Enhancing conversion with consumer reviews isn’t a new idea. It always works, even to the point of negative reviews having a positive effect on sales. Empowering affiliates to quickly put reviews (thematically-sorted across different merchants) to good use, and doing this in a manner than helps merchants monitor affiliate compliance with the FTC’s rules on testimonials and endorsements… now that is definitely innovative and has been much needed.

I was thrilled to learn that something like this was in the works when in early spring I got approached by Ankesh Kumar, CEO of SearchReviews. Their tool was originally conceived as a tool for affiliates to use consumer reviews that merchants would upload (in a manner similar to product datafeeds) to the SearchReviews’ server. I proposed taking it one step further, turning it also into an compliance-monitoring tool for merchants. I still believe this to be a very promising idea, and am excited to see them roll out their tool today.

Examples of how the SearchReviews affiliate widget looks and works may be found throughout iPond.com. Here’s one of them:

I wish SearchReviews luck. This is a very interesting idea.

There is no lack of interesting folks to follow in the affiliate marketing blogosphere (how can one not love a word like this …one bearing a connotation of intertwining that exists between blogs, especially when we’re talking an industry as close-knit as ours?). However, since it constantly develops and changes, I thought it would be good to put together a list of the top affiliate marketing blogs and bloggers to follow in 2011. No, not a rating of any kind; just an alphabetical list of the affiliate bloggers whose writing I believe to be a must-read for all affiliate marketers in 2011. So, here is my list:

1. Linda Buquet: 5 Star Affiliate Programs Blog | Twitter
2. Shawn Collins: AffiliateTip.com Blog | Twitter
3. Angel Djambazov: owner of ReveNews.com Blog | Twitter
4. Fraser Edwards: AffiliateBlog.co.uk | Twitter
5. Todd Farmer: AffPlan.com Blog | Blog
6. Zac Johnson: ZacJohnson.com Blog | Twitter
7. Rae Hoffman-Dolan: Sugarrae.com Blog | Twitter
8. Stéphane Kerwer: Dukeo.com Blog | Twitter
9. John Lamerton: Lammo.net Blog | Twitter
10. Kirsty McCubbin: AffiliateStuff.co.uk Blog | Twitter
11. Tricia Meyer: Tricia.me Blog | Twitter
12. Eric Nagel: EricNagel.com Blog | Twitter
13. Martin Osborn: Finch Sells Blog | Twitter
14. Adam Riemer: AdamRiemer.me Blog | Twitter
15. Kim Rowley: I Work in My Pajamas Blog | Twitter
16. James Seligman: JamesSeligman.net Blog | Twitter
17. Joe Sousa: WhatDoesJoeThink.com Blog | Twitter
18. Jeremy Schoemaker: Shoemoney.com Blog | Twitter
19. Logan Thompson: LoganThompson.me Blog | Twitter
20. Missy Ward: MissyWard.com | Twitter

If I have missed anyone who you believe should be mentioned here, please do post about them (their blog’s URL, as well as their Twitter handle) in the “Comments” area below.

If you’re a frequent reader of my blog, you know that I’m constantly on the lookout for new and unique technologies in affiliate marketing.

It hit me the other day that there is an unparalleled technology used by AvantLink that I haven’t really heard much about even though it has been around for 5 years already! They call it Affiliate Link Syndication, and it essentially allows affiliates to offer deals-oriented consumers an RSS subscription to AvantLink-powered dynamic deal feeds (which may be focused on one or multiple merchants); so that any time the customer clicks a link from their feed reader, the affiliate gets a new cookie set.

They also blogged about it last year:

…did you know that in addition to publishing promotional-related (dynamically updated) content on your sites, you can also promote RSS subscriptions to those feeds? Think about that for a second. If you’re site visitors subscribe to one of these RSS feeds from AvantLink that you promote, then your tracking details are embedded in all links within that feed … for the life of that feed subscription!

Fast forward months later, and to that RSS feed sitting in someone’s reader or live bookmarks after the 60 day cookie from the click is long expired. The shopper you enticed to subscribe sees a killer deal from one of our retailers, clicks the link directly from their RSS reader or live bookmark, and there you have it; your Affiliate cookie is set again for another 60 days (or whatever cookie life the particular merchant offers).

This development really does spell out a different level of customer engagement and ownership — one that goes beyond what the standard “click-on-a-website-link -> cookie” path does, as the clicks then come from someone’s personal RSS subscriptions (which they themselves took the time to set up and configure).

I don’t believe there is another affiliate network who offers affiliate tracking-embedded RSS feeds that can be promoted as subscriptions. Belated kudos to AvantLink on this development. I hope it inspires other affiliate networks and/or external tool creators too. After all, competition should breed improvement.

A few days ago Clarke Duncan, one of the co-founders of Paid On Results UK affiliate network, sent me the following tweet:

Paid On Results (POR) were the first affiliate network to create a deep-linking tool for affiliates, and this was back in 2005 [see the way it used to work]. Ever since then they have been perfecting and renewing the tool, and came up with the “innovative” 2010 version [see demo here].

No wonder why. Other UK networks have similar tools: buy.at launched their FireFox (FF) Deeplink Generator in March of this year (see point #3 here), Affiliate Window has had their FF plugin for generating deep links for some time too, and LinkShare UK offers a tool as well.

POR’s newest version of the Deep Link Generator is probably the most advanced of all. It allows you to do everything in one screen (without leaving the merchant’s site), automatically detects product images, offers URL shortening options, supports all major browsers, and has a number of other affiliate-friendly functions of which you may read here.

Does “any USA network have a tool like” the Deep Link Generator?  Some do indeed offer deep link generating tools:

• AvantLink — Custom Link Builder
• LinkShare — LinkGenerator Bookmarklet
• ShareASale — “Create a Custom Link” tool [tutorial here] + License Plate Links

…but none do it at the level that Paid On Results does now.

It is always good to see an affiliate network come up with a more advanced tool (like the buy.at’s video linking tool too). Competition challenges other affiliate networks to grow, and their development is good for everyone involved: merchants, affiliates, outsourced program management agencies, and the networks themselves. Thank you for the setting the bar high, Paid On Results!

Are you into web analytics yet? If you want to succeed in digital marketing, you must be! All successful marketers (regardless of their focus, but especially affiliate ones) constantly measure, test, tweak and improve, replicating and perfecting what works, and cutting off what doesn’t.

Below I am listing the 20 Twitter accounts which I recommend for following on the topic of web analytics. I’ve excluded those that tweet announcements only (those that know me, know that I’m strongly against the usage Social Media for broadcasting), and did my best to list only those that regularly tweet actionable tips and advice. If I have left out your favorite one(s), please add them in the “Comments” area under the post.

1. Google Analytics — Official Twitter account for my favorite web analytics tool.
2. Yahoo! Web Analytics — Official Twitter account for Yahoo! Web Analytics.
3. Omniture — Tweets of official Omniture announcements and blog posts.
4. Avinash Kaushik — Author of Web Analytics: An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0, analytics evangelist for Google, co-founder of Market Motive.
5. Eric Peterson — Web analytics consultant, author of Web Analytics Demystified and Web Site Measurement Hacks, creator of Twitalyzer.
6. Jim Sterne — Author of Social Media Metrics, Web Metrics and other books, founder of eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, as well as of Web Analytics Association.
7. Steve Jackson — Author of Cult of Analytics, consultant, speaker, and web analytics expert.
8. Lars Johansson — Stockholm-based web analytics expert who tweets about analytics, A/B tests, multivariate testing, etc.
9. Marshall Sponder — Social Media and web analyst, blogger, and artist.
10. Jason Burby — Chief Analytics & Optimization Officer at ZAAZ, co-author of Actionable Web Analytics: Using Data to Make Smart Business Decisions.
11. Dennis James — A NYC-based web developer who tweets about web analytics.
    
12. ForeSee Results — Tweets on online customer satisfaction, web analytics, online experience, etc.
13. PostRank — Official Twitter account of an excellent online social engagement measurement tool.
14. A/B Tests — Helping people test their web sites/applications and share that knowledge with others, making everyone smarter in the process.
15. KISS Metrics — A metrics solution designed for developers, marketers and product managers.
16. Web Trends — Customer intelligence and web analytics.
17. Web Analytics World — Tweets for Manoj Jasra’s Web Analytics World blog.
18. SmartData Collective — Tweets from a data-driven enterprise community for business intelligence.
19. Analytics Update — Tweets about web analytics, ecommerce, marketing, social media, SEO, etc.
20. Datalicious — Data-driven marketing tweets.
    

My other Twitter lists which you may also find of help are:

• Market Research list
• Social Media Marketing list

Yesterday Google introduced a new split testing tool for paid search marketers that use AdWords to try — the AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE) tool [see original announcement here].

Google’s below video explains how the only way of handling split tests in PPC marketing before was to conduct a “before and after analysis” where you would compare performance of one campaign to another.

The problem with this method was that even if your conversions increased you really wouldn’t know if that was because of the bid change or due to some other factor like a sudden increase in the demand for [the product/service you're selling].

With ACE you can test one campaign against another simultaneously, “without having to apply the bid change to all auctions for which your ad could appear”. You leave the original campaign up, and also set up an “experimental bid” campaign, split testing between the two, and seeing which one makes more business sense to carry on. Besides this basic scenario, there are other ways you can use the ACE, and if you’re serious about your paid search marketing with Google, it’s time to start experimenting.

The tool is now in its beta phase, and to request your access to it you need fill out this form.

In case you haven’t heard, the Zappos’ PATRON (Public API for Translating Request to Object Notation), originally announced two months ago, is already in early beta phase, and developers can start playing with it.

Shopping APIs are great for affiliate marketers that are technologically capable of putting them to use, creating online stores of their own, using the merchant’s product information. In case with Zappos, the public API will not only support such basic information as product price, image, and description/specification-related details. They already have the search function in place, and more fun features are coming up in the near future. Product Manager Will Young wrote:

The first release of the API will support the following:

• Search : Leverage Zappos robust product search functionality that includes sorting, filtering, and a deep level of categorization/facets
• Products : Pull relevant product details (description, default images, different styles, price)
• Images : The full set of images for products (different views, sizes, etc.)

Nothing crazy there.  In our upcoming releases, we are going to have a lot more fun things.  APIs such as “What are the most popular products right now”, “What was just bought in my city in the last 5 minutes”, etc.

This is definitely promising to be a great tool for affiliates to use once it integrates with their affiliate program (on the roadmap per this tweet).

Developers can start testing the API pretty much right away, but Zappos requires an API key to make calls; so you want to contact them to obtain it.

See also their Google Group dedicated to it.

Yesterday Econsultancy released its Innovation Report (focused on the UK digital marketing space, one that is always fun to follow).

These reports are always great to read, as in them Econsultancy focuses on “innovative digital tactics” but does it not for the sake of merely listing the new developments, but highlighting the most innovative ideas and technologies which truly “add value for consumers and businesses, and help them achieve their goals more effectively” (italics mine).

The report covers 8 digital marketing disciplines, affiliate marketing included. You may download the full 122 page report at Econsultancy.com, but in my today’s post I’d like to look at the affiliate marketing list:

1. Buy.at / LittlewoodsDirect — Online interactive video [see my post on it here] — Especially its application by LittlewoodsDirect.com. They feature videos of models wearing clothing from their website, and these “ads allow users to click on individual items of clothing, which are then redirected to their own customized dedicated product page.” Excellent use of technology by a merchant, allowing affiliates to really bring their sites/ads to life.
2. KnickerPicker / BeCheeky.com — The online dressing room — KnickerPicker.com (an affiliate of BeCheeky) “uses real-life models, to allow users to virtualy see how underwear fits in an ‘online dressing room’.” The technology is “obviously engaging, slightly cheeky and clearly fun.” Kudos to the affiliate for the great use of Flash video and rich media. Award well-deserved.
3. TwitterLit — Affiliate links via Twitter — TwitterLit is an affiliate of Amazon which “uses a daily game to test users’ literary knowledge and consequently redirect them to an affiliate site.” Great, innovative way to use those 140-character Twitter messages (why didn’t I just say “tweets”?) in a truly engaging way.
4. eBay Partner Network — Quality-based CPC model — See this post of mine on it; and you may also find this poll of interest.
5. Skimlinks — Affiliate monetization tool — Skimlinks is an tool which helps affiliates automatically converts direct links to merchants into affiliate links. Good job “automating a time-consuming, manual process”.
6. Easy Content Units — I haven’t heard of this one before. EasyContentUnits.com is described as Britain’s first “multi-network fully customizable content unit system” which “incorporated more than 8 million products from nearly 1000 merchants across 12 affiliate networks.” From the first glance, it looks very similar to PopShops, but the business model is similar to GoldenCAN‘s “4th click model” with the only difference that ECU replaces affiliate links with their links on every 5th (and not 4th) click.
7. SkyBet — SEO challenge — SkyBet offered affiliates free 350 words content during the 8 weeks of the promo.
8. StreetStats by Top 10 — Speed test comparison meets local search — Top10.com has put together the StreetStats broadband comparison tool which allows users to “share their data with the community to enable others to recognise the best-performing broadband providers for that area.” Top10.com is a website monetized through affiliate links, but tools like this (where actual users are involved) create true “transparency and openness about” the subject of promotion.

Have any of the above given you new ideas? There is still a lot of room for innovation. You gotta look at things from a standpoint which involves convenience, fun and engagement (three in one container), and really earnestly wish to add value!

It is hard to overestimate the importance of market research for affiliate marketers. Whether you are a merchant, or an affiliate, you cannot afford not to keep your finger on the pulse of the market. Francis Bacon’s famous maxim “knowledge is power” says it all, but merely realizing this fact is not enough. You gotta know where to get the knowledge.

Besides things like RSS subscriptions to important blogs and Google Alerts, I find Twitter’s concise 140-characters-a-message format extremely helpful in keeping an eye on the market.

So, I suggest every affiliate marketer (or anyone involved in online marketing, for that matter!) adds the following 10 Twitter accounts to his/her follow list:

1. eMarketer — Digital intelligence for marketers & advertisers on social media, mobile, media, advertising, retail, consumer products, and more.
2. Forrester Research — Independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.
3. Google Retail Team — Uses their Twitter account to provide the latest industry news and data.
4. Pew Internet — The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.
5. BigResearch — Consumer intelligence firm providing solution-based insights of consumer behavior.
6. Focus — Online resource where professionals can freely access the research and expert advice they need to make better business decisions.
7. American Marketing Association — Official Twitter account of AMA, a professional association for individuals and organizations involved in the practice, teaching and study of marketing.

If I have missed your favorite one(s) (for market monitoring and research), please post those Twitter handler(s) below.

Having looked at the blogging platform options for affiliates, it is only logical to continue the topic by looking at the top affiliate plugins and WordPress-friendly tools.

Below you will find my list of plugins and tools that affiliates use, and rate highly. The order is merely topical (network-offered plugins, plugins related to the import of data feeds, etc), and does not represent any sort of ranking.

Top 20 WordPress Tools and Plugins for Affiliates

1. Affiliate Link Encoder from AvantLink – Detects and changes direct links into affiliate tracking links for the merchants that are in the AvantLink network.
2. Commission Junction Product Search – Creates Commission Junction product listings within blog posts and pages.
3. Clickbank Widget – Adds targeted ads for Clickbank products to your blog’s sidebar.
4. LinkShare RSS DealFeed – Automatically populates your WordPress blog with deals and other promotional content.
5. LinkShare AdMix – Helps integrate RSS content ads from LinkShare advertisers with your blog posts.
6. PopShops Affiliate Store Plugin – Helps add products to your WP blog from any of the major affiliate networks (LinkShare, Commission Junction, ShareASale, buy.at, Google Affiliate Network, LinkConnector, WebGains, and even in-house based programs like that of Amazon).
7. DatafeedR – They call it a “Factory where you build, modify and download your stores, as well as customer support, community forums, and video tutorials.”
8. DataFeedFile.com Featured Product Plugin – Helps you add a product of your choice, or allows your blog’s visitors to compare prices across different merchants without leaving your blog.
9. Skimlinks Affiliate Marketing Tool – Allows you to “instantly monetize untapped links on your blog.”
10. 123Linkit Affiliate Marketing Tool – Transforming keywords into affiliate links.
11. Pretty Link – Allows you to “shrink, track and share any URL on the Internet from your WordPress website” creating shortlinks “coming from your own domain.” Each hit is tracked with details “of where the hit came from, the browser, OS and host.”
12. Affiliate Link – Another tool to shorten your affiliate links using your own domain name (and not any of the URL-shortening services). Tracking also provided.
13. Ad Squares Widget – Helps you display and manage 125×125 ad square banners (and other sizes). Works “with standard affiliate ads, or even with ad network codes.”
14. WP125 – A robust and popular ad management plugin for WordPress.
15. Amazon Autoposter – Allows users to post products from Amazon.com in their own blogs (automatically, based on keyword match).
16. Amazon Product In a Post Plugin – Help you “quickly add a formatted Amazon Product/Item to a post or page by using just the Amazon product ASIN (also known as the ISBN-10).”
17. Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer – “Automatically changes any Amazon link on your site to use your affiliate ID” and “also changes the link to point to the user’s local (i.e. country-specific) Amazon store.”
18. Amazon Store – Helps you quickly create your own Amazon affiliate store.
19. Amazon Post Purchase – Based on the above-quoted Product In a Post plugin, but works with sidebars “in themes that support dynamic sidebars.”
20. Amazon Product Link Widget – Another sidebar widget for Amazon product links/ads.

Have I missed your favorite plugin? Please post it about it below!