No week passes by without a news that an advertiser is either contemplating, or has already implemented a commission/payout drop as a way to penalize violating affiliates. Bad idea! There are at least three considerations that are worth spelling out in this regard: I. Non-Preventive Mechanism Lowering the violator’s commission rate does not prevent further violations. Read More …
Note from Geno Prussakov: This is a guest blog post from Eric Nagel: Coupons are a necessary component for most e-commerce sites: The online coupon market is worth about $4 billion a year Majority of US Internet Users Will Redeem Digital Coupons So now that you’ve seen how important it is to offer your shoppers coupons Read More …
Earlier this month The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article where Miriam Gottfried drew an analogy between a coupon affiliate and a sandwich shop assistant compensated on performance basis. Here’s how the reporter’s illustration went: Imagine you own a sandwich shop and want to bring in new customers. You recruit five assistants and give Read More …
Whether you call them coupons, vouchers or promo codes, the customer demand for them is hot. The debate around the value of coupon affiliates, however, is even hotter. The dilemma for online merchants may be summarized as follows: Is it even possible to have productive partnerships with coupon affiliates? Some believe it is not. Others Read More …
Last Friday another affiliate-marketing-may-be-dead article has been published. Authored by Jamie Salvatori, founder and owner of Vat19.com (an online store selling unique “curiously awesome” gifts), this Practical eCommerce article started by calling coupon affiliate sites “parasites that should be eliminated from the web” and argued: Coupon and deal websites provide zero value. Sorry, but broadcasting Read More …
Every major affiliate network offers coupon feeds. Here are just a few examples: Commission Junction has a Coupon-Only Offers RSS Feed Google Affiliate Network has its Orange Links LinkShare’s LinkLocator is an equivalent API solution LinkConnector’s Coupon/Promotions Feed ShareASale offers a Deals Database Feed AvantLink has its Dynamic Coupon Feed And you do not need Read More …
Less than three weeks have passed since our announcement of one affiliate acquiring another one for nearly $135 million, and today we’re happy to report another major merger. This time we’re noticing something similar yet different — Valpak, a company traditionally focused on “offline” coupons, is being merged with Savings.com, a major affiliate coupon site Read More …
I have received an interesting email from a Europe-based affiliate program manager. Here’s an excerpt which reflects its essence (image, obviously, introduced by me): I’m an affiliate manager for [company name here] and my goal is to find out if it makes sense to use a cookie blocker to avoid paying commissions to couponing websites Read More …
Yesterday as I was adding new coupons for a ShareASale-based affiliate program I have noticed a little (but a very significant) addition to one of the fields you can fill out when adding a coupon/deal to the network. They now have a field for special commission to be applied on coupon/deal transactions. The fine print Read More …
Having surveyed over 8,500 consumers on questions related to online coupon use, Deals.com together with MyType have released a very interesting study that many online marketers should find of help. The study profiles the demographics and psycho-graphics of both coupon “lovers” and coupon “avoiders.” One of the more surprising findings was that six-figure earners are Read More …