James Martell's Coffee Talk
...with Linda Woods of PartnerCentric.com

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Aired: September 24, 2006 - Listen as James Martell, a successful affiliate marketer, natural search expert and the President of Net Guides Publishing Inc., sits down with Linda Woods, President of PartnerCentric Inc., to discuss their shared passion for teaching people how to succeed with affiliate programs.

Woods, who has worked for Commission Junction teaching merchants how to better support affiliates and affiliates how to make more money, and then as a consultant for Cowabunga, finally branched out of her own and started PartnerCentric, the Net’s most successful affiliate marketing consultant team.

In this Coffee Talk edition, Woods shares her insights into the industry and talks to Martell about her unique sales philosophies, tracking programs, and the relationship between merchants and affiliates.

The two also candidly discuss the two kinds of websites, which Woods calls 1) “About Something” sites, which she says provide content; and 2) “Sell Something” sites, which she says are commerce-based and how combining the two creates a real win-win situation for merchants and affiliate partners alike.

Such philosophies have catapulted Woods and PartnerCentric to astounding online success, with PartnerCentric revenues growing 200-300% per year under Woods direction. And, this already jaw-dropping figure is on track to more than double in 2006.

Woods says the name of the game is traffic, which she says is “far more sophisticated” than “just links” and she and Martell talk openly about generating traffic and offer some great advice for affiliate marketers, merchants, and other online business owners alike.

So grab your cup of java and join in. This edition of James Martell’s Coffee Talk is one you simply cannot afford to miss!

Click the 'Play' button below to listen.

Or, if you prefer the audio in the MP3 format, click the icon below.

For more information, visit www.partnercentric.com.

About James Martell

James Martell, a successful affiliate marketer and natural search expert has published many dozens of sites over the years, and uniquely derives most of his traffic through natural search at the major search engines. James shares this knowledge with other webmasters in the THIRD EDITION of his highly acclaimed Affiliate Marketers Handbook - "2006", his twice monthly Affiliate Buzz audio newsletter and his online Affiliate Marketers BootCamp where he holds classes via the Internet. James resides in a seaside community south of Vancouver, BC Canada with his wife Arlene and four children, Adam, Justin, Shelby and Victoria.

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Comments from Listeners

• Fantastic interview, James! I've been studying your site and training program to see if this is something I'd like to do now during retirement. Your questions and comments along with Linda's expert explanations, tips and advice finally made Affiliate Marketing sparkling clear and sensible to me. Now I'm a believer! Steve Cypress, Texas USA

• Great interview and ideas on ways to build your sites and what's working. Scott in Vancouver, BC

• Wow awesome interview, you guys shared so much information. Deen, Singapore

• Hi Linda and James, I am an affiliate manager for an online t-shirts company and am trying to grow our affiliate program. I found your interview very informative. As an affiliate manager, it's important to know what an affiliate needs in a program and how to offer them help in increasing conversions. Thank you. Kerri, FL

• Thank you. I think it's very helpful to learn about the evolution of the Web from the perspective of such an influential person as Linda Woods. Todd, Buffalo, NY

• Very informative interview James! It was a great pick-me-up during an afternoon of article writing for my site. I'm feeling even more motivated to keep churning out quality content now. Thanks a bunch! Julie Detroit, Michigan USA

• Really enjoyed learning from another insider. Outstanding stuff. I'm looking forward to the series. Robert W. Bakersfield, CA

• Linda sounds like a very down to earth lady that knows her stuff. Good chat! Nancy Ottawa, ON

• As an Affiliate Manager, I appreciated confirming best practices for our program, and picked up a few new ideas as well. Thanks, Jeannine C, Denver, CO

• Thanks for the interview with Linda Woods, her very calm approach made her easy to listen to and I got a lot out of her story and how she got started in the business. Listening to Linda and You was very inspiring. I have had your book now for a while but I have just started to take action and these types of insightful interviews really help a lot. Keep up the great inspirational interviews. Scott Dill – St. Louis, MO

• It was good to hear how the merchant values what the affiliate brings to the relationship. Good to know that the affiliate managers value a good affiliate and are looking for ways to help. Kevin - LA, CA

• This interview was very informative and an eye-opener for me. Doing things on the web you sometimes feel very small and insignificant. In the past I have always just looked at things from my position and not really given it any thought as to how the other side feels. It was interesting and exciting to hear how important we are to the affiliate manages and how they want to help us no matter if we are their biggest client or just getting started. There were great tips and ideas shared here that I can’t wait to implement on my site and really cultivating my relationship with my affiliate managers – working in a team for everyone to win. Great interview, keep more like this coming. Thanks, Linda M – B.C. Canada

• I found it very informative and a better understanding of your role as a publisher i.e. what to do - signing up with a merchant and your role with them. Also the different routes to take when you advertise and what works for you as a person. I would like to see where you can go to see examples of other people's affiliate sites that are successful to get an idea when putting your site together so that you know your on the right path - its not for copying just to see what they have done so that it clicks in your mind. Linda Dalles

• I thought this interview was informative about the history/development of affiliate programs. I also found the information about the importance of the affiliate and affiliate manager relationship to be very helpful. Thank you! Jen in Berkeley, U.S.

• Thanks James, It's always great to get ideas from another perspective, especially of this sort of caliber. Lots more please....Steve, Perth, Australia

• The interview was very informative and encouraging. Enjoy listening to what the affiliate managers where looking for. The suggestion given was price less. Looking forward to the next interview. Thanks Katrina M. - MD, USA

• I loved this recording and I am hoping this is a new direction your going in, interviewing other successful affiliates. John

• Very nice interview! I found it both interesting and inspiring. It is so nice to hear about people who are really making it and I love receiving little nuggets of information that will help me in my own affiliate business. Can't wait to see a new interview coming... Thanks, Erin A. - Ohio, USA

• Excellent interview. I loved the ideas of building community via a strategic business plan for the mutual benefit of the publisher and the merchant. Garth - Santa Barbara CA

• Great Stuff!!

• Loved the interview, it was a real eye-opener! I will definitely be calling my affiliate manager and I'll be armed with some good questions and advice from Linda. I've already implemented her advice about text linking on my site. Thanks James, can't wait to hear some more. Denis, Pitt Meadows, BC, Canada

• Good interview! However next time please make it downloadable mp3 file! Thanks, Peter; Cheyenne, WY

• As a beginner, I found your interview with Linda Woods exciting in regards to what a good affiliate manager can provide. It reduces the fear I might otherwise have of entering into a partnership with the affiliate manager. Robert, Indianapolis

• Thank you so much for providing a sense of support through the ideas and successes of others. This different perspective was helpful to realize we really can be part of a team. It helps reinforce the truth of this as a business and incentive to continue to learn. (Back to my manual I go!) Jil, Maryland, USA

• I thought it was good and would welcome more of the same. Don McElroy Marietta, GA

• Great interview.

• Hi James: I just listened to your 'interview' and found it very interesting. There were things brought to light that would probably not be addressed in the "buzz" sessions because they were so specific. Sometimes, this type of information is required to get you thinking 'specific' rather than 'general'. For example, placing ads on your page. Most times I simply try to find pertinent ads and place them most often at the end of the page where the 'merchant links' section was originally set up in the template. But as was mentioned, you need to think about how the 'power marketers' are doing things. As well, some of the information was a re-iteration of your concepts - in someone else's words. This adds credence to your concept. I look forward to the next instalment. Best Regards, Brian A Schmidt

• Hi James, This is Dre Lavack. I found it interesting to find out how these affiliate manager "middle men" play a role in the whole affiliate marketing game. I also found it interesting to find out about getting content from these people. It was great to hear how she got to her success as well. Dre Victoria, BC

• Excellent. We got a lot out of this interview. Lots of real little gems in this interview like the blue linking for instance. I am also really starting to see the importance of dealing directly with Affiliate Managers and have just started to do so. It seems like everything is starting to gel for me now - its like a light has been turned on and its all coming together. Paula & Wanda, Australia

• Very good interview Linda and James. Now I understand the proper use of data feeds. It's nice to see an affiliate network that "gets it". Jeremy Hier, New York

• As usual, what you have come up with trumps again James. The link to affiliates at PartnerCentric is worth a mint.....and Linda was a delight to listen to.

• James, I really appreciated your interview with Linda Woods of PartnerCentric.com. Her personality came through and made the content more interesting than a text based interview would have. I would like to see MANY more of her calibre interviewed. You are in a unique position to get the leading affiliate luminaries to consent to being interviewed by you. Make this your "calling" James!! Regards, Dennis Main, Wichita, KS

• Excellent idea, and please keep them coming. I listen to audio on my iPod, so it would be useful if you added a downloadable file. Better yet would be to wrap in a Podcast format so we could simply auto-sync.

• Very informative, I have had the pleasure of sitting down with Linda at CJU and I learned quite a few things from her. It looks like she has a few more programs that I have to join.

• The interview with Linda Woods was great. I found out a lot from listening to her, such as linking with blue text, placement of links, banner know-how, and how to get articles from merchants. Also, how many pictures to place on a page, and get the buyer to click through without going through page after page. Very good info, and I will put it into practice immediately. Thanks Linda and James for this great interview.

• Yes - great to hear from others in the industry. Helps to validate your training, with different perspectives. All the tips are so valuable; prompts us to expand our thinking outside of the box. Also look at this as a business, and approach as partnership. Very helpful!

• I listened to it and it's great, however I drive a lot. So I download the "buzz", burn it to a CD and listen to it in my truck. That's what I like about the buzz. It enables me to make my Idle time productive. If you could put these in downloadable format, it would be much more useful. If the buzz were not downloadable I wouldn't subscribe.

• Very informative - it would be nice to have more examples of successful affiliate web sites.

• Hi James, "Coffee Talk" is an excellent idea. Not only informative, but this edition really reinforces what you've been saying: Talk to your affiliate managers. Make learning a priority. Attend trade events. Be a professional & treat this as a business. Thanks to both you & Linda again, Ed Price Chambersburg, PA

• It was very informative, particularly the tips and inside information she provided. Thank you.