Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

Session Description: Learn advanced approaches to running a clean affiliate program. A review of the systems, processes, tools and techniques used by leading affiliate programs to keep their programs clean. The panel consisted of:

• David Naffziger, CEO, BrandVerity (Moderator)
• Jamie Birch, Owner, JEBCommerce (Twitter @JamieEBirch)
• Graham MacRobie, President & CEO, Alias Encore (Twitter @grahammacrobie)
• Joshua Sloan, CEO, Sloan Tech (Twitter @sloanzone)

This session contained a lot of useful information targeted mostly to companies with an affiliate program and also outsource program managers.  Some of the information was useful for affiliates, especially the need for a good relationship between affiliates and affiliate managers.  The session consisted of short presentations by David Naffziger and by Graham MacRobie and then the floor was opened up for questions.

The presentations gave a brief overview of some of the common forms of abuse affiliate programs need to avoid.  These include PPC violations, Cookie Stuffing, Legitimate link replacement, transaction lead fraud, and Brand Squatting.  Some of the ways given to combat abuse were to know how your partners work – know how traffic is normally sent, who else they work with, is their plan consistent with their performance, and is their traffic pattern different from the normal.  Examples of various software was give, a couple from Brand Verity and also free alternatives.

The question and answer portion gave several very good tips.  One of the first was that no program should auto-approve, that affiliates each be inspected to make sure that they are who they say they are.  Another was to go over the terms and conditions listed for the program at least once a year;  it is better to have over strict rules and regs. that are lightly enforced rather than not enough.  This will help in the long run because if abuse is found it can then be removed.  Less than desirable affiliates are likely to group in the smaller networks as they are less likely to be discovered.  More abuse is likely in a new affiliate program.  Having the highest payout can make you a target on account of greed.   Many of these comments can be used both by affiliate managers and also act as warnings to affiliates as to the relationship they should have with their manager.

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Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.

During Affiliate Summit I visited both the Meet Market and the exposition hall to see the booths.  I was impressed at how good some of the booths and tables were, and also at how bad some were.  If I could recognize they were bad as a first time attendee, they must have stood out to veterans.  Here are some general comments based upon my experiences.

• Have a banner behind the table, giving your name and hopefully an idea of what you are (network, merchant, etc.)
• Have a give away: this is something that will make people remember you later.  It is even better if it ties in with your company name, slogan, or something of that nature.  It never hurts to be unique.
• Have people at the booth (I would have assumed that was obvious).
• Be friendly (again, obvious).
• Don’t have several people working the crowd and handing out stuff (I got asked if I wanted Perfect English at least 10 times) and no one at the table.
• If you have a giveaway or are doing a contest make sure to enter people that come up in it.  If there is a scanner make sure that all of the people working the booth know how to use it.
• Make sure that you are not crowding into the booth next to you.
• If your giveaway is beer make sure there is plenty of room for people (very good attention getter in my opinion, but a zoo if not handled right).

I would have thought most of these would be completely obvious, but I saw multiple examples of each.  Companies are paying for these tables, so the focus should be optimizing the experience to bring in business, not turn it away.  I was really impressed with adCanadian and how every little detail of their table tied into company branding – their banner, the sticker, the giveaway, their jersey – and they were really nice guys to boot (eh!).  They created a positive, lasting impression, which is what you should be doing when representing the company at any conference or industry event.  Keep these tips in mind when planning your own Meet Market table or booth for future conferences!

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Is it too soon to say “Rebranding Fail”?

I just got the news that Affiliate Classroom, Inc is re-branding themselves to Lurn, Inc. I must admit that my first impression of the new name is not a positive one.  I immediately wanted to ask – what was wrong with Affiliate Classroom?  Didn’t it say everything it needed to say?  The press release they sent along with the announcement email answered that question:

“We originally set out to provide training and best practices for affiliates. The name Affiliate Classroom made perfect sense,” said founder and CEO Anik Singal. “But in late 2008 as our executive team developed our strategic vision for the next two years, we felt limited by the name. What we’re able to offer now is beyond simple how-to information for affiliates. Changing our name is strategically liberating.”

Okay, I can understand that.  When your name is very specific and your goals expand to something greater, a new name is in order.  So I can support them in the decision to re-brand to a new name that’s more all-encompassing to what they want to achieve.  But Lurn?  I’m not sure I can be on board with the new name; for some reason it reminds me of names like Knol and Cuil and other recent social media-crazed names that seem to be trying harder to be “cool” or “cutting edge” than functional and appropriate.  Which made me sad to read further down in the press release to this:

Singal added, “We’ve been getting a lot of compliments on the new name. We think that it highlights our fun personality, while staying true to our vision of empowering our students to reach their goals through technology and education.”

Maybe I’m being overly critical about the name.  Afterall, that’s just my two cents.  I do have to hand it to Anik & his team that they’re awesome people who are doing a good thing for the industry so I really do wish them the best of luck with the rebranding effort.  For their sake I also hope more people like the new name more than I do

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