Email List Building Techniques Affiliate Marketing My New Co-Branding Experiment

My New Co-Branding Experiment

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The New Co-Branding Experiment

I’ve decided to run an experiment on how I promote a couple of products as an affiliate marketer using co-branding and images that support that on various promotional pages.

Instead of me just putting a picture of myself at the bottom of a bridge page (I try to keep dedicated optin / lead-capture pages as clean as possible)…

…I’m going to also add a picture of my cat so that the offers are co-branded by the two of us.

I do already co-brand a couple of offers with a product creator because they’re so associated with their product…

…so adding co-branding for my cat, Tango, is a new twist.

Why would I do this?

It sounds nuts, doesn’t it?

Well, chalk it up to a brain fart or out-of-the-box thinking.

The Animal Connection

Most people love animals and if they see that I have a pet, they’ll know that I love animals as well.

That’s a bit of a barrier broken down – they already know something about me and maybe it’s something they can resonate with.

So maybe they’ll be a little more predisposed towards buying from me.

And if they end up on my email list, I can send them stories about Tango to keep them entertained along with the usual news and promos.

Will it work?

I don’t know; it might even hurt my conversion rates as someone seeing a picture of Tango might think:
“This guy’s not serious; I’m not buying from him“.

So that’s what I’ll be testing.

Can Tango become a brand ambassador?
Can he represent me?
Can I send entertaining emails as him?

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on the success… or failure… of this venture.

Let Me Introduce You To My Cat…

So, let me introduce you to my cat, Tango, a rescue who’s now 3 years old.

He was the runt of the litter and didn’t have a great start in life and so he’s on the small side for a cat.

I’ve had mackerel tabbies for the last 30 years(!) but after my last cat disappeared without trace…

…I waited 18 months before thinking of getting another cat.

When I felt the time was right, I started looking at cats in local animal shelters.

A couple I looked at were snapped up quickly so I missed those opportunities.

Then an orange kitten about a year old popped up in the listings for cats needing homes.

I moved fast, was introduced to him the next day and I spent about 15 minutes with him.

A few days later, I signed the adoption papers and took him home .

He had needed some TLC and vet care before I was able to collect him, due to some malnutrition and skin issues from living in an unhealthy home.

There was no sheen in his fur either.

Turns out he’s fussy eater – only likes the expensive cat food!

But after a couple of weeks, the bald patches started to fill in and the sheen started to return to his coat.

About 6 weeks after I took him home, I introduced him to the great outdoors on a leash.

This can be an overwhelming time for a young cat and the last thing I needed was for him to dash off somewhere in a panic.

I showed him everything in the back garden so he could build up a map of his local surroundings.

And then it was time to remove the leash and let him roam (he is neutered so wouldn’t wander as far as an intact Tom).

Now, because of his distinct coloring, he’s well known in the neighborhood.

There have been some territorial spats with other cats and he frequently came home with tufts out of his fur and the occasional, but not bad, facial scratch.

He’s a tenacious fighter and, despite his diminutive size, is well able to hold his own against larger cats.

Thankfully, that’s all died down now – I guess all the cats have agreed on who owns what territory! 😀

Now, with a catflap in the back door, Tango can come and go as he pleases, though I do keep him in between midnight and the following morning.

There’s no danger from predators where I live and I’m not on a main road so traffic is quite low.

I do regularly have (red) foxes in the back garden but he and they never bother each other.

So Tango is both an indoor and outdoor cat, living his best life as he now chooses.

He’s also a lap cat and sleeps on the bed at night regularly too.

And, when it’s really cold, he’ll snuggle under the covers and sleep against me.

The Potential Downside of Owning a Cat

I have asthma, and friends have wondered if I was allergic to my cats.

I actually only eddevelop asthma when I was 35, several months after I got my first cat, Kira.

I’d get wheezy or feel like someone was sitting on my chest when breathing.

The doctor figured I was allergic to cat dander and told me that if I insisted on keeping the cat, I’d have to start using an asthma inhaler.

And, under no circumstances was I to allow the cat into the bedroom, especially at night.

I’ve been on inhalers ever since.

My second cat, Fritz, developed asthma when he was 11 (yes, cats can get asthma too and he was becoming allergic to me!).

I had a contraption to use an inhaler on him to ease his breathing.

He lived to be 19 years old, my longest lived cat so far.

Well, I’m either not allergic to Tango’s dander or I’m allergic to something else – like dust mites – so having Tango near my face doesn’t trigger a wheezing fit.

Below is the picture of the little reprobate that I’m using in co-branding with him: