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
Catch the NETexponent team at SMX in Santa Clara, California March 2nd- 4th
January 29th, 2010
Before forming a client relationship with the Search Marketing Expo, we at NETexponent had been attendees of the leading search conference for years. This convention, produced by Third Door Media, always attracts highly distinguished speakers, and SMX West-Santa Clara will not disappoint. This year’s keynote speaker, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, will bring his jovial personality and exceptional brand of technology leadership to set the stage for a highly educational and network-enriching three day experience.
In addition to Mr. Ballmer, team members from Google, Yahoo!, and Youtube (amongst others) will speak on behalf of the most knowledgeable leaders in the industry. Fear not, however, sessions are clearly labeled and expertly tailored to fit any experience level so that all visitors leave feeling educated and inspired, not bored or overwhelmed.
The NETexponent team has always found that SMX offers sessions to match any interest and an exhibition hall to generate quality leads- not just visitors looking for free stuff (although you won’t leave empty handed). Meet us at the preshow meet-and-greet or during one of the more structured networking events.
All in all, we would love to catch up with you there, so take advantage of the early bird pricing to save up to $350. To get more conference details and information about signing up for an attendance pass, visit http://tiny.cc/Meet_NETex_at_SMX.
And if you are as passionate about SMX as we are, click here to join the affiliate program.
See you in Santa Clara!
Posted in Meet Us, NETexponent Clients, Search Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Best Kept Secrets of Affiliate Marketing Success
January 16th, 2010
I recently wrote an article for iMediaConnection and I thought I would share some of the insights with our blog readers.
Article Highlights:
- Affiliate marketers consistently realize positive returns on any investment they make in their marketing efforts
- Affiliate networks play a large role in helping affiliates learn about and evaluate new opportunities and programs
- By tapping into industry blog postings and events, affiliates can realistically expect to increase their revenue
Feel free to read the full article at iMediaConnection.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Meet Us by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Affiliate Summit West Here We Come
January 16th, 2010
The NETexponent crew is off to Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West. In fact I am typing this from my Virgin Atlantic flight (gotta love wifi on planes).
Are you going to be at Affiliate Summit West? Want to connect with our team? Here is how you find us.
1. Visit us at the Total Gym Direct meet market table. Our staff will be representing one of our great affiliate marketing clients, TotalGymDirect.com, and would love to see you.
2. Stop by the PMA members meeting.
Or just wander around and you are sure to see one of our friendly crew.
Who will be there?
Sal Conca, Erica Myones, Valerie Russo, Noelle Huter, Chris Kramer, and Me (Peter Figueredo)
see you in Vegas!
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Events, Meet Us by Peter Figueredo | | 1 Comments
A Year in Review
January 6th, 2010
We’re proud to say that 2009 was an exceptional year for NETexponent. We grew as a team and also in our list of clients. Not to mention, NETexponent was recognized with a few awards and several write-ups on notable industry blogs and online forums. This year, we even expanded the list of services that we offer in order to better serve the needs of our new clients.
New Clients
To start, we’ve signed quite a few new clients this year, and some of these relationships grew even further after their initial inception. Early this year, we began working with Total Gym Direct by managing their relatively mature affiliate program. After several successful months, we extended our partnership into managing their search engine marketing efforts, as well.
Shortly after beginning our relationship with Total Gym Direct, we began working with Pingo, a pre-paid calling card service of iBasis, which is a leading carrier of international and long distance phone calls. With this new partnership, NETexponent was able to improve Pingo’s SEM program and enhance their online sales presence. Also early in 2009, we began managing SMX’s affiliate program; having attended the bi-annual search conference in the past, our team had a comfortable understanding of the events and the improvements we could make to the program.
In the fall, we greatly increased the size and diversity of our list of clients, and subsequently our team grew as well! Simultaneously, our affiliate program management grew to include Hot Topic and its subsidiaries Torrid and Shockhound. NETexponent took on managing Automotive Concepts’ (an online auto parts retailer) and Yola’s (website building tools) affiliate programs, too.
SEO Service
Recently, after bringing an industry executive onto our team, we launched our SEO services. These are quickly gaining prominence in our portfolio of search marketing services alongside our long-established paid search programs. We are implementing these services for one of our newest clients, American Listed, a free online classified listings website.
New team members
As mentioned, with the growth of our client roster, we have been excited to expand our team with a number of new positions filled by professionals with impressive, diverse backgrounds. We welcomed the following individuals to the team during 2009:
Wei Zhang- IT Analyst Valerie Russo – Affiliate Media Coordinator
Alex Watson- Marketing Coordinator
Estefanie Duque- Office Manager Nir Shemesh- Senior Search Media Manager Lindsey Murphy- Search Media Coordinator
Noelle Huter- Affiliate Media Manager Julianne Bohl- Search Media Manager Jessica Baier- Account Coordinator
Under the tutelage of our experienced staff, these folks hit the ground running and have become integral parts of our award-winning team.
Awards
Topseos publishes monthly rankings of the top companies in various online marketing fields. In October, topseos ranked NETexponent the 5th best Affiliate Marketing Agency, and we have since stayed in the top five. To see the most recently published list, visit topseos.
In early September, NETexponent was featured on Inc. Magazine’s 500│5000 list of the 5000 fastest growing independent companies. We are extremely proud of our fast-paced growth and for the recognition by Inc. Magazine. Because our revenue is primarily performance-based, we issued a press release heralding this acknowledgment as a recognition of our clients’ success over the past four years.
Speaking engagements
This year, many NETexponent team members demonstrated our industry expertise by speaking at a number of leading conferences in search and affiliate marketing.
First, at the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Exposition, Peter Figueredo joined a panel of industry experts for a session called ‘Dealing With Affiliates: A Roadmap to Success.’ Here, Peter shared with the audience the ‘Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ of affiliate marketing. He described some of the ways affiliate marketing can be successfully married with search engine marketing practices for a synergistic effect on sales for the client. However, Peter also outlined some of the negative ways that affiliate marketers can abuse SEM and create added competition for advertiser’s search campaigns.
In August, Senior Affiliate Media Manager Sal Conca spoke at Affiliate Summit East during a session discussing affiliate websites’ dynamic shopping features. This panel covered all subjects including website creative, optimization, merchant relationships and analytics/reporting.
At Commission Junction University (CJU), during the “Affiliate Marketing: The Whole Truth” workshop, Peter presented some results from the AffiliateBenchmarks report. These teaser facts gave a broad overview of some of the recently analyzed data points to spark interest in the report that was due to be completed and released shortly after.
On November 10th, at PubCon Las Vegas, Chris Kramer presented data from the newly completed 2009 AffiliateBenchmarks report. This data supported the theme of the session which addressed the varying quality of available market research. Chris cited research applicable to both search and affiliate marketing, and the whole event was promoted in a press release sent out a week before the session.
2009 AffiliateBenchmarks Report
In November, we began a hard release process of the 2009 AffiliateBenchmarks report, following a soft release period in which we sent out the completed report to everyone who filled out the survey in its entirety back in July. Each wave of promotion garnered attention from industry publications and leaders, which we expedited by working with an external agency to assist in the promotion.
In the end, the report and slices of its data were featured on EasyAffiliateMarketing.biz, TJantunen.com, the Performance Marketing Alliance, Website Magazine, digiday: DAILY, Internet Vibes, Visibility Magazine, Biz Report, Marketing Charts, Marketing Vox, Market Scan, MediaTrust. These forums, organizations and blogs all took interest in the report because of its previously unheard of sample size of 3,500 respondent and the depth of its analysis.
Posted in Awards and Honors, Meet Us, NETexponent Clients, NETexponent Fun by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Happy Belated Birthday To Us
February 27th, 2009
NETexponent was started in January of 2001 by myself and Chris Kramer which means we just turned 8 years old!
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our work that we forget to stop and celebrate our wins. Today we are taking a short break and celebrating as a team with a company lunch. Nothing extravagant (gotta watch that budget) but a good chance to sit down with our NETexponent family and celebrate.
It is also a good time to thank all those who have helped us over the years. We have had the pleasure of working with amazing clients, partners, and staff. Chris and I would like to offer our deepest thanks to each and every one of you.
“Thank You All”
* I will be uploading some old photos to our Facebook Fan Page so stop by and check em out for a chuckle.
Posted in Meet Us, NETexponent Fun by Peter Figueredo | | 1 Comments
Search Engine Strategies NYC Features NETexponent
February 23rd, 2009
I am happy to announce that NETexponent CEO, Peter Figueredo, has just been asked to join an SES panel at the upcoming NYC show.
So if you are attending SES NYC feel free to stop by and enjoy his panel (described below) on Wednesday March 25th 4 – 5pm
Dealing With Affiliates: A Roadmap to Success
Join this panel for a no-holds-barred discussion where performance marketing’s top contenders square off. As SEM evolves, marketers find themselves competing head-on with affiliates. Marketers want more leads/sales, increased affiliate-generated leads/sales, and less cannibalization of search campaigns. How can this be achieved in a world filled with increasingly hostile rhetoric on both sides? Join a panel of experts as they break silence on taboo issues and work through the finer points. You’ll walk away with fresh, new perspective and the ability to collaborate profitably.
Moderator:
Jeffrey Rohrs, VP, Marketing, ExactTarget
Speakers:
Kristopher Jones, President & CEO, Pepperjam
Jeff Ferguson, Director of Online Marketing, Napster
Lori Weiman, CEO, The Search Monitor
Peter Figueredo, CEO, NETexponent
Posted in Events, Meet Us, Search Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 1 Comments
Follow Me If You Dare
February 13th, 2009
Admittedly, NETexponent was a little late to the game using Twitter. With everything we have been working on in 2008 we just did not have the time. However, after launching a personal twitter account at https://twitter.com/figueredo I now have some good learning and a much better understanding of how NETexponent friends and family can benefit from a company twitter stream. I made the time in 2009 and we quietly launched a company twitter account recently. You can follow us on twitter by visiting https://twitter.com/netexponent.
This blog will continue to be your main source for information related to NETexponent, our clients, and issues concerning the performance marketing industry. We will use twitter to provide quick updates on relevant topics and some of those topics will be discussed in more detail on this blog. So please continue to read this blog but also feel free to follow us on twitter.
Posted in Meet Us, Social Media by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
What Role Will Display Advertising Play In Your 2009 Marketing Plan?
November 24th, 2008
Many companies are slashing their marketing budgets and evaluating how marketing dollars are spent due 
to the tough economic times. Slashing budgets is a clear sign that “Lean and Mean” is the current theme for many businesses. On average most research suggests that (while growing) online advertising still only represents less than 10% of where marketing dollars are spent. Yet even online advertising budgets are getting scrutinized.
For advertisers who wish to get the best ROI (Return On Investment) for their online marketing dollar the focus tends to shift to display advertising and whether or not they should keep spending in that category. We all know that display advertising (eg banner ads on websites bought on CPM or cost per thousand impressions) is typically the hardest online advertising initiative to measure. Comparatively, CPA (cost per acquisition) campaigns can be directly tied to ROI.
Therefore, when under pressure to justify every marketing dollar spent the inclination is to slash display advertising budgets and increase more accountable marketing channels such as affiliate marketing. At the surface this seems to make sense. However, if you take a holistic approach to looking at this situation you may find that display advertising plays an important role.
At NETexponent we have seen how display advertising can boost other online marketing efforts such as paid search and affiliate programs. We evaluate all marketing channels in order to get a holistic view of our clients’ online marketing effort. This outlook has shown us time and time again that spikes and dips in performance driven marketing channels such as search and affiliate can sometimes be directly related to display advertising efforts. When significant display advertising campaigns are running for clients we usually see a boost in traffic and conversions in other online marketing channels. Therefore, display advertising can play an important role even in ROI focused advertising efforts.
Measuring the impact of display advertising on other media channels and choosing the right allocation of marketing dollars is where the tricky part comes in to play. I am not advocating that all advertisers go out and boost display ad spending because it may not have the impact they want. It is true that even boosts in performance related to display could come at a price that is too high for advertisers. My main point is that companies should evaluate the impact display advertising has on other online campaigns and use that data to determine exactly how much spend to allocate to this channel in order to maximize online marketing ROI.
Posted in Display Advertising, Meet Us, NETexponent Clients, Online Marketing, Research by Peter Figueredo | | 3 Comments
Affiliate Summit Day -1
August 8th, 2008
It’s Friday and I just arrived in a very very rainy Boston late at night. I am resting up since it has been a long day and I will be speaking at the Affiliate Classroom Live event tomorrow. With any luck I will wake up early and squeeze in a 7 mile run before the event. Later in the day I will be joining my fellow Performance Marketing Alliance FAB members for a series of meetings to help set the foundation. Then I will probably be finishing up with a nice Affiliate Dinner.
Phew, it will certainly be a busy Saturday at Affiliate Summit and the conference does not even start until Sunday!
I am extremely excited about this Affiliate Summit for many reasons:
- NETexponent will be out in full force
- Some of our great clients will be in attendance like Audible.com, Advanta, Cardscan, Encyclopedia Britannica, and MyVu
- Some of our great partners will be in attendance like Commission Junction, Google Affiliate (aka Performics), LinkShare, Share A Sale, Syntryx, Qoof, Omniture, and more
- Some of our wonderful Affiliates will be in attendance such as…well there are too many to name so check the list here
- NETexponent Co-Founder, Chris Kramer, will be hosting a round table on “The Future of Affiliate Marketing”
- Our wonderful team will be out in full force so please stop by booth #944 and say hi to me, Chris, Teresa, Erin, Sal, Lorrenn, and Erica
Many more reasons to be excited…hope to see you in Boston
Safe Travels,
Peter
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Events, Meet Us by Peter Figueredo | | 1 Comments
