Experience Advertising, a leader in outsourced affiliate program management, has announced their 2011 Holiday Affiliate Marketing Sales Contests. Every year, Experience Advertising’s clients award exciting prizes and cash bonuses to affiliate marketers that win in their sales contests. This year, Experience Advertising is awarding prizes including Amazon Kindle Fires, brand-new luxury watches, and cash bonuses to their affiliate contest winners.
Chastidi Correa, Director of Business Development for Experience Advertising states, “We love to run affiliate sales contests because all of our affiliates get pumped up to win great prizes. We like to award prizes not only for the top affiliate producers, but to the most improved affiliates and best new affiliates in our programs. This way, a more diverse base of affiliate marketers are able to win in our contests and everyone feels like they have a chance to win just by producing 1 sale in the contest period. Running exciting contests with guaranteed prizes is another aspect that sets Experience Advertising apart from other affiliate agencies and OPMs. Our affiliates know that our clients value their affiliates and are willing to spend money on fabulous prizes without any conditions upon winning. We regularly get feedback from affiliates that our contests set us apart from other agencies managing affiliate programs.”
Experience Advertising states that running affiliate sales contests makes it fun and exciting for affiliates and always results in increased traffic and sales volume during the contest period and beyond. “What we see is a marked boosted in affiliate participation, traffic, and sales production when running affiliate contests for our clients. And our affiliates really enjoy the competition aspect and of course love to get their contest winnings” says Correa.
Affiliate marketers have a tremendous amount of choice when it comes to deciding where to focus their affiliate marketing efforts. Experience Advertising maintains that running compelling affiliate contests is a great way to concentrate focus of the overall affiliate community on their managed affiliate programs. It is a key element in their efforts to grow their affiliate programs by increasing affiliate participation across the board and building affiliate loyalty for their clients.
Here are the companies participating in the Experience Advertising 2011 Holiday Affiliate Sales Contest:
When looking to launch an affiliate program for your company or gain additional affiliate distribution for your offer, there are a multitude of options to consider. Everyone wants to grow a large, productive affiliate program for their company, but cutting through the misconceptions can be difficult for many companies. I will discuss the affiliate network options you have for your company and what I think is a good strategy to pursure in order to grow your affiliate marketing efforts as quickly as possible.
The first place to consider setting up your affiliate program is with one of the “major” affiliate networks like Commission Junction, Linkshare, Shareasale, and the Google Affiliate Network. The nice thing about the major networks is you have complete publisher transparency, i.e. you know who your affiliates are and how they generally promote affiliate programs. Most networks also provide referring url data so you know where the traffic is coming from, which is good if you are concerned with controling the quality of sites promoting your company or offer. My personal favorite affiliate network is Commission Junction (CJ) for a few reasons. CJ has a great tracking platform that has been quite reliable over the years. CJ has a wealth of diverse “affiliate/publishers” you can prospect from in their database, allowing you the ability to send recruiting emails to particular countries and categories of affiliates. They have a great email system, that allows you to send newsletters and promotions to your affiliate base without cost, and the deliverability is good. CJ also allows you to recruit affiliates into the program by sending them “pending offers” to join your program which they may or may not accept, but the option to do this is great. The other major affiliate networks do have good affiliates and good systems, I have just personally found that CJ is on it’s own higher level of publisher quality and platform consistency. All companies that are serious about growing a large, productive affiliate program, over-time, should launch on CJ and possibly 1 or 2 other major networks, but you have to really watch duplication of order IDs across networks when you run on multiple affiliate networks.
Companies with an “offer” that pays a flat fee or engaging in lead generation may want to consider “CPA Networks” or cost-per-acquisition affiliate networks. One of the issues with CPA networks is that they don’t give you that publisher transparency to know and interact with all of your affiliate-publishers personally. This is fine for some companies with CPA offers, but most medium to large size companies and ecommerce companies tend to shy away from CPA Networks due to the fact that you can’t work with your affiliate base personally or send newsletters promoting deals. However, some companies don’t mind this as long as the network is producing good sales or leads, so CPA Networks do work well for certain companies.
The 3rd option is running your own private affiliate network. Operating your own affiliate network can be a great idea because you can recruit affiliate partners directly and work with them one-on-one because you get their phone number and other contact information. Private networks don’t inherently have any affiliates, so you have to mobilize a force to recruit good affiliate partners through a lot of outreach to relavant websites and blogs. I recommend HasOffers.com for running your own private network because they are reliable, feature-rich, and extremely cost-effective (starting at $99/month). HasOffers allows your affiliate partners the ability to log-in and check their stats at any time in a nice interface. It also holds unlimited offers so you can operate with 1 offer or 100s of offers in your private network. I usually recommend operating a private affiliate network in conjunction with a program on a major affiliate network for the best results.
Regardless of where you grow your affiliate channel you need to have competent, pro-active affiliate managers minding the fort. If you launch in a major network without good affiliate management your program may not grow at all and seriously disappoint you. There are a few options for managing your affiliates, i.e. in-house managers, outsourced managers, or hiring an affiliate manager from the affiliate industry. In-house managers can be good if they know what they are doing and have some experience with the affiliate landscape, otherwise they won’t know how to handle issues and you may get burned by fraud if they aren’t watching it closely enough. Outsourced affiliate managers can be a great option if you use the right company with connections and good strategies for growing the program. Hiring an experience affiliate manager can be a good idea if you hire the right person that doesn’t have too many preconceived bad ideas about how to manager you affiliates. Whomever you use to manager your affiliates, make sure they are experience in web promotion, HTML, and SEO. Also they should be really nice, friendly, and a good social networker, so they can build great partnerships with your affiliate base.
All and all, launching and running an affiliate program on an affiliate network is a great idea for most companies. Keep your expectations in check and plan to grow it year over year strategically. Don’t be afraid to invest into your affiliate program by launching on major networks, running contests, bonusing producers, and other promotions to create excitement among your affiliates so they try to promte the company moreso. Running an affiliate program should be a fun and exciting endeavour that grows over time through the right management strategies and principles. It can be a very profitable channel for companies with little risk because everything is on a performance basis. Now get out there and launch your affiliate program!
Are you looking for a great performing pet niche affiliate program? You have to check out PetFlow.com on the Commission Junction affiliate network. PetFlow is a great company that specializes in quality, affordable pet food delivery. PetFlow was designed to address the needs of people on the go and people that don’t want to hassle with schlepping pet food from the grocery store or pet store. It’s also a great idea to keep your pets on the same quality food that they are accustomed to because it’s not good to keep changing you pets food. When you are looking for a really great performing pet niche affiliate program you have to check out PetFlow on the CJ.com Affiliate Network!
Many ecommerce and lead generation companies want to launch affiliate programs to increase their online exposure and generate traffic and sales to their site. There is quite a bit to successfully launching and managing an affiliate program properly and with the right affiliate network. Companies need to have the right combination of a well-performing website, good affiliate management, effective banner ads (creatives), and a relatively in-demand product/niche in order to develop a truly effective affiliate program for their website. If all of these components are in place, then any company or website and have a large, productive affiliate program over time.
Many companies or websites are eager to get into the affiliate marking channel but often times don’t have a well-performing website yet. Improving your company’s website conversion rates is absolutely essential to having a successful affiliate program because otherwise your affiliates won’t make enough commissions to keep them happy and will get disinterested and go elsewhere looking for better conversion rates. Tools like Optimizely.com have been engineered to improve a website’s conversion rate and should be employed to better a website’s conversion metrics prior to launching the affiliate program to give it the best possible chance to succeed.
Have good affiliate management in place is also absolutely essential to running a successful affiliate program and shouldn’t be taking lightly at all. Companies can use an internal staff person to manage the program, hire an outsourced affiliate management agency, or use no one at all, which is never a good idea. If you use an internal company person they should have the knowledge and experience to work with your new affiliates to make sure they can successfully promote the program. Outsourced affiliate managers can be good if you use the right company with the right amount of experience, connections with super-affiliates, and great strategy. Hiring an affiliate manager from another company can be a good idea if it’s the right person, but often times people coming from other companies have their own view of how an affiliate program should be managed and this may or may not be an effective way of them handling it. So you really have to vet the person to make sure they are right to run your program.
Having effective banner ads or “creatives” is essential to ensure you get the right amount of click-thoughs and have a good “CTR” or click-through-rate. Many companies will design promotional codes or coupon codes into their banner ads in order to incentivize the visitor to purchase, which can be a good strategy. Basically there are animated gif and flash banners that can be used with the various affiliate networks to promote your affiliate program. Various ad styles and copy should be tested to see which performs best. Banner ads can be seasonal, in that they reflect holidays and other times of year that would correspond to a good promotion.
Have an in-demand product or niche can be important to running a successful affiliate program because if the niche is too small it’s likely that the program just won’t get enough push or exposure because people just aren’t search enough for those products or services. B to C affiliate programs tend to perform better and grow quicker than B to B affiliate programs because there tends to be more demand for a B to C program or service.
All and all, running a successful affiliate program is very doable if you have the right key elements in place. Have great affiliate managers in place is probably one of the most important aspects. Have a good performing website is essential to converting well enough for affiliate or make money and you should have a good amount so it’s lucrative for your affiliates. Good luck launching and growing and launching your affiliate program.
Affiliate management that provides lucrative results helps both advertisers and publisher/affiliates looking for new and innovative ways to earn and produce. Outsourcing the management of your affiliate program to online affiliate networks, such as Commission Junction, can provide these types of lofty results when managed properly.
Commission Junction is a global leader in the online advertising channels of affiliate marketing and managed research. Blending quality results with a focus on developing sustainable relationships, Commission Junction delivers superior service through performance-based solutions.
Advertisers can rely on Commission Junction to provide extended reach by partnering your company with an array of affiliate publishers that is unmatched through CJU’s productive and ever-expanding network of publishers. Increase your sales through customized programs that offer a fully managed and integrated search engine marketing solution.
Unique solutions include CJ Access, a self-service solution that provides small and medium sized advertisers access to a global network of publishers, educational resources and creative options. CJ Vantage, a strategic based initiative, offers support and guidance to larger firms by creating road map to reaching the most lucrative and successful solutions possible. Hands on, and thorough, CJ Vantage is a full service program that is built around ensuring your company’s success.
Publishers can count on maximized profit potential by joining with and creating sustainable relationships with top advertisers. Performance leads to high premiums—get paid for every sale and lead you generate. Qualifying publishers can take their affiliate programs to the next level with industry solutions exclusively provided by Commission Junction. CJU commitment to long-term excellence is the priority for Commission Junction and its unparalleled network of publishers.
Joining forces with Commission Junction gives advertisers and publishers access to a variety of learning opportunities to increase your knowledge in the fresh, innovative solutions being used to streamline affiliate programs and to maximize success. Commission Junction University is a conference where clients can spend three days networking, listening and learning about new strategies and insights on the affiliate industry. The 2010 CJ University will be held September 21-23 in Santa Barbara, California.
Commission Junction also offers Webinars outlining issues that affect the affiliate industry and, ultimately, your business. CJU offers these webinars for both advertisers and publishers and can be accessed at your convenience. Advertisers and publishers alike can stay connected to their business while taking time to learn new about new strategies and takes on important issues.
CJ is a great place to launch your affiliate program, however make sure to use a good outsourced affiliate management company, like Experience Advertising, otherwise results can be less than desirable.
Are you looking for a great performing affiliate program in the children’s home fitness and exercise niche? KidsHomeFitness (aka Karate Kids Home Fitness) has just launched their affiliate program on the Commission Junction affiliate network. KidsHomeFitness was designed and developed by Robert Tallack, a world-class martial-arts champion, to address the need for good, fun, consistent exercise in the family home for kids. Their affiliate program caters to the kids, parenting, family, home, children, and exercise niches very well. If you are interested in becoming a publisher/affiliate for the KidsHomeFitness affiliate program you can apply through your CJ.com account, or new affiliates to CJ can apply here: https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchantid=2904314.
TopSeos.com, an independent Digital Agency review website, has ranked Experience Advertising the #1 ranked affiliate marketing company for the 5th month in a row. Experience Advertising, focuses on managing and growing affiliate programs for both large and small Advertisers primarily on the Commission Junction affiliate network, as well as Shareasale and the Google affiliate network. They are an OPM, or outsourced program managers, for dozens of Advertisers on the CJ.com network. Experience Advertising manages cost-per-sale and cost-per-lead campaigns on behalf of their clients, focusing on one-on-one affiliate management to gain the most affiliate participation possible. They specialize in recruiting affiliates into their affiliate programs through proven affiliate recruitment methods such as: cross-recruiting, site contacting, and email-based invites sent through the affiliate network. If you are looking for the best performing affiliate program management company, then you should definitely check out Experience Advertising, you can view a list of their current affiliate programs under management here.
Commission Junction, or CJ, is the largest of the major affiliate networks out there. If you are looking to launch a new affiliate program on CJ, or currently have one, it’s imperative that you have good affiliate managers in place. Merely having a program live on CJ is not enough to guarantee your affiliate program will perform like it should. You need excellent affiliate management in place to work with the affiliates and make sure their every need is taken care of. Proactive affiliate management is the best way to increase the affiliate participation level in the program, and therefore the revenue it produces. Having knowledgeable affiliate management help to increase sales because more affiliates have a chance of producing, once worked with. Make sure to have really good affiliate management in place when you run a CJ program to ensure your affiliate program will reach its fullest potential!
Commission Junction is probably the largest and longest established affiliate network there is. Commission Junction works on a pruely CPA or cost-per-action basis, usually on a per sale or per lead basis depending on the advertiser. CJ in my opinion is the most powerful affiliate network due to their tremendous database of affiliates and publishers that comprise the network. When you launch an affiliate program on Commission Junction you will get a great burst of affiliate sign-ups in the first few weeks. These new affiliate applications needs to be review and either accepted or denied based on they type of affiliate the merchant is looking for. It’s the job of the affiliate managers to work with the affiliates that do sign-up by contacting them to provide: tools, coaching, resources, banners and whatever else they may need. Having good affiliate program management in place is essential to growing your new affiliate program properly. If you just launch a program and expect it to grow on it’s own, you will likely be disappointed. However with good, proactive affiliate management in place you can really build a great revenue channel on Commission Junction. I think CJ’s strengths are in their affiliate base and their tracking. It’s vital to have good affiliate tracking in place to ensure affiliates are getting credited for their sales or leads. CJ has a very diverse affiliate base with everything from bloggers to large web properties. I highly recommend using Commission Junction as your affiliate network of choice. If you would like to discuss either affiliate management or affiliate recruitment please let us know.
Commission Junction Affiliate Network put out a nice little video on the reasons to attend CJU. The video features some attendees talking about why they liked it. This year should be a great event, with lots of great people to meet, interact, and do business with. Here is the video:
Are you going to CJU? Well you should! It’s a really great experience for both affiliates and merchants alike. You can expect to meet a lot of great CJ people and do some phenomenal networking with all tpyes of people in the affiliate world. Commission Junction is a largest and most powerful affiliate network (IMO), so why wouldn’t you attend Commission Junction University. You will learn a great deal about affiliate marketing and the techniques that work. Solidify your knowledge of the affiliate space by attending CJU, you won’t be sorry you did!
Commission Junction is having another webinar in their CJ webinar series. This time it’s focused on an issue that has persisted in the world of online marketing for years: trademark infringement and brand hijacking. Here is the break-down from the CJ website:
Every e-retailer is susceptible to the ever-growing practice of online trademark infringement that occurs when consumers mistype your domain name and are “hijacked” by fraudulent domain owners who make millions. This practice, known as cybersquatting — or typosquatting — costs brand holders millions of dollars each year in lost revenues.
In this Webinar, a domain recovery expert will show you how typosquatters thwart your marketing efforts and what you can do to:
• Protect your brand
• Recover lost revenue
• Prevent misdirection to competitor sites
Join Dave Duckwitz, CEO of CitizenHawk, and Jeff Ransdell, Director of Compliance and Support Operations at Commission Junction, to learn about typosquatting and find out who’s hijacking your brand.
This is a must because most companies are venerable to these types of practices by rogue affiliates and other individuals that would choose to damange a company’s reputation.
[...] by the merchant/ advertiser for ac...- Said
Personal Stress Relief from Economic, Environmental Issues » Blog Archive » The Sterkly Affiliate Network
on 2012-02-29 08:40:18
