3 Good News for Affiliates

It appears that while I do my best to take note of positive news and developments in the industry it is when I blog about problems (read: a negative news/issues) that I get most interest and participation from my readers. And unfortunately this is natural… But today I’d like to focus on the good — especially so since there are some really good news and developments to report. Here are the three that have really impressed me over the past few days:

AvantLink Pioneers App Market

Don’t know what took affiliate networks so long to start something like this, but glad to see it finally happen — AvantLink has launched an Affiliate Marketing App Market, “allowing developers from around the world to add functionality to the network” [source]. The idea is, actually, pretty simple/straightforward: (i) developers create apps using AvantLink’s API, (ii) affiliates use them for free (no additional fees; “you keep your entire commission for any sales made using any app”), and (iii) every time an affiliate sale is made using the developers tool, he/she also gets a commission or “20% of the network’s commission for every sale generating through the app” (yep, they’ve actually structured it as an affiliate program). Good development, and kudos to AvantLink for creating the platform and the good motivation to empower affiliates.

Skimlinks Introduces Real-Time Affiliate Marketing

Remember when Skimlinks acquired Atma Links this summer? Immediately following it I asked Alicia Navarro, Skimlinks’ CEO, if she can give my readers a “sneak-peak into what other new features they should expect from the combined Skimlinks+AtmaLinks solution”. She replied that the combined solution wasn’t in too distant of a future, and said: “what I can share now is that their technology specialises in highly accurate, multi-vertical product identification and matching” and “we can apply this to a number of our existing products (particularly EveryFeed – our aggregated product API) as well as other publisher tools we offer our customers”… Well, they’ve just rolled the combined technology out, calling it SkimWords 2.0. The new creation is being characterized by an “unparalleled accuracy and speed as it analyzes page content to recognize product references and deliver in-text affiliate links, and optionally show product and price comparison information, all in real-time” [more here]. I am particularly fond of this new development, because it is linguistics-related (and, while not many know it, I’m a linguist by first education). SkimWords 2.0 is supported by AtmaLinks’ computational linguistics and semantic algorithms. They match content/text with tens of millions of products, creating real-time in-text affiliate links. Amazing development!

7ThingsMedia Exemplary Communication/Management

Yesterday, 7ThingsMedia, a UK affiliate program management agency, has sent out an “Apologies for the mistake” email to all Agent Provocateur‘s affiliates. Here’s the core of the text:

I just wanted to email you personally to apologise for the email sent regarding an admin error that occured on Commission Junction this afternoon regarding the Agent Provocateur affiliate programme.

The programme was accidently deactivated today at 15.56, the mistake was noticed straight away and the account was re-activated at 16.11. All affiliate links are working and commissions will be rewarded.

If you have any questions about this then please do email me on [email here] or give me a call on [phone number here].

I don’t know about you, but this is the first time I’ve seen an apology sent out for a 15 minute downtime which has probably not even been noticed by the majority of the affiliates in the program. All of this spells out one very important word — integrity. Kudos to 7thingsmedia for doing it right! This certainly gives affiliates hope that there are affiliate managers out there who know how to handle things right.

Important Disclaimer: None of the above news coverage were in any way “sponsored” by anyone. They reflect my sole personal opinion.