Make Money Online

As from 1st February 2010, Michel Gerard takes over the affiliate management of Trend To Go run on Shareasale, from Allen Miller at AMWSO. Michel has been an affiliate manager with AMWSO for 4 years and is committed to the affiliates’ success.

TrendToGo.com is one of the fastest growing merchants on the Shareasale affiliate network, featuring a vast selection of sterling silver jewelry, stainless steel jewelry, authentic designer watches, authentic fragrances, Designer handbags and apparel at 30-50% discount on retail prices.

The Trend To Go Affiliate Program pays a 10% – 25% tiered commission on products sold when placing text links, banners or widgets on your website. Cookie Tracking is 120 days, which is better than most other affiliate programs in the same vertical.

Not yet an Affiliate?
Check out more information about the TrendToGo.com affiliate program right here.

Sign up for the program here.

Contact Affiliate Partner Manager: Michel Gerard

Original post:
TrendToGo Affiliate Program – Change of Affiliate Manager at AMWSO

Easy to enter and also develop some great content for yourself at the same time!

Simply write an honest review of EncryptStick™. [We're not looking for sycophantic praise, simply an honest review of the software, and how it can help users encrypt and secure their private files]. Once you’ve written the review, place it on your website/blog [and link to the EncryptStick.com website through a CJ affiliate link]. The competition runs to midnight [Pacific Time] on Sunday 28th March 2010.

The best review will win the Grand Gathering Gift Basket, or a cash prize of $198 if this is what you prefer, provided that your review and affiliate link is still active on the 1st of April 2010. We’re not just giving away a gift basket! The first 10 entrants will be given a full EncryptStick™ license worth $39.99.

Simply create your review and email the link to James Nardell (James.Nardell [@] AMWSO.com) [using the subject line '2010 EncryptStick Review'] before midnight on Sunday 28th March 2010. Make sure you include your; name, address and most importantly the URL where we can find your link! The winner will be announced in the April affiliate newsletter.

Check out the latest EncryptStick affiliate newsletter here.

Learn more about the EncryptStick affiliate program here.

Read the rest here:
Win a sweet sweet prize!

Happy New Year! After a pretty slow 2009, we’re glad to be moving forwards into a new year. And it’s been starting off quickly with a range of new clients getting their affiliate program launches under way. First on the launch pad we have Pixily.com who offer an award winning document management and scanning service. This should be live by Feb 1. They’ll be followed in the weeks after that by SStands.com, selling a range of MS office tools and applications, the SexywearAvenue with their wide range of costumes and clothing. A couple more under wraps but aiming for February launches are an Diamond and Jewelry store and a store selling cookies! More on all these programs as they launch!

Original post:
Kicking off 2010

Dave has put together a great presentation of the Art of Tea affiliate program in a video, check it out here :

Excerpt from:
Art of Tea Video Presentation

I pretty much avoid doing any kind of business for friends, I’d rather refer them elsewhere than have them as clients, friends as a general rule, make for poor clients and it can put a horrible amount of stress on the friendship. But, every now and again, along comes a project that bends the rules. Such was the case when my friend Tod Deware came to me and asked for help developing his business for him.  Tod is a “fix anything” sort of guy, electrics, car, pumps, painting, floor, roof, you name it Tod can fix it, build it and make it. Tod discovered a passion a few months ago, painting war game miniatures. And playing miniature war games is a passion of mine. So putting together our passions seemed like a good idea. So we have worked with Tod to develop his site, get his blog running, build up a photo album, kick off his PPC campaign and I’m sure not far away will be an affiliate program.  So far so good, Tod enjoys his new project, I enjoy his new project and so with our dual passions in play, we have high hopes for his business. The aff program is pending, but till then please do enjoy Tod’s miniature painting service site and the painted models themselves. And if you’re a lazy gamer like me, do feel free to drop him a mail for pricing, and ask for the “chris says I can have a discount” special  

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Business, Pleasure and Passion

Logging on to ABW this afternoon I was greated by a thread that burst into life and racked up a mass of interest in the blink of an eye. The attention grabbing thread had the title “ShareASale and Toolbars / Call for Participation on Guidelines” . Yes Oh My indeed, the bastion of BHO free marketing is considering its’ stance.

I highly recommend reading the thread and joining the discussion.

My thoughts :

A major concern I have with this idea, is that, all “BHO affiliate” tool bars, at the end of the day, do far more than just influence/decide which “BHO affiliate” gets the sale. They also canabilize merchants other sales channels, especially the ones based on loyalty, organic (direct to site/seo) and PPC. The bigger the brand the greater the the impact.

When I talk to merchants about tool bars I usually discuss the effect on the affiliate channel along side the impact to the above channels, large brand merchants (the ones that toolbars target) tend to get the majority of their traffic through the above (Toolbar targeted) channels, which ads no value and simply steals sales from the merchant.

How does SAS plan / propose to prevent toolbars that they allow on to Shareasale from cannabilizing a merchants other sales channels? If their plan is not all encompassing then they will simply be enabling tool bars to go to town on Shareasale merchants just like they do on LS, CJ and so forth, adding no value, but certainly adding to the BHO Affiliates revenue.

Here is the original:
Lions Tigers and BHOs. Oh My!

If you’re planning to travel to the USA from now on for any affiliate conferences then make sure you’re registered with ESTA, else you could face being turned back at the airport, this new system applies to all nations that previously didn’t need a Visa and filled in an entry card on the plane. Canadians do not need to apply, there is a full list of applicable nations on the ESTA site.

Until now, registration has operated on a voluntary basis but it will become compulsory for all travellers from 12 January 2009. An ESTA, once obtained, will be valid for a period of two years, or for the validity of the traveller’s passport (whichever is shorter).

ESTA can be found here

From a personal stand point, this is great news, means I don’t have to waste 4 months and a 4-5 hour trip to the US Embassy here to find out whether I need to go get a ticket! Wonder if I’m the only person who thinks the new system is great.

View original here:
ESTA is here.

Well 2008 is done and dusted. An interesting year over all, could have been better but overall it wasn’t a bad year. We took on a range of new exiting clients and it’ll be great to see them growing in 2009.

January we have a couple of new clients launching with AMWSO. Starting with Organic Bouquet, which kind of started in December but will be really powering up as we head towards Valentines and more “flower giving” focused events. Then we have Beer Machine, which is a very cool, “Beer Brewing” kit and machine. I bought one for my Dad for his birthday and he loved it, so we’re really hyped to be working with Ian and Colin at BeerMachine, incredibly we’ve been talking together with tjhem for 2 years! The progam will be running in the UK, USA and Canada initially.

Our other launch for January, is eLance, a firm I imagine just about every affiliate is familiar with, eLance will be launching a brand new program in January on an inhouse platform.

The rest is here:
New Year and New Clients

I’m often asked by people “Why don’t you make a network?” and “Why don’t you be an affiliate and promote your own clients more?” and certainly we have considered it, but it always comes down to a key issue : conflict of interest. And I’m sure we could boost our revenue rather nicely if we started playing all side of the business, but at the same time we very well may destroy our trust amongst our affiliate partners.

Firms such as Pepper Jam have progressed through the business from merchant, to affiliate, to affiliate managers to Network. The mixed reviews and acceptance they get, shows that it is not an easy path to travel, and a very difficult one to do while keeping everyone happy.

One of the most debated roles in the industry is that of “Affiliate Network”, the”Trusted Third Party” that is meant to remain neutral and ensure that everyone is working in a fair field of play. It’s not an easy task as everyone has a different opinion on what is a fair field of play.

My personal opinion is that a fair field of play consists of these qualities

• affiliates add value to the consumers purchase cycle
• affiliates drive new customers to a merchants site
• affiliates don’t intercept consumers already in the act of going to a merchant’s site
• affiliates don’t cannibalize other marketing channels
• affiliates don’t cannibalize each others traffic
• requires a direct consumer interaction with the affiliate marketing being run
• no adware, bhos or malware
• that all parties work within their defined roll be that Network / Affiliate / AM or Merchant

So when a “Trusted Third Party” Network such as LinkShare not only allows an affiliate to actually ignore most of these qualities but actually owns it too, then you have to wonder where the “Trusted Third Party” bit has gone. Affiliates can argue back and forward on whether BHOs (Browser Help Objects) should be part of the affiliate channel and how they should interact with the consumer, but the real argument has to be, why is LinkShare now operating as an Affiliate? It is, without a doubt, wrong at all levels.

Certainly they aren’t the first, but as they like to state, they are a market leader, so why is a market leader going out of its’ way to cannibalize it’s affiliate base? Already multiple tests have shown that not only is the LinkShare owned BHO failing to follow LinkShare’s own Terms and Conditions but it is also going beyond BHOs the likes of Ebates and overwriting tracking that is meant to be protected by the afsrc=1 code.

A couple of example videos below on how this LinkShare owned affiliate BHO is cannibalizing Walmart traffic

• Example One
• Example Two
• Example Three
• Example Four

If this is the way Networks are going then I think we can throw the “Trusted Third Party” label our of the window, perhaps go with “Affiliate and Merchant Cannibalization Network” instead?

As a merchant ask yourself? Do you want this kind of “marketing” to be cannibalizing your sales channels, and as an affiliate, do you want to be promoting merchants that allow your traffic to be cannibalized for someone else’s profit?

Read more here:
Crossing the Line

AMWSO is very proud to have been short listed in the category for Innovation in Affiliate Marketing in the E-consultancy’s Innovation Awards 2008. The other firms short listed certainly make it a short list worth being on withthe full short list being :

• TradeDoubler
• sunshine.co.uk
• AMWSO Co Ltd
• Essence Media
• Digital Window

The winners of the award will be announced on December 2nd, by a panel of judges that come from a top tier selection of firms that include the BBC, Apple, Orange, Target Marketing, Whatif!, Internet Retailing, Dyson and Google.

Congratulations to all the firms shortlisted.

More here:
Innovation in Affiliate Marketing

Sports hunting has evolved online and no longer do we need to go around shooting lions and the like. Nope online there’s bigger things to hunt, and over the past year “Trade Mark Bidders” have become the primary target.

The issue is quite simple, it’s easier to make a fast buck bidding on someones trade mark than it is to try and actually add some value to the shopping process, add to which trade marks convert really well and we have a recipe to attract every layabout and lazy dog on the Internet. Granted their are exceptions but the majority of TM bidding is all “value take” not “value add”.

Online merchants expect their affiliate managers / management firm to audit their affiliates, make sure they are adding value and, more and more, that affiliates are not cannibalizing their Trade Marks. The issue then becomes one of time and resources, how does the affiliate manage monitor a multitude of search engines, especially when ppc can now be set to target consumers within specific time periods and within specific geographic locations. An affiliate manager working from 9 AM to 5 PM in LA, is not going to see the ads targeting consumers “only” in Seattle, nor the ads in LA that kick off at 6 PM PST. The affiliate manager could effectively spend 8 hours a day simply trolling the search engines in hope of finding violators. The chances are still slim that they will find the violators even if they are there as TM bidders have become sophisticated in how they hide their links and disguise how their traffic gets to a merchants site. Yes they have a nice looking “niche” site in their profile…too bad it actually drives no traffic at all!

Anyway, so what we have is a situation where the affiliate manager is spending more time auditing than doing their core job, or where they simply throw their hands in the air and declare the situation to be beyond their control, pass the buck and hope someone else will take care of it, or not notice that have stopped monitoring the TM bidding.

Last year we thought about developing something that would automate this process, but with other tasks to do that fell by the way side, and we’ve seen other firms try to launch products that will do the job, but ultimately have failed to deliver. This morning however I had a great call with David Naffziger of Brandverity, who appear to have a working solution and clear understanding of the challenges that affiliate managers face. While not yet perfect the system they have developed certainly does far more than most other systems we’ve had a look at to date.

As well as the core task of tracking down direct to site affiliate TM links it also records all forms of TM bidding to allow the affiliate manager to swiftly trace a bid to a landing page and tie it to an affiliate account or a competitor. It allows inhouse ads to be ignored and even has the ability to white list specific trusted PPC partners so that the reports will come through clear of approved / inhouse marketing.

A key mistake I made with their system was to only read the daily email report and not log into the site. The emails are fine, but are a little overwhelming, log in and the data is far more manageable and also deeper! Brandverity cover a number of key markets and search engines and are expanding constantly to cover new markets, and as David said, they are very keen to get feedback and ideas on how to make the tool better. Overall looks like this will be the solution that allows affiliate managers to get their focus back on helping value ad partners, and away from wasting time chasing down those out to take away that value.

More here:
Big Game Hunting : Trade Mark Bidders

A new tool is on the horizon for the Syntryx Solution Suite. While it’s always been easy to track down competitor publishers within the suite, review their data and the potential power that can be generated from working with any given partner, it has, till I saw this new tool, been quite a task to get a full picture of the overlapping nature of different relationships between merchants and their publishing partners.

With the amount of data such a report can generate, Syntryx opted for a visual representation, which will look like this :

Each color representing a keyword and each white dot a site, so what you’re looking for is where the most colors come together.

How does this work in practical terms? Well pretty much as follows…

With this tool I could for example compare 3 (or more) different merchants and then visually be able to see

* The overlap in publishing partners of all three merchants
* The overlap between pairs merchants
* Areas where there are no overlaps

I’m then able to drill down and see the data for any publisher working with any of the three merchants.

So if I was a new merchant (a competitor to all three for example) I could use this to data to perform a form of triangulation to discover what may be the “best publishers” or “most used publishers” by other firms. Or looking at it from another angle, I could see which publishers are heavily used (perhaps overused even) and find those little gems that only one merchant is partnered with and are completely under utililized used. Naturally finding out whether a publisher is over or under used requires that little extra digging and Syntryx has never lacked for digging tools or data to find!

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New publisher mining tool from Syntryx

It was a rumour and now it’s fact. And rather than repeat what’s already posted in the ShareaSale forum, click here and read about the great new tool that allows affiliates to create and generate their own video creatives, and link them to multiple merchants throughout the video through the use of cue points. Meaning an affiliate can create a niche focused video covering five related products and promote five different merchants all in one video, darned cool!

See the original post here:
Shareasale launches “Affiliate Create a video”

While affiliates continue to look for ways to ad value to a merchants marketing campaign, they are often hampered by a networks limitations on what linking and tracking options are available. Most affiliates find they can only innovate as fast as their network partners allow. While video has been hot for a while and some merchants have had click trackable video available for a couple of years, it’s still not easy to support directly within most networks. Most solutions to date have used a work around system to avoid the complications or added expense of using an affiliate networks options.

So it’s great to see Shareasale once again step into the breach and release a video tool set to help merchants create and deploy videos for their affiliates to use.

The present system provides a way for merchants to set up videos in Shareasale, but it looks like there will be a system to support affiliate created videos too!

Check out a demo of the system on the SAS Blog.

Here is the original post:
Shareasale ads Video Support

RSS for marketers Guru, Rok Hrastnik… please pick up a blue courtesy phone (or better yet, fair reader, check out Rok’s ‘Unleash the Power of RSS’ book and encourage him to finish up his new book). RSS is frighteningly open-ended and innovation intense. The challenge is how to make it rapidly used by consumers! Then again, my mom, dad and I’ll bet your grandparents are using RSS today without knowing it. We all are!

Revtrax, formerly Oncard Marketing, is all about taking affiliate marketing to stores. That’s right, dirt world stores. They’re literally providing a means for advertisers to partner up with affiliates who have distribution outside of the Web – like stores or direct mail (think ad-stuffers that ride along with utility, credit card and other bills). Might you be able to tap into such distribution based on people you know at the local Rotary Club or business card exchange? I’ll bet you might! Talk about the Holy Grail of advertiser value!

Think also about successful CPA affiliate sites like Buzzilions.com – one of the first in our business to convince advertisers that wrapping customer-generated content (product reviews) around their products (distributed to them via affiliate networks and direct merchant relationships) was valuable. Was it new distribution for advertisers? You betcha it was.

Flexible, Performance-based Cost Models

Revtrax and other successful affiliate businesses – including those that remain family-run/owned like FatWallet.com or SheFinds.com – have one thing in common. That is, they’re diversifying themselves and, in fact, transforming from affiliate to publisher and finally to media company. This involves offering advertisers more than just commission-based placements. Look also to small business successes like Jellyfish.com who blend various performance payment models and customer-facing value. Don’t forget, the major comparison shopping engines all started as CPA only and migrated to CPC with some blending CPA+CPC today. Use your historical data with advertisers to your advantage. Negotiate other types of pricing based on effective CPA.

Of course, earning those CPM/fixed fee placement and/or cost-per-click (CPC) dollars isn’t easy. Doing so requires a high degree of professionalism and unique insight as to the demographic composition of your site visitors. It also requires a sales staff that can speak the language of other departments within marketers’ office… or interact with their external advertising agency. It often requires thinking and acting outside your comfort zone. Doing so is difficult but once you’ve overcome the fear, packaged yourself up and closed a few deals the fear goes away.

Denial is Not Just a River in Africa

Ever notice how things can smell like a skunk in affiliate marketing… but many pretend that everything is fine and rosy? Next think ya know, whammo. Affiliates get dished a raw deal… but ultimately they’re forced to swallow a bitter pill. Maybe an affiliate network stabs an affiliate in the back. Or maybe an affiliate turns around and bites the hand that’s fed it since childbirth. Other times affiliates themselves win the battle…but make no mistake, there IS a battle being waged. Let’s quit denying it and address the real issues. I’m not confident that affiliate networks are able to or actively addressing it on your behalf. Aaah, for the glory days of Commission Junction when it catered to affiliates first, advertisers second!

It’s sad but true: there are people who prefer to avoid talking about the fact that advertisers are asking for more. Are you one of them? I recommend getting off that train and now!

Although these battles create difficulty for affiliates they serve a purpose – to force change and create new opportunities. Will you be there “left holding an empty bag” or will you keep an “ear to the track” and listen to that train coming down the track before it pulls into the station? The choice is yours and in the end you need to take action that creates true value for your visitors first, advertisers second and, as a result, your business.

Jeff Molander is CEO of performance marketing consulting company, Molander & Associates Inc. where he provides executive-level guidance on digital marketing and media to multi-channel retailers, entrepreneurs and investment firms. He’s also a principal with The Partner Maker LLC, a new affiliate management system designed to drive increased revenue between affiliates and marketers. His background includes helping found digital marketing services company, Performics Inc.; today a division of Google. He can be reached at jeff*at*jeffmolander.com

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Affiliate Call to Arms: Add Value Now or Die!