Here are a few key points on what affiliates need to know and keep in mind:
1) Always follow the instructions in an offer completely. Those instructions you see in offers aren’t “suggestions” but guides that tell you specifically what is allowed and what is not allowed. If there are any questions, always ask an affiliate manager and then follow their instructions also. Keep records of what the affiliate manager told you to review, and also if there is a disagreement in the future, to point out. Know that being creative is great, but if you are too creative you could be inadvertently breaking some law or guideline.
2) Always work with reputable networks. If a network has been the target of compliance investigations or enforcement actions from the Federal Trade Commission, Attorney Generals or any other organization, keep far away. You need to know that the network that you are working with has your back, and if they are breaking the law, they will hang you out to dry. Make sure that the CPA network that you are signed up to has a knowledgeable legal staff, compliance division and a clean record.
3) Get a knowledgeable attorney. Don’t trust what you are told – if you are making money in this business, you need a good attorney who knows what is going on. Protecting your ass from possible compliance actions will always be worth it. Too many people in the industry have found what it means when their bank accounts are frozen, their offices shut down and their reputation ruined just because they are “suspected” in being involved in something not-ethical. Always make sure what you are doing follows guidelines legally and ethically.

Pace Lattin is a leading ethical marketing, compliance and fraud expert. You can learn more about him at about.me @Pace Lattin

http://blog.hybrydads.com/?p=47

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Mobile Marketing Association have released “Mobile Web Advertising Measurement Guidelines” for public comment. Developed with the assistance of the Media Rating Council, the guidelines are to provide a framework to govern how ad impressions are counted on the mobile Web.

The guidelines include defining a mobile web ad impression, creating a common definition and methodology, and how to distinguishing between the established IAB Web ad impression and the mobile Web ad impression, and when each metric is appropriate.

Ultimately, the point is to encourage adoption of mobile ads – which in theory should not be difficult given the proliferation of mobile devices. However measuring mobile advertising is trickier than measuring Web ads, said Joe Laszlo, the IAB’s director of research. (via ClickZ).

“The way that mobile networks handle data is different, and mobile device capabilities are different,” he said. “They can’t quite handle things like cookies the way PCs can, and mobile network operators play a much larger role in passing along data, which makes it harder to measure.”

In general, the industry is trying to capture for advertisers just how widely mobile content is viewed. Earlier this year, ABC’s interactive unit, ABCi, teamed with Verve Wireless to audit newspapers’ mobile content delivered via the Verve publishing platform. As a result, ABCi is now able to provide newspaper publishers and advertisers with independently verified mobile usage data generated from apps, e-readers, and mobile browsers. Newspapers can now report on mobile audience by device type, mobile audience by day and day part, audience access points (app, mobile browser, e-reader), unique visitors, and page views.

IAB Publishes Mobile Ad Guidelines – MarketingVOX.

E-mail Drives Consumer Purchases. Does Anything Else Matter?
Half of U.S. consumers have made an in-store or telephone purchase after receiving a promotional e-mail, a recent study from digital marketing firm e-Dialog found. Overall, 57% of global consumers say they are more likely to buy a product in a store after receiving a marketing e-mail about it. Thirty-seven percent are less likely to buy and 6% are not affected. In the U.S., 51% of consumers are more likely to make an in-store purchase as a result of a marketing email, with 42% less likely to buy and 4% not affected. Interestingly the study did not look at when that e-mail was sent – a topic that has been discussed ad nauseam in the industry.

Growing voices, though, are starting to wonder if maybe such tinkering with the clock is irrelevant in terms of what really matters: does that e-mail eventually result in a sale?

Don’t Bother

Simply put, some questions are just not worth asking, Loren McDonald of Silverpop recently wrote in a blog post. These include ‘What is the average e-mail open or click-through rate?’ and ‘What is the best or optimum e-mail frequency?’

“There are no truly meaningful answers for these questions, but more importantly they simply are the wrong questions to ask,” he writes. “Instead, better questions to ask (respectively from above) might be: What are our revenue or other business goals and therefore what email process metrics are required to achieve these goals? How do we create e-mail programs that add value to the customer relationship and maximize conversions and revenue? How do we send more relevant e-mails, more often but with the same or fewer resources?

As for the question, what is the best time to send an e-mail, what the question is really asking is “How do we increase the likelihood that someone will act or convert as a result of our email program?”, he writes in an opinion published in MediaPost. “So, consider a more fundamental and strategic question for your program, such as: “How do we create e-mail programs that add value to the customer relationship and maximize conversions and revenue?” This customer-centric perspective emphasizes message relevance over campaign schedule. The right time question cannot be separated from the other half of the equation: the “right message.”

Finally marketers might want to consider this about e-mail, “Many consumers wait until the evening or weekend to catch up on email,” a new study by ExactTarget, Facebook X-Factors said. “So while they like the immediacy of sending an email, they appreciate the ability to respond at their own leisure.”

Online lead generation (OLG) is a term referring to the creation of consumer interest in a product or online service. Like supermarket advertisement walls there are multiple different strategies to generate leads online. There are three pricing models in online lead generation CPM, CPC, and CPL.

Cost-per-thousand (CPM) is the first, least common, form of online lead generation. CPM pricing is based upon the number of people that view the ad. CPM is a risky because even if the target audience does not click on the ad, it still is recorded as a view. CPM allows the most possible chances for viewing but is often bypassed. An example of CPM is an advertisement banner on the side of a webpage.

Cost-per-click (CPC) is like CPM but solves the problem of charging without actual viewing. Advertisers are only charged when a consumer clicks on the ad to view it. Although advertisers are only charged when someone clicks on the ad, cost per click has become more expensive in recent years due to increased competition. In CPC advertising you are buying clicks at a set rate, so you will know the gross cost before you purchase.

Cost-per-Lead (CPL) advertising resolves the problems associated with CPC and CPM. In CPL advertising you are buying per lead. CPL works by the amount of leads created. For example and ad will be placed on a webpage and if a consumer clicks on the ad and signs up for the product, a lead is created and the advertiser is charged. This solves the problem with CPC and CPM because you are not charged unless a consumer signs up for the product or online service being advertised.

Co-registration is an example of CPL. Co-registration is a method of lead generation where advertisers promote their product during registration on another webpage. When filling out the registration for this other webpage an ad will pop up with a selection box, and if the box is selected the consumer is also registered for your product or online service.

What’s best?

Although all methods of online lead generation are proven to have a high ROI (return on investment), co-registration has the highest ROI. Co-registration is also the most measurable because advertisers are only charged once leads are generated through consumer registration for a product.

by Dan Bartram
dan@ifficient.com

The continuity model has always been an area of great success for online publishers: large CPAs, quick guaranteed payment and for the most part they were protected from chargeback’s. When I think of continuity programs the first one that comes to my mind is the Acai Berry weight loss program. This campaign exploded over the holidays and into the New Year. It seemed that everywhere you looked you saw the ads – “Lose 7 pounds in 14 days,” next to a ripped six-pack and some really good-looking fitness models. Every publisher had a version of these offers and banners; inboxes and links were being pushed out to the masses.

So how does this relate to turbulence in the marketplace? Merchants were sending out cheap free trials and then billing a large sum on the back-end. The problem with this model emerged when merchants had to pay their affiliates for traffic and sign-ups but were then hit with massive chargeback’s because everyone started cancelling their subscription to the products.

As a result, a few shifts quickly happened:

1.) Traffic from publishers was considered “questionable” due to the large quantity of chargebacks
2.) Merchants still had to pay their affiliates regardless of chargebacks
3.) Credit card companies quickly saw returns exceed 3%, causing merchant accounts to be blacklisted

What seemed liked a certain moneymaker quickly turned upside down, leaving merchants in the dark and publishers without large campaigns to consumer inventory. My next question became, “What can publishers do to make up for this loss of spending and monetize their traffic?” The immediate answer is co-registration. Co-registration is a simple ad-serving solution (usually just a line of code or an i-frame) that allows a website to monetize users after the registrations processes. The technology can allow anywhere from one to 100 “offers” or “campaigns” to be shown on the thank you page after sign up. Since the ad-server is displaying campaigns after the user has entered their registration information, it allows for extremely accurate targeting capabilities based on gender, age, address or even additional custom qualifying questions. Depending on the exact campaign, price points can range from $.25 to $25 dollars per opt in.

Although the eCPM of a coreg page may not be as high as the once mighty affiliate continuity programs, the co-registration solution is a solid, sustainable model founded upon permission-based marketing. With the ability to quickly rotate offers based on eCPM, easy campaign implementation, and complete customization, the co-reg platform is a solid revenue stream for publishers looking to make additional money on their websites. Additionally, this technology does not affect any other facet of the site, so CPM or CPA initiatives that were already in motion will not be affected in anyway. During tough economic times for website publishes who wouldn’t want an easy additional source of revenue for their site?

by Michael Gerpe
mike@ifficient.com

Shopgala.com reaches approximately 27,476 U.S. monthly users. The site attracts a slightly female slanted, skewing older audience.

Please view more information on Shopgala.com by clicking the link below to quantcast:

http://www.quantcast.com/shopgala.com/lifestyle#demographics

The process works as such:

1. Consumer sees an advertisement
2. Consumer opts-in and provides the data the advertiser requests
3. we validate consumer data
4. we transfer the data to the advertiser
5. Advertiser and the consumer start a true 1 to 1 relationship
Example:

The process to engage and capture consumer’s attention is vital to driving revenue during the holiday season. So how can retailers drive as much traffic to their sites and gain profits? Here are three easy ways for retailers to help win the battle.

1.) Co-registration: Co-registration is the easiest and most cost effective way to build a targeted permission based email list. With the ability to gather thousands of “hand-raisers” or consumers interested in promotions and savings, co-registrations provides retails an incredibly easy way to communicate with their audience. One of the most important factors to running a successful co-registration campaign is having a strong call to action, an example of this could be, “FREE SHIPPING when you sign up for the Overstock.com newsletter!.” By including a call to action that promotes savings retailers increase their opt-in and open rates incredibly over other campaigns that simply state, “Click here to find out more and join our newsletter.”

The second step to having a successful campaign is the media placement. Advertisers need to promote their campaigns on sites that are in line with their audience. If client A knows that their target audience are 25-45 year old females that are housewives and do not work, then they must ensure their campaign is running on female only sites targeted towards stay at home moms or wives. By advertising on the most targeted sites you increase your chances of open rates to your email marketing follow-up.

2.) Email Marketing: Probably the most popular way of advertising during the holiday is a large email push. This should always follow a co-registration campaign as quickly as possible either by an auto-responder or by a standalone email blast to a list being produced. It is important to follow up as quickly as possible to maintain the attention of your consumer. Remember, they just actively checked a box that asked the client to send them savings via email, so acting open this as quickly as possible is vital. Secondly, it is important again to have strong copy and creative, keep it simple and to the point. The main goal of the email is for the consumer to click through to the portal and hopefully make a purchase so there is no need to drag out this process or make it complicated for the consumer.

3.) Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate Marketing can give retailers a tremendous boost in holiday sales. The upside is that you are locked into a fix cost per acquisition, while the downside is that it can be very costly to re-market or re-engage the consumers if they don’t buy.

by Mike Gerpe
mike@ifficient.com

Online lead generation (OLG) like oil varies in price. OLG networks differ based on quantity and quality. Typically, higher volume networks tend to charge a lower cost per lead. This is because users (leads) are incented to sign-up for an advertisement. The higher cost per lead networks use content-based sites that are contextually relevant towards an advertisers campaign, essentially being produced differently.

Most online marketers understand the value and return on investment associated with OLG, but fail to have the long-term visual, and budget to pull off a successful strategy. Like protecting your cars engine against sludge, it is important to protect your database against attrition. By not protecting your marketing database you are essentially allowing your organizations most coveted marketing asset to breakdown.

We at Ifficient don’t believe any organization should allow the lifeline of their organization to breakdown, so we created a zero cost per lead online program for all online sites.

How does it work?

Simple. We send you a snippet of code to add to your online sign-up page/registration page (which you probably aren’t monetizing anyway) to display advertisements that reward your users for becoming a member of your site or newsletter. The ad revenue is tracked in real-time via a publisher log-in page we create especially for you. Once the code is placed on your site, you start to earn revenue in which we reinvest into your own OLG campaign.

By Sean McCormick
sean@ifficient.com