We are excited to announce that the Elance Affiliate Program has re-launched on the Commission Junction network.  Elance, the world’s leading marketplace for online talent, helps small businesses hire and manage freelance and contract professionals.

Here you will find out about our new commission payouts, fantastic creatives including custom creatives and much more.

Sign up for the Elance Affiliate Program today!

Commission Structure

Earn more with the new Elance commission plan.  You can now earn commission on four actions:

• $50 payout on a First Time Post
• $5 payout on a Repeat Post
• $5 payout on a Paid Provider Membership
• $1 payout on a Free Provider Membership

Creative

We have created a variety of static banners, flash banners and text links to support the program. We are also developing additional tools which will be announced as they become available.

Contact us if you have any specific creative requests and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Top Verticals

Over 100,000 businesses use our service to find rated and tested Programmers, Designers, Writers, Marketers, Customer Service Agents and Virtual Assistants.

Here are the top verticals of employers that convert the best. Promote these categories to increase your earnings:

• Web & Programming
• Design & Multimedia
• Writing & Translation
• Admin. Support
• Sales & Marketing

To keep up-to-date with everything going on in this program follow us on Twitter.

We’re here to help you succeed. Please feel free to contact us if you have questions or if you need anything.

One of our longest standing clients sent us the following testimonial today.  We love working with Sumit and the rest of the team at LuggagePoint.com and are super proud that they enjoy working with us too!

JEB commerce has got to be one of the most exciting companies that I’ve worked with in my entire 12-years in e-commerce .  We outsource to a lot of vendors and this has got to be the only company where we are very interactive with, both professionally and personally.  Our families have sat down with each other and broke bread a few times, each time was always a great experience.

Now, professionally speaking, they have provided us with value to our company going from 0 to where we are today.  This is something, we as a company, was not equipped to do.  We didn’t have the know-how, the where-to, or the where-is, that JEB commerce has been able to provide.  Our affiliate program with JEB commerce has opened our eyes to more potential business and we are always exploring new opportunities with JEB and I’m sure we will be acting on a lot of them.  Having their team on board is a pleasure and we are extremely impressed and pleased with the level of service we have received thus far! I mean, who else would pick you up from Spokane International airport and take you all around Idaho??
- Sumit Bhanote, LuggagePoint.com.

When Should We Expect Our Affiliate Program to be Profitable?

As outsourced affiliate program managers, or OPM’s, we often get this type of question from new clients and potential clients—and it is a great question. WHEN do you expect to see your program pay for you? The answer, however, isn’t as easy as many would like. There are a few things to take into account, such as:

• Is your’s a retail, lead gen, or business to business affiliate program?
• If it’s retail, are you starting out in your busy period, in your down quarter, or somewhere in between?
• How well known is your brand?
• What network or platform are you launching on?
• Are you launching with ALL the tools your affiliates will need or is this more of a soft launch?
• What is the competitive space like?
• Are your products and services already proven and their demand already demonstrated?
• How long have you been selling products online?
• How long has your site been around and what other channels are you using to sell?
• Are you dedicating resources to this program, such as an in-house affiliate manager or team or an affiliate management agency such as JEBCommerce?

Answers to these questions will help you adequately plan for the performance of your affiliate program. But let’s start with the ballpark figure that you might be looking for right now. Here is our basic rule - you shouldn’t expect true performance and profitability before month 6. That is our general rule. Why? Managing an affiliate program takes time, it is resource intensive, and you are dealing with a relationship based initiative. It takes time to identify partners, contact them, get them excited, and get them optimized.

Basically, at month 6, if your program isn’t meeting expectations and delivering an acceptable percentage of your online business, either big changes need to be made, you are missing a few key points, you need new affiliates, and/or new tools, or this may just not be a great channel for your company.

Six months provides you, your affiliate manager, outsourced affiliate manager enough time to alter strategy, recruit affiliates, test promotions, product merchandise strategies, and more.

Can We See Success in Our Affiliate Program before Month 6?

Definitely! Many of the programs we have managed have produced a healthy percentage of sales or leads by month 3. But by that time, you should be able to identify things that are working and things that aren’t and alter your strategy and/or the execution of it accordingly. If you are around your third month and seeing little to no traction, you or your affiliate management team should be reinforcing or altering your launch strategy.

Programs of unproven companies or products with little brand recognition and companies with no other marketing in other channels, will most likely experience a longer ramp up time as you need to factor in product education and a little brand recognition into the whole process.

Retail programs tend to show results between month 3 and 6. Lead gen can show results right away or, at times, take longer than retail, and business to business programs tend to be more complex and challenging. So some additional time may be necessary.

These aren’t hard and fast rules, but a decent guideline to show you that it does take some time to build a strong and profitable affiliate program. But you should see results, successes, and failures within the first six months and a good affiliate manager will recognize these as you are launching to ensure the quickest success possible.

JEBCommerce is growing rapidly and needs more talented people right away.  We currently have two positions open.

Assistant Account Manager - Affiliate Program Management

JEBCommerce is growing rapidly and we are looking for someone with great people and organizational skills that is looking to join a high energy team and start a career in online marketing.  This position will assist the affiliate and account managers in:

* executing strategy on a selection of accounts
* day to day management
* develop and continue relationships with key affiliate partners
* develop and execute promotion, activation and recruiting plans
* optimize clients’ affiliate programs

We are looking for someone who can help us continue to grow our clients’ campaigns.  The following are desired qualifications:

* 1-3 years account management experience
* demonstrated success in relationship building
* must have strong communications skills
* ability to work independently
* strong ambition and drive to succeed
* ability to interface directly with clients
* creativity in partner development
* proficiency in excel, word, powerpoint and other online tools and networks is necessary
* exceptional written and verbal communications skills

To apply -  upload your resume and a short (less than 2 minutes) video cover letter at http://drop.io/hidden/arjfewaaor8rhq/upload . No applications will be considered without a resume and a video cover letter.

Internet Marketing Intern

We are looking for an intern!  If you are passionate about the internet space and social media and want to learn and work at fast paced online performance marketing agency, submit your resume and a short video cover letter at http://drop.io/hidden/lpphkszdll937u/upload .

These positions are also located in beautiful Coeur d’Alene Idaho and we are currently not looking for telecommuting candidates.

Recently, Shawn Collins and Missy Ward of the Affiliate Summit released a new book - Internet Marketing from the Real Experts, now available at Amazon.com.

“Internet Marketing from the Real Experts” is a collection of affiliate, email, blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social network rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way.”
JEBCommerce is fortunate to have two individual authors in this book!  Jamie and Stephen have an article each.  We are both excited and honored to be included in this publication.

The book is a great compilation of short and actionable articles from experts in the online marketing space.  Not only that but all net proceeds will go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Get your copy today!

Idaho Advertising Tax Update

JEBCommerce is located in Coeur d’Alene Idaho.  We’ve been watching, supporting and learning about the advertising tax issue from afar for the last few years.  The leadership that Beth Kirsch, Brook Schaaf, Karen Garcia, Jen Goode, Jeanine Crooks, Rebecca Madigan and many others (sorry if I left anyone out), has inspired me to reach out to our elected officials in Idaho to see if they know what the advertising tax is, if it is being proposed in Idaho and what, if anything, myself and my company can do in this state.

This past Saturday, my wife and I attended a political fundraiser where many of our elected state officials were attending.  Thevideo above is a recap of that event and our success in speaking to several representatives and even our governor, Butch Otter.

In the end, for those of you who don’t want to watch the video, nothing is going on in Idaho.  No advertising tax is being proposed and it looks like this state is safe.  I want to thank Governor Otter and the other senators for spending so much time with me this weekend discussing this issue. I also want to give a big shout out to Phil Thompson of Confidential Investigations.  Phil personally introduced me to our officials and without him I wouldn’t have been able to have so many good conversations.

Keep up the good fight guys!

I’ll be honest, I’m a little late with this one…  We wanted to put together some of our favorite JEBCommerce posts from 2009.  The start of the year has been so busy and crazy, it’s taken me almost two months to get around to this :)  But here are our favorite posts, some still very timely.  I hope you enjoy!  (all titles are links to the actual posts)

• Our Affiliate Appraisal Preview Call: On Tuesday, November 3rd, Jamie Birch and Stephen Robinson hosted a 20 minute preview call showcasing how our Affiliate Audit service can help advertisers increase the performance of their programs today.
• Stephen Robinson’s first article in Feedfront
• Downturn requires more analysis and accountability: Widespread budget cuts in 2009 and demands from top management to do more with less have forced corporate marketers to step up their accountability/measurement efforts and improve collaboration with other organizational departments, according to a recent survey from Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).” - MarketingVox
• Changing the commission rate of your affiliate program: I think everyone understands that nothing is constant, change always happens and many aspects of an affiliate program fluctuate, adjust or need to be altered for the program to remain healthy and at times, to remain at all.  The commission rate is the first thing looked at by the controllers, directors and executives of a company when the economy takes a hit, or the company’s performance slides.  “How can we control costs?”  “How can we become more profitable?”  “Are we paying our affiliates too much?”
• JEBCommerce testimonial - Zappos
• A Conversation with Paul Nichols: Today I spoke with Paul Nichols, you may remember him from his eBates days.  Paul now owns and operates PublisherFocus, a consulting agency geared to help affiliates grow their business.  So in a lot of ways, he provides services similar to JEBCommerce, but to affiliates not merchants.
• How do I get started - Question of the Week
• 10 Reasons to Hire an Outsourced Affiliate Program Manager

Many of you have may have already met one of our affiliate managers, Jeff Nilges, at Affiliate Summit West last month, but I would like to formally introduce you to him. Jeff joined JEBCommerce in spring of 2009 as an intern and after showing great potential; he was promoted to affiliate manager. His strong background in social media and web development make him a valuable asset to our team. He was extremely helpful with my transfer from PC to Mac.

He hit the ground the running by successfully growing the OverstockDrugstore and Luggagepoint affiliate programs to record sales. A focus on merchandising as well as an aggressive approach to recruiting through building key partnerships has been critical to the success of the programs Jeff manages. Additionally he manages iFloor and has assisted in recruiting and strategy on our other accounts including drop.io and doba.

I recently sat down with Jeff for an interview to get his thoughts on the recent Affiliate Summit West Conference and to get to know him better. Check out the video below:

I realize I may be partial, but Jeff is a rising star here at JEBCommerce and he’s definitely someone to keep an eye on throughout 2010. Follow Jeff on Twitter at: @jnil.

The advertising tax, or better known as the amazon tax, is hurting business, Jamie Birch discusses it in the video above.

As an active member of the affiliate marketing community, we are opposed to any state legislation that would attempt to use affiliates to establish nexus for out-of state merchants.

These laws have already impacted JEBCommerce and we want our legislators to know, it’s a bad idea.

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward of the Affiliate Summit have released issue 8 of their FeedFront magasine. From what I understand it will be handed out at theAdtech in NYC.

Here is some info I grabbed from the FeedFront website:

“This issue of FeedFront Magazine includes The Importance of Branding in Affiliate Marketing by Rae Hoffman, How to Recycle Your Affiliate Blog Content by Justin Premick, and FTC Endorsement Guidelines by Gary Kibel.

Also, people to follow on Twitter, affiliate marketing statistics, and the program for Affiliate Summit West 2010.

Issue 9 of FeedFront can now be viewed online, downloaded, and printed from Scribd.

Get the FeedFront RSS if you’d like to get all of the articles as they are published to the feed.

If you haven’t subscribed, you can get the magazine for free at http://feedfront.com/free-subscription/.”

Not only that, but this issue includes an article by our very own Shannon Simmons, affiliate manager here at JEBCommerce! Shannon wrote about Affiliate Program’s New Years Resolutions on page 63. Check out the article. Shannon will also be at the Affiliate Summit in Vegas on January 17th, 2010. If you’d like to meet with her, please email her at Shannon AT JEBCommerce.com.

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