A huge congratulations to Frederick Danzoy for winning this months honorary Affiliate of the Month award. He’s been doing affiliate marketing for less than 6 months however has proved that by working in a focused manor on just a couple of our merchant brands can bring some impressive sales.
Frederick is a fantastic example of someone who started out with no knowledge of affiliate marketing but by taking full advantage of our affiliate guides and then working closely with some of our affiliate managers was making sales in his very first week!
Congratulations, how do you feel about winning AOTM?
Honoured and I feel the commissions I get every other week are reward enough but it is always nice to be recognized.
Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from, what’s your background?
I was born and raised in France and came to the United States in 1994 after graduating from cooking school in France, I worked my way from a cook to a district manager in the restaurant industry but in 2006, I decided to go into business for myself as a restaurant consultant.
In 2009, as the economy here in the States took a plunge for the worst and my business slowed down, I decided to look into other avenues for additional revenue, Thinking of how i could use my specific skill set, I began trying to sell hard to find novelty items on Ebay France that i would ship from the US, one day, I saw a posting on Ebay France’s version of the “want it now” section of Ebay for someone that was looking for a product called Proactol, I did my research and identified the source and ended up signing up with MoreNiche, it was an overnight success for me and the rest is history.
What were the key factors to get you here today?
France and Europe in general are a good market in a declining economy, the Euro is stronger than ever and online purchasing is still a growing segment.
The absolute key to my success is the full understanding of the Culture and the language,
Have a site and get it translated in French, you will fail miserably, you will not sell anything unless the site is not only translated absolutely flawlessly but is adapted to the culture, that is absolutely crucial, French and European are not big on flashy marketing, catchy slogans, exaggerated claims or extravagant graphics, in a country based on centuries of classic traditions, a more humble educative approach is imperative a professionalism will always win over unsubsequented promises of miracles to come.
How long did it take you to make your first sale?
I just looked at my stats, I made 20 dollars the first day (well 40 counting the sign up bonus), 70 on my second and 190 on my third day, bottom line, my first check from MoreNiche was 2600 dollars and I have been averaging 2000 every two weeks since.
What support have you received from MN?
I have worked extensively with Ilona and Sandis, helping them with the translation of a few documents such as the order pages for Pureacaiberry and Proactol.
The whole team has always been very helpful though ( bear in mind that when I started, I did not know what SEO stood for).
Is there anything you could suggest us to improve?
On international pages, just to use native speakers, not teachers or expatriates that have been gone for oo long and may be out of touch with the current trends.
Proactol France is a good example of that, great work for the most part but some very out dated lingo and some missing accents on the final version of the order page are yet to be fixed.
Come on, share some of your methods with others, what works for you?
The crucial part, again, is how well the site is structured to target the specific country, I only own 2 websites yet I generate the most conversions in France, by far,
There are many other affiliates ranked higher than I am on Google yet they do not come anywhere close in conversions or traffic,
PPC is not a good Idea either unless you have very deep pockets, especially in France, I cannot stress how new the concept of ordering online is there (and in other parts of Europe) even outside of online ordering, French people are not trusting of any business unless it is done face to face with someone thy know, keeping that in mind, any indication that the person in question is not French or not extremely knowledgeable or professional and they run away.
So there, is France and Europe an excellent Niche for affiliate marketing? Absolutely but unless you really know the language and culture or hire someone that does, you will fail miserably.
My advice to anyone interested in tapping into the European market is to hire or partner with someone that is native to do the work for you, secure hosting in the country you are targeting and follow the basic guidelines of affiliate marketing available to you on the moreniche web site, That is what I did.
I have returned to work full time but my 2 web sites still generate anywhere from 3500 to 5500 dollars a month without any work on my side (shame on me, I know, Sandis, I need to keep adding content..).
My next step is to start on a Penis enlargement web site as this is where a lot of people in the US make money, Given the success I have had so far doing just weight loss, I can’t even imagine what this will produce…
In your opinion, what makes a great affiliate program?
The products, after experiencing the success I did with MoreNiche, I was hooked and looking for more, I went through the usual sites to see what others had to offer but it is just to broad and I don’t appreciate people doing the free trials as most others do (the ones where your customers actually unknowingly sign up for auto charges to their credit cards for crappy products such as watered down Acai berry products for 89$ a bottle).
The only other affiliate program I as a part of was PHEN375 and they now have gone to Moreniche anyways, how ironic!
What are the most important factors to succeed in affiliate marketing?
Knowing the basics of SEO, understanding your audience, PRE SELLING, PRE SELLING, PRE SELLING, I do not direct to the websites, homepages, only to the order pages, by the time people exit my site, they have to want to buy THIS IS KEY especially if you are going to start with PPC or you will waste hundreds of dollars in useless advertising, send traffic without pre selling, you will send a LOT of traffic but very few conversions, too many people still just curious, pre sell them, only serious people will follow the link, resulting in much higher conversion rates and therefore a potentially profitable PPC campaign.
I do NOT recommend PPC for Europe though especially since it is so easy to get good SEO rankings there.
Do you have any tips for new affiliates?
Learn the basics, I knew nothing about affiliate marketing when i joined 5 months ago, I only used the tools here on MoreNiche to learn the ropes, knew a little about frontpage to design a simple web site.
Don’t necessarily rush, a well designed well targeted website will get you more money in the long run that something unfinished that you constantly tweak.
Lastly be patient and don’t second guess yourself too much, I used to make 300 dollars a day 5 days in a row then 20 bucks for 2 days, don’t panic, it happens, I have made the mistake to second guess myself, redesign my site, torture yourself over what I may have done, then mess up what I had done, I’d get it fixed again, eventually, the same thing would happen, lately, as I mentioned before, I went back to work full time, and my site did he same thing, 250 to 350 a day everyday for 5 days then nothing for 1, 20 the next, back to 200 etc, yet I did not have time to make an changes, It just goes to say, don’t second guess yourself too much but do scrutanize your site and get second opinions from unbiased consumers.
Ok, what are your further plans with affiliate business and MoreNiche?
Penis enlargement. If the French market can convert that much more than US or UK on Proactol and Acai berry, Phen375 etc, I can only Imagine what that will mean for me at 175 dollars per sale. My plan is to have it go live by new year’s, watch out Keemotalay!