This year I am also up for a Pinnacle Award - Best Blogger.  Scott Jangro andDjambazov are also nominated for this award.  I can’t say how honored I am to be considered for any award, but to be listed with these two amazing individuals, both leaders in our industry, is amazing.  I can’t thank everyone who nominated me enough.  I love blogging.  I love blogging on JEBCommerce.com, OneThousandThingsToDo.com, Revenews.com and other places.  Often times you put something out there and are not sure anyone reads it or gets anything out of it.  It’s extremely exciting to be recognized.

Angel and Scott are actually up for two awards this year.  Angel for Affiliate Manager of the Year and Scott for Affiliate Marketing Legend.  Here is the list of all the nominees:

Affiliate of the Year

• Scott Aikin
• Mike Allen
• Kim Rowley

Affiliate Manager of the Year

• Angel Djambazov
• Stephanie Harris
• Kim Salvino

Exceptional Merchant

• 4Checks.com
• Amazon
• CelebrateExpress.com

Affiliate Marketing Advocate

• Michael Coley
• Brook Schaaf
• Melanie Seery

Best Blogger

• Jamie Birch
• Angel Djambazov
• Scott Jangro

Affiliate Marketing Legend

• Connie Berg
• Scott Jangro
• Kellie Stevens

I will be arriving on Sunday afternoon.  I’d love to meet with you.  If you’d like to arrange a meeting, please email me at jamie@jebcommerce.com.

As  usual, I was watching Kitchen Nightmare last night and Gordon Ramsey through out the rule above. The Chef was trying to get across to an owner that one good service a week does not a good restaurant make.  Every service is important and your customers only remember the last experience they had with you.  Every time you interact with a given customer is an important time for you to execute as flawlessly as possible.  I think this is very important on all sides of the affiliate industry as well.

We could translate the rule above as “your only as good as your last affiliate check sent” or “your only as good as the last time you honored the affiliate agreement you signed” or ” your only as good as the last time you honored a promotion you offered to your affiliates”.

There are certain basic foundations of running an affiliate program such as timely checks, clear terms and conditions, consistent, acurate and timely returns processed, quick response times, good and updated creative and more.  For you affiliate managers, grade yourself honestly on some of those things.  How did you do the last time?  How was your last service?  Too many affiliate managers don’t look at this way and it leads to a lack of trust from affiliates, and that hurts the industry.

On the other side, affiliates can abide by the same rule.  Things such as trademark terms, abiding by basic terms and conditions, posting approved and acurate coupon codes, supplying needed or requested information to affiliate managers, delivering placements as promised and other areas are important for you to continue to get the support and perks from affiliate managers.  How have you done?  Not abiding by terms and conditions is one of the bigger problems in the community, at least ont his side of the ball.  How have you done?  If you measured yourself on your “last service”, what grade would you get?

It’s important to evaluate partners on thier overall track record, but having a bad experience recently will hurt your image and your profits overall.  How was your last service?

College Golf Camps of America launches www.CollegeGolfCamps.com

College Golf Camps of America proudly announces the launch of their new website for college and university golf programs across the country, www.collegegolfcamps.com.

Developed in partnership with JEBCommerce, College Golf Camps of America is the only multi-college golf camp program in the world. The College Golf Camps of America program allows colleges and universities across the country to setup, administrate and execute developmental golf camps with very little resources and adminstrative time through an automated online web site.

University and college golf coaches can now easily register their developmental golf camps with no need to administer registration, payment processes or camper requests. Prospective junior golfers will now have the ability to research college camps from many different universities.

According to College Golf Camps of America President, Nick Rook, this new site will increase the opportunity for golfers of almost any age while at the same time increasing the ability of colleges and universities to provide golf camps.

“College Golf Camps of America is your complete online resource for junior golf camps around the country.  Our automated, online system saves college coaches time and money in administrating their golf camps and allows campers the ability to choose from many different camps around the US.  Our #1 concept is our automated system which creates camp information, online registration, rosters, confirmation letters, blast emails and much more.  We set-up your website, then you sit back and let your camp operate.  No hassles, no headaches. If you are a camp director and want to improve your numbers or if you do not operate a camp because of a lack of time, then College Golf Camps of America is your answer.” - Nick Rook, President, College Golf Camps of America, LLC

About College Golf Camps of America

College Golf Camps of America, LLC has over 12 years of experience in player development and talent exposure. Operating under strict NCAA guidelines, we are the first multi-college coach camp in the world. We have developed a ground-breaking program to provide value to the Junior Golfer, Parent and the College Coach. Our program will guide your physical and psychological development, academic requirements, NCAA guidelines and prepare you for competition. For more information visit www.collegegolfcamps.com or contact Nick Rook at nick@collegegolfcamps.com.

About JEBCommerce

JEBCommerce is a full service, online marketing agency specializing in performance marketing and web site development. Jamie E. Birch is the owner and principal of JEBCommerce.

For additional information Contact:

Jamie Birch

JEBCommerce

o – 208-635-5164

f – 866-595-4529

jamie@jebcommerce.com

jebcommerce.com

###

JEBCommerce has a long history with Doba.  We launched their first affiliate program back in 2004/2005 and are excited to be working with Brandon Delgroso and the rest of the Doba team to grow their program.

Let me tell you a little more about Doba directly from them:  “Doba is what people in the retail industry refer to as a product sourcing marketplace or drop-ship aggregator. Our members are online retail merchants and entrepreneurs who buy products at wholesale prices and sell them at retail prices without having to deal with the hassle and expense of storing products, managing inventory, packing and shipping products, and handling returns. Doba members can find wholesale priced products on our website, market and sell those products to their customers, collect payments, and then place an order on our site to have those products shipped directly to their customers. Doba’s single interface puts retailers in touch with hundreds of wholesale suppliers featuring a combined product line of over 1,200,000 quality products.”

Doba currently has two programs:

• Commission Junction
• In-house program

Both programs have two commission options:  $10 per free trial lead or $30 per sale and offer 45 return days.  The in-house program is able to offer many more creative and distribution tools with much more flexibility.  If you’d like to get involved, just let me know!

Welcome Doba to the JEBCommerce family of managed programs!

The premise is simple.  Chief Ramsey goes to a restaurant that is struggling and on the bring of collapse.  In one week he attempts to help the owners of the restaurant turn it into a profitable venture.  Chef Ramsey, between f-bombs and “are you flipping kidding me”’s, educates the owners and staff on how to run their business and cater to their customers.  It’s a hell of a show and one of the most entertaining hours of TV I think you can find.

While watching this show one night, a thought came to me.  Chef Ramsey isn’t just showing these restauranteurs how to run there business, he is laying down sound business principles.  Not only that, there are some solid lessons to be learned for affiliate managers, affiliates and others in the performance marketing area.  And a blog series was conceived

So, this is the first in an ongoing series on what we can learn from Chef Gordon Ramsey.

Rule #7 - Don’t try to cook the elaborate stuff if you don’t have any of the basics down.

During one episode, Chef Ramsey showcased Rule #7 - Don’t try to cook elaborate stuff if you don’t have the basics down (paraphrased).  I love this bit of advice and it is good for both affiliate managers and affiliates.  The “chef” in this episode had a menu full of elaborate entries and crazy food combinations.  This guy was trying to cook complex dishes when he couldn’t heat up a pizza.  And it showed in the cash register.  He focused on the fancy before he could cook the simple.  We can learn a lot from this.

Affiliate Managers - Have you been pushing advanced creative options but leaving out start and end dates?   Have you been pushing your datafeed tool but haven’t updated your text links in 2 months?  What about contact info?  Are you expecting affiliates to promote your products and drive sales but you are completely unavailable to your partners?  Do you provide your creative in all the standard sizes?  It helps to look at your program from time to time from the eyes of an outsider to see how it stacks up.  Make sure you aren’t overlooking something simple and important.  (We do an affiliate audit if you need help).  Concentrate on the basics first; product inventory, conversion rates, commission rates, return days, competitive positioning, creative available, contact information, contact methods, information distribution, compliance analysis and more.  Get those down and ensure that you are taking care of those basics (not a comprehensive list) then, and only then, reach beyond that and start doing some of the more advanced affiliate marketing initiatives.

Affiliates - What do you think?  What are the basics that you feel are important to conquer before you go to advanced activities?  I think my post about affiliate applications runs down some of the very basic ones.

I’ve seen too many merchants ignore the basic and fundamental aspects of their programs and expect affiliates to turn up their sales for them.  It just doesn’t happen.  I often tell my sons: “how can I expect you to handle the big things if you can’t handle the small.”  It’s a fitting question.

What are some of the basic things you’ve seen affiliates and affiliate managers miss?

Ok, so for those of you still sticking around, let’s go over the networks. Networks basically provide a marketplace where affiliates (you) and merchants (Zappos, Luggagepoint.com and others) can connect, form partnerships and be successful together. The networks act as trusted 3rd parties that track each transaction and provide the technology and distribution tools needed by both merchants and affiliates. If there were no networks, you would over 8,000 affiliate programs with different tracking systems, different logins and different accounts. Most of your time would be spent simply logging in to check your stats. Networks consolidate all of this so you can concentrate on selling.

So let’s give a brief run down of each of the major networks and some of the up and coming ones:

• Linkshare - “LinkShare Corporation provides ecommerce businesses with a wide range of online marketing services including Search Marketing (SEM), Lead Generation and Affiliate Marketing.  LinkShare clients include Fortune 500 and other prominent and emerging companies doing business online, including J.C. Penney, 1-800-Flowers.com, American Express, and Avon Products. LinkShare was founded in 1996  headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Tampa, London and Tokyo.” That is from their website.  Linkshare does have an awful lot of those Fortune 500 companies, so if you think that your audience wants those big brands, I’d definitely look here first.  They do have some advanced linking and distribution tools available, one of their newest being their wordpress plugin.  Signup here is free and pretty easy.  Their reporting is ok and grabbing links is pretty easy.
• Commission Junction - “Founded in 1998, Commission Junction, a ValueClick company, is based in Santa Barbara, California and has offices around the world. Since our inception, we have taken great pride in being customer service fanatics while establishing ourselves as a global leader in the online advertising channels of affiliate marketing and managed search.” That is also from their site.  CJ used to be the network to go to if you were looking to promote lead generation programs.  Programs such as LowerMyBills.com and other finance type lead programs could be found there.  They are still available, but CJ has made large gains into the retail space the last few years.  You can’t really go wrong and if you created an account in Linkshare, you should create one here as well.  I believe there are many more companies within CJ and you may find the interface and reporting a little easier to use.
• Google (formerly Performics) - “Google Affiliate Network connects advertisers and publishers who want to increase sales and drive leads through affiliate marketing.  As an advertiser using Google Affiliate Network, you’ll discover pre-screened publishers who can refer consumer traffic to you. As a publisher, you can market your site to advertisers in the network; if selected to participate in an advertiser’s program, you’ll earn a percent of sales or a referral bounty.” Again from their site.  I haven’t had much experience with this network from the affiliate side.  They do have many big merchants, so if you had to join 3, I would add this to my list.  Companies such as Barnes & Noble, Kohls, Circuit City and other brands are on this platform.  It’s also now owned by Google, so expect more interfacing with the other google tools and services.
• ShareASale - “There are currently over 2,000 Merchants plugged in to the ShareASale Network. Each of these merchants has a different type of product that they are selling - and each is ready to commission you on that sale if you bring a customer to them. The idea - and the implementation - are simple. You decide which merchants to promote and how to promote them, and when commissions are generated, you can see your stats in real-time. All payments are consolidated from the programs you participate in, and are paid with one check or direct deposit by ShareASale.” ShareASale is rapidly become one of the top networks to work with.  I know many of the people there personally and can attest to their professionalisms, ethics, turnaround and innovation.  With over 2,000 merchants, you are sure to find one that fits your audience here.  They also have many unique tools available.  Sign up with them and check out their merchant list.
• AvantLink - “We’ve created a unique, open environment for Cost Per Sale Affiliate marketers. One reason we’re unique is because we only work with high-value merchants with substantial catalogspercentage of sale. This particular advertiser segment can best utilize the industry leading Affiliate tools AvantLink is known for. Tools that are free to qualified Affiliates.” I’ve only recently been exposed to AvantLink, but all I can say is Wow!  They have a tool called the Affiliate Link Encoder that is really a must have for any blogging affiliate.   You basically put a small snippet of code in your footer files of your blog.  You then configure it to code certain words and domains in the copy of your posts to go to a certain trackable link of a merchant within the AvantLink network.  This means that you don’t necessarily need to make each post that contains the word “ski”, for example, link to a ski merchant.  You simply set the tool to encode certain words to go to certain merchants.  And it does it all for you in your entire blog, even archived content.  Becoming an affiliate of AvantLink is a little more difficult than the other networks.  They don’t accept downloads of any kind or affiliates that are considered parasitic in any way.  This only ends up protecting the affiliates the do get in.

There are a lot of other CPA (cost per action) networks that are considered to be in the group above.  I won’t really talk about them too much here as I think that is a pretty good list to get started with.  For each of the networks I did discuss, joining is the first step.  You’ll need to apply to become an affiliate. If you want to know what to put in your affiliate application, check out my blog post on the subject.  Make sure you avoid some of those mistakes so you can get past this first step.

After that, you’ll need to spend some time identifying who you want to work with.  Each merchant and each network requires that you apply to join their program, then you are either approved or denied.  When you are approved you’ll have access to all their links, banners and other distribution methods, I’ll outline some of the neat tools that are available in my next post.

So that is pretty much my brief run down of the networks I think you should get started with.  I do recommend you working with all of them as they do have different merchants in each and each one offers something different than the other.

I’m sure I’m missing some things, so if you are an experienced affiliate marketer reading this post, please feel free to add anything in the comments section that you think a blogger getting started in AM will need to know.

I polled the top coupon sites in our affiliate industry on their traffic over the last year as well as consumer behavior. The results were very interesting and backed up the reports from the last two articles. Was it incredibly scientific? I’m not sure the questions were perfect or the size of the field surveyed was complete enough, but it does give us some good data, in my opinion.

Survey Results

90% of respondents have seen an increase in traffic to their coupon site since the economy started its downward spiral.  54% have seen traffic grow by 25%, and 18% saw in increase of over 100%!  But that may not be entirely the economy as one respondent pointed out: “Some of the increase could be due to normal Q4 increases and some to Google algo changes but overall things are up over most of 2008.” There may also be natural increases on an individual basis due to offline advertising and other factors, but the trend is still important to take note of.

90% of respondents have heard from their site visitors specifically that they are changing their shopping behaviors to shop more at coupon sites because of the crumbling economy.  As one respondent commented: “Absolutely, more users are asking about how long such services as coupon sites have been around. As if they have been missing something. Also, in general a new consumer that refuses to purchase without getting a coupon or at least knowing they got a good deal.”

Not surprisingly, 100% of those participating in the survey said that having your brand on a coupon site does not diminish the brand’s perception in the eyes of the consumer. I expected this exact response from this group (coupon sites). Their reasons for this should not be discounted (get it, discounted, we are talking about coupons, discounts and sales  lol):

• “I think there are very few merchants that this applies to. Great customer service and quality products are what distinguish brands.”
• “But just like not all brands are equal, not all coupon sites are either.”
• “The economy has dictated for a merchant to be successful they need to think about pricing.”
• “People come to my sites to try and get a better deal, they associate MY brand with discounts, not the store’s.”
• “Almost every company offer deals. If you’re company is very high end, then you can offer gift with purchase in place of a traditional coupon. This is what a retailer like Tiffany does.”

I asked if they have seen a shift in demographics of users to their site.  Most did not collect this info, but of the ones that did, this was the most intriguing answer: “it seems order sizes average a bit smaller and higher-end brands are not moving as well.” One would expect that luxury brands would not be doing well as consumers shift their behavior to discount items or at least to shopping with only a coupon or during sales.

So maybe you have read this and want to work with coupon sites but you don’t have the ability or authority to give site wide, standard coupons.

Coupons don’t have to be site-wide, large discounts.  Charles Brown, Co-chair of the Promotion Marketing Association’s Coupon Council stated in a CNN.com article in October: “It’s an individual company strategy. Some may be promoting discretionary items that might not be purchased if a consumer is economizing.” As some merchants are brand sensitive to couponing, not wanting to offer coupons that they feel may discount their brand, there are other ways to take advantage of the trends outlined.  “I think that what we’re seeing is a behavioral change in the consumer that could have lasting effects. If you shift buying patterns and enjoy benefits of doing that, you will likely continue in that pattern,” he said. “For the marketer, it’s an opportunities to bring in more customers and get them to try new things.”

• Offer coupons where you don’t lose margin.
• Offer coupons on products that are not moving or are in your clearance section.
• Simply use the products in your clearance section as the content for your coupon partners.
• Many merchants offer at least free shipping, that is enough to work with these sites and can add quite a bit to your bottom line. (It’s not perfect but may enable you to offer them something to get them started)
• Loss leaders - does your company stock products that they lose money on solely to gain the customer?  Promote these products to your coupon affiliates.
• Offer a small discount on your top items.  Product specific coupons are great ways to gain customers.
• Offer one-time, new customer only coupons.  I haven’t seen anyone do this right yet, but it’s been attempted.  To make it work, your shopping cart must be able to identify the customer and whether they have been shopping with you before.  All in the cart.  That can be difficult.

Coupon affiliates - what other ideas can you give to merchants?

Overall, I hope this series has shown that you can’t outright dismiss the importance of this group of affiliates.  They drive an incredibly amount of sales, many are incredibly responsive, professional and really good people.  Many of them I consider close friends and leaders in this field.  Often times you can engage these affiliates in your couponing strategy and they can provide you with some great information and ideas.  Afterall, they work with your competitors and they know what converts.  They may prove to be very valuable partners.

What do you think?

1st Blog in this series

2nd Blog in this series

Consumer’s Online Behavior

In February of last year, as the economy worsened, ComScore reported an increase in coupon site traffic.  “The number of page views on Web sites that feature money-off coupons for all manner of consumer products surged 38%, to 281 million, in March from a year earlier, compared with 5% for the Internet as a whole, according to comScore (SCOR). Those visitors spent a total of 145 million minutes on the sites, a 37% increase. While the number of new users to coupon sites isn’t growing faster than the larger Internet audience, existing coupon site users are certainly becoming more active. “User engagement by deal-seekers appears to be ramping up,” says comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman. “As a general rule, something like online coupon site activity would increase as a result of macroeconomic trends.”“  Makes sense doesn’t it?  And from what I heard from my coupon affiliate colleagues, their traffic is up considerably as well.

“Visitors to Coupons.com, a decade-old site that lets users print coupons that can be redeemed in stores, grew 35% in the first three months of 2008, compared with the prior quarter, says the site’s CEO, Steven Boal.” Wow, a 35% increase in the 1st quarter over the 4th quarter of the year prior.  That is pretty significant.

Business week weighed in on traffic increases to coupon sites as well earlier this year.  Thanks to Michael Block for sharing this information:  “traffic to sites focusing on coupon offers has increased a whopping 38% from March 2007 to March 2008; compared with 5% growth for the Internet overall. They aren’t just going more often, people are spending more time on these sites - also up 37%.“  That increase was before our economy really got bad, or at least we realized how bad it was getting.

This summer, Hitwise released some very intrigueing data that shows the trend of more traffic to coupon sites continuing.  For the same week in June, coupon site traffic was up 56% over last year.  ““Rising gas prices and tightened budgets have many consumers using the Internet to help save money while shopping online and off. Retailers can entice purchases by making discounts available to price-conscious consumers as the cost of living continues to increase,” said Heather Dougherty, research director at Hitwise. “While discretionary income is shrinking for some households, consumers are still shopping online, but making sure that they find the best deals.”“  I think that is one of the key findings from this report.  Consumers are still shopping, but they are using coupons sites more and more to be sure they get the best deal.  The brands that are not there don’t get the benefit of this comparison and shopping.  US searches, during the same time, doubled compared to last year and that trend just keeps increasing.

In October of this year,  Entertainment.com announced in a press release:  “Entertainment.com usage has risen more than 50 percent in 2008 as consumers scramble for savings.” “Nationally, coupon usage has risen 72 percent in just the past six months, according to a consumer poll released in September by online marketing company Prospectiv.”

But wait there is more:

Lenka Keston of CouponWinner.com and SurfMyAds.com reported in eBizine.com on October 16th: “CouponWinner.com, a website that streamlines and publicizes the marketing capabilities of online coupons, has seen a 110 percent increase in traffic during 2008. The consumer is discovering the personal money-saving power of e-commerce, so retail companies need to explore new ways to monetize that power in order to stay competitive.”

There are more examples of this going on than I care to put here, otherwise this post would take four hours to read.  But it is clear that whether it is 37%, 56% or 110% increase, consumers still want to have a merry Christmas but are going to coupon sites in much larger numbers to do their shopping.

It is becoming increasingly important to participate on these websites and take care of these partners.  It’s not so much about branding anymore, it’s simply about sales.  If you are where the consumers are, they will shop with you, if not, well then a better placed competitor will get the chance to close the sale.

Tomorrow I’ll explore some ways merchants can provide creative coupons and some of the findings from my short and unscientific survey of the top coupon sites :).

Read my next post in this series.

As we get geared up this week for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the beginning of the Christmas and holiday shopping season, I wanted to dive into consumers’ behavior and how it is changing over this difficult time.  My thought was that more consumers are, and will be, shopping with coupons and more and more web traffic is going to these type of sites, the coupon and discount shopping affiliates.  What I learned, the more I researched, was that consumers are doing just that.  They continue to spend, but not without researching their purchase through coupon sites.  They want to make sure they get a deal.

I have broken my findings into three posts this week in hopes to get you all ready for Friday.  The first post, today’s, is reporting what I was able to dig up on consumer’s behavior.  The second will be published tomorrow and discusses the trend of of increased traffic to online coupon sites and gives some ideas for unique couponing strategies.  The third will release some data from a survey I conducted by polling the top coupon affiliate sites on the net and provides some of my recommendations for merchants.  Coupon sites will be more important to your online distribution the farther down our economy goes and I hope you get a lot out of this series.  So let’s dive in…

Consumer’s Changing Behavior

As recently as a few days ago, Anne D’Innocenzo, an AP retail writer, reported this:  “Americans have slammed their wallets shut since the financial meltdown, and the future is looking downright scary for stores across the country and the whole U.S. economy.” Some more less than encouraging statements:

“The recent data has been startling: For the third quarter, consumer spending fell 3.1 percent, the worst performance in 28 years. Sales at established stores for October were the worst since at least 1969. The slump is continuing into November: Macy’s says it expects a decline of at least 10 percent this month.  Even those with appetites for Prada and Gucci aren’t immune. Among the hardest hit are luxury stores. Saks Inc. and Nordstrom Inc. reported same- store sales fell at least 10 percent. At Neiman Marcus Group Inc., the drop was nearly 27 percent.” But how is this effecting coupon use and what changes are consumers making to combat this downturn?

According to the Wall Street Journal, this year was the first year coupon redemption did not decline.  For the last 15 years coupon redemption has fallen each year.  As our economy prospered, less and less coupons were redeemed.  But not anymore.  Last year it held steady.  Does this show a general trend in purchasing behavior?  How does this relate to online retail?

RetailMeNot commissioned Harris Interactive in March of this year, prior to the economy really taking a downturn, to conduct a survey on consumers’ shopping habits during a recession.  In that survey they found that 54% of adults would decrease discretionary income during a recession and 63% of consumers WILL NOT make a purchase if they cannot find a deal.  From their press release: “Coupons are a household staple for many Americans–the survey found that the vast majority of adults (86%) have used coupons and/or discount codes while shopping. However, this figure may soon rise as the economic slowdown prompts many consumers to reevaluate spending behaviors and place a higher priority on budgeting and deal-seeking. More than one in three adults (37%) said that, during a recession, they would increase the use of coupons and/or discount codes; among women, the figure was even higher at 43% (vs. 31% of men). Retailers have an opportunity to bolster sales and preserve customer loyalty by rewarding savvy shoppers with discounted merchandise.”

In another survey done by Principal Financial, and reported by Inc.com, more than half of the respondents said they were cutting back on spending due to the economic environment.  That was in June, it’s only gotten worse since.  “That has many Americans eating out less, relying on generic brands and clipping coupons in efforts to save, the survey found.”

RetailMeNot again worked with Harris Interactive in October to release this report.  In it they confirm their first results (since we are arguably in the first quarter of a recession): “nearly half of online adults (45%) plan to spend less money on gifts this holiday season compared to last year given the current state of the economy and one in five plan to spend significantly less.“  They also reported that 19% will shop during Black Friday deals, 44% will shop at discount stores, and 37% will shop online to save gas.

The Washington Post reported that coupons are now coming back in favor.  “With wages not rising as quickly as the cost of basic necessities, coupons are back in favor after many years of steadily declining popularity, experts said.“  … “Were we not in this economy, we probably would be looking at a slight decrease again,’’ said Matthew Tilley, co-chairman of the Promotion Marketing Association’s Coupon Council and director of marketing for CMS. “There’s definitely an increased interest to use coupons for savings by consumers.’’

It’s being widely reported that consumers are shifting their buying habits.  As the articles I referenced above point out, more and more consumers are no longer purchasing a product without researching to ensure they have the best deal.  They are using coupons in larger numbers, purchasing items without them less frequently and generally planning for a prolonged downturn in the US and global economies.  But consumers continue to shop, that is the good thing.  They continue to plan to spend money this Christmas, but are doing it more wisely and making sure they have a discount prior to making that purchase.

But how does that relate to online coupon sites and merchants’ participation there?  I’ll explore how traffic to these sites has been increasing dramatically and how merchants can, and should be leveraging this shift to weather the storm in my next post tomorrow.

2nd post in series - Consumers flocking to coupon sites.

Because of this, I wanted to put together a very top level run down of what it is and how they can get started.  NOTE: if you are a seasoned affiliate marketer, then you won’t get much from this article.  This is intended for those that are completely new to this area of performance marketing.  It is meant as a primer into the world of affiliate marketing and doesn’t demonstrate any advanced practices.

Ok, now that that is out of the way, let’s get going.  I’ll start at the beginning.  Wikipedia definition: “Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.”

Here is my definition:  Affiliate marketing is an internet-based marketing practice where businesses reward partners for a required action.  These actions may be clicks, impressions, sales, email signups, lead form completions, RSS subscriptions and more.  It is a performanced based relationship, the business only pays when something is performed.

Retailers typically reward affiliates for a sale.  For example:  Customer John Doe comes to your blog and reads your newest post.  You have a banner (ad) on your website for Zappos.com Shoes.  John clicks on that banner, goes to Zappos and purchases a $100 pair of shoes.  Zappos then rewards you a % of that $100 for referring that sale.  Most retailers work that way.

Mortgage companies, debt consolidation and other types of companies offer a bounty for referring someone who becomes a lead.  That typically means they fill out a form to get more information, sign up for the site, become a member of a site or other lead generation activities.  The bounties can range from $1 to $300 depending on the industry and the company offering it.

Make sense?  It’s pretty simple, instead of paying for impressions up front, the affiliate (you) doesn’t get paid until something happens (a purchase, signup, click). At first you may be thinking, well I won’t get paid unless something happens, but that is out of my control.  Correct, but after doing this for 10 years and managing over 35 programs, I can tell you that many affiliates make hundreds of thousands of dollars through affiliate programs.  The money is there and it the opportunity can be much higher with affiliate programs if you are able to match the affiliate program with what your users are looking for.

Why is this so much easier, at times, then finding your own advertisers?

Affiliate Networks.

Companies such as Commission Junction, Linkshare, Google Affiliate Network, Share A Sale and AvantLink provide a marketplace where affiliates (bloggers, content developers, web site creators) can partner with many different businesses (merchants).  These networks also provide a method to track any transactions that may result from you working with a merchant.

Basically, here is how it works:

You join the network, apply to the programs you think will be successful on your site, and then grab some links.  You will be able to grab banners and text links and many merchants and networks provide some advanced linking that I will talk about in another post in this series.  The code you grab for your banners or links contains all the necessary tracking information to associate that user to your account.  Any purchases that user makes will be registered into your account.

That is basically it.

Here are some things to look at when you are evaluating an affiliate program:

• Commission Rate - each network will allow you to see the commission rates for similar programs.  Use this as one way to evaluate the programs you want to work with.
• EPC - this is earnings per one hundred clicks and reflects the amount you can expect to earn from a program for each set of 100 clicks you send.  This is a good way to see how they are converting, but not all merchants show this.
• Tools - look at the set of distribution tools they offer.  Do they offer a datafeed, any contextual tools?
• Return Days/Cookie Days - The more of these the better.  These are the number of days from the initial visit to the merchant’s site from yours, that you will get credit if that user makes a purchase.  Wow, a mouthful huh? For example, John from our previous example, clicks on a Zappos.com (a new client of JEBCommerce ), on Monday.  Zappos.com, for this example, has a cookie day of 3.  John doesn’t purchase until Wednesday.  Because they offer 3 cookie days, you will get credit for that sale

There are many other things you need to look at when evaluating a partner to work with and promote through their affiliate program.  I want to take a more in depth look into each affiliate network.  I’ll do that in my second post of this series.

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