eBay Dumps Commission Junction
eBay published a press release, portions of which are reprinted below:
SAN JOSE, Calif.,– March 17, 2008 – Today eBay unveiled the eBay Partner Network, a new global affiliate program for publishers driving traffic to eBay. Officially launching on April 1st, 2008, the eBay Partner Network will be eBay’s new in-house affiliate network, designed to more fully align the programs across eBay’s global properties and give affiliates expanded access to revenue opportunities across its platforms.
and…
As part of the move to an in-house affiliate network, eBay and Half.com will no longer run their affiliate programs through ValueClick’s Commission Junction platform. eBay’s Tradera AB, ProStores, Inc, Reseller Marketplace, Media Marketplace, eBay Stores and StubHub will not be affected and will continue their relationship with Commission Junction. eBay affiliates working with other platforms including, Affilinet and TradeDoubler will not be affected.
Affected eBay and Half.com affiliates will be required to move their affiliate links over to the eBay Partner Network by May 1st, 2008. eBay will continue its valued partnership with ValueClick’s technology division, Mediaplex, for ad serving, tracking and other custom projects. More information on the transition process for eBay affiliates, as well as the eBay programs affected, can be found at http://affiliates.ebay.com.
While this is great news for the scores of affiliates who hate Commission Junction and particularly its tracking system, a number of affiliates who are using BANS (Build a Niche Store) are expressing concern on ShoeMoney’s blog over the change.
Although I have yet to hear anything from Kelvin, the BANS developer, I trust he’ll get a new version out in time. Just to be sure, I’ll pop him a note and report back on what he says… will need to make some changes to my own BANS installation over at Roamsters.com.
In the meantime, to learn more about BANS, check out this blog post - How to Easily Add eBay Listings to Your Site.
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Where to Place Affiliate Links for Increased Backend Sales
In the following video I discuss where you should (and should not) place affiliate links for increased backend sales. Enjoy!
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Amazon’s Video Widget for Affiliates
I just checked out Amazon’s video widget and it’s a piece of cake to use. Once you’re in the Amazon affiliate interface, you just:
- Click on Build Links/Widgets
- Click on ‘Add to Your Web Page’ under Your Video Widget
- Click on Upload a Video
- Browse and Select a video to upload from your computer
- Agree to the Terms
- Give Your Video Widget a title
- Upload the Video and wait for it to process (Refresh the page to check the processing status)
- Play the Video and Click on Add Product at the point you wish to insert the popup
- Enter the name of the product you wish to insert
- Click on the Add Product button beside the product
- Save and preview your video
- Grab the code and embed it on your site
In the example below, I added a book called The Ultimate Guide to Spas and Hot Tubs : Troubleshooting and Tricks of the Trade
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Brian Gardner’s Revolution Affiliate Contest
Brian Gardner, developer of the Revolution themes for Wordpress is holding a contest for his affiliates in March.
If you’re not familiar with Brian’s work, I run his Revolution News theme on my travel blog and it was the theme chosen for a blog coaching club that we’re doing now.
Other themes include the original Revolution, as well as Revolution Pro Business, Magazine, Tech and Sports. Most of the themes sell for between $79.95 for a single user licence and $199.95 for a developer’s license and affiliates earn 25%.
The most expensive product he sells is the Revolution All-Inclusive Developer Package for $399.95. It is for webmasters who want to create sites using any of Brians 6 Revolution themes. You will also receive any future Revolution themes as well. With the purchase of this package, you can use any of the themes as many times as you wish.
The March Revolution Affiliate Contest has some pretty nifty prizes including:
- A 4-night Bahama cruise for two plus $500 cash
- Samsung 19″ Flat-Panel HDTV, Revolution All-Inclusive Package or $500 cash
- $250 cash or a Gift Certificate to your favorite online retailer
The contest began on March 1st and goes until midnight on March 31st. To qualify you must
be one of the top 3 sales generating Revolution affiliates during that timeframe and link to contest details from your blog — which, take note, is a very smart traffic generation strategy on Brian’s part!
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Chitika Releases Related Product Unit (RPU)
Chitika’s wide selection of ad units got just a little bigger a few days ago, when Chitika announced that it has released its Related Product Unit (RPU) to all its publishers.
The RPU is designed to work exclusively with blogs and news article sites and is a text link format that integrates right in to your content.
According to Chitika, Beta testers of the unit ‘experienced overall revenue increases and enjoyed it’s complete customization features‘. They also state that their publishers ‘love this ad unit because it doesn’t “look” like an ad‘.
You decide. Check out the example at the bottom of this post. Shown is the standard related product unit. Title, text, background and font colors can be customized to match the look and feel of your site. You can also remove the bullets and add channel tracking or an alternate URL.
Chitika ad units include eMiniMalls (as well as one specifically for Facebook), ShopCloud$, Owna, ShopLinc-Linx and now the RPU code.
If you are not yet a Chitika publisher, you can sign up with Chitika to access their interactive CPC ad units.
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Jason Calacanis Offends Affiliates during Keynote Speech
After reading a number of posts by bloggers who were incensed and/or infuriated by Jason Calacanis’ keynote at the most recent Affiliate Summit, I listened to his speech on Webmaster Radio, and am convinced that the offended affiliate bloggers completely missed the point.
First of all, Jason is known for having a controversial approach and can be (in his own words) “aggressive” as a speaker. Indeed, he comes across as arrogant, especially when he not only mocks Zac Johnson for posting a pic of his 100K+ check but belabors the point about 100K being small potatoes in the circles in which he himself runs. That part of the speech was a complete yawn. During the later question and answer period Jason says that he thinks the practice is “uncouth” and nothing more than a way to make “poor people” buy into a get rich quick or “ponzi” scheme. Obviously, having posted my own earnings, I disagree with his rationale - but I do get the point.
From the outside looking in, that’s the first impression that most people have of affiliate marketers and affiliate marketing - and it sucks.
The problem isn’t with folks like Zac, Shoemoney, myself and the others who do our best to help others succeed in the business of affiliate marketing by writing copious amounts of good “how-to” information in addition to posting pics of our earnings.
The problem is an endless legion of spammers that try to get rich quick on the backs of people who still believe in the ‘get rich quick’ fairy godmother. The problem is autobloggers, autoDiggers, copyright infringers and other crap site generation specialists who spend their days heaping useless junk on Internet users - and the responsible parties / higher authorities who don’t do much to either clean up the mess or prevent the pollution in the first place.
What’s the solution?
Jason encourages affiliates to think bigger - MUCH bigger - suggesting that many in the community have the stuff that it takes to produce the next StumbleUpon or Facebook. I agree wholeheartedly and have spoken often and at length about the need for affiliates to employ sustainable business practices if they are to succeed in the long-term.
However, if in the process of building a high-quality site and loyal customer relationships, you find that you are completely content while earning a decent income and working only 10 or so hours a week - enjoy! Remember, those who scorn a healthy work-life balance are just jealous.
Your thoughts?
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adCenter Affiliate Program to Close February 29, 2008
Hmmm… while scanning my Eudora for information about Microsoft’s adCenter affiliate program, I found this notice - sent February 20th - in the trash bin.
…Unfortunately, the adCenter offer will no longer be available after February 29th, 2008.
Any banner or text ads that you currently have placed and are receiving traffic will still be eligible for payout through February 29th. However, any traffic after this date will no longer be eligible for the coupon or commission payout. As of today, February 20th, no new marketing material will be available to current affiliates and new affiliates will not be able to sign up for the offer.
Final commission payout for any activity through the end of February will be processed and paid out in the month of March as usual. Please be sure to remove all marketing materials associated with this offer from placement by February 29th as you will no longer receive credit for this activity.
Although that’s definitely a bummer for affiliates who found adCenter’s offer lucrative (it offered $50 in free clicks to those who opened an adCenter account), I’m personally delighted to have found the notice before I ended up sending my visitors to a “Sorry, that offer is no longer valid” page, which happens way more often than I care to admit.
Anyway, for those affiliates who promote to online marketers, there’s still the Yahoo! Search Marketing offer through CJ that pays $30 when your customer signs up for either a new Self Serve or Assisted Setup Account. They get a $25 credit on signup too.
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Click2Sell: Clickbank Has Some Competition
Have you heard about Click2Sell, the new online marketplace that has positioned itself as a direct competitor to Clickbank and Paydotcom?
While chatting with one of Click2Sell’s owners, Vytis, I learned that the Click2Sell group really took Clickbank merchant and affiliate complaints into account and built a much-improved marketplace and affiliate network.
Unlike Clickbank, Click2Sell permits the sale of physical products (as well as digital goods and subscriptions) and does not charge its vendors a set-up fee. Better still, managers can track and control affiliate activities - meaning that they can actually communicate with their affiliates.
Wow! WHAT a concept!
So impressed was I about Click2Sell’s features, that I wrote a review that includes a fairly exhaustive list of Click2Sell’s major features and benefits called Click2Sell Review: Clickbank Has Some Competition.
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Clickbank Offers International Direct Deposit
I received an email yesterday announcing that Clickbank is making International Direct Deposit (XACH) payments available. I had to look at the email several times before I realized that it wasn’t a scam.
Here is a snippet from that notice:
You are receiving this e-mail to inform you that ClickBank has a new method available to provide payment to you on your ClickBank account(s). ClickBank is pleased to offer a new service, International Direct Deposit (XACH), for direct deposit of your ClickBank account payments! XACH offers a fast and reliable method for direct deposit of your account payments in your local currency. Best of all, XACH is offered at no extra charge, including conversion to your home currency which is done at published market rates.
The benefit to XACH payments is that they are sent on the same day that checks are normally sent out - either the 1st or 15th of the month - and Clickbank advises that it typically takes “1-2 days for Canada, 2-3 days for Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, The Netherlands, and New Zealand, 3-4 days for Austria, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and 4-5 days for Spain” - or considerably faster than by snail mail.
If you are a Clickbank affiliate, check your mail for this notice. It includes information on how to contact them to arrange interational direct deposits by either phone or through the website.
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Interview: Converting Visitors to Revenue
Wendy Piersall, of Emoms at Home, posted an interview to her blog this morning that she and I did for her “Converting Visitors to Revenue” series. Other participants in the series (so far) include Jim Kukral of The Daily Flip and Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.
The 3 questions Wendy asked me were:
- Rosalind, you have been affiliate marketing for a long time, and the internet has changed pretty drastically in that time. How have your conversions changed over the years, and what is the most important lesson you have learned in that time about getting things to convert and keeping them converting for longer periods of time?
- When you launch a promotion, new product or service now, what are some of the things you do every single time to ensure that your chances of getting the sales are the highest possible?
- If you were a blogger with an excellently written article/review with affiliate links in the post, how would you go about promoting that post?
You may read my answers at “The Converting Visitors to Revenue Interview Series :: Rosalind Gardner, Net Profits Today“. And while you’re there, be sure to note Wendy’s comments about the Super Affiliate Handbook.
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