ASE09 Session: Keeping Your Affiliate Program Clean
Monday
Aug 24, 2009
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.
Cribbed Content for March 27th
Friday
Mar 27, 2009
The troops are mobilizing and the fight against CA AB 178 is on it’s way. I’ll be doing my part next week, going up to the Capitol in Sacramento to help put a face to the problem for our legislators. This week has just flown by. I can’t believe all the news that’s gone on!
- Last summer I wrote an article about PHP affiliate link masking. This week I was turned on to a more concise way using a jump script.
- Brian Littleton of ShareASale wrote a great post on how you can help re: the #advertisingtax facing California and several other states.
- Jamie Birch said it best on why you should hire an outsourced program manager. So follow his advice and hire me and New Edge Media
- Marketing Pilgrim announced a free webinar on the 31st about social selling and sales in web 2.0. I won’t be able to attend (sad for me) but it’s free so you can totally sit in.
- Speaking of webinars, Commission Junction is webinar happy and just finished up a webinar on coupons yesterday. Evan Weber posted a recap at CostPerNews. They’re hosting another webinar on brand hijacking on April 14th.
- Salesforce.com integrated Twitter results into their data. Very cool.
- Join the Facebook group to help advocate against tax laws affecting your state.
Cribbed Content for October 31st
Friday
Oct 31, 2008
Happy Halloween!
This will be a short & sweet version since I know I have stuff to do to get ready for my Halloween Shenanigans this evening, and I’m sure you do too!
- Jamie Birch wrote a great article for affiliates on his blog titled Why Aren’t They Accepting My Application? I did nod, and I think this is a must read for any affiliate, whether they’re just starting out or have been around for a few years.
- I attended a Marketing Sherpa teleseminar on Email in a Downturn: Looking Ahead to 2009. It was pretty insightful and I recommend checking out the slides for any email marketer.
- Julie Vazquez has been named Blogmistress of Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas. She will be the liaison between the Summit staff and those of us hanging in the bloggers room. Press pass people only, please.
- BlogRush is shutting down. I’m so not surprised, as you’ll remember my break-up with them. Viva la Entrecard!
