How To Reduce Affiliate Fraud
How To Reduce Affiliate Fraud - Delay Payments Two To Four Months
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Making The Affiliate Software Switch
I have been in the affiliate space for sometime now and have tried a couple of platforms. After my trials and tribulations, I finally discovered the platform that was a perfect fit for the needs of my company. When I switched affiliate...
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E-Mail is Addicting
AOL’s third annual "E-Mail Addiction" survey shows that e-mail has seeped into just about every crevice of our lives, including our vacations.
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Search Engine Strategies New York 2007
As this was my first time attending a Search Engine Strategies conference I was very excited flying into New York. The last two conferences I’ve covered were the Affiliate Summit (2007) and Webmaster World PubCon (2006), both...
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Why most of the CPA/Brokerage industry will not be around in 5 years.
Many people currently involved in the CPA industry feel that this industry is rock solid and not likely to change anytime soon. They may be in for a shock. There are developments coming from technological, business and legal areas which...
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Commentary from an Industry Insider
Now we all have stories on how we got into the business, where we've been, etc. After being in the industry myself now for more years than too many of the bozos I come across, I sometimes question how people got into this industry.
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Focus on Affiliate Summit West 2007
The stratospheric rise of the Affiliate Summit series of tradeshows is no secret in the industry. I remember attending my first Affiliate Summit a few years ago and I was struck in particular by two things: (1) I had never seen such a high...
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What’s Your Payout? That Depends…
Time and time again I’m asked: “What is the most challenging part of working with Affiliates?” Here is some feedback and insight for those on both the Affiliate and Affiliate management sides. To begin, here’s a phrase we’re all familiar with:...
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Testing 1, 2, 3
Do you remember the story of New Coke?
Its pretty interesting. In 1985 Pepsi had been beating Coca Cola in lots of taste tests. In addition, Coke's market share had been slipping over the
previous 15 years. After doing a lot of research...
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Refining Your Keywords For Better Results
Mom never taught us this and our teachers certainly didn’t, but sometimes it’s good to have a negative attitude, at least in paid search. With apologies to the memory of the great singer Bing Crosby I’ll try to explain a little something...
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Sorting Through the Home Business Hype
Are you looking for a home based business that has flexible hours, minimal investment and no inventory to buy? Affiliate programs could be the answer. This is especially true for people with basic or advanced computer and
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Recruit Qualified Affiliates
What should you do to find the best affiliates? Should you accept just anyone who is interested? When you work to recruit affiliates, find the best possible people. With the proper work, you can find affiliates who will
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Keywords are KEY (Part 2)
So you’ve developed a core list of keywords to bid on, now what? Filter what you currently have. After I develop my core list of keywords, I like to go through my list to double check that I do not have any keywords that...
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Tips On E-Mail Copywriting
In a typical subject line for an e-mail message you have about 45 characters to make an impact, and in a BlackBerry message you only have 15 characters to work with. So, it’s obviously of huge importance to get your message across
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Warning: Adults are Letting Children Become Adults, Proceed With Caution
I’m a regular lurker of http://www.Adrants.com - a site that spoofs advertising and all its zaniness and generally allows for casual social commentary, some good, some bad, and more often than not, shows an inordinate amount of boobs, which I’m certain...
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Ad-Tech London: A Look at the European Market
You know a market is on fire when a trade show covering that market closes at 5 and at 6:30 organizers are still chasing attendees & exhibitors out. Ad-Tech London was not just about the UK market, but also about the European market in general...
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From AdTech London to Shanghai
As I am on Virgin Atlantic Flight #1833 flying from Heathrow to JFK, I ponder about my last five days in London, two of which I spent at AdTech London. Nothing excites me more than seeing the amount of energy at this show. Bigger than AdTech Chicago...
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Making your Co-registration Offer Stand Out from the Crowd
Strong, compelling ad copy is a key to running a successful co-registration campaign and one of the hardest things to prepare. Co-registration campaigns give you a small window of opportunity to attract the attention of thousands of consumers and...
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Looking for a Third Party to Manage Your Database?
First of all, learn about their understanding and compliance with Can-Spam and applicable state and federal laws. Since database marketing has grown from its, somewhat modest, roots of the basis of the most direct marketing itself, advances in...
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Path to Maturity
Since I have literally “grown up” working in the online ad industry, I know how important it is to work hard to become a well-rounded and mature sales person, media buyer, account manager or boss. Unfortunately, there are some people in this industry...
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The Critical Coupon Code Step
Affiliate marketing is becoming as competitive (and more affordable) as Pay Per Click marketing, Media Buys, email and other methods of marketing online. However, it takes more ingenuity and commitment from the merchants to make their affiliate...
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Search Engine Tips & Tricks - How to Improve Your Link Popularity
One excellent way to begin building quality links is to list your site in Yahoo and in the Dmoz Open Directory. DMOZ and Yahoo are Very Important Listings! These human based directories have a lot of influence over ranking and are crucial...
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Network Noise
There are so many CPA Networks for publishers to pick from currently. What makes you so different? Below, I will discuss some basic elements necessary to capture your publishers’ attention.
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I thought Spam was for Email?
We’ve all felt the ill effects of spam. Whether it be that feeling in the pit of your stomach after munching down some of that pseudo-meat popular with Hawaiians, or all those emails promising a bigger penis bombarding your inbox, it sucks for the consumer.
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Keep Producing Affiliates Producing
Online retailers wrestle with the issue of how much to pay affiliates, and for how long. With the idea that they don’t want to keep paying the affiliate to acquire the same customer, many have set cookies that credit the affiliate only if the customers...
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Blogging and Your SEO Strategy
If you still think blogs are just online diaries, simply another new communications fad, only used by teenagers with too much time on their hands… think again. Blogs can be a powerful component of your SEO strategy. In case you’ve been in a black...
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Who Can You Trust?
The other day I was talking to a sales manager at a large e-tailer when they said something that stuck with me- how do you trust a company you’ve never worked with, particularly in the online arena?
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Can't We All Just Get Along?
Internal search engine marketing teams and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Firms using PPC (Pay per click marketing) may be adversely hurting affiliating marketing. The uphill battle for affiliates and their managers is consistently growing as search...
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The DNA of a Successful Program
Affiliate Motivation! While working on the philosophy that you need to create an attractive Program that Affiliates will want to join, put yourself in your Affiliate’s shoes and think about what an Affiliate will want from your Program.
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The Great Squeeze: How to Get the Most Out of Your Banner Ads
Affiliate marketing depends on several factors to be successful. Mainly, an experienced affiliate wants to influence the visitor to click on the banner or text link they have placed to refer traffic to the merchant's site.
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The (Crowded) Battle Field: Lead Generation
Behind the scenes of the online lead generation industry, there is a battle going on. Some may even say it is a battle of good and evil. I say it is a battle for survival.
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Affiliate Thoughts
Affiliates have been consistently pioneering innovative ways to drive targeted traffic to web properties. The three most popular ways are Search Engines, Pay-Per-Click and Email marketing. However, the laws are becoming more stringent...
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The Line Between Performance And Traditional Advertising Is Breached
Years before the NASDAQ tanked and banner advertising died, e-commerce pioneers like Amazon.com and CDNow began partnering with topic-centric websites to drive revenues, paying a commission for each sale referred. The practice spread quickly and became known as...
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Desktop
Ten years ago Netscape went public launching the dot com madness. The Netscape explorer was brilliant in that it was essential. An entire marketplace was growing through the Internet, and consumers needed a way to get to the..
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AdWords Simplifies
Google recently announced changes to its AdWords program intended to both simplify keyword management as well as give advertisers more control. Their AdWords keyword status system will be simplified to either active or inactive from its current...
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Consolidation - A Giant Collapses
As the Online advertising industry grows dramatically and we see continuing articles of projections and growth, the question is are you aware of the immense changes that are occurring simultaneously at a pace almost to fast to track?
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Affiliate Program Success Or Failure Starts Here
There are thousands of Programs, each one vying for the support and loyalty of Affiliates. If at any time an Affiliate is unhappy with your Program they will quite simply walk away, welcomed with open arms by your competitors.
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Hey! Get Off My Desktop
Adware is not inherently bad...
As an affiliate marketer on the distribution end of the business, it’s difficult for me to categorically label this form of online marketing as malicious. The problem lies not in the applications themselves...
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Affiliate Summit 2005
This year was my first time attending an Affiliate Summit. The show definitely wasn’t on the same scale as an Ad-tech, but still a great opportunity to learn, connect, and see familiar faces. The sold out Summit took place at the Riviera Hotel & Casino...
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Affiliate Coke Addition
The average American consumes 53 gallons of carbonated soft drinks per year! That not only equates to a lot of big people, but a lot of big dollars. About $60 billion as a matter of fact. At face value...
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Top Ten Reasons You’re Not Advertising Online (But Should Be)
Digital advertising is proving to be a valuable complement to the traditional media mix. Do you have cold feet? Here are ten reasons that may be holding you back, and ten reasons why you should jump in.
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Beer Bongs and Keg Stands
Hoards of Elvis impersonators, Pedro’s from Napoleon Dynamite, and all the people you don’t want to see naked marched through the streets of San Francisco this past Sunday. An annual Bay Area tradition, the Bay to Breakers is one of the largest footraces...
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Is your Affiliate Network Doomed?
Doomsday killed Superman and in the midst before his resurrection arose two new superheroes: Steel, a kind of iron man admirer of Superman and Superboy, an adolescent clone of Superman. Early affiliate networks experienced a death...
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Stored Karma: Better Than
Simply put, stored Karma is exactly as it sounds. I helped out a bunch of reporters. Why? Because I could. What did it get me? Nothing, right away. Or did it…? In fact, it got me a TON.
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AD:TECH Ramblings
After a 12 hour post-AD:TECH day and still catching up on messages and emails, the show already feels like ages ago. The exhibit was once again-- encouragingly for the space-- “bigger and better” than the last time.
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Putting It All Together
I recant my statement from last week. I love this industry. This industry is full of characters and I am definitely one of them. Usually I play the cynical character of Daniel Starr, Performance Marketing Director, in the Gorilla Nation Media headquarters in Los Angeles, but....
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Starbizzle and The Affiliate Space?
Consider that ubiquitous black liquid that you rely on every morning as your sole source of energy. Not oil… COFFEE.
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Strategy and the Affiliate Space
Imagine $100 bills being dropped from a helicopter and a mad rush of people scrambling to pick up as much money as they could. A young woman is stuffing as much as she can down her shirt, another kid is just simply jumping up and catching the bills as they fall from the sky and in the background is an older gentleman pulling a vacuum cleaner out of the back of his Lexus LS.
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You Picked the Wrong Technology - Tip #4
The first thing anybody generally does after selecting and paying for a technology to run their affiliate program is to have second thoughts. Did I buy the right software, ASP, or whatever?
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Creating Powerful Listings
A commonly overlooked component, the listing, aids in the creation of a powerful Pay Per Click advertising campaign. The listing is what a visitor sees after typing in a search term. It consists of an accurate title, relevant description and working URL.
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To Know Us is To Love Us (…and Sometimes Hate Us!)
An Affiliate Manager’s job isn’t easy. My affiliates who are reading this right now will attest to the 20 IM conversations I juggle, while simultaneously answering email, running reports, adding/deleting/modifying campaigns, answering posts on message boards, all while carrying on a coherent and pleasant conversation via phone.
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Successful Baseball Strategy In Our Space
Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics and protagonist of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball, had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget smaller than that of nearly every other team.
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DM Confidential - Affiliate Marketing Tips
Affiliate managers talk about two percent of their affiliates generating ninety-eight percent of transactions, as if that makes sense. It’s time that you trimmed the fat off your affiliate program. According to data that I collected recently for
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DM Confidential - Affiliate Marketing Tips
Let me start by saying that the overwhelming majority of affiliates are nice, honest, hard-working people. However, there are the occasional shysters out there which stand ready to take advantage of unsuspecting affiliate managers who are not monitoring t
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Incentive Marketing: A delicate balance
By now it has become commonplace for online marketers to tie incentives to their direct marketing efforts. It's obvious that rewards in the form of gifts, sweepstakes, points, and other creative iterations are a highly effective marketing tool.
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Is Text and Context Ruling the Roost?
The hottest space in online advertising is search engine marketing. Google is about to go public and have a market capitalization that will be the envy of just about all online media companies this side of Pluto.
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Would you like fries with that?
Competition is good. Free markets are good. Censorship and monopolies are bad.
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Finding Affiliates
One of the big questions for any business contemplating starting their own program is, where will I find my affiliates?
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