Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

Stayin’ Alive in Affiliate Marketing

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I wasn’t one of the “original” affiliate marketers, but I have definitely been around long enough now to be considered one of the “old timers.” I already had a legal career when I came to affiliate marketing, and I didn’t expect to find an entirely NEW career in writing about potty training. But parenting posts led to coupons, which led to datafeeds, which led to privacy concerns, which led me back around to legal issues. And here I still am almost 17 years later.

As I was thinking today about all of the changes in our industry over these 2 decades, the song “Stayin’ Alive” kept running through my head because sometimes I feel like that’s what I have been doing all this time. So many businesses have come and gone. Some have just changed to stay relevant. People have moved between companies, started new companies…given up on us altogether sometimes.

How have I managed to stay basically in the same place? What does it take to make it down the stretch in affiliate marketing? I do have some advice.

Network Like Your Life Depends On It

I wouldn’t still be in this industry if it were not for my network. Period. Full stop. Whether it’s affiliate managers who slipped me sweet deals to keep my sites going, consulting contracts when the sites were NOT going, or even advice when I needed it most, my network has been invaluable. And I know it’s not just me. I’ve seen people lose their jobs and pick up new jobs almost overnight because the community looks out for its own.

I don’t mean just connecting with people on LinkedIn or following them on Twitter. I mean making meaningful relationships and building trust. The kind where you can tell someone you need help and they will do everything they can to find it for you.

Be prepared to reach out to help others even when there is nothing in it for you.

Network with your business partners but ALSO with your competitors because things can change on a dime and you never know who you might find yourself sitting next to next.

Keep An Eye on Trends

We all know that technology changes quickly, and affiliate marketing is essentially a combination of sales and technology. You can’t bury your head and pretend like you don’t have to change thousands of links when Google Affiliate Network goes out of business. If you don’t change the links, you don’t make money anymore. (If I wanted to be really old school, I would have said BeFree) You need to stay out ahead of major technological changes if you want to keep making money.

It’s the same with everything in the industry. You don’t have to do everything your competitors are doing, but you do need to KNOW what they are doing and how it can impact your business. Likewise, you need to be watching for overall industry trends like cookie tracking, attribution models, the rise of influencers, Google results changes, etc. One quick example is that it used to be great to rank 3rd in Google search results for a term. Now if you rank 3rd, you may find yourself so far below the fold due to ads and “People  Also Ask” that you won’t get any traffic at all. If you were only paying attention to your rankings, you would have no idea why your traffic was dropping so much.

Be Good At What You Know, But Keep Learning

I’m guilty of knowing a little bit about a whole lot of things. I can modify my WordPress templates, but I’m not a programmer. I can run some Google Ads, but I’m not a PPC expert.  I can pull links and report across all of the major networks, but I don’t know how to run datafeeds or post back from APIs on my own.

What I DO know is how to run a cash back site. And I DO know an awful lot about FTC Disclosure. That doesn’t mean that I won’t keep learning everything thing I can about those two things or work to learn more about other things. Today I watched a webinar about Toolbars and Browser Extensions. I thought I understood them and when I don’t want to get involved with them. But now I might be thinking differently, which wouldn’t be the case if I hadn’t stayed open to learning. By continuing to learn more about affiliate marketing, you stay open to ways to change your business but also understand what might threaten it. (Mental note….maybe it’s time for a SWOT analysis of Sunshine Rewards….)

If you are still with me, it’s because you either really like me or you have been thinking about some of these things yourself already. Drop me a line. Meet up with me at Affiliate Summit. Ping me in the PMA Member Slack. Maybe we can help each other stay alive in this industry.

And so I’ll leave you with this….

Is It Time for You to Energize Your Affiliate Career?

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Change your career

When I started in affiliate marketing 17 years ago, my kids were 2 and 4. I blogged about nap time and trips to the library and how to save money on diapers. I worked on my websites outside of my “real” job hours… on weekends and after the kids went to bed. I was constantly hustling to try to learn the industry and grow my business with new initiatives so I could be a full-time affiliate marketer and spend lots of time with my kids.

Fast forward to now. Last month my nest became empty when my younger daughter went to college. I haven’t launched a new website or initiative in probably 10 years. I’ve grown complacent in updating and launching sites. I haven’t even updated WordPress on most of them in so long that plugins are starting to break.

It’s time for me to remember the hustle that I had 17 years ago and get back to it. At 46, I have plenty of career left ahead of me, and I am never short on new ideas. But I have to really get back in the game. If you are in the same boat as me (or even worried you are heading there), here are some things I have done and will be doing to kick myself back into gear.

Get Back to Education

Even though I’ve been in this business a long time, there is always something new to learn. This week I attended the PMA Virtual Conference and watched about 10 hours of videos and webinars about everything from influencer marketing to how to better use coupons on my site. Some of the videos weren’t even targeted to me and yet I learned a lot from them. Just hearing what is new in the industry gave me ideas on what I should be doing and how I can quickly get my sites back up to speed…and maybe even out ahead again.

I’ll be watching the rest of those conference videos but also doing a better job of attending some of the many webinars that I see agencies and networks putting out. They are often free or lost cost, especially compared to my continuing legal education fees!

Network for Growth

From the start of my business I had been attending Affiliate Summit every single year, twice a year. I was always busy–hitting the booths to find new partnerships and partying the nights away to make new friends. With COVID and the halt in conferences, I stopped growing my network and to some extent even stopped nurturing my current network. 

It’s a little harder now without going to conferences, but I do make the most of the PMA for “meeting” new people. And I keep the Affiliate Slackers group open on my computer at all times to toss out things I find and ask questions of others. I don’t know when I will get back to going to conferences, but I am going to do a better job of networking electronically.

Find and Use Data

It’s easy to keep doing the same things over and over again, even if they aren’t working. But sometimes you don’t even realize they aren’t working until you measure them. There is SO much data in our industry–from Google Analytics reports that measure our site traffic to Facebook engagement data that show us how our social media is doing to network clicks and conversions that show us how much money we are making.

Sometimes we need to step back and see if what we are doing is actually benefiting us. Is anyone clicking through our Twitter links? Is anyone reading the emails we spend so much time writing? Use the data that is available to you and be honest about whether you are doing something because it is easy or because it is profitable. 

Be Okay with Quitting

Revamping your business isn’t just about starting new things. It can also be about ending old things. It’s okay if you have a website that hasn’t performed in years and you decide not to renew the domain name. If you are doing contract work that you don’t like and it is holding you back from spending time doing what you DO like, maybe it’s time to let it go.

Once upon a time, I had to make the leap from a terrific full-time work-at-home job with benefits and pension to focus full-time on my affiliate career. It was scary to quit, but it was what I needed to give me the bandwidth (and motivation) to truly move forward. It might be time to sell a part (or all) of your business. Or just give up on a project that never became what you hoped it would be. Quitting doesn’t mean moving backward.

Create Accountability

Sometimes when you work for yourself, you have to put something out into the world in some way to hold yourself accountable. Whether that’s a Mastermind group or a business partner or….. a blog post announcing things to everyone you know. Let people know where you are on your journey and ask them to check back in with you every once in awhile to see how things are going (hint, hint). 

Are any of you in a life change or a COVID dip or just an overall slump? What are you doing to move forward from it?

The Value of the FrieNDA

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If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, you likely know that an NDA is a Non-Disclosure Agreement. These are generally legally binding documents that both parties sign to be able to share information without the fear of that information being spread to outside parties.

But have you ever heard of a FrieNDA? 

FrieNDAs are used a lot by my circle in affiliate marketing. As a lawyer, I am compelled to tell you that they are not usually binding. But that doesn’t mean that they do not serve a purpose and shouldn’t be used.

A FrieNDA is invoked when you want to have a serious conversation with someone about issues that pertain to your business and your expectation is that the other person does not share them. It is more than a casual conversation. You may need advice or help. Or you may just have really big news that can’t be shared yet but you have to share it with someone.

When I had my Mastermind Group with Eric and Todd (that eventually turned into Wine Club Group), we had a blanket FrieNDA that everything we discussed about our businesses in our weekly calls was not to be shared. This allowed us to openly share data, strategies, and even struggles without fear that the others in the group would spread that information.

Conversely, I will often have one-off conversations with friends that start with “this is FrieNDA information” or “I need this to be covered by our FrieNDA.” We both acknowledge that and understand that whatever is said can’t be shared with anyone–even our mutual friends–no matter what. It’s more than a promise. It’s an understanding that the information being shared with you is so sensitive to the other person’s business that spreading it could damage them.

Now, we do sometimes jokingly bring up the FrieNDA after some cocktails and karaoke as a reminder that photos and video should be kept private. But the true value of the FrieNDA is when you can trust someone and value their opinion enough to share with them and know that your business is safe. 

Do you ever invoke FrieNDAs for the sake of your business? In what circumstances?

How Affiliate Marketing Has Gotten Me Through the Pandemic

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There are a LOT of things to be sad about this year. A lot of lost opportunities to be with family and friends. A lot of sickness and death. And yet we are all finding our way through it, using whatever coping strategies we can find. (sourdough bread, anyone??)

I was reflecting this morning that my job as an affiliate marketer has actually be one of the things that has helped me the most since March. While walking on the treadmill (one of MY biggest coping mechanisms this year), I started compiling a list of all of the ways that affiliate marketing has helped me get through this year with my mental health intact. Here are the ones I came up with, but I wonder if you could add some as well that I have overlooked?

  1. Working from home: While others were scrambling to set up office spaces or figure out how to do their jobs from their basements, I was already. I’ve worked in a well-stocked home office since 1999, so I didn’t really have to adjust at all (expect to all of the interruptions from everyone ELSE in my house now being at home all day!).
  2. Video meetings: I noticed since March that more people are using their cameras for meetings rather than just their phones. I started seeing the faces of people I have been “meeting” with on the phone for years. I think because everyone was getting used to doing more Zooms in general, my standard phone meetings just naturally migrated to video calls as well. It was actually nice to see the people I was talking to for once.
  3. Exploding workload: Given that the pandemic sent everyone online to buy everything, it created an unbelievable amount of work to keep me busy. And when you are busy, you have less time to sit and think about all of the things that you are missing. In fact, you are kind of glad you have extra time to work.
  4. Money: Along with that, let’s be honest. Affiliate marketers tend to be doing well right now. It feels almost gross to talk about it, but the reality is that we are making more money (in most cases) as a result of the increased online shopping. And when everything else in life sucks, it’s at least nice to have some extra money to dream about how you will spend when life gets back to normal.
  5. Virtual communication: For a lot of people, the loss of in-person events/meetings/work meant a loss of social connection. In some ways, it was the opposite for me. I talk to people constantly all day via Slack, Facebook messenger, email, text messages, Google Hangouts, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram…. you get the picture. I don’t go an hour without having some kind of communication that isn’t work related.
  6. Affiliate friendships: It’s crazy but I now feel closer to my affiliate marketing friends than I do my local friends because the online communications have overtaken the in-person communications. In fact, I have a standing weekly Happy Hour with affiliate marketing friends that has pretty much become the thing I most look forward to. While I knew all of them a little from Affiliate Summits over the years, I have gotten so much closer to all of them through our weekly meetups.

There are a lot of things that I hope will continue post-pandemic (like online ordering for restaurants!), but much will eventually go back to the way it was. I know for sure that some of the things above will continue to be what I appreciate about affiliate marketing.

How has affiliate marketing helped you get through this year?

Calculate Content Versus Coupon Ratio for Your Merchants

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One of my favorite benefits of working with Todd and Eric on Wine Club Group is that they both really dig data. To maximize our profits on the site, we use a LOT of data analysis. Some of it is related to SEO and traffic but a lot of it is figuring out which merchants to better position on the site based on things like Earnings Per Visitor, Earnings Per Click, and Conversion Rates.

You’re probably familiar with all of those, but I have something new for you today that you may not be tracking. Whether you are adding a new merchant to your site or evaluating a current partner, do you know how much of their traffic comes from coupon sites versus content sites? 

Why is this important?

First, it depends on what type of traffic you are sending. If you are sending content traffic and a program is heavily dominated by coupon sales, you might struggle to get conversions yourself. Are coupon sites overwriting content cookies because the merchant isn’t using attribution properly? Conversely, if you are a coupon site and the program is primarily paying out to content sites, maybe it is an opportunity for you because the merchant isn’t working with any of the other big coupon sites.

Second, coupon sites impact conversion rates. If a merchant is paying out 90% of its commissions to coupon sites, you would expect to see very high conversion rates because people often look for coupons after they have already decided to make a purchase. If you are a content site, don’t expect to have as high of conversion rates as a coupon (or cash back) site. If you see a program with a crazy high conversion rate and low percentage of payouts to coupon sites, it might mean that content sites are having great luck with converting for that program.

Third, knowing this information might help you understand why average commissions for a program are low but might actually be much higher for you. If you are one of a few content sites working with a merchant, you may be able to achieve better stats in the program than average, assuming the merchant has its attribution set up correctly so that those coupon sites or toolbars do not overwrite your content-driven cookies.

How do you figure out the balance?

You could just ask the affiliate manager and maybe they would tell you, but usually they will not. So if you are armed with 3 different numbers from the program (which you should be able to get either from the network or maybe even the program description), I can help you figure it out. Here is what you need:

  • Standard Program Commission
  • Average Sale Amount
  • Average Commission Amount

Another number that is helpful but very hard to get is the rate the merchant pays coupon sites. I suggest using either 1% or 2% because if a merchant IS paying a coupon site much less than standard, it will usually be one of those.

Caveats

As with all data, there can be a lot of variance. Not every merchant pays their coupon sites lower rates. Some pay the full amount to all affiliates. Some only lower the commission for the coupon site if it ranks for the merchant name + coupon. There also may be some other factors in the commission rates that throw things off like:

  • Cash back sites paid lower than content sites
  • “Other” affiliates like cart abandonment affiliates are paid a lower rate
  • VIP rates for a large percentage of the affiliate traffic
  • Flat rate bonuses

The way you will know almost immediately if this calculation is important for you is to look at:

  • Average Commission Divided by Average Sale Amount

If that number is smaller than the Standard Program Commission, you can use my calculations. If that number is larger than the Standard Program Commission, it means the merchant is paying out some VIP commissions or bonuses that make my calculations useless. Except that it means you should probably investigate whether you should be asking for a commission increase or bonus! 

So there you have it. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s one more data point that you might be able to use when running your affiliate marketing business. I’m including a link to a Google Sheet that I created that has a place for you to fill in the variables and it will automatically calculate the average commission and the content versus coupon for you.

Please download and a make a copy for yourself rather than trying to change my numbers! 

Or here is the formula if you just want to plug in the numbers yourself. It’s a bit of a bear!

(Standard Commission)*x + Coupon Commission(100-x) = Overall Program Commission

Where Overall Program Commission = Average Commission / Average Sale

Solving for X will give you your content site percentage and 100-x will give you coupon. Remember that you can use either 1 or 2 for that Coupon Commission. I suggest running both if you don’t know for sure and giving yourself a range.

Was this helpful to you? What is your favorite data analysis that you run for your affiliate sites?