• IMWave Serves 2 Billion Ads on Google!

    We announced at IMWave today that we have officially served over 2 Billion ads on Google Adwords since starting the company.

    Now, that’s nothing compared to the 100 billion hamburgers McDonald’s has served, but not to shabby for an Paid Search Super Affiliate!

    We have been focused on running paid search campaigns for our affiliate merchant partners since 2004.

    In addition to showing 2 Billion ads via Google Adwords, we have generated approximately 25 million visits to our merchant partner’s sites from these ads, and spent over $2.5 million with Google.

    I can only imagine what that equates to in total sales volume for our affiliate partners.  I know in 2005 alone, we figured out that we had generated over $15 Million in sales for our partners and that was before we really started ramping up!

  • Jumping on the Deep Linking Bandwagon

    Attention Affiliate Managers.

    If you haven’t read this blog post from our good friend, Scott Jangro, then you should take a moment to go trough it.  Deep Linking is so important for top affiliates, if you don’t have it, don’t expect great results!

    "Virtually every affiliate network supports deep linking in some manner, though not all merchants allow it."

    Do you support deep linking in your program???

  • Politics and PPC Ads

    In November of 2006, I was looking to see who to vote for in our local elections in Virginia, and thought I would see if any of the candidates were doing any PPC advertising.  See my post on Goyami in 2006.  The post was picked up by noted political blogger Howard Mortman on ExtreemeMortman.com

    So here we are, 2 years later, coming up on the 2008 presidential election, and how are our candidates doing?  Here is the search for presidental election on Google.

    Here are the ads I see:

    US Elections 2008
    Be Informed About US Politics
    The Republican National Convention
    www.GOPConvention2008.com

    Learn About 2008 Election
    Who is your candidate?
    Watch GenGage Candidate Videos.
    www.GenerationEngage.org

    The 2008 US Election
    Your Source For Political News And
    Insightful Opinion – 30 Days Free!
    www.WashingtonTimes.com

    Reston, VAReal Politics Real People
    Debate the issues and run your
    campaign at U4prez.com
    www.u4prez.com

    Presidential Election
    Shaping A Generation of Globally
    Conscious Leaders For Our World
    www.AIDemocracy.org

    ’08 Election Podcasts
    Unique in-depth election coverage
    from the Public Radio Exchange
    08c.conversationsnetwork.org

    What’s Your Earth Impact?
    Reduce your Carbon Footprint
    Get Your EarthLab ECP Score Now!
    www.EarthLab.com

    Get to Know Barack Obama
    Learn more about Senator Obama at
    campaign events: Register Online
    BarackObama.com

    It looks like paid search advertising has caught on a bit.  The GOP is at the top, and Barack is at the bottom.  I wonder if that is how the election results will turn out?

    And as of today a search for "president" only pulls up the GOP ad.

  • Can an Affiliate Manager Really Know Nothing about Affilate Marketing?

    Last week I had an email conversation with an affiliate manager and just had to post it verbatim for your reading pleasure.  I left in all the typos and spelling errors just for fun. Oh and I omitted the names, too.  I’m not that cold 😉 

    — Original Message Separator —

    Hey Tony,

    I emailed you last week and still havent heard back from you.

    I was going through our list of Publishers to verify our the placement of our banners on thier sites. Can you please direct me to where our banner is on your site?

    Thanks

    Affiliate Manager

    — Original Message Separator —

    Affiliate Manager,

    We typically get hundreds of emails through the CJ Mail, and aren’t able to respond to all, so please feel free to email directly at <email address>.

    As to your question, we are a Paid Search Affiliate. We generate traffic via paid search and not via banner placement.

    Tony

    — Original Message Separator —

    Hey Tony,

    Thanks for your email. Can you send me a link so I can go through the steps that a customer would to go through you and get to us to make a purchase?

    Thanks

    Affiliate Manager

    — Original Message Separator —

    Affiliate Manager,

    My apologies, I did not explain our process very well.  I cannot ‘show’ you a link.  We purchase paid search ads in Google, Yahoo and MSN then create ad copy that links back to our merchant partners.  Once they click on the link in the ad, they are taken immediately to your site where they complete the transaction.   

    Tony

    — Original Message Separator —

    Hey Tony,

    Thank you for your quick response. So what can I type to search for in Google, Yahoo, and MSN and what would be what I see of yours coming into play from a customer pespective as a means to getting to our site.

    Thanks again

    Affiliate Manager

    — Original Message Separator —

    Affiliate Manager,

    As a company policy I cannot give out the keywords that we use.  The value that a PPC advertiser brings to the table is our ability to create keyword lists and ad copy that converts.  If we share that info, our value is lost.  Is there something specific that you are concerned with?

    Tony

    — Original Message Separator —

    Hey Tony,

    Thank you again for your response. We are in the process of refining our list of publishers so as to filter out those that would be recieving commissions on orders that we would normally get paid the full amount of the sale on. All I am asking is to see how your company is driving sales for us so we can intern get you more commissions paid. The easiest way I can see to do that is going the route of the customer and experiencing how, first hand, I would get to my own site by the means of your business. Do you have any other suggestions on how this can be communicated?  Also, the way we are set up through Commission Junction, is not pay per click, it is pay per order. Im not sure if that helps or not.

    Thanks again

    Affiliate Manager

    — Original Message Separator —

    Affiliate Manager,

    It sounds like you may not really understand your publishers and honestly it also sounds like you are looking for ways to take these sales in house rather than paying publishers, which is precisely why I won’t give out my keywords.

    We have only produced $70 this year to date in commissions from your program so honestly the opportunity isn’t worth the time to get into a discussion on the value of PPC affiliates.  We will just stop promoting the program immediately.

    Tony

    So, in review… first we have a situation where the affiliate manager obviously does not know their publishers, does not know anything about Paid Search or what value a PPC affiliate can bring to their program.

     

    Second, the merchant is trolling for ways to cut publishers out of the loop in general.   Why don’t Search Affiliates give out their converting keywords?  The value of the PPC affiliate is that they can create a list converting keywords that you didn’t come up with on your own.

     

    Lesson 1: Whether your business is Affiliate Marketing, Performance Marketing or really any other on or off-line business, you really should understand your industry especially before you contact your partners.

    Lesson 2: There will always be partners who believe they are paying affiliates for sales they would have generated on their own and are looking for ways to cut the affiliates out.  This is a slippery slope and in my mind the downfall of any good affiliate program.

  • Some affiliate managers really know how to get you motivated…..

    I received this message today via email from an affiliate manager:

    Due to lack of sales this year we are lowering your commission payout to the default payout of $45. We’ve only seen XX clicks from your site and XX sales for the entire year. We want to help you succeed, so if there is anything we can do to help kick start your site, please let me know! If you make more than 10 sales in a month I can again up your pay to $55, and if you make more than 50 sales in a month, I will up your pay to $65.

    Please let me know if there is anything we can do to get your program back up and running!

    Now, I may not be the most motivational guy in the world, but isn’t this a little backwards?  We sign on to many programs and sometimes it takes a little longer to get them going, or in some cases, we test them and they don’t gain any traction, so we put them on the shelf and test again later.

    Either way, is sending a message that you are lowering my commission rate a way to get an affilaite motivated to pick up the program and run with it again?  I’m particularly fond of the last line:

    Please let me know if there is anything we can do to get your program back up and running!

    I have found that the best programs that we have are ones where we have open communication from either the OPM or the Affilaite Manager.  one where we can have an ongoing dialogue about the program and how to make it better.  In my humble opinion, these kinds of form emails do not go very far to build long term lasting relationships.

  • Scott Richter on YouTube

    I first met Scott Richter at Affiliate Summit West in Vegas last year when Shawn auctioned off dinner with me at the event (see article / and this one).  We had an interesting dinner, and although we haven’t worked with Scott or his network, I found Scott to be very engaging and interesting. 

    I recently came across this article on DomainNameWire.com, and it had this YouTube Video from the Daily Show.  It’s a very funny video.

    Gotta love media reporters…  We wish you the best Scott!

  • Summer Olympics

    The Summer Olympics are almost here.  I have started playing around with Magnify.net for my Summer-Olympics.tv domain:

    Anyone else doing anything interesting with the Summer Olympics?

    Adam

  • New York Affiliates and the Tax Man

    Eliot Spitzer

    I am sure most of you are well aware of the new NY Tax courtesy of Eliot Spitzer.  ABestWeb has setup NYAffiliates.com where they are listing all of the Merchants who have dropped New York Affiliates from their programs, along with the communications sent to affiliates.

    As of this blog post, here is the list of merchants who have dropped New York based affiliates from their program:

    4Checks (Shareasale) temporarily deactivating NY affiliates
    Acorn Media (Linkshare)
    Amerimark (Linkshare)
    Baby Universe (Linkshare)
    Backcountry.com (CJ, Avantlink)
    Binoculars.com (CJ)
    Bodybuilding.com (CJ)
    CCVideo (Linkshare)
    Celebrate Express (Shareasale)
    Checks In The Mail (CJ)
    Checks Unlimited (Shareasale)
    Collectors’ Choice Music (Affiliate Future)
    Compact Appliance (CJ)
    CSN Stores (Shareasale)
    Deep Discount (Affiliate Future)
    DVD Planet (CJ)
    Eastwood Company (CJ)
    eToys (Linkshare)
    Fingerhut (Linkshare)
    Footsmart (CJ, Performics)
    Gaiam.com (Linkshare)
    Geeks.com (CJ)
    Jewelry Television (CJ)
    Karmaloop (Linkshare)
    KB Toys (Linkshare)
    LampsPlus (Linkshare)
    Leaps And Bounds (Performics)
    LinenSource (Linkshare)
    Luggage.com (Shareasale)
    Musicians Friend (CJ)
    MyTwinn (Linkshare)
    NetShops
    Northern Tool (CJ)
    One Step Ahead (Performics)
    OnlineShoes.com (Linkshare)
    Oriental Trading (Linkshare)
    Overstock (Linkshare)
    Palo Alto Software (Independent)
    Red Envelope (Performics)
    ReStock It (CJ, Shareasale)
    Ritz Camera (CJ)
    ShopNBC (Linkshare)
    Silhouettes (CJ)
    Spilsbury (Affiliate Future)
    Thompson Cigars (Linkshare)
    uBid.com (CJ)

    Does anyone out there in wiseaff land know of any large NY based super-affiliates and how they are doing?

    Related articles
    Zemanta Pixie

  • Wiseaff T-Shirt Shop

    Looking for some fun Affiliate T-Shirts?  We just launched the Wiseaff T-Shirt Shop! 

    Are you as Smart Aff?  Super Aff?  Hot Aff? Sexy Aff?  Show your pride!

    Visit the Wiseaff T-Shirt Shop Today @ Shop.Wiseaff.com

  • Wiseaff Community Features

    We have updated Wiseaff.com a bit to add some community features from MyBloglog and Bumpzee.  Any others we should consider?