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Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

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Archives for May 2006

Ask Shawn Collins: Contacting Affiliates

May 21, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Q: I just started an affiliate program for a local service that I run but I am not sure how to go about getting affiliates since I am catering to a specific local market. I know which sites would be a nice fit to display my banner or link but I am not sure how to request this in an e-mail. Do you know of a e-mail template that could be used?

Shawn CollinsA: First of all, without knowing anything about the size of your local market, your company and the audience for your service, I would suggest that you think twice about whether an affiliate program is right for you.

If there are a limited number of Web sites in your market, and you already know whom you should contact to promote you, I’m inclined to think the best route for you would be to set up relationships with each site, rather than investing in a full blown affiliate program.

You’ll still need some tracking for the relationships. Since you are focusing on a limited area, I don’t think it makes sense for you to participate in an affiliate network. Rather, you should do just fine with the modestly priced Groundbreak Ultimate Affiliate software.

Back to your original question – as far as contacting these prospective affiliates, I would caution against using e-mail. Not only is it ineffective (compared with direct mail and telephone calls), but you’re going to have to put systems in place to comply with the CAN-SPAM law.

I would suggest sending out a direct mail piece first, and then trying to establish one on one contact with those local sites. It’s a more hands on approach, but you’ll see much better results in your recruiting efforts.

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Marketing Playbook – Book Report for Affiliate Marketers

May 20, 2006 by Shawn Collins

The Marketing Playbook is a collection of 102 marketing strategies to meet sales goals. It’s done up in the style of a football playbook, but the plays here are all business.

Much of the content is applicable to affiliates and affiliate managers. The Marketing Playbook features tips, tricks and techniques for marketers, including basics like creating a good business card, how to create a series of “thank you” postcards with impact, how to break through voicemail and more.

Unlike many business books, the Marketing Playbook isn’t meant to read cover to cover. Just like in a football game, you pick the plays that look best for a situation. A quick glance at the table of contents will enable you to find the ideal play for your business challenge.

For instance, if you’re trying to get word out about your company, you would refer to Play 35: News Release.

This play breaks down the Strategy, Costs, Assignments, and Coaching Points. The play consists of easy to consume bullet points, concise information and a diagram, illustration or picture of the Play when properly executed.

The bottom of each play indicates the Primary Receiver by Type and Level, as well as what the play is best suited for: Selling Products and/or Selling Services.

The plays also reference other plays on occasion. And there is a Strategic vs. Tactic Scoreboard for each play that rates the strategic or tactical applicability of the Play.

One of the things I liked about the Marketing Playbook was the lack of technical jargon and geek verbiage. In cases where it’s unavoidable, author John M. Fox provides a glossary of terms. The book is a fun, accessible approach and can work just as well for rookies as veterans.

The full title is Marketing Playbook: The Manual for Growing Organizations–102 of the Best Marketing Plays to Get Your Sales Team Across the Goal Line and it fulfills on that weighty promise.

Definitely a good resource for affiliate marketers in a two minute drill. Quick, easy, useful and enlightening. Don’t settle for throwing a Hail Mary when you’ve got a new business challenge – read the Marketing Playbook and get your company in the end zone.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Offline Affiliate Program for eBay Drop-off Store

May 19, 2006 by Shawn Collins

AuctionBytes reports that the owners of an eBay drop-off store has created an offline affiliate program to build up their business.

We Sell It 4U accepts items that will sell for a value estimated over $30.00 on eBay and they charge a $10.00 minimum commission per item. Their transaction fee is $0.30 plus 2.5% of the total transaction value (sales price, shipping & handling and sales tax).

Robin Etchison, co-owner with Jim Coady of an eBay drop-off store in Maryland, is offering what amounts to an affiliate marketing program to attract business. When people refer a customer to We Sell It 4U, they will receive 3 percent of the net of any items that the client sells, including all future sales by that client. Etchison says there is no limit to the number of referrals someone can make.

In a business with tight margins, Etchison is betting on referrals to help attract quality consignors.

We Sell It 4U is independently owned and operated, and the company is not affiliated with eBay.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Ask Shawn Collins: Splitting Commissions with Community Members

May 18, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Q: I’m planning to launch an online social community based around a specific industry. This community will allow users to participate in pre-approved affiliate programs within the industry. Basically, we will function as the affiliate and the users will function as sub-affiliates — we will split commissions. Is there an existing third party provider that has a platform to track all users, sales and split checks or is this entirely dependent on each of the affiliate programs I approve?

Shawn CollinsA: It sounds like you need sub-ID tracking. This will enable you to add an extra piece of information to your affiliate links, which will identify each of the members of your community.

This functionality is supported by pretty much any of the affiliate networks.

One issue though – you will receive the full commission, and then be responsible for distributing the respective shares to your members.

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Filed Under: Ask Shawn Collins

GoldenCAN Goes to Walmart.com

May 17, 2006 by Shawn Collins

I just read an announcement that Walmart.com has partnered with GoldenCAN. If you’re not familiar with GoldenCAN, it gives affiliates the ability to show a merchant’s data feed with only one line of HTML code. Affiliates have the option to show the entire feed, recent price drops or search box results.

That’s big news for GoldenCAN users – now they will be able to display over 800,000 Walmart.com data feed products on their sites.

Sample Stores:

  • WalMart.com Data Feed/Store Integration Sample
  • WalMart.com Coupon Integration Sample
  • WalMart.com Search Integration Sample

For more information, visit http://www.goldencan.com/merchants/display_141.aspx

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

FeedBurner Gets in the Ad Network Game

May 16, 2006 by Shawn Collins

FeedBurner, the largest RSS feed management provider out there, has launched the FeedBurner Ad Network.

If you subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog or you’ve ever gotten an e-mail from me with my latest blog headlines in the signature – those things were powered by FeedBurner.

Anyhow, the FeedBurner Ad Network (aka FAN) is poised to compete with Google AdSense, the Yahoo Publisher Network, BlogAds and affiliate programs for ad real estate.

The sites in the FeedBurner Ad Network will have the option to run text ads that fit in a 468×60 area or a 300×250 GIF or JPG ad.

FeedBurner is selling the ads at varying CPM rates in the following channels:

  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Automotive
  • Business
  • Computing & Technology
  • Consumer Electronics
  • Current Affairs & Politics
  • Digital Culture
  • Health & Wellness
  • News & Information
  • PC & Console Games
  • Sports & Recreations
  • Travel
  • International (currently Spanish and Dutch Languages)

I’ve been using FeedBurner for a couple years and I really like the way they do things.

As soon as I heard about their ad network, I promptly set up an ad to promote Affiliate Summit – it will be interesting to see how this changes the landscape for affiliates and merchants.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Affiliate Marketer Guide to Networking

May 15, 2006 by Shawn Collins

We’ve been feverishly working on different ideas to enhance the Affiliate Summit experience, and one big area of focus is the networking.

Networking lunch at Affiliate Summit 2003

The Affiliate Summit show in Orlando (July 9-11, 2006) marks the first time we’ll be running the Affiliate Summit Social Network.

We’ve also put together a guide to networking, so everybody will be properly prepared for the networking opportunities.

The purpose of this social network is to enable Affiliate Summit attendees to make connections with industry colleagues before, during and after the Affiliate Summit shows.

We’ve set it up so you can find folks to network with in a number of ways, including segmentation by industry role (affiliate, merchant, network, etc.), zip code, country, employer(s) and school(s) attended.

Other features include private and instant messaging, message boards, shared bookmarks and journals, industry groups, events, and free classifieds for relevant services and job openings.

The Affiliate Summit Social Network is available now to all Affiliate Summit attendees. Visit network.affiliatesummit.com to join the Affiliate Summit Social Network.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Affiliate Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

May 15, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Jim Kukral, of the Forge Corporation, has authored a white paper on how to run a successful affiliate program.

Affiliate Marketing Do's and Don'tsThe white paper, titled Affiliate Marketing Do’s and Don’ts, is based on the experiences of the Forge Corporation affiliate management team.

Tips include “Do: Know your competition” and “Don’t: Launch a program without researching your space. Lots of useful information in there for new and experienced affiliate managers.

It’s sort of like an installment of Goofus and Gallant for affiliate managers.

Get the white paper at the Forge Corporation blog.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Ask Shawn Collins: Legal Rights of an Affiliate

May 14, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Q: I am an affiliate of about 50 different programs. I belong to the large affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare, Kolimbo.com and Amazon.com. My question to you is I have joined some independent merchants that run their own affiliate program. I have made some sales, then they discontinue their program and NEVER pay me. Sometimes it is not a lot of money. Do I have any legal rights? Do they have any accountability?

Shawn CollinsA: Let me start by saying that I am not a lawyer, and I would suggest you consult with a lawyer to get the best guidance in legal issues.

That said, you surely have legal rights as an affiliate. Whenever you join an affiliate program, you should be acknowledging that you agree to the terms of their affiliate program (don’t promote an affiliate program that doesn’t have terms that explain how much you will be paid, when you will be paid, etc).

Since you problem is with independent affiliate programs, their agreements are going to vary, so each situation will be somewhat unique.

But each agreement should definitely have the terms under which they pay you as an affiliate. So your first move should be to review those terms to see exactly what you agreed to when joining the affiliate program.

If you are typical of most affiliates, you don’t read those affiliate agreements – consider the loss of money you’ve experienced as a wake-up call and start reading your agreements.

Anyhow, there are two types of affiliate program closures – one is where the company just decides to kill the affiliate program for whatever reason. The other is when the company has gone out of business.

If it’s the former, you may still be able to get your money, but there is a whole lot of red tape when a company goes out of business, and it will be trickier to try and claim those funds due to you.

As far as the amount due to you – unless you are owed many hundreds, even thousands of dollars, it’s probably not worth hiring a lawyer, because they are going to charge you a fairly hefty rate to look into your issue and pursue it for you.

The lesson to be learned here, aside from always reading the affiliate agreement, is that you should be very picky about the affiliate programs you promote.

Don’t just join them and put up links blindly. Do some research on the companies by searching their names in the search engines; ask about them in affiliate marketing forums.

Also important – be sure you have a contact at the company. If you are welcomed into the affiliate program with a letter signed “Affiliate Manager” with no real name or phone number, think twice about promoting them.

If it’s hard to figure out who to contact when they don’t owe you anything, think about how difficult it will be to track somebody down when money is due.

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Filed Under: Ask Shawn Collins

Newark, NJ: Silicon Alley – The Sequel

May 12, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Four years ago, I was pissed off and dejected. I’d been working on the Web site of Cory Booker, a candidate for the Mayor of Newark, NJ.

Cory BookerHe endured a nasty campaign against then incumbent, Sharpe James. The whole thing was chronicled in the Academy Ward nominated documentary, Street Fight. In that race, Cory lost by a whisker to James, who had been in office since 1986.

Flash forward to this past Tuesday – Cory Booker won by a landslide (he got 72% of the vote) against state Sen. Ronald L. Rice, a loyalist of Sharpe James. Cory takes over the Mayor’s office on July 1.

So what? How does that have anything to do with Silicon Alley you ask?

Newark - the New Silicon AlleyWell, Cory is a young, super smart visionary. After decades of corruption and decay, he’s anxious to fix the biggest city in NJ.

He’s got a lot of fans in the business community that will undoubtedly have interest in working with him to bring back Newark.

In the recent past, many big companies have migrated from NYC to Jersey City, because it was a quick hop across the Hudson River, very accessible to NYC, but with much cheaper rents.

Well, I think Newark is now poised to be the hotspot for folks looking to do business in the NYC metro area.

  • In – a pro business environment and comparably low rents
  • Out – the Newark you see on the Sopranos

It’s a great time for start-ups to move in and grow. And you never know – maybe it will be the location of Affiliate Summit East in 2007.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

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