Affiliate Marketing Blog by AMWSO

eComXpo : Smaller but better.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:08:00 +0000

This feels like it is the smallest eComXpo event I have attended so far , both in that there appear to be less exhibitors (thought I count about 120) and it is running for fewer days. That said the first day has been very good and I've picked up better contacts in the first day this year than I did in total at the past shows.

The event this year is kind of split into two sections eComXpo and eTailXpo though the two 'shows' could easily have been combined into one, and were as far as the main navigation was concerned, making it easy to visit exhibitors from both sides of the show.

I've not been to any of the presentations yet, I'll save that for tomorrow.

My Content Creation Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:58:00 +0000

Rarely, a day goes by when I'm not creating a new page of content on one of my sites or blogs, and that's usually swiftly followed by emails from the team correcting all my spelling and grammar errors. It's become part of the culture "Chris Publishes content" followed by "Chris corrects content" and then "Chris corrects content again". Mostly, it's not due to me being awful at spelling, but that typing quickly leads to lots of errors, and sometimes my thoughts get ahead of my fingers.

Copying and pasting to word to spell check, or using web based spell checkers isn't always ideal , especially copying from word as so much hidden junk code is also copied which can cause havoc in a blog. The average spell checker also does only that "spell check" and doesn't add much value beyond doing the job. In today's "value add" Internet I believe we all demand that a product do what it's designed to do and add more value beyond.

On top of my own content issue, the fact is that well written copy is an important factor of any affiliate or bloggers content. Spelling and grammar errors can ruin a well put together pre sales pitch. So investing time, or money into preventing these issues is a good investment.

Anyway, I have for a couple of years come across the name WhiteSmoke here and there and constantly ignored it. Last month I was nudged into grabbing a copy to try out by one the team who decided he better things to do than spell check for me.

So, 3 weeks later, of testing the WhiteSmoke software I've been pretty happy with what I get for my money, a spell checker that can be used on any kind of document, software, web site or blog, pretty much anywhere. Select the copy I want to check (or allow WhiteSmoke to select it all) click F2, check copy and job done! In addition to that there's the value add bits. The system offers recommendations on how to improve the copy, checks the grammar and helps me to put together better content with no errors. It also offers various levels of copy improvement, from general and business through to medical. While primarily built to plug in to IE, the software does work with FireFox.

The only issue I've had with the software is that it when you run the spell check on copy, any formating or links that I've embedded into the content are removed when the copy is reloaded after being corrected. A minor pain, but it just means adding the links and formating after the copy has been corrected and improved.

Wonder what the team will do with all that extra time they've got now they don't need to check my spelling for me :)

Maybe I'm the odd one out?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Twitter... I have to say, that I'm still in "what's the fuss", and "who cares if I woke up at 9:15 this morning and had 3 rashers of bacon, beans and two eggs (sunny side up) for breakfast", then at 9:27 AM "had a shower a cup of coffee and cleaned my teeth", though maybe I should break that down into multiple twitts, twerps, posts or what ever they are called to ensure no one thinks I did all three at the same time, maybe I did, I can't remember, perhaps I need Twitter to help me remember what I did each day!

However it seems the rest of the world can't get enough, and yes I admit, I do have an account, which gets update once every month when Google Chat says "Hey you haven't posted on Twitter for ages bud!", though it's not nudged me for some time (perhaps it gave up on me) , worse I do have people who are fans, followers, tweetie birds, etc and follow my every move, I bet most of them believe I'm in traction!

I know Dave here at AMWSO (big Twitter Fan) did post some time back about the joys of communicating with affiliates via Twitter and the like, and I'm not one to bash any method of getting a message out, but heck, is anyone really sitting, watching and waiting for the next tweet message. Do they want business messages mixed in with "Woke up and have a headache after last nights pubcon!" Me no, I'm not a believer. Though perhaps if I was following the development of say, a piece of software, it would be useful to get updates via twitter. Or better yet if I can't get to the football match, then someone can sms to their tweet account all the action for me to follow at home. Could always check the developer blog / web site, or watch the football on TV though, for far better results.

Anyway what brought me around to chatting about Twitter is some new tools around that make it easier to manage and track both your own and other people's messages. As I'm a novice user and totally clueless as to which are any good I'll not blather on any further, but suggest popping over to Sukosak's blog and see what he has to say and recommend for those of you who are keen Twitter Users.

Do you let your Affiliates Deep Link?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 25 May 2008 03:01:00 +0000

It's nothing new and has been around since the dawn of the Internet but deep linking is ever more critical, and if you don't let your marketing and affiliates partners deep link then you' re likely missing the mark, and losing customers, according to a new Nielsen report.

In 2004, about 40 percent of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60 percent used a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25 percent of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there.

The report goes on to discuss how web users are becoming less patient and less distracted by sticky functions and want to get right to what they have come to do and then go elsewhere.

On the upside a greater percentage of users now actually complete what they set out to do, so if a merchant has a good site design and easy check out then the ability to drive a good conversion rate is now higher than ever, good news for merchants and affiliates!

Deep linking is very easy for the makority merchants to set up on their sites and for their affiliate programs, and is critical for sites that offer a wide range of products. That said there are still a number of affiliate programs than insist on forcing users to travel via the home page, either due to a poor eCommerce platform or a very misguided belief in what their site visitos should be forced into doing.

The Domain Game

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:47:00 +0000

A new book by David Kesmodel of the "Wall Street Journal" will delve into the business of domain investment (no I've not read it yet but it's going to be on on my "must read list" once it's published) . I must admit that I'd not given the whole domain investment business much thought until I sat down and chatted with the guys from Moniker at the 2007 CAC event in Macau . It was eye opening (to say the least..jaw dropping more like) to see how buying and selling the right domains can be way more profitable than buying real estate or stocks, and while not risk free, it's certainly far less risky than buying the later. It's also a relatively cheaper to get into domain investment, though a reasonable .com domain is likely to cost you $5000 and up at present time (no more basement bargains to be had) . That is unless you're lucky enough to keep up with how new words constantly spring into existance and can grab them up before anyone else...or better yet predict, or even influence what new words will come into existance.

One thing I learnt from talking to Moniker is that after spending your $5000 on a domain, you'll very likely need to sit on it for a year or more until it becomes something that someone else needs or wants, and is willing to pay for. It's not a rapid turn over business.

Also, while .com English language domain names are in the highest demand, don't miss out on potential opportunities in none English .com as well as other domain areas such as .de , .co.uk and the opportunity to invest into the rapidly expanding Asian domains.

That said, my recent endeavour to buy .asia domains left me with a very sour taste in my mouth as the way these domains were set up for sale and then auction was nothing more than a way for the .asia registrar to fleece people of money and give them no domains, nor return their money. The option of "bid on the domain you wanted" was where most domain purchases went. And that was after paying for the domain... Supply and demand I understand, but if a firm can't supply what a person buys, then the money should be returned, not held.

Anyway, aside from that slight bump , the business is certainly there to be explored. Moniker hold frequent domain auctions at Internet events and online, and there's a .TV domain auction coming up very shortly (May 20th) too. Even if you don't bid, it's worth attending these events just to see what is being paid for domains now a days.

Deposit Checks over the Net

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Maybe I'm just slow to catch on to this, (Apparently this process has been legal since 2004) but I came across a rather interesting, time saving system today that allows you to deposit checks over the Internet. So if you're one of those lucky affiliates that gets lots of checks from lots of different networks and inhouse programs then this could be a nice time (and paper saver) from having to fill out multiple deposit slips and spending time standing in bank queues. The software is designer to handle 50 checks a day on "online mode" and can handle more in an offline system which uses a batch process to scan and send the checks.

And if you're really wracking up the checks, Then the Panini MyVisionX is available in models
that scan 30, 60 or 90 checks per minute!!

The DepositNow system works with any U.S. bank account, (sadly no International support, else I'd be totally raving about it) so no need to set up new accounts. The scanners (you need a special scanner for electronic deposits) also doubles as a normal scanner for docs and photos so it' doesn't need to just sit on the shelf doing nothing between checks. The scanners run for around $225+ each. There's a guide to scanners you can use.

One thing that's not shown is the price of using the DepositNow system, "we cannot tell the price for certain until you begin to input your business data" , the FAQ says. Anyway check out the online demo to see if it's for you.

Affiliate (....Blog) Revenue

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:07:00 +0000

One of the longest ongoing debates in the affiliate industry is "how much can a person make", and there are lots of sites made by people claiming to have made millions, presenting fake checks while they attempt to suck money and life blood from unfortunate web marketeers who are looking for ways to kick start their revenue. Ask any serious affiliate how much money they make and you'll likely get one of two answers "Not Enough" and "Could be more", no dollar figures. Yes we're all capitalists and looking for ways to get beyond earning "enough". There are also many many ways for people to earn money on line now a days, the advent of blogs making it even easier for more people to try to make money too.

Being as we see a lot of the checks we issue to affiliates we have a good idea of what affiliates of all sizes can and do earn, but no I'm not going to be publishing those numbers. What I did come across and found interesting and something I'm going to follow, was the revenue post by the folks who own General Marketing Blog where they are posting their on going monthly revenue for everyone to see and follow, along with related traffic and ranking reports. Here's a slice of the revenue info :

Blog Income

Pepperjam: $123.00 (Up $26.00)
Adsense: $26.51 (Down $10.81)
Bannermall: $0.00 (Down $20.00)
Banner ads: $172.00 (Up $40.00)
Paid Posts: $245.00 (Up $115.00)

The blog has been live 6 months and the owners made just over $550 in April. I don't believe that's a bad number for just 6 months live. They also list their site data, rankings and traffic reports. What I found interesting though is that the revenue has not come from any traditional affiliate networks, other than PJN, or even PPC, but more from the growing business of paid posts.

For people looking to launch a new site and earn some money, this certainly shows, that with effort and focus you can start to get a reasonable income within a few months, and that Pay Per Post Marketing is becoming a large factor in making that possible.

Merchants can take Advantage of Falling Dollar though Affiliate Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:59:00 +0000

Every week the dollar seems to be falling further down against all of the other world currencies, including the Yen, Euro and Pound. The bad news this reflects: the rest of the world doesn't quite have the same faith in the U.S. Economy anymore, and also things will be getting a bit more expensive within the USA, and the power of the dollar decreases. However, for merchants, the good news is that American products are now less expensive and are more attractive to consumers in other countries. Promoting visits to the U.S.A. is getting to be quite popular to Europeans with the thoughts of coming over for cheap holidays and shopping.

Our world is shrinking everyday from a business perspective. I love this ad from the Financial Times that illustrates various landmark skyscrapers all existing on a "global island".

Business in America have a great opportunity now to start marketing their products overseas. If a merchant has never attempted to market products overseas, using an affiliate program is a good way to "dip the foot in the water." In the U.K. affiliate marketing is growing by leaps and bounds and more publishers are getting turned onto the advantages as opposed to Adsense. There are now 2 major annual affiliate events in the UK with the A4U Expo and the new Affiliate Summit UK.

Affiliate marketing (while lagging the UK) is also gaining more mainstream popularity with webmasters in Australia and New Zealand. There are certainly plenty of webmasters promoting sites in the US that are already familiar with affiliate marketing principles. These are the easiest to enter markets for Americans due to the language similarities. Other European and Asian markets however do offer potentially attractive affiliate markets. Affiliate marketing (through mobile commerce) is a HUGE industry in Japan. There is also potential in countries like Ireland, Germany, France, Singapore and Korea.

They key: get assistance from a knowledgeable agent and/or network with experience in the region. AMWSO has enormous advantages since we are based in Asia with many staff members originally from Europe. Getting connected through a network can alleviate any international affiliate payment and tracking issues, leaving the merchant to contend with payment processing and shipping. Major credit card processing and Paypal eliminate 90% of international payment issues, and now with the various logistic and fulfillment services from companies such as UPS or even Amazon, storage and shipment of products can be localized as well.

The barriers for selling internationally are being lowered everyday. Consider dipping your foot into the water through performance marketing before your competitions locks down the market.

Affiliate Marketing and Appealing to Different World Views

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Everything a person looks at, experiences or examines gets filtered through a specific world view. Seth Godin, in his book All Marketers are Liars emphasizes this issue (among other things) as a key point in crafting stories or messages that will appeal to potential customers. One of the key themes in the book, is that merchants should not try and appeal to a multitude of world views, or else they risk their message becoming too diluted, unfocused and generic.

Affiliate marketing can be a valuable tool in expanding a merchants reach to different types of customers with different world views. Just on the surface, consider that couponers know their visitors are hunting for discounts and deals, forums know their customers have in-depth interest in particular niches', and content/blog sites will of course appeal to various niche interests. Recruiting different types of quality affiliates to an affiliate program allows a merchant to touch these potential customers, through the affiliate partners that they might not never have been able to reach when focusing on their core customer's world view.

For example, consider a trendy woman's fashion merchant. Logic would dictate they this merchant would craft their message to their core customer segment, woman interested in trendy fashions. Now, suppose we have a webmaster who runs a blog with a community of married men who are computer enthusiasts (aka nerds) (note: I would definitely be a member of this community). Right before Christmas time, these men are desperate and searching for advice and tips on gifts to buy their wives/significant others. The blog owner signs up for the woman's trendy fashion affiliate program, and offers this merchant up to his community. Just like that, the trendy woman's fashion site gets exposed to a group of men who wouldn't ordinarily be visiting this site, and who are looking for things to purchase.

Among the advantages of CPA marketing; measurable and clear ROI, it's important not to neglect the huge advantage of expanding the merchant reach to customers not ordinarily exposed to a merchant. Good affiliate managers will be on the look out for these types of affiliates and will be actively recruiting them into a program.

Text Links vs. Banner Ads

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:44:00 +0000

As an affiliate manager, I'm often asked, "Which convert better: text links or banners?" At first glance, the most obvious answer it text links. Glancing at a report or statistics will reveal that most of the time text links do convert better than banner ads.

However, there's more to the story than just that. I believe it has to do with how text links are used as opposed to banners that contribute greatly to the higher conversion / success rate. Consider for a moment how text links are employed as opposed to banners.

Let's first take a look at how text links are commonly used. The greatest use of text links comes from product data feeds. These product data feeds employ the specific product name as the text link. Of course, any shopper who is looking for a specific product, sees the product name, and then clicks the link will have the highest possible conversion chance. If a visitor knows what they want, and has already made up their mind that they WILL be making a purchase, then closing the sale becomes a far less challenging task. I discussed this a bit further when examining effective affiliate landing pages.

Another common use of text link: they are placed into the body of a webpage. Content is built around the text link. It much easier to built a value proposition, or tell a story when you have content build around a link then it is to tell that same story with just a banner/picture with a short tag line.

In comparison, consider how banners are commonly placed. Either at the top of a web page, or along the sidebar. Experienced web surfers have already trained themselves to know, banners placed in these spots (especially the leaderboard banner across the top of a page) are trying to sell them something, It's quite easy to automatically tune out to those messages.

The common perception: text links lead to information, banners lead to a sale pitch. Now, this is not to say that banner cannot be an effective tool in promotion. Just don't expect to put up a page and slap a bunch of banners up and expect to have any success. Build up some content, tell a story through that content that appeals to your visitors wants.

Strategies for Conversions through Effective Affiliate Landing Pages - Part 2 (Directing Visitors Who Want to Buy)

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:59:00 +0000

In Strategies for Affiliate Landing Pages Part 1 we discussed the idea of a value added landing page, talked about two types of site visitors, and discussed strategies for designing a landing page for early buying cycle visitors. Now, I'd like to discuss strategies for those buyers who know exactly what they want to purchase.

You can usually identify these buyers by how they are arriving at your site. If they've used exact product names, or very specific keywords, then you can generally assume that they have already narrowed down their choice to this specific product. Now it's all a matter of directing the visitor to where they can make the purchase. Your job as an affiliate is not to convince them to make the purchase, this must be accomplished by the merchant. If you are promoting a specific merchant, then you should already know that the merchant is able to convert visitors to customers.

Visitors who have arrived at your page from typing in a specific product name, or model number, are expecting to see that product clearly on your page. Header, title, bolded, make it very clear to the visitor that they have arrived at the correct place. K.I.S.S., or Keep It Simple Stupid. Don't clutter up the page with unnecessary distractions, banners, etc. Be concise and clear, keep sentences short, paragraphs short, and even use bullet points. Emphasize promotions or coupons that a merchant has available, and make the value proposition clear.

If you have a comparison on the page of the product from a few different merchants, highlight the value proposition for each merchant. Guarantees, free shipping, return policy, etc. The visitor knows what they want to buy, now they need to be directed on where to buy from. Give them the information to make a quick decision, and pass them to the merchant to close the sale.

And finally, but critically important, make a very clear, very easy to identify, call to action: Click here; Buy here, Buy now.

Don't be afraid to test and try different things. Try two different pages and alternate them. Does one convert better? USE it. Good affiliate marketing takes effort, so don't be afraid to put forth the effort and build a couple landing pages and test them.

Recap:

Product name/keyword featured on the page.
Keep it simple.
Emphasize coupons/discounts/promotions.
Provide short value propositions if different merchants promoted.
Clear, visible, distinct call to action

If you have any other tips or advise, or want to share successes, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Strategies for Conversions through Effective Affiliate Landing Pages - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:40:00 +0000

Well there was a lot of hubbub that came out of he Affiliate Summit and Jason Calacanis' keynote talk. He called affiliates to the table, especially those with what he termed "thin landing pages." The warning that he sounded, is that some bad affiliates are polluting the well for everyone.

Granted, deceptive landing pages, cookie stuffing, deceptive redirection, misleading offers, etc., are polluting the well, however thin landing pages really are just poor business execution. Affiliates aren't paid on clicks, they are paid only when the sale is made, so if affiliates do not send pre-sold or targeted traffic to a merchant, the affiliate isn't going to be making any money. As more people get into the affiliate business, and start building value added sites, these thin landing page sites will get driven off the map. This is a natural progression, the cream will rise to the top.

Now, how do you as an affiliate ensure that you are part of the cream that rises to the top? It's not a secret sauce, and it's not rocket science. One need only add some value to the buying cycle. There are essentially two types of buying traffic, people gathering information and in the early stages of the buying cycle, and those who have pretty much decided and looking to make a purchase. Each visitor has different needs that must be met. You can get an idea on what type of visitor will be arriving at your site, based on where they are coming from and the keywords they are using to reach the web page. Let me provide an example, I run the program for Baghaus handbags. Now if someone arrives at a site using the keywords, "Celebrity Handbag", I know they are generally early in their buying cycle, and just shopping around for ideas or information. However, if they hit the site using a very specific handbag name, I can deduce that they are looking to purchase that specific handbag.

Visitors in the early part of the buying cycle should be directed to a different type of page that late cycle buyers. How can you add value to the early cycle buyers? Here are some ideas:

Show many different products listed and compared.
Informative content / articles concerning the type of product or niche.
Comparison chart

The important thing to consider is, "what is going to be valuable to your visitor, and convince them to make or return and make the purchase through your site?" Establish your site as an authority site for information about this product or niche for this visitor.

Let me tell you, slapping up a site with a ton of banners mish-mashed all over the place isn't going to get that done. Put yourself in your visitor's shoes. If you hit that type of site, how will it help you in making a purchasing decision? What value is it adding for you in the buying cycle?

On your site, add a "About Us" page and also a "Privacy Policy". Fill these in as well, to give your visitor a sense that your are running a real business, and are committed running a professional operation. I guarantee having these two simple pages will increase your conversions and return visitor numbers.

Next post, we'll deal with how to build pages for those late cycle buyers who are intending to make a purchase.

Affiliate Summit Wrap-Up: Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:10:00 +0000

The second and final day of the Affiliate Summit expo was slightly less busy than the first day of the event, as many participants had a very tight schedule and needed to return to their respective destinations, or perhaps, for some, just run for the hills from the enticing allure and over-the-top luxury that epitomizes Las Vegas. Although there was much affiliate marketing, networking business and deal-making taking place during the day, for AMWSO in particular, it was a pleasant opportunity to meet and greet in person a variety of colleagues, partners and potential collaboration opportunities, in a bit more relaxed atmosphere.

Some of the interesting and extremely influential people that AMWSO had the chance to meet and talk shop throughout the day included Brett Shearing, Business Development Manager for Commission Junction, who let me know that CJ is developing a Pay-Per-Call tracking technology, as well as Jennine Rexon, CEO and founder of the Rextopia network, Brendan J. Smith, CEO and founder of the Motive Interactive affiliate network, Gary Kamikawa, VP of Interactive marketing for Mpire and one of the fastest growing java-enabled ad networks Widget Bucks in addition to truly international participants such as Scott McCarthy, International Publisher Sales Manager for the largest U.K. affiliate network, TradeDoubler.

One of the most lively and spirited conferences taking place during the last day of the show was "ABW: loved or hated, but never ignored", featuring a panel of ABW moderators including Chuck Hamrick, OPM for Affiliate Crew, Deborah Loxly, OPM for Team Loxly, Michael Coley, founder of Amazing-Bargains, Ron, OPM of 7 Days A Week marketing and of course, Haiko de Poel, Jr., Administrator and CEO of AbestWeb. The key takeaway from this conference was that AbestWeb has become over the past 6 years, a trusted third party in the affiliate marketing industry that is open and honest as well as provides an ideal platform for any affiliate, to have a fair voice to communicate their trepidations. On the horizon for Abestweb, Haiko de Poel, Jr., announced a social marketing aspect that is in development for the 42,000-plus members, which features an expanded profile and ability to add friends, create groups and other affiliate business related functionality.

Affiliate Summit Update : Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:57:00 +0000

The first day of the Affiliate Summit expo welcomed thousands of affiliates, agencies, vendors, merchants and networks all converging at the Rio in Las Vegas for a jam-packed day of discussions, face-to-face meetings, and conferences. Some of the great benefits of the event for all those involved were:

Putting faces to emails: Being in the affiliate marketing industry, the majority of our communications with partners, merchants and networks is done via email and phone. In some cases, we have worked with partners and networks for several years, without ever meeting face to face. However, with the Affiliate Summit, AMWSO had an excellent opportunity to meet a variety of our long-standing partners and networks in person and put actual faces to the emails we contact virtually every week, such as Vinny Lingham CEO of Synthasite, Dan Foster, Account executive with Performics and Michael C. Jones, COO of Pepperjam Network.

Meeting new affiliates: A vital part of growing AMWSO programs is bringing new partners to our merchants and while many affiliates tend to be a quiet, rather secretive bunch, it was refreshing to have the chance at the Affiliate Summit venue to meet new affiliates in person in a wide range of verticals, who are looking to expand their revenue streams and bolster their commission incomes with the more than 35 merchants AMWSO manages.

Seeking new partnerships with CPA and up-and-coming affiliate networks: Another value from participating at Affiliate Summit is investigating new opportunities for AMWSO merchants that are not exclusive to their affiliate network, to reach out and expand their offering into the rapidly growing CPA and affiliate network space. Some of the interesting CPA and Affiliate networks at the event were Canadian Sponsors, an affiliate network focused on the Canada market and Revenue Loop, an affiliate network emphasizing transparency, and Affnet, a CPA network centered around financial and diet offers.

Regarding the conferences taking place at Affiliate Summit, one of the most exciting and interesting presentations was that of Will Reynolds, CEO of SEER, who talked about "How to Futureproof Your SEO Efforts". Here is a list of the helpful and mostly free tools that were recommended during the presentation:

SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty Tool
Use this tool to start small and stay realistic in your SEO efforts.

MSN Ad Center Intelligence keyword research and optimization tool with Excel 2007 plug-in
Use this to create pivot tables and research popular terms with actual search volume numbers data and seamless integration with MS Excel 2007. (Note: the plug-in won't work on older versions of Excel such as Excel 2003)

Google Trends
While Google trends doesn't feature actual search and click volume numbers, it is a good start for identifying what people are looking for on SEs and what kind of content you can create to acquire new traffic sources.

Tube Mogul
One of the key advice from the presenation was to develop a "Digital Asset Inventory" such as videos. Use this tool to upload your video and distribute to many sites at once.

Yahoo Search Assist
This is a great tool on Yahoo results pages that include the terms and phrases you are looking for anywhere in the query. For example if you type in "Football" into Yahoo search assist, it will automatically suggest "Fantasy Football" because that is the most popular result clicked on for the term football.

Google Suggest
While not quite as intuitive as Yahoo Search Assist, because it orders suggestions based on the first keyword typed into the search box, it also can offer keyword directions for your SEO research.

Touchgraph - Google browser
Use this tool to see how your site is doing in relation to competitors on Google

Quantcast
Use this tool to identify keyword volume on brand names

Copernic Tracker
Although one of the only paid tools recommended, the price point of $49.95 is relatively reasonable considering it allows you to track changes in code on any competing website.

Affiliate Marketing: Outsourcing (OPMs) is More Cost Effective Than Hiring In-House

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:21:00 +0000

According to Shawn Collin's Affstat Report the average salary for an in-house manager is $50,000 a year and up. Now, factor in health and other benefits, desk space, infrastructure, those costs rise significantly. To support an in-house affiliate manager, a business must plan to spend at least $70,000 - $90,000 in overhead. If the in-house manager decides to leave the company, all of the knowledge and the relationship history usually walks out the door with the manager.

Additionally, it may be difficult to find an experienced affiliate manager within a specific geographical area. Some larger organizations leave the affiliate program in the care of a junior level marketing staffer. This can be a mistake with lasting consequences. A well run affiliate program can be responsible for 10-20% or more of overall company revenue. Likewise, with the advantages of added revenue and reach, there are dangers in not carefully managing an affiliate program. Brand messages may be damaged and revenue from other channels pillaged via malware and parasiteware.

Most OPM firms charge either a flat fee plus revenue share, or at least a monthly minimum revenue share. Generally the monthly minimum of flat fee is between $2000-$5000 a month.

Now also consider the other benefits an OPM brings: experience, relationships, knowledge, and stability. An OPM has established working relationships with many if not all of the top performing affiliates. They've built a history of performance, and generally an affiliate will know the style of any certain OPM such as does the OPM have a stance against parasiteware, or are they accessible?

In relation to the experience benefits, the cost savings strongly favor an advantage to outsourcing an affiliate program. Focus on the business, do what you do best, and leave the success and growth of a well-managed experience program to experts who are focused on growing your business.

ShareASale "Under the Stars" Party at Affiliate Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:46:00 +0000

Here are some pictures and a clip from the awesome ShareASale "Under the Stars" party that took place on Sunday, February 24th at the 2-story Sky Villas on the top floors of the Palms Hotel "Fantasy Tower".

Mike Allen, super-affiliate of Shopping-Bargains

Brian Littleton, founder and CEO of ShareASale

Brian of ShareASale at the piano.

The PartnerMaker Party at Affiliate Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:40:00 +0000

Here are some pictures from the PartnerMaker party co-sponsored by AMWSO that took place Saturday, February 23, 2008 at the Wine Cellar of the Rio Suites Hotel in Las Vegas.

James Martell of Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp

Kurt Lohse, founder and CEO of super-affiliate KeyCode and Jamie Birch of Converseon

David Delisle and Jeff Molander of The PartnerMaker

LinkShare China is go.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Well while everyone is raving about the new LinkShare Publisher Dashboard I decided to take a look around the rest of the site to see what had changed. Heading straight to the international section and then over to jobs, and low and behold what do we see jobs for LinkShare China in Shanghai. So it would appear the rumours were true and LinkShare is finally heading into China!

Not much else available that I can find on the China launch, the last time it seems to have been mentioned was back in early 2006 in an article in Revenue. Well it will be interested to see whether they launch with a focus on eCommerce or lead generation and what they have learnt from the the success and failures of the early network entries into the China market

Can you make BIG money in Affiliate Marketing?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:07:00 +0000

Yes, you can! Paul from Uber Affiliate just put up a new site compiling some of the pictures and earnings from a few large affiliates over at S.eriously.com. Those checks and earnings reports can certainly be motivating (Granted there is some discussion and debate over how many are real and how many are...touched up). But either way, as a firm, AMWSO has issued some big checks over the past few years. Of course these aren't generally net earnings, as a lot of that traffic might have been paid for via paid search ads. So even though an affiliate gets a check for say $100,000, they might have to pay $99,000 to Google, Yahoo or MSN for search advertising. Then of course, there is this other tried and true method of "earning big money via onlne marketing" :)

However, who can argue with an extra $1000 in the pocket. Plus, there can be ancillary benefits. Imagine if you're paying for all of those search ads on a credit card that gives cash back, or rewards points. 99,000 rewards points can add up to some nice all paid vacations in a short amount of time, or cash back, or any other benefits offered by credit card companies.

How can you start earning some of these monster checks? It isn't easy, but it's attainable, however it does take effort and work to build sustainable protected earnings.

The first thing to do, is to decide what product and how you'll be promoting a product or program. Basically you can make a niche site that is content focused, or a more general type of site like a coupon site or reward site.

If you decide to go with a niche site, then you must decide on what that niche is. There are various recommended ways of deciding on a niche, some advise to start off doing keyword research. I would recommend to start writing down some topics that interest you. At least, while you're learning to be an elite affiliate marketer, you'll also be learning about a subject that inspires you. Find some affiliate programs centered around these niches, sign up, and ask the affiliate manager for a keyword list. Then do a bit of keyword research to see what kind of traffic the recommended keywords are getting. See if you can come up with your own long-tail keywords using the provided list as a base. I would do a review of keyword tools here, but I don't think I could be more comprehensive that this keyword tool review by Aaron Wall.

In another post here, we'll talk about what kind of costs you might incur when investing in a keyword tool, getting a web host, getting some design help, and promoting your site.

If looking for program ideas, sign up for one of the AMWSO programs and get some help from one of the AMWSO managers to get you on the fast track to receiving one of those monster checks!

Performance Marketing Support Group re-launches Monthly Teleconference for Internet Retailers and Marketing Professionals

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Every 3rd Wednesday of the month, at 4:00pm Eastern Time, Allan Dick from Vintage Tub & Bath and Jeff Molander host a conference call to help e-marketing and e-commerce professionals find solutions to any issues or problems faced on a daily basis. Issues are discussed amongst peers, and advice will be offered from industry experts on the call.

This is a great opportunity to hear what your peers are facing, and listen to new insights on solutions to problems. The call on February 20th will center around the debate on how to balance paid search with affiliate marketing strategies. We at AMWSO are certainly keen to listen to the thoughts of other retailers and consultants on this very hot topic.

The monthly calls are a life blood for me. As the sole person charged with e-commerce marketing management at a mid-sized multi-channel retailer, I need a support group that speaks my language,

- Trish Tickle of Kitchen Collection.

Even after the call finishes, participants are invited to join a web based discussion group to network and continue helping one another. Trish continues:

Networking with other affiliate managers lets me find out about new ideas, explore and ask questions about things that I don t have time to research completely. Between calls we can email each other or the whole group about issues that can t wait until the next call. In fact, just yesterday we were discussing international affiliate marketing.

To sign up for the call, contact: Allan Dick at allan@vintagetub.com.

Valentines Day for Affiliates

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:24:00 +0000

Next to Christmas, Valentine's Day is one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year. Close to a billion dollars will be spent for Valentine's day, and affiliates are in an excellent position to grab a piece of the pie. Most of the shopping is done the week prior to the 14th of February, with another surge occurring just a couple days before the day as shoppers search for those last minute ideas and gifts.

The expected usual suspects: jewelry, flowers, chocolate and other gifts are the hottest items for the Valentine's Holiday. Thankfully, most respective merchants have affiliate programs in all of these niches. Men average over $100 spending for the holiday, with woman averaging just over $50. While it's true that many people are actually turned off by the commercialization of this day, 30% of people surveyed by the NPD Group appreciate the romance of the day, and 8% are pressured into making a purchase, "so they don't get into trouble."

Jewelry and the like will be the most promoted items, however do consider that women might also be making purchases for men. Also consider, once people are prompted into a "buying mood", anything might get purchased for anyone, including purchases for oneself! According to Google checkout, 50% of people shopping for Valentine's Day make multiple purchases. According to the National Retail Federation, 22.4 percent of men and 7.3 percent of women plan to purchase jewelry.

AMWSO runs several jewelry and fashion programs that are positioned well for the Valentine's holiday. We've set up a special Valentine's Day Affiliate Programs page to highlight the specials, deals and offers that are being promoted just for Valentine's Day.

This is really the last gift giving holiday until Mother's Day in the USA (although some people gift for Easter), so gear up, get those banners, links, promotions and coupons posted!

Digging Deeper into the Affiliate Webspace with Syntryx

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:33:00 +0000

Affiliate marketing companies are starting to wake up to Syntryx, the game-changing data analysis tool that's been on the scene for over a year. A powerful data collection and mining tool, Syntryx allows users to scour the web sphere for high performing existing affiliates and potential affiliate targets.

What does Syntryx do?

The great thing about Syntryx: it is actually a search engine and web crawler. It crawls the web with an eye out for things affiliate recruiters, media buyers, and SEO experts would be specifically looking for. However, that's only part of the value, once all of the data is collected in the Syntryx database, powerful data mining and analysis tools are provided that allow users to judge the force (reach/traffic/value) of a domain, identify all the domains held by a particular webmaster or company, analyze what other offers or programs are being promoted on an affiliate's site, and this is just scratching the surface.

How can users benefit from using Syntryx?

It is pretty easy to dive straight in and started mining the database for affiliate sites in particular program niches. AMs can target sites that already have affiliate links based on keywords the site ranks for, or even search for same/similar niche specific affiliate links anywhere in web sphere. All affiliate managers know the well-known top affiliate sites, but now Syntryx allows affiliate managers to see if a particular affiliate has another less well-known niche site that might fit perfectly with a particular program niche. These are just a couple uses specifically related to affiliate marketing. Affiliate managers can now also provide valuable information to clients useful in competitor analysis, SEO and paid search campaigns.

For our own clients we certainly see the value extracted from this tool when combined with expert and experienced analysis provided by AMWSO managers. We know our investment will be quickly returned with interest.

Will Affiliate Marketing Evolve?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:01:00 +0000

Recently, there was a merchant who was outed on Abestweb for trying to entice affiliates into providing a non-affiliate link back to the merchant site in exchange for a 1/2 percent commission bonus. This practice was summarily criticized by affiliates, and the merchant was forced to withdraw the offer, make several apologies and replace the consultant responsible for the idea.

I think there were basically three camps of reasoning's behind the negative acceptance of this idea. 1) People were slighted at only being offered 0.5% commission increase for this valuable rank benefiting link back. 2) People felt that this idea was unethical search engine manipulation and 3) some people felt that the affiliate marketing program shouldn't be mixed in with the SEO strategy.

Reason #3 inspired me to think about how affiliate marketing will evolve in the future. I think the idea of keeping affiliate marketing as is, and not mixing it up with other online marketing efforts is going to be impossible to maintain in the near future. The perception of affiliate marketing is under assault and this assault is leading merchants to seek additional ways to gain the best value value from their affiliate programs. The assault is coming from trademark bidders and parasitic affiliates and even coupon affiliates (not to question the overall value of coupon affiliates, just observing that SOME merchants question the value of coupon affiliates). Affiliate marketing is a great channel, it provides a measurable ROI, builds out brand presence, and employs some very creative individuals working for the benefit of a brand. Given the tremendous value affiliate marketing offers however, there will always be a trend by any business to seek more value out of a channel.

How can an affiliate channel demonstrate NEW value-add while under this constant assault from non-value adding affiliate enterprises? I think the misguided link back idea was an attempt at addressing this idea. While it was resoundingly criticized, it was an attempt at adding something new to the affiliate channel.

Can affiliates be asked reasonably to get involved in other marketing endeavors on behalf of a merchant? Perhaps commission bonuses for helping to vote up an article on a social site? Generating comments and content to help with ~~spin~~ reputation management? If it's true that the affiliates of a merchant are like an independent sales force can this sales force be employed further for the benefit of both the affiliate and the merchant?

US Bank Visa Not Allowing Internet Purchases

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:15:00 +0000

Lee Odden over at his Online Marketing Blog has related a story where a major bank is not allowing purchases made with it's credit card over the internet. It's not as if affiliates have enough factors getting in the way of them earning their rightful commissions. Factors including cookie blocking, parasiteware, cookie stuffers, failed tracking and other factors. However, now if credit card companies force consumers to call a company to complete an online transaction, this will certainly have an impact on affiliate sales.

Affiliates and the major affiliate networks need to be aware of this, and keep an eye on the trend. US Bank is not small, and it's a pretty narrow view they are taking in the name of "security." I certainly hope they start to see the light as they lose consumers and transactions as consumers reject this inconvenience, as Lee had done.

Just to note, I tried to contact the PR team listed on the US Bank web site for a comment and response, and sent emails to Steve Dale, Teri Charest, Amy Frantti, and Lisa Clark, but did not receive any replies.

2007 AMWSO Year in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:36:00 +0000

2007 was a year of innovation and evolution for AMWSO, and especially toward the end of the year, the door was opened for some exciting developments and opportunities in 2008.

In 2007 we launched over 10 new programs, including Baghaus, Ecampus, Sonoma Diet, Jillian Michaels, along with several more. We had great success with these launches along with the affiliates who joined up and started promoting them. We helped Ecampus have their best year ever during the back to school season, and we helped Baghaus spread their brand and become a premier handbag focused merchant. Diet season is starting right now, and we have primed our diet and fitness programs for affiliate to reap the whirlwind in January and February.

We had tremendous success in regard to innovations using affiliate videos with the Gaiam program. Our client Gaiam won the prestigious 2007 LinkShare Golden Link "Innovative Merchant Of The Year" Award due to affiliate trackable video files that we helped introduce.

We also met with some challenges in 2007. One particular program that we launched for an air filtration and water filtration system proved very challenging. We learned that having an outstanding product was not enough to make a program successful. Brand marketing support is needed along with an affiliate program, so that not only the public learns about a product, but the affiliates become more familiar as well. All of the cogs connect when building a successful affiliate program, including paid search initiatives, natural search and media buying.

In recognition of this, we introduced new services to offer our merchant partners in 2007. Services including PPC Management, Social Media Marketing and SEO Services. We're especially excited about our Social Media Marketing service, as there are few companies out there that can do this as well and as effectively as AMWSO. When compared to CPM banner advertising, Social Media marketing can achieve volumes more "bang for the buck." This effectiveness should not only be measured in terms of raw traffic numbers, but targeted and engaged traffic.

Toward the end of the year, AMWSO announced it's affiliation with Syntryx. Syntyx is a powerful tool allowing AMWSO to delve deeper into the web to find great affiliate partners and to help our merchant partners better understand where their traffic comes from and use this as a competitive advantage. I'll be writing much more about Syntryx in a blog entry in January.

The core team at AMWSO remained unchanged throughout the year, and we're excited and motivated going into 2008. We have new ideas that we'll be working on to grow our partners businesses, and we'll be bringing on some great new partners in the coming months. Definitely stay tuned to this blog for some great stuff in 2008!