Sam Harrelson

Over the last few weeks I’ve had more and more people ask me for five or six tips to help them get their program out of the online performance marketing doldrums.

This is especially critical advice during the Holiday Season when more consumers (not just individuals, but people actually looking to consume) are online and actively seeking out deals, offers and services.

You can let this potential traffic (and conversion) spike slip by, or go on the offensive and tweak your online marketing program. It’s really not hard… it just takes dedication and a good staff.

So here are is my 12 Step Program to create a better online marketing program or presence culled from my years of experience online as a network rep, publisher, advertiser, software marketer, CPA Network COO and SVP and email marketer…

1. Try all the services you can and crunch the numbers right away. Give MyAffiliateProgram9 a look. There’s some interesting things going on in the program that could transform how and why you use data either as an affiliate or a publisher or a network. Investigate co-registrations. Consider other types of placements you might not have yesterday.

2. Along those lines, investigate CPA Networks (but don’t replace CJ or Linkshare with them if you’re a publisher or affiliate… more on that later). Call Azoogle, Hydra, AdDrive, Rextopia, CPAEmpire, RocketProfits or FiliNet and speak to a rep who handles your side of business depending on your status as a publisher, advertiser or affiliate. These networks have people dedicated to your particular side of the business. I know… I used to be one and loved it when potential advertisers or publishers called me up.

3. Call CJ, Linkshare, Kowabunga and ShareASale and ask them what they can do for you. Talk to a human at the companies and don’t rely on word of mouth or industry reputation.

4. Blog and send trackbacks to competitors, news blogs like this and people you want to reach (many networks and publishers have their own blogs… whether business or personal). People are much more likely to read your content and take the time to hear you if you’ve taken the time to send them a trackback.

5. Read blogs. Read lots of them from all different viewpoints. Don’t know where to start? Get the Google Reader and start subscribing. Don’t have the time to find quality material? Email me and I’ll send over my OPML file, which is a file of all my subscriptions at the moment that you can upload into your reader. That has taken a lot of time/energy/love to create and maintain. You’re welcome.

6. Optimize your page for organic search engine growth. Also optimize your conversion page if you have one.

7. Interact with existing, potential and even non-potential consumers/customers/individuals. How? Blog, answer the phone, open a forum, check Google Groups for your company’s name, watch the forums of the industry/area you are serving.

8. Focus on organic growth of your program. SEO is wonderful and great, but it has a glass ceiling. Don’t blow your budget as an advertiser, network or publisher on keywords (unless you are purely a search marketer, which is short-sighted in this market). Realize the power and effective ROI that organic growth distribution can supply to your site.

9. Research potential affiliates, publishers, networks or partners that you think you could (or could not) do business with in the near future. Make a file and keep that data. It’s invaluable to you. Read that file before bed every night and allow your brain to work its wonders as you sleep. You just might stumble upon a new platform, campaign, metric, keyword, incentive or recruitment tool that could make all the difference. This has worked more than a dozen times for me, and now I have an impressive file cabinet filled with priceless data on everyone I’ve done business with and hope to work with one day. In case of a fire, I’m running for that cabinet.

10. Attend conferences. Affiliate Summit is in Vegas this January. Don’t miss it. Not interested in affiliate marketing? It doesn’t matter… this conference has outgrown its namesake and is helping to create a new brand for partner/performance/affiliate/traffic marketing.

11. If you’re a network or work with publishers and affiliates, give your account representatives a face and a name. The most successful programs in the industry have personalities that have grown out of the collective personalities of the account reps. These people are not easily replaceable. They are your generals, your eyes and your ears. Treat them like royalty because they can make or break your program depending on their enthusiasm or their apathy. If you’re a publisher or affiliate, get to know the people on the phone. Make business personal. If you think business is not personal, you’re a fool.

12. Know Thy Partners. Research, research, research. Listen to account reps, have an eye on the traffic flow and don’t allow people with less-then-ethical standards to bring your program down. In online marketing, you only get one strike and then you’re out.

Agree? Disagree? Anything you’d add? Comment!

If you’d like to see something covered or participate in the conversation here without commenting, there are two simple options.

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Most of you are already using one of these two services in your daily browsing, so if you see something interesting, don’t hesitate to tag “costpernews” and I’ll take notice.

I’ll feature the top taggers in a special article/interview/podcast/video post every week or month depending on their preference.

If you’re not following Shmuel Tennenhaus throughout the interwebs, you’re missing some interesting reads and insight. There are three seperate links in that last sentence, and as you know I am not a fan of links.

The fact that I’ve put three links into one sentence should alert you to the potency of the content that Shmuly is producing.

Hell, he’s even been credited with the destruction of a TV show.

For another example to learn from the Shmule…how should bloggers position themselves for the the longtail of coupon searchers and consumers looking for a deal? Shmuly has an answer…

You see, I just checked by blog stats for the day. And of course, it was another pitiful day of traffic. However, there was a glaring glare facing me in the face.

The blog got a bunch of traffic from people googling for a “j crew coupon code“.

Makes sense. After all, today was Cyber Monday. Many moons ago, I wrote a post titled “yahoo suggests jcrew coupon code“. As a result, if you make a search for “jcrew coupon code“, my blog is on the first page of results. (If that achievement alone does not make me sexy, I give up.)

Problem is…that specific post does not contain any coupon code. So, essentially, people are coming here for nothing; cause you and I both not, there aint nothing to read in this joint. (To defend myself just a bit; that blog post does inform people how to find current coupons…)

Follow along or get left behind in the path of content providers who are taking the road less traveled in a yellow wood and realizing that it makes all the difference. Learn from these early trailblazers and make sure that you are not being left behind in the content consolidation of Web3.0.

Grab the longtail by the horns… it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

ValueClick has launched valueclickvideo.com in preparation for their soon to launch in-stream video advertising network.

On the site is a preview of their in-stream video technology (with footage from a recent adtech nonetheless) meant to show the quality and texture of what they can deliver. Underneath the video is an option for “In-banner video” as well as “In-stream video.” The in-banner video seems to be powered or associated with Eyeblaster.

Here are the pro’s for publishers and advertisers listed on the site:

Publishers

• High revenue with premium CPM rates
• Easy to implement – integrated into our existing publisher platform
• Insert video, rich media or graphical ads into existing pre-roll/post-roll inventory
• Quality creative and effective campaigns
• Compatible with most popular video formats

Advertisers

• Two video products: in-stream (pre-roll/post-roll) and in-banner
• Leverage extensive reach and ad network management expertise
• Accomplish brand and direct response objectives
• Improve ROI with higher response rates
• Behavioral targeting and optimization capabilities
• Complete transparency

How will this integrate with CJ?

What will Linkshare do?

How will this impact online and affiliate/partnership/referral marketing?

Will Google make a play with Google Video?

Shoutwire, a Digg competitor, won’t let you submit a story that includes the keyword “Digg.” A fan of the Shoutwire service sent me an email earlier tonight with the tip to try and submit the previous’ post here entitled “Pay Per Digg” to the service.

This is the result (try it for yourself if you’d like)…

Netscape, on the other hand, does not restrict the “digg” keyword…

And neither does Reddit…

Interesting move by Shoutwire, but if the site is going to play catch up to Digg and build a community of loyal users, they have to let their users be the judge of the merits of their own keywords.

I say it is interesting, because at this very moment the top three stories on Shoutwire are:

1. Fox News’ Bullsh*t Has Hit The Fan
2. Was Jesus an Asshole?
3. 9 Reasons Why I Love Sluts

Glad to see that for Shoutwire “Digg” crosses the line but “Bullshit,” “Asshole” (particularly in reference to a figure over 2 billion people consider divine), and “Sluts” are acceptable keywords.

First there was PayPerPost. Then ReviewMe.

Just this morning Jim Kukral blogged on ReveNews about Agloco, which “pays you to surf.”

Now, we have Pay Per Digg.

Where Digg Submitters Pay for Digg Users to Promote their Stories.
And, Where Digg Users Make Easy Money.

Users are paid $0.50 for every 3 stories they digg. You can also submit a story to be amped by paying $20 plus $1 per desired digg. The value of a digg has certainly fallen off over the past year, so the market forces alone should be able to clean up this type of less-than-ethical gaming.

Considering market forces as a primary reason for this type of scheme, it is logical to see where the monetary drive to experiment with valuation platforms such as this come from. However, those same economic forces which put value on actions such as diggs also places the operator of these sites in a continual struggle to keep up with the micro-economic structures of supply and demand in a commodity style fluid market. That’s too much for most to accomplish, so I see the market driving this out of business quickly. However, the gaming of Digg will, of course, continue.

These same market forces extend to Agloco, ReviewMe, PayPerPost and the host of other new platforms allowing users to assign a certain value to actions they were already committing (surfing, blogging, clicking). In order to keep up with the market valuations of the actions needed for payout, and values of intangibles such as attention, user experience, ethics, these platforms must have a firm hold on a good deal of data. I suspect most do not and beyond the ethical implications of getting paid to post or surf or digg, the market will drive them into an escalating situation of irrelevance to the individual user.

See why we need to kill links to help affiliate marketing survive as a brand?

It’s Black Friday here in the US and countless Americans are driving from store to store looking for deals and the season’s newest gadgets and toys.

In honor of the shopping season, over the next few weeks I’m going to be pointing out a series of acquisitions made by players in our space and asking your opinion on whether these where a bargain or a dud.

Our first buy follows the theme of shopping but goes all the way back to 2004: ValueClick’s acquisition of PriceRunner. ValueClick made the purchase for $29 million during a buying spree which had included three other major buys within the previous year Search123 (May ’03); Commission Junction (Dec. ’03); Hi-Speed Media (Dec. ’03). PriceRunner, a shopping comparison provider, already had a large presence in Sweden and Germany and has since expanded into the larger European market as a whole.

Chairman and chief executive officer of ValueClick, James Zarley said about the acquisition in 2004:

“We have been looking to add comparison shopping services as part of our strategic growth plan, and in PriceRunner we have found an established partner that will help us take our first step in this rapidly-growing and profitable area of performance-based online marketing.”

In July 05, ValueClick also launched PriceRunner in the US. In October of this year, MSN announced it would use PriceRunner as the engine behind it’s European MSN Shopping service.

Did ValueClick make the right move by adding this B2C portal to its now expansive B2B offerings (CJ, FastClick, HiSpeed, Mediaplex, Search123, E-Babylon)? Has ValueClick been successful at leveraging this shopping portal in a highly competitive sector? Has PriceRunner allowed ValueClick to expand into the blooming European marketi? Is ValueClick integrating PriceRunner’s B2C consumer network with its other services such as CJ?

Great Bargain or Buyer’s Regret?

Following up on Wednesday’s post, here’s my podcast with a little more depth into my opinion of how and why we should move beyond links in affiliate marketing.
Agree? Disagree? Contribute too the conversation.

Homework is due Tuesday (see previous post)!

http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=Pcecb7099049d634f584717933e8d1ca4Yl9wRVREYmN3&buffer=5&shape=6&fc=FFFFFF&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&brand=1&player=bp14

dailystatsheet2.mp3

Are links, as we know them in online and affiliate marketing, done for?

In order to answer this question, I’ve narrowed the discussion down to three areas: Leverage, Authority and Long Term Encouragements. Certainly, there are other areas and in the editing process of this post I cut a few of these out and merged them with the three categories above.

However, as online marketing continues to mature, we have to confront this question about the long term establishment of links as the primary tool for connecting advertiser to publisher or merchant to affiliate or network to partner because links, by their nature, do not offer enough flexibility and data gathering for developing trends (RSS, social web adoption, social networking, more intelligent web users, uses of the internet outside of World Wide Web).

Should you ditch the entire concept of linking in order to be progressive? No.

Am I advocating the complete replacement of links with something that can accommodate for attention data? No.

However, online (especially the affiliate) marketing should realize the importance of the need to look beyond the link.

So, here’s your Holiday Homework:

Think about and respond to the notion that links are dead, especially in relevance to affiliate marketing. I’d like to prescribe the areas of Leverage, Authority and Long Term Encouragement as the fields of discussion, but if your point is valid you can certainly travel outside those lines to make your point.

Here are some connections you should consider when thinking about the issue:

-Technorati, Techmeme

-Like.com

-Monetization

-Jellyfish.com

-AdSense Gaming

-Page Rank Problems (or Alexa)

-Participation from Readers/Audience

-Types of Traffic Delivered (Sustained or “Digg Effect” waves)

-Relevancy for Consumers and Individuals

-Value of “Attention Data”

Leave your comments for quick thoughts, or you can submit a longer piece similar to last week’s homework submissions on CPA Networks and Affiliate Networks. I’ll be posting some of your results next Tuesday after the Holiday and include a link to your blog or company. You can email those in, or if you prefer you can send in a voicemail (828.338.2129) on my Skype line which I’ll publish as a part of the post. The deadline is 3pm Friday Tuesday Nov 28 (thanks, Jonathan).

I suspect most of you will initially call me an idiot (I’m close) for questioning the present and future leverage and authority of links. However, put some thought into it, be creative and think of how using other means to reach users can enhance your program/network/platform/offer.

Every day, very early in the morning, I’m going to be recording a 3-4 minute episode of Cost Per News Daily Stat Sheet in partnership with the great folks at BlogTalkRadio.

This is the first episode and very experimental, so go easy, but do let me know what you think and what recommendations you have. I’m doing this day-to-day experiment in the spirit of a Coltrane concert… it’s jazz and heavy with flaws, highlights and brief moments of inspiration.

Feel free to leave a voicemail on the number below and I’ll play it during the show.

Daily Stat Sheet Show Notes (Episode One, 22 Nov 2006)

-Thanks for listening – very beta
-Shmuly’s (General Zod) Video on Digg and Netscape
-CPA Network Transparency? More Than Meets the Eye
-Response to Shawn Collins(Affiliate Summit), Deanna Key (Rextopia) Brian Littleton (ShareASale)
-Leave a VoiceMail for Tomorrow’s Show (828.338.2129)

As I said, there will be a new episode posted every morning, so grab the feed and let me know your thoughts. Yes, I know there is a botch at the very beginning, but I wanted to preserve the live, dynamic and jazz nature of the show.

Thanks for listening!

CPN Daily Stat Sheet Page

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/feeds/costpernews