People who succeed often have an “innate drive” that propels them forward, writes Joel Garfinkle, but what happens when that inner flame sputters? The key, Garfinkle writes, is to identify what’s causing you to lose your passion and to take steps to remedy the situation. “[M]oving forward feels risky. Overcome that fear with simple mini-steps,” he writes.

I have had the pleasure of doing many interviews for this blog, but having the opportunity to speak with Ron from Mobile Fused was more like having a conversation with an old friend.  It was a great talk about the mobile space, and I hope you learn as much as I did.

Tell us a little about your company.

Mobile marketing is growing by leaps and bounds, and mobileFUSED is the premier place for you to find high quality, high paying campaigns for your mobile traffic.  We are constantly growing our base of advertiser partnerships, and can provide you with the tools you need to maximize your traffic, and stay on the cutting-edge of what’s working right now. Our specialty is Mobile Pay Per Call, and we feel that having our focus on one thing is a real strength for our company.

We really strive to bring our publishers and advertisers together for a mutually beneficial relationship for everyone.  We have very long running campaigns because we form such a great working relationship with our advertisers; mostly because we have very high quality affiliates. Because of that, we have many exclusive, direct offers with a much higher payout.

Speaking of affiliates, what is the application process like?

We really like to get to know our prospective affiliates. We conduct phone interviews and check references .Because of our due diligence upfront, we encounter very little fraud.

We have also found that having some experience in the mobile arena is helpful. Not a requirement, but definitely helpful.

What kind of training/support do you have for your affiliates?

We have training videos on our website, and also on our You-tube channel. We really want to do some more webinars, to reach as many people as we can. Our affiliate managers are great: they work one-on-one with the affiliates, and can even be reached on the weekends.

What do you think the difference is between a Super Affiliate and an Average Affiliate?

A super affiliate really puts in the time to learn and perfect their craft. An average affiliate will spend maybe an hour doing keyword research, but a super affiliate might spend 7 or 8 hours. The super affiliate really takes time getting their campaigns set up, and will do things like split-testing in order to optimize their campaigns.

In your experience, what are the three most critical elements of running a successful campaign?

Research, testing, optimization. Focus on those three, and you will be successful.

What are your goals for the rest of 2013?

Our goals are to keep expanding, bringing in more exclusive offers, and helping our affiliates grow.  What really separates us from other networks is we have a true understanding of what we do. Our training of our affiliates and the communication with them and our advertisers is what really works for us.

For more information about mobileFUSED, visit them at www.mobileFUSED.com

As an affiliate marketer, how do you manage your time?  If you don’t have a traditional 9 to 5 job, and spend all your time growing your internet business, do you get sucked in to any of these time wasters?

1)      Email: Ever find yourself trying to write a blog post (ahem) and find that every time that little notification comes through you are stopping to see who emailed you? There is nothing worse than being on a roll and getting your thoughts interrupted mid-stream. Often time I find myself doing this exact thing, and trying to pick up my train of thought is next to impossible. For tasks that require concentration, close out of your email. Email is convenient, but it should be that way for everyone, yourself included. I start off my day by reading, sorting, and filing emails.  One of the first things I do in the morning is to sort through emails, take care of the urgent matters, and then file the rest away.

2)      Telephone/IM/Texting: Again, I feel the same way about the phone as I do email. And not just the work phone, but your cell phone.  Voicemail is there for a reason, use it.  If it’s important, they will leave a message and you can return all phone calls at a time that is more convenient for you. IM and texting are great ways to get in touch with someone if you just need something quick, but it’s very easy to lose track of how much time you are spending on these tasks. And we all know someone who will email you, call you to say they emailed you, then IM or text you to say they emailed/called you. Really?!   Unless my kid has just broken a bone, stop using all methods to get in touch with me. Being connected is a wonderful thing, but sometimes you just need to THINK!  On a side note, it’s not a bad idea to have a code word for your significant other to use when there is something urgent that needs your attention.

3)      Focus, or lack thereof: I work in an office with people. People are loud. They listen to music, or to talk radio. There are phones ringing, conversations going on around you. People laugh, sing, cough, sneeze, choke; you get the idea. You need to learn to deal with distractions, to tune it out. Same thing if you work at home. There’s the dog, dishes, laundry, kids; again, you get the idea. Wear headphones, blast Beethoven or Clash (I have been known to do either, depending on my mood), do whatever it takes to stay focused. Working on one task at a time works best for me. Trying to respond to comments on Facebook or LinkedIn while checking on campaigns while blogging while trying to find out why my traffic sucks turns into one giant long run-on sentence. Everything gets jumbled together, nothing gets completed. One task at a time.

4)      Too many, too long breaks: Breaks are necessary. It’s near impossible for me to sit for more than two hours, my butt falls asleep. Getting up and walking around is good—you will have more energy and a new perspective when you come back to your desk. But just be aware of them, you will lose any momentum you have built.  I work best in the morning, when I’m fresh. I very rarely take any type of morning break because that is when I am most productive. Afternoons, that’s a different story. However, I am aware of this and schedule my day accordingly.  There is also that other kind of break—the one you don’t want to take.  Chatty co-workers can suck up valuable time without you even realizing it. Limit longer talks to actual breaks, or lunchtime.

5)      LACK OF PLANNING: Do you start each day with a plan, or just know that you have a lot to accomplish and figure you will wing it? Plan either the night before, or first thing in the morning. Order them in level of importance, and focus on one task at a time until you get through it all.

How do you deal with time wasters? Do you plan your day the night before or first thing in the morning? Comment below, I would really like to know your time management tips.

Gone are the days of commission “leakage” related to sending traffic to a merchants’ site with the phone number splashed everywhere. The customer chooses to order over the phone rather than on-line with your affiliate link, and you lose out on the commission.

The good news is merchants can now speak to potential customers over the phone and pay affiliates for referring them.  If the merchant Pay Per Call program is web-integrated, their standard phone number will be replaced with your promo number when you direct traffic to them.  If they are not web-integrated, you would simply place your promo number on your website.

There are certain conditions that need to be met before you earn commissions, such as the duration of the phone call. There is a learning curve, just like with any new marketing system, but the payouts are much higher because of the conversion rates.

If you are considering Pay Per Call, the time to do it is now!

Advertisers are interested

Many verticals

Higher commissions

New marketing channels

Early adopter advantage

To find out more information, head over to RingPartner.com and check out Mike’s blog. These guys are the experts and are there to help you make money!

When it comes to work, do you plan your day out, or do you have more of a “fly by the seat of your pants” style?

A planner will spend the night before work (or the last half hour before leaving work) making lists, putting tasks in order of priorities; ensuring complete and utter control over their world.  A procrastinator will arrive at work just barely on time, breakfast in hand and search through the list of sticky notes trying to “find the number of that guy that I need to email about something but I can’t remember who or what.”

Is one style better than the other? Can a planner adapt to the inevitable changes in their daily routine, without feeling the need to be rigid in their schedule? Or is procrastinating worth the stress inducing panic attacks to get it all done in time?

How do you prefer to work? Let us know in the comments.

If you have a solid business plan with adequate resources, it’s time to decide on a software platform to build your affiliate network. There are quite a few choices of affiliate tracking platforms on the market today. The great thing is that most of these tracking platforms are running successful affiliate networks and have great resources and tools to help build your network. A few things to consider when choosing a platform:

1. How long has the company been in business?
2. Are there any long term contracts or hidden fees?
3. What Features are most important to you?
4. Can it be white-labeled with your brand?
5. What type of support is offered?
6. What is your monthly budget for the software?

There are many successful affiliate networks that are paving the way and increasing recognition of online and performance based marketing. As a result, the online advertising industry has seen incredible growth and is predicted to continue this growth pattern. This growth has spurred an increase in affiliate networks looking to help advertisers generate leads and sales online. Affiliate Networks have an incredible opportunity to build successful companies. But, if you’re starting one it’s important to address the questions above to ensure your place in this market.

The definition of niche marketing is finding “a special need or demand for a product or service” to market to. It often means that there is an unmet or untapped need that is yet to be filled properly. The definition of niche marketing implies that you define a particular focus on the need or the audience, and then target that group with products or services that are highly relevant. Marketing and promotions are proven to be the most effective when you have a narrow focus and a very good match of market and product/service, which is exactly what niche marketing aims to do. Essentially, you tailor your message to meet the specific needs of your target audience, and match up a highly relevant product with that specific need.

To learn more about niche marketing, and how you can create a profitable blog, visit ZacJohnson.com and read his case study.

Mobile marketing is an incredibly exciting space right now. Did you know that there are 5 times more cell phones in the world than computers? Mobile marketing is new, it is personal, and it allows consumers to stay in control. Survey after survey shows that consumers are open to mobile marketing messages. Mobile internet use is expected to surpass desktop use by 2014/2015. It’s a huge space with a ridiculously large market share. If you aren’t catching on to this trend now, you’ll be behind the times and left in the dust when mobile affiliate marketing becomes a force to reckon with.

If you need more help or resources, head over to SparkPage for more information. They have some great mobile marketing tips for 2013.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you?

I am 23 and I am from England.

How long have you been in affiliate marketing and how did you get involved?

I started as a sales rep for a company and moved on to become an affiliate manager, which I have been doing for about 3 weeks now. I currently manage over 80 accounts and I am still learning. As a result of my introduction to affiliate managing, I have become more involved in the process of becoming an affiliate and what works best.

What was the biggest mistake you made when you first started doing Affiliate

Marketing?

As of now I have not made any mistakes I am aware of, but I am confident that mistakes will happen and when they do they will be there to teach me.

Tell us a little bit about your company and what you do over there?

My company promotes Binary Option brokers. We offer banners, text links, videos and other promotions for affiliates to be able to easily promote our brands.

There are already so many CPA affiliate networks out there. What makes your

company different?

Every affiliate network is the same, the promotions are different for different companies. What makes us different is not our company but the brands we promote. Our brands have excellent conversion rates and use the latest technology for high end platforms.

Which traffic sources prove to be the most effective for your top earning

affiliates – E-mail, PPC, PPV, Facebook, Media Buying or any others?

Our most effective affiliates use SEO

What Affiliate Tracking Software do you use? Which ones have you

demoed? And why did you pick the software you are using?

Currently we are using a Spot Option affiliate program, but we are updating to Hasoffers because we find it to be the most helpful regarding all aspects of affiliate marketing.

What are the criteria for a marketer to be accepted at your network?

A marketer needs to have the tools to target a specific audience. Binary Options is a financial tool for investors so the affiliates should have financial experience.

How does your company prevent and handle fraud?

There is an old English proverb, ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’. We have our security system but if a fraudster wants to get through, they will find a way.

For those who are interested in working with you and your affiliate network –

What’s the best way/time to reach you?

I am available at all hours during the day, I am not exclusive to my work computer. If an affiliate has a problem I can be reached on my Iphone. “The joys of modern technology.” I value my affiliates and their needs, because I understand that they are dedicated to helping my business grow. My email is ben@affiliationoption.com, and my Skype is affoption.

In your opinion, what are the best places for a new affiliate to learn affiliate

marketing? What advice would you give for them?

The site is free, it is brilliant and is full of helpful network marketers. That is where I learned the most about affiliate marketing. http://www.ibotoolbox.com/invited.aspx?jid=68179

In your experience, what are the three most critical elements of running a

successful campaign?

That is an excellent question, one that my experience will cause me to be not so knowledgeable about. But my answer is as follows: a) Feedback. In my opinion feedback is essential for  good strategy and growth in the weak areas of the campaign. b) Customer needs. In order for an affiliate to run a successful campaign they need to know what the customer has less of, but needs the most. c) Constant activity. I think that says it all.

What are some of the challenges of being an Affiliate Manager/Owner?

I think the biggest challenge for an affiliate manager is finding the right affiliates to partner with.

What are your goals in 2013?

My goal for 2013 is to provide a much better converting product for the brands I promote.

To find out more, visit: www.affiliationoption.com

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you?
My name is Matt Lovett. I’m from Nottinghamshire in the UK. I’m 21.

How long have you been in affiliate marketing and how did you get involved?
Since I was 13 years old. I started a cash back site with my friend whilst at school.

How long was it before you realized you could live off your affiliate income?
It wasn’t really something I thought about when I was still at school, I just enjoyed doing it. Once I left school I figured it was going so well, I would just do it full time. A few months later we got our first office.

What has been your biggest success to date?
There are a few things that stick out in my mind, our Cashback site was very successful when it started and the market was less competitive. We launched a mobile game which grew faster than expected and of course our affiliate network, WOW Trk.

What was the biggest mistake you made when you first started doing Affiliate Marketing?
It’s hard to pin point one big mistake, I made many small mistakes – more so at the start. I think jumping into an idea too quick sticks out as a mistake that’s reoccurred. Luckily I have learnt that now!

Tell us a little bit about your company and what you do over there?
WOW Media runs a range of online services, our biggest being our affiliate network WOW Trk. We also run money saving sites like WOW Freebies and WOW Voucher Codes. We are venturing into online bingo and launching a new site which we are very excited about in Q3 of this year (more info will be released closer the time).

There are already so many CPA affiliate networks out there. What makes your company different?
You are right, so many and more are coming all the time. However, many do not last. We have been running since 2007 and are not going anywhere!
We also try to stand apart; we are constantly looking for ways to improve the network. Recently updates include our Mobile site, Chrome & Firefox stat extensions. In terms of improving offers, we are starting to list ‘Recommended Subject Lines’ for email marketers. I feel this is something really useful. Sometimes it’s hard to know what might work for a subject line, and when sending an email campaign the subject line is so important!

Do you offer biweekly or weekly payment? If so, how much does one have to make to qualify?
We offer Monthly, Bi-monthly and Weekly. Information on the minimums can be found here: http://www.wowtrk.com/payment-terms/

Do you have any exclusive offers that other networks don’t have?
Yes! We of course have our own sites on the network which no other network has. We also have other exclusive offers.

Which traffic sources prove to be the most effective for your top earning affiliates – E-mail, PPC, PPV, Facebook, Media Buying or any others?
Email and PPC seem to be the main ones.

What Affiliate Tracking Software do you use?  Which ones have you demoed?  And why did you pick the software you are using?
HasOffers. We used to use Direct Track. I have had a look at most, and to be honest, HasOffers is my favorite by far. I think it has the best affiliate and advertiser interface, which is so important.  It’s nice and easy for affiliates to use and is pretty flexible in terms of modifying it and adding your own unique features in.

What are the criteria for a marketer to be accepted at your network? How does your company prevent and handle fraud?
You can get accepted instantly by verifying your phone number. Getting approved instantly I think is very important, when someone wants to run a specific offer or wants to check out a new network they tend to want to do it there and then.
Regarding handling fraud, we obviously use the built-in tools in HasOffers. We also do address verification for some affiliates. This is done by posting a letter out to affiliates with a verification code on it. We also have staff monitoring affiliates.

For those who are interested in working with you and your affiliate network – What’s the best way/time to reach you?
My email matt@wowmedia.eu or Skype – mdelovett. Any time.

In your opinion, what are the best places for a new affiliate to learn affiliate marketing? What advice would you give for them?
We offer some getting started guides, but a really good forum I like is Cpafix.com.

What’s the difference between a Super Affiliate and an Average Affiliate?
In my opinion, nothing. We treat all affiliates the same, we are trying to add more guides on our network to help new affiliates get started (and the same for advertisers).

For more information, go to http://www.wowmedia.eu/

Creating a Niche Affiliate Site with Residual Income

Have a blog, but no real focus?
Have a blog, but no traffic, and no idea how to get more?
Have a great idea for a blog, but have no idea how to start?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you won’t want to miss the next webinar in “Free Webinar Fridays”. This month we are speaking with Zac Johnson and he is going to discuss his ongoing case study of creating a niche blog.

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/699702018

1. 1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you?

I was born and raised in Victoria, BC, Canada and I live here with my wife and 3 kids. I’m 33 years old.

1. 2. How long have you been in affiliate marketing and how did you get involved?

In 2006 I started working at local performance marketing company and I spent 3 years there, working in a number of different areas of the company. I left in 2009 and started my own online marketing agency and performance marketing network. So, I guess it’s been about 6 years.

1. 3. How long was it before you realized you could live off your affiliate income?

Well, since I started at a network, it wasn’t until I was on my own trying to start my own company that I realized I could live off affiliate income. I also realized at that time how difficult it can be to get started.

1. 4. What has been your biggest success to date?

Creating a startup company and making it profitable within a year.

1. 5. What was the biggest mistake you made when you first started doing Affiliate Marketing?

To be honest, I’ve made many mistakes in Affiliate Marketing and I’ve realized that it’s a great way to learn. Probably the biggest mistake was forgetting about how important cash flow is to a business. I’m never afraid to fail, but I make sure that I always learn from my failures.

1. 6. Tell us a little bit about your company and what you do over there?

Ring Partner is a pay per call performance marketing network. We’re focused on delivering high-quality leads to our advertisers while helping our publishers succeed and profit by promoting high-converting campaigns.

1. 7. There are already so many CPA affiliate networks out there. What makes your company different?

We’re focused on the pay per call industry and we are committed to service, communication and quality with our partners.

1. 8. Which traffic sources prove to be the most effective for your top earning affiliates – E-mail, PPC, PPV, Facebook, Media Buying or any others?

Mobile search and display are doing well. There’s a big opportunity right now as more and more consumers are getting smartphones, making pay per call a much more viable form of marketing and lead generation. Beyond that, there are several other ways for publishers to make money with pay per call promotion, including offline.

1. 9. What Affiliate Tracking Software do you use?  Which ones have you demoed?  And why did you pick the software you are using?

We’re using HasOffers. I’ve used Direct Track, Linktrust and an in-house proprietary system. We feel that HasOffers has the most intuitive and best tracking system.

1. 10. What are the criteria for a marketer to be accepted at your network? How does your company prevent and handle fraud?

They need to be a good publisher and be serious about pay per call marketing. Very few publishers that apply will actually get approved.

1. 11. For those who are interested in working with you and your affiliate network – What’s the best way/time to reach you?

Publishers can reach me by email – mike@ringpartner.com or add me on Skype/AIM – RingPartnerMike. They can reach out to me anytime.

1. 12. In your opinion, what are the best places for a new affiliate to learn affiliate marketing? What advice would you give for them?

The absolute best way to learn is by doing. However, not many new affiliates have cash burn. I’d suggest reading various blogs and forums to get started. Read Unbounce’s blog, PPC Hero is good, and check out IM Grind. Use Google Reader to syndicate all of your aggregated resources and read them daily.

1. 13. In your experience, what are the three most critical elements of run a successful campaign.

Finding a niche market, conversion rate and payout. To compete as an internet marketer you need to find an “angle” or niche within a market in order to make a profit. Find your long tail keywords and unique traffic sources. Conversion rates and payout are obviously important to a successful campaign and the payout will directly impact how much you can earn.

1. 14. What’s the difference between a Super Affiliate and an Average Affiliate?

The commitment to success. A super affiliate is willing to work on a campaign until it succeeds and an average affiliate isn’t putting in as much effort. There are definitely campaigns that do well by luck, but super affiliate’s put more effort into making money from campaigns that require effort.

1. 15. What are the keys to building successful relationships between Affiliates and Affiliate Networks? What are some of the challenges of being an Affiliate Manager/Owner?

Communication is very important. Affiliate Managers and Affiliates need to be communicating regularly. A strong relationship creates an environment for success.

Affiliate Managers are the ultimate middle-man, it’s their job to maximize profits for the network, while keeping the affiliate happy. It’s a very difficult balance to juggle and open communication is key.

1. 16. What are your goals in 2013?

To establish Ring Partner as the pay per call performance marketing network.

1. 17. If you could change one thing about the affiliate industry, what would it be?

I believe performance marketing is great in theory, but sometimes the motivations get twisted and the end user loses out. I wish that publishers, advertisers and networks didn’t twist those motivations at the cost of the end user in order to solely drive up revenues and profits.

For more information, or to sign up, please visit: http://publishers.ringpartner.com/signup