Politics and Affiliate Marketing Revisited

Last summer, Shawn Collins raised the issue of politics and affiliate marketing - whether the two should mix and how well it would work if they did. Apparently the RNC had a Commission Junction program for several years but it was left on auto-pilot and floundered without proper management.

I'm not here to talk politics. This would work for McCain, Obama and Nader, but the Libertarian Candidate, Bob Barr (someone I have met and talked with at length), is my guy this year so I'm using him as an example.

While I was perusing the Barr Blog this morning, I noticed they had a page for widgets and banners. They are already half way there!!! All they need is to join a network and hire an affiliate manager. The links below could easily be used to track donations and email sign ups from affiliate sites. Shawn says the RNC gave affiliates 30% of the donations, capped at $30, with 45 return days. How much is a voter email worth to a political candidate? $.15, $.50, $1.00???

The market already exists. There are thousands of sites dedicated to each political party and millions more with completely different themes but I'm sure they would be happy to promote their favorite candidate and receive an affiliate commission at the same time.

So let's think about this from the third party stance. Continue to beg sites to post widgets or banners for free and raise about $100,000 a week online, or start an affiliate program, sign up thousands of affiliates within the first week and potentially reach hundreds of thousands of voters with a convenient little widget asking them for money or their email. Seems like affiliate marketing should be part of the mix already.

Now who will be the first to capitalize on this idea? There are four months left. It's worth it for one of the candidates to at least try it.

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Get Ready - DirectLegal.com Affiliate Program is right around the corner

The DirectLegal.com affiliate program announcement is coming. We are launching through Commission Junction this week.

I'll post the affiliate sign up page, a robust PPC keyword list and sample creative asap. I'm getting excited about this one. Look for a video too.

Back to the life as an affiliate

The donuts only lasted so long at Kowabunga. Once my affiliate industry idle, Rachel Honoway, left the company to return home and work for Affiliate Classroom, it was only a matter of time before politics got me.

So it's back to being an affiliate for me. I've cleaned up my CJ and Performics accounts and started working with Azoogle on a daily basis. If you know me, Linkshare is a given. They are the best built affiliate network out there, in my opinion. I'll also kindly ask my friends back at Kowabunga to allow me to start a new account for Microsoft adCenter so I can use my videos and posts to start making commissions instead of recruiting affiliates.

I was also approved this week to join the new Pepperjam affiliate network so I'll see what Kris can offer me. And I'll check out Share-A-Sale to see what programs I can match up with my sites. So, Brian Littleton - expect a phone call today...

Besides Rachel, my other favorite industry gurus are still out there and I'll keep taking their advice and see I can come out on top again. Thanks Sam Harrelson, Jim Kukral and Shawn Collins. Let's see, who else - Zac Johnson - keep kicking butt with the adCenter offer. Barry Boone - glad you are feeling better. Lisa Caraffi, affiliate manager extraordinaire - keep your chin up. You have a great job and they will reward you for your hard work.