Affiliates: 8 Reasons Why Your Hard Work Isn’t Paying Off

Gosh darn it’s frustrating isn’t it? You’ve been working soooo hard on your affiliate sites, often staying up till 2am on a work night to try and make your big break into affiliate marketing or push your affiliate business on to new heights. Here’s my top ten reasons why those hours spent

Foursquare Offers Up User Data with Check-in Analytics

A world in which customers walk through the door of a business and get a coupon especially crafted for them is much closer, thanks to Foursquare.

The application, which has become the dominant player in the world of mobile, geo-specific check-ins, has unveiled a set of analytics for businesses which will put a name and a face to loyal customers.

The dashboard, which is still in alpha, is debuting for 30 select customers before a bigger roll-out. The dashboard gives businesses a look at who is checking in, breaks them down by when they come in, gender, and number of visits. Businesses will also be able to see which platform customers are using to share their status.  If your visitors are heavy into Twitter or Facebook, you can follow them there. Other types of information tracked includes: total check-ins, unique visitors, male-to-female ratio, and top visitors.

Writes Zachary Wilson of Fast Company,

“With priceless data like this, it’s easy to imagine a blow-up in participating venues coming soon. More businesses means more users, more users means more businesses, and suddenly Foursquare is the Facebook of check-ins.”

Foursquare plans to add additional real-time information for business users, including weather updates. Potentially, this dashboard could be used by large chain businesses (like a Wal-Mart or Starbucks) from a central location with a view of all of their outlets in real time.

“We’ve been talking with quite a few [large corporations] who are excited about the potential for this,” said Tristan Walker, Business Development at Foursquare, in an interview with Mashable. “Once we can add purchase information on top of check-ins things can get pretty interesting.”

This valuable information helps Foursquare give itself even more distance ahead of competitors like Gowalla, and the addition of a newly designed iPhone app will give FourSquare an additional bump in users.

As the dashboard and analytics are tweaked, based on the alpha tests, plans are to introduce the service to the 1,000 or so registered businesses currently running specials on Foursquare.

Angel Djambazov Special Guest on Affiliate Marketing Insider

Angel will be sharing his insights into the affiliate marketing industry… Hear what he has to say about affiliate program management, the fight against the advertising tax and the future of our industry.

Free Webinar w/ Rosalind Gardner: SUPER Affiliate Strategies for Sustainable Businesses

SUPER Affiliate Strategies for Sustainable Businesses. Developing the right mind-set for long-term successSite-building strategies Less work, more reward – how to choose the best offers. How to build mountains of free traffic…

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Do Marketers Understand Social Media?

Ever get the feeling that marketers don’t really understand social media – or at least don’t effectively utilize it?

That’s the premise of Steve Rubel’s article on Forbes.com, and he makes an important observation worthy of discussion. Rubel is a well-known member of the digerati who is Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, the digital division of the world’s largest independent PR firm.

Rubel says marketers are making a massive shift to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, sometimes to the exclusion of mentioning their own corporate websites. He wonders whether the corporate URL is a dying breed.

But Rubel sees the potential for this strategy to backfire. He says consumers could “perceive corporate real estate on Facebook as a lame attempt to appear cool and hip.” “Many brands are just using their Twitter and Facebook presences to spew out updates, without any thought to how consumers will benefit by essentially opting in,” says Rubel. And most important, he says, “very few businesses treat social networks as personal, conversational spaces. Hardly any feature real employees. And a scant few aim to advance shared interests.”

I think Steve Rubel has given voice to something the big traditional marketers are missing – something savvy online marketers surely understand: social media is not just another channel for ads. As I mentioned in my post about Twitter going commercial, ads on Facebook and Twitter need to be a good fit with those platforms for them to be viewed as authentic.

In fact, authenticity may be the real issue here. Rubel’s observations point to the fact that some big marketers may be viewing social media in an entirely wrong context. Their quick fix answer is to muscle their way into Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube – but once they get there, they have no clue what to do. Think of it as a bully on the basketball court who has no shooting skill. He may be able to take the ball away from the other kids, but he’ll have a heck of a time scoring a basket.

I’m reminded of a time when marketers wanted to convert their messages to another medium called direct marketing. It was a sometimes painful transition: The marketers had to speak in a different voice that put the emphasis on “you” instead of “me.” That’s not easy when you have a corporate ego. Marketers had to learn that direct marketing was at its heart a correspondence relationship. The promotional approach had to be engaging. Copy had to be loaded with benefits, not just features. There had to be a compelling offer. And marketers had to have a strong call to action and numerous response paths – they’d get nowhere without asking for the order and providing specific ways to respond.

In the same way, marketers can’t just stumble blindly into social media. They need to learn the same kind of lesson they were forced to learn when they embraced direct marketing.

Social media is a different animal. Marketers have to engage in a two-way dialogue with consumers to make it work, and they have to be willing to expose themselves to possible negative feedback and open criticism. They have to budget and staff for social media. They need people whose responsibility includes engaging, responding to, and following up with consumers.

All of this takes a commitment to using social media on its own terms. If you want to play on someone’s field, you have to use their ball. Sorry, but social media doesn’t fit into that comfortable little box called traditional marketing. When you look at the way some marketers are approaching social media, you have to wonder if they will ever understand its potential.

Top 10 Must See Interactive Sessions at SXSW 2010

Believe it or not there is more to SXSW than the parties. Although from chatter on Twitter it’s often hard to tell. With SXSW kicking off this week I’m sure most of you have planned which parties to attend but maybe haven’t looked at the session schedule quite yet. So before you get lost in the lines to the film screenings, bars, celebrity signings, and hoping food joints like the Magnolia Café or the Iron Works, here are my picks for the Top 10 must see interactive sessions at SXSW 2010:

Smackdown: Consumers Privacy vs. Advertiser Revenue
Time: Friday March 12, 2PM
Hashtag: #smackdownprivacyrevenuet

The panel premise that the FTC could ban all forms of tracking consumer web activity is a nice but alarmist hook. Still, it is true that the FTC is being more aggressive in policing online activity and the assembled panelists should provide advertisers some clear insights into compliance issues.

Panelists include:

• Alan Chapell, President, Chapell & Associates
• Alison Pepper, Director of Public Policy, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
• Jordan Mitchell, Vice President of Data Intelligence, Rubicon Project
• Ingrid Sanders, Director AdAdvisor,  TARGUSinfo

Crime Scene: Digital Identity Theft
Time: Friday March 12, 3:30PM
Hashtag: #digitalidtheft

The theft of digital identity is often easier and sometimes more damaging than identity theft offline. As social media mixes more with ecommerce this will become a larger problem. Learning methods to make that ID more secure is valuable information. Hopefully Bill has the sense to not make it too pitchy.

Panelists include:

• Bill Morrow, Chairman & CEO, CSIdentity
• Aaron Strout, CMO,  Powered.com

Eight Ways to Deal with Bastards
Time: Friday March 12, 5PM
Hashtag: #8waysdealbastards

As the saying goes, no one ever has a good day in customer service. This is especially true when, let’s face it, some of your customers  are inevitably  bastards. This session offers a few copeing mechanisms.

Panelists include:

• Bryan Mason, Founder, Small Batch Inc / Typekit
• Jason Shellen. CEO & Founder,  Thing Labs
• Lori McLeese, Chief People Officer,  Room to Read
• Karen Walrond, Founder, Chookooloonks Media

Big Brother in Your Brain: Neuroscience & Marketing
Time: Saturday March 13, 11AM
Hashtag: #bigbrotherinyourbrain

I’m a science geek, so when you mention the word “neuroscience” in a panel about marketing I’m ready to jack in. The concept of using MRIs to analyze brain activity when exposed to different marketing stimuli is very interesting. So is the brewing battle of math (analytics) vs. creativity; somehow I don’t see the two concepts as being mutually exclusive. All the makings of a great session!

Panelists include:

• Roger Dooley, VP Digital Marketing,  Hobsons
• Gary Koepke, Co-Founder, Modernista!
• Eric Kogelschatz, Co-Founder, shark&minnow
• Dr. A.K. Pradeep, President/ CEO, NeuroFocus
• Dr. Danielle Stolzenberg, PHD, University of Virginia

Sleeping Giants: Digital Awakens TV and Media
Time: Saturday March 13, 5PM
Hashtag: #designemergingmedia

Giants always follow the money. Or the beanstalk. Digital has now proved that  there is money to be made online, that it is sustainable, and can draw large clients; therefore, it should be no surprise that the giants of traditional media are paying attention. Sponsored by Razorfish, who should know a thing or two about the whims of giants, the session will take on fundamental impact digital will have for advertisers and marketers.

Panelists include:

• Domenic Venuto, Managing Director of Client Solutions, Razorfish
• Andrew Pimentel, Director of Account Planning, Razorfish

Selling Subculture Without Selling Out
Time: Sunday March 14, 12:30PM
Hashtag: #sellingsubculture

Having worked with Jones Soda online marketing efforts for nearly four years I know full well how difficult it is to balance the need to post large sales numbers with the imperative to protect the brand/consumer relationship. This session provides some guidelines on how to hit those numbers without selling out.

Panelists include:

• Richard Nash, Founder, Cursor
• Raymond Leon Roker, Founder, URB Magazine
• Molly Crabapple, Founder, Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School
• Jeff Newelt, Comics Editor, SMITH Magazine
• Gala Darling, Founder, iCiNG

Online Advertising: Losing the Race to the Bottom
Time: Sunday March 14, 3:30PM
Hashtag: #racetothebottom

We spend a lot of time in this industry thinking about “how” and “where” to advertise. The concepts of building real relationships with publishers, making sure the advertising is doesn’t take away from the content, and respectfully dealing with the audience are all topics that are usually just paid lip service. Glad to see this session challenging us to change the way we think.

Panelists include:

• Jim Coudal, Principal, Coudal Partners
• John Gruber, Founder, Daring Fireball

Open Science: Create, Collaborate, Communicate
Time: Monday March 15, 9:30AM
Hashtag: #openscience

Ok, I will admit this made the Top 10 because, well, as I stated earlier I’m a science geek. Ever since I interviewed Scott Maxwell for Gnomedex two years ago I’ve been fascinated about social media’s ability to pry open the doors of previously sequestered industries. It will be nice to see what progress NASA and others have made since then.

Panelists include:

• Ariel Waldman, Founder, Spacehack.org
• Dr. Kirsten Sanford, Ph.D, This Week in Science
• Jessy Cowan-Sharp, Collaborative Web Technology Developer, NASA Ames Research Center
• Natalie Villalobos, Community Manager, Google
• Tantek Çelik, Computer Scientist,  Microformats.org

Web Series 2.0: Big Campaigns on Digital Dollars
Time: Monday March 15, 11AM
Hashtag: #bigcampaigndigitaldollars

Big campaigns don’t always require big dollars. In the social space it is about smart engagement. Smart advertisers are turning to producers and content creators to help maximize their budgets. This is the perfect panel to find out how.

Panelists include:

• Melissa Fallon, VP of Television and Emerging Media, Davie Brown Entertainment
• Chris Hanada, Co-Founder, Retrofit Films
• Milo Ventimiglia, Co-Founder, DiVide Pictures
• Wilson Cleveland, SVP & Director, CJP Digital Media
• Andrew Hampp, Reporter, Advertising Age

Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0
Time: Tuesday March 16, 11AM
Hashtag: #kivakillnonprofit

New fundraising models are changing the ways donors can interact with nonprofits. Kiva, of course, is one  a leading example of success from  such a model. While I don’t feel that the Kiva model will hurt the majority of nonprofits, I do feel that they will need to adapt to new methods of outreach to successfully maintain their donor base.

Panelists include:

• Skylar Woodward, Designer/Lender, Kiva
• Ruth-Anne Renaud, VP of Women’s Philanthropy & Interactive Marketing, Opportunity International
• Milo Sybrant, Online Fundraising Manager, Amnesty International USA
• Michael Cervino, Vice President, Beaconfire Consulting
• Katie Bisbee, Executive Director, DonorsChoose.org

Hope you get back to your hotel in one piece and you enjoy the sessions at SXSW 2010.

Free Webinar w/ Rosalind Gardner: SUPER Affiliate Strategies for Sustainable Businesses

SUPER Affiliate Strategies for Sustainable Businesses. Developing the right mind-set for long-term success
Site-building strategies Less work, more reward – how to choose the best offers. How to build mountains of free traffic…

Amazon Terminates Thousands of Affiliates – Uses Them to Fight Colorado Sales Tax Legislation #noadtax

In spite of the fact that Colorado affiliates were able to get affiliate nexus language removed from HB 10-1193, Amazon still sent termination letters to thousands of Colorado affiliates, informing them they are being dropped today without notice. What is really crazy about this is

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Amazon Terminates Thousands of Affiliates – Uses Them to Fight Colorado Sales Tax Legislation #noadtax

In spite of the fact that Colorado affiliates were able to get affiliate nexus language removed from HB 10-1193, Amazon still sent termination letters to thousands of Colorado affiliates, informing them they are being dropped today without notice. What is really crazy about this is

Amazon Terminates Colorado Affiliates, Joins Growing List of Advertisers

Among the so-called Amazon Taxes Colorado HB 1193 is unique. Signed into law by Governor Bill Ritter on February 25th the legislation went into effect on March 1st and is heralded as a landmark bill, the first of its kind to put teeth behinds its attempt to collect sales tax. It requires all online retailers who do not collect sales tax to put a notice in the Colorado customer’s invoice notifying them they are by law obligated to pay sales tax in the state for their purchase. Beyond that it further requires retailers to submit a yearly list of customers and purchasing data to support Colorado’s enforcement ability.

The law also differs from its Amazon Tax brethren in that it purposefully, and with the support of large affiliates like ShopAtHome, attempted to spare Colorado affiliates from the fate they suffered in other states where similar laws have passed. For the Performance Marketing Association the removal of affiliate focused language was seen as a victory.

Unfortunately the attempt protect affiliates failed.

Amazon, who provided lobbyists during the fight against HB 1193, served termination notices over the weekend to thousands of Colorado affiliates saying:

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.

Amazon is not alone in this stance. A handful of other companies including Oriental Trading Company, Hammacher Schlemmer, Terry’s Village and GiftBaskets.com have terminated affiliate relationships in the state. With Amazon’s announcement over the weekend many other are expected to follow suit including Overstock.

Many members of the PMA feel that such actions are due to advertisers who have not taken the time to familiarize themselves with the law’s new language. In Amazon’s case, Amazon does say it will continue to sell to Colorado residents, whether they will comply with providing lists of its customers who are Colorado residents to help with enforcement has yet to be seen. Knowing Amazon’s past behavior it is doubtful and a legal challenge against this legislation won’t be surprising.

Twitter Goes Commercial

Reports are flying around cyberspace that Twitter will soon be introducing ads. Just recently, Twitter’s head of monetization, Anamitra Banerji, said the company would launch at least a beta test of ads, possibly within a month.

The word on the street is that Twitter’s ads will maintain the 140 characters-or-less mandate, and that the ads will be tied to Twitter searches, not unlike Google’s original ads. If this is true, then Twitter users will potentially only see ads if they are searching for something.

Ads on Twitter should be of interest to online marketers. Whether you personally use Twitter or not, you can’t ignore the 27 million users who tweet. And it isn’t just consumers – somewhere around half of the world’s largest companies are officially on Twitter.

That user base may be a far cry from the 400 million active users of Facebook, which also offers ads, but it is still an impressive number. Because of the nature of Twitter, its users are largely a mobile bunch. That means a Twitter advertiser could very effectively target an audience that is likely to be receptive to mobile marketing campaigns.

Apparently, some potential advertisers are already turning up their noses at the idea.

“Advertising on Twitter will feel like your social media strategy has failed,” says Paul Troy, global head of advertising and content for Britain’s Barclaycard.

“It doesn’t feel like something leading brands will do.” Cheryl Calverley, a senior global manager for Unilever’s Axe Skin, questions the value of Twitter ads because, she says, Twitter “doesn’t have the reach of broadcast media.”

Those comments not withstanding, if Twitter does indeed launch its own ads, there will undoubtedly be advertisers who will try them. The larger issue, however, involves the inevitable commercialization of every medium. At one time, there was an admittedly naïve belief that social media platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter should remain ad-free. Let’s be real, though: they have to make money. As soon as a medium gains critical mass, its owners have to be thinking about ways to become profitable. Search and social media sites offer free access, so there aren’t many options for revenue generation other than advertising.

Still, some ads on social media platforms may stretch the limits, leading marketers to question whether such advertising is too intrusive. An article in The New York Times points to the “self-service” ads on Facebook as an example: “Many advertisers who use the self-service system are tempted to go as far as possible in making ads that attract attention and appear relevant, aided by the information that people give to Facebook.”

While very targeted ads may seem like a good idea, they can also turn off some consumers, says The Times:

“From the perspective of many users, the tailored ads can often seem, at best, presumptuous. Women who change their status to “engaged” on Facebook to share the news with their friends, for example, report seeing a flood of advertisements for services and products like wedding photographers, skin treatments and weight-loss regimens.”

If and when Twitter launches its advertising program, it may very well fall prey to advertising that is not always tasteful. But that is unlikely to stop Twitter from moving forward. Like other social media, Twitter must deal with economic reality.

Automatic Affiliate Links to Millions of Products With New Innovation

…aggregates millions of products, coupons and news from more than 7,500 merchants. It even incorporates a URL shortener that allows you to create shortened, monetized URLs for Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media

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Automatic Affiliate Links to Millions of Products With New Innovation

…aggregates millions of products, coupons and news from more than 7,500 merchants. It even incorporates a URL shortener that allows you to create shortened, monetized URLs for Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media

FlexOffers Affiliate Network: Hundreds of Top Programs – Dynamic Marketing Tools

Check out FlexOffers affiliate network, featuring hundreds of affiliate programs from top brands like Macy’s, Stubhub, Discover, New York Life… They provide various automated content delivery systems including: free templates, datafeeds, XML and web services.

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FlexOffers Affiliate Network: Hundreds of Top Programs – Dynamic Marketing Tools

Check out FlexOffers affiliate network, featuring hundreds of affiliate programs from top brands like Macy’s, Stubhub, Discover, New York Life… They provide various automated content delivery systems including: free templates, datafeeds, XML and web services.

Merchants – Never Underestimate the Power of the Affiliate Community

Merchants, if you think you can get away with cheating your affiliates, think again! See just how fast your reputation in the affiliate marketing community can be ruined, if you try to pull a fast one over on your affiliate “partners”.

Merchants – Never Underestimate the Power of the Affiliate Community

Merchants, if you think you can get away with cheating your affiliates, think again! See just how fast your reputation in the affiliate marketing community can be ruined, if you try to pull a fast one over on your affiliate “partners”.

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(Dirty) Panties.com: Merchants – Never Underestimate the Power of the Affiliate Community

Merchants, if you think you can get away with cheating your affiliates, think again! See just how fast your reputation in the affiliate marketing community can be ruined, if you try to pull a fast one over on your affiliate “partners”.

4 Lessons Marketers Can Learn From How Consumers Get Their News

A new study out by the Pew Internet and American Life Project tells us how consumers get their news. No surprise: 92 percent of Americans use multiple platforms (television, newspapers, radio, the Internet) to get news on a typical day. But the real story, of course, is the impact of the Internet and the fundamental ways it is changing consumer behavior.

The Internet is now third in popularity for news, behind only local television and national television news. But here are some key findings that go a lot deeper:

• Most people use between two and five online news sources
• 65 percent say they do not have a single favorite website for news
• 33 percent of cell phone owners access news on their cell phones
• 37 percent of Internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter
• 50 percent of American news consumers say they rely to some degree on people around them to tell them the news they need to know
• More than 80 percent of online news consumers get or share links in emails.
• 70 percent of Americans think “the amount of news and information available from different sources today is overwhelming.”

What can online marketers learn from these statistics?

1.    It appears that the Internet has replaced traditional newspapers and news magazines, but it has also encouraged news-hopping, so to speak. If consumers are using multiple news sources rather than a single source, clearly no one media outlet has garnered their loyalty. Are consumers not getting an objective perspective from a single source? Or do they get different kinds of news from different sites? Maybe consumers are more discriminating than they’re often given credit for and they like a story to be validated by more than one source. Whatever the reason, it means online marketers shouldn’t commit all of their ad dollars to just one online news source.

2.    Consumers will likely rely more and more on their cell phones to get online information and news. As I wrote in a previous post, 2010 could become a banner year for mobile usage, so online marketers need to plan now to get their fair share of this marketplace.

3.    The old news paradigm seems to be crumbling. It used to be that authoritative figures delivered the news via traditional media channels. Newspaper reporters’ stories and columnists’ commentaries carried weight. Television anchors were respected. The news was the news.

The new news paradigm is very different. Professional journalists are being replaced with citizen journalists and bloggers. While amateur journalism may not always be a good thing, it does represent a much broader spectrum of observation and opinion. Media outlets like CNN encourage consumers to send in their video reports. Over a third of consumers are taking a participatory role in the news now, and that’s likely to increase. They’re sharing the news with friends and acquaintances, discussing it online, and not just accepting news at face value. For the most part, online marketers already recognize the consumers’ collaborative power. That’s why they are building in opportunities for social interaction and feedback into their marketing programs.

4.    It may not be surprising that the majority of news consumers are overwhelmed by information. Television channels have proliferated and the Internet has opened up more informational opportunities than any consumer could ever handle. But this may suggest another opportunity: What if an online marketer could help the consumer cut through the clutter? It’s already being done by organizations such as SmartBrief, a media company that hand-picks relevant news, summarizes it, and delivers it with links to the original stories in e-mail newsletters tailored to 25 different industries.

We all recognize that the Internet has fundamentally changed the manner in which people consume information. As marketers, we need to also recognize what each of us can do to help solve information overload – and to become such a vital resource that a consumer will choose the information we provide over someone else’s.

All I Need to Know about Affiliate Marketing I Learned in Kindergarten

Get in touch with your inner child today! Take a fresh look at your business, with the eyes of a child, and read this inspiring post. Add your own kindergarten affiliate lessons below.

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