Tag Archive for "Merchants"
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AvantLink Newsletter September 22, 2009 Vol 1, Issue 3 |
Merchant Newsletter
Now that summer is behind us it’s time to start focusing on Q4, and the busy holiday shopping season that’s quickly approaching. From now through the end of 2009, some web retailers will drive 30%-50% of their Affiliate revenue for the entire year. Get started now optimizing your program so you can take full advantage of the season of spending.
The general theme of this newsletter is how to most effectively prepare your Affiliate program for Q4. We will offer segments of relevant articles, as well as links to the full content. We also have some exciting news about a new Affiliate PPC keyword monitoring tool. The Paid Search Review tool has already seen substantial use (and press!), and it’s a free service for existing AvantLink merchants.
Table of Contents:
1. Management Tools Review Sessions
2. Merchant (Self-Managed) Deal Feed
3. Optimize Your Existing Affiliates
4. AvantShare 101
5. Paid Search Review Keyword Monitoring
6. Affiliate Testimonial: Somewhat new to the affiliate scene..
Management Tools Review Sessions
Over the course of the next four weeks we will be offering Management Tools Review Sessions online using GoToMeeting.com. We’re initially planning three 45-60 minute sessions, starting at 11am MST on the following dates:
- Monday, September 28, 2009 (11am)
- Monday, Octber 5, 2009 (11am)
- Monday, October 12, 2009 (11am)
During these sessions we will cover some of the Affiliate management tools available to all AvantLink merchants, including the self-managed coupon/deal feed for Affiliates, Affiliate tagging and group administration, best practices for managing ad lists, communication, recruitment and more. If you are interested in joining in on one of these sessions, please contact Gary Marcoccia (gmarcoccia/at/avantlink.com) and he’ll get you penciled in. Note there are 15 participant slots available for each date.
Merchant (Self-Managed) Deal Feed
One of the most powerful management tools we’ll be looking at closely during the tools review sessions is the Dynamic Coupon/Deal Feed that’s available in the account interface. In a nut shell, this is a self-managed deal feed that you control with one click via ad configurations. It’s a popular tool with Affiliates, and program managers can syndicate a special offer or “deal” to hundreds of Affiliate sites instantly. Dynamic Affiliate integration options of the coupon/deal feed include RSS and Javascript. And we also offer daily updated database files for those who would prefer the raw data.
Here is a snippet from a recent post in the category “Merchant Q&A” of our network blog.
Merchants, you’ll want to be sure you flag any special offer, deal or coupon for inclusion in our Dynamic Coupon/Deal Feed. You can easily do this by flagging “Yes” in the ad configuration field for “This is a coupon/deal campaign:”. Once you select Yes the form will provide an additional field for the offer code, if you have one. If there is no offer code then you can leave it blank. Also note that you do not have to include an offer code in the actual ad text, it you include in the “Coupon Code:” field. We will auto embed the code in that case.
Optimize Your Existing Affiliates
There is a very straight forward process to engaging and activating your existing Affiliates who have yet to send you traffic. You should follow these simple steps first and foremost when optimizing your program for this holiday season. After all, your active Affiliates came and applied to your program. So at one point at least, they showed interest. Maybe all it takes to find your new top-performing Affiliate is reaching out to your inactive list person-by-person with an email.
To access a list of Affiliates who are active, but not yet sending traffic. Follow these steps:
- Login, and click on “Affiliates” in the main menu.
- Click “Affiliate Program Applications”.
- Filter “Affiliate Status:” to “Active”.
- Sort the “Recent Traffic” column header (click that twice and all Affiliates tagged as “No” for recent traffic will filter to the top of the list).
You might not realize that we have an active Wordpress blog at AvantShare.com. Our network blog URL is AvantShare.com/blog. And we also have a category for merchants at AvantShare.com/merchantblog. At the top level we’re feeding RSS headlines from both the AvantLink and merchant blogs. Our network’s blog archive goes back to November of 2006, with nearly 400 posts. There is also a growing representation of merchants who maintain their primary Affiliate news outlet via AvantShare.
To effectively grow your Affiliate program recognize the value of distributing news, promotions and special offers through one of more communication channels besides email…like a blog or social media sites. This process of Affiliate program branding will not only engage existing and prospective Affiliates, it will help to establish your business as an authority for your category. Keep the news & info flowing, and over time the best Affiliates for your program will find you!
We have One-Off or Packaged Service Levels that can help you brand your program, and acquire new Affiliates.
Paid Search Review Keyword Monitoring
You now have the ability to monitor specific keywords/phrases Affiliates are using in paid search marketing campaigns! Introducing the Paid Search Review tool, bundled with any service level making it a free service. By default, we will monitor merchant names and domain names.
For example: Grim Reapers, GrimReapers.com.
This default configuration will help you, as well as AvantLink staff, maintain Affiliate compliance with our terms of use. Program managers can also monitor whatever additional keywords/phrases they would like. It’s just a matter of going to the Notification Center and building your keyword watch list.
Affiliate Testimonial: Somewhat new to the affiliate scene..
Here is an excerpt from an email we received from Brian at Sure Solutions. Brian has been helping us test some new Affiliate technology…
We are somewhat new to the affiliate scene. I spent more than a month researching, reading forums, crawling the abestweb site reviewing tools and trying to choose some providers for different technologies. I am very pleased that we decided to work with Avantlink first and we feel quite lucky that Brownells was in your network. The combination of quality affiliate content that is contextually correct with our published content is without a doubt a home run. Your tools are excellent and your responsiveness to our requests have exceed all my expectations.
Brian Johnson
AmmoLand.com
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AvantLink Newsletter January 2, 2009 Vol 1, Issue 1 |
Merchant Newsletter
Introducing the first AvantLink Merchant Newsletter. In our newsletters we will highlight our latest technology releases and network news.
We recently posted a comparison of our features/functionality vs. what other networks offer. If you are in more then one network we encourage you to take a look at how we stack up against our competition. If your other network(s) aren’t keeping up, email us about special incentives for going exclusive with AvantLink.
Merchants, this newsletter will be distributed quarterly. In part with each issue, we’ll solicit your targeted promos to be featured in seperate network-level distributions to our opt-in Affiliates. Including your special offers in our Promo Newsletters will help increase sales and recruit new Affiliates. More info…
Table of Contents:
1. Feature Your Valentine’s Day Promos
2. AvantLink Screencast Series
3. Value Proposition for Merchants
4. Affiliate Testimonial: Why AvantLink?
5. Affiliate Tool: Affiliate Link Encoder
Feature Your Valentine’s Day Promos
One of our new features for 2009 includes a “set” of newsletter distributions that are scheduled to go out to both Affiliates and merchants. These newsletters will include a bi-monthly publication for Affiliates, a quarterly publication for merchants (this being the first) and several promo-specific newsletters centered around the highest profile shopping days of the year.
We are now soliciting your Valentine’s Day Promos for inclusion in our first Promo Newsletter, scheduled for distribution on Monday, February 2nd. Including your Valentine’s Day promos in this newsletter is FREE, and it will help you increase sales and attract/recruit new Affiliates to your program.
If you’re interested in having your promos featured the deadline for submission is January 20th. Please email support/at/avantlink.com or any AvantLink representaive. Make sure and use “Valentine’s Day Promos” as the subject line, and include the following for each offer: Specifics of Promotion, Start-End Date
In late 2008 we produced a series of screencast tutorials for Affiliates and merchants. We have already covered a lot of important topics, and there are more to come. You’ll find that each screencast tutorial/how-to has a permalink in the Tutorials category of our Affiliate network blog.
Below is a list of the current Affiliate and merchant screencasts from AvantLink. These screencasts are also accessible via our YouTube account.
| Merchant Screencasts | Affiliate Screencasts |
Value Proposition for Merchants
In uncertain economic times merchants need to be sure their online marketing dollars are spent wisely. AvantLink runs on a true performance marketing model with no nickel/dime fees or monthly minimums. Couple this with many additional platform benefits, and it’s the best deal going for serious web retailers.
Read AvantLink’s Value Proposition for Merchants from Scott Kalbach, CEO
If you’re responsible for your company’s online marketing, chances are that you will or already have been asked to analyze where best to spend your online marketing dollars.So how can AvantLink help, and why should I invest my marketing dollars in AvantLink’s performance marketing Affiliate network?
- True performance marketing.
- Thorough network level Affiliate screening.
- Industry leading support.
- Innovation.
- Brand protection.
Affiliate Testimonial: Why AvantLink?
We often receive emails from Affiliates and merchants alike that offer support and encouragement for our efforts. We take great pride in these testimonials. If it’s agreed to in advance, we publish these testimonials on our blog. The following is quote from Dave MacLeay of Trailspace.com.
Why AvantLink? In a nutshell: they have robust, reliable tools for datafeeds and reporting, outstanding personal customer service, and a great philosophy and approach to the business. They’re more flexible and nimble than any other network I’ve worked with, and are very responsive to new ideas from both merchants and publishers. Rather than trying to enforce a top-down, network-centric relationship, they really seem to understand that their role is to facilitate, enable, and support productive relationships between merchants and affiliates.
Affiliate Tool: Affiliate Link Encoder
In October of 2007 we rolled out the Affiliate Link Encoder (ALE). This is an innovative tool and concept that converts direct-to-merchant links to Affiliate tracking links. The ALE conversion takes place on the end user’s browser, and does not change the html source code of the web document. v2.0 of the ALE was released in November 2008, adding a new layer of technology that matches and converts keywords in addition to URLs.
The simplicity of the ALE tool (pasting of one line of javascript on a web page or site template) has enabled high-powered blogs and forums to instantly monetize years worth of archived content that may include direct-to-merchant links.
There are other creative applications of the Affiliate Link Encoder. For more information browse the list of articles and discussions below.
- Introducing the Affiliate Link Encoder
- New Innovative Tool – Affiliate Link Encoder
- Installing the Affiliate Link Encoder on a WordPress Blog
- A must have for forum owners…
- Attn: Bloggers & Forum Owners
- Affiliate Link Encoder v2.0
- AvantLinks’ Advanced Link Encoder – One Cool Tool
| © COPYRIGHT 2009 Avant Marketing Group. |
The economic news has been depressing the last couple of months. The financial industry is melting down, stock market plummeting and not a day goes by that we don’t hear about a major company laying off a significant part of their work force.
Most merchants are preparing for what could be a major recession. If you’re responsible for your company’s online marketing, chances are that you will or already have been asked to analyze where best to spend your online marketing dollars.
So how can AvantLink help, and why should I invest my marketing dollars in AvantLink’s performance marketing Affiliate network?
1. True performance marketing.
We are a true performance marketing network. This means that once you pay the network integration fee, you don’t pay any monthly minimums or any other hidden fees. We don’t have nickel and dime charges you find in other networks that add up to significantly higher marketing costs. This is recession proof marketing in that you only pay for results.
2. Thorough network level Affiliate screening.
Because we screen Affiliates thoroughly at the network level, you don’t have to spend time screening and filtering Affiliates at the program level, ultimately saving you money. This also means that the vast majority of Affiliates in AvantLink are active, ethical, and savvy marketing professionals.
3. Industry leading support.
We fully support the Affiliates and merchants in our network. Affiliates know they can come directly to us with questions about tools, ads, reporting, tracking, etc. because they know we will respond promptly. This translates into a greatly reduced support workload for you.
4. Innovation.
We are your partner for innovation. We are constantly working on new tools, and better functionality. If Affiliates or merchants come to us with innovative and feasible technology ideas, we will develop them. Many of our tools were created in exactly this manner. We’re dedicated to getting Affiliates and merchants the technology they need to increase sales.
5. Brand protection.
By default, our network level terms do not allow Affiliates to bid on your trade name, domain name or mis-spellings. Most networks have many rogue affiliates who try to get away with bidding on trade/domain names wherever and whenever possible. Not paying commissions as a result of trade/domain name bidding translates into huge savings, and more protection for your brand.
In a recession it’s more important than ever to spend your marketing dollars wisely. AvantLinks’ true performance marketing network model means your marketing dollars are only going towards results. For more information, or to speak with an AvantLink sales representative, please email sales/at/avantlink.com. Mention this article and get a special discount on integration.
Scott Kalbach
Founder/CEO
Post Your Black Friday & Cyber Monday Promotions at ABW
Cool idea from the team at AbestWeb.com. If you have promos running for Q4 check it out. If you haven’t gotten to know the community at ABestWeb.com yet… It’s time to get involved, and get your promos in front of Affiliates with this special offer.
Trust wrote:
This thread is open to all merchants so they can post any Black Friday or Cyber Monday coupons or promotions only.
Merchant:
Promotion:
Short Description:
Dates Valid:
Join Program: (insert link)No signatures
No commenting on the deals. If you have any questions, contact the merchant or AM.
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:
- Login click ‘Tools’ from the main menu
- Under Ad/Link Tools click on ‘Get Merchant Ads’
- 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.
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:
- All mentions of “Page Views” in our reporting interface are now now labeled “Ad Impressions”.
- 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.
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