Commission Explosion

CPV can be an excellent model to generate interest in a new website, blog, product or service. Did you know that StumbleUpon Paid Discovery is a CPV platform?

So, what’s better about StumbleUpon as a CPV engine? For one good content is rewarded with additional free traffic from StumbleUpon and other related high value websites through cross-promotion.

Two, and probably most important is the eyeballs that will see your website with StumbleUpon want to be there, they aren’t paid, they are real humans and they are opinionated as hell. (That’s a good thing).

I also believe that StumbleUpon Paid Discovery a great arena to introduce something you think might have the potential of going viral or, to help establish a following with a new blog.

Make sure that you always present clear opportunities for your visitor to like or fan your offer, page or blog (like below).

Don’t rush into launching a new campaign without first researching your niche within StumbleUpon to see both what others are doing and what others find and mark useful. If they aren’t clicking the thumbs up your Stumble Upon campaign will more than likely be a failure, and you will be missing out on the free cross-promotion.

Testing the water with StumbleUpon is easy with a low entry cost and low per view costs as well.

Give it a try by clicking here and let us know what you think. Already have tried or currently use StumbleUpon Paid Discovery let others know about your experiences (good/bad) in the comments section below.

+Nick J. West

A website without an analytics program is useless. Without analytics data you have no idea where your website is or, even where it’s going. A web analytics program tracks your success and, your failures allowing you to steer the ship towards your destination ports.

Making structured changes to your website is an on-going exercise, routine maintenance aside it’s one of those things where a rising tide doesn’t raise all ships, and in-fact can just as easily sink a ship if not done correctly. Analytics help guide you on your journey and insure that you can adequately track your progresses.

Thinking your current course is fine or even worse charting an entirely new course without a map or analytics tracking is ignorance. Were you to encounter trouble you may have already hit a rock before realizing the ship is going down. Dropping an anchor doesn’t always help and may beach or completely sink the ship.

Choosing an Analytics program?

Google Analytics in most cases meets the needs of small to medium enterprises but there are tons of off-the-shelf products ranging from a low-to-high entry cost should you wish to explore your options. Google Analytics is free, but in exchange you are trading off the anonymous data sharing of your companies aggregated traffic data with Google.

Set goals early on to maximize data sets.

At first, data will likely be insufficient to make any concrete determinations however after just a few months you will begin to see patterns begin to emerge.

Setting goals early helps gather valuable data from day one that can be used later on. Set up and run regular analytics reports and make sure everyone in your organization receives a copy once a month or as needed and meet quarterly at minimum to discuss progress and emerging data sets.

Track the number of newsletter subscribers, newsletter unsubscribers, how many visitors reach the desired conversion or landing page and anything you consider to be an action, conversion or subscriber.

Translating the data?

If after you have gathered a few months to a years worth of data you are still not seeing a better picture of your websites traffic and growth patterns work collaboratively with other staff members to understand the data or consider an outside source reviewing your progress and explain how to best use the information at your fingertips.

Basically certain benchmarks should overtime show an increase like average visitor time on site, average depth of visitor visits (how many pages) etc., others like visitor bounce rate should show a steady rate and hopefully and eventually a gradual decline.

Use other tools such as Google Webmaster Tools and Page Speed in conjunction with your Google Analytics data. It’s often more easily digestible and as you grow and learn you can then begin to take advantage of the over 1200+ custom report settings available in Google Analytics to really pull out all the stops.

What do you find to be the most useful aspect of analytics tools? As an affiliate publisher do you find existing analytics tools meet your most pressing requirements or needs improvement? How do you integrate analytics tracking with conversion data for the umpteen million different publisher ad platforms that are in the market?

+Nick J. West

Content is king, consistency is queen and so on. With all the rules here’s another to add to the list. Video equals traffic and trust. Simply put, adding video to your website makes it just that much better.

I met briefly with an upper level executive from a major leader in the text link marketplace last summer who said: “We make a video or two and blam the site or page has increased linking and traffic, heck it doesn’t even have to be a good video”.

One thing that does ring true, despite their misguided philosophy on the importance of quality is that Google simply loves video. YouTube is the second largest search engine and when you think about it that is a lot of potential free traffic you shouldn’t/can’t pass up.

Incorporating video into your website does not need to be hard, often an inexpensive production demonstrating your service or product can go a long way to establishing the trust factor with any potential clients and customers that reach your website.

And while the video doesn’t need to be perfect it does need to be well thought out and executed to match your companies vision and mission statements. i.e., no comedy that may touch on offensive or references that may harm the brand by reaching an audience that is not compatible or even aggressive.

Having a personality to represent your company is an easy way to connect with your audience, look no-further than the owner(s) and principals where possible for that public “face”.

No-need for an expensive setup, many small cameras like the Canon PowerShot work just fine but if you want a more professional appearance you can outsource a cameraman, including equipment, lights, initial editing and final production edits for $100-$150 using your local classifieds or Craigslist.

Post your new video on the YouTube platform, add any relevant tags, embed video on your website/blog (using the YouTube embed links), post to Facebook and other social media platforms. Rinse, and repeat!

+Nick J. West

Your small business accounting just got easier and less expensive with the Free Wave Accounting module for Google Apps users here.

If your business is in need of an accounting system and you can’t or don’t want to spend a fortune and the time getting up to speed simply to bill your clients (read=Quicken). Wave Accounting offers intuitive features that any small businesses will appreciate and it couldn’t be easier to use.

At the time of writing this review Wave Accounting is free and works seamlessly for Google Apps users. Let us know if you like this recommendation.

How often should you send to your e-mail list subscribers? E-mail your customers when you have something important or new to share, e-mail them to engage not just sell them and mail your list often enough that they don’t regret signing up or, by mailing so occasionally that they forget who you were or why they signed up in the first place.

App Sumo Rocks! might become my new reply. What does all this have to do with App Sumo? Simple, they have it right on the nail head every time.

App Sumo sends out their e-mail blasts about every 2 weeks with a hugely discounted application, service or software for business productivity or to solve a particular web related problem. App Sumo I assume negotiates these prices in advance and every one of the offers comes with a lifetime refund guarantee “anytime before you die” according to the AppSumo.com website. Recent offer discounts were up to 92% off so they’re nothing to sneeze at.

Now I have not purchased anything from App Sumo so I can’t attest to their fulfillment yet but I ‘just’ know they will offer something I can’t live without in their e-mail newsletter someday so I don’t plan on unsubscribing anytime soon.

Now that’s a powerful tool to have, imagine your customers wanting to remain a subscriber because they know that you fill a need for them even if what you are selling is not an immediate need.

Segmenting your list, offering subscriber management tools where subscribers can control their desired contact frequency are all good to consider using as your list grows.

To begin developing your mailing frequency, focus on delivering quality content with a thoughtful mix of sales material blended in. Like App Sumo consider presenting your content in a unique theme or by engaging one of your organizations more out-going personalities (you?) as the face of your campaigns.

Make sure your subscribers have an option to tell you why they unsubscribed. I often find that most that leave don’t comment but the few that do provide a valuable tool in helping to determine your future mailing frequency.

+Nick J. West