Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for August 2006

CPAEmpire Conference for Affiliates and Advertisers

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CPAEmpire Breakaway 2006, an annual educational and networking conference for CPAEmpire Affiliates and Advertisers, is scheduled for August 24-25 in Denver.

CPAEmpire Breakaway 2006The 2-day event will take place at the Marriott City Center and it includes a range of networking opportunities, such as an opening reception, networking lunch and a Colorado Rockies game.

There are also lots of educational sessions planned for the expected 150 attendees.

Currently, the CPAEmpire hockey team (Team Chaos) is on a tear in the playoffs, and if they make it to the championship, it is scheduled for the same evening as Day 1 of the event.

CEO Scott Richter assures, “We’ve got an amazing night in store for us if that happens.”

More details at CPAEmpireBreakaway.com.

Ask Shawn Collins: First Steps into Affiliate Marketing

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I’m new to the idea of affiliate marketing as a way to make additional money with my Web site. Good Golly Molly, where do I start? I will be republishing a website selling my original art and prints but I’m waiting to learn more about affiliates and better SEO before I upload the site.

I think a good first stop for you is to get a grasp of the vocabulary of affiliate marketing.

After you know what all of the terms and acronyms mean, read up on current affiliate marketing industry issues at the affiliate forums and affiliate blogs.

There are also a number of useful education resources in affiliate marketing you should check out, like Affiliate Classroom and Revenue Magazine.

As far as affiliate programs, some that could be good for you are Amazon, Art.com and CafePress.

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Got an affiliate marketing question? Ask it anonymously at http://www.askshawncollins.com/ and I’ll answer it for you in the AffiliateTip.com blog. Read the Ask Shawn Collins archives.

Ask Shawn Collins: Gaining Trust

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Q: What is the best way to build trust in developing affiliate marketing programs?

Shawn CollinsA: The simple answer is to operate in a stand-up fashion. Do right by your affiliates and trust will build up over time.

There are many ways you can do right or wrong with an affiliate program, and those decisions can benefit or haunt you for a long time.

Paying on time is essential. Pay late once and you’ll be seen as unreliable.

Provide full contact information to your affiliates. Don’t sign your communications with some generic thing like “The Affiliate Team.” Affiliates are taking a leap of faith in promoting your affiliate program and if you’re a phantom, you are putting a hurdle in front of their trust.

On that note, when they do contact you, respond quickly. I belong to a lot of affiliate programs, and I test their response rates periodically. Some are quick, most get back to a simple question days later, and others never bother to respond.

Guess which ones I am more inclined to promote.

Also, own up to mistakes. Sometimes tracking breaks – it’s an unfortunate by-product of technology. If and when it happens, don’t bury your head in the sand – own up to it when you find out and figure out how you can make good on the lost revenue of the affiliates for sending traffic to a black hole due to your error.

Just operate your affiliate program ethically and proactively and trust will come.

Ask Shawn Collins: Getting Affiliates to My Site

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What do I need to do to get affiliates to my company’s Web site?

Maybe it’s because it’s a Friday, but this reminds me of the old joke where some out-of-towners ask a New Yorker how to get to Carnegie Hall. His response: Practice.

Along those lines, it sort of takes practice, or rather testing, to figure out what works to get the affiliates you want to come to your site and learn about your company.

One thing for sure – sending out unsolicited e-mail (aka spam) to masses of people is not the answer. That’s one thing you should not do.

Instead, focus on reaching out to prospective affiliates through paid search ads, telephone calls, affiliate program directories, direct mail, and industry events.

When you’ve sold your affiliate program, don’t just send them to your company’s site. Consider creating a section of the site or a separate affiliate resource site for the affiliates to learn more about your affiliate program and join.

Performics Upgrades Affiliate Technology

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Performics upgraded their affiliate marketing technology platform, ConnectCommerce, on Monday, July 31.

They’ve got a new feature called Template tracking, which they say will help improve productivity for Performics’ affiliates and advance the overall usability of ConnectCommerce.

Template tracking provides a new link structure to make the Performics links more flexible, enable better integration with third party affiliate technologies.

In the past, when I would go in to create a link in Performics, their system required a unique identifier to be generated and published every time a new link was created. Now links are tracked using a unique advertiser template (or offer/creative) ID and the affiliate’s ID.

Since generating a link no longer requires sending data from ConnectCommerce to their tracking servers, the Performics links now work instantly.

Old Link Structure:
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/click?lid=41000000008932380

New Link Structure:
http://clickserve.cc-dt.com/link/tplclick?lid=41000000010825647&pubid=21000000000000054

Additionally, now when an affiliate receives promotional e-mails from Performics and their advertisers, the e-mails will contain ready-to-use links.

No longer will affiliates have to click each link in the e-mail to retrieve a tracking link. This will take effect in the coming weeks.

Location of Affiliate Summit 2007 East Survey

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We are starting up plans for the Affiliate Summit 2007 East conference, which will take place next summer.

Please let us know your preference on where Affiliate Summit will take place.

The cities up for consideration are:

  • Atlanta
  • Baltimore
  • Boston
  • Miami (South Beach)
  • New York City
  • Orlando
  • Philadelphia
  • Toronto
  • Washington, DC

We would also like to know how much you are willing and able to pay per night for a hotel room. In the past, the average maximum has been $150/night.

The reason we are asking is that many folks have said they would like to go to NYC in the past, but rooms at a hotel that can host a conference are generally going to be $300 or so per night in New York.

Share your thoughts at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/as-2007-east.shtml.

Toys “R” Us Launches at LinkShare

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This doesn’t exactly rate as breaking news, but as I was just reading the LinkShare Affiliate News, I saw that Toys “R” Us is now at LinkShare.

The Toys “R” Us affiliate program was formerly part of Amazon for years and there was much speculation where they would land after breaking off from Amazon.

In addition to Toys “R” Us, Babies “R” Us has also launched on LinkShare. Both started on July 20 with a base commission of 5%.