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…??

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!

We all know how Apple made the iPod and the iPhone staples around the world - so what’s next?  We are now waiting for Apples next big move - and this time its with a tablet computer.  The rumored tablet is supposed to “be the gadget to end all gadgets” says CNN.com.  The thing is, Apple doesn’t disclose any information on anything they have in the works - so technically were not supposed to know that this tablet even exists.  But the rumors are flying around - and this tablet is gaining a lot of hype.

They say that it will makes its debut sometime in the next few months.  Price is still an issue, some are saying it could cost anywhere from $600 to $1,000.  But for the features that this tablet will include - its worth price.  Its an e-reader, a gaming device, music player, TV/movie viewer, all while allowing you to surf the internet.

There are plenty other tablets out there, but my guess is that this Apple tablet will revolutionize the handheld world just like the iPhone changed the world of smartphones.

Many people have been waiting patiently for Microsoft to unleash Windows 7 - and it’s finally here.  Microsoft’s Vista was plaguing an unfortunate number of Microsoft Windows users for far too long (many considering Vista as Microsoft’s biggest failure).

Some of the features of the New Microsoft OS: Windows 7 were simply enhancements from now-mature technologies that were introduced with Vista.  New hardware and improved security seem to be some of the key highlights of this new OS.  Some of the obvious features within the new user interface is something called Aero Peek, which makes every open window transparent except the one you’re focusing on.  This feature, along with the new ‘Jump Lists’ feature can be a gift from heaven.  Jump Lists file and organize all of your most recent documents directly in the taskbar.  Now for people like me who have 14,309 windows open at a time, this is something that I find pretty useful.  Another obvious upgrade is the Taskbar.  This taskbar (after 14 years of very subtle changes) has finally changed for the better.

I would recommend Windows 7 to any PC user.  I’d say it is their best OS yet.  And let’s be honest, anything is an upgrade from Vista.  Windows 7 is a solid, easy, and eye pleasing OS.  The new features, along with the hardware, are all improvements that should make Windows 7 a great success.

I’m not sure if you all have heard or not, but marketers and bloggers will soon have to disclose any freebies and payment arrangements made in exchange for product reviews.  The Federal Trade Commission voted this month to alter specific guidelines beginning December 1st that address the endorsements that consumers, experts, organizations and celebrities make on certain review sites or blogs.  Basically, the message conveyed by these consumers will have to clearly disclose the results that a user can generally expect, opposed to posting unusual results that promise something drastic (usually followed by a ‘results not typical’ asterisk).

These revised guidelines also require that any “material connections” i.e. payments or free products - between advertisers and endorsers has to be disclosed.

This may bring forth a lot of changes to the social media world, and fairly soon.  It may be hard for the FTC to prove that the conduct of the blog or review site actually violates the FTC Act, but then also, they may want to prove their point at the beginning (remember the whole Napster situation when they sued young children for having songs on their computers?)  At AKMG, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of FTC/CAN-SPAM compliance.  It will be interesting to see how the FTC will impose these new guidelines and how hard they will crack down because this could potentially bring a heapload of changes to the online marketing world.

With the popularity of YouTube sweeping the globe, it was only time before YouTube began figuring out a way to offer full length movie viewings via the internet. YouTube wants to offer movie rentals by obtaining the licenses to stream feature films in rental format. According to the Wall Street Journal, YouTube is in talks with Sony Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., and Warner Bros. Studios about get these licenses.

YouTube has been trying to obtain more professionally made content (hence the new High Def button on some YouTube clips). With the popularity of other competitor sites like Netflix offering HD quality videos, YouTube was almost forced in this ‘movie rental’ direction just to keep up to par. Some insiders are saying that no deals have been struck and that this is all in the early stages of development. YouTube has now over 100 million users and the potential ad revenue that YouTube can offer would be epic to the affiliate marketing community.

I’ve come to find that there are still a lot of people who don’t use LinkedIn as much as they use other social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook. Even though LinkedIn is similar and has been around longer than most other networking sites, it still seems to slag behind with unique visitors and member sign ups. Yes it’s older, and yes LinkedIn doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles like picture sharing or music playlists that Facebook and Myspace offer. The absence of these features can be used to LinkedIn’s advantage, though. Sometimes, Facebook profiles are set to be so private - not allowing any other person to see any real information that most Facebook users share. Or on the other hand, you find profiles where they offer way too much information that you may not have wanted to know. LinkedIn offers strictly business communication and network building. LinkedIn also won’t make you feel like a creep looking at every aspect of someone’s profile. LinkedIn’s sole purpose is to help you increase your contacts and professional transparency and further your career. Time spend on LinkedIn is far more valuable to the professional, in my opinion.

People are now, more than ever, realizing the most important assets to have in the professional space are trusted relationships they have formed. LinkedIn is a great way to utilize and create more relationships in a neatly organized and easy to use interface. So use LinkedIn to build your network - and don’t be lazy! You will be surprised how spending just a little time every day on LinkedIn can help you connect with other people just as proactive and talented as you! As is the case with anything, you will only get as much as you put in. Get connected! Experience the business growth that LinkedIn can help facilitate.

As someone who has seen their fair share of creatives, let me tell you a few important tips about successful creative content. First of all, having great email or banner creatives can be a huge determining factor in the success of the offer being promoted. You want your creatives to be, well, creative. Make it something that will grab the viewers’ attention.

What I have found is that an animated version of a banner creative seems to have better clickthrough rates than static ads. This means that the animation helps grab the viewers attention - not to mention that you can fit more information into one small area and dynamically change or rotate the words that are displayed. This doesn’t mean to cut out the static versions - those can be just as successful, but it is always a good idea to offer both static and animated versions for your affiliates.

Proper creative management is another huge factor in an offer’s success. Quality creatives will drive consumers to your site. Plain and simple. It can also set your program apart from your competition. Having a wide variety with a diverse selection of current and timely material is a lot more attractive to affiliates. For example, maybe there is a promotion going on for one of your campaigns - go ahead and rotate those into the mix with your other creatives. Keeping your creatives fresh, unique and timely will lead to higher conversion rates and overall greater sales revenue.

From the get-go, getting to know your affiliate is a top priority, and it all begins with the affiliate application. You should always take your time and careful consideration when processing affiliate applications. You want to make sure that you only approve those that are legitimate, as any fraud can be prevented early by properly screening your affiliate applications. While it’s important to give the prospective affiliate the benefit of the doubt, you should also be very cautious when approving. While you never want to end up declining an application that had great potential and could have possibly turned into a very profitable relationship, it’s important to take the necessary steps to check all bases, as all affiliates are an extension of your reputation and company.

A way to check if the affiliate application is fraudulent is to peruse the website that is provided on the application. Check out all of the links, look at the pictures and text - everything. You should always go to the ‘About Us’ or the ‘Contact’ link on the page and look for anything fishy. Sometimes, it’s easy to recognize randomly generated sites and content, neither of which indicate a quality or legitemate organization. After checking the site, you should also check the IP address. At this phase, you can find the true location of the applicant. Many times, fraudulent applications’ IPs will not match the physical address provided on the application. This, when taken into context, can be valid, however.

After doing your detective work, you should get the prospective affiliate on the phone to learn more about their business. This is one of the most important phases of approval, and is a great way to initiate a relationship, should the application be approved.

While this may seem time-intensive, being inquisitive and detailed in your research will only pay off in the end. Either you will determine that the prospective affiliate is fraudulent, or you will come to learn a lot about a great affiliate and set a great business relationship into motion, bringing success to your company and your approved affiliate.

For those of you who don’t know, an RSS feed can become one of your greatest friends on the web. Seeing as everyone is cramped for time, we are all trying to squeeze in as much as we possibly can in our day to day lives. We can, and will, do whatever we can to save time. An RSS feed can be one of those tools.

There are a ton of websites that frequent blog readers and web junkies like myself love to visit on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this takes a lot of time - especially when you have to dig through them all to find the latest stories.Thats where the RSS feed steps in.

Let me break it down for you - RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, or sometimes “Rich Site Summary”. This is an XML (Extensible Markup Language) format made for the purpose of syndicating news that is to be shared on the internet. An RSS feed is a simplistic way of getting the latest posts or headlines from your favorite websites or blogs all on one page. Think of an RSS feed as your local farmers’ market. Your farmers’ market is a one stop shop for all of the freshest food that you enjoy most . An RSS feed is your source for all of the ‘freshest’ stories, articles and blog posts - neatly organized on one page- from all of your favorites sites!

If you are reading multiple websites on a daily basis, an RSS feed can help you tremendously. This RSS feed allows you to be ‘fed’ only the newest stories, saving you a big chunk of time.

RSS feeds can be used as a form of marketing as well. Keeping your subscribers interested by posting on a consistent basis can help improve the number of subscriptions to your RSS feed. The more stories and posts you place (and the more frequently you post them), the greater the chance you have of someone coming across that post. This, in turn, will broaden your audience and enhance communication between you and current (or even prospective) clients.

Subscribe to our RSS Feed! feed://www.akmg.com/blog/feed

Follow us on Twitter! www.twitter.com/AKMGAlerts