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Remember when we were little we loved playing “Tag, you’re it!” - So that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. I’m starting a tag game for affiliate bloggers officially today - July 18, 2007 (this is my sneaky attempt to become famous!).

Here’s how it works - I say 1 thing I learned at The Affiliate Summit then I tag 5 other lucky people and they have to reveal 1 thing they learned and tag 5 others!

Here it goes:

1 Thing I Learned At Affiliate Summit

Actually I learned a lot, but one of the moments that sticks out was a presentation by Chris Henger, VP of Affiliate Marketing at DoubleClick Performics during his presentation titled: Desirable Demographics In The Affiliate Channel…

He revealed a very interesting study that they had a 3rd party company do when they took a good sized pool of their merchants and studied their traffic and the average order size it led to and the conversion rates.

I don’t remember the exact numbers (I lost my notes, but Shawn & Missy will release the videos soon anyways). But I do remember being blown away.

–> The average order size from an affiliate sale is almost 30% higher!
–> Affiliate traffic converted almost 50% better than other traffic sources (the only source that was better was direct URL type-in).

Again, I don’t remember my exact numbers - I’ll look for the notes more, but I’ll find out again when I watch the presentation again.

So, now to tag, the first 5 luck ones to get tagged:

Rosalind Gardner
Jeremy Palmer
Shawn Collins (did he actually have time to learn?)
Heather Paulson
Sam Harrelson

For those of who I did not tag, I still love you - it’s just if I tag everyone I know, there won’t be anyone left for the game!

So, what did YOU learn?

Lisa Picarille and myself welcomed Michael Demby, Executive Recruiter at AC Lion. Topics discussed included what companies are looking for when hiring affiliate managers and average salaries.

Affiliate managers searching for positions should contact Michael at M.Demby@aclion.com.

We also gave a recap of Affiliate Summit 2007 East, and discussed affiliate commissions by debit card, Google AdSense for Mobile, ValueClick’s purchase of MeziMedia, potential problems with the Google acquisition of DoubleClick, and the line between advertising and editorial.

Listen to this episode now. The Affiliate Thing show airs weekly on Wednesdays at noon EST. Tune in at http://www.WebmasterRadio.FM.

Subscribe to the Affiliate Thing RSS feed or send a blank e-mail to affiliatething@aweber.com to get each podcast delivered by e-mail.

There is speculation on SeekingAlpha.com that Think Partnership (AMEX: THK) might spin off the company’s network division into a separately traded Nasdaq listed company named after its highly regarded “Kowabunga!” unit.

According to a piece by John Gilliam, several large independent shareholders of Think Partnership sent a letter addressed to CEO Scott Mitchell and the Board of Directors in an effort to pressure management to spin off KowaBunga!

Think Partnership’s (hereinafter “THK”) shares continue to trade substantially below what we believe to be fair value. We believe the company’s network division alone is worth 25 -30% more than the entire company’s existing market cap. The valuation trading range for Think Partnership stock leads us to believe that the network division is being wholly overlooked by the investment community because it resides under the THK holding company umbrella. We also believe that the considerable growth prospects of the company’s Kowabunga!, Primary Ads, ValidClick.com and SecondBite.com assets would be significantly enhanced if the company were valued as an independent entity.

As such, we respectfully request that the Board of Directors give due consideration to a spin off of the network division prior to the end of calendar year 2007 through an IPO of the network division’s assets into a separately traded company called “Kowabunga! Technologies”. The THK network division’s (hereinafter “Kowabunga!”) revenue run rate, growth trajectory and client list along with its placement in the hottest of hot sectors within the technology industry would make it an ideal candidate for an IPO.

More details at http://internet.seekingalpha.com/article/41003.

UK cashback site GreasyPalm reports that they have saved online shoppers over £5 million to date. There is a count (appears to be live) on their site that reflects the total amount of savings as it grows.

GreasyPalm, and affiliate that touts being number one in their sector, features over 850 retailers where users can earn cash back on their purchases. The site currently has 750,000 members.

Paul Knapp, Director of GreasyPalm, comments, “Money saving and cashback shopping has undergone massive growth since we set the ball rolling with GreasyPalm back in 2003, but our core principles remain the same. Shoppers want a fresh, innovative, reliable service and GreasyPalm delivers. We are proud of reaching this major milestone and it demonstrates that consumers truly value our service.”

Recently, GreasyPalm announced that they have launched a white label version of their service to provide third parties with a co-branded rewards platform.

More information on GreasyPalm at http://www.greasypalm.co.uk/.

The monthly LinkShare affiliate newsletter has some useful statistics on back-to-school shopping.

• August 1 is when 40% of US consumers said they start back-to-school shopping, while 56% said they start between August 1 and September 1.*
• Back-to-school shopping is growing online. In 2006, more than 50% of moms surveyed said that they planed to shop online. **
• Clothing and accessories account for the biggest back-to-school spending, an estimated $7.6 billion was spent in 2006, followed by electronics and computer equipment at $3.8 billion, shoes at $3.3 billion, and school supplies at $2.9 billion.***

* NPD Group, July 2006
** PersonalShopper.com survey by MedeliaMonitor
*** BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation, July 2006

The July 30 edition of the LinkShare Deal Dispatcher will feature a special section on back-to-school promotions.

I learned about a promotion from Advertising.com during the Affiliate Meet Market in Miami last week. Missy Barnstein, from the Advertising.com Affiliate Product Solutions team, told me about their 10 Million Free Impression sweepstakes.

According to Missy, the 10 million impressions are quality impressions that will run across the entire Advertising.com network. Affiliates do not have to join their network for a chance to win - it’s just a matter of filling out a lead form.

They’re doing good things over there, and I don’t say that just because they have some Maryland Terps on staff (my alma mater).

While they are a large operation (subsidiary of AOL), they have really focused on dedicated resources for their affiliate program and cultivating a relationship oriented environment that affiliates generally experience with smaller companies.

As far as the tracking and reporting, they’ve got their own platform and they’re paying out millions of dollars each month (net 15 days).

Check them out if for no other reason than to get a chance on those 10 million impressions.

More details at http://www.advertising.com/affiliatesweeps/.

This month’s AC magazine is all about using Pay-Per-Click advertising in your marketing efforts.

In the first article, “PPC Essentials for Affiliate Marketers” Matt Van Atta explains the concept behind PPC, then gives you a brief overview of which areas to be careful of when spending your PPC dollars. He also adds the four essentials that should be included in every PPC Campaign - do you know what they are?

“The Many Uses of PPC Marketing” by Kathy Jackson, will show you other areas where PPC can be used - it’s not just for Advertising anymore. .

In “How to Write Winning PPC Ads” Katalin Torok walks you through five-steps that will make sure you writie ads that get clicks, and that will lower your monthly advertising budget. You’ll feel like a real copywriter after you discover these helpful pointers.

Then, you’ll be amazed to find out that AdWords has even more uses! You can use your AdWords campaign to do research in a variety of areas. It’s all told in: “Google AdWords: The Ultimate Niche Research Tool?”

I think you will agree that the July issue of Affiliate Classroom Magazine should be required reading for Affiliates and Internet Marketers alike. And best of all, the Affiliate Classroom Magazine is free!

Download the July issue today at: http://www.affiliateclassroom.com/magazine.php

One of the neat things about Affiliate Summit was meeting affiliate marketers from all over the world. On the second day of the conference, I had a chance to speak with Firuze Gökce of Affmeter.com.

Firuze made the trip to Miami from Ankara, Turkey. Here is what she had to say about Affmeter, a program to aggregate affiliate reporting…

“We are developing a software called Affmeter that helps you collect affiliate revenue data from the different affiliate networks into one place, so you can see the big picture.

The benefit of Affmeter is that it’s not a Web-based program; it’s a desktop program, so there is no interference with your data.

It’s clear, it’s secure, and it’s a great time-saver for you.”

According to their site, Affmeter currently supports the following affiliate networks: Affiliate Future, Affiliate Window, Buy.at, ClickBank, Commission Junction, DGM Affiliates, DoubleClick Performics, LinkShare, PaidonResults, Reporting.net, TradeDoubler, and Webgains, as well as Google AdSense.

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

1. Affiliate Summit Recap
2. ValueClick Buys Super Affiliate, MeziMedia
3. Affiliate Summit 2007 East Presentations
4. Affiliate Program News
5. Top 10 Affiliate Programs - June 2007
6. Affiliate Summit West 2008

 Google really wants you to have great success with the AdSense advertisements you put on your web pages.

Google would love to see you become an AdSense multimillionaire. Why? That’s easy. The more money you make with your Google AdSense advertisements, the more money Google makes.

So, basically, with their own interest foremost in their mind, Google has designed some really helpful tools to help you optimize your AdSense income. 

One of the AdSense optimization tools that Google supplies is what they call the Google “heat map”. The Google heat map shows you in living color the most effective placements of AdSense advertisements on your web pages.

You can see the Google heat map at:              http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html

 

Now, if your site is primarily a forum site or a blog site please take note:  The most effective placements of AdSense advertisements is different for your blog and forum pages that for your content pages. You can see the heat map for blog and forum pages at:

 https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=43868

More is better but you should not fill your pages up with the highest number of ad units allowed.

What I mean by more is really ‘more often’. 

Breaking up long articles or blocks of text into smaller segments and adding a ‘more’ link at the bottom of each section will allow you to add your AdSense advertisements to more pages on your website.

 

 Every time the reader sees the AdSense advertisement is yet another opportunity for you to get a clickthrough.

So optimizing your AdSense advertisements really depends upon two things;

1. Placement and
2. Frequency

When you place your AdSense advertisements in the most optimal position on each page and increase the number of pages on your website, you will be on your way to making the most out of your Adsense advertising dollars - and making more income too!