Online Marketing Glossary: Data Feed

Posted on Aug 8, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

Data Feed:

  • A text file that contains the information needed to generate a website.  It is provided either directly to the affiliate or indirectly through a network.  The affiliate then converts the data feed into a database, which is then used to populate webpages full of products.

glossary bookThere are a lot of questions in the affiliate world surrounding data feeds.  What content is required?  How should they be formatted?  I know that one of the hopes of the budding Performance Marketing Association is to set some industry standards on this rogue content generation tool.

Unfortunately for me, data feeds are something that I’ve yet to master.  It’s one of those things I keep meaning to research and learn how to generate and use, but haven’t yet had the time.  If you want to learn more about the PMA’s efforts, they’re hosting a Q&A on Monday at Affiliate Summit East in the Harbor View Ballroom from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm.

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Glossary Definition From
ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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Now Published! Affiliate Manager Communication Strategies

Posted on Aug 6, 2008 in Career, Conferences & Networking, Rambles |

Lois LaneIssue 2 of FeedFront Magazine is hitting mailboxes as we speak, and will be distributed at Affiliate Summit East next week.  I’m happy to say that an article I wrote has been published!  Now you can read all about a great strategy to keep in contact with your affiliates as a manager.  Check out my article on page 12 of the magazine.

If you can’t wait for your hard copy (as I couldn’t) you can download just my article here.  Or, if you actually want to read the whole issue, you can get it here.  There are a lot of other great articles this time around, including a look at ABestWeb.com founder Haiko de Poel Jr, coupon code woes, and avoiding NY state tax nexus.

I hope to write another article for FeedFront soon, I just need to rack my brain for some ideas :).  If you’ll be going to Affiliate Summit East, we’re sure to have a blast.  Remember to take lots of pictures – the gang at FeedFront is holding a contest and YOUR picture (or mine!) can win the coveted cover position for the 3rd issue of FeedFront.  Not only does the winner get the bragging rights of having their photo on the cover of the magazine, but you also win a full conference pass to Affiliate Summit West 2009 happening in Las Vegas January 11th – 13th.

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Online Marketing Glossary: Inbound Link

Posted on Aug 5, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing, Marketing |

Inbound Link:

  • A link to a particular page from elsewhere on the Internet.  Inbound links are important to SEO because many search engines’ rankings are at least partially based on the amount of inbound links.

glossary bookYour break from the glossary is over!  Inbound links are tricky as you usually have no influence on whether you get them or not.  A good tip is to submit your site to directories at the beginning to start building some inbound links, and make sure your content is good.  If you have excellent content, more blogs and other websites within your niche will want to link to yours.

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Glossary Definition From
ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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Ball: Dropped Stress: High

Posted on Jul 31, 2008 in Career, Conferences & Networking, Rambles | 2 comments

Ball: Dropped  Stress: High

I have good news, and I have bad news.  Hopefully this will explain why I’ve been asleep at the wheel here.

First, the good!

  • TrishaLyn.com is now available as a mobile compatible site!  Just point your smartphone browser to www.trishalyn.com!  Thanks to Shawn Collins & the Geek Cast crew for mentioning this nifty plugin in the last episode and Shawn specifically for sending me the link.
  • Speaking of Geek Cast, I was mentioned two weeks running.  Apparently Scott Jangro and I will be the only audience members for their Geek Cast Live show from Affiliate Summit, and Lisa’s counting on me to help keep the boys in line.  Ah, good times will be had I can FEEL it!
  • Affiliate Summit East 2008 is SOLD OUT and takes place in a little over a week.  I’m excited to be hitting Boston again and finally meeting some of these people I’ve been networkin’ with online since the last summit.
  • Affiliate Classroom Live! is also in about a week, so I really REALLY need to get my act together and formulate some talking points for the round-table discussion I’ll be leading.

Now, the not so great.

  • stressed outI’m sad to say that after almost 2 years my beloved supervisor is leaving our company.  I’m going to miss her tremendously as she’s been a complete pleasure and joy to work for!  To be honest, I’m taking the change harder than I should because of….
  • I’m moving!  Just from one city here in the East San Francisco Bay Area to another, nothing major.  It’s just that I absolutely detest packing and moving.  Luckily my husband acknowledges that I’m a weakling and useless in the actual heavy lifting, so I’m on packing and unpacking duty.
  • With the change in my supervisor leaving, my job responsibilities are changing as well.  I don’t think I can say much right now, but involves some shifting in terms of my focused projects within the marketing department.

Obviously the combined changes of job responsibilities, moving, taking a long weekend vacation to celebrate my 5th wedding anniversary, and taking off for several days to attend Affiliate Summit East are all a bit overwhelming.  I hope to be rejuvenated after my vacation and be able to jump back into the swing of things with some excellent coverage of Affiliate Summit!

If you’re giving away stress balls at the summit, save one for me!!

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Online Marketing Glossary: Organic Search Results

Posted on Jul 31, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing, Marketing |

Organic Search Results:

  • Non-paid search engine results (also called natural search) – the pages that search engines find in a vast index of the Web that the search engine determines are the best matches for the search keywords.

glossary bookThese are the dreams that SEO is made of.  Responsible web masters do everything within their power to heighten their organic results because it’s free, and will get your listing in front of more eyes when searching for keywords.

An easy tactic to help this is to use the keyword multiple times on one page.  Don’t over do it, but the more a particular keyword is worked into the text on your page, the more clout the search engines will give you site when bringing up results for that keyword in searches.

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Glossary Definition From
ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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Online Marketing Glossary: Quality Score

Posted on Jul 30, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing, Marketing |

Quality Score:

  • Reflects an ad’s historical CTR, keyword relevance, landing page relevance, and other factors proprietary to Google.  Yahoo refers to it as a Quality Index.

glossary bookOf course getting the most links to your website isn’t always the name of the game; it’s getting high quality links.  This is why spammers who link to your content aren’t helping you.  The quality score of your ad helps boost it’s position on the page just as much as the amount you bid on those keywords.

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Glossary Definition From
ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine

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