Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

Using Datafeedr and WooCommerce for Affiliate Site

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Datafeedr and WooCommerce for Affiliates

Recently I decided to try some different options for my sites to populate them with affiliate products. I’ve used PopShops, GoldenCan, and custom programming. Each had its pros and cons. My next step was to try Datafeedr. I decided to implement it using WooCommerce because it seemed like the easiest way to get it up and running quickly without any outside programming help, which is what most affiliates using WordPress would want to do.

Please note: I am NOT including screen shots of the steps that I took because Datafeedr has AMAZING documentation on getting everything set up, including a screen shot for every single step. I’m merely running through the steps basically so you can see what each entailed and how long it took.

Installing Plugins

My first step was to install first the WooCommerce Plugin and then the Datafeedr WooCommerce Importer. Both were no problem and installed on the first try. Both plugins had recently been updated, which is always a good sign!

I had to go back and install the following plugins later, so you might as well just do them at the same time: Datafeedr API and Datafeedr Product Sets.

Time: About 5 minutes [Read more…]

To the Merchants Changing Networks

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Merchant ChangesThe last few weeks every time I check my email there’s an announcement about affiliate programs moving and closing. I grumble about it because it can be a lot of work to change the links. This post isn’t to complain about merchants moving networks because I know sometimes it is for really good reasons. Rather, it’s to give some affiliate perspective on how the affiliate managers can make things easier on the affiliates.

1) Don’t say that the program is “closing.” We start to panic because we aren’t sure if it means that the program is closing totally or if it is really just moving. I know some networks have rules about what merchants can say when the emails come through their system. The easiest thing to say if you can’t say anything about another network is “The Merchant X program is closing on the Y affiliate network.” This at least gives us a clue that there is already a program open on another network or will be soon.

2) Give us at least a 2 week notice. A month is even better if possible. We may need to swap out entire datafeeds, update old blog posts, stop PPC campaigns, or make changes to our databases. When we get multiple emails like this in the same week, it becomes impossible to get all of these changes made in one week.

3) Tell us where you are moving. Get the word out any way that you can without violating network policies. If you can email your top affiliates directly, do that. But also don’t leave out everyone else. Simply posting on your social media at least gives us a chance of finding it if we do a quick search, especially if you are an OPM. When we find out where a program is moving we can start making plans for either changing out the links or dropping the merchant completely if it is a network we don’t work with.

4) Have the new program ready with the basics. I’ve gone in and applied for a lot of newly moved programs only to discover that they didn’t have all of the standard banner sizes loaded into the system or the datafeed ready. Have the basic necessities ready in the new program before affiliates even start applying so that we can move everything over as soon as we get accepted.

5) Approve existing affiliates quickly. Speaking of the application process, make it as quick as possible for affiliates to be able to pull the new links. If a program is closing on one network on Friday, don’t wait until Friday morning to approve existing affiliates. When possible, extend offers to us so we can start pulling links as soon as we accept the terms in the new network.

6) Keep terms the same. It’s incredibly disappointing to see a merchant move to another network and then drop the commission in half. Unless the program itself is in danger, don’t use the move as an opportunity to lowball affiliates.

7) Offer incentives to move. This isn’t a “must” but it is nice when merchants offer something for affiliates to get links moved more quickly. It could be a higher introductory rate on the new network for a few weeks or an exclusive coupon there or anything like that. If an affiliate is dragging their feet on making the switch or unsure whether they even want to spend the time making the changes, an incentive can help.

8) Keep the lines of communication open. More than anything else, let the affiliates know that you are available for questions and respond to emails in a timely fashion. They may not be as familiar with the new network or may have problems applying for the new program. Be patient with us and understand that while you may only be migrating one merchant this month (or even 5), we might be having to switch over 10 or 20.

Do you have any other tips for affiliate managers who are moving their programs? Any pet peeves?

Venturing from Affiliate to Influencer Marketing

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influencer-marketing

Just as many bloggers and influencers are finding their way into affiliate marketing, I’m doing the opposite. For the last 10 years I have focused almost completely on affiliate marketing, with blogging really just being a little piece of that and almost no influencer marketing at all.

As times are changing and new monetization methods are becoming popular, I’ve decided to give some of it a try myself. Over the years I have done a few paid posts but they were few and far between because I focused on the affiliate side of the business. Back in November I dipped my toes into sponsored tweets with a national campaign that I felt was a great fit for me and paid well for the amount of work I had to do.

What’s the Difference?

It should not feel like a stretch to take a flat rate of money rather than a commission for talking about a brand. For some reason it does to me. Getting paid X number of dollars rather than just writing the post and including an affiliate link feels completely different. Here are the main differences I am seeing in the process:

  • Generally with affiliate marketing I am finding the merchants and choosing which ones I want to write about from a BROAD spectrum of brands and prices. With influencer marketing they are coming to me and the selection is much smaller.
  • The message is more controlled. As an affiliate you can say just about anything you want about a product in any way. When you are under contract, you are given “talking points” that they want you to work into your messaging.
  • As an affiliate, I know that the merchant is not losing anything if my posts or Tweets don’t make any money for them. When I am getting paid up front for the work, I worry more about making sure that I am giving the merchant a return on their investment.
  • With affiliate links I often talk about competing brands and products, sometimes putting them all into one post. Often as an influencer you have to agree not to be sponsored by any other competitors in the same time frame.

Where’s It All Coming From?

I’ve decided to jump into all of this mainly because I really trust a couple of the companies that are showing me the opportunities. My favorite so far has been Clever Girls Collective and I am anxious to start seeing opportunities from Fresh Press Media. Both seem to really GET what the merchants and the bloggers are trying to do and make it easy for them to do it.

So over the next few months I will be testing this all out in earnest and seeing if it is right for me. Affiliate marketing will continue to be my primary method of monetization, but I plan on weaving in some of the influencer marketing as well to see how I like it. As always I will be disclosing what is sponsored so everyone will be able to tell. I’m anxious to see if my followers/readers even notice or care about the difference!

Have you had experience combining both affiliate and influencer marketing? Which do you prefer and why?

Join the Affiliate Slackers (But Learn and Get Stuff Done)

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affiliate-slackers

Last month Eric Nagel and I launched a new initiative together to help people share their affiliate marketing knowledge, network, and be more accountable. We’ve been slowly ramping it up first with some of our friends and now for everyone. It’s a new group, so it is still changing and growing. It’s also on Slack, which is completely new for a lot of people.

What kinds of things are we talking about? Here are just a few topics from the last 2 weeks:

  • WordPress plugin for Google’s new Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative
  • Ways to better use Instagram for marketing
  • FTC Disclosures in the real world
  • SEO tips including link building and the importance of DuckDuckGo
  • Merchants who are jumping networks or dropping commissions

Plus, watch Eric’s case study of completely moving one of his old site’s to revamp it. And we just added a new channel where we can openly ask each other for help sharing content.

Edited May 20, 2016–Today is a great time to join because we are running a free trial!!

Visit Affiliate Slackers for more information. The sooner you get in and get active, the more you can learn and network!

Relationships and Adaptation Led to 10 Successful Years

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sunshinerewards-collageThis month my company Sunshine Rewards celebrates 10 years in business. Although I have been in affiliate marketing longer than that, for some reason this milestone is the one that is most important to me. It’s meant weathering a lot of storms and building partnerships that are the foundation of everything I do.

When we started SR, my husband Kevin and I were armed with some technical skills, a little knowledge about affiliate marketing, and a desire to create something that would get us out of the $100K debt we found ourselves in between college and law school loans, building a house, and having 2 kids in the first 4 years of our marriage. We knew that if we wanted to really change our lives, we had to do something BIG. This is how we did it.

The Start of Something Big

On January 10, 2006, we registered www.sunshinerewards.com. We bought a cheap starter script and Kevin spent every evening and weekend hour rewriting things to make it our own. The logo was made in Paint or something like that. Our goal was to make a simple site where we could put up affiliate links and share the revenue with our friends who used them: Here’s how the site looked (this is really embarrassing):

sunshinerewards-1 [Read more…]