As an affiliate, merchant and network I've see it all. - Affiliates try to cheat by using robots, their own hands, misleading copies... - Merchants try to hit back and commit fraud by not reporting all leads/sales, use bad copies that is not selling(only branding), stop and turn on campaigns all the time... - Networks try to survive by raising the CPA/CPS and report less leads/sales... Of course there are many more ways and variations of this...some more clever ..and some more stupid. What does this lead to? I think I know pretty well...honest affiliates get paid less. A large part of the money goes to dishonest affiliates, merchants and networks. It's also harder and harder to know what to expect in terms of revenue. What is your opinion regarding this? Have you seen it?
All I know is that I've worked hard on my website for the past 3-4 months, had a decent amount of visitors through adwords/natural search results... yet I have 0 sales with any of my affiliated merchants. I know my sample size is quite small, but I at least expected 1-2 sales by now... and there's been nothing. I just dunno what to do... I have been frustrated with my 1st AM website, and decided to try another niche and see how that went. I had plans to build multiple sites from the beginning and had planned to get some sales on my 1st website, and then replicate the basic structure for another niche. It's hard to work on the second site wondering if I'm working for nothing again for the next 1-2 months. I dunno if it's my niche, or if Affiliate Marketing is a bunch of garbage, and lies... I have nothing better to do... so onward we go!!!! LOL Any patient mentors out there? My site is in my profile... Thanks, mmh3
Pretty much what I have found....but as you say "onward we go". I'm not going to let it beat me . I do know some people who were making big money up until a few months ago but some of them have thrown it in. One person (a friend of my daughter) was making around 200k per year selling shoes as an Affiliate but Google trashed all that a few months ago and he hasn't been able to get back up there....to compound the situation he went on a three month holiday so his website fell even further into the mire so he has given up on it at present. The common denominator from the people that I know is Google stuffing up years of work building their rankings up. Another factor is that they are not US based and Google seems to have hit non US based websites hardest. I guess that is the problem of putting all your eggs in the Google basket. Cyclops
Your not looking in the right places, to find the right affiliates to market your site. i'm an affiliate. i can sell anything. (yeah, salt to a slug) drop me a message and i'll help you bring in sells. - for the right commission. --=Shane
Love to have you Shane. Net Detective is a great converter, pays high commissions, [on time] works with the affiliate on creative, banners, custom pages, has 120-day cookies and a dedicate [ahem]affiliate manager. Oh, and we're an Independant.
Seen lots. Website hijacking, affiliate link hijack, keyword stealing bla2 ... Just don't give up ... the money will come but in slower mode, slow and steady wins the race Those hijackers might be going up fast but fast they will go down too, good luck!
I don;t know much about fraud and stuff. I only know i work with the company that gives me the highest conversion. I was struggling like you in 2007 and this year, i'm already making 4 figure every month while studying full time in a university in Singapore. If you hang on, you wont fail.. regards, Ivan Ong http://ivan-ong.com
I guess it is the niche problem. You really have to find some niches that converts well. Your site looks unique, but I dont think it has much earning potential. the adsense ad are not placed in the hot areas, you need to mix then with content.
mmh3 have you thought about encorperating video into your site?? connect your google account to youtube and get revenue per click browse youtube for maybe a howto video on your specific niche it has worked well for me up to now just an idea mate
Hi Mmh3 I just visited your site. I believe your niche isn't the problem. Perhaps it's the copy. (How much do you know about copywriting (not to be confused with copyrighting)? Ahem, pardon my English.) Let me borrow words from one of the books I read, "Almost getting the sale is not enough." Getting the sale is all there is to it. Your copy is good. But there's something missing. Good isn't enough. It has to be great! Just like anything else, becoming a good copywriter takes time and practice. But you can lessen the learning curve by reading the right books. Let me tell you though that copywriting is part of internet-based selling. If you really want to sell, you need to know sales inside out. If you're being arrogant about this, don't be. Take it from one of the books I read, "Loser's criticize, winners analyze." If you want to make fortune on being a consultant on how to build or how to buy a home bar, YOU CAN! All you need to do is take action. First, invest in your knowledge for it cannot be taken away from you. Next apply ALL of the knowledge you gained. Success is not a matter of working harder, but rather by working smarter. One thing more, affiliate marketing is only a garbage for those who think it is a garbage. If you think that affiliate marketing is a lie, ask yourself this question: "How can I make it true?" Hope that somehow helped you. Remember, opportunities are not for those who wait but for those who seek them. They are everywhere. You aren't just trained to easily see them. To your success, Kenneth -- Why does affiliate/network marketing sound so good in theory... yet never seem to play out that way in practice? systematic (dot) the7greatliesofnetworkmarketing (dot ) com/dpf.html
Affiliates try to cheat by using robots? I don't think this way can work. Do you mean write a tool or buy a tool?
Ive seen it done many times by other Affiliates and Im the one to suffer. A particular case is a couple of months back when because of one Affiliate, the Advertiser backed out and paid none of us. Thats why im a merchant now, and Im a broker for the direct advertisers, at least no fraud this way.
It really depends on the niche you focus on. As I mentioned on another thread, we need to find trustful affiliate programs and focus all our time to promote their products. If we try and catch 5 rabbits we won't catch the best one. It's not easy but once we find 2-3 very good programs I guess we should remain there. If 2-3 programs cheated you , than you should change the niche. Wish you all the best.