Shawn Collins' Blog

Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

Archives for June 2006

Affiliate Marketing on the Domain Masters Show Tonight

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Tune in to the Domain Masters radio show tonight at 7 PM Eastern Time for a chat between host Monte Cahn and myself.

Monte is the Founder / CEO of Moniker, ICANN accredited domain registrar, premium domain sales and escrow services. He also runs TrafficClub.com, a domain profit maximization tool – perfect for affiliates that want to make money off parked domains.

We will be chatting about the state of the affiliate marketing industry, ways that domains can be used to earn affiliate cash, and other juicy topics.

Ask Shawn Collins: In-House or Network in Europe

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Q: We have been running an in-house affiliate program for about six months now. We are struggling to sign-up good affiliates and are considering joining a network for better exposure. Do you think this is the way forward and which network would you recommend for a European based merchant?

Shawn CollinsA: There are many issues to consider when deciding whether to stay indie or go with a network. Two things to consider are your resources and relationships.

Do you have a dedicated affiliate manager or team to recruit, activate and retain the affiliates? No matter what you do in the future, you will need to proactively recruit targeted affiliates – the super affiliates won’t join organically in most cases.

Assuming you have one or more people focused on the affiliate program, your affiliate management will best serve you if they have existing relationships with affiliates they can tap for your company.

Also, your brand or lack thereof will play a big role in the ability to attract affiliates.

Networks can deliver volumes of affiliates, and the exposure will certainly aid the growth of your affiliate program.

As far as which network to choose, I am not attuned to the European market as well as some others. AMWSO.com has a list of European Affiliate Networks.

Lastly, I’d encourage you to participate in the Affiliates4U affiliate marketing forum to keep up on issues in the European affiliate market.

Affiliate Classroom Magazine – June 2006

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The June 2006 issue of Affiliate Classroom Magazine is out and this month’s issue focuses on a couple of key issues in affiliate marketing for financial niches: writing good factual content and making sure insurance products are a good fit for your sites.

Affiliate Classroom MagazineThe focus this month is on financial products and services, because those affiliate programs offer some of the best payouts in affiliate marketing.

Articles cover the following:

  • How to make sure the content you write for financial sites doesn’t get you into trouble down the road.
  • Some tips for marketing life insurance affiliate programs.
  • How to integrate ad content on financial sites, while developing PPC campaigns that actually pay for themselves.

The June issue also continues the series on Affiliates and Web 2.0 with an article on social bookmarking and how it can help your affiliate marketing.

Check out the new issue at http://www.affiliateclassroom.com/magazine.php.

DMA Thinks Affiliate Marketing Needs a Babysitter

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The DMA’s Internet Marketing Advisory Board has published a report, “Best Practices for Online Advertising Networks and Affiliate Marketing.”

According to the five point report from the DMA, their members should:

  1. Obtain assurances than affiliate networks comply with laws and DMA guidelines for ethical business practice
  2. Perform due diligence on the affiliate networks
  3. Always utilize a written contract/agreement
  4. Include specific parameters for ad placement
  5. Monitor ad placements

All fine points that companies ought to be adhering to already, but I think this misses the target. All of this oversight towards the affiliate networks, but no mention of accountability for the merchants themselves who run the affiliate programs?

There are certainly perils out there when an affiliate program isn’t properly managed. Set strict criteria on affiliates to even be accepted in the affiliate program and actively manage the affiliates. Know who they are and how the traffic is being generated.

Don’t put it all on the network – it’s your brand to protect.

The DMA report is available at http://www.the-dma.org/guidelines/onlineadvertisingandaffiliatenetworkBP.pdf.

JavaScript Links at CJ Start Today

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The not mandatory, but default, JavaScript links are in full effect at Commission Junction today.

This is Phase I of the Link Management Initiative (LMI) at CJ. Affiliates still have the option to use Legacy (HTML) links for all relationships through the beginning of 2007.

CJ has not yet scheduled a date when the Legacy links will be discontinued, and they’ve stated that they will notify affiliates at least six months in advance of making this change.

Below is part of the window that pops up when affiliates now click “Get HTML” for their affiliate links.

When clicking “Legacy Link Code (non-JavaScript),” affiliates are brought to a window with the following message:

JavaScript technology is now the default for Commission Junction links. In order to take advantage of future enhancements, we encourage you to incorporate JavaScript links. For a limited time, you may access legacy code for this link by selecting the ‘Access Legacy Code’ button below.

After clicking “Access Legacy Code,” the JavaScript is replaced by HTML code.

Now they just have to replace “Get HTML” with “Get JavaScript” in the “Get Links” area of the affiliate interface.

Adopt a Cute Keyword Today

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There is an interesting, new advertising opportunity called The 1000-Word Page. It’s a cross between buying a keyword text link and renting a little piece of artistic expression.

The 1000-Word Page is what it sounds like… a minimalist page composed of 1,000 popular English words placed randomly.

The folks behind the page are selling each word (first come, first served basis) at a starting price of 100 Euros. Larger fonts, bold words, etc. cost more.

When an advertiser buys a word, it is then linked to their site for a period of at least five years. The concept is already getting a nice amount of buzz. With such a modest buy in, I think it’s definitely worth getting a word or two to experiment.

The page was started by a couple of marketing students at the University of London. The proceeds are going to some good causes, including paying down their student loans, donating to a NGO that sends computers to Africa, and seeding some new business ideas.

Go and adopt a word (lots of great keywords available) at http://www.1000wordpage.com.

If Google and ValueClick got in a fight, who would win?

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Google is launching an affiliate network. At least that’s the word from David Jackson of Seeking Alpha, a network of stock market and finance sites.

In his blog, “Google Launches ValueClick Killer,” states:

Google is launching a fully-fledged cost-per-action — otherwise known as affiliate marketing — network. Let’s not mince words. This is Google’s ValueClick (VCLK) killer. Google has greater resources than ValueClick, a larger advertiser base, and the advantage of being able to offer publishers a full range of ads based on page views [CPM], clicks [CPC] and now actual purchases or leads [CPA]. Google can translate the performance of all these ads into “effective CPMs”, allowing publishers to compare and optimize for whichever type of ad produces maximum revenue.

This is based on an e-mail he received from the Google AdSense Team to be a Beta tester for a “feature” Google is rolling out to compensate advertisers (née affiliates) on a CPA basis.

This is an interesting development that lots of folks will be watching closely. One thing I do find curious is that Jackson identifies ValueClick as the target in Google’s test.

They’re certainly a strong force, but by no means represent the Alpha and Omega of affiliate marketing.

I Struck Gold at the LinkShare Awards

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I was honored last night at the 3rd Annual LinkShare Golden Link Awards with the Performance Marketing’s Most Vocal Advocate.

Shawn Collins celebrates his LinkShare Golden Link Award

The LinkShare Golden Link Awards took place at Cipriani in New York City.

Judges for this year’s LinkShare Golden Link Awards were Bob Johnston, President and Executive Director for the Executive Council of New York; Kerry Murdock, Publisher of “Practical E-commerce” Magazine; Lisa Picarille, Editor-in-Chief of “Revenue” Magazine and Stefan Tornquist, Research Director for MarketingSherpa.

It was humbling to receive the gold statue, especially going against vocal advocates, Michael Coley of Amazing-Bargains.com (moderator at ABW) and David Lewis of 77 Blue (blogger at ReveNews).

Thanks to LinkShare for putting on a ritzy, glam event. And thank you to all of the people that do great things and dopey things, so that I have stuff to write about each day. 😉

Read coverage of the LinkShare Golden Link Awards from Lisa Picarille at the Revenue Magazine blog.

Affiliate Bid Management Tool from Direct Response

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Direct Response Technologies has announced the DirectTrack Bid Management service, a new Web-based tool designed to manage bids for paid search campaigns and track ROI.

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The service integrates Direct Response Technologies DirectTrack affiliate management platform with its KeywordMax paid search bid management tool.

According to the press release, this is the first service offering in the affiliate market to combine an affiliate platform with a paid search tool.

Features of the new service include:

  • The ability to view commission data and pay-per-click cost data in one place by keyword;
  • At-a-glance reports that provide fraud analysis as well as ROI data from keywords and engines; and
  • Time-saving, automatic pay-per-click bidding for managing ranks and budgets, and bidding on cost-per-action goals.

“The marriage between DirectTrack and KeywordMax will empower affiliates to make better and smarter market offers on paid search engines,” said Jason Wolfe, Direct Response’s president.

“We are excited to see the results from integrating what we believe are some of the most powerful marketing mechanisms used on the Internet – affiliate marketing and paid search.”

Direct Response is wrapping up their first Direct Response Technologies Networking Summit today in Atlantic City, NJ.

Ask Shawn Collins: Superior Affiliate Manager

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Q: Where can I find a top flight affiliate manager for my company?

Shawn CollinsA: The first issue you’ve got to address is the compensation you are offering to run your affiliate program. I am frequently asked by company owners to refer them to successful affiliate managers, and often they are only willing to pay on a commission basis.

The reality is most any experienced affiliate manager is going to require a salary, plus a piece of the action, not just a piece of the action.

Salary rates will vary depending on geographic areas. Traditionally, New York City and San Francisco have averaged the highest affiliate manager salaries, based on data I collected for the AffStat reports.

Anyhow, one good place to scout quality affiliate managers is in your own category. Have a look at the people that are running affiliate programs for the competition. They’re already familiar with your space and have connections with targeted affiliates.

If your competitors have no affiliate program or a lousy one, take a look at affiliate managers for other types of affiliate programs. Note – there are different ways to run an affiliate program based on revenue share versus one that pays per lead. Go after an affiliate manager who is using the same business model as you.

Also, if you are using the technology of one of the affiliate solution providers, I’d suggest finding an affiliate manager with experience running an affiliate program with the respective technology, so you don’t have to put your affiliate program in neutral while the affiliate manager tackles the technology learning curve.

You can also post ads on industry classifieds and attend networking events in search of the elusive super affiliate manager.

If you would rather have an experienced third party manage your affiliate program, you can hire an outsourced program manager (OPM).

An OPM is an individual or team of people who will take over all tasks of managing your affiliate program. There are a number of independent agencies, and many of the affiliate solution providers offer management services as well.

And then there is always the option to take somebody off the street and have them tackle the position without experience. If you go this route, realize that it’s going to take many months for your affiliate manager to figure things out, build relationships, and establish your affiliate program as a brand in the industry.