Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

Why Affiliates Are Justified in Asking for Placement Fees

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I’m changing my position on something really big–placement fees. In the past I was always very against them but given a lot of changes in our industry, I’m becoming more and more in favor of them. If you are a merchant or an affiliate manager, you are probably considering unsubscribing from my newsletter at this point. But hear me out and maybe you will come to understand and even agree.

What are Placement Fees?

Sometimes known as “slotting fees,” placements fees are when affiliates ask for an up front payment from a merchant to add the merchant’s affiliate links to their site. It may be a small administrative fee like $25 to have the merchant added to the shopping section of a blog. It may be a BIG fee like hundreds of dollars to have a full integration of coupons, product feeds, etc.

Placement fees are not exactly the same as a sponsored post but may overlap depending upon the affiliate. A sponsored post is a merchant paying a set fee in exchange for agreed-upon exposure by the affiliate–and may or may not include affiliate links in the posts.

At Sunshine Rewards we have always differentiated ourselves from other cash back sites by not requiring placement fees. I always worked under the theory that we are “performance marketing” and so we would get paid by actually performing. That is to say, we wouldn’t get paid anything until we sent actual sales and we would be willing to put in all of the work up front to earn those sales. However, the times they are a changing and we are all going to have to change with them (wasn’t that a line from “Oklahoma”?). [Read more…]

Wrapping Up Affiliate Summit West 2017

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Affiliate Summit West 2017

Now that I’ve been home for a day, I am pulling together and processing all that happened at Affiliate Summit West. I’ll be honest that I wasn’t really looking forward to going–mainly for personal reasons. I was having a hard time getting motivated to go but knew that once I got there, I would be happy I was there.

I spent a lot of my time there representing in my capacity as Executive Director of the Performance Marketing Association and less time as blogger and owner of Sunshine Rewards. That made the trip a little different in that I didn’t schedule as many meetings. Nonetheless, I still came away with new business! Here were some of the highlights of the trip for me:

  • The PMA Brunch was terrific! We had a wonderful turnout of old members, new members, and even prospective members. Agencies, merchants, affiliates, networks, and others all mingled together to kick off the conference in familiar, energetic way. I have to thank Rachel Guillot for all of the work she did pulling it together for us!
  • The Meet Market was kind of a blur to me. I’m not even sure how I managed to pass so much time in there without visiting most of the booths. We had a nice spot at the back and it was encouraging to have PMA members seek out their stickers because they wanted to show off their membership. Over 20 members volunteered at some point throughout the day to help us spread the word about the organization.
  • I’m incredibly lucky to have Tony Pantano and Adam Viener to watch Steelers games with. ASW always seems to fall on the weekend of a Steelers playoff game, and I am glad I can hang out with them and twirl my Terrible Towel (and sometimes score free drinks).
  • I tend to take a lot of advice in general from Eric Nagel, so I knew that I would appreciate his session on “Maximizing Productivity: Tips & Tricks to Getting More Done.” I especially needed it now with the start of a new year, new initiatives, and a full inbox. I have to get back to making lists and prioritizing. I know he’ll help hold me accountable.
  • The ShareASale party was one of my favorites in a long time. The club was beautiful, the music and dance floor were hopping, and the Tailgate theme was casual but fun. I enjoyed dancing and goofing around with some of my favorite affiliate managers and OPMs (like Snow Consulting, AffiliateManager.com, Wade & Joe, etc) as well as the FMTC crew.
  • Monday I gave a presentation with Joe Sousa and Nathan Smith entitled “Boost Your Marketing with Faux Holidays and Special Events.” I really loved the topic! We didn’t get many questions afterward, which worried me that the content was not well received. Take a look at our slides and see what you think! (#VeryUnimportant)
  • All Inclusive Marketing hosted a terrific suite party for bloggers and I was able to connect with Char, Beth, Sarah, and the others on the team. I’m excited to try the bottle of wine I brought home from Wine Awesomeness! Sadly, it was time to say good-bye to Carolyn Kmet, but I will still bug her about the PMA.
  • I spent a lot of time missing my mom, Cindy Ballard. It didn’t seem right not having her there!
  • What can I say about Affiliate Karaoke? Nathan Smith works so hard to organize a place where we can go and be ourselves and cut loose. I don’t sing as much as I used to, but it’s in part because I genuinely love just sitting and watching everyone else!
  • I missed the Tuesday Keynote and Pinnacle Awards because it was the only time I could make the Rev Share Roundup, and it sounds like I missed quite a bit!! I plan on catching Sean Dolan’s keynote as soon as they release the video not only because he is a Steelers fan but also because I heard it was amazing. A lot of friends of mine earned Pinnacle Awards, which is fabulous, but I was most excited to hear that Rachel Honoway was honored with the Legend Award. She is deserving for so many reasons!!
  • Speaking of Rev Share Roundup, I was once again surprised to see so few affiliates in there. Maybe because it overlapped with the keynote? I already work with most of the merchants that were there, but I did meet one new one that I have big plans for already!
  • Lastly, I cannot convey the value of the time that I spent with my dear friends and business partners Eric Nagel and Todd Farmer. Although we didn’t talk a lot of Wine Club Group business this time, we always make sure to touch base and set plans and priorities for the next year. Aside from the business, I feel as though I am the luckiest girl in the world to have them around me. Never underestimate the importance of making connections at Affiliate Summit and following through with them!!

As I said at the start, I was not so excited about going; as you can tell, however, it all turned out great. I’m sure I’m missing lots of things and lots of people, but the post would be 5 pages long if I tried to document it all! Suffice to say I am looking forward to Affiliate Summit East in August.

How was Affiliate Summit for you? What stood out as special personally or for your business?

(Photo credits from Facebook: Carolyn Kmet, Kim Rowley, and Wade Tonkin)

Bloggers: 3 Essential Steps to Creating an Affiliate Link

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Affiliate Link Checklist

With the start of the new year, it’s a good time to review best practices. As more bloggers are becoming affiliates, it is even more important to talk about link building.

This post comes with a caveat. Sometimes you are in a hurry to get a post up or it’s for a very specific purpose (like a flash sale) where you just need to get published quickly with an affiliate link that is good for a short period of time. That’s fine. You may want to skip one of the steps below. What I am talking about today are more evergreen content posts where you expect to get traffic over time. For multiple reasons you want to invest just a few minutes in those affiliate links!

Step One: Create the Link Deep

You’ve probably heard about “deep links.” What does that mean? It basically means linking to any page except the home page. It may be a category page or a product page or a sale page. Essentially you want to link to EXACTLY what you are talking about. The only exception I usually use is that if I am talking about a product that I think might sell out relatively soon, I will link to a page of products on the merchant site that are all similar. An example would be if I am writing about a Smurf t-shirt, I might link to a whole page of Smurf t-shirts on the merchant site that includes the one I am writing about.

You want to get the reader as close to the product or deal you are talking about as possible.

You can create the deep link in a couple of ways. If you are lucky, the merchant provided it to you. That’s doesn’t always happen. Depending on the network the merchant is on, you have a couple of options. The longest way is to log in to the network and create the deep link in the interface. That’s a pain. The next best step is to use a bookmarklet provided by the merchant or the network. Some of them have bookmarklets; some do not.

[Read more…]

Shocking Affiliate Stats (And Why They Matter)

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shocking-affiliate

I run a lot of reports, especially this time of year. I watch various metrics including my own site’s traffic (and where it is coming from), where the traffic is going, and how much money I am making. But sometimes using raw data without digging in deep enough can actually cause you to lose money. I have 2 great examples from this week.

The Merchant Taking Advantage of Me

2 data points that affiliate marketers look at are the AOV (average order value) and the conversion rate (the percentage of traffic you send that actually buys anything).

I have a merchant that is doing REALLY well in those two areas for the month of December:

  • AOV: $102.73
  • Conversion Rate: 21%

Those are pretty great numbers for just about any program. I should be pushing them like crazy, right?

WRONG!

A number that is even more important is the actual commission rate. This isn’t the top line number that they advertise for the program. This is what you are being paid after you take into consideration sale prices, non-commisionable items, etc.

  • Total Sales: $2568.17
  • Total Commissions: $2.91

That’s not a typo. That’s $2.91 in commissions on $2568.17 in sales. Thanks to Eric Nagel for doing the math on this one for me, that’s a 0.11% commission rate. As in— 1/10 of 1 percent commission rate.

I would say that is essentially free traffic. What they are paying me versus what I am sending them amounts to pretty much free traffic for them. Sure, $2500 in sales is small potatoes for them. But $3 in commissions is a grain of salt in exchange for those small potatoes.

Conversely, check out this data….

The Merchant Performing Better Than I Thought

Comparing conversion rates like I did above, I have 2 merchants in the same niche with the following conversion rates:

  • Merchant A: 10%
  • Merchant B: 7.5%

You would assume that I should be promoting Merchant A over Merchant B, right?

WRONG!

Look at the EPCs for each (earning per 100 clicks):

  • Merchant A: $195
  • Merchant B: $626

That’s almost 3 times the earnings for Merchant B. Put it this way…if I send 1000 clicks to each this month, I’ll make $1950 from Merchant A but $6260 from Merchant B. In this case, the EPCs tell a better story because they take into account higher commission rates, bonuses, higher AOVs, etc.

Using data and analytics to your advantage is extremely important as an affiliate marketer. Be sure that you are looking at the RIGHT numbers to ensure you are making good business decisions.

What data do you use? What do you think about the merchants above?

Win a Pass to Affiliate Summit and Grow Your Business

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Win a Pass to ASW17If you have read my blog for more than 5 minutes, you know that I love Affiliate Summit. I don’t know what my business would be like without it, but I do know that attending for my first time helped me turn my “hobby site” into a profession that I have now enjoyed for more than 10 years. If you have ANY chance to go, you should take it.

Speaking of chances…I have one for you! Affiliate Summit has given me a Networking Pass to give away for Affiliate Summit West 2017  in Las Vegas. It’s a great way to get your foot in the door without having to invest too much time or money but at the same time start taking your business seriously. [Read more…]