5 Star Affiliate Blogs

This is a guest post from Share Results

Every affiliate is different when it comes to the criteria they use to assess what type of offer they will promote. In addition to the preferred promotional method, there are certain aspects about an affiliate program that should be questioned. One creative approach to learning more about an affiliate program is to think like an affiliate network. A keen interest of affiliate networks in deciding whether a product or service is the right strategic fit for affiliates depends on several factors. Here’s the inside scoop on what we look for when it comes to deciding whether or not to launch an affiliate program. Use these questions to evaluate which offer you want to promote.

Who is the affiliate manager?
Some merchants believe that they can set up an affiliate program and just have any old person on their end to manage the account. Sometimes the assumption is that a network will appoint an affiliate manager, or that all affiliates will just actively pick up and promote an offer without having any contact from an affiliate manager. If you are an affiliate looking to join an affiliate program, think like an affiliate network and foresee just how productive the program will be in the long run based on who is running it. If you don’t have enough information about who exactly the affiliate manager is, then try to develop a relationship with the one person who can speak to you about the affiliate program, whoever that may be. It’s always good to know the person in charge of the program to let them know who you are, to determine how you can work together, and evaluate what the expectations are for working together.

Exactly how many affiliate programs are there?
One thing some affiliates might not be paying attention to is the possibility that an affiliate program may be run in multiple networks. We advise merchants on a regular basis to not spread their business too thinly by running four or more affiliate programs at a time. Some programs are divided in order to strategically generate traffic for different offers (i.e. a US-focused affiliate program vs. a Canada-focused affiliate program). But, if there are no distinct differences between the programs, this can lead to closing an affiliate program down the road. Affiliates will need to decide if the offer is the right fit for them, based on where those programs are hosted and how many there are of them.

Find out what others are saying?
Research on a merchant’s offer is a must before a decision can be made about signing on the dotted line and launching an affiliate program. Forums, such as those like 5Star, are great ways to determine what other affiliates are saying about an affiliate program (if one already exists). If the affiliate program has an affiliate manager, try calling up or emailing that affiliate manager directly to learn more about the affiliate program and dig deeper to know what they know about the offer.

These are a few suggestions, but it pays to do a bit of digging to find out more about an affiliate program. Generally, what affiliates see on a program description page is a mere snapshot of what the program offers. So, if it’s not obvious, try asking your contact for the program some questions, such as:

If you have suggestions on how to evaluate an affiliate program before joining, leave us your feedback in the comment box below.

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About Share Results
Share Results has a network of over 12,000 affiliates that promote a variety of products and services from select merchants. Some of the more popular categories of product and service offers range from women’s apparel, family and education lead generation, as well as health and wellness.

With the New Year ringing in, Share Results has rolled out an insightful series entitled “Turning Over a New Leaf-6 Changes Affiliates Can Apply in 2012.” This three-part blog series focuses on six resolutions targeted towards affiliate marketers in hoping to improve their affiliate business in 2012. These helpful tips are especially beneficial to affiliates looking for a little push in the right direction. Check out two tips below and read the rest on the Share Results site:

Attend or Start a Meetup

Affiliate Summit Meetups have gained popularity across a number of different cities in North America. This is a great time to attend these and/or other digital marketing events locally. Meetup.com is a great source for meeting other local affiliates, but so are Facebook and LinkedIn. Begin first by signing up to these sites, and find a digital marketing group you enjoy and is accessible by car or public transportation in your city. This year try to introduce your business to an offline community

Drilling Down Search By Local Results

Pew Internet reports that about 36% of adults rely on search engines for information about local businesses other than restaurants and bars. This means your affiliate site as a local business is very relevant and should be ranking for keywords related to your campaign, and local search. Moreover, your visitors are very likely to be looking for you on their mobile phones just as much as they are looking for you via their desktops. Social Local Mobile or SoLoMo is a major marketing trend that many professionals are already paying attention to and will continue to do so in 2012. For the sake of your affiliate business, we recommend that you do the same to help profit in the new year.

To read the entire series, visit the following links:

Turning Over a New Leaf-6 Changes Affiliates Can Apply in 2012: Part 1

Turning Over a New Leaf-6 Changes Affiliates Can Apply in 2012: Part 2

Turning Over a New Leaf-6 Changes Affiliates Can Apply in 2012: Part 3

RevenueWire’s affiliate network, AffiliateWire, has truly gone all out for this year’s affiliate contest. They’ve just launched Lethal Velocity, their third annual Live Dangerously Contest. If you’ve never been a part of it before, this year is your chance to jump in on the unforgettable action. Their annual contest is truly an epic adventure-of-a-lifetime event. Past winners have gone on a real live shark dive in the Bahamas and an electrifying flight in a jet fighter –– barrel rolls included! That’s just how this affiliate network rolls…

For 2012′s installment of the Live Dangerously Contest, the grande prize blazes with even more excitement, speed, and raw awesome adventure than you ever thought possible. A winning seat in the Lethal Velocity Contest will pretty much BLOW YOUR MIND.

Winners get to drive a selection of exotic supercars at top speed down an airstrip in the Mojave Desert. Choose from a range of stunning road machines to try and reach the 200MPH mark, including a Ferrari GTB and Italia, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, Mercedes McLaren SLR and Bentley Continental Supersports. Just imagine yourself at the wheel of one of these world class road machines!

And there’s an added challenge, too. You will be gunning to break the 200MPH barrier. If you succeed, you will be immortalized in the 200MPH Club!

The top new affiliate and the top incremental affiliate each win a seat in this thrilling automotive adventure. There’s also a third seat awarded to the top vote getting industry blogger. You can learn more about the blogger contest here.

There you have it. Three seats. One incredibly awesome experience.

Visit www.live-dangerously.com for all the details.

Now here’s the best part. All sales of every product on the AffiliateWire Network are automatically eligible towards this prize.

NOT A MEMBER? SIGN UP HERE.
THEN ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SELL, SELL, SELL.

That’s your cue. Sign up, open your AffiliateWire account, pick your products and put your campaigns in high gear.

Any questions, feel free to contact affiliates@revenuewire.com.

NDemand Affiliates is a superior affiliate network featuring 800+ campaigns and the best payouts you will find anywhere! From health and beauty to dating, they have all the top performing offers as well as great exclusives you won’t find elsewhere! Offers include a mix of incentive and non-incentive campaigns.

NDemand Affiliates strives to earn your business with our competitive rates, excellent affiliate support, and a vast campaign selection. With years of experience, the dedicated team of representatives will work diligently with you to ensure you earn the best return possible.

NDemand Affiliates – Affiliate Network Benefits

.:. Wide Variety of Offers
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More Info – Join Here!

Net 30 payments are standard – bi-weekly payouts available after quality level is reached. Ndemand also offers 24/7 support and if you can’t reach an AM you can go right to the CEO!

With NDemand Affiliates you can be assured that we will always pay on time, carry the best quality – high converting campaigns on inventory, and always be there to offer dedicated support whenever you need it. Join NDemand Affiliates today and discover the difference.

Join NDemand Affiliates Today!

I haven’t quoted her for a long time, but one of my favorite authorities in the affiliate marketing space is Rae Hoffman-Dolan. So I was thrilled to discover a new article she penned today that has some very solid advice. Love the way Rae writes and she knows how to drive a point home! Hope you find this helpful.

Creating A Successful SEO Strategy For An Affiliate Website

Nowadays, ranking is much harder, especially for an affiliate-oriented website. I’d imagine that if you could go back in time and explain to a 1998 affiliate marketer what goes into ranking in the 2011 SERPS, it would be the same kind of culture shock as showing Henry Ford a busy metropolitan freeway at rush hour.

Affiliate marketing has evolved. This evolution is not so much technology-based, nor is it really “fundamentals” based. It’s strategy based.

So how do you create an evolved affiliate strategy? The specifics will change from site to site, but some of the standards remain the same regardless of the topic or niche.

2011 zipped by and 2012 is already here. It’s really true that the older you get the faster time flies. So I hope you make every minute count this year and that you reach new levels of success and prosperity in 2012.

On behalf of all the 5 Star Merchants and Affiliate Managers

Happy New Year!

Thanks for your partnership and support over the past year.
We wish you all a profitable and successful 2012.

Well if shopping is a good economic indicator, looks like the economy is doing pretty well. According to research from IBM CoreMetrics Cyber Monday 2011 online sales were up 33.0 percent over 2010 and Cyber Monday sales were up 29.3 percent over Black Friday.

comScore just reported Cyber Monday reached $1.25 billion in online spending, which is the heaviest online spending day in history and the second day on record to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.

Click the image above to read the rest of the report. There are some good mobile sales stats too.

HAPPY CYBER MONDAY 2011

Sing it with me now, then spin around 3 times, pull on your right ear and pray to the Google Gods. I absolutely guarantee that if you do this little ritual, your Monday Holiday sales will increase! (If funky eBooks promise you can make a billion $$ in your underwear, then I can make a crazy claim too!)

Sing to the tune of “Monday Monday” by the Mama’s and Papa’s

Cyber Monday… so good to me,
Cyber Monday it was all I hoped it would be
Cyber Monday morning, Monday morning will guarantee
That Monday evening sales will still be comin’ in for me.

Every other day, every other day,
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah…
But when Cyber Monday comes, when Cyber Monday comes
You can find me smilin’ all of the time…

If this song stays in your head all day and drives you nuts – please feel free to yell at me in the comments below!

A few weeks ago, Share Results began posting their three-part blog series called 12 Steps of Christmas. A play on the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, the posts look at how online retailers can distinguish their brand and overall business to maximize profits. While these points are great for advertisers, there are some excellent lessons in here that are equally relevant for affiliate marketers, particularly those that are trying to looking for different strategies to increase sales for the holiday season.

Details, Details, and Details
Research has shown that online shoppers spend 80% of their time looking at the information above the page fold. This means that the information below the page fold will only be looked at 20% of the time. Be sure to catch shoppers’ attention while still keeping it simple. It is also very important to clearly state your contact information, last day of shipping, return policies, inventory changes, and other vital information for holiday shoppers. You do not want to be responsible for ruining someone’s gift!

Segment Your Clients
Differentiate your email approaches. Your emails should differ when communicating with a woman or a man or a regular customer or an inactive one. The more segmented your approach, the more effective and personal is your communication.

To read the entire series, visit the following links:

12 Steps of Christmas: Part 1
12 Steps of Christmas: Part 2
12 Steps of Christmas: Part 3

Empyre Media is showing its appreciation to its affiliates and the affiliate marketing industry by offering a huge End of the Year bonus of 10% on all commissions earned from November 15, 2011 through December 31, 2011. The bonus is offered to both existing Empyre affiliates as well as those that join the network during the promotion period. With traffic accepted from all offers, in all verticals and on all media types, affiliates are sure to dramatically increase their Q4 revenues through this unprecedented bonus. Complete bonus details here.

Empyre Media is a leading CPA Affiliate Network that works to bring its affiliate and advertising partners the highest standard of service while ensuring the best quality traffic and offers. Through a combined 22 years of affiliate management, our Affiliate Managers know what makes affiliates successful and how to assist them every step of the way. Our dedication to delivering the highest quality, targeted traffic to our advertiser partners has resulted in countless sales and satisfied consumers. Whether you are monetizing your blog, your network, your list or your website, Empyre Media provides customized service and revenue potential that is unparalleled by any other affiliate network in the industry.

Join Empyre Media today!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are rapidly approaching. By now both affiliates and retail merchants should already have their plans laid out and ready to execute to generate revenue from one of the most popular shopping weekends of the holiday season. Share Results’ Kristina Andersen looks at what to consider when launching campaigns to get ahead of the competition for Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping.

Get Ahead of the Competition for Black Friday

It’s that time of year again when retailers can make 40-60% of their annual revenue through holiday shoppers and bargain hunters, all thanks to Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. If you are a merchant and are planning to showcase your top products on one of the most popular weekends of the year, then stay ahead of your competitors. Most retailers have already started their promotional activities to garner consumer interest for their product offerings, and for those who haven’t, well you still have time.

Halloween has just passed and it is a sign that tells affiliate marketers to be prepared for the holiday rush this season. Over on the Share Results blog, Janice Scrim advises on what key things affiliates (and merchants) need to be aware of in order to reach peak performance during the Q4 season.

Reach Your Peak During the Holiday Season

There is absolutely nothing worse that I can think of than not be prepared to answer an increase in demand for your product—especially when it’s during a peak period, like Halloween, Black Friday or Christmas when you should be expecting one.

Last night, between door bell rings, I glanced across the street at my neighbour who was ever so gently reaching into her bowl of pre-packaged Halloween bags and gingerly serving the kids. She was speedy, personable and each kid got the same amount of loot. I was digging, searching, and hoping for the best.

With the upcoming holidays around the corner, and stats predicting a 15% increase in online sales, be prepared. No sense having an onslaught of traffic with the potential to dramatically increase your bottom line, with you digging, searching and hoping for the best.

You can read more here.

Panda got ya down? Hitting other roadblocks in your affiliate business?

I just read a post that had several inspiring insights, so wanted to share. Nichola Stott just returned from A4U London and has some really good take-aways from that event. This post is written with SEOs in mind but I think message for affiliates carries even more merit.

What SEOs Can Learn from Savvy Affiliates

Given that over the past two or three years most of the significant Google algorithm updates have negatively impacted many affiliate-model sites, I was expecting to hear some pessimism and foreboding last week at A4U London. In fact, it was quite the opposite at the annual conference for the affiliate industry that brings together online marketing professionals from across the board including merchants, affiliates, affiliate networks, SEOs, publishers, tool-providers and more.

I want to share some of the success-tactics and behaviors of the affiliates with innovative strategies and offerings; but first let’s recap some of the more tangible Google updates of recent times and how some sites were affected.

This is a guest post from Share Results

Many affiliates get their start in affiliate marketing by working part-time in combination with a full-time career. Somewhere in your 24-hour day and seven-day week, you want to make time for getting your affiliate marketing business off the ground, even if it is for only 10 to 15 hours a week. This is not an easy task and requires that new affiliates learn how to work smarter, not harder, in order to eventually make a profit and a full time career out of affiliate marketing. Here are a few suggestions for how you can better organize your time, narrow down your focus on the best campaigns for you, and hopefully earn more profit within your limited time.

Week 1: Review Data and Create a Strategy
It’s a new month and this is the optimal time to check your statistics from the previous month (and even from the past six months). Examine which campaigns did well, and which underperformed. This is where data comes in. Reports from your merchant’s program and/or affiliate network tracking software, and sources like Google Analytics can give you this information. Data is the key to your affiliate marketing success. Without it, it’s difficult to grasp what methods of promotion are giving you the most return on the investment of your time.

What exactly do you need to look at? Well, that depends on what methods of promotion you’re applying to your affiliate business. Rather than just the usual clicks and impressions, you should be evaluating more in-depth information. For example, what percentage of your traffic was direct versus referred visitors? What keywords were used to find your website? Have you evaluated which specific cities or states where products you promoted actually converted?

Once you can identify these trends, then you can use this information to recognize what changes need implementing. Obviously, if something isn’t working, then change it.

Week 1-2: Implement Your Strategy
Now is the time to implement any new changes to your campaign.
If you own a website, you’ll discover that most of the traffic and clicks usually takes place above the fold of your website and decreases as you scroll down. This is where it pays to put your best ads and content. Say for instance that you’re testing out a new merchant’s banners, it doesn’t hurt to rotate your banners to see which one generates the most clicks. If your data showed that you received the most traffic on specific weekdays or on the weekend, then try implementing changes one or two days in advance, so you can take advantage of the traffic that comes your way. Take the list of keywords that generated the most interest and create a top 10 list of those and perhaps other keywords you want to rank high for, and add them into your blog posts or other website content, articles, PPC campaigns…

Week 2-4: Monitor and Optimize
In any affiliate marketing campaign, real-time data is your key to seeing just how much you’re earning. If you have noticed that after just one day of changes that your PPC ads are garnering more impressions but fewer clicks, then it’s time to act quick. When it comes to PPC, you’ve got to monitor the performance of your ads daily and make a quick decision about what keywords or phrases you should swap. Normally, methods of promotion like search engine optimization call for a longer period of time before making changes, but when it comes to PPC, time is money.

For things like SEO and display ads, consider giving campaigns more time before tweaking keywords, banner ad placement, text links and the like. For example, SEO can take a while before you see any results, so it’s normal that you may not see any conversions right away. Oh, and that rotating banner suggestion mentioned above? This is the perfect time to review which ad is seeing the highest conversions. If you notice that one has exceeded the performance of another, the choice is clear: apply what works and discard what doesn’t.

After about four weeks of working on your affiliate business, you will have seen enough and done enough to help grow your business. While the above suggestions for how to better optimize your time may work for some, ultimately you need to find out what strategy works best for you. However, one thing is clear: you have to invest the time and effort just like you would any other business in order to see results. If 10-15 hours is what you’re working with, optimize your time, and you will optimize your affiliate business.

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About Share Results

Share Results has a network of over 12,000 affiliates that promote a variety of products and services from select merchants. Some of the more popular categories of product and service offers range from women’s apparel, family and education lead generation, as well as health and wellness.

Skimlinks just launched SkimWords 2.0, a totally automated and very cool way to monetize websites and blogs. If you’re an affiliate or publisher you’ll want to check this out. Here’s a video and press release that expalins how it works.

Press Release

SKIMLINKS LAUNCHES SKIMWORDS 2.0, AN ADVANCED IN-TEXT MONETIZATION SOLUTION DRIVING E-COMMERCE

SkimWords 2.0 Increases Publishers’ Revenue, Improves Users’ Online Shopping Experience

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Oct. 26, 2011 – Today Skimlinks launched SkimWords 2.0, the newest innovation in its highly advanced in-text monetization solution for Web publishers. SkimWords 2.0 is the first real-time, fully automated content monetization solution to feature in-text product and price comparison across multiple verticals – including consumer electronics, fashion, beauty, mothering, automotive, and lifestyle categories. With SkimWords 2.0, publishers earn incremental revenues, consumers are directed to the optimal retail site to make their purchases, and advertisers receive highly qualified traffic.

CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of this Post

This is a guest post from Share Results

Yet another piece of legislation is going to affect the way affiliate marketers do business in North America. This time, the law will affect those that are based in Canada. The Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL), formerly called the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam bill (FISA) or Bill C-28, aims to protect email recipients in Canada from spam. As a result, businesses everywhere are applying protective measures for the arrival of this new law (which could go into effect as early as this fall season). Anyone convicted of violating this new law will be subject to heavy duty fines: up to $1million for individuals and $10 million for companies.

This means that affiliates who use email as a means of doing business will need to take strategic measures to make sure they do not become classified as a spammer under this new law. Here are three simple, strategic ways to help you get started with protecting your affiliate business in light of the CASL.

CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of this Post

This is a guest post by Mark John Hiemstra from Beezid

It’s official. Penny auction sites are one of the hottest up-and-coming affiliate promotions. You may have seen the commercials on TV, heard them on the radio, or even read about this new craze in your local newspaper. Despite a few rotten apples that have given the industry a bad name, the barrel is far from spoiled – and there is plenty of fruit ripe for the picking.

As with any type of business, before promoting a penny auction site, it is imperative that you ensure the site you are promoting is on the level, and, just as importantly, that you are using ethical, and effective marketing practices to promote that site.

To help you on your way to penny auction affiliate marketing success, here are eight helpful “ates” to use as a guideline.

CLICK HERE to Read the Rest of this Post

Great news for California affiliates! The California Governor just signed AB155 which gives California affiliate marketers a one year reprieve.

The PMA did amazing work to help force this much needed change. You can read the full story at their blog.

California Repeals the Affiliate Nexus Tax Law
Governor Signs Legislation That Will Help 25,000 California Companies Get Back In Business

CAMARILLO, CA — The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) representing 25,000 web-based Affiliate Marketing businesses in California, is very pleased Governor Brown signed AB 155 (Calderon) into law earlier today.

PMA executive director, Rebecca Madigan stated, “The signing of this legislation means these 25,000 web-based entrepreneurs will be able to get back in business. For the PMA, this issue has always been about keeping the vibrant Affiliate Marketing sector of the economy strong and growing.”

Thank you Governor Brown. Great job PMA. Thanks for all you do to help the industry!

I’m just madly playing catch-up from being gone on an unplugged vacation, being quoted in the NYTimes (and the other media interviews that followed as a result) and being part of the big SoCal power outage. So excuse me if I’m a little behind the times on this story. It’s important news, so wanted to be sure to share. According to the PMA it’s not GREAT news but at least it’s a temporary reprieve.

California Legislature Passes Legislation: 1 Year Reprieve of Affiliate Nexus Tax

The California legislature has passed legislation that temporarily repeals the affiliate nexus tax. The affiliate nexus tax will go back into effect September 15, 2012 if a federal sales tax solution is not implemented by July 2012. This is a deal brokered by California retailers and Amazon, who has agreed to lobby for a federal solution, or collect sales tax if it isn’t implemented by the deadline. The law will go into immediate effect upon the signature of Governor Brown. The PMA has come out in opposition of this proposal.