AffiliateBenchmarks Research Study Ends Today – Top 10 Reasons to Participate

July 16th, 2010

Our 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks research study ends promptly at 5pm EST today. At that point we will no longer accept survey submissions. If you want to participate please go now.

Reason #10 to fill out the AffiliateBenchmarks survey = The online marketing industry values your opinion. Last year thousands of people used this research data to better understand the affiliate world. Affiliate, Advertisers, consultants, etc all downloaded the report and used the information to build stronger affiliate marketing strategies. Commission Junction, Pubcon, search engine strategies, and other events even featured the research in their annual conferences. Please participate today and share your thoughts with the industry.

Reason #9 to complete the AffiliateBenchmarks research survey = Be a part of the affiliate industry’s largest research project. Last years study made affiliate marketing history when it became the largest panel based research study ever conducted with over 3,500 participants who have completed the survey. This years study is breaking our own record and already has over way more participants than last year !!! Please take a few minutes and add your thoughts to this project and be a part of affiliate marketing history.

Reason #8 to complete the AffiliateBenchmarks survey = filling out the survey only takes 5 minutes just once a year and is a way better use of your time than the following:

- 5 minutes of commercials
- 5 minutes of spam emails
- 5 minutes of pointless conversations
- 5 minutes trying to figure out what happened to your team in the world cup
- 5 minutes walking your dog or walking your kids (whichever you walk most…just please don’t put your kids on a leash)

Reason #7 to answer the 2010 affiliatebenchmarks survey = Our survey is supported by almost every major affiliate marketing network including:

- Commission Junction
- LinkShare
- Google Affiliate Network
- ClickBank
- Pepperjam
- Share A Sale

We are grateful for the support of these great networks and hope you will join the effort too by filling out our survey.

Reason #6 to participate in our AffiliateBenchmarks survey.

This survey effort is supported by great advertisers (and NETexponent clients) such as:

- Audible.com
- Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Total Gym Direct
- Nick Jr Boost
- Shockwave Games
- Automotive Concepts
- CengageBrain
- Hot Topic
- Torrid
- Shockhound
- Yola

These advertisers and more use our valuable survey data to help guide their affiliate marketing strategies. Your opinion matters and will surely help these folks be stronger affiliate marketers.

Reason #5 to participate in the 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks research survey =. Use this as a chance to reflect on your business growth. Our survey is designed to ask insightful questions about your business. Every year we get feedback from participants telling us they found it helpful to think about their business while answering these short questions. We all work hard but sometimes we forget to step back and examine our efforts in different ways. Take the survey and see what happens.

Reason #4 to complete our AffiliateBenchmarks survey = overwhelming industry support. We are proud to have started an affiliate marketing research effort that caters to affiliate publishers, advertisers, agencies, and consultants. Over the last 3 years our survey has been supported by some of the biggest affiliate companies in the industry such as:

- Revenews
- Performance Marketing Association (PMA)
- Shopping-Bargains.com
- AffiliateTip.com
- JEBCommerce
- CouponWinner
- AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com
- AffSpot
- 5StarAffiliatePrograms

and many more. We are grateful for the support of these great companies and we hope you will join us by completing the survey before it closes (today at 5pm EST).

Reason #3

Because we asked nicely?

Reason #2

The second biggest reason to complete the 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks survey = you get a free copy of the report.

We know your time is valuable. In fact we know your time is worth at least $199 and that is why we plan to give you a free copy of our research study if you complete the survey. On average it takes folks no more than 5 minutes to complete the survey…that means we think an hour of your time is worth $2,388!!!!

That’s right, folks who complete every question in the survey will be emailed a completed research report at no charge ($199 value) and folks who answer just the required questions will receive a free executive summary ($99 value).

Reason #1

The #1 reason to complete the 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks survey = no regrets.

Today is the last day to complete our survey. The link provided below will cease to work at 5pm EST tonight.

If you pass up this opportunity to answer our survey and get a free copy of the data you wont get another. Of course you can always buy a copy of the report once it is ready for sale but that will cost you $199. Why not take a few minutes and answer the survey…then put that $199 to use in better ways.

Click on the link below and complete the survey before 5pm EST tonight and you wont regret it.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/netxblog

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Research by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments

LinkShare Symposium East 2010 – A Success!

June 25th, 2010

On Tuesday I attended my first ever LinkShare Symposium, representing our clients: Nick Jr. Boost and Shockwave ! Overall, it was a great event with a perfect balance between education, networking, and fun.  Since it was my first time, I just wanted to reflect on everything I experienced, as well as provide a brief overview for those who couldn’t make it.

To kick off the event, several members of the LinkShare team (including CEO Yaz Iida) welcomed and thanked all of the attendees. They introduced us to some of the great developments that LinkShare has been working on:

  • Deep Linking Controls (For advertisers that do not allow linking to certain pages, but would like to allow deep linking on all other pages)
  • WordPress Deal Feed Plug-In (LinkShare would like to make it easier for publishers of all sizes – including bloggers – to plug & play. They’ve seen over 5,000 installations thus far!)

And…the most exciting development (in my opinion) is the ALL NEW Advertiser Dashboard! The new advertiser interface is a lot cleaner and simpler, making it easy to find everything you’re searching for:

  • New Trend Chart with Year over Year Trending Reports
  • It is now easier to enter dates when pulling a report
  • Link Section enables you to see just how well your creative is performing
  • Publishers are a lot easier to locate

After we learned about all these new developments, Sucharita Mulpuru (Vice President of Forrester Research and Symposium 2010 Keynote Speaker) talked to us about how eCommerce can succeed in every economic condition. Some key notes (ha.. no pun intended):

  • Consumers shop online because it’s convenient (#1 reason: it saves time and #2 reason: deals & coupons -> Remember this important stat, advertisers!)
  • Successful brands compete up or across! Instead of fighting over whose value/dollar menu was the best, McDonald’s challenged Starbucks by highlighting a new product: McCafe.
  • React to people power: Get your customers involved! Social web activity is a global phenomenon. EventBrite allows customers to share information about their tickets via social media.
  • Expand your IT team – new technological developments & innovation breed success.
  • Multi-Channel: Many buyers are now on more than 1 device – embrace the mobility revolution.

Next up: Panel Discussion! This year’s panel included: Siva V. Kumar (TheFind.com), Diana Gee (The North Face), Jeff Nobbs (ExtraBux), David Lonczak (Drugstore.com) and Kenneth Dayley III (crocs). This discussion was interesting because it allowed us to get perspectives from both advertisers and affiliates! It was great to hear their thoughts on these topics:

  • Conversion Rates: Some affiliates (including ExtraBux) are going to have dynamic featured ads that will change to fit the customer. It’s also important to make sure there are clear Call to Actions. Additionally, don’t include too much info! We wouldn’t want to overwhelm visitors.
  • Data Feeds: What’s missing? Unique identifiers: Sku #s, Bar Codes, Brand & Model #. Tax and Shipping information is also a plus for TheFind.com!
  • Coupons & Discounts: crocs found that product-specific coupons performed much better! Siva from TheFind pointed out that virtual discounts (e.g. Facebook Credits) are great for those advertisers who are brand sensitive and prefer not to offer coupons.
  • Mobile Commerce: TheFind also found that their peak mobile day was Black Friday due to customers comparing online deals to in-store.
  • Global Plans: Try to develop sites that are accessible to those around the world.
  • Getting Ready for Q4: Prepare ahead of time and make sure you keep your affiliates posted on your deals. Ideally, letting affiliates know when a product is out of stock would be great too (especially to help conversion rates)!

After all this great learning, it was lunch & Golden Link Award time! The Golden Link Awards were hosted by the Upright Citizens Brigade who certainly kept things fun.  I especially liked their piece on the creator of the Pop-Up Ad – “Mr. Popup.” The Golden Link Awards were really nice because they rewarded all of the innovative and successful players in the affiliate marketing space. Congrats everyone!

Next came “DealMaker,” a place for affiliates and advertisers to walk around and chat. Some had booths with great giveaways (Erica won a hat from KarmaLoop.com) and some just had great information.  This was one of the most successful parts of the Symposium because I was able to meet a lot of our clients’ awesome partners in person!

Lastly, the after party at the Biergarten at the Standard Hotel – who doesn’t love free beer & pretzels? The photobooth also made things really interesting.

This concludes my successful trip to LinkShare Symposium. I learned a lot, and got to connect with all kinds of people – merchants, agencies and affiliates alike! Thanks everyone for this great experience.

Valerie Russo

Media Coordinator – Affiliate

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Events, Media Partnerships, Meet Us, Online Marketing, Research by Erin M. | | 0 Comments

AffiliateBenchmarks Survey 2010 Launches

June 8th, 2010

The NETexponent and AffiliateBenchmarks teams are so excited to announce the official launch of the AffiliateBenchmarks Survey 2010!

Last year, 3500 experts and insiders took part in the largest research effort this industry has ever seen. We plan on making this year even bigger!

Whats new for the 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks Study?

  • Our affiliate/publisher study is now simpler. We removed some questions and streamlined others to ease the burden on busy affiliates/publishers.
  • We added a short survey for advertisers/merchants to collect some information on their challenges and views of affiliate marketing.
  • We added a short survey for agencies/OPMs/consultants to collect information on their view of the industry.
  • We have even more partners who have agreed to distribute the survey and ensure that 2010 will be the largest affiliate research study ever produced. (a title currently held by our 2009 report)
  • We are prepared to provide even more data analysis when we issue the 2010 report.

Special note: Participant who answers every question (not just the required ones) will receive a free copy of the the full survey results. Participants who answer all of the required questions will receive a copy of the Executive summary.

The survey is open from now until 5pm EST on July 16, 2010. Go now! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/netxblog

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Research by Lindsey E. | | 0 Comments

VigLink Interview Regarding Affiliate Tax

April 28th, 2010

In  a recent blog post called “Affiliate Tax – Can You Hide?” I asked the question if affiliates could maintain relationships with advertisers through third party systems like VigLink even though some advertisers would like to sever their relationship with certain affiliates who reside in states that have enacted the affiliate tax. In that article I pointed to a blog post on VigLink’s website that literally said they would help affiliates keep working with advertisers who deactivated them due to affiliate tax issues if those affiliates used the VigLink platform. The original blog post has been removed by VigLink after discussions with their advertisers/merchants, affiliate networks, and attorneys. The new blog post corrects their stance on this issue. I am flattered that readers of our blog felt compelled to join NETexponent and echo our concerns. In addition, I give a lot of credit to the folks at VigLink for admitting their mistake and moving quickly to correct their stance based on the feedback of their clients, partners, and advisors. Our industry moves quickly and we all find ourselves in positions where we need to take a step backwards once and a while to reassess our positions.

My parents always taught me to try and understand both sides of a discussion before forming an opinion (that has helped me numerous times in building,NETexponent, a client service focused agency). In order to do that I reached out to VigLink to hear their thoughts.

VigLink CEO Oliver Roup quickly jumped on a call to explain his perspective on this important issue. He admitted that they were a bit aggressive in their prior stance on this issue and were glad it was brought to their attention so they could amend their position. Oliver assured me that they do not want to do anything that would go against the wishes of the merchants they work with. He assures me that if a merchant wants to stop working with an affiliate in a certain state that VigLink will remove those affiliates. At the time of our talk (last week) they had not collected information on the states where affiliates reside but planned to gather that info. (critical info if they plan to help advertisers avoid tax nexus. VigLink is not going to proactively seek out information about advertisers who remove affiliates in certain states but if an advertiser does contact them and ask them to remove affiliates in certain states they will comply.

So if you are an advertiser working with VigLink and you have removed affiliates due to tax nexus concerns you should definitely reach out to them today and make sure they comply with your policy.

Okay, so it looks like the folks at VigLinks have moved to help protect their merchants. (Kudos*) What about the similar companies like SkimLinks and other CPA ad networks out there?

* yes, I do love my old time sayings

Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 3 Comments

Earth Day Special Report

April 22nd, 2010

As the 40th anniversary of Earth Day comes to a close, we here at NETexponent would like to formally announce our commitment to being a green company. We’re proud of  the easy and effective ways in which we already walk the walk:

  • Omitting use of small water bottles and water cooler bottles by installing a filtered water dispenser
  • We recycle paper, plastic, cans,  ink cartridges, batteries and old computer parts
  • Purchasing low energy PC’s
  • Use digital copies of documents whenever possible
  • Everyone uses coffee mugs for beverages instead of disposable cups
  • Support green clients like Audible and Cengagebrain
  • Officewide use of Compact Florescent Lights
  • NETexponent offers TransitChek as a benefit to support use of public transportation. No one drives to work!

And in 2010, we’re taking it a step further by

  1. Remembering to keep the windows closed when running the air conditioner
  2. Turning off the printed delivery confirmation on fax machines
  3. Being more conscious of proper recycling separation

Search Coordinator, Alex L., repurposes his coffee mug!

Because we are always looking for ways to raise the bar, here’s a sampling of personal Earth Day pledges from NETexponent team members!

“My resolution is to bring lunch every day so I don’t have to throw away to-go containers and wrappers.  And to get a plant for my desk!” – Erin

“Instead of throwing out my personal trash can each day, I am going to utilize the kitchen trash can instead!” – Erica

“My Earth Day resolution is to use less napkins!” - Valerie

“Mine is to do the recycling thing at home as well especially saving napkins and categorizing trash,  it is more difficult to be self-disciplined at home than in the office!” - Wei

We’d love to hear how you and your company contributes to keeping a healthy Mother Earth. Leave us a comment!

Lindsey from the Marketing team puts paper products their place.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Lindsey E. | | 0 Comments

Our Affiliate Partners Make Parenting Magazine’s “Best” List

April 22nd, 2010

At a time when everyone seems to be looking for a great deal, websites  spring up daily competing to offer the best ones to the eager online community. In particular, families need to conserve their money and find the best deals they can for purchases. Many websites have emerged to help fill this need over the years and we have done our best to establish strong relationships with leaders in this category. We’re excited to note that quite a few of the affiliates we work with are listed among Parenting Magazine’s Best Coupon Sites For Moms, hitting home runs with one of the most consistently coveted demographics in advertising history.

Congrats to all that made the list from your friends here at NETexponent. To see the full list check out Parenting.com.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Awards and Honors, Online Marketing by Lindsey E. | | 0 Comments

Promoted Tweets: And Now A Word From Your Sponsor

April 14th, 2010

In an effort to “optimize value before profit,” co-founder Biz Stone has explained, Twitter has intentionally kept the traditional web advertising model at arm’s length. But yesterday the micro blog FINALLY announced its new ad platform: Promoted Tweets. As we await the release of additional details scheduled for later this week, we do know that user searches will trigger these ads to appear at the top of that users timeline as a traditional Tweet. Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America will be among the first to launch campaigns.

Interestingly, the lives of these Sponsored Tweets are reliant on user engagement in a whole new way. “If users don’t respond …by re-tweeting, favoriting, or replying… [the ads] will be pulled from the search results,” PC World reports, adding that “only one promoted tweet will be displayed per search results page.” This almost puts one in the mind of how Google rewards PPC and organic search results with PageRank and Quality Score based on relevancy and activity. Biz Stone insists that these Promoted Tweets should be useful to users, not burdensome and disruptive and some have noted that the limited screen real estate could make for very expensive ads.

Comparisons to Twitters new platform have been to that of radio ads: you’re “listening” to the conversations of your friends (and pundits you may follow) and BOOM! Virgin America chimes in with their two cents. Then more chatter from friends and pundits, seemingly uninterrupted. The difference here is that, unlike radio ads, Twitter ads are more present (read, persistent) and will contain links – way more effective than radio ads. It’s true that these ads will be easy to ignore but in considering Twitters unprecedented engagement and interactivity users will end up reading them because they are so ingrained in the experience. Promoted Tweets may even be confused with “regular” tweets as “not a single ‘ad’ in our Promoted Tweets platform isn’t already an organic part of Twitter,” says Stone. “This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising.” Promoted Tweets will also appear organically in the timelines of those who already follow a particular brand. See below for our first look at a Promoted Tweet!

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media by Lindsey E. | | 0 Comments

Affiliate Tax – Can You Hide?

April 6th, 2010

Ever since the “affiliate tax” issue appeared I have been wondering how each state will determine nexus. I mean, where do you draw the line? We already know that affiliates clearly constitue nexus because they are viewed as sales commissioned partners of an advertiser. If an affiliate is based in a state that has passed the affiliate tax law then advertisers working with that affiliate must collect sales tax. I get that. This post is not here to debate the pros/cons of the affiliate tax. I am trying to determine where you draw the line.

Lets take CPA ad networks for example. They pay their publishers (or affiliates) a bounty or revenue share for sales they generate to advertiser websites. Yet nobody mentions CPA ad network publishers when they discuss this tax.

What about Google? They now act as an affiliate for many advertisers who run their affiliate program

Google Product Ad example

through the Google Affiliate Network. Google places product ads in search results and gets paid a bounty or revenue share for those sales. Google has offices in NY and many other cities so should working with Google constitute nexus for advertisers?

How about companies like Skimlinks and VigLink? They both work as a master affiliate and allow other affiliates to promote advertisers through their links. The advertiser pays the network like Commission Junction or LinkShare. The network pays VigLink and Skimlinks. They in turn pay affiliates. Some of those affiliates may be in states who have passed the affiliate tax. What happens then? Clearly companies like these think there is no danger to the advertiser. In fact, Vig Link is even promoting the fact that they will shield affiliates who reside in states who have an affiliate tax. Many advertisers are choosing to sever relationships with affiliates in states that have affiliate tax because they do not want to collect sales tax in those states. VigLink negates that decision by advertisers because it works with many affiliates who are in states that have an affiliate tax…yet an advertiser may never know. Could this hurt the advertiser? I dont mean to pick on VigLink but they are the only site I have found to clearly advertise this practice as a benefit of working with them.

Where do you draw the line? What about CPC deals, arent they performance based?

Our agency has been monitoring this situation diligently and we continue to advise our clients to the best of our ability. However, many questions remain unanswered.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments

Managing Director of affilinet UK Preaches a Holistic Approach

February 11th, 2010

Since NETexponent began managing both search and affiliate programs, we have always preached a holistic approach to marketing programs.  Much to our surprise, this appeared to be a novel idea in the industry. Of course, this general lack of industry oversight has benefited NETexponent as other players have taken time to wrap their strategies around a truly integrated strategy.  Sure it sounds simple, but truly integrating all channels requires strong communication skills and attentive managers at each channel who understand the overall strategy. Ultimately, the difficult coordination pays off with a stronger brand, higher sales and increased efficiency.

Well, it appears the word is out! Peter Rowe, the Managing Director of affilinet UK, wrote an article for Retail Digital urging Marketing executives to invest in innovation in the face of the recession.  His article exhorts the reader to view this recession as a time to pull ahead through innovative strategies and increased investment.  In this case, he was describing a “new” perspective of affiliate marketing in which all online channels are viewed as complementary to form one fluid strategy.

Specifically, Mr. Rowe talked about transparency, which has been key to NETexponent’s holistic strategy.  While advertisers must coordinate campaigns across multiple channels and media, it is equally important for this to be clearly communicated with plenty of advanced notice to affiliates.  This way, affiliates’ own promotional, SEM and SEO efforts can work with the advertiser’s and boost sales higher than either channel would be able to independently. But equally important is discretionary discounting across all channels. Discounting widely and without tight restriction diminishes brand value; therefore, only select affiliates should be targeted to offer impressive discounts that will boost sales in the short run and still preserve the brand in the long term.

To read Peter Rowe’s article in its entirety, please visit Retail Digital.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts

February 10th, 2010

Recently, the leading experts in the Internet Marketing field, “the Gang of 88″, collaborated on an in-depth guide to internet marketing.  This guide will provide three minute lessons on Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, SEO, SEM, etc…essentially, all areas of the online marketing landscape.  Of these contributions, editors Shawn Collins and Missy Ward included an article Peter Figueredo wrote giving his expert reflections on “Ad Networks, Vertical Ad Networks, and Affiliate Networks”.

This article touched on the various networks available to publishers, both novice and veteran, and why these opportunities should not be considered overwhelming.  Instead, publishers need to understand how to sift through the clutter and decide which type of network (or combination thereof) is most suitable for their affiliate site. Additionally, advertisers will begin to understand how to build strategies to effectively utilize an optimal mix of these marketing channels.

All of these three minute lessons are derived from insights only years of experience in a dynamic industry can produce.  The other expert contributions are broken down into easy to absorb bites that are suitable for readers of any experience level.  Ultimately, these insider tips are gems that have been mined from countless industry triumphs and missteps; most specifically, these contributors will save the readers the time it took them to reach this level of understanding  on the most vital practices of online marketing.

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts

Follow Peter Figueredo on Twitter- @Figueredo.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments

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