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 It seems like everyone in the Affiliate Marketing world is blogging about how great the Miami Affiliate Summit was, so I thought I would add my two cents worth.

If you’ve never been to an Affiliate Summit, now might be the time to make plans for the next one. It will be in Vegas, February 24-26, 2008.

The Affiliate Summit is THE BEST place to network, and pick the brains of some of the top Affiliate Marketers from all over the World. Everyone is there to exchange information - and even the Super Affiliates are approachable and willing to talk. Just go, ask questions, take in all the info, and you’ll know what to do with your Affiliate Marketing business for the next year!

Oh, and did I mention that the parties are spectacular, the food great, and the Seminars full of excellent information?

Just take my word for it, no matter what level you are at, after you have been to one of these events, you will never miss another one! 

Since you can read all about the happenings on other Affiliate Marketing Blogs, I thought I would pass on a few tidbits of useful information that I learned at the seminars. Here goes:

1. When using Adsense Ads, you will get the greatest click-through rate with the Large Rectangle (336×280). Use a white background, and blue heading with black text. DO NOT use a border.
2. When using Video, be sure to add captioning to the Video. You can do this on YouTube after you save your video.
3. There is a free tool called SEOQuake that gives you a snapshot of a bunch of information at the top of your page. I can’t go into complete detail here - it’s basically a Google Snapshot of page information like Alexa Rank, Page Rank, etc. I can say that one of the Super Affiliates I chatted with was VERY excited to get this tool on her computer. I think I’ll follow in her footsteps and do the same.
4. Don’t forget to use Keyword Research tools to target Long Tail Keywords. One of the most popular tools mentioned was Keyword Discovery, but Yahoo’s Keyword Selector Tool has been reincarnated and/or is still available.

OK, that’s it for now. I”ll be posting more of the great Affiliate Marketing tips I learned under more specific headings so you can find them easily in the future.

Stay on the lookout for Pay Per Click (PPC) Expert Tricks, Website Building Secrets, Landing Page Optimization, and much more!

This is chapter 10, Paying Your Affiliates, of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants.

There are a handful of issues to contend with when paying affiliates.

Items to be addressed include the payment frequency (how often you’ll be paying affiliates), minimum payment or payment threshold (amount an affiliate must earn to generate a commission payment), levels (increased commission based on performance), and payment structure (sale, revenue share, lead, click, or hybrid).

Also, you’ll need to decide whether you will have two tiers in your affiliate program. This is an arrangement where you will enable affiliates to recruit affiliates below them and earn a percent of the transactions generated by those referred affiliates.

And you will have to work out if you will pay residual earnings to the affiliates - paying for the lifetime of the customer versus paying the affiliate only on the specific transactions referred.

Then there is the matter of actually paying your affiliates. If you are working with an affiliate network, this is typically an included service.

Otherwise, you can outsource to a third party. In the past, I’ve done this through a payroll company, such as Paychex. You could also process the checks internally via your payroll or accounting department.

Finally, there are the different ways you can pay your affiliates.

Payment by check is probably the most common method for issuing affiliate commissions, and those affiliates earning larger amounts frequently prefer to be paid by direct deposit.

More recently, affiliates have the option with some affiliate programs to receive their commissions through PayPal and similar electronic payment services.

In some cases, the merchant will enable affiliates to accept payment in store credit. Amazon.com is one example that comes to mind, and since I’m a frequent customer there, I take my commissions in store credit.

Affiliates will appreciate having as many options as possible to receive their commissions, so don’t hesitate to ask if there is a method they would prefer that isn’t currently available.

Videos of other chapters of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants are available for free at http://www.affiliatemanager.net/videos.shtml.

DoubleClick Performics unveiled AffiliateDirect at Affiliate Summit in Miami.

AffiliateDirect enables online retailers and affiliate managers not associated with DoubleClick Performics to license the company’s affiliate marketing technology and access the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Network for the first time.

“Full-service affiliate marketing continues to be a core business for DoubleClick Performics, but now smaller advertisers and those with a dedicated affiliate manager can use our technology and access our affiliate network,” said Chris Henger, vice president of affiliate marketing at DoubleClick Performics.

“Advertisers can scale and enhance the affiliate marketing channel effectively with AffiliateDirect.”

DoubleClick Performics beta tested AffiliateDirect from December 2006 through June 1, 2007.

AffiliateDirect enables advertisers to manage, all aspects of their affiliate marketing programs, including attracting, reaching and paying publishers and tracking and reporting on performance.

More details at http://www.performics.com/.

Affiliate posted a photo:

Crowds of affiliate marketers descending upon the exhibit hall on Monday, July 9 at Affiliate Summit.