Outsourced Affiliate Program Management vs.Digital Marketing Generalists

Often times companies dump setting up and running an affiliate program into the lap of their other digital marketing staff. Regardless if that staff members expertise lies with SEO, or paid search or CPM ad-buying, they are left with the task of creating an effective affiliate program.

In this article I discuss hiring an outsourced affiliate program manager as an option, and the pros and cons associated with outsourced affiliate program management.

Response to a Forbes Piece of Marketing Tactics That Are "Free"

I caught this article an couple days ago in Forbes {http://www.forbes.com/sites/kateharrison/2012/07/17/5-marketing-tactics-that-cost-almost-nothing/} mentioning affiliate marketing and also Pinterest (I just wrote a post discussing affiliate marketing strategies and tactics for Pinterest. The article touches on affiliate marketing as a marketing tactic that costs almost nothing to pursue. I felt it necessary to respond in a post of my own on the idea that starting and managing a successful affiliate program is free and easy.

Please take a look at my full post with more realistic thoughts on the potential costs associated with starting an affiliate program.

Performance Marketing and Travel in 2012

Two articles, one about the Thailand Tourism Department spending money to promote Thailand for weddings and honeymoons, medical tourism and golfing, the other a Forrester Research report for Rakutan that had a section about the potential in the travel space for affilaites, spurred me to write my own thoughts on Travel and Affiliates in 2012.

There is a ton of opportunity for an affiliate, despite the big guys spending gobs of money, if you can move on certain niches. I discuss my throught here: Travel and Performance Marketing in 2012.

Pinterest, Affiliates and Your Affiliate Program

There’s been quite a bit written about how affiliate are using and can use Pinterest, but I wanted to lend my voice to review and possibly add a few new thoughts and observations. I’ll cover the basics pretty quickly. Also, want to make a quick note that some have used it quite effectively as a marketing tool, and some haven’t been able to get any traction. Your mileage may vary, but it’s worth exploring and considering none the less.

For affiliates, and for merchants with affiliate programs, Pinterest can be a great tool to generate traffic, create social markers, improve brand awareness, create back-links and conduct research on products and competitors. To find out more visit AMWSO Affiliate Program Management - Pinterest, Affiliates and Your Affiliate Program

Merchant Affiliate Programs, Affiliate Program Managers and FTC Endorsement Compliance

A couple of years ago there was a huge firestorm of activity and buzz within the affiliate industry about renewed FTC guidelines regarding compliance for disclosing endorsements. In a nutshell, the FTC stated that anyone who endorsed a product/service through media (be in TV, radio, print, or online), and received some kind of compensation for that endorsement should disclose the relationship the endorser has with the product seller (or merchant).

This article seeks to give a quick review of if and when a disclosure statement is needed by affiliates, and what the potential impact is for a merchant who doesn't require their affiliates to disclose: Affiliate Program Managers, FTC Endorsement Compliance and Merchant Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Coupon Strategies - The Issue of Invalid and Unauthorized Coupons

One of the strongest tools an affiliate program manager has in their toolbox are custom and vanity coupon codes. Once you do start providing custom coupon codes, sometimes you will find an issue with those codes finding their way to other affiliate sites. Either the affiliate hosting the “unauthorized” code for their site might be unscrupulous, or perhaps they provide a mechanism for visitors to add their own codes they’ve found. This will frustrate the high-value affiliate you originally provided the code for, as they look to you to monitor and prevent this from occurring.

This article will provide some advice and tips for minimizing and controling unauthorized coupon use. To read the full article, please visit AMWSO Affiliate Program Management - Controlling Unauthorized Coupon Use

Affiliate Coupon Strategies - How to Minimize Cart Leakage and Profit Reduction

Most often criticisms on implementing coupon for affiliates revolve around customer’s possibly seeing a coupon box on the check-out screen, and leaving the shopping cart to go out and search for a coupon. This causes the merchant to risk losing the sale (as the customer has left the shopping cart), and also possibly a reduction in profit as they get a coupon they weren’t aware of before making the decision to purchase.

There are several strategies a merchant can employ to guard against this.

This is an excerpt. To read the full article please visit: Affiliate Program Management Blog - How to Minimize Cart Leakage and Profit Reduction

Coupon Strategies - Types of Discounts and Coupons for your Affiliate Program

In my previous post on Why to Use Coupons With Your Affiliate Program we looked at the reasons coupons could be a win-win-win strategy for merchants, affiliates and shoppers. Now let’s take a look at discount and coupon tactics to employ when creating and distributing coupons.

When coming up with coupons, it’s important to keep in mind the tactical goal you wish to achieve. Let’s take a look at a few possible goals.

This is an excerpt. To read the full article please visit: Affiliate Program Management Coupon Strategies - Types of Discounts and Coupons for your Affiliate Program

Coupon Strategy - Why Use Coupons?

I’m going to take a little break from my workflow series to write about coupon strategy for merchants. Coupons are a great tool to employ in your affiliate strategy for luring shoppers to your site and turning those shoppers into new customers. Let’s take a look at a couple of the reasons why you might want to employ coupons as part of your overall strategy.

This is an excerpt. To get the complete article please visit Affiliate Program Management Coupon Strategy - Why Use Coupons?