AvantLink's Merchant Blog » Backcountry.com

ODAT Affiliate Program Launch

backcountry — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:15:17 +0000

The day everyone has been waiting for has finally arrived. Today Backcountry.com launched the highly anticipated ODAT Affiliate Program (one deal at a time). We’ve seen many imposters over the last few months but this is the real deal, we’re talking about Steepandcheap.com, Whiskeymilitia.com, Chainlove.com and Tramdock.com. Check out this segment of the recently issued press release:

“Affiliates recognized the value of ODAT early on,” said Porter Haney, Backcountry’s ODAT Affiliate manager. “They’ve been building alert tools across platforms – tools that we didn’t have – because they wanted the functionality and they new that others did too. They’ve added these widgets to their sites, in hopes that we’d eventually step up and pay them for their efforts and for all the customers they send our way. This program is a nod to them and to others that want to make some money marketing our sites.” Read more…

The ODAT Affiliate Program is different in many ways from the typical revenue share model; this is the 1^st of our programs to offer a New Customer Bounty, giving a $5 flat rate for any new customer referred by an affiliate site. We’ll offer several dynamic tools including daily deal banners that refresh with new product as it comes up on the site in turn creating a sticky environment on your site. The ODAT Affiliate Program operates under very separate program terms from the Backcountry Affiliate Program - please understand this before promoting Backcountry’s one deal at a time sites. For all the program details see below:

Joining is free and easy!
120 day cookie duration gives you four months to refer a sale and earn money!
100% parasite free
Deal Of The Day Tool
Dynamic HTML banners
RSS subscription tools
$5 new customer bounty
Detailed reporting
SEO friendly tools
Banner/text/flash ads
We carry the Best Brands in the Outdoor Industry, such as The North Face, and Burton, which means more motivated buyers and better conversion
Dedicated Program Management - An expert team is available to answer questions and to help make you a success.

Join now by logging into your Avantlink account select the “Merchants” tab and apply for all our ODAT sites.

Backcountry.com Stimulus Promo

backcountry — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:20:39 +0000

The best investment you can make right now is in gear at Backcountry.com. Today we launched a promotion unlike anything we’ve done before, our unofficial name for this is the Stimulus Package (coined by our other AM Ryan Myers). This promo guarantees cash back up to $75 in January 2009, here are the three sales thresholds customers will need to reach in order to qualify.

Spend $100 at Backcountry.com | Save $20 in January 2009
Spend $200 at Backcountry.com | Save $50 in January 2009
Spend $300 at Backcountry.com | Save $75 in January 2009

For additional details click here

We feel CR will be highest when adding these thresholds at the point of purchase for those of with a gear store or shopping comparison engine. We’ve also added banners and text links in the Avantlink interface to support the promotion. I encourage everyone to hit this hard!

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Program Manager
bbboyd@backcountry.com
Skype: brian.boyd79

Brands
Backcountry.com
BackcountryOutlet.com
Dogfunk.com
Steepandcheap.com
Chainlove.com
Tramdock.com
Whiskeymilitia.com

Holiday Coupons From BackcountryOutlet.com

backcountry — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:19:02 +0000

Throughout the Holidays we’ll be running a 40% off BackcountryOutlet.com coupon code that’s valid for top brands. Each week we’ll rotate the brands, there will be two brands per week starting with Patagonia and Oakley. There’s currently a text link that’s been tagged in the Dynamic Coupon Feed, this will be updated with the current brands every Monday morning.

Here are the details for this week’s coupon:
Redemption Code: 3J9-1-CQDRK
Expiration: 11/09/2008

*Use the discount code to increase discount to 40% off retail price. Not valid on gift certificates or item(s) already on sale for greater than 40% off. Coupon only valid on BackcountryOutlet.com. Coupon good through 11:59 pm MST, November 9, 2008.

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Manager
bboyd@backcountry.com
720-217-3381
Skype Id: brian.boyd79

Brands
Backcountry.com
Tramdock.com
Dogfunk.com
Steepandcheap.com
Whiskeymilitia.com
Chainlove.com

Blogs
Backcountryblog.com
Thegoat.backcountry.com

Backcountry.com Specialty Datafeeds

backcountry — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:40:45 +0000

Does everyone know about the Specialty Datafeed tool in Avantlink? If not, here’s your chance to get the skinny. Recently Avantlink built this tool that allows us (the merchant) to custom build datafeeds for all types of things like; top sellers, sales items and new arrivals. Just today we added a September top sellers datafeed for each of our sites.

There’s several ways to integrate this feed of products on your site, but the easiest has got to be the Product Display Builder. To get the top sellers from each of our stores on your site simply login to your Avantlink account, click the “Tools” tab then “Create a new product display.” Then, select your integration method (I usually go with Javascript because it’s dynamic) and the “Top Sellers” datafeed. From there select your preferences, copy the code and paste it on your site. The whole process literally takes 10 minutes.

If you have ideas for other specialty datafeeds you’d like to see shoot me an email.

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Manager
bboyd@backcountry.com
720-217-3381
Skype Id: brian.boyd79

Brands
Backcountry.com
Tramdock.com
Dogfunk.com
Steepandcheap.com
Whiskeymilitia.com
Chainlove.com

Blogs
Backcountryblog.com
Thegoat.backcountry.com

Backcountry & BackcountryOutlet Coupons

backcountry — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:11:40 +0000

All-

Remember that time you asked for Backcountry.com and BackcountryOutlet.com coupons? With a little begging and pleading we’re very happy to be able to provide you with some truly awesome deals (kidding about the begging). First, a 50% off coupon for BackcountryOutlet.com that boosts the already discounted item to 50% off. If the item is already 50% off the coupon won’t work. This coupon starts 9/18/08 and continues through 10/15/08.

Next, we have a 25% off coupon for all Backcountry.com Goat products which includes tee shirts, hoodies, hats, softshell jackets and more. Let me tell you the Goat line of products is so killer, all the shirts are organic and super comfy. You might want pick up something for yourself, trust me. This coupon also starts 9/18/08 and continues through 9/30/08.

Both coupons have already been added to the Avantlink interface and tagged in the Dynamic Coupon Feed. Check out the details below:

BackcountryOutlet: 50% off
Dates: 9/18/08 to 10/15/08
Code: 37A-1-G0XND

Backcountry: 25% off BC Goat Products (Get your goat on!)
Dates: 9/18/08 to 9/30/08
Code: 37B-1-QYDRJ

Sincerely,

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Manager
Backcountry.com
bboyd@backcountry.com

New Dogfunk Logo & Creative

backcountry — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:33:10 +0000

Hello All,

If you haven’t noticed, the Dogfunk.com logo has undergone a complete makeover. You’ll see the change on newsletters, emails and now in the Affiliate Program. We just loaded the 1^st round of banners with new logo in the Avantlink interface. The new banners are labeled as such “DF - New Logo.” We’ll continue to keep the old logo creative in the Avantlink interface for the time being and update as we go.

Please contact us with questions.

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Marketing Manager
Backcountry.com
bboyd@backcountry.com
720-217-3381

Website Optimization

backcountry — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:11:18 +0000

Although not news to most website owners, optimization is an often overlooked component to a successful affiliate site. Is your site converting below 2%? If so it’s time to look at possible optimization strategies. It may be as simple at changing links or banners but in most cases involves a little more effort. Things we often suggest are:

Site organization/navigation – In other words does the current format of your site make sense to the customer. Simple navigation seems to work the best.
Do all the links going to the merchant site track properly?
Are you writing unique content on a regular basis? And if so are you choosing keywords that are likely to be used in the SE’s.
Is the site taking full advantage of everything we offer through the program? Backcountry.com has one of the most complete affiliate programs I’ve seen in terms of tools, creativity and support (I might be a little biased though).
Is the site making the most of what it has? We’ve seen amazing sites with tons of user generated content that don’t know how to leverage it and make it work for them in the affiliate channel.

I realize these are pretty generic tips but if you want in-depth ideas for optimizing your site come to us, we’re here to help and know what works best for our program. Or if you have ideas on how to optimize and you’d like to share them here, feel free.

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Manager
bboyd@backcountry.com
720-217-3381

Brands
Backcountry.com
Tramdock.com
Dogfunk.com
Steepandcheap.com
Whiskeymilitia.com
Chainlove.com
Blogs
Backcountryblog.com
Thegoat.backcountry.com

New Videos From Backcountry.com & Dogfunk.com

backcountry — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:16:58 +0000

New tools are available to help you promote the Backcountry.com and Dogfunk.com affiliate programs. A few months back Avantlink rolled out their video campaign tool that allows our partners to grab some code and post Backcountry or Dogfunk videos to their site(s).

We’re very pleased to announce that we’ve added two new videos created by Riptube.com, a snowboard flick for Dogfunk and climbing video for Backcountry. Not only is video a great selling tool but these are core videos that ad credibility to your site. Forget the boring videos that talk about a single product, these are videos that show sick athletes using the gear we sell.

To add the video to your site, login to your Avantlink account and click the “Tools” tab. Then click “Get Merchant Links.” Select either Dogfunk or Backcountry from the list of merchants and choose “video.” From there simply copy and paste the code provided.

Additional tools coming soon…

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Manager
bboyd@backcountry.com
720-217-3381

Brands:
Backcountry.com
Tramdock.com
Dogfunk.com
Steepandcheap.com
Whiskeymilitia.com
Chainlove.com

Semi Annual Sale Starts Now!

backcountry — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:52:52 +0000

The most epic event of the summer is upon us, the Semi Annual Sale at Backcountry.com & Dogfunk.com. If you’ve experienced this before you know that just about everything on the site goes on sale with gear up to 70% off. This sale includes top brands too; like The North Face, Burton, Arc’teryx, Volcom and more. Don’t miss out on promoting this one, it starts today and continues through 9/3/08. You might even want to treat yourself to a new tent or those trail runners you’ve had your eye on.

The creative is already live in the Avantlink network; we’re also putting together a specialty datafeed for each of the sites with hand selected deals. To check it out for yourself visit the Backcountry.com sale or Dogfunk.com sale.

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Manager
bboyd@backcountry.com

Brands
Backcountry.com
Tramdock.com
Dogfunk.com
Steepandcheap.com
Whiskeymilitia.com
Chainlove.com

Blogs
Backcountryblog.com
Thegoat.backcountry.com

New Backcountry.com Merchant Blog

backcountry — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:35:07 +0000

We’re super stoked to bring you our Backcountry.com merchant blog! With that being said here’s a few things you can expect out of this blog:

Very serious entries - we’re all business and wear suits to the office everyday for a reason
We’ll never mention your mom in the title of a Dogfunk sale.
Nothing cutting edge, we like to think inside the box.

Actually none of that’s true, we promise to provide you the skinny on what’s going on with our Avantlink program, insight on tools and strategies and the occasional offensive sale from Dogfunk.com. We hope you enjoy our new blog, feel free to post comments or questions anytime.

Brian Boyd
Affiliate Manager
bboyd@backcountry.com

Brands
Backcountry.com
Tramdock.com
Dogfunk.com
Steepandcheap.com
Whiskeymilitia.com
Chainlove.com

Blogs
Backcountryblog.com
Thegoat.backcountry.com