http://www.ianlarsen.com Marketing Technology Services & Affiliate Program Management Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:53:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I am always looking for new tools and services for both client and self to gain some intelligence into business. The other day I got an email from a long lost friend through Linkedin, she had a message of affordable intelligence. After a demo and presentation of The ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/affiliate-marketing/a-suprising-new-ppc-conversation-monitoring-tool-you-have-to-try "Transparency" in regards to affiliate marketing can go so many different ways. Affiliate networks are defining it from a managers/retailers point of view and opening up contact information and details about the affiliates. This enables an affiliate manager to make better choices on promotions, fraud prevention and helps ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/affiliate-marketing/a-plea-for-transparency-affiliates-networks-need-to-give-it-up Setting yourself apart can be a big job for when recruiting affiliates, whitepapers can act as a supporting document for your emails, advertisements and other listings. There was an interesting article on Copyblogger and how whitepapers can make you filthy rich, not sure about that, but the bottom line ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/for-merchants/using-a-whitepaper-to-support-your-affiliate-recruiting-efforts After all your efforts around affiliate recruiting you should have listings on directories, in social networks, forums and through your network of friends and industry experts. You will also (or should have) affiliates clamoring at your door to get into your program. Now comes the make or break ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/for-merchants/phony-affiliates-prevention-guide-for-managers Affiliate Managers struggle everyday communicated the proper message to the right affiliates. RSS is becoming a standard in communication solutions, it is more reliable then email and less obtrusive than constant phone calls to your affiliates. You can generate RSS feeds easily through your blog software. Many ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/for-merchants/rss-for-affiliate-managers-start-segmenting-your-communication-using-rss Datafeeds (also known as a product catalog or product feed) can intimidate a new affiliate as they immediately scream “I’m not a coder” when the thoughts of XML, CSV, FTP, integration and site builds pop into their heads. It’s true! To maximize the use of a datafeed you ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/for-affiliates/15-creative-uses-for-affiliate-datafeeds Take advantage of opportunities within your affiliate interface to communicate the right message about your affiliate program. Just like any business there is a level of merchandising, selling or whatever you want to call it to ensure you are branding correctly & ultimately converting. The job for your ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/for-merchants/better-merchandising-ideas-for-your-affiliate-interface There is a great deal of concern around issuing exclusive offers and coupons to affiliates as they too often fall into the wrong hands and you end up paying too much with upset affiliates. DirectTrack (DT) has built in technology to help protect links from abuse; it won’t ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/for-merchants/exclusive-affiliate-coupons-for-you-you-you I was looking over my google analytics account for one of my sites and the "Average Page View" rate jumped out at me as being insufficient. for the sake of needed a good example i'll just tell you it was 2.35%. That means basically every visitor to my ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/affiliate-marketing/monetizing-your-website Affiliate recruiting & program management has always been something that many think they can do, many try and very few are successful at. After spending a great deal of time this last week discussing opportunities and hurdles with others in the industry at Affiliate Summit West ’08, my philosophy ... http://www.ianlarsen.com/affiliate-marketing/the-affiliate-marketing-draft-volunteer-today