Tis the season for pink and red hearts ‘n cupcakes, and ain’t love sweet? Nothing like a commercialized holiday just brimming with the optimal blend of opportunity and obligation. Single males 18 to 84 know that their target market, namely single females of a corresponding age, are on this calendar date one large, nation-wide bridal party. Time to cash in on the fun!

Enter FTD.com - FTD is synonymous with online flower deliver, and AKMG is direct and has the best payout, hands down! FTD offers present the opportunity to give fellas a gift quickly, easily and successfully, and to take advantage of the nation wide population of hopeful bridesmaids-to-be.

And don’t forget the “other woman,” aka…Mommy. Mothers separated by time zones or irreconcilable familial differences, can be given the shout out that says “Hey Mom, I am sorry about not enabling you to overcome all the obstacles given to you by my Dad, and to make up for that here is a bouquet from FTD flowers - so glad I remembered on time..ish.”

Moms, kids away at school, and lovers alike also love to see their name on anything and everything, and AKMG will beat your payout on any Personal Creations campaign (message in a bottle, personalized treat jars, etc).

Less we forget those looking for love, too! Online dating is up across the board, and historically dating numbers spike in Feb. AKMG is chock full of hot dating deals targeting: seniors, Christians, black singles, single parents, and bbws! For those who know love knows no bounds, Mate 1 is open to all channels and countries!

Mailers - Hit your Hotmail and Yahoo…weekends are best.

Mail-Me-Nots - Dating is hawt on social and Yahoo SEM right now. POF a little too saturated? Check out some of the other free dating sites online for new traffic sources!

Christian singles is a top-performing niche that converts great on broad traffic - no need for specific targeting! BBW is also one of our most stable niche dating campaigns… hit up your AM for ideas today!

SLACKERS - listen up! MyFunCards is a huge hit each and every holiday, but Valentines is by far the biggest and AKMG WILL MATCH OR BEAT YOUR PAYOUT. Nuff said.

- Cupids Lil Helper

It’s hard to believe that just over 12 months year ago I left the traditional direct response advertising world to join the online performance space. First stop? Affiliate Summit Vegas, just a week green into the industry. Talk about diving into the deep end to learn how to swim.

I can’t help but to reflect on the past year that has brought us to this tumultuous point as we reset and start 2010. Oh 2009 – what a rollercoaster you have been.

The Harpo Hammer came down when Oprah decided enough was enough. Then Google followed suit (pun intended).

The Recession. The FTC crackdowns. The Google slap. The Frozen merchant accounts. The Facebook pages popping up like “These People Don’t Pay.” The Acai Berry Jello wrestling…

2009 has certainly seen its ups and downs, and it is not by happenstance we find ourselves in somewhat intrepid crossroads. This past year has seen an explosion of advertisers , networks and affiliates in this space – some of which were unscrupulous in their pursuit of a quick buck.

Looking forward to the new decade, two tiers are emerging: those who innovate and those who replicate, and the chasm between is only deepening. This goes for affiliates, networks and advertisers.

This industry is continuously evolving. Smart people adapt and find smarter ways to succeed. Lazy efforts lacking any strategic plan for long-term sustainability, sloppy executions and a disregard for playing by the rules will leave you out in the cold.

As free trials and flogs are getting G-slapped snookie style and competition increases , capitalize on branded offers and leverage the money already invested in them by your offline counterparts (think: P90X all over Maxim Magazine and late-night TV)…

Which leaves us to the most important questions… how do we proceed from here? Just what skate board will AKMG be representing this year? And really, what would Ryan Eagle do?

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/

Ad Tech NYC has come and gone. And you know what that means (well besides a massive wave of swine flu or lengthy facebook untagging sessions). Let’s just say I am mere weeks from trading in my Pumpkin Spice lattes in for Peppermint Mochas, and somewhere outside of the 70 degree and sunny SoCal bubble in which AKMG calls home (I might add, a short two blocks from the beach), it is cold and snow is falling.

That’s right my affiliate friends, it’s officially Christmas marketing season. Start early with holiday promotions and keep the specials running up to the last minute — this will make it easy for consumers to purchase during Black Friday or any other shopping day.

According to October’s Adweek article hilighting an Accenture study, American consumers remain hesitant about the economy and about spending their money during this upcoming holiday season. BUT online Christmas shopping is expected to surpass 2008, with 64 % of respondents saying they’ll do some buying online, 46% of which expect to do the majority of their shopping online. Bottom line? Consumers are minimizing trips and hunting online for the best values. So give the people what they want!

86% of Accenture’s respondents said they “will not be moved to buy without a discount of at least 20 percent,” according to the research firm’s report of the findings, “and a quarter of shoppers will be looking for an aggressive 50% discount before they open their wallets.” I don’t know how else to say this merry marketers, but VIVA LAS COUPONS Y PROMO DISCOUNT CODES!

And according to Nielson, 25% of those polled would like to “to buy regular, staple products rather than treating themselves to something more expensive.” How about discounted ink and toner, which almost every data list responds to consistently.

Per Nielson, gift cards [email submits], toys and letters from Santa, at-home entertainment products (recipes [quality health], cookware [slap chop], home accessories [snuggie] and food and alcohol [coffee and wine clubs]) are going to be big business for Santa’s online helpers. So it’s up to you affiliteers, either get a move on and be handsomely rewarded, or slack and be left out in the cold.

Signing off from Santa Monica (yes, it’s a gift),

E

The Ladies of AKMG are headed out to Ad Tech New York, and to say we are excited would be the understatement of the year. And while I will undoubtedly forget to pack until the very last minute, let me tell you a few tips I won’t be forgetting and neither should you.

1. Study Up. Do your homework on who you want to meet. Affbuzz.com should help you narrow it down to a few industry peers to look out for. And for goodness sake, if you see someone you follow on Affbuzz but don’t quite had the gumption to approach just yet, do like Mike and just do it. No time like the present to introduce yourself to him or her, lest you wait yet another three months to try for round two.

2. Comfort trumps fashion. Ladies, why would you wear heals, and fellas, skip the sweat stains and the suits. The venue is busy, the lights are hot, and the show room is (aff)buzzing. 

3. Are you gellin? Dr. Scholls Gel-ins are mandatory. Because lets face it ladies and gents, after 18 hours straight in stilettos you will adapt quite the pimp limp by day two.

4. H20 is your friend. Be sure to pack a spare bottled water or two, and have plenty on hand at all times. I mean, let’s face it. You’re going to stay out far later than originally planned, you will then drink too much coffee to overcompensate for your lack of sleep in the morning, and this is surely a recipe for dehydration. That, coupled with the two long days of jib jabbering sure to come, leaves for one very sore throat. So keep the H20 within arms reach at all times.

5. Come armed and dangerous. Bring your business cards or be forewarned, I will make you fill out your contact info in my little black biz dev book. Always keep an extra pen and if you’re a pro’s pro, a Sharpy for those weird glossy to write on, for each card you get from someone, you should jot down a quick note about that particular person so you remember them post show.

6. Keep your eye on the prize. Maximize your showroom time by making meetings, keeping a mental wish list of your goals in coming. Make meetings with everyone relevant, and be sure all for your conversations keep on point.

***Mandatory stop by booth #1734 for the best affiliate managers in the biz and quite possibly AKMG’s sickest skate deck yet. Had to go out with a bang, and the final deck in the Gary Taxali series does not disappoint. Oh, and if you don’t work with AKMG yet, you better sign up. Just 100 decks for current affiliates…. http://akmg.com/affiliates/SignUp.html

Ready to take a big bite out of that shiny apple…

Blog-O-Rama Mama!

I recently saw an infomercial of a great As Seen on TV campaign that AKMG boasts a winning exclusive - “Your Baby Can Read.” Let me tell you , I was excited and you should be too; the impact of marketing an affiliate campaign that has a diversified media mix means exponential opportunity for the affiliate!

At my old advertising agency, we helped create direct response TV shows for our clients, and when we aired the TV spots, donations would spike for both call in and online sales. Problem was, we were only be able to attribute the phone sales to our commercial. We weren’t getting credit for online sales because they were getting credited to the internet team (which had a different budget, different goals and a different AOR).

Of course, when you cut the spots (just like when we tested pausing the radio campaigns), the sales across all channel decreased. Clearly, people were watching the show and then going online to make their donations/purchases.

Now my AKMG affiliate friends, we can use this in our favor. Leverage the free advertising and exposure that the advertiser is already paying for on other channels! You already have the name recognition (and thus credibility in the minds of the consumer) in place to tap into.

But wait, there’s more! In addition to an established brand name, you already have an established level of consumer interest in the product. Think about it oh affiliate wonder children… Infomercial production costs start at around $50,000 and go up to $500,000+, of course the average costs fall in the 150-200k range. Oh yes, and then there is the issue of actually buying media time… needless to say it’s not an insignificant cost invested by the advertisers in their product.

And as all direct-response marketers can attest too, this is a business based on results. If you are seeing the commercials on again and again, it’s because that offer is selling and they are making the money they invest in advertising back and then some. So what are you waiting for? Check out AKMG’s As Seen on TV offers and be handsomely rewarded with sustainable revenue.

E

PS - The Holidays are just around the corner! Start creating sites now for the gift-giving season ahead of us!

It’s a fine line between blowing out your daily spend before your morning caffeine break and having a staring contest with your tracking system…(who will blink/click first?) because your bids were too low… Indeed, the precarious yin and yang of bidding can be difficult to ascertain for an affiliate marketer newbie, er, n00b.

As with any part of your affiliate marketing campaign, the key to success is (say it with me folks) test, test and test again. Here’s a strategy for bidding during preliminary testing stages:

1. Start with low bids to see what works and tweak as necessary after.
2. Have patience while you collect results data. Haste makes waste, and impatiently changing your strategy is a quick recipe for burning right through that revenue.
3. Each and every keyword has its own value. Don’t always depend on a per-adgroup or per-campaign global bid.
4. Find and maximize your niche keywords! Costs will go down, ROI will go up, and you will suddenly want to send your favorite affiliate manager cookies. And in case anyone is wondering, I accept peanut butter, chocolate chip and snickerdoodle.

Cookie monsterina…

I had the privilege of co-hosting with a certain favorite nerdy affiliate of mine (Jasper P), and Affiliate Director Extraordinaire, one miss Shanti “Breakdancer” Beaurline. Despite the overcast weather, we saw a phenomenal turnout of 40+ local affiliates (quite possibly the largest one yet), and a number of extra special guests, including In addition to sipping bootleg sangria poolside and noshing on cupcakes made by yours truly in honor of Roland and Feldo of Tracking 202’s birthdays (I swear, everything was fat free!), we enjoyed a number of local celebs.

There were guest appearances by Roland Navarro, Feldo Nartapura and Alex Tsatkin of the Tracking 202 team, fellow 202 team member Justin Barr aka the international Man o’ Mystery behind Affbuzz (and lesser-known but equally enlightening hotanalerruptions.com), Ryan Pamplin and Kandi Onwuama of Ryactive, a certain Miss Pink Deals.net, AKMG President Kim White and CEO Steven Patton, and the infamous Miss Chilli Chorizo.

The hilight of the meetup of course was our speakers session. Ryan Pamplin of Ryactive and Alex Tsatkin of Tracking202 gave short presentations, jump-starting our creativity, re-motivating us to work even harder, and allowing us look at affiliate marketing thru a different lens.

Ryan Pamplin, founder of the performance marketing company Ryactive, has been a serial entrepreneur for almost a decade and boasts a diverse curriculum vitae in videogame development, laptop computer manufacturing and several internet marketing startups. Ryan shared his views on why his team-based business model equips them for success, the importance of creating a sustainable lifestyle, managing assets and upholding ethics in affiliate marketing.

Currently working as an Affiliate Manager at Revolution202. Alex Tstatkin has worked with Fortune 1000 companies including Adobe and SanDisk to scaling his own affiliate business. His expertise lies in SEO, PPC, Display, and Social Media. Alex shared some tasty tidbits on how to make the most out of your Facebook SocialAds campaign (and a few secrets on how to increase the probability your ad gets approved). Both super affiliates gave excellent insights, and I encourage you to drop them a line with questions of your own.

Of course, what AKMG-related [but not officially affiliated, endorsed or sponsored by] event would be complete without the world-famous skate boards? We raffled off autographed pre-release, autographed decks of the final installment of AKMG’s limited-edition Gary Taxali series skate deck. If you aren’t signed up as an AKMG affiliate yet (perhaps you live under a rock?) than I highly recommend you do so, post haste. These custom decks are reserved only for our active affiliates so sign up to secure your deck for Ad Tech New York!

As all affiliate marketers know, time is money. And we all have the same number of days in a month, hours in a day, and minutes in an hour, and yet some utilize it better than others.

Every morning I start my day checking stats, catching up on email and skimming Affbuzz. Yesterday, skimming it’s top stories I came across ppc.bz, and I must say, I was impressed with Barman’s two-part blog on why you need to stop wasting time and start working. Surely written whilst Barman was on a full-blown caffeinated bender, his two articles are chock full of great advice (and alas, chock full of his signature flowery language). But I digress….

I like the focus of the article, and I want to extend a few more nuggets to help you along your way to be as productive as possible in your affiliate marketing endeavors. First suggestion? Become a creature of habit. Just as affiliates optimize marketing campaigns, optimize your day and stick with the winning formula.

Organize your day unto blocks of time, and stick to your schedule. Whether you are in email, ppc, social media or display ads, you are going to need to do research, speak with others in our industry, work on the actual production of your campaigns and analyze results.

Think of these tasks as blocks of time. During your time blocks, focus purely on what you designated that time to do. Set your aim to away, turn off distractions, and stop checking your facebook. Since affiliate marketers are vampires and never seem to sleep, think about which blocks of time during the day you are most productive: are you a morning person or a night owl?

Measure how much you in vest in each of these blocks and try to keep them in proportion with each other. Never let one component of your time far outbalance the others - you will never finish any of your projects and surely be frustrated.

If something can be done in five minutes or less, say an email or a piece of production, just get it out of the way and be done and done. If not? Add it to the list, prioritize and tackle in bite size chunks.

I don’t know about you markateers, but many of us fall prey to time sucks (cough::facebook/twitter/youtube::cough). These are time wasters that steal us from time we could be using more productively. Use your time blocks wisely, and when you work on your particular projects don’t allow yourself to stray toward those time suck weaknesses.

That’s it for now my affiliate affectionados, alas, I’m out of time.

E

Blame it on the 365 days of Socal sunshine, but I can’t believe the summer slipped away from us so quickly. This week I was pleasantly surprised to find Starbucks selling my favorite Pumpkin Spice latte (and decidedly unpleasantly surprised to be greeted with back-to-school traffic), and I can’t help but think of all the fall holidays upon us, ready to be marketed!

Fall means football and good food. Immediately, I think of our football-focused creatives for Dish Network and DirecTV and anything collegiate to flesh out your autumn affiliate marketing portfolio. Fall also means that holidays are just around the corner so start building your Halloween, Thanksgiving and yes even Christmas sites now so you are ready for the rush. Affiliates, stop messing with your fantasy drafts and swap out general creatives for the holiday versions and revamp your keywords and content keeping the following in mind.

- Halloween - Costumes, candy, safety, decorations, e-cards, halloween movies available on Blockbuster, etc.
- Thanksgiving - Recipes, samples, crafts, family, dinner invitations, and yes, more football.
- Christmas - As Seen on TV gifts, wine-of-the-month clubs, Christmas party invitations, diet for the holiday weight gain and looming New Year’s resolutions ahead, anything that will save the last-minute shopper time and money.

So raise your pumpkin spice lattes with me and toast to a profitable fall!

Tsarina of Blogistein…