Make each affiliate aware of content relevant to their site, and scrutinise their performance over a period, to suggest alternative ways of displaying links.

Then we have the oldest tricksters, the voucher advertisers, who would do just about every trick, just  to reach out and grab every last voucher code out there.

But what about those who make  referrals that don#t lead to a sale, where do they get valued ? It isn’t possible for Google nor affiliate network tracking cookies to attribute the referall to the site generating the original sale……meaning your ‘Longer tail’ is likely to grow rather than feel affiliated to your programme.

Will Innovation in Affiliates be rewarded ?

If the hard work is to go unnoticed, then a recent innovation in affiliate marketing caught my eye, with cutting edge technology they promised to track searchers on site, and then issue tracking cookie, with Post Impressions(PI) which gives  unique tracking for 48 hours after visitors leave the site. A novel idea, and could theoretically, add the valued visitor to your site, who has been on site and had the opportunity to come back as an informed buyer.

Given there are over 150 million bloggers and that is excluding Chinese language blogs, and Google claims that in five years we will all use the internet in Chinese. Clever google giving the right soundbites. Global sales can really increase a companies sales and search engine optimisation for a translated website is slightly different. A translated site will support an English searcher arriving on site, and then switching to the preferred language but we should think of optimising for localised searches.

The High Page Rank Directories

Online Marketing In A Foreign Language

Unfortunately my request to go to France to do keyword research fell on deaf ears. The site needs to perform well before these trips can sell themselves. Struggling to find  a foreign language keyword list, there are always sites like suggestyooda.com to get relevant keywords. Avoid mixing languages, as this will only diminish efforts to rise up the search results.

The groundwork is vital before the more familiar SEO begins. Linkbuilding, via open directories like DMOZ. Also I am establishing profiles on social sites and starting different blogs on the relevant host, which is google.fr. The whole exercise has enhanced my language skills and sharpened my SEO skills.  Article submission gives more exposure to the website  noticed using  the websites keyword list.

The Linkbuilding Process

Google have spoken about their policy of ranking websites that exhibit authority and high page rank.  They have produced a toolbar option, the  sidewiki  for users to add relevant content to the search engine. During the Vince and caffeine updates, it was an opportunity to monitor traffic to my sites in other search engines.  With Facebook getting a limited integration with Bing, there is a potential for quality links from facebook.

Linkbuilding is becoming less effective, so I am improving my page rank through article submissions with optimised titles and keywords littered throughout. Articles and press releases, if carefully constructed give some quality links. Similarily, directory submissions are still an active part of my SEO, and along with the articles, they have to be submitted to high page rank sites only.

I also noticed that most of the directories that got devalued were the spammy directories, most of the good directories remained the same (page rank wise) or got devalued a bit. I  personally believe that some directories are worth submitting to, but the majority of them are significantly devalued and if you are linking to them it might have negative effects for your website too. I’m still going to build directory links however i will differentiate the good links from the bad quality ones. I still think the best way to got about link building is to use a variety of links, we just have to watch from now on ,and not submit thousands of links to random directories as it will most probably have a negative effect!

Ari

Now, we all know there are a few affiliates out there who – while driving many genuine sales – have one or two little tricks up their sleeves to claim a few additional sales that they didn’t work very hard to generate.

It’s very annoying and can leave the merchant in a bit of a dilemma – do you continue to work with the affiliate because of the hit you’ll take in affiliate sales or do you take a moral stance and strike them off your list (or at least threaten to if they don’t change their ways) giving your affiliates who genuinely drive quality traffic and sales the opportunity to claim a bigger stake in your programme?

Save the channel from cheating affiliates

I’m a firm believer that all affiliates who ask to be on a programme should make the effort to promote the brand. Don’t ask if you don’t want to do it or are going to cheat your way through it! I’m very firm in my belief and won’t stand for other affiliates losing out because of a few individuals who want to make an easy buck.

That said I can’t, unfortunately, overrule my clients decision to keep an affiliate on the programme – only advise the client and make affiliates aware that I’m fully aware of what they’re doing and will start to refuse those commissions where I can prove they’re cheating!

I do fully believe in the power of affiliates – I wouldn’t be an affiliate manager otherwise – but I’m also aware that like every other industry there are a few bad eggs and I will do everything in my power to weed them out and make them known.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly Christmas comes round once you’ve passed the age of receiving toys and when you actually have to start buying gifts for family members, who soon start to produce more members!

Christmas is paramount for every retailer that’s when the majority of them take the bulk of cash for the year and that’s when they need to sell the most. That’s why they have to use every part of the retail mix to ensure they maximise their revenue.

One of the easiest and most cost effective ways is through their affiliate marketing programmes and planning for Christmas means knowing what your key products are for the season – both in terms of gift buying and personal shopping for the party season – understanding who is buying them and giving them the help and encouragement to buy from you and ensuring your affiliates want to help you do well.

Here are a few tips, they’re not mind blowingly groundbreaking just common-sense tips which we all should be following.

What are your top products?

You must know what your top sellers are, or at least what you expect them to be. Tell your affiliates. They aren’t working just for you and they don’t have access to all your stock information. Tell your affiliates why these are your top products and tell them what accessories, additional items they may want to push alongside these products. Affiliates aren’t stupid but they’re not mind readers either – give them the info they need to push your products.

What promotions are you running for customers?

Not everyone’s cup of tea but if you’re doing any promotions or offering special services for Christmas such as free delivery or returns or a special courier service which will allow them to order right up until the day before Christmas eve tell you affiliates. These guys give your brand and products so much more reach and will have new customers who might just try your product because of the service you are offering. If you want people to buy you have to tell them what you’re offering and this extends much further than your own site!

What are you doing to encourage your affiliates to push your site?

As we’ve said before, affiliates are working for more than just you and just like anything else they will work harder for the people that offer them the best deal. That doesn’t just mean the highest commission but the highest conversion, additional incentives such as competitions where they can win a prize or extra commission for improving their sales, or just giving them the tools they need to push your products as simply and easily as possible!

The point of all this – use all your channels effectively otherwise you are just wasting the money you spend on setting them up. As with everything in life, you only get out what you put in!

OK, I know I only posted yesterday but this is important.

For the past few weeks we have all been waiting anxiously on the PageRank update to kick in and now it has. As I only saw it a couple of hours ago I haven’t got too much info on it except that it looks like a biggie! Normally a new site wthl some links in it would open at a PR3 but sites I have seen have opened at a PR1 and blogs that I haven’t done any work on since the last PR update have been reduced to a PR1.

One site feeds the other...

It seems that Google are being less generous with the old green fairy dust than before. In saying that it’s not all bad because most of my clients have had a PR increases. I wonder if this has anything to do with Google giving more love to bigger brands?

I might need to do a PageRank explanation for the newbies…watch this space.

<nic>

OK I’m not saying that we shouldn’t need a server request to get access but after you give access, as far as I have seen, you can’t take access away without changing server. This is an obvious pain in the ass and almost impossible for any large companies to do without a proper business case.

The problem with someone that no longer works with or for you having webmaster tools access is that they can drop your site out of the rankings with a click of a button. BIG problem is you have you have parted on bad terms.

In a less malicious way having webmaster tools access can allow an ex-employee/ agency exploit weaknesses in the companies website for financial gain or for in-depth competitor analysis. No one wants to be in the position where your old agency goes to pitch for your main competitor based on ‘we know what others don’t about your competitors’ get hired and then systematically take your natural search marketing apart.

What Should Google Do to Protect Webmaster

Google should tie Google Webmaster Tools into Google Analytics but only allow webmaster info to be seen if a server request has been completed. Not only would this allow you to control your users but I would suspect that it would increase the accuracy of Google Analytics tracking and allow particularly nerdy and analytical folk to figure out more accurate position CTR.

</nic>