2010 IRCE Affiliate Marketing Reception
Featuring cocktails, appetizers, networking, giveaways...and you're invited so save the date!
This year at the 2010 Internet Retailer Conference (on June 10th) there is a meet & greet from 5:30pm-7:30pm, presented by AvantLink.com. This will be a casual networking event for Affiliate marketing professionals, much like our receptions we've put on in the past at Outdoor Retailer.
If you're planning to attend IRCE 2010 in Chicago, please join us. You could win an iPad just for showing up!
RSVP by emailing rsvp@avantlink.com.
Affiliate Technology News Syndication
A clear example of how social media works as a marketing and business tool..
We recently hit our distribution channels hard with mentions of AvantLink Mobile, a new Android phone application for Affiliates and merchants. This Android app allows people to check their Affiliate program stats, and do some other cool things from their smart phones. As you might have guessed, the impact my social media contacts had on further distributing this news was significant.
I spent about an hour in the morning posting the smart phone app news to various channels we have at our disposal like ABestWeb, @AvantLink on Twitter and our network Affiliate marketing blog (not to mention a custom RT @GaryMarcoccia and @GeekArm, etc., which automates to my Facebook status update). By noon quite a few people had re-tweeted the news, and there were even Affiliate bloggers writing it up!
BTW there is an iPhone app available as well, in case you're wondering.
Although I have been dabbling over the last few years, it's been tough to really sink my teeth in fully to social media channels...what with building our Affiliate network from the ground up and all. But now that I'm getting more time to really test and measure the effectiveness of Twitter and Facebook (among others), I'm a believer all the way.
The value of industry peers and contacts advancing your news far exceeds the exposure you get on any one web site...like you didn't already know that 
Good vs. Bad Affiliate Traffic
Despite our rigorous authentication and acceptance processes for our Affiliate network, we periodically bust Affiliates who are sending bad traffic by various unethical tactics. Just the other day I wrote up some specifics on the Affiliate traffic fraud we find periodically. Well last week Scott was dealing with yet another scammer, and he gave us the same old song and dance when asked to disclose traffic driving methods. Apparently his "trade secrets" had been stolen before, so he wasn't about to explain his unorthodox traffic patterns, lack of any referring URLs, and not a single Affiliate link active on any of the sites configured within his account. So by failing to provide transparency, as per our terms of use for Affiliates, we said bye bye to him.
We know how to make an analysis of web traffic that makes it 99.9% probable that Affiliates are using CPV/PPV Networks to drive traffic, as in this case. We have the secret sauce, and the cheaters don't know what that is. And neither will anyone reading this article...
At any rate, during the vetting this individual didn't seem to understand what we meant by "bad traffic", so Scott spelled it out for him in an email. I thought it was worth posting here to help others understand what we believe to be Good vs. Bad traffic:
We would consider "good" traffic to be (but not limited to):
- Sites that visitors come to naturally or through search results, and then click through affiliate links to merchant sites.
- PPC bidding (not on trademarked terms and that follows our network level and merchant level terms and conditions) on search engines to drive traffic through affiliate links.
- Opt-in email campaigns (not SPAM) that drive traffic through affiliate links.
We consider "bad" traffic to be anything not covered by the above, including (but not limited to):
- The use of browser toolbar/add-ons that trigger content including affiliate links to users and as a result intercept the natural click stream of the user.
- Trademark-term PPC bidding and/or any PPC bidding that violates our network level or merchant level terms and conditions.
- Spamdexing, or any attempt to use black hat SEO methods to game the search engine results.
Phones Make Me Sneeze
And it hurts my GeekArm to hold one to my ear. For the most part they are a silly and outdated tool, especially for those of us who spend our time doing web marketing stuff all day. There are two reasons why I prefer email over phones with my day-to-day work @AvantLink, and they are basically the same thing.
- Self-documentation. With a phone call you spend the first ten minutes on small talk, and then by the time it's wrapped up thirty minutes or more have passed. Then (and here's the best part), ten minutes later you can't remember details or a course of action from the call!
- Correspondence history. You can't just say you did something or lie over a digital conversation. Trust me, there are plenty of opportunities in this business to forward a previous correspondence to corroborate your side of a dispute or disagreement.
Of course when it comes down to it, when it's absolutely necessary, I'll get on the phone...kicking and screaming. But I'm not into a scheduled call for the fun of it so don't be surprised if I politely ask: email your questions please. If you have 3-5 questions email them over, I'll answer them one by one. But be warned, for those who insist on a call, don't expect me to ask about the weather.
Pervasive Affiliate Traffic Fraud
How pervasive do you think Affiliate traffic fraud is on the large networks?
I can assure you it's out there, and BIG TIME. Merchants, if a network tells you they have hundreds of thousands of Affiliates you should be scared, not impressed.
I'm damn proud of the job AvantLink is doing to battle Affiliate traffic fraud. For starters, take a look at this article written by our CEO Scott Kalbach: Affiliate Abuse Uncovered in 2009. Keep in mind we're an Affiliate network who does not claim to have "a million plus publishers". That's because...
- We authenticate every application for ownership, and check Affiliate sites against siteadvisor.com and other helpful resources to insure they are above board.
- If the Affiliate doesn't apply with a site that holds value in the form of unique and compelling content and/or services, then we deny. It's that simple. This does NOT exclude the little guys. Show us the goods and you're in!
- We closely monitor any spike in Affiliate traffic and sales, and require full disclosure of traffic driving techniques from Affiliates who fail to send any referrer URLs with clicks. Periodic blank referrers are expected, but not 100% blank referrer data.
Now, if we're finding the crap we find...what is going down in the larger networks who seem to be just fine with letting any and every Affiliate have access so long as they've completed the application?
Mitigating traffic fraud is a constant battle for us as we continue to find perpetrators injecting cookies, spamdexing or otherwise trademark bidding on merchant or brand names. We're committed to a level playing field, despite what that will cost us in terms of immediate revenue.
When busted and questioned about their traffic these Affiliates have packaged responses, as if they were taught how to respond. And they LIE without hesitation. One just told us they were sending traffic via email marketing campaigns exclusively, yet 100% of the clicks came from Internet Explorer. Hmmm...
Unlike some of our competitors, we're proving it with our actions. The long term integrity and sustainability of the cost per sale Affiliate marketing industry is what we're focused on. But unfortunately the companies right now with the most influence in our space are littering the perception and friggin' it up for everyone by looking the other way, or otherwise failing to maintain quality control in the Affiliate traffic moving through their networks.
No company names, but digest this:
Recently a high-profile merchant migrated their Affiliate program to us from a well known and respected network. As you can guess, tons of Affiliates came on board with the migration to continue promoting the merchant...because they crank. So far we've busted several of those Affiliates who migrated with the program on rogue techniques outlined on Scott's article linked to above.
So again, I'll ask: How pervasive do you think Affiliate traffic fraud is on the large networks?
Less is More in 2010
For a long time it was stressed that in the cost per sale Affiliate marketing space more was better. In other words, the more Affiliates you could get on board with your program, the better off you would be. In the year 2000 that may have been the case. In the year 2010, it's definitely not.
This is especially important to realize if you're part of a network that boasts that they have "over a million publishers".
(BTW the term "publishers" referring to Affiliates in and of itself kind of annoys me, but that's for a different rant, on a different day.)
Web retailers, despite what you've been told by sales people for these platforms, a multitude of marginal Affiliates having access to your store means nothing ...but extra work, hard ache and damage to your bottom line; not to mention potential damage to the brand and reputation you've worked so hard to build.
Although you won't get any company names outta me, I'll bet a lot of folks reading this can guess who I'm talking about...and get it right. Some of the largest Affiliate network platforms could care less about a web store's brand. What they do care about is making $$$ for their stakeholders and bloated organizations. So,
- They will look the other way on TONS of rogue Affiliate traffic driving techniques because, frankly, these techniques aren't against the law. This not only steals traffic and sales from legitimate Affiliates, but some of these techniques also effectively trump the web retailer's own internal ad spending and organic rankings...effectively filtering sales through a channel they don't belong to.
- They will look the other way on Trademark Bidding by Affiliates. Which is the practice of driving cheap paid search traffic to retailers by bidding on their names, domain names or trademarks. Apparently (according to some platforms) it's appropriate to leave it up to the merchants to police this activity, even though greater than 9 out of 10 web merchants don't want it happening, and rightly so. In fact, a lot of merchants I talk to are pissed off and disappointed when they figure out this is happening! They feel taken advantage of.
- They will nickel and dime web stores on their networks for everything imaginable. Merchants, want to send out some recruitment offers? Cough up a fee. Want to get featured placement and extra network exposure? Cough up a fee. What, you didn't move $25,000 worth of transactions through the platform this month? Cough up a fee. One way or another, they will get their money.
If you're a quality web retailer looking for a level playing field, value Affiliates and a true partner in this business check out AvantLink. Yep, it's in part my company, my blog, so I'll be plugging our company LOTS. Get over it
Outdoor Retailer Winter 2010
We have two outdoor Affiliate marketing events this Saturday, January 23rd; at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market. They serve different purposes.
First, during the day from noon-1pm, I'm presenting an educational seminar at the SLC Marriott. It's an OR-sanctioned event and the purpose is to introduce direct-to-consumer brands to cost per sale Affiliate marketing. For any outdoor manufacturer/brand with an ecommerce platform selling direct...it's imperative they understand this channel. After all it is the single most cost effective marketing channel available to them online...without a doubt. We have Patagonia on our Affiliate network, and they crank. It's a perfect case study to present.
Intro to Affiliate Marketing (for Outdoor Retailers)
The second event happens in the evening from 5-8pm at the Hilton, directly across from the Salt Palace. This is not a sanctioned OR event. However they had to (and did) approve of it. Apparently Outdoor Retailer owns all of Salt Lake City while they are here twice per year. This event is a reception for Affiliates and merchants in AvantLink, and it will be our second having organized the first this past July.
Outdoor Affiliate Meet & Greet
I'll follow-up with a post after this weekend, and after destroying Utah powder for a couple of days once I wrap both up.
Vegas Shmegas
How's this for my first post @GeekArm? Sitting here in Las Vegas at Affiliate Summit, at the Rio, on Saturday, January 18th 2010 at 9:45pm. Although it was an eventful day of networking and seeing old friends...this place just isn't for me. What with being a country boy and all.
Not to mention the NOISE...literally. The Rio is so damn noisy.
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