I have been intently watching a thread in the Midnight Cafe category of AbestWeb.com today: What Makes a Good Affiliate Network?

There is a new ABW member who chimed in on that thread (BG4512) and posted:

“Get rid of hucksters selling out of the box affiliate sites to John Q. Idaho as work-at-home & get rich quick schemes and watch the affilaite support improve by leaps and bounds.”

We agree with this statement and feel it’s important that Affiliates and merchants both get VIP treatment. A long these lines, I thought now would be a good chance to highlight our quality over quantity focus. As some know already, we have not opened up the flood gates to anyone. We’ve decided to not work work with CPA networks, lead generation arrangements, and merchants with limited platforms or products that do not convert. This is an effort to stay focused on our strengths.

We’re selective with both Affiliates (they must demonstrate some degree of technical knowledge and/or Internet marketing experience) and merchants (high-converting catalog-based merchants dedicated to Affiliate marketing). Our belief is if we maintain this focus on quality, we’ll be able to fully support everyone, remain responsive in this quickly changing industry, and stay committed to getting Affiliates exactly what they need in order to expand their businesses and succeed.

I would love some thoughts and opinions on our network philosophy. Feel free to comment here.

Gary & AvantLink

I thought I would jot down a few notes on my experience at Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. I just returned and it was well worth my trip down. AvantLink stayed somewhat low key for the event. No booth…in fact it was just me in Levis and my DC Shoes - I wanted to dress like an Affiliate as I read prior to attending the summit that Affiliates dress in jeans, OPMs in casual wear and networks in suits. Suits.. Bah! Now that’s funny..to think of me in a suit.

At any rate, my objective for this event was to meet as many folks I have been interacting with online as possible. I did just that. I think it’s great when you know someone online for a period of time and then get to shake their hand. It’s nice to have that human contact and put faces, personalities and smiles to emails, instant messages and phone calls.

I had the chance to meet and greet many ABestWeb members. What a loyal bunch. It’s great to see those relationships in real life. It certainly is a thriving community that stands for truth and integrity in our industry. I also got to hang out with our friends at AffiliateCrew.com quite a bit…Chuck ‘the Hammer’ Hamrick and the two Ryans as well. Good to see you guys there!

I would put the networking opps way ahead of the sessions in terms of importance from my perspective…but I did hear some good things in the few sessions I attended. Apparently all sessions will be available on video for attendees soon so I’ll go through them all again. I hope to get to know more of you at events to come and thanks to everyone who had kind words and encouragement for AvantLink!

BTW, there’s a category at ABW about the Affiliate Summit so check it out for post event photos, stories and information.

Gary & AvantLink

Attention Affiliates!! Brian Boyd and Toolking.com just announced some killer instant rebate coupons to promote. These should boost conversion and help you earn more! There is a bunch to take note of (see below). You can grab these offers individually as text links and they are also included in our Dynamic Coupon Feed.

If you haven’t configured a coupon feed yet for the ToolKing Affiliate program yet, you may want to do that. Brian is real active in swapping out compelling offers and there is generally at least a couple dozen high-converting sales, promos and coupons included in the list. Remember, our coupon feed can be configured in either RSS or Javascript for your site. Once you add that feed you’ll never have to update again. Just optimize a page to feature ToolKing and tools, add this feed, and let Brian do the updates from his end.

Here is a list of the current new rebate coupons that just hit the feed. All these rebate coupons expire on July 31st 2007:

• Coupon Code MI70 - $70 Instant Rebate on 0928-29, 0928-29PK and 0920-29
  • Milwaukee 0928-29 V28 28 Volt 4 Pack Combo Kit
  • Milwaukee 0928-29 Package V28 4-Piece Combo Kit PLUS 49-17-0195 Tool Belt
  • Milwaukee 0920-29 18 Volt Drill, Sawzall, Circular Saw and Light Kit
• Coupon Code MI50 - $50 Instant Rebate on 0824-24
  • Milwaukee 0824-24 18 Volt Lithium Ion Cordless Hammer Drill Kit
• Coupon Code MI30 - $30 Instant rebate on 0724-24
  • Milwaukee 0724-24 V28 28 Volt 1/2″ Hammer Drill Kit
• Coupon Code MI25 - $25 Instant Rebate on 0824-20B
  • Milwaukee 0824-20 18V Hammer Drill - Tool Only
• Coupon Code MI20 - $20 Instant Rebate on 48-11-1830
  • Milwaukee 48-11-1830 V18 Battery
• Coupon Code MI10 - $10 Instant Rebate on 48-11-1833
  • Milwaukee 48-11-1833 Battery and Charger Combo Kit

I also posted a thread on AbestWeb about these ToolKing Rebate Coupons.

Gary & AvantLink

OTProf, an ABestWeb community member, posted a good article today from MSNBC’s The Red Tape Chronicles Blog that talks about the next generation of email spammers. Ever wonder what all the jumbled, nonsensical words are when you get those spam messages in your inbox? Or how about the messages that only include .gif images of nonsense?? It’s all tactics by likely the same spammers to avoid word filters that detect spam email messages. If you think email spam is getting better, think again. From the article:

“There are 62 billion spam messages sent every day, IronPort says, up from 31 billion last year. Now, spam accounts for three of every four e-mails sent, according to another anti-spam firm, MessageLabs.”

What motivates these people to send email spam? Could it possibly be working for them? I sure hope not but unfortunately it must be or why would they work so hard to not only spam in a traditional sense, but also infect unsuspecting user’s PC as “spam-churning” machines!

“New computer viruses have contributed to the uptick, also, particularly a surprisingly prolific Trojan horse program called ‘SpamThru’ that turns home computers into spam-churning bots.”

Read Entire Article..

Now we’re talkin! Affiliates, check this one out. Greg Toledo from Altrec.com Outdoors just emailed his opt-in Affiliates with the details of this promo, but we wanted to post it here so everyone can see what kind of promotions they are rolling out. This one should hit hard folks…some top brands and a killer discount. Details from Greg and Altrec:

–

Cold temps and deep snow are finally here. Celebrate by offering your customers 25% Off select Burton, Anon and Red snowboard gear, apparel and accessories. Coupling these Snowboard Giants with a coupon code will ignite your earnings. Get on this today while our stock is super deep.

Coupon Code Details:

• 25% Off Select Burton, Red & Anon - Snowboards, Bindings, Jackets, Pants, Packs, Boots and more.
• Promo duration: 1/18-07 - 1/31/07
• Use Coupon Code BroDeal at checkout to redeem the 25% discount.

All creative has been updated, as well as the data and coupon feeds.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I am happy to arm you with anything I have to help you succeed.

Greg Toledo
Altrec.com Outdoors
541.316.2400 x146 - gregt[at]altrec.com

–

Gary & AvantLink

Just a heads up to our merchants. Although we have always collected the referrer URL data on Affiliate traffic, we’ve recently made viewing these referrer URLs available in the standard reporting interface for merchants. To view Affiliate click-through data login and follow these steps:

• Click on ‘Reports’ from the main menu.
• Drill into the ‘Click Throughs’ by clicking on the hyperlinked number for the ‘Performance Summary for Today’.
• Next, drill further down into the reporting by clicking the hyperlink under ‘Total Click Throughs’ to view the ‘Click Through Details for Today’.
• Click on ‘Total Click Throughs’ once again, and there you’ll see table rows that output the following reporting details for each Affiliate record on that particular day: Click Throughs, Publisher Website, Advertiser, Product Ad, Campaign/Subscription, Custom Tracking Code, Referrer URL, Tool Name, Date

Please drop us a line if you have any questions on our robust reporting!

Gary & AvantLink

I wanted to highlight the Merchant Referral Program press release that went out through PRWeb.com this morning. We decided to post this news through their baseline contribution level of $40 this time. So far so good. As of this posting time we’ve already received around 10,000 reads of this news piece and 5 have even printed out the article.

With the baseline distribution level you don’t get the in-depth reporting stats or the direct outbound link from the actual article, but you do get to be in the distribution none-the-less and you also get a link from the sidebar of the press release. This is a permalink so it’s worth every cent of that $40. Ideally, if you can swing a $40 press release and a $200 level release (this includes a full SEO benefits package…get an account at PRWeb and login to see details) per month you’re laughing at the positive results. But a $40 release every 4-6 weeks or so is worth it, too. Here is a snippet of this latest news we syndicated:

“What we’re finding is that many of our Affiliates are actively marketing our platform because they know that bringing on their best converting merchants will make their jobs easier,” says Scott Kalbach, AvantLink CEO. “We provide industry-leading technology for Affiliates and a secure environment for them by keeping out spyware companies, spammers or scam operations.” Kalbach adds.”

Read Entire Press Release..

More info about our Merchant Referral Program:

AvantLink Merchant Referral Program Detail Page

ABW Referral Program Announcement

More info about Press Releases in ABestWeb’s Effective Advertising Category:

Press Releases and Your Site

Sincerely,

Gary & AvantLink

We’re now live in our own network We’ve launched our Merchant Referral Affiliate Program!! Our new referral program announcement was posted around 11am MST on ABestWeb today. It’s a very generous payout for anyone in the biz that has contact with online retailers/merchants looking to launch an Affiliate program or merchants interested in growing their existing programs. Merchant service levels include standard integration, jump start package, managed solution and branding package. Merchants please Click Here for more info.

The commission/payout is a one-time finder’s fee of $100. NOTE: From now through February 2007 we’ll pay $150 bounty to anyone who refers a merchant that signs a contract and integrates. You can retrieve banners or text links by logging in, clicking on ‘Merchants’ in the main menu, then ‘AvantLink Merchant Referral Program’ from the list.

If you’re not yet active as an AvantLink Affiliate please Click Here for the Affiliate Application.

AvantLink Merchant Referral Program is Live! thread on ABW.

AvantLink Merchant Referral Program detail page on AvantLink.com

Gary & AvantLink

Great coupon to promote from ToolKing.com:

Affiliates, your customers can Get $20 off a purchase of $300 or more. Use coupon code: TK2007. Expires on January 31st 2007. 

This offer has been added to the coupon feed already so if you’re using that on your site you’re good to go. If you’re not using the Dynamic Coupon Feed you can grab this offer as a text link. Make sure and use five minutes to add this promo. It should make you some bucks with TK this month!

Gary & AvantLink