Archives for February 2005

Lennart Svanberg is putting together the 8th International Internet Marketing Conference: IMC Montreal 2005 from March 14-16.

IMC Montreal 2005 is a three day event covering all of the issues in Internet Marketing.

I will be presenting on affiliate marketing benchmarks at this conference.

My presentation will reveal the real stats behind affiliate marketing, based on interviews with over 130 affiliate managers.

Topics to be covered include staffing affiliate programs, affiliate manager salaries, the ideal size of an affiliate program, average traffic and conversions generated by affiliates, techniques for recruiting and retaining affiliates, components of an affiliate agreement, and more.

There will also be a discussion of the methods used by affiliate managers to reward and incent their affiliates and the biggest challenges in affiliate marketing.

Registration to IMC Montreal 2005 at http://www.internetmarketingconference.com/register.html

Here are the prices to attend…

* 3 days – US$ 395
* 2 days – US$ 295
* 1 day – US$ 195
* Students – US$ 95 a day

I hope to see you there.

The affiliates of ill repute are taking a beating in the media lately (most recently in Wired), and now they’ve got a much bigger thing to worry about than criticism from journalists.

According to InfoWorld, “Microsoft, joining forces with drug company Pfizer, took aggressive action this week, filing lawsuits against spam rings that operated Web sites that allegedly sold illegal, generic versions of Viagra.”

These suits are going after the companies themselves that peddle the Little Blue Pill knock-offs, and they are also going after “the spammers advertising for those Web sites” aka pharmaceutical affiliates.

These drug makers and their affiliates are being hit for violating the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (maybe it can be effective after all!) and other state and federal laws.

Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. Hopefully, Bill Gates will be successful in seeding the clouds of doom for those low rent spammers that soil the affiliate flag.

I have long been under the impression that affiliates would prefer to receive any and all money that they’ve earned.

Whether it be $1 or $5 that’s sitting in their balance – for those that have not met the payment threshold after a certain period of time, I’d usually clean out the books and cut checks for everybody that had a balance.

But now I’ve learned that the small checks seem to be a burden, and affiliates would just assume not receive them.

Today, I heard from the CFO for a company where I manage the affiliate program. He said, “Remember when we did that special affiliate payroll where you paid affiliates who earned less than the normal $25 threshold? Our payroll vendor just sent us a list of 70 checks, the bulk of which are < $5, that have never been cashed." He continued on... "Unfortunately, the payroll vendor wants to charge us $12.50/check to electronically give the money back to us. I thought you might want to be aware that it appears that nearly 40% of the people you paid < $5 didn't even bother to cash the checks." These were checks from about six months ago. That will teach me for assuming affiliates want all their commission. 😉

Online retailers wrestle with the issue of how much to pay affiliates—and for how long. With the idea that they don’t want to keep paying the affiliate to acquire the same customer, many have set cookies that credit the affiliate only if the customers they deliver to the marketer`s site make a purchase within 48 hours of initial click-through, or in some cases, a week. That’s short-sighted thinking, contends BackCountry.com vice president of business development John Bresee, who will speak at a session on affiliate marketing at next week`s eTail 2005.

“The argument is that studies show 98% of sales come within the first 48 hours after a person clicks through to a site. If that’s the case, why wouldn’t you extend that cookie for the maximum time allowed, because it makes the affiliate happier,” says Bresee, noting that some affiliate networks are equipped to track sales as long as 180 days after initial click-through.

Complete article at http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=14118

By Ryan Singel, Wired News

The biggest annoyance on the internet is not the guy trying to sell you a knockoff watch or prescription painkillers, it’s the marketing scheme that rewards spammers who drive customers to his site.

Affiliate marketing, a system in which a business pays a commission to those who drive paying purchasers to its website, is responsible for much of the spam that clogs inboxes, search results contaminated with useless pages selling ring tones, and a never-ending barrage of pings and fake TrackBacks that have driven many bloggers to shut down comments on their sites.

Though the system has become much abused, some affiliate marketing is legitimate.

For instance, Amazon.com started its Amazon Associates program in 1996 and claims more than 900,000 participants. The program provides participants with specially formatted links and photos, which they can include on their websites or blogs.

Match.com, an online dating service, uses carefully chosen affiliates to reach niche audiences, such as mountain climbers or ethnic groups, according to spokeswoman Kristen Kelly. The site prevents abuse of the program by prohibiting its affiliates from marketing by e-mail and by giving itself wide leeway in deciding when to cut ties with an affiliate.

Not all programs police their affiliates so closely, though recent antispam lawsuits and enforcement actions may inspire companies that take a wink-and-nudge approach to affiliates to take a closer look. The worst offenders could find themselves on the wrong end of legal action being taken by AOL, EarthLink and the Federal Trade Commission.

Complete article at Wired.com