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List Building Part 4: Online media marketing, CPA networks, ad networks, co-registration and affiliates
Rick Henkin
In part 4 of this series, we'll examine the following list building methods: online media marketing, CPA networks, ad networks, co-registration and affiliates. Online Media MarketingI made an error when I included "online media marketing" as a separate method for building your list. This category actually includes every form of marketing and advertising online, all of which can help you build your prospect list. There are, however, several distinctions to be made between offline and online marketing, the old rules and the new rules. According to David Meerman Scott, in his book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly  , the old
rules of marketing stated that:
The new rules of marketing state that:
CPA NetworksNo, we're not talking about certified public accountants. CPA stands for "cost per action" or "cost per acquisition." With this method, the advertiser only pays when a specified action occurs that is linked to the advertisement. The action is defined by the advertiser and might be a purchase, a form submission or a lead. CPA networks connect publishers (traffic providers) with advertisers (people with a product to sell). "Traffic providers" can be websites that attract huge amounts of viewers or more likely, affiliates with huge followings. From an advertiser's standpoint, CPA networks give you access to thousands of affiliates that can send you traffic on a commission basis. From the publisher's standpoint, CPA networks give you access to thousands of products to promote. The network acts as an intermediary between the two and earns it's fees that way. You don't even have to have your own products to sell. You can just redirect traffic to other businesses through the network. Like anything else in business, you want to make sure that you're dealing with a reputable firm that is very selective in terms of who they approve to be in their network. You don't want to be lumped in with a bunch of spammers or scammers. Ad NetworksAd networks connect websites that want to host advertisements with advertisers. They provide a way for advertisers to efficiently coordinate campaigns over 10's, 100's or even 1000's of websites. The ad networks focus more on running ads either over an entire category (run-of-category) or an entire network (run-of-network) rather than ad placement on specific websites. There are 3 types of advertising networks:
Co-RegistrationI'm sure we've all come across this: You purchase or subscribe to something and on the order form or "thank you page" or you're shown a list of check boxes of services or products from other websites. By checking those boxes, you're giving your permission to receive information from those other websites. That's co-registration in action, placing your offer on a 3rd party website's form. In exchange, you usually pay a fee or make a barter exchange to that other website for each lead you receive. According to MarketingSherpa, a highly respected research firm that neither sells their services nor accepts advertising, in their August 22, 2006 blog post entitled, Study Data: Easiest Way to Build Your Opt-in List With Targeted Business Prospects, they state that "...80% of business technology marketers who've tested co-registration as a way to generate new business leads in the past 12 months found it to be effective...That data didn't surprise me because I've seen similar data from marketers in many different niches, ranging from ecommerce sites such as Sierra Trading Post to news organizations such as USA Today to tech giants such as Oracle. In fact, 32% of marketers who gather new email names via co-registration offers on third-party sites say those names perform as well as regular house names." AffiliatesAffiliate marketing is simply commission based selling. An affiliate markets your product and in return for each sale usually receives a % commission based on the purchase amount. Fulfillment is usually handled by the website that has the product. Most large websites have affiliate programs. At IncreaseOnlineProfits.com, since we often recommend books on our blogs and in our articles, including this article we belong to Amazon's affiliate program. Amazon offers only 4%-15% on their products but typically you'll find commissions of up to 50% and more. Sometimes the commissions are 100% because the business offering the commission realizes that the lifetime value of the customer is much greater than what they will receive for that one sale. By offering a high commission and a product with real value, the business is more likely to get interest from top affiliates who have large followings and will work hard to promote the product. So, two very good things happen here: 1) you receive revenue from the sale of your product (unless you go the 100% route) and 2) you build a very qualified list that you can sell to over and over, because these people are buyers, not prospects. How do you find affiliates?
ARTICLE DATE: 2009-04-24 REVISED DATE: Share this Article as a Tweet on Twitter
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