JEBCommerce has been working closely with the Zappos team on their affiliate program for some time now. With both excitement and pride, JEBCommerce would like to announce that, in conjuntion with Ned Farra and his team, we are now managing the 6pm.com affiliate program! 6pm.com is your online source for shoes, apparel, and accessories. At 6pm.com, you’ll find great deals on all of your fashion needs at their one-stop shop. From shoes & accessories for an evening out, or gear for jogging, 6pm.com carries what you need for any occasion.

6pm.com is a great site and a great affiliate program. Ned Farra had this to say about the new partnership: “JEB Commerce brings a nice blend of experience and expertise to the table that helps develop and execute strategies to grow our affiliate program. We are excited to have the JEBCommerce team helping us grow the 6pm program.”

The 6pm.com affiliate program is available in Commission Junction. The commission rate is 7% with 120 cookie days. The big plus here is that if you are an affiliate of Zappos and 6pm, you can feel free to send traffic to both sites, knowing that if a user clicks over to the other, you’ll get your comission.

If you haven’t joined this program yet, please login to CJ and apply today. 6pm has almost daily sales and promotions on the site. To keep you up to date as ahead of time as possible, we have launched 6pm on NewsForAffiliates.com. You can read more about the 6pm affiliate program here.

f you have any questions about the program don’t hesitate to contact me directly through the avenues below or at associates@6pm.com.

Jamie Birch
JEBCommerce
208-635-5164
jamie@jebcommerce.com
www.jebcommerce.com

AOLIM JamieBComm

www.newsforaffiliates.com

I’m on Oovoo! Reach me at JamieJEBCommerce for a video chat.

How does your business, your affiliate site, your service organization fit in with your competitors?

Whether you are a local restaurant, like in the video below, or you run a niche retail site, knowing how you fit in with your competitors can be the difference between throwing money down a pit and reaping the rewards of a successful business.

Watch the video below from Kitchen Nightmares.  In the video, the owners of the restaurant never looked at their business compared to what else was available within a few blocks on either side of them.  When they did focus on that for a moment, they saw what their customers needed that wasn’t being served.

Start at about 2:18 into this video:

When was the last time you evaluated yourself compared to the competition?  What assumptions have you been running on that are no longer valid?  What have you changed in your business after doing a thorough competitive analysis?

It is that time again. The March Madness NCAA tournemant is one of the most highly watched sporting events of the year. It’s also one of the top bonus programs for Doba affiliates and we are making it bigger than ever this year!

Our Grand Prize is a cruise for two, provided by Travel Management Incorporated, details of the cruise are dependent on time of year and availability. We are also giving away a $500 Amazon gift card, Flip Mini HD Camcorder and 3 Iomega 500 GB External Hard Drives! Thousands of dollars in prizes are available to win, but you have to register before March 15th. To reserve your spot in this promotion email us today.

Here is how it works. Once you register via email by March 15th, we slot you into one of the 64 open slots according to the leads you produce from March 1st - March 15th. Then you compete against others for number of leads generated during each round of the March Madness Tournament and advance if you have more leads than the affiliate you are matched against. This goes on and on until there are only two left. Register today and get your plans in place to generate as many leads as possible in March!

Prizes:

Grand Prize: 5 Night Cruise For Two, provide by Travel Management Incorporated.  This prize package is worth $1,500.  The winner may choose to take the cash value.  The cruise details are based on packages available at time of booking and the options and opportunities available at that time.  We will be posting more about the cruise options as we have found some incredible and unique options available.

Second Place: $500 Amazon Gift Card

3rd Place:  Flip Mini HD Camcorder

Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Places: 500 GB Iomega External Hard Drive
Details:
- Selection is based on the top 64 lead-generators that register by March 15,  based on amount of leads generated between March 1 and March 15 in both our in house program and our Commission Junction program.
- The bracket will be updated and sent to our affiliates the day after each round.
- Placement is based on a round robin in 16 brackets from a ‘seed’ point of view, eg. 1st v. 5th, 2nd v. 6th, 3rd v. 7th, and 4th v. 8th, etc. all in 4 separate brackets
- At each round date, leads will be calculated from the period previous to the round to determine the winners of each round
- The championship will be based on total leads between March 1 and April 6

Dates correlate as closely as possible with actual March Madness tournament dates
Selection: March 15
Round 1: March 22 (winners determined by leads referred from March 15 – 22)
Round 2: March 23 (leads from March 15 – 18)
Round 3: March 30 (leads from March 19 - 29)
Round 4: April 4 (final 4 – leads from March 30 - April 4)
Round 5: April 6 (championship – leads from March 1 – April 6

Are you adding value to your customers and to your merchant patners?

This is a short video shot from my favorite office, Calypsos’ Coffee in Coeur d’Alene Idaho.  They offer business owners a great room to either host a meeting or to work from at any time of the day.  The room provies a quite place that is comfortable and has all the necessities to work day to day.  It’s a great place and the room is an unexpected value add that keeps us coming back and sets them apart from their competition.

They have something different that caters to a niche and is always being used.  What are you doing that adds value?  I hope you enjoy the video and I’d love to hear in our comments section below what you are doing.

The information you put in your affiliate account is represented in your application to each program.  As I laid out in the previous posts in this series, you need to apply to each affiliate program in order to promote them.  But before I show you how to evaluate which affiliate programs to work with, we need to talk about your affiliate account.

Why?  Without good and complete information, your application will be denied.

When filling in your account information in each of the networks, don’t leave blanks.  Look at your account through the eyes of the merchant.  Do you show them what your site is about?  Do you give full contact info?  Do you describe your site and how you plan to promote that merchant in a way that the merchant can understand?  Be complete.

I wrote a few blogs about the affiliate application process.  It would be a good idea for you to read them as they are written from the perspective of a merchant going through affiliate applications.

Why aren’t they accepting my affiliate applications?

So again, it’s taken me way too long to get back to this series.  I plan to go over a few more things before I consider this series complete (is one ever?):

• Choosing a network and getting started
• Your affiliate account - what you should do to get accepted
• Choosing merchants to work with
• Promoting your merchant partners
• Advanced tools and tips to make affiliate marketing work for you

With that being said, I’ll give my disclaimer.  If you are a seasoned affiliate, this series isn’t for you.  This series is meant for bloggers who are either just getting into affiliate marketing, or know nothing about it but are looking to monetize their blog and want to learn more.

Ok, now onto the meat of today’s message - choosing a network.  In my previous post on this series, The Affiliate Networks, I introduced you to each of the main networks.  By no means is that list complete, but it is a great place for you to start.  But which one do you start with?  It’s both a great question and one I think is relatively un important when you start.  Odd statement for a post about choosing a network isn’t it.  Let me explain.

It used to be that Linkshare was the place to be for big retail merchants and the CJ was the place for lead generation type program (mortgage, debt consolidation).  That’s not really the case anymore.  Each of the big three networks (LS, CJ and Google) has a pretty broad range of merchant programs.  I would just choose one to get familiar with the process.  I have been told that CJ is the easiest for affiliates.  But Linkshare and Google have great programs as well.  Not much help am I? lol

One thing to note - each network refers to merchants and affiliates differently.  Merchant = advertiser, affiliate=publisher.  You may see those terms used interchangebly so don’t be too surprised.

The main thing isn’t so much the networks, and maybe that is what I’m trying to get across to you.  The main thing will be the partnerships you form with merchants and selecting the right ones to work with.  One of the most important things to do right when you are looking for these successful partnerships is your affiliate account.  Without the right information in your account, merchants won’t be able to effectively evaluate your application. That is what I’ll cover in my next episode.

I’ve managed a lot of programs in my times, and quite a few multi-channel retailers.  One of the issues I ran into a lot, and still do, is the use of un-authorized coupons by my affiliate partners.  I’ve attempted to explain this issue a number of times, but the question comes up again and again.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to put “pen to paper”, so to speak, about this issue in an attempt to clarify why it is important to follow coupon guidelines.  I hope that any affiliate reading this gets a better understanding as to why it is so important to only post authorized coupons for your merchant partners.  It’s all about clean data.

Clean Data

Merchants use coupons for a number of reasons. Some include: more sales, increase sales from a given segment or simply to track a given group of customers or new marketing initiative.  Often the coupon’s main function is not to provide a discount, but a way to better track a certain activity.  When a merchant sends a coupon via a catalog, email or other channel and does not make it available to an affiliate, they are usually testing the offer to a specific audience.  After the campaign is complete, they look over the stats.  How did the coupon perform overall?  How did that group or campaign perform compared to other activities or groups?  How profitable was this activity?  How many redemptions?  How many new customers?

When an affiliate grabs this un-authorized coupon, the results of that campaign, coupon and test are fuzzy and unclear.  The merchant is now making decisions on incorrect data.  They either throw more resources at what they thought was a successful endevour or they retract and stop sending resources to something that was really profitible, but the stats show otherwise.  All of this means they are making decisions that effect you, the affiliate, based on incorrect information.  And that means less success for you.  Even if you may have seen success with that given coupon, there are more metrics that are measured than sales and the merchant may see it otherwise.

Your Agreement

This is pretty simple here.  If the affiliate agreement you have agreed to explains the coupon policy, get to know it and make sure you are abiding by it.

Your Best Interest

It really is in your best interest to abide by those policies and only use the coupons you are authorized to.  Have you seen programs shutting down?  Have you seen merchants getting much more restrictive in what they are doing with affiliates? I’m not sure if you know this, but the affiliate industry gets a bad wrap amongst large multi-channel retailers.  This issue is a huge issue at the executive level within these organizations.  Programs are becoming more restrictive in who the let in as they are looking for more “partners” and less opportunists.  I’m sure that statement will get a lot of feedback and I look forward to hearing what you have to say.  I’m just the messenger on this issue, so hold back on the arrows and rocks :).  But it is true.  Programs are increasingly getting rid of affiliates that can not partner with them in a mutually benefitial relationship.  Those affiliates that are able to work together in this way are getting the higher commissions and increased support.  Are you?

If you are helping to muddy up the results of a merchant’s campaign, you are helping them make bad decisions.  When they make bad decisions they supply you with bad as well.  And slowly you both become less successful.

Merchants

I have some tips for you as well.  In order for your affiliates to be able to abide by your coupon policy, you need to do a number of things:

1. Clearly state your coupon policy within your network interface, in your affiliate education site, and in any newsletter that includes a coupon.
2. Police this actively.  Nothing upsets your partners more than not being able to promote a coupon when another affiliate is and nothing happens to them.  Be fair, be consistent and be alert.
3. State your coupon policy clearly.  Wait, did I say that before?
4. Provide clear information on the coupons they are allowed to use such as start date, end date, restrictions, and coupon code.
5. Notify affiliates of coupons they are NOT allowed to use.  Often this is much easier for the affiliates to monitor.
6. Police this activity.  Wait I said that before too.
7. Provide coupons before they go live.  Notify of unauthorized coupons before they go live.  Communicate, communicate, communicate.
8. Build relationships with your affiliates.

I’m sure I’m missing a few things on both ends, but this should serve as a pretty good start.

Another note to merchants - if you aren’t working with coupon affiliates because you think they only send customers you would already get, only send discount shopppers, or all of them use codes you don’t authorize, you need to give it another look.  I work with many very respectible and responsive affiliates that have built their own brand and if you aren’t there, customers will buy from someone who is.  Check out my coupon series for more.

Affiliates - there are a lot of great and respectable coupon sites that I have not only been fortunate and blessed to work with, but to also call close friends.  For those of you that fall into that category, you are doing all the right things.  For others who don’t think it’s that big of a deal, let me stress that this is a big issue for merchants.  It is casting a shadow on our industry and I encourage you to reach out to these merchants and truly partner with them.  When you look out for them, they really begin to look out for you.

So there is my $.02 on Super Bowl Sunday, what do you think?  Agree, disagree?

I was so excited when I learned of my nomination in the Best Blogger category.  I couldn’t wait to get to the summit and see if I could pull off a win.  I had stiff competition.  Scott Jangro has really put together an awesome blog for our industry and Angel has always been a leader in this area, so I wasn’t too confident, but honored to be amongst this group.

And the moment came:

I was sure they said Jamie Birch, but alas, Scott won the award.  It was well deserved and now it seems that I may have slipped into the “Susan Lucci” role of Pinnacle Award nominees.  Two nominations and two, well, nominations.  I searched forever for that video as I promised many I would try to tie in Susan Lucci not winning into this blog post.

The even was great and the winners truly deserved the awards.  It was a truly amazing list of individuals and everyone really should be proud just to be nominated.  My hat’s off to you Mr. Jangro, but watch out for me next year :).

Here is a list of all the winner:

• Affiliate of the Year - Mike Allen
• Affiliate Manager of the Year - Angel Djambazov
• Exceptional Merchant - CelebrateExpress.com
• Affiliate Marketing Advocate - Melanie Seery
• Best Blogger - Scott Jangro
• Affiliate Marketing Legend - Kellie Stevens

Congratulations guys!  You all do an amazing job and I am proud to consider many of you close friends.  Keep up the good work!

Shawn/Missy - you should bring back the formal awards ceremony like the first year!  I loved that one.

There has been one wide gaping hole in affiliate marketing since I can remember, I’ve been involved in the space for almost ten years. That hole is the offline/online bridge in respect to multi channel merchants. From an affiliate manager perspective, we know that sales are being influenced, at the very least, and and at the most being placed directly resulting from affiliate online relationships.

Online affiliates are promoting brands and products and as an industry we have only been able to effectively track the results that happen online.  But we all know that that isn’t the only result of our affiliate partnerships. Customers research on the web, stop by the store in the mall and use catalogs to shop. Where did they start their path to purchase, where did it end, and did only one of those channels influence the sale?  The networks have been unable to bridge the gap effectively.

In the past I have personally, and I have seen, launched and managed programs that have enabled phone tracking of commissions, but even there we have leakage.  It’s possible in all the networks to do this, I’m not sure why more don’t.

Here is an interesting, although a bit outdated (2007), article on Search Engine Land, reporting on the Yahoo ROBO Study.  It measured the influence of search and display advertising on offline behavior and I believe is still relevant today.  ROBO stands for Research Online Buy Offline.

“Search marketing has a greater impact on in-store sales lift, three times that of display advertising. When consumers in the study were exposed to search only, on average they spent $16 in the store for every $1 they spent online. However, the number of consumers reached via search is much smaller than display, creating a relatively small pool of pre-shoppers with a relatively high propensity to purchase in-store.

The study pointed out that customers “exposed to online retail marketing campaigns were more engaged and spent more dollars in physical stores than otherwise. There was an overall revenue lift of 43 percent from these engaged consumers; 88 percent of that revenue came in local store purchases.”

Wow, a 43% in revenue lift from users engaged in online advertising.  Merchants - are you incorporating any of these assumptions when evaluating your affiliate program?  At the very least we should be doing that.  I’ve seen many affiliate programs close because they can’t see if it is driving incremental sales and I am willing to bet this connection was not explored.

The online industry tends to segment out campaigns and their costs and performance too much.  We put everything in silos; affiliates, offline, retail, phone, catalog search.  Heck we even break out branded and non branded search with very little analysis on those two channels combined effect on purchasing behavior.  We forget about the “path to purchase” and how each exposure influences sales.  With engaged customers generating more revenue, we need to be looking at behavior across channels.  In a best case scenario, the affiliate channel would get some level of credit for those sales and the affiliates some sort of commission on those sales.  Maybe a smaller piece of the pie as the profit is now split between channels, but something.  At the very least, we need to be taking this into account when evaluating all these channels.  Maybe the catalog isn’t doing as well without a strong search and affiliate campaign?

Comscore also released a report in August of 08 that said users exposed to search and display ads online were 82% more likely to purchase offline.  That is extremely significant.  Looking to increase your offline sales, a strong search, affiliate and media campaign may be the way to do it.

BizReport.com reported here that “According to Katrina Doney, Director of Deloitte Growth Solutions, increasing numbers of consumers are using the Internet to research and compare products, prices and store offerings. “Results of the survey show that online research is important regardless of whether or not the consumer is buying the product on the Internet,” said Doney, adding that consumers continued to frequent bricks and mortar stores to receive “good old fashioned service”.” This was taken from Deloitte’s 2008 Survey on Consumer Behavior.

Ah, the offline/online bridge many times is “good old fashioned service”.  So which channel gets credit for that? The way it stands in most organizations it is the store, but they only facilitated the closing of the sale, search or an affiliate could have started them down that journey.

Here’s some more food for thought on the offline/online problem.  An Australian search marketing company, Outrider, commissioned a report (conducted by Research International) that showed 80% of Australian consumers researched products online prior to buying them.  Here are some very interesting tidbits from their research:

• 1/3 of consumers start their online research at a search engine
• the majority using a search engine first conducted a generic or non branded search

“”It is all about how consumers behave and marketers must embrace the new purchase decision cycle from the earliest stages of their media planning. What is fascinating is the lack of barriers between online and offline now - one does not exist in a vacuum from the other and consumers are more and more adept at operating in both worlds” said Research International Strategy Director Jonathan Sinton.”

I won’t get into the branded/non branded keyword issue, but I plan on having a guest author delve into that more later.  But Jonathan Sinton has it dead on.  We don’t exist in a vacuum, none of our campaigns do.  Why do we then evaluate them this way?  Why don’t the networks, who are probably in the best situation to solve this problem, figure it out?  It’s in the merchant’s best interest.

Having worked at a catalog company for several years, I quickly learned that analysis of performance was extremely vital to success of any company.  What campaigns are performing well and even what segments of customer perform well for a given message are things we went over time and time again, but no consideration was given to how customers reacted across channels.  At least not regarding affiliate marketing and search specifically.

This is an area we really need to look at, for everyone’s sake.  It may mean that some affiliates are deemed to be sending no incremental sales and others a very high number, but that sort of transparency is needed.  What say you?

Rule #9  - You are only as good as your last service.

As  usual, I was watching Kitchen Nightmare last night and Gordon Ramsey through out the rule above. The Chef was trying to get across to an owner that one good service a week does not a good restaurant make.  Every service is important and your customers only remember the last experience they had with you.  Every time you interact with a given customer is an important time for you to execute as flawlessly as possible.  I think this is very important on all sides of the affiliate industry as well.

We could translate the rule above as “your only as good as your last affiliate check sent” or “your only as good as the last time you honored the affiliate agreement you signed” or ” your only as good as the last time you honored a promotion you offered to your affiliates”.

There are certain basic foundations of running an affiliate program such as timely checks, clear terms and conditions, consistent, acurate and timely returns processed, quick response times, good and updated creative and more.  For you affiliate managers, grade yourself honestly on some of those things.  How did you do the last time?  How was your last service?  Too many affiliate managers don’t look at this way and it leads to a lack of trust from affiliates, and that hurts the industry.

On the other side, affiliates can abide by the same rule.  Things such as trademark terms, abiding by basic terms and conditions, posting approved and acurate coupon codes, supplying needed or requested information to affiliate managers, delivering placements as promised and other areas are important for you to continue to get the support and perks from affiliate managers.  How have you done?  Not abiding by terms and conditions is one of the bigger problems in the community, at least ont his side of the ball.  How have you done?  If you measured yourself on your “last service”, what grade would you get?

It’s important to evaluate partners on thier overall track record, but having a bad experience recently will hurt your image and your profits overall.  How was your last service?