affiliate networks - ishihypnosis.com 5 best practices – george bordo, directtrack w hen it comes...

ISSUE 9 | WINTER 2012 | REVENUE.MTHINK.COM

TOP 20CPA NETWORKS

TOP 20AFFILIATE NETWORKS

100,000 questions answered!Best practices for advertisersAffiliates on the front lines

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LARGEST PERFORMANCE MARKETING SURVEY EVER!

4 revenuePERFORMANCE – issue 6

revenue.mThink.com 3

ContentsLetter From The Editor

Winter 2012 | Revenue.mthink.com

Do You Have What it Takes to Survive? ..................... 5By George Bordo

Fundamental Issues Re: Internet Gambling .............8By Richard B. Newman

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTThe BLUE BOOK Guide To Ad Networks & Exchanges

A Year of Living Dangerously ..................................BB2By Chris Trayhorn

The BLUE BOOK Top 20 – Affiliate Networks .... BB4

The BLUE BOOK Top 20 – CPA Networks ............BB5

Eight Steps to Successful Performance Marketing .......................................... BB6By Ryan Wilson

Stronger Than Ever An Interview with JP Sauve of Max Bounty ........ BB9By Chris Trayhorn

2012: The Year of RTB Performance Marketing .........................................BB10By Peter Bordes

The BLUE BOOK Blue Ribbon Panel .................... BB12

The Mobile CPA Network of the Future An Interview with Jet Patel of Sponsormob ....... BB13By Chris Trayhorn

News from the Front Line ......................................BB14Interviews by Revenue Performance Staff

Affiliates: Why Being Good May Not Be Good Enough ................................................................ 30By Nicky Senyard

Compliance Means Reciprocal Accountability ......32By Maj Vasigh

This edition brings to you the Blue Book Top 20 rankings for 2012 for both affiliate mar-keting (CPS) networks and for CPA networks.

These rankings are derived from the biggest ever survey of affiliates, publishers, advertisers and agencies in the performance marketing industry. Over 100,000 responses were analyzed, weighed and then allocated to the various networks, and then cross-checked with industry experts before we arrived at the final ranking positions.

It is important to note that the rankings are not just a popularity contest. If we only evaluated the sheer number of votes for each network, then the biggest networks would simply swamp the smaller ones. What we try to do is also look at the quality of support for each network. How enthusiastic their publishers and advertisers are. And the reputation of the network.

The result is a pair of Top 20 lists that represent the best CPA and CPS networks around, with a good mixture of huge networks and small, and of boutique, invitation-only networks and million-affil-iate behemoths. The Top 20 rankings for 2012 can be found in the centerfold of the magazine.

Also in this edition we begin an ongoing series of articles from some of the leading experts in the industry examining best practices for advertisers, merchants and agencies. Here at Revenue Perfor-mance we believe that there is a real opportunity to grow the performance marketing industry dramati-cally in 2012, but it will need a collaborative effort to reach out to major brands and to Madison Avenue in order to evangelize the power of performance marketing. Revenue Performance will be wav-ing that flag with passion. The articles from Peter Bordes, George Bordo and Ryan Wilson are just the beginning.

We also have articles on legal issues and com-pliance from Maj Vasigh at Clickbooth and from Richard Newman, interviews from the affiliate front lines, and a piece from Nicky Senyard that fits beautifully into the theme of growing the industry, but from the perspective of an affiliate.

Good stuff for a great industry. 2012 awaits. Let’s go and grab it.

Chris TrayhornFounder and Editor


PUBLISHER & EDITORChris Trayhorn

ART DIRECTORDavid Witcomb

SENIOR WRITERLisa Morgan

PRODUCTION MANAGERYvonne Schellerup

CLIENT LIAISONJennifer Neaves

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS George Bordo, Peter Bordes,

Richard B. Newman, Nicky Senyard, Ryan Wilson, Maj Vasigh.

VICE-PRESIDENT, SALESTobias Siegel

ADVERTISING/SALES DIRECTORKelly Lemos

To advertise, subscribe or obtain reprints, call 415-371-8800,

or visit: revenue.mThink.com

Revenue Performance is published by mThink55 New Montgomery, Suite 617

San Francisco, CA 94105

mThink: Intelligent Performance Marketing

CHAIRMAN AND CEOChris Trayhorn

VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETINGYvonne Schellerup

DIRECTOR, WEB DEVELOPMENTRon Snow

COMPTROLLERJulienne Riveong

DEDICATED TO SUCCESSfUL PERfORMANCE ADVERTISING

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the content of this publication, the publisher will accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for any loss or damage, consequential or otherwise, suffered as a result of any material published here. The information published in Revenue Performance is not intended as a substitute for legal, accounting, tax or other professional advice. The publisher assumes no responsibility for statements made by advertisers in business competition. All editorial submis-sions, whether solicited or unsolicited, become the property of mThink. Statements and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Revenue Performance, mThink, its affiliates, advertisers or any other agent. The name “Revenue Performance” and the phrase “Super-Affiliate Insights” are the intellectual property of mThink. The entire content of this publication is protected by copyright; full details are available through the publisher. All rights reserved. These trademarks or copyright materials may not be used in any media for any purpose without the express written consent of mThink.

© 2012 mThink

ISSN: 1549-7615

Cover Image: © iStockphoto.com/Melhi

Disclaimer: Revenue Performance and revenue.mThink.com include editorial and/or advertising that refers to affiliate programs that often include many different websites. Occasionally those programs may include websites offering education in casino or card games. In such cases no promotion or endorsement of those sites should be inferred or implied – our editorial coverage and/or advertising relates only to the affiliate program itself. Revenue Performance magazine and revenue.mThink.com do not accept advertising that promotes online gambling.

George Bordo is general manager at Direct Response Technologies. The company’s flagship technology platform, Di-rectTrack, is utilized to track and manage performance marketing campaigns for the world’s most influential brands and affiliate networks.

Peter Bordes is the executive chairman of MediaTrust and the president of the PMA’s Board of Directors.

Contributors

Advertiser Index

Find the Top 20 CPA and Affiliate Networks on page BB4

Blue Global Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BB15

CPAWay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC

CHEXX Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Digital River oneNetworkDirect . . . . . . . . . . OBC

DirectTrack Digital River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

eHealthInsurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Fluent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BB7

Intela . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BB11

LinkShare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BB11

PeerFly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

RevenueStreet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Solutionset MediaWhiz Partnership . . . . . . . . . . 7

TheDatingNetwork.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Dedicated To Performance Marketing

BOOK

BLUEBLUE RIBBON AWARDS

2012

BOOK

BLUETOP 20 RANKING

2012

Ryan Wilson is SVP and co-founder of Intela, an international online performance-based marketing company. He has an MBA from the University of Colorado and bachelor degrees in MIS and Marketing from Florida State.

Maj Vasigh is corporate litigation and compliance counsel for Click-booth.com, the #1 Best Place To Work as rated by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. He lives in Tampa with his wife and English Bulldog.


Best Practices – George Bordo, DirectTrack

When it comes to evolution and pos-sible extinction it

doesn’t matter what termi-nology you use. Whether it’s “natural selection,” “the law of the jungle” or “survival of the fittest,” the meaning is the same. Only those who can adapt to their surroundings and outwit their competition will survive.

The principle is extremely relevant to the performance marketing industry at this time, with rapid change mak-ing many fear for their own survival. But the fact is that affiliate networks and big brand merchant affiliate programs still have time to adapt and so to survive.

The important question is why some programs succeed, while others fail? There is much more to it than simply making a bad business decision or using an unsustainable business model. The data collected by DirectTrack through our work with leading brands and affiliate networks gives us enormous insights into what works and what doesn’t, and the evidence shows that those that make the most of the tools at their disposal have a greater success rate. In other words, “the devil is in the details.”

Here are the top five points that every network and merchant should keep in focus in order to stay current with industry changes and ensure survival.

1. OptimizeIn the early days of online marketing, display marketing

was king and the math was simple: the more times you displayed an ad the more conversions you received. Today, the process is much more sophisticated. Leading merchants and networks are blending the best of display marketing with a high-tech approach of optimization and targeting for increased conversion rates. The most-advanced affiliate tracking platforms allow you to target advertisements based on specific demographics (gender, income, etc.), time of day

and week, or country.Once your ads are targeted

to specific audience sectors, optimize them based on a much wider range of options such as revenue performance, viewer caps, time constraints, specific gender targets and age demographics. Ads can be automatically weighted and delivered based on how much revenue each ad generates – not just the number of times it’s been displayed.

By combining optimization and targeting practices with traditional ad-serving tech-

niques, advertisers and networks can directly target an audi-ence based on specific variables and create greater return on investment (ROI). An effective ad-serving and tracking platform will aggregate, report and deliver on the increased analytics while providing advertisers and networks with the necessary data to track the complete transaction path.

Having a basic knowledge of transactions is helpful, but the major advantage of performance ad serving lies in the ability to capture all data as it moves through the transac-tion, including clicks, impressions, sales, revenue, user data, and key variables such as email or age. Once captured, the system can then report back this information on a trans-actional level. Want to tell how many of the 100 sales were to men? Interested in how many people from California bought a dress from your Illinois retailer? With performance ad serving, these questions can be answered as the key de-mographic information is tied directly into the transactions.

2. Adopt Advanced Tracking TechnologiesLeading performance marketers are balancing technology

challenges, global business issues, and a competitive frenzy over top-performing affiliates. To effectively compete, you need an arsenal of advanced tracking methods at your fin-gertips to drive incremental revenue.

By taking full advantage of the advanced tracking technology available today, networks and merchants can

Do you Have wHat it takes to survive?


Best Practices – George Bordo, DirectTrack

mine the additional data. This will allow them to better understand not just how well or poorly their campaigns are performing, but rather why they are performing above or below expectations.

The more granular the data you have available, the more you can “see” into your campaigns to determine the ef-fectiveness of your campaign variables. Some of the more innovative tracking methods available today, include true cookie-less tracking, action-based performance tracking, consumer-based tracking and conversion-stage tracking.

In addition to using the in-depth data to fine-tune the delivery of your campaign, advanced tracking methods al-low for creative commission payouts, as well. Let’s say that you run a network and are collecting lead information for a home mortgage campaign. This home mortgage company is willing to pay more for leads from consumers with a “good” credit score than it is for those with a “poor” score. If your affiliate platform has advanced features, you can use action-based performance tracking to calculate those leads that are designated as “good”, “average” or “poor” and pay commis-sions accordingly.

As performance marketing continues to mature, networks and advertisers are looking for new and inventive ways to attract, engage and keep high-performing affiliates. Your affiliate program or network can be as creative as you need it to be to develop highly strategic programs and campaigns that drive traffic to offers and monetize the different steps.

3. Innovate And CustomizeThe global growth of smartphones into global markets

has shifted how the world’s population communicates and shops. Most use their phone to access the Web and con-nect with friends and family through social networks. And, mobile commerce is exploding as more consumers purchase items via mobile sites. Advertisers and networks today are clamoring for ways to advertise, track, and commission in the mobile- and social-media marketplace.

As with traditional ad serving, leading solutions can dy-namically deliver mobile ads that are optimized for the mo-bile user and their specific handheld device. Optimization may include transaction or viewer caps, revenue caps, time constraints, specific gender targets and age demographics.

In addition, clients can use traditional ad rotators within a pure mobile environment and all tracking and image links are fully compatible with the leading mobile ad networks. With this capability, mobile advertisers and affiliate net-works now have a way to accurately track, measure and commission their affiliates.

With today’s technology, advertisers and networks can also customize an array of fixed, variable and demographic settings to target mobile users by handset and carrier usage. When using an affiliate tracking platform with advanced technology, advertisers and networks should have the ability to tailor their systems to:

Target, optimize and block ads to a specific mobile car-rier;

Place the right-sized ads based on a user’s handheld device;

Target set time of day or week; and

Choose specific demographics such as gender, income and age.

Today, much hype is made about mobile applications. Since we were first convinced “there’s an app for that,” the number of available mobile applications has exploded. While these apps make our lives more convenient – and sometimes more humorous – affiliate marketers have searched for ways to bring the benefits of performance mar-keting to the app world. If you use one of the more advanced tracking platforms, mobile application installations can be securely and accurately tracked in both smartphone and tablet environments.

To lead in today’s technology-driven marketplace you not only need to embrace mobile and social technology, you need to know what lies over the horizon. Consumers will continue to become savvier about who markets to them, how they do it, and when. We’ll likely see further conver-gence with other mainstream technologies and consump-tion channels, including Internet television. As the future unfolds, those involved in performance marketing need to apply next-generation solutions to real-world challenges.

4. Lock Down FraudThe affiliate world functions 24x7, which means that

somewhere in the world, fraudulent activity occurs every minute of every day. Criminals are intent on scamming affiliate programs, networks, and advertisers and they work hard to create new ways to commit fraud. To effectively battle criminal activity, you need an affiliate tracking platform that offers robust affiliate qualifying functionality and instant fraud alerts. Establish a proactive and reactive approach to fraud management by including:

Affiliate quality scrubbing – Does your tracking platform flag the inaccuracies that might signal a fraudulent affiliate? Quickly knowing that the zip or postal code doesn’t cor-relate to the city or that the IP address is different from the country listed on the application is important information to a busy affiliate manager. Be certain that your tracking platform has advanced monitoring tools in place.

Fraud traffic trending alerts – Any affiliate marketing offer generating referral click traffic and conversions will develop an average earnings per click (EPC) and an average conversion rate. Should a new affiliate be approved into a program and immediately begin exceeding the average EPC and conversion rate generated by other affiliates, there is a strong likelihood the new affiliate is engaging in fraudulent activity. Ensure that your affiliate tracking platform has the ability to red flag fraudulent traffic so it can be stopped immediately.

Comprehensive fraudulent affiliate databases – If an af-filiate has committed fraud in the past, it’s likely they’ll do it again. To help you prevent fraudulent activity, at a mini-mum, your tracking platform should be able to provide the following information:

The name of the network(s) that terminated the affiliate;The date on which the affiliate was terminated;The affiliate’s contact information and IP address at time

of termination; andThe reason why the affiliate was terminated.

Continued on page 29

mthink_ad_sept_outlines.indd 1 9/21/11 11:25 AM

Legal Web –Richard B. Newman, Hinch Newman LLP


FunDamental issues surrounDing tHe ProsPect oF FeDerally regulateD internet gambling

The remarkable popularity of online gambling in combination with the amount of money it generates has triggered a great deal of recent legisla-tive discussion. A major part of these discussions has been the potential risks that online gambling poses to consum-ers and whether a federally regulated system would better protect consumers than the current offshore, unregulated marketplace.

But there are other fundamental issues too that have great relevance to the performance marketing com-munity, including whether a federally regulated system would be limited to online poker, what federal agency would be charged with administering the system, how a federal regime would interact with state and tribal gambling pro-grams, whether states would possess opt-out rights, revenue allocation to combat problem gambling, and the nature of consumer protection mechanisms.

Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and John Campbell (R-Calif.) have proposed the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, a bill which would create a Treasury-administered licensing regime for a broad spectrum of online gambling services. It is believed that this choice of regulators was made, at least in part, to combat concerns about fraud and money laundering. The bill would establish a federal regulatory and enforcement framework under which Internet gambling operators could obtain licenses authorizing them to accept bets and wagers from individuals in the United States.

In contrast, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) has proposed the Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening Act of 2011, a bill which would create a more limited licensing system at the Department of Com-merce for online poker services only. Barton’s bill provides that the states would be entitled to issue a license for the operation of an Internet gambling site. It mandates that websites would have to maintain a threshold level of quality in order to continue operating and to renew their license. It would also create civil penalties for licensing violations.

Members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcom-mittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade have indi-cated that additional hearings are likely imminent and that any legislation would involve charging a federal agency with the implementation and enforcement. What agency would

be possess such authority is unclear, but consideration is being given to the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bu-reau, and the Treasury Department.

The relative roles of federal and state regulators are a significant is-sue. State regulation? Federal regu-lation? Both? Gambling regulators, lottery commission representatives, and research analysts that specialize in problem gambling all agree that states should have the option to opt-out of any federally created system. In fact, the chairman of Nevada’s Gaming Control Board has recently stated that from the consumer

protection point of view, online gambling is much less risky than offline gambling due to the fact that activities can be tracked more easily.

Discussions will also likely address whether a federal licensing system should leave implementation of consumer protection measures to the states. A reasonable argument can be made that the market could benefit from federal regulations that are consistent across state lines. A national model that provides states with some degree consistency ap-pears to be necessary. Otherwise, it would be increasingly problematic to be answerable to a patchwork of different state laws and regulatory regimes. It is also plausible that some states would take less of an interest in consumer protection matters than others and consumers would surely benefit from a solid protective system at the federal level.

It is difficult to argue that the benefits to consumers of federally regulated online gambling regime far outweigh the current unregulated environment. The reality is that consumers will continue to access online gambling websites with or without federal regulation. The latter inherently lacks any meaningful protections against identity fraud, money laundering, and privacy invasions. Regulation of these services, along with the implementation of additional consumer protections, appear to be a sensible way to raise revenue while protecting U.S. residents.

Richard B. Newman is a partner in the firm of Hinch Newman LLP in San Diego, California and New York, New York. Mr. Newman practices Inter-net Marketing, Communications and Business Law. He can be reached at (212) 486-9494 or via email at [email protected].

BL

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The Authoritative Guide to Ad Networks and Exchanges

From the Publisher of RevenuePerformance

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ISSUE 4

BB2 The Authoritative Guide to Ad Networks and Exchanges

The Online Advertising BLUE BOOK

To reflect these changing dynam-ics, this year’s BLUE BOOK sur-vey was different. We built logic

into it so that affiliates/publishers and merchants/advertisers were asked dif-ferent sets of questions. And each of those two groups were split again into people who primarily run CPS and those who run CPA or CPL.

This segmenting of our respondent base means that for the first time we are able to clearly see which networks are loved by affiliates while being dis-liked by merchants, and vice versa. We can see those networks that genuinely are generating a lot of conversions via both business models as compared to those that only claim to. Additionally, the alignment of questions with the in-terests of the respondents has encour-aged feedback and comments in greater depth than before.

v v v

A Year Of Living Dangerously2011was a year in which everyone

was just happy to survive. It was

a year that showed the

differences between cost-per-sale and cost-per-action to

a greater degree than ever before. And it was a year in

which financial stability, ability to pay on time and the

smarts to avoid legal issues became mission critical com-

petitive advantages for many networks.

BOOK

BLUEBLUE RIBBON AWARDS

2012

BOOK

BLUETOP 20 RANKING

2012

If we have made any mistakes, please forgive us and let us know. We wel-come all corrections and any other insights you might want to share with us. Please email [email protected] with any comments.

There are three big insights that spring out of this year’s results:

1. Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Market-ing Is A Mature Industry

The CPS side of the industry shows all the signs of a mature, stable busi-ness ecosystem. Among the networks there are several large, dominant in-cumbents that have the funds to invest in new technology and the scale to deal with the largest of clients. Then there are the niche networks that specialize in particular verticals or in providing ex-ceptional service levels or unique offers. Publisher-side we see a similar dynamic with many niches dominated by one or more large affiliates with smaller affili-ates fighting for scraps. This is good for advertisers: network selection is easy, fraud is almost non-existent and scal-ability is built-in. The problem will be if innovation and growth stall.

BB3The Authoritative Guide to Ad Networks and Exchanges


A Year Of Living DangerouslyGo to mthink.com/bluebookfor more information

2. CPA/CPL Is A High Risk-High Reward Endeavor

What is clear from the survey is that while some publishers have suffered with failing networks, many have found networks that take care of them, provide support and pay on time. What we can see is the emergence of three species of CPA network. There are what we might call the upscale networks that get high marks from brand advertisers and that are seeking to grow the industry through quality traffic and professional service. Then, there are those networks that live on the edge, competing by accepting lower quality traffic and by offering af-filiates shorter payout periods that leave the network vulnerable to cashflow is-sues unless they are well-funded. And then there networks who occupy the middle ground: often with their own proprietary tracking platforms, a found-er with a programming or incentiviza-tion background, and a work ethic that can only be applauded. The evolution of CPA networks into different species is a sign that the CPA/CPL sector is still rap-idly changing. Fortunes will be made by many, and lost by others. But for brands and agencies thinking of putting a toe in the water, what has become clear is that the risks of CPA/CPL are now known and manageable, and the opportunities are huge.

3. Barriers To Entry for Newbie Affiliates Getting Higher

It is no secret that affiliate marketing can be difficult for many new publishers. Networks have always had policies in place to manage the high levels of atten-tion that newbies can need, especially given the low level of business that they typically produce. But more publishers are expressing resentment about harsh network policies than we have ever seen before. It has affected the rankings of several networks. What is apparent is that there is a real need for simple, hon-est and realistic training for affiliates if the industry is to grow. Survival of the fittest is a policy that works for a while, but it is not conducive to producing a professional, honest affiliate community in the long term.

Our concluding thoughts are all posi-tive: in our survey community we see an active, committed core of affiliates, ambitious and innovative. And we see advertisers that are enjoying good rela-tionships with many networks, with real ROI and simple scalability.

As we come out of 2011, a year in which many were forced to live danger-ously, performance marketing is poised to take a step forward. Onward and upward.

The BLUE BOOK Top 20 is not a simple list of the biggest networks. Instead, it takes into account reputation, influence, clientele, popularity and scale. Publishers and advertisers are self-identified and are provided with different questionnaires depending on whether they primarily run CPS campaigns or CPA/CPL. In addition to the main survey, we also accept input from the Blue Ribbon Panel of industry experts as well as our own research and aggregation of traffic data, measures of industry influence and as many other pieces of information as we can gather.

Our Winning CPS Network LinkShare

Linkshare received signifi-cantly improved support from both affiliates and merchants in this years survey, a result of investment in new technolo-gy and a great publisher expe-rience.In combination with a fine portfolio of e-commerce clients like Macy’s, Apple iTunes, Avon and Office De-pot, this was enough to push LinkShare above some very tough competition.

Our Winning CPA Network NeverBlue

NeverBlue seems to be popular with everybody and has absorbed the acquisition of AKMG in 2010 seamlessly. With offices in Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Los Angeles to go with their HQ in British Columbia, NeverBlue is well positioned and is strong in several key categories such as finance, dating, gaming, daily deals and travel.

v v v

For more information on meth-odology and the best affiliate and CPA networks, please go to mthink.com/bluebook

Methodology



Network URL Survey comments or notes

1 LinkShare www.linkshare.com Linkshare came on strong during 2011 with a new interface and great etail clients.

2 Commission Junction www.cj.com Always strong, CJ maintains its industry leadership position.

3 ShareASale www.shareasale.com Brian Littleton’s network is still a favorite for many.

4 Amazon affiliate-program.amazon.com The absolute favorite program for many affiliates, but suffers from being almost too popular.

5 oneNetworkDirect www.onenetworkdirect.com Digital River’s affiliate network runs smoothly on a great platform.

6 ClickBank www.clickbank.com Still massively popular but 2011 saw some diffilcult policy changes that impacted some affiliates.

7 AvantLink www.avantlink.com A very well run etail-focused network with enthusiastic and loyal affiliates.

8 Google Affiliate Network www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork One of the “big beasts” of the network world that affiliates either love or hate.

9 buy.at buy.at/us A strong showing in Europe combined with steady growth in the US.

10 RevenueWire www.revenuewire.com A network focused on digital products and with an excellent reputation.

11 eBay Partner Network www.ebaypartnernetwork.com Interesting payout model, very popular.

12 Pepperjam www.pepperjamnetwork.com Great reputation, helpful for newbies.

13 AdCommunal/AdCanadian www.adcommunal.net Enthusiastic supporters and good offers.

14 LinkConnector www.linkconnector.com Another strong showing for a newish network.

15 TradeDoubler www.tradedoubler.com Founded in Sweden, strong in Europe.

16 zanox www.zanox.com Europe’s biggest affiliate network.

17 PeerFly peerfly.com Known primarily for CPA, but did well in our CPS survey.

18 Millionaire Network www.millionairenetwork.com A private, invitation-only network that did well in our CPS survey.

19 Affiliate Future www.affiliatefuture.com Good technology innovation and well-supported.

20 AffiliateNetwork.com www.affiliatenetwork.com Good offers, especially strong in opt-in email.

The Top 20 Affiliate Marketing (CPS) Networks


Network URL Survey comments or notes

1 NeverBlue www.neverblue.com/ NeverBlue is in everyone’s Top 3 list. Canadian, popular and professional.

2 MediaWhiz - Monetizeit www.mediawhiz.com/ Not the biggest network but especially well-liked by advertisers and agencies.

3 Clickbooth/Integraclick www.clickbooth.com/ John Lemp’s behemoth had a strong 2011. Clickbooth is making money for a lot of people.

4 PeerFly www.peerfly.com/ Came from nowhere in our last survey and zoomed in popularity this year. Great staff and an excellent platform.

5 Market Leverage www.marketleverage.com/ A high-quality network popular with expert, experienced affiliates.

6 Max Bounty www.maxbounty.com/ After a butting heads with Facebook this year Maxbounty has ended 2011 stronger than ever.

7 Adscend Media adscendmedia.com/ Very strong in content monetization with good reach and a nice offer portfolio.

8 Convert2Media convert2media.com/ Co-founder Ruck left in 2011 but C2M has continued to grow.

9 MediaTrust www.mediatrust.com/ Highly professional with an appeal to brand advertisers.

10 Adknowledge www.adknowledge.com/ Strong in predictive/behavioral technology, good reputation.

11 EWA Private Network www.eaglewebassets.com/ Ryan Eagle’s network. Aggressive, successful, popular.

12 CPAWay www.cpaway.com/ A strong newcomer based out of FL with a great platform and good AMs.

13 CPA Lead www.cpalead.com/ A leader in content-locking and a favorite for many

14 W4 www.w4.com/ Lots of experience and great technology. One to watch.

15 Intela intela.com/ Professional, with good campaign integration across channels.

16 Ads4Dough www.a4d.com/ Run by affiliates for affiliates, with good offers and high payouts.

17 RevenueStreet www.revenuestreet.com/ Part of TheMediaCrew, a solid network that knows its business..

18 Motive Interactive www.motiveinteractive.com/ Premium, invitation-only, and an excellent proprietary tracking platform.

19 Rextopia.com rextopia.com/ A smaller network, but popular and well-respected.

20 Adperio www.adperio.com A fast-growing network with a variety of online solutions.

The Top 20 CPA Networks



Marketing accountability is of ever-growing significance for advertisers and their agencies. For them to remain competi-tive, their marketing plans need to be both efficient and also fully integrated into existing product development, sales and delivery processes. These marketing plans will typically include many different media types, and while online media is still only a fraction of total advertising spend, the migration of ad spend towards digital is led by performance-based pricing models. In fact, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the IAB in September 2011, revenues for performance-based models in online advertising are now double that of traditional online CPM models.

While CPM models offer advertisers a structure they are fa-miliar with from offline campaigns, online performance-based media capitalizes on the direct interaction with consumers available uniquely within the medium and provides ROI and data-driven organizations with the transparency, control, mea-surability, engagement, scale and tools necessary to optimize campaign performance and back-office processes.

As advertisers attempt to navigate from offline to perfor-mance-based online models, the following best practices are meant to provide a framework to make the transition. Using this framework, businesses can establish success metrics, build performance models, define a target market, allocate time and budget, request proposals, short list candidates and deep dive into their specialties in order to find the right fit for a particular campaign.

Establish Success MetricsOnline performance marketing networks offer an array of

channels and pricing models. Finding the right mix and iden-tifying the right partners are key steps to creating a successful performance-marketing campaign. To know which partner is go-ing to best meet your needs, you should first establish success metrics for your campaign. For example:

• Targeting number of actions/sales

• Increasing brand awareness (this comes free in performance marketing)

• Creating specific consumer response

• Building an email database

• Increasing social media audience

Build a Performance ModelPerformance-based campaigns are typically based on a cost

per sale (CPS) or cost per action (CPA). An action could be any-thing from a completed lead form to a booked appointment. While highly complex actions may result in a higher action-to-revenue ratio for the advertiser, keep in mind that the more complexity involved in the completed action, the higher the payout will need to be to remain competitive with other adver-

tisers bidding for the same leads. Take these steps to construct a performance model consistent with your success metrics:

• If you have them, use KPI’s from other channels to baseline your performance model.

• Ensure you have effective tracking and reporting mechanisms in place

• Conceptualize offer flow

• Establish a conversion event

• Explore up-sell/cross-sell opportunities

• Set the conversion value and ROI targets

• Create your acquisition funnel

• Integrate your acquisition funnel with the back office

• Develop a testing plan for campaign variations

Define Your Target MarketNext, you should define the target audience you are looking

to reach:

• Demographics

• Psychographics/life stage

• Media consumption habits

Allocate Time and BudgetPerformance marketing is an iterative business where cam-

paigns should regularly improve based on collected data over time. Campaigns can also have long acquisition funnels, which dictate the velocity of campaign iterations. It is important that advertisers dedicate sufficient time and financial resources to give the campaign increased probability for long-term success. It is also paramount that they select partners who are capable of delivering the required results.

Request ProposalsRequesting proposals from potential partners is a great way

to compare the differences in the offerings. You should com-municate the campaign success metrics, model and target audi-ence to potential partners, and deliverables for those proposals should include:

• Where the traffic will come from

• Content of the traffic

• Compliance and fraud protection practices of the company

• Required creative

• Estimates on monthly reach and scale of network

• Targeting technology details

• Testing capabilities

• References of other advertisers especially in your vertical

• Costs

Eight Steps To Successful Performance Marketingby Ryan Wilson, Intela


Find out more at www.Fluentco.com

Fluent, Inc. is the universal performance network striving to meet all your digital direct marketing needs. We partner with advertisers and media owners to provide unparalleled solutions for distribution and monetization. Whether you are looking to connect with your consumers online or through mobile, Fluent's diverse product offering and solution set enables you to take your message beyond the banner.

Aff luent



Short List Candidates and Deep Dive into their Specialties

Once you have selected a few companies who meet your re-quirements, a deep dive with those potential partners can give you a clearer picture of who they are and how they differentiate themselves in the market. Many performance networks enter the market each year. Understanding the history of those busi-nesses can help you gauge their ability to deliver for you:

• Who are the key executives in their business and what is their background?

• Do the Direct Marketing Association and/or Interactive Advertising Bureau accredit them?

• Do they now or have they ever operated under a different name or DBA?

• Approximately how much revenue has their company earned in the past year?

• What type of insurance coverage do they have?

• Have they ever run your campaign in the past, either directly or as publisher through another network?

• Have they run a similar campaign in the past, and how did it perform for them and the advertiser?

Typically, the sales person you work with will hand you over to an account management team or individual once the relation-ship begins. Getting information about that team will give you clarity into your future experience with the company.

• How will the account management team be organized for your account?

• How many accounts are assigned to each account man-agement team?

• How many employees are in the total company?

• What creative resources are available through the com-pany?

• What analytical resources to help optimize the campaign are available to you through the company?

• Where are the company’s offices, and from which time zones will they manage your account?

• Are account management teams available by mobile phone after hours?

Compliance & TrustLegal compliance and fraud protection are key differentiators

from network to network. As an advertiser, you will potentially trust this company with your brand, so it is critical that their policies align with yours and that sufficient controls are in place for their publishers. Understanding the company’s approach to risk mitigation and best practices in these areas can help make you more comfortable with the idea of partnering with them.

• What procedures do they have in place to onboard new traffic sources?

• Who is the company’s head of compliance?

• Have they ever been subject to a governmental com-plaint or settled a consumer complaint related to online advertising?

• What technical and management controls do they have in place to enforce compliance?

• What privacy policies are in place to protect consumers through your network?

• Do they have a formal board of governance established (board of directors)?

Traffic Mix & QualityFinally, you need to understand the traffic that each network

represents. Most networks will have a component of traffic that they control completely as well as a mix of traffic from publish-ers who they work with. In the initial testing phases of a cam-paign, the traffic that is directly controlled can provide great value by increasing the testing speed of creative and landing pages, while decreasing the time to market for the final prod-uct. When the campaign is optimized and ready to scale, the network will call on its publishers. Understanding the dynamics of both traffic sources will give you a clear picture of the path the network will take with your campaign.

• How much of their total traffic do they generate inter-nally?

• Where do they buy or how do they generate this traffic?

• Can they guarantee the leads they generate for you are exclusive rather than shared with your competitors?

• Are there any websites that they own or operate?

• How frequently do they market to the same consumer?

• How many publishers do they have in the network?

• Can they make offers private to individual publishers?

• What offers are they currently running on their network?

• Will they provide full transparency of publishers if a non-disclosure agreement is signed post contract?

• What type of contracts do they have with their publishers?

• Would they be willing to have their publishers agree to your marketing guidelines as a condition of running the offer?

Performance Marketing Is the futureIn this age of marketing accountability, when consumers

are giving increasing amounts of their attention to online en-deavors, the question of whether to adopt online performance marketing is changing from “if”, to “when and how”. Businesses that follow the steps outlined above will find themselves with a head-start in performance marketing. They will realize the value of data-driven marketing and that it truly offers a sustainable competitive advantage.

About Ryan Wilson

Ryan Wilson is SVP and co-founder of Intela, an international online

performance-based marketing company. He has an MBA from the

University of Colorado and bachelor degrees in MIS and Marketing

from Florida State.


An Interview With JP Sauve of Max Bounty

Revenue: So JP, MaxBounty got a lot of love in the latest Blue Book survey. Things must be going well?

JP: Things are going very well for Max-Bounty. We’ve recently hit several mile-stones: our 8th anniversary as a CPA net-work, a record year for revenues and our 100,000th affiliate application.

Revenue: For those readers who may-be don’t know MaxBounty, tell us a little about your background and how you got the network started.

JP: The idea behind the founding of MaxBounty was that affiliates should earn the lions’ share of the ad dollar and all affiliates should be treated with respect, regardless of their size. And there’s a story behind that philosophy.

My brother Steve and I started market-ing online in 1997. The affiliate landscape was very different then and because there weren’t many networks, many of them got lazy. One particular time a net-work wouldn’t reply to our requests for alternative banner sizes – we were do-ing $50,000 a month with them and they wouldn’t answer our email! After one particularly frustrating month, with un-explained last minute 5 figure reversals, we decided to start a new kind of net-work that gives affiliates the recognition they deserve.

Revenue: What do you think is the key to your success? Why is it that affili-

ates seem to like working with MaxBoun-ty so much?

JP: There are two reasons: they know they can trust us, and they know they can reach us if they need to. We’ve been in business for eight years and have never missed a payment, even though we moved to weekly payouts at a time when some networks were going to monthly. And we are very approachable and hands on. Steve still participates on affiliate message boards and I still answer emails from affiliates personally.

Revenue: There are dozens and doz-ens of networks around these days. How do you get MaxBounty to stand out from the crowd? What makes you different?

JP: We do stand out, even with so much competition. One of the most obvi-ous ways is that we long-ago ceased our own in-house affiliate activities so as to not compete with our affiliates. We see their traffic sources, their doorway pages, even know their keywords in some cases. We’d be in a direct conflict of interest if we were to then compete with them. Networks just shouldn’t do this, but many affiliates only realize just how im-portant it is after they have been burned by another network.

Revenue: Is technology important to you? Do you think it makes a big differ-ence if a network has its own proprietary platform, or not?

JP: It is huge for us. We have our own tracking system and so if we need a fea-ture, we just code it in. If an affiliate has a particular need, we usually can accom-modate him. I think having our own sys-tem shows our commitment to the long-term and the experience that we bring to running the network.

Revenue: We heard you were em-broiled in a lawsuit with Facebook. Can you talk about that?

JP: Unfortunately no, however we’re pleased to say that the matter has been resolved and put behind us. Onwards and upwards.

Revenue: What’s your 30-second, el-evator pitch? Why should people choose MaxBounty?

JP: The economy is uncertain and af-filiates have many problems to grapple with. Working with MaxBounty gives them one less thing to worry about. We’ve got a proven 8 year track record of always paying on time. We’ve got the financial stability to pay weekly and we even offer a $1000 performance bonus to new affiliates.

2011 has been a difficult year for many but we have flourished. We are excited for 2012 and the opportunity to work with new publishers and show them how a properly run network can really make a difference to their business success.

by Chris Trayhorn

MaxBounty is a CPA network that has been a Blue Book Top 20 pick from the very beginning. Based in Canada, the network has weathered the storms of the last two or three years and come through stronger than ever. We recently caught up with the CEO, JP Sauve, to find out what makes MaxBounty tick.




January is the month of the year that marks new beginnings and new resolu-tions. Many people choose this time to vow to start fresh and begin their jour-ney towards self-improvement. They are seeking to improve their lifestyles and view the pursuit of higher education as a means to that end.

As a result, January is the start of one of the strongest quarters for online EDU lead generation and this year, coinciding with the New Year’s fresh start, we can see the beginning of a new era for perfor-mance marketing ad exchanges.

Defining this new era of ad exchanges is advanced technology which enables scalable and quality-driven price efficien-cy. The application of this new concept of price efficiency allows CPL/CPA trans-action-driven marketers and brands the ability to connect the entire value chain - from impression, to click, to conversion - all the way through to lifetime value. By connecting the entire value chain and understanding the value of every media channel, including publishers’ inventory, marketers and brands gain a greater abil-ity to scale profitably than ever before.

So given that we have new ad ex-change technology available just as we enter the January upsurge in EDU lead generation, how should online EDU lead gen advertisers capitalize on this?

Unlocking ValueThe utilization of these new era ad ex-

changes enables significant advantages for lead gen advertisers. Transparent real-time platforms unlock value that enable advertisers to “right price” their media buys based upon quality. Platforms that facilitate the linking of the value chain together - from the click, to conversion, to enrollment metrics - allow EDU mar-keters to leverage automation to gain greater ad spend ROI.

Thanks to the real-time reporting & analytics that performance-based ad ex-changes provide, advertisers are able to quickly adjust their bids to reflect the “right price” of that click across multiple channels from a single interface.

2012: The Year of RTB Performance Marketing & Education Marketingby Peter Bordes

Case StudyProviding a real-world example

of how performance-based “right pricing” can efficiently increase ROI for online EDU lead gen advertis-ers is the MediaTrust and Acade-mixDirect case study, Connecting quality clicks to conversions.

As the leading innovator in edu-cation marketing, AcademixDirect deploys advanced technology that incorporates a proprietary match-ing algorithm, data purity assurance software, lead scoring and target-ing capabilities, as well as a unique customer-centric approach to create more value for educational institu-tions. They utilize a multitude of online advertising models to generate quality leads for their clients which include CPA, CPL, and CPC advertisements.

By using MediaTrust’s Performance-Exchange (MTPX) - a real-time CPC bid exchange for performance marketing – and optimizing campaigns through the MTPX email channel, Academix-Direct was able to measure the value chain of their traffic and “right price” their bids to effectively drive profit-able transactions. They saw an increase in the volume of qualified leads, an increase in conversion rates, and their eCPA goal was beaten by 40%.

In addition, this performance-based marketing gives a real-time view of which channels are most effective at providing quality consumers and therefore which channels advertisers should be target-ing, as well as their true value. Whether it’s 100,000 clicks at $.05 in social, or 10,000 clicks at $3.00 in email, it all has value that can be traded in a scalable and profitable way. Gone are the past models of static $25-$35 payout ranges that either drag down the inventory value of quality publishers, or that allow poor quality in-ventory to get over paid.

Transparency Is The futureCurrent platforms that aggregate traf-

fic into a single view aren’t conducive to maximizing ad-spend or inventory ROI: they are a black boxes with little transpar-ency into where clicks and conversions really originate. The fact is that clicks and conversions are not all created equal, which further perpetuates the problem that advertisers have in correctly pricing media. The future is about transparency, which equals greater efficiency for both advertisers and publishers. This is the new economy in performance marketing, where price efficiency ultimately helps to grow the industry.

Fig 1: IAB

Continued on page BB12


Intela is the leading US and international CPA network, connecting thousands of international advertisers to our vast network of publishers who boost their performance-based campaigns.

Intela works with innovative publishers around the globe, providing them with a vast selection of top performing campaigns across all verticals. Intela's publishers have access to the leading, exclusive offers available only within the Intela network.

Publishers• High payouts and exclusive offers• Dedicated affiliate service• Reliable tracking, tools and reporting• Thousands of proven international offers• Fast, flexible payouts

Advertisers• International reach• Full solution approach to media buying• Experienced ROI driven team• Creative and campaign optimization accumen• Quality traffic partnerships

Find out moreabout Intela:



Performance Equals ValueOver the last couple of years perfor-

mance-based pricing has accelerated up to and then far surpassed pure impres-sion-based marketing models. In the first half of 2011, according to figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC, performance-based pricing ac-counted for 64% of Internet ad revenue, while CPM/impression-based pricing at 31% (see Fig 1). Adweek, which usually covers the brand-driven, display-oriented segment of the industry, could not have said it better in the article Real-Time Rel-evance, written by Jay Millwood,

“Because campaign metrics typically have been based on user actions, much online advertising has started to take on the look of direct response…It is hardly a coincidence that performance-based pricing hasn’t just overtaken CPM mod-els for Internet ads, but is crushing them. Consumers have become increasingly numb to banner ads, and marketers have had to look at new levels of metrics to measure effectiveness, engagement and ROI. Click-throughs, impressions and conversions, once the key ways to mea-sure consumer interest, are a thing of the past for many marketers...

Typical online metrics have focused on the ‘final click’—the last action a user takes based on an ad. But ad technology providers want to get advertisers away from this analysis and base their buys on the path that the user takes to get to that final action. They also want to be able to gauge the longer-term implications of this final click in terms of loyalty and life-time value.”

Peter Bordes is the executive chairman of MediaTrust and the president of the PMA’s Board of Directors.

Blue-Ribbon Panel MembersI would like to thank everyone in the industry that helped with putting

together the 2012 BLUE BOOK Top 20 rankings. Many individuals were were extremely supportive of the process, helping in question design, list compilation and innumerable other issues that arose. In particular, I would like to thank our Rlue Ribbon Panel for their willingness to respond to questions that probably veered towards dumb at times.

Thank you,Chris Trayhorn

The Year of RTB PerformanceContinued from page BB10

Peter BordesExecutive Chairman, MediaTrust Peter Bordes is the executive chairman of MediaTrust and the president of the PMA’s Board of Directors.

Peter S. Klein General Manager, Monetizeit - SolutionSet MediaWhiz PartnershipPeter Klein is General Manager of the MonetizeIt Affiliate Network, a division of MediaWhiz, a leading online performance marketing agency and #256 on Inc. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies for 2008. Peter heads the sales, distribution, operations, as well as product and offer development for MediaWhiz’s Affiliate program.

Bob Kumagai Vice President Marketing, ClickBankBob Kumagai is responsible for all operational and strategic marketing activities for Click-Bank, including establishing ClickBank as the most trusted and profitable platform for online entrepreneurs to promote and sell digital products around the world.

Scott AllanVice President of Marketing, LinkShareScott Allan has over 15 years of experience in technology marketing in a wide range of corporate and product marketing roles. Prior to LinkShare, Scott worked at IBM, EMC and Quark. He earned his MBA from Boston University with a concentration in Marketing and his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

George Hansen Director of Sales & Business Development, oneNetwork Direct - Digital RiveroneNetworkDirect is the largest affiliate network focusing solely on software, consumer elec-tronics, and games. George Hansen has been guiding the growth of oneNetworkDirect for four years and is a graduate of University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

George BordoGeneral Manager, Direct Response Technologies George Bordo is general manager at Direct Response Technologies. The company’s flagship technology platform, DirectTrack, is utilized to track and manage performance marketing campaigns for the world’s most influential brands and affiliate networks.

Chad P. French President/CEO, PeerFlyChad French is President/CEO of Avlo Media Inc – parent company of the PeerFly Affiliate Network (performance marketing). A programmer by trade, Chad built PeerFly from the ground up using Windows Notepad and $0 in his pocket.

Geno Prussakov Founder, Affiliate Management DaysEvgenii (Geno) Prussakov is an author, blogger, speaker and consultant in affiliate marketing and affiliate program management. He is the author of the bestseller on affiliate program management, A Practical Guide To Affiliate Marketing (2007), still one of Amazon’s top-sellers in the category.

Jay Weintraub Founder, LeadsConJay Weintraub is one of online marketing’s best-known and best-informed bloggers. In his spare time, he organizes the LeadsCon conferences on lead generation as well as the Daily Deal Summit.

Matt FraryChief Of Chaos & Founder, SmarterChaos.comMatt Frary is chief of chaos and founder of SmarterChaos.com, an online ad agency that focuses on performance campaigns and multi-channel distribution for major brands. Matt is also an original founder of one of the top 30 online ad networks in the US called ROIRocket.com.

New Solutions – Jet Patel - COO and Co-Founder - Sponsormob

RP: Tell us a little about Sponsormob and how it got started.JP: Sponsormob was founded by Peter Glaeser and me in 2006. We both had a strong background in performance marketing and we could see that mobile was going to offer huge opportunities. We launched Sponsormob as one of the very first CPA networks using mobile as a primary channel for companies wanting to include performance marketing in their mix.

RP: Sponsormob seems to be growing fast while some net-works are struggling. What are you doing differently to other networks?JP: What makes us unique is that we have our own propri-etary conversion tracking for mobile which is very transpar-ent. Additionally, we have been able to successfully expand our services so that now we offer game and music down-load, mobile apps, lead generation, Click-to-Call, and Host-and-Post. This has enabled us to work with many different advertisers in all kinds of industries and verticals. The in-sight and breadth of experience gained gives us a head-start on our competitors, and allows us to find new opportunities and help our customers succeed.

RP: I know you are just launching new technology named Click-to-Call. Tell me about that.JP: Click-to-Call has just launched! It enables us to provide a small mobile landing page with a call button where the user can directly call the advertiser. There is no integration required - all that is needed is a phone number – and so this allows us to start campaigns very quickly. In addition, we provide offline call centers to access users on “the-go”; this is potentially an entirely new revenue stream so we are very excited for our advertisers. So far, the results have been

extremely promising and we expect this to be become a very important channel for us in the future.

RP: You are very focused on mobile. Why do you feel that the mobile space is especially suited to CPA advertising?JP: With mobile traffic continuing to grow year-on-year and the increasing use of smart phones, the opportunity to target, interact and engage with the consumer has never been greater. The effectiveness of campaigns on mobile is remarkable. These trends are persuading more and more advertisers to make mobile an essential part of their overall marketing and sales strategy, and to use it not just for branding but also for performance marketing campaigns where it can make a real contribution to top-line sales.

RP: What’s your elevator pitch? If you only had 20 seconds to tell someone why they should work with Sponsormob, what would you say?JP: We have uniquely powerful, proprietary technology that gives us the flexibility, speed and experience to work with any advertiser. Our solution provides true mobile-based performance-marketing with results that are unrivalled.

RP: What lies ahead for Sponsormob? What do you see as the next big opportunity?JP: I believe that Click-To-Call, mobile apps and our Host-and-Post solution will be our main points of focus for the near future. We will continue to expand our services to even more countries and to provide advertis-ers with greater ROI. In the longer term, our ability to demonstrate the true value of performance in mobile advertising can only lead to new opportunities to help our advertisers succeed. |rp

As the producer of the Blue Ribbon Awards For Excellence In Performance Marketing, RevenuePerformance is always looking for up-and-coming companies with new solutions to offer. Sponsormob is one that we have been hearing about a lot recently, so we got together with COO and co-founder, Jet Patel, to find out what makes Sponsormob so hot.

Sponsormob: tHe mobile cPa network oF tHe Future

Contact DetailsJoe Niederberger US Business Development Manager e: [email protected]: +1 510-421-4046

Address:Oranienburger Str. 6610117 BerlinGermany




frank Terranova Frank Terranova has been an

affiliate since 2000 and claims to make over $100,000 a year (we only provided a very broad-ly segmented response choice to the question on income level, so take the figures provided as only the vaguest of indications). He promotes offers in all kinds of niches and also runs his own online marketing training busi-ness at www.mastermindpros.com.

What are the biggest challenges you have faced in affiliate marketing?

The biggest challenge is change: online advertising and media is con-tinually evolving so what works now may not work tomorrow. The chal-lenge is to stay knowledgeable and informed. Maintaining your ability to be viable and profitable takes a com-mitment to work and to be aware of who your customers are. Only then can you provide your customers what they are seeking.

How did you learn to be an affiliate?

I apply the skills I learned through a lifetime of executive management, executive consulting, sales training and trial and error.

What advice would you give to other affiliates?I would give advice in three main areas:

1. Learn then earnAffiliate marketing is a real busi-

ness and you have to understand how it works. Don’t believe promises of easy riches or of effortless earn-ing programs. Those are hyped up sales messages aimed at all those folks who are looking for something for almost nothing. There are a lot of skills and technologies that you need to master in order to do well in this business. Learn them.

2. Be careful what you promote.Think of this as a real sales job

(it is) and that you are working on commissions (you are). If you take it seriously, then you shouldn’t mess around with networks or advertisers that don’t know what they are doing and/or that don’t offer you a good deal. Be as selective online as you

would be offline in the brick and mortar business world when it comes to choosing who you want to work with and what it is you want to sell. Choose those that give you the best chance at success.

3. Diversify Don’t put all your eggs in

one basket. I like to remember the letters, RMTTE. They stand for Research - Market - Test - Tweak - Earn. Research what

you want to sell, who you want to sell it to, where you find them and when they are there; then bring the prod-uct to market. Once the campaign has begun you should test how your strategy is working, tweaking or ad-justing your campaign until you get it right so that you can finally earn.

How are you trying to improve as an affiliate?

I am president of an online inter-net marketing training school so my staff and I are very focused on staying up do date on trends in the industry. I have always found it to be very helpful to have a brainstorming or what we brand as a mastermind group to bounce ideas around with. And professional training is always a good idea.

What could networks do better?Networks could do a much better

job of protecting their salespeople (affiliates). I see so many sales and landing pages that carry office phone

News From The Front-LineOne of the best things about the Blue Book survey is hearing from affiliates world-wide. It is an opportunity like no other to get an understanding of what is working and what people are struggling with.

This year we took it a stage further, asking several of our respondents to dig a bit deep-er and to tell us how they got started, what works for them now and how they plan on succeeding in the future.



numbers or lead capture forms - what we call “outs” - all over the place. That is not right. I want sales pages and products that give the customer only the choices to buy or not to buy. Don’t take my work and my traffic and then turn it into your lead.

Robert Herrie Robert Herrie has been involved in

online marketing for about five years and focuses primarily on lead genera-tion. He says he definitely makes more than $100,000 a year. He has a num-ber of different companies represented online, and likes to see at least $50,000 - $75,000 per year, per website. One of his web sites is www.centralmasshome-warranty.com.


Getting started is the hardest thing: making that first $100. For me, the week that I finally succeeded in making my first $100 was the begin-ning of a new life, but it took me three years and 176 websites created to get there. I just couldn’t find the right niche and so I just kept trying new ones. I worked 5-7 hours every days – more on weekends - and then finally figured out what would work for me.

What changed things for me was someone telling me, “Stop learning. You already have all the knowledge you need. You just need to concen-trate on applying what you know.” That may be the most valuable advice of all for newbie affiliates.

How did you learn to be an affiliate?Just by asking questions and learn-

ing from as many people as I could. Some information I listened to and some of it I discarded. You have to be selective. After that, it was just a lot of trial and error.

What advice would you give to other affiliates?

Stick with it. And you will succeed. Even if, like me, you find yourself three years in and not making a sin-

gle penny, keep going. With-out commitment and effort you do not stand a chance in this industry.

I’d also say that you should pick just one niche and stick with it until you make money. It is almost always better to learn more about one niche and to improve what you have already done, rather than start over in a new niche. But of course, finding the right niche and the right type of offers to promote is a big challenge, and even more so when you are just getting started.


I am learning every day. I watch my competitors very, very closely and I try to stay one step ahead of them if I can. This is not easy, so it forces one to keep on learning.

What could networks do better?The thing that disappoints me with

all the networks is that they struggle to get back to you most of the time. Responsiveness is typically pretty poor. Once you start making money for them things tend change a little, but I feel that if they would offer more help to affiliates it would be a real competitive advantage.

C Dd c

Ryan StevensonRyan Stevenson started out in online

marketing as a teenager over 16 years ago. He works full-time online, mak-ing over $100,000 a year. In 2010, he started developing and selling his own affiliate marketing products based on his experiences and knowledge as an affiliate.

What kind of offers do you promote?In general, I usually promote two

different kinds of offers. On the one hand, I run a bunch of different Ama-zon affiliate sites that promote physi-cal products in very specific niches.

Then on the other hand I also run an Amazon newsletter and have de-veloped my own WordPress plugin, so I promote internet and affiliate marketing related products through those email lists. I try to avoid follow-ing the crowd with most of my pro-motions, especially in the marketing niche because of the high competi-tion.


When I first started with affiliate marketing, it wasn’t very hard to grab some great search engine rank-ings and convert it into easy com-missions. Over the years, I feel like the biggest challenge has been to overcome and resist a lot of the low quality tactics that other marketers are using. To be more specific, I’m referring to automatically generated content or black hat search engine optimization tricks. It is easy to fall victim to this type of thing if you are not careful because the dream of earning a lot of money with minimal effort is pretty tempting for most people. However, I really feel like the true secret to success as an affiliate is to avoid these tactics. It requires a lot of hard work to do it right, but the rewards are more than worth it.



How did you learn to be an affiliate?I am self-taught. When I first start-

ed there really weren’t a lot of mar-keting products that taught you spe-cific strategies to use to make money online. Most of that type of thing that did exist turned out to be some sort of scam. As a result, I basically just stumbled upon affiliate market-ing. I was already somewhat experi-enced with computer and website programming, even as a teenager, so it really all got started when I made my first website. I did it for fun in the beginning. When I had regular traf-fic on the site, I started researching ways that I could monetize it, which led to affiliate marketing. I started with PPC and PPV ads, which was the main type of internet advertising in those days.

What advice would you give to other affiliates?1. Create Unique Content

Stop copying other people. Affili-ate marketing tends to attract peo-ple that want to make money with-out actually working. As a result, a large majority of them seem to copy the work of others for their promo-tions. This could be things like using automated blog content on a Word-Press site or using pre-made email sales letters provided by merchants. The fact is that affiliates that put in the effort to create their own unique content for a promotion are going to be the ones that have the best oppor-tunity to earn the most money.

If you run an affiliate website, write your own unique content to target each product. Instead of just touching on general information, dig as deep as you can. When you can make some type of connection with your site visitors, you’ll find that your affiliate conversion rates will rise. They notice when you go beyond what other affiliates do to promote offers, and search engines will take more notice of you as well.

2. Be Patient & PersistentI also recommend that other af-

filiates work patiently. Some people expect to build a site with a couple of pages and start earning hundreds or thousands of dollars a month right away. Although it is possible for something like this to happen, most people are going to obtain their suc-cess more gradually. Too many peo-ple start projects and abandon them before they even have a chance to succeed. This causes them to jump around from one thing to another, investing time and money as they go. Unfortunately, this type of tactic leads to failure in almost all situa-tions. Find something that you want to pursue and work hard on it until it is successful before you even think above moving on to something else. I learned this lesson the hard way many years ago, but it is much better to understand it from day one.

3. Sell your Own ProductsBut only when you are ready. While

I still make quite a bit each year as an affiliate, over 35% of my income this past year was from the sales of my own products. Selling your own products is a lucrative industry, but I really try to advise beginners to avoid it. Too many people try to make their

own products before they even have the knowledge and experience to back up their claims, which is a major reason why so many low quality mar-keting products are out there.


Over the last few years, I’ve really been trying to step up my game as an affiliate by thoroughly research-ing offers that I want to promote and being picky about the ones that I ac-tually decide to promote in the end. There are so many things out there that you can promote as an affiliate. If you try to promote all of them, even within a specific niche, you can easily find yourself overwhelmed and over-extended. Instead, I am searching for high quality products developed by people that take pride in what they do. This is always something that I have strived to do when developing my own products, so when I promote something from another merchant to my customers they are expecting me to only promote other high quality products. It is hard work trying to stay on top of it, but the results are abso-lutely amazing. This is how people can break out of 1-5% conversion rates and get into really lucrative promotions that deliver 15-30% conversions.



What could networks do better?I think it is hard for the bigger

networks to provide good service. Amazon has a great program but their generated affiliate links don’t convert well for me. Clickbank is big and popular but they seem to pro-vide minimal customer support and charge vendors high monthly fees for a decent level of promotion. And while Commission Junction probably ranks as one of the more high quality networks in my opinion, their down-side is the lack of reporting when it comes to refunds. I’m finding that smaller networks can offer better service.

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Chaim MaizlitsChaim Maizlits is based in Israel and

has been involved with affiliate mar-keting for about four years. He pro-motes mostly CPA offers in the finan-cial services sector together with some offers through Clickbank. He is also in the process of developing a few CPA of-fers of his own.


Focusing! Staying on target is probably the hardest part for me. In this business there are so many op-portunities that you come across ev-ery day. It is very important to keep focused on just one thing.

How did you learn to be an affiliate? I am totally home schooled. That

means lots of hours on the Internet and a lot of hard work trying and fail-ing. Trial and error is the best way to learn.


I tell new affiliates to set them-selves two or three things to get accomplished in the next four days, and then just totally focus on get-ting them done. If they come across something new that they think might

be useful, then I tell them to write it down and not look at it until they have finished what they set out to do.

The other key is to find a niche and then stick to it. Always test and improve on what you are doing, and then once you are successful, only then should you move on to try an-other niche.


I split-test everything and then im-prove from there. I dedicate at least a few minutes every day to learning new things. You just can’t stand still if you wish to remain successful.

What could networks do better? I think that networks should use

and be actively developing the ad-vanced technology of affiliate mar-keting. That means they should be constantly evolving and introducing new ways to promote their advertis-ers.

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Jean KelseyJean Kelsey has been an affiliate for

three years. She focuses on CPS cam-paigns promoting wellness products and services that help people to feel better & live longer.


There are far too many websites that don’t take a good, honest ap-proach to selling and this makes it harder for the rest of us. Often a cus-tomer gets scammed online and then automatically assumes that other of-fers must be scams also. I think that merchants and networks could be much proactive in guiding affiliates in the right way to promote particu-lar offers. There are a lot of people who want to be affiliates but fail be-cause they’re not sure how to start. More guidance would help them too.

How did you learn to be an affiliate? I did a lot of research, made con-

nections on Twitter and then built re-lationships with successful affiliates. It was the guidance of others that al-lowed me to succeed. In many cases, they helped me and I helped them without even asking.


There is such a wide selection of products and services to promote that you have to choose very care-fully. You need to evaluate your strat-egy and find those offers that com-pliment what you are doing. Go the same route as a customer and also learn all you can about the company and product you are promoting. The more depth you have, the better.


I am working on the presentation of products and services so that po-tential customers have more clarity on why they should buy. One gets little or no guidance from most mer-chants and so often it is necessary to review just how best to educate the customer so they can make informed buying decisions. If customers feel that they are able to make smart choices, then they will return.

What could networks do better? It seems as though everyone now

has their own affiliate tracking plat-form but nobody wants to invest in actually supporting affiliates with help, guidance or even responding to emails. Affiliates are the front line – networks really need to understand this.

I also think that networks could do more to provide technology solu-tions for things like link cloaking and discreet social media links. Networks have the resources to develop these sorts of tools so why not give them to their affiliates?

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Learn more at affiliatemanagementdays.com

MARCH 8-9, 2012 SAN FRANCISCO

Mastering theManagement of

Affiliate Programs

F E AT U R E D K E Y N O T E

BEN EDELMANASSISTANT PROFESSORHARVARDBUSINESS SCHOOL

Continued from page 6

Dynamic fraud meter with customizable criteria – No two networks or affiliate programs are the same, and your fraud meter technology should reflect those differences. Choose a tracking platform with a customizable fraud meter so that you have the flexibility to monitor and flag the criteria that is important to you. Affiliate managers work at a frenetic pace; be sure you are using the technology that is advanced enough to give you the edge against fraud.

5. Consider Bringing Your Affiliate Program In-House.

It is an ongoing challenge for big brand merchants to keep their brands top-of-mind in an increasingly crowded online world. Although many have found success with outsourced affiliate networks, others have increased their control and ex-posure by bringing parts of their affiliate programs in-house.

The downside of outsourcing an entire affiliate program is that the merchant has little influence without a direct rela-tionship with the affiliates. When a complementary in-house program is created, merchants can establish relationships with seasoned affiliates, learn what motivates them, and have a direct effect on the entire performance marketing chain.

Merchants can also benefit from the advanced technology that the leading software platforms provide. Big brand mer-chants have access to innovative optimization tools, custom-izable payouts, and advanced commission structures to tailor their affiliate programs to meet their needs and positively influence specific behavioral outcomes.

Rather than rely on one large affiliate network source for your entire affiliate revenue stream, create a complimentary in-house program to gain control and strategically utilize af-filiates to grow revenue.

----------Based on the immense success of online advertising,

merchants and brands are embracing performance marketing techniques to create campaigns that are more targeted, more efficient, and ultimately more effective. But even as perfor-mance marketing expands, the key players within the indus-try are witnessing consolidation – and sometimes evapora-tion – of the industry’s once-dominant networks. Those who survive will be the ones who use all of the available tools and technology at their disposal to create more affiliate stickiness.

Do you have what it takes to survive?

GeorGe Bordo is general manager at Direct Response Technol-ogies. The company’s flagship technology platform, DirectTrack, is utilized to track and manage performance marketing campaigns for the world’s most influential brands and affiliate networks. For more information, visit www.directtrack.com or follow at @direct-track.

The Authoritative Guide to Ad Networks and Exchanges BB21

Managing Performance – Nicky Senyard, Share Results

Affiliate marketing has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years and, as it has grown, the skills needed for success have evolved, with affiliates becoming more professional and more sophisticated in their approach. We have pro-gressed from the simplicity of generating revenue through banner farms to the complexity of weaving Google Analytics and other tracking data into social media in order to obtain more dynamic metrics.

Affiliate marketing has become more than just a channel of online marketing. From the affiliate perspective it is more and more the pursuit of a full-time livelihood, necessitating the operation of a stable and innovative business. However, there is also increasing pressure from advertisers and affiliate networks that are demanding more from affiliates, expect-ing them to go above and beyond the norm to attract unique customers, and to form strong relationships to increase conversions, and perhaps more importantly, create a better online experience that will benefit everyone involved.

aFFiliates: wHy being gooD may not be gooD enougH

Why You Need To Be Better Than “Good”Retail businesses and lead-focused advertisers are under

pressure to provide a better, more intuitive online experi-ence for consumers. Affiliates are already experiencing the exact same challenge. Regardless of whether you are the advertiser or affiliate, it is necessary to distinguish yourself among an increasing number of competitors. As affiliate marketing has evolved over the years, so has the number of website, blog, lead generator, SEO, PPC and coupon affiliates that enter the market annually. Seizing a piece of the online consumer pie is harder, particularly in North America where a struggling economy is causing a great deal of caution with regard to using disposable income.

With this in mind, an affiliate’s performance needs to more than just “good”. Affiliates can apply a hybrid of mar-keting strategies to win the fight for the attention of online consumers. This includes making sure that PPC and SEO keyword campaigns are seamlessly congruent, and relying on multiple in-depth reports to determine what converts. It means paying attention to industry trends as well, in order to understand where new efforts should be directed. As an example, digital marketing research firm comScore reported in September 2011 that 234 million Americans age 13 and up used mobile phones. And, mobile usage isn’t just increasing in North America; Asian and African markets are slated to see exponential growth in mobile usage. This is the kind of new opportunity that affiliates need to ad-dress as it arises, applying unique and effective marketing strategies to compete, and to serve both desktop and mobile internet users.

In additional to staying competitive in the marketplace, affiliates also need to foster improved communication with affiliate managers and affiliate networks, because there is a wealth of valuable information that can be shared.

Client Evaluation: It’s Not Just An OfferSometimes affiliates promote an advertiser’s offer expect-

ing to reap thousands of dollars only to discover six months later that nothing has converted. Affiliates need to evalu-ate offers carefully before joining an affiliate program. Indentifying the right offers requires more than just looking at a commission, because things like tracking or a lack of coupons can hinder you from earning no matter how high the price point.

If an advertiser has an outstanding affiliate manager who treats affiliates well, chances are you will know about it through word of mouth. If the industry forums and blogs consistently talk about an advertiser’s tracking as not being reliable, then this too should quickly become clear. Does the advertiser have a wide variety of products to promote? Are those products saturated (i.e. does the advertiser have three or more affiliate programs simultaneously)? Does the adver-tiser provide affiliates with a wide range of marketing tools, or does the affiliate program offer co-branded discounts for affiliates to promote? At the end of the day, whether an advertiser has a poor or awesome reputation, it’s important to determine if they are a fit for your target audience.


Know your Audience Like the Back of your HandDo you know your audience? I mean, do you really know

them? Affiliates need to know specifics about the customers they are referring to advertisers. For example, do you know what other affiliate sites your visitors go to, or what kind of disposable income they have? Do you know what type of education and income bracket they fall into, or what type of passions they have (i.e. shoes, jewelry, comparison shopping)? Affiliates who research, collect and use behavioral data can optimize their business. A hybrid of marketing strategies needs to be applied, because one size does not fit all.

If you own a members-only online shopping and daily deal portal that attracts females age 18 to 40, that age bracket already makes up a combination of Generation X, Generation Y (also known as Millennials) and Generation Z (also known as the Internet Generation). With a bit of dedicated market research you will discover that these three groups have diverse values and income levels, and they use the internet differently. It’s time to think of how your marketing efforts and choice of offers are meeting the needs of your potential consumers.

Think about your Business Long-termOperating a thriving affiliate business requires great

passion and dedication, good business sense, and a strategic plan. Being organized helps you to make the best use of your time and ensure that you are seeing the greatest return for your efforts. There may be some unforeseen circumstances you had not anticipated, that may impact your business. For example, in the last several years, particularly within North America, we have seen legislation passed (tax and anti-spam laws) from region to region. In turn, it has affected the way affiliate marketers work.

Affiliates need to operate their businesses knowing that at any time legal decisions can affect their business, so it’s best to have a financial plan and think of how various geographi-cal markets might enhance your business be it for relocation or consumer market purposes. Build up your assets in the event you want to sell your business. This includes develop-ing and maintaining a secure database of visitor emails and other data. It also includes partnering with the right ac-counting, legal, design and other talent resources (in-house or outsourced).

While all members of the affiliate marketing industry will be expected to deliver a more unique online experience to users, affiliates are going to be a crucial part of that mix and will need more than a “banner-farm solution” to meet the needs of more sophisticated consumer tastes day to day.

About Nicky Senyard

Nicky Senyard is the co-founder and president of Share Results, a Can-ada-based online marketing company specializing in affiliate marketing. A native of Australia, and an entrepreneur with a background in public relations, Nicky is a highly sought after speaker and service provider in the affiliate marketing industry.

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CLASSIfIEDS

Achieving Compliance –Maj Vasigh

comPliance means reciProcal accountability

The FTC has put the affiliate marketing industry on notice that liability for unfair and deceptive advertising can potentially reach anyone in the chain between a seller and the ultimate consumer. By broadly expanding their willing-ness to prosecute every stakeholder in the chain, the FTC has effectively spread the burden of assuring compliant mar-keting practices to everyone involved in the selling process.

This is actually a good thing. When life gives you lemons, make margaritas, right?

Companies wishing to minimize their risk of liability will only work with those who are equally dedicated to compliance. A practical consequence of the most compliant companies in the industry working together is that recipro-cal accountability will gradually curtail the percentage of fly-by-night riff raff who put us all at risk. Over time, these collaborations will form the foundation of long term sus-tained growth for the most compliant companies.

Whether you’re an advertiser, a publisher, or a network, the FTC’s point of emphasis is that affiliates should not be let loose on the public without adequate direction that en-sures that their advertising is truthful and non-misleading. A thoughtful and dynamic compliance program must be an essential cornerstone of your business model.

You may ask, how in the world can the FTC expect ad-vertisers, networks, and publishers to actually control what everybody does? The short answer is that it’s impossible for everybody involved in the affiliate marketing chain to control one another. What we can do, however, is establish a cooperative, mutual commitment to compliance across the chain. Demonstrating your commitment to compliance to state and federal regulators is crucial to their understanding your viewpoint that while you can’t control everyone, you’ve at least implemented reasonably appropriate compliance safeguards designed to limit deceptive advertising. Other-wise, from the FTC’s perspective, you should have known unlawful conduct was happening, and that, they’ll argue, leaves you equally as culpable.

This expectation of collective accountability starts at the top of the affiliate marketing chain with the advertiser. An advertiser must provide detailed parameters to affiliates as to what information should be contained in creatives. They should ideally also identify any language that may reason-ably be foreseen to be deemed misleading and should defi-nitely not be used. Most importantly, since advertisers are the only ones who come into actual contact with consum-ers, they have a continuing obligation on the back end to

analyze consumer feedback, as those are often the earliest indicators of unfair or deceptive practices. From a brand protection perspective, actively monitoring and identifying issues is something you should be doing anyway. Immedi-ately communicate fishy trends to an established affiliate network with a responsive compliance department. Quick responses to compliance issues underscores your compli-ance commitment.

The next link in the marketing chain between advertis-ers and publishers -- the affiliate networks -- deal with the unique complexity of policing publisher activity, but they must rely upon the representations of their advertisers that their products, creatives, and back end business practices are legally compliant. Affiliate networks must thoroughly scrutinize new affiliates, audit publishers and advertis-ers, enforce their rules, and foster a culture of compliance across the transaction chain. At Clickbooth, for example, we have implemented compliance rules and enforced them even when doing so pushed business to our competitors in the short term, only to be vindicated when the industry conformed to our compliance standards down the road. Leadership by our compliance team has been a cornerstone of our success.

Publishers, like everyone else, should know that igno-rance of the law is never a defense. To that end, they should work with networks or advertisers with equally proven track records of compliant business practices. The cost/benefit analysis of squandering resources by violating advertiser restrictions or facing possible FTC actions should weigh heavily in their decision to err on the safe side and scale back aggressive marketing techniques if they have any doubts from a compliance perspective.

Demonstrating a collective commitment to compliance practices begins with carefully choosing the people you work with and evolves throughout the business relationship. Whether you’re an advertiser, publisher, or network, if every company in each step along the chain of a transaction is committed to working together, the industry will continue to grow in a way that rewards businesses who play fair and ostracizes those who don’t. That’s the goal of regulation. Let’s get to work.

About Maj Vasigh

Maj Vasigh is corporate litigation and compliance counsel for Clickbooth.com, the #1 Best Place To Work as rated by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. He lives in Tampa with his wife and English Bulldog.


THINKFORWARD

JANUARY 17–19SAN FRANCISCO

Linkshare.com/symposiumLinkShare SymposiumWest 2012

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