Google Checkout - too good to be true?

The old adage has it - if it is too good to be true - then it probably isn’t.

Google came pushing it’s google checkout. Free payment gateway! Too good to be true?

Well it appears that it is.

Firstly we have the absolute disaster as it is poorly compatible with a number of affiliate networks. Well my first response is that the tracking is the responsibility of the merchant - not the payment gateway or the network.

But the big problem is that google checkout does NOT redirect the customer back to the merchant website once the transaction has ended. This is bad for the merchant - no second chance for a second impulse buy, and secondly the affiliate - as more often than not the tracking script is placed on the ‘checkout success’ page, so if there is no user visiting the success page - there is no tracking of the sale.

Google has its own solution for this, but it requires the merchant or affiliate network to be approved. This is basically a pain to all involved. More info on this see a4u forum

Also something to remember - google is not a bank! Just because google is the biggest internet company doesn’t mean that it’s payment solution will do everything and do it free. Paypal has only just really been accepted as being a bonified payment gateway and not just an ebay payment system.

I was originally tempted by GC but I am now treading with caution.

There are also alot of people worried about the amount of information that google is collecting - just in time for launch of its own CPA / CPS affiliate style model. Not sure if this worry is just or not.

I am sure that time will tell

April 30th, 2007 Posted by scifind | affiliate marketing, paypal, google, Networks | one comment

PrimeQ Release CPM and CPC advertising Solutions

Primeq have just announced their CPM and CPC banner network:

 ”PrimeQ has launched a CPM and CPC banner network that gives businesses the opportunity to advertise on the global online network’s range of proprietary websites and syndicated SORT paths which attract over a million unique visitors a month.

Using banners, buttons and text ads, advertisers can get their messages across to very specific demographic groups. Segmentation is available by tightly defined categories and this considerably increases the value to marketers. The sophisticated targeting technology has resulted in click through rates as high as 25% on some spots for one of the first advertisers.

Jason McClain, CEO of PrimeQ, said the new banner network would be an ideal vehicle for businesses to acquire customers: “Because of the nature of the sites in our portfolio and their highly focussed nature, surfers are more likely than average to make a purchase or express an interest in a product or service. I am delighted PrimeQ has been able to respond to our clients’ requests for increased exposure on our web properties and am looking forward to the CPM network becoming as successful as other recent initiatives.”

This gives more options and flexability for advertisers with this quickly developing network. It would be interesting to see what they pull from their hat next.

April 30th, 2007 Posted by scifind | affiliate marketing, Networks | no comments

It’s Just Not Cricket!!!

CricketRetail.com has launched an affiliate program with the affiliate network Profitistic

CricketRetail is offering 7% commission on its range of cricket equipment and designer Cricket Tshirts. Irrespective of volume put through our site.

If you were to equip one player, mid range bat, holdall, whites and padding it is easy to make upwards of £15. Equip your local team and you could be raking in around £200 commission!

About the Cricket Tshirts at Cricketretail.com

a range of refreshing and imaginative t-shirt prints, combining quirky design with just a hint of cricket connotation to create a ‘Pavilion Chic’ look that’s as at home in the clubs as it is in the clubhouse – quite simply the hardest hitting designs you’ll see all summer.

The program will be managed by Scifind Limited - so if you have any questions and querys or would like exclusive discount codes please contact us.

CricketRetail.com has no restrictions on PPC and Scifind Limited might even provide a PPC keyword list to get some affiliates started if they ask nicely!

It is completely free to become an affiliate, and once approved, you will obtain linking code that can be run across your website(s) in return for commission.

All affiliates are paid approximately 30 days following the commission month, providing they have exceeded the minimum threshold of £25 in commission due. If your commission does not reach £25 in any given month, we allow you to build-up commission until the threshold is exceeded.

Sign Up Here

April 20th, 2007 Posted by scifind | affiliate marketing, affiliate, Networks | no comments

Starting an Affiliate Program?

An affiliate program is a very powerful tool for online marketing, here are just a few brief pointers for merchants thinking of starting an affiliate program. For more please contact us to discuss your requirements

Network VS Inhouse Program.

Major considerations:

In House Software: Affiliate software can be very affordable IDevAffiliate sells affiliate tracking software, that is very easy to use, if a bit limited for around £50 / $99.99. This is a fantastic price when you consider that affiliate networks charge between £500 and £5000 for a sign up (plus ongoing fees, plus override commission).

It is very much worth noting that when you sign up to an affiliate network, you are not just using their affiliate tracking software, but their user base, hosting for banners and payment infrastructure, to name a few features of their service.

Either way you are going to need an Affiliate Manager

 It is my firm founded belief that affiliate programs require an affiliate manager. An affiliate manager oversees the smooth running of the program, recruits affiliates, pushes the current affiliates to keep their promotions up to date, answers the day to day enquires from affiliates and mediates between network, merchant and affiliate.

Other factors in working out costs for your affiliate program include:

• Commission
• Network Override
• Network ongoing fees
• Affiliate Management costs
   

Commission Structure.

This is the crux of affiliate marketing, the affiliates are not going to be interested by a poor paying affiliate program. The affiliate is going to want to see an attractive percentage commission.

Looking at similar affiliate programs on various networks I would recommend starting with a high commission rate but if you can afford it and still be competitive with other programs, hold back a little to allow for ‘bonuses’, special promotions or just a big push at a later date. It is worth considering a sliding scale, offering a range of commissions depending on sales volume, many programs offer a sliding performance related scale.

What Exactly Do You Pay Commission On?

This is up to you, there are several ways of calculating this.

• Basket Value
• Basket Value Inc VAT
• Basket Value including VAT and Postage.

I would recommend that you go with the second option. This makes things more transparent for the affiliate, ie if they sell £100 worth of goods and you were paying commission on the basket value minus VAT the affiliate may wonder why they are seemingly getting less than 8% commission.

In my experience the majority of merchants calculate commissions on the VAT inclusive value.

There is no sense in paying commission on postage, unless you make a profit on this and want to use it as a selling point for your affiliate program.

Network Override

Unfortunatly this is non negotiable in most cases, the network is there to make money and this is the most effective way to do it for them, also it is a % based fee (usually 30% of the affiliate commission) so you need to factor this in when you are calculating your % commission to affiliates, ie if you want to pay 8% commission, you will actually be forking out 10.4% commission, in total, to the network.

Network Fees

Word of advice, if you have a program that will really perform, or you have a track record with lots of stats (basket value, conversion rates etc) you may wish to present this to the network as you may be in a position to negotiate on these fees.
 

Affiliate Management Costs.

No matter what you do, whether inhouse affiliate program or via a network, you really need an affiliate manager. Either outsourced or inhouse, you need one person whos job it is to look after the affiliate program.

April 16th, 2007 Posted by scifind | affiliate marketing, ecommerce, Networks | no comments

Google Everywhere

Last weeks big news is that google had announced their CPA network, this week Google Checkout reached the shores of the UK.

Rather quiet launch - no big fanfare on the main google site, nothing on the google blogs, but the BBC were quick to pick up on the story: BBC News Story

Checkout will compete with both the mainstream card processing services used by many online merchants and auction site eBay’s Paypal service.

It is designed to boost Google’s core money-maker, the selling of online adverts, by offering cheap order processing for its advertisers.

It competes rather well with paypal from the word go, free untill Jan 2008

PayPal = 20p +3.4%
Google= 15p +1.5%

Prices per transaction - basic prices quoted - paypal fees get less the more trade you do with them. Correct at time of writing.

The other big advantage for google checkout is the fact that they are using their dominance in PPC to get the merchants on board

If you are an AdWords advertiser, you are eligible for free transaction processing for some or all your Google Checkout sales each month. For every £1 you spend on AdWords each month, you can process £10 in sales the following month for free through Google Checkout.

This is a big move for Google - some big merchants are already taking them on board.

April 13th, 2007 Posted by scifind | ecommerce, google | 2 comments

Affiliate Marketing Pants

Yes. You can now market a huge range of pants thanks to Adam Davies - the mastermind behind JustHom.com (AffiliateWindow - sign up).

Adam Davies has been quick to respond to the demands of affiliates, adding product feeds and rss feeds to JustHom at almost lightning speeds when asked. He really values affiliate marketing with his very positive experience with JustHom

DeadGoodUndies is the new site and it has a huge range of designer underwear, including exclusive lines from Budgy Smuggler Australian swimwear, Strellson and Impetus fashion. DeadGoodUndies launched on PaidOnResults today

What is the pay out like - very good, upto 20% no less:

From 13th April until 13th May we will be offering ALL affiliates our top tier of 20% on sale value (ex shipping) after which we will return to the normal (but very good) rate of

• 1-200 sales per month 10%

• 201-400 sales per month 12%

• 401-600 sales per month 14%

• 601+ sales per month 20%

They also have a very nice cookie period of 90 days.

Not just that but they are offering 3 cash prizes (upto £250), a draw for which will include anyone who makes one or more sales within these dates.

Sign up here

April 12th, 2007 Posted by scifind | Uncategorized | no comments

Normal Service Will Be Resumed

I have had a bad 2 weeks with my web hosts.

I have been quickly out growing my hosting package and they took the decision the other week to block my account, no warning! It was worse than no warning - they had no idea what was going on when I phoned their customer support - 5 phone calls it took me to find out what was going on. I was not happy.

Since then I have had my sites placed on a VERY SLOW auxillary server - this has almost crippled my sites loading times.

Basically over Easter I have not been a happy bunny!

After a lot of research and brain picking (thanks Rich, Keith, Keith, Jack, James, Pete and the other usual suspects) I have found what should be a nice corner of the web - and hopefully my sites last resting places (at least for the next couple of years) All I have to do now is change settings on a couple of dozen sites once the new package has been setup.

The moral of this story, buy the biggest featured server that you can afford to buy, from a reputable web host and do your homework.

April 12th, 2007 Posted by scifind | Uncategorized | no comments

Blogger’s Code

Tim O’Reilly has come up with a draft code of conduct for bloggers. Now I see this as some nice advice - but nothing more. 

This makes the following 7 points:

1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
4. Ignore the trolls.
5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
7. Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say in person.

Now this, as many of the good suggestions about management of the internet,  out there is basically common sense.

Though the sentiment is nice I am unsure what else of use there is here. Yes I do believe that ultimately website owners - being blogs, forums or other forms of websites should be responsible for their content - but the real question is what is the point of a voluntary code?

Even with special badges and disclaimers like:

This is an open, uncensored forum. We are not responsible for the comments of any poster, and when discussions get heated, crude language, insults and other “off color” comments may be encountered. Participate in this site at your own risk.

At the end of the day this is all meaningless as ultimately there is little policing of the internet (at this level) and there is precedent for civil action against site/forum/blog owners even if they are not directly responsible for the comment that instigated the acton.

Don’t see what Tim O’Reilly has written as censorship or even a proposal for forming a ‘cleaner’ internet but I suggest every blogger or site owner to take this advice, as it is good advice.

April 11th, 2007 Posted by scifind | Web2.0, webdesign | no comments

New affiliate tool in development.

Scifind Ltd and Keith Bond are currently developing an affiliate tool. Should be a fantastic device for monetizing domains , existing sites and using as landing sites for PPC campaigns.

This simple little script will produce an online store from a product feed in 10 minutes. Utilising SE friendly urls, caching and is extreamly easy to drop into any existing website template or site design.

Currently we are finishing the search function which is not present on the following examples.

SITE EXAMPLES:

www.mensdesignerunderwear.co.uk

www.nexdayflowers.co.uk

http://fishing.changewebsites.co.uk

We have just started the first round of external testing and we should be able to build on feedback soon.

We would like to hear from affiliates with any ideas of how we can improve this script.

We will keep you posted on progress.

April 8th, 2007 Posted by scifind | Uncategorized, affiliate marketing, affiliate, SEO, beta test, product feeds, datafeeds | 3 comments

Affiliate Program Search Engine

Not posted for a while - sorry. I am currently working on a multitude of projects - hopefully I will be able to blog about these soon.  

Anyway: 

Here is a nice little tool from the guys at Funware2000

Want to know if a merchant has an affiliate program, just do a search at http://www.affiliatebounty.com/

It is great for browsing affiliate programs across networks and shows a fantastic range of info

Most interestingly it has commission rates and a yes/no to ppc bidding and epc. Unforunatly it is missing some data - but over time this tool may be a great time saver for affiliates and a bit of a space saver on forums as they often get posts saying “Does XYZ have an affiliate program”

It would be absolutly priceless if eventually they cover a big portion of inhouse programs, as often these are hidden gems.

April 5th, 2007 Posted by scifind | Uncategorized | no comments