Finance-Affiliate.co.uk

This one has been annoying me for a while. Google don’t want to tell you how to do this for obvious reasons, and MSN claim they don’t really know because Adwords have changed their layouts recently. After a lot of messing about I finally found the correct documentation from MSN. Here’s a step by step guide:

1. Remove any rows of information that are above the column headings.
2. If there is a data summary line at the bottom of the spreadsheet, remove it.
3. Delete, add, or move the columns in the spreadsheet to match this column order:
   • Campaign
   • Ad Group
   • Keyword
   • Keyword Matching
   • Current Maximum CPC
   • Keyword Destination URL
   • Headline
   • Description Line 1
   • Description Line 2
   • Display URL
   • Destination URL
4. Save and close the spreadsheet.

STEP 2: IMPORT REPORT TO MSN ADCENTER

First log into Adcenter, then follow the steps below:

1. Click the Campaigns tab.
2. Click Import campaigns.
3. If you are using the template, click Excel or CSV, type or copy data into the template, and save the file.
   –or–
   If you are exporting campaign information from another online advertising program, save the exported file as a CSV file.
4. In the Select a language and market drop-down list box, select the language your ads are written in and the market (A set of websites that is typically defined by a geographical region, but can be accessed by everyone regardless of where they are located.) you want them distributed through.
5. In the Time zone drop-down list box, select the time zone you want to use for this campaign. (Please note that you won’t be able to change this selection at a later time.)
6. Click Import file.
7. In the Choose file dialog box, select the file, and then click Open.Your imported campaigns are added to the table.

Type the name of troubled Icelandic bank Icesave into Google and there are two PPC ads, moneysupermarket and Tesco.

The Tesco ad is just a standard ‘Tesco savings’ PPC ad, but the moneysupermarket one is definitely trying to cash in on the massive traffic Icesave must be generating right now. Look at the ad:

“Banking Chaos - Advice

Latest advice on the current crisis Protect your money now”

Google is even picking up ’savings-advice’ at the end of the display url which probably helps with their ranking.

I’m not knocking Moneysupermarket’s approach because people at this moment in time really want to find alternative savings accounts so they can spread their money around.

 I’m just amazed that it’s only Moneysupermarket and Tesco up there. If I was a savings affiliate, I would be bidding on the likes of Icesave and Kaupthing immediately, before the massive traffic spike subsides.

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Last week I emailed all of the following networks asking which loan programs they still had available for affiliates to promote. The idea was - they told me, I listed the programs on my blog which would be useful to finance affiliates and maybe generate a few more free signups for the networks and merchants featured.

I emailed:

• Affili.net
• Affiliate Future
• Affiliate Window
• Buy.at
• Commission Junction
• DGM
• Paid on Results
• Silvertap
• Smart Quotes
• Tradedoubler
• Webgains

Amazingly, only Affiliate Future and DGM bothered to reply.

Affiliate Future have one, but understandably don’t want to provide details yet as the terms are changing in September (sounds ominous).

DGM have no loan merchants currently on their network.

As for the others, either they couldn’t be bothered to reply because they have no loan merchants on their network, or they just couldn’t be bothered to reply. Which I think shows a general apathy from the ‘conventional’ networks to secured and unsecured loan programs.

I didn’t email the finance specific networks such as the Affiliate Marketing School and CPAN because their offers are already pretty well publicised on the finance vertical secion of A4U.

If you are aware of a secured or unsecured loan program on one of the networks listed above (or another not listed), please post the details below by leaving a comment.

Thanks for reading  

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not my strong point. My whole business model from the start has revolved around Pay per click (PPC) marketing. I like PPC - you can measure the results, and you know exactly what you are spending each day. You can have a PPC campaign up and running in 2 minutes.  

SEO is different. I’ve always wanted to do SEO - the idea of generating free finance leads that otherwise cost a fortune with PPC is so appealing, but I’ve just never had the time to do it.

I’ve also read some forum posts and articles which have made me believe that SEO success is only possible for degree-educated technical experts who can make sense of algorithms in the same way that Keanu Reeves made sense of all that code at the end of ‘The Matrix’. I thought SEO was too complex to even attempt…

…That was until I started my finance affiliate blog. 

All I have done is write articles related to finance affiliate marketing, maybe one a week, for four months. It is a wordpress blog, but I have not installed any SEO ‘widgets’ or anything like that. All I have done is write articles for finance affiliates. As a result of this, my site has gone from nothing, to positions 1 and 2 for the keyword ‘finance affiliate’ and position 4 for ‘finance affiliates’ in Google’s natural search results.

The blog is also ranking highly for most of the following:

nemo loans affiliate

ocean finance affiliate

norton finance affiliate

finance leads affiliate

alliance and leicester affiliate (soon to be santander affiliate)

first plus affiliate (sadly no longer needed!)

insurance affiliate

mortgage affiliate 

I’m not getting carried away here - I realise that most of these phrases only generate a 1000 or so searches a month each, and finance affiliate is a very niche search term in itself with the blog reaching a very targeted audience.

However, I’ve already had at least 10 advertising enquiries on the blog which is not bad going considering it’s so new. (Only a couple of spaces left before they go live, so if you’re interested - hurry! mike @ finance-affiliate.co.uk)

And if the same tactic can be used to target finance customers, a decent affiliate income can be earned for absolutely no outlay.

It all looks quite promising for us SEO novices, because if I can do it, anyone can!

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On the 9th August at 4am, my baby daughter was born. She’s called Carys Jennifer, and here’s a picture of her:

This is our first baby and I have to say that so far it’s been an absolutely incredible experience. Spending hours just staring at her and cuddling her and walking around like a zombie due to lack of sleep! I’ve completely lost all track of time.

Anyway I woke up this morning (early of course) and started to realise how lucky I was to be a finance affiliate. 26 years old and I have a job which allows me to work from home or wherever in the world I choose to be, and whenever I want to - incredible.

It will hopefully mean that I have the time and flexibility to really enjoy my daughter growing up, and be there for landmarks such as first smile, first word, first steps etc. This is surely something every father aspires to, and being a finance affiliate has made it possible.

I owe a great deal to the Affiliate Marketing School for this, as it was mainly Michael Anthony and Paul Guest who really helped me to get started as a finance affiliate in this industry at a time when I was short of money and low on confidence.

I am now in a position where I can help others follow the same path and I am happy to do so.

When I first heard of affiliate marketing I imagined anoraks and techies speaking a language I would never understand. Having visited many affiliate events and met hundreds of people in the affiliate industry, I know that it is nothing like this. You don’t have to be a geek to be an affiliate, you have to be an entrepreneur.

Affiliate Marketing has also made it possible for me to own a safe, luxurious car to cart my little girl around in - Kieron kindly featured me in his ‘Internet Stars and their Cars’ article. Great reading for any budding finance affiliates looking for inspiration.

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Did anyone else watch Secret Millionaire last night? You know the one - where a millionaire tries to blend into a really rough neighbourhood (Moss Side in this case), makes some friends and gives them loads of money.

Well, I’d sort of gone off the program because when I watched the last couple of shows I got the impression that some of the people didn’t really deserve the money they were given. For example, they took a camera round some ‘really poor’ woman’s house who happened to have D&G clothes strewn across the floor and a plasma TV. I think she got 5 grand.

Anyway, the guy on it last night was called James Benamor, and he was worth £77 million. How had he made his money? No, not by being a finance affiliate, but one step further - he was a finance broker. I googled his name and found out that he had set up the Richmond Group which owned brands such as Advantage Loans and Tenant Loans. 

30 years old and worth £77 million. That is some serious inspiration for someone wanting to get into finance, a finance affiliate or a finance broker. He came across as a very nice guy, and I liked his attitude: “They’re not getting any money unless they really deserve it” 

Some inspiration, anyway, for budding finance affiliates - there is a fortune to be made in this industry. Granted, now might not be the ideal time, but it will recover.

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Researching new keywords this morning I happened to type ‘homeowner loan’ into Google. Top paid listing for homeowner loan was the ‘Google Merchant Search’. I feel they are missing a trick with this service in a couple of areas. If anyone from Google is reading this, I’m available as a finance affiliate consultant - please email me mike @ finance-affiliate.co.uk!

First things first, they are showing the top 3 ‘rates’ on their ad, from the top 3 finance companies. In this case it is Norton Finance, Ocean Finance and Debtbuster Loans. By showing this information BEFORE a customer has to click through to the Google Merchant Search, they are running the risk of a potential customer seeing the top rate from Norton Finance, typing Norton Finance into Google and clicking on their organic listing, or even worse simply typing the Norton Finance URL into their address bar. In this instance, Google loses the customer who goes direct to Norton Finance as soon as they see the advertised rate. 

I then clicked on the Google Merchant Search ad (they don’t have to pay for it so I don’t feel bad) to see how this service was progressing.

All looks fine, until you click ‘No’ for ‘Are you paying a mortgage?’. You are then greeted with the message ‘Secured loan programs are available only to homeowners currently paying a mortgage’.

As a finance affiliate, this is amongst the very worst of schoolboy errors. Granted, Google probably doesn’t need the cash, but they could be raking in a fortune simply by redirecting this page to an unsecured loan company. For a finance affiliate during the credit crunch it’s all about minimising wastage, and this is a prime example of wasting good leads.

Maybe an unsecured loan merchant will cotton on to this and soon be battering down Google’s door with a partnership proposal - who knows? 

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If you’re thinking about paying somebody to design your finance website for you, it’s worth considering the pros and cons. Here are 5 reasons for a finance affiliate to pay somebody to design their website for them:

1) Good Design = Good Conversions

A good website design is paramount to a successful finance affiliate campaign. You might know the basics of how to get good conversions, for instance:

• Form on page 1 (For lead gen affiliates)
• The right image can say a thousand words
• Co-ordinated colours

But you might not have the web design experience required to put all this into practice. Hiring somebody to design your website should ensure a clean professional design which is well optimised and fast-loading. You need to meet your web designer or have a lengthy phone conversation to ensure that they fully understand what message your finance website is trying to convey. 

2) Free time is important

If you know nothing about web design, it can be very time consuming and pretty costly to learn. You will make mistakes along the way. With a professional web designer, you would hope that they have already made the mistakes with other people’s sites and learnt from them. Pick an experienced web design company with a good portfolio. One which really listens to your requirements is best - avoid any who try to take you down their recommended path.

Getting someone else to design your finance affiliate website will give you lots of spare time. How you use this time is up to you, but you could use it to develop other projects and make more money.

3) Changing market = changing form

With application forms, regulations and merchant criteria changing all the time in this industry, it’s handy to have somebody to call on who can make quick changes to your finance website. You might not be able to - perhaps it involves you learning a whole new aspect of web design or coding.

4) SEO = good for the long term

Most good website design companies will optimise your finance affiliate site for the search engines and include this in the overall price for the design of the site. PPC gets instant results, but SEO is the key to semi-retirement - seeing organic traffic leading to free finance applications is very satisfying indeed. Trying to learn SEO yourself can be time-consuming and fruitless.

5) Cheap and affordable

Nowadays you can get some very good deals - there is more competition than ever in the web design indusry and you can get a professional site designed for a reasonable cost. Some web designers, including the ones I’m about to recommend, will take on small projects - so for instance if you need a certain aspect of your website changed but don’t want to pay for a full redesign, they will do it.

I have teamed up with a great team of web designers who are offering very affordable web design services for finance affiliates (they will design other affiliate sites too). They will look at any size of project and they are very reliable and good at what they do.

If you are interested in finding out more about these web designers and maybe getting a free quote and mock-up, simply email mike @ finance-affiliate.co.uk with ‘Finance Affiliate Web Design’ as the subject and leaving your details.

Thanks for reading!

Any finance affiliate who works from home should be sky-plussing the likes of Murder She Wrote and fast-forwarding through to get to the good stuff - daytime TV ads related to finance.

A year ago, secured loans merchants were all over the TV. Whether it was Phil Tufnell sat in a Loans.co.uk call centre, or Carol Vorderman playing with fridge magnets and balloons for First Plus, loans ads were everywhere. It was frustrating for a finance affiliate that so much of a merchant’s budget used to go on TV. In my experience it converts badly and costs a fortune but the advertising agencies love to bang on about the ‘brand awareness’ factor (a handy excuse when they blow thousands of pounds of the merchant’s money and the merchant says ‘where are my leads?’). Can you tell I’m not a big believer in brand awareness?

Nowadays, secured loan ads have all but disappeared, to be replaced by a contender for the most boring voice in the world ‘ComparetheMarket.com’ ad, and the likes of Johnny Allen from Eastenders saying ‘had an accident that wasn’t your fault?’.

All, but one. You’ve seen it - the Norton Finance ad, where men and women in suits jump ‘bad credit history’ hurdles on an athletics track. At first I thought it was the GB trials for Beijing. I half expected Dwayne Chambers to hurdle a ’past drug problems?’ sign.

Why is the Norton ad just about the only secured loan ad remaining on TV? Are they doing especially well? Have they not been hit by the credit crunch? Do they have an affiliate program still running, and if not, why not?

What makes the continuation of the Norton Finance ad so surprising is that even the unsecured loan ads seem to have disappeared - the Lombard one was on every channel until recently.  

If anyone can shed some light on this strange anomaly, please leave a comment.

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I am a firm believer in the benefits of manual submission of finance leads. The general trend has been to either move away from manual submission completely, or at least penalise finance affiliates who still want to do it.

I can understand that from a merchant’s point of view they want the leads the second they are generated. Fair enough. I can also understand that auto-submission reduces the amount of fraudulent leads from fraudulent finance affiliates trying to make a ‘fast buck’. At the same time it can help with compliance issues. 

However, for an honest finance affiliate (like myself), the move away from manual lead submission is an annoying set of circumstances to say the least. I, like many other finance affiliates, am fully compliant, provide very good quality leads and have been doing manual lead submission for years with no problems.

We are unfortunately finding ourselves caught in the crossfire in the merchants’ attack on the non-compliant fraudsters. 

I actually believe manual submission, when used by a finance affiliate with a good track record and reputation, can actually IMPROVE conversions, and I have some examples to back this up:

1) Muddled names:

This happens about once a month - an applicant will enter their surname in the first name box, and vice versa. So for an auto-submitted lead, the merchant will see ‘Mr Smith John’. Now you would think that most call centre operators would have enough brains NOT to ask for ‘Mr John’, but I’ve worked in call centres, and I’ve seen it happen first hand. When the name is unusual or foreign, it compounds the problem, and a lead can be lost in the first 5 seconds.

With manual submission, these problems can be rectified before the lead reaches the merchant, by looking at the email address, or online directory enquiries if needed.

2) Date of Birth:

I’ve lost count of the number of people who put 2008 as their year of birth. Finance applicants are getting younger and younger these days!

In auto-submission, this lead will be rejected by the merchant. Manual submission - all it takes is a quick email to the applicant to check the correct date of birth.

3) The added ‘zero’:

Another one which crops up fairly regularly. Some people think that a ‘thousand’ is represented by 4 zeros. So, instead of £20,000, they will write £20,0000. With manual submission this sort of mistake can be caught before the merchant gets the lead, using simple common sense and maybe a quick email to check. With auto-submission, this error can muck up something important like the LTV, and the lead gets rejected or goes to the wrong merchant.

4) LTV/Unrealistic house value:

Now and again, maybe due to a typo, or the added zero mistake described above, a homeowner will put a completely unrealistic house value. It could even be that they miss off a zero by mistake. These mistakes are glaringly obvious to the trained eye, but an auto-submit form is not guaranteed to pick them up, and a lead can be lost because it doesn’t appear to fit the LTV requirements.

Okay, so we may be only talking about one lead a week, but in the current credit crunch climate finance affiliates really need to make the most of every lead they generate.

5) Overall customer experience:

Some people who obviously only use a keyboard once in a blue moon make hundreds of errors in one application. Many of these will not be picked up by an auto-submit form, and even if they are, they will basically be asking the applicant to re-submit most of the details. Applicants are impatient - if asked to constantly re-submit details they will get bored, frustrated and go elsewhere - another good finance lead lost. Examples:

• Wrong email address, eg johnsmith@hotmial.co (amazing how many times this sort of thing crops up). But not as often as - johnsmith’hotmail.com (inverted comma used instead of @)
• Phone number with a o instead of a 0
• Postcode with a o instead of a 0, or the other way round, eg P021 5RA

6) Gender Confusion

Occasionally a finance affiliate will receive a lead where the ‘title’ is blatantly wrong. e.g. Mr Sarah Smith. Not a problem on the surface, but an unusual name or one which could be either male or female, eg Kim, Lesley, and the call centre operative suddenly runs into trouble. ‘Can I speak to Mr Smith please?’ ‘No, I’m divorced’ replies Mrs Smith. Lead potentially lost in the first few seconds of the phone call.

Manual submission makes it easy to correct this type of lead to ensure the call centre isn’t confused. For instance, if the same lead leaves a maiden name, or ‘housewife’ as occupation, common sense tells you it’s a woman. Auto-submit runs into difficulty with this type of lead, which crops up for me about once a week.

7) Blatantly invalid phone numbers

For whatever reason, some people like to leave false phone numbers that look like real ones to an auto-submission service (ie they have the correct amount of digits and the correct regional code)

eg. 01611111111

eg. 07000000000

It may be that the lead only wants to be contacted by email. Or maybe they don’t have a home phone number but the auto-submit form forces them to submit a false one.

Whatever the reason, this lead is going to the merchant and it is going to waste their time. With manual submission, this type of lead is easy to spot and it will not go to the merchant. A quick email to the applicant (assuming they have left a valid email address) has often yielded a valid contact phone number, and turned a dud lead into a potential conversion.

Conclusion

Auto-submission looks like it is here to stay, and I can fully understand why.

However, for proven affiliates, I don’t think manual submission should be eradicated completely, because I firmly believe that a human ‘filter’ between applicant and merchant can work much better than any automated filter, and actually IMPROVE merchant finance lead conversions.

Any comments are most welcome…I know it’s a highly-debated topic!

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