Posts Tagged "SurfMyAds.com"

CJU Course: If You Only Knew #CJU2010

Posted on Oct 1, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

Advertisers and publishers each have a unique way of “getting the job done” and often times, neither understands what the other needs to succeed. “If they could just see it from my side…” seems to be a frequent plea. Well, now you can! We’re getting together three advertisers, three publishers, one moderator, and audience feedback to cover all the topics you’d always wished you could. This session took place on September 22, 2010. The panel consisted of:

As you can see, I didn’t catch Cheryl’s last name, so I apologize in advance to Cheryl – especially if her name is spelled wrong!  Overall this was a great session.  It was nice to see both advertisers and publishers tackle the same questions from different sides of the affiliate coin.  None of the panelists promoted their sites, they just used examples that were pertinent to points they were trying to make.

Bullet Point Review!

What are some recommendations on the best way to manage offers and tools to generate quality transactions for everyone?

  • Focus on improving your conversion rate.
  • Make your coupon code box clear & show the savings.
  • Have a really clean Add to Cart product page.
  • Enable deep linking.
  • The most important tool is the communication between advertisers and publishers.  What are the things that advertisers need to give publishers to get the best success.
  • Networks need to put some initiative into getting one sheets from publishers outlining what they want from advertisers.
  • At the end of the day, everyone wants an order placed.
  • Use your CJ account reps to make that connection.Ask for feedback from the publisher account reps.
  • If I continue to be small and not have tools and resources, how do I get those tools and resources?
  • It’s important for advertisers to work with account reps, because it holds more weight if they recommend a program to a publisher instead of a blind pushed offer.
  • Rev-share isn’t as important as showing them the economic value.
  • At the end of the day, the channel is managed by ROI.
  • You have to be open minded because you don’t know where or when you’re going to meet your next big affiliate.

What are some of the challenges you deal with when it comes to advertiser program guidelines and restrictions?

  • You have to talk to the publishers to know what is and isn’t acceptable to help develop your terms and conditions.  You don’t know what you don’t know.
  • This isn’t a playground – we don’t all have to share the ball.  We all have to play by the rules, but there are different rules.  You have to determine what’s going to best grow your program.
  • Mistakes do happen, but reach out because 8 times out of 10 it’s just a miscommunication.
  • If you manage a program & login, and you see that your top affiliate is someone you don’t recognize and you have no idea how they got up to the top, chances are they’re probably doing something wrong.
  • Sometimes it could be an emerging market with a business model you’ve not encountered, so reach out and ask.
  • If you get no response, or a 2 line response that doesn’t make sense, something’s wrong.  Don’t be afraid to ditch the bad people even if they’re you’re top sellers.
  • Be transparent – merchants aren’t going to take your secret sauce and spread it all over the place.

If you could ask for one and only one simple thing from your partner, what would it be?

  • Alexis: An open ear.
  • Yung: Landing page conversion.
  • Tony: Be open to having a conversation and analyzing your business to achieve your goals.
  • Cheryl: Bring new ideas to merchants – they’re open to testing new things & learning.
  • Shawn: Reach out & introduce yourself if you’re new.
  • Mike: Be my partner.

Points brought up during the Q&A

  • Why aren’t there more self-service tools for merchants? It’s tricky – making it self-service is really difficult.  You don’t necessarily get to determine how the publishers use their real estate on their site.  It’s not always what’s in your best interest as an advertiser, it’s what in the combined best interest of the merchant and publisher.

Unfortunately, the conversation was so good amongst the panelists that there wasn’t much time left for questions.  But considering how approachable all the panelists made themselves, I think there was probably considerable opportunity for them to be asked questions 1-on-1 instead of in front of the entire audience.

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Commission Junction University – Day 1

Posted on Sep 17, 2008 in Affiliate Marketing, Career, Conferences & Networking |

I’m down here in lovely Santa Barbara for Commission Junction University, and day one is in the can.  The weather has been nice…although living in California I’m generally used to this weather, but being in the Southern end of the state there’s a distinctly different feel that I can’t quite put my finger on.  But I enjoy it.

I flew from Oakland to Los Angeles on a puddle jumper, and from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara on a pack of gum.  Between flights and layovers and cab rides, I arrived at my motel at 12:15am.  The room is your average motel fare: 70’s floral bedspread, translucent yellow cords on the lamps, inmate furniture.  The room also has a mini fridge, microwave, nicely sized TV, free wifi, and a surprisingly comfortable bed & pillows – not too shabby for $77/night.  This makes me glad I’m staying at a real hotel for Blog World Expo this coming weekend.

Because of the high cost of cab fare ($25+), once I got the conference hotel I didn’t want to leave until the end of the day.  I ran into Lisa Picarille and Wade Tonkin almost immediately in passing after I registered and headed to the first session, which I’ll cover later.  Jeremy Palmer from Quit Your Day Job lead the first “course” as CJU calls them, and Olivier Chaine from Magnify 360 led the second.  On a personal note, I read his name in the program and knew the pronunciation would be something like “o-live-e-ay shayne” and was confused when the emcee pronounced it very phonetically (olive-er chain).  I was disappointed in CJ when Olivier pronounced his own name at the end of his session much like I’d imagined it was properly pronounced…if you’re going to introduce someone, learn how to pronounce their name.

I digress.  Both courses were informative and well done, and I’ll be posting a bullet point review of both later on.  After the courses were done I took a quick break and then headed out to the CJU Expo, a small area of tables nicely held outside under umbrellas that more closely resembled the Meet Market at Affiliate Summit than your typical trade show.  It was mostly merchants and different CJU programs with tables, with the exception of an OPM (Schaaf Consulting), a couple affiliates (SurfMyAds.com), and a table for the Performance Marketing Alliance.

It’s a good thing I saw that PMA table, because  it made it easy to run into some familiar faces in the form of Connie Berg & Brad Waller.  Also was able to say hello to Michael Brucker from RingCentral at their table, one of the organizers of the BAAMC whose quarterly meetings I attend.  (By the way if you’re an affiliate manager with a company in the SF Bay area interested in getting involved and possibly hosting about 20-25 ppl for lunch some day, let Michael know).

After the expo it was zoo time with the welcoming event being held down the street at the Santa Barbara Zoo.  As much as I wanted to go, my phone was practically dead for some reason and my stomach was a bit upset, so I opted to head back to my motel.  Tomorrow is a day full of sessions that look pretty good, and a keynote from Guy Kawasaki…who I think may literally be giving me the nifty orange Alltop shirt off his back afterwards.  More about that if/when it happens 😉

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