Balancing Life and Affiliate Marketing

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Thursday, May 29, 2008

Most of us don’t have the luxury of working in our PJ’s on our affiliate marketing efforts. Usually, it is a side business that provides some nice supplemental income. Or in many cases, your working hard for very little. Whatever the case, it can be a challenge balancing your everyday life with affiliate marketing.

Though I am an Affiliate Manager by day, I dabble as an affiliate marketer by night. Here is what I do. I have a huge white board in my office with all of my current projects and tasks listed. I try to create one new site per month. For you, it may be one new site per quarter. My whiteboard currently has this written on it:

GetFootballHelmets.com – May Project

The entire month of May I am focused only on getting this site finished. Would I love to get more done? YES! But I’m married with 3 kids. At the end of the day it’s more important that I remain a good husband and father than it is getting one more website done. So, I set a reasonable goal I know I can accomplish.

Some months, my project will be to tweak all of my completed sites. By tweaking I mean making the sites better. Over time your site collects data that you need to be looking at. Does it convert well? If not, then tweak the design, layout, products offered, logo, etc…I also spending this time working on the SEO for each site. This is extremely important. If you not doing SEO, then you probably have no traffic. This is why every 3 or 4 months I just focus on “tweaking”. For more on this check out this post.

A few suggestions to keep the balance:

  • Dedicate one hour per night to your site(s). Give it your full attention. Turn off the television, radio and iTunes.
  • Dedicate one hour per week to educating yourself. Expand your knowledge, this industry is always changing. Read blogs, articles, books, etc…
  • Keep to your time limits. It’s easy to get into a groove and lose track of time. I’m all for staying in a groove, just remember…balance. Sometimes staying in a groove too long will put you in the doghouse.
  • Work smarter. An hour goes by fast. Don’t waste your time doing things that have no impact on finishing your project.
  • Tunnel vision. Whatever your objective is for this month, work only on that. This is very hard to do. I always get caught up reading my e-mail or a blog too long.
  • Keep your computer running fast. If your having to constantly wait for things to load, then you’re really only getting 45 minutes worth of work done in your hour.
  • Plan a boot camp. These are weeks or nights when you commit your entire time to finishing up that project. Warn the family, stay up till 3am, whatever it takes! Then do the following.
  • Take a break. Sometimes you just need to step away and refuel and unwind.

Balance is important. Affiliate marketing will always be there for you, your time with friends & family will not.

How To Get More Visitors To Your Website

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Wednesday, May 21, 2008

If you’re a Shops at 24Seven affiliate I wanted to share with you a great idea. Recently, I shared with one of our affiliates, ForBrideandBaby.com, an easy way to grow their e-mail subscriber list. After they took my advice, within a few weeks she added over 1,000 new subscribers. Here is how you do it.

  1. Run a sweepstakes. Give something away that a bride-to-be would want. It doesn’t have to be all that expensive, something like a $20 gift card.
  2. Post your sweepstakes for free at Online-Sweepstakes.com. To enter your giveaway, users will need to signup for your newsletter/e-mail. You just got thousands of visitors to your website.
  3. Because of the huge popularity of this site, you will get over 500 signups within a week or so. Offer something more attractive and you’ll get more signups.
  4. It’s that simple. Don’t abuse the system. Make sure you post who your winners are, ship out your prizes, provide an opt-out, define eligibility requirements (US residents only) etc…
  5. $20 = 500 signups. Hmmm. That’s $.04 per signup. Now you have 500+ people receiving e-mail from you (don't spam or they will opt-out) that you can use to promote our party favors, baby gifts and wedding favors.
Some may say that the quality of the signup is not that great. I would not agree with that. These people will be checking their e-mails to see if they have won anything so I’d guess your open rate would be pretty good. From my experience, I gave away 5 prizes using this method and all five of the winners responded within 2 hours from being notified.

The Bigger Picture: Now that they are a regular subscriber, you’ll want to e-mail them some coupon codes to My Wedding Favors or Favor Affair. You may even want to run a giveaway every few weeks or so and continue to post your sweepstakes on related websites.

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Top 10 Best Selling Wedding Favors

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Tuesday, May 20, 2008

MyWeddingFavors - With wedding season at full throttle I wanted to share the top 10 best sellers for the last 30 days. These are the favors you'll want to promote through direct product links. We continue to notice that brides prefer wedding favors that their guests can use after the wedding day.

  1. LOVE Glass Coaster Set with Free Personalized Tag
  2. Luminous Mini-Lanterns
  3. Good Wishes Pearlized Photo Coasters
  4. Personalized Shot Glass
  5. Beautifully Beaded Photo Frame and Placeholder
  6. "Love Beyond Measure" Heart Measuring Spoons with Free Personalized Tag
  7. Calla Lily Elegance Vase Shaped Candle
  8. "Our Love Grows!" Flower Seed Packet
  9. Forever Photo Glass Coasters
  10. 'Mint to Be' Bride and Groom Slide Mint tins w/ Heart Mints

Top 10 Best Selling Baby Gifts

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Here is the list for our top selling baby gifts in the past 30 days.

  1. "Five Little Monkeys" Five-Piece Gift Set in Keepsake Basket
  2. "Different - Just Like Me" Custom-Made Personalized Infant Bodysuit
  3. "Welcome to the World" Pink Baby Wagon - Ten-Piece Gift Set
  4. Tillie the Turtle - Four-Piece Hat Box Bath Time Gift Set
  5. Bailey the Bunny Cashmere Soft Booster Pillow and Growth Chart Gift Set
  6. "Mother Goose" 7 Piece Gift Set with Plush Nursery-Rhyme Buddies and Books
  7. Slumber Bear with Silkie - Plush Toy, Blankie and Audio Pacifier Set
  8. "JoJo Giraffe" Blanket and Plush Gift Set with Keepsake Box
  9. Dilly the Duck Cashmere Soft Booster Pillow and Growth Chart Gift Set
  10. "Pig in a Blanket" Two-Piece Gift Set in Adorable Vintage-Inspired Gift Box

All of these products are available as links within your affiliate network. They are also available to feature in your storefronts in PopShops.

Top 10 Best Selling Baby Shower Favors

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Monday, May 12, 2008

Our baby shower favors continue to sell like crazy. Here is the top 10 best sellers from the last 30 days. The first two are really hot. It drops off a little after those top 2.

  1. "World's Gratest Mom" Cheese Grater in Gift Box with Organza Bow
  2. "Heaven Scent" Baby Powder Fresh Frosted Glass Votive
  3. A Star Is Born Starfish Soap with Gift Box
  4. "A Star is Born" Star-Shaped Cookie Cutters with Gift Box and Organza Bow
  5. "Over the Moon" Vintage Moon Bookmark with Tassel in Nursery Rhyme Keepsake Book Box
  6. "A Star is Born" Bottle Stopper in Adorable Showcase Display Box
  7. "Bun in the Oven" Scented Candle (Set of 4)
  8. Polka Dots Manicure Set
  9. "Baby is Brewing" Coffee Cup Mini-Candle
  10. "New Beginnings" Glass Photo Coasters in Charming Pram Box

IDEA: If you have a baby shower related site/blog use this top 10 list to create a storefront. You can create a storefront using our PopShops service (Commission Junction - ShareASale) or pull the products from within your network.

How Do I Grow My Affiliate Marketing Business?

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Wednesday, May 07, 2008

On Monday I had one of my posts featured on Jangro.com. While I was writing it, I had all of our Shops at 24Seven affiliates in mind. Please read.

Product Videos for My Wedding Favors

Written by The Shops at 24Seven on Thursday, May 01, 2008

MyWeddingFavors.com - Today we've launched our product video widget for all Commission Junction affiliates. The videos feature 10 of our top products complete with voice over and a buy now button embedded with your affiliate link. Get your video code.

Here is a screenshot of the product video for our Prince Charming Tea Light in Castle:


You'll notice below our logo their is a link to our latest coupon. This also is embedded with your affiliate link.