I want to thank Revenue Today, an online marketing blog, for posting a recent interview with Murray Newlands.

In the interview I discuss my work in affiliate network management and growth and recent green affiliate marketing projects. They were very kind in their introduction:

“Known as one of the gurus of international online marketing, Murray has recently taken on the challenge of using performance marketing techniques in the environmental field in order to help promote green energy and carbon credits. It is not often that we do an interview of this nature, however here we have a chance to interview an outstanding individual whose work leads to contributions of major significance in the field.”

You can find the entire interview on RevenueToday.com.

An Interview with Eco-Affiliate Warren Fligg of Performance-Based.com and Eco-Affiliate.com. Warren is a green affiliate and specialises in green affiliate marketing and green affiliate programs.

How did you get into affiliate marketing?

I stumbled into it because of a request from a client who I did SEO work for asked for help setting up an affiliate program. I read a few articles online and decided to have a go at it.. I found inspiration for the business model from a few affiliate marketers who revolutionized the way a performance-based system could be run. I was

What was your biggest challenge getting into affiliate marketing?

Finding quality affiliates/publishers is always the toughest challenge. I can not even count the times that affiliates have promised that they will deliver HUGE traffic and they never seem to produce the results they desire or claim to be able to bring.

What are the main things merchants do that you wish they wouldn’t?

Not understanding that affiliates need a good percentage that is paid out on time. If a merchant is haggling over a 1% difference in affiliate commission rates then they
dont realize the true benefit of having great affiliates who promote their good or services.

What are the main things affiliates do that you wish they wouldn’t?

Place less than accurate statements about a companies products or services.
A false or misleading banner turns off the web visitor faster than and an unasked for popup ad.
It also hurts the overall branding of the Merchant because it makes them look less than honest..

Where do you see growth in the affiliate field?

In the Niche Markets. A targeted niche is more lucrative in the long run than being just another
Player in a over saturated market. I also feel that cross promotional bundling of similar vertical yet
Non competitive markets is going to revolutionize the way affiliates can earn commissions.

What new ideas are advertisers coming up with to take advantage of new traffic sources?

Tracking down the niche bloggers. For example we are managing the referral program for Non Hybrid Seeds.com and we are currently talking to a group With an organic fertilizer prioducts. I am planning on blending both products into one campaign where Double commissions can be earned by generating the lead on 2 simultaneous sales.

What do you do that is green?

For me Being green is a multistep process that starts at home. It started with the birth of my son.
I wasn’t to concerned about most products unrtil I put it in perspective \of how it would effect my son.
That’s when I started getting my house in order so to speak. I started by seeing what ingredients were in every product and checking on the effects that they have on my family as well as the environment.

For work it the same process. All of the Performance-Based employees are Tele-Commuters. I see no need for a centralized office Space the employess need to travel to. Dropping our corporate footprint is a big concern for us

What is one thing about you that not many people know?

I was not into “Green” until the birth of my son. I found out that I had a lot of toxic stuff in the house
That I never even paid attention to. Preparring for my first born was a rebirth for me as well.

What is on your iPod?

I was just listening to Undertow by Tool.
Today I jumped around in shuffle and listened to a eclectic collection of Peter Gabriel, Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder( into the Wild soundtrack).

What’s your favorite book?

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It’s the only book to make
Me laugh so hard that I almost pee in my pants. The Main character is an over educated oaf with a very warped sense or reality. I recommend the book to anyone who can read!

What are your contact details (email, company, blog, facebook, myspace, forums etc) ?

warren@performance-based.com
info@eco-affiliate.com
Company: Performance-Based.com Eco-Affiliate.com

Who would recommend you and why?

MMorris at Non-Hybrid-Seeds.com
Because our affiliates have driven over 14,000 of revenue to him in 30days.
Great numbers for a store that has been online since March 1, 2009

Thank you Warren Fligg of Performance-Based.com and Eco-Affiliate.com

Green Affiliate Programs

I have an exciting website to share with all of you who are interested in green affiliate networking. Green Affiliate Programs is an affiliate networking site whose mission is to spread the reach of affiliate marketing into the green and Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) sectors.

I believe that green affiliate marketing is one of the fastest growing and most important verticals. Green Affiliate Programs is actively facilitating the networking between green affiliate programs, green businesses and green bloggers. They are connecting health and wellness bloggers with affiliate options for the eco-products they blog about. They are making affiliate programs accessible for people who are passionate about green issues but aren’t yet part of affiliate marketing. They understand that affiliate programs connect green-minded businesses with health conscious, green-minded affiliates as part of the creative, emerging green economy.

“We are seeing great things happening in the online green sector. For one, more web businesses are going green and offering green products at more affordable prices. Secondly, these same businesses are beginning to embrace more sophisticated ways of marketing their products, including affiliate marketing.  Having achieved success in other less-inspiring affiliate markets in the past, it is a sheer pleasure and joy to bring these same skills to a cause I care very passionately about. I am very proud to be the director of Green Affiliate Programs, not only because we are the first affiliate program directory dedicated to the online green market, but also because we are seeing positive changes happening as a result of our presence online.” — Ryan Jones, Director, Green Affiliate Programs

They offer a comprehensive listing of affiliate programs in the eco-affiliate and LOHAS sectors. GreenAffiliatePrograms enables affiliate programs to be integrated into your personal website or third-party affiliate management. They promote three different types of programs: Affiliate networks (hosted and managed), non-network affiliate programs (hosted), and do-it-yourself software programs (non-hosted, non-managed).

I believe in utilizing green affiliate marketing to help people act on the moral imperatives inherent in climate change through personal action, products and social media. Green Affiliate Programs is making that green affiliate marketing more accessible and effective. I highly recommend that you visit and learn more about them.

Keywords
green affiliates
green affiliate
green affiliate programs
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Monday morning, work week begins… I open Twitter to find that a brand new hashtag is trending… #EcoMonday. A quick scan of the #ecomonday list and I see that it’s all about recommending green Twitter users—sort of a focused #FollowFriday. As someone who is in green affiliate marketing, that’s exciting.

One of the greatest things about Twitter is how easy it is to introduce good people to each other, or to seek out good people. Whether you are in green affiliate marketing, affiliate program management, or any kind of digital marketing, Twitter is an amazing vehicle (on any day) to meet new people and start creating relationships and partnerships.

In the spirit of #EcoMonday, I thought I would recommend some people who I think do great things in the Green Marketing world:

@affiliatesummit  Affiliate marketing is at the forefront of Green, from digital marketing to virtual storefronts and offices. Affiliate Summit is a great conference with a great blog to learn about the newest in the affiliate marketing world—green or otherwise.

@ecoaffiliate  Las Vegas based green affiliate program network. Great ideas and products.

@carbonheart  Twitter account for the CEO of the Carbon Advice Group, a green affiliate marketing program for voluntary carbon offsets.

@heatherinbc  Affiliate marketer who writes a fantastic blog about “Boating, Fishing, History and Living in British Columbia.”

@greenbiztweets  Twitter account for GreenBiz.com, a great site about all things green and business and marketing out of San Francisco.

Make sure to #EcoMonday all of your favorites from the Green side of Twitter!

I’ve been talking with a lot of people lately about politics, the economy and the environment. We’re all aware that everything is changing, from the rules to the partnerships, especially the preconceptions about business.

Having just finished writing an ebook called “How to Save Money and the Planet” (shameless plug! Great book!) people have started asking me about my other passion: affiliate programs.

With all of the affiliate marketing I do, ask me:  “How does ‘green’ fit into affiliate marketing?“ “What about an ebook affiliate program?” “Where do you think an affiliate program will end up as the economy adjusts?”

I think the affiliate program model will thrive and expand in the growing green economy. As for any ebook affiliate program, it will only grow as ebooks take the place of traditional paper books, and that’s part of the green economy. Ebooks and affiliate programs both exist online, so they’re a natural fit in an economy looking to minimize cost and waste but maximize community and networking. In my mind, any ebook affiliate program is already a green affiliate program.

And affiliate programs are definitely part of the emerging green economy.

As the green economy keeps growing, I am seeing new combinations of business and environmental activism. Just last week in San Francisco, Virgance, whose tagline is “Activism 2.0,” held a party showcasing their new network of green companies. Virgance uses campaign style organizing and a network of green companies and blogs to push environmental activism to the next level. They utilize like-minded people to effect social change—and they make money doing it! I think the affiliate program model will be increasingly more popular as Internet business expands.

Another group in the San Francisco Bay Area, known as Green For All, also believes that what is good for the environment can be good for the bottom line. While the group itself is a non-profit, they advocate for retraining blue collar workers who are losing their jobs to retrofit homes and do green construction. Their goal is to influence public policy to fund green business ventures that create jobs. Again, here is a group that is combining what

These businesses are set up to make money and help the Earth at the same time: Virgance, Green for All and my green ebook affiliate program all use social change and community action in a for-profit model. No longer is the idea of saving the environment and making a profit mutually exclusive.

As I said, affiliate programs are part of the emerging green economy. I’m sure the questions will keep coming as well as the interesting new company models. Green is the future of business, affiliate program or otherwise.

I have just launched my Ebook Affiliate Program to promote my Green Ebook “How to Save Money and the Planet”.

This is a green affiliate program and I am looking for green affiliate bloggers with green affiliate blogs to write reviews. There are a variety of landing pages available and I am willing to make custom landing pages.  I am happy to provide example reviews, banners and keywords upon request.  If you have experience running ebook affiliate programs on ebay or via your own merchant shop then I would be happy to sell my product in your inventory.

As the title of the book suggests it is very much focused on how to save money and stop waste, as well as how to save the environment.  Making money ebooks and get rich ebooks book are very popular in any economy. In a recession climate consumers want to save money and are conscious that with their limited income they need the money they have to go further and have spare money to payback debts.

This is an opportunity to both make money as an affiliate and do something positive for the environment and help to save the planet.

I also have a twitter ebook I am seeking to promote. If you are interested in promoting either of these products please contact me via my contact page.

This is the Ebook Affiliate Program

Green Affiliate Programs and the Triple Bottom Line

Green affiliate programs are powerful ventures in the emerging green economy, and I believe they embody both the triple bottom line embraced by sustainable companies as well as the key aspects of both environmental activism and economic growth. Green affiliate programs also make a statement that you are doing something about your carbon footprint.

The triple bottom line is a new way of accounting that determines the value and success of a business based on three areas: People, Planet, and Profit.

This emerging standard by which sustainable businesses and green start-ups are beginning to measure themselves is based around the concept that business can be beneficial socially, environmentally, and financially.
Here is why green affiliate programs are great for your triple bottom line:

1. People: This takes into account how beneficial or costly a new business venture is for people, both customers and employees.

Why Affiliate Programs? Affiliate programs build community by connecting like-minded vendors through networks. They thrive on connection, conversation and recommendations.

2. Planet: This takes into account how a new business or product effects the environment. In a sense, this part of the accounting takes into account the carbon footprint of a business.

Why Affiliate Programs? Affiliate programs are based on e-commerce, drastically reducing paper waste, and because affiliate programs utilize virtual offices and encourage working at home, they reduce carbon emissions from commuting. Affiliate programs have a naturally low carbon footprint.

3. Profit: This takes into account the traditional and still important aspect of how much money a business earns.

Why Affiliate Programs? Affiliate programs empower people who work at home and small business owners to make money through commissions on sales and referral bonuses. Affiliate programs are also good for your personal bottom line because they allow you to sell as many products as you want to, without the carbon emissions intensive process of inventory management.

Online affiliate programs have always utilized the latest in online marketing and business networking. As part of the emerging green economy, green online affiliate programs will empower anyone who is concerned about their carbon footprint or the carbon emissions created through traditional business to start or build their low carbon business as part of a low carbon life!

Here are some great places to find green affiliate programs:

1. http://www.greenaffiliateprograms.net/
“We are an online affiliate program directory serving to connect affiliates with businesses offering eco-friendly health and wellness products/services on the Web.”

2. http://www.eco-affiliate.com/
This directory focuses on Green, Bamboo, and Organic fashion affiliates. Periodic updates highlight new or notable products and programs.

3. http://www.pristineplanet.com/green-affiliate-programs-organic-affiliate-program-socially-responsible/affiliate-programs/15908_a_0.html
PristinePlanet.com offers eco-friendly comparison-shopping and offers reviews of eco-affiliate programs along with their directory service.

4. http://www.murraynewlands.com
As a green affiliate and green online marketing specialist, I make it my job to be up on the newest developments in green affiliate programs. If you are interested in being a business owner with a low carbon footprint:

Check back here for news and new green affiliate program opportunities!

Keywords
green affiliates
green affiliate
green affiliate programs
green affiliate program

I would like to thank Jessica Luthi from Affiliate Program Advice, for agreeing to be the second in my series of interview. I first got to know Jessica about 5 years ago through the A4U forum when I was just starting out. She is one of those remarkable individuals who while at the top of their industry still have a lot of time for those new to it.

Q. How did you get into affiliate marketing?

A. In 1997 I got my first Mac Power PC in the UK and was using an ISP called Compuserve and joining lots of their own forums, very US centric, in those days you had the choice between Compuserve or Demon Internet.  At this time I was working at Classic FM Radio in their loyalty department, I remember having a brain wave and thinking about new customer acquisitions and how we could use the Internet (what there was of it in the UK at that time) to create awareness. Upon further research I stumbled upon a forum which had been set up by Fox Tucker (Co Founder of UKAffiliates.com) and it was all about “affiliate marketing.” It was here I discovered that loyalty marketing was already happing in the US and it was called affiliate marketing. Essentially, what I had been doing offline on a day to day basis was happing online but in another country. I noticed a Job Advert in the forum posted by Fox Tucker talking about bringing affiliate marketing to the UK, so I emailed him about the job and he came to see me and within four weeks I started working for ukaffiliates.com as the affiliate manager 1999.

Q. What was your biggest challenge getting into affiliate marketing?

A. Technology and terminology. The theory of affiliate marketing was always easier to understand than the practice. When I first started out my knowledge of technology was how to type a “hyper link” into “the top bit” I did not know what a browser was even and a cookie? It was a biscuit! The only way I could learn about affiliate marketing in terms of technology was to become “a web master” in turn that sorted out the terminology dilemma. I was very lucky too, I had a partner who was a software developer working on the old Y2K problem remember that?

Once I got the hang of building a website and adding a few Amazon links and understanding simple tracking, what started out as a job ended up being a hobby and a passion. I still believe the same rules apply for any one coming into the industry. To understand what its like to be an affiliate should be compulsory, its not as easy as a lot of people seem to think, mostly the merchants / advertisers.

Q. What are the main things merchants do that you wish they wouldn’t?

A. The tendency is to point fingers at affiliates for not achieving the advertisers/merchant own revenue income expectations. Rather than look at their own website in terms of structure and usability (in essence conversions). Impatience has got to be the most frustrating aspect of affiliate marketing. I think over the years we have lost the term “loyalty marketing,” had we kept this in place then I would still be saying every online merchant should  and could have a loyalty based affiliate program. But the goal posts have shifted and now it’s about not if a merchant or advertiser could have an affiliate program but should they have an affiliate program.

Managing affiliates is one thing but managing merchants and advertisers is seldom discussed. Managing merchants’ expectations is a tough part of affiliate marketing as often is the case, the merchant /advertiser is embarking in affiliate marketing with little or no prior knowledge. How do you transfer eleven years of knowledge in a few hour sessions? It cant be done and this can lead to conflict sometimes as it’s not just affiliate marketing you are helping them with, it’s also about teaching them about analytics, organic SEO, Paid Search and forward planning. The dilemma we the “Affiliates” “Affiliate Networks” “Agencies” have is, should we be teaching advertisers/merchants about organic seo and website usability, analytics, paid search, email marketing when all they have signed up for is an affiliate program.

I also feel that some advertisers/merchants see affiliate marketing as some kind of instant magic wand. That you simply plug in and go. What few seem to hear is that an affiliate program takes a lot of time to nurture, grow and mature.  We see the greatest and most successful affiliate programs are the ones who have longevity where strong powerful relationships have been developed over time.

Q. What are the main things affiliates do that you wish they wouldn’t?

A. I think the number one most annoying thing for our affiliate managers is seeing old out of date promos on an affiliate’s site. Affiliates are supposed to be providing their own traffic, before they refer to their advertisers/merchants a good experience.  Of course we understand a lot of the time it is a time management issue. But if affiliates go to all that trouble to get traffic then why not give them a good reason to come back and at least have up to date content. To balance this out its fair to say that some out of date affiliate pages are cache pages.

Voucher codes (coupons) that don’t exist is a personal pet hate of mine. Being ethical means being fair from all sides of the fence to ensure the consumer will click through and have a great user journey from start to finish as we know good experience will keep bringing that consumer back on line again and again. I sometimes wonder if we don’t get so embroiled in trying to make money that we forget that all important end user in return for a quick profit.

Q. Where do you see growth in the affiliate field?

A. I still think there are a lot of niche sectors out there where by affiliates can take long tail search phrases and capitalize. I believe there is still masses of opportunity in product specific searches. Affiliates are still not tapping into offline advertising in terms of getting traffic to their own sites.

Mobile affiliate marketing is one to watch. There is some interesting technology being developed as I type. I still think online gambling for the US will come back. I can see a lot of cross border affiliate marketing where by savvy affiliates can get a head start in places like Europe, Australia and Asia. I’m not so sure about social networking in terms of shopping online, for me it’s still a bit hit and miss. Trends of course will always give rise to new opportunities, for example, environmental issues, so what’s the next biggest thing? For me its mobile marketing but not as in txt and win competitions but in terms of mobile response and phones being used like a credit card.

Q. What do you do to improve the world?

A. I support a number of charities including Amnesty International, The Blue Cross, Walden House and NSPCC.

Q. What do you do that is green?

A. I walk or take a bus rather then drive and I recycle, use low energy light bulbs.

Q. What is one thing about you that not many people know?

A. I won mixed doubles championships in the sport of Pool in Brighton at the age of 18.
I love the game still.

Q. What is on your iPod?

A. The Clash – London Calling

Q. What’s your favorite book?

A. Souls of Black Folk by W E B DuBois and Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson, and To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee and English Civil War, Lawrence Stone. Many others :0)

Q. What are your contact details (email, company, blog, facebook, myspace, forums etc) ?

http://www.affiliateprogramadvice.com
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/profile.php?id=588706695

Q. Who would you recommend and why?

A. I can’t be pinned down to just one person. There are many including Murray Newlands in terms of his approach and knowledge. I do know I would be nowhere without one of my best friends and coolest banner and website designer Chuck Couch of . It’s rare to meet a designer that understands that the banners, graphics, websites need to convert and look good, so I would recommend him everytime, he is just my rock!