Help with Mash-Ups for the Non-Tech Affiliates Out There

Mark Wielgus created last year in August a mash-up script for YouTube, Amazon.com and Ebay.com and released the code for free under the Creative Commons Share Alike licensing model at his blog 45n5.com.

I am interested into data feeds and web services myself and have extensive resources on my website about this subject available, including a reference to Marks script.

The script ceased working after the move of the eBay affiliate program from Commission Junction to in-house and Mark got several requests about updating the script to support the changed eBay API. He did not do it so far, but it gave him another idea, which makes a lot of sense to me.

I also get frequent requests for help with affiliate product data feeds and web services APIs from people who found my website and the already vast amount of resources to the subject. Feeds and API are very technical in nature and not as easy to learn like HTML for example. The goal is eventually to make those things easy to use for the normal person out there who has no degree in computer engineering and does not plan to get one either, just to do his affiliate marketing stuff.

There are services like popShops.com, DataFeedFile.com, GoldenCan.com, FeedShare.com and others that make product feed data much more accessible to average affiliates, however, the tools provided are usually somewhat limited, provide in most cases no benefit for organic search, since the widget code is JavaScript that pulls content on the fly for the visitor, but is invisible to search engine spiders, plus you have to sacrifice potential commission in some instances to the service provider in exchange for the service.

Mark decided to put his knowledge to use for a custom service type of arrangement. He announced at his daily video podcast today that he plans to provide tools and help to get mash-up sites, based on web services API and other sources up for you. You will not be held back by the technical requirements to work with those technologies and be able to focus on the website content and marketing ideas instead.

To keep the amount of affiliates manageable and also reduce the potential issue of competition between the affiliates he is going to support, Mark limits the number of people who will be able to sign-up for his service to 100. He is going to put up a community site at MashupMoney.com, where you can communicate with the other 99 guys openly and share tips and knowledge.

Mark said that the monthly fee for his service and the access to the community site will be $49 U.S. Dollars and that the goal is to make of course the $49 back in commissions for you and then some after that.

This sounds like a very fair deal to me, a bit cheap in my opinion ($4,900 before tax ain’t that much money Mark. It is an even better bargain for Canadian affiliates these days, because the $49 are U.S. Dollars and not Canadian ones hehe). Don’t expect that Mark will do all the work for you and you just pay the $49 and lean back watching commissions rolling in. He will take care of the technical aspects of things, but that alone is only part of the work that is needed to build something useful and eventually profitable.

If you were thinking about using web services and feeds in the past, but are not knowledgeable about web development and programming, this is your chance to get into it relatively fast, customized and without the need to become a programmer yourself, not to hire one for hundreds or thousands of Dollars.

Check it out! It’s not live yet, but you can subscribe with your email and/or contact Mark directly, telling him that you are interested. Keep in mind, 100 is the cap (which is no marketing scheme or trick to press urgency) and I assume that it will be on a first come first serve basis.

Cheers!

Carsten Cumbrowski