Archive for April 2009
In the last Web Service Datafeed Client screencast we showed you how to configure and install a Web Service Datafeed Client subscription. In this screencast we show you how to modify the provided default template HTML file to make it look like the rest of your website.
Scott Kalbach & AvantLink
Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:
Promote kids outdoor clothing & gear at Play Outdoors! Perfect opportunity for Affiliates who have an outdoor category or a site/blog about their active family lifestyle. Earn a generous 10%-12% commission on every sale, with a 120-day cookie life. This is a great baseline pay for the Outdoor/Recreation category, so get links up asap. Also a note to datafeeders: Play Outdoors has an Excellent Datafeed Quality Score.
From the “Our Philosophy” page on the Play Outdoors site:
When kids are running around outside with the wind in their hair, cheeks the color of berries and laughing from deep inside their soul, there is no question that this is how kids are supposed to live. There’s just no substitute for fresh air…
Highlights of the Play Outdoors Affiliate program include:
- 10-12% commission on sales
- 120 cookie duration
- Average order value $60
- Up-to-date creative & promos
- Dedicated program support
- Robust datafeed & scripts
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting Play Outdoors. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Sarah Laufer, sarah/at/playoutdoors.com.
In this screencast we cover how to configure a Web Service Datafeed Client subscription and then show you how you can install the software on your web server.
Scott & AvantLink
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AvantLink Newsletter April 23, 2009 Vol 1, Issue 2 |
Merchant Newsletter
In this issue we are going to outline several new Affiliate technology offerings we rolled out recently including tools for content matching, product comparison and other ad widget functionality. Understanding how these tools help your Affiliates maintain relevant, dynamic pricing and product details is a key element to successful program management. We suggest all program managers go through the process of setting up an Affiliate account with AvantLink, then signing up for your own program. Apply Now as an Affiliate*, and once you do, drop us a line to let us know so we can expedite your application to active status.
Below we will also feature a snippet of an article that outlines what merchants can expect over the first 100 days after launching an Affiliate program in AvantLink. This article highlights specific tips and strategies for effectively building and maintaining an authority program for your business, which will by design attract the most productive and value-based Affiliate marketers out there. Link to full article on our blog also included.
*Program managers are asked to sign-up to their Affiliate programs only.
Table of Contents:
1. Submit Mother’s Day & Father’s Day Promos
2. New Powerful Affiliate Technology
3. Product Ad Widget Screencasts
4. Merchant Outline for First 100 Days
5. Affiliate Testimonial: Big Fans of AvantLink
Submit Mother’s Day & Father’s Day Promos
Over the course of the next two months we will move through two distinct shopping periods for both Mother’s Day (May 10th) and Father’s Day (June 21st). For both of these popular shopping events we will be distributing Affiliate newsletters featuring promos from AvantLink merchants specific to Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
Merchants, you can submit your Mother’s Day or Father’s Day promos (to be featured in these newsletters) for free! Simply email support/at/avantlink.com or your AvantLink contact. Make sure to include the specifics of each promotion you want featured, and the start-end date of each offer. Deadline for Mother’s Day submissions April 29th, and for Father’s Day June 12th.
New Powerful Affiliate Technology
As always the developers are working hard to not only build out new Affiliate tool offerings (labeled [NEW] below), but they are also continuously rolling out upgraded functionality (labeled [UPGRADE] below) to our existing tools and scripts. Here is a list of some of the most notable technology upgrades and releases so far in 2009:
- Product Ad Widget Public BETA [NEW] – We’re pleased to announce the public BETA release of a new AvantLink affiliate network tool. The Product Ad Widget is the next generation of our Product Display Builder. It has a completely redesigned configuration interface that makes use of the Yahoo User Interface (YUI) JavaScript library. The Product Ad Widget has three widget display options: Product Display, Content Match Ad Widget and Flash Widget. Read more…
- Filtering Datafeeds by Brand or Sale Price [UPGRADE] – For affiliates using our raw datafeed (datafeed files) or Web Service Datafeed Client we’ve added some new flexibility to the configuration of those tools that you may find interesting. First, it is now possible to restrict the web service datafeed client to display only products from one or more brand names. Second, both types of datafeed tools now support filtering to just on-sale products. Read more…
- Notification Center: Email Event Notifications [UPGRADE] – 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. Read more…
- Additional Product Content Widget [NEW] – We’ve been working for some time now on a project to allow affiliates to easily pull together all of the datafeed information, coupons, video ads, etc. – in other words, content – that we have at AvantLink.com. Well now it’s here! Read more…
- Showing Additional Product Content in the Web Service Datafeed Client [NEW] – 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. Read more…
- Web Service Datafeed Client Improvements [UPGRADE] – We’re proud to say that we’ve 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. Read more…
- RSS Product Feeds [NEW] – The large number of options available in that particular API module may be overwhelming to new users. So, we’ve recently added a simpler configuration page to your affiliate login: the “RSS Product Feeds” configuration page (accessible from the “Tools” page, under the “Datafeed Manager” section). Read more…
To compliment some of our new Affiliate technology releases Scott Kalbach, our CEO, has started producing screencast tutorials. So far he has posted two excellent segments to specifically outline the configuration processes and capabilities of the “Product Comparison Widget” and “Content Match” Product Ad Widget options. You can click each of the screen capture images below to start the tutorials. We encourage all program managers to watch these screencasts to better understand the power of the Affiliate tools available FREE OF CHARGE for both Affiliates and merchants, once activated in AvantLink.
Merchant Outline for First 100 Days
Everyone on your team worked hard to meet the AvantLink tracking and datafeed specifications, perform the appropriate test measures, collect collateral and program materials, etc. Now your Affiliate program is open for business on the premiere Affiliate network, but you are a little confused on what comes next. Let’s discuss the first 100 days of Affiliate marketing on AvantLink.
Summary of what to expect from, and how to approach your first 100 days:
- Be sure there are a few good promotions for Affiliates to feature as soon as you go live. You could also consider some kind of activation bonus to create a buzz around the launch of your program.
- Follow-up on launch announcements by engaging readers on those articles with comments and/or participation in the discussions.
- Maintain your own branded communication channels for Affiliates. Be creative with the news on your own blog, Twitter account, press releases, etc.
- Communicate often with your active Affiliates using the AvantLink email tool. Embed ad creative directly in the emails you send out.
- Consider creating a newsletter for Affiliates that will keep them informed of promotions, seasonal best sellers, and new product additions.
- Make sure to view your active Affiliate list often to see who is sending recent traffic, and who isn’t. This is the best place to start when working to optimize your program.
Affiliate Testimonial: Big Fans of AvantLink
As we continue to build the Affiliate end of our business, we have quickly come to appreciate the quality of merchants on the AvantLink network, the ease of use of the Affiliate tools, the consistent and usable product data we can retrieve, and the responsiveness of the entire AvantLink team.
To sum it up we are big fans of, and benefiting financially from, a strong partnership with AvantLink.
Craig & Rusty
GearBuyer.com
| © COPYRIGHT 2009 Avant Marketing Group. |
We’re proud to say that we’ve 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 (some of which will be immediately noticeable) – however, to gain the full benefit of all of the changes you should download a new copy of the files that get installed on your local server (more on this later).
Following are the main highlights of the changes that have been made:
- Improved the built-in searching functionality. The search feature now uses the same library as our ProductSearch API module, resulting in more accurately targeted results. In certain situations, we also make available a feature to expand search results to include more generic results. Several bug fixes and performance optimizations were included in these changes as well.
- Better construction of page keywords (normally used in meta tags) to more uniquely identify pages throughout the site. As a basic example, pagination results (“Page X of Y”) are included in the keywords to properly differentiate large category listings or product search results.
- Improved/simplified the use of local template files (“template.html” or “template.php”). Originally, whenever you modified a local template file to change the formatting of your datafeed client, you had to manually clear the page cache using a specialized URL that we provide through our affiliate interface. In new installations however, changes to the template file are detected and the page cache is cleared automatically. In short, sprucing up the appearance of your datafeed pages should be a lot easier now.
- Completely revamped the communication between your local server and the AvantLink.com web service. Original deployments use the SOAP protocol to transfer data back & forth; new installations use a REST-style methodology that is simpler, more light-weight, and better performing. This means less of a CPU and bandwidth drain on your local server, and faster page load times for your visitors.
- Added support for XML-based sitemap functionality in accordance with published specifications of the sitemap protocol. This feature is available once you upgrade your local installation of the datafeed client files. At that point, if your datafeed client was located at, for instance,
- http://www.your-site.com/xyz/shop/shop.html
then you could browse to the following to see your sitemap index:
- http://www.your-site.com/xyz/shop/sitemap-index.xml
This same URL could be submitted to search engines like Google to improve the spidering/crawling of your site. Within the sitemap-index you’ll see reference to several individual sitemap-*.xml files that list the details for specific pages within your datafeed client.
As mentioned above, to gain the full benefit of all of the above changes you should download a new copy of the files that get installed on your local server. Before proceeding, make a backup copy of your “template.html” or “template.php” file – these do NOT need to be modified in any way, and you should take care not to overwrite them with our default versions of these files. When you do download the new install, you may notice that there are far fewer files to upload to your server than originally; this is intentional. There is no longer any need for an “avant_includes/” directory on your local server, and instead only the following files/folders are used:
- cache/ – This folder stores local cached snapshots of pages to improve performance
- .htaccess – This file instructs your web server (Apache) how to handle your datafeed URLs
- shop.php – This file handles communication with the AvantLink.com web service
- Cache_Lite.php – This is a library file that we use to cache pages for performance improvement
- template.html or template.php – This is the file that handles the formatting of your datafeed pages
Hopefully this shortened list of file dependencies will simplify the upgrade process and any new installations in the future.
All in all, we feel that the Web Service Datafeed Client makes a big leap with these changes, but of course it’s your opinion and experience that ultimately matters. So please let us know your thoughts as you work with some of these new features!
-David & AvantLink
Introducing a new AvantLink merchant:
This is an exciting, progressive addition to our Apparel category. Junonia.com markets exclusive sportswear and plus size casual clothing to active women. As an Affiliate of Junonia you will enter one of the most lucrative industries in the US, representing over 20 billion shopping dollars a year!
Join the Junonia Affiliate program and you will earn 8% on sales with a conversion rate of nearly 4%. There is an average order value of $40, and here is the kicker: Junonia.com has instituted a full commission payout EVEN ON RETURNED ITEMS!
Highlights of the Junonia Affiliate program include:
- Affiliate payout 8% per sale
- Never chargebacks for returns
- Average sale value $140
- Site-wide conversion rate 4%
- Cookie duration 30 days
- Coupons always available
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting Junonia.com. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Stephanie Sorrels, junonia/at/eaccountable.com.
Since the BETA release of our Product Ad Widget (PAW) a while back, we’ve had a number of questions from affiliates asking about the future of it’s predecessor, the Product Display Builder. In particular, many people are concerned about the lack of RSS support in the new tool. While it’s true that we do not have plans to incorporate RSS feed functionality into the PAW, that doesn’t mean that this functionality is unavailable – even outside of the legacy Product Display Builder. On the contrary, our API has provided the ability to produce RSS product datafeeds since the inception of the ProductSearch module.
Now, the large number of options available in that particular API module may be overwhelming to new users. So, we’ve recently added a simpler configuration page to your affiliate login: the “RSS Product Feeds” configuration page (accessible from the “Tools” page, under the “Datafeed Manager” section). When you click the option to “Create an RSS product feed” you’ll see a configuration page that’s actually very similar to the old Product Display Builder setup. Here you can choose a particular merchant datafeed, restrict to a department/category/subcategory, and set various product-level filters (brand name, keywords, pricing, etc.). 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 API, such as this example for FetchDog.com.
Keep in mind that the “RSS Product Feeds” configuration page simplifies the use of the ProductSearch API module by actually hiding some of the available functionality from you. As you gain experience, you may find yourself using our API documentation and examples to customize your feed even further.
-David & AvantLink
Introducing a new exclusive AvantLink merchant:
Help us welcome the latest addition to our Footwear category. Arthur Beren has set the standard for classic contemporary footwear worldwide with long standing retail stores in San Francisco and Palo Alto. In addition to the two physical retail locations, Arthur Beren’s loyal customers can also shop online at BerenShoes.com. The site has been optimized to help customers find the perfect shoes, in the perfect size and width.
Highlights of the Arthur Beren Affiliate program include:
- Frequently updated creative tools and dedicated support to help you sell.
- Robust product datafeed.
- High average order size $300+.
- Affiliate payout of 3%.
- Easy returns and exchange policy.
- 60-day cookie duration.
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting BerenShoes.com. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Joshua Brown, jbrown/at/berenshoes.com.
Introducing a new AvantLink merchant:
We are pleased to bring you this very progressive program! Trek Light Gear joins other top web retailers in the best Outdoor/Recreation category in the cost per sale Affiliate marketing segment. They offer 8% baseline and 120-day cookie on lightweight gear including portable, backpacking & camping hammocks, Eco Tote reusable bags and more.
This is a manufacturer direct-to-consumer program, which means good conversion and regular promotions that will warrant top exposure on your site(s), our outdoor category. Seth Haber and Trek Light Gear have been very thorough with the set-up and launch execution of this program. In fact check out the following Affiliate-exclusive coupon and activation bonus:
- Activation Bonus: First 10 Affiliates to hit $1000 in sales will each receive a $150 bonus.
- Site Wide Coupon: Take 5% off your entire order. Use coupon code 4TREKGEAR, no expiration.
This is a good one, folks. Take a look at their site and their Affiliate program info page and you will like what you see. Here are a few other highlights of the Trek Light Gear Affiliate program:
- 120 day cookie
- 8% commission rate
- Average order size of $75
- Always Free Priority Mail shipping on orders over $90
- Robust Datafeed
- Work with a young, passionate company that’s providing a unique brand of lightweight gear and products
- All products covered by our Satisfaction Guarantee and 2 Year Warranty
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting TrekLightGear.com. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Seth Haber, seth/at/treklightgear.com
Introducing a new AvantLink merchant:
We are pleased to bring our Affiliates another manufacturer direct-to-consumer Affiliate program! The Opedix brand manufacturers and sells running tights, posture shirts(r), and ski/snowboard tights that are proven, through medically-based clinical studies, to improve joint alignment in the knees and shoulders. Evidence-based apparel can increase stability and strength while also reducing wear and tear by ‘unloading’ the joints.
Definitely have a look at Opedix.com. Large average order value, and a site-wide conversion of over 4%! Since this is a direct-to-consumer program the payout is very compelling at 12% baseline. Highlights of the Opedix Affiliate program include:
- 12% Base Commission on every sale
- Average order size: Over $190
- Exclusive Coupon Offers: Available solely for our affiliate and their visitors
- High conversation rate: Over 4%
- 90 day cookie duration
- Free, robust Affiliate tools & scripts
- Dedicated program management
Read the program launch announcement on ABestWeb.
Let us know what we can do to help you get started promoting Opedix. Contact anyone at AvantLink or the program manager Chris Weaver, chris.weaver/at/i-ology.com.
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