Wow Valentines Day Can Be Tough

Picture the scene, I am late home from work on the 13th February and I have not got card, flowers or anything for my girlfriend! No problem I thought, Ill just pop into a shop and pick up some flowers and card on the way home.

When I arrived at the shop the shelves where almost bare, I had to basically run to get some roses and wrestle them off some other poor bloke only to see the £40 price tag - to save face I just picked them up and went on a hunt for a card. When I reached the shelf there were no cards either so I cunningly bought a cute generic one - the day was saved and my girlfriend is happy! So this got me thinking about affiliate sales during this lucrative day for landbased retailers.

Checking my stats from the past few days and weeks I can see a peak in sales which is great but I was expecting more! This seems to be a reflection on the forums and other blogs too. So how did you all do over the past couple of weeks?

Also a quick reminder that mothers day is around the corner so now is the time to whip down those valentines day banners or ads and start promoting mothers day. From past experience I can tell you more flowers and chocolates are sold for mothers day compared to valentines day for the simple reason that there are more mothers than WAG’s. So start promoting today and capitalize on mothers day mayhem.

Popularity: 57% [?]

Keep On Top Of Your Commissions With Affiliate Widgets

If you are any thing like me then I am guessing you like to be kept up to date with your latest affiliate commissions and transactions. There are various widgets and gizmo’s that can save you time and deliver news, transactions, latest commissions and other info straight to your desktop as you are working!

Many of the larger networks including Affiliate Window, Buy.at and Paidonresults offer this service and I have taken the time to test them for functionality. There is also a service offered by affmeter that allows you to view stats from most of the major networks in one place. Here is a run down of what each network offers (in no particular order):

Affiliate Window Desktop Alerts

Affiliate window have designed a simple yet effective desktop alert that delivers your latest transactions straight to your desktop automatically. The software only takes a matter of seconds to install and once up and running delivers vital info via an unobtrusive (and small) pop up window.  There is even a sound effect when you receive a commission - Ker ching!

An added feature which I like is that the desktop alerts include the latest messages from the network and merchants, this means I can usually get the latest offers up on my sites as quickly as humanly possible - this is a nice touch that can prove useful in competitive markets.

The Buy.at Widgat

The buy.at widgat may have a kind of corny name but it is a really useful tool for checking up on your commissions. The widget integrates with yahoo widgets which is free to install and integrates with windows XP and vista and OS. It displays latest transactions,total transactions for that day, EPC plus a few other useful stats - the widget is useful but could be made more useful if it could send you messages from merchants, this on the whole is something buy.at could do better anyway.

Commission junction (CJ) also have a similar widget that uses the yahoo widget engine.

Paid on results desktop software

The paid on results desktop software is similar to affiliate windows, I have not used it really so can not comment further until I have tested it out - so watch this space.

Affmeter

Again this is not something I have used so can only report what I have been told or have read. The affmeter software is not free so that is a negative as as you have seen networks do offer free widgets and services. However this negative can be overlooked because the affmeter software gathers information from all the major affiliate networks automatically for you and sends you a combined report at a time period you specify. This sounds like a good idea and I think I will give it a try and let you know.

The main point that I wanted to make is that affiliate networks do have tools to help save you time, as you know time is precious! The more time I can save means the more time I have to spend on my sites - this hopefully will equal more commissions and more Ker chings! This article is by no means an exhaustive search of the widgets available (so if you know of others please let me know) but is designed to raise awareness of the labor saving widgets that may just give you the edge! Hope you found it useful?

Popularity: 64% [?]

A4U Awards This Is One Event The US Writers Strike Cant Stop

The writers strike is still in full flow in the USA and fair play to them! Programs have stopped filming and there is no clear end to the strike. Even the recent Golden Globes awards were basically cancelled due to the strike. However one event that will not be cancelled is the annual A4U affiliate awards 2008!

This years event is set to be a big affair.  The ceremony will take place on the 5th June 2008 at the Sheraton Park Hotel. There are going to be awards for innovative Affiliate Marketing activity in the following vertical sectors:

Finance
Retail
Gaming
Travel and Leisure
Technology and Telecommunications

Edit: Matthew Wood has just informed me that there will be another award - The Best Affiliate Blog 2008!

Check out the official a4u awards website for further details. Also please let me know if you are going, meeting up would be good!

Popularity: 84% [?]

AOL Buys Buy.at

AOL have announced that they have added the affiliate network Buy.at to their profile today. Buy.at have announced they are pleased with the deal as it will allow them to expand their infrastructure, services and technology.

“Advertising.com and buy.at will be able to expand their advertiser offerings, driving more revenue opportunities for affiliate publishers who specialise in both e-commerce websites and retail focused content. This will help to generate sales for advertisers and increased revenue for publishers. Publishers will be able to work with Advertising.com and buy.at across several product lines, earning revenue for inventory across their display, video, mobile, and affiliate channels”

Buy.at have offices all over the world and currently employ around 70 people. They run just over 200 affiliate programs on their network and have recently made improvements to the tools and reporting section of their website. I hope this development will lead to more tools like their great content engine that affiliates currently benefit from.

This is not the first buy out of an affiliate network within the past few months and I am sure it will not be the last. The affiliate industry is clearly growing rapidly and I predict more takeovers are around the corner!

Popularity: 39% [?]

If At First You Don’t Succeed

I am a firm believer of the saying if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. This is a statement that I apply to my affiliate marketing efforts and it is something that should feature prominently in yours! You see affiliate marketing relies on webmasters skills, ideas and ability to adapt to the problems you face during the day to day running of your site(s). It also relies on perseverance and patience.

Let me give you a personal example, I have a number of websites that operate in very competitive niches. If I had taken sites on their first months income alone and given up it could have cost me thousands in profit, Instead I have more often than not decided to trial and error different techniques to make sure the site worked for me. This taught me the valuable lesson of patience and the need to try different things before admitting defeat.

I have read a great deal of forum posts and have received lots of emails from people who have underperforming web sites and I always try to give the best advice I can. But one thing I can not give is determination or the will to succeed, so back to the point of this post (yes there is a point ), when you are feeling nothing is going your way with your affiliate ventures take a step back and have think about what you want to acheive and why, then try again! Never give up at the first hurdle.

I’d like to finish with some inspirational links to show you that your patience can pay off:

Kierons famous site point bank statement for one month:

Jeremy shoemakers huge adsense cheque:

Popularity: 40% [?]