Additional Verification for Publishers

In our latest release expected Thursday 4th March we will be adding another method for publishers to verify their sites.  This is to make it easier for bloggers and  users of wordpress to get verified as quickly and simply as possible.  Existing verified sites will see no change and it will be business as usual.  Any publishers new to the network or creating a new site will as of Thursday be given the alternative option to verify.

How to verify a new site…

1. Open a new notepad file. Name the file as the unique reference provided in the interface; for example 1780774.html (see arrow 1 in the image below).
 
2. Save the file in the root of your web server; for example http://www.notok.se/1780774.html (see arrow 2 in the image at the top).

3. Then simply publish the file and verify the site

Publishers will now have two quick and easy methods to choose from when verifying on the network. This reinforces TD’s continual focus on network security for both advertisers and publishers alike.

In order to get our advertisers and publishers closer to the product development process TradeDoubler HQ has now started to use Twitter to provide updates, sneak previews, screenshots and to gather feedback on our work in progress.

We invite your comments and feedback and see this as a vital way for you to influence how we develop and update our systems and functionality. We also encourage direct communication via the content info below – get in touch! (Please remember that for day-to-day support you should continue to contact your local TradeDoubler office.)

Follow us here: http://twitter.com/TD_Product_Dev

To start off with we’ll introduce two members of the team and over time hope to introduce more from our product, technical and management teams.

Ben Manning Role – Product Director – td Affiliate Time at TD – 9 years Last thing bought online – Everton retro kit

Hi all, very excited about the opportunities social media brings for both growing affiliate programmes but also harnessing it to improve how we work, as we aim to do with our use of Twitter to provide product development updates. We hope our updates will trigger a response from you – we want to hear back from you, both positive and not! We also hope you’ll enjoy the previews and will get excited about the new things around the corner.

More news to come on what’s coming up: we’re very excited about it and are fully committed to focus on improvements that’ll drive more sales for our advertisers, more commissions for our publishers and enable our staff to support you even better! Cheers, Ben (ben.manning@tradedoubler.com)

Piers Langendoen Role – Product Manager Time at TD – 3 years Last thing bought online – Heavy Rain

Hi everyone!  My role is about listening to requests from our affiliates, advertisers and staff. Writing the spec, co-ordinating development items with our plans and ultimately getting those requests built and live on our systems. Of course our engineers and developers are very important to that process too! We’ll aim to introduce one or two of them via twitter. Our goal is to drive the really important features that’ll make the biggest impact on improving your earnings.

Check out the Twitter feed weekly as we aim to post regularly with the latest details coming soon. All the best, Piers. (piers.langendoen@tradedoubler.com)

Dear Affiliates,

The folks at Jet2holidays.com are pleased to announce the launch of their fantastic affiliate incentive, to win a place on their 5* trip to Paphos, Cyprus. As Cyprus is consistently in the top 5 most popular destinations it seemed the right choice for the Jet2holidays.com affiliate incentive.  The incentive starts on the 18^th of February 2010 – read on for more information.

The Prize

5 lucky winners will be whisked away for a fabulous week’s holiday to Paphos, Cyprus staying at the luxurious 5* Asima Suites Hotel on a half board basis. The hotel is situated on the beach and has two fresh water swimming pools. For all the activity enthusiasts the resort features flood lit tennis courts, games room, table tennis, pool table and a fully furnished fitness centre. For those who to prefer to relax the hotel has a fantastic spa.

For more hotel details and photos click here: http://www.jet2holidays.com/destinations/cyprus/cyprus-paphos/paphos/asimina-suites?uvqsvpb=VvTvTngC

Winners will also be invited to take part in a ½ day excursion to view some of the other hotels in the Constantinou Bros luxury hotel chain in Cyprus.

The winners are welcome to bring a guest who will just need to pay for their own flights. Flights will depart from Jet2holidays.com’s base airport, Leeds Bradford on Sunday 9th May and return on Sunday 16^th May.

This is a fantastic prize you really don’t want to miss out on!

Please note, there are no alternative dates, destinations, hotels or departure airports. This prize is also non-transferable.

How to Win

We understand that every affiliate site is different and to give everyone a fair chance of winning, we are launching 5 different incentives, to suit all needs.

Promotion period runs from 18^th February until 11^th of April.

1 – Most Sales delivered – This ones simple if you have delivered the highest amount of sales you win!

2 – Every sale into a hat, giving anyone a chance to win

3 – Best improved affiliate during the time period (based on conversion)

4 – Best use of Jet2holidays.com resource to create a site promotion

5 – Affiliate Lottery – Affiliate who delivers the 50^th sale in the time period

The prize draw will be announced on the week of the 12^th April.

The Details

We pay 3% commission on the first 10 sales per month and then award a 5% commission from the 11^th sale onwards. The average basket value is £1,200 with average commissions of £36.

Resource

1.)   ‘About Us’ text

Jet2holidays.com is a leading ATOL and ABTA bonded holiday provider based in the North of England and specialising in holidays flying from Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Blackpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Belfast, and, new for 2010, East Midlands. Jet2holidays.com offers a wide accommodation from 2 star self catering apartments to 5 star all inclusive resorts.

Extremely flexible, customers can choose the length of their holiday stay from 1-21 nights. Some fantastic destinations include the Balearics, Canaries, Mainland Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Cyprus, Crete, Sharm El Sheikh and, new for 2010, Tunisia, Madeira and Tel Aviv.

2.)   Route Lists and Deep Links

We have multiple resources stored with both networks for your disposal including a product feed and documents containing lists of all our routes and destinations by country, region, resort and hotel. We have provided links for all of the landing pages.

To use the links, just add the following affiliate tracking, but changing XXXX to your own ID.

Trade Doubler: http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p(64697)a(XXXX)g(17198488)url(http:// DEEP LINK URL GOES HERE)

We have a direct link to these documents below also:

http://www.mediavest-leeds.co.uk/datafeeds/jet2holidays/affiliates/jet2holidays_affiliates_data.zip

3.)   Weekly Offers

We have a weekly email with our best lead in holiday deals. If you would like to receive these emails, please contact me: amy.berry@mediavest-leeds.co.uk

4.)   Jet2holidays.com key selling points to promote

• Low £30 deposit per person (for departures 10 weeks in advance)
• Convenient day time flights from local airports
• Market leading baggage allowance of 22kgs

5.)   Banner Creative

A full suite of creative in multiple sizes is available for you to use. The creative is refreshed regularly ensuring it is in line with current marketing communications.

6.)   Logos

Our current logo has a white background can you ensure you are using this rather than our out of date branding with a red background as this will have more brand recognition and help to drive more clicks. Our new logos are available in the network user interfaces; see example for a 140×60 http://banners.affiliatefuture.com/2401/92897.jpg

As with all of our creative if you need a size and we don’t have it available, please let me know and we will get it produced.

Please let me know if you have any questions, we are here to help you drive sales.

Kind Regards,

Amy Berry – Affiliate Manager on behalf of Jet2holidays.com – Amy.Berry@mediavest-leeds.co.uk

Terms & Conditions:

One return flight from Leeds Bradford Airport to Paphos departing on the 9th May 2010 and returning on the 16th May 2010 has been provided by Jet2.com for this competition only. This is completely independent of the hotel offered for this promotion. Changes to names are subject to the standard change as outlined in the airline’s general terms and conditions of carriage, which can be found on www.jet2.com. Flights may be changed or cancelled by the airline for administrative reasons without prior notice. In accordance with our terms and conditions Jet2.com’s schedules are not guaranteed.  Any changes will be notified via email. One item of checked baggage is included per person and the winner must be 18 or over. Flights may not be exchanged for cash and may only be taken by the competition winner. Winners may take their partners with them but must pay for their flights and baggage themselves. Flights must be taken at the same time and are non-transferable. Transfers are not included in the competition prize.  Jet2.com recommends that you take out your own insurance as this is not included in this prize.  Winners may be expected to take part in publicity campaigns to promote the competition and Jet2holidays, for example articles in local press and trade press.

Dear affiliates,

Viagogo are involved in some fantastic Charity work giving you the opportunity to win tickets to Haiti Earthquake fundraiser at the roundhouse.

Please visit http://www.viagogo.co.uk/haiti to find out more.

Kindest regards,
TradeDoubler

Dear Affiliates,

We are pleased to present you with the TradeDoubler 2010 Rebate Catcher & Toolbar Code of Conduct.

For those of you that are not familiar with the model, a Rebate Catcher is an opt-in software application that can be distributed by a loyalty/cashback site in order to notify the user that cashback/points can be claimed via their site (so this will not be relevant for all of you!).

If you are using Rebate Catchers & Toolbars then you must comply with this code of conduct if promoting a TradeDoubler merchant.

This Code of Conduct is designed to give greater clarity to our clients and concerned parties regarding the use of Rebate Catchers and Toolbars within the TradeDoubler network. This code of conduct has been agreed and devised with the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Our intention is to provide a fair environment for all publishers to be correctly remunerated which is why we have created a code of conduct for rebate catchers & toolbars making it a fair playing field for all publishers.

Code of Conduct

The Rebate Catcher or Toolbar distributed by the publisher and installed by the user must meet the following terms and conditions:

• Distributed through intended download from the providers website and be attached to an account on the providers website.
• The rebate catcher is clearly labelled and end user consent is required at all times during the installation process. Double opt-in is required.
• Carry a clear unsubscribe option and make it as easy as possible for customers to remove the application from their machine. This must be through standard Windows/Mac add/remove functionality and naming convention must remain the same throughout. There should be no unnecessary attempts to talk the user out of the uninstall process through use of confusing language.

• Obtains user consent before software updates.
• Not allow any form of automatic redirection which affects the user journey. The user must interact by way of a click before any redirection takes place or a click cookie is dropped.
• All traffic must be distributed through a separate TradeDoubler site ID to allow clear distinction between traffic generated via the application and traffic via traditional web based activity. In order to achieve this, the publisher must register a new site:
o The publisher must clearly label and describe that this new site ID will represent the Rebate Catcher. The publisher cannot bundle the rebate catcher in the same TradeDoubler site ID as traditional activity.
Please follow this example:
• Site name: [Rebate Catcher] Your Site Name
• Site URL: http://www.yoursitename.com/rebate_catcher
• Description: This site will use a rebate catcher to ensure all users track their sales. (Please list other benefits as you see fit).
o The publisher must create a landing page on his/her site describing their use of a rebate catcher so the advertiser can make an informed decision.
o Advertiser consent is required. This will be achieved by separating the rebate catcher and traditional web based activity via the TradeDoubler site ID’s as explained above. The emphasis will be on the publisher to secure opt-in from individual merchants prior to launching the Rebate Catcher. This can be achieved by being accepted on this new site ID.

Definition
A Rebate Catcher is an opt-in software application distributed by loyalty / cashback sites. The rebate catcher attempts to notify the user that a sale can be claimed via the loyalty / cashback site.

This Code of Conduct covers the TradeDoubler’s Affiliate and Campaign products, and is in addition to the existing TradeDoubler publisher agreement.

This Code of Conduct is dated December 1st 2009. TradeDoubler reserves the right to update the terms of Rebate Catcher Code of Conduct at any time. Should the Code of Conduct be updated, TradeDoubler will post a message on the TradeDoubler publisher interface 14 days prior in order to inform clients and otherwise interested parties.

If you have any questions on this policy then please contact me.

Kindest Regards

Sanjit Atwal
UK Head of Publisher Services & Development
TradeDoubler
Sanjit.Atwal@TradeDoubler.com

figleaves are treating their customers to 20% site wide discount from Thursday 18 February until midnight on Monday 22 February.

We’re offering this promotion across all lingerie for her, underwear for him and all our clothing for men, women and children. Shop figleaves favourites such as Calvin Klein, Elle Macpherson, Freya and Paul Smith.

If you are promoting figleaves then now is the time to push them in the top slots, and if you are not now is the perfect time to join the programme!  New Spring sale creatives have all been added to the creatiev library.

Please contact: briony.prisk@tradedoubler.com or james.maley@tradedoubler.com for any questions or quick add requests with your affiliate i.d. included.

Regards,

Team TD

123 Reg have an exclusive 28 day offer!

The fuse is burning, and there are only 28 days until detonation! To celebrate the year’s most explosive month, we’ve got a bombshell for you amazing affiliates.

Buy .eu domains for only £6.99
using code 30doteu

Save over 30%!

Get 4 months half price on all hosting using code feb4swh

February may be short on days…but it’s high on impact! Your customers will be blown away by our latest 123-reg promotions. So get selling now, this double offer goes out with a bang on the 28th of February 2010.

 28 days later…and this offer will be a blast from the past!

The 123-reg team
www.123-reg.co.uk

Is it too late for a 2010 trends post?

I hope not, nothing wrong with getting a quick look to see if you’re on the right track.  The truth is, Sandra Denyer and I presented this topic at our well-received TD Summit last November.  We want to stay on top of this and congratulate ourselves if we get it right, and argue until the worlds end if people don’t think what we said came true.  Here’s what we talked about (with no changes – honest!).

Important at this juncture to point out here that we avoided fads and fashions when looking at trends.  We’d like to understand the key drivers between organisations and consumers that will shape the way online activity develops and use this to direct our marketing activity.

Our predictions were:

1. The continued rise in volume and sophistication of voucher and discount sites
2. Merchants moving towards greater focus on lifetime values and introducing effective revenue share models
3. 3 consumer pressures of cost, quality and time will help to shape the market
4. User generated content will develop even further, possibly to live reviews and the rise of the video review
5. Mobile ad spend to increase significantly across the year as networks and handset manufacturers make smart phones more accessible and user friendly
6. Merchants becoming affiliates in affinity deals to drive additional revenue streams and add value to their users
7. Budgets and traffic driven from offline to online in the continued search for trackable ROI

Check back in with us at the end of March when we’ll be reviewing these predictions and how they’re panning out across our search, affiliate, campaign and tracking channels.  I’ll look to include examples of where these came true and any trends that we didn’t see in the crystal ball which are coming to the fore.

“I told you so” coming in about 7 weeks…

Harry Hurst

Account Director

Here’s a quick thought for a Monday.  SuperBowl XLIV (44 to you and me) was played last night to an estimated audience of 66%+ of the US population and tens of millions around the world.  It was a classic.  The first time since 1993 that the top-ranked teams from the 2 divisions met in the showcase event.  Eventually, the fairytale story for the New Orleans Saints came true and they walked away with the Vince Lombardi trophy.

What has this to do with TradeDoubler and online marketing?

Some of the most expensive ad slots on TV are during the SuperBowl.  It has been a staple for the big media spenders over the past 4 decades.  This year had a few anomalies though…a role reversal for Pepsi and Google.

Pepsi – usually a sure bet to have a big segment, on the night, made a well publicised decision to pull out and spend those big advertising dollars in online advertising.  Google on the other hand, made a rare investment in TV advertising.  But it didn’t start out that way according to Eric Schmidt, who said on a recent blog post; “We didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.”

While the ad itself is slick and engaging in a typically simple Google way, the amount of press the decision to run the ad has received has been a welcome uplift to the value for the Mountain View search company.  Is this the start of a new trend?  Run an ad on YouTube for a while and if it gets enough traction, it’s then released in the more expensive medium.  At the IAB social media session last week, the panel discussed the need to invest in TV and other media in order to generate a YouTube viral sensation (Cadbury gorilla etc).  Surely this is the other side of the coin. We shall see…

Fancy the chance to win a £45 gift voucher for www.tellallmyfriends.com/? All you have to do is enter the very quick and easy to complete UK2.Net survey www.azam.net/uk2/!

One lucky winner will be chosen at random on 1st March 2010.

Whether it’s web hosting, ecommerce or a domain name UK2’s have some of the hottest deals around:

• www.uk2.net/dedicated-servers/
• www.uk2.net/web-hosting/search-engine-submission/ – Get both the Search Engine Submission tool (usually £39.95) and Business Directory entry (usually £12.50) for an amazing £39.95!
• www.uk2.net/domain-names/ – Get a .com and .co.uk together and save 12% on the total price!

For more inforamtion please contact: Sinead Hernen sinead [at] azam.net 07984 771907

Hi everyone,

Our NFL jerseys are selling like hot cakes through our affiliate programme so to help
you give them even more of a push we’ve produced some banners for you featuring
the jerseys and our competition to win VIP tickets to the Superbash!

The competition only runs until Monday but we’ll be removing mention of it from the
banners so you don’t need to take down your creative, just make sure you use
the link from the account and don’t hard code the creative so when we update
them you’ll be displaying the latest version!

If you have any questions or would like any additional sizes please let me know – and if
you’d like banners for another area of our product range, drop me a line and
I’ll get some produced for you!

Kind regards,

Cat
catherine.edden@jdplc.com

Fantastic hot deals in the UK this winter with Accor!

Thank-you for promoting the Accor program. There is some great new promotional creative available.

Accor have some fantastic hot deals in the UK this winter!

Please get promoting the Accor ‘hot deals’ banner creative. This is a special UK promotion, with very attractive rates!

Enjoy brilliant hotel deals this winter with 130 UK hotels to suit every budget, don’t let them slip away. Book your hotel from only £39!

New Banner creative is available in the following sizes to promote this ‘hot deal’:

- 300×250.gif
- 300×250.swf

The offer expires on the 15th February so please get promoting now and see your commissions roll in!

Find tickets to amazing events in other cities, so spread your wings this Valentine’s day with viagogo!

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and to celebrate viagogo has launched a special Valentine’s Day offer page within our site. This unique page offers users fantastic tickets to our top events, the perfect way to spoil their loved ones! We are similarly running an exclusive affiliate promotion surrounding our Valentine’s Day tickets, whereby:

Any affiliate that generates any sales on our Valentine’s Day tickets before 14th February 2010, will be entered into a draw, with the chance to win a £100 viagogo gift voucher prize!

To see our incredible Valentine’s Day tickets we have on offer, please go to http://www.viagogo.co.uk/valentines

Hi guys,

While the racing world eagerly anticipates the Cheltenham Festival, how do you fancy live racing from 30 of the UK’s top race courses FOR FREE*?

Get involved with Racing UK’s fantastic new affiliate incentive, and you can have just that – here’s full information for you.

If you would like to sign up to the program, you can do so here.

And look out for more great incentives from Racing UK in the run up to the Cheltenham Festival!

Thanks guys – any queries, just drop me a line on racinguk@silverbean.co.uk

Lou

*T&C’s apply

Glowsticks and Ski boots at the ready!

TradeDoubler have just announced the launch of The Big Snow Festival program (under the Thomas Cook brand). With Calvin Harris and Pendulum confirmed to play, and with sponsors such as Natives.co.uk already on board, this looks set to be one of the best festivals of the year!

With competitive commissions in place, bespoke creative and text links available through the interface, there is every reason for you to get signed up and start generating fantastic sales in the run up to this festival period.

We have fantastic offers, creative and tools to help increase your conversion rates. For more information check out the info link on the Big Snow Festival programme page (Program ID: 81022).

If you need any help in signing up to the programme, have any further queries or feedback please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Best of luck and we look forward to working with you soon!

The Big Snow Festival Affiliate Team.

Hi All,

Welcome to the third part of our three-segment series on Google updates and the effect on Affiliate marketing.

Personalised search has actually been around for a good few years now but only been active to Google account members. It will now be a default for all Google users.

This functionality allows Google to display results to users that will be influenced by and scored against their previous search habits and preferences. Google will then use that data to serve similar sites to the user with a view to increasing the relevancy of the user’s searches.

As Google say “When possible, Google will customise your search results based on location and/or recent search activity. Additionally, when you’re signed into your Google Account, you may see even more relevant, useful results based on your web history.”

Importantly, Google do give you the option to opt-out of personalised search but the prevailing winds would suggest a vast majority of users will simply continue using the search engine without changing their preset setting.

So, how will this affect affiliates? It’s difficult to say….

On one hand an affiliate site will potentially raise profile in a personalised search especially if Google serves the affiliate site as a site that ‘is of similar interest’ to the users habits. You can see optimised affiliate sites crossing over well in verticals such as retail or travel.

However, it may become more difficult for a new affiliate site to gain a share of voice in Google.

Our advice would be to ensure your affiliate links are fully optimised to match your content. If you have a site dedicated to the Rolling Stones then you’ll probably deeplink to a Rolling Stones box set through the HMV affiliate programme. However, to optimise the traffic you have (and in the interests of updated content and relevancy) also deeplink to a biography of Mick Jagger through the Waterstones affiliate programme. Once you start feeding in user generated content to build up the stickiness of your site, Google will hopefully start to display your site against ‘similar types’ of site.

Sanjit Atwal

Publisher Development Manager | TradeDoubler UK |

Twitter.com/TradeDoubler_UK |

Sanjit.Atwal@TradeDoubler.com | Twitter.com/SanjitAtwal |

————————————-

This post forms part three of a three-part series of blog posts on Google changes. Please also see:

Part I ) Google Introduces Real-Time Search

Part II ) Google Caffeine
The affiliate reaction to all three Google updates can be summarised in one sentence: Make every attempt to add value to the users original search whilst balancing the need to monetise your inventory.

For a more in-depth discussion on how our SEO team can help you over the coming months, please email Sales.UK@TradeDoubler.com.

Happy New Year from all at td Affiliate and td Search!

Hi All,

Welcome to the second part of our three-segment series on Google updates and the effect on Affiliate marketing.

In Part II we will be taking a brief look at Google Caffeine.

Caffeine is the name of Google’s latest algorithm updates and, like all things Google, Caffeine is somewhat of an unknown quantity. Until it has been fully launched the affiliate world will be waiting with baited breath to fully comprehend the changes…however, td Search has made the following observations:

Google Caffeine is, like Real-Time Search, aimed at giving users the best possible experience in terms of relevance. This makes all of the age-old truths of SEO even more important. For example, if you are currently appearing in third position in the natural results, however, you are not utilising any social media tools or uploading any fresh content, then you are running the gauntlet of the Google ‘slap’ and risk being dislodged by a competitor that is following basic, but necessary, SEO practices:

• Present original content
• Ensure you have clean meta-tags and optimised titles for your landing pages
• Do not over load your site with content that will slow the load time
• Add quality in-bound links
• Minimise the duplication of content
• Utilise social & and rich media to enhance your site’s brand presence
• Timely maintenance of broken links

What we are seeing from Caffeine (in the affiliate sense) is a demand from Google to significantly improve the quality and relevance of the sites we, as an industry, build. So, does this mean affiliate sites will get knocked out of the park by the changes Caffeine will bring on?

Not necessarily.

Most affiliates cannot sell effectively without an understanding of the products and brand they is are selling. This is where affiliates have always, and will always, excel. By building deep, content-based sites using the knowledge affiliates have on what sells for a merchant (displayed on a page that adds true value to the merchant’s proposition) and educates the user’s purchase decision, we can work to ensure affiliate sites are sufficiently ranked over and beyond the algorithm change.

Speak to your TradeDoubler account managers and ensure you are receiving as much product information as possible on the affiliate programmes you are promoting. Make sure you are signed up to the newsletters and are aware of all the latest news regarding the merchant with a view to creating unique content that will aid the user’s buying cycle.

Part III: Google Personalised Search will be posted on the 4th January.

Sanjit Atwal

Publisher Development Manager | TradeDoubler UK |

Twitter.com/TradeDoubler_UK |

Sanjit.Atwal@TradeDoubler.com | Twitter.com/SanjitAtwal |

————————————-

This post forms part two of a three-part series of blog posts on Google changes. Please also see:

Part I :  Google Introduces Real-Time Search

The affiliate reaction to all three Google updates can be summarised in one sentence: Make every attempt to add value to the users original search whilst balancing the need to monetise your inventory.

For a more in-depth discussion on how our SEO team can help you over the coming months, please email Sales.UK@TradeDoubler.com.

Happy New Year from all at td Affiliate and td Search!

Dear Affiliate,

The brand new Direct Holidays programme, in association with Thomas Cook, launches on TradeDoubler today.

With competitive commissions in place, bespoke creative and text links available through the interface there is every reason for you to get signed up and start generating fantastic sales in the run up to the peak travel period.

We have fantastic offers, creative and tools to help increase you conversion rates. For more information check out the info link on the Direct Holidays programme page (search for Direct Holidays or use Program ID: 81025).

If you need any help in signing up to the programme, have any further queries or feedback please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Best of luck and we look forward to working with you soon!

The Direct Holidays Affiliate Team

Hi All,

As I’m sure you are aware Google has been hard at work to improve their indexing of sites and is rolling out three key changes to the engine over December and early January. As the overwhelming market leader in UK search engine traffic this will, of course, have an impact on the affiliate space.

In response, the TradeDoubler Affiliate and Search teams have joined forces to bring you the following series of blog posts documenting the changes and subsequent knock-on effects the affiliate industry can expect from a publisher point of view.

Part I: Google introduces real-time search

Part II: Google Caffeine

Part III: Google personalised search

——————————————————————————-

Part I: Google introduces Real-Time Search….How to get a grip on SEO and social media

Twitter, MySpace and Facebook status updates….for years social media has been at the forefront of pioneering the application of ‘micro-blogging’. This (alongside significantly increased uptake of Instant Messenger/Microsoft Communicator-like tools) has led to users becoming addicted to instant communication. Twitter is obviously a great example of this. Forecasted to have over 18 million users by the end of 2009, Twitter has proven that short, sharp, lightspeed like updates are the way of the future.

Twitter will have one massive asset in 2010 and that is size. These days it’s getting increasingly more difficult to go to your favourite sites without seeing a small blue bird asking you to follow it. This trend of ‘eOrnotholgy’ will continue and a by-product of its tremendous size is a vast reservoir of (constantly updated) content. From AA Gill tweeting about shooting a baboon to Stephen Fry tweeting about, well….everything, Twitter (and Twitter-like applications) will become a major source of new content.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the powers that be at Google…

Google has already begun the process importing real-time updates from blogs, news feeds and services such as Twitter. For example, if I were to search for my own name in Google we can see inclusion from my tweets mixed within the organic results (see below for example).

Real-time search will go further than this to give the user live data and information from a variety of sources. Considering the above points on the amount of content diversity, it could provide massive enhancements to the user’s experience. We can see the new placements appear below the top ranked natural results as a new content box (example below) that complement the rest of the natural results.

So what does this mean for affiliates?

Well, apart from being able to read my opinion on next season’s Formula One line-up, potentially a problem… If you are used to appearing positions 4-10 on the first page of results then the real-time search content box may push your site far below the fold.

In the below example you can see that is exactly what has happened to the QI website, which has been pushed to the bottom of the page below the real-time search box:

Continued SEO optimisation is certainly recommended to rank highly – however, these new changes also present an opportunity to contribute to Google’s real-time results. By using social tools such as news feeds and Twitter alongside fresh content, you can potentially appear in the real-time results as an authoritative part of Google’s user experience.

If you have a site selling laptops, then ensure that you are not only uploading the latest Dell Netbook but also securing news and reviews from your users. This will improve your relevancy to the Google user’s original search for ‘Dell Netbooks’. This method also has the added benefit of increasing your likelihood to convert your traffic as users are actively seeking information to aid their purchase decisions.

Part II:   Google Caffeine & Affiliates will be posted on the 31st December.

Sanjit Atwal

Publisher Development Manager | TradeDoubler UK |

Twitter.com/TradeDoubler_UK |

Sanjit.Atwal@TradeDoubler.com | Twitter.com/SanjitAtwal |

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This post forms part one of a three-part series of blog posts on the Effect of Google Updates on Affiliate Marketing. Coming soon are:

Part II:   Google Caffeine

Part III:  Google personalised search

The affiliate reaction to all three Google updates can be summarised in one sentence: Make every attempt to add value to the users original search whilst balancing the need to monetise your inventory.

For a more in-depth discussion on how our SEO team can help you over the coming months, please email Sales.UK@TradeDoubler.com.

Happy New Year from all at td Affiliate and td Search!

I have to concede Christmas is upon us and the celebrating (and fattening) has already begun even if the Christmas shopping hasn’t. Here at TD Towers we have extra reason to celebrate with our shortlisting in two industry award categories:

TradeDoubler nominated for Best igaming affiliate network  – PLEASE VOTE FOR US!
http://www.igbaffiliateawards.com/content/vote

TradeDoubler shortlisted for econsultancy’s Innovation in PPP/Paid Search award category
http://econsultancy.com/blog/5051-econsultancy-announces-innovation-awards-shortlist

** Rock Around The TradeDoubler Christmas Tree **

With only 22 days left until Christmas Day, the festivities at TradeDoubler are well underway. To help you a little (or a lot) along the way to making this Christmas an affiliate dream – we invite you to take part in our 2009 Christmas Competition!

To fill your Christmas stocking to the brim, we are giving away 15 top prizes including a dream holiday abroad, courtesy of James Villas, a Samsung plasma TV from Dell, Avon hampers stuffed full of make-up goodies , a pair of beautiful ThanksDarling diamond earrings and many more….!

What do you need to do to take part? Simply click through to the competition landing page from the publisher interface or click here to go straight to the landing page where you will find details of all the great prizes!

For each merchant prize on offer, you can find details of how to win via their program page.

For further details, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with one of the Christmas competition team on the below address.

Christmas.uk@tradedoubler.com

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from all at TD!

TradeDoubler are happy to announce that MORE TH>N, one of the UKs leading insurance brands will be moving their affiliate activity exclusive with us.

MORE TH>N offer some of the strongest affiliate commissions in the market place for consumer and business insurance products and with over 15 products tracked on one affiliate program there is real cross-tracking capabilities that will support your overall EPC.

MORE TH>N was launched in June 2001 bringing freshness and a new approach to the consumer financial services market. They have been winning customer service awards since 2003 and gained a Gold medal for Best in Customer Service for the Europe, Middle East and Africa Regions at last year’s World Contact Centre Awards in London.

MORE TH>N will be offering the following attractive commissions across their extensive product range.

Please get in contact to join the MORE TH>N affiliate program as TradeDoubler will soon be the only affiliate network promoting MORE TH>N and we are excited to work with you in the coming months.

Product & Affiliate Commission:

Car Insurance £50
Home Insurance £60
Pet Insurance £23
Rescue Insurance £10
Single Travel Insurance £7
Annual Travel Insurance £18
Life Insurance £60
Business – Van Insurance £75
Business – Car Insurance £75
Business – Shop Insurance £100
Business – Office Insurance £100
Business – Landlord Insurance £75
Business – Professional Indemnity £100
Business – Public Liability £25
Premier – Classic Car Sales Insurance £50
Premier – Home Insurance £60
Premier – Motor Insurance £50
Premier – Travel Insurance £60
Premier – Life Insurance £100

Kind regards,
The TradeDoubler MORE TH>N affiliate team.

The refurbished TomTom GO 910 has been one of Total PDA’s highest converters this year and they’re thrilled to announce this high-end, feature-packed GPS is back in stock!

Stock is strictly limited so start your promotions today! (14 day promotion, valid 27 November – 11 December 2009).

TomTom GO 910 (Refurbished) with free priority delivery worth £11.44

http://clk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=58973&a=xxxxxxx&url=http://www.totalpda.co.uk/TomTom/TomTom-GO-910-Refurbished.6626.html (Replace xxxxx with affiliate ID)
Free delivery code: GOBABYGO
Only £137.99

Don’t miss the special 1 day Apple shopping event on Friday November 27 (00.00 GMT to 23.59 GMT).  Known as “Black Friday” this one-day shopping event will offer a range of discounts on select Apple products.

There will be dozens of great iPods, iPhone and Mac gift ideas.

Banners available in the TradeDoubler system or post this link today:

http://clk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=2554&a=xxxxxx&url=http://store.apple.com/uk/go/promo/blackfriday (replace xxxxxx with affiliate ID)

Merry Christmas,

As usual it still feels slightly too early to be merry… at TradeDoubler we’ve taken the stance that in order for us all to enjoy a few days rest over Christmas we need to maximise traffic, attraction and most importantly sales over this crucial period.  And let’s be honest, for us in the frontline of Christmas sales this can also be perceived as a slightly stressful period as it might be the last chance to hit yearly sales targets.

So the team and I have worked hard to prepare Christmas 2009 and it’s safe to say that, with TD coordinating your Christmas campaign, we will all soon be merry. HO HO HO!

In preparation I recommend you work with us to consider the following:

Promotions

Fact: Traffic to Voucher code, Loyalty and Promotion sites increase over the Christmas period and in order for your brand to gain attraction and sales we need to negotiate placements and commercials. Have a clear idea about what you can offer key publishers early.

Delivery

How will a potential postal strike affect you both in terms of consumer perception and actual delivery? Correctly massaging your confidence in delivery might make the difference for your conversions online. You might want to think about free delivery as many merchants have chosen not to charge consumers.

Strategic Search

Talk to us if you are keen to support your Search campaign over Christmas. We know that PPC costs tend to rise and the space can be crowded with competitors. We are happy to introduce you to our trusted Strategic Search Partners for a Christmas campaign.

Peak at the peak

Every year the best and the brightest debate – what will be the best day for Christmas sales? Last year apparently the 8^th of Dec was considered the peak. In my opinion too many factors are involved: economic climate, postal strike, weather, who wins the X-factor final, etc., in order to accurately predict THE day. The TradeDoubler approach is simple(s) – you need to OWN the last two weeks of November and all of December. Rest assured we are working on it.

Post Christmas

Plan for Boxing Day early – the last two years we have seen traffic spikes on Boxing Day. People are bored of being at home? Or hunting for promotions? Or online gaming and Boxing day punting? You need to be present.

Let us work together to achieve a profitable Christmas period. I don’t know about you but I’m very excited even though I’m trying  to forget that I’m not in my native Sweden covered in snow…

God Jul

Aurore

Agency Service Director

The Google search network is made up of it’s own web properties (i.e. google.com, google.co.uk) and various search partners such as sky.com and aol.  Whilst this is a network, it is still based around the keyword search model.  However, Google has another network that you can advertise on which they refer to as the Content Network.  This is far more like a traditional display network, but you choose which sites you appear on by using a set of keywords that has similar content to the publishing page.  As a consequence there are a number of different best practices that should be adhered that mark this out as a separate practice to running keyword search campaigns.

Below are 5 points that will help you achieve better results from your Content Network campaigns.

1.    Keep Search and Content apart – Create separate engine campaigns and opt in to only display on the content network.  This helps you to manage the two channels separately and to take better control over your campaigns.
2.    Create a tightly themed group of keywords – When choosing keywords you wish to display against, keep to a very narrow and well defined theme.  It also pays to keep the keywords to below 20 to help with this.
3.    Do not use misspellings –  In search it is common to use misspellings to take advantage of cheap traffic, but on the content network this would result in your ad appearing on websites with incorrectly spelt body copy which could indicate a poor quality site, and less conversions for you.
4.    Use negative keywords – Just like in a search campaign, remember to use negative keywords to filter out sites and articles you do not want to appear on.  E.g. ‘lawsuit’, ‘poor’, ‘problems’ etc etc.  This is doubly as important as all content keywords are taken at the broad match level.
5.    Think beyond the direct offer – If you are a hotel aggregator, think about using keywords themes such as ‘shopping breaks’, ‘weekend deals’ and not just terms like ‘hotels’ ‘cheap hotels’ and ‘hotels in Stockholm’.  Remember to appear on pages that are complementary products, where the user may need to book a hotel in the future.

When using td Searchware to manage your content campaigns there is no need to create tracking URLs for each keyword, as the Content Network only works at an Adgroup level.  Therefore it is better to create a tracking URL at the default URL level, which then allows you to track each ad text separately if you wanted to.
If you would like more information about the Content Network, and how td Searchware can be used to manage it, please contact simon.cooper@tradedoubler.com.

I recently read an article on Search Engine Land about ‘Organising Your PPC Account For Maximum Success’. The article goes through all the good basics for good account set up e.g. grouping ad groups by product type, separating out brand terms, using specific campaigns for content match and site targeting etc etc. What did interest me however was one of the comments. They have suggested that you could perhaps arrange campaigns and ad groups by grouping products based on their target metrics of performance. This can be a very good idea, as it allows you to focus your time on the parts of the campaign that deliver most volume for you or most sales, so whilst this is not too bad an idea as a one off, if the targets change frequently, or as the performance changes (which it definitely will), it is not efficient to keep moving all of these keywords around – not least due to the fact you will lose the Quality Score each time you change the structure.

This is something we identified at TradeDoubler, and through the Strategy Groups feature, we allow you to create custom optimization groups which enable you to apply automated bid strategies that can have separate targets and objectives set. All of this happens in td Searchware so the account structure you have on the engine is not touched, which also means you maintain your Quality Score.

Essentially you can now create groups for your top sales terms, or your long tail terms, and set a strategy for them, and td Searchware will automatically update the bids for the respective keywords no matter where they are located on your engine account.

We get very good feedback from clients on this feature as it helps them achieve their objectives of delivering a set number of sales and revenue whilst working to a specific profit.

If you would like to hear more about this feature, and how to use it, please feel free to contact simon.cooper@tradedoubler.com

TradeDoubler initiates an innovative solution to improve customer lifetime value though the affiliate channel

On 2nd June Quidco.com launched a revenue share model for Minxy Bingo (part of the Gala Coral Group) which entitled Quidco members to a 30% revenue share on all their losses for a lifetime. This is the first ever revenue share model of its type to be implemented across a major loyalty or cashback affiliate. The launch of Minxy Bingo was followed this week by Gala Bingo, one of the UK’s leading bingo brands, also incorporating a revenue share model on Quidco via TradeDoubler.

Over the past six months, TradeDoubler and Gala Coral have worked together to improve the lifetime value of customers delivered through the affiliate channel, in particular those delivered through incentive-based affiliates. These are affiliates that traditionally pass the commission earned from transactions back to the end user in the form of cashback, points, air miles etc.

After considerable analysis, Gala Coral established that this affiliate sector generally delivered strong volumes of customers, however only a small proportion of these customers continued to play again and again. Therefore the cost of acquiring a customer through cashback and loyalty sites became less profitable for Gala Coral and led the business to alter its strategy and implement a revenue share solution.

Working alongside the Quidco team, TradeDoubler and Gala Coral have been able to develop a revolutionary revenue share model where a Quidco member is incentivised to continue to play after they have registered a Gala Bingo or Minxy account. The revenue share model will mean that any customer that has registered via Quidco will be rewarded 30% cashback for the total amount of losses in their Gala Bingo or Minxy account each month for life.

The revenue share model has been utilised across the iGaming sector for several years and encourages stronger lifetime value of customers through the affiliate channel. The model has enabled advertisers to provide bespoke revenue share commissions to affiliates based on the quality of the customers they are delivering.  Taking this into account, it is not uncommon for so called ‘super’ affiliates to be rewarded on a hybrid CPA/revenue share deal where they are rewarded on the customer acquisition as well as the lifetime value.  This is a model that all affiliates on revenue share strive to move towards, even for new revenue share affiliates like Quidco.

The revenue share model also ensures less risk to the advertiser as they are not rewarding on the acquisition of a customer, but on the net losses the customer makes through the gaming site. With advertising budgets being reduced and a key need to retain customers in a difficult economic climate, there is no doubt that this commission metric will begin to be introduced across other verticals over the coming months.

Across Telecoms and Utilities, affiliates could be incentivised for customer contract renewals, or, for Finance, rewarding on renewing a home or car insurance policy. Given that switching providers can be faster and a lot less painful for consumers, thanks to the rapid growth of comparison sites, advertisers are urgently trying to find a way to retain customers – maybe the integration of a revenue share model is the answer?

“Quidco is working closely with TradeDoubler to evolve new ways for advertisers, who have traditionally experienced issues with lifetime value of customers, to use cashback sites more intelligently. By offering an advertiser the chance to pay its customers cashback based around revenue share, we can address many of these issues – meaning the advertiser benefits, as well as the customer. In this particular case TradeDoubler, Gala Coral and Quidco have reshaped traditional thought in the gaming sector and are making what was previously a theoretical idea for incentive sites, a live trial.  If this proves to be a success, I imagine we’ll see many more advertisers and incentive sites following in our footsteps.”
Emma Faulkner, Sales and Marketing Manager, Quidco.com

Dharmesh Damani
Senior Business Development Manager
dharmesh.damani@tradedoubler.com

If you would like further information on how the revenue share model works, please feel free to contact Dharmesh.

We want to make you aware of a recent IAB Affiliate Marketing Council initiative that TradeDoubler and some other UK Networks will be supporting.

The objective is to increase the transparency of information shared by advertisers, as a recent survey suggested this was a big concern for affiliates. This will help publishers to select the right programs and also understand how best to work with them.

Information such as the reasons why sales are deleted/reversed and the deduplication rules employed are examples of the types of information likely to be included.

Right now, all we are doing is gathering feedback from advertisers and publishers. We expect the types of information to be confirmed soon. We will then look to gather this information from advertisers to update program information pages. The initiative is voluntary and we do understand that advertisers may need to keep some sensitive or strategic information confidential.

If you have any questions about this initiative please contact your TD Account Manager.
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