August 2007 - Affiliate Summit Lessons Learned

FEATURED COMMENTARY

By Colleen Darwent,
Affiliate Coordinator

The Affiliate Summit was a spectacular opportunity to learn from fellow merchants and also from those who have been working within the affiliate arena for quite some time.

Although there were a variety of different topics which I could discuss here today, I think that the two most beneficial topics would be to tell you how you can avoid the wrath of the CAN-SPAM act, and how you can benefit from the Long Tail of Affiliate Marketing.

The CAN-SPAM act is real. It’s a real threat to those who are forcefully sending “junk mail” through unscrupulous methods.

The basics of the CAN-SPAM act goes as follows,

Email marketing…

1. There should be no misleading information in the “To” or “From” input boxes.
2. The subject line must not be misleading or deceiving in any form or fashion
3. If you are sending an advertisement, the message must be labeled as “advertising”
4. You must always provide an opt-out method, and once a request has been made to be removed from your list you must do this within 10 days of the request

Ad Content…
1. Needs to be truthful and non-deceptive. The content should not lead the consumer to doing something that is out of character, something that they would not normally do. This material needs to honest, and forthright. It should not mislead the consumer who is acting reasonably under the circumstances; it is the material that you provide that is important to a consumer’s decision to buy or use the products.
2. Information provided in the ad needs to be “fair”. An ad or business practice is unfair if it causes or has the ability to cause substantial consumer injury.

This is just a brief overview of the CAN-SPAM act, there is still a lot more to be aware of. I recommend that you take the time to familiarize yourself with this act as it is now being targeted at affiliate marketing. You can learn more at The Federal Trade Commission.

On a more pleasant note, The Long Tail of Affiliate Marketing, which is based on Chris Anderson’s book “The Long Tail”, can greatly help one to increase sales and therefore profits too. As Linda Woods, President of PartnerCentric taught in her seminar at the Affiliate Summit the Long tail is the development of niches within specific markets.

Some of you may ask, “What is the Long Tail?” The Long Tail is the belief that 20% of the best sellers make up 80% of the revenue, that’s the body. The Tail is the concentration on the remaining 80% of sellers. The Long Tail describes how the remaining 80% of sellers can increase their sales, and thereby increase their commission earned.

One method used is the creation of unique URL’s that focus on multiple small terms, or multi-word phrases. She also suggests creating sites that are rich in content to drive traffic. For example a desirable URL for promoting Worldwide Brands’ product might be something like GenuineQualifiedSuppliersThruOneSource.com. This URL is built with several keywords already in the title, which is great for Search Engine Optimization.

From here one should use some sort of key word tracker. Linda uses WordTracker to get the KEI or Keyword Effectiveness Index. This will give you a score for those particular keywords. A decent KEI is between 100 and a 400.

So according to Linda Woods, to “fatten the long tail” one should develop more brands and create more niches by breaking up your bigger sites into smaller niche sites.

So be sure to read up on the CAN-SPAM act, familiarize yourself with what you can and cannot do to be in accordance with good marketing practices. Also take a little time to research more about the long tail so that you can make your marketing business more profitable.

Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail is also available in our Amazon Book Store.

As always if there are any questions or concerns regarding OneSource or the affiliate program in general, Colette and I are always available through email affiliateteam@worldwidebrands.com or phone 877 637 6774 x 8123 (Colette) or 8121 (Colleen)

Don't forget to check out the "Did You Know?" Section to the right for important program announcements.