MarketingBeyond

Affiliate Marketing & Your Time: Want to Work for $4 Per Hour?

As I continue watching Internet product launches,  I'm becoming increasingly concerned. Many promises are made, some are kept. A few IM niche marketers make lots of money. Most don't.

You've all seen the acronym "ROI" (return on investment). I've just invented a new measurement, related to ROI and more important: "ROT."

ROT stands for "return on time" and has two components: the AMOUNT of time you invest in anything (attending school, working at a job, learning an Internet marketing course) and the monetary VALUE of your time, broken down in hours.

Before choosing an Internet training program, before checking out the PRICE ($47, $97), estimate how many available HOURS you can set aside to complete the course.

Let's say you estimate 100 hours. Ask yourself first if you have 100 hours available. If you do, you must COMMIT yourself to allocating 100 hours of your time to complete the course. If you don't have 100 hours, you shouldn't purchase because the ROT (return on time) will be nil.

Then, estimate what your time earns. If you spend 100 hours of your time to generate $100 per week in month two, you initially earn $4 per hour ($100 per week X four divided by 100 hours).

If your time investment results in earning $200 per week in month three ($800 per month), then you've earned $10 per hour ($400 to get going in month two; $800 in month three for a total of $1,000, divided by 100 hours).

If your time investment continues growing, you ROT rises; if it diminishes, your ROT goes down.

Now, subtract your monetary investment and the value of time spent maintaining your investment (PPC advertising, cost of product, joint partner ayments, etc.). Let's say it's $500.

Your return on time generated $1,000, but your costs reduced that by $500. So by month three, your net gain is $500. You've earned $5 per hour ($500/100 hours). Is the investment worth your time?

Both quality and poor Internet marketing courses take time, your most precious resource. Some Internet marketers are honest and up-front about earnings, like Affilorama's, but many are not. The latter usually have promotional names such as "how to make $10,000 on Twitter in one week" or "Blogging to the Bank" and such.

Some Internet marketers play off people's general reluctance to spend time and consider their ROT. That's why so many newbies and others continue buying new courses, because the previous ones were time-consuming and ineffective.

You have to decide whether the promise of riches is realistic and the amount of time it will take to achieve a profit rather than just making money. (The two are different.)

"Free" bonuses are not really free because they require your TIME and lower your ROT. The best rule of thumb is to take on only ONE course at a time, put all your time and effort into learning, then decide if you want to move on to the next one.

But before choosing any program, calculate your RETURN ON TIME. To avoid considering ROT will cause you a lot of pain and no gain.

Michael Boland of Kelsey Group Talks About Mobile Advertising Future

Mobile Advertising Growth Forecast: Michael Boland Podcast

Mobile Advertising Growth Forecast: Michael Boland Podcast

Michael Boland, a senior analyst and program director for The Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast Division, is an expert in mobile advertising market research and the mobile industry.

Since joining The Kelsey Group in 2005, Mike has been instrumental in covering the local online space for Interactive Local Media practice.

Mike is a frequent speaker and organizer at top industry conferences including Kelsey Group events, search engine strategies and others. He has authored in-depth reports on the changing local media landscape including online video, social networking and mobile.

He contributes regularly to highly read online news sources such as Search Engine Watch and Huffington Post. A trusted source for reporters covering the interactive media space, his comments have appeared in major news and trade media, including the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Forbes.

The Kelsey Group is the leading provider of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on Yellow Pages, electronic directories, local search, SMB advertising and local media.

The Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast for mobile advertising (2008-2013) is highlighted in the report “Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity.

Kelsey’ s projections, quoted in Mobile Marketer, are  $330M in 2009; $720M in 2010; $1.5B 2011;  $2.3B in 2012; $3.1B in 2013, 20X $160M in 08; search: $81M in 09; $242M in 2010, $564M in 2011 & $905M in 2013.

In the podcast, Mike discusses local mobile search advertising trends, including advertising revenues changes from traditional media (radio, television, newspapers) to mobile (SMS, display and search). SMS still dominates, but local search is growing faster, and traditional media area adopting mobile marketing as another channel for revenue growth.

Hear it on MobileBeyond.

Amway/Quixtar: The Value of Brands, Credibility and Reputation

Remember Amway? I believe the originators of this multi-level marketing company intended "Amway" to mean "The American Way." How more patriotic can one get?

Well, Amway decided in 1999 to drop its famous--or infamous, depending on your view--brand for Quixtar, a rather high-tech sounding company name. The company maintained "Amway" in Asia where its distributors generated two-thirds of the company's $6.8B yearly sales, while last year U.S. sales remained a paltry $1B. Too bad for a company whose Nutrilite nutrition products continued selling at a $3.1B clip.

My first and only experience with Amway occurred some years ago in a small Midwestern town, when I finally gave in to a couple of friends who dragged me to a meeting, where I met so many exuberant people, I thought I had returned to a California beach party. (Yes, during the meeting, they "rah, rah'd" me to my great embarrassment and tried persuading me to become a distributor.) I declined, despite my friends' persistent insistence.

(By the way, you really should read the Wikipedia article on "Rah." They're several meanings, including a "Yah" derivation, according to Wiki, sometimes used in Scottish university towns. Since my meeting was in either South Dakota or Iowa, "Yah" would have been very appropriate.)

A recent BusinessWeek article--"Amway: Shining Up a Tarnished Name"--reviews the troubled company's fall and attempted resurrection. Quixtar is gone. Amway is back as a brand in the U.S. The company is attempting to accredite its larger distributors to avoid previous distributors' focus on selling training packages over Amway products.

The Amway/Quixtar story is a story of brand mismanagement, lost credibility and compromised reputation. For years, Amway management withheld financial and other information--a killer in our new age of social media and "tell all" philosophies. If there's nothing to hide, why hide it?

As a result, most people, unfamiliar with the company's business model, probably still think Amway is one of those "pyramid schemes." MLM = PSS (Pyramid Scheme Syndrome).

But Amway shouldn't have to apologize. Their rise and fall is not on par with recent greedy Wall Street types who contributed to the credit and sub-prime mortgage mess. Amway--and ALL companies--need only to be honest, forthcoming and credible, elements contributing to a company's brand. Get rid of the secrecy. Cut out the bad distributors ruining the business and get on with it.

BusinessWeek quotes an Amway distributor, Cathy Cross, in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, a city I've had the distinct pleasure of visiting. Wouldn't want to live there, but perfect for an Amway business. Although Cathy isn't expecting a profit in her business until 2011 (not a business model that appeals to me), she's glad to see Amway getting back on its feet, supporting its distributrors and moving on.

There's a lesson here for every business--small and large--in this country. Your reputation, credibility and brand are EVERYTHING. As soon as you lose those, you indeed should sell everything, move to California and join a beach party.

(A podcast version of this blog post is available on MarketingVisions.)