Welcome to the AffiliateTip.com Newsletter for April 2005. Be sure to check out the AffiliateTip.com blog for the latest news and information at http://www.affiliatetip.com/blog/

Topics in this issue:

1. Affiliate Marketers and Email: Not Perfect Together
2. Ask Shawn Collins: Finding Legit Affiliate Programs
3. Affiliate Tip - Testimonials as Text Links
4. Affiliate Program News
5. Archaic Affiliate Management in the U.S.
6. Top 10 Affiliate Programs - March 2005
7. The Business Case for Affiliate Marketers Using RSS

1. Affiliate Marketers and Email: Not Perfect Together
We often hear about best practices in affiliate marketing, and for the most part, these are followed by the majority of players in the space. But one spot where worst practices continually prevail is when affiliate marketers mess with email.

Out of frustration, confusion and laziness, affiliate marketers are making some bad choices when it comes to email usage, and it’s time somebody dropped a dime on them.

Complete article at http://affiliatetip.com/news/article0071.php

2. Ask Shawn Collins: Finding Legit Affiliate Programs
Q: How can you tell for sure if a company is legit and will pay? Where can I go to get started? Who's online material can help me get off of the ground?

A: There are no guarantees, but you should do some research into any company you plan to promote. One place to start is on the affiliate marketing message boards. Ask questions about the response time from the affiliate manager, payment history of the affiliate program, etc.

With CJ and Performics, the payments are consolidated across the merchants you promote, so assuming the merchant doesn't default on their account with the network, you should be in good shape. LinkShare is also now aggregating commission checks across a selection of their merchants, too.

Continued at http://www.affiliatetip.com/blog/archives/
ask_shawn_collins_finding_legit_affiliate_programs.html

3. Affiliate Tip - Testimonials as Text Links
One of the most effective advertisements for a product or service can be a customer testimonial or a review from an objective source. With all of the hyped up advertising copy out there, consumers are skeptical marketing efforts.

This can be difficult to overcome, but as an affiliate, your job is to pre-sell the offer and initiate the relationship of trust between the consumer and merchant. And a recommendation from a satisfied client or industry publication serves as a very persuasive sales tool.

Visit http://www.affiliatetip.com/affiliate_tip_41.php for more details.

4. Affiliate Program News
Axiom Audio
http://www.affiliatetip.com/out.php?pid=742&lid=2
Top five reasons to join the Axiom Audio Affiliate Program:

1. 180 return days
2. FREE priority shipping in Canada and the United States
3. Expert sales advice on line and on the phone 7 days a week
4. An exclusive Home Theater Wizard
5. High value sales - and recurring commissions

Share Results
http://www.affiliatetip.com/out.php?pid=285&lid=1
Looking for a new Affiliate network? Share Results, the sister company of established gaming affiliate network:Income Access, boasts a roster of high converting merchants & exceptional affiliate support. Complete with state of the art tracking and reporting tools, Share Results' robust architecture is tried, tested and true. Interested? http://www.shareresults.com

Trilegiant
http://www.affiliatetip.com/out.php?pid=846&lid=2
Join the Trilegiant Affiliate Program and promote the Great Fun and/or Travelers Advantage membership programs. Each program pays a minimum of $8 per lead. The Trilegiant Affiliate Program provides premium incentives with every offer, the program is on CJ, support 7 days a week, and a performance incentive.

Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS
RSS is one of the hottest marketing topics of 2005 and you can profit from this trend as well, by promoting one of the best selling e-books of 2005, Unleash the Marketing Power of RSS, which has already been acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide on RSS for marketers. The RSS Marketing Partnership program pays out 50% affiliate commissions and at the same time gives you the opportunity to help your readers discover the true marketing power of RSS. For more information e-mail Rok Hrastnik at info@marketingstudies.net

5. Archaic Affiliate Management in the U.S.
I was reading a thread on A Best Web from a U.K. affiliate that was frustrated, because his site was being turned down by 90% of affiliate programs based in the U.S.

This surprised me. In the early days, like most affiliate managers, I used to accept all applications. But a few years ago, as fraud was on the rise in affiliate marketing, I examined my stats and determined that the majority of countries were producing more headaches than benefits.

So I started restricting the affiliate program to residents of Australia, Canada, U.K., and U.S. The reason being that I was seeing lots of affiliates in these countries that were managing to target U.S. consumers.

Continued at http://www.affiliatetip.com/blog/archives/
archaic_affiliate_management_in_the_us.html

6. Top 10 Affiliate Programs - March 2005
Below are the Top Ten Affiliate Programs for March 2005 as tracked by the AffiliateTip.com Affiliate Program Directory.

The Top Ten affiliate programs are calculated by the number of clickthroughs each program received on AffiliateTip.com.

1. InstrumentPro
2. Hilton
3. eHealthInsurance
4. Diet.com
5. Axiom Audio
6. Lightspeed Research
7. Good Times Entertainment
8. Western Union
9. AllPosters.com
10. Great Expectations

7. The Business Case for Affiliate Marketers Using RSS
There's a lot of talk about RSS and the role it is assuming in Internet marketing. Detractors of RSS that embraced a recent report by JupiterResearch.

The report from JupiterResearch claims that "RSS will not have a significant effect as a supplemental alternative to e-mail marketing".

On the other side of the argument, Rok Hrastnik, author of Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS, compiled responses to the JupiterResearch report from folks that know a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to RSS, such as Seth Godin, Scott Rafer (Feedster), and Alex Barnett (Microsoft).

Get your copy of The Business Case for Using RSS at http://www.affiliatetip.com/rss_the_business_case.pdf

As always, I'd love to hear from you! Drop me a line and let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.

Take care,
Shawn Collins

shawn@affiliatetip.com
http://www.affiliatetip.com/
39 Clark Street, Summit, NJ 07901
908-522-0056
AOL IM: affiliatetip
ICQ: 297448317
MSN: shawn@affiliatetip.com
Yahoo: affiliatetip