Behind The Scenes Look At Affiliate Companies

by Jeremy Schoemaker on February 25, 2008 · 34 comments

A few weeks ago I was sent a Camera by Rocket Profit. In following up with them they suggested I start going around the country/world and filming inside Affiliate companies interviewing the staff and just giving a “behind the scenes look”. They offered themselves up first and last week they flew us in to check out their company. Its going to be a few weeks until the first one is published but I pinged a few other companies and they were all pretty eager about it. So far on board is AzoogleAds, Pepperjamnetwork, Media Whiz, Clickbooth and about 3 other companies that escape my mind at this second. At first glance they look like they are all sponsors of this site but…. I can’t think of one established affiliate company that has not sponsored so I think they kind of go hand in hand.

Anyway watch for them coming soon ;) .

About the author...

– who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }

1 samo February 25, 2008 at 7:27 am

You should get a video interview of someone from azoogle, and ask them why it takes so long for a application to be processed.

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2 Vizion February 25, 2008 at 7:34 am

i think this is really a great idea specially for someone like myself whom hasn’t gotten to big into the affiliate programs out there – can’t wait to see these!

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3 ShoeMoney February 25, 2008 at 7:35 am

Its interesting you ask that… that is on a affiliate q&a post I have scheduled for this week. Its not really directed at azoogleads but more why the top tier affiliate companies take so long to process your application.

Its also a question I address with rocketprofit in the first episode.

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4 Mark Hansen - Niche Builder February 25, 2008 at 7:42 am

I have to agree with Vison on this one. Great idea and will help alot of us who are just learning to work with affiliate companies. Should provide some great insight to the backbone, or support structure behind the names.

Thanks

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5 Vizion February 25, 2008 at 7:52 am

exactly – too many times we the publishers just see the company and the number conversions with no clue on whose on the other side of the looking glass

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6 Royal Radande February 25, 2008 at 7:54 am

Call them up and tell them that you’re making lots of money with the other CPA companies and that you would really like to start making money with them. Also, let them know that the other companies didn’t take ages before accepting you.

They will call you back the same day saying that you were approved, or approve you right over the phone.

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7 anty February 25, 2008 at 8:00 am

I can’t wait to see behind the scenes of affiliate companies. I hope this will reveal some of the differences between all the affiliate companies, like what they are valuating the most, what they don’t care about and how they do their business on a daily basis.
Thanks for doing this!

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8 carl February 25, 2008 at 8:17 am

While I have come to expect that almost everything you do online is tied to marketing in some fashion, it really would not matter if these were part of a promotion or not. If a campaign sells for an affiliate, they will keep running it. If not they move onto someone else. You could tell me that Azoogle has offices made from gold and that they spend half their earnings on malaria shots for poor africans, if i can’t convert their offers, I will run something else.

do us a favor though and explain some of the behind the scenes accounting. Like what portion of the earnings do affiliate companies keep, at what point can you expect an affiliate company to up your split. How to make sure your company is not stealing your earnings by not crediting conversions.

On that note, it is far more important that an affiliate company has good hardware. You aren’t gonna make any money if the landing page goes down during peak times. How do you check that stuff out?

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9 ShoeMoney February 25, 2008 at 8:19 am

Thanks carl -

Good questions I will keep in mind for future ones.

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10 Infrared Fred February 25, 2008 at 8:43 am

Be nice if you could find out whether they pass on keywords – not that they’re going to admit it though.

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11 ShoeMoney February 25, 2008 at 9:24 am

I am sure they will be willing to answer that on camera =P

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12 Haltingpoint February 25, 2008 at 10:39 am

I’d be curious to learn what the day to day is like working for those companies. While we’re all quite familiar being on the other side of the fence I’ll bet they deal with some fun situations on a day to day basis (listening to people beg and plead to have their blackhat site reinstated for example) and I’m sure its quite interesting to work there.

Especially when you take into the keyword passing comment above…imagine having the kind of view they have into what works and what doesn’t. I wonder how many of them do affiliate marketing on the side or if they’re even contractually allowed to.

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13 Haltingpoint February 25, 2008 at 10:50 am

I’d be curious to see what sorts of day to day things they have to deal with.

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14 Paul February 25, 2008 at 11:08 am

Congratulations! I like that you have developed yourself into a media power house.

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15 Video Blog February 25, 2008 at 11:32 am

that will be pretty cool, looking forward to it

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16 Terra Andersen February 25, 2008 at 12:04 pm

Wonderful! I’ve always been curious about companies like this, so it will be an interesting read~!

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17 Terry Tay February 25, 2008 at 2:40 pm

This is a great idea!

Knowing a little more about an affiliate company does help you in deciding if you want to “do business” with them, but it comes down to; what they have to offer and can you “sell it” to your contacts and site visitors?

With so many different affiliate programs, this will definately help potential affiliates get an inside view of a company.

~Terry

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18 RacerX February 25, 2008 at 2:41 pm

This will be a must read series! Great Idea John!

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19 Tino Buntic February 25, 2008 at 2:54 pm

You should film at the AzoogleAds Toronto office, although they’re not really in Toronto; they’re in crappy Markham.

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20 Simlock verwijderen February 25, 2008 at 5:39 pm

Nice. You are a lucky man, but I don’t have nothing to complain. I wait for you first episode. Maybe I can learn something about it.

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21 Karn Patel February 25, 2008 at 7:15 pm

This should be great. I am not big on affiliate sites so this should be great.

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22 izm February 25, 2008 at 8:13 pm

bet you wont go to cpaempire…

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23 RacerX February 25, 2008 at 9:21 pm

Off topic, but I like the new Super-Shoe Background on your responses. New?

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24 Asif February 26, 2008 at 1:01 am

i guess its a unique call, i have never come across any such event where affiliate companies sending an invitation to look at their inside operation, one of the thing that you might consider looking at is how transparent these companies are as far as conversion is concern, i mean as an affiliate marketer how could someone determine that the commissions he/she is making is out of actual sale?
Though i understand if you are promoting any product through a marketplace such as CJ, your efforts are pretty much protected however i am not sure if you are promoting products/services of companies running their own affiliate program

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25 troy February 26, 2008 at 6:07 am

This is one I will have to see

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26 A. Marketing February 26, 2008 at 6:18 am

I agree with Carl wholeheartedly, Shoe… I could care less what a company does with their money – I want to know how much of my hard work is going into their pockets in the first place.

If the hard work is going to convert more for them than it is for me, then why would I bother wasting my time, you know? I want to know how much/well they support their affiliates – and if they actually LISTEN to them, make changes and adjustments based on the demands of those who make them their money.

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27 Affiliate Confession February 26, 2008 at 8:15 pm

This could be pretty interesting. I’d like to know why more affiliate managers don’t start their own affiliate business when they see what someone like you can do, Mr Shoemoney.

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28 Chris February 26, 2008 at 11:25 pm

I look forward to seeing these—great idea!

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29 eMarketing Chat February 27, 2008 at 7:11 am

That could be nice! It will be funny to see your account manager in front of the camera. That’s something else then communicating with them by phone or IM. I heard that Azoogle has a cool new office.

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30 oakling February 27, 2008 at 5:06 pm

Excellent! I am crazy excited about this.

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31 Paid Surveys Reviewed March 2, 2008 at 9:19 am

My thoughts exactly, I am in the same boat as you. Fairly new to affiliate marketing but interested in the different companies.

Jim

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32 Greg Powell March 3, 2008 at 11:02 am

Have them come and interview us -AffiliatePrograms.com

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33 Affiliate Confession March 3, 2008 at 2:05 pm

I’m sure these affiliate companies will be on their best behavior while Shoe is doing this. I don’t know if we’ll catch some of their weaker moments.

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