Intelligent Performance Marketing

AffiliateBenchmarks Research Study Ends Today – Top 10 Reasons to Participate

Our 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks research study ends promptly at 5pm EST today. At that point we will no longer accept survey submissions. If you want to participate please go now.

Reason #10 to fill out the AffiliateBenchmarks survey = The online marketing industry values your opinion. Last year thousands of people used this research data to better understand the affiliate world. Affiliate, Advertisers, consultants, etc all downloaded the report and used the information to build stronger affiliate marketing strategies. Commission Junction, Pubcon, search engine strategies, and other events even featured the research in their annual conferences. Please participate today and share your thoughts with the industry.

Reason #9 to complete the AffiliateBenchmarks research survey = Be a part of the affiliate industry’s largest research project. Last years study made affiliate marketing history when it became the largest panel based research study ever conducted with over 3,500 participants who have completed the survey. This years study is breaking our own record and already has over way more participants than last year !!! Please take a few minutes and add your thoughts to this project and be a part of affiliate marketing history.

Reason #8 to complete the AffiliateBenchmarks survey = filling out the survey only takes 5 minutes just once a year and is a way better use of your time than the following:

- 5 minutes of commercials
- 5 minutes of spam emails
- 5 minutes of pointless conversations
- 5 minutes trying to figure out what happened to your team in the world cup
- 5 minutes walking your dog or walking your kids (whichever you walk most…just please don’t put your kids on a leash)

Reason #7 to answer the 2010 affiliatebenchmarks survey = Our survey is supported by almost every major affiliate marketing network including:

- Commission Junction
- LinkShare
- Google Affiliate Network
- ClickBank
- Pepperjam
- Share A Sale

We are grateful for the support of these great networks and hope you will join the effort too by filling out our survey.

Reason #6 to participate in our AffiliateBenchmarks survey.

This survey effort is supported by great advertisers (and NETexponent clients) such as:

- Audible.com
- Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Total Gym Direct
- Nick Jr Boost
- Shockwave Games
- Automotive Concepts
- CengageBrain
- Hot Topic
- Torrid
- Shockhound
- Yola

These advertisers and more use our valuable survey data to help guide their affiliate marketing strategies. Your opinion matters and will surely help these folks be stronger affiliate marketers.

Reason #5 to participate in the 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks research survey =. Use this as a chance to reflect on your business growth. Our survey is designed to ask insightful questions about your business. Every year we get feedback from participants telling us they found it helpful to think about their business while answering these short questions. We all work hard but sometimes we forget to step back and examine our efforts in different ways. Take the survey and see what happens.

Reason #4 to complete our AffiliateBenchmarks survey = overwhelming industry support. We are proud to have started an affiliate marketing research effort that caters to affiliate publishers, advertisers, agencies, and consultants. Over the last 3 years our survey has been supported by some of the biggest affiliate companies in the industry such as:

- Revenews
- Performance Marketing Association (PMA)
- Shopping-Bargains.com
- AffiliateTip.com
- JEBCommerce
- CouponWinner
- AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com
- AffSpot
- 5StarAffiliatePrograms

and many more. We are grateful for the support of these great companies and we hope you will join us by completing the survey before it closes (today at 5pm EST).

Reason #3

Because we asked nicely?

Reason #2

The second biggest reason to complete the 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks survey = you get a free copy of the report.

We know your time is valuable. In fact we know your time is worth at least $199 and that is why we plan to give you a free copy of our research study if you complete the survey. On average it takes folks no more than 5 minutes to complete the survey…that means we think an hour of your time is worth $2,388!!!!

That’s right, folks who complete every question in the survey will be emailed a completed research report at no charge ($199 value) and folks who answer just the required questions will receive a free executive summary ($99 value).

Reason #1

The #1 reason to complete the 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks survey = no regrets.

Today is the last day to complete our survey. The link provided below will cease to work at 5pm EST tonight.

If you pass up this opportunity to answer our survey and get a free copy of the data you wont get another. Of course you can always buy a copy of the report once it is ready for sale but that will cost you $199. Why not take a few minutes and answer the survey…then put that $199 to use in better ways.

Click on the link below and complete the survey before 5pm EST tonight and you wont regret it.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/netxblog

LinkShare Symposium East 2010 – A Success!

On Tuesday I attended my first ever LinkShare Symposium, representing our clients: Nick Jr. Boost and Shockwave ! Overall, it was a great event with a perfect balance between education, networking, and fun.  Since it was my first time, I just wanted to reflect on everything I experienced, as well as provide a brief overview for those who couldn’t make it.

To kick off the event, several members of the LinkShare team (including CEO Yaz Iida) welcomed and thanked all of the attendees. They introduced us to some of the great developments that LinkShare has been working on:

  • Deep Linking Controls (For advertisers that do not allow linking to certain pages, but would like to allow deep linking on all other pages)
  • WordPress Deal Feed Plug-In (LinkShare would like to make it easier for publishers of all sizes – including bloggers – to plug & play. They’ve seen over 5,000 installations thus far!)

And…the most exciting development (in my opinion) is the ALL NEW Advertiser Dashboard! The new advertiser interface is a lot cleaner and simpler, making it easy to find everything you’re searching for:

  • New Trend Chart with Year over Year Trending Reports
  • It is now easier to enter dates when pulling a report
  • Link Section enables you to see just how well your creative is performing
  • Publishers are a lot easier to locate

After we learned about all these new developments, Sucharita Mulpuru (Vice President of Forrester Research and Symposium 2010 Keynote Speaker) talked to us about how eCommerce can succeed in every economic condition. Some key notes (ha.. no pun intended):

  • Consumers shop online because it’s convenient (#1 reason: it saves time and #2 reason: deals & coupons -> Remember this important stat, advertisers!)
  • Successful brands compete up or across! Instead of fighting over whose value/dollar menu was the best, McDonald’s challenged Starbucks by highlighting a new product: McCafe.
  • React to people power: Get your customers involved! Social web activity is a global phenomenon. EventBrite allows customers to share information about their tickets via social media.
  • Expand your IT team – new technological developments & innovation breed success.
  • Multi-Channel: Many buyers are now on more than 1 device – embrace the mobility revolution.

Next up: Panel Discussion! This year’s panel included: Siva V. Kumar (TheFind.com), Diana Gee (The North Face), Jeff Nobbs (ExtraBux), David Lonczak (Drugstore.com) and Kenneth Dayley III (crocs). This discussion was interesting because it allowed us to get perspectives from both advertisers and affiliates! It was great to hear their thoughts on these topics:

  • Conversion Rates: Some affiliates (including ExtraBux) are going to have dynamic featured ads that will change to fit the customer. It’s also important to make sure there are clear Call to Actions. Additionally, don’t include too much info! We wouldn’t want to overwhelm visitors.
  • Data Feeds: What’s missing? Unique identifiers: Sku #s, Bar Codes, Brand & Model #. Tax and Shipping information is also a plus for TheFind.com!
  • Coupons & Discounts: crocs found that product-specific coupons performed much better! Siva from TheFind pointed out that virtual discounts (e.g. Facebook Credits) are great for those advertisers who are brand sensitive and prefer not to offer coupons.
  • Mobile Commerce: TheFind also found that their peak mobile day was Black Friday due to customers comparing online deals to in-store.
  • Global Plans: Try to develop sites that are accessible to those around the world.
  • Getting Ready for Q4: Prepare ahead of time and make sure you keep your affiliates posted on your deals. Ideally, letting affiliates know when a product is out of stock would be great too (especially to help conversion rates)!

After all this great learning, it was lunch & Golden Link Award time! The Golden Link Awards were hosted by the Upright Citizens Brigade who certainly kept things fun.  I especially liked their piece on the creator of the Pop-Up Ad – “Mr. Popup.” The Golden Link Awards were really nice because they rewarded all of the innovative and successful players in the affiliate marketing space. Congrats everyone!

Next came “DealMaker,” a place for affiliates and advertisers to walk around and chat. Some had booths with great giveaways (Erica won a hat from KarmaLoop.com) and some just had great information.  This was one of the most successful parts of the Symposium because I was able to meet a lot of our clients’ awesome partners in person!

Lastly, the after party at the Biergarten at the Standard Hotel – who doesn’t love free beer & pretzels? The photobooth also made things really interesting.

This concludes my successful trip to LinkShare Symposium. I learned a lot, and got to connect with all kinds of people – merchants, agencies and affiliates alike! Thanks everyone for this great experience.

Valerie Russo

Media Coordinator – Affiliate

AffiliateBenchmarks Survey 2010 Launches

The NETexponent and AffiliateBenchmarks teams are so excited to announce the official launch of the AffiliateBenchmarks Survey 2010!

Last year, 3500 experts and insiders took part in the largest research effort this industry has ever seen. We plan on making this year even bigger!

Whats new for the 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks Study?

  • Our affiliate/publisher study is now simpler. We removed some questions and streamlined others to ease the burden on busy affiliates/publishers.
  • We added a short survey for advertisers/merchants to collect some information on their challenges and views of affiliate marketing.
  • We added a short survey for agencies/OPMs/consultants to collect information on their view of the industry.
  • We have even more partners who have agreed to distribute the survey and ensure that 2010 will be the largest affiliate research study ever produced. (a title currently held by our 2009 report)
  • We are prepared to provide even more data analysis when we issue the 2010 report.

Special note: Participant who answers every question (not just the required ones) will receive a free copy of the the full survey results. Participants who answer all of the required questions will receive a copy of the Executive summary.

The survey is open from now until 5pm EST on July 16, 2010. Go now! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/netxblog