Affiliate Marketing Views @import url("http://www.blogger.com/css/blog_controls.css");@import url("http://www.blogger.com/dyn-css/authorization.css?blogID=17220072"); .blog-title { margin:0; padding:40px 0 0; font:bold 275%/97px Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,Sans-serif; text-transform:lowercase; } .description { font-family: verdana, arial; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10px; /*color: black;*/ text-decoration: none } .grayContent { font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica; font-weight: normal; font-size: 11px; color: #999999; text-decoration: none } .descBig { font-family: arial, verdana; font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; /*color: black;*/ text-decoration: none } a:hover { color: #FF6633; /*text-decoration: none*/ }.orangedate{ font-family: verdana,arial,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10px; color: #D49746; /*text-decoration: none*/ } .blueBy { font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica; font-weight: bold; font-size: 10px; color: #0B488E; text-decoration: none } .bluetitle{ font-family: arial,verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; color: #0B488E; /*text-decoration: none*/ } @import url(http://www.blogger.com/css/navbar/main.css);@import url(http://www.blogger.com/css/navbar/1.css);div.b-mobile {display:none;} Send As SMS  BlogThis! blogspotInit(); Affiliate Marketing Views  Welcome to the exciting world of affiliate marketing! Or, win-win marketing, because when done well, everybody --- the marketer, the affiliate and the affiliate network---wins. I'll discuss current happenings and my own insights into the implications and provide a forum for constructive discussion in the win-win spirit of affiliate marketing. Hopefully, we’ll create a platform for insightful, prophetic and even contentious thinking, while ensuring it is interesting, informative and valuable. The Last Post...... here Yes, I will continue to 'pen' my musings on our exciting world of online marketing on our corporate site, which you will find here. The integration of this blog with our corporate website is one among the many significant changes we made to our website recently. For one, we have added in a wealth of information that gives a fairly in-depth look at the proven processes and technologies that Traffic Junction has developed and refined over the years. However, in a drastic shift from the norm, we have removed public access to most of this information, as we felt that it was in the best interests of our esteemed clients (and our own, of course) that all that value is available only selectively. To access detailed sections of our website, you will need an access code, which is provided by invitation.If you are a merchant interested in finding out more about the various performance marketing solutions that we offer and how we differentiate ourselves, contact us for an invitation. The blog will of course feature news and views on developments in affiliate marketing, search marketing and related aspects of the online publishing business. So, there'll still be quite a bit of easily available (and hopefully very useful) information. I invite you to visit my new home.. Ben posted by Ben Flux @ 3/31/2006 02:26:00 PM Comments: 0 PPC arbitrage v/s websites There was this question posed on Shawn Collins' website by an affiliate on whether owning a website was more profitable than simply leveraging PPC arbitrage. Most professional affiliates have probably gone through this dilemma sometime in their affiliate marketing adventure; like many other questions, this probably doesn't have a black-and-white answer to it. PPC arbitrage is akin to instant gratification; in many ways, capitalizing on PPC arbitrage is no different from a stock trader selling short. Undoubtedly, if you are good at it, the rewards can be great and immediate, but if you don't do it well there are direct risks as well as the risk of lost opportunity. Nurturing a website is like a long-term investment in your most prized stocks-- you hold on to it through some periodic ups and downs and continue to invest in it and develop your portfolio. The good thing is that both of these approaches aren't mutually exclusive; at the same time, both strategies don't have to be used simultaneously. Point is, each game is a new one... Affiliate marketers, by the nature of our role as lead generators for others' wares, are bound to continuously face newer challenges --- be it restrictions on PPC, use of the methods we use, the unpredictable nature of how search engines view us and list us in their indexes etc. In many ways, affiliate marketers face the 'damned if you do, damned if you don't syndrome; but it's not without its fun, thrill and rewards. I doubt if you'll ever hear of serious affiliate marketers worrying about keeping their brain cells fertile; the exciting opportunities that keep coming up laced with newer constraints and challenges ensure there's always something interesting round the corner. Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 2/27/2006 07:04:00 AM Comments: 1 Google Page Creator-- Cause for cheer for amateurs? Google launched its web page creation and hosting tool, and promptly closed registrations due to "heavy demand". But we all now know of the existence of this tool and that it will be out sooner rather than later. Free web site hosting services, despite the popularity that they enjoyed a few years ago, are not really on everyone's must have lists. Most people who can don't really opt for such sites; but these are definitely good for amateurs and personal pages. Yet, Googlepages may get better attention, because it comes from the Google stable. From a business perspective, will these be beneficial? I am sceptical. It seems that creating this website is tied to your Gmail account; which gives me the impression that at this point, a user cannot have multiple websites using the free service. That doesn't really help professional affiliates (who in any case may want to have pages with their own domain name). But it certainly opens some possibilities for personal sites and amateur affiliates, who could set up a website without too much hassle and put in a few affiliate links. It also has the potential to boost AdSense revenues as the number of amateur publishers increase significantly. I am not sure if Google is allowing AdSense on these pages yet; but my instinct is that they will at some point. While we don't begrudge publishers earning revenues from the program, to what extent the increased distribution of AdSense will affect the quality of the traffic that will be generated is an important question that Pay-per-click advertisers will have to bear in mind. Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 2/24/2006 05:26:00 AM Comments: 2 Valentines' Day, the weather and simple lessons One of the big days (and probably the first in the year, after New Year's) in the online retail calendar just went past, and all indications are that it was a good one. According to comScore, as reported in this article, sales on Valentine's Day gift-related items grew over 22% year-on-year in the month leading up to it. Despite some mixed signals slowly finding their way regarding the prospects for online sales this year, the results augur well for the year ahead, and seem to be in line with the earlier bullish projections that were being made.While on the subject of Valentine's Day, super affiliate Jeremy Palmer writes about his experience from this year's V-Day sales. Two simple things that one can take away from Jeremy's piece: watch what is happening to get a better understanding of one's target demographic as he found out (yet again- that men are from mars, women are from venus...) and secondly, plan ahead if you are planning to drive any kind of traffic from organic search results. Most professional affiliates know these already-- but there's absolutely everything to gain in reminding ourselves to take stock occasionally. In a similar vein, I saw Shawn Collins asking affiliates to take advantage of the bad weather in several parts of the US forced people to stay indoors. Simple yet great tip, I think; afterall, like all businesses, external factors that we may or may not have much control will often dictate our success or failure; so, why not convert some of these circumstances into great opportunities? Timing IS everything. Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 2/15/2006 08:14:00 AM Comments: 0 Putting eggs in one basket...... We know the consequences of putting all our eggs in one basket; once in a while, we get a rude awakening-- just as DGM seemed to have got one a few months back. Elementary & common sense, one would think; but like with most other things, when the going is good, we hardly take a step back to consider our options. Ultimately, it is about continuing to have that revenue stream flowing with as much momentum as possible. As affiliates, I believe there are two aspects that we will be best served by revisiting and periodically asking ourselves if we are indeed putting all eggs in one basket (it is as much a reminder for myself as it is for any affiliate reading this). (i) Relationships: Niche, Focus, Loyalty are great; but are we too dependent on one particular segment or merchant? Even the staunchest optimist is advised to consider the worst case scenario and look at alternatives available. (ii) Marketing: Are you too reliant on paid search marketing? Or Organic traffic? I am not really asking that we fix something if it ain't broken; by all means we should continue and optimize the things that work best; but let's consider the possibility of something 'breaking' or not working for some inexplicable reason. Can we bear to wait and find an alternative at that point? Until next time, Ben Fluxp.s: i) Read about the changes at the top at LinkShareii) Seems like the next Google SearchQuake (a borrowed term from somewhere on the Internet) is about to happen....watch out for it. See the update re. BigDaddy to get a clue to the impending quake. posted by Ben Flux @ 2/08/2006 08:50:00 AM Comments: 0 To invest or not to invest? I'm talking about investing in building a brand for a site that basically generates its revenues from affiliate marketing. On second thoughts, the more appropriate question is not whether to invest or not to invest (there's only one answer to that question perhaps), but rather how much to invest, because brand building is an extremely challenging and time consuming endeavour. It is particularly challenging in the case of an affiliate site because at the end of the day it is promoting somebody else's product, often a brand that is much much bigger than itself. There are some basic things that an affiliate site could do to progressively build a name for itself, as a destination where consumers are likely to find links to the best products in the market, starting from the most elementary aspect-- getting the name right (obviously there are constraints here; but time spent on getting the name right and how you are going to position the site will be extremely helpful). A brand is built or destroyed on the user experience. Can affiliates make sure that the experience users have on their site is memorable? Having the right amount of content and the right features and functionality to help the site visitor in their decision making process are obvious; there are two other aspects that could make or break an affiliates' plans to build customer loyalty. Are the products they promote trustworthy? An affiliate does not have control on somebody else's product, but he surely does have control on the product he chooses to promote. Secondly, as an affiliate are you offering the customer reasonable choices and the best choices? If you do, visitors to your site are more than likely to come back again and again because the choices you offered were beneficial to them. Obviously, your financial interests will, to a great extent, dictate the products you will promote, but if you are able to find a balance with the products that are most likely to benefit your site visitor, you will go a long way in building "top-of-mind" recall-- which is what in many ways brand building is all about. In passing, here is an interesting article about online conversions based on a study by web analytics company WebSideStory. Put the stats & conversion behaviour in an affiliate marketing perspective and draw your own conclusions... Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 1/31/2006 10:30:00 AM Comments: 2 Updates: Linkshare, DGM , AffStat report A quick review of some of the recent developments and announcements in the last week or two. Linkshare affiliates would have received updates a couple of days ago on their Athena registration system. The key changes involve the way Linkshare collects its legal name, which will be based on the entity type (i.e. sole proprietorship or partnership or a LLC, or a limited company); the various tax forms (I suspect it is more to do with affiliates in the United States) and lastly, the option for affiliates to indicate the channels they intend to use for marketing and the ability to edit and manage these channels. The last one particularly may be of great interest to professional affiliates that use multiple channels for their marketing programs.Meanwhile DGM seems to continue to have its own set of problems. One of my earliest posts was on the migration problems encountered in moving from dgm to dgmpro, and this was way back in September. Yet, the volume of delusional voices just seems to be getting louder, as dissatisfied affiliates raise more complaints. It's time DGM took these seriously and got themselves sorted soon; back in September there was considerable promise for the future, and I hope they are able to live up to that promise. Lastly, MarektingSherpa has brought out its AffStat 2006, Affiliate Program Benchmarks report, now in its fourth edition, and featuring "data (and anecdotes) from 189 affiliate marketing managers at mid-large merchants including retail, gambling, finance and travel sites". There's nothing quite like learning from fellow players and peers in the industry, which makes reports such as these useful. Check it out. Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 1/30/2006 08:45:00 AM Comments: 0 From fantasy world to the real world.. Inevitably, there are signs that we are being led into the real world from a world of fantasy where the only way Google's shares could go was up, up and up.... As I write this, shares at Google have dropped a bit; and just follows statements by two analysts that Google is overvalued, and therefore, it was a good time to sell. This comes closely after Yahoo! took a hit in its latest earnings' report. At this point, I believe it could be viewed as a natural correction by the market; but it will be prudent to watch out. There are signs that the markets, despite all the positive projections and general feel-good factor currently prevalent, are slowing down. If that is indeed the case, what we can hope for is a gradual drop or as the analysts say, a soft landing.... irrespective of whether we directly hold stakes in these companies or not, being in the Internet business we are always sensitive to and affected by the macro picture. While on stocks, there seems to be a greater interest in stocks related to the affiliate marketing/ pay-for-performance marketing sphere as this post shows. It'd be worthwhile to watch out for the results of all the companies mentioned there. Overall, I'm bullish about the prospects, but in light of the most recent developments with Google and Yahoo, I'd prefer to be cautiously optimistic.. Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 1/23/2006 03:15:00 AM Comments: 0 Adwords tips from an expert Since we are always interested in getting the best results of our paid search marketing efforts, I thought this piece posted on Marketing Sherpa would be useful, where tips from Andrew Goodman, known as an Adwords expert and an author of a book on Adwords, are presented. A couple of points,in particular, caught my attention:a) According to Goodman, there is merit in running ads with a higher CTR and probably a lower ROI, along with running ads with a lower CTR and higher ROI.The objective is to show that the ad quality is considered high... Along similar lines, there is a suggestion to set up high bids at the start of a campaign to generate clickthroughs and create a good quality score..Interesting concept, but obviously one will have to be extremely careful with the cost of getting clicks for the sake of getting clicks.. b) If the ad contains others' trademarks, then the ad rank is likely to fall and therefore he suggests testing out a "with trademark" and "without trademark' approach.. Considering where things are with this hot issue of use of trademarks, affiliates (and search engine marketers in general) are better advised to play it safe instead of getting caught in needless wrangles. Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 1/20/2006 04:23:00 AM Comments: 0 Paying attention to design & usability A strong visual design is critical to making online shoppers close a deal, reports ClickZ, quoting a recent study by interactive marketing solutions firm Questus. I quote excerpts from the ClickZ article: "Critical to making a decision to purchase goods on a website are site navigation (37 percent); the checkout process (32 percent); and product descriptions (38 percent). Perspective buyers left e-commerce sites without purchasing for a few key reasons. Twenty-nine percent didn't want to register with the site; 22 percent of online shoppers found it difficult to locate products; and 17 percent left to find other e-tailers because they didn't believe the site they were on was trustworthy or secure." This is probably putting some statistics around something that we probably new instinctively, but often ignore in the quest to get more information in the face of the user. Unfortunately, affiliates hardly have any say in the design and usability of the merchant sites where the transactions invariably happen. But they definitely have control over their own sites, and where they can help themselves to increase their conversions. With good, usable design and excellent content, the aim of the affiliate should be to lead the user to making a decision to make the final transaction. If the affiliate can make the merchant site nothing more than a check-out counter, they would do very well. There is an investment involved; but I believe it is worth it, particularly in the long run. Professional affiliates like us are in it for the long run, aren't we? Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 1/19/2006 08:37:00 AM Comments: 0 Vertical 'Social Networking' reaches affiliate marketing Social networking has received a lot of attention recently, and it was probably inevitable that we quickly got into the niche or "vertical" networking sites. With the launch of ReturnonAffiliate, we now have one such site for affiliate marketing/affiliate marketers. It will hopefully serve as a platform for building contacts and sharing knowledge. What makes a social networking site different from a specialized forum, such as the Affiliate Marketing Forum? In many ways they serve the same purpose-- of bringing together the players in the game. The key differentiator I believe could be the higher level of 1-to-1 communication that a site like ReturnOnAffiliate will provide. Forums will be the one-to-many or many-to-many platform, and probably serve as the 'voice of the industry' along with industry publications and blogs. The timing of the new site is spot on--- now that the world is beginning to know the size of the affiliate marketing industry and the number of professional affiliates, the scope, opportunities and benefits in interacting with individuals across countries and specializations within the broad umbrella of affiliate marketing are tremendous. Let's network! Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 1/17/2006 03:56:00 AM Comments: 0 Brand name use & organic search results: Drawing the lines for acceptable practices One of the hottest topics raging among affiliate marketers just seems to have gotten hotter---- there is a long thread on the Affiliate Marketing Forum concerning restrictions posed by some merchants on the use of brand names by merchants on affiliate websites.Going by the posts,it seems that some merchants are penalizing affiliates who rank higher than themselves in searches for their own brands. Now that would be taking things a bit too far, especially if the affiliates haven't engaged in any unethical and devious search engine optimization practices. We understand the value of a brand to a merchant, and respect that. In fact, I would say that companies must do everything they can to protect their intellectual property and brands. In fact, Traffic Junction helps leading companies protect their brand with our own program, named "Protect My Brand". As part of this program, we help companies monitor (using a combination of powerful software and experienced, specialist resources) the use & abuse of their prized trademarks, and work with them to take both corrective and preventive action. Yet, merchants also have a responsibility to be fair to the "good affiliates" and be clearer about what constitutes a legitimate practice and what doesn't. We can't forget that affiliates are ultimately trying to drive traffic and sales for the merchants. The latter need to ensure that the restrictions imposed aren't ultimately detrimental to their own interests. Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 1/11/2006 12:00:00 PM Comments: 0 Paid search boom At the outset, here's to a Great year ahead!We are just into the second week of the year and the numbers and forecasts are beginning to emerge, for example, the paid search industry figures and the latest holiday shopping numbers. For this piece though, I will stick to the former. A ClickZ article quotes from a Piper Jaffray report that the paid search industry is expected to hit $14 billion globally in 2006, up 41%. Surprise, surprise! Google will lead the way.... and expected to grow its revenues by a whopping 58%. What's more, the overall paid search industry, according to the Piper Jaffray analyst, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 37% up to 2010. And the best piece of news for Google shareholders is that the Piper Jaffray analyst has raised the target price for Google shares to hit $600 this year(from about $435).... all this obviously riding on the paid search boom!Meanwhile, the Search Engine Marketers Professional Organization (SEMPO) in a release states that search engine marketers spent $5.75 billion in 2005! Obviously, affiliates like us would have contributed a not-so-insignificant sum to this figure.What all of this indicates is that paid search marketing seems to be working really well for the marketers. At the same time, the question that one must begin to ask seriously is, what would be the tipping point? Is there an over reliance on search, and if yes, can it be avoided at all? Most importantly, even as search marketing grows and inevitably becomes more competitive and pricier, how can marketers, in particular, affiliates, ensure that it remains a cost-effective and profitable form of marketing. (That's precisely one of the reasons for the development of our own TJ Optimizer software, to help marketers continuously monitor and profit from their search marketing campaigns). Irrespective of what software and analytics we use, ultimately it will be the profitability that will count; else, we'd just be losing contributors to those rather impressive set of numbers and projected share prices.Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 1/10/2006 11:47:00 AM Comments: 0 Lessons fron the year... As we get to closing the books for an eventful 2005, one can't help but reflect on it and gauge what it could mean for the year ahead. In my post on Revenews, I listed a couple of events that I thought epitomized the excellent year that it has been for affiliate marketing. In a similar vein, there was a post on the UK Affiiate Marketing Forum that talked about the lessons learnt during the year, with quite a few perspectives; and I am taking the liberty of reproducing some of the little gems from there encompassing various areas of search and online marketing. Sample these, as it might be worthwhile to keep these in mind -- some may be debatable and contentious, but worth giving a thought nevertheless.************* "For Google, 20 inbound links carefully done is worth 1000 traded links"* "Once you have a site flying, forget all seo and do 'natural' developments....in small doses."* Geo targeting is becoming more important to increase conversion and keep advertisers happy.... it's also fascinating.* Niche sites are King. Size no longer matters and can be a problem.* Protect your established sites like Gold.* Plan: start thinking more long term, on and offline.. things are going to change over the coming couple of years.. what is cast in stone SEO/PPC and marchant/network/affiliate dynamics wise and how we all work together now may be different in 2 years.. will you have any vehicle left to ride any storm in ?* Diversify .. still in one sector ? doh... wrong answer* Focus ...Contradicts (the above).?! not quite.. focussing on two areas is diversifying if you previously only did one* Expand ... do what you do on a bigger scale you don't have to make so much each time then, but at the same time larger scale can reduce costs thus increasing profit each time a sale/action happens.* Own something .. an asset that isn't SEO/PPC dependent something that has an intrinsic value, ie focussed site with a user base.* Learn the true value of your traffic/user base and start asking for it* Look to other areas/industry for ideas that can be adapted online* Consider Joint ventures with others if they will be as comitted as you or bring something you can't and vice versa and you both would benefit.* Double check everything* Have FUN .. this IS life.. people are too busy planning what they WILL do to realise this IS what they are doing.*************I definitely like the last one--- it's been a great year, with immense challenges and some wonderful opportunities, but all in all, one that's been great fun!! I look forward to a year that is atleast as exciting as this one.Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 12/28/2005 08:00:00 AM Comments: 0 Broadband penetration in the UK growing in leaps and bounds eMarketer has come out with its latest report "UK Online" that "tracks the many changes Internet adoption has brought about in the social and commercial life of Britain." While it is a paid-for report, there are two stats from the publicly available excerpts that are of interest: (a) Broadband Internet penetration in UK households is projected to increase from the current 30.9% to 56.8% by 2008. (b) Retail e-commerce including leisure travel (by the way, check out Bargain Travel Offers)is projected to increase threefold to GBP60 billion from the current level of GBP19.6 billion by the end of this decade. How much of this projected e-commerce spend will be routed through affiliates is the big question-- I am sure, the number will not be insignificant. At the same time, affiliates would do well to keep an eye on the 'upstream'/ 'downstream' traffic stats/trends from Hitwise-- these could give some very good ideas on the best ways to faciliate this online commerce and make some money in the process. Until next time, Ben FluxP.S. Kudos to the A4UForum on some of their recent initiatives including expansion into other geographies, introduction of a regular newsletter, and a couple of other features on the site. posted by Ben Flux @ 12/21/2005 12:18:00 PM Comments: 0 How good is the landing page? That's a question that most online marketers are instinctively trained to ask themselves, because it could mean the difference between a conversion or a quick click on the back button. Now, there are a couple of more reasons for publishers and marketers to pay closer attention to their landing pages. The landing page will have a significant bearing on the search engine placements of affiliate websites on Google, both in organic search results as well as sponsored listings. First, Google seems to have a SpamGuide which defines what the search engine considers as an attempt to manipulate its search results, as reported by Adam Vienar on Revenews. Adam has also posted a link to a leaked document that affiliates will do well to read. The gist of it is that the affiliate landing pages that ultimately link to a merchant site better have some original and good content, something that adds value, instead of just displaying a direct feed from the merchant. Secondly, Google Adwords recently made an announcement that it now considers the quality of the landing page in its ad quality score, which ultimately defines the position of an ad in the sponsored listings. There has some debate on the Search Engine Watch forums on whether it is a right move by Google or not, but without getting into the merits of the decision, the message is clear for all of us-- better get the landing pages in order, else one of the key traffic channels for most affiliates could be in jeopardy.Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 12/15/2005 08:59:00 AM Comments: 0 "Affiliate marketing is like investing in stocks" Shawn Collins of Affiliate Tip has this survey/question open to the affiliate marketing community "What is the future of Affiliate Marketing?", with some prizes for authors of all published responses.A few points from the response by Vikram Vora of a leading Indian matrimonial site caught my attention and I thought it would be useful for affiliates to bear those in mind. a) Be patient- Revenues don't start pouring in immediately. "The first 3-6 months do not result in much of revenue generation, but once revenues are generated, they get better with time, and compensate the affiliate for the lull period. Few affiliates persist in the program to experience the Snow Ball Effect, where revenue builds upon itself."b) See the big picture: It is important to note the immense value of what you are getting as an afiliate, particularly when the revenues are yet to roll in. These include the opportunity to being associated with the brand of the merchant as well as the ready, sophisticated infrastructure that you get with your participation in a program. Don't discount these. "Normally, affiliates equate the revenue with the opportunity cost of their property. Little do they realize, that they are getting an entire infrastructure, probably worth much more than millions of dollars in investments free of cost, and they can benefit directly from a share in the revenues."c) High returns? Stay long-term: As most investment advisors will tell you, if you are looking for significant returns, be prepared for the long haul. Likewise, Vikram Vora suggests that affiliate marketers should consider this like an investment in stocks; if you stick with it for a good length of time, you could get the right kind of results. "Affiliate marketing can be compared to a investment made in a stock. It always gets better with time."Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 12/14/2005 02:45:00 AM Comments: 0 The European juggernaut rolls on Close on the heels of the company going public in Sweden last month, TradeDoubler seems to be doing quite well in its overseas activity as well. Apparently it has just won two major accounts in the US- Hilton and Hertz. Zanox is another company on the move- apart from recently setting up operations in the US, it also expanded to China, looking to tap into the virgin Asian market. And based on comments to this post by Jeff Molander on Revenews, it seems that Buy.at is also planning an American foray pretty soon. All in all, looks like the big European affiliate networks are on a roll, while we haven't heard of any significant counter flow from across the Atlantic. Of course, affiliates stand to benefit if these networks sign up merchants that are keen to promote their products in UK/ Europe, and that's something to look forward to.But this recent spurt in activity makes me confident of one thing (and I admit that one doesn't have to be Nostradamus to predict this!!)- there will be some serious M&A moves and consolidation activity this coming year. The tougher one will be to predict who the major protagonists will be. Predictions (or insider stories), anyone? Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 12/12/2005 06:25:00 AM Comments: 0 Search has gone mobile, how far behind is mobile buying? When I write this, I almost get the feeling that I could sound like being light-years behind-- but that's the speed at which the Internet is evolving. With Internet having gone on to mobile devices, and search likely to dominate that space, search marketing was only bound to follow. (By the way, see a report on Danny Sullivan's keynote address at the SES Conference in Chicago).If search marketing has gone online, when will the transactional element really take off? That is, when will shopping via the Internet using mobile gadgets begin to be a crucial component of the "online shopping" channel? There are some obvious issues with users surfing and shopping (buying) at the same time while on the move and using a device like a mobile phone; but some of those concerns may not be too different from the apprehensions almost all of us had during the early days of online shopping. I reckon this kind of shopping will also attain critical mass sooner rather than later.Where does it leave us from an affiliate marketing standpoint? Will affiliate networks be ready in time to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the mobile audience? Can affiliates directly leverage this channel for pushing out their marketing (besides the search-in-mobile means), and if so, how? I have more questions than answers at this point, but just consider this: A latest Nielsen/Net Ratings report indicates that more than 50% of the X'mas shopping this year in the UK will be done online. Now that is a significant proportion of people who have moved to buying X'mas gifts than say, a couple of years ago. It's anybody's guess how many of these people would have migrated to buying online, but using a mobile device, by next X'mas... Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 12/07/2005 10:18:00 AM Comments: 0 Creativity, affiliate networks and affiliates I'd like to highlight themes from a couple of recent posts published on Revenews; themes that I have written about previously here. Jef Molander talks about innovation (or the lack of it and the need for it) by affiliates. As affiliate marketing becomes more competitive and complex, the pressure to be more creative and innovative in how affiliates go about with their campaigns is bound to increase. The techniques and channels we use, our communications, the technologies we leverage-- all of these will be put to the test. The challenge for affiliates will not only to be creative, but to be able to unleash that creativity within the constraints that will be set by the affiliate networks and the merchants that they work for. Talking of affiliates, Jonathan Miller poses this oft-heard question: the future of private affiliate programs vis-a-vis the big affiliate networks. We manage private affiliate programs as well as work with the big networks, and both present their own set of opportunities and challenges. Jon's question is whether the big networks will kill the private affiliate programs. I'd contend that the answer is no. Despite the significant benefits of working with a large network -- mainly in terms of technology and a bigger pool of potential affiliates, let's not discount the cost factor. As affiliate marketing becomes more prevalent and smaller merchants begin to understand the dynamics, I reckon they would be more keen to set up and manage their own affiliate programs instead of being aligned with any networks. Networks will face challenges from the big search engines and the innovations they bring about, and they will also have to contend with the private programs. Like everybody else, the big networks will also have to work on their value proposition to the other two key stakeholders- the merchants and the affiliates. Until next time, Ben Flux posted by Ben Flux @ 12/04/2005 09:45:00 AM Comments: 0   •Ben Flux •Hertford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom View my profile The Last Post...... here PPC arbitrage v/s websites Google Page Creator-- Cause for cheer for amateurs? Valentines' Day, the weather and simple lessons Putting eggs in one basket...... To invest or not to invest? Updates: Linkshare, DGM , AffStat report From fantasy world to the real world.. Adwords tips from an expert Paying attention to design & usability September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 Traffic Junction Releases New Affiliate-Targeted PPC Management Tool - TJ Optimiser TJ Optimiser (TJO) , a complete web-based pay-per-click (PPC) management solution targeted at "affiliates/publishers" to manage, monitor and increase the returns on their PPC campaigns with Google AdWords. |
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