I've been running an experiment using affiliate marketing since 1999. That experiment ended this week. Over time, I saw less and less value ... and fewer and fewer revenues. So I finally pulled the plug.
The affiliate marketing experiment was over-the-counter.com. It started out in 1999 as an affiliate of PlanetRX. When PlanetRX flamed out, I switched over to Drugstore.com's affiliate program.
But over-the-counter.com lives on. And this time, like Southside sang, "this time, it's for real."
From the very beginning, over-the-counter.com was about reducing stress. In the beginning, it used affiliate marketing to bring customers and the embarassing products they sought together. But now, it's the real deal.
Perhaps you wondered why I wrote about ecommerce hosting a couple of weeks ago.
Now you know why. :)
So whether you're looking for Certain Dri, a pregnancy test, an athletic supporter, or some other embarassing item, you'll want to check out over-the-counter.
I still believe in affiliate marketing, when it's done correctly ... so much so, that over-the-counter.com is offering an affiliate program of its own.
After the third unsolicited call today, offering to refinance my house, I can only surmise that mortgage leads are one of the most sought after sales leads of all.
Glengary Glen Ross is one of the best movies ever made about the art of the sale. While it's real estate, not mortgage leads they're after, the Glengary leads are the ones that are highly prized.
When I get a telemarking call, I try to be as kind as possible, given the situation. I'm sympathetic to the fact that, yeah, they need to earn a living, too. I'm never rude, but I seek to end the calls as quickly as possible to save both my time and theirs. While they might look at my area code, exchange, and zip code and think they have a red hot mortgage lead on their hands, I quickly assure them that they do not.
I thank them for their call, explain that I have recently refinanced my mortgage for a low rate ... one so low that they could not possibly match, given today's market. Then I politely ask that they remove our phone number from their list (not that this always works), wish them a good day, and hang up.
While they might think I'm the Glengary mortgage lead that got away, I know better ...
I have big plans for my shed. It's been about seven years since I built my greenhouse/shed from a set of shed plans that I purchased from a local architect. It may be about to be covered with half a foot of fresh snow, but I'm looking ahead to the coming spring ... it's time to set those new plans into motion.
This little saltbox shed is due for some changes.
My shed is covered in T-111 plywood siding (painted to match the house) with a brown asphalt roof (which also matched the roof). We had a new roof put on the house a couple of years ago, in a lighter color ... alas the shed no longer matched. But the changes I have in mind won't serve to match the color of the houses' roof ... they're intended to make the shed look more appealing on its own.
I'm planning on residing the shed with board and batten, while replacing the asphalt roof with cedar shakes. While I need to go back and find the original shed plans to see if they show any specs for the cedar shake roof, I'm pretty sure I can wing it if necessary.
Before I rework the siding and roof, I plan to take out a reciprocating saw to the door frame, in order to create a big opening with dual sliding doors. I want the front of the shed to open up like the mouth of a hippopotamus ... all the better to get the lawn junk in and out ...
... and since I'm dreaming of a new lawn tractor to replace old green, I need a wider opening to accommodate a wider deck ... ;)
I've always dreamed of chartering a private jet.
There are two ways to fly: the way we are forced to fly and the way they have the good fortune to fly. This we has long longed to be a they, if you gather my continental (airlines) drift.
We are forced to get to the terminal two hours before departure. They roll up to the jet when they're ready to take off. We are faced with whoever happens to be sitting in the row with us. They control the passenger list. We are forced to endure airline food. They get whatever they order.
I'm planning to fly cross-country for a business conference this spring. Now I'm not a big fan of flying and I can't stand to spend an entire day flying through a pair of connecting flights. Unfortunately, the conference is being held in a city that is unreachable via non-stop. How nice would it be to charter a private jet to get there in half the time ... and on my own schedule, no less!
Private jet charter is the wave of the future, or so we're being told. Companies like Berkshire Hathaway's NetJets are making fractional ownership of business jets a reality for many a firm. At least that's what I've read in the Oracle of Omaha's must read annual reports.
Alas, private jet charter is out of the financial reach of this geekbook author ... if only I could write something fabulous on the topic of private jets, perhaps I could hitch a ride!
I reckon that I've been fascinated by trade show exhibits ever since I attended my first trade show, twenty years or so ago. I fondly recall wandering wide-eyed through the Graph Expo conference in Philadelphia ... the bustle of commerce, the bags of trinkets and brochures, the cool posters, and those amazing exhibits ... it brings back some cool memories (not to mention memories of aching feet).
Back in the early nineties, I weasled my way onto the Comdex show floor early one morning with my press pass, hours before the show opened. That was the heyday of Comdex, and let me tell you, the trade show exhibits that year were absolutely superb. Comdex back then was like a huge city within a city, spread out through the Sands and the Hilton and two or three other hotels. I walked those aisles in awe of the effort it took to pull it all off. And I dreamed of doing a photo essay of trade show exhibits one day ...
A few years later, I was working for a company that was exhibiting at a newspaper show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Through that experience, I experienced first hand what it was like to build a big trade show exhibit booth from the ground up. That company held back on a lot of marketing efforts, but when it came to that show and that booth, man, they did it right.
Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to attend tradeshows in three different ways: as a consumer, as an exhibitor, and as a member of the working press. Of the three, I'd have to say that I've enjoyed the shows most when I've covered them from the press perspective.
Everything else is just too much work! ;)
I let my term life insurance lapse last year. The premium was due, and after going through a big rate increase, we just let it slip. I had been carrying the policy for quite some time.
As I was looking into a new term life insurance policy, I began to dwell upon the subject of life expectancy, and the concept that someone could estimate how much time the average person had to live.
How the life insurance actuaries calculate their statistics is a mystery to me. There are so many variables about how one chooses to go about one's life, that it boggles the mind: what you eat, how you drive, where you live, and how you live each day.
So here I am, looking through tables and tables of term life policy rates. And all the while, two quotes are running through my head ...
One from Jimi Hendrix:
I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die.
So let me live my life the way I want to ...
... and one from Warren Zevon:
Enjoy every sandwich.
I kinda doubt that Jimi ever worried about term life insurance, but I'll bet that Warren did.
Of course, the government has their opinion.
Related: Life Insurance: Term or Whole? The Freakonomics of Term Life
A lot of stuff seem to be coming together here, and it's happening all at once. This is forcing me to rapidly consider a lot of new things and look at a lot of different technologies.
Case in point: I'd never given much thought to ecommerce hosting, as I never had the need. But things are changing quickly. One of my domains is shifting gears (finally!) and it's time to move it to a real hosting service.
Ecommerce hosting is a different animal. Far different from the regular old hosting services I've dealt with since the mid 90s. Way back when, I looked into an ecommerce host, but it was insanely expensive. It was so expensive that I gave up on the project.
That's not the case anymore. The expense is well within reason. And while the situation has already dictated the choice of provider, I think it'll work out just fine. It's a big ecommerce provider ... certainly one of the biggest, so I have confidence that this is the right choice.
Change is good. :)
I've been called into the email marketing fray more than a few times. But I have become increasingly hesitant to become involved with these projects. I'm convinced that the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns has been so severely comprimised by the onslaught of spam, that it makes less and less sense to tred in these waters.
Email marketing isn't dead. Yet.
But it's being buried under the collective carcass of unsolicited commercial email. The Can Spam Act doesn't seem to have any teeth. It might be a step in the right direction, might be, but hardly.
Nine out of Ten pieces of mail in my inbox are spam. And that's after my ISP runs their filters.
I started looking into survey software again this week. With a couple of new book projects on the burner, I need a way to rapidly pull in information from the flock. And I need it to happen with no intervention or manual entry on my part.
It's been a while since I needed to do a web survey ... sheesh, it's been a few years ... and the landscape has changed dramatically. At that time, I had set up a survey to gauge the feasibility of a seminar related to a specific piece of software. I was able to poll the potential audience and get a grasp on whether it made sense or not.
Needless to say, the web survey software I used back then is no longer available. Yet another victim of the dot com meltdown, may it rest in pieces.
So I'm out looking at the web survey market again, trying out the survey packages that offer free trial offers, and it seems like there are more than a few possibilities.
I'll let you know what I find ...
With the holidays past, it's time to get the house in order. And in many houses, that means it's time to deal with those holiday bills.
If you dread the thought of debt consolidation, you're not alone.
Take a look at this cool new site that focuses on those big grown up (and not so fun) topics like debt, credit cards, debt counseling and bankruptcy. This is scary stuff. But if it's time that you faced up, you better get facin' up, while the facin's still good.
The calculator that lets you find out "How long will it take for you to pay off those holiday bills?" is worth the price of admission.
Oh, but waitaminute ... it's free!
Now that I can afford.
I've been writing about storage sheds and backyard barns since 1999, when I first posted my little d-i-y shed & barn website. At first, I wanted to simply list all of the shed plans I could find on the web. Back then, there weren't many plans out there. These days, it seems like there's no end to them!
But truth be told, there are probably more ugly plans these days, than not. And I surely can't advocate building an ugly shed!
Building a backyard structure from scratch can be a daunting task. It's tough to visualize exactly how the finished structure will look when you start out by staring at a set of blueprints.
Want a way to make your work easier? Consider starting with a storage shed kit ... that way, you'll know what it'll look like before you start hammering away. And, just as importantly, the whole project will come together much more quickly.
Ever wonder how telemarketers can hit so many phone numbers in so little time?
It's simple ... they use devices known as predictive dialers. One of these devilish devices can dial more numbers than a whole roomful of retirees on a caffeine binge.
Predictive dialers are amazing devices. Without a predictive dialer, a company can only make so many connections per hour. Add one of these systems and the company can increase its telemarketing efforts by an exponential margin.
There's a huge selection of predictive dialing systems on the market today. Companies can choose from literally dozens of developers, with solutions to meet the needs of every firm--from the very smallest to the very largest. With developers including Noble Systems, Spitfire Predictives, Calltrol, Digisoft, Sundial, and Marketel, it seems like the choices are infinite.
While the trade journals may tout one system over another, it's always wise to compare apples to apples. One magazine's big fat juicy watermelon of a predictive dialing system won't necessarily fit in your company's pie.
There are a number of key points to keep in mind...
When implementing a predictive dialer, the goal is to increase agent effectiveness, as operational efficiency is enhanced. Just as importantly, a company should choose a system which easily expands to meet their needs.
Superior answering machine detection is key. You want your system to sniff out the voice mail boxes and deal with them accordingly. Anything less is counterproductive.
Make sure that the predictive dialing system you choose is customizable. An out of the box solution might work in some situations, but it won't work in all industries, and it very well might not work in your shop.
Why am I writing about this subject?
Lets just say that a little birdie asked me to look into predictive dialers. While I have no use for one (except, perhaps, for dialing into TicketMaster on a busy day), I can understand why telemarketers love them.
And I can surely, wholeheartedly, absolutely understand why consumers do not.
With the Elvis Year for affiliate marketing long past, folks keep asking me if it's dead ... has the fork been stuck ... has it rolled over ... is there any life in the old bones ... blah blah woof woof ...
I'm not sure. The Glory Days are over, but we keep going back to the bar. I'm walking in, but it's walked out.
Many folks looked at affiliate marketing as pure and evil manipulation. And at its worst, it was. And still is.
At its best, however, it was (and still can be) very good to the committed parties--publisher and advertiser alike.
I'm often asked if I ever plan to revise my 1999 epic, The Complete Guide to Associate and Affiliate Programs on the Net. Well ... I would have revised it a bunch of times, already ... if only the publisher had any interest.
When the book was initially envisioned, it was thought that it might be revised on a yearly basis. Ha! Like THAT ever happened.
By the time the book hit the streets, it was already half a year out of date. The conventional publishing process, having left much to be desired.
I could go on and on.
But I'll stop. :)