[ericb]

Join Our Affiliate Program: http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11760

Hello, my name is Eric Brown. I am the owner of the African American Art On-Line Store.

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that we have created an affiliate program for our art website on the Shareasale network.

I will handle the day-to-day activities of our affiliate program personally; so I will hold the title of affiliate manager.

I plan to open a private forum on abestweb.com within the next two months so that I can communicate with our current and future affiliates on a daily bases.

My goal is to provide an affiliate program that is a learning environment for all participants including myself and to make it a win-win situation for the African American Art On-Line Store and our affiliates. I have structured our affiliate program to promote and achieve my goals for the program.

My e-mail box is always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program. I have included a summary of our affiliate program below.

We started the program last week. I look forward to working with our affiliates and participating in the abestweb online community.

Earn extra income from your web site by joining the African American Art On-Line Store Affiliate Program!

Provided below is a summary of our affiliate program benefits.

10% commission for sales.

$2.00 for each new affiliate our current affiliates recruit.

Affiliates receive 5% of the commission earned, by each new affiliate they recruit.

Professional banners and text links for our affiliate program.

Affiliate program manager.

Datafeed

30-day cookie for sales.

Parasite free.

Monthly Newsletter.

Monthly Affiliate Contest.

Monthly Cash Or Gift Prize Given To Top Sales Affiliate.

Auto deposit payment account.

If the daily visitors at your web site are interested in African American art, you should do very well as an affiliate in our program.

Join Our Affiliate Program: http://www.shareasale.com/shareasale.cfm?merchantID=11760

Thank you.
Eric Brown
Owner
African American Art On-Line Store
http://www.brownhorizonsart.com
info@brownhorizonsart.com

[Rhea]

I stopped looking at your web site when I encountered affiliate ads (Walmart, NutriSystem). If you want to be taken seriously by us you should get rid of outbound links that will distract our visitors (your customers) from buying products on your web site.

[Mack]

Eric,

Please understand that our questions and comments are in your best interest. This is an opportunity to fine tune your program to make it affiliate friendly. By pointing out the red flags, we are pointing out things that will make your program more attractive.

This is one good reason why merchants use an OPM. They have the expertise to help guide you through a program launch so questions like these can be avoided.

[loxly]

Ditch the adsense in your blog and template it the same as the rest of your site. And yes, ditch the Link Exchange on your home page. It also is disconcerting to the shopper to go out of your site template and to the yahoo checkout page without warning. It makes your site look like you are referring traffic elsewhere instead of looking like you are the shopowner.

You have a great concept, but presentation needs work.

[ericb]

I appreciate the feedback that has been provided.

As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

I have received several questions. So I will provide the questions and answers in my replies. Concerning one of the questions that was brought to my attention about our return policy, the question was "We provide a 365 day money back guarantee for all items purchased through our on-line store."
So a commission can be reversed up to 1 year later?"

The answer is "no".

Once a sale has been made as a result of an affiliate’s efforts, we will not reverse the commission because an order was returned. In cases where a customer wants to return merchandise and receive a refund, we take the lost. Our affiliates do not take the lost with us.

When our affiliates deliver traffic that produces a sale, they have done their part. They earned their commission; so no matter what happens concerning an order, all affiliates keep their commissions on sales. We will not reverse the commissions.

I will respond to other comments, suggestions and questions as they are brought to my attention.

Thank you,
Eric Brown
Owner
African American Art On-Line Store
http://www.brownhorizonsart.com
info@brownhorizonsart.com

[Herb Ô¿Ô¬]

I will respond to other comments, suggestions and questions as they are brought to my attention.

which brings us back to posts #2 and 4.

[ericb]

As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

Responding to additional questions concerning our affiliate program. I will list another question and provide the answer.

If there are several questions that address the same topic, I will list the first question that was brought to my attention instead of listing basically the same question numerous times.

A recent question "I stopped looking at your web site when I encountered affiliate ads (Walmart, NutriSystem). If you want to be taken seriously by us you should get rid of outbound links that will distract our visitors (your customers) from buying products on your web site."

The answer to this question is below.

The outbound links that are in question go to another website titled the African American Circle Of Friends, which I own. Very briefly this website’s purpose is to provide assistance to all races and ethnic groups regarding a variety of issues/purposes on an as need bases at no charge to the people receiving help.

Specifically, I have four links that go from our art website to various parts of this website. One links goes to the section regarding “Soul Food Recipes” . The second link goes to a section that provides information on “Black History Facts”. The third goes to a section concerning “Black Hairstyles” and the fourth goes to a blog.

The links are listed at the bottom of the list of sections on our African American Art website.

I have operated the African American Art On-Line Store website since 2001.

I started the website to provide access to quality African American art to all races and ethnic backgrounds because it is very hard to find African American art in the majority of cities in the United States and the cities where people are able to find art, the prices are generally high and the selection is usually small.

Over the past six years I have seen sales, traffic and profits increase each year. Our website is usually in the top three and many times number one in the major search engines for our main keywords which has helped our growth tremendously.

Over the years I received many calls and e-mail messages from visitors to our website asking if I know where they can locate “Soul Food Recipes”, “Black History Facts”, Black Hair Information and general information concerning African Americans.

Since I had already started a website that address many of these requests, I simply placed links at the bottom of my art website so that people could visit the other website for information that was of interest to them. Many people e-mail me to thank me for providing access to this information.

Concerning my art website, I reviewed the stats before and after I placed the outbound links on my art website to the other website. The links have not caused a reduction in sales. If the links did reduce sales, I would have taken the links down.

I have asked a few hundred visitors to my art website did the links affect them going or leaving my website. Some of the visitors made purchases and some did not make a purchase. They all basically stated the same thing which was that the links did not affect what they did or did not do concerning my art website.

Since the links are at the bottom of the website and the online store and all other art is at the top of the website. The visitors view the art portion first. Once they finish viewing the art and/or making a purchase, they tend to look down the list of sections to see what else is on the website. When they get to the bottom portion, they are basically finished looking at the website and are getting ready to leave. The links provide them something of interest to look at if desired.

Only about 10% of the visitors to my art website click on these links. The people that come to the art website are primarily interested in viewing art. Also, the other website that the links go to is a website for helping people. The vast majority of the people that go to this website usually read the information provided on the website such as recipes, history and etc.

All affiliate banners and links for our art website go to the online store web page and the datafeed directs the visitors to the specific page for the artwork.

I will answer additional questions, suggestions and comments as they are brought to my attention.

Thank you,
Eric Brown
Owner
African American Art On-Line Store

[thecool]

Eric,

With the implied attitude of your answer to posts #2 and #4 in post #7, you probably won't get many of us joining your program. I personally will not join any program that has google ads or links leading to pages of google ads.

Take the advise and ditch these links plus the link exchange at the bottom of page if you are serious about your affiliate program.

Gene
TCS

[Rhea]

This program isn't new at all. As far as I can see the only thing that's changed is the SAS merchant ID.

http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=60546

Please explain Eric.

[ericb]

As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

Responding to additional questions concerning our affiliate program. I will list another question and provide the answer.

A recent question "With the implied attitude of your answer to posts #2 and #4 in post #7, you probably won't get many of us joining your program. I personally will not join any program that has google ads or links leading to pages of google ads."

The answer to this question is below.

Hi Gene. I appreciate your feedback.

Concerning my answer to post number two, I was not trying to provide an implied attitude. I am sorry that you took the answer that way.

E-mail is a funny communication device because the way a message is sent and the way it is read can be very different.

My answer to the question was only concerning post #2. It was not an answer to post #4. I would have to read that post to see what was stated.

The way I read post #2 and what was being asked is that I thought the individual was concern that the links would take potential sales away from the art website.

My answer was provided to address that concern and show that I had reviewed the website stats and surveyed website visitors to see if any affect had been caused with the addition of the links.

After comparing the before and after website stats related to the links, it showed that the links had not affected website sales and/or changed the behavior of website visitors. This was what I read as the concern when I answered the question.

After reading your post, I believe the issue in general is not "outbound links" which I thought was the question requiring a response, but instead the advertising on the other website. I know it is for you because you stated that you do not join programs with or linking to Google ads. Is this the case? If so, I misunderstood what was being asked as a response. I only answered the question as I interpreted the question to be at that time.

I do appreciate your feedback. Have a great day.

Thank you,
Eric Brown

[rematt]

Eric, you have to look at this issue from an affiliates viewpoint. We spend a lot of time and money promoting the merchants that we feature on our sites. We tend to take a very dim view of a merchant when they are trying to make additional revenue from the customers that we send them on 3rd party links that we are not compensated for.

Remember we sent you that customer for our MUTUAL benefit not so that you can generate additional revenue through adsense or other affiliate links.

You need to decide whether you are a merchant or an affiliate.

[loxly]

You need to decide whether you are a merchant or an affiliate.
And that's the bottom line. You can't be both on the same site.

[Mr. Sal]

#5 As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

#7 As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

Responding to additional questions concerning our affiliate program. I will list another question and provide the answer.
#10 As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

Responding to additional questions concerning our affiliate program. I will list another question and provide the answer.
Eric, I just have one question.

Are you typing/pasting those answers yourself?

You don't have to reply if you don't want to, but your answers looks like they are made by an automatic machine. ( Like those machines they use on some stores that when we think we are talking to a human, in reality it's just a computer with a human voice, pre-programed to answer just one question at the time, from a database of some stored logical data.)

#10 My answer to the question was only concerning post #2. It was not an answer to post #4. I would have to read that post to see what was stated.

Post # 2 was made at - Today, 12:51 PM
Post # 4 was made at - Today, 01:25 PM

Post # 10 was made at - Today, 09:01 PM

So at 09:01 PM Today, you have not read Post # 4 that was made at 01:25 PM Today, yet?

http://abestweb.com/smilies/confused2.gifhttp://abestweb.com/smilies/confused2.gifhttp://abestweb.com/smilies/confused2.gif

[ericb]

Hi Mr. Sal. This morning I was checking my e-mail and read your question from the announcement I made yesterday on abestweb. I will be glad to answer your questions.

Your question has two parts, so I will answer the first part below.

The question: "Are you typing/pasting those answers yourself? You don't have to reply if you don't want to, but your answers looks like they are made by an automatic machine. ( Like those machines they use on some stores that when we think we are talking to a human, in reality it's just a computer with a human voice, pre-programed to answer just one question at the time, from a database of some stored logical data.)"

The answer: Yes, I am typing and posting the answers myself.

A machine is not responding to your question or the other questions, comments and/or suggestions that have been posted. Also, believe me, I am human.

The statements that you referred to in your message, which I will place below:

"As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program."

"Responding to additional questions concerning our affiliate program. I will list another question and provide the answer."

These are the statements that you mentioned that I used in my response on post #7 and #10 and I believe #5. Yes, I did type these comments in each post. However, I did not copy and paste the statements.

I typed the comments from memory at the top of almost each post because I wanted to let everyone know that I am willing to respond to whatever concerns, questions and/or suggestions are posted whether positive or negative.

Since I used the same basic statement, I remember the statements pretty much word for word, so I typed the statements that way. I did not realize that would be something I should not do. I hope I answered the first part of your question okay. If not, let me know and I will be glad to provide an additional response.

The second part of your question was:

#10
Quote:
"My answer to the question was only concerning post #2. It was not an answer to post #4. I would have to read that post to see what was stated.

Post # 2 was made at - Today, 12:51 PM
Post # 4 was made at - Today, 01:25 PM

Post # 10 was made at - Today, 09:01 PM

So at 09:01 PM Today, you have not read Post # 4 that was made at 01:25 PM Today, yet?"

Mr. Sal. The answer is "no", I had not read post #4 when I responded to the post that mentioned that particular post number.

Yesterday, this is how the art affiliate announcement went for me.

I paid $75.00 and placed the announcement at abestweb. The message after the advertising order basically said that the announcement would be reviewed before it was posted. I completed and submitted the announcement somewhere between 12:00 and 12:45. I was not looking at the clock when I finished; so the exact time I cannot provide.

A few minutes after I submitted the announcement, I received an automatic e-mail message from abestweb with the first response from the affiliate announcement, which was before 1:00pm. I read the automatic e-mail message and copied it to Microsoft Word so that I could read and respond to it later.

I received another automatic response, which I read and responded to around 3:00pm. I read this one around the time it was delivered because I was checking my e-mail at that time. I typed the response to the message in Microsoft Word. So I only had to login at abestweb and submit the post. I did not read any post while I was logged in because I was only trying to respond to that particular post.

Sometime later yesterday, about the time that I logged in to post my reply to post #2 that I had read in my e-mail, I read one of the last abestweb automatic e-mail messages in my inbox which happen to be from Mr. Gene. It was around 8:00 pm, after I had came home from bible study. The actual message was delivered to my inbox earlier that day.

There were a few other automatic e-mail messages from abestweb; but I just happen to open Mr. Gene’s message because it was near the top and I easily spotted it in the inbox list.

Since his message was addressing post #2, I went ahead and responded to his message with a post answer instead of specifically responding to post #2 because I felt by answering Mr. Gene question I would also be answering post #2.

I still have not read each post, I will do that later today.

I have learned that it is better not to respond directly to forum posts and/or e-mail messages from any person and/or organization when it is read. I usually will type my response and send it later after I have had at least an hour of lapse time to read over it again.

So concerning the announcement posts, I read the automatic e-mail messages delivered to my e-mail inbox, not in any particular order. I respond to the post later by logging in and submitting the post answer for that particular question, I do not at that time read all the posts. I just complete the one post I planned to do when I login.

I hope this response was enough to answer the second part of your question. If not, let me know.

I will try to read the other posts from yesterday sometime today. I will respond one by one unless I happen to read posts that arrived around the same timeframe and the post are similar.

Each comment, question and/or suggestion is important because the person took the time to send it; so I will answer each one either individually or similar questions together.

Mr. Sal. I appreciate your feedback.

Have a great day.
God Bless.
Eric Brown

[Mr. Sal]

Hi Eric,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to the two parts of my question on Post # 13.

I didn't knew that you was reading the questions after you got them by e-mail, I thought you was reading the questions on this thread directly, even when you was off-line.

Yesterday I thought that, since you had placed the announcement to advertise your New Art Affiliate Program here, I thought that you was going to be reading the feedback to your announcement directly from the announcement thread, and not from the emails, but now I understand.

I would like to make a suggestion to you because I see that you are new to ABW.

I suggest, that if you want to get more affiliates interested in promoting the New Art Affiliate Program for you, that you make some time to stick around ABW more often, and read about the way other people handle their New Affiliate Program Announcement questions and suggestions, that way it will make your New Affiliate Program Announcement, more appealing to those affiliates that might be interested in promoting your products.

Good Luck with your New Art Affiliate Program!

[ericb]

As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

Responding to additional questions, comments and suggestions concerning our affiliate program. I will list another comment and provide the answer.

A recent comment: “Eric, you have to look at this issue from an affiliates viewpoint. We spend a lot of time and money promoting the merchants that we feature on our sites. We tend to take a very dim view of a merchant when they are trying to make additional revenue from the customers that we send them on 3rd party links that we are not compensated for.

Remember we sent you that customer for our MUTUAL benefit not so that you can generate additional revenue through adsense or other affiliate links.

You need to decide whether you are a merchant or an affiliate.”

My response to the comment:I had an opportunity to read your post this morning. I really appreciate the time you took to make the post.

You do not know me from Adam; so I know that you have thrown me into the same pool as all merchants. I am sure that you have dealt with and/or are dealing with merchants that you could tell a day full of stories about and still have stories left to tell tomorrow.

I will only say that I did not think twice about the links on my art website because the links were directed to a website that primarily contains information that helps people and provides useful African American information.

It is a website I created to give back to communities across the country. I use my own funds to give the support and services that are provided via the website. It is not a money generating website nor was it intended for that purpose. The purpose is to provide help where and when possible across this country for people of all races and ethnic groups.

I did not know that the links caused such a response until I was able today to read the majority of the automatic e-mail messages from abestweb concerning my affiliate announcement yesterday.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I read each automatic e-mail message when I can and then I post the response at abestweb. I do not read the posts while at the abestweb website.

That being said, I thought about what you placed in your post and your genuine expression came through in your comments.

I took your comments and suggestions as a learning curve for what I want to accomplish with this affiliate program. As you suggested, I have removed the outbound links and the link exchange banner from my African American Art website. Moreover, I do try to understand the affiliate side of the table and I hope that some affiliates try to understand the merchant side of the table in kind.

As I had stated in an earlier post response yesterday to another question, I reviewed the website stats concerning the outbound links. The percentage of visitors using the links was small and the vast majority of visitors that visited the link destinations only viewed the information. Most people primarily came to my art website to view art and that was all that they did; once they finished viewing and/or purchasing, they left without clicking on a link.

However, I understand that perception is reality; so that is one of the reasons why I removed the links.

The link information for my art website visitors is very useful to them; but I can do as I did before I placed the links which was to answer each individual e-mail message and direct them to websites where they can go to find the African American information they are interested in locating on the internet.

I had made my affiliate announcement on abestweb.com because I was told that abestweb is a great community of affiliates and one of the largest concentrations of affiliates available on the Internet. This being said, I figured it was a good place to communicate with affiliates. I had thought that my affiliate program would be a beneficial resource for some affiliates at abestweb.

As I had mentioned yesterday, ethnic art especially black art is very popular; but there are very few places if any places in most cities to locate black art and the price of this art is usually high. Also, interestingly, about a third of the purchases at my art website come from non African Americans.

I hope that your affiliate efforts currently are very fruitful and I wish you much success in your future endeavors. As I do, for all affiliates in the abestweb community.

Once again, I really appreciate your post, comments and suggestions.

Have a great day.
God Bless
Eric Brown
Owner
African American Art On-Line Store
http://www.brownhorizonsart.com
info@brownhorizonsart.com

[ericb]

Mr. Sal, I wanted you to know that I read the automatic e-mail message today concerning your reply to my post that I posted this morning. It was related to your post from yesterday.

I appreciate the comments and suggestions in your post.

I will try to participate in the abestweb community. I am starting slow. Still working on handling the forums; but I am working on it.

I wish you much success in your current affiliate efforts and I wish you the same for future efforts.

I did not intend to produce the resulting feedback from yesterday. However, I guess you can say I learned a few lessons the hard way; but it is still a blessing.

Once again I appreciate the comments and suggestions.

Have a great day
Thank you,
Eric Brown
Owner
African American Art On-Line Store
http://www.brownhorizonsart.com
info@brownhorizonsart.com

[ericb]

As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

Responding to additional questions concerning our affiliate program. I will list another question and provide the answer.

A recent question: “This program isn't new at all. As far as I can see the only thing that's changed is the SAS merchant ID.

http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=60546

Please explain Eric.”

The answer to this question: I planned to launch an affiliate program for my African American art website in 2005, which I did, for a period of time.

If you are unfamiliar with the African American art niche market, there are few leading African American art websites that have an affiliate program. I know of one that comes to mind. To my knowledge; it is the only one.

Mainly, the mainstream art websites such as art.com, allposter.com etc have affiliate programs which people join when they want to sell African American art in an affiliate program.

However, the main problem with this is that the majority of the mainstream art websites carry only a few select African American art items generally from the more well known artists. The selection is small. People generally cannot find the African American art they are looking for at these websites.

I decided that I would create an affiliate program that would provide people access to an African American art affiliate program that provided a large assortment of black art from well know as well as lesser known artists. This would help the black art world in all areas. It would promote the artists, the art and the niche market all at the same time.

In 2005, I made plans to create the affiliate program under the Shareasale network. I had setup a merchant account and initially started the affiliate program. However, I decided that I would handle the affiliate program myself. I am more of a hands on owner.

The problem with that idea is that I own several businesses including a computer consulting business that required my attention and I underestimated the amount of time needed to run the art affiliate program in a manner I was comfortable with for myself, our customers, our affiliates and staff back in 2005.

So I decided it was best to halt the affiliate program that I had recently started, in 2005, until a later date and time when I was able to put in the amount of time and energy that I felt the art affiliate program deserved.

I could have hired someone to be the affiliate manager for the art program, which under many circumstances would be best; but I felt to be one of the first well known African American art websites to have a major affiliate program; it was best for me to be at the helm of the program, if not on a day to day bases, a regular bases.

In 2005, I had a few businesses that were expanding, so I focused my attention in those areas. I have completed the expansions with those businesses and in 2007 I want to expand my African American art business.

That time is now. So last week I started a new affiliate program under Shareasale for my African American Art website.

I consider it a new program because it is not the same affiliate program that I started in 2005.

If I had restarted the affiliate program from 2005, I would have been glad to announce it as such; however, I ended that program. So I announced the program I started last week as a new affiliate program.

If I did not answer this question well enough, please let me know and I will be glad to try to expand on whatever other issue(s) are brought to my attention concerning this question.

Thank you,
Eric Brown
African American Art On-Line Store

[ericb]

As I stated in our affiliate program announcement, I am always open for comments, suggestions and questions concerning our affiliate program.

Responding to additional questions, comments and suggestions concerning our affiliate program. I will list another comment and provide the answer.

A recent comment: “Ditch the adsense in your blog and template it the same as the rest of your site. And yes, ditch the Link Exchange on your home page. It also is disconcerting to the shopper to go out of your site template and to the yahoo checkout page without warning. It makes your site look like you are referring traffic elsewhere instead of looking like you are the shop owner.

You have a great concept, but presentation needs work.”

The answer to this question: I previously answered a question similar in nature, but different in some ways in an earlier post. Therefore, I will provide the part of that post that relates to answering this question.

I took all the suggestions I read this morning as a learning curve for what I want to accomplish with this affiliate program. Therefore, I have removed the outbound links that lead to information whereby some contains advertising such as adsense and the link exchange banner from my African American Art website.

As I had stated in an earlier post response yesterday to another question, I reviewed the website stats concerning the outbound links. The percentage of visitors using the links was small and the vast majority of visitors that visited the link destinations only viewed the information. Most people primarily came to my art website to view art and that was all that they did; once they finished viewing and/or purchasing, they left without clicking on a link.

However, I understand that perception is reality; so that is one of the reasons why I removed the links.

The link information for my art website visitors is very useful to them; but I can do as I did before I placed the links which was to answer each individual e-mail message and direct them to websites where they can go to find the African American information they are interested in locating on the internet.

I had made my affiliate announcement on abestweb.com because I was told that abestweb is a great community of affiliates and one of the largest concentrations of affiliates available on the Internet. This being said, I figured it was a good place to communicate with affiliates. I had thought that my affiliate program would be a beneficial resource for some affiliates at abestweb.

As I had mentioned yesterday, ethnic art especially black art is very popular; but there are very few places if any places in most cities to locate black art and the price of this art is usually high. Also, interestingly, about a third of the purchases at my art website come from non African Americans.

I hope that your affiliate efforts currently are very fruitful and I wish you much success in your future endeavors. As I do, for all affiliates in the abestweb community.

Have a great day.
Eric Brown
African American Art On-Line Store

[rematt]

Eric, Welcome aboard. The fact that you were willing to make changes based on our feedback makes a difference. Too many merchants take the attitude of "if you don't like it, go somewhere else" and we usually do.

I had made my affiliate announcement on abestweb.com because I was told that abestweb is a great community of affiliates and one of the largest concentrations of affiliates available on the Internet. This being said, I figured it was a good place to communicate with affiliates. I had thought that my affiliate program would be a beneficial resource for some affiliates at abestweb.
Stay active on ABW and you'll find out pretty quickly what we like and don't like. Most of us are fairly opinionated and very passionate about our opinions (as you've no doubt noticed). There are a lot of experienced affiliates and PM's here that I learn from everyday and if you keep an open mind they'll help you make your program a success.

You'll find that this a great vehicle for staying in touch with the affiliate world. In the few months that I've been an ABW member I've gained years worth of knowledge that I probably couldn't have gotten anywhere else. What I've found interesting in the past few months is that the Program Mangers that are active on ABW are also the ones that tend to be most responsive when questions or issues arrise.

A couple of threads you might want to take a look at are:

As Affiliate I Hate... (http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=79787)

and

What affiliates do to annoy merchants & aff managers (http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=86399)

Good luck with your program.

-rematt

[ericb]

Hello Rematt.

I wanted you to know that I read the automatic e-mail message this morning concerning your most recent post #20.

I appreciate the welcome aboard and the suggestions in your most recent post.

Also, I read both threads that you suggested that I read. The threads where very informative and provided good insight.

I understand that with all affiliate programs the most important and vital part are the affiliates.

This is why the programs are called "affiliate" programs with the first word being affiliate. No successful affiliate program has ever been made without affiliates.

I am open to all suggestions and comments concerning affiliate programs because no one knows everything, but everyone knows something.

I am comfortable enough to say that I don't know everything about affiliate marketing - not even close. However, I am willing to learn and to listen which I feel are always important when trying to make any new venture successful.

So I am learning as much as I can so that I can run a quality affiliate program. I think is always good when an affiliate can go directly to the owner of a business when they have an issue, question, problem and/or concern.

This is one of the main reasons why I am the affiliate manager with my art affiliate program. It is always different when an owner takes a direct active role in any venture because it means more to the owner since it is his or her own money, success or failure, and/or reputation that is tied to whatever is being attempted. Most people tend to care more and try harder when it is their own personal or business relationships, possessions and/or finances involved. It is human nature.

Once again, I appreciate your suggestions and comments in both posts that you made. I am sure that you are a very busy person; so you taking the time to make the first post then to come back the next day and make a second post is truly appreciated.

Thanks,
Eric Brown
African American Art On-Line Store

[rematt]

Eric,

One resource I forgot to mention is A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing (http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=83364) by Geno Prussakov of AM Navigator.

I haven't read it myself (I'm waiting for the movie popcorn) but from reading the comments of others it appears to be an excellent resource for merchants and PM's.

-rematt

[ericb]

Rematt, I appreciate the additional information. I will read the general information about the e-book to see what it provides for its readers.

Thank you,
Eric Brown
African American Art On-Line Store

[ericb]

Just a quick post to provide an update on our affiliate program, I hope that everyone is doing well?

Our African American art affiliate program, which was started two weeks ago, has had 29 signups for the program during this time period. We are starting slowly; but I am encouraged by the signups considering we are in a very specific niche market.

Currently I cannot identify the sources, where the affiliates who have joined our program were directed from and/or initially learned about our program.

Therefore, if any affiliates who have joined our program, joined because of the “new affiliate program advertisement” we placed at abestweb, could you please let us know?

I would like to know so I can monitor the abestweb advertisement and to determine the percentage of affiliates who have joined our program that participate in the ABW online community.

Thank you,
Eric Brown
African American Art On-Line Store
http://www.brownhorizonsart.com
info@brownhorizonsart.com
706-729-9666

[e-Gazer]

Hi Eric,

I have been following your thread and wanted to offer a tip. You may want to think about planning newsletter communications for your joined affiliates where you can offer them special incentives for specific actions - such as providing you w/ the info you've requested in your last post.

Also you may want to think about running an ABW-exclusive signup promotion to help generate additional signups.

But - please note that no matter what you offer to generate signups, quality affiliates look for equity in a merchant before they'll spend time planning promotions and putting in the effort to actually make it work.

If you've removed all your Google & AdSense links as well as other affiliate links from your site, you will attract more quality affiliates to your program.

As well, remember, this business is really about relationships, so definitely making the time to hang out where your affiliates do in efforts to get to know them better is important. Affiliates want to know that they are more than just a number to the merchants that they work with - that their efforts are appreciated. So communicate w/ them as such for best results.

I think you have the right idea but you're right in noting that you've got quite the learning curve ahead - in getting around that curve you have to expect that program growth may be very slow.

I wish you success.