Web Marketing Today
Issue 62, October 12, 1999

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This article contains older information. Go here for newer information on advertising and affiliate marketing.

Theme: Affiliate Income from Your Site, Part 2

Welcome to Web Marketing Today, Issue 62, completing our fourth consecutive year of publication. Today WMT goes out to 74,000+ subscribers worldwide.

Last week we began on the topic of Affiliate Programs. This week we're continuing with two more articles. Last week's issue was just too full, so we held it over a week.

6 Principles for Selecting Affiliate Programs for Your Site

What kinds of affiliate programs will work best on your site. Dr. Wilson outlines the 6 principles that should guide you in your selection. READ THE ARTICLE

Affiliate Program Resources

Looking for help to maximize your earnings from affiliate programs. Here are a few of the resources available to you. VIEW THE RESOURCES

E-Mail to the Editor

Here are some e-mails and replies about (1) the www before the domain name, (2) Amazon Shoppers, and (3) ISSN numbers. Read the E-Mail

Please Be on the Lookout ...

We're always looking for new articles on Web marketing and e-commerce subjects. Though we scour many periodicals each month, I know we miss some important articles and reports. You could do me -- and the entire Web marketing community -- a real favor if you'd let me know when you find something good.

The easiest way is to fill in the form provided on our website (http://wilsonweb.com/search/addurl.htm) so we'll get full information. Then we'll check out the article, and if it's appropriate, add it to our database that's now at 5,312 and grows by more than 200 per month.

You can search this database of Web marketing and e-commerce articles by keyword or subject at http://wilsonweb.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

Thanks so much for keeping your eyes peeled! :-)

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HTML-Email Edition

We're now publishing an HTML-Email edition of Web Marketing Today in addition to our regular ASCII text version. This allows us to format the newsletter much more attractively, and include graphics where appropriate. We're finding that more than 50% of our new subscribers prefer this.

Please DON'T select HTML-email if you use AOL's e-mail program (rather than Netscape Communicator), Eudora Lite, or Eudora 3.x. However, the HTML-email version of the newsletter looks great with Netscape Communicator, Outlook Express, Outlook 98/2000, Eudora Pro 4.x, etc.

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How to Use a Great Search Tool

If it's been a while since you've visited the Wilson Internet Services site, I want to introduce you to our 5,300+ article Web Marketing and E-Commerce database. Why don't you give it a try?

http://wilsonweb.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

You can search by keywords using the Alta Vista syntax. For example, to force a certain word to be included in every search result, place a plus sign in front of it. Let's say you wanted to research articles that included a discussion of two competitors in the book sales industry you would put

+BarnesAndNoble +Amazon

If you want to search for a phrase, such as an author's name, put it in quotes:

"Larry Chase"

If you want all the articles about shopping carts except those about iCat and Yahoo! Store, you'd make the query (using minus signs):

+"shopping cart" -iCat -"Yahoo! Store"

About half the articles (2,500+) deal with Web marketing topics, while the other half deal with e-commerce topics (2,500+), making this the largest selective database of its kind anywhere on the Web, drawing from hundreds of different publications and authors. The typical entry includes author, title, periodical, date, short synopsis, and URL. However, most e-commerce topics give enough information to let you know what is there. Full information on e-commerce entries, however, is available exclusively to paid subscribers to Web Commerce Today (http://wilsonweb.com/wct/).

"The most valuable thing to me is the research library," says Web Commerce Today subscriber, Rob McEwen, CEO of M2K (www.m2k.com), one of the country's leading Internet marketing firms. "Whenever we are putting together business plans or marketing plans for e-business companies, we invariably need to find information -- research, statistics, trends, etc. -- to include in these plans. Web Commerce Today is a source I always turn to."

Last year Infoseek named Rob McEwen one of its Top 10 Internet Marketers. "Typically I use the search engine," he says, "or I go to a specific category like conversion rates and scan the article summaries to find what I'm looking for. It is a very valuable resource, and you have done a wonderful job of maintaining it. Kudos to you and your team."

Rob McEwen can probably afford the most expensive tools. Fortunately, Web Commerce Today, at only $49.95 annually, is within the price range of the smallest businesses that want to make their mark on the Internet. We've struggled to kept the price low. David Scott Lewis, who has held top e-commerce spots at both Microsoft and Oracle, says:

"I read e-commerce analyst reports and newsletters costing thousands of dollars. Without a doubt, Web Commerce Today is THE best e-commerce information resource bar none -- and at a tiny fraction of the cost compared to other services."

What is the e-commerce question you'd most like to answer? Web Commerce Today and our category-killer E-Commerce Research Room probably hold the answer. Subscribe today. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct/