Once again, affiliate marketing was jolted by the swift moves of outside forces. The sudden mass exodus of MIDs (Merchant ID’s) by MasterCard swept many advertisers just in time for the New Year.

It had been rumored that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and Credit Card Associations, which encompasses Visa and MasterCard, had been meeting to develop guidelines that would regulate our industry. These guidelines have yet to be published, so it was the abruptness by MasterCard which caught many industry players off guard.

The number of advertisers and/or actual MIDs that lost processing is a direct result of a few “bad apples” that unfortunately bled across the compliant and ethical advertisers. There was no advance notice passed down from the bank to the advertisers. The advertisers typically found out after they stopped receiving new orders.

The advertisers that MasterCard targeted were the trial plus continuity merchants. The continuity piece of this business model was the portion that caused those advertisers the most heartache, as they could no longer bill any customers that had already enrolled into their programs.

These advertisers count on a certain rebill percentage and retention rate in order to recoup their marketing costs. Since they were unable to process rebills, most customers were written off as a complete loss.

So, now what?

We change. We adapt. A few years back, many networks eliminated incentivized traffic. Those publishers evolved and learned new promotional methods. Advertisers who were reliant on this traffic source learned how to fully optimize the other traffic types those networks accessed.

More recently, the FTC came out with new guidelines. Publishers and advertisers, once again, complied and changed to meet these new requirements.

This latest blow does not dictate the death of trial products or the end of subscription-based programs. This simply opens the doors for those advertisers and publishers committed to this industry.
The short-term players who saw our industry as an opportunity “to get rich quick,” will fade. Those that are committed to success will prevail.

Many of the affected advertisers are processing again. Several merchant processors have instituted “best practices,” which are guidelines that these advertisers must follow to get new MIDs. These “best practices” are a foreshadowing of the predicted guidelines that will be published by the Card Associations, so it is best to begin optimizing according to these changes now.

This is an extremely exciting time for anyone looking to enter performance-based advertising. It is going to be those companies who look at the changing times as an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage that we will see as leaders for years to come.

Laura is the Director of Advertising for Clickbooth.com and leads Clickbooth’s team of Advertising Consultants.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 10 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/29057000/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-10
FeedFront issue 10 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2010/04

One of the inevitable questions that always arise when we sit down with one of our affiliates for a dinner meeting at a show or on a deep sea fishing trip in Sarasota is “What’s a normal day like for you?”

While no day is typical, they are all exciting. If you are heading in to the office, chances are you’re throwing on your flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt and arriving around 9 AM. You’ve already checked your stats from home and said good morning to a few affiliates at that point, too.

Once there, after grabbing your first free energy drink of the day, you meet with the marketing research team in order to take a deeper look at statistics. Are there any new offers that are winners?  Any with potential but need a stronger test? Are there any new creative elements or promotional codes?  The research team makes sure you are always ahead of market demands.

Between statistics, emails, AIMs and calls, the morning typically flies by. Your stomach starts grumbling and that is when you realize it is already 2:30 and time to grab lunch.

You either eat with some of the other affiliate managers, an ad rep whose campaigns you want to learn more about, or at the weekly marketing team meeting (hopefully lunch is catered in from Pei Weis today!).

You grab your second energy drink of the day and then, it is time to make some calls. Good affiliate managers are not offer pushers, they are data analysts.  Most afternoons are filled with strategic calls with top affiliates.

After catching up on how their family and favorite sports teams are doing, you’ll hop into discussing their marketing methods, business model, cash flow and goals. This will allow you to develop a plan of action for the next days, weeks, months and years.

The rest of your calls will be touching base with prospective affiliates in order to determine if they are a good fit for the network.

Before you leave the office for the day (somewhere around 7 or 8pm), you’ll review any new campaign information. After dinner at home, odds are you are logging back on to connect with affiliates and do a little market research to make sure you are staying on top of industry trends.

Once you finally head to bed, you double check your cell phone to make sure your ringer is on in case there are any developments that require your immediate attention.

If that sounds hectic, it doesn’t even compare to what your schedule is like while attending a conference in New York, Las Vegas, Denver, San Francisco or even London; or entertaining an affiliate who has come to tour the office and go out on the town.

Like most roles in this industry, being an affiliate strategist is fast paced and stressful at times, but knowing you are helping people grow their businesses is extremely rewarding.

Erin is the Director of Affiliate Publishing and leads Clickbooth.com’s team of affiliate strategists.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 9 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/24376105/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-9
FeedFront issue 9 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article002334

There are approximately 100 blogs related to affiliate marketing, according to the 2009 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report. With all of these blogs, it’s hard to stand out, hard to get noticed, and hard to achieve success.

So how can you continue to increase your traffic, attract advertisers, and create a loyal fan base while competing in such a heavily saturated market? One of the best ways to do that is by guest posting, which provides a number of benefits.

Authority

Credibility is huge in this industry. As I mentioned before, there are many blogs out there (according to TechCrunch, over 100 million), so in order for you to gain a loyal audience, you have to stand out and prove that you are an expert worth listening to. The more people start seeing your name and content on other credible industry blogs, the more you will be acknowledged as a leader and expert in the industry. This will help you attract advertisers to your blog, sell your own products/services, build a reputation for yourself in the industry and in turn, open doors to many other great opportunities.

Relationships

Relationships are a key component to success in business. By guest posting, you are not only establishing a great relationship with that blogger/affiliate, you are also forming a connection that may lead to more connections and other valuable opportunities in the future. Furthermore, you will be engaging and creating relationships with a brand new audience, which is a great way to expand your network and build a loyal fan base.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Another benefit to guest posting is that most bloggers will allow you to include a short bio with a link back to your site in the beginning of the post. This can be an excellent opportunity to increase your site’s rankings on Google for a specific search term, thus allowing you to capitalize on that traffic. Imagine how powerful it is to rank organically in the top 5 results for your key terms. So think about some terms you want your site to rank for and include them in your byline.

Free Advertising

There are tons of ways you can advertise your site, but the problem is, most of them cost money (some of them a lot of money). Guest posting is an effective way to advertise your blog/site for free to a very targeted audience, but can also be a lot more helpful in getting readers to click over to your site. Just make sure that you put your time in and write a powerful and informative article.

Now that you understand how beneficial guest posting can be, start writing some great articles and contact the top blogs in your niche. You may be surprised at how fast you start seeing results.

Eric Schechter is responsible for ClickBooth’s Social Media efforts and works hand in hand with industry bloggers and the company’s top publishers.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 8 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/20220412/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-8
FeedFront issue 8 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/10