Domino's Pizza has started trials on a pioneering new 'social affiliate' tool. It combines social media and affiliate marketing so that individuals can earn money by advertising for a brand.

The new tool or “widget” allows anybody who has personal space on the web, such as a blog or a social network page, to host an ad on their page.

By giving people the facility to promote products or services on their web space, the tool aims to complement more traditional affiliate marketing strategies which use 'professional affiliates'. So you don’t need to be a big company to make money from affiliate marketing – now anyone can do it.

The idea is that the person hosting the advertising will earn revenue if a sale occurs as a result of the ad on their social networking or blog page.

For example, a person who adds the new Domino’s Pizza ad to their Facebook page, will earn money each time one of their online friends clicks on the ad and places an order as a result. Each sale will pay out 0.5% of the order value. So a large pizza costing £16.99 would generate 8.5p for the ad hoster.

The new social afflilate tool is being launched via an online PR and blogger outreach campaign. It will be supported later this spring by an online media campaign. It is hoped that these campaigns will drive awareness of the new opportunity and encourage individuals to participate.

Google affiliate network executive Chris Henger has left the internet search giant and is now working for marketing solutions firm, Catalina Marketing.

The US behaviour-based marketing services provider has nabbed Henger to run its Digital Services division in a move that is all over the newspapers, and, of course, on the online news portals.

Henger’s original move to Google was almost an accident. He was working in a team at Performics, which provides interactive marketing services. This firm was bought out by DoubleClick in 2004 and later Google purchased DoubleClick – and the rest is history.

Henger reportedly played a key part in the integrating of DoubleClick and Google’s Affiliate Network launch.

Now, in his role at Catalina, Henger is set to take over the store network. This is said to comprise 90 million US households and 300 million weekly shoppers. The presence of Henger and his skills set is intended to boost Catalina's emerging digital media presence. The decision to hire Henger follows a recent deal Catalina struck with Nielsen Co., which will see its in-store shopping data augmented with consumer media exposure data.

As the internet marketing sector gears up for next week's Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in London, a series of fresh affiliate marketing sessions have been lined up for March's event in New York.

On 25 March, the Hilton New York will be the setting for one whole day centred on affiliate marketing, particularly guidance for the search marketing community in how to take their affiliate programs "to the next level".

"Affiliate Marketing for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses" will include case studies outlining what has and hasn't worked for small and medium-sized firms interested in affiliate marketing, while "Affiliate Marketing and Social Media" will feature a panel of experts discussing opportunities on how to grow an affiliate program by leveraging Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as new marketing channels.

"Because SES conference attendees range from the elite search marketers to those just getting started in the field, we promise to present very practical information and gear it to all levels and all types of affiliate marketing," says organiser Kristopher Jones.

Meanwhile, producing unique website content and copywriting for search engines, advanced paid search tactics and website analytics are just some of the topics being covered at next week's SES London.

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Merchants and affiliates alike, rely hugely on the development and accuracy of affiliate tracking technology to ensure that sales and commissions are precisely recorded. There’s nothing more frustrating for an affiliate than finding out a commission has been missed due to a letdown in technology – for merchants and networks this can mean negative PR and even the loss of earning affiliates. After all, who wants to be part of a network that doesn’t accurate track the visitors and sales you make for a merchant or product?

Many affiliate networks use a small and unreliable variety of methods to ensure clicks and sales are tracked through their networks – in many cases becoming dependant on cookie tracking which, although easy to implement, can often be highly inaccurate and unreliable for affiliates, in some cases losing up to 27% of sales generated. (more…)

Online retail giant Amazon is stopping payments to UK affiliates who use paid and natural search to drive traffic to its website. In an email to UK affiliates, the company outlined its plans to prevent them using particular search engine optimisation techniques to drive sales to Amazon following similar recent moves with regard to its US affiliates.

From 1 February, referral fees won't be paid to associates who drive customers to Amazon via keyword bidding or other paid search on search engines – including Google, Bing and Yahoo! – or their extended search networks.

Affiliates who don't choose a new category that most accurately describes the method they'll use to send users to the Amazon.co.uk or related Javari.co.uk site by 1 March will have their account automatically closed. Commission won't be paid on purchases made by Amazon customers who are referred via Free Search Results either.

"Free Search Results are links containing an associate's tag displayed in a search engine's free, natural or organic search results in response to a search query which send customers directly to an Amazon site without the customer first being sent to an associate's site and the customer clicking on a link to arrive at the Amazon site," the firm notes in its announcement.

"These changes do not prohibit you from purchasing paid search advertisements or submitting links to search engines so long as the links that appear on the search engines send customers to your site," it continues.

Associates whose sites display Special Links – links pointing to Amazon.co.uk or Javari.co.uk with Amazon Associates tags – will continue to earn referral fees in accordance with Amazon's Associates Programme Operating Agreement.

Since MoreNiche opened its doors many moons ago we have taken the moral and legal stance on all marketing activity, ensuring both ourselves and our affiliates are compiling with laws both locally (in their country) and worldwide.

It is worth to note that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) are a US based government body and therefore apply to US based businesses/individuals however there are other governing bodies which are likely to follow suite, you should check the laws in your country.

Every country will have an organisation managing this, in the UK for example it’s covered by the Competition Law and the rules are different for each country. (more…)

As more high-street retailers disappear and consumers increasingly turn to the web in search of the best deals, it has become more important than ever that brands implement an online strategy to complement their offline offering.

Furthermore, because bargain-hungry shoppers expect to be presented with "something extra" to entice them into making a purchase, firms continue to sign up with affiliate networks, making affiliate marketing one of the retail buzz-phrases of 2010.

That's according to affiliate marketing specialist Liane Dietrich, who identifies a rise in the popularity of websites offering discounts and promotions in the last 12 months.

"Voucher codes, banner ads and email marketing have all proved popular and will continue to impact the way shoppers buy from brands on the web," she tells Retail Digital. "This is shown not only by the success of affiliate marketing to help initiate consumer purchases (affiliate marketing today accounts for as much as ten per cent of online sales), but also the sheer number of companies across a range of industries that are continuing to sign up with affiliate networks."

Pointing to a further rise in the popularity of blogs in the last year, Dietrich concludes that the increase in online shopping and the use of affiliate marketing also provides bloggers with the opportunity to monetise their sites through third party endorsements.

A California International Business University student who calls himself a "technology evangelist" is seeking to make an impact on the affiliate marketing realm by researching and writing a dissertation entitled "Affiliate Marketing: Maximising Conversion Rates – a Framework."

Marc Uhlig, a frequent speaker on affiliate and online marketing topics, says he's aiming to provide the managers of affiliate marketing programs with "a detailed understanding" of the factors that contribute towards affiliate success.

His interest in the growth of affiliate marketing is, in part, underpinned by a belief that the current economic system is endangered and needs personnel "who do not think only about themselves but give a thought to the greater good". To underline his point, Uhlig is donating $1 to non-profit organisation charity:water for every "valid and complete response" to his survey provided by affiliates and merchants running affiliate programs. You can find the survey here.

Online video marketing is one area that has not yet been "tapped much" for monetisation by affiliates, according to another specialist in the sector. Shawn Collins, co-founder of industry conference the Affiliate Summit and author of "Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants", claimed recently that online video content offers considerable "real estate" expansion to affiliate marketers who move early enough to take advantage.

MoreNiche are renowned for their industry leading affiliate tracking software (entitled MixiTrack™) which uses 4 different methods of tracking, ensuring 100% of traffic referrals are recorded and accredited to the appropriate affiliate. Compared to other networks where tracking is usually done solely by cookies and IP tracking (which can result in a 27% loss in recorded sales), MoreNiche provides a proactive and market leading technology that provides affiliates and merchants with a guaranteed, reliable and trusted tracking method.

Following on from this success, MoreNiche has now developed and launched Trusted Sites. By adding your site as a Trusted Site, MoreNiche will track the referral traffic sent to merchants included on their network – when the referral source is that of an affiliate, credit (in the form of any commissions generated) are allocated to the referring affiliate.

To activate this feature, MoreNiche affiliates simply need to add a unique meta tag to their sites to verify site ownership. Following this Trusted Sites technology works hand in hand with the other MixiTrack™ technology to continuously ensure that 100% of commissions are recorded.

“By providing new and updated technology to our affiliates, we are continuously striving to improve our network and the level of service our affiliates and merchants receive”, commented Andrew Slack, Managing Director of MoreNiche. “Trusted Sites means that MoreNiche users are given added piece of mind and are always safe in the knowledge that every sale they generated is corrected recorded and rewarded”.

MoreNiche are continuously pushing the boundaries of affiliate marketing forward to provide high quality merchant products and unrivalled technology. MoreNiche has set the pace of affiliate network development – the question is, can the other, larger networks keep up???

Now is the time for the affiliate marketing sector to "really jump in" and start working with online video content – if they aren't doing so already. That's the advice from Shawn Collins, co-founder of industry conference the Affiliate Summit and author of "Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants".

Collins says video marketing has not yet been "tapped much" for monetisation and therefore offers considerable "real estate" expansion to affiliates who move early enough.

However he emphasises that, as intimidating as it may be for affiliate marketers to produce and edit their own videos, using pre-produced clips from affiliate networks and vendors "can really get stale".

"Some [affiliates] using video fail for the same reason any other affiliates fail – they do nothing but post the content of others," he tells Reel SEO. "It's essential to create original content, both in video and text, in order to get and retain an audience."

Collins also suggests that the "biggest issue" faced by affiliates using video is that of copyright and trademark violation. The safest way for affiliates to create videos, he says, is to stick to original content and make sure they pay for the rights for any stock video and music.

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