Affiliate Blog » Affiliate management

Affiliate Blog Competition

Affiliate Blogger — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:40:30 +0000

How to hold an affiliate blog competition and get it right.

Running a successful blogging competition is not easy but Affiliate.com has done it the right way.

Here is how:

-They have a good basic concept, blogging about warring a t-shirt which has their branding on it include them I the post.

-The t-shirt actually has a great design.

-One of the big draws for a competition is who the judges are people want to say they have won a competition they have a blog or post worth a prize and having Missy Ward, John Chow, Zac Johnson and me as judges will motivate lots of people to enter. Those judge promoted the competition and they are likely to blog about the winner with their photo and so that will give winner lots of publicity.

-$1000 to the winner and $1000 to a charity is also a great prize.

Affiliate Blogger bought by Murray Newlands

Affiliate Blogger — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:06:47 +0000

I am happy to say that I have bought Affiliateblogger.co.uk and I will be developing it out over the coming months. So look forward to some updated.

affiliate blog

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Voucher codes god long tail

Affiliate Blogger — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:53:45 +0000

The way people search in Google is one of the key foundations in SEO and affiliate marketing (particularly niche), interestingly there has been a trend over the last few year that users are searching more and more specifically, with 4 word key phrases offering the highest conversions, giving indication that users are looking for very specific information as they search. It was interesting to see some recent Hitwise data that actually backed this theory up, and applied it to the specific demograph of affiliates who work in the voucher code sector.

Essentially what this indicates is that users are now very aware of voucher codes, and actively seek out specific voucher codes and even specific voucher code sites. whilst volumes aren’t growing as aggressively as before, what is clear is that the volume of traffic generates by searches with voucher code related keywords is so significant that merchants can’t ignore the impact on sales even a token voucher code can offer. After all isn’t this ‘bargain britain?

Converting CPM to CPA

Affiliate Blogger — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:23:14 +0000

I was chatting to a sales lady at upmystreet today, now normally i wouldn’t want to name and shame, but this lady’s sales skills were tragic, no surprise when the head of display advertising at the agency i work at warned me she’d be useless.

basically there’s been a lot of noise about how CPM display advertising has come under fire particularly in this recession, with affiliate offering a significant threat, due to its model of paying only for actual sales.

Given that Upmysteet is a CPM business, there are ways that a CPM network can work on CPA, its as simple as understanding the various measurements CTR, and conversion rates, if you’ve got the number of impressions, and you know the CPM (both from the CPM network) and you know what the Conversion rate and commission is (both from the affiliate network), its a simple case to calculate what the likely CPA gains are, heres an example:
100000 impressions x 0.12% = 120 click; 120 clicks x 4% conv. = 4.8 sales x £5 commission = £24 in commission

given this equation is extremely simple, i was surprised at 1. how long it took me to explain this to the sales lady who clearly didn’t get it. and 2. i was awestruck at how much they were charging on CPM (£6!) at this CPM the same volume of traffic that converted equally as poorly would have cost a client a whopping £600! when (at least from an affiliate prespective) that traffic could be worth more than £24 due to the low click through rate.

I was totally appalled that despite the entire wasted conversation this lady was still adamant the quality of the traffic was worth £600 despite me pointing out that because of the above equation, that traffic was pretty much…worthless.

and whilst there will be those ‘brand monkeys’ out there who will argue its all about brand and brand presence, yes this might be the case but what is marketing about? Sales, increasing sales, so when you try to predict and forecast, you need to be able to do so as accurately as possible. Whilst we can’t measure whether a user has actually looked at an as whilst the are surfing a site, the next best measurement is how they respond to the ad, the click through rate, and given that up my street quoted me a CR of 0.12% i would personally say that was appealing, given i’ve seen CTRs around 5% and above in affiliate marketing for specific true conent affiliate sites.

Affiliate marketing is a buzz word

Affiliate Blogger — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:27:08 +0000

I stumbled on this wonderful viral video about…viral marketing. as an comedian will tell you, comedy has its foundations in truth, and the truth in this viral is how big companies get brain washed in to the latest marketing craze, first it was display, the PPC, then the mysteries of SEO, and oh wait, affiliate next, and lets not forget mobile and so on…its easy for businesses to totally loose the plot and go hell for high water and jump on the viral band wagon, the social media train and so forth, totally forgetting the end point of marketing and that end goal, uplift in sales, yes there’s increased brand recognition, but it all boils down to, getting ppl to buy your stuff to make you and your shareholders money. full stop, no ifs no buts, thats that bottom line reason for any marketing. regardless of ppc seo, social media or viral or even affiliate marketing, ultimately its about selling. all these channels are just that, they are tools in a marketers toolbelt, and each has strengths and attributes, viral is like a grenade, when it works it really explodes, display like a bit of a sledge hammer, if you’re an expert you could in theory hammer a nail with it, but most of the time is a little overkill, ppc is like a sniper rifle honing in on the exact target and affiliate marketing is like a machine gun, lots of effort lots of bullets and more often than not you hit, and when you do, it blows a hole in the wall, ok, when it works it makes a big impact.
the fact of the matter is all these terms a buzzwords, it all comes down to – who do you want to target, how do you want to target them and what result do you want.

Why I love affiliate marketing

Just started reading…

Affiliate Blogger — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:43:22 +0000

After being at my new job for a week, i’ve decided the main skill i’m lacking is in analysis, planning and report, which basically boils down to understanding and being able to put together accurate forecasts, and be able to provide accurate clearly justifiable plans and reports, whilst i’m certainly no genius at this, i’m neither a total green beginner, nevertheless, I’d picked up a book on marketing metrics which I’m not yet begun to read, and now seemed like the ideal time to begin reading it, in the hopes it might aid me in putting together more accurate and detailed forecasts.

Marketing metrics is basically a marketing book only about the equations involved that are of significance to marketing professionals, whilst it might not be of significant use for affiliates, affiliate managers and anyone working merchant, agency or network side and is involved with managing campaigns ought to at least borrow this from a library, its packed with equations which will aid any reporting and each equation is backed up with a detailed explanation of why it’s significant and how it affects the overall campaign, really useful stuff, i’m actually glad i got it and would certainly recommend it.

Twittering affiliate links = no commission

Affiliate Blogger — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:16:24 +0000

I jsut found out off a us affiliate site that Amazon have decided that affiliate links posted via twitter will no longer be acepted and commissions will be declined.

Many merchants and networks prohibit affiliate links from being posted on forums or in blog comments and state links need to be on your own site. However no one has ever set a precedence for social media like Twitter and Facebook.( source)

This seems like an interesting move originally aimed at tackling those spammy affiliates who give us all a bad name, but again it seems like broad stroke of a brush in tackling the issue rather than one that closly scrutinizes how affiliates market products, again spammy affiliates have ruined it for the rest of us. I can understand why merchants would choose to use such a strategy, but perhaps a better strategy to take is to create new ways of tracking traffic from these sources or dealing with it on a case by case basis.

Affiliate management basics

Affiliate Blogger — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:22:50 +0000

affiliate management is a key part of any affiliate program, affiliate managers are highly skilled analyist and negotiators, we’re people-people and entreprenural by our very nature, infact, affiliate managers have to be in order to do the job we do, we have to negotiate deals and spot opportunities in a heart beat as well as manage the wider picture of the campaign over all.

Affiliate management is made up of several components -

Affiliate recruitment- Affiliate recruitment involves finding relevant affiliates and encouraging them to sign up to the campaign, as affiliates are essentially partnering with merchants they are free to work with any merchant they choose. typically affiliate recruitment involves, find affiliates based on the niche and products a merchant sells, finding their contact information and contacting them, tools such as Twitter, MSN, facebook, Linkedin, LinkCapture and market samurai and syntryx are used to help this process but ultimately its ‘knocking on doors’ and is very time consuming but necissary. Contacting affiliates takes the form of email, snail mail, msn, telephone, any form of communication is used and ideally personalized to get affiliates attention and ultimately encourage them to sign up.

Affiliate retention – affiliate retention occurs once affiliate have been recruited and ultimately this involves optimising affiliates for the program, affiliates need to be kept in the light of any changes and new promotions and need new and fresh content which can be provided by an affiliate manager, affiliates also need new creative and it is the affiliate managers responsibility to ensure this happens. Affiliates can be kept in the loop via emails, twitter, facebook and msn. Strategies need to be developed in order to incentivise affiliates to perform.

Campaign planning – planning any advertising campaign is an important part of marketing, its the same with an affiliate program, due to the nature of affiliate marketing a long term strategy needs to be taken making planning all that more important. Planning should include analysing the merchant site to ensure compliancy and a good checkout process, ensuring that commission levels are high enough to be competative and attract affiliates, ensuring there is a clear shedule of reporting and creative delivery as well as promotions between the affiliate, affiliate manager and the client.

Incentive planning – Planning incentives is important to ensure that there is enough PR for the affiliate program, it also helps to support and spike the interest of consumers and should be viewed as a core part of any affiliate program. Incentives should be geared towards getting a specific result, and should be planned with adquate time to allow implementation. Incentives can take the form of bonuses, tiered commission structures, prize draws and give-aways.

Affiliate policing – Affiliate marketing is all about closing a sale, for the most part this isn’t an issue, in that most affiliates will happily abided by the merchants terms and conditions, however, particularly in PPC, terms and conditions need to be very clear and well policed to prevent such things as brand name bidding and direct linking. AdsSpy.com, AdGooroo.com, iSpionage.com, HitWise.com, PoachMark by BrandVerity, KeywordSpy.com, SpyFU.com, KeyCompete.com, and The Search Monitor can be used to support this, and for monitoring true content affiliates google alerts and a good old google search can help indentify any new articles relating to a merchants affiliate program.

Tracking and program maintainance – whilst typically these would be convered by a tech team a good affiliate manager should understand how to setup tracking and the implications tracking has on a merchant site, they should be able to make recomendations on where best to place tracking to ensure that it the right perameters are being recorded in the tracking, and the right KPI’s are being tracked.

(in some cases) Billings and invoicing – in some cases there will be multiple networks as well as special partnerships with affiliates, these all need to be handled by an affiliate manager to ensure that the right results are being delivered, as a result some affiliate managers get involved in the billings and invoicing process.

Network merchant approvals

Affiliate Blogger — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:22:28 +0000

One of the pains of being an affiliate especially a part time affiliate like me, is the sheer number of merchants, terms and conditions, voucher codes and all sorts of other restrictions put in place by merchants who, may or may not understand affiliate marketing. Networks typically take a back seat for most small affiliates when it comes to allowing affiliates to sign up to a campaign, which is fair enough, typically the network will rely on the merchant to approve their affiliates and the merchant can take a few weeks to go through, and even then as an affiliate you might not get approved, for what ever reason.

I’ve been using skimlinks, a tool designed as an amalgamation tool for affiliates and whilst its great, it doesn’t have a datafeed feature which as an affiliate i find invaluable, the great thing about skimlinks however, is that their approval process, whilst strict means that once accepted I can promote what ever merchant I like so long as I include a little snippet of code on the site, you might argue that tradedoubler have something similar but the difference is, with skimlinks I can start a site in this way rather than fussing with the code of an already setup site.

I think that if networks were more strict about what affiliates they took onboard and if there was a universal terms and conditions that applied to all merchant it would make life a hell of alot easier for true content affiliates such as myself.

I agree that there might be issues with merchant who have particuar requirements and it’s not a one size fits all solution, but time is money and networks should support affiliates by providing a quick and efficent sign up process, Affiliate Future and Webgains are better at this than most. I think networks could take a page out of skimlinks in terms of managing affiliates and helping to support affiliate.

Whats the best ever affiliate incentive?

Affiliate Blogger — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:54:14 +0000

I’ve been mulling over this partly out of curiosity and partly because some merchants I do affiliate management need this kind of information to make decisions on how to incentivise their affiliates, I touched on the fact that you need to budget for these here, and that affiliates like to be incentivised with ‘things money can’t buy’, I posed the question ‘whats the best ever affiliate incentive you either seen or won, ever, in all history?’ to affiliates (here) and i got some fantastic responses.

The Barbados Trip by Affiliate Future came up quite a few times and no surprise really when you consider its an all expenses paid vacation in Barbados for a week along with all the trappings of a millionare lifestyle, a week of fun in the sun with drunken affiliates.

BuyaGifts trip to Las Vegas came up – again a big trip for affiliates, some even got a change to fly fighter Jets which was pretty cool to say the least, they also got to go to a gun range, drive indy cars and visit gentlemans clubs, not a bad present considering most affiliate would shell out an arm and a leg for this if they did it themselves.

One affiliate mentioned he got a Limited Edition Rolex Submariner as well as several other highly collectable watches. IWoot got a mention for their ‘Heli-boarding’ expereince, and Fontastic apprently offered up a car. BT despite all their misgivings gave away a holiday to Paris for two, Books direct gave away £17,000 in cash to two affiliates and Affiliate Window Christmas incentives got a mention as well. one of the most original came from a US network that rented out the playboy mansion, complete with bunnies for a weekend for affiliates.

so whilst the competition for the best ever affiliate incentive firmly rests on the Affiliate Future Barbados Trip, the question still remains, what makes a great affiliate incentive that will actually get affiliates motivated?

Some affiliate sites are earning in the region of £xx,xxx,xxx a year – to give you an example one of the key affiliates in the uk is made about £295.68 off one of the programs I manage, so if you multiply that by the 5000 campaigns in the uk you get £1,478,400 in commissions each MONTH! OK, lets be conservative and say that only half those merchants actually made a sale for them, you’re still looking at £739,000 a month or £8,870,400 a year.

Because affiliate marketing is such big business and there are many affiliates who’ve become millionares as a result, incentives are going to need to be pretty darn tasty, I remember once talking to an affiliate about a football jersey he’d won and he mentioned ‘forget about the t-shirt, I can buy that myself’ and that pretty much sums it up.

At the end of the day affilaites are in the game to make money, incentives are a perk, an extra push. If you really want an incentive to make waves, its got to be something that money can’t buy, this is why the barbados trip, the playboy mansion and flying jet fighters made such a difference. Giving away free samples may be nice for affiliates but don’t expect sales to sky rocket as a result of a free sample pack, if you want to make a real difference, offer up a space flight or a dinner date with Alan Sugar.

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