AMWSO

Getting ready for Migration from GAN

By chris@amwso.net 19 April 2013

While Google may be closing its’ door on affiliate marketing and showing merchants and affiliates to the exit, other networks are throwing the doors open and rapidly setting up offers and support to assist in the migration to new networks.

When reviewing your options don’t just look at the “best discount”, take a good look at the network and what they offer in terms of support and tools. It might feel like there’s a need to make a network decision very quickly, but if you make the wrong choice now, then you’ll be regretting not taking the extra time to review the options in the months to come, and so will your affiliate partners!

Some considerations;

• How strong a presence does the Network have in your industry, are there many merchants or a few selling similar products. Will you be the one breaking the ground, or using what other merchants have established before you. Depending on your affiliate teams mind set either option might be preferable for your affiliate program
• How deep is the reporting offered, and how deep do you need it. Take time to get access to network reports / demos to see what is on offer and what you need.
• How long do you need to track cookies, some networks might not offer the time period you want.
• If you do residual sales, check that the network can support this.
• Ask your top affiliates which network they prefer to work on.
• Check for extra costs, not every network includes all their tools in their basic package, ask what else is available, what the costs are and see what you need and how the costs compare, and whether you can get a better rate on them as part of your migration.
• Network fees [specifically the networks revenue share component]
• Scalability through the network i.e. do they have all the tools that you’ll need and if not do they have partners that can provide them easily
• What is the geographical reach of the network.
• Network support. Will you get a dedicated rep or be constantly routed through a CRM that gives you a random contact for each and every email.
• Are there brand compliance features in place to help protect your brand, what tools are on hand or recommended by the network for this.
• Does the network provide merchants/affiliates with ongoing education?
• What is the merchant ‘churn’ rate?

Google Affiliate Network Transition Support

By chris@amwso.net 18 April 2013

Over the next few months the Google Affiliate Network will be closing down leaving Merchants and Affiliates with a lot of work to do in order to relocate their affiliate program and re-establish their links and connections with their present and new affiliates.

AMWSO is very pleased to be able to offer partner discounts with the Commission Junction, LinkShare and Shareasale for merchants that are looking for support in moving and re-launching their programs, as well as ongoing support after the launch where needed.

Please contact us to discuss how we can help you make the transition as swift and painless as possible.

You’re more likely to survive a plane crash

By chris@amwso.net 26 March 2013

than click a banner ad...and many more interesting stats about banner ads can be be found in this very interesting article over on Digiday.

I'm not convinced about this individual fact, after all I click banners eevry day when surfing sites that are tightly focused on things I am very interested in and showing me banners that are relevant to my interest and the site content. But the 15 items listed do make for interesting reading and debate.

New AMWSO B2B Affiliate Program

By dave@amwso.net 11 March 2013

New B2B Program Announcement - Credit-CardProcessing.com on CJ

Credit-CardProcessing.com

Credit-CardProcessing.com offers low rate, low overhead, full support credit card processing services for retail / brick and mortar businesses or for online / phone based businesses.

Program Features:

• Sign-up Commission Base: $60 per sign-up
• Network: Commission Junction
• Cookie: 120 days
• PPC and Linking Policy: No Restrictions!!
• Sign-up: Through CJ here

When you sign-up, let me know you saw this on AMWSO feed and I’ll push out an upgraded commission offer immediately to you.

Merchant Features and Benefits:

• Rates: Low as 1.1% for payment processing
• Service: Options for retail based (card swipe machine), internet phone based (phone/internet gateway) and single in-person based (smart phone swiper).
• Set-up fees: None! No application or start-up fees (most competitors charge these).
• Clearing: 24 hour deposits available.
• Support: 24/7 (hand in hand) phone support available

For affiliates sending high double digit monthly sign-ups, we can even discuss lifetime residual revenue share for the accounts you send us!

Restrictions: This program is available only to affiliate with US traffic. Credit-CardProcessing.com is not able to service any merchant/customers outside of the U.S. Keep in mind, international affiliates are welcome, just as long as the traffic you send is U.S. based.

More info here: http://www.credit-cardprocessing.com/affiliate.html

Sign-up on CJ through your CJ account or just click here

Latest Affiliate Marketing News and Updates

By chris@amwso.net 05 September 2012

• International Merchants Appealing to North American Audience ::Affiliate Marketing is fairly established in the UK and Japan, and growing across Europe. Australia also has a growing affiliate marketing community. There's tremendous affiliate activity in the Gaming/Gambling sector outside of the United States. - Read the full article here
• Appeal to an International Audience for Affiliate Pages and Sites ::There is a key area in digital commerce where affiliates can fill an important role that is often neglected by merchants. That role: reaching people in other languages besides English. Just in the United States alone we can see the numbers for the top ten languages used in the States - Read the full article here
• Affiliates and Merchants Working Together ::I'd like to relate a story, that was actually part of the inspiration to write about split-testing affiliate pages a few days ago. One of the previous merchant's programs I was managing was doing pretty well as far as sales. We had solid growth across the program with productive value-adding affiliates. - Read the full article here
• Split Testing and What to Split Test for Easy and Highest Impact ::You have undoubtedly come across an article or post that talks about the advantages of split testing for web site conversions and success. I think every marketing or e-commerce centric blog has a post about split-testing. It's a fantastic technique that can produce measurable results. But how many of us actually do it? -Read the full article here

Latest Affiliate Marketing News and Updates

By chris@amwso.net 17 August 2012

Catch up on the latest affiliate marketing news and articles; 

• Affiliate Marketing Education and Learning Resources ::To be a really successful affiliate marketer, one must have to have a fair bit of understanding of many different skill sets. I say understanding because you need not necessarily be at an expert level at all skills yourself. You do have the option of outsourcing. However, to be an effective "manager" of outsourced work, you must have an understanding of all skills. - Read the full article here
• Google Ad Planner for Link Ideas ::Have Panda and Penguin shaken you up in regard to link building for your sites? While many affiliates did suffer devastating effects from the Google algorithm changes, and Google has changed the weighting on how they judge and value links, there is still tremendous SEO benefit to be had from building trusted and related links. - Read the full article here
• Advertising with a Local Connection - Affiliate Tips ::If given the option, most people would prefer to make a purchase from a business they believe has a local connection to the community. People shop online for convenience, for the ability to research and view many different options, and for lower prices and deals. - Read the full article here
• Videos for Building Traffic - Why? ::You've probably already heard (via other blogs/sites/book) that videos can be great traffic building tools, and they that are wonderful at keeping visitors engaged to your site. One of the key factors that Google measures in ranking sites is the on-page time factor. - Read the full article here

Latest Affiliate Marketing News and Updates

By chris@amwso.net 01 August 2012

• Is Facebook a Viable Advertising Platform ::I posted a link on the AMWSO Facebook page suggesting that the majority of clicks on Facebook ads were being generated by bots. The comment thread got me really thinking about Facebook being a viable advertising platform. -Read the full article here
• Outsourced Affiliate Program Management vs. In-House Affiliate Manager ::In our last article, we discussed Outsourced Affiliate Program Management Vs. In-House Digital Marketing Generalists, and also made the promise to discuss and compare an outsourced affiliate program manager vs. an in-house affiliate program manager. Let's get right into it. - Read the full article here
• Outsourced Affiliate Program Management Professionals::In our last article we touched on a couple of points on why an outsourced affiliate program manager will have some advantages over hiring in-house staff. We wanted to discuss some of those advantages a bit more in-depth in a dedicated article. - Read the full article here
• Marketing Tactics That Could Cost Nothing ::I caught this article a couple days ago in Forbes mentioning affiliate marketing and also Pinterest (I just wrote about regarding affiliate tactics for Pinterest). The article touches on affiliate marketing as a marketing tactic that costs almost nothing to pursue. - Read the full article here

Latest Affiliate Marketing News and Updates

By chris@amwso.net 17 July 2012

Catch up on the latest affiliate marketing news and articles;

• Travel and Performance ::For affiliates there's great potential in travel for tablet and mobile optimized affiliate sites. People will see a location on a TV/Travel show and do a bit of research on their tablet from the sofa. - Read the full article here
• Pinterest, Affiliates and Your Affiliate Program ::There's been quite a bit written about how affiliate are using and can use Pinterest, but I wanted to lend my voice to review and possibly add a few new thoughts and observations. I'll cover the basics pretty quickly. - Read the full article here
• Affiliate Program Managers, FTC Endorsement Compliance and Merchant Affiliate Programs :: This subject is a not-so-oldie, but goodie. A couple of years ago there was a huge firestorm of activity and buzz within the affiliate industry about renewed FTC guidelines regarding compliance for disclosing endorsements. - Read the full article here
• Affiliate Coupon Strategies - The Issue of Invalid and Unauthorized Coupons :: One of the strongest tools an affiliate manager has in their toolbox are custom and vanity coupon codes. Many affiliates value highly a coupon code with their sites or services branded right on the code. - Read the full article here
• Affiliate Coupon Strategies - How to Minimize Cart Leakage and Profit Reduction :: Most often criticisms on implementing coupon for affiliates revolve around customers possibly seeing a coupon box on the check-out screen, and leaving the shopping cart to go out and search for a coupon. - Read the full article here
• Coupon Strategy - Types of Discounts and Coupons for your Affiliate Program :: In my previous post on Why to Use Coupons With Your Affiliate Program we looked at the reasons coupons could be a win-win-win strategy for merchants, affiliates and shoppers. Now let's take a look at discount and coupon tactics to employ when creating and distributing coupons. - Read the full article here
• Coupon Strategy - Why Use Coupons :: I'm going to take a little break from my workflow series to write about coupon strategy for merchants. Coupons are a great tool to employ in your affiliate strategy for luring shoppers to your site and turning those shoppers into new customers.- Read the full article here

Mac Software Tools Used for Affiliate Program Management Pt. 2 (Text and Images)

By dave@amwso.net 13 June 2012

Mac Software Tools Used for Affiliate Program Management. (Data Analysis)

By dave@amwso.net 12 June 2012

Most of the team here at AMWSO are traditional Windows users (despite my efforts to show them the light) :) I (Dave) am a big-time fan of Apple and a Mac user. I wanted to discuss some of the programs and apps I use on a daily basis in my workflow for affiliate program management. Read the full article here...

The Affiliate Program Welcome Letter

By chris@amwso.net 07 June 2012

A critical component to affiliate program success will be getting your affiliates off the ground and running quickly after joining the program. The best tool that an affiliate manager has in their arsenal for getting an affiliate up and running is the affiliate program welcome letter. Let's discuss the various components needed in the welcome letter to truly make it an effective tool in the arsenal. Click here to read more.

An Affiliate Program Can Be A Competitive Advantage

By chris@amwso.net 04 June 2012

A well-crafted and managed affiliate program can help spread your brand to people who are already shopping for your product (or type of product) and are not yet familiar with your company. Let's take a look at the various channels affiliates excel in. Click here to read more.

Affiliate Program Health

By chris@amwso.net 04 June 2012

The fastest method to jump starting sales for most affiliate managers relies heavily on big coupon, loyalty and search affiliates known for often time delivering 90% of sales in typical programs. In the affiliate marketing industry, a good rule of thumb states that 10% of affiliates often contribute 90% or greater sales in a given program. The 10% big earners typically include big coupon/deal sites, loyalty/cash-back sites, and expert PPC search marketers. Note that a great number of those coupon/deal sites are also expert PPC search marketers, and are driving traffic to their coupon sites via ppc ads. Read More on Affiliate Program Health.

Update on AMWSO Affiliate Programs

By chris@amwso.net 23 April 2012

AMWSO Affiliate Programs.

Here is the latest update of AMWSO managed affiliate programs. Please click the affiliate program links for further information

B2B Lead Generation
Paychex

Fashion and Jewelry Affiliate Programs
Bling Jewelry
Overstock Jeweler
RedStores UK - Pearls and Jewellery
RedStores US - Pearls and Jewelry

Food and Beverage Affiliate Programs
Art of Tea

Health, Fitness and Diet Affiliate Programs
Art of Tea

Hotel Affiliate Programs
Exotissimo Travel
Hotels by City

Lifestyle Affiliate Programs
South Beach Smoke
Ever Smoke

Motorcycle and Motorsports
Chaparral Motorsports

Rx Affiliate Programs
Digestinol

Skin Care, Hair Care and Beauty Affiliate Programs
GreatSkin

Software, Anti Virus and Security Affiliate Programs
Iolo
IYsoft

Travel Affiliate Programs
Exotissimo Travel

Marker

By chris@amwso.net 17 March 2011

This is a marker for the database back up.  Dated March 17 2011

SouthBeachSmoke.com(E-Cigs): 25% Commissions +$10 sign-up bonus

By Patrick.Goodfellow@amwso.com 14 July 2010

AMWSO.com is very pleased to announce our latest partnership with www.SouthBeachSmoke.com - providing premium Electronic Cigarettes and accessories.

We have a strong feeling that this partner will generate a great deal of income for its affiliates with the package they’re offering. Combined with the lowest prices on E-Cig Starter Kits, this program is going to be a winner!
Firstly, join now and get $10 added to your account just for signing-up! Our minimum commission payment is just $30, so you only need to generate $20 in commission to get this.

Commission is a whopping 25% on all Starter Kits and accessories. And you’ll get a monthly lifetime residual of $4 on our best-selling ‘Home Delivery Program’. No other E-Cig merchant is offfering this feature and best of all, 90% of customers choose this option so they get 30% off the Starter Kit price and monthly auto shipping of replacement cartridges.

The program is currently running in-house. To learn more, sign-up and visit the site click here. 

Share Results Launches Upgraded Software

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 16 January 2010

Affiliate marketing agency, Share Results, is set to roll out an upgraded version of their affiliate marketing software solution with improved navigation, an intuitive user interface and a fresh look and feel.

With a genuine commitment to development, Share Results provides merchants, affiliates and those looking for a white label software solution for a standalone affiliate program with comprehensive tracking and customizable user features, all of which can be leveraged to suit the needs of any business model. Featuring in-depth reporting, fraud protection tools and multi-language support, the platform will also be deployed to power the Share Results affiliate network... read more here.

New Share Results Site and Interface

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 09 July 2009

On Monday July 13 we can look forward to a totally redesigned Share Results  affiliate network! A range of new changes are just the start of many great features and services being added by to the Share Results system over the coming year. Initial changes include

• All new graphical interface
• Instant access to campaign performance
• See top performing creatives
• Communication alerts
• Manage tasks

 And more to come!

Four AMWSO Clients nominated for LinkShare Golden Link Awards

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 26 May 2009

Each year we usually get one or two nominates for awards at the LinkShare Goldenlink Awards, but this year we have been very pleasantly surprised to find that we have (so far) had four of our clients nominated for Goldenlink Awards. Our thanks to everyone who nominated us, and to everyone who has worked with our clients over the past year! It's certainly our pleasure and honor to work with such a great team of affiliate partners!

If you have not already done so, you can put your vote in for the Publishers Choice awards here.

Amwso.com launches Elance.com Affiliate Program

By michel@amwso.com 14 March 2009

Amwso.com launches Elance.com Affiliate Program - the premier online workplace where businesses connect with qualified professionals to get work done. With the largest network of certified technology and creative talent, Elance helps businesses succeed by connecting them with the people they need to get work done. Elance facilitates the entire work process from hiring to collaboration to payment.

The Elance Affiliate Program offers a commission for every first time buyer or job poster on Elance.  The first time an employer places their job posting, affiliates will receive a one time $8 flat commission when 1st milestone is funded in escrow or after the first job payment is made. Additionally, they'll receive 1% on all job payments made through Elance by the buyer for all jobs created with payments made within 6 months of their account creation. If over the first 6 months of the account, the buyer buys a feature listing, the affiliate will receive an additional $3 commission, and if they purchase a B2B listing, the affiliate will receive an additional $15 commission. Both of these additional commissions will be earned for the first instance of use of the Feature and B2B listing format.

Additionally, for any service provider who purchases a paid membership, affiliates will receive $1 per month for up to the first 6 months. This $1 is earned each month that the service provider pays for a membership over that period. The maximum payout is thus $6 after 6 months.

We supply you with creative and tools to help with your promotions. If you have any questions, we're available via a variety of channels, and will respond promptly to any inquiries.

Sign Up Page: Please click here

Program Features:

- Network: Self / In-House
- Cookie Tracking (Return Days): 120 days
- Commissions: $8 for a first time job posting by an employer with 1st milestone funded in escrow + 1% of all job payments made through Elance over first 6 months. If no milestones are funded in escrow then the $8 is earned when the first job payment is made.
o $3 additional if the listing is a featured listing (one time).
o $15 for a B2B listing (one time)
o For provider: $1 for a paid provider membership per month paid for the first 6 months (maximum $6)
- Thresholds:
o Paypal - Minimum payout US $ 20.00
o Cheque - Minimum payout US $ 100.00
o EFT (BANK) transfer - Minimum payout US $ 100.00
- Two Tier: No
- Deep / Custom Linking: Yes
- PPC / SEO Keywords: Recommended keywords list available after sign-up.
- Creatives Available: Text links, GIF/JPG banners, Content links, Widgets.

Launch Bonus until 30 April 09:
- Commissions: $10 for a first time job posting by an employer with 1st milestone funded in escrow + 1.25% of all job payments made through Elance over first 6 months, for a duration of 3 months. If no milestones are funded in escrow then the $10 is earned when the first job payment is made.

Contact Affiliate Program Manager: Gerard Michel Vollet
Email: affiliates {AT} elance.com

AMWSO Launches two new programs

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 03 February 2009

We're very pleased to announce the launch of two new programs, both on Shareasale. First Beer Machine, which has been running for about a year on SAS already, but officially kicks off with AMWSO this month. The Beer Machine is an awesome product and a great gift to promote for beer drinkers world wide. The initial program is the USA, but watch for expansions around the world throughout the year. Full details can be found here.

Our second program launch is for the notorious health myth buster the "Douglass Report". Myth Buster, Dr. William C. Douglass II, shows people how to enjoy the greatest health of their lives - without giving up the things they love. Great commission is offered for all new subscribers to this offline newslette. Full details can be found here.

Please Note : Both these programs will remain100% clear of BHO/Toolbar marketeers regardless of any policy changes that may occur at Shareasale. 

Innovation in Affiliate Marketing

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 17 November 2008

AMWSO is very proud to have been short listed in the category for Innovation in Affiliate Marketing in the E-consultancy's Innovation Awards 2008. The other firms short listed certainly make it a short list worth being on withthe full short list being :

• TradeDoubler
• sunshine.co.uk
• AMWSO Co Ltd
• Essence Media
• Digital Window

The winners will be announced on December 2nd, by a panel of judges that come from a top tier selection of firms : BBC, Apple, Orange, Target Marketing, WhatIf!, Internet Retailing, Dyson and Google.

Congratulations to all the firms shortlisted.

New AMWSO Client: South China Morning Post

By James.nardell@amwso.com 12 September 2008

AMWSO is pleased to announce that our new client, South China Morning Post, has just launched through Google Affiliate Network. The goal of this program is to sell online subscriptions through scmp.com, the online edition of the South China Morning Post.

In case you're not familiar with South China Morning Post and scmp.com please check out the following bullet points:

- South China Morning Post has been reporting for over a century.
- South China Morning Post has more correspondents around the region than any other newspaper.
- South China Morning Post offers readers news, business news, and insights into China, Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific.
- Subscribers can pull full details on every company listed on the Hong Kong exchange, making it easy to research companies they may be interested in investing in. [This service is very similar to finance.yahoo.com, but Hong Kong/China focused].
- Subscribers can voice their opinions through the forum and debate with journalists/readers.
- Articles are regularly updated through the day.
- Mobile WAP site allows readers stay updated with what is happening in China anywhere in the world. Plus, they can choose to be alerted by SMS when there are updates to their chosen topics.
- Daily podcasts feature the latest headlines, commentaries from the journalists, exclusive interviews, analysis of the news, business updates and special reports on Hong Kong city life.
- Subscribers can access to over 600,000 archived articles dating back to 1993.

Check out a video which outlines the company, the online service and much more here. [You can add this video to your website and we'll track your sales through Google Affiliate Network. In order to do this you need to know your Google Affiliate Network ID].

Below are details on the affiliate program:

• Sign up page
• Commission: 30% [This means you'll earn $15.45 commission per subscription you sell!]
• Return Days: 45
• Coupons: Through the affiliate program customers can get 4 weeks free!
• Trackable Videos

One final thing. This is the first AMWSO managed affiliate program to utilize a 'video juke box'. The video juke box allows the user to switch easily between multiple videos that are all available within a single player, making it a fully immersive multimedia experience. Check this great tool out here . This affiliate tool really showcases what the scmp.com service offers, and features a number of news stories from the website [AMWSO will keep the content updated and 'fresh' without you having to change/update anything]. As always your sales will be tracked through the links in the video players.

Please contact the affiliate manager with questions at: james.nardell@scmp.com.

AOL works affiliate marketing into widgets

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 12 August 2008

AOL's Platform-A subsidiary is now bringing affiliate marketing to widget ads. If that sounds like a lot of media speak, that's because it is. To power widget ads, AOL acquired start-up Goowy in February, and it has already worked the acquisition into Platform-A... Read more here

Federal Tax-Exempt E-commerce Sites or Cyberspace Tax Puzzles.

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 30 July 2008

An interesting article on the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and exemptions from federal income taxation in regard to a "charity" based affiliate marketing firm.

While the start of the article goes into what types of organizations are exempted from taxes and then the second half gives an example of Affiliate Marketing based charity style firm that operated as a charity, in theory, donating its' revenue from commissions to non-profit organizations. As the article explains the IRS didn't agree with them due to the donations being insubstantial compared to M.com's substantial benefits from their advertising partners. An interestering and educational read, especially if you're in the same court as the example "M.com"

eBay Auction for Affiliate Summit 2008 East Educational Session Sponsorship

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 30 July 2008

Affiliate Summit 2008 East is auctioning off the chance to have your company logo featured on the educational session videos at Affiliate Summit 2008 East. The videos will be made available to the general public after the event. Visit the Auction here on eBay

 

 

See an example of the video sponsorship here

Missy Ward on Creating an Affiliate Summit Empire

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 28 July 2008

As marketers and affiliates alike get prepared for Affiliate Summit East, the industry’s largest affiliate networking and educational event, Missy Ward took some time out of her busy schedule to reacquaint ADOTAS with the history of the event and where it’s futur. Read More

Data Cleaner Beta 2.5 Released

By chris.sanderson@amwso.com 17 May 2005

We're very pleased to announce that the latest release of the AMWSO Data Cleaner is now available, the 2.5 Beta.

The latest version adds a few more custom tweaks to allow users to be more exact in what they clean up from the data feeds, some direct editing functions, updated save filter function, and a few others user requested useability items addressed.

Please click here and select Data Cleaner from the drop down to get a copy of this Beta Release

It's 100% FREE for use and distribution as always