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Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 54: Interviewing John Monarch

Posted on Jun 16, 2011 in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Fanatics, Conferences & Networking |

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Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A couple of hyper-caffeinated affiliate marketers (Mike Buechele) and (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!

You’ve come to love it – our interviews!  This go-round we’re interviewing speakers at the upcoming Affiliate Summit East 2011 at the New York Hilton in New York, NY.  Mike’s a busy beaver and needs a break, so my co-host for this episode is the awesome Eric Nagel!  Today we’re chatting with John Monarch about his origins in affiliate marketing & his “Ask the Expert” topic “High Risk Merchanting – Management and Risk Mitigation”. John is the President of Monarch Holdings LLC. In this episode we discuss:

• John’s origins in the Physics world and his transition into affiliate marketing.
• Some fellow former physicists Karen Garcia & Brad Waller.
• Merchants in certain niches need to be aware if their space is considered “high risk” by the banking industry (like smaller travel merchants).
• John’s ready to talk to merchants about their banking and how to avoid charge backs and keep their rates at a reasonable risk level.
• The difference between a charge back and a refund.  A charge back, whether won or lost, still counts against a merchant’s charge back number.
• Put John’s discussion on your Affiliate Summit Schedule! Monday August 22nd, 5:00 – 6:00 pm in the Networking Space.
• Follow John on Twitter: @papajohn56
• Show some love to today’s co-host Eric Nagel! Blog: EricNagel.com & Twitter: @esnagel

Find us on Twitter: @AMF_Podcast, @MikeBuechele & @TrishaLyn. Like us on Facebook! Be old fashioned and just leave us a comment!

Special thanks to GeekCast.fm for hosting Affiliate Marketing Fanatics!

ad:tech San Francisco: Why HTML5 Matters

Posted on May 19, 2011 in Conferences & Networking, Tools |

Session Description: The way consumers interact with the Web is changing. The impetus for this change is twofold—the appearance of a variety of new devices and increasing broadband penetration—both of which let you deliver richer content in a variety of new ways. The needs of the Web consumer have shifted dramatically in the last decade, especially within the past year. Much of that change comes from the new HTML5 spec that we all hear about, but not everyone quite understands. However, HTML5 has tremendous advantages for marketers as it represents the largest shift in Web standards in the last 15 years. HTML5 enables a richer experience for mobile, video and a myriad of other channels that can help revolutionize your marketing strategies. Adam Broitman, Partner and Ringleader of Circ.us, will do a deep dive into the numerous marketing and advertising implications of HMTL5 and the various things you need to know to prepare yourself for the next generation of the Web.

This session took place Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The speakers:

• Adam Broitman, Partner and Ringleader of Circ.us

This session blew me away!  Having taught myself HTML years ago, this got me super jazzed and excited to start learning HTML5 and getting some more tools in my toolbox.

Bullet Point Review!

• Why HTML5 Matters.
  • Standards are safe.
  • Consumers are familiar with standards.
  • Web standards can save you money.
  • Web standard content is easier to find in Google.
• Broadband growth 2001-2009 ^ 63.5%.
• 31.5% YoY growth total video streams.
• YouTube 8.4 billion total streams, 2:23 average time on site.
• Some current browsers don’t support this new web interaction.
• The way we use the Internet had changed, but the nature of HTML hasn’t.
• The app will not save us.
  • We need standards, not 1000s of app stores.
  • Kind of a bridge.
  • People have to spend more money for all platforms and it slows things down.
• The future of the web? (AOL) unable to grow within the walled garden, had to open up.
• 20% of people use a free app the next day after download, only 5% after 30 days.
• HTML5 is a set of standards.
• HTML5 is the new.. HTML.
• Important elements:
  • The canvas.
  • More creative things can be done.
  • Geolocation.
  • You don’t need to build a specific app to access the gps info.
  • Browser now becomes location aware.
  • Audio & video.
    • <video>…</video>
    • It’s not perfect… Yet.
    • Miro video converter.
  • Local storage.
    • Google got rid of Gears in favor of HTML5.
  • Drag & drop.
  • Forms.
  • Input types.
  • New semantics.
    • More meta tags actually describe content & make it more easily found in searches.
• It’s still the wild west of html5 compliant web browsers.
• Html5test.com to see if your browser is compliant.

ad:tech San Francisco: Advanced Affiliate Optimization

Posted on May 18, 2011 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

Session Description: Affiliate marketing best practices are not “one size fits all.” Optimization tactics that work for online retailers could prove disastrous for subscription marketers (and vice versa). This session examines popular affiliate strategies from both the retail and subscription marketing perspectives to identify how both types of marketers can grow sales/subs, manage quality, protect their brand and ultimately get the most from this channel. Learn from Peter Figueredo’s, Co-Founder and Brainstorm Chaser of Netx, 11 years of experience running successful affiliate and search campaigns for large retail and subscription advertisers.

This session took place Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The speakers:

• Peter Figueredo, Founding Partner and Brainstorm Chaser, Netx (Moderator)
• Vinny Lingham, CEO, Yola.com

And you thought I was done posing about ad:tech?  Pshaw!  I really enjoyed this session because it gave me great actionable items to help improve and better understand the For Me To Coupon leads program I manage!

Bullet Point Review!

• Retail Programs
  • Product focused
  • Paradox of choice
  • New customers
  • Short term ROI
  • Minimize returns
• Subscription/Service Programs
  • Service focused
  • Fear of commitment
  • Wants qualified customers
  • Long term ROI
  • Minimize churn
• Advanced Techniques for Retail
  • Product driven: Shopping comparison, coupon, loyalty (Peter suggested brands create orphan coupon page to rank higher than affiliates on brand + coupon).
  • Paradox of choice: feed optimization, advanced creative.
  • New customers: new customer bounty, recruit new & growing affiliates.
  • Short term ROI: offers to increase AOV, only pay more to get more (don’t just give higher commissions, negotiate what kind of placement you’re getting).
  • Minimize returns: commissions on shipped, reverse returns.
• Advanced Techniques for Subscription
  • Service focused: review sites, vertical content sites, blogs.
  • Fear of commitment: affiliate education (one sheets, webinars, networking, etc), consumer education.
  • Qualified customers: manage consumer incentives, clear consumer messaging (you know the lifetime value, so you can offer a higher bounty).
  • Long term ROI: sites with a loyal user base, track retention by affiliate.
  • Minimize churn: retention based commissions, retention rate bonus.
• Key takeaways
  • Retail: optimize your feed.
  • Subscription: optimize on retention.
  • Subscription: educate your affiliates.
• Yola Case Study
  • Focus on purchasing actions, not sign ups.
  • Run promos for multiple year subscriptions.
  • Test different discounts on promos.
  • Keep promos fresh by varying messaging & theme, keep discounts constant.
  • Align creatives with affiliate pay our structure.

Points brought up during the Q&A

• Drive engagement with top tier affiliates.  Look at the research.  Look at how they prefer to be engaged & engage them that way.
• Do you provide materials an influencing person can take to a meeting to convince the decision maker? One sheet, stats, other educational materials.

ad:tech San Francisco: Affiliate Marketing – The Big Challenges

Posted on May 17, 2011 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

Session Description: As the affiliate marketing industry grows, it continues to encounter challenges on multiple fronts. One front burner issue for brands and advertisers remains affiliate legislation. From New York to California to Texas, the nuances of tax collection in each state are still being worked out and, in many cases, litigated. With this vital issue still in flux, what are brands and marketers doing to move forward? How can advertisers keep track of the state-by-state laws, and how can they develop strategies for today and for the future? Trademark legislation is also a key issue for affiliate marketing and we’ll explore how brands walk the fine line between protecting their brand and getting wider exposure. Finally, we’ll tackle how affiliate legislation in various states will impact all online retailers.

This session took place Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The speakers:

• Carolyn Tang Kmet, Director of Affiliate Marketing, Groupon (Moderator)
• Angel Djambazov, OPM, KEEN Footwear
• Rebecca Madigan, Executive Director, Performance Marketing Association
• Brian Looney, Senior Director of Business Development, CitizenHawk, Inc.
• Seana Montgomery, Senior Paralegal, McAfee

Impression comment

Bullet Point Review!

• Affiliate marketing has become a legitimate marketing channel.
• Ad Tax, aka Amazon Tax
  • Lots of spin going on from the pro side.
  • No physical presence – not required to collect sales tax.
  • Reality is that there’s no money involved
• What does it mean for merchants?
  • If you have an affiliate program in states where this passes, you must now collect sales tax for all purchases made into the state, Or
  • Terminate affiliates (obviously the feared option).
• What happens when it passes?
  • 25-35% loss of income to affiliates.
  • Lay offs, downsizing, some companies may close entirely.
  • People move out-of-state.
  • Income tax decreases.
• Legislation has been beaten back 25 times.
• Passed in 5 states.
• 8 states in play in 2011.
• Brand Protection is Important.
• Typosquatting relies on typos in URLs.
• Bad spelling is as prevalent as the common cold.
  • Typing too fast, fat fingers, old keyboards that stick, small keyboards on mobile devices.
  • More than 20% of all Internet traffic is typed in.
  • 15-30% of the time the URLs are misspelled.
• Companies often classify this as a legal issue instead of a marketing or traffic issue.
• Defending yourself against a typosquatter is expensive when you get lawyers involved.
• URDP – uniform domain name dispute resolution policy.
• Trademark infringement considered anything confusingly similar.  Typos don’t count but content does.  $1500 to file a complaint in court.
• You’re not filing against the domain name, you’re filing against the domain owners.
• Turn trademark enforcement into a profit center.
• Laws are international, but more enforceable on .com & .net.
• Marketing channels are business tools.  Each should be employed for a specific purpose.
• You’re obligated to police your brand – your trademark can get canceled if you don’t prove you’re actively policing infringements.
• Learning from KEEN Footwear.
• Be sure your affiliates understand what affiliate marketing is.
  • Affiliate publisher joined, tried selling his own brand of shoes thinking affiliate meant an endorsement similarly to the definition of “affiliate” in the TV world.  Eventually showed up at the corporate offices demanding Keen CEO do more to leverage their partnership in trying to sell is shoe related product.
• Not all publishers understand what the channel is.  Educate them.
• Be sure to clearly define all legal aspects.
• 20% of your affiliates are driving the majority of the revenue.
• What can you do to measure impact of amazon tax:
  • Monitor legislation in states crucial to your success.
  • Join the PMA to help.
  • Stay informed through geekcast.fm, ReveNews.com, PMA blog.
  • Create a contingency plans with a different payment or advertising model to not loose these valuable partners.
• Garbage can bills popping up including more junk trying to get out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax.  Just says “don’t do business in our state”.

ad:tech San Francisco: Affiliate Marketing Innovations for Brands and Advertisers

Posted on May 16, 2011 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

Session Description: Affiliate marketers are the most adept at harnessing new technologies in their marketing efforts. As a result, the industry has evolved faster than most marketing channels. During the past decade, affiliate marketing has grown from basic text links and banner ads to geo-targeted mobile campaigns and social media swarms. In this session, we’ll delve into how brands can leverage their affiliate channel to multiply reach and the number of consumer touch points. What market factors have driven the rapid growth so far in affiliate marketing? Has the increase been consumer-driven or technology-driven? And what sort of changes will come next? Join us as we find out.

This session took place Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The speakers:

• Carolyn Tang Kmet, Director of Affiliate Marketing, Groupon (Moderator)
• J.J. McCarthy, Sr. Manager Internet Marketing, eBay
• Alicia Navarro, Co-Founder & CEO, Skimlinks

This was a great session.  It gave some insight on the beginnings of Affiliate Marketing that even I didn’t know.  It was also chock full of interesting tidbits and insight gained from eBay & Skimlinks’ experiences.

Bullet Point Review!

• Affiliate marketing really started in 1886 with Avon ladies.
• People didn’t realize sites were interactive at the dawn of the internet.
• Consumers are responsive to free and discounted offer.
• Approving of animation.
• Consumers lost interest in flashy stuff, needed to find relevance.
• Groupon basing the ads not on the content, but the consumers location.
• Consumers felt their privacy invaded by contextual ads.
• Key to delivering content is relevance to individual consumer.
• Recognize where services are needed.
• RFID helped Walmart improved out of stock by 16% and improved restock efficiency by 60%.
  • Staples reduced out of stock by 21%.
  • Harrahs used RFID in chips – knew where to send cocktail waitresses or pit bosses according to the concentration of where the chips were located on the casino floor.
• Market fragmentation: broadcast to the individual instead of to the masses.
• Groupon has added incentives for users to share deals via Facebook and Twitter.
• Affiliate marketing has become device agnostic.
• We’re constantly wired.
• Convergence used go just be a phone, but now it’s a PDA, camera, Internet, television, & more.
• eBay been actively marketing in affiliate space since 2000.
• eBay partner network launched 2008.
  • >100k websites actively driving traffic.
• Unlike all other marketing channels, success in affiliate marketing is predicated on competing for affiliates mind share & loyalty.
• Success is a function of reputation, ease of use, & earnings f(ree).
• Invest significantly in reputation.
• Being successful isn’t always about tech innovation, it’s also about cultural innovation.
• QCP: quality click pricing.  Volume isn’t a proxy for value.  Would rather have quality. De-averages the CPC.
• Build world class tools.
• Do-it-Yourself Affiliate Marketing is more costly than the revenue.
  • Integrate with the affiliate networks.
  • Apply to individual merchant programs.
  • Create deep link syntax.
  • Hard code into site.
  • Maintain links.
  • Access multiple reporting interfaces.
  • Optimize.
• Publishers don’t think of themselves as marketers, so appeal to them with that angle.
• Perhaps affiliate marketing should be affiliate linkage.
• The closer funnel (converto.com)

What #ASE11 Sessions I’m Voting For

Posted on May 5, 2011 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking | 1 comment

Let the games begin!  Voting has opened up for Affiliate Summit East 2011.  While some people have not been happy with this voting system, I think it evens the playing field nicely.  As well, it clears any conspiracy theories about how sessions are chosen.

Before I begin, I will say I have a horse in this game.  I’ve submitted a panel, The Future of Coupons in Affiliate Marketing, for consideration.  If picked, I’ll be moderating this panel with industry coupon veterans Mike Allen (Shopping-Bargains.com), Connie Berg (FlamingoWorld.com), Carolyn Tang Kmet (Groupon.com), and Kim Rowley (ShoppingBookmarks.com).  Please take a moment to register, confirm, then vote for our panel!

Okay, that being said, these are the panels I’m voting for.  All of them have very intelligent speakers, well thought out ideas, and will offer merchants and affiliates great insight into the topics.

• It’s Not Your Mother’s Affiliate Program
• Creatives Deliver Success
• Evolution of Local Search
• Do-Not-Track?  Not-So-Fast
• Killing the Affiliate Nexus Tax Dead!
• Got an Idea?  Make it a Reality.
• 10 Questions for a Prospective Affiliate Manager
• A World Without Cookie Tracking
• How to Convince Online Shoppers You’re Real
• Learn to Create a Likeworthy Facebook Page
• Social Media in Niche Markets
• Merchant ABCs – Launching a New Merchant Program
• How to Avoid FTC Scrutiny in Advertising
• Affiliate Improv!
• Are Your Affiliates Adding Value?