Greg T and Altrec.com Outdoors sent out their AvantLink Deal of the Day schedule for the next 12 days. These offers are so potent that he wanted to give everyone the heads up of what’s to come over the next couple weeks. Note: The only daily deal that is under 60% off is for the North Face Men’s Nuptse Jacket on 5/1 - 5/2. Not too shabby folks! Most all other offers or in the 70% to 80% off retail range!!

Here are the specifics of the email:

AvantLink Partner: We are launching our Anniversary Sale tomorrow. I will load you down with banners, text links and keyword lists of sale goods. This is an annual sale and will feature our best brands at stout discount. Look for my email tomorrow outlining the details.

To whet the appetite, below is the Deal of the Day schedule for the next 12 days. I have been in our merch department’s ear about deepening the Daily Deal - they finally relented:

DOTD Schedule

• 4/23 - 4/25: Burton Ronin Button Down Velvet Jacket -> $99.95 (80% Off)
• 4/24 - 4/25: Burton Profit Mitt -> $6.99 (81% Off)
• 4/25 - 4/26: Sorel Women’s Crestwynd Snow Boot -> $19.99 (71% Off)
• 4/26 - 4/27: North Face Women’s NSE Tent Bootie -> $9.99 (78% Off)
• 4/27 - 4/28: Burton Men’s Ronin 6/4 Down Jacket -> $89.99 (73% Off)
• 4/28 - 4/29: Mountain Hardwear Women’s Dome Hat -> $6.99 (76% Off)
• 4/29 - 4/30: Sierra Designs Youth Down Bootie -> $6.99 (72% Off)
• 4/30 - 5/01: Burton Boys Apollo Jacket -> $49.99 (62% Off)
• 5/01 - 5/02: North Face Men’s Nuptse Jacket -> $89.99 (55% Off)
• 5/02 - 5/03: North Face Women’s Nuptse Bootie -> $29.99 (62% Off)
• 5/04 - 5/05: Burton Men’s Ronin Hooded Shell Jacket -> $59.99 (60% Off)

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at any time. And remember, look for the email tomorrow, it will be loaded with conversion accelerating information.

Thanks!

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

BTW that email went out yesterday, so details on the Anniversary sale should hit your inbox today (if you’re opt in to get Altrec emails that is - if you’re not opt in DO-IT - Greg’s Affiliate correspondence is second to none!).

Oh and BTW again. Here are Altrec’s Deal Of The Day Examples in case you’re interested in adding one of the dynamic campaigns: http://www.avantlink.com/examples/dotd.php

Gary & AvantLink

We are pleased to announce that another merchant in the AvantLink Affiliate network has launched with our industry leading Deal Of The Day tool for our Affiliates! The House Boardshop just went live with this tool, offering product campaigns featuring HUGE daily discounts on board sport gear and apparel. Affiliates, you have several dynamic options for promoting this daily offer including RSS feeds and a spiffy dynamic HTML display. Hint: Using a script we provide for free, you can output spiderable RSS content on your page(s) that updates automatically each day when a new offer is posted.

Deal Of The Day offers are hot now on the web. Consumers are watching merchants who offer a daily discount, and they aren’t hesitating to pull the trigger when they see a killer deal on something they’ve been wanting to get their hands on.

Take a look at this example of how the daily deal campaigns available from The-House.com will look on your site(s):
http://www.avantlink.com/examples/dotd_10035.php

This is all there is to grabbing these daily deal campaigns:

1. Login to you Affiliate account and select ‘Tools’ from the main menu.
2. Under ‘Deal Of The Day Tool’ select ‘Deal Of The Day Sign-up’.
3. Select the Website you want to configure and then ‘The House’ in the merchant list.
4. Select your ‘Integration Method’ of choice and then ‘Get Html’.

That’s that. You’re done. Paste the code into a page optimized for daily deal offers from the merchant and you’re off and running. No maintenance necissary. As always, if you have questions you can contact anyone at AvantLink. Happy converting!

Gary & AvantLink

We’re delighted to announce that AvantLink recently brought on board David Clark of Salt Lake City, Utah, as Chief Technology Officer. David’s skill set perfectly compliments our leading-edge Affiliate network technology and proprietary platform. He has extensive experience in web-based database-driven applications, PHP reporting systems and process automation (e.g. automated data imports/exports, statistical calculations, trigger/event notifications, etc.).

From his resume:

Experienced database developer and DBA with proven history of planning, deploying and maintaining creative solutions to business problems. Adept at individually executing projects as well as mentoring and assisting other team members with shared responsibilities. Well-versed in refactoring applications to keep pace with changing business goals without resorting to complete redesigns. Excellent troubleshooter often called upon by colleagues in “last resort” situations.

Publications:

• Use XML Query Definitions in .NET Applications, May 2004 (available at SitePoint)
• Stored Procedures on PHP and Microsoft SQL Server, November 2003 (available at SitePoint)

Education:

Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics, May 1997
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Graduated Summa Cum Laude with GPA 3.9/4.0

David’s interests include reading, hiking, camping and spending quality time with his wife and two small children.

We’re excited that David accepted the position of CTO for AvantLink and we look forward to the innovation and ideas he’s sure to bring to our team!

As many of our Affiliates already know we offer several configuration options for tool subscriptions in AvantLink. By ’subscription’ what I mean is that Affiliates can configure our Affiliate tools as saved campaigns which can be updated or modified even after the subscription campaigns are published to their site(s).

Although we offer choices of dynamic RSS, dynamic Javascript, dynamic Web Services and static HTML as subscription options, with this post I would like to focus specifically on our industry leading (and in fact industry only) Affiliate ID embedded RSS feeds. Below I am going to do my best to convey the benefits of using our Affiliate RSS feeds and I will also provide information on how Affiliates can publish any RSS feed as web page content (not just the RSS product or coupon feeds we offer through AvantLink).

First and foremost, in the context of this post, when I refer to Affiliate RSS feeds I’m talking about product-level detailed campaigns that deep link to corresponding merchant product detail pages. I am not referring to an RSS notification system for new promos, new merchants or company news (although, we have RSS feeds for these features, too!). I mean actual RSS feeds embedded with your Affiliate ID that can be published to your web pages and/or syndicated around the web. With these embedded RSS feeds each outbound link will hold your Affiliate ID and therefore set a cookie for respective merchants when someone clicks through.

AvantLink is the pioneer in Affiliate embedded RSS feed technology. We’ve been offering these advanced level tools from day one when we opened for business in October of 2005.

Oh and BTW, these RSS campaigns are 1) Spiderable by the search engines, and 2) DYNAMIC! This means that you can optimize a page around a merchant, product group or category, publish a relevant RSS feed and forget about it. The product content or promotional offers that output through RSS feeds are maintained from the merchant side. That is, if a merchant flags a text offer to be included in their Dynamic Coupon Feed, it shows up on your site as new, fresh, spiderable content. If a product drops out of a merchant’s datafeed or a sale price expires, it reflects in real time on your pages the same way. Oh yeah, did I mention this RSS content is spiderable?

As far as publishing RSS feeds to web pages…no worries! For Affiliates who haven’t written their own script (or found a script on the web) to do this, we offer a sample script to make this possible. An added bonus is that this script may be used to publish content from any RSS feed you can find on the web, not just through the RSS feed you can configure and retrieve from AvantLink.

To clarify everything, I am posting specific examples of our various tools in action. Of course, this is with consent from an Affiliate. The site is BikeRackOutlet.com and it’s a sales platform dedicated to the RackAttack.com Affiliate program in AvantLink. This site perfectly showcases several of our dynamic (and spiderable) tools:

Product Display Builder Example:
http://www.bikerackoutlet.com/thule.php
(This page is optimized around ‘Thule Roof Mounts’ and all product detail content is both dynamic and visible to the search engines.)

Web Service Datafeed Client Example:
http://www.bikerackoutlet.com/ra/shop
(This datafeed is optimized around the RackAttack.com product line. The content is dynamic and spiderable, outputting through one template file that holds variables that deliver content through AvantLink on behalf of Rack Attack. Note specifically the internal redirects on the Buy Now links at the product detail level!)

Dynamic Coupon Feed Example:
http://www.bikerackoutlet.com
(See the ‘On Sale RSS Feed from RackAttack.com:’ below the fold on the homepage. This is a promotional feed managed by the merchant. As the merchant updates specific line-item offers, this Affiliate site will update in real time.)

Coupon Feed Syndication Example:
http://www.bikerackoutlet.com
(See the ‘Subscribe Now’ options for RSS readers above the actual feed itself. This gives the Affiliate’s customers the option of subscribing to the promotions RSS feed directly from the BikeRackOutlet site. Here’s the kicker. If a site visitor does in fact subscribe to the feed from that Affiliate site, the Affiliate’s tracking ID will be embedded on outbound links from the subscription! Note we offer subscription icons to popular RSS readers the same we way we offer banner campaigns.)

–

OK I hope this information helps Affiliates understand the benefits of publishing dynamic and spiderable RSS product feeds to their sites. AvantLink is the only Affiliate network that offers Affiliate RSS technology to this extent.

If you would like more information (including the sample script and instructions) on how to publish RSS feeds to your sites drop me a line. I would be happy to send you the related files/scripts.

Happy converting!

Gary & AvantLink

We just got word from Greg T and Altrec.com Outdoors on some good promotions to check out for April. There are a few promotions already live, and in two weeks the Altrec Affiliate program will be rolling out even deeper discounts with the much anticipated ‘Anniversary Sale’.

If you’re already an opt-in Altrec Affiliate you’ve already gotten this notice but if not here are the specifics of the latest sales to promote:

Avantlink Partner,

The shoulder season is upon us and to keep keepin’ on, I’ve created a handful of small promotions and one conversion kicker. These will get us through April in fine fashion.

Stay Tuned!! - In about two weeks we will launch our major Anniversary sale. Expect deep discount on our best brands and in-line goods. I will give you plenty of prep time, along with supporting creative.

Four Current Promotions (The following promotions have had surprisingly high traction this week)

• Promo 1: Up to 40% Off North Face Jackets (Over 25 styles at 40% Off, Promo will run until styles are sold out, new creative available in AvantLink & you can also preview the inventory)
• Promo 2: Get 10% Off when you buy 2 Tents (Brands include Sierra Designs, MSR, Mountain Hardwear and more, Expires 7/31/07, Text link available and offer has been added to coupon feed)
• Promo 3: Buy 3 Socks, get 10% off order (Brands include Smartwool, Patagonia and Bridgedale, Expires 7/31/07, Text link available and offer has been added to coupoon feed)
• Promo 4: Buy 3 Water Bottles, get 10% off order (Brands include Camelbak, Nalgene, and more, Expires 7/31/07, Text link available and offer has been added to coupon feed)

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

Coupon feed, datafeed, banners and text links are all updated. Good luck!

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

If you’re not yet promoting Altrec in AvantLink you should be! Apply Now to the network and the Altrec program or if you’re already active in AvantLink click on ‘Merchants’ from the main menu to sign-up for Altrec.

Gary & AvantLink

UPDATE TO POST (4/13) 

As per Greg’s comment on the ABW thread for Altrec April Promos:

Just a quick heads up: I am pleased to report that we have added North Face’s most popular style to this promo.

- North Face Men’s Denali: on sale for $119

- North Face Boy’s Denali: on sale for $65

I have added this to the coupon feed. I will send out an email to all our affiliates as well.

Thanks All! Good luck,

Greg

Back in September of 2006 there was a thread/poll started at ABestWeb to discuss whether or not Web 2.0 was a fad or a revolution in Internet interaction: Web 2.0: Fad or Not?

There seemed to be an ending consensus in that thread that the term ‘Web 2.0′ itself may be a fad, but the concept itself was not. I fully agree with the latter. Taking full control of content away from a single publisher, and putting it in the hands of many, makes sense and it’s a much needed progression to web content publication/distribution (and in fact a general media reform needed in our country). Of course this isn’t the case for all sites but a perfect fit for many. From that thread & respected ABW member Snib:

I think the term “Web 2.0″ is the fad. It’s just a snappy catchphrase that represents the current state of technology. Regardless of what we call it this is just a natural progression. I certainly believe it’s here to stay but it’ll continue to evolve until somebody else marks the occasion with another catchy phrase. I prefer to use the terms social software, social media, or social networking. Web 2.0 is just too general a term and can mean just about any type of site under the moon. Everybody will eventually adopt the 2.0ish features as we see more open source projects being released using this new technology. I’m just curious to see what’s next after 2.0 becomes the status quo.

Also as the headline of this post states, Haiko from ABestWeb actually added a new category to the site dedicated to Web 2.0 and Affiliate marketing. Haiko is highly respected in the industry and a true advocate for honest, ethical and productive Affiliate marketing practices…so you know if he’s qualified the category for his site then it’s far from a fad!!

In my opinion the ability for users to generate and share content is a natural progression of the Internet and as Snib said, it will be interesting to see what develops next..

What do you think? Comment here or on that ABW thread. There is also a poll there to vote on as well.

Gary & AvantLink