Hopefully you’ve realized by now that highly successful Affiliates (like you, we hope) are utilizing a mix of minisites, landing pages, blogs, and all forms of social media.  Reaching out and not only using SEM and SEO to attract customers but engaging with those customers wherever they are.  What is it that we know that the Knoxville Police Department doesn’t yet?

Well, the Knoxville PD don’t “get it” today..  But I’d bet within a few days they will.  A blogger noticed a significant uptick in routine traffic stops in East Knoxville and blogged about it.  This was spotted by a blogger for KnoxNews.com who decided to email the Knoxville PD with a question.  The response is amazing in not only it’s condesention of those of us that understand the Internet…  But also in an obvious ploy to “nip this in the bud” instead of being open, honest, and engaging with the public in Knoxville.

Michael Silence of KnoxNews.com reports…  “I e-mailed KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk and asked him to address Smith’s questions.

What I got back from DeBusk was a bit surprising: “We do not respond to blog postings. If we were to respond to blogs we would need to create a new position just to keep up with all of the comments. Legitimate questions posed to the department by our citizens will be answered. Responding to opinions and computer chatter will not change perceptions or opinions,” he wrote in an e-mail to me.”

Uhhhh..  What?!?!?  A LOCAL blogger (Helen Smith, a Knoxville forensic psychologist who blogs as Dr. Helen) makes a simple observation.  A reporter for a LOCAL (Knoxville Sentinal’s Michael Silence) asks a question derived from that posting to the LOCAL Knoxville PD.  And although it could be time consuming to respond to LOCAL questions posed, wouldn’t it be wiser to recognize that in being upfront, honest, and engaging with the LOCAL reporter may just take care of the hundreds of queries that will be arriving in the email box of the Knoxville PD over the next few days?  Let alone this post showed up on FARK, Twitter, and Facebook?

The lesson for Affiliate Marketers?  It is NEVER inappropriate to actively engage with your customers.  And let there be no doubt that anybody responding or inquiring of your Social Media accounts is highly likely to become a customer.  The upside is that by engaging with your customers you are strengthening ALL of your efforts.  And if you should decide to ignore or send flippant responses like the Knoxville Police Department?

You may end up on FARK…  Kinda like the entry for the Knoxville Police Department:

Police spokesman refuses to answer reporter’s question because it was originally asked in a blog. So we can accurately report: Knoxville police department does not deny it runs speed traps purely for revenue

I gave a webinar on this very subject last Sunday evening.  Basically I covered three points (each with their own subset of points).

• Your Customers are Everywhere – Go where they are and bring them back to your site/store/blogs
• Use automation to put routine updates in the locations you need in the formats best suited (via RSS)
• Be Like Dr Pepper – Log in at 10, 2, and 4 spending 5-15mins tops to personally engage (or 12 / 4 / 7, whatever)

I saw on Google Buzz this week where the very same subject came up.  How to be more efficient but still actively engage.  My thoughts were duplicated in that thread and have been received quite well.  Then I saw an article today on TechCrunch about why Google released Buzz so quickly and this single point got my attention:

The other reason Google needed to establish its own social stream pronto is that links passed through social sharing are beginning to rival search as a primary driver of traffic for many sites.   (article is HERE)

A point I really didn’t bring out in my webinar session (kicking myself now) is just how powerful a traffic driver it really is.  Social Engagement can bring big traffic.  Targeted traffic.  Traffic from people that have consented to follow your posts, have become familiar with you and your personal side.  And have CHOSEN to do business with you.

Here is the full recorded Webinar for you…

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How many networks are there now?  At least a few thousand.  And a continuing trend we’ve been following is the propensity of networks built out of network affiliations.  What?  You got it.  There are Affiliate Networks that are nothing but a network who’s entire portfolio of offers are in reality nothing but that network being a member of many other networks.

So what’s the point?  We think it’s consolidation.  Now think about this for a little bit.  The longest chain you probobly have right now is yourself, being an affiliate of a number of networks and enrolled in multiple programs across multiple networks.  Each with either in-house or OPM management.  It’s very easily feasible that your dealing with 10 managers for 20 programs on 12 networks and you have 20 or more sites running.

What’s the path of least resistance all around?  Shedding unprofitable relationships and consolidating your offers and management.  Which is why (we think) that so many of the newer “network of networks” are owned/operated by OPM’s.

By being enrolled in a hybrid model like this the network (of networks) is consolidating offers, management, etc. and your dealing with fewer people to be able to either reduce your workload or increase the number of offers/sites your creating.  Not a bad concept.  There is also a “dual edged sword” effect where in the long run costs will be driven out of the system (leaving more money for the merchant, the network, and you) or that this is the harbinger of an industry wide consolidation.  Where your options will be reduced.

If I had nearly unlimited funds, I’d build a network of networks myself, buy a coupld strong OPM firms, buy a couple regional ISP/Hosting companies for infrastructure, toss in a couple agencies (Advertising and Social Media) and wring all the shared costs out of the system.  Then use the cost savings to increase affiliate payouts and build the company itself.  It wouldn’t take long for someone with big pockets to literally drive the entire marketplace into a model like this.  And I do believe it’s already underway.

The big questions are if the merchants will go for it, if affiliates will see the consolidation as a profit opportunity, and if the existing “network of networks” companies continue to increase in number / scale or not.

Have you noticed everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is chanting the mantra of “Quality”?  Ebay judges traffic by it’s “Quality”, Judges sellers by their “Quality”, The GAN changes (whether true or not) are bringing in the AdSense version of a “Quality Site” to that network.  The purchase of Pepperjam by GSI can easily be interpreted as a “Quality” move for a major online ecommerce provider to control their own network.

And since “Quality” is the “term DeJour” with Networks, Merchants, and Advertising venues,  how can we look at the big picture and define “Quality” as affiliate marketers?  What is a standard of “Quality” that is broad enough to cover our affiliate marketing businesses but narrow enough to be actionable and meaningful?

Well, I’m no “guru” and no, I won’t sell you the “Magic Ebook of Quality” for $69.99 (and not $59.99, and not even $49.99 like your thinking.  No, I’m going to give it to you for FREE).  I think I’ve divined a few simple structures that you can use to help you define quality in ways that you can apply in the real world of internet marketing.  Since your sites are your business.  Everything relates to having a Quality Site.

A “Quality” site is more than a datafeed driven superstore.  It’s more than a single squeeze page.  It’s more than the sum of it’s parts.  If you want your sites to be judged as “Quality”, no matter the measure, there are certain attributes that if applied, and you execute upon, you will have a quality site.  And with a quality site all the rest of the “Quality” pieces will flow naturally,  and while not effortless it will be easier.

Has “YOU” written all over it.  Your opinions, your descriptions, your content.  Not rehashed PLR, not “spun” descriptions from a datafeed, not boring!  Your pages should reflect the sites identity, have original content, be of benefit to your web visitors no matter if they’re in a buying mood or not.  Let’s face it, very few people buy.  But if you provide a reason for your web visitors to return again and again, you’ve increased your chances of converting them from prospects to customers.  And a “Quality” site informs, educates, and is a magnet that real buyers will frequent because of the experience.

Engage the WORLD!  Oh yes, I’ve been watching “go local” and that’s good.  You should if it applies to your company.  One of my companies has gone local..  In 34 markets.  Yours can too if you can relate to the local focus.  If you can’t, don’t.  But even if you are going local.  You must engage with people.  You should have a squidoo lens, accounts with friendfeed, facebook, myspace, facebook, linkedin, twitter, and you must keep up with them.  The Social Web gives you the freedom to engage with your customers and potential customers in ways you just couldn’t do before.  It helps people discover you, your sites, your offerings, but most of all it lets them (and you) engage each other. It a way to reach out, shake someones hand, and say “Hi, I’m Bob”.

If you watch Anheuser Busch InBev at all their corporate motto since well before the 1950s has been “Making friends is our Business”.  And August A Busch, Jr. was no dummy.  He had (and has some years after his passing) still got it right.  People are more likely to do business with people they know.  In one of my online businesses a full 70% of all customers come from interactions on Twitter.  Why?  Because they can engage, follow, see if that business is one that just blasts out tweets or if it is run by real people instead of automatons.  They become our friends.

That’s it.  Build a good site.  Make it yours.  Engage with your prospects and customers.  If you just boil it down to a few simple questions and look at each and every part of your affiliate marketing efforts and ask “Is this consistant with what we do and who we are”, “Does this reflect our own personality, focus, vision”, and “Does this help give us an opportunity to engage with our customers and prospects”.  You’ll have a pretty good handle on things.

So, how are you defining quality?  How do you engage your prospects and customers?  How do you measure that?