Entries in "March, 2008"

Making Money Selling Leads To Offline Companies

We've all seen the offers in the various affiliate networks for lead generation. A lot of companies pay, and pay nicely, for a qualified lead. I'm sure a few of you reading this are using this method to put money in your pocket every day. But there is a lot of money to be made if you expand outside of the affiliate networks.

Selling Leads To Offline Companies

Ever considered generating qualified leads online for resale to an offline company? I can tell you that this can be very profitable! This takes a lot more work and you will definitely need some salesmanship, but if you are able to build this type of relationship with a company than you can turn a very nice profit!

How does it work? Well let's look at an imaginary example...

Say you meet a dentist who is looking to improve his client base. He know he can find customers online but has no clue how to go about it. He obviously has no clue how to generate qualified leads online and doesn't have the time, or desire, to start learning how. How can you help?

Well, since you are an internet marketer you will be able to bring your skill set to the table and start providing qualified leads for a fee. You can usually get a much nicer payout than on the affiliate networks but the downside is that the dentist probably doesn't have the money off hand to pay you for as many leads as you can bring to the table.

What Type Of Companies To Focus On

Any company that has a sales and marketing department. Any company with an established sales department will usually pay for qualified leads. You can also focus on individual sales people themselves, for example an insurance salesman. You can charge per lead or go for some sort of revenue sharing. There are many options and they will depend on the company, people you deal with, profit potential, conversion rates, average sale amount, etc.

You will have to be a bit of a salesman yourself to land this type of deal. A lot of these companies will be skeptical because they are not familiar with internet marketing. It would probably be a good idea to throw them some leads for free to prove you are able to give them what they are looking for. If you are able to continuously provide qualified, highly targeted, leads then their sales department should be able to close at a nice percentage.

But Is It Worth The Trouble?

As mentioned above a lot of these companies may not be able to afford a high number of leads. So how do you make sure it's worth the trouble? Well, focus on companies that are selling higher priced items. They will usually pay more for a good lead or be willing to do a revenue share. A good example might be a plastic surgery center. If you are able to land a revenue sharing deal then they can handle as many leads as you can bring and your profit will sky rocket as long as they have a decent sales floor.

I know someone who makes $500-$600 a day, every day, selling leads to 2 local businesses. The total cost of generating those leads is less than $15 per day. So, if you can find a good niche and work out a deal with a local company that fills it, you can make a very nice chunk of change.

Technorati Tags: business, lead generation, marketing, revenue sharing

Well, I Survived Cancun

After a few days in the sun and a whole lot of alcohol I made it home safe and sound. Cancun is an awesome place but I was disappointed how "Americanized" it was. In the "normal" parts of town it was classic Mexico but where the resort areas are, it looks like the vibrant section of any major American city. Lots of bars/clubs, restaurants (T.G.I. Fridays, wtf!), etc.

I have lots of photos that will go up on my Flickr account soon. There were lots of hot chicks and it turns out that it was spring break week down there so a lot of college kids were floating around. Some of the things I saw were quite.. well.. "amazing". The details would make even a dark skinned man like myself blush.

In any case, I am back and it's back to business as usual! I was able to keep my composure and the only time I broke my marriage vows was in my head ;)

Technorati Tags: cancun, hot chicks, mexico, spring break, vacation

Off To Cancun...

Quick note that I will be out of town for the next few days. I am heading off to Cancun with my business partner and some of his sales guys. Sort of a reward for them and all their good work the last few months. So I may take me a little longer to respond to email, etc. You know, due to being intoxicated and/or hung over most of the time.

See ya next week!

Technorati Tags: cancun, email, mexico, vacation

How To Kill Your Affiliate Manager

Ever wanted to take out an affiliate manager you do business with? If you've done any sort of affiliate marketing, I'm sure you have. While we don't want to actually kill (murder, rub out, smoke, ice, put down, etc.) the person, we can get pretty frustrated with them and the company they represent. This post is about a real gripe I have with a real affiliate manager. That's right... I'm calling out names.

WebHostingPad.com

I was contacted by Ben Hong (ben@webhostingpad.com) a few months back. He is the affiliate manager for webhostingpad.com, a new web hosting company that has launched recently. Apparently the company is a spawn of Omnis Network of web hosting companies. I have a website that does a lot of web hosting promotion and so Ben wanted placement on my site.

After a sweet offer of $200 per sale for the first 30 days I said I would give them a shot. I hopped on the phone with Ben and talked numbers with him. He promised me a minimum of 4% conversion on qualified traffic. I sent him traffic slowly and I realized their conversion rate was no where near 4% (more like 1%). Still, I got new sales notification emails and watched my account balance grow. I was happy because the payout was so high and I would just throttle the traffic. I had planned on dumping them after the first 30 days if I didn't notice an increase in the conversion rate.

Then I started noticing sales emails with no record of it in my affiliate account. I got on the phone with Ben and he investigated. After a few weeks, and many annoyed emails/calls from me, he explained it was a "bug" in their software (which is iDevAffiliate, something everyone uses).

I started seeing the writing on the wall so I immediately stopped sending traffic his way. Figured I would let the relationship go and collect what's owed to me at the next payment cycle. Well, when that cycle came I got an email notifying me that I had been paid via Paypal. Well, I hadn't received anything from Paypal confirming and when logging into my account, the payment wasn't there. Now it gets interesting.

I email Ben and got no response. I call Ben and leave voicemail and get no call back. I email again and finally get a response. It was another "bug" in the software and I will get paid on the next billing cycle (a month away) because the sales I was to be paid on had not reached the 30 day requirement (in other words, if the user cancels, my commission is voided). OK, that's fine and I understand that.

Well the next payment cycle has come and gone nearly 2 weeks ago. Ben is no where to be found. I call their number and it's changed to a new one. I call that one and I get no option for his extension. I can only get a tech support rep who promises that he as no way of transferring a phone call. Oh and he is unable to get me on the phone with Ben Hong, or anyone else for that matter. There is no other number I can use to reach Ben or anyone in their affiliate department. It's only him, the mighty tech support rep, and guess what, he is not able to help me with affiliate issues. Of course not.

What are my options?

At this point I am calling it a loss. I'd rather forget all about them and try to get the word out.

I should head down to their office (also in So. Cal. where I am located) and ask to see Ben in person. Thing is, I would rather let the affiliate world know how they run their business and hit them where it hurts, their bottom line.

Funny thing is, I am not the only one with a negative experience. A friend of mine jumped right in with them (after I told him about the $200 offer) and began sending them a lot of sales. See, he has a string of new clients who require a website to continue working with him. He was sending them 4-6 new sales a day. Now these are confirmed sales because these users are his clients and he is on the phone with them while using their WebHostingPad.com accounts.

Guess what? His sales started disappearing. Ben claimed they had cancelled their account, but of course they hadn't. Obviously they are my friends clients and he can easily confirm their accounts were active and the user had not requested cancellation. At least he was able to collect payment on most of his sales. Now he has no way of reaching Ben either. Shady shady!

Feel free to link to, republish, whatever this posting on your blog, forums, etc. Be good to help out our fellow marketers and let everyone know not to deal with these clowns.

Update: - This morning (3/13/08) I received a call from Ben Hong saying he apologizes for all the "mixups" and I have been sent a payment via Paypal. Word travels fast in the blogosphere and less than 24 hours later I was paid in full. Funny thing is, it wasn't a lot of money that was owed to me (less than a thousand) so it wasn't the end of the world and that's why I decided to call it a loss and write the post to begin with.

So for anyone out there having trouble, write a blog post about your issues. The social web has given us a powerful tool to "fight back", so why not use it?

Technorati Tags: affiliate, affiliate marketing, ben hong, commission, shady, webhostingpad

Million Dollar Goal - February Update

My head has been stuck in a washing machine. That's the easiest way for me to summarize the month of February. Looks like March & April aren't going to be very different either. In any case here is a quick update on the status of my making a million smackers this year.

Business

It was a bumpy month business wise. For being the tiny company that we are some people found us and decided to start attacking us, apparently in an DDoS style attack. After a little bit of kung fu I was able to get that under control. We did have noticeable trouble for about 2 days though. Nothing looks worse then 2 days of degraded service on a 2 1/2 month old company. Luckily our customers understood it was out of our control and we were trying our hardest to rid ourselves of the issue.

The month wasn't only bumpy because of the attack. Once thing you have to remember when involved in a partnership is that you have a partner. A few heated exchanges took place but when the dust settled we were better off because of it. It can be tough to compromise on issues you feel strongly about, but it is needed to keep a happy and productive environment.

During the next month's update I will finally give out the company name, website. Also early next month will be the launch of a new product we are working on. It is a tool designed to help users convert their website visitors into buyers. Obviously those in the affiliate marketing world would be a little bit interested. The product will be launching at a seminar here in Los Angeles next month.

My affiliate marketing progress has really been hampered due to the amount of work I've had related to the businesses. I do need to find some time to sit down and really find what needs changing, where to tweak and strategically plan out the next few months. Otherwise I am afraid I will lose the momentum and progress that I've made so far.

Personal

Well I have been dieting more and making good progress. The real real motivation for this progress is below (keep reading) ;) I've been making it a point to do cardio exercises at least 3 times a week. My knee has been bugging me and I need to make a decision soon. Lighter squats or go buy some strong knee supports. Probably going to go with the supports as I couldn't see myself killing the progress I've made by not pushing heavier weights.

March Goals

Well, on the 14th I am taking off to Cancun (the motivation I mentioned earlier). I am only going for a few days but it will be a blast! Sort of a mini break from work because the next few months I will be glued to my MacBook. So a big goal for me is to finish up fixing any bugs in our new products user front end before the trip. I don't want any of that on my mind while I am out there. No work this time, all play!

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, I was tapped to coach my youngest daughters soccer team for the spring season. Not enough coaches for the spring and if people didn't start stepping up, a lot of kids wouldn't have been able to play. Oh, and just my luck... One of the kids on my team has parents slugging it out in a very nasty divorce. We've only held 2 practices and I have already been asked for a document stating their child hasn't been to practice — for the judge!

Business wise I want to continue to grow this company and have a successful launch of our new product. Both of them will help me reach my goal this year. It's so close I can taste it, but still just slightly out of reach.

Wrapping Up

This post is more of a rambling than anything. Trying to finish it before the train comes (see future post on commuting via train/subway in LA.. oh boy!). All in all, the year is on track and I still think I have a shot at hitting my goal!

Technorati Tags: cancun, partnership, business, millions, make money online

How Much Do You Hate Comment Spam?

I am so tired of dealing with comment spammers. Even though I use custom software that I wrote to run this blog, I still use the Akismet comment spam detector run by the boys & girls at Wordpress. The Akismet system is an awesome tool and catches a ton of spam for me but a good amount still gets through.

I began logging every time my software found a spam message around 6 months ago. After 2 weeks I had caught nearly 12,000 spam messages. I would sit and watch my logs just fly with spammers using custom software to bang away at my server trying to litter my blog with comment spam.

I finally wrote a script to block IP addresses that had posted more than 15 spam messages over the last 7 days. It would use the pf firewall that I use on all my FreeBSD servers.

Since then I have blocked over 1,000 hosts (IP addresses) from even connecting to my server. That is totally amazing how fast spammers move and how many servers they have in play to hammer even a tiny blog like my own. Obviously spam is a big problem and it is no longer limited to just email.

I eventually had to turn off Trackback support because the spammers were hitting that as well. The Akismet filter isn't designed to work with trackback requests but I was still able to block quite a number of those requests. I eventually disabled it because it appeared to be under some sort of bot attack because it got to be so bad that it effected the performance of my server.

When deciding to blog for fun, or profit, there are other things you have to consider other than just what you will write about. Get in touch with that inner geek and it will help you down the line.

Technorati Tags: blog, comment spam, firewall, freebsd, geek, spam