No matter what the communication piece (a 140-character-long tweet or a newsletter), or the context (affiliate-oriented, customer- or client-focused, etc), it will benefit from the following 3 Ps. In fact, I believe these 3 elements to be integral components of any effective communication. Let me illustrate each by looking at […]
The 3 P's of Effective Communication Read More »
Over a year ago — soon after starting to play with Twitter — I recorded a video on using Twitter as an affiliate program support tool. Are you using it as one? Since it’s Friday again, I have decided to put together a list of Twitter accounts maintained by 20
Affiliate Programs on Twitter. You Tweeting to Affiliates Yet? Read More »
Those who follow my blog, magazine articles, and conference presentations know how fascinated I am with the subject of motivation, especially when it comes to effective motivation of such a unique “workforce” as affiliates. Needless to say why a post published on Econsultancy.com yesterday has immediately drawn my attention —
Set Achievable Goals and Look Beyond Extrinsic Rewards Read More »
Reversals happen. They happen to merchants, and by extension, they hit affiliates too. Of course, affiliates love programs with “no reversals” policies, but if you, as a merchant, aren’t ready to offer one, I strongly encourage you to at least stick to the following 3 best practices: 1) Locking Periods
Best Practices for Affiliate Commission Reversals Read More »
Almost immediately after posting my 9 affiliate fraud prevention tips on Econsultancy I have received the following question from a merchant: If we do detect a fraudulent affiliate, do you think it’s standard/best practice to remove him or her from the program without paying out the commissions they’ve “earned”? “Earned”?
How to Deal with Fraudulent Affiliates Read More »
A friend and fellow affiliate marketer, Mark Welch, writes that “the single most important source of successful affiliates is a direct invitation from the program manager to the site owner or advertising manager” (source: Affiliate Recruitment Strategies and Practices post). I fully concur with Mark here. Interestingly enough, out of
3 Types of Direct Contact for Affiliate Recruitment Read More »
A merchant, who is launching an affiliate program, has emailed me the following question: How effective would very well produced videos be as creatives? We were thinking of possibly having some videos made and wanted to know how well these tend to pull in traffic and sales vs banners and
Effectiveness of Online Video: CTR, Conversion & Other Data Read More »
In the beginning of this year, while replying to a completely different question, I wrote: The responsibility for conversion of affiliate-referred traffic is always a shared one: (i) affiliates should work on making it a targeted traffic, while (ii) merchants should ensure that their own websites actually convert. I have
How Conversion Optimization Increased Performance by Over 50% Read More »
Having analyzed how affiliates see links on 5 affiliate networks — Commission Junction, LinkShare, ShareASale, Google Affiliate Network, and AvantLink — I have noticed that 2 of these 5 (CJ and AvantLink) offer data on link performance. Commission Junction shows link’s 3-months and 7-days EPC: AvantLink, in their turn, displays
Affiliate Link Performance Metrics are Misleading Read More »
About a month ago, I made a blog post on the 3 signs that tell you to decline an affiliate application. It was an international (i.e. non-US) affiliate, and an Ireland-based search and affiliate marketer, Dave Davis quickly commented: Wow, awesome seeing the “other side” of the applications. This example
Good Affiliate Application or What Affiliate Managers Want to See Read More »