Tag : branding

Recently, there was a merchant who was outed on Abestweb for trying to entice affiliates into providing a non-affiliate link back to the merchant site in exchange for a 1/2 percent commission bonus. This practice was summarily criticized by affiliates, and the merchant was forced to withdraw the offer, make several apologies and replace the consultant responsible for the idea. I think there were basically three camps of reasoning’s behind the negative acceptance of this idea. 1) People were slighted at only being offered 0.5% commission increase for this valuable rank benefiting link back. 2) People felt that this idea was unethical Read More…

If you’re involved in marketing, then you know the latest trend receiving much discussion involves conversation marketing and word of mouth marketing. Affiliate marketing never seems to get a lot of respect from other marketing designations, but I believe affiliate marketing can fit perfectly within the new conversation paradigm. Conversation / word of mouth marketing is getting a lot of attention because it’s effective. The world is interactive, and large corporations must adjust. It’s almost as if we’re taking a step back, to the neighborhood business, where you could  go right up to a store owner and manager, and discuss any issue. Now Read More…

Within tech circles, there is a huge amount of buzz swirling around the Google OpenSocial initiative. Google has partnered up with Myspace, Hi5, LinkedIn, Salesforce, Oracle, Bebo, Ning and a host of others (however not Facebook yet) in support of an open API for social web mini-applications. What the OpenSocial initiative is really about is providing a common API, or common language for application developers to write mini-applications for the various OpenSocial participants. What are the advantages or uses of applications? Using mini-applications/apps/widgets, companies / affiliates can now efficiently extend their website experience to existing communities on popular social networks. What are social Read More…

One thing I get asked frequently by new clients is, “Will our program be as big as Brand XYZ?”. One issue they face right away is that affiliates prefer big brands to no brands, they convert better just for starters. Nicky Senyard from Share Results put together this very good article on the topic of considering brand awareness when selecting affiliate programs; There are several things that go into selecting a merchant affiliate program, such as creative selection, affiliate support and reporting capacity. Brand strength is another important factor to consider. As much as I’d like to say that every new brand stands a Read More…