Just kidding. Forget copywriting, backlinks, campaigns, design, CSS, XML, RSS and other 3-letter acronyms for the next minutes.

Let’s talk about being human and what it takes to be an affiliate marketer in real life.

I have a short one-week vacation so I’ve put together some tips for the lovely MoreNiche blog.

So here’s what you gotta do to be sure you can enjoy your high affiliate commissions for years and years to come.

• Avoid stress. Mental, physical and emotional. Plan and prepare for your activities in advance. Write stuff down. And I literally mean writing down with pen and paper, it’s easier to carry papers around and stick them on things than txt files.

Text files can easily be deleted and edited. It’s harder to do the same with written notes and that is, mainly, a good thing.

• Backup your virtual assets and practice preventive maintenance on your car and household applicances.

• Simplify and automate. Make your online work and your life easier by turning to automation. Don’t fall in love too much with your first commissions. Affiliate marketing is a longterm investment. And remember, what can’t be automated can be outsourced.

• Take care of your eyes. Follow the 20/20/20 rule. For every 20 minutes you keep your eyes on the computer monitor look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Keep contrast to medium-low values and set dark/grey backgrounds from your desktop and your windows.

Adjust your monitor in such a way that you will look down on it rather than up. This will prevent neck and upper back pain and will also keep your eyes lubricated because you will blink more.

• Get in shape. Start doing some serious physical exercise (jogging, martial arts or going to the gym). And read my weight loss blog for tips and inspiration. ‘Nuff said.

Make a habit of making simple exercises when your back or wrists get sore. The carpal tunnel a is passageway in the wrist through which nerves of the hands pass. Frequent use of the mouse can cause thickening of the ligaments can cause carpal tunnel syndome which is described by numbness, tingling and pain in the hands and wrists. Massage your hands and wrists from time to time and try some simple exercises.

• Improve your posture by strenghtening your back muscles. Sitting too much in front of the computer usually causes your shoulders to become rounded and fall forward and your upper back protruding. It’s time you become self-aware of your posture. Try doing this right now: keep your back straight, suck your abdominal muscles in and pull your chin towards your chest. Inhale slowly using your belly. See how good that feels?

• Spice up your emotional life. Make love and friends. Take time to play and listen to new music. Strong emotions increases your quality of life.

• Boost your brain power. Scientists have proven that eating the right kind of stuff will increase your brain power, beside making you healthy.

I always munch on chocolate chip cookies while working on my sites. Why? Carbohydrates are pure brain fuel.

Inspiration and work power are not some mystical forces, fellow marketer!

Your left brain hemisphere is responsible for rational thoughts, language, reason etc. It even keeps your right brain hemisphere in check. But if you want to connect two apparently unrelated things you don’t want rational part to limiting your ideas.

• Don’t waste your time with irrelevant articles and sites. Subscribe to 3 extremely awesome blogs and stay active in no more than 2 forums.

When in doubt, don’t forget: few issues remain unsolved after a burger and a beer.

To your success,
Cha.

This is part four of the “Q & A”, initially called “MoreNiche history”. I changed it’s name because I got a little carried away with the questions and I realized this text had nothing to do with the history of MoreNiche anymore.

Recession, depression and online casinos getting banned in the US. The business world occasionally gets a little bloodbath. In this week’s “Q & A” we explore how MoreNiche keeps afloat when the recession tide is high, the MoreNiche business model and further investigate the MoreNiche promise.

Most affiliate programs are pretending the economy is flawless and I’m not getting any updates or news. And why should they start worrying about losing their affiliates? They’re selling absolute essentials—like giant flasks, miniature robots and the occasional designer sex toy. Let’s find out what MoreNiche has to say to that.

Mircea: How is MoreNiche coping with the recession?

Andy: There is no doubt that sales are down (about 30% over this time 2 months ago) however this is across all online business, unlike some networks who are standing still or not embracing the extra marketing opportunities which a recession can bring, MoreNiche are making a real effort to try and educate our affiliate on how they can make EXTRA sales during this time not less.

“During a recession we will hopefully start to struggle!” Wow, what the hell are you talking about I hear you scream!!

The more we struggle the more competitors will be going out of business completely, leaving the market wide open for the stronger guys, your PPC bids will become lower and it will be easier to rank and advertise, people will be snapping at your feet to sell you cheap advertising, this can only be good for people who have built up their war chest.

M: Can you be more specific?

A: You will have already noticed the SizeGenetics and Proactol credit crunch landing pages and customer discounts, you will notice more blog/newsletter and forum posts talking about how to marketing during hard times. All of these tips are being deployed by our staff and its important if affiliates want to succeed during this time they update their sites also.

Clare updated the index page to include more exposure to the recession and by split testing has saw 18 more sales from the new page in just over a week, this is over $3,000 extra commission paid!! It’s time to get to work and make sure you do not suffer from negative sales over this period.

However the long it takes to get through the recession, the more solid companies which will be left and the less fly by night companies will be left…

… Alternatively we will continue to innovate and see an increase in sales volumes, which is what we are expecting.

M: Why is the MoreNiche approach to affiliate marketing better than the traditional business model? Do you think the general public gives more credibility to small affiliate sites than to big company sites?

A: The answer to this question is simple; with MoreNiche we can build a brand very quickly, at the time of writing this article we have around 40,000 affiliates in our program.
You could say the same with all affiliate programs, but you would be wrong. The number of affiliates is actually quite irrelevant, the number which is important is the number of people who pick up the campaign and actually run with it.

MoreNiche works very hard to ensure affiliates have all the resources and information they need to dump right into the market, resulting in a higher pickup rate and faster returns.
With such a dedicated and well support affiliate team we can very quickly take a product to market and built a brand, we saw this with Proactol. Within the first months of being introduced we had hundreds of thousands of pages in Google talking about the product, this is not possible with a traditional marketing model.

M: What is your opinion on super affiliates? Have you ever personally met one?

A: Super affiliates are rare to come by, we have been in the affiliate marketing game for over 5 years now and only have one real super affiliate on our books. We are looking to have a great relationship with ALL our affiliates regardless of their sales volume or track history, with this said we have met our super affiliate a number of times just like we have others.

I had lunch with two beginner affiliates last time I was in Bulgaria, it is really interesting to get feedback from all types of affiliates and we really do think this is what makes MoreNiche unique. MoreNiche is a network for anyone, experienced market or total beginner we try and treat everybody the same and ensure you have the resources and content you need to make money online.

Some of our best affiliates are from “high risk” countries, often most affiliates programs just reject these applications, yes this does often lead to more post-affiliate management and support, however this is why we believe MoreNiche is different.

M: How do you see MoreNiche 1, 2 and 5 years from now? Dare to name some numbers! Affiliates, products, number of staff?

A: MoreNiche is building a network for the future, laying solid foundation now so we can grow quickly and safely over the next 5 years.
We are investing very heavily in our software platform, current clients and new merchant equations. I believe that in year 1 we will see a lot of consolidation internally, adding a number of key products with dedicated account managers and increasing the number of affiliates as we go. I would expect by December 2009 we will have at least 60,000 affiliates in the network.

As we enter 2010 I believe you will see a managed explosion within the network, growing the number of products, staff and affiliates quickly, in a controlled way. We will have solid processors in place, allowing us to continue offering a premium product range, premium affiliate software and premium support, this for a larger number of products and affiliates.

Well with this being said, I have to admit it’s a no brainer that in 5 years MoreNiche will be a household name within the affiliate marketing world. I’m sure MoreNiche will be competing with the big networks (not on number of merchants but money earned through the network). MoreNiche already is and will continue shaping the future of affiliate marketing. Dedicate more of your time to MoreNiche and book yourself a place in the avangarde of the affiliate marketing world of the future!

In the second half of 2005 MoreNiche started the rebranding process, at the time MoreNiche and the internal products where within an old limited company (Total WebWorks LTD).

Andy and Darren decided Total WebWorks was the not the right brand name to take us forward as a company, they felt better brand recognition would help from a company point of view for example recruitment and from a customer support standpoint.

In the following two years (2005-2007) MoreNiche experienced a massive growth and the affiliates could notice this because of repetead purchases and refund and chargeback rates were down.

Mircea: What was the outcome of this massive growth and how did the internal infrastructure company infrastructure change?

Andy: Due to this success and the growing nature of our company we have since gone through a hive down process which has meant all of our entities are now sitting in their own companies.

MoreNiche for example was a trading name of Lativio LLP but is now fully owned by MoreNiche LTD. This hive down means each part of the business can be run as its own profit centre, this allows us to make better management decisions and also push the business individually.

M: What does Lativio LLP consist of today?

• MoreNiche LTD – Little explanation needed, MoreNiche.com, network software and affiliate base consist of the main assets within this company.
• Permenda LTD – This houses all of our PE products including SizeGenetics, PenisHealth and UltimateStretcher. Clare has recently taken on the challenge of marketing this company and increasing sales.
• Proactol LTD – The company Katie managers, marketing Proactol.com. Watch this space possible new weight loss opportunities coming soon.
• Slimming.com LTD – Currently under development but will become a large asset for the company and the affiliate network.
• Incubationor LTD – This houses all of our development projects, Darren spends a lot of his time here and this also houses LoveCentria.
• Soula LTD – Our web design and new media company, mainly targeting big corporate clients but also develop all of our group’s sites.
• Claritie – Our customer support team, also taking on more clients in order to expand and improve their service, these guys do a really amazing job.
• Sheerion LLP – This Company manages the gaming side of our business, including WassOnline, WassPoker and the casino promotions.

M: While doing some keyword research I found out that words like “Sizegenetics”, “Proactol” and “MoreNiche” get good searches monthly. How do you think these brands got so popular?

A: Brands do take both time and resource to develop, you can speed up the development of a brand by spending more money but ultimately it is a lengthy process, MoreNiche has been around for many years along with SizeGenetics and now Proactol.

By looking at long term goals and setting solid standards we ensure a long term brand awareness, we ensure that the websites convert and are updated regularly, this gives affiliates regular content and continue to push the brand.

MoreNiche likes to offer the highest payouts per product, this does not always mean the highest commissions but as our products convert well your traffic will make more money with MoreNiche than other networks. Ensuring high payouts and a solid history for paying this enables affiliates to market the products successfully.

With over 40,000 affiliates we can very quickly build up the brand of a product online, overnight we can take a new product and get thousands of links in Google, this is just not possible with any other form of advertising.

Sticking to our core values of advertising products that work and great customer service also means we have repeat purchases and good customer feedback which is also important online.

M: How do you think the MoreNiche affiliates can benefit from the popularity of these MoreNiche products?

A: The massive benefit with any product which has a strong brand is that people will like you quite rightly pointed out search for that brand, affiliate promoting products with strong brands have a higher chance of getting customers looking on their sites than products with low search volumes.

As an affiliate it is important that when people get into the buying stage of their research that your site recommends and promotes the product that they have concluded is the best, if you’re promoting something else it could confuse the consumer and set back their buying lifecycle.

It is important that all affiliates and the merchant sites are consistent in their marketing and suggestions, it is critical that people are suggesting Proactol for example as the best product in the marketing from the first moment the consumers start their search.

M: So, should we, as affiliates, just start targetting specific product keywords and still expect sales?

A: This is a very good question; a customer life includes 3 main stages, generic searching (weight loss), more specific searching (weight loss pill) and then brand searching (Proactol).

Due to the funnel effect of this searching the majority of the traffic is within the generic searching, if you manage to get a site listed well for generic keywords you will get a much higher level of traffic than you would for product only keywords. Targeting generic keywords is very competitive and difficult to rank for, most of the large authority sites are ranked well for these golden keywords.

Most affiliates will find most success targeting more specific keywords (longer tail keywords) for example ‘weight loss pills’ or ‘buy weight loss pills’, the volume for these keywords is less, however much higher than the product specific keywords.

I would not suggest people just target product only keywords as you miss out of the majority of the traffic, I also suggest people do all of the above to get the best results.

M: This year (2008) we’ve seen a lot of change in MoreNiche. The interface, tracking and design have all changed. What are your plans for the near future regarding this?

A: We have a very large list of new features to develop in the near future, a few examples are: Affiliate Rank Improvements (a more fun way of seeing how many more sales you need to “level up”), better connectivity between the forum & affiliates area (Only login once and access both), improved lead tracking, improved reporting and improving our hosted banner solution.

In regards to new merchants we have seen Aloeride come on board, a great addition to the current product range, and we can see an authority brand shaping. The ‘Aloe Vera’ market is a small niche online but the product is by far the best.

Moving forward it is our job to add merchants in an educated way; vetting merchants and doing solid market research is essential before accepting a merchant. I have recently done in-depth research on a potential new niche which looks very exciting for the program, watch this space!

We will continue to develop the weight loss niche and I am looking to add more weight loss products in the next quarter, each new product/niche that is adding will have a dedicated account manager either employed via MoreNiche or the product company, spending 100% of their time working for the network in marketing the product/niche.

There you have it! That’s the MoreNiche promise. All these reasons and tools available for you to just start promoting and keep going. Stay tuned for part IV which will be idealistic and down to Earth, at the same time.

And I have no idea how many parts the MoreNiche history will have; truth is, I like torturing Andy with questions! *evil laugh*

Got questions about MoreNiche yourself? Post below!

After finding out how it all got started, it’s time to dig a little deeper to see how MoreNiche came to be what it is today.

In April 2006 MensNiche became MoreNiche as it started to branch out into non-men’s related products. MensNiche had a strong reputation in the adult marketing world but MoreNiche was destined to become… well, more! A brand which could also market in the mainstream arena.

It was time for high commissions and flawless support to become more than affiliate program features, they were becoming company values.

Mircea: MensNiche branched into MoreNiche and WorldNiche. Why did this fork happen?

Andy: Darren and I have been working together all our lives but over the past 5 years we have both been pushing the same company forward. Darren is now focusing on his passion which is product development he is also pushing other areas of the business from accounting through project management to customer support, leaving me to fully concentrate on running MoreNiche.

In 2006 myself and Darren decided that the future of MoreNiche was moving mainstream, we learnt a lot from the adult market and back in 2001 this was one of the most profitable online, we felt if we were to protect the future of our affiliates and ensure the expandable future we see for MoreNiche something had to give.

M: What was going on “behind the curtain” when WorldNiche was born? Is WorldNiche managed by MoreNiche or is it a separate entity?

A: We masterminded a deal with the joint market leader (at the time both MN & LEC controlled pretty much controlled the whole PE market), the owner of LEC, a multi-million dollar deal was agrred over the space of 3 months, meetings were held in both the UK and Canada and in November 2006 the agreement was signed.

WorldNiche opened its doors on 8th November 2006 (incidentally this is my birthday, a very nice present I must say). Our affiliate linking codes where automatically updated so absolutely ZERO affiliate commissions were lost with the switch. This deal was kept relatively quiet; we did not want to create concern for affiliates which was not needed.

The owners of LEC have become close business friends and now run LEC, WorldNiche and a number of other affiliate related businesses. This fork allowed MoreNiche to concentrate on what was important for us at the time, building a long term asset which will service affiliates for years to come.

M: What were your principles and aims back then and how have they changed now?

A: We have a lot of the same values today that we created in 2001, we offer high commissions products which convert well, fantastic affiliate support and a program that pays on time, every time. One concern when working with a smaller network, “will I get paid?”

By ensuring our payouts work like clockwork, it takes one less issue away from the affiliate allowing them to concentrate on what matters, generating traffic and sales.

Although we have the same values as a network today MoreNiche are a much more professional company, we have nicer offices, solidified processors, a strong team and years of experience to fall back on, we have grown well but our core values will never change and are the same as in 2001.

M: So, if you decided go to mainstream why did you keep products like SizeGenetics and PenisHealth?

A: This is a good question, we knew that it would be very difficult to convince the mainstream world that a “male enhancement pill” would work, and we felt that this could have a detrimental effect on the business relationships we could build moving forward.

Currently we do have clinically proven PE methods like the device within the program; they do have the medical backing which proves they work. The reason they are still in the program is for this reason only.

If in the future these products do influence mainstream decision making, it is possible that we change this in some way, however only time will tell. One thing is for sure we would not want to completely remove these products from the network.

M: Tell us a bit about the MoreNiche head quarters.

A: We have office space in Nottingham (UK) and Sofia (Bulgaria) with Sandis working remotely from Riga (Latvia). Myself and Paul are the only people who work full time for MoreNiche from the UK office, I am responsible for overseeing the full day to day operation of the company, my main focus is to ensure both myself and the team are meeting pre-set targets, resulting in the network is progressing well.

MoreNiche has a relatively low number of staff on its payroll, this helps keep costs low and allows for better development of software, affiliates bonuses and investment within the network.

M: Where were you previously operating from and when did you move at your current whereabouts?

A: It’s hard to believe but MoreNiche have only ever had 2 offices (well 3 if you count working from home). In 2003 we moved into a small office “lean valley house”, it could comfortably fit 4 people which was convenient as this is all we had at the time.

The office was very old and not the most enjoyable working environment, as we grew, we knocked down walls, joining other offices within the building to make it larger and accommodate more people. In 2006 we had 9 people in our small office and it was time to move. We purchased a brand new office within a new business park about 2 miles away from our old office.

Two years later, we are in our new office and it’s still standing up to the growth we have sustained, we are pretty much up to capacity with over 30 people operating from our offices.

Looking forward it will not be long before we need to purchase additional office space, this will either be a much bigger office to ensure we are fixed for the next 5 years or we may choose to split up some of our business entities, time will tell.

M: Who can we find at the MoreNiche HQ?

A: Paul is currently our only full time Brand Portfolio Manager employed by MoreNiche; he is currently managing the Property Mentor project which takes up all of his time, Paul is very experienced with affiliate marketing and MoreNiche working on nearly every product in the program at one time or another.

Darren still has a big part to play in MoreNiche, working behind the scenes we work very closely together ensuring the network is progressing well, we are very passionate people and even at 1am in the morning after a few bottles of wine will we be putting the world to right. It’s a fantastic feeling to have someone you can talk to with a similar level of experience and beliefs.

M: Who are the brand portfolio managers?

A: Katie (Proactol), Clare (Permenda), Dave/Xan (Wass) and many more. Often a company want to be a part of our affiliate network but do not have the resource to allocate a dedicated person to MoreNiche; this person could be hired by MoreNiche like Paul or the merchant themselves.

If we are really excited by the product/niche or they form part of our group, we may make exceptions, Katie marketing Proactol through MoreNiche has done an outstanding job, Katie is passionate, organised and see’s the job through. It is some of Katies one-on-one affiliates who can be found in our top1 today. We are really looking to see these products grow and with dedicated brand portfolio managers we have some exciting propositions.

M: What about Sandis? He gets praised a lot on the forums and all the newbies seem to be most familiar with him.

A: Sandis Viksna is our Affiliate Development Director working remotely from Riga; Sandis has a wealth of experience and was actually one of MoreNiche’s top affiliate before being offered a full time job. Sandis’s job is to develop the affiliate base, supporting affiliates and helping generate more sales, all of the affiliate’s e-books and the newbie guide is thanks to Sandis.

M: And finally, what is the MoreNiche development team doing in Bulgaria?

A: The main reason is when we purchased the source code to our very old affiliate software (yes in MensNiche days we used to rent it, and then purchased the code out right) was written by Bulgarian developers.

Once we had the source code we then hired a team of developers (about 3 years ago) to work on the code, as the old code was commented in Bulgarian and we took one of the software vendors developers it made sense to have developers in Bulgaria.

At the time it was also very cost effective. The team is very different today but we still have one of the oldest developers in our team, we have 1 x Manager/Lead Developer with 8+ years experience, 3 x Programmers, 1 x Project Manager, 1 x QA and a secretary all working hard to help the company and software run smoothly and add new features.

I am very happy to report the team are fantastic and over the last 6 months we have made fantastic progress, this is thanks to all the hard work of the team.

And we, as affiliates, we see deadlines and goals being set and met. MoreNiche is a nice example of great management. Tune in to the blog, next week, for the third part of the MoreNiche history. Andy will further describe the MoreNiche online infrastructure and outline the future of the MoreNiche brand. Until then, keep selling confidently as you can always be sure you’ll get your check on time!

I was reading around the forum and found a thread in which Andy was having a very introspective moment and asking himself “Why am I a muppet?”. Then he went on to explain how he lost a flight to Bulgaria, where he was supposed to catch up with the MoreNiche development team, because he forget his passport at home.

Hold it, just a minute there! Who’s Andy? What’s he doing at MoreNiche? And what’s the MoreNiche development team doing in Bulgaria?

I have no friggin’ idea myself! Ok, ok, I do. But I didn’t a few days ago. Luckily for me (and you), Andy was kind enough to answer those questions. And a bunch more I threw at him.

Read on to find out how MoreNiche survived the ice age!

Mircea: Hello, Andy. Thank you for accepting to take this interview. Everybody loves a good story. Let’s get started! Tell me a bit about yourself and your background.

Andy: Thank you, too, for the opportunity to present some insights into the company behind the screen, the people, the future and our values.

I was born in November 1982 into a working class family in the midlands (UK), my childhood was pretty standard for that era, I loved playing football (soccer), computer games and hanging out with friends. We did not have a lot of money but my parents did a great job of hiding this from us (myself and my younger brother).

My father has always been involved in computers in one way or another, he started repairing computers (if you can call a spectrum that) in the early 80’s, dabbled in a little game development and now is a network engineer for the university of Nottingham.

We always had computers in one form or another while growing up, I remember the first time we had the internet when it was first publicly available, it was very limited back then, we could check our mail, become a member of discussion groups and maybe check the weather.

Nowadays it’s all mobile technology; I use a powerful HP business laptop and a dual Sim mobile phone which allows me to take personal and business calls from one handset.

M: How did you meet Darren?

A: Myself and Darren have been best friend for over 20 years, we grew up together. Before either of us were even aware of the internet we would sit up all night drawing comic books and selling them around the neighborhood, it is fair to say we always wanted to be selling something to someone.

At the age of 7 we had the same “work hard, play hard” attitude we have today, we would often stay up all night playing football manager games or trying to destroy one another at settlers, when championship manager was invented I don’t think our parents saw us for months.

M: So, how did you two get started on the affiliate marketing path?

A: Darren Beale (founder of MensNiche.com) started making money from affiliate marketing before me, the tradition is he was working at KFC working long hours for very little pay (he was only 16 at the time). It was getting close to Christmas and he needed to find extra money to buy his girlfriend the perfect present.

Darren started researching ways to make extra money online and came across eBay marketing and banner impressions, back then people would pay you every time somebody clicked on your banner. All Darren had to do was get people to his websites.

Trying lots of different things, some worked and some did not, he over time Darren managed to get hundreds of thousands of visitors to click on his banners and this is what started his online marketing career. Not only did that shape his future but his first check for over $1000 arrived in time for Christmas.

M: I’m figuring Darren’s success pushed your buttons, too.

A: Ofcourse! After seeing the success Darren had made through online marketing it did not take me long to realise there is money to be made here, I made a number of different websites but the first one that made me real money was PenisEnlargementDirector.com.

PenisEnlargementDirector.com was a directory site of male enhancement products, this site quickly earned me over $2,000 every pay period through other affiliate programs and then later MensNiche. I sold this in September 2003 for $13,000 while I was at University; I think this is when I first got the online marketing buzz.

M: Why did you choose male enhancement?

A: When looking for an product to market there are two key factors to take into account: (a) are there people looking for that product/service? (b) how saturated is the market?
These are the same two key questions we need answering before entering any new marketplace today, over 6 years ago when we started in the male enhancement niche it was very underdeveloped.

There were no pills sites and the main solution was the online exercise program, these where very poor and often had very little information to keep members interested. It is safe to say this was a perfect market to attack, it had many people looking for solutions and no clear product/service.

M: How has market changed in the last years?

A: As with many niches, when there is demand, competition comes, in the early days many new products and affiliate programs popped up. The stronger products and companies rose to the top and started to dominate the market place.

Smaller programs and products dropped off, over the last two years I believe the market has been pretty stagnant, we have some clear market leaders but nobody snapping at their heals to force them to improve and innovate.

Today it is a harder market to enter, however sales can still be made, with the internet changing daily, new technology being born, unless the top boys continue to innovate they will lose marketing share to tomorrows super affiliates.

M: Basically, MensNiche was a natural step forward in your experience, right?

A: Right. Darren went on to promote many other affiliate programs and started to earn some serious income, the one thing he noticed and something we still notice is the serious lack of support affiliate programs give newbie’s. They throw you into a reporting system which very basic stats and 10 banners, then expect you to make sales.

Darren Beale registered the domain (mensniche.com) on 23rd February 2001 and the program was opened to the public on 25th may 2002, the vision was clear and still forms a big part of our vision today, offer high commissions on products which convert and the best possible support we can.

M: The affiliate marketing world was surely different back then. Were you “looking up” to any other affiliate program when you started MensNiche?

A: This is a very good question, the main reason Darren started MensNiche initially was due to the poor programs that were available, keep in mind affiliate programs like AffiliateWindow (2000) Commission Junction (2000) and TradeDoubler (1999) were still very young, it is safe to say the market was very new.

We looked at the competition and made sure we where better, this is something we still do and are always ensuring we offer one of the best affiliate programs around. I have still not found another affiliate program that offers the same level of support to affiliate which we do; we really do care about the affiliates needs and do everything possible to cater for them.

Stay tuned for PART TWO to find out how MensNiche became MoreNiche, where and why MoreNiche operates and why is the development team in Bulgaria!

There’s a lot of science involved in affiliate marketing and this translates into predicting the things which are (falsely) accepted as unpredictable about your visitors and your buyers.

In a nutshell, my post is about keeping up with the Paris Fashion Week of affiliate marketing, it’s the butterfly effect theory of selling online.

I do a lot of research. I don’t know exactly why, but curiosity motivates me a lot. Perhaps because of my young age, my schooling or simply my character.

I found some great online market research reports on Pewinternet.Org and I wrote the most relevant things down. Here they are:

• Most internet users start at a search engine when looking for health information online.
• When it comes to looking for information about exercise, fitness and vaccinations, 80% of adult Internet users, or almost half of Americans over the age of 18 (about 93 million), say they have researched at least one of those specific health topics at some point. 30% of email users have sent or received health-related email. Women, better-educated, and more experienced Internet users are more likely to search for health information and exchange health-related email.
• Just half of adults with chronic conditions use the internet; but once online, they are avid consumers of health information.
• One in four Americans (26%) has used the internet to look for information about prescription drugs. Just 4% of Americans have ever purchased prescription drugs on the internet.
• Fully 58% of those who found the internet to be crucial or important during a loved one’s recent health crisis say the single most important source of information was something they found online.

Other interesting data I found, came from The Bureau of Labor Statistics. I’m sure this will have a huge impact on the way we promote and market our affiliate products. They report that households headed by people 55 to 64 increased their total spending at almost twice the rate of all households (60% vs 32%) in the most recent five-year survey period.

The US population is getting old, and it’s predicted that in the next five years this will add more than 1 million consumers per year to the 65+ age segment. Now, these customers tend to look for long term benefits, guarantees and safety. You need to give your best in your website’s design, accessibility and your content needs to be flawless because elderly minds are hard to change.

Ofcourse, there’s a lot of valuable information you can benefit by doing your own little thing when it comes to market research. There are so many tools available to help you this. To name a few, Google Analytics, Google Trends, Youtube Insight and others.

You can use Google Analytics to discover things like customer country, revisits, time on site. With Google Trends you can predict traffic increases or declines. Let’s take, for example, the trend for “aloe vera”. Looks pretty constant, there are no major rises or declines in traffic during different periods of previous years. Ofcourse, you can’t expect your summer campaigns to work in winter, but you get the idea.

Youtube also has a useful tool which I recently discovered. Youtube Insight shows, among other things, a gender diagram and age percentage of the users who watch your videos. On your left are my stats for a channel where I uploaded 5 aloe vera related videos. This kind of information shed a lot of light on the kind of prospects I’m targeting with my videos. It made me discover my ideal customer.

In my research, I found a recent post on Remarkable Communication which made me visualize how my ideal customer looks like and how to find him/her.

If you have something to sell to that demographic, you need to be thinking about Cynthia (who hates to be called Cindy), who’s 33 and a little bored at work, has a four-year-old named Ben and a six-year-old named Ruby, reads Parenting even though it makes her feel guilty and her mom got her a subscription to Redbook but all she reads are the dessert recipes and articles about dieting, and yes she knows that makes no sense but she does it anyway, and yeah she has a MasterCard, because she got mad at the bank that issued her Visa so she cut it up.

That’s a great example of how specific you need to be about your customers. Ofcourse, there are other types of customers showing up on your pages, not only ideal ones, but don’t bother too much with trying to keep them happy because you risk upsetting your ideal ones. Keep your content focused and remember the age-old saying: “You can’t make everybody happy!”

Get out of your shell and start reading news, blogs, statistics, watching trends and subscribing to feeds!

P.S.: For more similar information, be sure to check Craig’s latest post here on the blog, called Geotargeting and SEO.

This blog post has been submitted on behalf of TonyJ.

TonyJ is a full time affiliate marketer and one of our Top 10 affiliates, he often frequents the MoreNiche Forum and has already subscribed to attend the MoreNiche Gathering in December 2008.

Please find below his blog post in regards to a recent visit to our offices in Nottingham.

Affiliate Marketer Proves Existence Of Affiliate Company

Wake up, do some web stuff, have dinner, watch a bit of TV then go to bed. That’s pretty much my working week as a full time affiliate marketer. It does sound rather boring but then again it is not so different to everybody else’s working week, aside from the web stuff. The major difference being is that I choose do it and love doing it. Affiliate marketing gives me the power to work for whoever I want to whenever I want to.

Right now, I choose to work for MoreNiche and tomorrow I will play golf.

Three years ago affiliate marketing didn’t exist as far as I was concerned. PHP, Blogging, SEO and Semantic Latent Indexing were not subjects that were particularly close to my heart. Fast forward three years and I’m sitting in front of one the directors of one of the most dynamic affiliate companies in the industry discussing web marketing – but still not fully understanding Semantic Latent Indexing.

This discussion materialised largely thanks to Team MN inviting me to their Nottingham HQ to meet the people behind the usernames. Firstly, just to dispel any myths; Katie, Andy, Paul and Darren et al do exist and they all look like their pictures on the forum. The one noticeable absentee was Sandis – rumour has it he was in Switzerland at the time of my visit trying to attain affiliate rights for some particle accelerator or something.

I don’t know why I drew attention to doubt as to the existence of the MN team, probably due to my initial perception of the whole affiliate market scene, when I was certain the whole industry was based around fraud and deception and run by scam artists.

During the three hour drive from London I was wondering what kind of premises I would be arriving at and hoping it would not be a scabby warehouse in the back of beyond.

As I pulled into the car park I was more than relieved to find – a bricks and mortar normal office unit in proper business park with MoreNiche/Lativio signage. It took me back to three years ago when I used to visit clients in similar premises in my role as an IT consultant.

Katie met me in reception and we had a quick tour of the office. Two floors with an accounts department, a support department, a sales department, plasma screens in the board room – everything you would expect to find in a real business premises. I don’t know why I am still emphasising this point.

If I had known then, what I know now, I wouldn’t have turned up in jeans.

After lunch I plugged my laptop in to the network and did a quick stats check. It was quite surreal listening to the sales support team answering questions from customers about the various MN products – and yes they do ask for affiliate codes on phone orders.

The day whizzed by and I was treated to dinner at a swanky restaurant. Then back to my hotel.

The next morning I was back at the MN office for another couple of meetings. Then drove back to London around lunchtime.

Sometimes, life on the web can seem very isolated and detached from the real world. Affiliate marketing isn’t recognized as a proper profession in the main. MoreNiche make me feel as though I am part of a team and part of a real industry.

If I hadn’t have discovered MoreNiche I most likely would still be commuting every day and asking the boss for a day off to play golf.

If you ever get a chance to meet the MN team, accept, and be sure to ask Paul about the injury he sustained while demonstrating a SizeGenetics device.

TonyJ

You’ve heard all the myths and the legends, met all the gurus and their followers. Finally, the time has come for you, young seeker, to get out of the dark ages of affiliate marketing and discover the greatest antidote for uncertainty and superstition – science!

Perhaps you’re wondering who the man on the left is. He was a Soviet psychologist and psychiatrist. Keep on reading to find out what he can teach you.

Scientists from a wide variety of fields can teach us a wide variety of new things. Science finds no relevance in lengthy introductions, so, without further ado, let’s get directly into it!

We can learn from biologists that homo sapiens have evolved as social creatures. They want to be reassured that there are other people, just like them, facing the same problem, which have chosen your solution.

People don’t want products, they want benefits and want to know they belong. They don’t want to just to lose weight or make money, they want to join the slim people club or the money makers elite.

Psychologists can teach us that you have about seven words and three seconds to get your visitors attention or the ballgame’s over! There are only two things that motivate people to action. Those two are fear of loss and promise of gain.

You can get a visitor’s attention by encouraging his/her brain to make quick connections. Ask a question, start your sentences with an action word and make your visitor immediately understand your offer. Use short words with deep meanings: now, you, feel, add, go, take, win, find, do.

As I explained in my post about online patterns, the human mind is simply more accustomed to some things than to other. Some things work again and again. Here are some examples of headlines:

• The secret of selling,
• Do you make these mistakes when going on vacation?,
• When doctors get sunburn they use Aloeride,
• How I improved my online income by promoting the MoreNiche 2nd tier.

Anthropologists instruct us on actions which, simply put, have a lot of meaning for the person involved but at the same time don’t involve purchasing or producing anything. To name a few relevant ones for us: reading, writing, gardening, going window shopping, doing sports, teaching, having an argument, playing games, looking at old photos.

Engineering can hint you on your website’s scalability. Will your site attract shoppers if it would suddenly become scaled up to a real life store proportions? Are your colors good enough? Does it have products visitors can compare and choose the best?

I’m sure they prefer coming to the conclusion that one product is better than the other than you spoon-feeding them the “right” product. Why would you want to think shoppers choose products differently when they are online?

Writers mentor us into writing clear and convincing. Ernest Hemingway wrote with simple genius by writing short sentences, splitting them up in aerated paragraphs, using vigorous English and sticking to positive words.

Mark Twain on the other hand, achieved excellency by being original and utterly sincere in a simple, straightforward style.

The wisdom of the philosophers points to us that everything is relative. You have to compare your products to something. Ideal it would be to compare them to other products from the same market (duh!). That’s why product review sites convert so well.

Humans have difficulty thinking in absolute terms. You have to review, compare and twist your product inside out if you want your visitor to see it the way you do. A is greater than B, and B is greater than C. Thus A is the best. Simple as that.

And, last but not least, artists teach us that people are animated by emotions. You have to be creative and original. And you’re alone in figuring out this one. If you copy an original idea, it’s not original anymore. Be passionate about what you do!

That’s about it! I hope this post earns me my PhD in Affiliate Studies.

P.S.: The man at the beginning of the blog post is Bluma Zeigarnik. He discovered the mental phenomenon (which caries his name) which states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones.

I’m sure the question stayed in the back of your mind throughout this post and I’m sure you’ll remember who Zeigarnik is from now on. And don’t forget to use it in your sales copy, because that’s my whole point.

But finally I stuck with “How to make a living with affiliate marketing” because I want to make sure this post reaches as many people as possible. Including those who haven’t started their business yet.

So I’m thinking if they haven’t started yet perhaps they don’t care about practical time and motivation management tips. Since they don’t have an internet business… yet.

“Wait, does that mean if I have website I have a business?!” YES! And start getting used to the idea!

Remember the first step’s always the hardest. And that first step starts from the right mindset. No, I’m not going to give another speech on keeping yourself motivated. No techniques of motivation and productivity made me want to work harder than my first sale. Money motivates me. Anyways, I also use Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity secret.

I bet that the main reason most affiliates fail is because they don’t discipline themselves to follow a work routine as they would if they were employed in a serious corporation.

Affiliate marketing involves a lot of work especially when you are still starting to build your business.

You have to set hours of working everyday. This way you will feel more awake and productive during those hours. There’s so much opportunity out there some people become overwhelmed by all the possibilities.

There are many distractions that can occur at home but you must constantly organize to avoid them. Have the necessary tools on your desk. Computer, printer, post-its, pen and paper for taking notes, music you like, phone.

Set specific goals and write them down somewhere to see them, or in a Notepad file on your desktop. “Get one 2nd tier webmaster to start selling”, “Make 100 posts on the MoreNiche forum to get a MN wallet”, “Write 5 articles every week”, “Make one Aloeride sale with the new video” etc. Group them in short, medium and long-term goals. Be as specific and use as many details as possible.

Most importantly, make yourself feel important. Get a big black comfortable chair. Get a business phone number, print business cards or put a sign with your name on it on your desk if that will push your buttons.

Don’t overdo it. Breaks are also important. Exercise and get enough rest. Most big businesses offer their employees free massage and spa. Offer yourself that luxury, too. Get rid of the stress.

According to a recent small business study by MarketWatch, most owners wouldn’t give up their small business for more money. People love being their own boss.

“When asked whether they would work for someone else if that job promised more money than they currently make, 59% of small-business owners said they’d turn that job down and continue with their own business, according to the monthly survey in June of 1,000 businesses with five or fewer employees.”

When you can do anything, often you end up doing nothing. I bet that’s true. I’m sure you’re puzzled whether to send out link exchange request, buy links, submit to directories, submit to social sites, write new content, start a new website, read a tutorial, spam or blog comment. You’re doing little from everything thus you don’t persist on doing something to see how well it works.

People get so dazzled by dollar signs and freedom from bosses and geography that it’s easy to forget that what you do for money is often more important than how much money you make.

Once you start earning some serious money you can start hiring other people. And then you need to change your attitude again, making way for small business management skills. And new change opportunities will pop up. Be ready to change yourself and your business.

Let’s get one thing straight. There is no such thing as inspiration. There is hard work and passion about your business. Hard work gives your mind focus and tells your mind what you want it to come up with. I’m sure that gets confused a lot with inspiration.

Reinvest your commissions. Perhaps you have some high Google rankings which you got from link exchange, directory submissions and social bookmarking but you have to constantly get better and better backlinks to keep your positions. Consider buying links.

I use webmaster forums to buy backlinks. “But Mircea, everybody says I will get penalized if I buy links.” Actually Google just doesn’t count links from sites which sell links. But Google won’t know. And from what I know, Google only penalized directories which “sold PR”. And Google is not God (or is He?). I get more visitors from relevant sites, than from Google, so I don’t care. One way or another, worst thing that can happen when buying links is… nothing.

Ok, ok, I got a little off-topic with this one. Point is: use your commissions to bring new visitors, advertise in new and innovative ways and start new websites.

Cultivate yourself and your business! And stop driving Sandis crazy!

People find it easier to navigate around familiar things. The instant a visitor lands on your site they will compare it with every other site they visited before.

First thing they will see is your header image which has to sum up your entire site. Next, your headings should focus on benefits. Contrasting colors can be used to emphasize benefits.

Repetition is good and it’s easy to stay on a road you take everyday. These same things can be applied online.

Use alignment and paragraphs not only to make text easier to read, but also to create visual road maps and define ideas. Chunk your content into groups. Use big font sizes, faces and animated images to suggest the most important benefits.

Take the Aloeride site for example, benefits in the headline are emphasized with red. Menu is well organized and features the things mentioned on the main page. The blinking “Order today” and “Free box” buttons also gently attract the user’s eye.

Always try to keep your links in blue and underlined. This is one of the oldest online patterns. Text links should be treated like traffic lights, in a pre-established order: blue, followed by purple.

White space is your friend. According to a recent StomperNet study, the 10th entry in a typical Google result page gets more visits than the 5th or 6th. That’s because it’s surrounded by a lot more white space. White space gives the visitor’s eye focus areas and rest points.

“Also, you can use quotes to emphasize things. Even if it isn’t really a quote. The text between quotes usually is taken more profound because only smart and dead people are quoted.”

Spice up your site by adding catchphrases. “Grrrrrrreat!”, “Easy as one, two, three”, “Go go go!”, “Just do it!”, “24/7″, “Yada, yada, yada”, “Bam!”, “D’oh”. These will work great because they’re something your visitor has heard a lot before.

When you’re describing logical benefits, translate anything you can into numbers. Proactol doesn’t just help you lose weight, “it binds up to 28% of your dietary fat and helps you lose a steady 1-2lbs per week”.

Content consistency is achieved by keeping the same article length, tone and posting frequency. All your articles should look like they “belong” on your site. For example, your readers should return to your site because they know you post on, let’s say, Monday, not because they get notified on their e-mail when you write something new. And don’t you just hate sites that don’t update?

If you have a blog adding the word “blog” in your title adds credibility. The title will tell your visitors that the information they will find is written by someone like them. Anyone can be a blogger now-a-days.

Another pattern is that people will like you if you think out of the box. If your fellow affiliates write articles on “How to lose weight”, why don’t you write about “How NOT to lose weight”?

If you repeat yourself, look for varied ways to convey the same message. Be creative!

People like good things. I like happy endings myself. Be positive, not negative. Notice that EasyWebsites4u.com offers affordable web design, not cheap wed design.

To sum it up, remember the most persistent pattern is the pattern of change. You have to keep up with the trends. Be persistent with your online work and sales will follow.

So, any other online catch phrases you’d like to share?