Top Three CPA Networks in the World

By

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2011-05-13

3) Neverblue. Clearly one of the contenders always for the #1 spot is Neverblue. With their own great tracking system, access to programs and offers you could never get anywhere else, they are always a highly recommended network. While their corporate executives are completely hidden from the rest of the community, Samantha Brachat has become the face of the company in many ways. Additionally, twice a year they take their top affiliates somewhere around the world for a great vacation and get them really drunk. What else do you need to know?

2) Peerfly. Wowzers. As mentioned, Peerfly came out of nowhere this year, based on one thing: completely and total loyalty from their affiliates. Everyone at this company is really nice, and the company considers their employees and affiliates like family. What you get here is a company that makes it clear that they enjoy what they do, and respect their affiliates to the most and appreciate the opportunity to work with them.

1) ClickBooth. Not even sure where to start with Clickbooth. Despite a creepy mascot in the form of Clicky, the androgynous orange dude with the deformed head, they have built an amazing brand. Their team is excellent from the ground up, with a kick ass affiliate management team, a drop dead gorgeous PR department, and leadership that has becoming highly respected in the industry over the last decade. Plus, even though they have amazing growth each year, they are still growing and have their own campus and street named after them.

FREE TRAFFIC GENERATOR

How to Build Amazing Landing Pages

By

Amy Capomaccio

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2011-05-11

57

Yes, there is a formula to create killer landing pages. Anyone can build a landing page with specific elements that are designed to make you money. BUT, it’s not all about the obvious elements on the landing page that can shoot your conversions through the roof. Do you want higher conversions? That’s a silly question, let me rephrase. Do you want to increase your conversion rate by 75%?

You can cram your landing page with buttons, arrows, calls to action, and imagery but your visitor is only going to get lost in the clutter. If you stop using the obvious methods of optimization and stick to the concepts below, you are sure to see an immediate increase in your ROI and click-through rate.

1. Content Is King

You have three seconds to capture the attention of the viewer. Ready, set…I’ve probably already lost you. Take a look at this…

Increase Your Conversions 75% In Just Minutes, Find Out How Here.

(Chances are you probably read that before anything else on this page.)

Capture the attention and engage the viewer based on their needs, wants, and even personality. You wouldn’t want a 24-year-old girl trying to sell you a muscle-building supplement from her point of view. There’s the disconnect right there. Step into the shoes of your visitor, and really get to know your target audience.

Never underestimate the use of capitalization, bolding, italics and font size. As many viewers quickly scan through the page, something as minor as a font size can grab their attention immediately. Also, make a checklist and run through your landing page to check for these:

Match your Message: The content of your landing page should match your email and banner creatives

Use Simple, Relevant Language: Get to the point! Visitors won’t read through lengthy copy

Don’t Hide the Message: Make sure your message is easy to find and stands out

Above the Fold: A strong headline, bullets of benefits, and a clear call-to-action can seal the deal!

2. Give The Animal The Meat

Aka give the visitor exactly what they’re looking for. Don’t hide the call-to-action, and only focus on one primary action per screen. You only have a few seconds to turn interest into a conversion, so make the call to action visible, the navigation simple, and the content relevant. End of story.

3. A Picture Is Worth Nothing?

Wrong. Your imagery is often the first thing a visitor sees when landing on your page. The key is to rotate and test images. You need to consistently track results from your campaign. This includes click-throughs, conversions, page views, and ROI. Spend the time and money to get high-quality images. It will boost your legitimacy and build visitor trust.

4. Establish Visitor Trust

Think about your buying process when making online purchases. The Internet is tricky. Since people are already scared to send their credit card information into the black abyss we call the Internet, it’s more important than ever to hammer in the legitimacy factor. How do you do this? Implement these elements to your landing page:

High Quality Product Shots
Hard-hitting Testimonials
Customer Service Number/Email
Media Logos
Link to Privacy Policy
Verified and Secure Payment Method
Guarantee Statement

5. Flaunt Your Fonts

Ask any designers for their favorite fonts, and I’m sure they’ll ramble on for hours about obscure font names and their endless collections. The fact of the matter is…fonts do matter!

Designers use websites like dafont.com to download FREE fonts. Their goto-fonts for the web are typically sans serif because it’s easier on the eyes. What I’m typing in right now is actually sans serif, you’re welcome.

6. Avoid In Your Face Tactics

Imagine walking into a store and being bombarded by the first employee you see. It probably makes you want to walk right out of the store. Now, imagine a landing page and picture the employees being all the different elements on that page. Don’t clutter your page or make your visitors feel overwhelmed by pushing them to make a quick decision.

A balance is key. Your visitor clicks your banner, text ad, or email creative for a reason. They want to be there, don’t drive them way. The landing page below balances a call to action, form, imagery, and targeted content without being too cluttered.

landing page created by CC design

7. Perfect Your Creatives

Match your creatives to your landing page. This means overall design, content, imagery, and call-to-action. Ask yourself this: How does a visitor get to the page and how do you leave them feeling in the end of the conversion process?

8. Mind Your Manners

After a visitor completes the conversion processes and pays for the product, what’s next? Remember it’s not over, yet. Adding another segment to your landing page is clutch. Drum-roll please….the thank you page. This will leave a positive feeling with your users and let them know that their purchase is much appreciated! Remember, your brand goes well beyond your landing page

Five Proven Banner Advertising Techniques in Media Buying

By

Pesach Lattin

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2011-05-09

3

(Originally Written for ZacJohnson.com) After much thinking, I’ve decided to share some of the banner arbitrage techniques that allowed me to create some of the most successful performance based banner campaigns ever. For almost 60 weeks I had the same banners up on advertising networks, day after day making ridiculous amounts of money. During that period I bought probably over $24 million in banner campaigns in almost every single advertising network that exists with in many cases profit margin of anywhere between 40-50%. These campaigns consistently worked over and over again, while brand campaigns consistently cost me money when agencies didn’t pay their bills, paid late or underpaid. Here are how they worked, and how I believe they can continue to make anyone money for anyone involved in media buying.

1) Use as many creative versions possible.
Talking with many of the arbitragers out there, they tell me the same thing: they do really well at first and their profit margins drop extremely fast because their creative gets stale. Since they have found a “working” creative, they keep on using it over and over again – even after people steal it. This method of using the same exact creative causes faster and faster burn out and lowers your profit margin. Have many, many options, some of them with just slight changes. Move a graphic over, change the text color, use different photos.

2) Do heavy optimization based on numerous factors.
Each set of creative should be duplicated to optimize based on a variety of factors and be keyed to those factors. Of course you should optimize based on ROI, but you need also to target the banners to other things including geo-targeting, time of day, age groups and so on. The reasoning is that different people will be attracted to completely different creatives. If you are buying enough media, the ad networks will not charge you any more to do those targets than buying a general campaign that is RON, so this makes more sense and produces higher profits. Take a group of 100 creatives and set it to optimize for example only to people in NYC and you’ll find very fast which creatives have great response only to that region. Again, this technique produces higher profit because you are only serving to specific people, instead of just specific sites (which is the normal optimization procedure).

3) Do not be tempted to trade volume for profit.
Too many affiliates get greedy and want to make quick cash now, so they over-buy and lower their profit margins way too fast. Right now when I look over advertising networks, one thing I see is way too many campaigns that catch fire and a month later burn out. Networks that are experts at this game know that long term money is always a better friend.

4) Use “Video” Flash.
This is probably one of my most successful techniques and networks always asked me how I could afford to put video in my campaigns and pay the streaming charges. It was simple, I never actually used video but had very small clips compressed and actually placed into the flash file and repeated over and over again. For example, I would create a dating banner with a girl dancing in front of the camera, but it was only a few second clip repeated. You are looking for immediate reaction in a DR/Affiliate campaign, don’t forget. The user will see something and respond, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a real video, the perception that it’s a video is all that matters.

5) Change up the campaign/landing page you are sending the banner with unbranded creatives.
Some campaigns may not like this, but try to get permission from networks to not use their branded creatives and change where the banners are clicking to. The first reason behind this is that you will be able to find which campaign has a higher ROI and also as mentioned in #2 optimize even based on that. The other reason is to alleviate your risk. Many years ago I had a campaign with eAdvertising for a dating site that month after month they paid me on time, the dating client had no problem with the traffic – and suddenly I was stiffed for almost $200k because the client said the leads “weren’t converting.” We all know the issues. Luckily for me I was running that same campaign to the same advertiser on 4 other networks.

Remember, the idea in all the campaigns is to have as many people click on the banners as possible, get as many people to the landing pages of your advertisers. There are so many articles on landing pages optimization, so much on different tools to use but the easiest way to still make money is to get tons of people using these techniques to click on a banner, go to a website, fill out an offer, sign up for a product

Learn also about this Crazy Affiliate Marketing Technique

Pace Lattin

Sam Sim Isn’t a Guppy Anymore

By

Ricky Ahuja

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2011-05-03

1

Of all the recent posts I have done – I am frankly not sure where to start with this one 🙂 . From his nipple turning antics to constantly picking on his employees or eating more and working less at his office. I am honestly not sure how they get anything done business-wise with all this but he seems to be doing something right. In a recent trip to Seattle, Sam was gracious enough to pick up myself, my wife and my brother to show us his office and introduce us to his team and show us the inner workings of the aquarium aka offices of Guppy Media.

Sam was born and raised in Honolulu and LA and resides in Seattle, WA. Currently marred to Christine, has a daughter Jessica and son Justin. On his spare time, he plays on a club soccer team, practice kendo, plays guitar, Xbox live (at night) and heavily involved a volunteer board member at my church. Also, active with volunteering for world missions at his local church and of course spending time with family. His favorite sports teams include UW Huskies, Seattle Sounders FC, Seattle Seahawks, LA Dodgers, Boston and Vancouver Canucks. Graduated from University of Washington in 1995. Favorite foods are: Pho, Bibimbap, Sushi and Red Mango and Bubble Tea.

Sam, tell us briefly about yourself and how you got started in this industry.
My career in affiliate marketing got started when I changed my career as a stockbroker for Smith Barney and started business development with Zango / 180Solutions (current day Pinball Network). I knew I wanted to be on more on the ‘tech” side of the industry, as I saw that many of my clients were making much more money than I was J And particularly in the late early 2000’s with the initial dot com bust, it was a perfect transition for me, with no prior experience in tech, to start in a biz dev role at Zango, driving installs and distribution. I had always been a top performer and receiving sales and production awards as a stockbroker and fortunately, this naturally carried me over to the interactive ad world. My spheres of influence, contacts and relationships started in the interactive advertising and affiliate marketing world from here on out. I owe Zango quite a bit in terms of my initial training and fundamental understandings of interactive media buying.

Do you think being an Asian in this industry has hindered or helped you achieve the level of success you currently have or anticipated?
Honestly, I feel that actually one of the positive characteristics of our industry is that is so diverse and progressive to begin with. I believe that these two characteristics actually define our industry as a whole, as well as many other adjectives which come to mind such as “hip”, “glamorous”, “trendy”,”youthful”, “energetic”, etc. I do feel that it is actually because of this culture of diversity, that I feel, personally, I was able to actually flourish more, in the sense of reaching my true potential from a career perspective. So, to answer this question, I would have to say that given the environment and the surroundings which I live and breathe everyday within our industry, I would actually have to say the celebration of diversity has actually help to foster and proliferate my career. This is actually one of the key traits about our industry (affiliate, performance marketing) which I actually admire most – cherish and encourage your diversities, uniqueness, and creativity.

What are the top 3 factors that you feel contribute to your success?
1. First and foremost is to always keep your “creativity” cap on. In my honest opinion, creativity and novel and unique ways of marketing will allow our industry to thrive and flourish. Innovation is the key to not only survival of a company but also ongoing success as well

2. We are in a service and relationship industry – we should never lose sight of this. With our industry, being as competitive as it is, the only real way to stand apart from the crowd is to always place an emphasis on best possible client service, to the absolute best of your ability. Much like the golden rule states, treat others as you would like to be treated. This hold so true in our service and relationship oriented industry.

3. This is also somewhat related to point #1, but just like Jack in the Box say’s, we must think “outside the bun”. Our industry, at times I believe, just tends to stick to standardized norms and processes at times and if everyone then begins to follow the same process, this could then lead to what I call “idea saturation”. We must encourage ourselves to go against this grain and think of and develop new and innovative ways of conducting business, from an operational, marketing and relational perspective.

How important is it to you to communicate with your readers? Is there a particular message you are wanting to convey?
If there is one word of encouragement that I could communicate to my fellow peers and industry colleagues, can all be summed up in one word – “value”. I encourage everyone, particularly as a daily reminder to myself, to always provide value in all that you do. Value in the sense that we must give our clients a reason to work with us.

Talk to us specifically about your experience and frustrations in dealing with people in the industry.
It’s really a pet peeve when I go out of my way to do favors for fellow industry colleagues and I often stick my neck out on the line for them. In many cases, they in turn do not return the favor; much less appreciate what I have done for them. I do feel at times that albeit we are in an “online” world, we should always remind ourselves that we are all human beings ultimately behind the keyboard and we should all treat each other with mutual respect and courtesy, as is the natural laws of humankind and the universe. I do believe that we shy away from the tendency to think that we are not email aliases and Skype ID’s behind our PC’s…and that if we were doing business face to face, would things be done differently?

You are well known in the industry, who has been your motivation or inspiration, in other words, who is your driving force?
First of all, I give all the credit and all blessings to God in Heaven. Through Him all blessings flow. Secondly, my family is my number one motivational force. Finally, in terms of inspiration, I actually believe and admire myself. It may sound pompous, but when I look back at my previous trials and failures and how I was able to maintain a positive attitude and continue to survive and succeed each time; it is a constant reminder and inspiration to me.

What do you think is the impact of the “new” media on today’s generation? Are they leveraging it effectively and more importantly – are they leveraging it for the betterment of our industry?
New media is the reason we are progressing as a society and is one of the few economic sectors still experiencing rapid growth and progress from the financials markets sense. It is because of this innovation, that new jobs are created daily and I truly believe will continue to be the driving force behind the salvation and comeback of our current domestic economic situation. Reciprocally, I would hope that with the onset and growth of “new media” that this does not preclude us from continuing to be in touch with our human side as well as the value of real interpersonal relationships and the human touch.
Being a minority myself, there are constant stereotypes that I have to overcome, have you ever experienced this?
Growing up in the south (brief time in elementary) I did experience this, but primarily living on the west coast for the good majority of my life, I have not really experienced it.

What are some effective tools and products that help you keep your life organized?
Google Docs is the only tool you need!! I also highly recommend Basecamp for CRM as well Assembla for ticket and task management.

If you had a money tree in your back yard and could purchase anything for your business tomorrow, what would it be?
Definitely. I always wanted to have my own 59’ lifesize “Gundam” robot – http://sneakermaniac.com/59-foot-tall-gundam-to-be-displayed-in-tokyo-park/

Any words of wisdom for my readers looking to get into this space?
Be real and genuine. Remember you are dealing with humans and not AIM ID’s. Always remember the golden rule and the basic laws of the Universe and you’ll be fine. Lastly, always believe in your “inner superstar” – you just need to find the right outlet to release it and let it shine.

——

Ricky Ahuja is the CEO of Affiliate Venture Group

8 Facebook Marketing Hacks You Should Try RIGHT NOW

By

Alex Becker

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2011-05-03

23

So you want to learn a few marketing tips on Facebook, huh? Well, I’ll give you SEVERAL! As internet marketers, we have to be tricky and cunning with how we reach our audience. With Facebook always changing its layout and features, it’s pretty hard to keep up. Aaaaaaaaannnnnd, that’s why I’m here.

So here are the eight Facebook tips you should try RIGHT NOW.

Tag Your Friends in Status Updates

Do you have a link, video or message for your latest product? Post that link, video or message as a status update and cleverly integrate your friend’s name. The two key words here is “cleverly integrate.” Don’t make it so obvious that your friends will make it their mission to defriend you. Do this too much and you’ll be reported for spam.

Hint: Use the @ symbol followed by your friend’s name in your status. This will tag them.

Because he remembered I like Jazz, Joran told me about a Half-Off deal on a jazz club that just reopened.

Tag Your Friends in Photos

If you have some very influential friend, this is a sure-fire winner. But if you don’t, it still works to get your brand some recognition. Whatever the picture is even if it’s not for your brand, remember not to tag them in embarrassing or compromising situations…this can be detrimental to your friendship.

Upload a photo with your brand. Add a description to promote the brand. Tag as many friends as you can in that one photo.

Not only would their names show up on your picture, but it will pop up on your friends’ profiles for all of their friends to see…that is, if they didn’t disable the public showing of their tagged photos. Even if this is the case, your friends will get notification that they’ve been tagged and of course will open it up to check out what the image is.

Missy Ward & Clicky at Affiliate Summit West 2011

Tag Your Friends in Notes

This is especially useful if you have a blog. What you can do is import your blog posts into Facebook so that they show up as Notes. Once the blog posts make their successful transfer, go and tag away! But remember to not be a constant tagger or you’ll be a constant spammer.

Comment on Your Friends’ Walls

What good are you as a friend if you don’t interact with your people? Write on their walls. Pop in every so often just to say hi and see how they’re doing. “You’re confronting the question of ‘Why is this person even in my network in the first place?’ with a logical answer. You’re reaching out. That’s pure networking,” says Peter Shankman, PR and Social Media Power Player.

Shankman’s blog post, Unfriend, Write or Die, is a must-read on this subject.

This approach is not necessarily a hack, but it is a way for you to stay in the front of your friends’ minds.

Comment on Group, Fan Page and Event Walls

Target your niche. Join groups, fan pages and events that are associated with your line of work as well as your products. Once you do that, promote your product/brand by leaving comments on its walls.

You can “kill two birds with one stone” without having to leave your homepage. Same thing with tagging friends’ names in status updates, you can tag the group, page or event by using the @ symbol before the word. It’ll not only appear on your profile, news feed and friends’ news feed, but it will also show up on the page that you tagged. Bada Bing!!!

Clickbooth’s Fan Page

Ad:Tech’s Fan Page

Like Status Updates on Friend, Fan Page and Group Walls

Here you can do one of two things. 1) You can like status updates by using your personal profile account or 2) you can create one for your brand and use that. By liking from your personal profile account, you are letting your friends know you care what they have to say. Creating a company profile or Page (Facebook has recently launched this feature to let you like a status as your page), you are now promoting your brand.

Good one, Guys.

Create a Group Page and Add, Add, Add

Facebook also allows you to add friends to groups without needing their permission. This is a very easy way to give your brand exposure and really quickly.

Back in October 2010, someone by the name of Jon Fisher totally owned Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, and Michael Arrington, Founder of TechCrunch, with this feature. He added “Zuck” and Arrington to a group called NAMBLA, a man-boy love group, without their permission. It created a pretty big ruckus about Facebook privacy. Eh, what’s new? Could this be THE Jon Fisher I know from WickedFire? You tell me.

So to follow Fisher’s footsteps, all you have to do to create the group is come up with a name, write some content and add all of your friends. The only way they can say no to the group is if it sucks. What is the first rule in business? Don’t Suck!

Create an Event and Invite, Invite, Invite

Create an event where you can invite all of your friends. Same thing as creating a group page. Think of a good event name. Get some content in there. Invite. My favorite attribute about this hack is that you can message everyone you’ve invited (even people who haven’t responded) and have it pop up in their message inbox. Suh-weet!

—–

Thao Tran is the Head of Social Media at Clickbooth.com

Learn also about this Crazy Affiliate Marketing Technique

Affiliate PayPal Taxes & Asset Protection Strategies

By

Pesach Lattin

-

2011-05-03

10

As you may know, this year PayPal will start reporting the income received by many affiliates via the PayPal. While this is limited only to those who receive more than $20,000 in payment AND 200 transactions, it will affect many affiliates. Please remember, however, while this law only requires that PayPal report these transactions, reporting all sources of income to the IRS is required by law. This however raises a question about many affiliates method of both bookkeeping and reporting income, so I felt it was time to give some advice about bookkeeping techniques and more importantly how to save yourself a lot of money in taxes and work.

1) Create a corporation. Seriously, if you are making more than a few dollars a month, you need to create a corporation. I have used LegalZoom personally for all my corporations and highly recommend it. If you are going to do a corporation, the best State to incorporate in is Wyoming LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) . There are several reasons for this, but mainly because there is no state tax, no reporting requirements and even a foreign national (non US citizen) can own a Wyoming LLC. If you set up a corporation, make sure you also get a EIN (Used for Tax reporting to the IRS) from LegalZoom.

2) Get a bank account and do not use PayPal for receiving payments. One of the biggest issues with PayPal is that its costly for each transaction and it’s pain in the rear end to record each transaction and then the fee associated with the transaction. The IRS will be getting a report on the total income you receive, so when you file taxes you will have to show the cost of the services. Unless you account for each transaction and then the cost of the services in the transaction, you could be hit for additional taxes. Additionally, the more of a paper-trail that is required internally, the most risk of mistakes that will cost you money. Get people to wire or send you checks. It’s simple and you just record the payment in your books.

3) Get QuickBooks for keeping all your books. It’s pretty simple for most affiliates, and if you use debit card for most transactions online and have a bank account, it will figure out most of your transactions, deductions and keep a great accounting. A little basic learning is required on how to use it, what categories are for what transactions and the such, but far worth your time if you don’t have a bookkeeper. If you are doing better, get a part-time bookkeeper to assist.

4) Deduct anything you do for or related to business as a business expense. This will save you a lot of money, no doubt. This means that when you buy a computer, this is a cost directly associated with your business, as is all travel to conventions, supplies such as paper, software, you name it. Most importantly, if you are buying media, buying ads on Google this is an expense and you biggest expense (Cost of Goods Sold). You need to record everything that you do associated with your business, from lunches to travel. A good credit card can help you keep track of this, but also so can a debit card.

While this is a short list, and definitely not all the advice that you need as an affiliate to make a business, it’s a good start. If you are making money, the worst thing you can do is to continue doing things the same way you were before making money. This is partially because the industry goes up and down – was just talking to an affiliate who now owns $2M in taxes to the IRS because he didn’t do things right.

Five Things that Brand Media can Learn from Affiliates

By

Pesach Lattin

-

2011-05-03

0

One thing hasn’t changed since I started working in this industry over a decade ago: brand marketers still often look at performance marketers as if they are a crazy step-brother, locked in the basement for fear that he will get out and eat small animals. Yes, there is that part of the performance marketing industry that is a bit unsavory, filled with the gurus and the acne-faced kids who pretend to be elite hacker-wannabes on black hat forums – but there is a lot being developed in the industry that everyone needs to pay attention to, especially brand media buyers. So, without waste of time or resources, here is my concise guide to what brand media buyers can learn from performance marketers.

Provide hundreds of different versions of creatives. Yes, while Microsoft Word still doesn’t believe me that “creatives” are a word, you should be using tons of them. So many media buyers still rely on a few versions of the same creative for some reason, limiting their ability to optimize. Performance marketers have become experts at creative optimization, often making hundreds of versions with slight differences for their media buys. Network buys, placement, color coordination, and even time of the day all can make a difference on how a creative performs.
Discover tools. Performance marketers are crazy about different tools for optimization, content creation, and development. One of the great things about the industry is that many of these tools are actually better than tools that cost 10 times as much made for brand media buyers. Some of these tools are actually free. An example is Tracking202, which is a free media buying PPC tool for affiliate marketers that tracks multiple media buys, multiple landing pages, and gives great reports.
Get people to interact immediately. Performance marketing is all about performance, the ROI, but brand marketing needs to embrace this more and more as a metric. While it might not be a product buy, there are metrics that can easily be created on all media buys. Whether it’s a “learn more” newsletter sign-up button after a presentation or a search function for realtors that carries a product, brand marketers need to start always embracing performance. Interaction is part of the Internet, and it is proven over and over again that when someone does an action, any action, they are more likely to have positive feelings about a brand.
Ignore the press about what is “cool.” I know that clients read everything about the industry, and hear that the newest cool social/mobile/video product is where it’s at. All of these products will promise results, but the cost per user on most new applications is expensive and has little history or real return on its value. Jumping on the bandwagon, wasting the budget, and ignoring solutions that can show a real result is a growing problem in our industry. Yeah, it’s cool now that people can post on their Facebook page that they just got a latte at Starbucks, but in a year when everyone is annoying each other and it’s considered nothing more than spam, how will your brand think about that?

Top 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Exhibit at an Affiliate Marketing Conference

By

Alex Becker

-

2011-04-18

7

Exhibiting at a trade show can be costly, but for the world of me, I fail to understand what most companies are thinking when they bring a whole team or hire temporary “booth babes” but have absolutely no clue or a game plan what they want to accomplish. Without proper and effective training, some booth staffers may not realize how some inadvertent actions can impact an organizations reputation and potential business. Below is a Top 10 list to keep in mind before the next show.

Top 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Exhibit at an Affiliate Marketing Conference

1 ) If you “ran out” of business cards on Day 1. Time and time again I constantly hear, “Oh I am sorry, I ran out of business cards.” Really? You spend all this time and money and forget something so simple but critically important?

2 ) If the first words out of your mouth are, “Where are the parties tonight?” While parties are a great venue to network and drum up some business, it should not be your sole motivation to attend.

3) If you find texting more exciting than the people waiting for you at your booth. You can’t begin to imagine how many booths I visited at the Ad-tech and what % of the employees were on their phones texting. Forget the employees; I saw numerous C-level execs doing the same.

4 ) If you prefer talking on the phone while people are waiting for you at your booth. See comments to bullet 3 above.

5 ) If you prefer eating while people are waiting for you at your booth. We all get hungry while manning the booth – but schedule a time with your team where you get a break and go eat in a designated area.

6 ) If you prefer “passing” the card to someone not present to follow up. This is a favorite of mine. I am at your booth, ready to give you some business but what do I hear, “email us at affiliateservices@mycompanydoesnthavethetimetotalknowandwearewaytoobusytexting.com and we will have one of our dedicated reps contact you.”

7 ) If you prefer talking to your neighbor more so then potential customers. See point 3 above.

8 ) If you are late to your meeting appointment. We have numerous meetings lined up at these shows and often times they run a bit longer than expects – and that is perfectly fine. But extend the courtesy of emailing, calling or texting the next appointment that you are running a bit late and let them know.

9 ) If you are more concerned about giving your pitch rather than taking the time to find out my needs. Often times I hear companies ramble on and on about how great they are but not for a sec take a moment and ask what it is that I truly want.

10 ) If I know more about your company than YOU do. This has to be my all time favorite. Most of the staffers have absolutely no clue what their company truly does, what their benefits are relative to their competition, how they can help me achieve my goals. If you are going to be at a booth – take the time to learn some basic concepts such as (I am sure they may be difficult for some of you): CPA, CPL, CPS, Affiliate Marketing, PPC, SEO, PPV, Co-reg, etc. See where I am going with this?

—–
Ricky Ahuja is the CEO of Affiliate Venture Group

6 Major Mistakes in Affiliate Email Marketing

By

Pesach Lattin

-

2011-04-18

0

You don’t want to lose out on a cheap and effective way to manage your affiliate marketing campaigns, right? Email marketing allows you to create messages for specific niches, track interest by looking at open and click rates, and build relationships with your subscribers. While it is effective, there are also common email marketing mistakes that you need to be aware of that could prevent you from reaping the benefits. Here’s a list of things to avoid from the Folks at AWEBER.

1. Do Not Purchase Email Lists.
Effective email marketing campaigns cater to specific demographics, tastes and interests, and aren’t just blasting emails out to random groups of people. When you buy an email list, there’s no way to guarantee that those people are really interested in your messages or the business you’re advertising for, so you must avoid purchased lists. Another thing to keep in mind is that most email marketing software providers prohibit the use of purchased lists.

2. Don’t Use a “From” Name or Subject Line They Won’t Recognize.
You want to make sure subscribers recognize who the emails are coming from. Be consistent, and make sure your email campaigns use information that matches what subscribers saw when they originally signed up. Make sure your subject line clearly explains the value of the message and that you deliver what’s promised. Transparency will give you more credibility, and people will be more likely to listen to what you’re saying.

3. Don’t Forget the CAN-SPAM Act.
The CAN-SPAM Act is a U.S. law requiring that all marketing emails contain the sender’s valid physical postal address. This might sound scary if you’re operating your affiliate marketing business from home, but a post office box will work just as well, so get one and use it as the postal address in your emails. You’ll be compliant with the law and subscribers will know there is a real person they can contact with any questions.

4. Don’t Send Irrelevant or Infrequent Emails.
You might have a number of affiliate campaigns you’re running, but make sure you’re only sending each subscriber information about all the campaigns and products they specifically requested. For example, subscribers who sign up for information on weight loss programs might not want to be added to a campaign that receives tips for cooking. Sending information on other irrelevant products or services can irritate subscribers and cause them to unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam.

Also remember to keep in contact with the subscribers you have. Revisit your landing page from time to time to assess your email content and make sure it matches up with your original offer. Set expectations so that subscribers know what you’ll be sending and when they’ll be receiving it.

5. Don’t Leave Out a Call To Action.
In order to get credit for your affiliate marketing, you’re going to need the subscriber to take action. This most likely involves purchasing something or at least visiting a particular website. Remember to answer the question “What do I do next?” for your subscribers and provide clear instructions.

6. Don’t Send Without Testing.
You don’t want to send your carefully planned message with affiliate links that aren’t working. This is why you need to test messages. Make sure links are working, images can be seen, and that the message is readable. You’ll want to test the message in different email clients such as Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Outlook, etc. to ensure it’s consistent with all programs.

If you’re already using email with your affiliate marketing, be sure you aren’t making any of these mistakes. No email campaign is perfect, but avoiding these major mistakes will get you one step closer to that goal.

—–

As a member of AWeber’s Education Marketing team, Crystal Gouldey teaches marketers how to use email to increase sales and profits. See AWeber’s blog for more email marketing tips from Crystal.

Pace Lattin Interview

right?

Email marketing allows you to create messages for specific niches, track interest by looking at open and click rates, and build relationships with your subscribers.

While it is effective, there are also common email marketing mistakes that you need to be aware of that could prevent you from reaping the benefits. Here’s a list of things to avoid:

1. Do Not Purchase Email Lists.

Effective email marketing campaigns cater to specific demographics, tastes and interests, and aren’t just blasting emails out to random groups of people. When you buy an email list, there’s no way to guarantee that those people are really interested in your messages or the business you’re advertising for, so you must avoid purchased lists. Another thing to keep in mind is that most email marketing software providers prohibit the use of purchased lists.

2. Don’t Use a “From” Name or Subject Line They Won’t Recognize.

You want to make sure subscribers recognize who the emails are coming from. Be consistent, and make sure your email campaigns use information that matches what subscribers saw when they originally signed up. Make sure your subject line clearly explains the value of the message and that you deliver what’s promised. Transparency will give you more credibility, and people will be more likely to listen to what you’re saying.

3. Don’t Forget the CAN-SPAM Act.

The CAN-SPAM Act is a U.S. law requiring that all marketing emails contain the sender’s valid physical postal address. This might sound scary if you’re operating your affiliate marketing business from home, but a post office box will work just as well, so get one and use it as the postal address in your emails. You’ll be compliant with the law and subscribers will know there is a real person they can contact with any questions.

4. Don’t Send Irrelevant or Infrequent Emails.

You might have a number of affiliate campaigns you’re running, but make sure you’re only sending each subscriber information about all the campaigns and products they specifically requested. For example, subscribers who sign up for information on weight loss programs might not want to be added to a campaign that receives tips for cooking. Sending information on other irrelevant products or services can irritate subscribers and cause them to unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam.

Also remember to keep in contact with the subscribers you have. Revisit your landing page from time to time to assess your email content and make sure it matches up with your original offer. Set expectations so that subscribers know what you’ll be sending and when they’ll be receiving it.

5. Don’t Leave Out a Call To Action.

In order to get credit for your affiliate marketing, you’re going to need the subscriber to take action. This most likely involves purchasing something or at least visiting a particular website. Remember to answer the question “What do I do next?” for your subscribers and provide clear instructions.

6. Don’t Send Without Testing.

You don’t want to send your carefully planned message with affiliate links that aren’t working. This is why you need to test messages. Make sure links are working, images can be seen, and that the message is readable. You’ll want to test the message in different email clients such as Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Outlook, etc. to ensure it’s consistent with all programs.

If you’re already using email with your affiliate marketing, be sure you aren’t making any of these mistakes. No email campaign is perfect, but avoiding these major mistakes will get you one step closer to that goal.

About the Author

As a member of AWeber’s Education Marketing team, Crystal Gouldey teaches marketers how to use email to increase sales and profits. See AWeber’s blog for more email marketing tips from Crystal

Lucas Brown is the Santa Claus of Affiliate Marketing. He Has Offers.

By

Pesach Lattin

-

2011-04-13

2

I have to be honest, before this interview I knew nothing about HasOffers whatsoever, except that anyone could make their own affiliate network using the system. I thought perhaps it was some low-level system that had some basic features and was nowhere a possible competition for the “major” players. After this interview and some education, it became very clear that HasOffers is a serious competitor in its own right and that Lucas Brown, the CEO of the company knows what he is doing.

What inspired you to make an affiliate tracking software?
In the fall of 2008, my twin brother and I recognized a huge need in performance marketing. Many affiliate programs and networks (including our own) were depending on legacy tracking software that was slow, unreliable and extremely costly to maintain. Since we spent the previous three years developing our own tracking technology for another company, we decided to empower others with our modern technology and make a real impact in the performance advertising industry.

Just as Salesforce.com brought about revolutionary change by providing their software as a service, we are moving the industry to a simpler, more scalable era. Traditionally, starting an affiliate network would require signing a minimum one-year contract, paying exorbitant setup fees, and then waiting for the expensive legacy solution to be installed or integrated. The alternative was to build your own solution from scratch. These very limited options prohibited many online marketers and direct advertisers from getting started with affiliate marketing and learning how to use utilize affiliates as an effective and extremely profitable advertising medium.

We realized we need to build an automated sign-up process that allows companies to create their own white-label affiliate network in minutes, with no contracts, pay-as-you-go. Shifting affiliate tracking to true software as a service vastly lowers the barrier to entry, making it easier than ever for any company to get started. As a result of fewer barriers to entry and lower levels of risk provided by HasOffers, affiliate marketing is growing explosively, increasing advertiser spend and disrupting old models of online advertising.

HasOffers has been criticized in the past for opening the floodgates so “anyone can make an affiliate program?” What do you have to say to those who think this is a bad idea?
There have always been people who were afraid to make technology and information available to the masses. The argument is usually that some of those masses will use it for negative causes, but the real fear is that those with the illusion of power cannot hide behind expensive technology.

HasOffers is the center of innovation in an industry both run and plagued by old technology. A majority of brand advertising dollars still goes to search and display advertising. The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) suggests that a lack of transparency and education about affiliate marketing limits mainstream advertisers from participating with affiliate marketing. The only way to change this is through education and availability of proper technology for every business size. I suppose we have a fundamental difference in ideology than most competitors. It is that the more people involved in our industry, the more advertising spend comes in, and more benefit everyone will receive.

To those critics, I would say that this is an industry based on relationships and trust, and technology should be a standard, not a barrier.

As you know, a competitor was hit last year with the revelations that all the affiliate data of their affiliate networks were stolen and resold. What have you done to prevent this happening from you? Many companies who are now customers of HasOffers went through this stressful ordeal with DirectTrack. It was certainly a very scary situation for all involved. Our architecture and security programs are very different from our competitors, and though we cannot ethically discuss these on public record (in the interest of security), our dedicated system and network engineers are extremely protective of our infrastructure. As HasOffers continues to grow, our larger clients demand extremely thorough security documentation including emergency plans, best practices, data loss prevention, and layered security models, which has also helped us develop an extremely air tight environment for our clients to do business.

What differentiates HasOffers from competitors?
HasOffers tracking technology is far more efficient than any competing platform. Proprietary ad serving and tracking technology allows a single HasOffers server to support over 2 billion requests per month. HasOffers’ efficient ad serving and tracking technology is built in C, enabling it to support 500 percent more requests per ad server than legacy technologies. Requests to ad servers built in PHP or ASP.NET require servers to load 15 MBs of data or more into memory in order to complete each request, while the HasOffers’ proprietary ad serving technology only requires 215 KBs per request. This increased capacity provides a strategic advantage, allowing HasOffers to provide the most affordable ad serving and tracking solution in the industry. We urge anyone to test HasOffers along side any other system and let it speak for itself.

We are also the first company to provide complete fault tolerance by deploying clients’ ad servers on the Amazon Web Services’ EC2 cloud. We’ve combined this global deployment of the ad servers on the cloud with globally load-balanced DNS. This detects the location of the user making the request to the ad server and directs the user to the ad server in the facility that can respond the quickest. A user clicking on a tracking link in Germany will be handled by an ad server in the Ireland facility or a user viewing a creative in New York will be handled by an ad server in the Virginia facility. Global deployments of the ad servers with globally load-balanced DNS, increases performance by handling a users request with ad servers that are located thousands of miles closer to them. By dramatically reducing this latency, our ad servers are also able to handle requests even faster than before.

Our team also uniquely understands the value of scalability. While competitors only power an estimated few hundred clients each, HasOffers’ scalable technology has enabled more than 7,000 companies to create and manage their own affiliate networks. Our competitors simply don’t have infrastructures to support this many clients effectively.

What are some of your most notable Customers? Do they tend to be networks or advertisers?
Zynga, AdSimilis, Living Social, Tapjoy, Flycell, Adperio, Palms, adperio, MarketHealth, and the list goes on.

In the beginning our primary customers were networks, within the past year more and more advertisers are adopting HasOffers to manage their in-house affiliate programs. About 55% of our clients are networks and 45% advertisers.

Do you recommend super affiliates to use HasOffers to track their deals?
We do have some super affiliates that user HasOffers to track their campaigns, but they are a minority. There are certainly many solutions focused on tracking the performance for affiliates across multiple networks. We find that super affiliates tend to start their own affiliate networks with us as that is often the next logical step for them.

There are a lot of mentions about your API, What makes your API unique?
Our API is the only complete two-way API, including over 400 API methods and 60 API data models. An API of this magnitude is completely unprecedented in affiliate tracking and is sure to open up vast opportunities for so many companies. The API makes it possible to develop customized applications that run on top of the HasOffers platform. No other affiliate network software has an API this powerful.

The API makes it possible for our clients to transform HasOffers to fit every possible need. Every feature in the HasOffers application is documented and available to use through the HasOffers API. Clients can build applications or customize their current HasOffers application software with the same access to integration for managing advertisers, offers, and affiliates. With the HasOffers API it is easy to create new affiliates, generate tracking codes for new affiliates, and generate any statistics and reports.

Some clients are creating a competitive advantage by implementing completely unique graphic interfaces for their HasOffers account using the API. Other clients are using the New API to build widgets that connect with CRMs and billing systems. A few clients are now building our affiliate tracking software into a gateway monetization system.

What fraud systems are built into the HasOffers System?
Our software gives our clients insight to identify and prevent fraudulent conversions. We classify fraud into two types. Affiliate profile fraud and activity fraud. Affiliate profile fraud analyzes whether the affiliate’s details are suspicious or linked to other fraudulent accounts. This allows our clients to identify potentially malicious affiliates before they are given access to offers. Activity fraud analyzes actual conversion data to identify fraudulent activity. This analyzes IP addresses, conversion times, referring domains, duplicate IPs, comparative EPCs, etc.

We’ve also spent a lot time ensuring our core tracking technology prevents fraudulent conversions. Referral domains can be enforced for conversion pixels and IP addresses enforced for server postback URLs. There are options to limit the number of conversions by IP address and date as well as identify conversions generated by proxies. Tracking links, conversions pixels and server postback URLs can be encrypted with unique hashes. The application also provides ample and filtered information in the reports to give our clients the power to investigate each conversion.

How easy would it be for a network to move to HasOffers?
HasOffers has spent a great deal of time perfecting the migration process for networks. We realize this is the only real deterring factor for larger potential clients, especially depending on the current system they are using, so we have dedicated on-boarding specialists to help with the process. Most clients considering migrating to HasOffers reach out to us because they are already having tracking issues, frustrations with processes, or difficulty managing affiliate data, and we realize each business model has unique struggles. Our on-boarding specialists have not only developed smooth processes for migration across the most common platforms, but they are skilled in adapting to unique circumstances. This should certainly not be a prohibiting factor in moving a business to a new level of technology and innovation.

Do you recommend that most people move to Server to Server Tracking and why? What are the advantages of this?
For our clients with the technical understanding, we certainly recommend implementing cookieless tracking. With HasOffers, cookieless tracking can also be implemented with iFrames or image pixels, providing a hybrid of client side and server side. This way affiliate third-party pixels can still piggy back on conversions as well. With only server to server pixels enabled affiliates have to implement a server to server pixel as well, which many affiliates don’t have the software or knowledge to accomplish.

If a user does not have cookies enabled on their browser, usually an iFrame/Image pixel will not record a conversion, but by implementing cookieless conversion tracking, users with cookies disabled will still be tracked. We do this by passing a transaction ID (tracking ID) to the advertiser’s landing page on click. Then the advertiser passes this transaction ID to the conversion pixel or server postback URL. Our ad servers look up the user’s tracking information by the transaction ID and record conversions accordingly. This is a great way to ensure conversion tracking accuracy.

What inspired your staff to get up in the morning?
Passion. After participating in every piece and angle of online advertising, we realized that we should concentrate on the part that we really love, and believe it or not, that’s performance tracking technology. So we surround ourselves with people who share our passion. You might describe HasOffers as one big crazy brainstorm on the future of online advertising, and we think that’s the most exciting thing we could be doing. You can really see the unity it brings our team.

What is your dream car?
I don’t have a dream car. Cars are not a big thing in Seattle. I’d prefer a mansion on Lake Washington.

Reddit, a Great Source for Traffic.

By

Pesach Lattin

-

2011-04-13

3

If you don’t know about Reddit, then you probably either work very hard during the day, or you don’t smile enough. Forget Facebook, forget Digg, do yourself a favor, and visit Reddit. Not only will you find some of the most interesting articles from across the web, you will find some of the most entertaining and insightful comments on those articles. The phrase “there’s an app for that,” has been said many times, but “there’s a reddit for that” should be equally as popular, because there really is a reddit for everything. Whether you’re into politics, science, pics of hot chicks or kittens, there’s a “sub” reddit where you can find information about the topic.

But enough about reddit, let’s talk about advertising:

The demo of reddit skews heavily male, and most of the posts tend to be satirical in nature. So, when it came to advertising PetFlow.com on Reddit, we first tested a fairly “comedic” approach:

The above ad got us almost no sales, and while we found the ad to be quite funny, many “redditors” did not, and we got quite a few negative comments.

We tested a few more ads, and while the response was “okay,” we really weren’t getting the response we were hoping for, until we realized something. Reddit is not just about advertising, it’s about spurring discussion, and running an ad for just a day or two, is not the way to get reddit to work. So, we decided to just create an ad and let it run.

The above ad ran on reddit for over 30 days, and while it generated almost no sales in the first few days, we all of a sudden started seeing sales roll in. And the more comments that were posted, and replied to by our company, the more likely people were to buy. If you think about it, there really aren’t that many places on the internet where you can advertise, have people discuss your product or service, and then visit your site to buy from you – and reddit allows you to do this.

So, a few pointers about advertising on reddit:

1) Have a compelling product or service to sell – and make sure it appeals to a broad market, but predominantly males.

2) Don’t simply expect sales right away – let your ad run, for at least 7 days. And make sure you respond to all of the questions/comments about the product/service.

Lastly, a note on how reddit self service advertising works: It’s a little different from other places where you might be able to buy media. It’s not CPC, it’s not CPM, it’s not even CPA. The way reddit works is they count up the amount of media spend dedicated for a particular day, figure out what percentage of that amount was contributed by each particular advertiser, and that is the percentage of impressions that the advertiser gets. So, if you spend $1,000 and another advertiser spends $1,000, you each get 50% of the inventory. If, the next day, you spend $1,000 and the other advertiser spends $50, you get 95% of the impressions. It’s a bit of a crapshoot as you don’t know how much others are spending, but it’s worked for us.

Good luck!

Alex Zhardanovsky is co-Founder of Epic Advertising (fka AzoogleAds) and has been in the online advertising space since 1999. He recently co-founded PetFlow.com, an online retailer of pet food & accessories.

Is Facebook Social Marketing Really That Important?

By

Pesach Lattin

-

2011-04-05

3

Right now, perhaps the biggest “new job” in online media is the social media manager, and similarly the social media management company. Agencies all over are scrambling to create social media divisions and every major brand out there has been equally hurried to hire “experts” to assist them in this new empire of social media. All those “new media” and “affiliate marketing” experts have now become “social media” experts in order to get jobs. The pundits are constantly talking about how they engage users on Facebook, how to use it to engage clients and make new clients, how to get people to click on “like,” and so on. I honestly believe that most of this talk is not only self-serving nonsense that is created to fill the plethora of junk journals out there, but more importantly has no basis in reality. Most Facebook “social” marketing has little or no return on investment.

Most people are using Facebook as a communications device between themselves, friends, colleagues, and family. Facebook works because it’s an easy way to get in touch with people you know. It’s great because you don’t have to remember someone’s e-mail address, you don’t have to remember someone’s birthday, and you don’t really have to care all that much for the people to show interest in them. People relate to others on Facebook at the most superficial levels, and that’s partially why people love Facebook.
The actual engagement ratio is close to 0 percent. Here is non-scientific-based proof: I’m a member of the Starbucks group, as are 20 million other caffeine and scone addicts. On a daily basis, some 1,000 people leave short messages on Starbucks’ websites, with things like “I love you Starbucks” and “My Café Latte tasted like cat pee.” That’s approximately a .005 percent engagement ratio. The people who respond to these posts with “likes” and other actions are usually close to few or none. People aren’t involved with the Starbucks’ fan page, even though on a daily basis a large percent of them are involved with Starbucks. However, the “real” posts where there is actual feedback and involvement is close to zero.
In the cases where there is engagement, there is no way to engage the users back. I’m one of the 9 million or so people who “like” the Britney Spears Facebook page. When Britney (I love you Britney!) or her manager uses Facebook to communicate, they receive at least one to two thousand responses back. There is no way they can process those comments in a way that is actually useful to them. It’s like monitoring teenage girls’ cell phone habits and trying to decode what they are saying. Half of it they’ll forget the next day, similar to comments on Facebook, so who really cares?
There are too many groups on Facebook to be truly engaged. Facebook has become the flea market of online media. While everyone once in a while loves going to a flea market, no one would enjoy living in the middle of one. While in real life you can meet a group of friends, sit down for a drink, and talk about subjects that everyone likes, doing this on Facebook is like trying to have that same conversation in the middle of a rave. You’re going to try for a few minutes to have a real conversation until someone slaps you with a glow stick and gives you a hug (or “poke”). Everyone who joins Facebook at first joins the groups, “likes” all their favorite brands, and tries to engage, but eventually just starts to ignore the cornucopia of pages and groups.
Facebook advertising, on the other hand, provides real and immediate results in comparison. If you want to spend money on Facebook, buy an advertisement. With the growing amount of targeting features, the enormous audience buying advertisements and sending to your own landing page seems like a much better spend. Instead of having to worry about all the management issues with having a fan page or group on Facebook, you can send people to a site that you control.

I’m not going to say that there’s no reason to have a page or group on Facebook – that recommendation would be silly indeed. It’s free advertising. However, I am saying that having a “social media” plan with a panel of experts advising you on what the page should look like, 10 full-time employees looking at the comments, and also paying some analytics company $250,000 to give you reporting on how many people responded to your “we are not open on President’s Day” message is just plain ridiculous. Please, I beg of you, don’t waste your money on these “experts” who have about as much experience in media as I have in swimsuit competitions. Most companies don’t pay people to monitor the graffiti in the boy’s bathroom, and much of Facebook is similar to that. It has little or no real-world impact on sales or brand perception. If you disagree with what I am saying, feel free to post it on your Facebook page, and I’ll “like” it.

Five Money Making Trends in Affiliate Marketing

By

Alex Becker

-

2011-04-04

0

ADOTAS – As a publicist working predominantly in the online advertising space, a good indication I get regarding what’s happening in the industry is from the new business prospects that come my way. First of all, good things are happening in the industry, based on the quantity of leads my peers and I are receiving. Beyond this, one trend that is clearly growing is affiliate marketing.

A decade ago, the affiliate marketing industry had a reputation of being the response-based, sales-driven, “non-creative” end of the online advertising world. But as more and more established brand marketers embrace affiliate marketing, the industry’s reputation (and share of the ad budget) has improved. Add to this all of the niche-based ad opportunities which social media and the blogosphere have provided for affiliate-based advertising – where affiliate-based ads for a fast moving consumer goods products make perfect sense on a Mommy blog – and you have an industry that is gaining strength.

And here are a few trends which are contributing to the growth of affiliate marketing:

1. The rise of social networking functionality like Facebook’s new Sponsored Stories, which enable an advertiser to sponsor a users ‘Like’ OR check-in, are basically turning all of us into affiliate marketers for the brands which choose to support. Couple that with the growth of Word-of-Mouth marketing, and we’re starting to experience a new and more personalized form affiliate marketing, not unlike one envisioned by Heather Locklear in this commercial for Faberge Organics commercial from the 1980s.

2. The increased acceptance of activity-based compensation, including revenue share deals and cost per action, has made it more acceptable to work with affiliate marketers who work almost exclusively with activity-based compensation.

3. Affiliate marketing is sometimes referred to as performance marketing. After 2009, who doesn’t want a campaign that can be monitored and measured on a performance basis (well, accept for the creative director)?

4. A final trend I’m seeing which is impacting affiliate marketing is re-targeting. With re-targeting all about converting shoppers who previously visited a website, arming affiliates with the ability to retarget was a logical conclusion. Today, companies like myThings (disclosure: myThings is a client) are bringing affiliate marketing to affiliate networks and their affiliates (publishers) and merchants (advertisers).

This isn’t the death of the 30-second TV commercial (or the Internet banner ad), but affiliate marketing tactics are going to be implemented more and more in online (and offline) advertising campaigns.

—–

Uriah Av-Ron works for Oasis PR and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Epic FKA Azoogle to Leave Affiliate Business

By

Pesach Lattin

-

2011-04-01

0

In the strangest news this year, Epic Advertising Announced that they were no longer going to be in the Affiliate and Performance Marketing space, instead focusing on new revenue model based completely on their new DailyDealSite called GroupLiving.com. Epic, formerly known as AzoogleAds, (from the French, pronounced AzoooGleeehhh) was at one time seen as the top affiliate and CPA marketing company. However, in recent times, with the departure of the Founders Alex “Meow-Meow” Zhardanovsky and Joe “Spandex” Speiser, Azoogle has taken a totally new turn in its focus. Both Joe & Alex are still close, loving, partners, having started PetHo, a new pet-porn site that was reportedly growing in leaps and bounds.

When asked about why they were shutting down their affiliate and performance marketing division, Matthew Mirman, the Director of Clickable Solutions at Epic, told us that “the company has decided that cost per performance wasn’t working– agencies weren’t happy with this solution.” One insider in the company told us that this basically meant that agencies were more interested in, “wasting their customers money, charging for banners and impressions instead of having to prove effectiveness.” Mirman, denied this and responded that, “I have no idea who the hell you are, but you need to leave my house now, otherwise I’m calling the police, ok?”

The folks at Neverblue, Epic’s nearest competitor were happy to hear this news. Samantha Brachat, the Vice President of Water-Scooters & Leisure Activities told us, “Damn skippy, bitches. Those guys have been throwing parties at the Playboy Mansion, totally ruining the vibe for our parties in the Caribbean.” Both companies, originally based in Canada have been in heavy competition for years, especially after when Epic moved their HQ to New York City and were immediately branded traitors in the Canadian Press. Brachat commented on this, “We are Canadians and proud of our Heritage, and those traitors just got up and left to NYC..eh.., claiming there was better food, better entertainment, better business opportunities and the such. We stayed here in Canada where there is better… umm… goose hunting.”

We’d love feedback on your opinions.

*Source: Google

Pace Lattin

UrbanObserver

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