Five-Part Series on Affiliate Marketing: Your List

This is the first in a five-part series on Affiliate Marketing, building on our "Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Resume Writers" post last week. The first post focuses on your list.

Those in the affiliate marketing world believe the list is the Holy Grail. But it’s not just the size of your list that matters. Frankly, the quality is more important. If I gave you a phone book, you’d have a list. But it wouldn’t necessarily guarantee you any sales, whether for resume writing or affiliate marketing products. Sure, you could probably get 1% of the folks you contacted to buy, but the return on the time and money you’d have to invest to make that happen probably wouldn’t justify the effort.

On the other hand, what if you could get 20% of your existing resume clients to purchase a resume distribution service or recruiter targeting service?

A few years ago, I conducted an interview with Steve Shellist, of ResumeSpider, which bills itself as the “E-Harmony” of job search. He gave this example of the kind of revenue that a resume writer could expect promoting ResumeSpider:

If you write 5-7 resumes per week, and convert 5-6 of them each month to become ResumeSpider clients, you will earn $100 to $120 per month (based on a $65 average sale price, resulting in a $20 commission per order). But remember, they don’t have to be one of your clients to be a client of ResumeSpider — meaning, every visitor to your website is a potential sale. You can easily double your affiliate profits if you have a web site that gets decent traffic and you promote ResumeSpider visibly to visitors.

If you’re the type of writer that generates a resume each day (and/or you get 5-10 job seekers looking at your website each day), you could conceivably convert 20% of them into affiliate marketing product users … and you’d make that $100 per month goal.

Next up in the series: Establishing your online presence.

Comparing Resume Distribution Services

I've written and spoken extensively on the subject of resume distribution services in the past ... and I just keep finding out about more and more of them.

Today, I received a phone call from Martin at ResumeTarget, pitching me on a pre-paid partnership program designed for resume writers and career coaches. I'll write more about the specifics of the program at a later date (I want to call a colleague who is using the program to find out more about her experience with it), but I gave it a test run myself to see what it's all about.

The program is similar to ResumeSpider, an affiliate service I already recommend to my clients. Both firms use an "opt-in" method to recruit hiring managers, recruiters, and employers to receive unsolicited resumes. Instead of just blasting your client's resume to 25,000 contacts (who may or may not be interested in receiving it), these services have your clients narrow down their search, usually by industry and/or geography.

The problem with this, as I found in doing my search, is that you can come up with an impossibly small number of contacts. In the case of a search in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and Kansas for a marketing, public relations, or publishing job, the number of available contacts was ZERO.

The good news is, you can preview the number of contacts (and even the list of contact names/firms) before purchasing. So my client wouldn't be disappointed that her resume did not match up with any of the opt-in recipients.

These services, then, are only as good as the lists they are able to compile.

More on ResumeTarget in a future post...

My First ResumeSpider Commission Check

I've written before about ResumeSpider, a service job seekers can use to connect to prospective employers. It's also a source of revenue for resume writers. Although I'm nowhere as prolific as some of my colleagues in the number of resumes I write each week, I've been doing better about telling clients about ResumeSpider, and providing my affiliate code in e-mails when I send their final documents.

Well, it finally paid off! I received my first affiliate commission check in the mail today -- $18.89 (from 1 client). Resume writers can earn a 30% commission on ResumeSpider services, which range from $39.95 to $99.95 ($12-$30 per sale).

Now I'm inspired! I'm going to see if I can double that in the next 30 days. I'll let you know how I do. In the meantime, if you're interested in signing up as a ResumeSpider affiliate, use this link; (http://Affiliates.ResumeSpider.com).

Q-and-A With ResumeSpider's Steve Shellist

Add Value to Your Clients — and Profit to Your Pocket —
With ResumeSpider Affiliate Services

An interview with Steve Shellist of ResumeSpider, conducted by Bridget (Weide) Brooks, CPRW. A full article on ResumeSpider will appear in the November/December issue of Resume Writers' Digest.

I had the chance to sit down with Steve and ask him about how resume writers can use ResumeSpider to benefit their clients and generate additional revenue for their career services business.

Bridget: What is ResumeSpider?
Steve: Our philosophy is that ResumeSpider is “targeted list building and lead generation for networking.” We provide your clients with access to 124,000 prescreened recruiters, employers, and hiring managers. There are millions of companies out there, and no way for your clients to reach them all.

Bridget: How is ResumeSpider different than other services?
Steve: We see ourselves as similar to Match.com or eHarmony. We specialize in matchmaking, not in mass broadcast e-mails to unqualified recipients. Our product is only as good as the list we have, so we work hard to develop targeted lists for jobseekers. We can’t guarantee jobs, but we do guarantee delivery. Our biggest priority is making the match stronger and the list cleaner.

Bridget: How does the ResumeSpider process work?
Steve: Clients use our SpiderMatch process. They can select up to two job functions, 12 industries, and nine geographic preferences. They can preview the results and then decide whether or not to proceed. Through their online account, they can track the resumes sent and when they were opened. After sending the campaign, they can use our real-time messaging system, SpiderTalk, to follow-up with the contacts that received their résumé.

Bridget: How can resume writers use ResumeSpider with their clients?
Steve: Resume writers can earn a 30% commission on the services they sell to their clients, using their unique affiliate tracking code. Our services range from $39.95 to $99.95, and resume writers can earn $12 to $30 per sale. They can either provide their affiliate code to clients, or they can set up a demo account for their client (we provide an instruction booklet to help resume writers easily do this) and provide the client with the login information to access the dashboard.

Bridget: Are there marketing materials available to help resume writers spread the word to their clients?
Steve: Yes. When a resume writer signs up for their affiliate account (go to http://Affiliates.ResumeSpider.com), they will be able to access banners, text links, and e-mail signatures. They will have their own back office to access this information as well as statistics about the commission they are earning.

Bridget: What is the potential commission resume writers can earn from ResumeSpider in an average month?
Steve: If you write 5-7 resumes per week, and convert 5-6 of them each month to ResumeSpider clients, you will earn $100 to $120 per month (based on a $65 average sale price, resulting in a $20 commission per order). But remember, they don’t have to be one of your clients to be one of our clients — meaning, every visitor to your website is a potential sale. You can easily double your affiliate profits if you have a web site that gets decent traffic and you promote ResumeSpider visibly to visitors.

Bridget: In addition to the commission, how else can resume writers make money from clients using ResumeSpider?
Steve: If you don’t already provide your clients with an ASCII text file as part of your services, that is an additional revenue opportunity as well. We recommend providing the resume in two formats, as a Word document and an ASCII text file.

Bridget: Thanks for the information, Steve.
Steve: No problem. Resume writers who want more information on becoming an affiliate can also contact our Affiliate Support department by calling 888-737-8635 x 103, or e-mail affiliates@resumespider.com.