You don’t have much time left….

Well, we’re down to the last two weeks of the year….can you believe it.  Of course, I’m running around like crazy getting ready for the Christmas holiday, and on top of that my son’s birthday is December 24^th, so this time of year is even busier for me than for most.   For all of you who celebrate birthdays either the day before or the day after Christmas you know what I’m talking about, and you hold a special place in my heart.

I’m also gearing up for 2011, and rumor has it that this year will be a game changer in the world of affiliate marketing and I am super excited that I will be a part of it.

First, my husband Greg, along with two other very smart affiliate marketers (Jon Shugart and Luke Sample), have partnered and are kicking it off in Las Vegas on January 8, with a seminar on media buys, monetization, and automation.  I am truly blown away by the content that they will be sharing, and I promise that if you implement their strategies, your affiliate marketing business will absolutely explode.  Click here to learn and register for the event:  https://www.therockstaralliance.com/vegas.html

Second, immediately following my hubby’s seminar, I’ll be heading over to Affiliate Summit West, one of the premier industry events for affiliate marketers.  If you are serious about your affiliate marketing business, you need to make it your business to head to Vegas and attend.

Third, after Affiliate Summit, I will be attending a closed door masterminding session strictly for affiliate marketers and I’m positive that I’ll be walking away with some gems.  So as you can see, there’s lots going on in January, and if you want to be a part of it, you don’t have much time left.

I’m getting fired up for 2011 and I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with you.   My goal for 2011 is not only to share information, but for those of you who are still on the fence, to inspire you to take the leap and start doing it yourself.

Wishing you a joyous holiday season, and a phenomenal New Year!!!

Love and success in 2011,

Kim

It’s 11PM Wednesday night, and I’ve spent the evening with my mother-in-law (which has been wonderful) preparing for our big Thanksgiving feast. This year I am hosting my in-laws, and for those of you who don’t know, my husband is one of eight children, so there will be lots of aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews. At last count, I’ve got over 30 people descending on my home. As a matter of fact, I’ll be up at 4AM to start cooking a 25 pound turkey. I swear it’s the biggest turkey that I’ve ever seen….LOL!

Me and my mom-in-law after stuffing the turkey.

Of course we all know that Thanksgiving is more than just about a meal, so I want to take this time to thank you for being supportive by reading my blog and reaching out to me via Facebook, Twitter, and sometimes in person. I’ve had a great 2010, and have met so many wonderful people. Not just in affiliate marketing but in various entrepreneurial ventures.

Of course we should always be thankful, but it is at this time of year, we are reminded how important it is to take this time to reflect and be thankful for all our accomplishments over the past year.

Wishing you a joyous start to the holiday season,

Kim

Are you careful who you spend your time with…

I just returned from another awesome industry event for Affiliate Marketers… AdTech NYC. As usual I had a great time, and once again I was reminded of the power of networking but of like minds coming together.

Now I know that for many of you starting out in this industry you may be thinking, “I’ve got to spend all my money buying traffic; I can’t afford the expense of traveling to an event just to network”. Well, I used to feel the same way. I figured that my time AND my money was best spent learning about the industry, not hanging out with people I didn’t really know. I just couldn’t see the value… but after attending just one of these events my eyes were opened, and I realized that there is more going on at these events than just going from booth to booth of the convention floor, or partying the night away….although the parties are great. LOL! There is power in association.

First, these events offer you the rare opportunity of meeting and learning from the top affiliates in the industry, and by being around such high performers, it challenges you to think big. Second, you walk away with so many innovative strategies and ideas that you’d be crazy not to implement. But more importantly events such as these are where some of the biggest deals in the industry are made, and you want to be a part of that.

So no matter what your niche, you owe it to yourself to attend an industry event, get plugged in, and watch your business skyrocket.

Spending time with the husband…

During this year’s AdTech, my husband and I decided to do something different and invited two Diamond Level Coaching clients to join us in NY. It was a huge success. Not only was it a great opportunity to get to know our clients better, but it was also a wonderful opportunity to treat some really great guys to a good time.

Hangin’ out in NYC at
one of the industry
parties hosted by
ECM…of course.

Many people ask how it is that my husband and I have been able to create a successful business, live together, raise two children, and not strangle one another. Now having a business partner can be stressful, but when that partner is your spouse it can really get crazy. However, as a couple you share a unique dedication to the success of the business.

If you and your spouse have a business together here are a couple of tips to keep your business and marriage strong:

1. Maintain clear and separate responsibilities – If you role is sales and his is finance, keep it that way.
2. Keep your personal lives out of the office – No arguing about who left the toilet seat up in front of clients.
3. Keep business out of the bedroom – I don’t think I need to explain this one.
4. Get away with each other – Take time to enjoy the time together and with the kids away from the business.
5. Get away from each other – Take time to hang with the fellas or the girls.
6. Capitalize on the benefits of working together – You are in the unique position to make your own schedule. Schedule your time and agenda to fit your life, not the other way around.

If you and your spouse are in business together, you know it can be challenging. However, when everything clicks, when everything works right, there’s nothing better. Work hard. Make money. Have fun.

Spending time on your business…

One last note about AdTech. I’ve mentioned this in a number of my previous blogs and my predictions are becoming more and more evident. What is the biggest growth industry in CPA right now? You guessed it…I hope. Mobile advertising. I even ran across a couple of new advertisers who are strictly running mobile ads for CPA. That would have been unheard of just a couple of years ago.

Last year, there were a few mobile advertisers at the show. This year, there were at least three times the previous year, and I’m sure that number will continue to grow. Let’s face it, who doesn’t have a cell phone, so if you’re not seriously thinking about adding this advertising medium to your current business model now. You will miss out. The money is made by early adopters, if you wait too long, the opportunity will still be there, but the profits will become saturated as more and more affiliates jump in.

Well, I’m headed to Baltimore this weekend to attend Dan Kennedy’s Info Summit, and spend some time with some of the top info-marketers in the business. I expect to do lots of networking, and walk away with some great ideas that will continue to grow the business. How will you be spending your time?

To your success,

Kim

http://www.KimADavis.com

I’ve been cheating….

I know it’s been awhile, but I promise you I haven’t been lazy.  As a matter of fact, I’ve been doing a little cheating, but probably not in the way that many might think.  By cheating, I mean I took a look at everything on my “to do” list and decided that if I was going to make the impact that I wanted in my business, that I was going to have to do a little cheating and become hyper-focused on those tasks that were most important.

So I took a step back from email, Facebook, and Twitter to put all my efforts into product creation and developing marketing strategies for coaching.  Well, 30 days later, I’m really beginning to see the results of my efforts, but of course it was not without some sacrifice.  I stayed up waaay too late, too often (cheated on my sleep); I missed a few social events (cheated on my friends); and yes, I did have some stressful moments (cheated on myself), but I can honestly say I’m pleased with all I’ve accomplished.

No one who is successful in business can have it all, all the time.  There will be times when you will need to “cheat” in a particular area of your life in order to take your business to the next level.  Do you need to do a little cheating of your own?

One thing I’ll NEVER cheat on….

Although I gave up a lot these past 30 days, the one thing I refused to cheat on was my family.  As a matter of fact, just last week, my husband and I were blessed to be able to sneak away with the kids to spend a few days in Cancun.  Believe it or not,  I didn’t touch my laptop or cellphone the entire trip (I cheated on email, Facebook, and Verizon…LOL).  We had an awesome time and I was quickly reminded why it’s so important to get away from time to time.

My beautiful children enjoying the BEACH!!!

Cheating…and winning in CPA….

… and I’m not talking about being unethical.  When I talk about cheating with CPA, I’m referring to using shortcuts and tools that allow you to “cheat” on the amount of time you spend managing your CPV campaigns, but still enable you to accomplish just as much if not more in your business.    A great example of such a tool is CPV:Lab™ .  Now if you are an affiliate for Elite Clicks Media, you already know all about this, but if not, you owe it to yourself to check out this amazing tracking tool that allows you to generate leads, collect date, optimize campaigns, collect emails to build your own list, AND split test in less time than other similar platforms, and definitely faster than you can do on your own.  WOW!  Now that’s the kind of cheating I can live with.

To your success,

Kim

It might be time for a change if….

Fall is in the air, and as the seasons begin to change, I start looking at both my business to see if there are things that I should be changing there as well.  Oftentimes we can become very comfortable with doing what we’ve been doing…especially if there aren’t any immediate negative results.  But there is always room for improvement.  Take a look at your business.  Are there some things that you can do or change to make certain areas of your business operate more efficiently?  Are you still doing some things that you know you need to outsource, which would free you up to focus on taking your business to the next level?  It’s very easy to fall into the trap of “nobody can do it like I can”, and you just might be right, but as your business grows and changes, you have to grow and change to.

I was sick of myself, so I decided to make a change…..

So not only did I take a look at my business, but I also took a look at my personal life.  After all, there can be just as many things in your personal life you need to improve on (if not more), than your business.  For me, it was my diet.  I’ve been having a GREAT time this summer.  Probably a little too great.  LOL! I’ve been traveling, attending sporting events, family reunions and cookouts…..translation….eating and drinking too much of the wrong things.  By time summer was winding down, I was feeling sluggish and my energy level was low.  I was ready to get my eating back on track, so just this past weekend, I decided to do a 3-day juice fast.  Of course the first day, I was kicking myself because I was soooo hungry, but by day 2, I was feeling better, and on day 3, I felt great.  I had more energy and I even lost a couple of pounds…woo hoo J.  Now I’m back on the path to healthier eating and I feel better than ever.

You need to change your mindset about affiliate marketing….

If you feel like your affiliate marketing campaigns are humming along, and you’re ready for a little change in your marketing strategy that will increase profits, consider mobile advertising.  Mobile we advertising is a hybrid of traditional banner, search advertising, and PPV.

As with PPV, the user is seeking a specific bit of information, so your ad better be a good one if you want to get their attention.  Now moving from PPC on the web to mobile marketing definitely requires a “change” in your mindset, but because it’s a relatively untapped traffic source that is expected grow exponentially as mobile web becomes the standard.

So what works?  CPA offers that such as zip/email submits, mobile coupons and downloads.  The focus of your campaigns should be simple.  The intent of the mobile web user is to search for specific information.  Your mission is to make your information what they are looking for.

It’s not as easy as it looks….

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur who feels as if no one respects what you do?  I find it very interesting the numbers of people who are employed that believe simply by virtue of owning your own business, you are somehow on “easy street”.  Or, worse yet, once your business becomes successful, everyone seems to forget all the time and effort it took to make it a success.  They only see the benefits and somehow think that what you did was easy.  I always tell people, if it was that easy everyone would be doing it.  I’ve worked for someone and I’ve worked for myself, and yes working for yourself can be very rewarding, believe me you also work a lot harder.  So the next time someone assumes that being your own boss means that you’ve got it easy, ask them the following questions:

1. Are you willing to give up the security of a regular paycheck?
2. Are you willing to work long hours for an unspecified period of time (sacrificing vacation and family time) to make your business a success?
3. Can you handle the stress of failure? (Because as any entrepreneur can tell you, you WILL fail…more than once I might add, before you succeed)

Now if your friend, family or colleague can answer a definitive yes to these questions, then by all means encourage her to take the plunge, but if not remind them to respect all that you’ve sacrificed, and that whatever rewards you’ve received, you’ve earned.

Child’s Play

My husband has been away on travel for the past week.   During his time away, he cemented two joint ventures, worked on a new product launch, laid the ground work for a new company he’s forming, and spoke at an Internet conference in Atlanta.  As I stated earlier, being an entrepreneur definitely doesn’t mean being a slacker.

So while he’s away generating new business, I remained local making sure that the existing one continued to run smoothly.  It was a challenging week which also included caring for and shuttling two kids back and forth to camp and daycare, but I really enjoyed my “mommy time” with them.  We even celebrated our “last” day together by spending the day at a local petting zoo, grabbing a “few” doughnuts from Krispy Kreme and wrapping it all up with a pizza party at home.

I had a blast with my kids, but I think SOMEBODY owes me a spa day!  LOL.

Local is all the rage….

As many of you have heard or will be hearing soon “local” is the latest and greatest opportunity in the internet marketing space.  Basically, what a lot of very smart affiliate marketers are doing is taking their expertise to the local market and showing small business how to rank in the search engines using SEO and/or PPC strategies.   For those of us in the industry, we often forget how foreign the internet is to the average person.  Very few businesses understand the mechanics of how by typing in a few keywords, your business can get listed on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, but they do know it’s important to be on the first page and they are willing to pay someone for that expertise.

One thing that affiliates are doing is building a site that ranks high in the search engines for a local industry, for example “Washington, DC chiropractor”.  Once that site is ranked, the affiliate then contacts chiropractors in Washington, DC and offers them the site for a specific price….how’s that for an additional stream of income.  Not only can you go the traditional route of making money getting sites ranked for your own campaigns, but now you can transfer that expertise to small businesses.

To your success,

Kim

You’ve got to give it up!

There is nothing for satisfying then the giving of your time.  I know how busy life can get, and you feel like there is no way that you can give any more of yourself than you already are, but I promise you giving of yourself when you have so much, to those who have less can bring you more joy than you can imagine.  Learn to give back.  Not because you have to but to give hope to those who can’t and to grow both mentally and spiritually as an individual.

Just last Thursday, I took a trip to Los Angeles, where I was blessed with the opportunity to volunteer as a mentor for the L.E.A.P. Foundation.  Now before you pat me on the back and think what a wonderful person I am, I have to be honest and say I almost didn’t make it.  There was a huge storm in Washington that morning, therefore my flight was delayed.  Thanks to that delay, I missed my connection in Atlanta.  When I got to Atlanta, every flight to L.A. was sold out until the next morning, and on top of all that, my luggage was missing.  It was at this point that I thought about turning around and going home. After all, by the time I was now scheduled to arrive in L.A., I’d have to turn around and leave the next day, so what would be the point of traveling 3000 miles for a few hours.

Fortunately, I was travelling with my good friend Superwoman Vicki Irvin, who reminded me of my purpose….to be a mentor…..so off we went to our Atlanta hotel, and the mall (since the airline couldn’t tell us where our luggage was) to buy clothes that we could wear the next day.

We arrived at LAX at 10:30AM, found our luggage, ran to our hotel to drop off our bags, and of course since we couldn’t check into our room, freshened up in the lobby bathroom, jumped in a cab and made our way over to UCLA for the event….WHEW!

All I can say is despite the challenges of getting there I have never felt so blessed and honored to be part of such an amazing event.  I met some of truly inspiring high school and college students, and by the end of the day my spirit was soaring.  I know it sounds cliché, but it really is better to give than receive.

Coast to Coast….

Not only did I travel to LA to mentor a youth group, but the very next morning I hopped on a plane and headed to NY to meet my husband and attend Affiliate Summit…coast to coast within 48 hours.  Now I don’t recommend this traveling bi-coastal on a regular basis, but sometimes you’ve got to dig deep to make things happen.  I knew I wanted to give a part of myself to the kids in LA, but I also knew it was important to follow my own dreams and ambitions.  They both just happened to coincide on the same weekend.  The journey towards a worthy goal never comes easy, so the sacrifices I made to give of myself and to grow my business were well worth it.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Affiliate Summit….

I’m just returning from Affiliate Summit East in NYC, and all I can say is it was the best one yet.  I just finished reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, and in that book he talks about a phenomenon called momentum, where you begin to see success and results compound rapidly.  Well I’m definitely feeling some momentum.  LOL!

While attending ASE10, I networked and learned from some of the top names in the industry.  I spoke with a number of individuals regarding my quest to bring more women into the industry, and was able to convince one very smart PPV woman affiliate to join my network.  For those of you who weren’t there, if you are serious about becoming an affiliate, you owe it to yourself to attend.

If you are planning on being at the next event, I’d like to give you three quick pointers that will help you as you walk the halls:

1. Don’t be a newbie…even if you are one.  Advertisers are looking for experienced affiliates, so if you are talking to one, the worst thing you can do is say that you are new.
2. Don’t let the advertisers do all the talking.  Flip the script!  Be aggressive and ask questions of them.
3. Do go to www.offervault.com or www.affspy.com to see what types of offers the advertiser has.  If you find that they are not listed under a certain offer type, ask them about it.  This puts you in a position of authority.

Affiliate Summit West 2011 is coming to Las Vegas, January 9 – 11.  Hope to see you there!

To your success,

Kim

Lately there has been a lot of talk about rebranding the affiliate marketing industry to better reflect how it fits into the overall advertising and marketing industry.  Due to the increase in the number of major brand advertisers into the affiliate marketing world, many are saying that the industry has outgrown the term affiliate and prefer the term performance marketers.   In some ways it makes sense.   Most people that I talk to have little to no understanding of what an affiliate does.

According to blogger Scott Medlock,  “Performance marketing is where advertisers, working through an agency place creatives with publishers who accept payment as a result of consumer action on the advertising instead of an arbitrary payment based on possible reader/viewership”.  Interestingly enough, when defined in this way, those who are in the marketing and advertising industry “get it”.

TV stations regularly air infomercials on a performance basis.  So do radio and cable.  Most people understand that business model, but for some reason when it’s applied to the online world, it’s looked upon as a different animal.

Of course there are always two sides to a coin.  There are some who feel that it’s a bad idea to change the brand.  Affiliates have spent a number of years educating online marketers and the public about affiliate marketing, so many feel that changing the brand would result in a negative setback for the industry.

This debate isn’t over, and it will be interesting to see which side wins.  Personally, I like the term performance marketing.  Since the industry is evolving why not evolve the brand.

To your success,

Kim

Direct linking is putting links directly to your advertiser sites rather than creating a landing page to pre-sell the offer.  This is an effective way to generate income because it is fairly easy to do.  You can direct link from article sites, forums, blogs, and message boards.

Of course there are always pros and cons with any method of driving traffic, and direct linking is no different.  First, let’s talk about the pros:

1. It’s easy; it’s fast….no website needed.
2. In offers where the prospect does not need to be pre-sold, such as a car insurance quote, or a loan, direct linking often converts better.
3. For a branded offer, you get to use the advertiser’s URL.  For example, if it’s a Blockbuster offer, when you direct link, the offer will say Blockbuster.

And now the cons:

1. You lose control.  You don’t have control of the landing page, it belongs to the advertiser.
2. The offer can go away.  All CPA offers go away eventually, so if the offer goes away, so does your money.
3. A lot of places to advertise won’t let you direct link (Google will penalize for direct linking by giving you a low quality score).

It takes a while to create and test a landing that converts, so if you’re looking for a quick, easy way to jumpstart your affiliate marketing game, give direct linking a try.

To your success,

Kim

Last week I provided numbers 10 through 6 of my top 10 reasons why people fail at affiliate marketing. I know you’ve been waiting with anticipation to hear the rest, so let’s jump into it:

5. Unrealistic expectations – Rome wasn’t built in a day, so guess what your business won’t be either. I know, I know, you’ve heard all the stories and seen the emails that all you have to do is throw up a landing page and you will become an instant millionaire. But seriously, do you really think that you can work a couple of hours and create a campaign that makes you $2800 per day over the course of a year, if so, you are going to be very disappointed. And if you can do that, please call me because I want to know your secret. LOL!

4. Not testing – Testing, or the lack thereof will officially put the nail in the coffin of any aspiring affiliate. You have to test. One more time….You have to test. Say it again….You have to test. Ok, I think you get the idea. When you are creating your landing page, you don’t know what’s going to work and what isn’t. The only way to find out is through testing, and that means lots of it. The smallest changes can lead to the biggest results….both good and bad. So when you create an ad, you must consider every possibility that might attract a prospect to your page and continue to modify and refine (test) until you get the conversions you are looking for.

3. Not tracking – You can’t expect to be profitable if you’re not tracking the activity of your campaigns. You must monitor every ad’s CPC (cost per click), EPC (earnings per click), and conversion rates on a daily basis. Failure to manage any of the three is a one way ticket to losing money, and I’m sure you don’t want to do that.

I had a great time this weekend speaking about affiliate marketing at Vicki Irvin’s Extreme Women Entrepreneurs Conference in Washington, DC. Check me out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3B1zr70i24

2. Not managing cash flows – As anyone in business will tell you, you have to know not only how much your making, but how much you’re spending. It is very easy to get caught up in how much revenue your campaigns are generating, but not considering what you are spending for your advertising. I know many an affiliate who at the start of their career, would spend all their revenue, and forget that they still had to pay the search engines for advertising, so guess what, when the bill from Google came due, there was no money left to pay. How long do you think that affiliate stayed in business??

You also need to be mindful of managing your money based on your payouts. Every network pays on a different schedule. Some pay as little as once per month, others may pay as much as a couple of times per week. If you are only being paid monthly, and you spend all your advertising dollars in the first two weeks, you’ll have no money to run campaigns and will be forced to suspend them. This of course leads to missed revenue opportunities.

So just like you have a budget with whatever you are doing currently, you also want to have a budget as an affiliate. After all, this is a business and you need to treat it as such.

; And the number one reason people fail in affiliate marketing is (drum roll please)……..

1. Giving up too soon!!! – It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people give up when things aren’t going their way. You’ve probably heard this story before, but it bears repeating….it took Thomas Edison 99 tries before he invented the light bulb. Suppose he had given up at 98, we’d all still be reading by lantern. If you are just starting out in this business, or any business for that matter, things are going to be tough. It’s the nature of starting anything new, but you must persevere. As an affiliate, you never start out knowing what offer is going to convert the best for you, or what landing page is going to attract your prospect, but as long as you continue to tweak and test, you will eventually hit your mark and success will be yours.

To your success,

Kim

www.KimADavis.com