Once we got the site ready to roll out with the new marketing processes plugged in, we had to get them placed on a network for an email drop.

As an acting affiliate manager there are several things I need to do to get the networks everything thing they required to get the client up and running.

I create what I call and affiliate package in a zip file and load it up in my server, and send it to the affiliates in the form of a link in an online news letter.

1. Creative

2. Promotional copy

3. Promotional thumbnail

4. From and Subject lines

5. Suppression list

6. Terms

For the creative part I needed to make banners in the most popular sizes, so I made 468×60′s, 300×250, 600×400, 728×90, 120×600 and 160×600′s.

The next type of creative you’re going to need is the email creative. Basically what I would do is take the 600×400′s I made and slices them up and put them back together in html. Make sure you include an image with the name of the company, address, and unsub link.

You will want to provide text link creative with descriptions as well. The most popular format to put this in is the Google Adwords format: A headline and brief description.

Make sure and include promotional copy for the affiliates here’s a sample below:

“WANTED:

All affiliates that want to make some serious cash with one of the highest converting [[product type]] offers on the internet today!!!

In addition to that…

[[Company]] has just rolled out new landing pages and creative, resulting in even higher conversions!

Our cracked team of creative experts and affiliate managers are dedicated to updating our affiliates with the highest converting E-mail, banner and text link advertising at all times!

The [[Company]] team is 100% committed to your success!”

Most affiliate networks require that you accompany you offer with a promotional thumbnail. Generally this promo thumbnail is a 120×60 graphic with the product and a few words of copy on it. The networks place this graphic on their campaigns pages so the affiliates can get a visual of the offer.

The email marketers are going to need from and subject lines. I like to provide at least 5 of each. You really don’t need anymore then that.

If you are going with an independent emailer then you will want to email them your latest suppression list. Make sure you send anyone emailing your offer a suppression list at least once a week, or give them access to your suppression list so they can download it.

Last but not least make sure you that you define your terms. You may not want your offer to be incentivised, or no email. You need to let the affiliate network know what the rules are for deploying your offer.

Another point of interest you may want to focus on when it comes to affiliate management. If you plan on letting several network run with your offer. Offer an incentive program like giving away a free iPod to the top performing affiliate will keep you in the forefront of the affiliates mind. Create an online newsletter and send it once or twice a month explaining the latest conversions numbers, along with links so they can download the latest affiliate media package.

Unfortunately I learned this lesson the hard way. One of the first companies I worked with was selling a weight loss supplement and was doing a few hundred sales a month.

When they came to me, I examined their site, and made the proper adjustments. After the site was optimized for sales, we tested for conversions with some email drops, and were convinced we were ready to start buying media.

Now before I go any further, here is where I should have asked the client some very important questions.

1. How much processing power do you have with your merchant accounts?
2. How long does it take manufacturing to get you and order of your supplements?
3. Can your manufacturing handle a spike in demand should we need more product?
4. Can your fulfillment house handle an increase in orders?

The above questions are among some of the first I should have asked the client, as opposed to asking later.

The problems for this client started when their manufacturing could not keep up with the spike in demand for increased orders. When they could not fulfill the incoming orders on time the customers started canceling and doing charge backs to the credit card companies. The chargeback’s caused the merchant accounts to freeze the money creating a cash flow issue. As a result of the cash flow issue, the client was not able to pay their bills including their media costs, and all advertising came to a grinding halt.

As you can see we had a serious mess on our hands. Fortunately for this company they were able to recover, but it took them quite a long to do so, and they are still in business today. Not all companies should be so lucky, so it’s important to monitor growth and make sure you are ready to take your company to next level by ensuring the proper measures are in place.

You should know how much merchant account processing power you have. Until you establish yourself you are at the mercy of your merchant accounts. If you are just starting out with your first merchant account, the standard processing amount is 30k per month. If you think you’re going to need more, then get another and be prepared to switch accounts once you hit the limit on the other.

Talk to you manufacturing and see if they can handle an increase in orders if need be. Before you roll out your media campaign have more product on hand then you need in case there is lag time with manufacturing.

Set caps on your media spending to make sure you don’t get blown out of the water to soon. Now, I make sure we don’t spend more then a few hundred dollars a day in media so we won’t receive too many orders. If you want a spending cap get it stipulated in the insertion order. A daily cap in spending can give you the cushion you need in order to slowly bleed growth into your business model instead getting to big to fast.

Finally make sure you have the personnel on hand to deal with the all the new orders. It’s better to have one to many people in your fulfillment house then not enough.

A business partner of mine who was doing some media buying for a client, needed someone to make banners, so while we ate breakfast at a restaurant, in literally 10 minutes, he showed me a few things on Photoshop and Image Ready, and off I went. The very first banner I made was a 720×300 for a weight loss supplement client, which was going to be placed into rotation with some other banners that my business partner made as an exit pop on a site called Lucky Surf.

To my partners amazement, and mine the pop I made converted at about 4 or 5%. We were both shocked. At this point I realized that I might have found my calling. Soon it became apparent that I had a knack for creating banners and writing copy. As time went on, the demand for my services increased and finally I was able to leave my dead end job and make a pretty good living just doing banners.

It may be a little difficult to believe that one can make a decent living from doing just banners, but if you are willing to work at it, sooner or later you can command as much as $100 per banner, if not more! For me, banner ads were the perfect entry-level job, for what has been a successful 6-year career. Creating banners was a great “low pressure” way for me to learn graphics, HTML, and copy writing, all of which are essential for creating a successful e-commerce solution either for you or a client. Now the purpose of this article is to give you some insight on the ins and outs of the following:

1. Creating banners 2. Prepping banners for the web 3. Packaging banners for clients 4. Pricing and revisions 5. Finding image resources for your banners

The first banner project did was with a company that sold cable boxes online. The lady that hired me needed a ton of creative and was shrewd with the money. She needed many different sizes and ultimately I ended up making $15 per banner.

Creating Banners

Creating banners can be tricky if you’re not familiar with the product, market or audience. A few simple and quick techniques can help you create better banners. The first thing I asked her for was images of the cable boxes (as many as she could get me) and whatever research she had and copy that worked.

The next thing I did was go to the website to see what colors and copy they were using. The next step was to find other sites and check out the copy on the PPCSE’s that were selling cable boxes and see what they were doing. With some simple research I was now armed with all the copy, images and strategy I needed to get this first banner project off the ground.

Prepping banners for the web

Prepping banners for the web is based upon the publisher specs. Many publishers have specs based on file size (according to banner dimensions), risqué or non risqué, and animation. Let’s take one of the stricter publishers and use them as an example. This particular publisher has very tough guidelines to follow, but traditionally they have high conversion rates, so getting your banners there is well worth the trouble.

Most publishers use the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standards as guidelines for the ad unit sizes they publish on their sites. A typical unit is a “medium rectangle” (in pixels that’s 300×250). Many publishers will not let you exceed more then 20k in file size. One of my first clients was a women’s weight loss company. Image wise one of the best strategies to use for weight loss is to use a sexy woman in a skimpy bikini. The problem with this, is many publishers are very picky about using imagery that might be to risqué. Most pubs will want to see the creative you’re going to use before they actually publish it. Generally pubs will assign a rep to the media account and will be responsible for the approval process.

Optimizing your banners is something that you will most likely do in the same software program where you animate. I use the industry standard Adobe Image Ready, and if you can get your hands on it, so should you. When it comes to creating imagery, Adobe Image Ready gives you a lot of tools, but for banner ads you need to just a few of those options. Adjusting the colors and the lossy can significantly reduce your file sizes to get your banners inline with publisher specs.

Adobe Image Ready is the place where you will get your animation done. Most pubs will not allow you to use continuous nor heavy flashing animation. Generally you will not be able to animate (loop) longer than 15 seconds and you will need to use no less than.5 seconds in your loop transitions. Another point about animation is you always want to have the animation stop on the “call to action” (CTA).

Packaging banners for clients

The first time I did a serious banner project for a client I had no idea how to send the banners to the client via email. Oblivious to any zip programs I simply attached them to an email and sent. Quickly I was made aware of programs such as Winzip and WinRAR, and was shown how to use them. I have been using either one of those programs to send creative since.

If you are just starting out as an entry-level creative artist, you can probably get around $10 – 20 per ad (possibly more if you know flash). Volume has a lot to do with the amount you may charge. If the client is looking for a lot of banners or is willing to give you consistent work, then you may want to give then a break on price. While you gain more experience this is a good way to go.

Pricing and revisions

More likely then not, your client is gong to want revisions to some of the creative you make. Revisions are something you should negotiate before you start the project. Most of the time the creative coordinator will review all the creative and send you back the required revisions by line item.

Most of the time you can knock out all revisions in 1 shot. After you make the creative send them to the creative coordinator. The CC will send you back the revisions. Complete the revisions and send them back. Generally that’s the end of it.

You should always have a consistent naming convention in your banners. If I make a 300×250 in a series of 10, I will make the first banner in this series ad 1. Here is an example of how I would do this for a particular client. Let’s say the client wants 40 banners made for their cable box program. My naming convention would be something like this:

cb_300x250ad1

cb_300x250ad2

So and so fourth.

If I need to make 10 300×250′s and 10 728×90′s then I would make the 300×250′s first and then take the same concepts and resize them into the 728×90′s. So you would want to make the first 728×90 (just like the first 300×250) and call that cb_728x90ad1.

Finding image resources for your banners

When I first started out the one of the more difficult pieces of the creative puzzle for me was finding images. Most image sites were very expensive with little variety. Now, you can find hundreds of thousand of high quality images inn any category at iStockphoto.com. You can get images as little as $1, that absolutely perfect for banners. I recommend iStock exclusively. Don’t waste your time going anywhere else.

Many website owners don’t really associate reporting and hosting, nor have they wanted their host pulling numbers and assisting with measured results… after all… what the heck does a hosting company know about the differences between good numbers and bad numbers right?

With the evolution of managed web services coming to the forefront the host is now becoming more then just a host.

In the typical but fading relationship between host and website owner there isn’t much accountability (other than the server going down or massive influx of traffic) the two really never communicate.

In the new managed web relationship the host / manager obligations have changed. At least once per month the manager should be sending the site owner an analytics report.

Measured results are not only important to see where the site is going but also essential for client relations.

I have found 2 favorite analytics programs.

Google Analytics has become an analytics staple for most website owners. Setting up Google analytics is easy for custom sites and WordPress. The only thing I’m not to thrilled about is Google Analytics is not real time but other than that… it’s great and it’s free!

Woopra is another favorite of mine particularly for my WordPress sites because it comes in a plugin… all you have to do is open an account at http://www.Woopra.com and download the app. The Woopra app displays real time analytics with a ton of features. The Woopra interface is really clean, easy to decipher with a ton of features. Best of all… it’s free!

So as we move into this new model of managed web solutions and reporting some clients may find it difficult to justify the cost of paying for a website without making money from it.

If a business owner wants to give their company an online presence and makes the move to get a website then how can we initially make having a website a bit more digestible… especially if they are not driving traffic.

My take on this dilemma goes back to measuring the positive through analytics. If the client had an existing website when you started working with them it’s essential that you measure where they are before you touch anything… furthermore you should discuss goals and a timetable for achieving those goals.

If a client didn’t have a site when you started working with them then make sure you have researched the competition and make sure you can show them where everyone is at within the market and where you realistically believe you can get them within a given period of time.

So the question becomes… can measured results such as “positive” analytics be the currency you need buy you time until sales or the desired actions start to roll in?

Is it possible to sell positive analytics?

In my opinion it is, only as long as you have taken the time to educate your client. In most cases it is unreasonable to expect the kind of miraculous results most dream of.

I have still yet to discover the sweet spot number for any expected results. I would say that 3 months is reasonable through a great effort.

You should have a preset list of data that your going to show your client at least once a month. Before you even start let your client know what it is and why it’s important. Show them where their competition is. If you’re doing your job right you should be able to show your client positive analytics.

For many this information may seem like common sense but hopefully this will help others that were asking some of the same questions was asking.

Research – Research – Research

Keyword research is the place to start, as the internet tracks all keywords and the amount of queries for a particular keyword. So while “Britney Spears” has a lot of queries, you really can’t sell “Britney Spears”, but you can sell other well sold items on the Internet like “weight loss” or “work from home”.

Obviously, these are examples of two different types of products, with one being a supplement and another an info product… nonetheless they are both hot selling products on the Internet.

How do I know this or how did I find this out? Keywords!

To get your hands on the best keyword research, the best place to start is the foremost leading authority…WordTracker.com.

Currently you can get a 1 day free trial. I suggest you take advantage of the free trial and have look around WordTracker, you will not regret it.

There are a few other ways to do keyword research online as well. One of my favorite tools are Google keyword tool. You can find this tool by going to Google and typing in “Google Keyword Tool” and following the directions. Your entry should bring up the amount of previous queries for your keywords searched.

Now that you have a few keyword tools the next place to start is the actual leg work.

Here’s a tip…Do you know what the most popular searched word on the Internet is? Everyone’s favorite word – “FREE”

So if you want the most popular terms for a keyword you may want to include the word “free” in front of the actual term. You want to search for the top 3-5 keywords within a particular market. So if you are interested in weight loss, you type in the words “free weight loss”, and there you go. I will use Google Suggest for now.

And here’s the results:

*free weight loss program (7,260,000 queries)
*free weight loss diet (7,630,000 queries)
*free weight loss equipment (4,050,000 queries)
*free weight loss diet plan (1,130,000 queries)
*free weight loss diet plans (933,000 queries)

Next step, scroll down in the drop down box to the term the has the most queries “free weight loss diet” (7,630,000 queries) and click on it. Now you have found the top results for that term. The next step is to start clicking on the links. You will see paid results highlighted in yellow and on the right.

Now that you have found the top results for that term you want to do a few things… the first is breakout an Excel spreadsheet and list the term and the and the links of the websites for that term. Do this for each term.

You now have the top sites for the top keywords for that market. Visit each site and look for the “sign up to be an affiliate” link (generally located in the footer) but can be in other places, so you may need to look around.

How many queries constitutes a respectable market?

You will hear many opinions regarding this. Some will say a market with as little as 10,000 queries is adequate to market. I would recommend that you use a tool in WordTracker called “top 1000 searches”. More specifically I would consider the first several “RESPECTABLE” (if you know what I mean) markets to start working from.

The first thing I do is start a research template checklist. Some of the items included on that check are:

1. Keywords
2. Google Adwords
3. Alexa Rating
4. Yahoo/Overture description

Start by going to WordTracker.com. WordTracker.com is the industry standard for finding all the keywords in your niche.

After you have gathered all the keywords, you take the top 5 keywords and move over to Google. Proceed to type each one of those keywords into the Google search field, and check the results.

Let’s say your keyword was “weight loss”. What you are seeing is the paid listings for the Google adwords results. You will see the results of your search starting at the top (generally the first 2 results) and all the other placements to the right, going down the page.

Those first 2 results on the top and the first 3 on the right are what I would consider my some of my top competitors.

Now that you know who some of your top competitors are you can do several things with this data. The first thing I would do is copy and paste all their Google listings in a spreadsheet. The reason I do this is because I am going to take this copy and make it my own. Google optimizes their adwords placements based on the amount paid per click and click through, so I know that the copy in those placements is most likely working pretty good.

The next thing I do is go to those websites and do a thorough examination of their processes. Mainly I am looking at their sales process, additional copy, and graphics. To get additional ideas for content, I may even sign up to a news letter if they offer one to see what additional information I can get.

Also what I have done in the past is use a cool little program call Snagit. I would take what I thought were the best features and process’s and use Snagit to capture the web pages and place them in a PowerPoint and ad notes or map out the process.

To find out more on this competitor move onto Alexa. You can visit Alexa and download their tool bar. When you punch in the site an Alexa rating should pop up in the tool bar. I would take those competitors I found in Google and get the Alex on all of them and place that data in a spreadsheet.

While the Yahoo/Overture is a pure PPCSE search and is not optimized, I still found that I could use this as a very handy research tool. They have a good keyword tool and you can still get a lot of good ideas by looking at the listings copy and examining the sites that advertise their. I would take the top 5 listings for each keyword result and copy those listing on a spreadsheet as well.

When it comes to doing your research you want to make sure to repeat this entire process for every keyword you have. It may take a while to do all this research, but I guarantee you at the end of the day you will have an extremely good idea of who is doing what in your market and how they are doing it.

The above research techniques that I have explained are thorough, but basic. Competitive analysis on the web can get as deep as you want it to. With the right tools and know how you can find out pretty much anything you want to know about your competitors.

Since I have been working on the Internet, at times I’ve had no choice to use my coding skills, but if I had it my way I would leave that to the experts…And so I have!

Now just because I am not much of a coder does not mean I don’t know what a good site looks like. As a matter of fact I now make a living telling people how to make their websites optimized for better sales. I’m now more of a project coordinator for E-commerce solutions and web development.

To make it all come together, you need a few things.

1. Web designer
2. Programmer
3. Shopping cart
4. Hosting
5. Transaction Processing

In my opinion if you can find a one-stop-shop that offers all the above services then that would definitely be the best way to go. From the designer to the transaction processing, all those factors will affect one another, and preferably you want streamlined communication from top to bottom so things can go as smooth as possible.

Normally I start out by talking to the client to see what sort of solution they are looking for. If they are selling a product then obviously they will need all those services. The only client that will not need all those services is someone that is just looking to have an info site created.

After I speak with the client and we understand what solution will be required to get the off the ground, the next step in the process is gathering all the assets. These assets include the following:

1. Research (documentation) specific to their product.
2. Research (documentation) specific to their market
3. Research on competitors
4. Ingredients in product (if any)
5. Image assets (of product, before and after etc… etc.)
6. Testimonials
7. Privacy policy, terms of service, and term and conditions

Other than the above assets, there may be more you need to gather. I have found that those mentioned are the most common.

* Birth date
* Full name
* Address
* Telephone number

Sending your clients special deals on their birth date is important. Lets face it…Everyone likes to be remembered on their birth date. Other important dates your customers may appreciate being remembered on is anniversaries, father’s day, mother’s day, and Valentines day.

Sending your customers exclusive deals on special dates can result in more business because most people have company on on those dates so the opportunity to sell to others exists. Auto responders and regular contact is critical for costumer relations:

* Make sure to check in with costumers regularly.
* Ask them if the product (whatever it is) is working out for them.

If there is anything they need or if they have any questions. Who knows this could turn into an opportunity to sell. Regardless of whatever you want to sell or not you must always maintain contact. If you don’t maintain contact you will lose the opportunity to set up your customer for future products and services. Remember out of sight out of mind. The more you stay in contact and informed about your customers business the more they will trust you.

* Call them
* Email them
* Automated messages by phone
* Send postcards

There are many ways to gain contact, the bottom line is to always do it.