Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for July 2008

Commission Junction Revises Minimum Payout Amounts

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Commission Junction is revising the minimum payout amounts for affiliates effective August 28, 2008. According to their announcement, the reason for the change is “to streamline our publisher payment process and better support environmentally conscious commerce.”

The new minimum amounts to earn a commission are as follows:

Commission Junction Minimum Payments

While this may be discouraging to affiliate newbies, I think it’s a good overall move for efficiency and the encouragement of being green affiliates.

Note to self – it’s a good time to move all affiliate payments to direct deposit, though it’s fun to open those commission check envelopes.

FeedFront Magazine, Issue 2

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The second issue of FeedFront, the official magazine of Affiliate Summit, has been published and it will be hitting mailboxes over the coming weeks with 60 pages of affiliate marketing goodness.

FeedFront Magazine, Issue 2Issue two will also be in the attendee bags at Affiliate Summit 2008 East.

The cover story is a profile of Haiko de Poel, Jr. of ABestWeb.

There are also articles on conference networking, diversifying affiliate revenue, perils of white hat SEO, ten affiliate manager commandments, working with video, and coupon codes in affiliate marketing.

Issue 1 of FeedFront Magazine can be downloaded as a pdf file or you can read the articles online:

Get the FeedFront RSS if you’d like to get all of the articles as they are published to the feed.

If you haven’t subscribed, you can get the magazine for free at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/.

International Brand Confusion

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Microsoft announced Live Search Cashback, a cashback affiliate site, in May 2008.

They snagged a nice domain in cashback.com for the site, but is the .com enough for what I anticipate to be a big site?

Now, I don’t think they need to get every TLD, like .ws and .info, but with their international presence, I would imagine Microsoft would want cashback.co.uk.

But it looks like Submission Technology has beat them to it with the acquisition of the Cashback.co.uk domain name.

Submission Technology herald themselves as “the UK’s first ever online cashback company”, and their sites include the big affiliate site, GreasyPalm.co.uk.

According to their press release, “Submission Technology coined the phrase ‘cashback’ in the market over 5 years ago.”

Company Director and longtime affiliate marketer Neil Durrant stared, “We are delighted to have secured the Cashback.co.uk domain name. There are exciting new opportunities in the ‘cash back space’ and the acquisition of this premium domain will be used as a platform for exciting new projects.”

So, it sounds like Microsoft is in for a mindshare battle if they plan to get traction for their cashback site in the UK.

Affiliates with Religious Sites

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Q: I am Director of a ministry offering resources developed at our large (15,000 person) church and outreach ministry to other churches and ministries. I have developed a website for our over 100 products and need affiliate partners who will drive traffic to our new site. Our ministry is a highly targeted B2B operation. What are some of the best affiliate networks for me to consider?

Shawn CollinsA: I am not aware of any one affiliate network that has a larger portion of affiliates with a focus on faith.

My suggestion would be to touch base with the various affiliate networks to ask whether they have any data on the number of affiliates in their system that identify themselves as having religious content.

Also, the Christian Affiliate Marketers blog is a good site for you to check out to get more immersed in the community there.

And have a look at GodblogCon, which is a conference of religious bloggers.

This would be a good place to recruit new affiliates for your affiliate program.

Lastly, if you are attending Affiliate Summit in Boston (August 10-12, 2008), the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association is holding a fellowship and networking event, the CAMA Cruise.

Maximum Number of AdSense Units

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The AdSense blog has outlined the maximum number of each type of ad unit their program policies allow.

It’s actually more than I thought, so helpful to get the official word on it.

In order for your pages with AdSense to be compliant, they must not exceed the following:

ONE…
– video unit (currently only available in specific countries and languages, though we’re working to expand video units to additional publishers soon)

TWO…
– AdSense for search boxes

THREE…
– standard AdSense for content ad units, and
– 3 link units

Personally, I think this is excessive, unless you have a pretty long page with lots of text.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Scare

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Just like most any affiliate marketer, I spend long days pounding on my keyboard. Often times, I’ll go many hours without grazing away from my desk.

Working too much - suffering from a Carpal tunnel syndrome - you

In the last few weeks, I started getting an increased tingling and that pins and needles feeling in my hands.

I’ve long had a concern that I’d get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and jeopardize my ability to work at the same level, and after searching around a bunch of medical sites, it sounded like I was getting it.

So, I finally went to the doctor to get checked out yesterday, and she confirmed that I was in the early stages of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Fortunately, I might be able to remedy it by wearing wrist splints when I sleep for a few weeks or so. If you were wondering, yes, the splints are uncomfortable to wear while sleeping.

On the night before I went to the doctor, I whipped myself into a frenzy – wondering if I was going to soon have some broken down hands that would prevent me from working on the computer.

So, I installed a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software that I bought randomly a few months ago.

I figured in the worst case scenario, I could use this software to write blogs, articles, emails, etc.

I was surprised at how well it worked, even for a mumbler like me. But I don’t know about their claim that it is “More than 3 times faster than typing.”

That could be true if it is error free, but I think I recover faster from typos by hand than voice commands.

There is also an option to transcribe audio with the software. The results there were a mess, but it would beat transcribing by ear, so I might start doing that and manually cleaning it up.

Anyhow, just a word of caution that you should definitely get yourself checked out if you are having aches and pains in your hands.

Affiliate Summit 2008 East is Sold Out

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Affiliate Summit 2008 East, starting on August 10 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, has sold out.

Boston Seaport HotelIn the past, some folks thought they were registered by their assistant, boss, colleague, etc. and they were wrong.

So we re-sent the confirmation e-mails yesterday to everybody who is registered for Affiliate Summit 2008 East. If you didn’t get the e-mail, check your Spam folder.

As we process any cancellations that come in, the Web site will be open and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Check http://www.regonline.com/AS2008E for availability.

In the event registrations are open onsite, based on last minute cancellations, the rate will be $1,949 for a full conference registration or $299 for an exhibit hall only pass.

More details on Affiliate Summit at http://www.affiliatesummit.com.

Charitable Affiliate Program from Advanta

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The Advanta affiliate program adds a twist to the traditional affiliate relationship where affiliates earn commission and have charitable donations made in their name.

Advanta is working with microlending organization Kiva, and for every new Kiva BusinessCard customer acquired through the affiliate, Advanta will make a charitable donation to Kiva in the affiliate’s name.

This is in addition to the money the affiliate receives.

Kiva is a person-to-person micro-lending program that enables individuals to lend directly to entrepreneurs in the developing world.

It’s nice to see the Advanta affiliate program giving back.

More about the Advanta affiliate program at https://www.advanta.com/ADV/Affiliate/AboutTheProgram.page.