Many affiliate networks now offer paid search management services. These services are paid for either in a percentage of the spend or on a performance basis. Because the network has such leverage in the merchant/affiliate relationship, they often misguide merchants as to how they should best work with affiliates in order to maximize their profits from managing the merchant’s paid search campaigns.
Often, policies like this arise from such misguidance

• Affiliates are not permitted to out bid FootSmart.com for placement on any search terms in the top tier search engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google.

Now, let’s examine this. If I have a web site that promotes a night brace for those suffering from plantar fasciitis and I send that traffic to Footsmart, now I am being managed as to how much I can bid on that item. Even though I am sending that traffic to Footsmart, they are telling me that I must be below them on my bid. Keep in mind that bid does not equal ad placement, but that is another story all together.

So, now with Footsmart’s policy I have to send these sales elsewhere. If my site has a story or other compelling content on it that convinces this customer to buy the product, one would think that Footsmart would be very eager to get that click, but what happens is that when an affiliate network manages the merchant’s paid search they are protective to the point of, in this case, costing the merchant new customers.

Merchants, think long and hard before you meld your affiliate program with the management of your paid search. Many affiliates are able to largely outperform many merchants and network people in paid search. Why? Because we have tighter margins and we have to be better. Many good PPC affiliates offer paid search consulting services, including myself. So, before you risk running good affiliates out of your program consider your choices.

Another popular merchant who is feeling the effects of trademark poachers has revised search policies to eliminate the abuse.
So many affiliates reach only for the low-hanging fruit in this day and age and this really causes problems with companies. More to the point, if a company pays 5% commission to affiliates and realizes that 50% of their affiliate transactions add no value at all, it is very easy for them just to lower their commission and leave the value-add affiliates scratching their head and wondering why. That is the last thing that an affiliate wants is to be punished for the others who are not playing by the rules.
Thank you to those managing Kodak’s affiliate affairs for realizing the issue at hand and taking steps to fix it. We certainly need more of this in our industry.
Kodak is one of the most recognizable brands in the world and it would have been easy for them to go overboard in protecting their brand.
If you don’t have links up for Kodak, log in to CJ and get them. It’s a good program!

Over the past few months, I have seen an influx of affiliate managers and OPMs entering the affiliate arena as affiliates. While I have to say they have every right to do this, it concerns me when I see those whom I have shared information with that could now be used to compete with me.

I see a larger and larger number of affiliate managers complaining that affiliates are aloof, don’t enter the right sites or methods of promotion into network interfaces or some affiliates who use bogus email addresses and other ways of remaining invisible. Well, certainly this is not true in every case, but to these concerns that affiliate managers have, why would an affiliate share everything about their business with you when you are their competition?

In coming months I will be keeping my guard up when speaking with AMs whom I know are active affiliates. I will indeed shield as much information from these people as I can. I see a conflict when the AM has access to information such as your sites and your methods of driving traffic to them.

Am I saying never to trust an affiliate manger? No! What I am saying is that before you blindly trust someone and get them so involved in your business that they can see your methods and results, know what you are potentially getting yourself in to.

A week or two back, iFrogz sent out an email alerting affiliates that they no longer allow them to bid on their brand name in PPC search engines. They, as are so many other programs, were feeling the crunch from those poaching their trademark by paying commissions on sales that should not have been commissioned.

Earlier today they sent another email expressly disallowing affiliates to bid on “ifrogz coupons”, “ifrogz reviews” and other terms containing their name and long tail terms.

It always strikes me as funny when a merchant does this, because it does nothing to reduce affiliate commissions. All it does is hurt the PPC affiliate while those fortunate enough to be above the fold on these terms get all of the traffic. Amazingly enough, those sites are often not the best at representing the merchant and their brand in a professional light. I often see coupon sites in the top SERPS positions for a term with expired or invalid coupons.

Apparently, after some discussions, iFrogz saw the error of their ways and fixed this issue by lining out a specific set of terms regarding their trademark. They sent yet another email regarding the issue.

While I might consider three emails on the same topic in a week or two to be a bit much, KUDOS to iFrogz for fixing it and allowing their affiliates to grow with them and represent their fine company and their unique niche products.

If you have not tried the iFrogz program, give them a try. They convert well!

Think Tank 2007 at the Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona is in the books and was a huge success. The event was considerably larger this year than it was last year. There were just under 90 affiliates, merchants, vendors and OPMs at the event and it was an information powerhouse.

The merchants who presented their programs were (in no particular order):

• ChineseLaundry.com
• Store.Redskins.com
• CelebrateExpress.com
• CSNStores.com
• LandofNod.com *more on LandofNod.com
• TFAW.com
• JonesSoda.com
• Restockit.com
• TinyPrints.com
• TheNerds.net
• Hocks.com
• JensonUSA.com

Each merchant brought something different and interesting and there was lots of feedback from the pool of affiliates, managers and OPMs for each merchant.

Brian Littleton and his team at Shareasale outdid themselves with this event. It was perfectly run, flowed very well, was well-planned and came off flawlessly. There was plenty of time for networking, partying and learning.

The Gainey Ranch is beautiful and I found the staff there to be wonderfully attentive and willing.

Shareasale Think Tank is a new event on the affiliate circuit, but it is growing and getting better and more informative every year.

I recently published a blog with my thoughts on the trademark issue as it relates to affiliates. Of course I received some heat over this as it is a hot topic in the affiliate world right now.

Amazingly, I run in to merchants who do not bid their own trademarks and allow affiliates to do it.

My thoughts on this:
You have an affiliate program with the hopes of getting incremental traffic. This means traffic, and sales, that you would not have gotten if you did not have an affiliate program. Allowing an affiliate to bid on your domain name and on your pure trademarks means that this affiliate is only claiming sales that were already your sales to start with.

Again, affiliates are supposed to drive new traffic. When you calculate what you can afford to pay your affiliates, you should factor in the value of a new customer as that is what you should get from your affiliates…new customers. If you pay someone who only bids your trademark a 10% commission (the same as the other affiliates), and another affiliate goes out and gets a new customer who has never been to your site before and you make that sale, that sale has a MUCH greater value to you so you should pay the affiliate in the second scenario 2x to 3x as much as you pay the one who only camps out on your trademark.

My Proposal to You
If you are absolutely against using paid search and want an affiliate to cover your trademarks, I will do this for 50% (1/2) of your posted commission percentage. I will use my own funds to pay for the ads covering your trademarks. You will save money this way and you will know that you have a professional covering your trademarks and protecting the image of your company.
Your part in this arrangement is to forbid all other affiliates from bidding your trademarks and enforce this policy. Know going in that you will likely have to remove some of those who you have considered top producers. Also know that by removing these affiliates you are helping your company’s bottom line by paying 1/2 of what you once did to keep these terms covered in the PPC landscape. You will not lose any overall sales by doing this. Many of the affiliates who infringe on merchants’ trademarks will refuse to stop and will ultimately have to be removed from your affiliate program. Again, this is a good thing.

So there you have it. I will cover your trademarks for 1/2 your posted commission rate. Contact me if you want to discuss this further.

At the request of some, I am offering a site review service for merchants who either have an affiliate program or do not have one and are surveying the landscape in starting a program.

My review consists of a thorough 25-point evaluation on the web site, all of your policies, potential problems affiliates might have as well as a complete transaction (up to $25, including shipping) and a full analysis of the customer side of your site as far as the site itself, your post-transaction email communications and the fulfillment experience.

Many of my consulting clients are having me do this work twice a year or so. If you do not have a regular affiliate manager or an outsourced firm managing your program, or even if you do, an outside, unbiased eye on your operation is a good thing to have once in a while.

This service is $595** and the work commences within 2 business days of the order being placed with me (see payment links below) and is completed within a day or two of the time the test purchase arrives. The initial work is done, the order on your site is placed and the process is completed when the order arrives.

My credentials to do such an evaluation are listed below:

• I am a Super Affiliate with over 5 years in Affiliate Marketing
• I am a CJP (Commission Junction Performer). This represents me as in the top affiliates at Commission Junction in volume as well as in ethics.
• Named Affiliate of the Year by Affiliate Summit in January, 2006
• I attend many affiliate-related functions each year and keep a pulse on the affiliate marketing community
• I have been involved in online commerce full-time since 1998. This includes launching a commerce site from the ground up in 1999 as well as several other sites that were launched and later sold.
• Was featured in Revenue Magazine in 2006.

If you have any questions at all, please contact me.

What they’re saying about this service:

- Randy Stocklin - One Click Ventures LLC

“Scott’s review was extremely thorough. It covered everything from site navigation to checkout to order fulfillment. Many of Scott’s suggestions were easy-to-implement tweaks that did not require expensive design or programming costs.

We implemented Scott’s suggestions in Q3 of 2007. We saw a significant increase in our conversion rate after we made the changes. Our 2007 holiday season was our best to date. We can’t thank Scott enough. He is worth every penny and more!”

- Melissa C. Murphy - CrazyForBargains.com

My intention is not to manage your affiliate program or your web site. From time to time a trained outside eye can help your business. In a startup environment this kind of third-party evaluation is a must. I really enjoy analyzing a web site or an affiliate program and finding ways to make them better and more productive. I have done this for a long time now and know what to look for from the affiliate perspective as well as from the consumer perspective.

Use the button below to sign up, then contact me via email upon completion. I will be in touch to discuss my services and answer any questions before I get started. The charge will post as Brightside Media Inc. on your statement.

Use PayPal or Google Checkout for payment.

*****************************

** - This is an introductory price for the service and is subject to increase.

When I started Cooperative Affiliates Inc., I sold shares of stock to investors and used that capitol to get things rolling. This was just as much an experiment as it was anything else.

I am happy to announce that as of August 31, 2007, I am the sole stockholder of Cooperative Affiliates. All shares were purchased back and my investors enjoyed a very real 37% + gain on their money in less than a year’s time. This made me happy to see that this model can work in the affiliate environment. It also made me happy to cut those checks because the people I cut them to trusted in me and were well rewarded for their contribution.

Here’s to the future of Affiliate Marketing and online commerce in general.

Scott Hazard

Brian Littleton of Shareasale just announced Think Tank 2007. The dates are October 19-21 and the location is not yet known.
Last year Think Tank was a wonderful event. It was at the Wynn Las Vegas. The location and the event itself were spectacular. Brian and his crew did a wonderful job of putting together the perfect mix of merchants and affiliates. I can’t wait until the details are released and we find out what’s in store for Think Tank 2007.

Update
We are now only a few short days away from Think Tank 2007 in Scottsdale Arizona. I have completed my merchant evaluations and am looking forward to the merchants’ presentation of their site and their affiliate program.

It is always good to be among the affiliate gang as well.

Cya there!
Scott

In the past several months my business has started to take a new direction. For a lack of another term, I call it Reality Marketing. I will explain.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a passion for Bass Fishing. I moved to the area where I now live to be near Lake Fork, one of the best Bass fishing lakes in the US. I have started a blog site detailing my experiences and showing the fish I am catching, where I am catching them and what I am catching them on. I monetize this site in numerous ways.

• Product Recomendations - My site shows lures that I am catching fish on and I put links to these certain lures in the content of my site. These links perform rather well.
• Adsense - I have laced my site with Google Adsense ads. These are contextual ads that show relevant ads.
• Product Sales - I offer two products for sale on the site, the best selling being a detailed map of Lake Fork. At this time, the map and the Adsense ads are the main revenue producers.

As time goes by, I will have more of these Reality Marketing sites. They will include a blog for my two Standard Poodles that features dog and pet related items, advice, information and other useful content. I have many other projects similar to this planned.

What better way can there be to market an item or a related group of items than to share my own experiences and preferences using a site with content that comes straight from my life? I see a new model developing for me in Reality Marketing.