Jangro.com - Latest Comments in Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Steve Smith — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:21:47 -0000

Great post. Thanks for this. Hopefully can find a way to incorporate it into
Whiten Teeth

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Steve Smith — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:20:34 -0000

Great post. Thanks for this. Hopefully can find a way to incorporate it into
Whiten Teeth

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

jacfinacej — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:57:44 -0000

good info.thanks for teaching me the word.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Emre — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 10:44:25 -0000

I won a lot of money from Amazon.I love u Amazon:)

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Terence — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:37:41 -0000

Great stuff,
I just started affiliate program too, but it's CB, might try out Amazon one day.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Steven Finch — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:48:52 -0000

Interesting post. I like the fact that you just tell it straight out. I might have to post about this over at http://crenk.com

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

NetInside — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:18:41 -0000

Nice info bro, made me wonder how big the opportunity to get money from the NET

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

wiseaff — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:20:37 -0000

Scott,

We considered doing this in 1998 at the ISP I was working for at the DNS level, but determined that it was cleary against the Amazon Affiliate Agreement..

Adam

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

wiseaff — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:20:20 -0000

Scott,

We considered doing this in 1999 at the ISP I was working for at the DNS level, but determined that it was cleary against the Amazon Affiliate Agreement..

Adam

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

The Green Theory — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:06:42 -0000

Amazon's cool!

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Lee — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:41:09 -0000

paging Jeff Molander...

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Music Man — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:15:36 -0000

Just asking.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

discount polo shirts — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:32:14 -0000

That's funny I'm sure when they catch on to this they will put a stop to it - this does not seam to follow their terms of use.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Sam Harrelson — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:04:23 -0000

I would start by not spamming the comments of a popular affiliate marketing blog.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Music Man — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:01:58 -0000

Does anybody know of a way to make money with music affiliate groups? That way you could make money doing something you love

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Kellie — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:48:52 -0000

Or Miro could have given you the option of installing a shop at Amazon to support Miro browser button. When you click the browser button it takes you to Amzazon via their affiliate link. Wow, thta would easy and remove doubt.

But wait, it would then actually distinguish that consumers were being motivated to some extent to shop at Amazon to contribute to Miro..that they were actually involved in driving traffic. Oops, there goes the low lying fruit for commissions.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

jangro — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:01:47 -0000

I'm going to go out on a limb here, Sam, and suggest that you're a pretty unique case. When you say you purchased three times last year knowingly giving a kick to Miro, I believe it. I doubt that there's anything going on on your computer that you don't know about.

So, I concede that there are people like you out there and I'll back off my "No value" statement. There are more "valid" ways to get the loyal users like you to give on Miro's behalf.

Let's start with making sure that you STAY a Miro user if you're going to give them Amazon's money.

As Kevin said, it's about the delivery method.

There are people who clicked 'yes' to that plugin and immediately forgot that it is there, or worse, never use Miro again, but go to Amazon.com again and again to buy stuff. That Miro gets commissions on those users forever is not right, IMO, and devalues the channel.

By allowing this, Amazon is effectively saying, "Yes, we agree to give a percentage of every purchase by this customer to Miro. No limits. Forever. And ever. No strings attached."

(I left out "Even if another affiliate refers them later," as that just muddies the waters.)

And money will silently flow from Amazon to Miro. Sure, some people are making conscious purchases to benefit Miro (which Sam is focusing on). But some are not (which I'm focusing on).

Do you think any big brand merchant in their right mind would agree to that? Especially with no promise of another iota of branding or promotion by the affiliate?

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

jangro — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:58:59 -0000

It'll be a verb someday Kevin. I'm just ahead of the curve.

(ball-buster)

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Sam Harrelson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:35:14 -0000

Damn Yankees and their big words.

Don't ever play Scrabulous against Scott on Facebook, btw.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Kevin72 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:25:14 -0000

Coincidentally, I was unable to find "asymptotes" used as a verb in any official capacity. However, it appears as though you could have said "declines asymptotically". That scores better in Scrabble anyways.

Thanks for teaching me the new word, though.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Sam Harrelson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:58:25 -0000

Not circular at all, Pat. I'm pointing out the difficulty and subjective nature of making the sort of distinctions in value that you asked about.

The difference between extension and toolbar is not irrelevant at all. However, if you want to focus on intent, then that's fine as well...

"The question isn't the nature of the people who buy through those links, it is rather the nature of what those links contributed to the merchant."

Exactly what I'm pointing out... people who use the Miro Firefox extension to support Miro are doing so consciously and consciously buying through a merchant (Amazon) they might not have purchased through otherwise.

Just because those folks don't click a link to get to Amazon doesn't mean Miro didn't lead them there and away from a competitor.

Links are dead, anyway :)

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Pat Grady — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:48:03 -0000

To argue "since we don't make distinctions" it won't matter, is circular, and leads nowhere conclusive or productive.

Spreadsheets list numbers, not value. The question isn't the nature of the people who buy through those links, it is rather the nature of what those links contributed to the merchant. Just because Tiger Woods drives on I-4 in Orlando, we can't conclude it's a highway that attracts excellent golfers. Why and How are very different questions.

And the difference between extension versus toolbar is completely irrelevant here. Whether Tiger used his physical keys to start his Buick, or his remote key fob, has nothing significant to do with why he chose to be on that highway. Focus on what he was thinking right before he left the house more, versus what tool booth he last passed through en route.

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Sam Harrelson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:13:01 -0000

Good question, Pat. Nope, I don't think that would be kosher.

To explain... Since we don't make distinctions between previous affiliates in the chain of sell and the last affiliate leading to the sell (and instead give all of a commission to that last affiliate), I'm not sure how separating out value here would be much different. Sure, (some) merchants pay differently for search or PPC or forum-led or coupon-based or co-reg leads/sales compared to those who come from traditional retail affiliate sites... but what we're dealing with are varying degrees of incentive.

If I were Amazon and looked at the numbers coming from Miro on a spreadsheet, I'm guessing the users buying through that link are the savvy types who would normally be shopping at NewEgg or some competitor with lower prices. Since customer acquisition (not retention...at least in my experience of management with large and small brands) is still the main thing merchants are looking for in their affiliate programs, that is quite valuable for Amazon.

And let's not forget that this is a Firefox browser extension, not a toolbar. The semantic distinction really does matter in this case, I think.

Thanks for spurring my thoughts!!

Sam

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Pat Grady — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:54:41 -0000

Further, if anything of low value is legitimized, it undermines the higher value items - in fact, in this case, Amazon likely pays the same rates to both Miro and other affiliates who are doing higher value work. And before you ask, yes, the toolbar has some value, and it is difficult to quantify it absolutely, but that doesn't mean it can't be done (as is true with many business decisions, or decisions of any type).

In our area of business, the lack of ability to discern value is quite alarming for me. I also find it to be a rather special case in our business, which I generally attribute to both our sector's youth and diversity.

So Sam, if you were a merchant selling widgets, would you treat this affiliate with the same regard as all of your other affiliates?

Re: Affiliate Marketing, Get Paid for Nothing

Pat Grady — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:54:13 -0000

"I think the main problem for the affiliate community is that this is about a piece of software."

Not for me, though I'm sure you've seen me makes posts similar to Scott's (and more vociferous) about software. For me, the issue is this... if I owned a small business (and I do) selling stiff on the Internet (again, I do), would I want this type of thing causing me to pay commissions? And that answer is a very stern NO.

The argument that it's a small effect isn't compelling at all for me Sam. Because I know that ignoring small does impact my profits as a merchant, but more importantly, ignoring it allows small to grow big. And indeed, toolbars are proliferating.