E-Commerce Blog

Affiliate marketing is one of the pillars of modern ecommerce. Hundreds of independent networks, such as buy.at, MediaWhiz, Convert2Media and Media Shakers, connect affiliates with merchants, which drives traffic to the merchant sites and earns referral fees for the affiliates. But, actually paying those fees to affiliates in non-U.S. countries – especially underdeveloped countries – can be tricky.

What, Exactly, is Affiliate Marketing?

Before discussing cross-border affiliate payments, it’s a good idea to define the basic meaning of affiliate marketing. According to Wikipedia, affiliate marketing is “an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by th…

Read more from the original source:
Cross-Border Affiliate Payments: Banks, PayPal and Payoneer

Parasitic affiliate behavior has been a long-standing problem. The issue is frequently being raised on affiliate marketing blogs and forums, but not by wider communities of e-marketers.

It should be, because in many instances it affects multiple channels of online marketing, and not the affiliate one only.

Today I have received an application from an incentive/loyalty publisher to be accepted into an affiliate program I manage on Commission Junction. I have declined it, ticking the ‘yes’ box in the “Add publisher(s) to automatic decline list?” option. The affiliate declined was We-Care.com.

If more merchants/advertisers did the same, they would’ve saved themselves a lot of money, and helped straighten out both their marketing metrics, and expenses. The fact of the matter is that hundreds of merchants are currently paying at least twice.

The problem of parasitism in affiliate marketing is not a problem faced by affiliate marketers only. In fact, those that are aware of it, do avoid the parasites and those who are supporting them (by ignoring the issue). It is those that are unaware of them (or of the problem altogether) that are most vulnerable, and must learn about the topic.

In late 2008 a friend and fellow affiliate marketer, Scott Jangro, wrote a post, and shot an excellent video on how parasitic affiliates work, “what they do, and how they interact, and how they interfere with other affiliates,” and other online marketing channels. Scott’s video is a must-see for every online marketer.

Prior to declining We-Care as an affiliate today, I have run a thorough testing of their plugin to see how it affects traffic originating from different sources of online advertising.

Guess what? The pop-up cannibalizes on every one of the 7 marketing channels that I have tested. If you are involved in any of the following channels, and have such affiliates as We-Care.com in your affiliate program, you want to remove them a.s.a.p. In parenthesis I am listing cases/examples of confirmed pop-ups that I have registered today, and you’re most welcome to test things (further) yourself as well.

1. Affiliate Marketing (confirmed: KMart link on CouponCabin.com, BarnesAndNoble.com link at SunshineRewards.com, PacificPillows.com link at Shopping-Bargains.com)
2. Organic SEO (confirmed: Crocs.com, Diamond.com, Newegg.com, PetSmart.com, Zappos.com)
3. Paid Search (confirmed: AbeBooks.com, Apple Store, EntirelyPets.com, TheFlip.com)
4. Direct Type-in (confirmed: Amazon.com, Blair.com, Ice.com, Expedia.com, OfficeDepot.com)
5. Comparison Shopping (confirmed: BlueNile.com through Shopzilla.com)
6. Banner Advertising (confirmed: RadioShack.com ad on USAToday.com)
7. Twitter Links (confirmed: links posted @DellOutlet, @BareNecessities, @theFinishLine)

If you are partnering with the above-mentioned affiliate/publisher, FreeCause, ShopAtHome, OneCause, or anyone else involved in the same type of behavior, your pocket, online marketing channels, and website are wide open for them to steal what either rightfully belongs to you (organic search, direct type-ins, social media marketing), to someone else (affiliate marketing), or what you’ve already paid for (paid search, banner ads, comparison shopping engines).

As another fellow affiliate marketer has brilliantly summarized it, “using technology doesn’t change the nature of a pickpocket criminal, it only scales its reach.”

Check your affiliate program today. You may be having a parasite on board.

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Toolbars, pop-ups and parasites in Affiliate Marketing

He won the US presidential election in no small part due to a brilliant online strategy, which Barack Obama is encouragingly continuing at his Change.gov website.

Today, the soon-to-be American president launched a new social democracy-in-action feature on the site, The Citizen’s Briefing Book.

On it, Americans (or anyone, really), are invited to submit ideas to
the new administration as well as to rate or comment on other posted
ideas. Like Digg, the most popular ideas rise to the top, and
presumably to the attention of the Commander-in-Chief.

This is
more than an empowering example of online democracy and the tactics
that helped a nation radically change course. It’s a strong example of
how organizations, large or small, can leverage social media to engage
audiences, as well as listen to and presumably address their concerns.
To encourage and facilitate participation, the site is searchable, and
posts are tagged and categorized.

As if the guy doesn’t have enough on his plate before Tuesday’s inauguration!

Online
marketers and analysts should keep an eye on the Briefing Book to glean
best practice ideas for online research, surveys, engagement marketing,
and likely, some surprises we haven’t even thought of yet.

View original post here:
Obama continues to leverage social media and online democracy

Since the dawn of US ecommerce, the question has been “to sales tax, or not to sales tax?”

Consumers and online retailers are squarely in the don’t-tax camp, while state governments, which stand to reap the tax dollars, are of a differing opinion. New York state has been trying to get out of state sellers, such as Amazon, to collect and pay state sales tax on transactions, which could reap hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the cash-strapped government (particular now that once-lucrative Wall Street revenues are fading fast).

The rule of thumb has long been that if the online seller has a bricks and mortar local presence in the state, e.g. Apple.com has local Apple stores, state tax is levied on online transactions. Amazon, as well as other online-only retailers such as Overstock.com, challenged New York’s attempt to get them to pony up 8.25 percent on all New York state transactions.

Yesterday, a NY State judge dismissed Amazon’s suit as groundless.

Blame…..the affiliates?

Because Amazon generates more than $10,000 in referrals from New
York-based affiliates, the judge’s reasoning goes (ergo, New Yorkers to
earn money from other New Yorkers) Amazon, as well as other
out-of-state retailers with affiliate programs, are going to have to
get on the state tax bandwagon.

And that’s going to hurt. Not NY state, of course, but online retailers and consumers.

A
seldom-discussed bit of accepted wisdom is that ecommerce is buoyed in
no small part by its ability to enable buyers to avoid paying taxes on
high ticket items (which also lessens the burden of shipping charges).
Buying that new laptop on Amazon versus a local store can shave a
couple hundred dollars in sales tax right off the price - a strong
incentive to buy, particularly in tough economic times.

The
aftermath of this ruling is going to be interesting. How much (more)
will online retailing suffer, now that their tax amnesty status in New
York is lifted? Will affiliate programs be designed on a state-by-state
basis in the US? It’s an absurd notion relative to the nature of the
web, but entirely possible in hard economic terms.

This will be
an interesting one to watch. Bottom line, New York’s decision to
disincentivize ecommerce could not possibly have come at a worse time.

Read the original:
Recession collides with “Amazon Tax”

Local listings and reviews websites should be well suited to the mobile internet, as the kind of information they offer can be incredibly useful when out and about and looking for somewhere to eat, or some local entertainment.

There are a few sites like Tipped, Yell.com which have dedicated mobile versions of their services, but two such websites have launched iPhone apps, which offer a richer experience than the standard mobile sites. I have been trying out two iPhone listings apps; Qype Radar and Yelp…

Qype Radar launched in December, while Yelp, which recently launched a UK version of its website, introduced its iPhone app in June last year. Both already iPhone optimised versions of their normal mobile sites, but an app can be a way of providing more functionality for users.