Recent data from the U.S and the U.K indicates lots of complaints about the lack of personal attention and irregularity of communication. There is a constant theme for greater communication between affiliates and merchants, whether something that needs to be improved or as a redesign of the system to positively impact the affiliate marketing sector.

A 2010 worldwide survey by Affiliate Summit, titled AffStat Report, touched upon two of the more important questions about affiliate-merchant communication – Frequency of Communication and Methods of Communication.

Most affiliates, almost over 85% wanted to hear from merchant managers. The percentage that preferred a monthly communication stood at 49%, and the percentage of affiliates who preferred a weekly communication from managers stood at 36.1%. As this data suggests, it would be a good idea to maintain a monthly communication with affiliates, whilst toying with the idea of bi-monthly newsletters.

Answers to the second question in the survey indicated over 62% of the affiliates preferred to be contacted by email, with 41% wanting contact through regular email, and 21.4% preferred network internal email systems. More than a few answers also suggested that affiliate markets would also like the idea of being communicated with through merchant websites, with 13.8% of the 22% respondents looking at company sites for communication, and 8.1% of the 22% preferring to be communicated with through the affiliate program’s blog.

The use of social media for communication was not entirely shunned, however, all current methods of micro-blogging and social networking landed amongst the least favored means of communication.

Not all this data should indicate that managers unwillingly engage with affiliate marketers even if there is nothing to be communicated. The data, instead, drives home the point of a need existing in a vacuum created by not even trying. And even though the content of communication is a subject of its own, every newsletter, blog, or website must actually report some news.

Chances are your affiliate network partners may well be holding their breath in wait for you r next communication. But if you really don’t have anything to send, then communicate that too!

ABSEM-AMM.com aggregates Affiliate Marketing News & Affiliate Marketing Tips written by Affiliate Marketing Management Experts.

The mid-December 2009 Performance Awards run by ShareASale affiliate network awarded the “Exceptional Affiliate” prize to StyleFeeder, a young company with just over 3 years of historical performance behind it. A platform that boasts Harvard graduates as it’s employees and advisors, the company favors itself with metaphors like ‘the LastFM of personal style’.

With the acquisition of StyleFeeder, Time Inc. forayed into the realm of online commerce and affiliate marketing. Itself part of Time Warner, Time Inc. made the acquisition in order to better place it’s fledgling e-commerce business by incorporating an additional revenue channel. For the company didn’t have too great a year in 2009, with a 22% drop in ad revenues, year-on-year, same period the previous year.

According to The Wall Street Journal, InStyle, which is Time Inc.’s fashion magazine, will get to benefit directly from the deal. InStyle’s website will integrate StyleFeeder throughout it’s website, and provide much needed boost toward subscription sales and display advertising. With possibilities of further weaving StyleFeeder throughout Time Inc.’s other websites like People en Espanol and Essence, StyleFeeder ends up being a bargain for Time Inc. and it’s subsidiaries.

And nothing short can be expected to come from a deal that could well be into eight figures. And with StyleFeeder’s user-base and unique visitors, Time Inc. has nothing but high hopes for the integration. StyleFeeder boasts of over 1 million registered members and 600,000 unique monthly visitors. With these numbers, StyleFeeder is surely expected to provide a much needed boost for Time Inc.’s online magazines.

This acquisition, and the potential for innovative and clear ways of running affiliate marketing, has come to prove the viability of the industry as a whole, as long as there is strong sense of respect and authority of partnership. From Terms of Services for affiliate programs, structured by merchants, to creating a value laden system of communication and compensation, affiliate can further it’s positive reputation through any looking glass.

With the trust and outlook demonstrated by Time Warner in acquiring StyleFeeder, one can only hope for the obvious ripples of strong belief in the future of affiliate marketing, even if in the contexts of social and comparison shopping.

ABSEM-AMM.com aggregates Affiliate Marketing News & Affiliate Marketing Tips written by Affiliate Marketing Management Experts.

Search engine giants like Google, for example, do not allow display of more ads per search query if advertisers share the same top-level domain in the display URL. The problem comes when you find out that most advertisers do not allow Direct-to-Merchant affiliate linking altogether. For e.g. Amazon.com Inc. no longer pays advertising fees to associates who send users directly to it’s domains based on keyword bidding and other paid search on search engines. Another brand that does the same thing is Staples Inc., which requires that affiliates have their own landing page prior to linking to Staples.com. Yet another brand, Dell Inc., does not allow publishers to link directly to explore Direct-to-Merchant linking.

The list of merchants and brands who will not allow anything that even remotely sounds like DTM includes names like Apple, Office Depot Inc., and Best Buy Co., just to name a few.

It seems that the idea behind PPC affiliate marketing without a website will not be allowed much leeway, and the trend seems to be similar across many other affiliate programs too. Most reasons sighted and hinted on distrust and unethical practices, where certain publishers will do anything to get their hands on a piece of the pie. Lower quality traffic, trademark poaching, and ad copying tend to smell from the word GO!

The misery for marketers wanting to experiment with Direct-to-merchant linking is deepened when search engine services like Google starts having policies that forbid such practices by not allowing more than one unique display URL per ad copy. Policies and practices like this will naturally send multiple red flags to merchants, who as a result, will actively pursue disallowing DTM in their affiliate programs.

Affiliate marketing has it’s merits, and in order to achieve much needed consistency in transparency of services provided and methods of application in PPC campaigns, it is advisable and even strongly recommended to a thorough due diligence check on individual merchant Terms of Services for affiliate programs prior to investing resources into Direct-to-Merchant PPC campaigns.

As affiliate commissions have been dropped by several online businesses, their reasons for doing so remain vague at best. Maybe it’s just a psychological thing that makes them feel a part of the ‘hype’, in this case, recession. Or maybe it’s something else entirely. It definitely is not a good idea, and, no matter how they put the message across, it is going to sound desperate. A desperate enough attempt where most merchants do not even bother to send out a human-written notification.

This particular act has affected most affiliate marketers, who depend on the one affiliate marketing metric that is available – performance. They are certainly not happy. And rightly so, because all they needed from merchants were the incentive to perform. Take away that formula, and it doesn’t take a marketing genius to understand the ramifications. Words like ‘misguided’ and ‘unfair’ can be seen everywhere. From Tweets to rants disapproving and demonstrating discontent as status updates. From books to tabloids t news articles. This goes to show the after-effects of sudden unthought-of decisions that impact a group as a community.

Since the very basis of affiliate marketing speaks of performance-based marketing, making the compensation provided for that performance less enticing will create an imbalance in the system where motivation is directly proportionate to compensation. This immediately shifts the scale away from loyalty.

Terms where compensation cuts are targeted toward affiliates who, for whatever reason, have not performed in the preceding year only serves to create a gap between affiliate marketers and merchants. And in the process, merchants may well lose out on established opportunities to benefit from. Because once merchants lose affiliates marketers, they almost always never get them back!

Even if you want to make certain changes to affiliate compensation, then do it at the outset. The gravest formula for hitting rock bottom is when you decide to tweak compensation – lowering affiliate commissions – during the life of your affiliate program.

With Donald Trump himself promising millions of dollars by adopting his affiliate marketing campaigns, it is no surprise that anyone and everyone will almost definitely at least try to get a piece of the action.

But with such promises comes a reality kick – given the past performance of affiliate marketers, it may not be surprising at all if The Trump Network gets pulled into the vices that have tarnished the profession. And as mentioned earlier, a few observations is all it takes to know whether this too can crawl it’s way into the dreaded nuisance of cheap affiliate marketing tactics due to a lack, or rather a misunderstanding of the medium. And although Mr. Trump himself, or his network, may not be behind the whole saga (as witnessed on Twitter), one does wonder if there are any control mechanisms in place to regulate automated feeds from the network.

Someone from The Trump Network has obviously been busy creating links through fascinating and attractive avatars (bio pics), as first glance on common Tweets reflect some very strange but very attractive folks re-Tweeting social media topics and including apparent links to those posts.

Upon digging a bit deeper, ne can find that those links n the Tweets all lead to The Trump Network homepage.
Whether there are genuine people behind these tactics is not of relevance here. However, how they come across is another matter. And the first impressions vote for possibilities of spam.

While setting up multiple or automated streams to promote your content is hardly a crime (We auto tweet new blog posts ourselves), it’s important that any business clearly brands these and doesn’t attempt to ‘fake it’.

As somewhat stated earlier, social media and it’s discussions and conversations can not be controlled, but having a decent regulation system with some basic training on best practices will go a long way in legitimizing those affiliate marketing efforts.

As platforms like Twitter thrive on posting links, much care should be practiced to comply with trust and transparency of the community, which cannot be replaced by bikini clad babes or semi-naked studs in Stetsons.

ABSEM-AMM.com aggregates Affiliate Marketing News & Affiliate Marketing Tips written by Affiliate Marketing Management Experts.

But past performance has shown nothing that would increase positive sentiments toward incorporating an intuitive structure away from cost per acquisition, where the same ‘last click wins’. However, with the quality of data and performance information shown in analytics’ packages, the need for the industry’s ‘fairer’ reward system has gained momentum.

The idea revolves around taking the same principles of last click practices toward a more multi-attribution approach, where not one, but the various affiliate touch points that may exist in any given sale, transaction or lead are rewarded. In simpler terms, this means splitting a commission across a variety of affiliate types that constitute a sale. A channel of distribution that starts from an affiliate that provides the initial content to an affiliate that leads to an actual sale. Thus, the intelligent commissioning takes into account all these touch points and rewards all these affiliates who are even though working independently, but at the same time adding respective value. The multi-attribution approach rewards them under a multi-payment solution.

Because affiliate marketers know how different online transactions influences a given single channel, and before advertisers feel that they are ready to move away from the traditional last click approach to commissions, one important point to consider is that no multi-attribution model can be approached without understanding the advertisers wider mix of online advertising campaign.

Because a better reward system for affiliates and a more intelligent commission structure for advertisers cannot exist in isolation, it requires an advertiser-supplier partnership where critical performance metrics for an advertiser is fed back to both network and affiliate. This in turn allows affiliate marketers the ability to not only suggest and even make more intelligent commission decisions, but also provides transparency for affiliates about their traffic quality. Because one of the very first things that can come out of this sharing of performance data, is how very few affiliates are actually involved in a typical sale.

Process, transparency, and reward system all working together. And advertisers who are ready and willing to embrace this approach, they can increase injecting more resources into something that has the potential to maximize advertiser or brand revenue as much as any newer concepts of textual or display methods.

Turning a blind eye on anything with a trace of doubt is never the answer. In affiliate marketing, this has never been truer. Malpractice within the marketing industry, like any other industry, must not be allowed to deter better policing practices. Even though acts of malpractice like making use of malware is now illegal, back when it happened, it was neither illegal, nor went against any of the existing terms and conditions of their contract. It nevertheless left a lot of brands with unpleasant experiences.

That left a lot to be desired though, as many felt that the harm had been done, and there was no possible way of regulating the practice at that point.

Then came search marketing. And display advertising. And the speed at which new methods of online marketing come into play, makes existing practices somewhat obsolete, especially in the case of affiliate marketing. Result? The exodus of advertisers and brands to newer strategies and concepts leaves virtually no room for in-depth understanding of existing practices.

Since, affiliate marketing incorporates a slightly more technical tactic than the usual base online advertising models, people, and brands, tend to stay away from what could be a major strategic partnership channel. The absence of a single voice and opinion to motivate and attract affiliate marketing adoption has not helped either. And this has been a critical factor in instigating more distrust and blame on affiliate marketing.

On the other end of the spectrum, brands that have taken the time to educate themselves about this particular channel have benefited immensely from doing so. Repeatedly, companies have put this marketing channel to their use and have the positive results to show for it. This claim can be further justified by how online companies like Amazon and eBay, the largest affiliate marketing campaigns in the world, have adopted affiliate marketing as a division within themselves, and run affiliate marketing operations globally, giving control to the process.

Balancing the conversations to bring to light the potentials for affiliate marketing, even in this age of search and display advertising conversions, can help to unearth both the positive and the negative aspects of this channel. And even though there are inherent risks with affiliate marketing, like all channels, provided there is active monitoring and evaluation allowing for opportunity risk management, the benefits will far outweigh the risks. Possibly tilting the risk-reward profile to the brand advantage.

Traditional affiliate commissions rest upon the idea of the last click principle, where the affiliate that last referred an end consumer right before a qualifying action. This may be great for the last site to touch the customer, but this remuneration model does not take into account any roles that any previous affiliates potentially played in providing exposure that helped close the sale.

The multi-attribution model seems to be picking up, as a few leading referral agencies are working towards making this a reality by actively engaging merchants and affiliate marketers alike. An excellent proposition to both parties involved, and although not a revolutionary concept (it has been in use for some time now by PostAffiliatePro™), it has the potential to innovate a new way of bringing all parties together in terms of transparency and value.

Split commissions enable all affiliate marketing touch points to benefit from compensation. Usually the compensation model offers a flat fee to all affiliates who have influenced a consumer’s decision along the way, and a final full commission to the last affiliate.

Referral traffic ignited discussions over conversion attribution, and the existing last click model has been widely adopted by affiliate networks and in-house affiliate programs. But because there has never been a consensus about it, most affiliates who actively participate in the network for a merchant, have to play it by chance, and therefore, given the odds of which affiliate ends up being the last click referrer, most are not too happy with the idea.

Multi-attribution may just be what these affiliates are hoping to achieve, but as more and more participants gather up to rally up network support to benefit one and all, certain risk based questions will come up. For e.g. how do we identify who really introduced the customer to the brand? This is critical because it takes into account the time beyond the affiliate program’s cookie life. Another question may enquire on the significance of an affiliate’s role in the consumer’s decision-making process. Yet another asks about the value of each affiliate touch point and the ways to measure them.

Solutions to these queries may well dictate the levels of success for split commission models.

ABSEM-AMM.com aggregates Search Marketing News & other Internet Marketing information written by Search Engine Marketing Experts.

Retaining brand control when working with affiliates tends to be slightly difficult when brands are trying to communicate with their consumers by spreading the right messages to invite both trust and positive emotion.

And, even though a lot of resources is being spent on brand imaging and toward driving consistent and focused messages to consumers, the affiliates of these brands do not seem too keen on adhering to the control idea.

And it does seem like both sides may have a valid point. Affiliates, after all, are in the business of expanding on their target markets, and getting customers to click on their banners and links is paramount to following restrictions.

Just as marketers don’t use the same messages to target different clientele, likewise, the affiliates should be allowed the ability to do that within reasonable bounds.

Brands have even less control over their marketing campaigns now, thanks to the socialsphere, and putting tight restrictions for affiliates will not serve their purpose, unless the guidelines are set with a firm belief that both parties should and must adhere to certain principles, and then allow the affiliates to implement their strategy accordingly.

Certain brands also have a tendency to avoid affiliates that go too heavy on discounts and coupons. Apparently, it seems it is more to do with premium image and control than anything else. Discounting offers takes away the control and loyalty of rebates from the retailers/brands and hands it over to the partners/affiliates. But, if managed properly, then these affiliate sites have the necessary potential to drive great sales volume, whilst adding incredible value.

As consumer behavior cannot be ignored, it falls to the brands to realize how they would want to appear on these sites.

The potential for an affiliate to damage a brand is there and the probabilities of that happening is there too. The key is in managing the whole affair.

If done correctly, you can avoid and minimize the dangers associated with affiliate marketing. The control will be in your hands and you can be the sole decision maker as to how your brand is to be marketed, and what messages need to be given out to potential customers.

But this kind of control demands active and consistent monitoring and evaluation, which can only be achieved if either you have internal resources for the purposes, or if you can utilize an agency to oversee it.

ABSEM-AMM.com aggregates Search Marketing News & other Internet Marketing information written by Search Engine Marketing Experts.

With the recession, many affiliate programs have been cut down or completely withdrawn because of the number of popular and familiar brands going out of business. For those with the perfect business models in place, however, this economy has provided opportunities for affiliates. More consumers are now researching products online and scouring the web for bargains, providing the perfect base for entrepreneurs to innovate and seize the ripe market.

Those who have adapted their business models to fit the economy have flourished, with several voucher-code and cashback sites thriving. Group-buying bargain sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial have created win-win situations for both affiliates and consumers in the fragile market and are quickly gaining ground. Although many popular sites are still going into administration, it is likely that this consumer behavior with the focus on saving money will continue as the economy seems to recover.

Unfortunately, unethical actions by a small number of affiliates have tarnished the industry’s reputation. Although there is an ongoing attempt to increase transparency, there will need to be a massive change in the best practices to bring consumers back.

One of the hottest topics in the industry is how to assign value to marketing, and how fair last-click-wins models are since they are more appropriate for some websites than others. A fairer system is needed, such as eBay’s quality-based CPC model, which pays commissions to every channel that contributes to a final sale. Although this system is fairer, a system like this will have to be managed properly to prevent the watering down of commissions to a point where the campaign isn’t profitable for any of the affiliates involved.

The next logical step for voucher-code sites would be providing their services in realtime, allowing consumers to compare prices of a specific product in-store. Some sites, such as VoucherCloud, have already capitalized on this concept by using smartphones to redeem vouchers in-store. The problem with mobile services is the limited options for advertising but the new concept of monetizing free applications by using in-app adspace solves this problem easily.

Affiliate marketers now need to think of adapting their business models to sustain long-term growth instead of short-term profits. This will provide sustainable value for both customers and affiliates, allowing the industry to grow even further in the unstable economy.

ABSEM-AMM.com aggregates Affiliate Marketing News & Affiliate Marketing Tips written by Affiliate Marketing Management Experts.