R.O.EYE are guest bloggers on the eBay Partner Network Blog.
Our post on choosing a successful niche will aid in making the most out of the eBay affiliate programme, but also contains some good advice to assist in successfully promoting niche products across any programme.
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According to the IMRG Capgemini E-retail Sales Index, online retail sales grew 14% over the last year.
Despite the current recession, UK online shoppers spent an average of £10 more per visit in April 2009 than this time last year. Also, the average value of an online shopping basket increased from £121.69 in April 2008 to £131.76 in April 2009.
The Beers, Wines & Spirit sector showed the strongest monthly growth (10%), but there were declines in Gifts (-51%) and Clothing, Footwear & Accessories (-2%).
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Last night saw the winners announced for the 13th annual Webby awards.
With nearly 70 categories, website entries make up the majority of Webby Awards Winners, Nominees and Honorees, as selected by members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
It was no real surprise that Twitter won the Webby Award for Breakout of the year. Other notable winners include Adidas for Best Home / Welcome Page, Flickr for Best Community and YouTube Live for Best Events.
Click here to see a full list of winners, nominees and honorees.
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by Robert Edis, Strategic Account Director
A new report from Econsultancy has predicted that this year more than £4 billion of online retail sales will be generated. According to the Affiliate Marketing Buyers’s Guide 2009, the affiliate sector grew by 22% in 2008, generating £3.82 billion.
Affiliate publishers and networks received an estimated £227 million in fees and commissions in 2008, with the industry’s growth being attributed to the increase in demand for performance based marketing from advertisers.
Econsultancy suggests that the affiliate marketing sector accounted for almost ten per cent of all UK ecommerce sales last year.
In 2009, Econsultancy predicts that the cost-per-acquisition (CPA) model will gain further ground within the online marketing sector, while voucher code and cashback websites will grow in popularity among consumers.
R.O.EYE were at this years a4uepo in Amsterdam represented by Colin Telford and Chris Worthy.
Colin and Chris joined up with the European and American eBay teams at the expo to showcase the latest eBay Partner Network developments. A new cutting edge stand was revealed at the expedition with iMacs on hand to demonstrate the ePN interface to publishers.
During the event we had a competition running on the stand where affiliates could win a Nintendo Wii. In order to win all they had to do was set the fastest lap on the Mario Kart. On the day Mike from TopCashback won the prize after a fierce battle with fellow colleague Adam Bullock to set the fastest time on the Delphino square track. Congratulations!
Daniel Austin, Programme Executive
This year saw the IAB release best practice guideline to try and ensure all voucher code sites are no longer using click to revel if a valid code is not available, voucher code sites have long been a thorn in the side of many merchants as well as other affiliates and these guidelines are intended to clean up this channel, the question being has it worked?
At the time of the IAB announcement some industry experts would have us believe it was the end of voucher codes as we know it, while this has not been the case it has certainly gone some way to improving the traffic sent from affiliate sites to merchants and making sure this is not done in a misleading or confusing way to the user. All UK networks have now signed up to the IAB agreement and all affiliates seem to be adhering to the guidelines, as yet the IAB have not had to enforce these new regulations.
A number of voucher code sites seem to now be rebranding as deal portals and still using click to revel but for on site deals, the IAB are yet to release their thoughts on this but I am sure heated debate will follow, we will keep you updated.
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Michelle Anthony, Senior Programme Executive
Take a look at the industry forum today and you will see a bizarrely popular thread. Not since the ‘What car do you drive?’ thread has one subject attracted so much attention, at time of writing there were 573 posts and 26,898 thread views and rising…so just what is drawing all this interest?
Let me explain, an experienced affiliate has taken it upon themselves to relay a list of domains which remain unregistered. The domains have been carefully selected as they are generic in nature, but likely to rank well for popular keywords with a little bit of time and effort. In return for this knowledge the affiliate has asked for links to a specific site once the new web address is registered and live.
The response has been phenomenal, for affiliates new into the industry is has been a great source of practical advice in what to look for in a domain and for some it has allowed them to purchase a great address without having to put in the research.
Even for those that haven’t bought one the addresses suggested in the thread, the topic has had an impact. It has encouraged a range of affiliates old and new to spring clean their portfolio and stick to those New Year resolutions of updating languishing or parked sites and take a risk on registering new domains that have the potential to grow legs and go big!
There are no signs of this thread stopping any time soon, to have a look yourself simply follow this link.
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By Daniel Austin, Programme Executive, R.O.EYE
In September of this year Google launched its much anticipated browser, Chrome, to the public. This is a move that will see Chrome pitted against the might of IE and Firefox; Google will be hoping they can decrease Microsoft’s dominance in this arena.
While IE8 is still in beta, both this and Chrome feature a private browsing mode that will automatically block and delete third party cookies when users are browsing with these safety modes switched on. Blocking third party cookies is and has been available in all browsers for sometime, but never at the touch of a button so prominently displayed for all to see. This new “one touch” function will be sure to highlight third party cookies to a public before unaware of their existence.
Previously an understanding of cookies by internet users, as well as slight technical know how in order to block them, would have insured that this would not really have been an issue in previous browsers.
This development has led industry experts to questions the validity of cookie tracking and look for alternatives, one such alternative is in the form of Flash Cookies. Flash cookies are stored outside of the browsers temporary internet files, and are therefore left untouched by the new browsers privacy modes. As an industry built on the very foundations of third party cookies, now more than ever is the time to ensure we have an understanding of these new technologies, and how they can help our merchants as well as affiliates. Sales tracking has always been a bone of contention for affiliates, robust and trusted technologies are essential in ensuring both affiliates and merchants trust the reliability of your affiliate programme.
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By Daniel Austin, Programme Executive, R.O.EYE
The current economic crisis seems to have taken yet another victim, the shock announcement that after nearly 100 years of trading, Woolworths has officially gone into administration with over £385 million worth of debts.
No surprise then is the announcement that they have also terminated their affiliate programme and ended their relationship with Affiliate Window, a decision I am sure savvy affiliates were expecting. No company or network likes to be in this position of telling affiliates that a programme is going to close, especially from a well known and trusted brand such as Woolworths. I am sure Affiliate Window will have done all they could to prevent this from happening, the announcement from them that they will still honour payment of confirmed sales is yet another reason affiliates speak highly of Affiliate Window.
In these turbulent times no one is safe, not even huge brands that have been a staple of all our high streets for as long as I can remember. As an industry, now more than ever it is important we are working together to ensure Affiliate Marketing can weather the forthcoming storm. An industry that prides itself on transparency and return on investment for its merchants will no doubt be under the spotlight again.
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By Danny Roche, Programme Assistant, R.O.EYE
The first month working at R.O.EYE has been a very eye-opening experience to say the least. Before I started here if anyone asked me to run an affiliate programme my response would have been- “No thanks, I did the Krypton Factor last weekend, I’m shattered.” How naive I was.
Cashback –site, aggregator, merchant, affiliate- what had I let myself in for? These are the words that haunted my dreams for the first two weeks at R.O.EYE but now they are regular words used in my vocabulary. Some people say to learn more about affiliate marketing you should visit blogs regularly and check out the up to date information on the industry, which is true, but I have learnt almost everything I know from my colleagues and also our very informative training days.
From my experiences so far, the affiliate marketing industry is all about building strong relationships with key people that can make your programme a success. A bond has to be built with your merchant, your affiliates and also the networks as they can provide useful information on managing different types of programmes. The ideal scenario is to be in the office managing your programmes for half of the month and for the other half be out wining and dining your key affiliates. We can always dream….
By building these strong relationships with your affiliates you may call upon them to compromise at times but be wary that they are more than likely going to do the same. Affiliates may be prepared to promote a programme they are unsure of if there is a bond of trust, and similarly this can go the other way when affiliates need something extra from their agency, e.g. client/merchant requests.
There are always chances to build these relationships and do a bit of networking such as gallivanting at Expos or going out to lunch with affiliates and merchants. This is all an important part of the wonderful world of the affiliate marketing industry that I have not yet tasted and I am very very hungry.
To end my first blog entry I will introduce my not yet famous “Tip of the month” section. This tip is for all of the new beginners here at R.O.EYE.
Tip# 1: Speak to every employee working in the office as they can teach you a lot about affiliate marketing and the different verticals (finance, retail, travel etc). You should get a good grasp of everyone’s programmes so you will firstly be able to inform affiliates of these programmes and also be able to cross sell between your areas and your colleague’s areas.
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