Where: Hilton New York

When: August 9-11, 2009

Early Bird Pricing: Platinum Pass ($999), Gold Pass ($399), Silver Pass ($99)

Fast Approaching is the east coast version of the same old affiliate summit. If you have never been to an affiliate summit before chances are you aren’t too serious about affiliate marketing or simply just dont think its worth it, and I can honestly tell you that your missing out. Affiliate Summit is an invaluable resource where you will be able to meet and network with many like-minded individuals in the industry, as well as put faces to networks you work with, which in terms of being personable can go a long way. Not only is the networking potential make it more than worthwhile to attend, it doesnt just stop there.

There are a multitude of sessions on everything from google to facebook ads to SEO to CPM and CPA marketing. Everything is usually covered and there is undoubtedbly some douchebag like Nickycakes speaking to an array of newbs looking for a golden nugget of knowledge to fall into their lap.

Good luck with that, but all jokes aside, Gary Vaynerchuk spoke at ASW and it was well worth every minute, as he told his story on being “the wine guy”, my hat goes off to Gary, his keynote address was top notch and thats what you can expect to see more of at ASE.

Ill be staying at the Hilton with my party hat ready to roll, if any of you are arriving early and wanna party hit me up, its sure to be off the hook as per usual

Recently the guys over at Tracking202 had sent me an email saying they are ready to launch their brand new updated platform Tracking202 Pro. I’ve toyed around with Tracking202 but have always used Prosper202, and it has always been good to me. But now all that has changed with the launch of Tracking202 Pro!

Tracking is definitely one of the single most pressing issues when it comes to making money online with PPC marketing. How else would you be able to track and monitor your clicks for your keywords to see what is converting effectively. The truth is that most affiliates dont have good enough tracking and fail to monitor their clicks properly, costing them thousands of dollars on advertising. From what I saw from the original Tracking202, they allowed multiple campaigns across multiple networks similar to Prosper202, and it was great, but apparently that wasn’t enough because the guys at Trackign202 have upped the bar to add even more features.

Original Tracking202 Vs. Tracking202 Pro

Unlike the original, Tracking202 Pro is fully integrated with the big three PPC networks (Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN AdCenter) and the affiliate networks which means the application is able to download all of your data automatically without you having to do anything. It is also able to get 100% precise cost tracking, and it also pulls in your subids from your networks nightly.

The Tracking202 setup is also made easier than ever. Simply add your PPC account login information, your affiliate account info, and place one piece of javascript code across all of your affiliate pages. Once that is done, the only thing you will need to do is make a simple PHP redirect, and basically redirect your traffic to your affiliate link and add in their Tracking202 subid at the end.

Tracking202 Pro will download nightly, all of your cost data from the Google, Yahoo and MSN networks, and then automatically sync all of your conversions. This will enable you to view your conversions with pinpoint accuracy, so you can find out exactly which keywords are performing and/or underperforming.

You can analyze your keywords as well as your bids on keywords next to each other. You can also split your traffic between search and content network. You can see the campaign, adgroup and creative being clicked on in real time using their spy-view. This will eliminate the labourious importing of keyword lists and in general make your life a hell of a lot easier.

Free 7-Day Trial Offer

Tracking 202 Pro Free Trial

Tracking202 Pro is a paid hosted enterprise level PPC conversion tracking platform. Unlike the original, Tracking202 Pro isn’t free. The platform was built expressly for affiliates using search to promote CPA or CPS offers. You will increase your tracking effectiveness, save tons of time and in general make MORE money using this system, and I would recommend it for new affiliate marketers and seasoned ones alike.

If you’re a seasoned PPC marketer, then Tracking202 Pro is a must have tool. If you’re just starting out, then begin with the free Tracking202 to get your feet wet. Or, you can jump right into Tracking202 Pro and see if you can make back that $19.95 monthly fee in the next seven days. Either way it’s a great product that I fully endorse and would recommend to any affiliate out there.

For those of you who may be relatively new to pay per click advertising or simply the Google Adwords model in particular, here is a helpful video that will explain to you just how the model works.

So everyone knows that knowledge is power, and I myself have been on a reading binge the last month or so, soaking up information like a shamwow… you getting this camera guy? Anyways everyone has their own set of must read books that has helped them in some way or another, and I am no different.

I made a list of books I’ve read that have personally helped me gain both financial freedom and valuable insight on personal wealth and well-being.  I feel that these books more than others I’ve read influenced me the most and left the most lasting impression on my thought process and my business life in general.  So I present to you:

Books for Affiliate Marketers & Entrepreneurs

Four Hour Work Week – Main concept follows an 80/20 rule, where 20% of your work/actions account for 80% of profits (campaigns, keywords, affiliate networks) – you should be finding the most important ones and scaling/optimizing. Stop wasting time on the meaningless pursuits.

Think and Grow Rich – In the original Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937, Napoleon Hill draws on stories of Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and other millionaires of his generation to illustrate his principles. This is carried on into the 21st century where many of the principles still hold true today, and can be very powerful for getting yourself in the right mindset.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad – This book tells a story about a man who was raised by two different households, and two different mindsets. One an educated dad stuck in the proverbial “rat race” and the other a college dropout who simply understood investing and how to work with “smart people”. To sum up this book in one word, outsourcing.

The Long Tail - In the most important business book since The Tipping Point, Chris Anderson shows how the future of commerce and culture isn’t in hits, the high-volume head of a traditional demand curve, but in what used to be regarded as misses–the endlessly long tail of that same curve. Inspirational book on finding those niche niches.

The Snowball – The biography of one of the richest men in the world, and possibly one of the smartest investors that ever lived.  Although not written by Warren Buffet himself, it is still a great read that will put you in the mind of this invesment genuius.

There are obviously way more books out there that I am missing, so if you have any *must read* books that I missed,  leave a comment and I’ll be sure to check em out.

When you get down to the core of affiliate marketing, you will come to realize that its all about your ad copy and your landing page.  Sure you can try your luck at direct linking, but for the most part your conversions will suffer and you will lose money and time again and again.  A quality landing page can be the difference to a profitable campaign and a big loser. There are several things you can do to help make your landing pages better, and to convince the surfer to follow through with your offer.

• Split Test – When you first start running an offer, its always a good idea to have several mock up landing pages to use to drive traffic to.  Use these as a base from which to test your conversion rates and find out what is and isnt working.  A lot of the times a simple lander is better, while other times the longer review ad copy landers prove more effective.  You need to find out if the niche your targeting falls into either of these categories and stick with the one that works.  Affiliate marketing is all about going out and seeing what works, dont get lazy, testing is KEY.
• Avoid Distractions – When your targeted visitor comes to your page, you want to make sure that there is a bold call to action.  Giving them multiple options and outward links is distracting and can cause your surfer to not follow through on the offer.  Make sure there is a clear, concise directive and if you have multiple objectives (ie. acai & colon cleanse), try using a seperate landing page for each of them.
• Above the Fold – While a spanning page with multiple reviews and reasons why the user should sign up for your offer may be a good thing, more often that not it is better to keep the sign up/order now button above the fold in plain sight so that the user knows that you are selling something and makes a painless decsion. Often times the surfer can be burdened by an encompassing sales page that is drawn out and confusing, stick to the K.I.S.S. philosophy and you will notice the difference in your bank account.
• Avoid Extra Elements – Having too much graphics or too much text on your lander can make or break your sales.  Avoid over-using graphical elements such as animations and images that simply do not contribute to your objective of the page.  This can take away your visitors attention and eventually lead to a failed conversion.  Try and keep the visitors attention by using a blend of text and imagery that flows naturally.
• Navigation/Outbound Links – Your best bet is to keep the navigation either off page or in the footer area so that the user doesnt become distracted and navigate away from your offer.  If you have more information or in-depth reviews to offer the surfer, give it to them in an AJAX pop-up or CSS based slide down content so that it keeps them on the page and only helps to upsell the offer you are targeting.  While you can go the route of having no external links whatsoever, this is frowned upon by Google and will usually end up getting your page penalized.

So that it, hopefully these tips will prove effective in making your landing pages even more profitable, and increase your conversion.  The main thing to remember is to keep trying different things, and that no matter how simple the offer may be, it is always better to sell the surfer before they follow through to the signup page.

The main reason why personal review blogs like Becky’s weight loss worked so well is because they utilized all these elements, with an effective ad copy telling a personal story to play upon the visitors emotions.  Mix and match different ad copy with an easy and direct call to action, and you will see much more profitable landing pages for your all your campaigns.

If I missed anything feel free to comment and let me know what other methods you utilize to increase conversions on your landers.

So the date is soon approaching and I have been busy as of late running campaigns and working for a payment processor and haven’t had time to update.  But I will be attending this time, as I missed out on too many crazy parties from last year and can’t stand missing it this time around.

I will be staying at the Palms, and will be arriving early on friday so if any of you wanna link up before the conference for some drinks and networking feel free to hit me up on my blackberry msn @ lornefade at hotmail.com.  I look forward to making some great contacts in Las Vegas, and hitting some crazy affiliate parties.  I’ll also be sure to attend the Nicky Cakes seminar to see if anyone tries to rick-roll him as part of the ppc.bz scavenger hunt.

Once again I look forward to meeting all the people I work with, as well readers of this blog, members of WF, and anyone who is looking to network with a like-minded go getter like myself. See you all in Vegas!