There’s a nice variety present here so there’s really no excuse at all for you to not see something you’re interested in running. Let’s go ahead and take a look.

1. Games – Luvinia (US, CA, UK, DE, NL, BE) – Payout: $1.60

MMO type games are all the rage these days and currently, Livinia is easily one of the best. With a free interface and millions of active players worldwide, this one’s an easy sell indeed!

2. Credit – CreditReport.com (US) – Payout: $26.00

Credit reports are those kind of offers that will always be popular. As long as the Internet is in existence at least. CreditReport.com is arguably the best credit reporting offer out there today — second only to perhaps FreeCreditReport.com in popularity. If you don’t mind getting nitty-gritty in regards to providing users with in-depth credit information with which to utilize in forwarding them on to the offer then this niche is definitely for you.

3. Email Submit – Best Buy (US) – $Payout: $1.50

Email submits are always a safe bet if you know how to run them. And even if you don’t, this particular email submit is practically a license to print money. Get it on it while it’s still hot or miss out — the choice is yours.

4. Dating – Mate1 Default (25+ Men) (US) – Payout: $4.20

If you look at this demographic and really think about it, it’s arguably one of the most perfect one’s to target for a dating offer. And with all of the risque-type creatives you can use for this one, well… let’s just say that you’ll be playing directly into the hands of the male gender as a whole. Cha-ching!

5. Games – Godfather Five Families (US, CA, UK, AU) – Payout: $2.20

This one really speaks for itself. It’s essentially a social MMO game framed in the Godfather universe. The fact that it’s our job to market this aside — you have to admit, that concept sounds like a pretty damn awesome game, no?

All in all, there’s plenty to choose from in the list above. Not that you need to limit yourself to just these offers or anything, but if you’re just starting out and/or having some trouble picking out which offers to run for new campaigns, then the information contained herein is absolutely invaluable. So use it wisely and remember, if you have any questions or need help with absolutely anything, you know where to find us.

Until next time!

There have been studies done in regards to the differing traits and motivations of home/laptop Internet users and mobile Internet users. Namely that, a mobile Internet user who is searching for something is much more likely to be in the buy-it-now phase in lieu of the let-me-learn-and-research-about-this one prevalent among the home/laptop bunch. As online marketers, it’s obvious just how beneficial this frame of mind can be. It also alludes to the fact that — for mobile marketing — landing pages probably won’t need to be of the in-depth, multiple-page-spanning variety.

Looking ahead to 2012, it’s almost as if it has become a collective consensus that mobile marketing is here to stay. It’s not as if the world is suddenly going to all throw away their cell phones anytime soon, so barring some breaking news story about them definitively causing cancer and needing to all be destroyed post-haste, it’s probably safe to assume that it’s a safe, long-term vertical to get into.

And the possibilities are endless! The mobile vertical essentially encompasses the entire CPA marketing realm except in a smaller, mobile Internet form. Unlike most other verticals which are generally specific and focus in on certain niches, mobile offers can consist of practically anything. As long as it falls within the mobile pin submit or WAP (eg: specifically designed for mobile phones) mobile offer format, the skies really the limit.

You’re probably already aware of this, but to successfully make it as an affiliate marketer continuously in the long run, you need to not be afraid to mix it up a bit from time to time. You also can’t be scared of change, because changes happen often in this industry. Absolutely do not go about with the mindset of holding fast to the old guard and ignoring everything else until it’s blatantly obvious your opinion is the wrong one. You essentially need to be open and ready to embrace new ideas and trends within the industry at a moments notice — no matter where they may originate from or off-the-wall they may seem. Just look at all the people who scoffed at promoting offers via Facebook Ads when they first offered the option. Exactly.

Since we’re naturally striving to always stay ahead of the curve here at Wolf Storm Media, you can expect a diverse array of mobile offers that will only expand the deeper we get into 2012. We have all of the resources necessary for you to succeed in this vertical — all you need to do is ask. If you’re having trouble making any money at all in online marketing, don’t be afraid to try and get into running mobile offers because you’re scared that it will be too complicated or take too much time to become familiar with. There’s no if’s and’s or but’s about it: mobile offers and the mobile vertical as a whole is going to become a very big portion of this industry. It technically already has.

Knowledge is power. And since we offer all of our affiliates the opportunity to share in our team’s express and veteran level experience and knowledge… well, I suppose that means that we’re very powerful here at Wolf Storm Media. And we want to share this power with you freely. It’s quite literally there for the taking, you just have to take advantage of it.

As always though, if you’re unsure about which mobile offers to either start with or test out for further optimization, please don’t hesitate at all in contacting your Affiliate Manager for help. Not only can he help you choose what offers to run, but he can also give you some insight into how the offer may be run the most effectively and what can be done to fully optimize your specific campaign in particular as well.

Stay tuned next week for a Wolf Storm Media Top Offers feature here on the blog. Until next time — stay hungry and stay driven!

It’s really quite easy to see why services such as Groupon and KGB have has such success, what with the horrific economic climate that practically every region throughout the globe currently finds themselves in. Discounts, coupons and deals of any and all kinds are more important than ever before now, with the vast majority of people trying to pinch every last penny and get the absolute most value out of them.

To start, let’s take a look at a nice infographic on group buying in 2011 courtesy of GPlus.com:

Will the number of new Groupon subscribers stop rising anytime soon?

It’s obviously immediately apparent in the large jump of Groupon subscribers, in particularly from Sept. 2012 – Dec. 2012, Dec. 2010 – March 2011 and March 2011 – June 2011. The jump in subscribers from June 2011 – Sept. 2011 wasn’t as large, but that’s probably because there were already so many damn subscribers to begin with in June of 2011.

What’s even more striking is the statistic next to the graph, a quote from eMarketer that 47 percent of consumers would redeem some kind of coupon — either in a store or directly online at a website — in 2011. And that percentage is likely to grow even larger in 2012, especially combined with the ever-growing prevalence of social media. With so many people already utilizing daily deals and group buying services — and perhaps most importantly, the fact that these services are actually legit and aren’t of a scam/re-bill nature — the buzz surrounding them all is only going to grow.

And we’re already seeing advertisers and investors wising up, what with new daily deal/group buying offers popping up all the time but in more specific niches. (Mom Daily Deals anyone? Can you say JACKPOT?)

So is this what to expect the most from daily deals and group buying offers in 2012? It’s only natural really — with any successful and broad-spanning vertical — to ultimately spawn a countless number of much more specific niche deals and offers. Case in point, one of the new ones I just mentioned above: Mom Daily Deals. Has there ever, in the history of online marketing, been a better pairing of global demand with the absolute perfect niche demographic? Who loves coupons, deals and saving money more than mothers? I really can’t think of anyone!

Indeed, Groupon has recognized this and unsurprisingly begun implementing an option for subscribers to customize what kinds of daily deals they receive each day. No longer do you have to wade through day-after-day of 41% Off Homeade Soap and Half Off Ceramics Paintings deals that we’d never really ever be interested in. Instead, you can customize what types of deals and coupons you receive each day — in addition (obviously) to the immediate vicinity of your home or work location.

But will this be enough to combat new super-targeted niche type daily deal offers? It’s only a matter of time before some kind of Foodie/Restaraunt Lover type offer emerges from the pack. And the possibilities are really quite endless!

Factor all of this into the other “next big thing” in online marketing for 2012, mobile offers, and you’ve got yourself quite the trend. One that may very well last all of 2012 and into 2013. Who knows where it’s going to stop? Maybe when the economy levels out and gets out of the basement?

The whole year of 2012 is obviously going to hold host to a whole different variety of hot new offer types and this is just an example, but if you’re interested in getting into a vertical that is already popular and only getting more popular each and every day — not to mention an overall niche of offers that is extremely, extremely appealing to seemingly the vast majority of the planet — than you’d do well to look no further than daily deal and group buying offers. (You can thank me later!)

Well, except probably mobile offers. But we’ll talk all about those next week in another Look Back At 2011 & Ahead to 2012 feature here on the Wolf Storm Media blog. So be sure and stay tuned and feel free to bookmark us to ensure you won’t miss out!

We’re excited to start another year, and we’re working hard on our plans for 2012. Over the course of this year we’ve expanded the company in an effort to continue to provide more and more service to our affiliates. We’ve made a lot of changes this year in an effort to make our network better and I’m always looking for more suggestions.

Earlier this month I created a survey and asked all of you to fill it out. I’m getting lots of responses and they’re all extremely helpful to know exactly what you want. If you haven’t yet, I’d like to see every one of our affiliates fill this out -> http://www.surveybuilder.com/s/KKaHCkunYAA?source_id=3&source_type=web.

I’d like to take this time to explain some changes we’ve made over the year and other changes that we’re implementing in 2012.

Approvals Guidelines

As the year has progressed we’ve really tightened up our approval restrictions. We’re focused on working with our growing affiliate family and making sure that we are spending our resources in the best way we can. If you have a referral or a friend that has applied to our network and was denied please let me know. Shoot me an email to JCooper@wolfstormmedia.com and I’ll take care of them for you. As long as you’re an active affiliate with us we generally have no problem approving your friends. While we do not require a referral for affiliates to be approved into our network, it does make the application process a lot easier for them.

Transition to the Cake Marketing Platform

In the middle of this year we made a switch to the Cake Marketing platform. We’ve been using this platform now for six months and I can officially report that it was one of the best moves we’ve made as a company. We’ve gotten a ton of great feedback on it and Cake continues to update our platform so that affiliates will see even more features and options in the coming year. Cake is constantly updating their software, and they are doing a great job at filling feature requests that we have. I see Cake Marketing as being a strong strategic partner for us in the coming years.

New iPhone Application

I’m excited to announce that there’s now an iPhone application that you can use to log in to your stats. It doesn’t cost you a dime and you can use it to stay logged into our network on the go. For those of you that have an iPhone, simply go the the application store and search ‘Cake Marketing’. Once you have it downloaded it’s real simple to get logged in.

URL – login.wolfstormmedia.com
Your Username
Your Password

Improved Business Development Processes

One of the biggest and most beneficial changes we’ve made this year is in our business development department. Bringing on offers is our job, and it’s our job to make sure that we only bring on the best offers for you to promote. Initially we were cataloging a lot more offers than we were able to really work with. We tried to get the largest diversity for our affiliates and that resulted in a lower overall quality in our offers.

It shouldn’t be a crap shoot when you log into our system, you should know that each and every offer that is listed is working properly and converts well. We are working day in and day out to bring in more direct offers that our affiliates want. Our offer requests list is always evolving as we bring more and more offers in. If you have a request please let us know and we will get the offer direct with a payout to beat what you’re currently getting.

We’re constantly evaluating our strategy here and we plan to improve on this even further in 2012. We will be running a lot more traffic internally so that we can provide you the best up to date guides in the industry. Our goal is to give you the basics of running every offer in our system so that you can utilize your knowledge and creativity to take the offer to a new level.

Brand New Web Site

Over the past month we’ve been working on a brand new site that should make navigating it a lot easier for you guys. I’ve paid careful attention to make sure that all of the important pages are easy to get to, and that you can find out all of the information you need through our outside site. If you guys have anything you’d like to see on our site content wise, please let me know.

I also plan to start blogging a lot more when we introduce the new site. What types of blog topics would you guys like to see? How can we help you make more money using our blog? We’ll be releasing our new and improved site in the first quarter of 2012!

Affiliate Summit West

We will be attending Affiliate Summit West and we’re looking forward to meeting as many affiliates as possible. I’m going to keep updating our company Twitter as we roam Las Vegas during the show. We’ll be at the show all day both days and we’ll be attending plenty of industry parties. I (Jeremiah Cooper) will be there along with one of our account managers Sam Rafferty. If you’d like to schedule a meet up with either of us we’ll be at the show all day. I’m excited to spend some more time with the affiliates I’ve already met and meet a lot of new affiliates. We will both be checking our email on our phones constantly so just email us if you’re trying to find us. (Jeremiah Cooper – JCooper@wolfstormmedia.com, Sam Rafferty – SRafferty@wolfstormmedia.com). CC us both in on the email and we’ll come find you.

Happy New Year – Let’s Start it Off With a Bang!

We’re all on hand and ready to help you guys make 2012 the best year you’ve ever had in affiliate marketing. We want to work with all of our affiliates and take their business to the next level. While many affiliates are one man shows, you can really take your business up a notch and have an entire staff on board if you want. One of the benefits of this business is a low overhead, so some affiliates may be averse to bringing on additional staff (local or outsourced) and we can help you transition into that. As an affiliate myself I have a team of people that helps me with my business, and I couldn’t have taken the business up a level without them.

Wherever you were as an affiliate in 2011, let us know how we can help you take that business up to a new level in 2012. Every affiliate is different, which is why we strive to offer the absolute best one on one assistance that any network can provide. Reach out to your account managers as we ring in the New Year and they will be happy to show you why affiliates consistently rate our customer service as one of the best out there!

Happy New Year from all of us at Wolf Storm Media!

Remember that money never sleeps so our team will be available through the Holidays. Just drop us an email and we will get back to you!

I am guilty of this at times just as much as anyone else is, and that’s where the thirty day campaign challenge comes in. The crew over at PPVPlaybook ran a very successful thirty day challenge before and they’re up for round two. If you’re a member there you’ve already gotten the emails about it, but have you taken any action on it? If you aren’t a member there, it’s worth taking a look if you’re trying to tackle PPV as your main traffic source. David, Corey and his crew are some of the best out there, and they have a ton of tools available to you. If you’re going to go in there, read a bit, post some questions and take part in the thirty day challenge then I suggest you check it out.

However if you are just looking for another forum to hang out in and use as another excuse, then close the site and don’t look back. Lurking on forums won’t get you anywhere, neither will blog posts for that matter. So let’s close this off with the basic premise – I want you to build one campaign per day for the next thirty days. It doesn’t have to be a new offer every day, you can repurpose current offers on new traffic sources, or split your campaigns off into new countries. You could even run the same offers you already are, on the same traffic sources, but using a different niche targeting style. I challenge you to create one new campaign per day for the next thirty days starting the day you read this post. It doesn’t matter what day it is, or when you start the challenge. The challenge is yours, and yours alone, start it the day that you read this post and do not stop for anything for the next thirty days. I guarantee that you will see a dramatic increase in your abilities as a marketer, and your daily profits if you keep this consistency up.

Landing pages are an integral part of successful Internet marketing campaigns, and that means you should be carrying around an arsenal of ways to write effective landing page copy. Technically, any page on a website can be termed a landing page, since all “landing page” really refers to is the page a user “lands on” when they first visit a website. But for our purposes here, we’re going to be talking about those pages people land on in response to an ad of some sort, whether it’s a PPC ad, a banner ad, a link in an email, a link from Twitter, or something else along those lines.

When we use these methods to bring people to a site, we have some responsibility when it comes to what we deliver when they actually land. First and foremost, it’s your responsibility to ensure that the page they are lead to by an ad will actually deliver on what that ad promised. That means if your ad says they will find a specific product when they click on it, the landing page should immediately demonstrate that they’ve indeed found what they were looking for. Promising one thing and delivering something else is a sure way to NOT make any money.

Once you’ve got that goal in mind, then you can craft your copy. The following are some helpful tips for writing landing page copy. These tips should apply no matter what your product is, but you should always tailor things to suit whatever venture you’re undertaking at the moment.

• Write a great headline that directly relates back to the ad that brought the visitor to the landing page. If possible, try to use as much of the same wording in the ad as you can. This is the easiest way to ensure that your visitor knows the page will deliver on what the ad promised, and it will keep them reading.

• Write to deliver the message, not to be creative. You may have a vocabulary that rivals a Webster’s dictionary, but now is not the time to show off your linguistic gymnastic skills. Your copy should be clean, clear and easy to understand. If you can inject some humor or sparkle without taking away from the point, so much the better, but don’t add extra words for no reason.

• Get to the point as soon as possible. Your most important information should be at the top of the landing page, because you want to get all of your cards on the table as soon as possible. If people have to scroll or read a huge wall of text to pick out the important thing at the end, you’ve wasted their time and yours, and are much less likely to see a conversion. Bullet points are a great way to get that done quickly and easily. Use clear, obvious calls to action in conspicuous places so the reader is never in doubt as to what the next step is. If your copy is on the longer side, distribute your calls to action in various places throughout the page.

• Write the message, then edit for length. Many professional copywriters find it helpful to write until they’ve said everything they needed to say, regardless of length. Once you’ve done that, you can go back and edit it for clarity, directness and to fit in the space it needs to fit into. If you only have enough room for, say, 400 words, but you try to write just 400 words right off the bat, you may find you miss getting some important information in there.

These are just a few of the more basic tips for writing landing page copy. Once you get them down pat, you’ll likely find that you see more conversions than you did before.

But since banner ads are staples, they’re also ubiquitous and can therefore be easily dismissed by users due to ad fatigue and more if you’re not careful. That doesn’t mean you should dismiss using banner ads yourself. After all, they can be very profitable, and a banner ad on a page somewhere is not just an impetus to click, it’s also still an immediate impression, even if the user doesn’t click at all, right? So it just means you need to be smart about using them. To make effective use of banner ads, it’s important to keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Make sure the ad has all of the necessary pieces: an interesting headline and a graphic or design that catches the eye are a must. You must also make sure the file size is small enough that it loads quickly, and the dimensions will fit in the space allotted to it on the page.

• Don’t make it annoying: sounds when you mouse over the ad, garish colors, fast blinking or flashing graphics and text might attract the eye for a second, but that attraction will swiftly change to annoyance, so it’s best to stay away. This is not to say you should never use animations in your banner ads. Quite the contrary – animations in banner ads can be highly effective. You just need to make sure that the animation you use isn’t overbearing in some way, as happens when people use rapid flashing or blinking graphics in their banners.

• Make it tasteful: the classier your ad looks, the better impression you will make, so stick to tasteful colors, graphics, and fonts, unless you have a very excellent reason for doing otherwise. If possible, your banner ads should complement the page they are on, so they fit in with the overall design of the site, and work with the page rather than against it. That means if you’re putting the banner on a site that sticks to muted neutrals, using a banner composed entirely of neon green will stand out, but not necessarily in the way you’d want. By making it complement the space that surrounds it, it looks less like an ad and more like an important, integral part of the site that deserves attention.

• Make sure you get to the point right away: you have very limited space and very limited time in which to hook someone with your banner ad, so you have to make the most of it. When you write the copy, keep it as short and simple as possible while making sure it gets right to the point. Look for ways to incorporate your most important keywords, and make sure you highlight the happiness factor we spoke about in Part 1 (“Know Your Audience”). Use only enough to get the point across.
Too wordy, and your users will lose interest.

In truth, writing good copy is more like an art form, and to do it well, you have to approach it as such. It takes skill and no small amount of finesse to come up with an ad that will convert, but the good news is that even if you’re not currently adept at writing successful sales copy, you can still get there with practice and some elbow grease.

The first thing you need to do before writing any kind of copy – whether it’s for a PPC ad, a landing page, an email campaign, a banner ad, or anything in between – is to think about your audience. To sell something to someone, you need to KNOW them. Who are they? What do they like to do? Why do they need whatever it is you have to sell them? How will it benefit them? And most importantly, what makes them happy?

Truly effective sales copy gets to the root of happiness in potential customers, which is why you so often see copy touting the old standbys (you know the ones – “Get rich quick!” or “Buy this and you’ll be so successful, you can tell everyone else to take a walk!”). Those things work because people think money and success will make them happy. If they had money and success, life would be infinitely better than it is now, and a product advertising money and success is therefore going to be a winner for that sort of person. And with practice, you’ll be able to highlight the money and success makers in just the right light, regardless of the product.

So if those standards do apply to your product, then you’re already part of the way there, but what if a) they don’t apply to your product or b) they could apply, but it’s not a perfect fit? Easy: that’s where the elbow grease comes in.

Think about other things that make people happy, and find the one that applies to your product and your audience. For example:

• Exclusivity – People like the idea of having something few other people have or will be able to get their hands on. That’s why limited editions of albums and books sell so well. A collector’s item is a rarity, something that other people aren’t likely to have, and if YOU have it, well, then that conveys status and specialness.

• Information – People also like the idea of knowing something that other people may not know, whether it’s related to business or just a hobby. Will your product somehow make me smarter in an area I’m interested in? Well, then sign me up!

Those are just two out of the countless different angles you can take. To find the angle that’s right for you and your product, think about your ideal customer. Who is this product perfect for? Once you have that in mind, you can extrapolate and try to determine the right tack to take. It won’t happen overnight or right away, but the more you train your brain to find the happiness angle in your product, the better your copy will be.

These offers generally fill a very niche need for a group of people – and they’re fairly easy to target on contextual traffic sources. People are very specific when they’re looking for an answer to their needs, and the targeting on these should be quick and easy. This is one of the few niches that I like to use scraping tools for, because the competition is still fairly low on the obvious targets as opposed to most niches.

I’ve listed all of our TV offers below so you can check them out – we’ll be adding more as we find more converting offers for you guys to run.

TV Offer – Ab Circle (US)
TV Offer – Banital (US)
TV Offer – Bottle Tops (US)
TV Offer – Crazy Critters (US)
TV Offer – Esotique (US)
TV Offer – Essential Savings (US)
TV Offer – Heart Factor Plus (US)
TV Offer – Heeltastic
TV Offer – iHeater Infrared Heater (US)
TV Offer – Lauren Hutton Face Disc (US)
TV Offer – Modera XL (US)
TV Offer – My Best Fish Friend (US)
TV Offer – Nails in Motion (US)
TV Offer – Park Bills (US)
TV Offer – Pedibrush (US)
TV Offer – Perfect Fit Buttons (US)
TV Offer – Shoes Under (US)
TV Offer – SimplyInk.com (US)
TV Offer – Smart Mop (US)
TV Offer – StopZilla Spyware Removal (US, UK, CA, AU, NZ)
TV Offer – Think & Lose (US)
TV Offer – WalkFit Platinum Feet Pain Relief
TV Offer – X-Factor System (US)

We’re looking to bring in more and more offers and this is the first set of TV offers we’ve brought in. We’ve streamlined our business model to help affiliates get more offers and fulfill more offer requests. We’ve ported our top offers into the new system and we’re still adding plenty more. If you have an offer request, an offer that was on the old system or on another network just let us know. We’ll work to get you every offer you need to make us your number one network. Let your account managers know what you need and we’ll make it happen.