What is Bevo Media? The OFFICAL Bevo Media Launch Introduction.
I am pleased to announce, that after 2 full years of development, Bevo Media is launching January 17th, 2010, during Affiliate Summit West at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. Haven’t heard of Bevo Media yet? Good! That means I’ve accomplished my goals! We have been keeping this project on the down low from day 1, with plans to come out with a boom when it’s ready. Well that day has finally arrived, and since November of 2007, I’ve had every aspect of this weekend envisioned. Now, to the good stuff!
So what is Bevo Media?
The video just about says it all:
Bevo Media can be best described as a “Full Scale Affiliate Marketing Platform”, that works to consolidate literally every aspect of affiliate marketing. This includes:
1.) Installing your all of your affiliate networks in their entirety on our interface (including individual offer stats, subIDs and Offers)
2.)Installing your Pay Per Click accounts in their entirety. You can drill down your PPC accounts from the campaign to the keyword/ad variation level. Edit your campaigns on the fly, and create entire new campaigns right from our interface with the BevoEditor. The BevoEditor features several time saving features including the Cross Post function allowing users to create a campaign and post it to multiple PPC accounts with just one click.
3.) A complete API Induced KW Tracker. This means that ALL of your affiliate network and PPC Account stats, automatically sync to your account, ensuring all numbers are as EXACT as possible. Not only does this help you improve your ROI, but it also is the easiest keyword tracking system to setup humanly possible. And don’t worry, we have a full media buy tracker built into the system with its own special section. Pixel and Postback methods also available.
4.) Consolidate ALL of your analytics accounts. Find the traffic details and demographics of your users without leaving the Bevo Interface.
5.) A FULL Marketplace made up of trusted vendors with solid internet marketing experience in their designated field of work. You will never need to scramble to find a landing page designer or content writer. Every vendor on our interface is 100% proven reliable.
6.) A complete publisher classroom. Two years of work put into the classroom. Tons of great reads. I made it a point, to be direct in the content, and only mention the stuff that REALLY matters in affiliate marketing. Definitely valuable content here.
Probably the most asked question I get is about the cost and security. Simply put, this project was made to be free of charge to our userbase. Additionally, I know everyone is concerned about their security using this type of system, which is why I decided to have an entire self hosted version of the project as well. About a year ago, I had the option to raise funding for this project, and I ultimately declined for this very reason. I did this so I had the freedom to offer it for free and to make it self hosted.. So why exactly are we free, and how do we make money?
The answer is quite simple – The best way to build a popular, highly regarded online company is to mold a revenue model that is based off of providing your product to the userbase for free (ie: Google). Being said, we have developed a revenue model that can sustain our costs from other areas not at the expense of our userbase.
So what is our revenue model exactly? Well for starters, our self hosted version is the premium version of our product that we eventually plan to charge for. The reason we give it away for free now is because our product is still in beta, and we would never want to charge for a product that we do not know with 100% certainty that it is everything we promise and more. When will we start charging for the self hosted version? Honestly there is no timeline for this, it could be a few weeks to a few months. Basically, whenever we feel our product is ready for it. However one thing is for certain, our regular hosted product, is, and always will be, 100% free of charge to our users.
Secondly, we have developed specific business relationships with affiliate networks to help sustain the costs of operation. As you could imagine, with a super tool like Bevo Media, there is great opportunity for affiliate networks to promote their company to our userbase.
We also have our subsidiary company, Bevo Search, a local marketing and web development firm, in which we can use our publisher base to grow. This along with another paid “super tool” type platform coming in the near feature, will benefit greatly from the success of our initial company.
Lastly, there are several mini revenue streams within the Bevo Media interface that often goes unnoticed by our users. These mini revenue streams include:
1.) Referral Bonuses
2.) Bevo Marketplace Commission
3.) Ad Space
4.) Donations
At the end of the day, the only thing that really matters to us is providing a solid product to the industry with a large userbase. Even if we never make a dime in profit, if our product is widely used throughout the industry, we have achieved our goals, and we are willing to go above and beyond to make sure that happens.
Now that project development is completed, the most important thing to me is making sure the interface is absolutely perfect. No bugs left behind! The initial 1-2 weeks directly after Affiliate Summit West, we are going to keep our product in beta. The main reason I am doing this is not just to ensure we ironed out as many issues as possible, but also due to the fact that I will be busy that entire week in Vegas at the show, and I want to make sure that when we do have the interface open to the public, I can be there for the satisfaction of our customers. I will do everything it takes to make sure as many people are satisfied as possible. I put everything I got into this project, and I can guarantee that if we all work together, we can accomplish my goal of creating the most efficient, and beneficial marketing platform ever created.
Remember how it was like back when you thought that making $100 or $200 per day online was next to impossible? Remember that “wow, making that much or more would motivate me to work and work… and work!” way of thinking which seemed logical at that point?
Well, as most of you will probably confirm, things definitely DON’T stand that way. We humans are an interesting bunch: you’d think that a person who has managed to reach a certain financial goal (let’s say making $200 per day online) would be willing to work like a maniac in order to continue earning $100 per day, $200 per day or whatever but that’s not how things stand. In fact:
Things Will End Up Seeming Boring… FAST!
Ok, you’ll feel all motivated and everything. Great, you’ll continue working like a maniac and making $200 per day for a week. Two weeks, maybe three. But after a certain point, things will definitely start seeming boring and making those 200 bucks per day will end up seeming like a chore. Here’s why:
****you start taking things for granted
****that initial excitement is no longer there
****the financial “shock factor” is behind you, $200 per day doesn’t seem all that impressive anymore
Reaching one goal or another is NOT enough, thinking that you’ll feel happy and just as motivated after reaching a goal and without setting higher ones is just plain wrong. If you don’t see the big picture, it’s just a matter of time until you’ll end up feeling burned out and the most important question arises:
What to Do?
First of all, you need to understand that you have to keep things fun and exciting. Always set higher short-term goals and always be guided by your long-term ones. It’s really not rocket science.
Being an affiliate marketer is tricky because on the one hand, it’s great that you have all of the freedom in the world but on the other hand, things will quickly get out of hand if you don’t organize your time accordingly. If being an affiliate marketer starts seeming like a job, you’re doing something wrong. Not a lot of people have the opportunities we take for granted, most of the people who are trapped by a 9 to 5 lifestyle can’t even understand how someone can make a lot of money yet still have as much freedom as we do.
Would you rather be in the NFL or a be big Affiliate Marketer?
My buddies and I debate this subject all the time, and I figured I’d bring it out to see what everyone else had to say about it. Would you rather be in the NFL, or be a serious, high revenue affiliate marketer? Don’t laugh, this is a serious debate, and if you think about it, it makes sense.
I will start off by saying that I know 7 people who are currently in the NFL. A few starters, a few guys on the practice squads of their respective team. Many mixed reviews, but for the most part most say the same thing…. being in the NFL isn’t all it’s made out to be. Many face the day to day pressure of being cut, or deactivated from their respective teams, meaning their life goes from riches to rags within a day. It’s not all glamour and glory. Most people in the NFL are not super stars. Infact, the average NFL career is UNDER 2 years! The minimum salary of a person who makes a roster in the NFL is $330,000 a year. Being on the practice squad is a $4200 a week paycheck for 17 weeks. Do the math, everyone in the NFL isn’t nearly as wealthy as Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, but for some reason, the general public see’s players in the NFL as “rich”.
A big time affiliate marketer has the potential to make millions a year. Every single dollar earned by the affiliate, is because of their knowledge of marketing, that CANNOT be taken away at ANY time. I know several people, including myself, who are making a lucrative living, much higher than an average NFL player, doing far less work. I wake up at noon every single day, sit on the beach, drink a Corona, brainstorm, make some phone calls, and THEN go on my computer. There is no one in this entire world, short of God, who can take away my knowledge of affiliate marketing. Their is NO chance of injury, and NO chance of being ridiculed on national TV. Messing up in affiliate marketing is part of the game. If you mess up in the NFL, you may very well find yourself out of a job and humiliated on national TV.
Forbes.com has recently rated an “internet entrepeneur” as the #1 job in the WORLD. This rates above a rockstar and a professional athlete, and there is a reason for this! Being an affiliate marketer is a dream job that allows the best of the best to sit at home, work as they please, and offer the opportunity to make well over the average American salary. It’s the best job in the world, and the reason why I am so thankful for all the blessings that have come my way.
Think what you want, but the next time you start stressing at your favorite sports team…. realize that it’s just a game… and life goes on.
Affiliate marketing is just like every other industry: you’ll end up doing business with quite a few people, some will stab you in the back and others will prove to be important allies. But how do you treat allies? Let’s analyze two important relationships:
Your Relationship with Networks
You probably already have a network you enjoy doing business with. They always match the best payout a competitor can offer, your AM is extremely responsive and they even send a lot of gifts your way. Sounds like a great situation, right?
Well, here’s when things get complicated. What if another network has a long-standing offer with a certain advertiser and as a result, receives an incredibly high payout compared to everyone else. What if you want to run that offer and your network is unable to match the payout you’d be getting if you were to push the offer through a competitor?
Your Relationship with Business Partners?
Is there someone who has given you valid reason to trust him/her? Have you partnered up on more than one occasion? If so, both of you should definitely appreciate the business relationship but on the other hand, there will also be tricky situations.
What if both your friend and a deep pocketed investor are “competing” against each other in order to become partners and even more so, what if the deep pocketed investor is able to put considerably more money on the table? What then?
Where Do You Draw the Line?
Loyalty is loyalty, business decisions are business decisions and stabbing people in the back is stabbing people in the back. On the one hand, you should obviously not betray the trust of someone close to you or better yet, don’t betray the trust of others in general.
On the other hand, you need to understand that by making business decisions has nothing to do with not being loyal. If another network is capable of offering a significantly better payout, explain that business is business: that you do work with them whenever you can but in such situations, you just have to say no.
The same principle applies when it comes to business partners. If a certain investor (for example) makes an offer you can’t refuse, talk to your friend and politely explain that you’re doing exactly what you would want him/her to do if he/she was dealing with a similar situation: you’re not saying no to an amazing opportunity. Again, don’t make the confusion between loyalty and making bad business decisions because you think you have to. Don’t stab people in the back, treat others exactly the way you want to be treated or even better but don’t confuse loyalty with something it’s not.
Most people are skating on thin ice: on the one hand, they’re banking high 3-4 figs per day but on the other hand, everything can go downhill in a matter of days or even hours. Here are just a few examples:
-the offer itself is shady and you just never know when the advertiser decides to let greed takes over and starts “overlooking” leads or sales like there’s no tomorrow
-the network you’re dealing with is the only one (out of the networks which aren’t private, so out of the networks you have access to) running a certain offer and those folks may also decide to let greed take over at one point or another
-laws which make pushing a certain offer too much of a risk make their appearance: nobody wants to get sued, so it’s only a matter of time until networks and/or advertisers pull the plug
-the only traffic source you’ve managed to make work starts screwing around
Have you ever asked yourself a few “what if” questions? It sounds strange but the vast majority of affiliate marketers would have no idea what to do if they experience problems such as the previously mentioned ones.
What would you do next?
Would you leave everything else aside and spend a few days brainstorming?
How would you put food on the table? Would you rely on savings? How much money have you managed to set aside?
Would you start liquidating some of your assets? Domains? Precious metals?
If so, would you be taking a loss?
What percentage of the money you’ve set aside or the money you’ve secured after liquidating a few assets would you use in order to fund your new project(s)?
Would you just focus on one project or try all sorts of approaches and see what sticks?
Do you have enough time and/or money to fight on more than one front? Or would you be better of limiting yourself to just one project?
Asking yourself some of these questions would definitely not hurt. Being prepared is always something smart. You know what they say, expect the best but prepare for the worst. Maybe you’ll be able to milk your current project/campaign for years to come but what if that will not be the case? Always take as many possible scenarios into consideration as possible because being unprepared is never smart. Never ever. EVER!
After 2 years of development, BeVo Media's expected open beta date is October 1st. BeVo Media is now accepting beta tester applicants. If you are a webmaster, search marketer, media buyer, or PPC Firm, you may be eligible to be a beta tester. Please contact ryan@bevomedia.com to get on the beta tester list.
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