blogend of a ….rolet

There are many things that come to mind when someone states questionable SEO, but what I am going to be discussing and questioning today doesn’t come close to questioning someones ethics in SEO tactics and practices.

Here is the scenario:

A merchant has a webstore where all their products are listed, they are running an affiliate program as part of their online marketing efforts.  This merchant also has developed a few niche microsites where they only list products that fit that specific niche.  Now this merchant is planning on adding these sites to their affiliate program once development has finished taking place on them.

 an example would be a shoe store - Site A has all their products - site b lists only athletic shoes - site c lists only women’s shoes - site d lists only heels…..

So my question:

1. Is it “unethical” or “questionable seo” on the merchants part for having numerous sites that are developed to specific verticals within their niche? (with or without attaching them to their affiliate program)

I will tell you that two of my merchants right now either practice this or are planning too.  Great AuPair has been finalizing the tracking on the multiple other sites that allow for additional markeing mechinisms for affiliates (announcement coming this week on this, as soon as the final tracking tests have been done), and Engraved Crystal Shoppe plans on adding more product line specific micro sites to allow for affiliates to target their traffic better, and to increase organic sales.  Both have or will have all these sites connected to their affiliate programs, but regardless, I don’t think it would be considered unethical or “questionable SEO” for them not too.

Ok let me have it - do you agree - disagree - or other?

Congrats to our 2nd place winner, Richard.

The 6 Biggest Affiliate Marketing Mistakes I’ve Made - And What You Can Learn From Them

I have been affiliate marketing in one way or another for several years now, mainly using minisites in combination with search engine optimization (SEO) in order to drive traffic.

Because of that time I’ve probably made just about every affiliate marketing mistake possible but looking back there are 6 “biggies” that I’ve made that i think could have made a sizeable difference to how quickly I started to see results and the speed at which those results grew.

Since I started to fix these problems i have seen my results increase substantially so I’d encourage you to read on, honestly compare the mistakes I’ve made over the years with how *you* market affiliate programs online right now and as a result hopefully make a few changes to your strategies that will lead to a significant boost in results for you.

Read More here:

http://uberaffiliate.com/affiliate-tips/affiliate-marketing-mistakes-2nd-place-ml-winner/

I have recently discovered that there are some who have an interesting definition of this word. A definition I do not agree with, so I thought, let’s open this up for discussion.

When googling the definition of poaching - you get this:

Definitions of poaching on the Web:

plus many more…..the one I am specifically referring to today in this discussion is- the practice of recruiting people from other companies by offering inducements.

When a firm resigns their relationship with a client, and that client contacts a competing firm, I do not see that the competing firm has poached anything. Am I wrong on this? What constitutes client poaching in your opinion?

OK let me have it - you can post here or email me your responses….

next post = the definition of questionable SEO tactics

An article worth reading if you feel that Yahoo is failing or a bad investment for your search dollars.  Danny Sullivan’s perspective, I couldn’t agree with more.

……………

As SS Yahoo appears to be sinking, let me be the contrarian about her future. I admit, I find it as hard to believe as anyone that Yahoo has much life left in it after all executive departures this week, plus the latest news of Delicious founder Joshua Schacter going. But since Yahoo’s leadership has done a piss-poor job making people believe there’s hope, I’ll step up and give it a swing.

Buck Up Little Yahoos!

First of all, WTF? Seriously, what the hell is going on? How did Yahoo become such a loser company in anyone’s mind other than the idiotic investors who usually don’t seem to know what they’ve bought. Let’s have a little reality check about that big fat failure Yahoo supposedly is: http://searchengineland.com/080620-094239.php

The Engraved Crystal Shoppe’s affiliate program is now officially launched live for public admittance! Much thought and care has gone into getting this program ready for affiliates. With the merchant being Billy Kay, you can rest assured that he has and will continue, to do everything in his power to ensure the Engraved Crystal Shoppe’s affiliate program is always ethical and parasite free.

You can join this program on SAS and by clicking here…

Program Highlights:
• 15% Commission on all referred sales
• Commission Incentives and bonuses - the more sales you make the more you earn!
• 180 day cookie duration
• 100% Parasite Free
• Dedicated Affiliate Program Management by Aunesty Janssen with Rolet Internet Services, Inc.
• Auto-Deposit
• Contests and Bonuses
• Custom Creatives Available by Request
• Product Datafeed
• Popshop.com integration

Join Now

Billy’s Pledge to affiliates:

1. To treat you with respect, courtesy and as an equal partner. To show that YOU are the reason the program exists.
2. To listen to you: comments, complaints, suggestions, compliments, special needs, whatever.
3. To have the best commissions, cookies and TOS we can make.
4. To not send numerous “We’ve changed our terms again/please log in and accept” emails.
5. To make the program as personal as possible. I’ve asked my OPM to maintain TWO mailing lists. One for people that want to be left alone. And one for people who want suggestions, tips, etc.
6. To maintain banners in all sizes and styles. To insure we always have Seasonal banners available, also in all sizes.
7. To insure the graphics in the datafeed maintain the same size, as a pet peeve of mine is merchants whose product images are all different sizes.
8. To always be parasite free and ethical.
9. I will stay out of the program personally. I don’t even want to know who my affiliates are. Rolet is charged with handling ALL affiliate matters, while I just concentrate on processing orders.
10. To recognize affiliates that go above and beyond with above and beyond commission rates.
11. To make ourselves available to our affiliates - whatever it takes.

Join the Engraved Crystal Shoppe’s affiliate program

1. You need a well written synopsis of your company, whether that is just your site, or a corporation. This will be used in various forms on a multitude of sites.

Details to include:

• Who Founded?
• When Founded?
• Why Founded?
• What makes your company special/different?
• Location
• Growth
• Future Plans
• Key Employees - their roles

2. Images that represent your company. These can be any mix of screen shots, to logos, to employees, to your store front. The more to choose from, the better

3. Account Setups:

a. Wikipedia

b. Twitter

c. Facebook Group Page – if relevant for your brand

1. Do you have a forum?

2. Are you a membership based site?

3. Is your consumable a product that brings people together? (i.e. concerts, wine tastings…)

d. MySpace Page – again if relevant to your brand

e. A Blog

f. All employees on LinkedIn

g. Ning Social Networking for your site – again if relevant only

h. Forums that are relevant to your brand or business type, if you can’t offer advice then you shouldn’t join – it is that simple, if there is a question about this, then DON’T join.

i. Plus a few of the many more social networking apps, i.e. dig, stumbleupon, youtube, flickr…

4. Be detailed on your profile pages, but be honest. Honest about who your company is and what it does. Give your profile pages some personality as well, after all there is a real person filling it out and posting to your account. Both Comcast and SouthWest Airlines Twitter representatives do an excellent job of being a voice for their company, but both do it with personality.
5. Put some time into developing your pages, do not just use the standard every day profile layout that comes with each of these apps. Build your CSS, and images to differentiate yourself and your brand.
6. Acquire friends and followers, I know it is not as easy as it sounds. Ways to do this:
   1. Your companies employees
   2. Personal friends on these different apps
   3. Employees friends
   4. Former co-workers and associates
   5. Vendors or business contacts
   6. Family members if need be
   7. If you have a membership based site, invite your members to communicate with you via these various apps
   8. Your customers, let them know it is a safe place to voice their opinions as well
   9. Geographic target, most of these apps allow for searching other users based upon location
   10. Related groups, look at their membership list and see who fits your users profile, invite them to join your group. Be VERY careful with this though, DO NOT spam people. None of us like getting spammy invitations.
   11. Tell others about these apps, through your newsletter, your website, twitter, on the various apps link to your other social apps.

Ok so now you have your groups, friends & followers, now I bet you are wondering what do I do to entertain them all? In what order? I am going to tell you how I do it, and if this doesn’t work for you, then develop your own system and routine.

New Blog Posts:

1. Post on your Blog
2. Twitter about your blog post – post a link
3. Add the first paragraph of your blog post to your MySpace and Facebook pages, link to your blog to read the rest.
4. Post a link to your blog post on your Ning Page Profile – again with some teaser content.
5. Add the title of the blog post and a few sentence synopsis to your wikipedia page

Forum Postings:

1. FIRST and foremost – NEVER spam a forum with your links – this is the golden rule
2. Spend some time each day, to start, with two to three forums, and read what others are asking and saying.
3. Make sure your personality will fit in with that community before you post
4. Remember most established forums have a hierarchy and if it is a good forum, they will have a “family” sense about them as well
5. Do not butt in and start giving advice immediately
6. Your first post should be an introduction of who you are
7. Establish yourself as someone who wants to participate – DO NOT go overboard with this, otherwise you WILL be seen as creepy
8. Answer questions and give advice where it is fitting, without being very self promoting
9. As you establish yourself as a part of the forums community, trust will be built and you will make “friends” who you will end up joining their social apps and vice versa

I think this is enough to keep you busy for at least a week as of right now, I will add Part two next week…How to interact with your friends and followers…

HalfPriceBanners.com – A custom vinyl banners online company, who runs their affiliate program through ShareASale.com is making a special offer to their affiliates. They are willing to pay up to $5,000 for the first position in Google on the keyterm “BANNERS”, and various amounts for position 2 through 5.

In order to qualify for this special payout:

1. You MUST be an affiliate of the HalfPriceBanners.com affiliate program
2. Aunesty Janssen, the Affiliate Program Manager, must be made aware of your site URL in order to track your daily search engine rankings

What we can offer you to help you earn this payout:

1. The code to integrate the Banner Builder into your site – thus allowing you to retain your traffic within your site up to checkout.
2. Logo’s and content support
3. Landing Page and Micro-site assistance

Payouts – Because the Search Engine’s algorithms changes daily, we will be monitoring rankings daily and payouts will be determined by number of days at paid positions. Below you will find the chart to determine the daily payout.

All transactions that occur within your site, WILL be commissionable through your affiliate ID on ShareASale.com – we can do this through numerous ways, each website owner who decides to try to earn this payout will need to contact me, Aunesty Janssen, to discuss the most effective way to track this within your site. I want to help you optimize your site, so anyone who is hesitant to place affiliate links on your site, we will help integrate custom tracking and manually post all your transactions within the SAS affiliate network so you get credited with all your sales as well as your rankings.

If you have any questions at all on this, do not hesitate to contact me, I am more than happy to provide you with all phone numbers and contact means. If you email me at Aunesty |at| Rolet |dot| com, I will immediately forward you ALL my contact information.

* This is purely for organic rankings in the US

World’s Largest Au Pair & Nanny Service Provides a Helping Hand to

Expectant Mother in North Carolina

Los Angeles, CA (May 21, 2008) – Even the best leaders need a little help when rallying the troops, especially if they all live under one roof!  Known for quickly stepping in when a family is in distress, GreatAupair.com, the world’s largest and most trusted online au pair and nanny agency is answering the call for help from expecting parents in the military.  In celebration of Mother’s Day, GreatAupair.com teamed up with Operation Shower – a non-profit organization that honors military families by producing baby showers for pregnant and expecting military personnel and their households – to surprise one lucky mother and her family with a free live-in nanny for two weeks, services valued at $1,000.

Surrounded by their returning military spouses, the winner was chosen from a group of expectant and new mothers at Fort Bragg Air Force Base over Mother’s Day weekend.  Although all the new moms were showered with gifts, only one mother, randomly chosen from an Operation Shower drawing received the invaluable services of GreatAupair.com

“We were stunned about the whole thing!” said Amanda Reynolds, winner of the GreatAupair.com services.  Reynolds is a military wife and mother of two toddlers who will be expecting her third child in late December when her husband is expected to be deployed.  “My husband and I were just thinking how great it would be to actually take a nap!  We’ve never had someone like a nanny help out with the kids and household chores, but with my husband away, I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

As with any appreciated family such as the Reynolds, GreatAupair.com takes great care in assessing a family’s needs and preferences and pairing them up with a compatible nanny or au pair with the necessary experience.  As a means of ensuring the success of its matches, GreatAupair.com provides criminal background checks, sex-offender reports, motor vehicles reports and reference checking services in more than 300 countries, so that families are informed as much as possible about who they hire to help with their children.

“We’re always delighted to hear that our nannies and au pairs have found the perfect match with their family of choice, making their households just a little less hectic.  When we heard what Operation Shower was doing, we felt it would be an honor to provide an extra pair of hands to at least one busy mom whose husband is helping to keep our country safe,” said Shannon Pitts, President of GreatAupair.com.  “Our comprehensive database includes thousands of well-trained care providers around the world, and our hope is that other families just like the ones celebrated at Operation Shower will find GreatAupair.com to be the very best resource for reliable and trustworthy care providers worldwide.”

As the Reynolds family anticipates the birth of their new arrival with dad on deployment, be sure to log onto www.greataupair.com to see how a household of four keeps it together with a little help from GreatAupair!  For more information on how to easily find an appropriate nanny or au pair in your area please visit www.greataupair.com.   To learn more about Operation Shower and the events provided to expectant families in the military, or to make a donation or sponsor a shower, visit www.operationshower.org.

About GreatAupair

Founded in 2001 by a family who often sought childcare and household support, GreatAupair.com was created to fill a much needed service that would enable families to find compatible and trustworthy nannies and/or au pairs via the Internet. Doubling in growth every year since its inception, GreatAupair.com is the world’s largest and most trusted online au pair and nanny agency serving more than 140 countries with upwards of 17,850 active au pairs and nannies worldwide.

About Operation Shower

Operation Shower is a non-profit organization (pending 501(c)(3) status) that recognizes and honors the sacrifices military families make by producing and coordinating baby showers for pregnant and expecting military personnel and their families. The organization believes every new life is a cause for celebration.

# # #

GreatAupair.com launched an affiliate program on the ShareASale.com affiliate network, utilizing the outsourced affiliate program management through Rolet Internet Services and Aunesty Janssen.

Gardnerville, NV – GreatAuPair.com - has launched its official affiliate program with Rolet Internet Services, Inc. managing the launch and continued management.   With a few competitors all ready utilizing the affiliate marketing space to grow their businesses, Great AuPair agreed it was time to enter the affiliate arena as well.

Great AuPair is the World’s largest and most trusted AuPair & Nanny Agency, serving an international audience and offering the ability to “showcase” your family with multiple picture albums.  The same picture sharing is available to AuPairs & Nannies who are looking for families.  To go even a step further, GreatAuPair.com offers the ability to conduct online interviews with potential families and AuPairs & Nannies.  The matching services that Great AuPair offers has lead to 166 pages of testimonials!  To read them, visit the Great AuPair website.

Aunesty Janssen has structured the GreatAuPair.com affiliate program to be extremely rewarding to all the affiliates who promote the membership programs.  With commissions starting at 15% and rising to 25%, with the performance incentive, affiliates have the opportunity to earn a substantial check each month. 

Some additional offerings of the Great AuPair affiliate program are:

•       90 day cookie tracking
•      100% parasite free
•     Dedicated Affiliate Program Management
•      Dedicated Affiliate Forum on ABestWeb.com
•      Auto-Deposit
•      Auto-Approve
•      Frequent Contests and Bonuses
•      Static and Flash Banners in multiple sizes

The GreatAuPair.com affiliate program is suited for websites that are geared towards families and women, as well as career or job search websites.  With offering commissions on families looking for AuPairs or Nannies and AuPairs or Nannies looking for families, the affiliate program has the ability to be utilized by many affiliates with diverse demographics.  Aunesty recommends that website owners whose audience is mainly comprised of college students, moms, women or families, should sign up with the GreatAuPair.com affiliate program.

To Join the GreatAuPair.com affiliate program, click here

To find out more information on the Great AuPair affiliate program, please visit http://www.GreatAuPair.com/affiliates.cfm

Now I love twitter for a number of reasons, but after receiving my Mahalo prizes in the mail yesterday, I love it more!

Thank you Mahalo!