Net Media Group / AffiliateCREW is proud to announce it has been selected as the outsourced affiliate program management company for the LIVESTRONG® Fitness affiliate program.

LIVESTRONG® Fitness is now offering their complete line of treadmills, elliptical trainers and exercise bikes direct from the manufacturer.

And, when affiliates promote LIVESTRONG® Fitness treadmills, ellipticals or bikes, they’re doing more than improving their visitor’s health. They’re  supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation in its fight against cancer.

The LiveStrongFitness.com Affiliate Advantage

• Launched in the Commission Junction Affiliate Network
• 8% Commission on every qualified transaction
• 30-day commission duration
• Free shipping on all orders

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven outsourced affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

Net Media Group / AffiliateCREW is proud to announce it is the new outsourced affiliate program management company for the  Surf Shelf affiliate program in the Commission Junction affiliate network.

SurfShelf is a secure laptop holder for your treadmill, bike or elliptical. You can surf the internet, watch shows, and check emails while you work out making you even more productive than ever.

Best of all, the SurfShelf holds up to 50 lbs. easily and fits 99% of laptops on the market today, including 17″ models.

Surf Shelf Affiliate Program

• 10% commission rate
• 15% performance incentive for 100 or more sales per month
• Regular promotions such as coupons, free shipping, etc. to boost conversions
• 45 day referral cookie
• Open search policy — we do not restrict the use/bidding of any keywords and we encourage affiliates to use our provided SEM-proven keywords in their search engine marketing and optimization
• Exclusive coupon code available after first sale
• High conversion rate 3.5%+
• Affiliates can join here

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven outsourced affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

Net Media Group is excited to announce that we have just launched the LifeCORE Fitness Equipment affiliate program and will be adding their high quality products to our long list of fitness affiliate programs.

Founded in 1994, LifeCORE Fitness manufactures and distributes club quality fitness equipment including Lifecore rowing machines, Lifecore recumbent bikes, Lifecore ellipticals and weights for home use.

LifeCORE affiliates will be able to earn 10% commission on every qualified sale. A wide range of banners and text links have been uploaded and are ready for affiliates to place on their sites.

To join the LifeCORE affiliate program, visit MoolaMoola.com.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven outsourced affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

One great benefit of having an affiliate program is that your affiliates can become a defensive blockade for your brand.

What is a defensive blockade using affiliates?

Defensive blockades with affiliates are when they are used to block your competitors or negative detractors from the first page of search results in both organic and paid search listings.

Imagine typing your company’s name or flagship product’s name into Google.

As you start to review the paid search listings, you notice that some competitors are bidding on your brand name and trying to siphon off potential customers who are specifically looking for your product.

Now imagine doing this again and this time instead of seeing your competitors, you only see “friendly’s” promoting your product who are ultimately driving sales to your site.

This is possible through affiliate marketing.

Why use affiliates for a defensive bloackade?

Some question whether or not those would be sales you would’ve have gotten anyway. One some level that may be true. However, would you rather have the page full of affiliates whom only are paid when a sale occurs or would you rather have your competitors there diverting your traffic and sales?

Another thought, if they are able to close the sale with a different approach and can close the sale when you couldn’t, you still win in the long run because you were able to make a customer through their efforts. Either way you make money.

Why not let the affiliates duke it out with the trademark poachers on their dime?

If you’re wondering how much that costs, you might be suprised to hear that affiliates are paid on a pay for performance basis and are only paid when they make a sale.

This is all tracked using affiliate tracking technology where a pixel is fired from your thank you page whenever a sale occurs and is recorded in a third party affiliate tracking software or affiliate network.

Creating a defensive blockage creates a situation where both you and your affiliates win while your competitors get pushed to page two or further with their tail between their legs.

Further, some companies face a rather unique situation where a disgruntled past customer has made it their lifes mission to tarnish their brand and do an online smeer campaign and get ranked in the top 5 in the search results for their company’s name.

By providing a bounty in addition to commissions, you can attract some pretty big affiliates who would be more than happy to take the challenge.

Using affiliates as a defensive blockade can help you dominate the search results. It’s not enough to just turn affiltiaes loose on organic listings, you should also consider letting them go after paid search with your trademarks in a controlled manner.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven outsourced affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

While it makes good financial sense to have a high converting website, it’s surprising that not every merchant is conducting conversion testing to improve their conversion rates.

It’s surprising because it’s a relatively easy way to generate more sales; especially in the affiliate channel.

Plus, having a high converting site makes for a great recruiting tool to help attract and keep the best affiliates.

Why You Should Be Running Conversion Testing for Affiliates

Every day affiliates ask us about conversion rates and which programs run conversion testing.

They’re asking about it. They look for it. They expect it.

In short, the top affiliates do this on their sites; they expect you to do the same.

There are two basic methods of conversion testing:

1. A/B Testing – When you test one variable at a time.
2. Multivariable Testing – When you test multiple variables at the same time. This is often referred to as “MVT.”

Conversion testing can be done lumping all sources of traffic, or in its most advanced state, be conducted on each channel separately (PPC vs. SEO vs. Email vs. Affiliate vs. CPM).

Each channel converts differently. However, if an affiliate is going to invest and succeed in promoting your products long-term, your site needs to convert specifically in their channel.

If you have a high converting website, you can advertise your conversion rate to help attract affiliates and save them the step of asking.

I know plenty of affiliates who don’t ask, and expect you to advertise it. So, if you don’t know what it is, find out. If you know and it’s low, fix it!

Just as in your business, affiliates want to invest their time into the things that will bring in the most money.

After all, it is how they earn a living so return on investment is an important factor in their decision to join your affiliate program or not.

If you don’t have a good conversion rate, chances are slim that you’re going to attract the right affiliates. They will move on to another program that does convert.

The higher the conversion number, the more attractive your program will be. Not only that, it will also help you retain affiliates in your program because they will be earning higher commissions.

Everyone wins when you have a high converting website.

Your affiliates win because they earn more commissions. You win because they sell more products. And, it’s all done on a pay for performance basis.

Are you doing conversion testing for your affiliates?

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven conversion testing methods, give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

There are many companies and businesses that could benefit from having an affiliate program but don’t even know they really need one, much less how to start one.

To help you determine if you could benefit from having an affiliate program, I put together four quick reasons why you should consider starting an affiliate program:

1.    Extend your online marketing reach.
Rather than just relying on your one website, imagine having hundreds if not thousands of online affiliate marketers promoting your brand and products on their websites on your behalf.

2.    Give your online marketing unprecedented leverage.
Instead of just relying on your own online marketing efforts like PPC and SEO, you will be able to also leverage affiliate websites to promote your products, specials, coupons, and more. Starting an affiliate program will help you get onto hundreds if not thousands of targeted affiliate websites.

3.    Affiliate sales are incremental.
Frankly, these aren’t sales you would’ve gotten any other way. Affiliates are masters at pre-selling your products and persuading their audience to buy certain products or services over others. In fact, it is not uncommon to increase online sales by 25% or more by starting an affiliate program.

4.    Affiliate programs are highly cost effective.
Simply put, you do not have to pay affiliates to post your banner ads or text links on their websites. You only pay an agreed upon commission (which varies depending on your margin) when a sale is made.

You should really consider starting an affiliate program because your business can gain greater reach, leverage, awareness, incremental sales, all the while being highly cost effective.

But first, make sure your company is qualified to have an affiliate program and, if so, if you should hire an outsourced affiliate program management company to run it for you.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

If you’re thinking about starting an affiliate program, there are a few things you need to know first.

From a marketing standpoint, having an affiliate programs sound pretty enticing…

Who wouldn’t want to have hundreds, if not thousands, of affiliate marketers promoting your product all over the Internet?

The notion is pretty hard to pass up… imagine the reach you’ll have with all these affiliates. You’ll be rich!

Well, sorry to say, it’s not that simple.

I wish it were.

In fact, the truth is that not every company should have an affiliate program.

Here are the three top questions you need to ask yourself before starting an affiliate program:

1. Do you have a high converting Website?
   Obviously, it’s in everyone’s best interest that you have a high converting site ─ especially yours! The better your site converts visitors to sales, the more affiliates will make and in turn, the more you will make.

   For example, if an affiliate sends you 100 visitors, your current conversion rate is 1.5%, your product sells for $50.00, and you are paying a 10% commission that means your affiliates would make $7.50 per 100 visitors. However if your site was converting at 2.5% they would be making $12.50 for the very same 100 visitors.How do you increase your conversion rate? You can increase the conversion on your site through multivariable testing, aka MVT, which is a subject of an upcoming post I’m writing. Stay tuned!

2. Do you have the margin?
   Some companies run on very slim margins. This can make it difficult to have enough left over to pay the affiliates a fair and enticing commission.

   One aspect that is often overlooked is that you will also need to make enough to pay someone to manage the affiliate program like an outsourced program management company. Not only that, but you have to pay to put it into an affiliate network and will also likely encounter nominal monthly minimum costs.

3. How is your current online marketing efforts performing?
   While some hope otherwise, it’s safe to say your affiliate program won’t outperform your other online marketing efforts in terms of revenue.Therefore, don’t expect it to lay waste to your pay per click or search engine optimization efforts. It’s not uncommon to see PPC drive about 60% of the online revenue, SEO 30%, and Affiliate channel drive around 20%.

In order to have a successful affiliate program you first need to have a high converting website, be able to afford paying affiliates an attractive commission, and already have online marketing that is performing well.

Otherwise, you will be spinning your wheels and you will likely repel affiliates.

Before jumping in with both feet first, take a minute to be sure your company is really ready to have an affiliate program. You’ll be glad you did.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

A common question we always get is “are you an affiliate network?”

The simple answer is no, Net Media Group is not an affiliate network.

So who is Net Media Group we and what do we do?

Net Media Group is an online marketing agency and one of our services includes offering outsourced affiliate program management to companies who either don’t have the experience, personnel, or desire to manage their own affiliate program.

Given the confusion between an outsourced program management company (OPM) and an affiliate network I wanted to give you a basic overview on the differences.

What is an Affiliate Program Management Company?

Simply put, a client hires an outsourced program management company to manage their affiliate program on their behalf.

In addition:

• Outsourced program management companies employ affiliate managers and coordinators to help run their clients affiliate programs.
• They make recommendations on which affiliate network to join.
• They are also responsible for the day to day operation of the affiliate program.
• They handle all recruitment, management, and interaction with the affiliates on the client’s behalf.
• The affiliate manager uploads banner ads, text links, and datafeeds into the affiliate network so affiliate can promote the clients products.
• The outsourced program management company makes recommendations to the client regarding special deals, promotions, and contests and then promotes them to affiliates in the program.

What is an Affiliate Network?

An affiliate network is the technology that provides tracking, communication, and recruitment tools to run an affiliate program.

In addition:

• Google Affiliate Network, Linkshare, Commission Junction, ShareASale, and Avantlink all are examples of an affiliate network.
• An affiliate network is the market place for outsourced program managers to recruit, attract, and interact with affiliates.
• Affiliates apply to join the affiliate program in the affiliate network.
• Many confuse third party tracking software with an affiliate network. The difference will be explained in another post.
• All commission payments are handled through the affiliate network as well as 1099’s for U.S. based affiliates.
• Text links, banners ads, datafeeds, are uploaded into the affiliate network for affiliates to use and are all tracked by the affiliate network.

Hopefully this basic overview helps you understand the difference between an affiliate program management company and an affiliate network.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

Once you have made the decision that you need to hire an affiliate program management company, you will need to closely examine a few things outside of just the cost structure to ensure you partner with the right outsourced affiliate program management (OPM) company.

How to Select an Affiliate Program Management Company

1. Look for proven experience.
   It’s not critical that the affiliate program management company you work with has direct experience selling in your category. What’s more important is how experienced they are in recruitment, optimization, and activation and how they can leverage that experience for your brand.
2. Don’t be fooled by large numbers of affiliates.
   Many affiliate management companies boast about how many affiliates they work with. While that can imply they are well networked, affiliate programs routinely follow the 80/20 rule where 20% of the affiliates drive 80% or better of the revenue in the program. Therefore, having the top tier affiliates in your program is more important than the gross number you have.
3. Activity in the affiliate marketing community.
   This is a good indicator that they are abreast of any current affiliate issues or practices. Do they participate in affiliate discussion forums? Do they attend affiliate conferences? Do they speak at affiliate events? These can help you determine how engaged they are in the affiliate space which can give you a pulse on their operation. Are they visible?
4. Reputation.
   Is the OPM Company known for its ethical practices? Do they have a rock solid reputation or one that isn’t what you expected? Do a search online and see what people are saying about them. You may be very surprised by what you can find sometimes.
5. Procedures to enforce trademark policies.
   If brand or trademark is an issue, how will the outsourced affiliate program management company enforce your brand standards and trademark policies? Do they police your brand for you? Is it even on their radar? If an affiliate program management company talks about brand and trademark protection, it can be a very good sign.
6. What kind of screening process they employ.
   Some affiliate program management companies auto approve affiliates without manually screening affiliates while others carefully review the affiliates to make sure there is a good fit and that no pornography or gambling related sites sneak through.
7. Affiliate network selection process.
   What affiliate network your company recommends for your affiliate program can make a big difference when launching an affiliate program. Some will promote an inhouse solution while others will recommend a third party affiliate network or a hybrid of both.
   Ask how they determine which network you will go into and if they want to place your affiliate program in a traditional affiliate network or a CPA network. They are NOT the same thing and will be detailed in a future post. Suffice it to say, the methods used to promote your product are VERY different between the two types of networks.
   If you hear “because that’s what we always use” or “because we can generate high volume” you may want to reconsider.
8. First tier vs. second tier affiliates.
   If you care anything about your brand, you want to focus on first tier affiliate programs. Second tier affiliate programs are when an affiltiae manager approves one affiliate and that affiliate invites and approves others to promote your products and make additional commission on their sales. What can go wrong here is that you and the affiliate management company just lost control of who is promoting your product, and how they are promoting it.
9. Evaluate their recruiting prowess.
   Recruiting is the hardest job in affiliate management. So, you’ll want to ask a few questions. Do they just work within the established affiliate network or do they go outside of the network? Do they primarily focus on recruiting deal sites or do they go after niche based affiliates like datafeeders, review sites, video bloggers, etc? This can tell you a lot about what you can expect from the affiliate program management company.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 today!

While many companies try to manage their own affiliate programs, other companies are turning to a far easier solution – hiring an outsourced affiliate management company, also known as an OPM, to do it for them.

Top 10 Reasons to Hire an Affiliate Program Management Company

Here are 10 top reasons why hiring an outsourced program management company (OPM) for your affiliate program might be the best course of action for your company.

1. It can make good financial sense.

While all affiliate sales are incremental with commissions being paid on a percentage basis whenever a sale is generated, you will also need to compensate the affiliate management company to launch, maintain, and grow your affiliate program.

There are three basic models for paying affiliate management companies: 1) A monthly retainer which is a fixed cost 2) a percentage of sales which is incremental and 3) a hybrid solution. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses which will be covered in a future post.

The fact is, the cost to hire an outsourced affiliate program management company usually outweighs the cost of hiring internally when you factor in salaries, bonuses, benefits, taxes, supplies, etc. Therefore, it can make good financial sense to hire out the management of your affiliate program.

2.    You gain access to a team of resources.

Most companies hire one person to run their affiliate program internally. Or, they have someone add on the responsibility of running the affiliate program with no previous experience and as a result, the program withers on the vine. Running your affiliate program on auto pilot is never a good idea, either.

An outsourced program management company usually has multiple people working on one account. More resources means more can get done, faster. It also means more people will properly give it the time and attention it needs to grow.

3.    You get instant access to proven affiliates.

When you hire an experienced affiliate program management company to run your affiliate program, you tap into long established relationships with hundreds if not thousands of proven affiliates. One email from a reputable affiliate manager can help you get instant trust and traction that you just can’t get on your own.

4.    You immediately tap into years of knowledge and experience.

Most trusted outsourced program managers have been in the business for at least 3-5 years. Working with experienced affiliate management companies can help you avoid the common pitfalls and focus on the increase in revenue this channel can provide. In addition, OPM’s know how to attract, retain, and activate affiliates and work with all the various affiliate networks.

5.    They know where to find the right affiliates.

Experienced affiliate program management companies know which affiliate networks to enter to recruit affiliates based on your product or industry.

They may even already know several “super affiliates” in your niche and have direct access to them. This can go a long way in getting the right kinds of affiliates active and generating sales in your affiliate program.

6.    They understand effective promotional techniques.

A big part of affiliate marketing is incentivizing your affiliates with the proper financial motivation at the right time.

Outsourced affiliate management companies know how to get affiliates attention with monthly, quarterly, or seasonal creative promotions and contests that help sky rocket sales.

7.    OPM’s know how to recruit – The hardest job in affiliate marketing.

Just because you launch in a large affiliate network doesn’t mean all of the best affiliates will immediately start promoting your products. You still have to do some heavy recruiting to get the best affiliates into your affiliate program.

Seasoned affiliate management companies will have their affiliate managers and coordinators scour the internet, affiliate network, and affiliate contacts to find and qualify opportunities you would never have imagined or been able to get on your own.

They also know what to say to prospects to get their attention because contacting potential affiliate’s cold is a part of their everyday lives.

8. They can help optimize the channel.

Once you have affiliates active in your program, you’ll definitely want them to produce more for your affiliate program. That’s where optimization campaigns come into play.

Seasoned outsourced program management companies know how to get more sales out of their existing affiliate base because they have one to one relationships with them.  They can find out why your product isn’t being promoted as much and what can be done to fix it.

9. They get affiliates active.

In every affiliate program, there are hundreds if not thousands of dormant affiliates who have joined an affiliate program but have never pulled a banner, text link, or much less made a sale.

Think of all the potential you might have overlooked here.

Hiring an OPM can help you get more of these affiliates active. They’ll use proactive techniques to get the affiliates attention and get them to open lines of communication that can lead to them becoming active in your affiliate program.

10. They already know the affiliate management tools inside and out.

OPM’s live and breathe in the affiliate networks. So, they know how to use the affiliate management tools for maximum efficiency as well as the secrets to contacting the right affiliates within the network.

When you don’t have the time, experience, or internal resources to effectively and proactively manage your affiliate program, it’s time to seriously consider hiring an experienced outsourced affiliate program management company.

To learn more about Net Media Group’s proven affiliate program management give us a call at (801) 365-0057 and we’ll contact you within 24 business hours.