Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare discuss Affiliate Summit West 2012 in Las Vegas, and how this was different from past Affiliate Summit events for both of them.

Traditionally we attend Affiliate Summit representing our merchants that we manage, and spend our time discussing our programs with affiliates, talking about industry issues with our peers and meeting new people. Sometimes we have a Meet Market table, and Deborah has spoken on many panels, This time Deborah had a Meet Market table for the Affiliate Summit Networking forum to bring attention to the fact that people can network there between affiliate summit events, and Vinny was a speaker with a solo presentation. We also had more merchants actually in attendance than we have had at one time in the past.

Some links from the podcast:
Vinny’s Slide Deck from his presentation – 25 Ways To Improve Your Website
Affiliate Summit Networking Forum
Eric Thomas Keynote
Vinny O’Hare Website
Vinny on Twitter
Deborah on Twitter
Links to our Merchants

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts!

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss ideas on engaging new customers gained from Black Friday sales.

Topics include:

• Promotion ideas to recapture the attention and dollars of Black Friday / Cyber Monday customers

·         Helpful data, creative and resources for affiliates so they can generate additional holiday sales

Key takeaways:

• Consider time-sensitive promotions that encourage customers to keep returning to the site, such as daily deals or a “Countdown to Christmas” – great examples include eBay and Amazon’s daily and weekly deals

·         As the remaining shopping days dwindle, alter promotions to feature gift cards and/or free overnight shipping

·         Promote complementary products or add-ons for gifts they’ve already purchased, such as Kindle Edition books if the original purchase was a Kindle Fire

·         Use Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales data to give affiliates top seller data and popular categories, then let them know if and when you will highlight or offer a sale on these products again

·         Supply affiliates with shipping deadline dates and when gift card sales are strongest so they can plan and promote accordingly

·         Recognize that holiday promotions don’t have to stop at Black Friday and Cyber Monday, give affiliates offers that run through the rest of December and into post-holiday shopping promotions – for example, encourage gift card spending after the holidays

Helpful statistics:

From Shawn Collins’s Affiliate Tip Blog and citing stats from comScore:

• Online shopping for Black Friday 2011 was a 26% increase versus Black Friday 2010

·         Thanksgiving Day (November 24) was also strong with an 18% increase over Thanksgiving 2010 with $479 million in online sales.

·         There was $1.25 billion in online spending on Cyber Monday 2011, which is up 22% from 2010

·         Cyber Monday 2011 was the heaviest online spending day in history and only the second day ever to surpass the billion-dollar threshold

Find us on Twitter:

Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Amy Ely
Kim Salvino
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Listen to host Deborah Carney in a roundtable discussion about how affiliate marketing got started and how it has evolved with some of the people that have been in it since the beginning. Are they in the same place they were when they started? Where do they see the industry going?

Listen as panelists Todd Farmer, Todd Crawford, Connie Arnold, Scott Jangro and Brian Littleton have a lively discussion, history you probably don’t know, and as they answer some burning questions about the beginnings of our awesome industry. Our industry is so young that we want to capture the thoughts about it’s growth some of the leaders in the industry. No one currently in our industry wanted to grow up to be an affiliate or affiliate manager, the jobs didn’t exist. But now, there are many young people whose parents are in the industry and they kinda would like to do what Mom and/or Dad does.

Blogging ABCs hosts Tricia Meyer and Deborah Carney talk about how bloggers can use gift guides to build traffic and possibly test out affiliate marketing and see if it is right for them. Regardless of whether you choose to monetize your blog or not, gift guides throughout the year can give you a topic to write about that people search for and need help with.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss ideas on how merchants can create engaging and efficient affiliate newsletters

Topics include:

·         Using subject lines, content and a format that is helpful and appealing to affiliates

·         The pros and cons of using HTML vs text, personalizing messaging, and including tracking code

·         The importance of understanding legal & illegal practices when communicating with affiliates

Key takeaways:

·         Use subject lines that make sense – don’t title “monthly newsletter” when you can include key words that relate to the information in the email

·         Consider addressing recipients by name and making the messaging personal

·         List main topics at the start of the email to immediately engage recipients on points of interest

·         Think about including code (that works!) when mentioning the great creative available for your program – if you have their attention, make their life easier by allowing for a quick copy/paste

·         Don’t bother telling affiliates about sales that started yesterday and end tomorrow

·         Engage affiliates beyond your program details, ask them what they need from you, share helpful industry stats, discuss topics with them on forums, in social media, etc.

·         Include contact details at the close of each email

·         Test before you send!  Test before you send!!!

Helpful statistics:

·         In a recent survey of 7,000+ affiliates from Affiliate Benchmarks, they listed weekly as the most preferred frequency of affiliate program newsletters

·         Further, affiliates listed direct personal email, newsletter email, and network email as the top three preferred ways to receive information from advertisers they work with

Find us on Twitter:

Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Topics include:

·         Important information affiliates need to promote your Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals
·         Considerations when designing a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal

Key takeaways:

·         Plan and send Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals at least 4-6 weeks in advance so affiliates have time to prepare.

·         Communicating with your affiliates is very, very important.  If your deal details won’t be available far in advance, tell your affiliates if you’re planning to run a deal at all – this way they can prepare their sites.  If you send them a deal a few days before or on Black Friday, you’ll likely be out of luck.

·         Don’t try to pass off a standard promotion (ex. Free shipping on orders over $50) as a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal if it’s something you already offer regularly.  Your customers and affiliates will find out and be disappointed if you’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and might take their business elsewhere.

·         If you’d rather not discount your entire online store, offer a special on one or a handful of items to drive traffic to your site, and keep the remaining items at regular price.

·         Ensure you have ample stock of the products you’re featuring for the deal, and if the stock runs out, be prepared to redirect the page to a similar item with a deal.

·         When sending affiliates (and/or your network) deal details, we strongly recommend providing all of the following information:

• Offer title & details
• Official deal start date & time
• Official deal end date & time
• Specific landing page URL
• Required coupon code (if applicable)

Helpful statistics:

·         Black Friday online sales totaled $595 million in 2009 and $648 million in 2010

·         The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12^th

Find us on Twitter:

Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Topics include:

·         Important information to ask merchants in preparation for Black Friday/Cyber Monday
·         Tips for communicating with merchants to ensure you’re not stuck with last-minute updates

Key takeaways:

·         Communicating with your merchants (or network rep) is key.  Explain why you need information in advance, make a case for why it’s in their best interest (stats, site traffic over Thanksgiving weekend, case studies), and describe how you promote (email, ppc, etc) so they can provide all the assets you need.

o    Give merchants a deadline and stick to it

·         If working through a network, think about asking to be part of a spotlight in newsletters sent to merchants, highlighting the value of your site for Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals.

·         Consider asking for a list of a merchant’s top sellers and the products they plan to promote during the holiday season so you can plan accordingly.

·         Ask merchants if gift cards are commissionable, as sales of these cards directly add revenue to their bottom line and many consumers don’t end up redeeming them.  This presents a high-profit opportunity for them and an up-front commission earning opportunity for you.

·         When asking merchants  (and/or your network) for deal details, consider asking for all of the following information:

• Offer title & details
• Official deal start date & time
• Official deal end date & time
• Specific landing page URL
• Required coupon code (if applicable)

Helpful statistics:

·         Black Friday online sales totaled $595 million in 2009 and $648 million in 2010
·         The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12^th
·         Americans are sitting on $30 billion in unused gift cards

Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Affiliate ABCs host Deborah Carney joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss Q4 planning and ideas to generate the greatest revenue during one of the most lucrative times of the year.

Topics include:

·         Important information to ask merchants in order to effectively promote their program in Q4
·         Great Q4 holidays (beyond Black Friday) and niche topics to consider for promotion opportunities

Key takeaways:

·         Don’t wait on the merchant – know what you need well in advance, and don’t be afraid to ask
·         Plan out a promotional calendar and the dates you’ll need relevant creative from merchants
·         Consider creating a media kit detailing your audience demographics, planned promotions, and communications channels you use (email, PPC, etc) and send to potential merchant partners
·         Ensure your content and ads aren’t displaying expired promotions
Tricia Meyer posted a great seasonality calendar – http://www.tricia.me/SeasonalityCalendar.pdf

Helpful statistics:
·         comScore 4^th quarter sales reached $39 billion in 2009 and $43 billion in 2010 – presenting a huge revenue opportunity this year
·         The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12^th

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss Q4 planning, including tips on how to effectively support affiliates and generate the greatest revenue from this channel during one of the most lucrative times of the year.

Topics include:
·         Important information affiliates need to effectively promote your program in Q4
·         Great Q4 holidays (beyond Black Friday) to consider for promotion opportunities
·         Activities to avoid during Q4 that may cause your program to lose affiliates

Key takeaways:
·         comScore 4^th quarter sales reached $39 billion in 2009 and $43 billion in 2010 – presenting a huge revenue opportunity this year
·         The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12^th
·         Plan out a promotional calendar and the dates you’ll provide relevant creative to your affiliates
·         Send a list of best sellers, new Q4 products, and (for PPC affiliates) suggested keywords
·         Update data feeds daily and consider “changes file,” top sellers, and category specific sub-feeds
·         DO NOT plan major site updates or affiliate network changes in Q4
·         If your gift cards are commissionable, let your affiliates know, if they aren’t – why not?

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Drew Thorne-Thomsen from Ring Revenue, joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss the Ring Revenue service. Pay per call has been around for awhile but it is getting more traction as more affiliates are looking for ways to monetize offline advertising or other untraditional types of advertising and pay per call gives affiliates, networks and merchants a way to start tracking those sales. In addition to the call tracking, there is also a corresponding link that can track.

A little background on Drew:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen, VP of Customer Development at Ring Revenue - Drew is responsible for partner development and support, as well as new business development. Prior to joining RingRevenue, he was CMO at Trident Marketing, where he was responsible for customer acquisition for several Fortune 500 brands. Drew drove millions of phone calls to their own performance call centers through traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies. Before that, he spent nearly a decade at Commission Junction, where he launched and developed CJ Media and CJ PayPerCall. Drew spent six years on the United States Alpine Ski Team and competed at the World Cup level. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Some of the main points for Affiliates: 
- Affiliates are earning millions in commissions
- Combine calls AND clicks to earn more
- Phone calls convert between 30-50% (clicks 1-3%)
- Average payouts above $10 per call
- Access more high-value offers
- Visit RingRevenue sign up with networks: www.ringrevenue.com/partners

We would love for you to leave comments and let us know if you are using Pay per Call or what questions you have about it. We will be scheduling a webinar for later in the month and would love to have questions from you!

More information on Ring Revenue:
What is RingRevenue?
Publisher Get Started Video

Contact info:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen
drew@ringrevenue.com

Find us on Twitter:
RingRevenue
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Drew Thorne-Thomsen from Ring Revenue, joins Merchant ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss the Ring Revenue service. Pay per call has been around for awhile but it is getting more traction as more affiliates are looking for ways to monetize offline advertising or other untraditional types of advertising and pay per call gives affiliates, networks and merchants a way to start tracking those sales. In addition to the call tracking, there is also a corresponding link that can track. Plus if you think your program is too small or you don’t have a call center, there are other options for you to accept trackable and commissionable call.

A little background on Drew:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen, VP of Customer Development at Ring Revenue - Drew is responsible for partner development and support, as well as new business development. Prior to joining RingRevenue, he was CMO at Trident Marketing, where he was responsible for customer acquisition for several Fortune 500 brands. Drew drove millions of phone calls to their own performance call centers through traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies. Before that, he spent nearly a decade at Commission Junction, where he launched and developed CJ Media and CJ PayPerCall. Drew spent six years on the United States Alpine Ski Team and competed at the World Cup level. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Some of the main points for Merchants: 
- Pay-per-call is delivering millions in new revenue for merchants
- Access increased distribution channels online, offline and mobile
- Phone sales typically worth 1.5-2X online sales.
- Define caller quality criteria
- Pay only for quality calls
- Visit RingRevenue to find out more: www.ringrevenue.com

We would love for you to leave comments and let us know if you are using Pay per Call or what questions you have about it. We will be scheduling a webinar for later in the month and would love to have questions from you!

Find out more about Ring Revenue and Pay Per Call:
What is RingRevenue?
Advertiser Get Started Video

Contact info:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen
drew@ringrevenue.com

Find us on Twitter:
RingRevenue
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of running programs on multiple networks.

Topics include:

·         Managing creative, promotions, and information across all networks
·         Considerations: Ts & Cs, setup and monthly fees, tracking, network quality measures
·         Identifying network benefits: different affiliates, tools, verticals
·         Actions that negatively and positively impact program growth

Key takeaways:

·         Avoid confusion – be consistent with promotions and communications across networks unless you’re running separate tests to gauge performance
·         Be strategic when beginning a new network relationship – consider the added value vs. added time and effort to manage another account
·         Grow 2-3 relationships vs. joining every network – this will enable program managers to work effectively with each relationship vs. reactive program management to simply keep up
·         Avoid network hopping – affiliate marketing is a marathon, not a sprint; don’t upset affiliates by repeatedly closing on one network and opening on another
Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Affiliates, in the comments, let us know if you will work with merchants on multiple networks, and why or why not.
Merchants, in the comments, let us know if you are on multiple networks and if they perform equally.

Today’s Affiliate ABCs podcast features the MakeBeer.net affiliate program on ShareASale. Host Deborah Carney is joined by Karen Garcia from GTO Management, the OPM managing the MakeBeer.net affiliate program.

MakeBeer.net offers a full line of Cooper’s Home Brew kits, ingredients and equipment for brewing beer at home. The Cooper’s Brewery in Australia was founded in 1862 and the MakeBeer.net product line contains eighteen varieties of beer from the Master Brewers at Coopers Brewery including popular beers such as IPAs, lagers, ales and stouts and each kit makes 6 gallons of beer. Their Cooper’s DIY Beer Kit contains all the equipment and ingredients needed to brew a full batch of beer and is very popular as a gift during the holiday season as well as Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day in addition to year-round sales.

The MakeBeer.net affiliate program is exclusively on ShareASale and offers a 15% commission and a 90 day cookie as well as a full product datafeed which is also available in PopShops. They have several video creatives available as well as a Top Sellers widget that is updated weekly.

Join the MakeBeer.net Affiliate Program

Show Links:
MakeBeer.net
GTO Management

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

This podcast outlines what conversion optimization is and covers the most common questions associated with how conversion optimization works. Lindsay Viscount and Sarah Bundy from All Inclusive Marketing discuss with Deborah Carney of MerchantABCs the most essential “need to knows” about conversion optimization and how it works.

An ecommerce conversion rate is one of the most important KPIs to understand and maximize when it comes to online sales. With all things being equal, if your conversion rate increases, your website sales will increase. Conversion rate impacts every channel, from your SEO to your affiliate marketing program and is a main determining factor of each channel’s success.

Here is a quick overview of the questions discussed and some of the suggested answers provided by the All Inclusive Marketing team:

Q: What is conversion optimization?
A: The process of testing and improving the conversion rate of a website. Making sure that the website is generating as many sales, leads or whatever the goal of the website is as possible.

Q: Why is conversion optimization so important for ecommerce sites?
A: Generally with an ecomm website, you want your website to be your best salesperson and when you are directing customers to your website, you want it to be able to close the deal. If your website isn’t performing at the potential that it could be, you could be losing out on large amounts of revenue daily. Especially if you are spending $$ on advertising, you want to make sure that you are getting a generous return on ad spend.

Q: What things are taken into consideration when developing a strategy for conversion optimization?
A: Website goals (primary and secondary), page goals (moving traffic to where you want it to go), target audience, the product, current landing page and trends, sales pitch, and common objections.

Q: What are the most important pages to optimize and why?
A: Home page – this page usually generates the most traffic to a website
Category page – to move traffic to the product page
Product page – close the sale
Each step of the checkout process – once you have closed the sale you don’t want to lose it during the checkout process. Measure drop off and identify issues

Q: What are some of the key elements that you test with A/B testing?
A: Long page vs short page
1 page vs multiple pages
Product imagery
Color
Content – keyword usage, language, simplicity, headlines
Call to actions – buttons, wording, placement

Tune in to hear more detail and specific examples on conversion optimization and how this strategy can help your web sales, by some of the leading conversion optimizers in the industry.

Where to Find Lindsay Viscount and Sarah Bundy:
Sarah’s LinkedIn account (bio)
All Inclusive Marketing website
All Inclusive Marketing blog
All Inclusive Marketing Twitter:
Sarah’s Twitter:
All Inclusive Marketing phone: (604) 560 2542

Find Us On Twitter:
Deborah Carney
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Today’s Affiliate ABCs podcast features the OfficePlayground.com affiliate program on ShareASale. Host Deborah Carney is joined by Karen Garcia from GTO Management, the OPM managing the OfficePlayground.com affiliate program.

OfficePlayground.com carries over 1300 fun toys just for your desk and their office toys also make great gifts, party favors, and are fabulous for meetings and events. Some of their products include stress balls, slingshot flying animals, zen gardens, Hoberman spheres and Newton’s cradles. Their product line is very popular year round and their biggest holiday, Bosses Day, is coming up soon in October.

The Office Playground affiliate program is exclusively on ShareASale and offers an 8% commission and a 30 day cookie as well as a full product datafeed of over 1300 products. They have several widgets available, including a Top Sellers widget that is updated weekly, and are adding new product videos each week.

Join the OfficePlayground.com Affiliate Program

Show Links:
Office Playground
GTO Management

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Affiliate and Consultant Eric Nagel joins experienced affiliate managers (OPMs) Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney in a very important episode of Merchant ABCs. Many merchants are not aware that if they don’t have an Affiliate Agreement in place they are giving affiliates carte blanche to do whatever they want to promote your affiliate program. Eric joined us today to help explain to merchants both new and existing why they need a properly created affiliate agreement. Affiliates want you to have an agreement so they have guidelines and so they know that your affiliate manager and company have thought about the many ways affiliates can promote the merchant’s site. Affiliates will also assume that once you have an agreement in place that you will enforce it appropriately.

Topics we cover are: Search Engine Marketing – both PPC and organic, Direct to Merchant Linking in PPC and social media, Domain names – including subdomains and subdirectories, Coupon site regulations, Loyalty site regulations, Email restrictions, Social Media links and posts, iFrames and other framing of the merchant site, Policy about adware, spyware, toolbars and other downloads, Prohibited Affiliate Website Content, Unacceptable Web Sites (Banner farms, PLR sites etc).

Find us on Twitter:
Eric Nagel
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Team Loxly
Vinny O’Hare

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Rick Calvert and Karen Garcia join Blogging ABCs hosts Tricia Meyer and Deborah Carney to discuss the dilemmas faced by bloggers about whether or not they should monetize their blogs and if yes, how. It’s a candid discussion covering both sides of the issue.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Affiliate ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
GTOMan

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

This should actually be the first podcast any company considering starting an affiliate program should listen to.

Karen Garcia of GTO Affiliate Management and Liz Gazer of Growthspurt Media Affiliate Management join Merchant ABCs Training Podcasts host Deborah Carney to discuss the realities of starting an affiliate program. Many merchants think it is an inexpensive channel that they can just put out an affiliate offer either in-house or on a network and the money will start rolling in. Below is a *basic* outline of what we discussed. This podcast contains so much valuable information that it will be made available in other formats, if you want to be notified when those formats are available, go to MerchantABCs.com and sign up for the mailing list.

Whether you are considering opening an affiliate program or already have one running, it would be helpful to you to spend the time to listen to three experienced OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) that want to help you be sure that an affiliate program is a good addition to your company as a marketing channel.

CAN YOU AFFORD YOUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM?

What an Affiliate Program IS:
• A Cost Effective means of growing brand/sales online
• An effective way to reach segments of the market you might not otherwise be able to reach without a LOT more time, effort or money
• A real marketing channel, requiring all the same components as any other business channel you might employ to get your product to market and grow sales over time

What an Affiliate Program is NOT:
• Magic!
• Guaranteed to double or triple your sales overnight, or within a few weeks or even a few months.
• Something you can launch and leave running on auto-pilot – it needs daily management by someone well-connected, educated/experienced/seasoned and well-versed on the ins and outs of both business management and the ever-changing needs of affiliates
• Something you can launch and then NOT expect to pay for once the sales start rolling in

Affiliate marketing has always been and still is today, one of the most cost effective ways of growing brand/sales online – aside from the costs of actively managing the channel, this method of advertising is always performance based, meaning that you only pay out the commission after the sale has been closed – and usually, verified. Despite that, there ARE costs involved and being honest about whether or not you can afford them up front, can save you thousands of dollars, in the long run.

Examples of costs involved/what to expect:
• Monthly management fees – whether you pay someone in-house on a salary or outsource to one of the many qualified OPMs available to help you run your program
◦ varies depending on experience, reputation, etc.
• One-time network registration/set up fee
◦ varies by network from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand for set up
• Monthly network usage fee and/or network transaction fees
◦ % of sales or % of amount equivalent to affiliate commissions
• Email marketing/newsletter costs (if you hire an OPM this may be covered/included for you depending on your negotiated contract)
• Affiliate commissions as set by you – a % of sales
• Bonuses tied to volume or for promotions/seasonal lift
• Advertising the program in key industry locations online as well as offline and in person (conferences/tradeshows, etc.)
◦ Conference/tradeshow booths (the space, the booth, the materials, the staff) – optional but recommended for best results

COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY MERCHANTS WHO CAN’T AFFORD THEIR AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
• Being dishonest about what kind of funding exists for the program expenditures during early talks with a prospective or newly hired AM/OPM
• Expecting the channel to pay for itself within a few weeks to a few months of launching
• Pitting internal channel managers against one another (i.e. PPC vs. AM) for “last click” so they work AGAINST one another instead of WITH one another as a team
• Looking for reasons to reverse commissions and where there are none, invent them!
• Cutting commissions – especially before you’ve been around long enough to establish presence & instill any confidence in your affiliate market that you’re “one of the good guys” or “worth promoting”
• Shutting down the program after launch – few weeks or few months in, realizing this actually costs $$

Merchants who can’t afford their affiliate channel often resort to scheming leakage/diversion tactics – excuses for not paying commissions. Remember – Affiliates are SMART – they DO pay attention and they DO expect to be paid for their efforts. Would you continue to work for free if your paycheck was withheld? Make no mistake – the expense you save by making unnecessary/uncalled for reversals to commissions today, WILL cost you down the line. The affiliate who goes unpaid today, will not promote you tomorrow.

Suggestions for managing costs and expectations:
• Look at your profit margins carefully and be realistic about what you can afford to pay, right up front.
• Be honest with your Affiliate Manager/OPM about what you can afford and let them determine if it makes sense for you to move ahead or not
• The biggest mistake you can make is by over-inflating the amount you can afford to pay in early talks with a potential or newly hired AM/OPM (claims like “sky’s the limit, there is no ceiling on what we can afford, whatever it takes to make sales, etc.). Doing so sets you, your AM/OPM AND your affiliates up for inevitable failure.

KEY TAKEAWAY POINTS:
• Be transparent with your AM/OPM about what funding is like so they can determine whether you truly can afford to make this work – not doing so will only cost you in the long run when you have to cut your losses and pull out early after having invested heavily up front to get things running
• Remember the nest-egg concept – Long term investment garners long term sustainable results that will grow year over year with good management, proper funding and careful planning/analysis
• It can often take more than one advertisement in more than one channel to motivate a consumer to close the sale. Studies have shown consumers are exposed to an ad on average, approx. 7 times before they “tune in” to it. Expect that occasionally, some sales may track as having come through more than one channel (i.e. PPC/Affiliate) by the time the sale has been closed. Reversing an affiliate commission because it tracked as a PPC sale as well, is like stealing from Peter to pay Paul and is counter-productive to the mission, in the big picture.
◦ Example: TV/Print/Outdoor advertising. Hugely successful brands like Nike don’t cut billboard campaigns just because a customer who buys shoes says they saw a commercial on TV. They understand it costs money to make money. They understand the need for an intergrated marketing mix. Your online advertising channels are part of that mix. You may have to pay them both, in some cases. Chalk it up to the cost of doing business. If you can’t, you may not be able to afford your affiliate program.
◦ If MOST sales are tracking in multiple channels it may be time to reassess but unless the majority of sales are, see above – chalk it up to the cost of doing business.

• It’s not magic – it’s marketing. Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. The R should also stand for REASONABLE. Give your affiliate program reasonable time to produce results – it can take up to a year especially if you are a new program starting from scratch.
• Know your own business strengths/weaknesses and once again – be transparent/honest with yourself and your AM/OPM so you can build on those strengths and find ways to overcome weaknesses which will in turn make you more competitive in the long run
• Competitive analysis – know what your competition is offering and expect to do your best to meet – if not exceed it.

Find us on Twitter:

• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Merchant ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about Karen and GTO Management:

GTO Management Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @GTOMan
Facebook Fan Page

To learn more about Liz and Growthspurt Media:

Growthspurt Media Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @lizgazer
Facebook Fan Page

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Karen Garcia of GTO Management and Liz Gazer of Growthspurt Media join Merchant ABCs Training Podcasts host Deborah Carney to discuss how many merchants treat the affiliate channel as the “red headed step child” of their marketing efforts. Building on what you learned from Merchant ABCs Training Podcast #17 with Sarah Bundy of All Inclusive Marketing, this podcast goes in depth on how you need to treat your affiliate channel to be able to grow it. Below is a *basic* outline of what we discussed.

Whether you are considering opening an affiliate program or already have one running, it would be helpful to you to spend the time to listen to three experienced OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) that want to help you be sure you are giving your affiliates what they need to help your company be more successful.

YOUR AFFILIATES ARE A TARGET MARKET TOO!

• Today’s e-commerce marketplace is saturated; affiliates have a lot of choice

• It’s not always about how great your products/site/offers, it’s about the service and the total value experience you provide – to AFFILIATES.

The Painful Truth

• YOU might think your product/website/business is the best thing since sliced bread (and it may well be!) but to Affiliates, unless you’re offering them something different than your competition is, you’re just another merchant. With your Affiliate Manager or OPM, you need to strategize on how you plan to differentiate yourselves. The best way is by providing your Affiliates with a total service experience that is both interesting & rewarding

• Just like you need to be concerned about your total customer experience, you need to worry about the total affiliate experience – put some thought into what kind of “feel good” factors you can offer that might set you apart from your competition.

Cardinal Rules of Affiliate Loyalty

Loyalty is hard to come by in an industry dominated by dollar signs. Affiliates need to be kept:

▪ Educated & Informed – What/Where/When/Why/How
• Product knowledge/Pricing Changes
• Customer service policies (shipping, returns, etc.)
• Distribution Channels
• Promotional Campaigns (on site, seasonal, coupon, etc.)
• Unique Selling Proposition & Brand Positioning (what makes you stand out amongst your competition?)

▪ Engaged
• Newsletters
• Promotions
• Contests
• Communication – timely, relevant, to the point & consistent
◦ Keep your program top of mind – Affiliates often have hands in multiple projects /merchants at once – a friendly touch base can instill confidence & encourage them to bump you to the top of the priority list
• Request feedback and accept suggestions/constructive criticism positively. Be flexible to make additions/changes where need be

▪ Motivated & Inspired
• Training & Support
• Timely responses to inquiries and requests
• Get to know them, and touch base regularly with encouragement and positive feedback about their efforts.

▪ Empowered
Affiliates are like your online sales team – only they don’t work for you exclusively. Empower Them. Make them feel like they’re a PART of something. If they have a sense of ownership they are more likely to be loyal to your brand and promote you above or in place of your competition.
◦ Provide the tools necessary to help your affiliates make the most of their promotional efforts (coupons, banners/text links, video, widgets, data feeds, etc.)

▪ Rewarded
• Commission structure should be competitive
• Leave room for incremental increases either as part of a bonus structure based on performance volume/sales, on an individually negotiated basis (i.e. For better placement, exclusive terms, etc.) or ideally, both.
• Timely payments
• Flexibility – custom creative in some cases where requested
• Keep the reversal rate as low as possible – remember, if affiliates are confident they’ll actually receive proper payment for their efforts they’ll be more likely to increase ad spend and time/effort allocation for your brand

Find us on Twitter:

• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Merchant ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about Karen and GTO Management:

GTO Management Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @GTOMan
Facebook Fan Page

To learn more about Liz and Growthspurt Media:

Growthspurt Media Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @lizgazer
Facebook Fan Page

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

James Martell joins Affiliate ABCs Training Podcast hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss why article marketing is not a viable way to build backlinks. With recent changes at the search engines, article farms are looked upon differently than article directories were looked at in the past.

From a Blogging ABCs article on the subject by James:

Matt Cutts is the fellow in charge of Google’s Webspam, and in a video he recently gave a good definition of article marketing; “… you’re writing an article and you try to include a link at the bottom and you’re hoping a bunch of other people put up copies or mirrors or duplicates of that article and that those links might flow through.”

Matt also adds the following bit of advice; “Typically, the sorts of sites that just republish these articles are not the highest quality sites.”

Considering this piece of insight, one is moved to question whether article marketing is as effective as we’ve been told, and if not, why people continue to use it.

This is a long podcast with a lot of great discussion about exactly what is wrong with the old method of article marketing and some suggestions on what to do instead. One of the reasons this podcast is so detailed is because we don’t like affiliates being caught in the trap of folks still selling article marketing courses. Forewarned is forearmed

We are planning to get this podcast transcribed, if you want to be notified when the transcript is available please go to AffiliateABCs.com and use the newsletter sign up form in the top right of the home page.

Visit James’ Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp

Find us all on Twitter:
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Affiliate ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs and AffiliateABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Tricia Meyer discuss what bloggers and affiliates can learn from Tricia’s experience being unexpectedly dropped from two networks (described in her post The Ugly Side of Affiliate Marketing). The issues discussed apply when you have problems with the Affiliate Nexus Tax, Google AdSense, merchants closing, and many other aspects of affiliate marketing.

Our Four Main Tips:

1) Diversify. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  Have different types of sites in different niches. Work with different merchants across different networks.

2) Separate Accounts. Use separate network accounts when you have multiple sites or especially different types of sites (incentives, coupons, gambling, etc). It will come in handy if one of your sites gets flagged or if you decide to sell a site.

3) Use link redirecting. Redirecting will help you change out links quickly if you need to. In addition, you can use shorteners so that your domain shows up instead of someone else’s when you post your links in other places.

4) Network. Meet in person with as many people as possible. Further, after you connect with them, follow up, reinforcing your connection. When you need help, those connections may be the difference between keeping and losing your business.

Some Resources we mention:

Pretty Link Lite

YourLS Open Source shortener that you can install on your own website

Find Us On Twitter:

Blogging ABCs
Affiliate ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare were joined by Karen Garcia of GTO Management to discuss why affiliates should attend Blog World Expo.

Blog World Expo is in its 4th year and is now being held in both NYC & LA. There are different traffic strategies & ideas than typical for affiliate marketing and blogging strategies can work very well for affiliates.

You can join the affiliate program at gtomanagement.com

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about our guest:

GTO Management
Twitter: @GTOMan
Facebook Fan Page

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Sarah Bundy of All Inclusive Marketing joins Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney to discuss why your company should have an integrated marketing plan that includes affiliate marketing as one component of many. Below are the outlines of what we discuss and links to Sarah’s sites that have more complete notes. Even with the notes, you really will want to listen to this podcast, even though it is a little longer than our average podcast.

5 Steps to Writing an Integrated Marketing Plan
By creating a strategic online marketing plan, you put your best foot (and brain, and dollar) forward in ensuring you achieve the best success for your new online presence. Here is a brief outline of what AIM usually covers in their integrated marketing plans for their clients.

1. Situation Analysis (research of the industry and online sales potential)
a) Product Description and Overview
b) Market Analysis / Potential
c) Identification of Target Groups
d) Selection of Primary Target Groups

2. Competitive Analysis
a) SWOT
b) Suggested Value Propositions

3. Positioning and Main Messaging
a) Suggested Brand Positioning
b) Suggested Main Messages (according to selected target groups)

4. Online Marketing Channel Strategy
a) Marketing Channel Analysis and Selection
b) Keyword Analysis
c) Competitive Analysis (narrowed down) with Competitive Edge
d) Customer Retention Strategy
f) Channel Rollout Plan (Setup and Execution)

5. Financial Analysis
a) Sales Projections
b) Budgets
c) Timelines

The 5 Decisions Every Customer Makes before they Buy (in this order!) are:

1. About you
2. About your business
3. About your product
4. About your price
5. About the time frame in which you can deliver.

These 5 decisions are almost ALWAYS made in this order and by almost EVERY customer. This decision process remains true whether you’re buying a car or a piece of pizza.

Where to Find Sarah:
Sarah’s LinkedIn account (bio)
All Inclusive Marketing website
All Inclusive Marketing blog
All Inclusive Marketing Twitter:
Sarah’s Twitter:
All Inclusive Marketing phone: (604) 560 2542

Find Us On Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Leave us some comments on points you agree or disagree on or how your company utilizes

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Affiliate ABCs Podcast hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about things to look at that will get you declined in affiliate programs.

If you are an affiliate odds are you have received an email once or twice informing you that you have been declined by an affiliate program that you wanted to promote. Most networks send out a blanket email without much information on why you are declined. Here is a list of some of the reasons we decline most affiliate program applications.

1) No privacy policy on your site – We have been requiring affiliates to have a privacy policy on their site for a couple of years now. This has a few reasons, for one it tells the end user what information the affiliate sites collect. We don’t want things like email spammers in the program and the Can Spam act put this responsibility on the affiliates site and not the merchant. No merchant wants to get Can Spam complaints as they want to protect their email list. Having an affiliate jeopardize that will not be risked.

2) The affiliate site is nothing but banners and no value to the end user. If your site does nothing but put up banners and hope to get people to click on the links and buy it will not be successful. Think about the websites you visit when you are shopping. Do you shop from pages that look like this? I don’t think so. Banner farms don’t work for sales and never will.

3) The website is a cookie cutter coupon site that has a “Click To Reveal Coupon”. Most merchants feel that this is misleading the consumer especially if there is no coupon offered. They are just trying to get the end user to click and set the cookie. The merchant feels that these sites do not offer value to the end user. Most affiliate programs we run have an automatic “Click Here To Reveal Coupon” policy of automatic rejection.

4) You didn’t fill out the “More Details” section on the application. This is a big help to affiliate managers as you can tell the affiliate manager what sites you plan on promoting the affiliate program on. The affiliate manager may not be able to see all of your sites in your profile and have to guess where you are going to promote the program. This is a big help and I would say 99% of the applications that have “additional details” get approved.

5) All your sites are .wordpress.com, .blogspot, .weebly or Squidoo sites. This tells the affiliate manager that you are not serious about your business. If you can’t get a domain for $10 a year and cheap hosting of $4 a month it shows you are not serious about affiliate marketing. Plus WordPress.COM doesn’t allow affiliate links on blogs hosted there. You need to get WordPress.ORG files and install on your own domain.

6) Your content is nothing but pulling in someone elses RSS feed into your site. These are obvious to spot and half the time the content isn’t relevant to the niche they applied for. The affiliate manager sees this as a waste of time and will hit the decline button.

7) Speaking of content 90% of the time I will take a paragraph of content off an affiliate site and drop it in Google and see if it is original or scraped off another site. If we see copied content that would be an automatic decline also.

Whois information doesn’t match who you say you are on the site. We have rejected affiliate applications only to have the website reapply three weeks later with a new whois info and sometimes even a new domain. We get applications that say they are in the USA and the whois ends up being in another country. Making your site whois as private could also be seen as a red flag to the affiliate manager.

9) Parked page or Under Construction. If you don’t have a website most affiliate programs will not approve you. Unless you take advantage of that comments box and add in what your plans are and how you can fit the program into a site you are developing. Still some merchants will ask you to wait and apply when you have a site to show them.

If you are declined, email the affiliate manager and ask why. Sometimes it is a misunderstanding, sometimes your site really isn’t a good fit. By emailing the affiliate manager you also get to see if the program is being run by a real person or if it is on autopilot or the manager is just plain not responsive. In which case, you won’t want to work with them either

There is a lot more discussed in the podcast, let us know what you get declined for that irks you as an affiliate, and as a manager let us know what else you decline sites for!

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer are joined by Arlene Martell of Epilepsy Moms.

Arlene started her site over 3 years ago in order to pay forward the information that she has gained over the years.  Her son was diagnosed at 4 years old with both Epilepsy and Autism and has been drug and seizure free for over 10 years.

Arlene’s Free Ebook
Information on the Ketogenic Diet
Information on Neurotherapy

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz
Epilepsy Moms

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare were joined by Dave Cupples of Fat Cow Business and David Iwanow of The Lost Agency to discuss how to effectively market using Facebook ads and pages.

Facebook ads allow you to build a community that you can continue to market to.  Give value first in social media. Excellent information plus a great case study mentioned below.

Some resources mentioned:

TwitterFeed

Static HTML: iFrame Tabs app

Tutorial to Install the Facebook Page Reveal Tab

How to Give Value First in Social Media – Bondi Beach Photographer Aquabumps

http://www.facebook.com/aquabumps

http://aquabumps.com/

http://fatcowbusiness.com/make-money-with-facebook/aquabumps-give-value-first-in-social-media-amazing-facebook-case-study-from-bondi-beach-australia/

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about our guests:

The Lost Agency
Twitter: @TheLostAgency
Facebook Fan Page
Tour Bus

Fat Cow Business
Twitter:  @FatCowBusiness
Facebook Fan Page

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare were joined by Dave Cupples of Fat Cow Business and David Iwanow of The Lost Agency to discuss marketing through Facebook and email. Information packed podcast that not only affiliate marketers but anyone considering using Facebook advertising should listen to.

Engage first then try to sell based on engagement. Don’t just try to sell.

Direct traffic to own site, not direct to merchant so that you can capture visitor information and build loyalty.

Some resources mentioned:

Static HTML: iFrame Tabs app

Tutorial to Install the Facebook Page Reveal Tab

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about our guests:

The Lost Agency
@TheLostAgency
On Facebook
Tour Bus

Fat Cow Business
@FatCowBusiness
On Facebook

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about best practices, tools, and ideas for coupon sites in the affiliate industry.

Topics include:

• Best practices – ensuring sites are adding value and providing complete, updated coupons, removed expired deals and coupons quickly
• Tools available – such as For Me To Coupon, buy.at’s OfferCentral, Shareasale Network Deals Database
• Ideas – consider niche targeting, work with merchants to create unique coupons
• Scripts, plugins – don’t use them “out of the box”. Customize, change, build your traffic. No script or plugin is going to bring you traffic, they are only the display mechanism
• Check Merchant Rules about coupon sites – some practices like “Click to Reveal Code” are prohibited, know and follow the rules.

If managed well, these sites can tap into the massive revenue opportunity presented by digital coupons in the US market.  Specifically, eMarketer forecasts that 88.2 million US adults that will redeem online coupons or codes in 2011. That’s a huge number, but you have to build a site that gives them value to find you and not just toss up an automatically generated site and hope they find it. One example: Find a niche like fishing and find deals and coupons that appeal to fisherman.

Listen for a lot more great tips about how to run a coupon site that will bring revenue and not headaches.

Find us on Twitter:

• Vinny O’Hare
• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Affiliate ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Party Beans – meet the owner Robert Sipko as he joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Liz Fogg, who also are managing Robert’s affiliate program for Party Beans.

We offer completely customized candy gifts for any occasion for purchase. Whether one has a birthday party for a son or simply wants to send a small “Get Well” gift to an ailing aunt, we provide convenient and easy online solution.

One can pick from numbers of candy containers, add icons, upload own photos, add text, pick candy types as well as candy flavors. All our products ship next business day if ordered by 4pm PT. All products shipped with Jelly Belly are Kosher (OU) certified by Orthodox Union.

Our candy is always fresh, we print photo quality vibrant colors and stand behind our service 100%. We bring over 12 years of promotional gifting experience and our mission is to offer coolest customized candy gifts for the very best price on the web.

Bring your users to our site and earn 15 -20% sales commission. Contact us if you have any questions or have any specific needs at affiliates at giftmoto.com

PartyBeans.com and Promotopia.com cross track and any visitors you send to one that end up ordering from either you will earn commission on. PartyBeans commission is 20% and Promotopia commission is 15%.

Professionally managed by Team Loxly Affiliate Management – Join the affiliate program for Party Beans

Check out our thread with cool examples of the products at the Affiliate Summit Networking Forum.

Merchant ABCs Training podcast hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at Affiliate Network to talk about best practices when creating coupons and deals and how to effectively work with coupon affiliates.

Topics include:

·         The benefits of working with coupon affiliates
·         Best practices when creating a coupon code
·         Common concerns when working with coupon affiliates
·         Opportunities that could give your company an competitive advantage

Discussed in the podcast – when putting together a coupon code for affiliates, consider the following:

·         Test to make sure the coupon works
·         Ensure the promotion is a “real deal” vs. an everyday benefit (ex. free shipping on orders over $50)
·         Give at least 3 days notice to affiliates before the promotion goes live
·         Add time zones when defining coupon expiration dates and times
·         Clearly define any restrictions
·         Make sure the code is NOT case sensitive

Find Us On Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

This is an ABCs Plus Special edition podcast that is being posted to Affiliate ABCs, Blogging ABCs and Merchant ABCs because of the importance of the issue. Your hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney are joined by Karen Garcia, Outsourced Affiliate Program Manager to try and explain the Affiliate Nexus sales tax laws that states are enacting to attempt to get more companies to collect their state sales tax even though the companies do not have a physical presence in their state. States are trying to establish that affiliates and affiliate marketing gives companies a physical presence in their state, making the merchants liable to collect sales taxes in states they shouldn’t have to.

Some Resources we mention:
Coffee Talk with James Martell, Karen Garcia and Jeannine Crooks

PMA List of States and their status and links to their bills.

NexusAware – a listing of what companies already have to collect sales taxes in what states

There is a lot of information out there and much confusion by affiliates, merchants, bloggers and even the legislators themselves. If you are in a state that hasn’t passed this tax yet, check and see if they have a law drafted or on the table. Basically states are treating this as an amendment to their state sales tax laws and not as new laws, so they pass easier and sometimes with no press about it at all.

Please feel free to contribute additional information in the comments. We are not lawyers, so you need to check with a local lawyer familiar with internet law if you are in an affected state.

What we also discuss in this podcast is how affiliates can find merchants that already collect sales tax in their state, what types of merchants that sell items that are exempt and how to talk to your merchants to find out how they are going to handle it if their state passes such a law.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss what affiliate marketing is.

Vinny attended Blog World and had many bloggers ask what affiliate marketing is. Simply put affiliate marketing is affiliates (bloggers) putting special tracking links (affiliate links from a network or merchant) on their websites (blogs). When a visitor to a blog clicks an affiliate link and makes a purchase, the blogger makes a commission on that sale. That is the simple explanation Listen for lots more great information and how affiliate marketing can be one way to possibly monetize your blog.

Links to some affiliate networks.
ShareASale
Commission Junction
Linkshare
buy.at

We would like to challenge you to find one network or merchant that you would want to work with and see how it would fit into your blog.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz
Vinny O’Hare

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Join Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney and guest Roy Weissman as they discuss their recommendations for Plugins on your WordPress site.

Top 12 Plugins for every wordpress site

1. All-in-One SEO Pack
2. Akismet – You need an API key from Akismet.com
3. Contact Form 7
4. Easy Privacy Policy
5. Google XML Sitemap – Don’t activate until after site is done
6. Google Analytics
7. Sexy Bookmarks
8. Simple Tags
9. Wp DB Backup
10. Wp to Twitter ReTweet
11. WordPress.com Stats
12. Yet Another Related Posts

Always know where you’re getting your plugins from and that they are compatible with your version of WordPress.

Tutorials, videos, etc are available on Roy’s site, as well as a resource page at: http://BuildMySiteForFree.com/affiliateabcs

Post your favorite plugins and why below!

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Roy Weissman
Affiliate ABCs
Vinny O’Hare

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss why bloggers should attend Affiliate Summit.

Attending Affiliate Summit is the dividing line between dabbling and going full time for many people.  Networking happens more in the follow up after the conference. Meet Market is most important day if you can only afford to be there one day, that is Sunday afternoon from Noon to 6pm.

If this is your first time attending, be sure to sign up for the Newcomers Program where you will be paired up with a mentor who can answer general questions and introduce you to people.  Be sure to visit the Affiliate Summit Forum to start meeting people before the conference.

The deadline for the Affiliate Summit Scholarship Program has passed for the August 2011 event, however you can still find giveaways of passes on twitter when you search for #ASE11, plus be on the lookout this fall for passes for Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas in January.

Here is an Affiliate Summit pass giveaway that ends June 30, 2011

And just as we were ready to post Shawn Collins posted this giveaway for Gold Passes to Affiliate Summit East!

Find Us On Twitter:

Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Small Business WordPress theme – meet the developer Don Campbell as he joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare, Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg, who also are managing Don’s affiliate program for his WordPress theme.

Liz has been using it on sites for local and small online businesses that don’t need a full blog but need an easy to manage website. A couple of examples:
LizFogg.com
MyConsultingPlace.com/

Don Campbell – Worked in content management systems in silicon valley but left to make his own business.  He developed a highly specialized theme from working with small local biz for 3 years and created a tool set that was developed from seeing what the sites needed and wanted and made it easy to create and manage.

You can turn a WordPress blog into a website for a local and online businesses.  You simply fill out a page and the information goes throughout the template.  There is a control center for the business owner or the consultants getting local companies online.

Choose a template, layout and instantly create a Front Page, About Us, Find Us, and Contact Us pages, plus a blog.

It also creates a mobile version of your site with click to call and click to find on a map using your smart phone gps.

There is blog capability, but it’s more for updates, not showing on the front page so your site looks like a website that has static information that people are looking for.

There is Facebook page management built in which creates your Facebook business page and updates it from your website.

Affiliates can target small businesses to sell to directly, or small business consultants to use the multisite version to use for client sites. The multisite does allow consultants to use for clients without purchasing additional licenses for each site.

Local space is huge and growing quickly. Mobile searches are for local sites. Consultants can build a site for a local business in an hour with the basic information. Easy enough for do it yourself small business owners to be able to create a web presence that is easy to manage.

If you don’t want your site to “look” like a blog, there are 8 different page layouts that are completely customizable, easily, plus you still have the blog function.

As theme develops, all new functions are added at no additional cost to those that have already purchased it. Customer service is top notch, they have a support forum, with over 60 how to videos on the site, and a very responsive development team.

Responsible merchant that is reactive to what affiliate needs. We have precoded articles ready and will be loading the videos in the Shareasale interface. Would encourage affiliates that would like to make their own videos to please contact us for a single license to try.

Program Details
30% commission, 60 day cookie, auto deposit, on Shareasale network
Average sale is $199 – combining the single and multisite licenses – average commission is $74

Join Small Biz WordPress Theme affiliate program.
Current landing page: Will update shortly to the dedicated site.

@DonCampbell
@VinnyOHare
@TeamLoxlyLiz
@TeamLoxly
@Loxly

Thanks to GeekCast.fm Podcasting Network for hosting our podcasts. Please go check them out for other podcasts about internet marketing, affiliates marketing and how to be a great merchant.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to talk about affiliate program SEO policies and important considerations when constructing terms and conditions.

Topics include:
·         The impact of placing restrictions on affiliates who rank for SEO/natural search terms
·         Understanding why advertisers may put restrictions in place and how affiliates use SEO
·         Suggestions on how to structure a search policy and additional Ts & Cs

Key takeaways:

·         Be smart – advertisers benefit by learning industry best practices and from other programs before finalizing their affiliate terms and conditions
·         Be aware – think about the impact on affiliates in addition to the impact on the advertiser
·         Be clear – write terms and conditions in a way that affiliates can clearly understand the rules

Also, be fair –affiliates are an advertiser’s marketing partners.  Great communication will go a long way in developing a profitable relationship.
Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

James Martell joins Merchant ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney discuss what merchants should and shouldn’t have in their newsletters and how frequently they should be sent out. They also dive into what merchants should include in recruiting emails.

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
James Martell
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

James Martell joins Blogging ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney discuss guest posting and how it differs from submitting articles to article directories. Article directories have too many similar articles, they are focused on quantity over quality.

Guest posts are higher quality and are related to the topic of the blog they are guest posting for. Be picky about who you guest post for, and who guest posts for you. Guest posts give a blog different voices which can give your blog a new vitality.

Listen to the audio for more great advice from our panel of experts.

Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp

Twitter:
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Join Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney and guest Roy Weissman as they discuss how to maximize using WordPress as a site building tool.

Topics discussed include:
Posts vs Pages -Pages are static & informational. Posts get you action, and are in your rss feed
Get a theme – Roy’s Directory of themes
Plug ins – Roy’s Recommended Top 14 plugins to use
Widgets

Tutorials, videos, etc are available on Roy’s site, as well as a resource page at: http://BuildMySiteForFree.com/affiliateabcs

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Roy Weissman
Affiliate ABCs
Vinny O’Hare

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

James Martell, joins Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss how affiliates can work more efficiently by outsources

Can you do it all yourself? Sure, but it will be faster and more efficient to outsource to someone who specializes in what you need done. Like you can build your own home, but it would be better to hire a builder.

Do what you do best – outsource the rest.
Special offer: Email arlene.martell@gmail.com for access to first video in James’ Outsourcing Course

10 Tips to Outsourcing

1. Don’t Assume It Will Be “Too Expensive” – Many new online business owners assume outsourcing is expensive. As a result, they never get around to posting projects and their businesses suffer. Make steps to get things done and start outsourcing those projects you aren’t skilled at. You might be surprised at how little it costs, and more importantly, the time you save combined with the progress your business will make more than pays for itself. Post your projects, and if you aren’t happy with the bids you don’t have to accept any.

2. Clearly Describe Your Project – This is as simple as writing an email. Write in layman’s terms and describe your project needs as clearly and accurately as you can. The more accurate and detailed you are, the higher chance you will have finding a provider that will fulfill your needs at a reasonable price.

3. Set Milestones And Use Escrow – Elance’s escrow system is a key component for both the writer and buyer. It protects you and your money, but it also assures the provider that you are serious about paying for the job and it insures more high-quality bidders. Setting milestones also helps to keep the project on track. Break your project up into smaller milestones and pay into escrow and release payments at specific times, such as weekly payments upon completion of each milestone. This also helps with cash-flow.

4. Evaluate Feedback – Buyers and providers give feedback for many of the projects performed on Elance. Take a look at a provider’s feedback from completed projects to see what other buyers have experienced. The more positive feedback the more likely you will have a positive experience and get the quality of work you desire. If you have any questions, private message the provider to answer any questions prior to awarding the project.

5. Negotiate Price – Don’t be afraid to negotiate a better price. You may have several providers bidding on a job, and if one of them appears to be perfect for the project but their fee is too expensive, feel free to private message them and negotiate. They may not understand the project completely, and if you really want them there is a chance they will work with you on price, particularly if they feel there is a chance to build a long-term relationship with you.

6. Answer Messages – It is critical to answer provider’s messages quickly. Respond with detailed answers to help insure your project isn’t held up. Elance’s private message board system stores all communication between buyer and provider in case of any problems.

7. Pay Quickly – Providers are in the business of making money like the rest of us, and they appreciate prompt payment upon completion of their projects. This typically results in great feedback for you as well.

8. Stay Within The System – It is important to understand the power of the feedback and escrow system within Elance. Both buyers and providers gain protection when working within the system and it keeps everyone honest. There is a paper trail of all activities and communications archived on Elance and this helps in solving any disputes should they occur (they are rare – I have never had one). It is also important to leave accurate, honest feedback upon completion of projects.

9. Develop Relationships – When you come across a real gem of a provider, hire them again and again. The more they work with you and get to know you and your business, the better they will be at providing you with the quality of work you need.

10. Build Your Feedback – Make sure you ask for and provide feedback. Great feedback usually results in better prices. If providers see that you are easy to work with, communicate well and pay quickly from the feedback you earn, you will have instant trust with bidders and will have more people wanting to bid on your projects. Elance has grown into arguably the best outsourcing site for online business owners by providing an easy way to find quality providers. They also offer great telephone support for any questions you may have. Building your online business doesn’t have to be stressful and overwhelming. Finding outsourced talent at reasonable prices is a big step in building your business quickly and effectively.

Some Links:
elance
Subply
VWorker
Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp

Add more links in the comments to your favorite place to outsource to.

Twitter:
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Affiliate ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Tricia Meyer and Deborah Carney discuss why bloggers should attend conferences.

Some Conference Links:
Shareasale Network Think Tank
BlogWorld
Affiliate Summit
SheCon
CJU
AdTech
BlogHer

Follow us on Twitter:

Tricia Meyer
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more great podcasts about internet marketing.

Join Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney and guest Roy Weissman as they discuss using WordPress as a site building tool and content management system.

WordPress isn’t just a blog, it’s a platform to manage entire website.  Wordpress.com hosting does not allow advertising, so use wordpress software from Worpress.org on your domain as a Content Management System.  Wordpress sites are better than html for affiliates.  Within an hour you can have a full site up with content, affiliate links, etc.  You can just pick a new theme and you have a whole new look for your website without losing any of your content.  Wordpress is designed to grow with your business, so it’s great for small businesses but also NY Times and CNN are using wordpress.  Make sure you back up your database and files.

Tutorials, videos, etc are available on Roy’s site, as well as a resource page at: http://BuildMySiteForFree.com/affiliateabcs

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Roy Weissman
Affiliate ABCs
Vinny O’Hare

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Join Merchant ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney as they discuss how Jeff Grill, Vice President, Marketing at Mimeo.com decided to start their affiliate program and the steps they took to find the right fit for a network and an OPM (Outsourced Program Manager). We discussed the following:

OPM Selection/Starting a New Program – Merchant View:

1. Preparation
- Documented recruitment and revenue goals
- Affiliate ready website in terms of conversion rates
- Product margins that will allow all parties to make money
- Internal program support
- Familiarity with the Tax Nexus issue and implications for your business
- Get educated – attend affiliate summit, listen to podcasts
- Ask question in the affiliate groups on LinkedIn

2. OPM or no OPM
- Internal resource availability
- Margin allowance of your product or service
- Expertise in starting a program

3. Network, no network and OPM Selection
- Self hosted or network solution
- Networks such as CJ offer OPM services (pro/con)
- It pays to research networks and OPM’s concurrently (OPM expertise with specific networks)

3. Selection Criteria

Networks:
- Similar Merchants to your product/service and their success
- Fees, Commissions
- A la carte pricing
- Support
- Geographic Reach
- Policies regarding coupon sites etc.
- Publisher access

OPM:
- Experience with specific networks
- Familiarity with your product/service (also consumer, B to B)
- Case studies
- Track Record
- Team Chemistry/who will work on your specific business
- % of recruitment time allotted to your business
- Reporting/frequency
- Industry reputation/awards
- Fee Structure (monthly, % of revenue)
- Access to merchant/publisher events
- Documented process
- Recruitment approach (coupon sites etc.)

4. Final Selection
- Should be clear after going through above
- 3 month process
- 1 month setup prior to launch

5. About the Mimeo.com program
- Who we are
- What we offer
- Program Structure

Where to start your search for an Outsourced Program Manager or Consultant to get you stared.

Find us on Twitter:
Jeff Grill
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

May 13th is a special date to me. It’s the day I got engaged (1976), it’s the day I got divorced (1990), it’s the day my youngest son died (2002). Each year on May 13th I try to do something he would be proud of. He was a big supporter of my photography skills and my writing ability (although he was the one with all the writing talent ) so every year for the past several years I would go somewhere and photograph something. Some years while I was in Rochester it was the lilacs at Highland Park and other years it was Red Rock Canyon, and still others NYC parks. This year I had a bad fall this week and can’t hold a camera or go for a walk. So I challenged myself to do something I don’t normally do. I recorded a solo podcast. It is meant to be an inspiration to other parents of children with disabilities and a peek into life before the World Wide Web, when the internet was just green letters on a black screen, but that still allowed you to do research you would ordinarily take months to do.

I kept it to 20 minutes and didn’t say all that I had to say, but will add more later. For this special edition I just wanted to tell part of the tale, the part that will hopefully inspire other parents to reach out, start a blog, use online resources to make their lives and their children’s lives the best they can be.

I’m posting this under Affiliate ABCs because as the story progresses it will lead to how I became an affiliate, and eventually an affiliate manager. I’m posting this under Blogging ABCs because I want people to blog about their life challenges.

To follow my blog go to DeborahCarney.com

Join Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney and guest Jeannine Crooks as they discuss why merchants need to use an editorial calendar to provide information and creatives that are appropriately timed for affiliates to use to promote products appropriately. If you sell a product you should listen to this podcast for tips and advice on getting materials to affiliates in time for them to be able to create pages ahead of the holidays.

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Jeannine Crooks
Merchant ABCs

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O’Hare, are joined by guest Stephanie Lichtenstein to discuss how bloggers can get started with a social media strategy. Great discussion, listen and learn.

Some Facebook Like Buttons
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/share-button-on-facebook
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/topsy/
http://mashable.com/2010/05/07/wordpress-facebook-like-buttons/

Find Stephanie on the internet:
http://micromediamarketing.com/
http://facebook.com/micromediamarketing
http://twitter.com/micromediamktg
http://twitter.com/microsteph
http://facebook.com/microsteph

Follow us on Twitter:
Tricia Meyer
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more great podcasts about internet marketing.

Join Affiliate ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney and guest Jeannine Crooks as they discuss the Affiliate Meetups that have been created by the Affiliate Summit founders Shawn Collins and Missy Ward. These are local events happening once a month, usually on the last Tuesday of the month in cities across not just the US but around the globe. They started them on the MeetUp.com platform, but with the number of Meetups planned and the planners involved the Meetup organizing, RSVPs and Announcements are going to be made on the Affiliate Summit Facebook Group page.

Lucretia Pruitt – presented at the Denver Meetup – Two reasons to buy: Good Feelings or Solution to a problem
The Five C’s of Content: Compelling, Community, Invite Conversation, Commitment, Conversion
Denver Meetup had a mix of affiliates, merchants, network reps and more.

NYC Meetup: Mix of affiliates, merchants, network reps, webmasters that are looking at affiliate marketing to help get traffic to their sites. Jeff Grill gave a great presentation about how he got his affiliate program started, which will be launching June 1, 2011. Jeff attended Affiliate Summit West and was able to talk to people that changed his mind and helped his process. After Jeff’s presentation we ended up doing site reviews for SEO.

Go to http://forum.affiliatesummit.com to have conversations and find people in your area.

Local networking in small groups is a very powerful way to network. Then when you go to the larger events you will be able to talk to people you already know and be able to expand your networking by meeting the other people they know as well.

Hopefully after listening you will decide to attend or help organize a Meetup in your area, and also attend Affiliate Summit.

On Twitter:
Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Jeannine Crooks
Affiliate ABCs
Vinny O’Hare

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

SEO Tips for Bloggers

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O’Hare, are joined by guest Eric Nagel to discuss the basics of SEO tactics for bloggers. Eric supplied us with an excellent outline below, but be sure to listen and not just read, there is excellent discussion on each of these bullet points, plus a ton of great stuff that came out within the discussion.

1. Keyword research
   1. Take your idea, and think about how people are going to search for it
      1. “How to…”
      2. Google search suggestions
      3. AdWords tool
2. Title Tag
   1. This should be your keyword. Don’t be cute here
   2. The title tag in WordPress is inside an H1 tag, which helps with on-site SEO
   3. WordPress SEO Plugin by Joost de Valk
      1. http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/
      2. Allows you to set Title, Meta Description
         1. Meta Description is sometimes used for the snippet shown in organic search results
   4. No need to have your site name repeated in the title tag, unless your site brand is commonly searched for
3. Permalinks
   1. Don’t use default of ?p=87
   2. Choose one of the options that has %postname% (either Day and name, or Month and name)
4. Images
   1. Don’t hotlink images
   2. Use the Title, Alternate Text & Caption fields
   3. Name the image with your keyword
      1. ex: your-keyword-here.jpg
5. Social Sharing
   1. Twitter button
   2. Facebook share button
      1. If you use Thesis & want to specify the Facebook thumbnail, read
         1. http://www.ericnagel.com/2011/03/specify-thumbnail-image-sharing-link-facebook-from-thesis.html
         2. Twitter Official Instructions for Tweet Button
   3. Your social circle influences Google search results
6. Sitemaps
   1. Google XML Sitemaps by Arne Brachhold
      1. http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/
   2. Eric’s XML Image Sitemap Plugin
      1. http://www.ericnagel.com/2010/10/image-sitemap-for-wordpress.html
   3. Submit to Google Webmaster Tools
      1. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
   4. Submit to Bing Webmaster Tools
      1. http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/

Follow all of us on Twitter:
Tricia Meyer
Eric Nagel
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O’Hare, are joined by James Martell to have a panel discussion about why bloggers should consider podcasting, plus having guests on podcasts.

Here is a link to a page where we show you the show you the basic software and equipment you need to get started podcasting.

Here are some of our notes on why you should start podcasting on your blog:

Connect on a personal level. Listen instead of read, listen while you do other things – on top of Mt Kilimanjaro, on a plane, while running, while working.

Affiliate Buzz – Every two weeks at the start, weekly now. Charles Johnston got James started as a way to get readers of James’ book to be able to hear James answer questions and let people get to know him.

Gives your blog a personality in addition to words on a page.

Affiliate Thing – another long lasting podcast that is on a regular schedule and widely listened too about issues in the affiliate marketing industry, but that covers other topics as well. Hosted by Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille.

People recognize your voice at conferences. Personalities come through better via voice or video. After listening to a podcast people can “hear” your voice when reading your posts.

She Shops Around – Podcast that Tricia produces that helped her site’s members get to know her better.

Exposure: iTunes, podcast directory, podcatchers drive traffic to website from other locations.

Be sure to leave contact information and clearly spoken links to your website at the end of your podcast so people can find your site that got the show from iTunes. Spell things out so that people have time to write it down or type it into their browsers.

Article by James that includes list of podcasting directories to submit to. (Note: after podcast Deborah started down that page adding podcast rss feeds.)

Force yourself into a schedule by having a live call and then record and post. Some conference call services:
AccuConference
Free Conference Call

Another way is to have a co-host, so you keep each other to a schedule. Plus people generally like to here different voices and different opinions. Then add guests so that you have even more voice and regularity. Discussion creates new and better ideas.

Arlene Martell’s Podcast – initially pushed back from the idea for a podcast on her site EpilepsyMoms.com. Instead of a long term podcast she decided to have interviews and have a limited series of podcasts on specific topics with specific physicians and nutritionists. Her goal with her podcast was to educate parents of children with epilepsy and have them try the diet that has made such a difference in her child’s life.

Interviews via podcast instead of print interviews are more interactive. Makes your website comes to life, and when on a podcast the participants gain from the discussion, which gives the listeners new information as well.

Blogger challenge: Think about the topic of your blog, find someone similar and just get on a call, talk about a topic and record your discussion for 20 mins. Put your contact info at the end. Post the link to your podcast here

James: Some people don’t like to hear their own voices: Get over it. Get a headset, write an outline and just do it.

Tricia: Fresh content, give new life to your site, inspire yourself with new topics

Vinny: New traffic for your site from your iTunes stream.

Vinny and Deborah’s Podcasting resources: Post with the info you need for the technical side of starting a podcast.

Twitter:
Tricia Meyer
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Tricia Meyer, Vinny O’Hare, are joined by James Martell to have a panel discussion about guest posting (blogging on other people’s blogs) and have guest bloggers on their own sites.

• More exposure for you and for the guest poster
• Adds more variety of “voices” to your blog
• Guest bloggers encourage their followers to follow you as well.
• Some guest bloggers might not have their own sites, so they send you traffic so their followers can read what they wrote.
• Where you guest blog can give you instant authority if you are a guest blogger or regular contributor to a larger site in your niche.
• Multi-user blogs that share revenue
• Plan your guest blogging, so you are contributing regularly to new audience
• Guest blogging is going to be the next “big thing” other than social media

Bloggers are more open to cross promoting than traditional webmasters with static sites that take webmaster intervention to post content to.

Can outsource as long as the voice is yours. Give an outsourced writer an outline and then you edit it, so it is your content.

Common question: Do you use a unique post for each site or can you reuse articles from your own site?
James: Original content but not necessarily new topics. Change up the slant to fit the personality of the blog you are guest posting on. Duplicate content is not as issue because it is in front of a different audience. We want to get in front of more real people and not as much from search engines. Delivery of some content is different also, rss to various devices could mean people aren’t even getting to your actual site.

Google punishing the people that blast garbage content to 500-700 crappy blogs and bad article directories. People that have good content even on several locations are still going to rank for the same article at all those places.

Print publishing rules: First world rights for one-time use and electronic use, then reprint rights belong to the author once the article is published on the blog you are guest posting on.

BloggerLinkUp – Great place to hook up with potential guest bloggers
Podcast with Cathy Stucker about using BloggerLinkUp

Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out, but BLU is more focused as a tool to create relationships between webmasters/bloggers and HARO is more focused on actual media connections. They are complimentary tools, and you probably want to subscribe to both.
Affiliate Summit Panel request on HARO got posters, podcasters, and the panel members.

Tricia suggests some additional ways to find guest posters -
Twitter hashtags, follow some in a specific niche, watch the links they post and when you see writing you like, send them an @message to contact you about being a guest poster.

Tricia and James both have found writers via:
Paper.li – watch who your paper is pulling in and go see who has content you like or who you would like to write for or who you would like to write for you.

James: Watching people that comment regularly on blogs you are on and ask them to blog for you.

Nice things to do when you Guest Post:

• Include a graphic
• Promote the post
• Subscribe to the post comments so you know you have comments to respond to

More sophisticated than article marketing via article sharing sites.

Plugin that allows guest posters to set up profile, submit the posts, and manage their posts they have submitted to your site: Kish Guest Post Plugin for WordPress

Gravity Forms Contact Form Plugin for WordPress Can create guest post form templates

Twitter:
Tricia Meyer
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Blogging ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Deborah Carney of Merchant ABCs hosted a panel discussion that included James Martell of Affiliate Buzz and Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp,and buy.at regulars Jeannine Crooks and Amy Ely to continue the discussion on supporting affiliates with content and creative.  Moving beyond the basics, this episode focuses on creating, sharing, and using video creative.

Topics include:

• Why video is important for merchants to consider
• Tools available to create and tag video on different networks
• Video formats – product reviews and demonstrations, the manufacturing process, testimonials, and more
• Creating professional and polished clips vs. simple and personalized video
• The three main video components – the establishing shot, mid shot, and close ups
• Methods to share videos with affiliates
• Creating motion graphic videos and slide shows with audio

During the conversation, participants shared a few recommended video editing companies and software to help merchants get started.  These include: Elance, Camtasia, Jing, and ScreenFlow. Also mentioned are the Shareasale network video players for both affiliates and merchants, the buy.at video tools available through Coull.com and an article by Rosalind Gardner about how affiliates can create players with links using LinkedTube. One more not mentioned in the show, but that was posted as another alternative by Shawn Collins on the subject is ViewBix (powered by Qoof).

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
James Martell
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss how to structure giveaways on your blog.

Some of the things to think about when doing a giveaway are what are you looking to get out of it and how much is your time & advertising/backlinks worth?  We suggest using Facebook likes, twitter followers, subscribe to blog rss for entries rather than newsletter subscriptions.  Always remember what your blog is about when considering giveaways and considering how many to do and be sure that your disclosure and privacy statements are thorough enough on your site.

Feel free to post links to your blog for us to take a look at in the comments below!   Also suggestions for future podcast topics or guests.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare are joined by affiliate and affiliate coach James Martell to talk about how affiliates should be using email lists as a large part of their marketing strategy.

Here are notes from this episode:
DIY vs Email marketing services – easier and they cover the legal aspects for you, take care of the optin, subscribing and unsubscribing.

Give something to get sign ups, ebook, access to podcasts, or something not available to the general public. Give them something good or you will lose them.
Example: AffiliateAnswerBook.com

JamesMartell.com
Keep subscribers engaged so they remember why they signed up.

Autoresponder – MartellNewsletter.com – monthly newsletter and subscribers get an ebook and get access to 6 CoffeeTalk podcasts right away, over the next few weeks they get one new and one archive week, then less frequent but covers 4 1/2 years.

Evergreen content that is able to be applied today the same as the day it was recorded or created. Best practices are rarely outdated. Tools may have improved but the information is based on fundamentals won’t change.

Expense is deductible as a business expense, cost should not be prohibitive. Stats show that when a newsletter goes out the actions happen and money is made. It gives you an audience to market to. Less reliance on search engine traffic.

Jonathan Diller Elance.com
Stat: 70% of people that visit your site won’t return, unless you capture their contact information.

Aweber Email Service – at the time of this recording you can sign up for one month trial for $1, lowest cost package is $19 a month. Costs go up as your list gets bigger, but you are also selling to more people. Cost is not per list, it is per account, your account can have multiple lists.

Blog broadcast capabilities, also to Twitter and Facebook. Use your site as your newsletter. Can be set to go once a week, or every time you post.

Be sure to send people to specific pages that have an action for them to take.

Text vs HTML newsletters: Text works on smartphones and tablets, html won’t display right and won’t get read. Pretty doesn’t always get attention. Graphics are so prominent that they get lost, similar to banner blindness.

Stop words: Free, extra !!!! check with spam services to find the latest lists of “trigger” or “stop” words.

Consider the timing of your newsletters. Vinny sends on Sunday nights, breaking most of the rules.

James has example of Robert Genn who was interviewed on the White Rock Reporter sends his newsletter twice a week at 8:55 on Tuesday and Fridays since 1999. Here is the link to the “Welcome Letter” to his excellent newsletter for artists.

Don’t open with inexpensive service then need to change provider once you have built a list.

Just do it. Use a service like elance to hire someone to set up your lists if you need to and get it set up inexpensively. Outsource it instead of putting it off. Have a list for each of your websites.

A couple of podcasts we did with Justin Premick of Aweber are in our archives:
Affiliate ABCs #16 Email Marketing with Aweber Part 1

Affiliate ABCs #17 Email Marketing with Aweber Part 2

Twitter:
James Martell
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah aka Loxly
Affiliate ABCs

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts. Please go visit them to hear more podcasts about internet marketing.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss how to use giveaways on your blog including where to get giveaways, what are you expecting to get out of it and what are companies expecting to get out of it.

It’s easiest to start with your own product to get going.  You can then contact the affiliate managers for programs that you are an affiliate of and also contact national brands that you currently use.  When possible, request a promo code for your users so that they can place an order after the contest is over.  Be sure to set realistic expectations for both sides so that you can possibly partner again later.

Feel free to post links to your blog for us to take a look at in the comments below!   Also suggestions for future podcast topics or guests.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Deborah Carney of Merchant ABCs hosted a panel discussion that included James Martell of Affiliate Buzz and Affiliate Marketers Boot Camp, as well as Kim Salvino, Jeannine Crooks and Amy Ely of buy.at.  Everyone joined in to provide guidance on content and creatives that help affiliates promote a merchant’s business more effectively.

Topics include:

·         Why supplying a variety of creative is key to program growth

·         The types of content and creative to consider

·         The value of text links, banners, and offering unique sizes

·         Providing a comprehensive list of product information, company facts, and statistics for affiliates to use when creating articles and unique content

·         Ideas for communicating creative changes and key messages

·         Best practices in the merchant-affiliate relationship

·         The under-utilized power of video

This podcast wraps up with information on video creative, which will be covered in more detail on the next episode.  Enjoy!

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
James Martell
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Blogging ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer discuss how to structure your blog including how to pick the software and platform.

Recommended blog platforms: Unanimously recommend WordPress.org with the blog hosted on your own domain. Tricia and Deborah both use the Thesis WordPress theme, while Liz uses themes from the WordPress.org repository to find themes that fit the subject of her blogs.  It was suggested that you do not have any auto play music, video etc that can distract your visitors, or even detract visitors.

When using WordPress.com – You are not allowed to monetize your blog at all.
Blogger.com/Blogspot.com – You can monetize but it looks unprofessional and you don’t own your content.

Feel free to post links to your blog for us to take a look at in the comments below!   Also suggestions for future podcast topics or guests.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney talks to Jeannine Crooks and Amy Ely at buy.at about key merchant takeaways from Conversion Conference (started by Tim Ash), which took place March 14-15 in San Francisco.  This podcast discusses several ideas that merchants can implement right away to increase their conversion rates.

We covered six main points during the conversation:

1)     Look at your site through the eyes of your visitors – acknowledge that we (the digital marketers) are online regularly and can be considered super users.  As such, we may not think and interact with the site the way that 99% of our visitors do.  Learn how they search, how they look for products or categories and improve your site based on the user’s perspective.

2)     A clear call to action is key – make the call to action prominent with colors and placement.  Avoid common roadblocks (discussed further in the podcast).

3)     Address the “peakaboo” problem - if a user fills out a field incorrectly, show the message to correct their entry at the relevant location, not at the top of the page after they submit the form.  Don’t make your users scroll up and down to figure out how to fix their information.

4)     Use the power of “scarcity” – if your site sells products, list the remaining number of that product to encourage visitors to buy while they can.  If your inventory is large, use messaging similar to “9+” to still incite a level of urgency.

5)     Never stop testing – enough said

6)     Don’t force a user to login when making a purchase – if they forgot their credentials, they may give up and purchase elsewhere.  Instead, give them the option to shop and purchase as a guest, then sign up as a member after the sale completes.

Learn about these points and more on the podcast.  Enjoy listening!

Find us on Twitter:
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

After a bit of a hiatus, Blogging ABCs is back with new co-hosts that are blogging experts ready to share their expertise with you! Your hosts are Deborah Carney, Liz Fogg and Trica Meyer. Each has a variety of blogs on a variety of subjects and have several years of experience. For their first podcast together they discuss the value of niche blogs vs general content blogs, and when each is appropriate.

Tricia – First blog was a general mom’s blog and has come back to niche instead. SEO – niche blogs “kill it” – getting much more targeted traffic, general blog gets more general backlinks instead.

Debbie – Longtail traffic, Google etc don’t have to dig as far with a niche site to get info. People lose what you’re trying to say if you are too general.

Word of mouth traffic, offline, etc – general site is better than needing to list site to people you are talking to or to have on a business card.

Blogging to blog or to monetize makes difference, so determine the focus of your blog before you start.

Recommended blog platforms: Unanimously recommend WordPress.org with the blog hosted on your own domain. Tricia and Deborah both use the Thesis WordPress theme, while Liz uses themes from the WordPress.org repository to find themes that fit the subject of her blogs.

Find Us On Twitter:
Blogging ABCs
Loxly
SunshineTricia
TeamLoxlyLiz

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts and many other educational and entertaining podcasts related to all things geeky.

Continuing on from Merchant ABCs #6 – Tips for B2B Merchants in the Affiliate Industry, this podcast answers two great B2B Merchant questions:

1) What is keeping more B2B companies from starting up affiliate programs?
2) I’ve often read that the B2B buying cycle is a different creature than the consumer buying cycle, so how can an affiliate program be structured to ensure that an affiliate gets paid appropriately?

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare discuss answers to these questions with Kim Salvino (Sr. Account Manager & Affiliate Evangelist) and Amy Ely (Marketing Manager) of buy.at.

Topics include:
• Common concerns of running B2B programs in the affiliate industry and how to address them
• The benefits of B2B affiliate marketing, and how networks have adapted
• Tips on how to structure a program for success and establish strong affiliate relationships
• How to adapt programs to accommodate a longer buying cycle

Key takeaways include:
• B2B companies may not start affiliate programs because they think they’re:
1. Too small scale or niche
2. Unable to track sales offline
3. Too complex to market
4. Unable to effectively manage an affiliate’s promotion of their business

• To alleviate these concerns, B2B merchants should consider that:
1. Many affiliates prefer small scale or niche products because they can focus on that topic
2. The B2B space is far less competitive, which is also attractive to affiliates
3. B2B products typically generate a higher margin and commission for affiliates
4. Many networks can track conversions offline
5. Merchants can manually approve affiliates to ensure relevancy
6. Merchants with clear, well constructed Ts & Cs reduce the likelihood of any promotional issues

• Concerns regarding the B2B buying cycle apply to many B2C programs as well, and can be mitigated in the following ways:
1. Set the cookie duration to 365 days
2. Develop a commission structure (ideally using a batch upload process) that pays on an initial lead as well as full customer acquisition
For example, Raven Tools pays 1 cent for initial signup, then a much higher payout for a full registration
3. Establish an offline tracking solution to ensure affiliates don’t lose out on sales

More questions are welcome!
Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Joining Affiliate ABCs host Deborah Carney is Michael Weishuhn, co-founder of WyzAnt Tutor Matching Service. In this Merchant Spotlight of this unique affiliate program we hear how WyzAnt got it’s start and the best ways for affiliates to promote the service.

Notes:
Tutor Matching Service – In home one on one tutoring.

28,000 tutors, distribution is consistent with population distribution in the United States. Where there are large populations there are large numbers of tutors.

Affiliates send students to website, landing page is geotargeted, but student can change zip code and then search by subject. Lead is generated by student emailing a tutor.

Datafeed with all tutors listed, updated regularly. Each tutor has all subjects listed, plus where they are located plus the bio info provided by each tutor. Landing page combinations are endless.

http://www.wyzant.com/AffiliateProgram/datafeed.aspx

Add Shareasale ID, download a feed with your ID encoded. Up to date, easy to create and download. Even if you aren’t a datafeed affiliate you can do the searches and find the tutors you want to feature. Each tutor profile has a unique landing page, the lead form is right on that landing page. Conversions for these pages were 20%

Target Audiences: Parents, Moms are maine decision makers, Dads are next. College students also are decision makers.

Hot Subjects: High School Math, Sciences, Languages.

Get creative with the datafeed. Explore the data for information that other affiliates may not. Use the bio information.

Keep your data fresh, 200 – 300 new tutors a day are added. Affiliates will be getting the information first, can make good use of it.

Seasonality: December – slow, January – April huge increase, slows about 30% in summer, 30% increase back up in September. Boost in May for finals.

If there are specific suggestions or comments about feeds, other info from site you would like included, let us know!

Happy New Year!

@affiliateabcs twitter
Join the WyzAnt Affiliate Program

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcast. Be sure to go check their site out so you can listen to not only our podcasts, but podcasts from many other great marketers.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk to Kim Salvino (Sr. Account Manager & Affiliate Evangelist) and Amy Ely (Marketing Manager) at buy.at network about the upcoming Affiliate Summit January 9 – 11, 2011 where you can come by the buy.at booth to be recorded on Merchant ABCs Live

We are inviting Merchants to come ask questions about starting or running an affiliate program, and inviting Affiliates to come tell Merchants what your pet peeve is or what you would like to see them doing differently. This is your chance to ask industry experts your questions and share your own thoughts about affiliate marketing.

We will be at the buy.at booth #300 Monday and Tuesday, but you can email questions in advance to dc@merchantabcs.com if you are unable to attend, but would still like to ask a question for the group to answer, or tweet your question to @buyatUS or @merchantabcs, we will be monitoring both accounts before, during and after the show!

Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Today’s guest on Affiliate ABCs is Taylor Pratt from Raven Tools and with hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare he discussed some of the features of Raven Tools and great ideas for affiliates to use to promote their services via their affiliate program on Shareasale.

What is Raven Tools?
Raven Tools helps customers quickly research, manage, monitor and report on SEO, email, social media and other internet marketing campaigns.

Who are Raven’s customers?
Anyone that has a website or runs an online business.

Raven holds weekly Training webinarsand records them all for future clients to watch at any time and learn about all the features Raven Tools has to offer.

They also have an in depth user guide to help you set up your account to get the most out of it.

Users get a free 30 day trial with no credit card required. Affiliates should also sign up for the service so they can explain in depth on their websites how Raven Tools can benefit the end user. Affiliate can use the videos in Shareasale or grab some of the videos that are up on Raven Tools Vimeo channel.

Twitter links from show:
@RavenTools
@RavenPratt
@VinnyOHare
@Loxly
@AffiliateABCs
@GeekCast

On the web:
@VinnyOHare
Affiliate ABCs
Affiliate ABCs Discussion forum
GeekCast.fm

Have questions you would like answered in a future podcast? Drop them in the comments below or email dc@abcsplus.com

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcast. Be sure to go check their site out so you can listen to not only our podcasts, but podcasts from many other great marketers.

Today’s Affiliate ABCs podcast features the DIY Themes affiliate program on Shareasale. Hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare are joined by Chris Pearson, the DIY Themes developer. They talk about what makes the Thesis theme different from other premium themes for WordPress and how affiliates can best target their sales efforts.

There are thousands of websites that can benefit from using the Thesis Theme (and upcoming Skins) plus the huge B2B market. More businesses than ever are adding WordPress powered blogs to their sites or basing their entire sites on the WordPress CMS and they all need a good framework to use for design and SEO.

Show Links:
Thesis Theme
DIY Themes/Thesis Theme Affiliate Program
DIY Themes Twitter

Find Affiliate ABCs on Twitter:
@VinnyOHare
@Loxly
@AffiliateABCs
@GeekCast

On the web:
Affiliate ABCs
Affiliate ABCs Discussion forum
GeekCast.fm

Have questions you would like answered in a future podcast? Drop them in the comments below or email dc@abcsplus.com

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcast. Be sure to go check their site out so you can listen to not only our podcasts, but podcasts from many other great marketers.

Business services have changed over the years and there are plenty of affiliate programs out there that have come along in the last fews years that businesses have used. From Web hosting to Podcasting equipment the B2B (Business to business) landscape has changed. Affiliates should no longer only think about selling “gift Items” to consumers when you have a large untapped market. Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk about what some of these businesses are and some types of things that affiliates that usually only focus on consumer goods might be able to add to their sites. The new B2B might be called B2CB or Business to Consumer Business.

Raven Tools
Thesis Themes
Knowem
CorpNet Incorporation Services
Business Checks
Aweber
Vertical Response
Decorative Ceiling Tiles
Vistprint
Each one of these websites also has an affiliate program. B2B programs can be found in all the major networks, and many have an inhouse program. Go to the websites for the services you use and look for their affiliate programs.

Add a page to your site that lists recommended services related to creating a similar site, you aren’t fueling the competition, you are making money getting other people set up with their own sites that are
Podcasting Equipment

Find us on Twitter:
@VinnyOHare
@Loxly
@AffiliateABCs
@GeekCast

On the web:
Affiliate ABCs
Affiliate ABCs Discussion forum
GeekCast.fm

Have questions you would like answered in a future podcast? Drop them in the comments below or email dc@abcsplus.com

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk to Kim Salvino (Sr. Account Manager & Affiliate Evangelist) and Amy Ely (Marketing Manager) at buy.at network about ways that B2B merchants can succeed in the affiliate industry. B2B customers might not be the same as defined a few years ago, and more B2B merchants are establishing affiliate programs on traditionally B2C networks. B2C affiliates are realizing that more of their audience is in need of B2B products. In this podcast we discuss this plus what merchants should expect and what they need to provide to succeed.

Topics include:

·Observing the growth of B2B advertisers in the affiliate industry
·How B2B services apply to many affiliate sites and audiences of all sizes
·Helpful tools, creatives, content, and resources that B2B merchants can provide to support their affiliate partners

With a sampling mentioned during the podcast, examples of B2B programs that gain traction in the affiliate industry include:

·Email marketing support – ex. Aweber and Vertical Response
·Tools for SEO and social media – ex. Raven Tools SEO Tools
·Resources to start a business – ex. CorpNet Incorporation Services
·Business and office supplies – ex. Carrot Ink
·WordPress and Blogging platform premium themes and plugins – ex. Thesis Theme

Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare are joined by long time affiliate manager and OPM/AM Wade Tonkin to discuss expectations of new merchants that are starting affiliate programs. Managers and OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) are challenged by companies that expect big things right after launching an affiliate program. Experienced managers often have to bust the bubble to be sure everyone understands that good affiliate programs don’t bring “instant money”.

Affiliate Marketing is a marathon not a sprint.

Show Notes and Points:

It can be 3 – 6 months or more before a new affiliate program makes a sale. Site issues can extend that out even farther. Managing expectations is important.

Developing long term relationships, can’t rush the affiliates to promote a new program.

Affiliates need to know a company isn’t going to disappear. Not only do they need to know you have a good manager, they need to know you are in it for the long haul.

Reality:

If affiliates are making good money with your competitor you have to convince them why they will make more with you.

The metrics aren’t there (within the network) for affiliates to see when a program is new. Non-affiliate channel metrics – a merchant needs to show affiliates that they convert without affiliate traffic. The affiliate program shouldn’t be a merchant’s only traffic source.

Affiliates take their time and vet programs. Merchants need to get on their radar, on their todo list, then stick around long enough and be patient so that when affiliates are ready the merchant is still there.

Good OPMs will tell merchants that they aren’t ready or will let merchant know what needs to be done before they can launch a program. And will not manage a program that will not make the changes that are needed to make the site and company successful.

Money vs Reputation: Reputation first. Good OPMs will not take money for management from clients that aren’t ready. They will consult to get them ready, or recommend someone else that can help them get ready based on their needs.

Merchant needs to be affiliate friendly, don’t reverse affiliate sales because you think that you should have gotten the sale yourself. Don’t make a change to your TOS that restricts a type of promotion, then change your mind and expect affiliates to come back.

PPC affiliates have their place and establish a good policy from the beginning.

Offer development, be sure you can afford what you are paying out because moving commissions to a lower level after being established will kill your program. Do short term promotions instead. Be very clear what your payouts are.

Offer bonuses and tiers instead, tiers based on volume. Go to top affiliates and offer higher right away, based on better placement. Include room for network and management fees. If you have higher conversions than the competition.

Make sure you budget for ongoing management, whether inhouse or OPM, for at least 6 months. This is a long term channel, not PPC or CPA lead gen for a quick hit.

Once you are established affiliates will come to you and your management.

Contact on Twitter:
@gtoman
@merchantabcs
@loxly
@vinnyohare

Websites:
GTO Management
Merchant ABCs
Team Loxly
ABCs Plus Affiliate Marketing Forum

Many thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting Merchant ABCs podcasts and many other podcasts that marketers should be listening too. Check them out!

Join your hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare with their guest Angel Djambazov, Managing Editor of Revenews and Affiliate Manager extraordinaire – Custom Tailored Marketing. Today’s topic is using analytics to help merchants find affiliates to target for recruiting, and to find their traffic sources to help budget to advertising and affiliate channels.

Google analytics, Omniture

Traffic Sources – who is sending you traffic that isn’t an affiliate? Could be using Adsense, get them to be a direct affiliate.

Hitwise – Who is sending you or sending your competitors traffic
Alexa.com – url of your website and do lookup, under details – clickstream and related links
Compete.com

Social Media
Find people interested in and talking about your products
Radian6 – agregator of topics
Raven Tools – Social Media Monitor

Twitter – data mining about your products or services and your competitors. Who is talking about you?

Two cookie system to track first referrer plus last affiliate referrer to find out your traffic patterns and what the click path is.
In Google analytics – set traffic sources and goals so that you can find where your traffic is coming from.

Twitter:
@merchantabcs
@loxly
@djambazov

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcast. Be sure to go check their site out so you can listen to not only our podcasts, but podcasts from many other great marketers.

In Affiliate ABCs episode #37 Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk to Murray Newlands and Luke Brynley-Jones as they discuss the upcoming Social Media Marketing and Advertising event September 30, 2010 in Miami. Why should affiliates attend? Listen and learn

More info here and win passes here!

Affliliate ABCs co-hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk about their experience at Affiliate Summit East in NYC August 2010. It was Vinny’s first experience manning a Meet Market table instead of just being an affiliate that wandered through, so he had a few new things he learned. As always, great networking and great results from another successful Affiliate Summit.

Read Vinny’s recap of each day of the event on his site VinnyOHare.com

Many thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcast. Be sure to go check their site out so you can listen to not only our podcasts, but podcasts from many other great marketers. We start every week listening to Affiliate Thing to hear the latest industry news.