount of money bidding on trademarks and direct linking (assuming it was allowed by the terms of service). But I know how those things can be profitable and I would suggest a merchant do their own PPC and take care of their own trademark bidding and direct linking.

Another good option is to find a handful of affiliates who really know their PPC stuff and allow them to bid on trademarks and direct links and stuff like that but restrict everyone else. If a merchant can get 2 or 3 good PPC affiliates doing their thing they will most likely be able to do better than if they tried it on their own.

But like I said, it can be different for each merchant. So I would also suggest hiring a qualified affiliate manager to take care of stuff like this. A good affiliate manager will be able to advise a merchant on what would be best in their particular situation and properly explain the benefits and downsides to different policies. If it is a big company they can probably hire someone or a team of people full time but for most merchants their best bet will be to hire an OPM (Outsources Program Manager).  Here are a few OPMs I would highly recommend:

ARC Consulting:  Andy, Emelio, Steph, and the rest of the crew really know their stuff and manage successful affiliate programs for many merchants.

JEB Commerce:  Jamie Birch and his crew manage many large programs and can help you with all facets of online marketing.

GTO Management: Wade, Joel, and Karen work with a wide variety of merchants and won’t steer you wrong.

Suluta: Mike Nunez and his team have many years experience in affiliate program management and can help tailor a program to a specific merchant’s needs.

Schaafco: Brook and Forrest Schaaf and their crew manage programs for a wide variety of merchants

There are many more OPMs out there and this is just a partial list. If you are a merchant check them out and see what they can do for your progam.

Obviously there are many more restrictions a merchant can employ and this is by no means an all inclusive list but it is some of the more popular restrictions I have seen. Am I missing something as far as the terms of service? Any other restrictions you commonly see? Any reasons why a merchant should restrict their affiliates?  Leave a comment below and let me know.

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The 1450 Mile Roadtrip

by Joe Sousa on July 30, 2009

in Personal stuff,Uncategorized

First of all let me give you a bit of a background on this trip.  A very good friend of mine, Josh, moved to Phoenix from our hometown of Spokane, WA a few years ago. He is the type of friend I would do almost anything for. He was teaching in Phoenix and due to budget cuts at the district he lost his job. His wife also gave birth to their third kid a couple months ago after about 6 weeks in the hospital on bed rest and the baby was 6 weeks premature so he had to be in the hospital for quite a while before he could come home. Because of these issues he decided now would be a great time to move back to Spokane and I couldn’t be happier.

His wife flew up here with their new baby but they still had 2 cars they needed to get up here.  Josh is driving one of them up with their other two kids and I volunteered to fly down and drive their other car up.  So that is how this trip came about in the first place.  Now on to the trip report.

As I was thinking about how to write all this up I realized that I will be getting off on many excurseses (sidenotes or rabbit trails) as I recap the trip but that just ads to the excitement.

Tuesday morning I woke up at 6:30 to catch a flight down to Phoenix. I didn’t sleep well that night due to it being very freaking hot in my house and a decent wind and thunderstorm blew through at about 2:30 waking me up.  So I had about 3 1/2 to 4 hours or so of sleep.  Not a good start to a long drive. 

I got on the flight which was totally full and took my seat.  A young guy came and was seated in my row and we were both hoping we wouldn’t have to deal with a 350 pound guy wedged between us.  Luckily a younger girl (maybe 18 or 19) had the middle seat.  Unluckily she was, how to put this gently, not fat but not thin either. She had a few extra pounds on her but I am guessing by the way she was dressed that she thought she was a supermodel.  She was wearing way too few clothes for someone of her build.  Her shorts were way too short and her shirt was way too short and tight causing some very unsightly rolls exposed that shouldn’t have been.

Anyway, the flight was very uneventful and I got into Phoenix at about 11 AM.  Josh picked me up and we headed to his apartment to pick up his family so we could head to lunch.  When we arrived his oldest son, Joshua, greeted me by screaming “Joe’s here!!! Joe’s here!!!”.  Apparently he had been looking forward to me coming which was sweet.  He also invited me to help him in the bathroom but I graciously declined.  Their daughter, Nadine, played the whole shy and frightened game for about 30 seconds but warmed up to me very quickly. 

So it is off to lunch.  We decided on Popeye’s for some fried chicken.  Up here in Spokane we don’t have Popeye’s and it is by far my favorite fast food fried chicken.  If I could pick two restaurants to come to Spokane it would be Popeye’s and Waffle House.  Yeah, I know, those are both pretty high up on the white trash scale but I would probably eat at those two restaurants a dozen times a week if we had them here.

They had a special running where you could get a leg and thigh for just 99 cents.  So I ordered 3 of those for myself along with a couple biscuits.  Of course I got the spicy version which is amazing.  6 pieces of spicy, greasy chicken might not be the best way to start a long drive but what the heck.  I might be a long time before I get Popeye’s again. While we were ordering a lady bumped into Nadine and she apologized and Nadine responded by saying “Where’s Joe?”

So after eating and feeling fat and satisfied I get in the car and head out.  Now, about the car… The vehicle in question is a 10 year old Suzuki Esteem that Pam bought when she lived here in Spokane.  For a cheap first car it is a fine choice.  As a second car for a family that will mostly be driving around town it is a fine choice.  For a long road trip it is a poor choice.  I am used to my big Yukon where I can spread out and relax so squeezing into that car was very different for me.  No matter where I put my knees or elbows they were banging on something hard and plastic. Not a great feeling if you are gonna be spending 20+ hours straight in the car. Also 2nd gear didn’t work which wasn’t a problem once I got on the highway but around town it is a bit annoying. And with a measly 4 cylinders compared to the 8 in the Yukon it didn’t exactly have the power I am used to.

I get on the 10, take that to the 101, and then to the 60. The problem is while going through Sun City and Suprise the 60 has about a dozen stop lights all timed perfectly so I hit them all.  Add in the fact that there was no second gear and I had to go from first to third every time this was not the perfect start. On another trip up from Phoenix a few years ago I was driving with a friend who enjoyed disrobing mostly at appropriate occasions and sometime at only semi-appropriate ones. As we were driving this stretch of road I looked over and see he is mooning a group of old people standing on a corner. We haven’t even got out of the city and he is already traumatizing the locals.  Once I got past Suprise it was clear sailing until Wickenberg where I got on the 93. 

The 93 goes up through a big Joshua Tree forest which is pretty cool.  Then you come to Wikieup. Not sure how to describe this little town.  Lots of rundown buildings surrounded by trailers and mobile homes.  I have no idea why someone would choose to live in a place like this.  There are plenty of other nice towns to live in as opposed to this one which looked like a giant junkyard.

From there the 93 goes on to Kingman, AZ.  If I were making a list of cities I wouldn’t want to live in Kingman, AZ would be near the top of the list.  It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and it is in the middle of this big, ugly desert valley.  Not the pretty desert with cool red rocks, Joshua trees, or big cacti. More like a scrubbrush desert. The only redeeming value of going through Kingman was hoping that the Depeche Mode cover of “Route 66″ would come up on the shuffle on the MP3 player since the song mentions Kingman because Route 66 runs through it.

I stop in Kingman to get gas and also to start my caffine intake.  I pick up a 20 oz Mt. Dew (my drink of choice) and a big can of Red Bull. We’re talking the 16 oz can, not the normal 8.3 oz size.  All told that is 245 mg of caffine. Remember that I am starting this trip on less than 4 hours of sleep.

After Kingman we come to Hoover Dam. They are currently constructing a new bridge at Hoover Dam so cars don’t have to drive across the top of the dam anymore. I guess they don’t want a terrorist parking a bomb on the dam. But the new bridge, even though it is only half done, is pretty awesome looking. It should be pretty sweet when they get it all done.

On to Vegas! Since I am heading right through Las Vegas I decide to stop for a bit and try and win some money.  I head to Mandalay Bay since it is right at the end of the strip, is easy to get to, and is one of my favorite Vegas casinos. As I am parking and heading to the blackjack table I am having all kinds of visions of taking my $200 (wanted to keep the amount fairly low since I didn’t have much time) and turning it into a fortune so I could buy Josh and Pam a new SUV or something and suprise them when I drove it up.  Or winning enough that the hotel would comp me a driver for the rest of the trip. Either way.

As I walk up to the table I recognize the dealer.  I guess when I play enough that I start recognizing the dealers that might be one of the first signs I have a problem.  But I just deny that and tell myself that it is only a problem when they start recognizing me.  So I get my 8 green $25 chips and get to work.  The dealer (I think Laura was her name) is hitting 21s left and right, I am pulling more than my share of blackjacks, she fights back by killing all my double downs, I start hitting some good cards to make some hands as well and on it goes.

After about 30 minutes of this back and forth I am right about even.  I have been up $50 and down $150 during this battle. A lady sits down and start playing like a complete idiot. Now obviously what she does has no mathmatical effect on my cards or the dealers cards but on a hand by hand basis she is killing me.  Stuff like not splitting aces against a dealer 6, staying on 13 when the dealer is showing a face, hitting her 16 when the dealer is showing a 5 and on it goes.  I usually don’t like rooting for players to lose but I was rooting for her to lose so she would leave which eventually happens. 

So after about 2 1/2 hours we are still fighting it out with my original $200.  I can never get up enough to leave and they never bust me.  It is just wrong to leave even so I stay to try and make something happen.  Then the hammer falls.  Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!  4 or 5 hands in a row that I “should” have won and they dealer pulls some amazing cards and it is over.  If you know nothing about blackjack these couple paragraphs won’t mean much to you but to play that long with just 8 bets is pretty amazing.  I waddle off to find an ice pack to help ease the pain of that swift kick in the junk and decide to check out the sports book.

I mainly wanted to see what the odds for the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl were and if the numbers were good I would put down a few bucks and collect my fortune in February after the Seahawks hoist the Lombardi trophy.  The Seahawks opened at 20-1 to win the NFC and 40-1 to win the Super Bowl which are both good values in my opinion.  But the current lines were 9-1 and 20-1. Not a big enough payoff for me but suprising that the odds went down that much.  I guess people like the fact that the Seahawks picked up the best free agent receiver in Houshmandzadeh and got the best player in the draft in Aaron Curry.  I am happy the Seahawks are getting that much respect but the payout on those bets wasn’t good enough for me so I head to the car.

After circling the parking garage for 10 minutes trying to find my way out I finally get out and head west thinking there is a freeway entrance off that road which there isn’t.  So I circle around to another street where I know there is an entrance and there is a sign saying it is closed (which it really wasn’t). By the time I realize that the ramp is open I am in the wrong lane and headed for the very crowded Strip.

Traffic on the Strip is usually terrible and this was only compounded by one lane being closed off while they work on the entrance to City Center.  So after a 30 minute, 4 block trip I finally get on the freeway.  I wave to Billy K a I head out of town (don’t think he saw me) and head north on the 15. It is now about 10PM and I am a couple hours behind what I thought my schedule would be after the blackjack battle. This road will be my friend for the next 833 miles.

Heading northeast towards Mesquite, NV I am witness to an awesome lightning display. I can see bolts of lightning hitting everywhere and this goes on for about an hour or so until I get past St. George, UT.

I decide to stop in Cedar City, UT for some gas and something to eat. I was planning on eating at the Burger Bar in Vegas but since I spent too much time at the blackjack table I didn’t want to take the time.  I was hoping for some fast food restaurant to be open 24 hrs but no luck.  It is 1:15 or so now and they are all closed so I just get some food from the gas station. I go with a slim jim, a Whatchamacalit, and a really dry ham sandwich augmented with another Red Bull and Mt. Dew.  Up to 490 mgs of caffine.

As I sit in the parking lot enjoying my gourmet meal a big van pulls up and out pile about 13 people. This family looked exactly like a family from Juniper Creek from the show Big Love (a show about polygamy). There was a guy who looked to be 60, 3 women who looked like they ranged from ages 20-50, and a bunch of kids including a baby. And they were all dressed with the standard long dresses and the boys all had button up shirts.  It was a bit creepy.

I press on up the middle of Utah. Various animals seem to like darting out in front of my car this night and when they are small I think about trying to run them over but then I remember my friend Corey telling me on another trip “Don’t hit that thing. I could very easily be a furry little baby”.  Not wanting to be accused of possible infanticide and realizing that there are more than the average number of kids per family in this state and a family could easily forget a baby somewhere and it could crawl across the highway at anytime I avoid all the “animals”.

There is something that creeps me out about this state. Not sure exactly what it is but whenever I drive through it I feel like I am driving around Donnie and Marie’s backyard.  This is a pretty desolate drive and by the time I get just south of Salt Lake City I am wiped out so I find a gas station, drive around back and find a quite place to take a nap.

Contortionism isn’t one of my fortes but I squeeze myself into a positon I think I can sleep in and doze off. I am startled awake by a truck driving by but for some reason my head isn’t moving. After a few seconds I am able to move my neck but it is an ordeal since my head was so cranked over as I slept.  I have no idea if I slept for 5 minutes or 2 hours but the sun is starting to come up. I guess I was alseep for 30 minutes or an hour at the most.  Time to grab another Red Bull (up to 643 mgs of caffine), a box of milk duds, and some sour patch kids, some mini hostess chocolate donuts and hit the road. 

Luckily it is still early enough that I miss rush hour going through SLC. When driving through SLC if you look on the mountain side of the freeway it looks like a perfectly pleasant place to live. But if you look to the other side you see the giant cesspool that is Great Salt Lake accompinied by a huge refinery or chemical plant or something.  Pretty ugly.

I cross into Idaho for the first time and come across Malad City. I have to say this is one of the most beautiful cities I have seen.  It is a pretty small town but is surrounded by cool looking mountains and I guess the sun was just perfect at the time. I gas up a ways down the road, pick up another Red Bull (796 mgs), a bag of almonds and some gummi cola bottles. I have been checking every stop for my favorite driving candy (more on this later) but haven’t found it anywhere. I guess the other stuff will suffice.

Once you get north of Pocatello there isn’t much to see. I did get an idea for a new song for my band (http://www.moderndissent.com And while you are at it go search for us on iTunes and buy some of our songs!!!) during this time though.

As I am crossing into Montana I go across the Continental Divide (from the west side to the east) and contemplate taking a whiz on the side of the road knowing that eventually it would wash into the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Pacific which I am used to. But I exercise some self controll and head to the nearest rest stop.

While at the rest stop I see a guy and his family getting out of this huge, jacked up F-350.  Sweet looking truck but the guy looks like a cross between the fat guy from Lost and another person I can’t really remember.  Since I have been at it for about 20 hours at this time I take some time to stretch my legs here and I lay down on a big concrete picnic table to relax for a moment. I almost doze off but then remember all the stories I have heard about unsavory happenings at rest stops and decide I don’t want this to be the place I lose my innocence so I get back in the car and drive on.

Stopping in Dillon, MT (horrible little town) I have the craving for some “real” food so I grab an apple and some cheese. This should offset all that other junk I have been eating.  And since the weariness continues to grow I decide that Red Bull with its meager 153 mgs of caffine per can just won’t cut it I opt for a Wired 344 which has 344 mgs of caffine. Grand total of 1140 mgs.  I also grab another Mt. Dew but never get around to drinking that.

I pass the Continental Divide again and take comfort that anything I spill on the ground will end up in the Pacific. But I am starting to have my own drainage problems.  All those energy drinks are taking their toll on my bladder so the bathroom visits need to increase which will just slow me down.

The 15 meets up with I-90 just outside of Butte, MT which, if you didn’t know, is famous for having the world’s largest open pit copper mine. So if you want to see a big, ugly hole in the ground go to Butte.  But I am excited because being on I-90 means that I am getting closer to home.  Only 300 miles to go!!!

I stop at a rest stop a few miles down the road. This is one of the nicest settings I have seen for a rest stop.  It is situated back in the woods right by a creek and a nice pond. All the water reminds me of the urgency of why I stopped to I head into the facilities. When flushed the toilet conveniently spits out a nice portion of urine saturated water that is aimed perfectly at your legs. Nice touch.

With most of the urine off my legs I head outside and notice a man sleeping in the bushes by the pond.  Classy.  As I head to my car I see the dude who looked like the fat guy from Lost again and we have one of those awkward moments trying to decide if we should acknowledge that we saw each other a few hours earlier or if we should just go on our way and pretend that nothing happened.  We opt for the latter.

Like I said, the frequency of my need for a toilet has increased from earlier in the trip. I contemplate stopping in Missoula, MT (only about 30 minutes from the last rest stop) but decide I am a man, not a little child.  I can hold it.  I also remember my last visit to Missoula when I was getting some gas and looked over to see a guy stumble out of a bar and whiz in the bushes. Decided not to take a chance on witnessing an occurance like that and drive on.

Superior, MT is just a little tiny town (maybe it should be called Inferior???) but they do have a gas station which usually contains a bathroom so I pull in out of great necessity. I waddle in trying not to let anything leak out, reach for the door of the men’s room, and it is locked. Guess it is one of those single person jobs.  I assume whoever is in there will be out very shortly so I hop around outside the door like a 4 year old anxiously waiting my turn.  A couple minutes pass and nobody is coming out.  I figure the dude is taking care of some other business and know that when he walks out if he is doing what I think he is doing there will be that awkward moment of eye contact that would say “dude, don’t go in there”.

At this moment I happen to see the ladies room right next door.  The need is very pressing at this moment so my options would either be A) Wet myself, B) Go outside behind the building, or C) Use the ladies room.  I decide C would be the best course of action so I gingerly test the knob and it turns and the door opens.  Luckily there is nobody inside.  I go in and happily do what needs to be done, wash up, and head out the door.  As I am exiting the ladies’ room what do I run into but a lady waiting to go in. Just a bit awkward.

Since I really don’t want to stop again but still have 2 hours of driving to do I opt not for an energy drink but go with one of those 5 Hour Energy shots.  10,000% of my vitamin B6 and 8333% of my B12 is quickly in my system so I guess I am good for the next few months with those vitamins.  Standing at the checkout line I see a box that catches my attention. It is the candy object of my desire!!! JUJUBES!!! I finally found them.

The thing I like about JuJubes (No, not jujyfruits.  Those are totally different.  Decent in their own way but the mint chewy candy really turns me off) is they are small and take quite an effort to eat. You have to chew them very carefully so as not to permantly lodge them in your teeth and if they do get stuck you have to fish around with your tongue for a few minutes to get them off. Since I have to do so much work eating them it helps me not fall alseep while I drive.  Same reason that I went through almost a half pound of Spitz Dill Pickle flavored sunflower seeds on this trip. If your mouth is occupied doing stuff it helps keep you awake. And Jujubes are even better if you open the box and let them get stale for a couple weeks.

Loaded up on my B vitamins and with gobs of chewy candy working at ripping out all my fillings I get set for the last 150 or so miles of the trip. Once on the freeway I quickly hit some dreaded road construction.  The freeway is down to one lane each direction and there is a maze of cones and barriers I have to navigate.  While driving along this 15 miles of construction I realize that there is nobody working along the whole stretch save for one solitary guy digging with a shovel.  There isn’t even 4 guys standing around watching him.  Why do they need to block off 15 miles of road?  Where are all the workers?  Kind of puzzling.

As I near the end of the construction there is a split in the road and I am not sure which side to take so I make my choice and quickly realize it is the wrong one and soon I am exiting the freeway. It is a simple exit and then I can get right back on so it isn’t that big of a deal.  Kind of reminds me of a NASCAR driver who gets a pass through penalty while under caution. The two cars that were behind me are able to take away my track position as I re-enter the freeway so that is kind of a bummer.

40 or so miles down the road I enter Idaho for the second time. One step closer to home!  But my excitement quickly wanes when I see more construction.  Upon entering the construction zone there is a sign that says “Motorcycles use extreme caution” and I look in my rear view mirror and what do I see? A motorcycle!!! I spend the next 15 minutes driving out of my rear view mirror as I wait for something catastrophic but nothing does.

A few miles down the road I realize that I am singing along to the music much more than I normally do.  I guess singing is keeping me awake. I also realize that I am commending myself for my great vocal talent and in my mind I amaze myself for the ability to mimic perfectly voices such as Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, Dave Gahan, Layne Staley, Tom Petty, Neil Tennant, the Beastie Boys, the Black Eyed Peas, Robert Plant, Bono, Michael Stipe, and all the othersI have been hearing for the past 1350 miles.  Maybe I will convince myself to tee it up at Affiliate Summit Karaoke night.  Or maybe I will come back to reality and realize that I don’t sing well at all.

I drive by Wolf Lodge and think about stopping for a steak.  I haven’t eaten a real meal in a day and a half so what would be better than 46 ozs of the best steak you will ever taste?  Yeah, I have eaten 46 ozs of steak before.  I think I am 5 for 6 in my attempts to finish the Rancher. After one of those I came home and had 2 Cadbury Eggs, I stopped by Krispy Kreme after a couple others, and pounded a big slice of cheesecake after another successful attempt.  What can I say, it is excellent steak.  And at only $40.95 how can you turn it down?  But I do and press on home.

Finally at 4:59 PM I pull up to my house.  When I was leaving Salt Lake City I told myself that I would be home between 4 and 5. Originally I wanted to be home closer to noon but all the extra stops ate into that time.  But 1450 miles and 28 hours: COMPLETED!!! I owe it all to a great diet (1/2 pound of dill pickle sunflower seeds, a slim jim, ham sandwich, Whatchamacalit, Milk Duds, Sour Patch Kids, Smokehouse Almonds, Gummi Cola bottles, Jujubes, and mini hostess donuts.  I guess that is all of it. Oh, and a half a bottle of water. Maybe I need to hydrate more), 1140 mgs of caffine and 3 months worth of my B vitamins. But now Josh and Pam have their car here and I am very happy I could help.

So what do I do when I get home?  Sleep?  Of course not.  I sit here and write over 4700 words that will probably only ever be read my me.  Maybe I should just go to bed.

Did you like the report? Can you relate to any of it? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

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Affiliate Marketing 101 – Week 2

by Joe Sousa on June 9, 2009

in Uncategorized

If you missed the first week of training I gave Seth, my intern, you can check it out at http://whatdoesjoethink.com/2009/06/affiliate-marketing-week-1/.  During week 1 we went over some of the basics of affiliate marketing.  For week 2 we looked at how to find a niche, how do to some keyword research, and what to look for when starting an affiliate site. Here is what we went over:

How to choose a niche – Choosing the right products or niche in affiliate marketing is a HUGE key to success. There are many, many factors to consider when looking at what type of site to build, what markets to target, which merchants to work with, etc.

 

In many ways it will be a balancing act. Obviously in some markets there can be millions of dollars to be made per month but those markets will be much harder to crack than one that might only bring in a couple hundred a month.  If you want to put forth the time and effort to succeed in those big markets you can see some great rewards but for the most part I would recommend staying away from them and focus your time and effort on some smaller niches.

 

Here are a few of the factors to consider and some tools to help make the job a bit easier:

 

  • Research – Research is key. Would you ever start a real business with out doing your due dilligance to see if it is a viable business? The same principal applies to affiliate marketing. If you don’t do your research ahead of time you could spend a bunch of time and money on something that won’t give you enough of a return. Or you could be targeting a niche that just isn’t viable for affiliate marketing.
  •  Keywords – When you go to choose a niche your keyword research will be one of your most valuable indicators to see if it is a viable niche. 
    • What keywords are people using to find a product? When you have a niche in mind do a search for the most general keyword you can think of for that niche. Most of the search engines will then put out a list of a few related searches. Make a note of those and search for those and it will bring up more and more ideas.  Most of those suggestions will bring up other suggestions or at least open up some new ideas of what keywords might work for this niche.
    • There are some tools that can make this job easier for you as well where you can enter a keyword and it will spit out a bunch of related terms you can use to build your keyword lists:

 

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

http://www.keywordspy.com

http://www.wordtracker.com 

  •  
    • Is your market big enough where there are hundreds of even thousands of keywords you can target? Or is it a smaller niche with only a few dozen keywords that will be good to use?  Both of these methods can work well depending on the market and what type of site you want to build
    • What is the general search volume on the keywords? Google’s Keyword tool along with most other keyword tools gives some estimates of search volume. I would never take these as hard and fast numbers but if you are only seeing small search volumes (less than 1,000 searches per month for example) on most of your keywords there just might not be enough search volume to make decent money.
    • That isn’t to say all your search terms need to be high volume. If you have a list of say 200 words and you have 50 or so with some good search volumes, 50 with middle of the road volumes, and 100 with low volumes that could still be a very good niche.
    • Keep in mind though that those keywords with low search volume will likely have less competition and therefore be easier to get good listings on the search engines and cheaper paid traffic. Also the more specific the keyword is the more likely the customer is to be a buyer as opposed to a shopper. Example:  Take a search for the word “air conditioner”.  Using Google’s keyword tool there were approx. 2.7 million searches in April. I would guess most people searching for that term are in the beginning stages of the buying process and just doing some research.  If you look at “window air conditioner” there are 368,000 searches but that is a customer who is probably more likely to buy.  Take it even further to a search for “whirlpool window air conditioner” and you only have 1900 searches but that will be a much more targeted customer who has probably looked at a few different models or had that brand recommended by a friend or something and will probably be much closer to buying. So you might get a bunch of traffic from a search for “air conditioners” but make fewer sales than from just a few searches for “whirlpool window air conditioner”
    • So you want to build a good sized keyword list with some high volume general keywords but also include as many specific keywords as you can.  For some sites this might be a list of 50 words and for others it can easily be thousands.           

 

  • Looking at competition – After you have your keyword lists you need to start looking at competition.  How easy will it be to get traffic to the site?  For the most part, the more competition there is the harder it will be to get traffic.  But that could also show that it could be very profitable if you do manage to get that traffic.
    • Lets look at the air conditioner searches in Google:
      • Search for “air conditioners” shows 10.3 million pages.
      • Search for “window air conditioners” shows 8.3 million
      • Search for “whirlpool air conditioners” shows 222,000
    • There will be much more competition for the first couple keywords than the more targeted one. So if you can find keywords with good volume and low competition that will probably be a good niche to look at more.
    • Also check out what the top ranking sites are. Are they big brands? National companies? Sites like Wikipedia or Amazon or Nextag or Epinions? Are they smaller sites? By looking at who you are competing against you can get a good idea if it is a market you can compete in. Seeing those big sites isn’t a deal breaker but generally speaking it is hard to compete with sites like that.

So after you have checked out the search volume and competition you should have a decent idea if this is a market to look into more.

  • Payouts - Are the payouts from the merchants high enough to justify my time and effort? Will I put forth a bunch of energy to make a few cents a sale because the payouts are low? Is there a niche where I can get easier traffic and make a few dollars per sale?
    • As a  general rule of thumb the “standard” payout on consumer goods (stuff you can normally buy in a store) is around 10%.  But that can vary widely. Consumer electronics for example have low margins to the payouts are usually less than 5%.  Other products have much higher margins for the merchants so they can pay 20% or more.
    • Would I be better off selling 10 high ticket items with big commissions or 100 cheaper items with a smaller payout per sale? You could sell a $3000 flat screen TV but the payout is only 3% which would be a $90 commission. But you could sell 20 pairs of shoes at $50 a piece for $1000 in total sales but the payout would be 12% so that is $120 in total commissions. Would it be easier to make that 1 TV sale or the 20 shoe sales?
  • Is there a demand? – Are people actually buying this product online? You would be surprised at some of the stuff people buy online when you would think there would be no way someone would buy it without seeing it in person and on the flip side there is some stuff that you think would sell well online but it just doesn’t.
  • Are there other successful affiliate sites out there? -
    • If you see a lot of different affiliates in your niche that can show you that this is a profitable niche but the competition will be greater.
    • If you see no affiliates in this niche you need to figure out why.  Is it because it isn’t very profitable or is it just because no affiliates have taken the time to make it work.

 

  • Does this interest me? – Generally speaking I recommend you start off with something you like and something that interests you. Even if the numbers don’t totally work out it will be much easier for you to build a site if you have a genuine interest in the site you are building. After you get a site or two built and get some experience building the sites, working with affiliate programs, etc. you should then start to look for the real money makers. 
  • Potential for growth -Does the niche I am working with have potential for growth?  Is this a market that is declining, growing, or staying steady? Will these products be more popular or less popular in a year?  Is there other niches I can branch off of my main niche? 
  • Effort vs Reward – Will the money I make be worth the time, effort, and resources I put into it?  Will this be a project that takes a lot of time but doesn’t have the reward?  Will it be something that might take a day or two to get going and brings in a few hundred a month?  Can I just build the site and let it go or do I need to constantly update?
  • Quick hit or long term – Many programs will be quick hitters that might only make money for a season, for a few months, or just last until the media moves on to something else. Quick hitters are fine but I would just consider them “bonus” money. Find a niche that you can make money on for a number of years.

Here is what Seth said he learned this week:

“This week I learned about how to choose what you want to advertise, or as Joe called it, a niche. I am learning how to research niches. You want something that has not very many websites that come up when you search it but also has a decent number of searches and something people are looking for. You also want to look to see if a lot of good affiliate sites come up or not. This could mean that either there is no money to be made in the niche or it hasn’t caught on for a lot of affiliates yet. You also want something that possibly can be split up into multiple sites in the future if you see some success. You also want a niche that has good payout and a lot of good keywords to use.  Some of the main factors to consider when choosing a niche is if the niche is something I would enjoy working with, if it is something that is growing or dying, is there enough reward for the effort, and whether it will be something that is seasonal and/or will only last as a major item for a little while.”

So that is it for week two.  I got some ideas for week 3 for when Seth comes to the office in a couple days.  But what do you think would be a good next step?  You have any questions about affiliate marketing you would like answered?  Leave a comment and let me know.

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I need your help

April 21, 2009 Uncategorized

TweetTo all you marketing type people:  I NEED YOUR HELP!!! This summer I am going to be bringing on an intern.  You can read more about that here: http://whatdoesjoethink.com/2009/04/joes-intern/ But I need help.  I want to expose my my intern to as many aspects of online marketing as possible.  If I were to just teach [...]

2 comments You know you want to read more →

10 Things that are important to me

March 12, 2009 Uncategorized

TweetWhy is it important to know the things that are important to you?  I have been thinking about this a bit lately and trying to figure out what is important to me.  I think it is crucial to know what is important to you because if you know what is important you will have a better [...]

4 comments You know you want to read more →

What’s the deal with sales letters?

March 2, 2009 Uncategorized

TweetSo what’s the deal with sales letters?  Most of you have probably seen them.  I am talking about the standard long form sales letters that usually follow a general basic layout with a big headline at the top, pages and pages of sales copy you have to scroll through, testimonials, some big claims about the [...]

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So what’s the deal???

January 29, 2009 Uncategorized

TweetWell, after years of not doing it I am doing it.  I am starting a blog.  Why you may ask??? I have been wanting to do a “real” blog for a while now.  I have some blogs set up on some of my affiliate websites but those usually don’t say anything about me.  They are [...]

8 comments You know you want to read more →