December is here and another year is coming to a close.  I’m excited for what 2010 has in store, but lets take a minute to reflect on some of the great things that 2009 has given us in the world of Affiliate Marketing.  How can I even begin without mentioning flogs!  Flogs really stepped into the limelight in 2009, becoming something that brought a lot of revenue for certain people.Lets begin with looking at the ads - how can you forget “The Flat Stomach Rule” ad that displayed the before and after side by side, quite graphically?  Or the “Dr. Oz Reports” banners or the “Obama wants mothers to go back to college”.  Most of these ads were, well, surprisingly effective.  The popularity of these ads actually brought forth new policies and guidelines, so no more Dr. Oz or Obama or the likeliness of them.Also, landing pages took some change too.A lot of landing pages took on a blog format at the beginning - remember seeing someone holding a check.  These blogs slowly morphed into other formats, news blogs, news sites, or celebrity sites.It’s been a crazy year with everything that has happened, the new FTC guidelines, and its interesting to see how quickly things change in this realm.  Maybe 2010 will have this in store for us…??

Here we are again, that time of year where retailers are on the edge of their seats, waiting to see the effects of our grim economy on consumer holiday spending. 

I read an article that said 42% of U.S consumers expect to spend less this holiday season, and will make purchasing decisions based on whether or not retailers offer coupons. Online advertisers have to take into consideration more than just holiday creative when marketing to consumers. Regardless of attractive landing pages and short forms, consumers will be looking for the best discounts and promotions with the hopes of stretching their dollar a bit further.

Advertisers and affiliate marketers should spend the next month focusing on capturing the demographic that will make online purchases solely because of its advertised promotion. This means increasing clicks by clearly stating promotion details in subject lines, search results and display ads.

If you have a promotional campaign for your product, just contact the AKMG team and we will work with you to make this holiday season a prosperous one!

The Thanksgiving holiday has come to an end, and we know what that means - the official kick-off of the Holiday shopping season.  Many of my friends decided to put their game-faces on and trek to the malls for Black Friday (I should have recommended they wear helmets and shoulder-pads - for mere survival).  I, on the other hand, was someone who wanted to wait until Cyber-Monday for all of the deals.  Many of my friends have never heard of Cyber Monday - but I informed them how similar it was to Black Friday - without the threat of losing your weave fighting over the last Taylor Swift Band Hero video game.

This is the first time where I actually looked in my inbox searching through some great offers - opposed to just deleting the standard commercial emails.  According to a prediction by Shop.org, 87.1% of retailers supposedly ran Cyber Monday promotions, up from 72% back in 2007.  Email clearly was the main channel for promoting offers coming from the Cyber Monday extravaganza.  Sales were up a total of 14% since last year - and this number will likely continue to grow in the future.  ”We are seeing good online buying momentum because people are looking for the very best deals, and are going online for the most convenient way to shop,” John Squire, chief strategy officer, Coremetrics, said in a report Tuesday.

A reason for this momentum might be from the simple passing of knowledge about Cyber Monday.  A lot, I mean a lot, of my friends and family had no clue about Cyber Monday.  Simply because they never heard of it.  After I told them, they were excited to check out the deals.  Online shopping has become almost as commonplace as shopping in-store.  So there is no wonder why there is a momentum gaining speed, thus leading to increased sales from years past on Cyber Monday.  And I’m sure next years numbers will shoot up again.  Happy Holiday shopping to all, and to all a good night!

Univision is but the latest media conglomerate to launch its own ad network, targeting the less-cluttered Spanish-language media and mobile market.

Univision’s Spanish-language web sites include US, Spanish and Latin American sites and reportedly has significant reach to the U.S. Hispanic audience. It boasts a broad range of content sites from such as entertainment-oriented Caracoltv.com and news-focused Perfil.com to sports-minded Tycsports.com and business-centric Ambito.com (ay dios mio, was that a mouthful).

Mucho dinero at stake too, affiliate fiends, so put down that margarita and pay attencion. There are more than 48.6 million Hispanics in the U.S. (17% of the total U.S. population) and the group yields $964 billion in buying power. This will grow to $1.1 trillion by 2010. I’ve noticed multiple networks featuring Spanish-language versions of their top offers, including your friendly neighborhood AKMG (Dish en Espanol, Your Baby Can Read, er, Tu Bebe Puede Leer!, etc.).

In the past year, internet penetration among Hispanics has grown almost five times faster than among non-Hispanics, according to the Univision Partner Group website. And don’t even get me started on international health continuity in Spain and gaming/downloads in Latin America…

While you’re waiting around for your (increasingly competitive) French campaigns to get back up, consider testing south of the brie and baguettes to sangria and serrano… Spain (and Italy) are growing hotspots for health and beauty. What are you waiting for tortugas, expand your reach in what you already know works and deepen your pockets in doing so.

Mamasita de AKMG

PS - Get your vote on para la ppc.bz, and andale already!

http://www.affiliatesummit.com/pinnacle-award-nomination/