This post was unpublished, from my trip to Boston in 2006 - I think I lost the connection and it just saved to my Blogger account previously - only remembered it was there today. This was a great post - so enjoy (if only with a pinch of salt) :
Ziv Dascala takes the Podium for this session with his presentation. This was a very good session. Ziv is from Oron Online. I’m not going to bother with the others guys here, this was the pick. What makes an online market a highly competitive one?
1. Follow the money: (High volume demand) x (high margin per sale + cross & up sales opportunities) = large profits
2. Many vendors compete for the same customer
3. Vendors offering are commodities
4. Surfers are searching for information before the “buying” activity Understand the REAL value of a customer
- It is not just the sales amount!
- Know the profit margin per sale
- Figure out the profit in the cross and up sales
- Understand the customer lifetie value
- Understand the potential customer lead value opportunities
Know EXACTLY what the maximum amount companies are willing to pay
1. Bid to be 1st in the top 5 most important terms of the industry
2. Send the traffic directly to the best known branded vendor site
3. Figure out the conversion ratio
The affiliates pre-dance
- Close special deals with all the vendors
- Avoid deals with income spread over a long period
- Prepare a HUGE list of related keywords to grab
- Prepare a MASSIVE amount of content on the subject
- Use PPC campaigns to understand the most effective landing pages
The Dance
- Target huge list of related keyword with different domain names, pages and content
- Constantly issue press releases
- Spread free articles with reference to your sites
- Discuss your offering in online public and private forums and blogs
- Buy traffic from other affiliates, offer more than what they get from the vendor
- Buy other affiliate and informational sites on the subject
- Let the vendors competet between themselves on improving your special deals
The post dance
- Charles Darwin: Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest
- Your target is to control most of the SERPs (directly or indirectly) and push your special vendors deals
- Vendors visibility on the SETPs becomes much more dependable upon your traffic
- Payouts from the vendor increases all the time, since you keep the vendors compete visibility on your controlled online properties
- You keep doing the ROI calculation constantly, it all comes to how much do you get paid for each visitor to your site !
Shift of Powers
- Intially : You were working as a marketing arm for the vendor
- Mid term : You and the vendor are working hand in hand to get more clients and split the revenues
- Finally: The vendor is working for you as an oprational sales and fulfillment on a “cost”+ basis.
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Comments On This Post
September 25, 2006 at 12:31 am
Hi Vinny,
Thanks for the great write-up of the Boston Conference (PubCon).
Thanks also for the link to Oron as I may not be totally familiar yet with all the big players in SEO (but I’m learning a great deal from your blog).
Here’s a question:
If the vendors are supposed to “follow” the money, where do they turn for trend specifics? Just because “season X” or “holiday X” is coming doesn’t necessarily mean that the flow will follow last “season X’s” patterns — or does it?
Your list of “real customer trait values” is a handy one for all marketers (vendores & affiliates) to keep in mind.
It is not just the sales amount! — True! This should also be kept in mind by affiliates/publishers who are being bombarded at the moment by businesses that either want to sell/contract sales comparison scripts.
A comparative price script can enhance a publisher’s site if it is placed strategically — an affiliate needs to keep in mind that any business contract that claims 25% of the sales for using a price comparison script is affecting the affiliate’s profit margin per sale.
Vendors need to keep in mind that prices are elements that create the broad picture but prices are not the only elements.
I am not sure what is meant by “cross and up sales” — I would guess it means if a marketing promotion was meant to sell Purple Widgets, the focus might be on Purple Widgets but couple of blue and red ones might be sold simultaneously due to the entire promotion
“Understand the customer lifetie value” is equally important for the product vendor and for the affiliate (if the affiliate desires repeat visits — the affiliate needs to offer something special on the affiliate site)
I enjoyed all of your analysis — thanks!
September 25, 2006 at 2:31 am
Hi Vinny,
Thanks for the great write-up of the Boston Conference (PubCon).
Thanks also for the link to Oron as I may not be totally familiar yet with all the big players in SEO (but I’m learning a great deal from your blog).
Here’s a question:
If the vendors are supposed to “follow” the money, where do they turn for trend specifics? Just because “season X” or “holiday X” is coming doesn’t necessarily mean that the flow will follow last “season X’s” patterns — or does it?
Your list of “real customer trait values” is a handy one for all marketers (vendores & affiliates) to keep in mind.
It is not just the sales amount! — True! This should also be kept in mind by affiliates/publishers who are being bombarded at the moment by businesses that either want to sell/contract sales comparison scripts.
A comparative price script can enhance a publisher’s site if it is placed strategically — an affiliate needs to keep in mind that any business contract that claims 25% of the sales for using a price comparison script is affecting the affiliate’s profit margin per sale.
Vendors need to keep in mind that prices are elements that create the broad picture but prices are not the only elements.
I am not sure what is meant by “cross and up sales” — I would guess it means if a marketing promotion was meant to sell Purple Widgets, the focus might be on Purple Widgets but couple of blue and red ones might be sold simultaneously due to the entire promotion
“Understand the customer lifetie value” is equally important for the product vendor and for the affiliate (if the affiliate desires repeat visits — the affiliate needs to offer something special on the affiliate site)
I enjoyed all of your analysis — thanks!
September 25, 2006 at 2:02 pm
Does Rhianna work for you?
September 25, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Does Rhianna work for you?
September 25, 2006 at 5:00 pm
David said:
“September 25, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Does Rhianna work for you?”
No, I recently “discovered” (stumbled upon) Vinny’s blog and now I am a big fan of his blog
I have no other incentive except that I like to interact (engage in the exchange of ideas) with intelligent bloggers.
September 25, 2006 at 7:00 pm
David said:
“September 25, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Does Rhianna work for you?”
No, I recently “discovered” (stumbled upon) Vinny’s blog and now I am a big fan of his blog
I have no other incentive except that I like to interact (engage in the exchange of ideas) with intelligent bloggers.
September 25, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Hi Rhianna - thanks for your approach and comments - it’s very much appreciated!
Hi David - I can definitely confirm that Rhianna does not work for incuBeta or any related parties. In fact, she has only recently started posting on this blog.
To answer Rhianna’s question:
If the vendors are supposed to “follow” the money, where do they turn for trend specifics? Just because “season X” or “holiday X” is coming doesn’t necessarily mean that the flow will follow last “season X’s” patterns — or does it?
Typically, ceterus paribus (all things remaining equal), seasonal trends are typically very large numbers, and large numbers tend to behave very well and can be used as a predictive measure.
September 25, 2006 at 9:03 pm
“Ceterus paribus” — alright, thanks for the Latin phrase lessson (I knew I was reading the right blog
)
Vinny you said: “Typically, ceterus paribus (all things remaining equal), seasonal trends are typically very large numbers, and large numbers tend to behave very well and can be used as a predictive measure.”
Yes, large numbers can be predictive — but can the large numbers predict a specific hit in the affiliate marketing market?
What’s going to be the number one money making toy for this upcoming holiday season? Can your quantity of data predict this or does it take more of an integrative analysis which would include weighted options/characteristics?
If you tell me the “Cabbage Patch Doll” and I invest money in a PPC campaign, I will be annoyed if it doesn’t come true — *LOL* What other smilies work with your blog comments?
David, do you have an interesting blog? I might visit and comment
September 25, 2006 at 9:11 pm
I hope you keep the commentator’s e-mail addresses private
By mistake I registered my main one with my last post (and not the secondary gmail I usually use).
September 25, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Hi Rhianna - thanks for your approach and comments - it’s very much appreciated!
Hi David - I can definitely confirm that Rhianna does not work for incuBeta or any related parties. In fact, she has only recently started posting on this blog.
To answer Rhianna’s question:
If the vendors are supposed to “follow” the money, where do they turn for trend specifics? Just because “season X” or “holiday X” is coming doesn’t necessarily mean that the flow will follow last “season X’s” patterns — or does it?
Typically, ceterus paribus (all things remaining equal), seasonal trends are typically very large numbers, and large numbers tend to behave very well and can be used as a predictive measure.
September 25, 2006 at 9:24 pm
“#Rhianna said,
September 25, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I hope you keep the commentator’s e-mail addresses private
By mistake I registered my main one with my last post (and not the secondary gmail I usually use).”
What happened to the post? I used “Cabbage Patch Dolls” as an illustration.
Gee, I post and then the post is erased as if I were a persona non grata?
September 25, 2006 at 11:03 pm
“Ceterus paribus” — alright, thanks for the Latin phrase lessson (I knew I was reading the right blog
)
Vinny you said: “Typically, ceterus paribus (all things remaining equal), seasonal trends are typically very large numbers, and large numbers tend to behave very well and can be used as a predictive measure.”
Yes, large numbers can be predictive — but can the large numbers predict a specific hit in the affiliate marketing market?
What’s going to be the number one money making toy for this upcoming holiday season? Can your quantity of data predict this or does it take more of an integrative analysis which would include weighted options/characteristics?
If you tell me the “Cabbage Patch Doll” and I invest money in a PPC campaign, I will be annoyed if it doesn’t come true — *LOL* What other smilies work with your blog comments?
David, do you have an interesting blog? I might visit and comment
September 25, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I hope you keep the commentator’s e-mail addresses private
By mistake I registered my main one with my last post (and not the secondary gmail I usually use).
September 25, 2006 at 11:24 pm
“#Rhianna said,
September 25, 2006 at 11:11 pm
I hope you keep the commentator’s e-mail addresses private
By mistake I registered my main one with my last post (and not the secondary gmail I usually use).”
What happened to the post? I used “Cabbage Patch Dolls” as an illustration.
Gee, I post and then the post is erased as if I were a persona non grata?
September 26, 2006 at 12:12 am
Somehow a post that I spent a good deal of time on has been withdrawn (perhaps because a different e-mail was used but the same name appears in both).
It’s too bad that the post is gone because I found an interesting article in The Register that would correlate with my previous post
Check out
Data Analysis Isn’t Dead by David Norfolk
http://tinyurl.com/qqx7s
The main point is that the large numbers might be predictive of general trends, but to focus on a specific hit data analysis comes in handy
September 26, 2006 at 2:12 am
Somehow a post that I spent a good deal of time on has been withdrawn (perhaps because a different e-mail was used but the same name appears in both).
It’s too bad that the post is gone because I found an interesting article in The Register that would correlate with my previous post
Check out
Data Analysis Isn’t Dead by David Norfolk
http://tinyurl.com/qqx7s
The main point is that the large numbers might be predictive of general trends, but to focus on a specific hit data analysis comes in handy
September 26, 2006 at 3:20 am
Hi Rhianna
Your comment was stuck in moderation, not sure why. I approved it and changed your email address to your Gmail one.
Sorry about that!
V
September 26, 2006 at 5:20 am
Hi Rhianna
Your comment was stuck in moderation, not sure why. I approved it and changed your email address to your Gmail one.
Sorry about that!
V
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