Affiliate Fuel “Changing Focus”

Ad network Affiliate Fuel is suspending their relationships with publishers as of April 1, 2009.

An email sent to all affiliates yesterday explained that “Experian Interactive Media, who owns Affiliate Fuel, has decided to take a different direction with our affiliate network.  We are changing our focus from an affiliate network to an internal marketing channel….As of 4/1/09, your Affiliate Fuel login will no longer work and your account will not be credited for any activity as of this date.”

Affiliate Fuel publishers who generated leads in the month of March will receive their final checks on or around April 15.

I’ve been working with Affiliate Fuel since December of 2004. I’ve enjoyed a great working relationship with them due to their professionalism, competitive payouts, and reliable payments. While I am disappointed to see Affiliate Fuel go, I am also not completely surprised. About three months ago, I began noticing some changes. First I saw a significant decline in the conversion of their offers. Also telling was the number of offers available in my market (education) decreased by approximately 40% during this time.

One lesson from traditional business that can be applied here is the idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Early in my affiliate marketing career I worked with only one affiliate network. As my business matured, and I learned more about the industry, I realized there were other networks with similar types of offers. Better yet, these other networks were offering payouts significantly higher than what I was making at the time.

The same can be said of the traffic coming to your site. If you are relying solely on natural traffic from Google, what will happen to your business revenue when (not if) Google changes its algorithm and your ranking / traffic decreases.

What is your approach to your affiliate marketing business? Do you work exclusively with one network or traffic provider?

Twimailer – Follow Me to Your Inbox

If you are a Twitter user, you really should check out Twimailer, a simple yet powerful new Twitter application. In short, Twimailer provides full details of your new followers, delivered directly to your inbox.

Typically when someone new follows you on Twitter, you receive a basic email notification with the user’s name and a link to their profile. No other information is provided as to the legitimacy of that individual or the value of the information they share. To learn more about your new follower, you have to click the email link, visit the user’s profile and decide if you want to become a follower of theirs too.

Due to Twitter’s rapid growth and viral nature, you can easily receive multiple new follower notifications every day. Clicking through to user’s profiles can quickly become a chore, especially with the recent increase in the amount of twiiter spam. If your visit to a new follower’s profile turns our to be a waste of time because they’re not who they say they are or they’re trying to get you to visit some strange site, your opinion of Twitter can quickly sour.

This is where Twimailer really shines. Instead of having to click through to the follower’s profile to decide if you want to follow them back, Twimailer gathers all their relevant information and delivers it right to your inbox. You see essentially everything on the user’s Twitter page but without having to click through to visit the Twitter site. The information in Twimailer email includes:

• a list of the user’s recent tweets
• the user’s name, location, website, and bio information
• the number of people the user is following
• the number of followers the user has

There is also a “Follow Back” link contained right in the Twimailer email. Clicking the link adds the user to your “following” list and takes you to the user’s profile page on the Twitter site.

Getting started with Twimailer is simple. First, visit the Twimailer site, twimailer.com, and enter your email address. You will receive a confirmation email with a link to verify your email account. Twimailer then provides you with a unique Twimailer email address. Replace your current Twitter email address (in your Twitter account profile) with your new Twimailer email address and you’re all set.

The third largest social networking site in the US, behind Facebook and MySpace, Twitter has approximately 6 million users and 55 million monthly visits (according to Compete.com).

Twitter is a social networking website that allows users to send and receive updates called tweets. Because these updates are text only and limited to 140 characters, Twitter is also referred to as a micro-blogging service.

I highly recommend utilizing Twimailer if you’re a Twitter user. It will save you time and aggravation in building your list of followers.

What are some Twitter tools and application you are using?

The Many Faces of Facebook

Facebook, the wildly popular social networking website, now has more than 175 million members. Already the most popular social networking site in several parts of the world, Compete recently reported that Facebook overtook MySpace in Unique Visitor traffic last month.

If you don’t yet have an account or page of your own, Facebook offers a number of different options. Whether you’re an individual, group, fan, or public figure, it’s easy for you to put your face on Facebook.

Profile Pages

Individuals over the age of 13 can create a profile page for themselves. Your Facebook profile is the page other members see when they search for you. It is designed to reflect you and your interests. All you need to sign up is a valid email address. During the registration process you will be asked some basic questions about where you work, where you went to school and where you live. Once answered, Facebook will generate a profile for you.

Fan Pages

Fan pages are more official in nature. According to Facebook, “only the official representative of a figure, brand, or organization is permitted to create a Facebook Page”.

As part of the fan page creation process, Facebook requires an email from an address associated with either the artist’s label or management group. They “need to make sure the person creating a fan page is an authorized representative of the artist.”

To create a Fan page, you first select your category (Local Business, a Brand or Product, or a  Public Figure / Celebrity) and then enter more detailed information based on the category selected.

Fan pages are publicly accessible and as such can be indexed by external search engines.

Fan page messaging options are more limited than with Groups. Messages sent to your Fan page members appear not in their inbox but rather as notifications. There’s a separate notifications bar in the bottom right corner of your profile page.

Fan page content options are more flexible than with Groups. In addition to the familiar wall, discussion board, video and photo upload options, Fan pages also support RSS, allowing you to subscribe to a blog feed for updated content. Fan pages also offer better support of application allowing you to further customize your page’s content.

Groups

Another option for creating a Facebook presence is a Facebook Group. According to Facebook, “If a user isn’t an authorized representative of an artist and they would like to create a space for fans of a certain figure to share their thoughts and opinions, we suggest they create a Facebook Group.”

Facebook Groups are generally easier to set up than Fan Pages. You choose a Group name, a Category and Sub-Category types. Then add a brief description of your Group and you’re basically done.

Advantages of Groups include better messaging options and privacy controls. Groups allow you to send messages directly to your members’ Facebook inboxes as well as send out bulk invitations to prospective Group members.

While not offering as much support for applications as Pages, Groups offer better privacy controls. Groups can only be seen by registered users and can even be set to private for members only viewing.

The main disadvantage to Facebook Groups is in content creation. Posting photos, stories, or videos, all must be done manually. Groups also do not support RSS feeds if you wanted to syndicate content from your blog or other external source.

What types of pages have you created on Facebook?