Nerdy Affiliate Adventures In Affiliate Marketing Land

Pitchmen – Lessons in Direct Response Marketing

Posted by JasperP on June 1st, 2009

If you haven’t heard about yet, there’s an awesome show called Pitchmen starring the infamous Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan.  They talk about direct-response marketing using TV media to sell their products.

I love this show because I can relate to a lot of the activities that go along with creating a new marketing campaign for a product/service.

Looking at it from an Affiliate Marketing perspective, they take the same exact steps:

1.  Find a product or service that will work well with their traffic medium. 
   1. Affiliate Marketers – find a converting offer for adwords, facebook, email, etc
   2. Pitchmen – choose a product that can be sold to a wide variety of audiences on tv media.
2. Create an ad that will sell the product/service
   1. Affiliate Marketers – write ad copy that will sell the click, sale, or lead.
   2. Pitchmen – create an informercial with a “WOW” factor demonstrating the need for the product.
3. Buy traffic and test
   1. Affiliate Marketers – Choose keywords, placements, and/or demographics that will work well for the offer
   2. Pitchmen – Choose tv spots based on demographics and geography that are related to the targeted audience of the product.

If you haven’t watched it yet, go check it out now!

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/pitchmen/pitchmen.html

Stretch for the Red Ball

Posted by JasperP on August 25th, 2008

This was a nice little article that sent to me via email which was written by Kim Kiyosaki, author of the “Rich Woman” books (richwoman.com).

Anyway, this article is basically about persistence and being able to stay determined in reaching for your goals.

You’ve heard the saying, “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.”

I see that sentiment everywhere: in business, in investing and in people’s personal lives. Ask someone, “Do you want to be rich?” and they say, “Of course!” But ask them, “Are you willing to do what it takes?” and all too often, you’ll get a blank stare. To me, the difference between someone who achieves her goals and realizes her dreams and someone who does not is that one is willing to do what it takes to get there, and the other is not.

In an earlier article I wrote about the four types of people in the world: Those who must be right, those who must be comfortable, those who must win and those who must be liked. I’m a “must win” kind of girl. And in order to win, sometimes you have to do things that are uncomfortable, difficult and even scary. The most revealing test of a winner (or loser) is how she responds to adversity. What does she do under pressure? Does she back down? Does she quit? Does she roll up her sleeves and get to work? Bottom line: Does she keep moving forward? How you respond when things get difficult is the difference between being a rich woman or a poor woman.

If you set goals at the start of this year, how are you faring? Are you doing what you need to do to achieve them? Are you or is someone you trust holding you accountable to make your goals?

Sometimes You Need a Coach

That is the beauty of having a coach. I have coaches in many areas of my life: business, investing, presentations, fitness and personal development. I even have a television coach. My coaches hold me accountable when my natural tendency is to take it easy. My weakness (one of many) is that I’m essentially lazy. So I do my best to surround myself with coaches, mentors and friends who push me harder than I push myself at times.

For example, I was working out at the gym with my trainer, JR, when he said, “Kim, pick up the red ball for your next set of exercises.” I walked across the gym and leaned over to pick up the ball, expecting it to be pretty light. In fact, I realized, it was a lot heavier than the blue and yellow balls I was used to. I hesitantly walked back to JR, red ball in hand. “OK,” he said, “I want you to do 40 lunges with the ball over your head. Next, do 20 sit-ups on the incline holding the red ball. And last, 20 squats with the ball.” I gave him a questioning look and set off to do my lunges, sit-ups and squats. Afterward, I came back to JR huffing and puffing, but proud of my accomplishment and ready to move onto the next—and easier—exercise. Instead JR said, “Good job. Now give me two more sets.”

“Two more sets?” I protested. “This red ball is heavy!”

JR smiled and said, “Do you want me to take it easy on you? Are you paying me to hold your hand or are you paying me for results? It’s up to you.”

I quietly walked away with my red ball and began my next set of lunges.

That’s when I realized that to get results in anything, you’ve got to reach for the red ball. So often, we go for the lighter challenges or goals—the yellow or blue balls—because it’s easier and more comfortable. But in order to get the result that we want, we’ve got to do some heavy lifting and stretch for the red ball.

So the “Red Ball” question to ask yourself is this:

What is the one thing in my life, today, that if I did, I know would dramatically improve my life?

Once you know the answer to that question, ask yourself: Am I willing to do what it takes to do that one thing?

That may be your red ball and the one you reach for next.

Investor, entrepreneur and author of Rich Woman, Kim Kiyosaki educates women about money and investing through books, speaking engagements, a PBS TV show and  RichWoman.com. Kim and her husband Robert created the CASHFLOW® board games and own The Rich Dad Company.

This article originally appeared in WomenEntrepreneur.com. Reprinted with permission from the author.

“I Can Accomplish Anything!”

Posted by JasperP on August 19th, 2008

I had an interesting conversation with a friend over lunch today and it kind of made me realize a few things about having the proper mindset.  I was talking to her about my business and how I promoted products and services.  She said she wished she could start a business too, but she said she’s not business minded.  I was telling her reasons why she could do it and I think she understood my point.

Now I know business is not for everyone, but I really believe if you put your mind into it, you can accomplish anything.  I knew that my friend played high school sports before and I knew how strenuous that can be.  Competing in sports is a great example of accomplishing a difficult task.  In sports, you have to tell yourself to physically compete with other players who also want to win.  You have to mentally drive yourself to exhaustion to endure the physical pain to accomplishing your goal of winning.

This relates to having a positive mindset. If you think you CAN do it, you’re right.  If you think you CAN’T do it, you’re also right.

My proposition is this: Start telling yourself you can accomplish anything.  Be a problem solver.  Ask yourself, “How do I do ______?”  Stop thinking, “I can’t do it” or “This is too hard” or “I quit”.  Once you start believing that you can accomplish anything, you can apply it to all sorts of things that don’t involve business.

• Want to learn to play a musical instrument?
• Want to play a sport?
• Want to learn how to build something?
• Want to make money online?
• Want to start a business?

Believe in what you’re doing, push through the obstacles and you’ll eventually reach your goal.  Failure is not a point at which you stop, it’s a lesson in changing your approach.

I’d love to hear stories of business or non-business accomplishments you’ve had.

What have you accomplished lately?

Internet Marketing And The Business Mindset

Posted by JasperP on August 4th, 2008

So how bad do you want to have Internet Marketing work for you? Or even have a successful business for that matter?  I believe that it comes from this inner desire to change yourself and to fulfill your dreams.  But how bad do you want it?

Here’s a little story that might help illustrate this:

Once upon a time, there was a guy named Bob who would sit on his porch all day with his pet dog, Fido.  Jack, who likes to take walks around his neighborhood,  always passes by Bob on his way to the store.  Everyday, Jack would hear Fido constantly whining, but he would just lie there all day.

One day, Jack decided to ask Bob, “Hey Bob, how come your dog is always whining?”.  Bob replies, “Well, it’s because Fido has a tack in his foot.”.  “Then how come Fido doesn’t try to remove it?”, Jack asks.

“Because it doesn’t hurt bad enough”, Bob says.

Now that probably wasn’t best story in the world, but it does illustrate a point.  If something hurts bad enough, then people tend to take action to improve their situation.  A lot of people are comfortable with their situation and never go beyond that.

Being able to materialize your dreams is something that comes from within yourself.  When you find your reason to fulfill you dreams, then you’ll go beyond the failures and obstacles to reach your destination.

In this business, failure is not an option. You will most likely fail at some point doing this type of work.  Why? It’s just a part of doing business.  Some things work and some things don’t.  Once you improve your tolerance for failure, you will start improving your business mindset.

With Internet Marketing, there are so many things that can go wrong and so many variables to take into account.  Demand, competition, copywriting, data analysis, coding, design, work habits, learning ability, etc, etc.  I could probably go on and on, but you need to understand what your strengths and weaknesses are in order to compete as a marketer.  This means that you’re going to be learning some things that you have never learned before and the learning curve can be kind of steep.

Remain persistent and push forward through all the failures and you might find yourself in a profitable situation.

“Fail as fast as you can.  Get it over with and move on.”