Getting ready for Affiliate Summit West 08
Twitter is alive with activity. The summit has set up a group twitter that tracks whenever someone uses the keyword asw08 in their twits. This is very cool, especially considering I didn’t know Twitter had this capability!
Everyone seems to be in a rush to get things done. Jim Kukral from ScratchBack.com is MCing the keynote on Monday. He’s twittered several times tonight about the video he’s working on for the presentation. At ASE07 in Miami the keynote was Ze Frank, a hilarious individual, so I’m hoping for no less at ASW08.
Stephanie Agresta from Stephanie Agresta Consulting is also a speaker and author of the Internet Geek Girl blog. She’s twittered off and on today about her flight information and getting ready for the trip from out east. Sam Harrelson from Affiliate Fortune Cookies has been twittering as well and he’s even had to change his flight because of inclement Northeastern weather.
Of course myself, I’m twittering here and there about getting ready. I’m not lucky enough to have a nice new company supplied laptop, so I’m on my own personal laptop this weekend. I do have a press pass, so I be working on keeping the interweb updated from the blogger’s room through this blog and Twitter. I’m committed despite my chunky clunky Dell Latitude laptop :p.
As a final note while I’m getting my laptop set up tonight, I encourage everyone associated with affiliate marketing in any way to check out this month’s issue of Affiliate Classroom Magazine. Besides there being a keen write up of the PsPrint Affiliate Program, there’s a lot of great affiliate manager tips. I’ll be attending the whopping 10 hour Affiliate Classroom LIVE affiliate manager training on Saturday in Las Vegas before the summit. I’m eager to get in there and take notes… is it too much to hope for actual desks? :p I know that it’s at the Rio and from all the conference space I’ve seen at hotels in the last year, I’m sure there won’t be surfaces to write on readily available, so I’ll be taking my clipboard with me.
Hope to see you there! I’m considering bringing my camcorder with me to the exhibit hall, so if you’ve used PsPrint in the past, come on by for an impromptu video plug!
Read MoreAnalytics Glossary: KPI – Key Performance Indicators
KPI or Key Performance Indicators:
- Typically available in dashboards and provides an overall understanding of how the site is performing. Some KPIs include conversions, clicks and page views but are defined by the analytics user.
In my experience most dashboards can get pretty cluttered. My recommendation is to give yourself a comfortable period of time in using the program (a week, a month, whatever you’re satisfied with) and then review the content on your dashboard to remove anything you haven’t determined is a KPI and you don’t need to review on a daily basis.
____
Glossary Definition From Website Magazine, February 2008.
Analytics Glossary: Sessionization
Sessionization:
- Refers to methods used to define a session (includes cookies, IP address, IP+Agent and others) telling the analytics system how to measure – or not measure – a series of page requests from the same individual or browsing machine.
In order to be able to track visitors accurately, you need to make sure you’re not counting the same visitor over and over again. This is where Sessionization comes in handy. Otherwise you could be counting yourself refreshing the page after making updates 10 times and falsely inflate your data.
Be wary of your analytics software and make sure that it’s not just counting page loads or else you get a grossly inflated number.
____
Glossary Definition From Website Magazine, February 2008.
Meet me in Vegas!
Thanks to the great team at Affiliate Summit, you can now schedule appointments with exhibitors in a nifty online interface.
So if you’re going to the summit, schedule an appointment to talk to me & my PsPrint colleague! Go now to http://sponsors.affiliatesummit.com to schedule an appointment! We’ve already got a couple of meetings scheduled outside of this super sweet interface, so be sure to get us while we’re hot!
Remember the 20% off printing discount with PsPrint for attendees and exhibitors… you only get more details if you register to attend! And the word today is that the event is SOLD OUT! So get on that waiting list!
Read MoreAnalytics Glossary: Frequency
Frequency:
- The number of times a visitor has visited a site during a reporting period. Average Frequency is the average of all visitors’ frequencies during the reporting period. Frequency is a retention metric and part of RFM (recency, frequency, monetary) analysis.
This goes hand in hand with bounce rate, which tells you how many people leave your website after visiting a certain page. Generating leads and driving traffic is important, but you have to make your website sticky… once they’re there, make them want to stay and come back. Monitor this with the frequency data and bounce rates.
____
Glossary Definition From Website Magazine, February 2008.
In Mail We Trust
There’s an interesting little blurb in the November/December issue of Revenue Magazine on page 18. In part it says:
The study said that newspaper ads were the most trustworthy, with 63% of media consumers saying they trust the ads there. Search ads were the highest-scoring online format, with 34% saying they trusted them. Banner ads were trusted by just 26% of respondents and mobile advertising had 18% of the public trust.
Basically what this says to me is that, even in an era of internet marketing, viral marketing, and SEO/SEM… brick and mortar printing is still the most trusted form of advertisement.
One of the best ways to get the word out in a trusted way is direct mail. Direct mail allows you to catch your customers when they’re more alert and looking for information within their mail delivery. Consider this: when you get home from work at the end of the day and check your mailbox, you’re momentarily more alert while trying to decipher what are bills that need immediate attention, letters from friends or family, and what is advertisements. But even though you’re not looking for the ads, they can still seep into your consciousness during those moments.
Direct mail is inexpensive and can be completed by a number of different resources (other than your kids bribed with a pizza and armed with some stamps on a Saturday afternoon). Reputable printing and mailing companies like PsPrint take all the hassle out of a direct mail piece. Mailing lists are affordable as well, so there’s no hassle in supplementing any customer list you already have with more potential leads.
Make sure to keep these tips in mind when planning our your direct mail campaign:
- Make it Relevant. Target your list in a way that the consumers receiving your mail piece actually have interest in what you’re selling or promoting. Use demographic parameters in renting your mailing list to narrow down who you’re paying to send a piece to.
- Make it Pop. Designs should be eye catching when looking through the usual boring pile of mail. Use vivid colors to make your piece stand out amid the white and manila envelopes.
- Make it Clear. Don’t clutter your piece with information in the attempt to let the consumer know everything about your company. Focus on a single call to action (e.g. coming into the store for more details or visiting the website for more information). Use the mail piece to say the most important thing you want the consumer to know and direct them to the most important action they should take.
Now get out there and get your mail on!
Professional Mailing Services at PsPrint
