We have some exciting news coming to you live from 2008 Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas (where there was a great session we just attended this morning about the demand and effectiveness of video marketing!).

Introducing a new Ad Type on the AvantLink platform: Merchant Video Ads!

With the Video Ad Tool, merchants can now upload any video ad or product tutorial for their Affiliates using the following formats: .avi, .flv, .mov, or .mpg. Once loaded, the video ads will be available to Affiliates through the Affiliate tool center.

Affiliates, to access video ads follow these simple steps:

1. Login click ‘Tools’ from the main menu
2. Under Ad/Link Tools click on ‘Get Merchant Ads’
3. Select the merchant, then ‘Video’ on the Ad Type drop down

If the respective merchant has video ads configured, the campaign will be returned with a preview selection and the ability to get html. Video ads will be served through one line of JavaScript that should go on your web page(s) where you want the video to display.

See live Video Ad Tool examples below from the merchants who now offer this advanced campaign functionality for Affiliates:

Backcountry.com

Moosejaw.com

ToolKing.com

Here is a summary of our Video Ad Tool functionality:

• Merchants can upload their own videos (any .avi, .flv, .mov, or .mpg formats)
• The videos are then converted to Flash format and hosted on AvantLink’s servers
• Merchants can specify a banner image to be displayed prior to the video playing (or we default to their merchant logo if they don’t specify one)
• All of the standard ad attributes (title, destination URL, keywords, expiration dates, etc.) apply to Video Ads just as with any other AvantLink ad campaign
• Affiliates will be able to select a video ad and embed it into a page with a single line of JavaScript (just as they would an image ad, for example)
• While the video is playing, clicking on it will send the user to the ad destination URL and set the appropriate tracking information to give the affiliate credit for any subsequent sales
• When the video finishes it comes back to the merchant logo or banner. If/when the player is clicked at that point the end user will go to the merchant site as well

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. As always, we welcome your feed back.

This morning a press release went out on the highly visible platform PRWeb highlighting the new partnership between SophiesFavors.com and the AvantLink network to point out the opportunities their new affiliate program will give to high quality affiliates. Press releases have been proven to be an extremely successful tool for positioning new merchant affiliate programs center stage.

Combining SophiesFavors obvious commitment to their affiliates success shown by some of the best payouts in the business plus so much more and AvantLink’s available tools and services the program is positioned to do very well.

Here is a quote direct from the press release:

SophiesFavors.com, a highly popular online retailer of unique favors, gifts and party supplies, recently launched an aggressive marketing program through the Affiliate marketing technology leader AvantLink.com.

Committed to the success of their program and to the high quality affiliates already participating in their program they have asked AvantLink to set up a tiered structure to prove it. Combined with a beginning payout of 13 percent up to 18 percent as well as other enticing benefits and their consistently high conversion rates affiliates joining the program can be assured this commitment will remain strong. These are the highest percentage payouts in this market! “High Conversion Rates — Sophie’s Favors lets nothing come between you and your sale. Our website is streamlined and professional, optimized for high conversion.”

This is going to be an extremely successful program in AvantLink so keep an eye on them. If you are not yet actively promoting SophiesFavors.com at AvantLink apply now and start earning big with their high commission percentage payouts!

Read the entire PRWeb press release here: SophiesFavors.com Introduces Affiliate Marketing Program on AvantLink Platform

We’ve had several questions lately about how you can use PHP includes in your datafeed web service client to do things like add standard site-wide content to your datafeed template.

Note: Due to some recent changes in the way the datafeed client creates SEO friendly URLs, we’ve changed the main datafeed client script name from “shop” to “shop.php”. To cover both versions we’ll refer to this script as “shop” or “shop.php” below.

Here’s how you can accomplish this:

• Look for your “shop” or “shop.php” script which is in the same folder as the “template.html” file.
• Make a backup of both the “shop” or “shop.php” script and the “template.html” file just in case you want to revert back to the original.
• Open the “shop” or “shop.php” file up in a text editor and add the following right below the opening <?php code:

  
  ob_start();
  include('/path_to_include/include.php'); // Replace with actual path and file name.
  $my_include_content = ob_get_contents();
  ob_end_clean();

• Look for the block of code that looks like this:

  
  $strHTML = eregi_replace('\[PAGE_TITLE\]', $page_title, $strHTML);
  $strHTML = eregi_replace('\[PAGE_KEYWORDS\]', $page_keywords, $strHTML);
  $strHTML = eregi_replace('\[PAGE_DESCRIPTION\]', $page_description, $strHTML);
  $strHTML = eregi_replace('\[PAGE_NAVIGATION\]', $page_navigation, $strHTML);
  $strHTML = eregi_replace('\[PAGE_CONTENT\]', $page_content, $strHTML);
  $strHTML = eregi_replace('\[HIT_TRACKING\]', $hit_tracking, $strHTML);
  

• Add the following line right below that block of code:

  
  $strHTML = eregi_replace('\[MY_INCLUDE_CONTENT\]', $my_include_content, $strHTML);
  

• Save your “shop” or “shop.php” script.
• Open up your “template.html” file and add [MY_INCLUDE_CONTENT] to the html where you want that content to show.
• Save your template.html file.
• Upload your files to your server.
• If this isn’t the first time you’ve uploaded changes and/or viewed your datafeed pages make sure you clear your cache by logging into your account and going to ‘Tools -> Edit Current Datafeeds’ and then click on the ‘Clear Page Cache’ link next to your datafeed subscription in the list.

** These instructions assume that your PHP include just echo’s out a block of html content. If your include script places your html content within PHP variables then all you would need to do is simply include your script from within the “shop” or “shop.php” file, add eregi_replace() function calls (See example above) for each of the variables you want to use from within your include script, and then add those place holders (eg. [MY_PLACE_HOLDER]) to your template.html file.

Scott & AvantLink

Note: The following addendum is from June 30, 2009.

The format of our shop.php script has changed significantly since this post was written (in February 2008), however many of the instructions above remain valid – with a few key differences.

First, the suggested code for populating the $my_include_content variable – from ob_start() to ob_end_clean() – should be placed within the getTemplatedContent() function rather than immediately after the opening <?php tags, e.g.:

function getTemplatedContent($strFilePath, $page_title, $page_keywords,
	$page_description, $page_navigation, $page_content, $hit_tracking)
{
	ob_start();
	include('/path_to_include/include.php'); // Replace with actual path and file name.
	$my_include_content = ob_get_contents();
	ob_end_clean();

	if (function_exists('file_get_contents')) {

Next, it is no longer recommended to use the eregi_replace() function to insert content into your template.  Instead there’s a branch of logic in the shop.php script that uses the str_ireplace() function if available (it was added in PHP 5) or the preg_replace() function otherwise.  So the final block of code that ensures your custom variable gets inserted into the template properly would look like the following:

if (function_exists('str_ireplace')) {
	$strHTML = str_ireplace(
		array(	'[PAGE_TITLE]',
				'[PAGE_KEYWORDS]',
				'[PAGE_DESCRIPTION]',
				'[PAGE_NAVIGATION]',
				'[PAGE_CONTENT]',
				'[HIT_TRACKING]',
				'[MY_INCLUDE_CONTENT]'	),
		array(	$page_title,
				$page_keywords,
				$page_description,
				$page_navigation,
				$page_content,
				$hit_tracking,
				$my_include_content	),
		$strHTML	);
}
else {
	$page_title = str_replace('$', '\$', $page_title);
	$page_keywords = str_replace('$', '\$', $page_keywords);
	$page_description = str_replace('$', '\$', $page_description);
	$page_navigation = str_replace('$', '\$', $page_navigation);
	$page_content = str_replace('$', '\$', $page_content);
	$hit_tracking = str_replace('$', '\$', $hit_tracking);
	$my_include_content = str_replace('$', '\$', $my_include_content);

	$strHTML = preg_replace('#\[PAGE_TITLE\]#i', $page_title, $strHTML);
	$strHTML = preg_replace('#\[PAGE_KEYWORDS\]#i', $page_keywords, $strHTML);
	$strHTML = preg_replace('#\[PAGE_DESCRIPTION\]#i', $page_description, $strHTML);
	$strHTML = preg_replace('#\[PAGE_NAVIGATION\]#i', $page_navigation, $strHTML);
	$strHTML = preg_replace('#\[PAGE_CONTENT\]#i', $page_content, $strHTML);
	$strHTML = preg_replace('#\[HIT_TRACKING\]#i', $hit_tracking, $strHTML);
	$strHTML = preg_replace('#\[MY_INCLUDE_CONTENT\]#i', $my_include_content, $strHTML);
}

And that’s it – all of the other original instructions still apply.  As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let us know.

Recent Affiliate testimonial sent to our support team:

This is why I think you guys are destined for greatness. Thank you very much for listening to and ultimately implementing my suggestions, I’m looking forward to being able to grow my sales volume with this new data. I can’t think of any other network I work with that would have done more than just respond with a canned “we’ll look into it” email. Kudos to you and your team, I’ll continue to sing your praises to every affiliate and merchant I know.

Warm regards,
Scott
Artisan Interactive Consulting

We’d like to thank Scott for his support, kind words and all the sales he’s generating for our merchants! (merchants, hint hint )

You may have already noticed, but we rolled out some improvements to our already robust reporting tools in AvantLink. These improvements include visuals for an array of charts, sale item details & hit trail data.

Look for this icon: in our reporting interface to access available charts/graphs. Charts/graphs now available include:

• Daily Ad Impressions and Click Throughs
• Daily Sales (# and Dollar Amounts)
• Breakdown of Ad Impressions by Tool Type
• Breakdown of Click Throughs by Tool Type
• Breakdown of # of Sales by Tool Type
• Breakdown of Sales by Tool Type

Look for this icon: in our reporting interface to access report details. The detail icon shows up if there are detail/sub-reports available for that report.

Two more things to take note of:

1. All mentions of “Page Views” in our reporting interface are now now labeled “Ad Impressions”.
2. There is new row hover/click functionality that is a combination of stylesheet and some PHP code changes. These formatting changes makes reading your report data easier.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:

InCooking.com

Back in September 2007 we announced the addition of OutdoorCooking.com to AvantLink, and then in January of 2008 we brought on board their sister site OutdoorBasics.com. And now, we’re excited yet again to offer you the InCooking Affiliate program, another fine store from Logan Outdoor Products, LLC. Note first and foremost, your traffic is covered in case they move between these three sites. Payment and cookie return days are on the same terms for all three programs.

Founded in 2007 with a cooking and housewares product line, InCooking’s goal is to provide a positive shopping environment for online consumers. Additionally, they are creating an online community where cooking enthusiast can share their ideas, recipes and experiences with other like minded people. There are hundreds of products to choose from including many of the major name brand manufacturers such as Sante and Cabin Kitchen. InCooking is on the same solid eCommerce platform as the others, offering high coversion for your traffic and a quality shopping experience.

Benefits include a 8% payout with 120-day cookie life and a very impressive site-wide conversion rate of 4.95%! In addition, the InCookign Affiliate program has dedicated program support, a focused product line and the best Affiliate tools
in the business through AvantLink!

From their Affiliate program description:

InCooking.com has partnered with AvantLink, a leader in Affiliate marketing technology, to offer you a robust set of advanced tools that will help you maintain accurate campaign information on your website or blog.

Read the program launch announcement on ABestWeb.

Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting InCooking.com. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Craig McLaughlin, craigm/at/loganoutdoorproducts.com.

Gary & AvantLink

Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:

Peter Glenn Ski & Sports

We’re very excited to bring our Affiliates the Peter Glenn Affiliate program! I know one of the people behind this program personally, and these folks are a class act. They have all the ingredients for a quality program including a very generous baseline payout for the Outdoor/Recreation category (9%), heavy brand recognition for their store and their products, a dedicated Affiliate manager and progressive terms like no reversals on returns! Oh yeah, and they are a heavy discounter of popular brand name ski and snowboard gear and apparel.

Look for this merchant to be very active with their Dynamic Coupon Feed in AvantLink.

About Peter Glenn Ski & Sports: Since 1958, Peter Glenn has been at the forefront of a growing outdoor sports market. The first store opened in response to a demand for ski equipment and clothing that was not being met. Today, Peter Glenn carries equipment, accessories and clothing for a wide variety of outdoor sports such as skiing, snowboarding, water skiing, wakeboarding, in-line skating and adventure travel. They have 20 stores nationwide, and a quality eCommerce web site.

From their Affiliate program description:

Why partner with us? We carry the big names like The North Face, Burton, and Spyder, but specialize in high-end brands like Bogner, Nils, and Kjus (these high-end brands equal higher average order, and higher commission). $120-$180 average order value.

Read the program launch announcement on ABestWeb.

Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting Peter Glenn Ski & Sports. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Sandy Sanges, sandy.sanges/at/peterglenn.com.

Gary & AvantLink