Guide to Promoting Tax Offers

February 27, 2012 Categories: Guides by 0 Comments

Intro

How do tax offers work?

Tax offers are very popular with affiliates and for good reason – everyone needs them. Tax offers do so well in fact, that some affiliates make the bulk of their income promoting these offers a few months out of the year. To reach that level, you need to understand tax offers inside and out. This guide will put you on the fast track.

Tax offers are usually lead based offers. This means a user needs to fill out a few fields of basic information (name, email, phone, etc.) and then you are credited for the lead. Payouts can range from a few dollars up. Generally, the longer the lead form the higher the payout.

People fill out tax offers to get help preparing their taxes. These offers are usually solutions like Turbo Tax that helps people prepare their own taxes. What these solutions do is take someone’s income, deductions, etc. compute all the taxes, and complete the appropriate forms. These solutions appeal to people because they take care of preparing your taxes correctly while all you need to do is input your income and answer some questions.

Tax Terms and Concepts

Before getting into the mind of your potential customer, it’s important to familiarize yourself with United States taxes. This is especially important for overseas affiliates who have never been exposed to US tax laws, or had to prepare taxes. This step is vital in your understanding of the offers and how to promote them.

Tax Season

The division of government that is in charge of taxes is called the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

People are taxed on their income. Income can be more earned from a job, or from your own business if self-employed. You pay taxes to the federal government (IRS) and also to the state you live in. Some states like Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming do not impose a state tax. Taxes are used by the government to pay for schools, roads, etc. Basically, things US citizens use without paying.

Taxes are usually paid through your paycheck over the course of the year. For example, if your salary was $5,000 per month you might take home $3,000 with the other $2,000 going towards your taxes. Some people get money back at the end of the year, if they have overpaid their taxes.

Similarly, when self-employed, you’re required to make estimated tax payments several times per year. This is because you aren’t paying taxes out of your employer’s paycheck on a monthly basis.

Taxes are due by April 17th. Some people choose to file an extension if they aren’t prepared. When you file a tax extension, you have until October 15th to complete it. You will be penalized for late completion, so it’s important to get them done asap.

To complete your taxes, specific forms must be submitted to the IRS with information about your income and deductions. Deductions are expenses that are tax deductible, and reduce your taxable income. This is an important point for your advertising because people want to claim all the deductions they legally can. People also get tax deductions for having children.

An example of a specific form is the 1040 (most common).

Demographics

Tax offers can be completed by men and women. The majority of people filling out these offers are women. Most people visiting tax offers are in the 25-44 age range…

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Quick Shareasale Tip – Link to ANY Page On a Merchant’s Site

February 9, 2012 Categories: Quick Tips by 1 Comment

If you’ve used Shareasale much, you’re probably already familiar with the “Create a Custom Link” tool.  For those who haven’t seen it, though, I wanted to take a moment to point it out and emphasize how incredibly useful it can be.  In my opinion, it’s easily one of the most underrated tools for cost-per-sale affiliate programs, and it’s completely free.

 

What Does it Do?

The “Create a Custom Link” tool lets you quickly create a properly formatted affiliate link to ANY page on the sites of Shareasale merchants you work with.  A lot of networks and programs make it surprisingly difficult to deep link, but as affiliates, we know that a deep link is often the best kind.  When you can take the buyer to the exact page they need (even a category page within the site), you dramatically raise conversion rates (and thus, your profits).

With this tool, it doesn’t matter if the merchant only gives you 3 banners and 2 text links – all of which leads to the site’s homepage.  You just locate the page you want to link to, pop it in the tool, and you’re in business.  There’s also an extra-useful feature that we’ll talk about in a minute.

 

How  Do I Access the Tool?

To get to the “Create a Custom Link” tool, log into Shareasale and hover over the “Links” option on the top menu bar.  You should now see the option to access the tool (as pictured below).

 

How Do I Use the “Create a Custom Link” Tool?

It’s actually quite simple.  Suppose you’re promoting NaturalPebbleTile and you want to link directly to a specific tile pattern.  Perhaps you’re bidding on a keyword like “grey and white pebble tile”, or writing a blog post and including that specific tile pattern because it looks best with some other products you’re featuring.  To make your link, just click on the “Create a Custom Link” tool as described above, then fill out the form as pictured below.

 

1. Select your merchant’s name from the list.  Your list will only include those merchants whose programs you have joined.

2. Choose a SUBID if you want one.  If you make a sale through the link, you’ll see the SUBID show up in your sales reports, letting you know which links/products are generating the most revenue for you.  This value should just be a short word or number that means something to you.  For instance, when linking to black and grey pebble tiles, I might fill in this field with “blackgreypebbletile”.  In your activity details, it will look something like this:

3. Enter your destination URL.  This will just be the address of the specific page you want to link to – the only thing you need to remember to do is to remove the “http://” portion, since they’ve already included that part for you.

4. Decide if you want to use their URL shortener.  Now, it might seem like this is useless unless you’re on Twitter, but that’s actually not the case here.  When you select the URL shortening option, they give you another option – a social sharing function.  If the product you’re promoting is the kind of thing people would share, this can bring in a few extra sales from time to time.

5. Click “Create Custom Link” and they’ll give you your newly created affiliate link.

When people visit your link, they’ll see a small overlay at the top of the screen – just like this (I had to make the image much smaller due to the width of the WordPress column):

And that’s all there is to it!  Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find it’s considerably faster than digging through lists of banners and text links or trying to use some of the product link builders provided by some of the other programs out there.

Building PopShops Datafeed Blogs That Work – WSO Exclusive

February 7, 2012 Categories: Step By Step Guides by 10 Comments

WSO Exclusive Offer

A lot of affiliates who have never actually made a datafeed site are either intimidated by the process or completely unfamiliar with it. There’s no need to be, though, and it’s actually quite simple to produce datafeed sites that add value for the user AND make money.

This guide will show you how simple the process is, and how it can be replicated to create long term profits.

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Offer Insights – My Franchise Business Experts

Offer Insights – My Franchise Business Experts

January 24, 2012 Categories: Offer Insights by 0 Comments

My Franchise Business Experts is a lead gen offer put together by two long-time franchise industry veterans.  How does it work?  Their website seeks people who are serious about investing in franchise opportunities, whether that means a housecleaning franchise, a restaurant franchise, or even one of those ATM or DVD franchise systems.  My Franchise Business Experts has a team of experts that will help potential franchisees figure out which opportunities are best for them, then guide them through the process.

 

It’s Evergreen

Although the overall volume on franchise related searches isn’t tremendous, the competition in PPC, SEO, and social media is surprisingly weak.  That may be due in large part to the fact that there are very few affiliate programs for franchise recruitment.  Individual franchise systems DO have online recruitment efforts, but they tend to focus on very narrow areas.  In this case, the company consults with potential franchisees in any niche, so you have a lot more options.

If you’ve worked in truly competitive markets, you’ll find this to be like shooting fish in a barrel.  And, because franchising is a time-honored business model (and not the shady supplement/zip submit of the day), this is likely to be a long-term campaign for any affiliates who puts in the initial effort to get it going.

 

Who Opens a Franchise?

Franchise owners vary considerably depending on the type of franchise, but for the most part, you can assume they’re either middle-aged or retired.  Young people don’t tend to invest heavily in franchises for a couple of reasons.  Most don’t have the capital necessary to do so, and young people are often more interested in starting their own businesses rather than adapting to someone else’s concept.

In this case, the offer is limited to the United States, so you don’t have to worry about which countries to target.  If your approach involves advertising to people looking into certain TYPES of franchises, though, it pays to do a little research into the areas of the country that are most popular for different types of franchises.  Franchises dealing with corporate catering aren’t likely to go over as well in rural areas.  Garage services franchises may not be such a hot ticket in big cities like New York and San Francisco where the vast majority of people lack garages.  City-level targeting can be highly effective if you take the time to research cities that are growing rapidly.  Your landing page could even go on to talk about the city’s growth factors and how franchising a business could allow the visitor to capitalize on that growth.

Psychographics –

Even though there’s a lot of variation between different types of franchisees, there are certain traits that most franchise owners share.

 

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Offer Insights – How to Promote Russian Dating Programs

Offer Insights – How to Promote Russian Dating Programs

January 24, 2012 Categories: Offer Insights by 0 Comments

 

Over the years, I’ve noticed that the people who have the most consistent success in promoting Russian dating offers are the ones who have a good understanding of the sites, the market, and what drives men to seek a foreign girlfriend or wife.  To that end, I’ve put together a guide that offers a sneak peek into the world of Russian dating.

 

Are Russian dating offers legit?  How do they work?

Russian dating sites are designed to help men from around the world meet beautiful Russian and Eastern European women.   Contrary to popular belief, men don’t “buy” brides.  Most members browse profiles, chat up ladies, flirt, and generally have fun conversing with pretty girls from another country.  Although some men are happy with conversation and companionship, serious members frequently form lasting relationships in hopes of meeting a woman they may one day meet or even marry.

 

Demographics –

Russian dating offers are typically  for adult men only.

Unlike a lot of mainstream dating sites that get a lot of men in their early to mid-20s, the best members are typically a bit older.  Nearly all the serious men are 30+, with most being 35+. These are often guys who are either frustrated at never finding “the one” after years of dating, or who have been divorced/widowed/etc.

These men are typically educated (many have a bachelor’s degree or higher) and well-off (most are solidly middle class or better).

Most of these men come from industrialized nations, but it’s not limited to English-speakers. Scandinavian countries have done very well historically, although there are successful affiliates promoting the offer to every country currently offered.  Some offers also have non-English pages, which are highly effective with (comparatively) cheaper international traffic.

 

Psychographics -

Bear in mind that the tips in this section are broad generalizations.  They are not reflective of every user, and someone certainly doesn’t HAVE to agree with the statements below to be a good member.  These tips are only meant to help you get a little more insight into why some men choose Russian dating instead of more traditional local dating sites.

 

A lot of men are sick of headstrong and pushy “liberated” women.

The bulk of the guys using a Russian dating site are guys who believe women should have rights and the ability to work, etc – but they don’t want that to come at the cost of sexuality, femininity, etc. If you appeal to the notion that Russian women are both intelligent and devoted, loving partners, you will do well.

 

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Conspiracy Theories 101: Why You Should Talk to Your Advertiser

January 23, 2012 Categories: Affiliate Business Issues by 1 Comment

Having worked in affiliate marketing for the better part of the last decade, I’ve seen things that would shock most affiliates…

  • Networks denying low-quality traffic chargebacks to advertisers, telling affiliates the advertiser didn’t pay, and pocketing the money themselves
  • Networks “losing” as many as 1/3 of the total leads sent to an offer, even though the advertiser is still paying the full amount
  • Networks whose reputations and low-quality traffic have earned them a nasty scrub from the advertiser

This is NOT to say that affiliate networks are bad.  A good network actually provides a huge amount of value, and it’s only in very limited circumstances that I would tell an affiliate to go direct with their advertiser.  However, the traditional affiliate/network relationship keeps the lines of communication closed between affiliates and advertisers because networks often worry that their cash cow affiliates will be wooed away by the advertiser.

All three of the problems above can be avoided by very short, very simple correspondence with your advertiser.  If you want to start running an offer, it’s a good idea to contact them to ask which networks they recommend.  They can tell you which networks have direct relationships, which is especially important if you like getting paid.  When you run through a network that is running the offer through ANOTHER network, all of the traffic flows through just one or two affiliate IDs on the main network.  If other affiliates are up to no good, it’s not uncommon to see the entire sub-network get booted from the main network (and all the leads get charged back, particularly if the “good” affiliates represented a relatively small amount of traffic).  That’s especially true if anyone in that chain is sending improperly formatted SUBIDs – something that happens far more often than it should.

Advertisers may also give some vague recommendations about networks they prefer, which could mean any number of things – including the fact that the network in question could have a lower scrub rate than certain others.  I won’t name names, but conversations with other advertisers have revealed that there are certain networks that are scrubbed harder than others (by advertisers) with startling regularity.  If a network seems to have harsh quality control teams, that’s often a good sign for you, the affiliate.  Affiliates are often the ones who pay when networks are loose with their acceptance criteria.

Something else a lot of affiliates overlook is the insight you can get from your advertiser.  Very often, the advertiser has already spent thousands (or millions) of dollars promoting the company through a variety of online and offline marketing methods.  They know the demographics.  They know the psychographics.  They even know specific words and phrases that can help your conversions.  To ignore this valuable source of information is to start your campaign at an immediate disadvantage. You have to pay to learn what they could have told you for free.  Granted, that’s not true in EVERY case, as a lot of offers can be extremely similar – but there are subtle differences we affiliates don’t always notice in our rush to test more offers.

For example – Russian and Asian dating offers tend to have a significantly older demographic than more mainstream dating sites.  Similarly, there’s a huge difference between tax preparation offers and tax resolution offers.  For one thing, tax resolution offers convert year-round, while tax preparation offers tend to do 99% of their business before April 15 (with a huge drop-off in March).  Why?  Tax resolution offers are for people who owe back taxes from previous years, while tax prep offers are relevant to the average person who does their taxes in the standard January – April window of time.

Affiliate networks often have hundreds or thousands of offers to keep track of.  Their employees don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of every single offer they work with.  By talking briefly with the advertiser, you’ll get details your network may not be able to give you.

Relationship management is also much easier if you talk with your advertiser.  If you give the advertiser a bit of insight into what you’re doing and let them know you want feedback on quality, the odds of getting booted from the offer are much lower.  If your quality does dip, they can talk to you about it.  If your quality is outstanding, they can go to the network and assign a custom payout level to better compensate you for your efforts.

That’s not to say you need to email your advertiser all the time, as most of these things can be accomplished with very minimal correspondence.  Your network should still be the primary point of contact, but talking with the advertiser once in a while may be just what you need to take your business to the next level.

Welcome to AffLessons

January 23, 2012 Categories: News & Announcements by 0 Comments

Welcome to AffLessons.

The point here is simple.  We want to provide quality affiliate marketing tutorials and case studies at no cost whatsoever to readers.  Instead of charging users, we’ve located advertisers who are willing to pay us to examine their offers in-depth and/or test them out with live case studies.  They get exposure, you get quality information and ideas – and we don’t have to do it for free or charge you an arm and a leg.

There is one catch, though.  The very best information will only be available to email list members.  We WILL post useful articles and information to the blog, but the very best information – long reports and case studies – will only be available on the blog in a shortened teaser format.  It’s not that we want to spam you endlessly; we just want to be able to tell our sponsors how many people are getting their message.  So, to summarize:

  • The best information and case studies will ONLY be available to email list members
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