Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:
Little Ruler brings forth an exciting addition to our “Apparel” category with a completely unique line of skate clothing for kids. This merchant also holds exclusive licensing agreements for the leading skate brands such as Independent, Santa Cruz, Creature, Nor Cal, Thrasher and more. They also carry a variety of kids skate shoes from DC, Vans and Etnies. Earn 10% on a 120-day cookie, and look for regular and compelling promotions to push from Little Ruler!
Here is a bit of detail on Little Ruler, directly from their site’s “About Us” page…
Little Ruler, founded in September 2004 by ’80s skateboard legend Jeff Kendall and his wife Maureen, was inspired in part by Jeff’s former profession and in part by the birth of their two sons: Cole (now 5) and Parker (3)…
Highlights of the Little Ruler Affiliate program include:
- 10% commission
- Average order $45
- 120-day cookie
- Extensive on-going market research that maximizes conversions
- Full-time affiliate management staff
- Unique product selection
- Holiday/seasonal specials
- Monthly email Promotions
- Survey give-away
- Deal-of-the week promos
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting Little Ruler. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Maureen Kendall, maureen/at/littleruler.com.
Attention All Outdoor Affiliates
(Especially those Affiliates in Utah, or those coming to Salt Lake City for OR!)
We organized a Meet and Greet for Outdoor Affiliates and merchants, at the Salt Lake City Hilton on Wednesday, July 22nd from 5pm-7pm. This event coincides with the 2009 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Here is the invite that went out to our opt in Outdoor category Affiliates. If you are interested in attending please RSVP by emailing support/at/avantlink.com…
As an AvantLink Affiliate who operates an outdoor related website, we would like to invite you to join us on July 22nd for the Outdoor Affiliate Meet and Greet at the Salt Lake City Hilton!
This event will take place Wednesday evening from 5-7pm during the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market across the street from the Salt Palace Convention Center. The idea is to get a strong contingent of AvantLink Outdoor/Recreation Affiliates and merchants together to meet face-to-face and talk shop. We will have hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and some cool schwag and give-a-ways from participating merchants.
Sponsors of the Outdoor Affiliate Meet and Greet include Tahoe Mountain Sports, Backcountry.com, Massey’s Professional Outfitters and Altrec.com Outdoors. If you are planning on (or considering) attending the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, we would love to have you.
Please RSVP by emailing support/at/avantlink.com if you can join us.
Gary Marcoccia
AvantLink.com
Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:
Snowboard Connection is a full-service snowboard, skateboard, and online surf shop. Promote the world’s top outdoor brands to a massive online snow, skate, and surf community of customers! Based in Seattle, Snowboard Connection pays 8% per sale, with a 120-day cookie. They have a dedicated program manager with Courtney Wilson, and we can assure you from past experience that you are in good hands with her.
SnoCon’s large selection of top action sports brands has turned many from the snow, skate, and surf communities into dedicated life-long customers. An affiliate partnership with SnoCon is a great opportunity to benefit from our ever-growing online customers looking for killer gear on the web. With a high converting website and core shop product selection, you can’t go wrong.
Highlights of the Snowboard Connection Affiliate program include:
- Top Brands in Snowboarding
- 8% Baseline Commission
- 120 Day Cookie Duration
- Dedicated Program Management
- High Converting Site
- Average Order Value $150
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting Snowboard Connection. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Courtney Wilson, c.wilson/at/snocon.com.
Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:
Incredible opportunity to promote the best kayaking gear, rafting supplies and boating equipment with NRS. Affiliates with outdoor related sites and/or traffic should jump on this! As an exclusive AvantLink merchant, you know your NRS traffic will be safe and secure. This programs offers very competitive compensation with a 10% payout and get this, they will not reverse your commissions for returns. That should get your attention 
Note NRS is offering an activation bonus: First 10 Affiliates to drive $1000 in sales will get a $100 cash bonus!
NRS manufactures an extensive array of rafts, catarafts and inflatable kayaks, plus a complete line of apparel and accessories for all types of boats and boaters. Their apparel spans the range from base layers like their sun protective HydroSilk to fully protective dry suits, wetsuits and all the gloves, footwear and life jackets needed for comfort and safety on the water. They also partner with other top-of-the-line companies such as Werner, AIRE, Kokatat, Carlisle, Cataract, Astral, Extrasport and Aquapac to bring your customers even more choice in gear.
Highlights of the NRS Affiliate program include:
- 10% commission on every sale
- Average order value $130
- 120-day cookie duration
- Best selling brands
- Dedicated program manager
- Monthly newsletters
- No commission reversals on returns
- Bonuses
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting NRS. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Keli Keach, keli/at/nrsweb.com.
Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:
Promote premium 100% Kona fresh coffee products that are grown, processed, roasted, labeled and shipped directly from the KOA Coffee plantation on the Kona Belt in Hawaii! We’re very excited to announce this exciting opportunity for Affiliates to market to nearly half (49%) of all American adults who drink coffee daily. KOA Coffee pays 20% on every referred sale, with a 90-day cookie.
KOA Coffee has also committed to a “no reverse on returns” policy for Affiliates…which means the only time that you would see a commission reversed is if the transaction was fraud. Folks, this program is supported by people who understand Affiliate marketing. You’re in good hands so get started, and add links asap.
Koa Coffee has won the coveted Gevalia Kona Coffee Cupping Competition, PCCA Coffee of the Year and was dubbed “Best Coffee In America” by Forbes Magazine… so you know you’re selling a quality product. We have maintained conversion rates of 11% - 18% on organic search traffic for over 10 years and we’ll work with you, providing coupon offers, keyword data and sales assistance to help you make the sale…
Highlights of the KOA Coffee Affiliate program include:
- 20% for all referred sales
- 90 day cookie
- Average order value $90-$100+
- Site wide conversion rate 11%-18%
- No commission reversals on returns
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting KOA Coffee. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Linda Caroll, linda/at/koacoffee.com.
Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:
This is an exciting new addition to our Outdoor/Recreation category. Since 2004 SylvanSport has been enlivening the spirit of outdoor adventure through the creation of the Award winning GO, their action-adventure camping trailer that enables people to carry bikes, kayaks, surfboards, ATVs and just about anything for fun or utility! Also promote SylvanSport accessories developed exclusively for the GO, as well as a growing selection of camping gear.
Affiliates, this is a great opportunity for those of you in the outdoor gear niche to earn HUGE commissions on a single sale with the “GO”, and their other quality accessories.
SylvanSport’s background in the outdoor industry gives us the insight to create towable vehicles that are engineered like the finest pieces of gear. Our products are made in the USA to the highest standards and value. Our philosophy of smart, simple, reliable design is supported by our talented and dedicated staff that backs every GO that rolls out our doors.
Highlights of the SylvanSport Affiliate program include:
- 4% commission on the GO
- 6% commission on accessories
- $6195 price for the GO yields great commissions
- 120 day cookie duration
- Dedicated Program Management
- Dynamic Affiliate tools & scripts
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting SylvanSport. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Kyle Mundt, kyle/at/sylvansport.com.
Recently Scott took care of a minor issue (for some Affiliates, anyway) with the xhtml encoding in our tracking code by offering a “URLs Only (No Html)” integration option for links. Here is the response we received from Christian at CouponCraze.com, when Scott notified him of the new functionality:
Thanks for the heads up. As usual you guys are the network always pushing ahead on the big and small changes that makes lives for affiliates like myself so much easier and just allow us to focus on our job. Thanks again… keep up the great job over there!
Cheers,
Christian
CouponCraze.com
You’re welcome Christian. We’ve enjoyed a strong partnership with your company since the early days of AvantLink! Gary M
There are a lot of discussions these days centered around unscrupulous Affiliates using pay per click (PPC) search marketing to drive traffic via searches for merchant names, their domain names and/or any trademarks they might own. Common terms in the Affiliate industry to describe this practice include “Trademark Bidding” or “Trademark Poaching” to name just two. Some merchants offer a wide open PPC policy for Affiliates, which would open up bidding to any keyword including company or domain names. However, these merchants are few and far between. In fact it is safe to say that most merchants do not want this to take place.
It took a while for the practice of trademark bidding to catch on to the point where it became a serious issue for merchants running serious Affiliate programs. Some Affiliate paid search marketing “firms” even built their businesses on trademark bidding across the board with thousands of web retailers. That is until these retailers caught on and started regulating this activity. After all what web retailer wants Affiliates sitting on position one of a paid listing by way of a search on their company name? Especially when they are listed in position one organically already? The answer: Not very many at all.
Just like the story goes with “parasites” and their shady downloads/toolbars, many PPC Affiliates may not be trademark bidding now, but that does not mean they weren’t engaged in this before. This is not to say that this is no longer a problem. Trust me, it is a serious problem. There are still plenty of Affiliates who sign up for a merchant, start bidding on driving traffic for their name (which is likely a very cheap bid price, BTW), and run with it as long as they can. This is especially the case with merchants who do not post terms that prohibit this type of thing, because most major Affiliate networks in the US leave it up to merchants to regulate trademark bidding.
This is costing web retailers a lot of of time and money. Unless of course these retailers are running their programs in the AvantLink network. By default, we do not allow Affiliates to bid on merchant names, their domain names or their trademarks. From our perspective this is the only logical way to approach the issue considering the strong majority of retailers do not want Affiliates trademark bidding. It would be easy to leave it up to the merchant and turn our backs on the issue altogether, and it would surely mean more revenue for AvantLink. But that’s not how mutually respected and fair partnerships should be maintained.
We not only police programs and traffic for Affiliate trademark bidding at the network level, but when we do find these violations we are often times notifying the Affiliate and addressing the issue before the merchants even know it is happening. Word must be out or something, though. Because we hardly see it happening anymore, and this is while our sheer numbers of high-value Affiliates continues to climb!
Of course in the end it’s up to merchants whether or not they want to blow open their paid search policy for Affiliates. But the default policy in AvantLink prohibits trademark bidding, unless the merchant makes the exception and includes program terms that clearly state this is permitted. To handle it in reverse (requiring merchants to state a policy that prohibits trademark bidding) does not seem appropriate considering the full context of the issue.
We polled a few Affiliate industry folks on this topic, to see where they stand. Chuck Hamrick from AffiliateCrew.com (Chuck also handles the FetchDog.com program in AvantLink, in addition to high profile Affiliate Crew clients like Little Giant Ladder) had this to say in response to the following questions:
- Q. Do any of the merchants you represent allow Affiliates to knowingly bid on merchant names, domain names and/or trademarks? A. Heavily branded merchants are completely restrictive and do not allow affiliates to use trademarks, domain or direct linking. When a merchant is spending a considerable amount on their own PPC they do not want affiliates cannibalizing the ads. Some merchants do allow trademark bidding or to bid below the trademark site with trademark in title/copy but not the display URL. We have one client who allows unrestricted bidding on their trademarks.
- Q. What are the implications and time commitments of policing your programs from merchant name, domain name and trademark Affiliate PPC bidders? A. Most violations are pointed out by the merchant, PPC department or other affiliates. It is difficult to completely police trademarks without a 3rd party tool like Brand Verity. Networks that provide the affiliate ID in the redirect URL are huge time saves as it can take several hours to run down the affiliate.
- Q. Do you feel it’s important for a network to regulate this activity by default with a no merchant name, domain name or trademark bid policy? A. It should be the decision of the merchant whether they allow bidding or not. But, the default should be no bidding. Networks should clearly identify a merchants trademark policy, time stamp any changes, notify affiliates and make the acceptance of the policy actionable.
Let us know how you feel about the issue. Affiliate managers, is it difficult to police for trademark bidding? Is it costing you time and money? How do others out there (Affiliates and merchants alike) feel about the default policy of not allowing merchant name, domain name or trademark bidding?
Gary M
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AvantLink Newsletter May 26, 2009 Vol 1, Issue 3 |
Affiliate Newsletter
Our Affiliate newsletters feature technology news, promotional opportunities, new merchants, industry insight and more.
We have a lot of new technology to highlight this Spring, which is the emphasis of this newsletter. To help facilitate the use of these new tools, and to get the word out there, Scott Kalbach has done a great job producing v2.0 of our Screencast Series for Affiliates. These screencasts do an incredible job of detailing the powerful tools and scripts you have access to free of charge. We also have a lot of outstanding new merchants since the last Affiliate newsletter, and you’ll find those listed below.
Table of Contents:
1. Affiliate Screencast Series v2.0
2. Inactive Merchant Link Handling
3. RSS Product Feeds
4. Web Service Datafeed Client Improvements
5. Welcome New Merchants
Affiliate Screencast Series v2.0
We started producing v2.0 Affiliate (and merchant) tutorials/screencasts for the large selection free Affiliate tools we offer. In time we plan to have a dedicated section of the Affiliate account interface where we will list documentation files and tutorials. But for now, please click the links below to see the first four v2.0 screencasts for Affiliates:
- Product Ad Widget Screencast - Product Comparison Widget
- Product Ad Widget Screencast - Content Match
- Screencast: Web Service Datafeed Client - Configuration and Installation
- Screencast: Web Service Datafeed Client - Customizing Your HTML Template
Inactive Merchant Link Handling
Introducing brand new functionality for handling inactive merchant links that result from merchants deactivating Affiliates, or leaving the AvantLink network altogether. Affiliates have always had the option of sorting to, and browsing “My Inactive Merchants”, but now there is an option on that page to “Configure inactive link handling” as well.
When a merchant terminates their association with your affiliate account, or leaves the AvantLink.com network altogether, any affiliate links you have to that merchant will cease functioning. For large sites with many deep links to relevant content, it can be a time consuming operation to fully target a new merchant, and while this conversion is in progress your site visitors experience will be less than ideal. This page can help you control how those links behave while you update your site to advertise for other merchants…
We recently added an “RSS Product Feeds” configuration page to your affiliate login (accessible from the “Tools” page, under the “Datafeed Manager” section). When you click the option to “Create an RSS product feed” you will be able to choose a particular merchant datafeed, restrict to a department/category/subcategory, and set various product-level filters. You can also customize whether or not to include product images, abbreviated/short descriptive text, and merchant names in the RSS item content. The end result is a fully tracking-enabled RSS feed URL that points to our Affiliate marketing API.
Web Service Datafeed Client Improvements
We’re proud to say that we have recently rolled out a massive list of improvements to one of our flagship Affiliate tools: the Web Service Datafeed Client. Before getting into the exact details it should be noted that all existing deployments of this tool will work perfectly with the new improvements.
Highlights of the changes:
- Improved the built-in searching functionality.
- Better construction of page keywords (normally used in meta tags).
- Improved/simplified the use of local template files.
- Revamped the communication between your local server and our web service.
- Added support for XML-based sitemap functionality.
Latest merchants to open their Affiliate programs on the AvantLink network (April/May 2009). Click here to browse all merchants.
- Vargo Outdoors (Outdoor/Recreation), 10% commission
- Opedix (Apparel), 12% commission
- TrekLightGear.com (Outdoor/Recreation), 8% commission
- BerenShoes.com (Footwear), 3% commission
- Junonia (Apparel), 8% commission
- Play Outdoors (Outdoor/Recreation), 10%-12% commission
- TopoRanch.com (Apparel), 8% commission
- Backstage Gallery (Photographic Art), 8% commission
- Nantucket Brand (Apparel), 20% commission
- FontanaSports.com (Outdoor/Recreation), 10%-12% commission
- Makai Bikes (Cycling), commission
- InlineSkates.net (Outdoor/Recreation), 8% commission
- WaterOutfitters.com (Outdoor/Recreation), 8% commission
- HucknRoll.com (Cycling), 5% commission
- RealCyclist.com (Cycling), 5% commission
| © COPYRIGHT 2009 Avant Marketing Group. |
Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:
Pedal season is in full swing here in Park City (and in fact around the USA), so it’s exciting for us to announce two new online stores from the Backcountry.com suite of retail sites: RealCyclist.com & HucknRoll.com! Cycling related sales are one of the fastest growing segments of recreation-based online retail. Jump on this opportunity and sign up to promote the top road biking brands in the cycling industry.
RealCyclist.com is a pure road bike store featuring brands like Pinarello, Castelli, Pearl Izumi, Shimano and more. This store is the nexus for dedicated roadies. Benefits of the program include:
- Earn Up To 8%
- 120 Day Cookie Duration
- Best Brands In The Bike Industry
- Dedicated Program Management
- AvantLink Exclusivity
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting RealCyclist.com. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Brian Boyd, bboyd/at/backcountry.com.
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