I was a mortgage broker in the height of the refinance boom. I knew people who were doing 20 mortgages a month. Guys who were only doing “A” paper and making less than $2k a loan were still making 40 grand a month. Several times a week the office would be invaded by affiliate managers from various loan companies pitching their latest product in an attempt to get your business.

The thing is that their rates were generally within a quarter point, the credit terms were virtually the same and they charged about the same fees. Yet they always came in pitching the same product every one else has.

The question I aways had in my mind was always the same, “When I call you at 5 p.m. with a loan scenario are you going to pick up the phone and give me a useful answer? When I send in the paperwork with that same scenario will the loan get approved? Will you ’suddenly’ get some new loan stipulation that will prevent me from closing a loan on those terms five days before the closing, making me look like a liar and losing the deal for me? Will you make sure someone will actually process my loan in a timely manner so I can get my stipulations well before my closing date?

It was like a chiropractor telling you about their fancy equipment and cool waiting room when you just wanted to know, “Are you gonna fix my back?”

One day a guy came into the office just like everybody else and handed out his rate sheets with loan programs, got all the brokers together and said, “We have the same programs as everybody else. Some of our fees are a little higher. Some of our stipulations are a little stronger. But I guarantee you that if you send me a loan, I will do everything I can to get it closed. I will drive here to pick up your loan packages so you don’t have to lose a day shipping them. I will answer the phone when you call. And when I tell you the parameters of a loan, they will not change.”

We sent him a few loans and he did exactly like he said he would. He got every one of my loans that qualified for his programs after that.

Affiliate managers, here is what we want from you: Make my life easier and you will get all of my business.

Please stop telling me you have a new ringtone campaign that pays $12. Yes, I know you have a zip submit that pays $1.40. Could you at least look at the names of my domains before suggesting a program?

I know the true.com video ads of the flirting girls are converting but no, I might lose some niche authority on my minister’s resource site by placing it there. Please … think.

So here is my list of tips for the hungry AM:

1. Invest in your affiliates. Get your network to pay someone to write a decent ebook and give that to your affiliates with promise. Most of these ebooks are useful but not worth $100. Get one done that covers affiliate marketing. When an affiliate calls you and expresses interest in ppc advertising tell him you have a free ebook that might help.

2. Return phone calls and emails. (period)

3. At least act like you care about their business.

4. Try to take note of affiliates heavy in specific niches and send them a group email when a new product comes that might be of interest. (wade tonkin of USN is really good at this.)

5. Put more than product announcements in your communications. You talk to so many marketers. Yo are in the industry. You may be the only other person that we know who is in the industry. Could you throw us a bone? ex. “Many affiliates report that structuring your ppc ad like this blah blah is working. You don’t have to give trade secrets but come on!

6. Set incentives. Azoogle had a thing where if you converted like$10k you got a $50 gift card. So if I make $10,000 I will get an extra $50? Am I the only one who thinks that is stupid? Offer your smaller affiliates a t-shirt if they increase 25% or feature them in your newsletter or something like that. Get creative.

7. Get to work. (period)

Relationships.com, which bills itself as the most visited christian dating site recently changed its name to ChristianMingle.com.� I searched and searched but could not find out why they changed the name.

ChristianMingle is owned by Sparks Network which recently reorganized here in the US.� They specialize in niche dating sites.� Dating sites are pretty big revenue for Christian sites and you have to wonder why they would mess with such a well known name.

From the Press Release

Relationships.com™ has changed to ChristianMingle.com! We will be continuing to add new features which will better reflect our purpose and help to attract even more members which will earn you more commissions.

• For the next month or two, Relationships.com links will still work and you’ll receive credit for all the work you do in referring visitors to Relationships.com.
• With more features and a quickly growing database of Christian singles you can expect to see more conversions each month.
• For the last year or so Relationships.com has been the most visited Christian dating site according to Hitwise, and we are confident that this will hold true as we continue as ChristianMingle.com.

For tips and suggestions on how to best promote ChristianMingle.com, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We appreciate your partnership as we move forward with these exciting changes. Please let us know how we can help you in your continued success.

MingleMatch Affiliates
We Bring Singles Together

I just got back from my trip to Orlando. If you are in the marketing business, Orlando is like getting your masters in the trade. I am going to list a few things I noticed in the coming days but I also made my first video thingy.

I sent an email asking the guy at 45n5 how he made his. He answered but I got no link love. Oh well . . .

I want to win this monitor so I am posting this:

John Chow dot Com, a blog that helps you make money is giving away a 24? wide screen LCD monitor! To enter, you just have to write about it. This is my entry. Now give me the monitor! The contest is sponsored by BlueFur, who wants to let you know that they’re hosting Canada and the rest of the world.

The family and I will be in Orlando for a few days.� Tonight, I am in the “business center” at the hotel.� I am surrounded with kids on myspace.� All the computers were taken.�

Since I am in youth ministry I just said, “One of you ned to get off the computer so I can work.”� and one promptly did.� Surely they knew I was about to smite them.�

Tomorrow I will visit Disney world and move to a different hotel.� Hopefuly one that has something better than WiFi in the rooms.� It never works for me.

The online business is a double edge sword.� I don’t have to be home to work.� That is great.� But unfortunately, I can be working in the business center of the hotel while my family is tucked in� the beds in room 218.

We all have to remember that we are to do our part and trust that God will do His.� With that note of reminder, I am going to bed with my family.

So I do double duty as an affiliate marketer and a youth pastor.� selah

About two months ago I saw a drastic and depression-evoking drop in my ringtone earnings.� We all knew this was coming, but nobody wanted to believe it. � Lets look at history for a minute.

I was in the mortgage business right after the peak of the refinance boom.� The average homeowner had become a little more savvy.� No longer could you cold call someone and say, “Would you like to lower your monthly mortgage?” and have a sale.� You were stuck with a few less pleasant options.

1. Get out of the office and make contact with realtors who had clients.� These mortgages paid less and often the realtors wanted a kick back.
2. Network extensively through friends and family.� Tip:� never do a real estate transaction with friends or family.� They expect more of your time and want to pay less.
3. � Trick people into getting mortgages that they either did not need or could not afford.
4. Lie to people to get their business then the day of closing call and say, “Oh, by the way, that 5.5% is going to be 7.25%.� Your payment is going to be $600 more than we said and I need you to bring $4,000 to the closing.� People could only get deals by lying about what they could deliver then reveal the truth right before closing.
5. Realize that you were not going to get rich overnight and slowly build your business by delivering a steady and reliable product and getting more business by positive referrals.� Slowly, over time, your efforts and integrity would pay off with a successful business.

This trend spurred two things.

1. Reputable financial institutions pushed back and kept their good customers and increased their market share.� When I would send a notice to a certain bank requesting a payoff, they would ignore it, contact the borrower and� lower their rate.� The bank decided that some is better than none.� These customers would tell about their awesome bank and the bank’s business would increase.
2. Consumers got so jaded by the industry that they became distrustful of independent brokers.� I would hear customers say, “I don’t want one of those adjustable mortgage scams.”� Adjustable mortgages are not for everyone but there are circumstances where they are the absolute best option.� It did not matter.� The customers were scared of them and you could not give them away.

In the end, the mortgage industry got so greedy that the economy of the nation is threatened by the skyrocketing default rate.� There are now countless millionaires that were made during this boom but at what cost?� I reject the notion that the only guiding principle is the financial bottom line.� If you are worried that you might run into a former client in the grocery store your conscience is telling you something.� Do not ignore it. </sermon>

Lots of people are running into a similar trend in online marketing these days, as specifically revealed in the ringtone market.� There was a deluge of folks that had no idea (mostly through their own ignorance) that they were going to be charged over $100 a year for “bonus ringtones.”� So the same trend happened:

1. The industry reacted
2. The customers reacted

We had a lock in the other day at church.� One kid came over and asked another if he had any ringtones he could bluetooth over.� I instantly understood why my sales had died.� People can now go P2P for ringtones.� � The music industry killer has invaded the ringtone market.� People were looking for an alternative to getting duped by the ringtone after market and the industry was looking to make money.� Though they would rather sell ringtones, they decided that cellphone sales� (the some) was better than losing customer all together (someone else was going to do it).

This leads to the same options that were there for the mortgage broker.� Either run to the next big thing, or build your online business through a quality product that people will tell their friends about.� Slowly, over time, your efforts and integrity would pay off with a successful business.

There is a new community at BumpZee called Christian Web Workers.

It has been my heart for quite some time to be able to network with other Christians in this industry. That is the purpose of this blog (since it is obviously not for the profit) and the hope of this new community.

So if you are a Christian in the internet game, come join our community!

Money has a great article on Kevin Ham who owns a gagillian domain names.

Kevin was trained as a medical doctor but now does domaining full time.  He is also a believer.  The article says that he has a penchant for Christian domains.  To which I ask,

Can I get the hookup?

I would like to know when DMOZ got so corrupt.

My first contact with DMOZ was about five years ago. I have a family website and applied to be the editor for the category because it was taking so long to get approved. I did not complete the process to become an editor but my site was approved and it still sits there.

Years later I created a MySpace layout site and wanted to submit it to the directory. I did not know what category to submit it to so I searched for MySpace Layouts. If you search Google there are almost 24 million results.

But it seems that all those myspace layout sites owners don’t want to be listed:
http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=myspace+layouts

That’s right. Only four in DMOZ. Though that is three more than when I applied. Unfortunately, I am still not listed and don’t suspect I ever will be.

Then I found out this was endemic.

There are hundreds for desktop wallpaper but only four for myspace layouts. Clearly the desktop wallpaper guy did not know you could make some money by not approving these sites.

Again, only 18 sites on Forex training.

The mortgage editor did not know this was so lucrative because there are a couple thousand mortgage listings: http://xrl.us/wtfd

There are more examples but you get the idea. I know Shoemoney blogged about this earlier this year but still, you gotta wonder when this will be addressed.