On March 2nd we announced a zero risk offer for Internet Retailer Top 500 stores. Today a press release distribution hit via PRWeb.com. Here is part of it:

In addition to this zero risk opportunity, AvantLink’s professional standards for Affiliates allow you to spend more time building relationships and growing sales, and less time policing your program. AvantLink provides serious web retailers with:

• True performance marketing solutions. This means that once you pay the standard network integration fee (waived with this offer), you will never pay any other fees other than the per sale transaction fee.
• Affiliate quality control. Because we screen Affiliates for effectiveness and value at the network level, you do not have to spend time doing this at the program level.
• Industry leading support. Affiliates come directly to us with technical questions about tools, reporting, tracking, etc. This translates to a reduced support workload for you.
• Innovation. AvantLink is your partner for innovation. We are constantly working on new tools, and better functionality. If partners come to us with innovative and feasible technology ideas, we develop them.
• Brand protection. Our network terms do not allow Affiliates to bid on your trademark or domain name. Not paying commissions as a result of these actions translates to huge savings, and more protection for your brand.

Read full article: AvantLink Offers Free Set-up for Internet Retailer Top 500

Daniel’s loving the Incremental Datafeed Download functionality from AvantLink. Check out the latest of our Affiliate testimonials below. Thanks for the kind words, and your continued support Daniel!

I’m new to the network and liking it so far.  The one feature unique to AvantLink (for which I find myself yearning whenever I use other affiliate networks) is the product data feed and, more specifically, its ability to provide incremental updates.  Being able to avoid importing the entire product database every day saves a lot of CPU cycles!

Thanks,

Daniel Green
Camel Camper

Introducing a new AvantLink merchant:

TetonVillageSports.com

Yet another quality merchant offered through Affiliate marketing’s top Outdoor/Recreation category! TetonVillageSports.com carries the best brands in the outdoor industry including Patagonia, The North face, Cloudveil, Volkl and more. Average order value from this merchant is $200.

Teton Village Sports has been the premiere ski shop in Teton Village at the base of the Jackson Hole Mountain resort for over 40 years, and they launched their online store on November 1, 2007. Great opportunity to promote a long-time respected ski shop using AvantLink’s advanced, and free Affiliate tools.

TetonVillageSports.com Affiliate Program

Do you have a website related to the outdoor industry and would you like to earn a commission by sending sales to TetonVillageSports.com? Earning commissions is easy since we feature the best brands. Highlights of the program include:

• Earn 7% Commissions on Sales
• 90 Day Cookie Duration
• Product Feed
• Banners and Various Creative
• Affiliate Newsletter

Read the program launch announcement on ABestWeb.

Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting TetonVillageSports.com. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Michael Lynch, michael/at/tetonvillagesports.com.

Introducing a new AvantLink merchant:

InTheHoleGolf.com

Great prices on the best golf equipment from the most respected brands! Innovative golf clubs, training aids, practice equipment, accessories and more.

IN THE HOLE! Golf is an outstanding addition to our Sports category, and we’re excited to bring you this Affiliate program. Your customers will find the best brands in the golf industry, and big name brand recognition will translate to motivated buyers, higher conversions rates and larger commissions.

With an average sale of over $165, and a cookie length of 90 days, affiliates will be rewarded for their hard work.

• 8% Commission
• 90 Day Cookie
• Product Datafeed
• Banners, Text Links & Creatives
• Coupon Codes
• Affiliate Newsletter

Read the program launch announcement on ABestWeb.

Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting InTheHoleGolf.com. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Michael Lynch, michael/at/intheholegolf.com.

Here is a quick screencast tutorial on how you can create a product comparison type of widget using the Product Ad Widget tool. Look for more screencasts in the future that demonstrate other aspects of the Product Ad Widget functionality.

Scott & AvantLink

Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:

Grim Reapers

We have a new network category! We’re pleased to bring you GrimReapers.com, the first merchant to launch their Affiliate program in our “Costumes” category. Grim Reapers features a large assortment of exciting Halloween merchandise perfect for trick-or-treating, costume parties and haunted houses. Also note that there is MUCH more than just Halloween products.

We sell year-round costumes, including such licenses as Harry Potter, Disney Princess, Marvel Superheroes, Pirates of the Caribbean, and much, much more. We also sell specialty costumes for Thanksgiving, Christmas Nativity, Santa Claus and Easter Bunny Suits, and most other holidays…

Highlights of the Grim Reapers Affiliate program include:

• 10% commission
• 120-day cookie
• AOV $49.37
• Free tools & scripts
• Free shipping options
• Halloween merchandise
• Specialty costumes

Read the program launch announcement on ABestWeb.

Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting Grim Reapers. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Jon St. Onge, sales/at/grimreapers.com.

The AvantLink Notification Center aims to provide a central location for ways to keep tabs on your AvantLink.com account.  Whether it’s via RSS feeds, report subscriptions, or Firefox plugins to show your daily stats, you’ll find it there.  However, one thing that was historically lacking was a way of receiving certain event notifications via email: for instance, if you wanted an email each time a sale was credited to your account in AvantLink.com you were out of luck.  Until now, that is.

With our latest update we’ve gone through all of the RSS feeds that we make available and added email notifications for these wherever they did not already exist.  Specifically, all users can (as mentioned above) receive an email each time a sale occurs in the network.  Additionally, affiliates can sign up to receive an email each time a merchant creates or modifies an ad.  Similarly, merchants can sign up for an email reminder when their ads are about to expire.

Many of our RSS feeds already had a built-in email component within our network.  New merchant announcements, for instance, are always sent via email as well as being made available via RSS.  So there’s no new sign-up option in the Notification Center for this – such emails are sent to you by default.  Of course you can still control whether you receive these standard notifications from our network with your overall (or per-merchant) contact preferences.

-David & AvantLink

In early March we announced the availability of our Additional Product Content Widget.  At the time, we mentioned that our raw datafeeds and ProductSearch API already provided “hooks” to take advantage of this new tool, and shortly thereafter the public beta of the Product Ad Widget was launched with similar built-in functionality.  Well now another of our offerings, the Web Service Datafeed Client, provides the ability to quickly enhance your site with valuable product-specific information above and beyond what it can normally yield.

When you configure a new or existing Web Service Datafeed Client subscription you’ll see options now for “Product Content Widget (PCW)” and “PCW Trigger Options”.  These two settings together let you control:

• whether or not to use the additional product content widget in your datafeed shop,
• how to use the widget, i.e. whether to show the widget as a pop-up or directly in the body of the page,
• which of your product content widget subscriptions to use (in case you want to customize color schemes, etc.).

The fastest and easiest method of integrating this new functionality into an existing datafeed client would be to use the “Default Product Content Widget” and select any one of the options “Click product image”, “Mouse over product image”, or “Click ‘More Product Information’ link” as the “trigger” for how the user can see the additional product content.  Just by setting those two options you can give your users the ability to see coupons, reviews, videos, price comparisons, and related products as in the following example:

If you’re looking to make this additional product content a little more obvious to your users, you may choose one of the “inline” trigger options: “Inline below product description text” or “Full replacement/enhancement of detail page”.  To make these options look really good you should configure your own product content widget subscription and set a compatible color scheme for the rest of your site; you should also set a width that allows the widget to properly fill it’s niche on your pages.  The end result can look pretty nice in context:

A word to the wise: be sure to clear your page cache after making any changes to your web service datafeed client, so that you’re not viewing old/cached content!

-David & AvantLink

Introducing a new AvantLink merchant:

Laguna Tools

Outstanding addition to our Tools category! Laguna Tools has been leading the industry in woodworking innovations for over a decade, and continues to challenge the industry with new advancements. With a full range of products such as saws, sanders, workbenches, and more, you’ll be partnering with one of the most complete online stores for the high-end craftsmen tools and hobbyist alike.

Here are some highlights of the Laguna Toools Affiliate program:

• 4% commission for every sale you refer
• Special offers and significant discounts for your visitors
• Dedicated Affiliate Management
• Search affiliates welcome!
• Regularly updated creative

Read the program launch announcement on ABestWeb.

Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting Laguna Tools. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Andrew Morales, andrew.morales/at/affiliatetraction.com.