Trying to Contact James Brausch about Rasof Subscription
Filed Under Glyphius, James Brausch, RaSof | 7 Comments
Hi James, I’m trying to reach you via this blog post. Let me explain:Â
Last Friday, late in the afternoon, our bank issued us a new set of the debit cards which we use for expense accounts. Unbeknownst to us, and without any notice, they also cancelled all our old cards.
Monday we scrambled to update the payment information in several dozen accounts: Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, MSN, Ask, Adbrite, etc, along with the Paypal account we use to pay for Rasof. We also contacted James on Monday to ask him to allow us to update our subscription information, which had automatically cancelled after 3 failed tranaction attempts over the weekend.
What is Rasof? Developed by James Brausch, the creator of Glyphius which is a great piece of software, Rasof is an interesting SEO factor analysis service we signed up for a few months ago. We haven’t had a chance to use it much yet, as the software is fairly complex, and it does not include any instructions, documentation, or help files of any kind. A video guide to a related product is included for reference. With this reference and our own SEO experience, we think we can make Rasof work, and we believe it will be valuable to us.
We have been paying $100 a month for the last 3 months just to maintain our subscription to Rasof, and to allow us time to learn to use it.
So why we have been paying that subscription fee months before we actually plan on using it? James Brausch uses the time-tested method of dramatically raising the price of his products after a deeply discounted introductory offer. Rasof is now selling for $1,000 a month.
Why am I posting all this on a blog instead of just contacting James about it? It’s because we have had no success contacting him so far, and as far as I know, a trackback on a blog is the only way to reach him. We have attempted to contact him numerous times through the email link provided by paypal, but we have gotten no response.
To make a long story short…. James could you allow us to update our debit card information and continue our subscription to Rasof at the same price?
Got Quality Score Optimization?
Filed Under Affiliate Marketing, Google, Google Adwords, MSN, Online Advertising, Pay Per Click, Quality Score, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Yahoo, Yahoo Search Marketing | 1 Comment
Mike Jones with Pepperjam Search just made a blog post that is right on the money. This is hardly surprising as Pepperjam has been at the forefront of affiliate marketing and search engine marketing as long as I can remember.
As we have discussed on this blog, affiliate marketers have been scrambling to regain their Google paid traffic ever since Google implemented it’s infamous quality score algorithm. There is no fighting it. The quality score algorithm is here to stay. Mike is pointing the way search engine marketing is now headed.
Search Engine Marketing is Dead…at least as we have come to know it in the past. The days of bid power have dwindled, and a time of synergy has emerged. Synergy between account structure, keyword bids, ad copy and landing page quality is now the undeniable recipe for search success. Never before has a thorough understanding of the mechanism or funnel of search been more important. In fact, not being an expert on the various pieces of search will leave you in a constant state of bewilderment: Why can’t I get to the top of the listings for my best converting terms? Why does the chart mapping my ROI show a continued movement toward higher CPC’s and less profitability?
The answer is easy…its called Quality Score Optimization (QSO), and it’s the only way to professionally approach search engine marketing in 2007.
The problem many smaller search engine marketers face is the amount of testing it takes to optimize a paid search campaign with QSO. Paid search is no longer the easy entry point for those who know nothing about SEO. Search engine marketing is going the way of SEO. SEM’s will have to chase after Google’s newest algorithm, which like their natural one, will likely continue to change.
Search engine marketing is an ever changing landscape. At times we get a glimpse over the horizon and see where we are headed. Mike Jones at Pepperjam Search just had one of those moments and shared it with us all.
Super Affiliate Mindset – A Great Read
Filed Under Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing | Comments Off
If you have not yet discovered Amit Mehta’s new affiliate marketing blog Super Affiliate Mindset, you will want to go check it out. It is filled with useful inside information on how he built a million dollar affiliate marketing business from the ground up. Amit, a Physics PhD quit his day job to become a full-time affiliate marketer. Apparently he built it into a million dollar business in less than 2 years. He is living proof of the power of affiliate marketing.
Amit setup his new Super Affiliate Mindset (SAM) blog to share his knowledge with other affiliate marketers who have not been as successful as he has. According to his recent press release:
…many affiliate marketers actually know what they need to do BUT they constantly make poor decisions along the way, resulting in zero or limited success. SAM’s purpose is thus to help those involved in affiliate marketing to “think big, think long-term, and develop a winning strategy.†In short, to adjust their affiliate mindset.
I found his new blog to be an enjoyable read. He is insightful and shares stories of when he was down on the path to success. Stories like this encourage us all to realize, that it is often only ourselves that hold us back from phenomenal success.
E-Consultancy Affiliate Census
Filed Under Affiliate Marketing | Comments Off
For those affiliate marketers who want to know what their compatriots are like, you will probably want to read the affiliate census released by E-Consultancy in January of 2007. They surveyed over 1500 affiliates in the UK to get the results presented in the 49 page document. At risk of being vain, I must admit I found it fascinating to read about how I compared to other affiliate marketers in the industry. While the census done by e-consultancy was strictly for affiliates operating in the UK, it sheds much light on an industry of freelance marketers worldwide.
Most of the data in the census is common sense, but I was surprised by a few things.
Only Source of IncomeÂ
Only 12% of respondents say affiliate marketing is their only source of income. It is unclear whether affiliates are referring to other internet advertising revenue streams like Google adsense, or if they are talking about day jobs. Even for those who do affiliate marketing as their day job, only 43% say it is their only source of income. I think this reveals the entrepreneurial spirit of affiliate marketers who have learned the hard way not to put all their eggs in one basket. The internet changes much too quickly for that approach. The affiliates I am in touch with always have other projects going on the side in an effort to diversify their revenue streams. I take this approach myself.
Level of Income
The census found that there is an enormous diversity in the level of income earned by affiliate marketers. Of course there is the obvious split between those who do affiliate marketing full time and those who just do it part-time as an added revenue stream. The census states:
- Of those who do affiliate marketing as their day job, 61% earned at least £20,000 a year.
- 10% of day-job affiliates (a total of 34) earned more than £750,000 in the last year.
- Of these, 3% earned between £750,000 and £1 million, another 3% earned between £1 million and £2 million and a further 4% said they earned more than £2 million.
- Of the 27 affiliates earning more than £1 million in the last year (2% of all affiliates surveyed), 15 run their own affiliate businesses, 6 are partners in an affiliate business and 5 work for someone else. (One of these 27 affiliates did not indicate if it was his or her own affiliate business).
It looks like these are pure revenue numbers. The census goes on to state that the cost of operating an affiliate marketing business at these high levels is enormous. These costs eat up a large portion of the total revenue earned. I have found this to be right on the money.
SEO, Banners and Paid Search
I was surprised to see that the majority of affiliates still use SEO more than paid search. While there are several major advantages to SEO, paid search is the easiest way to monitor your ROI on an offer by offer basis. I feel paid search is the starting point, and once you have keywords that convert, SEO can be leveraged over the long term.
What is even more shocking is that more people use banner advertising than paid search. I thought banners went out with the dot com bust. Simple banner ads perform terribly on a CPM level. Affiliate marketers would be better off selling their ad space if all they are doing is banner advertising. I have found it to be a waste of time.
It seems there are still a lot of affiliate marketers who don’t like to use paid search, which comes in third place behind SEO and Banners under methods used to promote merchants. That’s just fine with me. The less competition, the cheaper the clicks.
I wonder how a US based affiliate census would come out. I have a feeling it would be quite different, especially regarding methods used. If you haven’t read it yet, download the affiliate census for free by E-consultancy. It will give you insight into the mind of the affiliate marketer.