5 Star Affiliate Marketing Blogs

I’m always toying with the idea of trying my hand at PPC/CPA affiliate marketing. Quality score issues make it tough. I don’t have time to build a 20 page destination site just to test an offer, do you? What do you think??? Read the rest, then come back to discuss.

Linkshare and the DMA will be having a conference call Thursday. Get on the call if you can. Here is the DMAs legal analysis of the law so far. By contrast here is what CJ is doing… nothing really.

Carefully read examples 5 and 6 in the law… there is a possibility that simple placing a link on a website (with no further solicitation which includes email) is an activity that would not qualify.

This law is horribly written and confusing from my perspective… but merchants should carefully consider their options with their legal counsels to see if they either qualify (under examples 2/3 etc…) or are exempt as in example 6

Complete Coverage of the New York Affiliate Tax Issues Here
IMPORTANT UPDATE: 5/19 9:30 AM Important New Info for Merchants re New York Affiliate Tax Law
Yesterday Overstock released a press release regarding their reason for dropping 3,400 affiliates over the New York, affiliate-driven sales tax issue.
Check out the Overstock Press Release headline! Overstock.com Says ‘Yes’ […]

Whether you’re an aspiring super affiliate, a top earner, or a part-time affiliate looking to make a little extra each month, this free info will help you learn to earn more. Tip 1 - CPA networks will turn you down in a minute if you’re doing even one of these things…

Amazon needs to kick this New York law off the books so it does not set a precedence other states can follow. A TON of affiliates and merchants with affiliate programs could be affected by this goes through in California as well as New York. This could get knarly!

Oh crap - I was afraid this would happen! Overstock is taking the easiest way out and just throwing affiliates under the bus to try to avoid the New York affiliate-based sales tax problem. Amazon is suing the state of New Your over it. See my other blogs for background.

So many networks have a turn and burn attitude towards website publishers. We established rigorous support standards to help publishers earn maximum revenue while giving their users relevant, valuable content. From the tremendous response we’ve received so far, we think we’ve succeeded

I typically shy away from PayDay Loan affiliate programs, however this company came to me via a referral from a VERY big, well respected SEO blogger - they are a client of his. I’m proud to introduce our newest 5 Star Affiliate Program…

Sorry, the looming recession is no laughing matter, but I’ve been looking for an excuse to use this pic!
good blog post yesterday about good products and services affiliates can focus on during a recession…

I’m not big on article marketing. I know a lot of affiliates that do it, just too many ebookers for me. Great blog about article marketing for retail products that I thought would be really helpful to affiliates. The key is to NOT sound like you are selling a product but to write interesting, informational, educational copy that publishers will accept and consumers are going to want to read.

I was reading Ian Larsen’s blog over the weekend. He has some good tips for affiliate managers about how to screen out fraudulent affiliate applications.
Phony Affiliates Prevention Guide for Managers “Affiliate marketing is prone to fraud due to the lack of quality management, unsophisticated tracking systems, invisible affiliates and the basic principals around […]

Happy Mother’s Day to all
the Work at Home Moms
I work with so many affiliate Moms that have small kids, juggle a million things at once and still manage to get new sites built and campaigns optimized. I don’t know how they manage it all. I sure do admire them though!
This cartoon TOTALLY reminds […]

I’m proud to introduce our newest 5 Star Affiliate Program, Advaliant, a trusted pay-for-performance network. Highly regarded, Advaliant was recognized by ad:tech for the Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign of the year in 2007.

We have 10 great new affiliate programs for your linking pleasure. Plus be sure to catch the latest 5 Star merchant news for program updates, affiliate contests and commission increases that could help increase your bottom line this month.

If you’re building authority sites you get more than one shot at affiliate revenue. You profit first with your direct readers who trust you, and then continue to generate revenue over time with… The lowest form of affiliate marketing engagement comes from…

The final nominations have been made for the “Community Choice” UK Affiliate Marketing Awards. Members can now cast their votes. The winners will be announced on June 5th at the evening Award Show. Here are the finalists:

I was anxious to see how the numbers from ValueClick’s 1st quarter results look. In spite of increased competition from DoubleCLick, Pepperjam and despite the economic downturn, CJ is up by 16% in Q1. Industry growth figures are always a nice thing to see!

Affiliate managers know a affiliates are notorious for not reading email. Plus half the words we need to use (free, offer, sale, money, contest, win) set off spam filters and create deliverability issues. Here are 12 things affiliate managers could communicate real-time, through RSS

Whether you call it herd mentality, social proof, safely in numbers, follow the leader or keeping up with the joneses - today more than ever, social decision making plays a big role in consumer purchase decisions. Use these ideas to boost affiliate sales conversions

I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come here in the US. Financial lead based programs are the core revenue earners for many top affiliates I know. Mortgage loan affiliate programs are suffering right now, hopefully insurance affiliate programs aren’t next on the list…

OK I admit it. I’m a big Idol fan. Even if I wasn’t I would still appreciate this! 5 Lessons Affiliate Marketers Can Learn From American Idol. Awesome post! Wish I would have thought to write it! My Fav lesson is about conversions…

The new tax law states if Amazon has even one affiliate in New York they need to charge sales tax, just as if they had employees in NY. Here is a copy of the actual complaint Amazon filed against the State of New York.

The MVP (Most Valuable POSTER)Award goes to the person we think stands out as an insightful poster and helpful member. Congrats Niche and genuwine4532! Thanks for all you do to make 5 Star the most positive, helpful affiliate community around!

Host Linda Woods welcomes Mike Allen of Shopping-Bargains to the Affiliate Marketing Insider radio show. Shopping-Bargains began in 1999 as a hobby. 2008 - finalist for the Affiliate of the Year in the Affiliate Summit Awards. 2005 - finalist for the LinkShare Merchants Choice Award.

I blogged last week that Brian would be starting a series of posts on copywriting strategies for affiliate marketing. The 1st in the series and it’s really well done and info-rich. 3 Killer Content Strategies for Building Affiliate Marketing Assets…

Should Merchants Use Multiple Affiliate Networks? It’s a multi-dimensional issue and there is not a single answer that’s right for every affiliate program. Industry veterans answered. Affiliates - what do you think?

In my virtual journeys this AM I noticed Shareasale has a new look. I think the new design just launched today. Since a pic is worth 1,000 words I’ll just show you the before and after. What do you think?

Information Week had a good article about the affiliate marketing session at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Always great to see our industry get positive play in mainstream media. I blogged earlier about

Some affiliates were afraid that if they used Tracking202, the team could potentially steal their data and mine their best keywords. So this one is self hosted. Unbelievably, just like Tracking202, Prosper202 is FREE.

A few months ago I was interviewed by Revenue Magazine for a feature about recruiting affiliates. The article titled: Looking for a Few Good Affiliates was published in the January/February issue and was just added to the web site, so even non-subscribers can read it.
The 3 page article is filled with great tips from […]

For affiliates who have always wanted to go to Affiliate Summit, but cannot afford it, here’s your chance! Affiliate Summit will be giving away a free, full conference pass to Affiliate Summit 2008 East every Monday through June 30th.
All you have to do to enter is to follow Affiliate Summit on Twitter and submit […]

Brian Clark, the copywriting guru, will be starting a series of posts on content and copywriting strategies for affiliate marketing, over at Copyblogger. I’m a regular reader of his blog which always has great tips about writing copy that sells, so I’m happy to see him do a series that focuses on affiliate marketing.

I’m sure some of the merchants that provide the content and the affiliates that end up using it, wonder about duplicate content filters and potential penalties. Here is some detailed insight and suggestions.

He wrote a good one this weekend regarding the pros and cons of direct linking vs landing pages vs landing sites. He includes some good info on why and when to use each one.