Archive for category Affiliate Marketing News

Temporary ShareASale Error Yesterday

You probably got the email from CEO Brian Littleton yesterday, but in case you missed it, here is an email from him regarding a temporary error on ShareASale yesterday.

This afternoon we launched a new “Get Links” page that was to make downloading links from the ShareASale interface easier.

Unfortunately, there was a bug that affected some Text Links. If you did not download any new Text Links today - this issue will not affect you.

If you did download a new Text Link today, please make sure that the URL given to you contains traditional ShareASale tracking information and is in the format of Http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?u=111&b=111&b=111 as opposed to a direct link such as http://www.shareasale.com

If there is any doubt about links that you downloaded today, please contact me directly or simply download a new version of the link from our interface.

I apologize for the unfound bug - and will make sure that the next time we release this page, it is certified 100% bug-free.

Thanks for your understanding,

Brian Littleton

President/CEO ShareASale.com

brian@shareasale.com

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ShareASale Adds Direct Deposit in Mexico, Switzerland, and New Zealand

From ShareASale CEO Brian Littleton today on ABestWeb:

Quick post to let you know that we’ve added a few countries to the list eligible for Direct Deposit.

Those added include Mexico, Switzerland and New Zealand.

In your account you can choose “Setup Direct Deposit” and follow the steps to include your banking information. These changes will go into effect for payments processed on July 20th (note: not the payment cycle this month June)

Since I know we have some affiliates there, I wanted to let you know!

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You Ask: ShareASale Answers

Yesterday I was chatting with an affiliate who had a suggestion for the Merchant Timespan Report on ShareASale.ShareASale FixIt Merchant Timespan

Here is a snippet of the conversation via Instant Messenger. I removed his name.

[14:36] Affiliate: also, it would be nice to see in the report on sales by day the conversion rate. It doesn’t have that column.
[14:36] legacylearning@live.com: http://shareasale.com/fixit/

As you can see, that chat took place at almost 5:00PM last night. I suggested he fill out a request on ShareASale’s FixIt page.

At about 1:40PM today, less than 24 hours later, I saw this tweet from @ShareASaleNews:

Thanks for the great feedback to http://shareasale.com/fixit/ We upgraded the “merchant timespan” report! Keep them coming!

Well, that was fast!

Sure, the change was simple. They added a single column to the Merchant Timespan report - Conversions. It’s pretty simple: Sales / Clicks = Conversions.

Nonetheless, I am impressed, as usual, with their support and speed. Thanks for listening ShareASale and thanks for making that change!

ShareASale FixIt

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ShareASale Ranked Number One Affiliate Network

From the “No-Brainer” category: ShareASale was recently ranked as the number one affiliate network by Revenue Performance Magazine.ShareASale Number One Affiliate Network

Every six months, Revenue Performance Magazine publishes The Blue Book Top 20 ranking of affiliate networks and exchanges and this time ShareASale was ranked #1!

Speaking of one reason for their earning the number spot, the Blue Book ranking pointed out that:

Brian Littleton’s stellar reputation has helped to propel ShareASale to the top with our readers at a time when reputation counts for everything.

Over 1000 publishers, advertisers, agencies, and networks were surveyed, with factors such as tracking accuracy, network reputation, fraud prevention, and stability of the network.

Congratulations to ShareASale for being recognized by the Blue Book as #1, something that I already knew and ABestWeb and numerous other places have already given them awards for.

This is yet another reason why ShareASale is out network of choice.

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Affiliate Marketing Insider Podcast Features RingRevenue Discussing Pay Per Call

From the PartnerCentric Blog:

Join Host Linda Woods at noon Pacific (3 p.m. Eastern) Thursday for another edition of the Affiliate Marketing Insider podcast on WebmasterRadio.fm. This week Linda is joined by Ring Revenue CEO Jason Spievak and EVP of Sales Monty Hudson who will be talking about the success affiliate marketers are having with the Ring Revenue pay-per-call platform.

Ring Revenue’s solution has been licensed by some of the major affiliate networks, including Commission Junction and ShareASale. To cite one success story, ShareASale advertiser Legacy Learning Systems launched pay-per-call services through ShareASale in January 2010. Within the first 30 days, Legacy generated nearly 200 calls. One hundred percent of the calls that qualified for an affiliate commission payout have converted to a sale. Some affiliates have done so well that Legacy increased their commissions by up to 25 percent.

Ring Revenue makes it easy for affiliate networks and advertising agencies to track purchases made by phone. The company’s patent-pending pay-per-call platform makes it easy for online and offline publishers to promote call-based campaigns through the leading affiliate networks, and its proprietary call quality processing engine ensures delivery of the highest-quality callers to advertisers.

In addition to making pay-per-call campaigns available to affiliates to promote, merchants are also using the Ring Revenue platform to track and manage their own direct call-based campaign promotions, where they don’t pay affiliate commissions.

Affiliate Marketing Insider is now in its third year on the air and is broadcast at noon Pacific each Thursday on WebmasterRadio.fm. For an archives of previous shows, visit http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/affiliate-marketing-insider/.

Visit our Pay Per Call section for more information, articles, and updates on our Pay Per Call Program on ShareASale.

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FeedFront Magazine Issue Ten is Online

FeedFront Magazine Robert CialdiniIssue Ten of FeedFront Magazine is online and has some great articles, affiliate tips, coverage of Affiliate Summit West, including the Pinnacle Awards, and tons more!

My article entitled Of Golf and Affiliate Marketing on page nine talks about the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people in affiliate marketing. I share some valuable lessons in my life that learned growing up playing golf.

One of the quotes I reference is from one of my favorite people, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones who said:

“You are the same today as you’ll be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.”

In the articFeedFront Magazine Robert Cialdinile I warn affiliates against being sabotaged by negative relatives, friends, and online associates in the forums on in social media.

We all know them. They are the ones who think affiliates sit around all day playing on the computer or the affiliates who write 10 posts a day and 9 of them complain about how hard it is. They are all negative influences who drag us down.

Here is an excerpt:

If you want to be successful in affiliate marketing, stop hanging out with affiliates who whine all the time about the industry, their merchants, or their performance. Quit reading posts from people who demotivate you. Quit associating with friends who tell you that you need to get a “real job.”

Instead, find people who have a positive attitude about affiliate marketing and support you in your efforts. Find people who have been doing this for a while, had their ups and downs, failures and successes, and associate with those people. Find members at a forum like ABestWeb who are positive and helpful and read their posts. If you find someone who is always negative, avoid their posts at all costs.

You can read the full article on page nine.Patrick Vesperman FeedFront Issue Ten

My friend and fellow Affiliate Manager, Patrick Vesperman, also writes a great article about building relationships and learning from them. Ironically, it is a great follow-up to my article :)

Here is an excerpt of that article:

Around this same time I met Matt McWilliams at Legacy Learning Systems. I was looking for advice and he responded to one of my questions. He could have emailed me and that would have been that. Instead, he called. He didn’t have to, but because he called, Matt and I continue to correspond and find that we have more in common than just our roles as affiliate managers.

Issue Ten might very well be FeedFront’s best yet. Check it out here. Well done Shawn Collins and Missy Ward.

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Spring, Weddings, Pay Per Call Case Study, and Taxes - Legacy Learning Affiliate Podcast Episode Four

Legacy Learning Affiliate Podcast Episode Four is all recorded and covers some great topics this week.

Spring has sprung (lame cliche) and the time is near for weddings to start. Learn & Master Ballroom Dance is a great gift, as a I talk about in the podcast. You can download or listen to it below. You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

This week’s topics are:

March 2010 Affiliate Insider Newsletter - You can read it here.

Number One Wedding Affiliate Program on ShareASale

Pay Per Call Case Study

New Videos - In the March Newsletter

Big Bonuses This Month

When: March 1-31 What: Sell 20 Painting Courses Amount: $300.00 bonus

When: March 1-31 What: Sell 15 Ballroom Dance Courses Amount: $100.00 bonus

When: Always March 1-31 What: 200 sales in one month Amount: $500.00 bonus $2000.00 bonus

All of our ShareASale Bonuses Can be Found Here

Connecticut Advertising Tax Update - Melanie Seery Contact

You can listen here below and be sure to Subscribe to the Legacy Learning Affiliate Podcast in iTunes

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Lots of Great Press about our ShareASale Pay Per Call Program

Legacy Learning Systems, ShareASale, and RingRevenue have been getting a lot of press lately about the success of our Pay Per Call Program on ShareASale.

Here is some of it.

Shawn Collins

RingRevenue Press Release - ShareASale Pay-Per-Call Exceeds Expectations

Dial R for Revenue

Actual Case Study on the ShareASale Blog - Legacy Learning Finds Calls Convert with ShareASale Pay-Per-Call

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Affiliate Advocacy Conference Call about the #AdvertisingTax

Just finished listening to the Affiliate Advocacy Conference Call with Melanie Seery. Her main guests were Brian Littleton, CEO of ShareASale, and Jen Goode, who was one of the main affiliates fighting the advertising tax successfully in Colorado.

Here are some of initial highlights that I got from the call.

Brian Littleton offered some great tips for communicating with legislators including:

  • Don’t mention the unconstitutionality of any legislation. Legislators don’t like being told that what they are doing is unconstitutional.
  • Most legislators have two offices, one in their district and one at the legislature. Go to or call whichever is smallest.

From Jeannine Crooks who was having some audio difficulty unfortunately:

  • Don’t threaten to move. They generally don’t care.

Threats never work. Neither does telling them they are breaking the law. Stay level-headed and focus on the negative impact of the legislation.

One of the best tips came from Jen Goode who suggested that you try to find a local tie that affiliate marketing has to an organization in the legislator’s district, such as a non-profit or a school that uses affiliate marketing to raise money. This worked very well for them in Colorado.

More to come on this subject but these were some great tips!

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New ShareASale Traffic Report

ShareASale just released their new Traffic Report and it is AWESOME!

It allows you to run a report for a period of time and view the clicks and the data associated with them such as hits, commissions, sales, conversions, EPC, etc.

You can run and order it by the following parameters (there may be more that I am missing):

  • various creative types (banners, text links, widgets, videos, etc.)
  • each merchant or all merchants
  • sales, commissions, epc, voids, etc.
  • afftrack and bannerID

As far as I am concerned, it may be the best report they have put out to date…although I do have a few personal favorites.

You can find it Under Reports/Stats.

It looks a little something like this:

Scott on ABestWeb did point out that it is missing default date values such as last month, month to date, and this week. Those would be good additions, but as it is I give this new report a 9 1/2 out of 10 stars!

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iPhone App, Perceptual Contrast, Taxes, and more - Legacy Learning Affiliate Podcast Episode One

Episode One of the Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate Podcast is in the books.Affiliate Podcast with Matt McWilliams

This week on the Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate Podcast Episode One I talk about our iPhone App, Perceptual Contrast, Affiliate Taxes, Bonuses, and more.

The podcast will cover topics relating to our program, marketing tips, industry news, and more in a quick audio format that you can listen to anytime. I will be striving to make the average episode around 10-12 minutes with occasionally a shorter version if there is not much new or longer if there is a lot to talk about or we have a guest.

You can listen to and/or download Episode One below as well as Subscribe to our podcast in iTunes so you don’t miss an episode!

SHOW NOTES:

Affiliate ABCs Site

iPhone App News - Gibson Learn & Master iPhone App is Rocking! | Top Ten in the iTunes App Store

Perceptual Contrast / Robert Cialdini - Review Chart Example | YES! Book Excerpt (Study)

Ultimately what you are trying to do is to frame the DVD courses in terms of private lessons.

Since people are not searching for DVD courses only, you must first convince them of the concept of learning at home. Many people have NO idea that

a. such an option exists
b. that such an option really CAN teach them what they want to learn.

So what they need is to:

a. be convinced of the extreme cost of private/group lessons and the difference in prices
b. be convinced of the convenience of at home lessons
- no missed appointments and payments for those
- travels with you
- on YOUR time
- can go at your own pace - relevant especially when compared to group lessons
- can repeat lessons anytime
c. be convinced that at home lessons are of equal or greater quality than private/group lessons. Many instructors are not qualified and it may take months to find the right one, which can cost hundreds of dollars.
d. be convinced that Learn & Master courses are by far better than other at home DVD courses AND better than most private instruction or group instruction, at a fraction of the cost, time, and more convenient.

February First Sales

March 2010 ShareASale Bonuses | ShareASale Bonuses Page

Affiliate Advocacy Conference Call

Download Legacy Affiliate Podcast Episode One

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Virginia and Vermont Advertising Tax Updates - Great News!

Great news for Virginia and Vermont affiliates today! Both advertising tax bills died.

Here is the latest from the Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA) via Twitter. More to come later :)

Virginia and Vermont Advertising Tax

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Breaking News: Colorado Affiliate Tax is Dead!

Way to go Colorado affiliates!

The Performance Marketing Association just broke the news that HB 1193 will not include the Advertising / Affiliate Tax in Colorado.

From the PMA:

An agreement was reached today on HB 1193: the inclusion of affiliates establishing nexus will be removed from the bill entirely. HB1193 will now become a bill solely focused on collecting use tax, and nothing to do whatsoever with affiliates.

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State of Affiliate Marketing Part Two from ReveNews

My latest article on ReveNews.com was posted Saturday.

The Way I See It: State of Affiliate Marketing Part TwoState of Affiliate Marketing ReveNews covers some of the challenges facing our industry. The three biggest that I cover are the affiliate/advertising tax, Google’s finicky nature, and the emergence of way too many shady programs in the past few years.

It’s not all doom and gloom, but affiliate marketers and managers must be cognisant of the threats to our industry and take action to prevent them for worsening and to fight to remove them.

Feel free to comment on ReveNews and voice your opinions!

About ReveNews: ReveNews is a trusted, unbiased source focusing on Internet related industries such as online marketing, SEM, affiliate marketing, retail (e-commerce), analytics, spyware, blogging and much more. ReveNews authors consist of highly respected thinkers, commentators and business people who have real experience and insight. ReveNews readers include industry gurus, top-level executives and CEO?s, plus many of the industry?s top net-repreneurs; all coming together to create a global Internet community to distribute, discuss and analyze the industry at hand.

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Breaking News: Affiliate Tax Passes Colorado House

House Bill 1193 (the Affiliate, Advertising, Internet tax) just passed the Colorado House of Representatives by a vote of 33-32.

Brian Littleton, CEO of ShareASale, and Lisa Picarille both reported that Rep. Joe Rice may have been the first Democrat in any state to speak out against the tax, so perhaps there is a silver lining there. According to Littleton, he wasn’t necessarily opposed to the idea of the tax, but he knows that it won’t work. He is right! It won’t! It just means good affiliates in Colorado are going to seek out homes elsewhere while others have to give up.

One vote! That was the difference.

It’s on to the Senate now. From there, the last line of defense is the Governor and the outlook is bleak there.

As a side note (and I will post much more about this later), I do want to to say that at first glance, Colorado affiliates really had their act together and were really organized. Way to go guys!

Is your state organized? Because it’s likely coming your way, unfortunately. In case the threat didn’t seem real before, it’s getting all too real in some places now.

If you are a Colorado affiliate it may be time to take Melanie Seery’s advice and “Identify vulnerable merchants and find replacements.”

We will keep standing up for what is right. No affiliate terminations on my watch!

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