Earlier this year, Forrester estimated the affiliate marketing industry would grow to $4.5 billion by 2016. The key drivers for this growth are expected to be the affiliate channel’s ability to produce new-to-file customers, generate incremental customer acquisition, and attract consumers who spend more than the average online shopper. While all indicators point to marketers investing more in the affiliate channel in 2013, where and how those budgets are allocated will vary. Here's how I believe we’ll see those investments divided -- among the following five key areas. 1. Global Expans [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

For software and consumer technology companies, working with affiliates and resellers can quickly become a cross-channel tug-o-war if there’s not a clear multi-channel marketing strategy for both channel partner programs. Having a game plan for both channels will ensure partners are participating in the program best suited for their business while minimizing cannibalization and channel conflict. To create an effective multi-channel marketing strategy, it’s important to have well-defined channel partner programs so you can evaluate prospective partners efficiently and on-board them in [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

It would be impossible for marketers to ignore the buzz about omni-channel retailing. Given the opportunities it presents to increase average order value, there’s no surprise that omni-channel is top of mind for CMOs. As it continues to move from concept into everyday practice, let’s not forget about the role performance marketing plays in ensuring the success of an omni-channel strategy. First, a quick refresher on omni-channel retailing and the omni-channel shopper. Omni-channel retailing is all about providing a seamless consumer shopping experience across every platform includ [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

Fighting deceptive advertising on the web is probably akin to playing a game of Whac-A-Mole, but the FTC has scored a hit against affiliate marketers that allegedly used deceptive ads to sell acai berry weight-loss products and colon cleansers. The FTC recently announced a $2 million settlement with the Clickbooth affiliate network over charges that Clickbooth's affiliate marketers deceived consumers with "bogus weight loss claims on fake news sites." According to the complaint, the affiliates used websites that looked like real news sites and used domains such as online6health.com, cha [...]

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There's a very interesting conversation taking place inside Warrior Forum discussing the "right" length for an article being used for article marketing purposes. The thread started with the original poster sharing a link to a pdf put online by EzineArticles.com. Inside the pdf, the staff at EzineArticles wrote: A 500-Word Article Will Always Outperform A 1000-Word Article? That statement has caused quite a bit of debate by others in the thread. Is a 500-word article better than a 1000-word article? Or is that nonsense? With all the crazy updates from Google lately and all the str [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

It’s hard to believe that we’re already a month into the fourth quarter. Most affiliate management initiatives are centered around the holiday shopping season; and, now that those plans are in motion, this is a good time to start thinking ahead and planning for 2013. While it may take a little more doing to get your affiliate program planning done during the peak shopping season, it can also be the best time to do so because of the increase in performance and affiliate activity in Q4. Increased revenue means higher visibility within your organization, making it easier to be top-of-mi [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

As the biggest shopping weekend of the year approaches, advertisers and publishers are gearing up for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping bonanza. While affiliate marketing strategies should be firmly in place by now, there’s still time to tweak your content and promotions to make the most of the upcoming shopping season, which promises to be even bigger than last year. As a matter of fact, Shop.org expects online sales to grow 12 percent over last holiday season to reach as much as $96 billion. When you look at last year’s trends and this year’s forecast, there are seven critic [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Retail | E-Commerce

WordPress is a very simple-to-use solution for creating powerful affiliate websites. The best part about WordPress is all the plugins that are available. It seems there is at least one plugin for just about anything you can imagine! I've put together a list of 5 free affiliate marketing plugins for WordPress that I really like to use.     1. Pretty Link Lite This is probably my favorite WordPress plugin for my affiliate sites. In a nutshell, this plugin allows you to take long and nasty-looking affiliate links and easily turn them into "pretty links" that look like [...]

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If you’re considering expanding your affiliate marketing program overseas, Australia is worth a closer look. There are several reasons why the continent presents new opportunities for the affiliate channel. In this article, we look at the drivers of the burgeoning economy down under and how affiliate marketers can make the most of the emerging opportunities in Australia. Australia’s Economic Drivers Technology and a rise in online retail spending are the biggest drivers making Australia the ideal location to expand your global e-commerce efforts. More specifically, the continen [...]

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Every now and then someone will reach out to me claiming they can't make money with affiliate marketing because they don't have the same natural talent for it that I do. That statement makes me laugh every time I hear it. The fact is, there is not a single drop of natural talent in me when it comes to affiliate marketing -- or making money online in general. I don't have a marketing degree or a computer science degree.  I was a casual internet user when I started. Any talent I have has been learned in the trenches while I was attending the Internet Marketing School of Hard Knocks [...]

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It's that time of year when the last remnants of summer are still lingering, though we’re not quite into the full swing of our holiday marketing efforts. Most advertisers and publishers are currently in the midst of Q4 planning. Meanwhile, many consumers are delaying bigger purchases until the holiday season. However, don’t let this seemingly slower sales period hold you back from making the most of what’s left in Q3 and setting the foundation for a successful year-end. To make the most of this in-between period, here are 12 proven promotional strategies that will drive traffic and [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

When I first started in affiliate marketing, all I wanted was to just make money. Off I ran in every direction, trying everything, with no real idea of the mistakes I was making that could very well affect my chances at long term success. Through my years of experience with both affiliate marketing and teaching other affiliate marketers, I have come to the conclusion that there are 7 big mistakes new affiliate marketers make. Let's talk about these mistakes in more detail.   1) Selling Rather Than Helping Yes, the word "marketing" is part of the phrase affiliate marketing, [...]

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Affiliate marketers are keeping an eye on both California and Pennsylvania, where affiliate nexus tax laws are due to return within the next month. In Pennsylvania, a law is due to be reinstated on September 1, 2012, and California's law is due for reinstatement on September 15, 2012. Both states had previously suspended their nexus tax laws in the hope that the federal government would pass its own legislation regarding how online retailers should handle tax collection. But that hasn't happened. In a blog post yesterday, the Performance Marketing Association said it's working with offic [...]

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The final Affiliate Summit of 2012 wrapped up this week in New York City. One of the things I truly enjoy about these conferences is being able to catch-up with partners, colleagues, and friends in the industry. This year's event was no exception, as I had the opportunity to spend time with industry veteran and overall nice guy Andrew Kardon from JoeShopping, who I've worked with for almost seven years. Since I respect his expertise, I wanted to get his thoughts on recent changes in the industry, as well as learn how he evaluates merchant programs as an affiliate today. Andrew, how di [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

Affiliate marketing has been around for quite a while. It started in the mid-1990’s, which is a long time ago in Web years. At the time, consumers were just beginning to shop online and to adopt mobile phones as a way to talk, not text or shop, with their friends and colleagues. Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist and Steve Jobs was returning to Apple to create, among other things, communication devices that would fundamentally change the way the world shops. Yet despite these sea changes in the digital landscape, affiliate marketing has flourished and remains one of the most import [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

If you had your own online business bringing in six figures annually, would you consider taking on an additional position working for someone else as their affiliate manager? My initial response is, "No way!".  At first, it doesn't make sense to me why I would work on growing another marketer's business when I could spend that same time continuing to grow my own business. But then I stop and think -- maybe someone who does choose to do this knows things I haven't taken into consideration. My questions led me to reach out to a fellow marketer I know who has done just that -- added "Af [...]

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It’s hard to ignore all the talk about the potential of mobile commerce given the positive forecasts from industry analysts and researchers. Consider these compelling statistics: There will be 115.8 million smartphone users in the US by the end of 2012, and that number is expected to reach 176.3 million by 2015. (via eMarketer) 64 percent of smartphone owners are now using their mobile devices to shop online. (via eDigital Research and PortalTech Reply) In 2012, mobile commerce sales will rise 73.1 percent for a total of $11.6 billion. (via eMarketer) Worldwide mobile payment tr [...]

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Let's imagine that my friend, Susan, was having a tough time in her marriage. Late one night, when the family was asleep, she decided to do what most people do these days -- search Google for help with her marriage issues. She read article after article, read through forum threads and nodded in agreement as she read other women verbalize the same pain Susan was feeling. Then, she found it. To Susan, it looked like a miracle solution!  It was an online guide titled "How To Save Your Marriage in 10 Days" and Susan couldn't get her credit card out fast enough. Susan was so happy [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

I had coffee with the affiliate manager of a local retailer recently and we talked about some of the challenges facing internet retailers, whether they're managing an established or mature affiliate program. Early stage affiliate programs are often a new revenue stream contributing to ecommerce growth, a lead generation mechanism for your sales force, or a medium to increase new user signups and subscriptions -- very exciting stuff that everybody in your company loves to hear about. But what happens when your affiliate program has lost its “new car smell” and the proverbial honeymoon [...]

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It’s only natural to think of the end-of-year holidays as the biggest opportunities for your affiliate marketing efforts, but this doesn’t mean we should give short shrift to summer. Now it probably comes as no surprise that some of the biggest affiliate marketing opportunities for the summer can be found in travel- and airline-related sites. Yet there are many other industries that will see a rise in online sales over the next few months. Online sale growth continues to outpace overall retail sales. In Q1, comScore reported online retail growing at 17% YOY or almost three times as m [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing