CJU Course: At Your Service
Unleashing the power of web services can literally change your program. Getting the data you need faster and then customizing it to suit the exact needs of your program or web site—that’s what web services are all about and Commission Junction is the industry leader. Hear real-world examples of clients using the CJ Web Services APIs in all kinds of creative ways to help them run their businesses more efficiently than ever
before. The panel consisted of:
- Bram Roukema, Director, Product Management, Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Adam Viener, imwave
- Michael Khodos, Simply Best Coupons
Bullet Point Review!
- Most APIs in CJ are done in ReST & SOAP (which will be phased out eventually).
- 6 APIs are offered:
- Publishers: Commission details.
- Publishers: Advanced look up
- Publishers: Product search.
- Publishers: Link search.
- Advertisers: Commission details.
- Advertisers: Publisher look up.
- Before APIs, people used feeds. Those took 1 day+, APIs are real-time.
- How to get started:
- Talk to your developers.
- Go to Webservices.cj.com.
- Review the APIs documentation.
- Register for a developer’s key.
- Remember to use ReST, not SOAP.
Points brought up during the Q&A
All APIs are pull; they’re considering using push APIs too so publishers can apply to the programs, etc.- When a link expires, they still track – they’re just not promoted anymore.
CJU Course: Joel Comm – Top 11 Social Media Mistakes
There’s a basic misunderstanding about “advanced social media”. It really doesn’t exist. Social media is just basic human interaction and common sense. However, there is such a thing as a social media fail, and mistakes one can make when entering into the world of social media from a professional standpoint. Joel Comm, best selling author and CJ Performer (@JoelComm), came to CJU on September 22, 2010 to impart to us the top 11 social media mistakes.
To be completely honest, this was nothing new to me. However, Joel is a good presenter and it was very entertaining and still worth my time to attend and take copious notes to pass on to you!
Bullet Point Review!
- Mistake #1: Believing the world of social media isn’t real life.
- State your opinion.
- Be polite.
- Don’t libel.
- Avoid flame wars.
- Mistake #2: Regarding social media as a marketing tool.
- Put your relationship with followers first.
- Train employees or interns on proper use of Twitter.
- Make it up to your fans with special offers if you make a mistake.
- Like me, know me, trust me, pay me.
- Mistake #3: Forcing audiences to follow your marketing instead of following you.
- Reward loyalty.
- Know your audience.
- Accept criticism, even if it’s over the top.
- Answer positive posts publicly.
- Mistake #4: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
- Keep control of your sites – inmates should never run the asylum!
- Guide the conversation.
- Mistake #5: Spamming sites (or asking others to do it for you).
- Don’t bribe. Don’t subterfuge.
- Pay for honest, sponsored mentions.
- Become influential legitimately.
- Mistake #6: Not being authentic.
- Write your own Tweets (remember it’s a personal thing, so your logo might not actually be the best user icon to use).
- Focus on the relationships.
- Mistake #7: Silencing critics instead of listening.
- Moderate but allow dissent.
- Make mistakes right quickly.
- Mistake #8: Not being professional.
- Be professional!
- Know your audience – this will help you to be personal, but also not too personal where you cross a line that might hurt your brand.
- Mistake #9: Loose lips sink ships.
- Watch what you say.
- Apologize quickly if you offend or cross a line.
- Engage the community.
- Mistake #10: Stopping your campaign – and your relationship.
- Build campaigns for the long term.
- Don’t cast aside engaged customers.
- Remember real people build real relationships.
- Treat your audience with respect – they know where you “live” online.
- Mistake #11: Not realizing that the world is watching.
- Engage your brain before Tweeting.
- Make it right when you make a mistake.
- Don’t become a negative example in Joel’s presentation.
CJU Course: Kerri Pollard – It’s All About Growth
Of course, at every CJU the general manager of the company has to give an encouraging “state of the company” type speech. This year it was all about growth.
- Kerri Pollard, General Manage, Commission Junction (@kerripollard)
I really enjoyed the statistics Kerri shared, despite her saying she wasn’t a numbers person. Neither am I, but these were very “feel good” numbers for current CJ publishers and advertisers.
Bullet Point Review!
- Unless you were a coupon publisher, growth was hard in 2009.
- $1.9 billion spent on affiliate marketing in 2009 – it’s estimated to be $4 billion in 2014.
- Online advertising has tripled.
- Affiliate marketing is growing faster than other advertising types.
- 28% of consumers’ time is spent online, but online advertising is typically only 13% of a company’s marketing budget.
- E-commerce sales are still only 3.8% of total retail sales.
- 62% of adults shopping online seek out a coupon before purchasing.
- Old Spice was the most viral campaign in 2010.
- Twitter is seeing 90 million tweets per day.
- 63% of online retailers that use a 3rd party advertising tracking solution, use CJ.
- Bed, Bath, & Beyond is the newest big-box retailer to come to CJ.
- CJ has seen a 40% increase in advertisers over the last 12 months.
- Publishers need to generate $10k/month in commissions for 3 straight months to qualify for CJ Performer status.
- Monthly income doubled on average after publishers become a CJP.
- There’s a new “Get Links” area, in beta right now.
- Advertisers supporting direct linking are clearer.
- There’s additional filtering options.
- Everyone at CJU now has access to the new “Get Links” area.
- CJ has seen a 24% increase in publisher relationships over the last 12 months.
- Affiliate marketing is now retailer’s first stop instead of their last stop.
- CJ feeds product helps advertisers fix data feeds and also works with 200+ comparison shopping engines.
- CJx beta takes care of finding advertisers, getting approved, finding products, and managing links for the publisher (name is temporary).
- CJ media is more short term campaigns (like an internal CPA network).
- 10 largest publishers on CJ experienced 50% year-over-year growth in Q2.
- 20 largest advertisers on CJ experienced 26% year-over-year growth in Q2.
CJU 2010: Daniel Pink Keynote
Well I returned from CJU on Friday, and I have notes! Unfortunately, my alarm clock failed me and I missed the vast majority of Daniel Pink’s keynote. I saw part, and I took some notes for you, and I’m grossly disappointed that I missed it.
Bullet Point Review!
- DIY performance review works best.
- People do better if they feel like what they do matters.
- Autonomy – Mastery – Purpose
- Sometimes we obsess over how people do stuff when they don’t focus on why.
- When you pair the profit motive & the purpose motive, great things happen.
- Have a purpose bigger than your product.
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 15: Be My Yoko Ono
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
We kept it short & sweet this week, but hey! We did two weeks in a row! YES… I’m patting us on the back for that. We talked briefly about some things that have been going on in the industry this week, and had a short & sweet conversation with limited tangents. And almost no discussion of Twitter, other than a third party service mention. Since it was so short I messed with outro music too, which brought us to a pleasantly succinct 19:30. In in this episode we discuss:
- The fantastic fill in job Eric Nagel did last week.
- Affiliate Day came & went on September 14th.
- Sponsored Tweets picked up their traffic
- CJU, despite neither of us going.
- How cool it is when industry celebs remember you!
- Halloween & Fall promotions are upon us!
- Fantasy Football with Jason Rubacky and Shawn Collins… and a brief girl’s guide to how scoring works.
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics 14: Eric Nagel in the House
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
Once again, our schedules just were not fated to correspond this week. So we enlisted the help of good ol’ Eric Nagel, the king of awesome business cards, to co-host with me. Watch out Mike – Eric may give you a run for your money! It was a good conversation, a bit more focused than some. And in Eric’s honor – no intro music! It’s a short & sweet episode coming in at 42:30. In in this episode we discuss:
- CJ Keyword Links expiring – how will this affect affiliates?
- Affiliate Day on Monday September 14th
- Twitter changed it’s Terms of Service, and strangely announced it via email.
- WordPress getting hacked last week and some discussion of upgrading WordPress, plugins, and WordPress MU.
- CJU, ShareASale ThinkTank, Affiliate Summit West, Affiliate Convention all on the West Coast – no love for East Coast!
- The phenomenon of Poken, custom logo Poken, and more business-like Poken coming soon.
