R.O.EYE Blog

By Ben Friedman, Recruitment Executive R.O.EYE

Valentines Day is definitely one of the biggest times for most retail industries with everyone trying to find the perfect gift for their loved ones, but does this have a big impact on affiliate sales? And if so what kind of impact?

At R.O.EYE we run a large retail brands programme which sells a wide variety of gifts for both men and women, so we expected a large amount of sales over the Valentines period.

Towards the end of January sales started to pick up and this growth continued to build all through the start of the February.

As we approached the big day we expected the sales to fall a few days before, to allow for postage. This is what we saw at Christmas and it’s what we are used to seeing before events that involve gift buying. But the sales didn’t stop. Sales actually increased on the day before Valentines Day to their highest level in that period. How does this make sense?

My personal view is that couples may have been shopping for their gifts in the high streets and then deciding to go home and buy online, possibly so that they can get up to 10% cash back on their Presents. If this is the case would some affiliate programmes benefit from being more closely related to what is happening on the high street? I mean this in terms of the merchants seeing the programmes not solely as an online medium of sales, but as a more important part of their overall marketing strategy with better links with the high street stores selling their products.

Which leads me to a new question, should more High Street stores have the means for tracking affiliate sales? Let’s flip this on its head. For example, if an affiliate pre-sells a product on their site, like and item of clothing and the customer then buys it in the high street store the affiliate receives no commission. Would a scheme involving printing off vouchers for use in store, with affiliate specific codes mean that online sales could be tracked on the high street? Would this be a good thing? Where does this leave last click now??

I know I have asked a lot more questions than I have answered, but it is Friday morning. Please feel free to comment if you have the answers to my questions or any views on anything.

By Andy Mitchell, Senior Programme Executive

I’ve just been reading about Microsoft’s Zune. For those of you that don’t know what the Zune is, it’s Microsoft’s version of the iPod. They have re-released it in an attempt to take on Apple’s dominance in the market. The newly updated version has got a few minor changes but it ties in with the launch of Zune Social. This is a Social Networking site and Microsoft is relying on it to catch-up with Apple.

Now this isn’t anything ground-breaking. It’s definitely not the first major brand to make a whole-hearted effort with Social Media. But it did get me thinking….If Microsoft think they can use Social sites to re-gain significant market share, then surely lessons can be taken from this and applied to the affiliate space?

So, are YOU using Social Media to its full potential at the moment? Are you even using it all?

With a bit of effort and a small amount of ingenuity, you could make a small fortune from social sites at the moment. There are so many opportunities – Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and WAYN to name just a few. There’s certainly plenty of hype around Social Networking, and to be honest, you may think it’s become a buzz word and not much else – but lets take a look a some actual examples, that work for affiliates….

Facebook probably represents the biggest opportunity for affiliates at the moment. And if you can crack it, then you are onto a winner. Recently a Facebook cashback site has been launched - http://www.isavedcashback.com/. A whole cashback site built specifically for Facebook. The advertising of it should be easy – get a decent membership and due to the nature of Facebook, it should grow automically.

There’s also widgets for Facebook – if you’ve got some decent technical ability, you should be able to build a quick widget – here’s some tips to get you started - http://developers.facebook.com/step_by_step.php

Take a look at ShoeMoneys blog post from last week, for example – a US affiliate was making $15,000 per day on Facebook! Yeah, he was bending the rules slightly, but that’s a lot of money he’s made.

Now that’s simple Paid Search, just applied to a new advertising platform. So if you are a PPC expert, or even a novice for that matter, did you think to look at Facebook as the next Paid Search network? Its probably worth a try - clicks are cheap. But, a word of warning - as Keiron highlights here – conversion is really bad! Give it a go, see if you can make it work and let us know!

Have you built a Squidoo lens yet? This is more “Web 2.0”, but it can be equally if not more effective. A Squidoo lens is just a simple page that, if you target a niche, tends to rank well for related generic searches.

We’ve been playing around with Squidoo in the office – our recruitment guy Ben has set up a great R.O.EYE lens at http://www.squidoo.com/ROEYE/. But in terms of making money, we’ve got a few affiliates who have built lenses for our merchants’ products and are producing great results – daily conversions from lenses that rank well for generic terms – fantastic!

Lee Mccoy often has some great Social Media tips, so if you are looking for hints to get started, or future opportunities, keep an eye on his blog – www.leemccoy.co.uk – always a good read.

Alternatively, if you are looking for some merchants to promote via Social Media – just give us a call – we’ve got plenty of ideas!