Qwik Media

Okay, maybe you don’t “suck” at it, but you’re not getting the results you want.

Part of the reason for this is that you’ve come from search engine marketing, Facebook ads or banner advertising and you haven’t adjusted your thinking for PPV marketing.

Here are some tips and things you need to consider when getting into PPV marketing and how to make it work.

1. Interruption Marketing
PPV is interruption marketing, you are interrupting the user experience to show them an add that is relevant to the site they are on or what they are searching. So, since you are paying per view, you need to be sure to give them a reason to click. Show them an attention grabbing image, engage them to click, give them a reason to sign or (if allowed) play a sound or video, but grab their attention.

2. Data Collection
PPV is an opportunity to create targeted user lists that you can email or re-market too at a later time and/or on a consistent basis. Use tools like Aweber to collect data, they have a really simple to use and easy to implement data capture system. You can use Aweber to collect data only, or to send the user to an offer after the sign up. Sign up to Aweber here>>

3. Offer Rotation
Since you don’t need to link to any specific URL or page with content you have the opportunity to rotate in several different offers to see which does best, or which does best per target. Keep in mind that it will take some time and some of your ad spend to figure this out, but it’s well worth it. Be sure you have subid’s setup to ensure you collect that data you’ll need. And, don’t optimize your target bids until you have the backed offer down.

4. Think outside the box
It sounds cliche, but it’s true. In fact, it’s true in all affiliate marketing, but especially here. Think of how many ads your users will be seeing, give them a reason to click on your ad or sign up. It’s not usually enough to just pop an auto insurance offer on auto insurance keywords. Think of Corey Bornmann’s Netflix example, he incentivized the user’s (on an incentivizable offer) by giving them a rebate that he paid out of his pocket. He only had to pay about 10% of the rebates out and he would have made much more on the offer to cover this cost. Or, consider the reasons a user needs a product or service – like they need auto isnsurance when they buy a new car or they need to re-assess their coverage after an accident.

5. Use Affportal.com **Get a discounted membership here!** Affportal.com allows you to create targets, expand targets and build your PPV campaigns quickly and easily. Corey is a code junkie who loves to build tools that help him and you succeed in your PPV marketing. Well worth the monthly fee. Also, consider the PPV 123 program – Get it here>>

6. Dynamic Insertion
Add relevance to the user experience by using dyanmic keyword insertion and geo-targeting. Insert the keyword into the call to action on your landing page and get much better CTR’s. You can also use geo-targeting to say things like “Special offer for visitors in St. Louis, Missouri”. Or, insert the target like this “Visitors from www.Car.com get a special deal today!”

7. Where to buy traffic
-Traffic Vance (Referrals required)
-Media Traffic
-Direct CPV
-Adon Network
-Clicksor
-Findology

8. Landing Pages
You can direct link to the offer when using PPV, but it may not perform up to your required levels. Most PPV networks will resize the add to approximately 600×400, so think of how a browser might display a certain campaign and what part of the page would show in that 600×400. This is where getting a page designed or using a simple image that is clickable can work really well. Check out some of Justin Dupre’s landing pages for a reasonable price here>> (Ask about a discount from Qwik Media.)

9. Offer types
Usually what works is quick and easy converting offers like email/zip submits, dating, financial services and gaming. Generally what does well is short form, first page converters with non-sensitive information to collect. This doesn’t mean other offers can’t or won’t work, but these types usually perform better. Also, when getting started it’s better to see lots of conversions for less spend, these types of offers allow for that and then you can optimize on less spend. Find these offers at Qwik Media. Sign up here>>

Good luck with PPV!

PS: Ask your affiliate manager at Qwik Media about PPV and how to get a landing page or creative made for you!

Jonathan Volk interviewed our VP of Marketing, Gary Hamer (see it here), so we interviewed him!

Who is Jonathan Volk?
My name is Jonathan Volk and I am one of those “make money online” guys. I am President and CEO of Surge Marketing Inc. where we generate millions of dollars a year in revenue. The majority of our income currently comes from affiliate marketing.

I also have run an affiliate marketing / make money online blog for almost 3 years now at http://www.jonathanvolk.com. I provide some great tips for both experienced and newbie internet marketers.

I have been a full time affiliate marketer for 3 years now and have loved every minute of it. For more information, visit my about page. (http://www.jonathanvolk.com/about )

What motivates you to be a better affiliate marketer?
There are two motivations for me. First is quite obvious… the money. The second is because I love marketing. It’s like a real life game where you try to improve your stats within guidelines of acceptable use. It’s fun to me which is why I am able to work the amount of hours I do.

What jobs did you have before finding success in affiliate marketing?
Before working as an affiliate I was a part time computer sales man going to college. I worked extremely hard at my sales job to earn nearly a full time income working just 24-30 hours per week.

As I began to realize the potential of affiliate marketing, I even applied it to my sales job. I began offering the more starting level employees incentives to help me sell computers. They got me a sale that all I had to do was write up and I’d buy them lunch or something similar. Of course, management didn’t exactly love this but… that’s for a different story.

Who has been an inspiration/motivator in your life?
There are so many people that it’s hard to name them all. To name a few… my dad (a successful internet entrepreneur as well), Shoemoney, my pastors, and loads of other people.

I believe that I’ve gotten to where I am today because of the great relationships I have been able to forge among key people.

Do you find that affiliate marketing has changed your ethics? If so, in what way?
There is a line in one of the Batman movies that goes, “It’s what you do that defines who you are.” Well. I disagree. It’s who you ARE that defines what you DO.

So no I do not believe affiliate marketing has changed my ethics, it’s only tested them. While I’m not perfect, I do believe that affiliate marketing has helped me to become a better person. When you are tested, you learn from those tests.

What was your first successful campaign? What was the traffic source? How much did you make?
I think one of my first campaigns was direct linking to a golf clickbank ebook using Google Adwords. I can’t remember the specific details but I think I was making just like $30-60 dollars per day.

Way before I got into affiliate marketing (2004), I was doing arbitrage sending google traffic to my websites with ads on them making around $0.01 per profit per visitor I sent.

I think my best day made roughly $250 dollars when I was doing that. That’s one of the main things that got me started down the path of affiliate marketing.

What are your keys to success?
I really think that working hard and building good relationships are the two main keys. Those two things are among the most important attributes of a business.

What are your future goals?
I’m a big goal person (http://www.jonathanvolk.com/goals) for sure. While I have some revenue goals and performance goals for the year, my main goal is to help people.

What do you see for the future of Performance Marketing?
Performance marketing is still largely in it’s infancy. I only expect more and more companies to move from traditional marketing models over to performance based marketing as the years progress.

The main reason for this is that companies will always have money to spend on marketing that yields a positive, measureable result for them.

What are your biggest fears?
Needles.

What are you most optimistic about?
The future.

What do you love most about the internet?
Affiliate marketing… social media… what’s not to like? (Ok there is a lot not to like… but you get the idea).

If money was no object, what would you do with your life?
Build churches, orphanages, schools, and apartments throughout the world. (And world peace… haha jk). Jokes aside, these are things I really aspire to do.

Though I could amass a huge amount of toys, sports cars, etc… when I die, it all stays here on earth. That’s why my heart is for affecting people. It’s one thing I believe is eternal.

If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
Liger or ninja turtle. Just because they’re awesome. That or something that could fly… like that red bird from Avatar. Now that I think about it… I want to be an avatar. Those things are awesome.

What three things would you take to a deserted island?
My wife, a helicopter, and satellite phone. Get me out of there.

What’s your favourite drink?
I love cherry coke zero. Since I simply cannot give up coke, but can’t handle the extra calories of traditional sodas, coke zero is the next best option. Throw in the cherry flavor and it’s even better.

If you have not already joined the effort, you still have time to participate in Qwik’s ‘Help for Haiti’ fundraiser. This weekend, February 5^th- 7^th, Qwik Media will be donating 50% of all profit made to aid in the earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti. What do you have to do? It’s simple. Just run Qwik Media campaigns and earn revenue!

A few stats about life in Haiti even before the earthquake hit:

• The average life expectancy is 65.
• 55% of the population lives below the international poverty line.
• Unemployment is about 80%.
• Less than half of the population can read or write.
• Due to an increase in HIV/AIDS, tourism has dropped and the main source of income for Haiti is foreign assistance

This was the picture before the 7.0 earthquake and the countless aftershocks that devastated an already hurting country.

Run campaigns and be a part of the impetus that will change Haiti for the better. For more info click here. ( link here with http://qwikmedia.com/?p=haiti )

So, what does an Executive Baller for Qwik Media do? Who is he and where did he come from?

We’ll just let Ian Fernando tell you.

The infamous Ian Fernando

Who is Ian Fernando?
Currently I honestly do not know. I know he is a person who use to work 3 jobs 7 days a week and he knocked one job after another till he was on his own.

Ian Fernando used to be a choreographer and loves to dance. He is also always traveling. Every time you check his twitter he is either in another country or another state.

What motivates you to be a better affiliate marketer?
The ease of it. Affiliate marketing is very easy to get into. It is the only business model which you send traffic to a product/service and not have to worry about customer service!

I also enjoy the learning I gain from understanding how the internet users act. How people react, what words affect people, what colors turn heads, and what images gets users to take action.

Affiliate marketing is a great stepping stone for users who wants to understand how to really market to users. It has helped me move and understand so many things on the internet and how we react to ads and copy.

What jobs did you have before finding success in affiliate marketing?
Prior to affiliate marketing I was a Manager of Human Resources at a local Wal-Mart, I was also a waiter on the weekends, and a Data Analysts for Vonage. These were the main jobs I had. All energy drained jobs.

Vonage was the last job where I moved up from customer care to working directly with the CEO on business analytics.

Who has been an inspiration/motivator/role model in your life?
Really, don’t have a big inspiration or role model really. I use to follow the big guys in the industry such as Joel Comm, Kris Jones, etc. They are really good marketers and great at what they do.

I have always watched the bigger guys and I try to accomplish what they have done to get to where I am at.

Do you find that affiliate marketing has changed your ethics? If so, in what way?
If you are talking about fooling people to convert in by means of trickery, No. In the beginning when I was a loser, I did everything possible to try to get things to convert.

Now I am more straight forward with the offer. I create simple landing pages that direct traffic to the offer instead of trying to ‘haul’ them to the offer.

What was your first successful campaign? What was the traffic source? How much did you make?
I was working on a tax offer and it was via Google Search. I made my first 1k for the month. I was super excited and just started to find more offers to promote.

What are your keys to success?
Writing down your goals and staying on top of them. If you write down your goals and stick to it, you can expect results. Any results are good, there is no such thing as a bad result.

It is how you perceive the result and how you use it to your advantage.

What are your future goals?
I have a pretty big goal to reach. I want to do several things which I do not want to disclose.

Some things though, I want to expand more into local marketing and I want to speak more as well regarding our industry. I want to also get more involved with helping others without really taking away from my own time.

What do you see for the future of Performance Marketing?
I see an all in one platform in our industry. Where there is a service that will do everything that we need. As more and more veteran affiliates become stronger and do more volume, they need something more sophisticated to help with their needs.

Tools are being made all the time, but there isn’t something universal enough to handle everything affiliates do.

What are your biggest fears about Performance Marketing?
The saturation of new affiliates in the industry, which will deter the cost of impressions, clicks, etc. But it will be more like a rollercoaster effect, where one day it will be high and then back to normal.

What are you most optimistic about?
The change of the industry – what will be the next big thing? What tool will help us better achieve our goal? The next killer offer to promote? The next big network?

Our industry changes so much that it is hard to stay optimistic. I just stay current and just do me, never thinking to far into the future.

What do you love most about the internet?
The ease of use of it to make money, there is so much money to be made online because of the vast quantity of traffic sources that can be acquired.

I also like the vast wealth of information; I can find anything on the net.

If money was no object, what would you do with your life?
I would travel and be a nomad. My dad traveled the world and knows multiple languages. I want to do the same and travel to places he wasn’t able to visit.

Qwirky fact?
Hmmm… one fact that everyone tends to know about me. I only wear my clothes just once. This is a real fact, but I’ve been obsessed with clothing, fashion, and shoes for the longest time.

What three things would you take to a deserted island?
I would take my iPhone, Poland spring water, and my netbook.

What’s your favourite drink?
Red Bull Vodka.

He’s our new Account Services Representative. See below for more about Chad.

Full Name: Chad Kelbough
Birthdate: 07/13/1983
Height: 5′11
Weight: 190 lbs
Birthplace: Victoria, BC, Canada
About You: Very well rounded and easy to talk too.. love to play sports.
Work experience: Worked at Caramanah Technologies Corporation as a programmer.
What you love about affiliate marketing: I love the fast pace environment.
Greatest Accomplishment: Representing Vancouver Island for provincials in hockey for Midget AAA and also acquiring my Bcom.
Future goals: Move up with Qwik Media and expand my knowledge of affiliate marketing.
Favourite Quote: “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today” and “Work Hard Play Hard”.
Favourite Saying: Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.
What you do in your spare time: Hockey, golf, snowboarding.
Favourite drink: Mojito
Quirky fact: The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.
What makes you unique: Doesn’t take me very long to adapt to change.
3 things you would take to a deserted island: Match- for fire… knife- for basically anything .. and a deck of cards.
If you could be any animal, what would you be and why: Tiger- very agile, could sneak up on you at any time.
If money was no object, what would you be doing?: Traveling around the world as much as I can.
Role models?: For hockey – Curtis Joseph…. In the business world – Donald Trump.

Welcome Chad!

Qwik Media at Affiliate Summit West 2010. Just look at the pictures, this post needs no further explanation.

View all our pics at Flickr.com >>

It’s worth so much more…..

Seriously, AffPortal.com is definitely worth much more than the $37/month membership. You’ll know once you see the profits you’ll be generating when you use some of these tools.

Smart Scraper:
Enter your offers’ root domain and this tool will gather five of the highest traffic, most relevant keywords about the offer and scrape URLs to the depth that you choose. Your campaign set up time just got cut in half.

AOL Bootleg Search Database:
Check out Millions of searches by simple-minded AOL users. Find some really unique niches and review raw search queries.

Monster Keyword Expander:
Get 1000’s of keywords and phrases in less than 60 seconds. Includes US Census data and dozens of expansion lists.

URL Scraper/Chopper:
Mine Google, and MSN by country and filtered by your keywords and phrases, up to 50 pages deep to get thousands of URLs. Then, take those URLs and chop them down to the sites that users actual search for. Perfect for PPV!

Adwords Sniper:
Pulls websites’ urls that contain Adsense code to use for creating your placement targeted campaigns.

Other great tools:

Qwik Media is proud to offer a discounted membership at AffPortal.com. Sign up to Qwik Media and get an AffPortal.com membership for $27/month.

These are the elements of a “good” landing page, not a “great” or “high-converting” landing page, but rather a good place to start. Only testing can truly prove what landers are great or high converting!

Call to action
What is the one main action the user should take when they land on a page? There’s really only room for one clear call to action. The call to action is what the user needs to do, like “Sign up today and meet singles near you!” or “Get your free trial today.” The call to action should be clear and concise with a time limit – “Take this action because it matters to you, now!”.

Hero shot
A hero shot is the main photo on a page. Think girl smiling at a laptop screen, a car driving on a scenic road or even just a shot of a product. This is not a spot for a logo, logos should be small and not a focal point of the page. The photo should create something tangible that the user can relate to, so it should be relevant to them and the offer.

Clickable button
If you want the user to click somewhere, it should appear clickable and look like a button or a link. Different text for the button submission can make a difference, like “Click Here”, “Search”, or “Get Free Trial”, but make it look clickable and buttons should look like buttons!

Dynamic keyword insertion
Wherever possible keywords should be dynamically inserted onto a page, preferably in the call to action. If someone searched for “weight loss” then “weight loss” should be in the call to action, not “diet” or “lose weight”. This lets the user know they’ve found just what they’re looking for.

Left aligned form
Forms that are left aligned with the titles to the left work best. Forms shouldn’t be split down the middle on a page. And, when the user hits tab in the form it should take them to the next form field, it should be easy for the users to sign up!

It should Sell
The page should clearly display how value is added for the user and how the product or service will help solve or problem or answer a need. A page should make you think that you need the product as well, or that you would at least consider it.

Content
People generally don’t read online, so expect them to skim content. Paragraphs should be user and/or bullet points. It should be easy for users to see the points you want them to with bolding and highlighting.

Credibility
If the site is trustworthy and credible it should be evident. Wherever possible secure site logos, certifications, guarantees, etc., should be displayed. This allows the user to trust a site and feel comfortable submitting personal information, buying a product or downloading a file.

Above the Fold
All of the most important content should be above the fold. The “fold” is the cutoff point at the bottom of the screen. Users do scroll down, but its better to show them everything important within their screen space. Pages should never scroll sideways, that’s just annoying!

KISS
Keep it simple stupid! The user should get exactly what they want and it should be a simple process, so that they can’t help but sign up. Actions and items should be clearly displayed, but user options should be limited, the less the user can do the more likely they’ll choose the option you want them to. So, navigation should be kept to a minimum or not on the page at all.

Qwik

There are very few barriers to starting a new CPA Affiliate Network, so just about anyone with enough cash to pay for the licensing of network software can have a network. This doesn’t mean that they should!

So, if anyone could have a network, what’s the point of a network?

Improve affiliate cash flow
One of the most important things a network should do for their affiliates is to improve their cash flow. By “fronting” the cash to help their affiliates continue to buy more ad space and clicks. Most advertisers pay Net 30 or even Net 45, this means they don’t pay until 30 days after the previous month ended. In the mean time, a network will pay their affiliates up front – weekly, bi-monthly, etc.

1 stop shop
A network is basically an affiliate’s “one stop shop” for affiliate marketing, affiliates can get it all in one convenient location. Advertisers can work with a network and get access to 1,000’s of affiliates in one spot, while affiliates have access to 100’s or 1,000’s of ads in one place.

Services
Good networks will provide affiliates with services, like landing pages, creatives, coding, tracking, etc. Not all networks can or will provide this to affiliates, but it definitely helps as some can provide it for free. Of course, this requires the affiliate to trust them not to share their landing pages or niches.

Manage quality
Advertisers are now very good at tracking the value of an affiliate’s traffic and they can find out what a specific affiliate’s users are worth to them, usually in a few days. It’s up to the network to work for their affiliates to ensure that affiliates get a payout increase or decrease based on their lead values. This can be a very tedious process to track and check up on lead quality.

Recommend campaigns
An affiliate manager should be able to suggest campaigns that work well for affiliates based on their traffic sources or user demographics. A lot of networks will “push” offers that they want traffic to or that makes them the most money. Affiliates should work with networks that care about their profitability, not just the networks profitability.

Improve profitability
A network should be able to improve an affiliate’s profitability by recommending high converting offers and suggesting new ideas for higher conversions or greater volume. Also, networks with a good tracking system should net affiliates more conversions.

Work with advertisers
Advertisers can be require full time care. The network will step in and manage this for their affiliates. They’ll manage their requests for more traffic, better quality, etc. This allows affiliates to focus strictly on managing campaigns that make money, rather than forcing a campaign that doesn’t work for the affiliate.

Brainstorm
An affiliate manager should be trustworthy and dynamic. Affiliates should be able to bounce ideas off of them and flush out campaigns to determine where an affiliate can make the most money. If an affiliate is comfortable sharing their ideas, they should do so with their affiliate manager and they should be able to help brainstorm with affiliates.

Social
That’s right, they’re there as someone to talk to. Lots of affiliates work at home and don’t get out a lot. Affiliates should be able to find a few common topics to discuss. Hopefully a network’s affiliate manager is a trustworthy person and someone the affiliate considers a friend. Beyond that, networks should also be hosting parties and providing affiliates with plenty of free drinks!

Motivation
A network should offer their affiliates incentive prizes for reaching a lead goal or a certain amount of revenue! Things like vacations, big screen tv’s, video game consoles, cash, etc. Like those *Free iPods (with participation).

Qwik