Learn from affiliate marketing guru to boost your revenues as an affiliate. Presentation given at A4U Expo London. (c) Nadeem Azam, Azam Marketing, www.azam.net

1. My 12 Biggest Mitsakes in 12 Years Nadeem Azam

2. Nadeem Azam “Nadeem Azam has been involved in Affiliate Marketing since before the Internet was invented. He’s actually 75 years old but only looks about 14. He’ll be sharing his secrets to eternal youth as well as some amazing insights into the AM. This is a must-see session, learn from someone who has been there, seen it, done it and bought the t-shirt.” Kieron Donoghue, here.org.uk, 16 September, 2009 2

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6. 6 Azam Marketing

7. 7 Aim Save you 50,000 hours

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10. 10 Will save you having to resort to this . . .

11. Successful people learn from mistakes. If we learn from other people’s mistakes, even better! 11

12. Recently started in the affiliate game? . . . Don’t be a plonker Like this guy Or this guy 12

13. 13 Even the best of us make mistakes…

14. 1997 - Mistake 1 Lack of Clear Vision “I’ll set-up beautiful websites, link to books on Amazon.com and Books.com and make money.” 14

16. Remind yourself of that Core Purpose every single week

17. Don’t let anything get in the way of pursuing your aims

18. Stick to your Core Values and retain your integrity

20. 17 “A jack of all trades is master of none” 1. Specialise in no more than three marketing disciplines SEM is now no longer something that can be picked up in a week. PPC is becoming more complex by the day and it takes years to become proficient Become an expert on SEO, PPC, social media, m-commerce, email marketing, domaining? 2. If build websites, then specialise in one or two types of websites or subject areas Your competitors have spent thousands of hours building cashback and comparison shopping scripts Specialise in voucher codes, cashback or content? If content, build the UK’s leading site on hatha yoga or what to do in Colchester? Hard enough to succeed in one of the most ruthlessly competitive arenas in the history of humankind; don’t make harder by fighting battle on too many fronts like this poor strategist . . .

21. 1999 - Mistake 3 Promoting Advertisers Paying Low Commissions 3% on the sale of a £9 CD or DVD is 27p! And it’s not easy to sell one CD or DVD. One of these costs 50p  18

22. Focus on high ticket items: broadband internet, mobile phones, insurance, utility supplies 19

23. 20 Digital products and services usually pay higher CPAs: software downloads, eBooks, dating Networks with digital products: oneNetworkDirect, RevenueWire, Clickbank and Click2Sell. Also traditional networks like CJ, TD and AW Registry Mechanic via oneNetworkDirect paying 50% commission on £30 sale = £15. To earn £15 on the Play.com affiliate program, which pays 2% commission, you’d have to sell over 30 DVDs!

24. 21 Prioritise companies that pay residual income Residual income v. linear income: www.azam.net/residual-income Paid on Results UK network has several ‘Customer Base’ programs which pay recurring commissions USA networks paying recurring commissions include the likes of Commission River Also many independent web hosting, dating and telecoms programs

25. 2000 - Mistake 4 22 Not having the right tools No internet connection at home, used free subdomain services, relied upon free web hosting

27. Superfast internet connection

28. Two monitors

29. Quality webhosting

30. Top notch software- Memorable domain names

31. 2001 - Mistake 5 Lack of Automation and Delegation Not make sufficient use of tools and software to save time Doing everything myself 24

32. 25 Time is money Automate your websites as much as possible Buy the best scripts, tools and subscriptions you can afford Freeware at Downloads.com and Tucows.com Scripts at ResourceIndex.com, Hotscripts.com, ScriptSearch.com

33. 2002 - Mistake 6 Communications Overload Spending half the day answering emails, helping people on IM and chatting on the phone 26

34. 27 Developing a reputation for always being available for everybody will not make you succeed in business Focus on ROI generating communications Use autoresponders, canned responses, voicemail Set-up detailed FAQs on your websites to help your customers Refer your website visitors to customer support of the merchant(s) you are promoting

35. 28 Biggest time-waster is email Auto-receive emails in Outlook once every three hours Set Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin to send notifications once a day ‘Bells & Whistles for Outlook’ ww.emailaddressmanager.com/outlook-bells.html ‘Phrase Express’ www.phraseexpress.com

36. 2003 – Mistake 7 Pfaffing about on non-work related websites Wasting time on unproductive sites 29

37. 30 Watching funny YouTube videos, looking at pictures of people’s parties on Facebook or telling friends what you had for breakfast via Twitter will not help your succeed in business Avoid playing games. Internet marketing is essentially playing games with real money! Monitor your activity online with software such as TimeSprite.com

38. 2004 - Mistake 8 Believing and trusting everybody Affiliate Managers: “Content sites are the way to go” 31

39. 32 Have to step back from the situation and make an independent evaluation The most effective to make money in affiliate marketing are usually not discussed on the forums, in magazines or at mainstream conferences! Cut through the rubbish Find a mentor

40. 2005 – Mistake 9 Not being quick off the mark Evolve or die Small businesses have massive disadvantages over big businesses; the major advantage they have is ability to react quickly to changing circumstances 33

41. 34 Read obsessively about your areas of expertise Attend industry conferences Study what the Americans are up to – they are often ahead Keep an eagle eye on others in your field If you spot any potential opportunities (a) mull over it (b) strategise If the opportunity is a good one, go into it all guns ablazing

42. 2006 – Mistake 10 35 Not Publicising Websites or Business Quietly getting on with the job without making a song and dance about things

43. 36 Most affiliates are too web-obsessed Get exposure for your websites and business in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV Local newspapers and radio are hungry for content Find contact details at www.mediauk.com Dragons’ Den Online: www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/pitches

44. 2007 – Mistake 11 37 Not Asking and Looking for More Not asking for higher commissions, voucher codes, competition prizes, etc. Focusing on mainstream UK networks

45. 38 Advertisers often see affiliates as a “cheap” way to generate sales. Sometimes significant mark-ups on many products, yet affiliates receive measly commissions MediaPost.com, 28 July, 2009: “Big online ad networks have an average profit margin of 45%” Affiliate networks typically earn 20% to 30% of the commission value on sales you generate. Insist on higher commissions!

47. longest cookie period

48. fastest payment

49. best serviceYou can increase your income by 20% + for delivering the same number of leads/sales

50. 40 Ask for higher tiers, tenancy fees, CPC, CPM

51. Finally… 41 MY biggest Mistake ever Never let anybody video you without your permission when you are with AffiliateFuture in Barbados . . .

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53. Any questions? 43

54. Tomorrow The Affiliate Sales Kit - Writing Killer Proposals and Selling Yourself To Merchants Time: 17:15 – 18:00 Room: Platinum 4 44

55. Further information Website: www.azam.net Blog: www.azam.info Email: nadeem@azam.net 45