Travel is an adventure, even when the purpose is business and not pleasure. According to the Research and Innovation Technology Administration’s 2011-2012 National Household Travel Survey, Americans total more than 405 million long-distance business trips per year.

Some hate traveling for business while others merely tolerate this necessary evil. Others, like me, actually enjoy it. How, you ask? I make the most of my business induced opportunities to travel by following some basic edicts that make being away from home smooth sailing for me, and conducive to taking care of business.

Plan Ahead

Booking your travel necessities like flights and hotel accommodations at the last minute will only cause stress and increase your expenses with high rates. Try to book your flights and hotel at least one month in advance to get the prime rate. You can use tools like Bing’s Price Predictor to monitor trends in flight prices and gain advice on when to book for the best rate. If you’re attending a special event, like a conference, and wish to take advantage of a group rate in the hotel, book as soon as possible. Remember that, should your plans change, you can always cancel the hotel at a later date. Having clear and precise travel plans will reduce any stress associated with travelling and will allow you to focus on the business you have to do, whether that’s attending a conference, setting up meetings, or preparing an important presentation.

Keep Comfortable

Sometimes the cheapest option is not always the best option. Invest in travel methods, hotels, and accessories that won’t leave you ragged at the end of a long day. Multiple connections on a flight might cost less, but will extend your travel time and leave you exhausted upon arrival. A simple motel might save a few dollars, but a hard bed and bad night’s sleep can cause you to be unfocused on the tasks at hand the next day. Limit connections and book comfortable hotels to reduce your travel-induced stress. Invest in a comfortable pair of dress shoes, a fluffy travel pillow, and whatever else you need to keep calm and carry on. The more at home you make yourself while travelling, the more you can focus on the work you’re there to do and not the problems with your accommodations or amenities.

Be Prepared

There are some basic items that any traveler should not be without. One should be prepared for unexpected scenarios, especially when traveling somewhere you’re unfamiliar with. Remember to pack things like lip balm, throat lozenges, preferred remedies for headaches or body aches, a small sewing kit, a small first aid kit, gum for the plane, and maybe even some snacks if you’re going somewhere more remote. If you have a preferred water bottle you like carrying around, you should also bring that, though disposable bottled water might be more practical when traveling. Remember these tips, and traveling for business will be less stressful than a meeting with the boss!

Trisha Lyn Fawver is the Client Services Manager at For Me To Coupon.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

When I started working in affiliate marketing, I immediately noticed two things:

First – American affiliates were more responsive and easier to work with

Second – the European market that I had to work with, namely Italy, was difficult and it was hard to find good quality traffic

The same can be said about the networks; a few years ago you could easily get a sales offer running anywhere in North America, but in Italy it was nearly impossible – I had people accepting the sales offer but still asking for a monthly flat fee. I remember asking one of my affiliates “Sorry, mate, would you mind if we could also make some money? “.

Now, after quite a few years, things are starting to look up. Affiliate networks and performance marketing agencies are popping up all over the old continent, affiliates are more prone to choosing running sales or lead deals; and we can now say the time has come to change the affiliate marketing focus from the States to a more global approach.

Naturally there are still huge differences. While the American networks can usually reach every area of the States, in Europe there are tons of smaller networks that only focus on a single localized market. Adding to that in Europe is the language barrier, as not everybody speaks English. But the quality is there if you work with the right partners.

While I don’t think that all the US advertisers and networks should look on Europe for more revenue, or that European networks and advertisers should look for greener pastures in USA, I firmly believe we should consider widening our view. Italy, France, Spain etc. could work quite well as plan B… But how do you tackle two entirely different markets successfully and without wasting your entire budget hiring native speakers?

I’d say you have 3 options:

1- Connect with large European networks that actually understand your needs (European networks that also run USA traffic or US networks that runs tons of European traffic); run on an exclusivity basis for a few weeks to better understand how the traffic works before splashing out on large budgets or trying your hand with direct affiliates;

2- Pick one country, pick a good budget (£15 000 will be sufficient in most cases) and buy traffic – as much as you can. Once optimized, look at what’s working and find affiliates running similar types of traffic. Once you know what to look for, things get easier;

3- Collaborate with an agency or a consultant, have it reviewed and adjusted based on the needs of your ‘target’ country. Finally test it on their affiliates or partners. This approach might work better in the long run.

In conclusion, USA vs. Europe should be USA & Europe, they are different from each other but both of the markets are filled with opportunities and there is plenty of money waiting to be made! Thanks for your time, ciao belli.

Marcello is an experienced affiliate marketer and marketing director at a performance agency in London.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

It may seem tempting for Affiliate Managers to de-activate all affiliates who are not active within their program to increase EPC and make their sales look better. However, there are better alternatives that will establish strong relationships with affiliates and provide long-term growth for affiliate programs.

In a recent conversation with an affiliate, I was shocked when he told me a merchant had lowered his commission because he had not been as active as he was in the past. The affiliate manager was trying to motivate the affiliate to get active again. However, the only motivation it provided was for the affiliate to promote a competing brand very prominently on his website.

Before you send out that threatening email to all of your inactive affiliates, please stop and consider what you have done to help those affiliates succeed. Rather than upset the affiliate, it would be better to try and reach out to the affiliate and see if there is anyway you can help them increase your brands placement.

A tiered commission structure for all affiliates will make it so that you are only paying the higher commissions when affiliates reach pre-defined sales goals. This will also prevent you from having to make the tough choice of lowering affiliate commissions at a later time.

Consider setting up an activation campaign for your inactive affiliates. It can take a long time for an affiliate to build out their campaign, so be patient with them and always be available to provide them with what they need to be successful.

One common concern among affiliate managers is that inactive affiliates will lower their EPC (earnings per click), which will deter super affiliates from promoting their program. If an affiliate is sending traffic over and it is not converting, is it really the affiliates fault?

Follow these steps to work with affiliates that may be lowering EPC:

• Ensure tracking is working correctly.
• Check the affiliate’s links to make sure they are up to date.
• Compare the conversion rate for affiliate traffic to other marketing verticals.
• Contact the affiliate and discuss what they are experiencing.

There are several risks to consider before de-activating affiliates. Choosing to de-activate affiliates will negatively affect your program and it is important to weigh the pros and cons before you click the de-activate button.

The most obvious risk is that you will never be able to recruit de-activated affiliates into your program again. Just because affiliates are not currently promoting your program does not mean that they will not be one of your top affiliates in the future.

It is easy to place fault on affiliates because they are not promoting your program. Instead of blaming affiliates for their inactivity, take a look at what you can do as an affiliate manager to improve the program.

There is a reason affiliates join particular affiliate programs and it is the affiliate manager’s responsibility to remind them why they wanted to promote the program when they applied.

Travis is an Affiliate Manager for affiliateCREW, an outsourced affiliate program management company.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

My key insight for 2012 is marketers still appear to be failing to grasp the real secret for growing affiliate channels is making sure you are able to track, measure and optimize every step, so that you can to squeeze out every possible dollar.

The hurdle often appears to be that there are so many elements you can change or tweak to get more clicks, sales or conversions that affiliates just give up. The secret sauce in optimizing your affiliate revenue is based around your ability to correctly measure the change in any adjustments you make which requires you work to track everything you can.

Why avoid tracking?

Some of the many excuses that affiliates often cite as why they might not be tracking their affiliate traffic include:
• Paranoia about who has their data
• They don’t know they can track
• They think it’s too hard to track
• Google will know you’re an affiliate
• It’s too time consuming

Why you should be tracking affiliate links

• Reporting simplicity in a dashboard
• Increase transparency of clicks
• Scalability of affiliate channels
• Optimize affiliate revenue

Automated tagging options

More affiliates are implementing automated link tagging solutions, allowing them to better utilize their limited time and resources onto other tasks. Auto tagging allows you to quickly scale up your affiliate programs, but also future proof your links, as the links can be automatically updated.

To help with your analysis, a number of these platforms also offer you reporting dashboards that include: revenue, impressions, clicks and visitor stats.

Link cloaking options

Link Cloaking is one method affiliates use as a way of increasing clicks, but it is key to tracking everything to reveal any uptick. Link cloaking solutions need to be configured correctly for content heavy websites, as without caching you strain your webserver and cause performance issues and drop conversion rates.

Web analytics tracking platforms

There are a number of different analytics platforms you can use measure affiliate clicks. One popular method is custom short URLs. There are WordPress plugins that auto-tag outbound links with Google Analytics event code to track clicks, and also offer easy segmentation your affiliate audience.

Work out what you need to track

You need to consider what part of the process you are trying to track and optimize. The requirement for tracking your affiliate links will depend on your model of driving traffic and what digital channels you are using. Some of the paths you can track include:
• Traffic to your website
• Inbound traffic direct to affiliate link
• Link from your website via affiliate link
• Track within advertiser website

Some affiliates may limit this to their revenue stream, as they can’t continue to increase the amount of traffic without reducing costs or improving their ROI, because they rely on arbitrage models. The key is to be looking at better tracking and optimizing your affiliate channels with existing traffic.

David Iwanow can be found focusing on SEO at Next Digital.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

In any industry, there is a constant borrowing, reintroduction and recycling of technology to drive buying decisions. In years past, static, one dimensional sales pages were enough.

In recent history, sales pages leveraging engagement tactics such as chat, or perhaps a lightbox pop-over, drove results. In today’s hyper-competitive battle for online buyer attention, live webcasts are quickly becoming the expected form of engagement.

With YouTube spending $100 million to compete with broadcast television, according to a report from PCWorld in April 2011, and with social media driving more and more viral activity, your buyers want more in every category. More excitement, more engagement, more entertainment, and a purchase experience that they can share with their friends.

The purchase of a product online is quickly transitioning to mimic the experience of a retail shopping endeavor with the motivation being to share it with friends. With live web events, you can give your prospective purchasers all of that, and more.

You can engage their desire to share, Tweet, and Facebook the event they’re currently attending, and you can leverage the very legitimate scarcity as a live web event has an actual end. No false scarcity required.

Don’t let the technology scare you. There are countless free solutions if resources are tight, or many simple to use paid solutions that make the process easier than many of the webinar platforms.

If you incorporate a live chat solution that is manned during the event, you can actually prerecord the event to stream live, and reap all of the benefits of a live event, with the evergreen potential of a recording.

An added benefit for vendors is the live web event shortens the feedback loop for any product release or offer testing. You have the opportunity to get a thousand or more would be buyers watching, interacting, providing live feedback, and giving you invaluable feedback to custom tailor the offer before rolling the program out.

Simply put, the live web event, when viewed as the start of program development will save you countless dollars, countless hours, and give you the fastest speed to market possible, with a proven performer of course.

Yet another added benefit of investing the time in creating live web content is it is near impossible to simply clone the page and watch an unethical affiliate or vendor siphon your traffic, hard work, and profits right from under you.

So if you’re planning as an affiliate to leverage higher priced programs, or a vendor offering higher priced programs to your affiliates, live web cast events are a must for maximizing market penetration, gathering the largest audience of both promoters and prospects, and taking your conversions through the roof.

The live web event category for affiliate promotions is in its infancy, and is full of opportunity for those willing to stake their claim in building programs with staying power, which as either an affiliate or a vendor, should be your ultimate goal.

Jonathan “JCron” Cronstedt, a dangerously dedicated, affiliate management dynamo and purveyor of fine vodka spirits.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

Even if you’re an affiliate marketing veteran there is always something valuable to be learned by helping newbies or hearing their struggles.

Each new affiliate approaches affiliate marketing with different skills and knowledge levels. They also come to the space for various reasons. Some are programmers who know how to build sites; some are bloggers looking to monetize their websites; while others have heard of affiliate marketing and want to earn supplemental income.

Regardless, each newbie faces a variety of hurdles. By listening to their challenges, seasoned pros can learn from them and use that knowledge to make it easier to bring new affiliate marketers into the fold.

The Basics: Don’t take for granted people understand even the most basic concepts. Many newbies have no clue where to start buying a domain, what blog platform to use, or how to do online keyword research.

Bottom Line: This lack of knowledge about getting started underscores the need for education from the ground up. Help by pointing newbies to free resources or explain things in the most basic, rudimentary ways.

Education: Despite the great content that many online marketers are producing about how they’ve succeeded – it’s not always filtering out to newbies. However, the marketing and sales effort of supposed gurus, and experts are. People are paying for systems and programs with the “get rich quick” message.

Bottom Line: We need more educational materials from real experts and not sham artists. There is no need for newbies to shell out thousands of dollars on how to get started in affiliate marketing. If you are successful, share your expertise on forums, podcasts, ebooks, and resource sites.

Jargon: Online marketing has a language of its own, using nomenclature and buzzwords confusing to newbies. Would-be-affiliates are often puzzled by this jargon since some of our industry wording has other meanings in different business sectors.

Bottom Line: Be clear and concise and try to steer clear of jargon when explaining affiliate marketing. You will not be talking down to people, but rather offering simple explanations that will help them better grasp the concepts.

Too Much Social Media: If you’ve been in the affiliate game for a while, and have established your presence through social media using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., adding Pinterest or Google + or yet another new platform is easy. But for newbies starting from scratch, social media can be overwhelming. But it is a crucial and necessary part of their marketing efforts.

Bottom Line: Realize that newbies probably need to take baby steps. They don’t need to start with every social media platform. You can point them to the two or three that are most effective for you to get them started.

A Holistic Look: Social media, search rankings, landing pages, integrating with other marketing efforts – it can all be complex and most newbies have no idea how everything fits together.

Bottom Line: Try to give newbies the big picture view. It will help them to focus on putting together more comprehensive plans as they begin.

Lisa Picarille is a content strategist focusing on online marketing, branding, and social media. www.lisapicarille.com.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

In January 2012, six affiliate marketers settled actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and were ordered to stop using fake news sites to market dietary supplements and other products. In 2011, the FTC obtained preliminary orders shutting down their webpages and restricting their assets.

The FTC alleged these websites mimicked actual news reports, but were in fact commercial advertisements intended to drive consumers to purchase acai berry and other dietary supplements and products.

The websites often claimed that the story by the “reporter” had run in major media outlets like ABC, Fox News, CBS, CNN, and USA Today. The settlements order the affiliates to: clarify that their webpages are advertisements and not objective journalism; disclose any material connections they have with advertisers; and together pay the FTC about $500,000.

The settlements also ban them from making deceptive or unsubstantiated claims about health-related or any other products.

But the FTC hasn’t limited these efforts to just affiliate marketers. FTC actions against online advertisers have cited their use of deceptive affiliate marketing. And the orders against them have imposed severe monitoring requirements which make it difficult to nearly impossible to work with affiliate marketers.

Two such actions illustrate this aggressive FTC approach: In January 2012, the FTC settled charges against Central Coast Nutraceuticals (CCN) and its principals for deceptively marketing dietary supplements through trial offers that led to unauthorized billing. Defendants were ordered to pay $1.5 million and banned from negative option marketing, deceptive and unsubstantiated product claims, and unauthorized billing.

Significantly, defendants were required to distribute the order to affiliates and networks helping to sell their products, and obtain from them a signed statement acknowledging receipt and expressly agreeing to comply with the terms of the order. Defendants also must review those affiliates’ marketing materials before they are used, to ensure they comply with the order, and must terminate business with any offenders.

The FTC again imposed harsh monitoring requirements in a February 2012 settlement with Jesse Willms and other defendants. They were ordered to turn over assets and agree to monthly monitoring and policing of affiliate marketers and networks they do business with. They likewise must serve the order on affiliates and networks and obtain a signed statement acknowledging receipt of, and agreeing to comply with, the order.

What do these increasingly aggressive FTC actions mean for affiliates? Regulatory scrutiny is higher than ever, and they must clean up or risk enforcement. Such attacks might come from FTC and/or state Attorneys General, who are also more active than ever in policing online marketing. This means:

Tom Cohn is a Partner at LeClairRyan, www.leclairryan.com, and a former FTC Regional Director.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

At Affiliate Summit West 2012, I was asked by a newcomer if they thought a career could be made in affiliate marketing. When you look at the size of the industry and how it has survived many transformations, you see that the career paths within the industry are still the same and the opportunities for those who have left the industry are enormous.

Are these skills transferrable and desired? Recently, a friend who was leaving their network affiliate account manager job asked what new opportunities I thought he should pursue. By the time we went through his resume and reviewed his choices, we found six great positions online that we felt he was qualified to apply for. He got four offers.

Has this always been true? I have over a decade of examples of colleagues who stayed in or left the industry and are successful. Below are examples of people I knew in the affiliate world back in 1999 when I ran an affiliate program for Reel.com:

The Merchants:
Vilma D. was a young Analyst that I put in charge of Reel.com’s affiliate program. Vilma went on to get her MBA at Stanford and is now a Marketing Brand Manager at Nestle.

Stephanie Agresta was my Business Development peer at Barnes & Noble, running their affiliate program. Stephanie left the business in 2006 to consult on her own. Today she is an EVP of Social Media for Weber Shandwick.

Owen V. was also my peer in Business Development at Amazon, running Amazon Associates. Owen eventually went on to become COO of Facebook in 2005, CEO of MySpace, and is now with Zynga.

David Kaval was in Business Development for Sparks.com. He left to pursue a passion of sports management and an MBA at Stanford. Today he is the President of the San Jose Earthquakes Soccer Team.

The Networks:
Blair Heavey was the GM at BeFree (eventually merged with CJ). Blair is currently the CEO of Moontoast, a social commerce platform, powering experiences for the likes of Maxim, Universal Music and Time/Fortune.

“Working in Affiliate Marketing showed me how to combine strategic insight with the hard work of execution while creating value in the market” – B. Heavey, CEO of Moontoast

Joe Doretti, my Sales Manager at BeFree is now a Sales Director with CJ.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

We all know how lucrative affiliate marketing can be. We hear stories all the time of big time affiliates splurging on sports cars and diamond encrusted watches.

While these stories are sometimes true, the fact is that affiliate marketing can be volatile when you’re starting off, and the affiliates that made it were smart enough to hedge their risks and reinvest what they’ve earned.

Here are some of the lessons I learned on how to not lose it all in this business:

Don’t Start Living Extravagantly After Your First Big Paycheck

I can personally relate to the potential instability of this business, because in late 2010 I hit my biggest campaign ever. I was driving thousands of dollars in leads per day and felt like I was on top of the world.

I made some moves, that in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have, but in that instance almost anyone making such a sudden surge in income would do the same.

I decided to move to Miami and pay a ridiculous amount in rent, and it seemed fine back then. When the campaign finally died, reality suddenly hit that I wasn’t going to be making maintaining that income consistently.

By the middle of 2011, I was almost down to nothing after paying taxes and taking a decent hit on a Facebook fan page experiment. So the lesson here is to keep an eye on the bigger picture when you start making a significant amount of money.

Don’t Build Your Business on Someone Else’s Platform

Another way to almost lose it all is to invest in building something on a platform that you don’t own. I found a way to grow Facebook fan pages to a 100,000 fans in just a few days, all while paying 4-5 cents per click.

I got so caught up in seeing thousands of fans liking my page and instantly getting hundreds of likes and comments every time I made a status update, that I lost sight of the fact that I ultimately didn’t own the page. I had put in $10,000 building it up and only reaped back $2,500 before Facebook decided to wipe out the page.

It was a tough loss to digest, mainly because it was clear that I had invested into something that I didn’t control.

Reinvest Everything into Your Business

So, what should you be doing instead? You should be taking almost everything you earn and reinvesting it into your business. This could mean anything from hiring virtual assistants, to buying a more powerful computer set up, to investing in a better quality office chair.

The more you put into your business, the more it’s going to give back to you in long term returns. Do not splurge when you’re starting off, but put every penny you can back into your company to make a long-term, stable business.

Rohail Rizvi is a full-time CPA affiliate marketer and blogs about the industry at www.RohailRizvi.com.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4

Internet Marketers are busy people, so when it comes to health and eating, it’s all about convenience. I’ve put together a list of tips to easily help you live healthier.

1) Drink Water. Staying hydrated increases energy, burns calories, and flushes out toxins. Everyone’s water intake varies, so here’s a simple equation to follow. Your weight divided by 2 and that’s how many ounces a day (at minimum) you should be drinking.

2) Cut Out Caffeine. You may not want to hear it, but I’m giving it to you anyway. Caffeine becomes an addiction and it’s acidic to the body and causes your PH balance to be off. This creates a toxic environment and the body can’t function properly in an acidic or toxic environment. Switch to herbal teas.

3) More Fruits & Vegetables. According to choosemyplate.gov, males between the ages of 19-50 should consume 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables a day. Women between the ages of 19-50 should consume 1 ½ cups of fruit and 2 ½ cups of vegetables a day.

4) Blend It! Since we should be consuming large amounts of fruits and veggies daily for optimum health, or if you don’t like the taste of fruits and veggies, start blending up some creative mixes. Blending smoothies also cuts time on preparing meals and still benefits you nutritionally.

5) Dried Fruit, Nuts, & Seeds. If you like to munch on snacks while you work, choose nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. This variety will naturally increase energy and is great for heart health.

6) Go Bananas! Bananas contain vitamin B6, good carbohydrates, and tryptophan, therefore serotonin is released after consumption. This means bananas can help relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. Bananas are also great for energy.

7) Fruits for Eyesight. Growing up you may have been told carrots help your eyesight, but as adults fruit has become more essential. Archives of Ophthalmology indicated, “Eating 3 or more servings of fruit per day may lower your risk of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), the primary cause of vision loss in adults”. But still continue to eat those vegetables too!

8 ) Take a Break. Take a 20-30 minute break for a brisk walk. 30 minutes a day can help drop the weight away! You will also benefit by receiving more vitamin D from the sun if you work indoors all day.

9) Posture. Take notice in your posture, the more you slouch or aren’t in an ergonomically correct position, the more stress builds and your energy will decrease. Over time incorrect positions can cause wrist, neck, and back issues.

10) Stretch. Take the time to stretch your extremities every morning, afternoon, and evening. Stretching increases oxygen flow and improves mobility.

Computers are Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) that drain our energy and can damage our eyesight. I encourage you to follow these simple tips because as we work to be the best in search engines, it’s important to manage your self-engine!

Heather Romiti is a nutritionist, book author, blogger, and affiliate marketer at Blendhappy.com.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 18 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-18

FeedFront issue 18 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/4