If you walk down the street in Miami, you can’t help but notice “SALE” signs screaming at you from store windows or even worse “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS” signs. They are everywhere and it seems as if they are growing like weeds. I’m sure it’s like this across the U.S. but between the real estate market & foreclosures in Miami and now restaurants and stores going out of business, it seems like we are living in the twilight zone. The ones that are still in business are struggling and are desperate for business, hence the SALE signs everywhere. So some of us are in luck as Black Friday has come early this year.

I think that e-tailers and performance based marketing can benefit from the tough times that brick and mortar stores are facing right now. As stores offer more sales & discounts, more people flock to the store which makes the shopping experience a nightmare. For those that want to avoid the hassle and unruly crowds, internet based deals will be a welcome option to purchase gifts for the holiday. I would advise offering deep discounts that can only be used online, from the comfort of people’s homes. Take advantage of the fact that people are busy and have a ton of discount options thrown at them daily. Offer them relief and a discount that can be had in the click of a mouse.

Everyone involved will be happier…the e-tailer, the performance based marketer and the consumer…this way we all make money!

This week’s news has been full of talk and opinions about the proposed automotive bail out. Democrats in Congress have gone ahead with proposals to bail out automakers; Republicans are opposed to the bail out. Some are of the opinion that letting the automotive industry collapse would completely devastate an already fragile and faltering US economy.

So who will win this battle? I don’t have a clue but I can tell you that Internet Marketing is affected by all of the changes going on in our country right now. By being affected, I don’t necessarily mean that in a negative way. Some advertisers will be hurt by the decline in the automotive industry while others will thrive. It depends on how agile they are and how quickly they can adjust. On one hand, I just had a conversation last week at ad:tech NY with one advertiser who said his automotive business is really hurting. Luckily he has a great brand name so it’s a matter of changing around their business model to keep up with the changing times. Others won’t be as lucky. On the other hand, I met with another automotive advertiser whose business is at record levels because they generate leads for extended auto warranties. With the recession, people are holding onto their cars for longer, hence they need an extended auto warranty as opposed to information on purchasing a new car.

Luckily AKMG is able to roll with the punches of the tumultuous automotive industry by promoting the types of campaigns that are relevant to consumers. Now if you want my personal opinion…just buy a Mini Cooper S and you won’t have to worry about ever buying another car again! Ok I may biased since I own a Mini…but they really are the best!

AKMG made it through another successful ad:tech NY show and were lucky to be in NY for the 2008 Election. It was an amazing scene in Times Square once the presidential announcement was made. People were running through Times Square cheering and chanting “OBAMA”. It was something out of a movie. Now getting back to ad:tech NY. The show was filled with people from the minute it opened until the close of the exhibit hall on Tuesday evening. We had a constant flow of meetings in our AKMG ad:tech “booth”…the lobby lounge of the Hilton. By the middle of the first day, everyone knew to find us there!

You could feel that most people were focused on meeting with people they are already doing business with. We did the same. We met with many of our existing publishers and advertisers to figure out how to maximize the current relationship.  The one thing that I took away from the show is that everyone is very open to new ideas and testing creative alternatives to what they are used to doing. That is a major shift that has happened over the last few months. Earlier this year if we would have asked someone to test a new version of their offer, the answer would have been “I don’t think so, we are happy with what we have”. Now we are hearing “Sure let’s give it a shot”.

We came away with many creative ideas of how to take our relationships to the next level both on the advertiser and publisher side. Now it’s back to the grind to make everything happen quickly!

Everyone is buzzing about the state of the economy and the slashing of advertiser budgets. I have been speaking with many agencies over the past few months and the tide has turned recently. It seems like more agencies are recommending CPA campaigns as a part of the overall budget since everyone is being held more accountable for every dollar spent. This is a good sign for our industry but on a bigger scale, it reinforces what a tough economic situation we are in at the moment.

So it begs the question: should advertisers have to prepay for CPA media space? The word on the street is that the industry trend is to be much more cautious with new advertisers. It is tougher for new advertisers in that they are now required to provide credit references, they are given shorter payment terms and are limited in how many leads/sales are sent to them until the networks & publishers know that they will get paid. So much for the good old days when a handshake sealed the deal. Times are way different now.

Here’s to hoping that we see an economic turnaround and increased CPA advertiser budgets. Let the countdown to election day begin…

I’m counting down the days until Election 2008, which falls right in the middle of ad:tech NY. Luckily I live in Florida and can vote early. There has been so much talk about Election 2008 and the recession, foreclosures, stock market crashing, job cuts, to name a few topics. The average person is inundated with these doom & gloom messages non stop through every medium possible including TV, Internet and print. It’s hard to focus on anything else these days. But it doesn’t all have to be negative news. Some of the offers we promote give peace of mind and relief to American’s like deals from Entertainment Book 2009, lowered auto insurance and information on educational opportunities.

Not only can we help Americans and ease their mind but our business can benefit from Election 2008 and the recession mania in several ways listed here.

1) We are successfully pushing Foreclosure consultation and Debt consulation-type offers
2) We are working with advertisers who have come up with innovative Work at Home offers
3) We have offers that give discounts & coupons on products
4) From an advertiser perspective, we offer a solid ROI on their advertising budget

But on the flip side, advertisers want to hold onto their money as long possible which makes the business relationship very tenuous. I know most people will agree that they are anxiously awaiting Election 2008 so that we can begin to overcome the recession and get back on the road to better economic times.

May the best man win!

We were in Las Vegas early last week for DMA 08 - the largest direct response marketing show. It was my first time at DMA and it was definitely an experience to remember…I mean, it’s not every day that you get your picture taken with Elvis! Attendance was down from last year but the exhibit hall was still full of direct response marketers who were anxious to talk about their specialty and expertise. It ranged anywhere from list brokers (there were a ton of these companies there!) to call center management to direct mail printing to graphic design work. Some of the people that we met did a bit of online marketing but for others, it was foreign concept. It’s always challenging to explain what you do, especially CPA marketing, to someone who doesn’t even understand basic online marketing. It was good practice to simplify an explanation of our business and what we do.

In addition to exploring the exhibit hall, we re-connected with some of our publishers and advertisers - the usual trade show suspects! We had really good meetings and we’re working on some really innovative stuff. It’s surprising how many ideas you can get from an offline direct response show that are easily translatable to online. Now we have a mini travel break before heading to ad:tech NY (link to ad:tech site) and then it will be back to our comfort zone surrounded by online people.

Please contact us to arrange a meeting in NY.

We’re going back on the road again for the DMA 08 Conference in Las Vegas, NV. DMA 08 is considered the largest gathering of marketers in the world and there will be over 550 companies exhibiting. It will be my first time attending a DMA show and I know I’m in for a treat…being surrounded by so many marketing people at once!     Las Vegas is a great setting for the show since it’s all about marketing. Every where you turn, you’re inundated with ads in Vegas whether it be on massive billboards playing video, cabs covered in ads, people handing out flyers or really just about anywhere you look. It will provide inspiration I’m sure for a lot of people. Oh and a lot of fun with the casinos, shows and great restaurants.

It will be a little bit of a detour since we normally hit the usual trade show circuit - ad:tech and Affiliate Summit - so it will be nice to mingle outside of our comfort zone. For me personally, I’m excited at the prospect of meeting agency and brand contacts to enhance what they’re already doing in the CPA space. Plus introduce anyone who isn’t working on CPA to world of “measurable ROI”. It’s always beneficial & informative to chat with people outside of your day-to-day to learn what’s going on in the world of advertising and marketing both offline and online.

AKMG will be at the DMA 08 conference from Sunday through Wednesday so please contact me to set up a time to meet. We’ll be hitting the floor all day Monday & Tuesday.

So you’ve got your killer product that you’re going to sell on a CPA…you have your merchant accounts set up…your marketing collateral is ready to go…now it’s time to sit back and watch the sales come in! Right? Well this is true but it only lasts so long. As an advertiser, you need to constantly tweak and refresh your landing pages in order to keep consumers interested and excited about the product. You need to give them a compelling reason to fork over money on the Internet and in this tough economy.

I’ve come up with a few ways to improve your landing pages.

1. Add video to the page to engage the consumer and help them understand the benefits of your product or service
2. Improve load time so that the consumer experience is enjoyable
3. Change up the marketing copy and product benefits to see what works best for your target audience
4. Eliminate unnecessary items on the page - avoid clutter!
5. Have consistent creative and an integrated approach to your marketing
6. Make sure your forms function properly
7. Test, test, test to see what works best!

It’s usually the little things that can really make the difference like increasing the size of your call to action button which will lead to increased conversions. Take the time to review these ways to improve landing pages listed above and you’ll be on your way to the top of your vertical!

AKMG journeyed to ad:tech London this week to attend our first ad:tech outside of the United States and experience UK affiliate marketing. It was an experience from day one which started with 30 minutes of sleep the entire night on the way to London and ended with Kim White, AKMG President, and me running to our gate at Heathrow. It was our own version of National Lampoon’s European Vacation!

It was an interesting experience to immerse ourselves in the culture for a few days to see how the average consumer is bombarded with advertising. There is much more advertising there than in the United States. They cover entire taxi’s with advertisements that are every color of the rainbow, digital advertisements line the walls of the underground stations, even the bottom of the seat covers that flip down in the taxi’s have ads on them. You can’t walk more than a few steps in London without seeing some sort of ad. It makes sense that advertisers need to have an integrated approach to their marketing plan to include outdoor, print, TV and online. Affiliate marketing campaigns across the pond are in luck to have such offline support to the campaigns being run online.

The show itself was a mix of US and European networks so we saw a lot of familiar faces. But many of the UK networks were extensions of existing US networks. The offline advertising is abundant but it seems like affiliate marketing is still in its infancy. This was evident at the show because it was mainly networks and we were told that the show was half as large as last year. But it was a great experience nonetheless.

If there are any UK advertisers that do affiliate marketing, please get in touch as we’d like to test the waters!

Mastering SEO, SEM and PPC tactics can be a daunting task. Companies tend to either ignore it completely & hope for the best or outsource to the experts. For a large scale project, it makes sense to outsource but there are things that you can implement that will go a long way. SEO is a long term investment and is well worth it when you see your website land above the fold on a Google search results page.

As an advertiser, there are basic things that you can do to help the organic search results for your landing pages & website. To start with, always make sure to have your title tag, keyword and meta data for each page. Then, be sure to update your website regularly so that Google will view your site as an authority in your vertical. You can do this with fresh content in the form of articles or a blog. Finally, you’ll want to regularly do keyword research that is relevant to your site. There are a bunch of great, free keyword research tools out there like Trellian.

CKMG, our internet brand development and SEO company, has taught us these simple steps that really go a long way. It’s been a great learning process for us working along side with CKMG on optimizing landing pages and developing brands. Be on the lookout soon for the brands that we’re developing and will be launching later this year!