[FOLLOW ALONG] What The Aff… - A Daily Newsletter For Affiliates

[manu_adefy]

Hi Affiliate Fix community,

In case you missed my short intro thread (so many new ones already) I'll introduce myself again.

I’m not new to affiliate marketing, and not that new to this forum but I’ve only been an occasional lurker in the past 3 years (even before making an account) since I first got in the industry.

I’ve started with mobile display, then went to pops (mobile and desktop), then Facebook - the white hat kind. I’ve also been a speaker and MC at Affiliate World Asia 2016 and 2017. One of the panels I've been on, discussing mobile in 2018:

I want to introduce and get some feedback on something I’m building for the affiliate community... and also make it a follow along.

It is a carefully curated, daily newsletter with affiliate marketing news, tech and actionable advice. The idea is to keep it short and relevant - under 5 minutes read.

Best to show samples from last week I think:

Monday, April 16
Tuesday, April 17
Wednesday, April 18
Thursday, April 19
Friday, April 20

My favourite of the bunch is Thursday's newsletter.

The format is certainly not new, there are a few business/entrepreneurial newsletters like this. The one I’m taking most cues from is Morning Brew (morningbrew.com). I think they do a great job of balancing own commentary and jokes with the serious bits of content.

Blogs are so 2008, and since I have not seen this done for the affiliate industry, I thought it’s well worth a try.

So far the feedback’s been quite positive but it’s a small sample of affiliates that either know me personally or know of me through a common friend.

I am curious what the Affiliate Fix community thinks of this. If you liked the sample above, you can subscribe to get it regularly at wtaff.co.

I will be updating this follow along once a week with relevant developments, dos and don'ts for the model, success and failures, etc. Don't be shy with sharing your input too!

Cheers,
Manu.

 

[azgold]

Hi, Manu. I only looked at one of those links but it looks like you have an interesting mix of topics. Your favourite one (Thursday) just comes up a blank page for me.

What are your goals for this follow-along? Anything specific, or is it more of a 'let's see what happens' experiment?

Good luck, will be watching for your updates.

 

[manu_adefy]

Hmmm, that's strange - the link still works for me. Can you try in incognito mode? Maybe you have some extensions that block it since it's a "view in browser" version directly from ActiveCampaign. It works for others too so I think it's likely to be something on your side.

Regarding plans - I'm new to email so I will have challenges where there are much more experienced affiliates. Plus, it's certainly easier to create the product with almost-real-time input from the audience it is made for - in this case affiliates.

I do have ideas for monetization while keeping the quality just as good but for now, I'm in the stage to acquire enough subscribers to actually test certain elements. I will be updating on the weekend with the status quo and plans.

 

[manu_adefy]

What was your plan for monetizing back then? What would you do different now?

There are several examples where hand editing such a newsletter works, so I wouldn't discount the model only based on that factor.

 

[manu_adefy]

Update time!

Weekly stats

266 subscribers - More than I thought so early but some friends helped spread the word.
60% open rate - dropped a little but not very surprised after the big increase in subscribers.
15% click rate - this varies significantly by how much I emphasize a link should be clicked.

Facebook page is up but I have a tough time figuring out what sort of content to post constantly. It's really just a showcase for the newsletter and to run FB Ads for now.

Onboarding messages also done, so if you subscribe now, you will get a few lines instead of just "Thank You!" and also a welcome email. Both the Thank You page and the welcome email explain what's going to happen next and what to do to ensure the emails are not delivered to Spam or Promo or whatever other obscure place.

Start small FB Ads tests, towards a cold audience. Early days to judge results but I can show you the 2 videos I'm running right now.

Video that recaps the latest newsletter:

Video showing off different screens with the email and briefly describing it:

Second one works much better for a cold audience, but I didn't have enough data to do retargeting so I'm hoping for better results of the recap video when used for retargeting people who engaged with What The Aff... previously but didn't subscribe.

Next week's goals:
1. 450 subscribers.
2. Test 3 more video concepts for cold audiences.
3. Create a list of affiliate influencers to contact for collaboration. Personal recommendation/word of mouth is clearly still the biggest driver of subscriptions. It's hard to judge whether or not this is something you want to get unless people who've seen it daily for a while recommend it. I need to connect with others who have email lists with affiliates that are open for some sort of collaboration and give What The Aff... a shoutout.

HELP I COULD USE:

If you have an email list populated with affiliate industry contacts I'd love to have a chat. Or, if you know someone well enough that you can make a personal intro, it would also be much appreciated. Facebook groups or a big personal following, without an email list, are also very helpful.

Thanks in advance,
Manu.

 

[manu_adefy]

Thanks for all the input!

No Forbes, is not paying.

When it comes to monetizing, the first avenue will be sponsored content. I had a look at the website you linked, and it indeed screamed Web 1.0, haha.

All the content is manually selected, then pieced together to fit in - it's the only way to keep quality to a certain standard. I wouldn't say it's figured out in terms or quality nor SOP for creating each newsletter, it's a 2 weeks old project. The main question that has to be answered for me is whether or not there's enough demand for it.

Like I said in the first post in this thread, the model I'm following is not news aggregation websites but the curated business newsletter (Morning Brew, The Hustle, The Water Coolest are 3 that come to mind).

Of course, I want to add more automation in the creation process but that is secondary to quality and testing demand - there's no point in building complex processes, code and hiring so early into this.

 

[TopOffers]

Manu, nice to meet you at AffiliateFix!