Affiliate Marketing Tips from an 80’s Action Figure

Contributed by Maor Sadra, Director of Sales

“By the power of Greyskull, I have the Power!” If you grew up in the 80s, you may remember He-Man yelling this line while waving his mighty sword to get ultimate power. I’m not going to comment on the lack-of-imagination-name the creator of the show gave ‘He-Man’. My post is still related to online media.

Part of my sales team’s responsibility at Adsmarket is working with advertisers to create affiliate programs that publishers can generate results. We are middle-men, and we end up having the same ‘who has the power’ discussion at least 5 times a week.

For years, I’ve heard advertisers and publishers arguing the ultimate question: Who has the power?  Who is more responsible for the success of the other? Is it the advertiser who is paying for the media, or is it the publisher, whose media generates results for the advertiser (even allowing them to advertise)?

Advertisers are indeed sponsoring the world nowadays. Think of an internet without advertising, where you would have to pay (gasp!) for content, videos, streaming music or for reading this post…

Publishers are the ones responsible for the content you see & hear on the web. And more often than not, they are a business meant to generate revenue in addition to providing users with content.

That’s why I’m here to say that it’s not a question of who has the power. Power should have nothing to do with performance marketing. It’s all about the Win^X3 Solution.

The Win^X3 Solution:

In every campaign, there are 3 ultimate factors to consider:
Publisher + Advertiser + User = MORE SALES

What can go wrong??  The number of wrong equations goes on and on:

1. An Advertiser promoting the right offer on the wrong media will likely to not generate good results (quality/quantity).
2. A Publisher running a campaign where the Advertiser is offering a too-low CPA will not generate a high enough ROI in comparison to their media value and will eventually drop the campaign.
3. A user seeing an un-related ad on a website will likely to not take action.
4. An Advertiser promoting an offer with a long tedious user flow will not get the volume required.

The right equation is simple:

A campaign must be designed to match the Advertiser, Publisher AND User needs – Only then will it generate good results on a long term basis.

As an Advertiser, your goal should be to create high converting pages, looking at minimizing the user flow while offering an incentive for the users you are looking for to take action.  Research the rates you are able to offer publishers for quality conversions to be competitive in your industry.

As a Publisher – know your users and traffic, and promote the right offers for the right users. Generating low quality for Advertisers ensures a one-time campaign.

As a user – Keep enjoying free content, and hope the free ride continues…

Ofer Druker: Facebook has not reached its potential for affiliate marketers yet…

Adsmarket CEO Ofer Druker’s indicates that Facebook became a major source of media for performance advertising  and  predicts Facebook will take a bigger share in the coming 12-24 months:

On Feb 22^nd and 23^rd , 2010, the Israel Internet Association presented Web ‘10, its 14^th annual conference, held at the Avenue Conventions and Events Center near Ben-Gurion Air-Port just outside Tel Aviv, where Adsmarket is located.  As CEO of Adsmarket, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion: Creative Money – New and Innovative Business Model for the Web and Mobile on Day 1 of the conference.

I was asked about trends that I had witnessed in Adsmarket and in online advertising in 2009.  I should point out that affiliate marketing can be a volatile and fickle business, especially with 2009’s ups and downs in online advertising (See my 2009 Year-End Post) We know that as a performance-based affiliate network, 2010 will be Adsmarket’s best year yet, as we are investing more and more into developing the best product out there for affiliates, and the best platform for affiliate program management, as well as expanding our business in the US and Spain/LATAM.

In answering the question about trends I witnessed in 2009, I said then and I say now that Facebook is continually gaining a larger influence, and is significantly contributing  to online media and performance marketing.  Proving this,iIn the past 18 months or so we’ve witnessed enormous growth in the results and traffic we are getting from Facebook related media.  If, 2 years ago, a main source of media was Google, the pendulum is now its swinging to Facebook; their reach is growing that fast.  We expect that this trend will continue, with users on Facebook rounding 1 Billion sometime by the end  of 2011.

It will be the challenge of every affiliate network to accommodate this growth, and we expect to meet the needs of Facebook affiliates and advertisers head-on.

Adsmarket ErgoTip #5 – How big is your keyboard

Are you sure your ergonomic keyboard is good for you?

Many heavy computer users like to use the Microsoft Split ergonomic keyboard.

It is a great keyboard in that it positions your wrists and hands in proper ergonomic posture, but it has one big disadvantage:  it is too big!  The main consequence is a faulty position of the mouse with bad alignment of the shoulder and arm.

In simple words it is just too far away.

So the big ergonomic keyboard is good mainly for users who spend most of their computer time working with it alone and without a mouse.  Users who spend their time at the computer in a combination of 50/50 (keyboard/mouse) are better off with a smaller keyboard that allows them to position the mouse in a healthier place.

Here are some good options for an ergonomic split size mini keyboard:

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/max-spec.htm

http://www.goldtouch.com/

Mini keyboard:

http://www.fentek-ind.com/minikb.htm

ErgoTips are provided by Dalit Ben Tovim, a renowned ergonomic consultant and trainer who serves Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller corporations and organizations.  Contact her at DalitATergo4u.com, and please visit the ergo4u website.

Affiliate ErgoTip #4: Affiliates, win the fight against low back pain!

Many of us high-tech types invest in an "orthopedic" or "ergonomic" chair, just to find out that our new chair feels very comfortable for the first hour but after a few hours of sitting, yes…the back is aching again.
The honest truth is that no chair as good and supportive as it might be, and can’t really solve your backaches.
So how can a pro-active affiliate marketer who is chained to the chair, really win this battle?

From my experience there are 3 guiding principles:

• Exercise!  Yes, it is vital to your back.  What kind of exercise doesn’t really matter, just get moving!  Don’t go sign up for a marathon, but just doing something with your body will help maintain flexibility and prevent injury.
• Try to adopt a sitting posture that is as dynamic and symmetrical as possible, i.e. without a back rest, crossing legs first on the left and then changing to the right, or sitting on a fitness ball or a knees stool.
  Only for illustration take a look at this link and see what I mean:
  http://www.shevtov.com/Site/pages/inPageCat.asp?catID=15&id=2&docID=56
• Lose weight if you are overweight, and know that every extra kilo you carry on you is needless pressure on your low back.  

Dalit Ben Tovim is a renowned ergonomic consultant and trainer who serves Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller corporations and organizations.  For more information about Dalit Ben Tovim, contact her at DalitATergo4u.com,  and please visit the ergo4u  website. Make sure you check out the Ergocloud, an ergonomic forearm support by ergo4u Ltd.

Facebook Privacy Settings Not to be Overlooked

Back in December 2009, Facebook changed their default privacy settings for users, pretty much revealing someone’s entire profile: photos, information, contact information, friends, etc. to the universe, including major search engines.  At the same time and throughout January, they announced the change on the site at the point of login, and users were given the option to change these defaults to protect their privacy.  But, how many of us actually did it?  Unless you log in to the site frequently, you might not have known about the changes for days, weeks, or months ( not that this would be an issue with Facebook marketers and affiliates who are hooked up to the site by IV…) and even frequent FBers are so used to seeing little banners and extra information that you might just ignore it.

Opening up Facebook in this way seems to be another wave in the current tide of making the web more transparent. Twitter’s power for marketers is based on it, and this change from FB is probably just a follow-suit move to cater to their advertisers, though how it will affect their total revenue remains to be seen.

Getting back to how this all affects us, the general Facebook community, Sarah Perez of The New York Times made some recommendations for protecting your privacy on Facebook, and here is her shortlist of the 3 most important profile items you should think about protecting:

1. Decide Who Can See The Things You Share (Status Updates, Photo, Videos, etc.)

If you accepted the new recommended settings then you voluntarily gave Facebook the right to share the information about the items you post with any user or application on the site. Depending on your search settings, you may have also given Facebook the right to share that information with search engines, too.

2. Decide Who Can See Your Personal Info

Facebook has a section of your profile called “personal info,” but it only includes your interests, activities, and favorites. Other arguably more personal information is not encompassed by the “personal info” setting on Facebook’s Privacy Settings page. That other information includes things like your birthday, your religious and political views, and your relationship status.

After last month’s privacy changes, Facebook set the new defaults for this other information to viewable by either “Everyone” (for family and relationships, aka relationship status) or to “Friends of Friends” (birthday, religious and political views). Depending on your own preferences, you can update each of these fields as you see fit. However, we would bet that many will want to set these to “Only Friends” as well.

3. What Google Can See – Keep Your Data Off the Search Engines

When you visit Facebook’s Search Settings page, a warning message pops up. Apparently, Facebook wants to clear the air about what info is being indexed by Google. The message reads:

“There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic set of information.”

While that may be true to a point, the second setting listed on this Search Settings page refers to exactly what you’re allowing Google to index. If the box next to “Allow” is checked, you’re giving search engines the ability to access and index any information you’ve marked as visible by “Everyone.” As you can see from the settings discussed above, if you had not made some changes to certain fields, you would be sharing quite a bit with the search engines…probably more information than you were comfortable with.

As an affiliate network with a significant portion of business in Facebook and Social Media, we strive to uphold the quality of affiliate activity in this area.   Part of that quality is an ethical commitment to the users on behalf of our advertisers, and so we recommend that you take a few minutes to follow the steps outlined in this post to keep Facebook a happy place!

Must haves for affiliate marketers – Conversion Rate Optimizers

No doubt, if you are an affiliate or at all involved in online sales and marketing, you are going to hear the phrase “Conversion Rate Optimization” (CRO) a lot in 2010. It is not a new field, but it is now the most popular buzzword in performance-based marketing. In my opinion, CRO is always at the heart (and the art) of the science of performance.

If you are an online merchant, your websites are your best sales managers – they work hard (24/7) and cheap (compared to live salesmen). Whether you use your site to sell your products, collect leads or sell advertisement placements, there are two ways to make them perform better and sell more:

• The expensive way – buy more traffic
• The smart way – conversion rate optimization

Actually,   to increase the profit you should do both; however, you should perform conversion rate optimization before you buy more traffic. The essence of CRO is enabling your site to “close” more deals.

Here’s an example , and yes, this involves some basic math!

Jake Sully rents the movie Avatar from his website. From his past experience, for every 100 visitors from his PPC campaigns, 2 visitors rent the movie from which he earns $4 commission each. Since Jake is paying $0.05 per click, he spends $5 and earns $8 commission for 100 visitors.

It looks like it’s a nice campaign, with a 1.6% ROI (8/5).  Jake’s keywords generate 10,000 clicks a day, and with a $500 spend, $800 earning, that’s $300 profit per day.

Good…but not perfect.

By taking conversion rate optimization actions, Jake managed to improve his click-to-conversion rate from 2% to 3%, meaning that for every 100 clicks he is doing one sale more then he used to before the CRO. That’s one more sale of pure profit since the costs of clicks haven’t changed. So for every 100 clicks he spends $5 and earns $12. That’s 2.4% ROI! (12/5), and at the end of the day, after sending 10,000 clicks, Jake will spend the same $500 but will earn $1200, leaving him a daily profit of $700 (233% more!).

And don’t forget, one time CRO will affect the conversion rates for the rest of the campaign.

So, how should we optimize our conversion rates?

In one of my previous posts, “What’s in Your User’s Mind?”, we discussed the importance of understanding the user’s way of thinking in order to improve the conversion rate.

To make a long story short, here are few rules of thumb to improve the conversion rates:

1. Keep the opportunities for thinking limited
2. Make  benefit-oriented headers, slogans and text
3. Remove navigation bars
4. Minimize the number of fields the user needs to fill
5. Lead the user’s eye to the important places in the page
6. Keep the important buttons (“Submit”, “Check out”, “Order Now”…) above the fold and use a clear call to action.
7. Make sure your banners and landing pages match. If a user liked the banner and the offer in it and decided to click on it, he should get the same offering and the same look and feel in the landing page.
8. Keep it simple, keep it clear and keep it short.

And as I always say – TEST, TEST and TEST.
Use few different designs and creatives, try different backgrounds, different buttons places, different “hero shots”, different headlines, different color combinations and whatever is replaceable. And always measure the conversion rate of each design in order to optimize it.

There are hundreds of tools and books on the net that can help you do the optimization such as:

• Google Website Optimizer
• “Landing Page Optimization” book by Tim Ash
• ClickZ Website optimization ROI calculator

As you can see, conversion rate optimization brings you pure profit and in the short and long-term it is a wise move, and an art that demands a good understanding of your users and the way they think. By testing and measuring you can do CRO with very low costs, but make a direct impact on your ROI.

Affiliate Summit Wrap-Up: Blogs, Press, and Adsmarket Field notes

ASW10 just wrapped up in Las Vegas, and the Adsmarketeers will be heading back to the Holyland soon to give all the juicy details.  But here are some quotes from the field in the meantime, from Gabi Cohen – VP of Media, and Yossi Erez – Managing Director at Adsmarket US:

Gabi: “ASW10 was a great opportunity to meet new affiliates, meet our partners and be in line with the latest trends! Vegas just added to the festive atmosphere!  I’ll send some pictures soon!”

Yossi: “The industry is alive and kicking.  The Finance  vertical seems to be getting stronger and the Health & Beauty industry is still going  strong.  All and all it was a very busy few days and Vegas is always fun.”

Stay tuned for pictures and more coverage from Liat Arbesman, Hila Amishay, Gal Reshef, Yossi and Gabi, when they return to Adsmarket HQ next week!

For more coverage and general news about ASW10, read these great posts from some random bloggers in the biz:

John Chow Party Hopping

Heather Paulson’s photos

Murray Newlands’ Affiliate Summit Wordpress Plugins

5Star Affiliate Programs Affiliate Summit Coverage

And if it interests you, here are the winners of the Affiliate Summit West 2010 Pinnacle Awards #ASW10:

Affiliate of the Year
Nicholas Koscianski

Affiliate Manager of the Year
Matt McWilliams

Exceptional Merchant
eBay Partner Network

Affiliate Marketing Advocate
Angel Djambazov

Best Blogger
Jeremy Schoemaker

Affiliate Marketing Legend
Scott Jangro

Laptops and Notebooks and Bears, oh my!

Updated global data show that about a third of all computer users have a laptop. Laptops may look friendly and inviting, but in fact they have become a first-rate ergonomic hazard. Dalit Ben-Tovim, an ergonomic consultant and trainer, who specializes in creating and adapting working environments for better health and safety, offers a variety of tips for using your laptop safely.  And you may want to look into that smartphone… (but that’s a different article).  We at Adsmarket are definitely listening.

Why is the laptop so damaging?

Structure – The laptop’s structure does not allow for a separate adjustment of the keyboard and screen. As a result, if the screen is adjusted to the desired height – and the recommendation is for the upper limit of the screen to be at eye level – we will find ourselves with the keyboard at a position that is destructive for the hands and wrists. On the other hand, placing the laptop for convenient typing will create strain and damage the eyes and the neck muscles.

Mouse – the integrated mouse or touchpad is another ergonomic nightmare we should be aware of. The posture required when working with a touchpad creates a constant, incremental tension on the hand tendons and in the shoulder, with devastating results.

Posture – prolonged usage of a laptop, coupled with an incorrect sitting posture, with no support of complementary ergonomic accessories, could lead to serious orthopedic problems in the neck and shoulder belt, pain and inflammation of the wrists and back aches. In addition to all the problems mentioned, the infamous warming of the laptops has already been proven to increase the risk of testicular cancer and fertility problems.

Not all is negative. It is possible and even recommended to use a laptop safely, if you adopt the correct habits that will prevent damages.

Tips for casual/infrequent users:
Those who do not use a laptop as a main working tool, but occasionally find themselves using a laptop, would do well to adopt a few rules:

• Try to find a comfortable chair, one that enables you to lean back comfortably. Remember that the head and the neck are supported by large muscles. You need to protect the hand muscles, which are more sensitive. Place the laptop on your legs, with the hands in a relaxed posture, neither bent nor stretched.
• Keep your shoulders relaxed.
• Tilt and adjust the screen to allow for a minimal neck tilt.
• Use a laptop ventilation tray to prevent heating.
• Carry as few additional peripherals as possible, keeping the laptop’s weight minimal.
• Use a backpack with wide shoulder straps to carry the laptop.

Tips for heavy users:

• Place your laptop on the table so that its upper edge is at your eye level. There are several laptop stands designed specifically for this purpose.
• Use an external keyboard and position it directly in front of you, at a convenient height allowing your hands to rest at a neutral posture – neither bent nor stretched.
• Connect an external mouse and place it at your side at a height that keeps your hand relaxed and at a neutral posture.
• The keyboard and the mouse can be connected directly to the laptop or through a docking station.
• Place the screen at a straight arm length away from you. Nevertheless, you should take into consideration the screen size, in order to allow for effortless reading.
• Minimize any sources of reflected screen glare.

Tips for all users

Besides the mobility and convenience, using laptops carries many health hazards which users are not aware of. We have divided our recommendations into different types of users, but our most important recommendation is: Listen to your body! Pain is a sure sign that you should stop your work to stretch, change your posture, relax and rest your eyes and hands.

Integrate physical activity in your life. An hour of aerobic exercise once a day will work wonders for your painful back and stiff neck.

Gil and Dalit Ben Tovim are renowned ergonomic consultants and trainers who serve Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller corporations and organizations. They are the official Google Israel ergonomic consultants and they work with other global corporations including; NDC of Newscorp and Johnson & Johnson. The team has also partnered with hi-tech companies such as ECI, Aladdin and Nice and government institutions.

For more information about Dalit Ben Tovim, contact her at DalitATergo4u.com,  and please visit the ergo4u  website. Make sure you check out the Ergocloud, an ergonomic forearm support by ergo4u Ltd.

Time for an ergonomic keyboard? – Tips for a healthier affiliate lifestyle.

A few months ago Adsmarket welcomed Dalit BenTovim, an Ergonomic Consultant at ergo4u Ltd to our headquarters in Tel Aviv.  She gave a great lecture on proper ergonomics in the workplace (ergonomics simply defined: proper body positioning to avoid strain and injury), and then visited each Adsmarketeer individually and corrected any ergonomic problems we had.

I invited Dalit to share her expertise in ergonomic positioning with us for our readers who, without a doubt, are as sedentary as we are, optimizing traffic, running campaigns, and being busy affiliate marketers!

Each week Dalit will share a short “ergonomic tip” with you, which we hope will help you with any discomfort you are having, and make you a more successful online marketer!

Here is her full length post:

Are you in the business of affiliate marketing or online advertising, or work at an affiliate network, and suffer from migraines, shoulder pains, herniated discs, or eye strain?   These are just some of the symptoms of what can easily be considered as the Millennium’s syndrome – “Computer pains”.

If these symptoms sound painfully familiar, take heart.  There is no need to rush to the medicine cabinet, make an appointment with the family doctor or even see your physical therapist!

Sometimes even minor adjustments to your workstation can do wonders – eradicate your pain and save you money.

So here’s a Complete Guide to Ergonomics, which may help you chair-bound moneymakers feel better and therefore, be more productive!

1. Elevated computer screen – Working online, whether in online advertising, affiliate marketing, or whatever, and sitting for hours in front of an elevated computer screen puts a lot of strain on the neck vertebrae – an effort that causes ongoing pain. The neck is a sensitive area and neck pain can radiate to other body parts such as shoulders, elbows, hands and wrists. Lessening the pressure on neck muscles may also resolve apparently unconnected body aches.

   Solution: The computer screen should be placed at eye level and lower to allow the neck vertebrae to be in neutral posture and rest.

2. Lateral posture – In my work assisting companies like Adsmarket, I see computer screens located not straight in front of the user but sideways, often due to the need to communicate with clients face to face, or in order to make room on a crowded desk. Working in a lateral posture for long periods of time, sometimes for many hours, puts an enormous amount of strain and pressure on the neck vertebrae. This can cause headaches, migraines and pain in other parts of the body. Angled screens and lateral postures put a constant load of strain on the spine and cause the body to be organized unnaturally with every part turned in a different direction.

   Solution: The best solution for such a situation is placing the computer screen directly in front of the user whenever possible, moving it aside when the user has to serve clients. This can be achieved by using a          multi-directional arm that allows for shifting the screen easily from one position to the other when necessary.

3. Screen distance – too close or too far – a small work area, sight problems, or a smallish desk may result in a computer screen placed too close to the user, causing eye damage and headaches.  On the other hand, placing the screen too far away strains the eyes and causes fatigue, irritability and anxiety.

   Solution: the computer screen should be positioned at a distance of 3 times the screen diagonal, or more simply, sitting at a straight-arm distance from the center of the screen.

4. Prolonged Sitting – Prolonged sitting when working can cause physical degeneration as well as a variety of back, shoulders and neck problems. Sitting for long stretches of time without movement compresses the vertebrae, which in turn exert pressure on the nerves. The muscles surrounding the vertebrae suffer from degeneration and blood flow is also impaired.

   Solution: It is recommended to change posture occasionally, stand up and stretch out at least once every half an hour, and incorporate into your working hours some sort of physical activity that is compatible with    working in front of a computer. The most recommended exercises are strengthening the abdomen and back muscles and performing back rotations.

5. The Correct Sitting Posture Myth– there is a myth that you should sit with your upper body straight up at 90 degrees toward the feet. This is a serious mistake. Actually it’s much better to sit with a 100 to 110 degrees angle – some sort of leaning back or reclining. The reason for that is that when you sit at 90 degrees, your entire upper body weight is exerted directly on your lower back vertebrae. Reclining at 100 to 110 degrees decreases significantly the pressure on the vertebrae.

   Solution: Recline!And the best solution of all:

6. Physical awareness – the most effective tool in preventing ergonomic damages is the development of physical awareness. Developing such awareness under professional guidance can help you purchase cost effective equipment suited to your needs, and may improve your productivity, and prevent health issues.

Gil and Dalit Ben Tovim are renowned ergonomic consultants and trainers who serve Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller corporations and organizations. They are the official Google Israel ergonomic consultants and they work with other global corporations including; NDC of Newscorp and Johnson & Johnson. The team has also partnered with hi-tech companies such as ECI, Aladdin and Nice and government institutions.

For more information about Dalit Ben Tovim, contact her at DalitATergo4u.com,  and please visit the ergo4u website. Make sure you check out the Ergocloud, an ergonomic forearm support by ergo4u Ltd.

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