Shake your ROI maker
One of the many things I enjoy about Chicago’s subway systems are the animated ads. Here’s a website which features them. Although subway ads currently don’t fit into my marketing budget I look forward to the day when they do. Enjoy (you may need to have your windows media player open prior to clicking on the link).
Commission Junction, CJ, doesn’t have an efficient method to rejecting a large number of leads within their interface. Here’s the work around.
remove the <BR> tags”
My designer got tired of fixing my HTML email code and as a result she passed along a very useful link.
This is a must have chart for anyone creating or modifing HTML emails. This chart breaks down what CSS code is supported by the top email clients including Gmail, Hotmail, Windows Live Mail,Outlook 2003,Outlook Express, Outlook 2007, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, Mac Mail, Entourage, Eudora, Thunderbird. Before reading this, I always assumed that Gmail supported background images.
Keep checking this link the author plans to keep the chart updated.
As you may have heard, the Adwords team recently devised a new way of increasing each Adwords account spend by introducing a few feature called “Automatic Matching”.
Basically, if you are not spending your daily budget, Google will read the content of your landing page and automatically bid against keywords it encounters on your landing page which you didn’t originally specify within your account. The performance of this new feature is currently being tested by selected Adwords clients. Although automatic matching has good intention, it will cause more overhead for the SEM Manager which will now have to.
This is a brilliant move from Google to increase ad spend for less experienced PPC managers, but unfortunately it will create more overhead for the veterans. Maybe Google will listen to the outcry of many SEM Managers and add an opt-out option similar to the content match option.
Read the email Adwords sent out here.
For anyone doing email marketing, here is a site you should definitely bookmark. Register Of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO). SPAMHAUS provides FAQs on email marketing, glossary of industry related terms, Scam alerts, a lookup directory of known spammers and very useful email tools. My favorite is the top 10 worst ROKSO spammers section.
Here are a couple great competitive Pay per click tools, if you haven’t already adopted them.
Spy FU
This is a great Pay Per Click competitive software. Although the pay per click cost and traffic estimates are not exact, at least they provide a fuzzy idea of the competitive landscape.
Spy Fu also plots keyword search trends and provides the ability to export your results into an Excel file.
KeyWord Spy
KeyWord Spy is another excellent competitive Pay Per Click tool. Keyword Spy helps you analyze your competitor’s PPC click campaigns by providing approximate Adrank, ad variations and number of competitors at the keyword level. This is a very useful tool if your considering entering a certain market or if your staying on top of new competitors initiatives. Another use of this tool is the ability to easily spot affiliates bidding on your restricted keywords.
One couple of unanswered questions I have yet to find out regarding these sites are.
1. How are these sites getting this competitive information?
I’m assuming that they are screen scraping the search results.
2. How are they accommodating for personalized search, and search history?
Even if they are not accommodating for personalized, these sites still provide useful information.
competitive pay per click competitive ppc keyword spy keyword tool spy fuA few friends, co-workers and myself have had their website hosting accounts shut down or threatened to get shut down. Here are a few tips to avoid this from happening. Make sure you don’t set off any of the following flags.
Weather in a batch operation or in a single email, hosting companies monitor SMTP ports closely. Sending too many emails is the quickest way to get banned from your hosting company.
• Pirated Software Sites (Warez) - Any software that is copyrighted and not freely available for distribution without cost; i.e. ROMs, ROM Emulators and MPEG Layer 3 files (MP3).
• Hacking/Phreaking - Includes sites with material, links, or resources for hacking, phreaking, viruses, or any type of site that promotes or participates in willful harm to Internet sites or providers.
• Copyright Violations - Violation of copyrights held by individuals and corporations or other entities can result in civil and criminal liability for the infringer.
In another instance, one of my sites was temporarily shutdown because a PHP script tied up over 25% of the server’s processor. I received a warning email that my account would be terminated if this occurred again. Apparently hosting companies get upset anytime you use too many system resources.
Any attempt to circumvent user authentication or security is frowned upon. This includes logging into any server or account that you don’t expressly have authorized to access.
Here are a few software packages I would stay away from. The spammy website, the ridiculous claims and no support number are only a few of the items that raised a red flag when visiting this site. To top it off they don’t provide a trail version of the software. I’m always skeptical of software that doesn’t offer a trail download. If you’re confident in your product you need to provide a demo.
One of the beautiful aspects of advertising online is the ability to track at a very granular level. Because it is so easy to track online advertising, it is easy to over look something very obvious.
I’m sure you’ve seen this on many sites you’ve visited and you may have not even thought twice to select the proper choice from the drop down menu. It’s perfectly fine to ask your customers where they saw your ad, but not in the online environment. This information is not only available to your customers but it’s also available to your competitors.
There are many free software packages available which will record unique tracking links by campaign. If you have a lower budget use Google Analytics. If budget isn’t an issue, Omniture Site Catalyst is the best solution.
Here another mistake many advertisers make
This code was on the confirmation page an advertiser’s site. As you can see the code is very well commented. From the code any one can tell that this company is advertising on Quigo, LinkConnector, Net Traction, Oridian and ShopAtHome. Now, even if the code wasn’t commented, a savvy marketer would immediately be able to identify each tracking pixel. Hiding the tracking pixels doesn’t take much effort. One quick way of accomplishing this is placing all the tracking pixels in a Javascript file. A better way of keeping your advertising sources anonymous is to only display that pixel code when appropriate. This can be accomplished with a few lines of programming.
In a competitive environment, it’s essential that you keep a competitive advantage. If you learn from other people’s mistakes, you don’t have time to make your own.
LinkConnector Net Traction online advertising online environment Oridian Quigo ShopAtHomeBuilding a close relationship with your affiliates could be the difference between the success or failure of your campaign. Building a relationship is fairly easy, but requires a little time allocation, and consideration. Here are a few tips to help you kick start that relationship.
Try to touch base with your top 10 affiliates at least once a month. If you are using Commission Junction, you can accomplish this with a custom email to your top performing groups. Draft the message so it’s personalized. Consider sending a custom email to your top 2 affiliates. This will give them a pleasant surprise, because they are not accustomed to personal recognition. Be sure to discuss certain areas of their site or site design to let them know that you have visited their site and you approve their marketing tactics. Also, in your custom email, be sure to include your phone number and email address. Don’t worry; they will most likely not contact you. A majority of affiliates are doing marketing on a part time basis and they have other full time commitments.
Be appreciative of your affiliates. Every once in a while send them an extra bonus. What’s an extra $100 or $200 when that affiliate has made you $10,000 that month. The extra money will be greatly appreciated especially around the holidays. You may also want to consider inviting them to the office. If your paying an affiliate more than $2,000 a month, that’s comparable to someone’s salary. Make them feel as a valuable team member.
In addition, you may also want to consider changing their payment terms. It’s always nice to receive your money quicker and not having to wait 30 days for transactions to be validated.
These are a few tips that every successful affiliate campaign should strive to adhere to. A little upfront investment will save you time in the long run recruiting new affiliates.
recruiting new affiliates
Subscribe