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

The location of the Rio served it’s purpose as the venue for the show, although I am genuinely hoping this location will change soon as the Rio is in definite need of a facelift.  Despite the all the hangovers and distractions that Vegas brings, the show exhibit hall was packed at all times.The Meet Market was literally shoulder to shoulder, so anyone who had a table definitely got their money worth.As for being an exhibitor, I was very pleased with the foot traffic that the exhibit hall brought - the booth was busy at all times with plenty of folks wanting to talk to the AKMG team.  Best part about Affiliate Summit is the audience that it tailors too - There is much less sifting through people at your booth that you don’t know what they do and they really cant explain to you what they do. 

I would say the AKMG team easily came back with a stack of over 1000 business cards, some existing but a lot of new business as well.I really liked the location of our booth on the floor as well - in a easy to locate spot in the front, we also got a lot of attention for having 5 ladies dressed in fedoras and all black.

I have been a part of AKMG for 3 months now, and felt that Affiliate Summit was the first show I was fully able to come out with my new company, a new image and a new mission… also don’t forget new high lights!  The ora of this show was different than most I felt, a lot of this due to the crash of rebills that recently took place.For the record - No - I am not being sued by Google, I think I got asked that 15 times at the show…. The former queen of biz opps has stepped down from her throne my friends. 

While most people were stoked to be at the show, it seems there were a decent chunk of folks looking to do some bill collections.It was amazing to hear just how many people had been stiffed or screwed out of money because they let some fly by night advertiser rack a huge bill with them, and then they got stuck holding the bag when the advertiser stopped returning their calls, fled the country or in some cases turned out to be a terrorist.  Luckily the dissolving of rebills and acceleration of merchant account drama didn’t affect AKMG as much as it affected some of our competition…All I have to say is we feel for ya Smaxor.

The competition seems heavier than ever between the million networks that attended - networks banning other networks from their party, dirty looks and comments between AM’s in the aisle’s of the exhibit hall and in some cases networks blatantly mocking another network in their swag gear.  So much for professionalism… but that’s a non existent term in an industry that slings acai berries and fake grant programs in order to keep the lights on.

The parties of course are a huge topic… but I want to ramble on about those later because I have a fabulous photo album to go accompany them, especially because the AKMG ladies seemed to be some of the only non paid girls at all of them!

I must touch base on one of the trademarks of AKMG, the beloved skate board decks.  Only 100 Vegas 2010 edition decks were made - and they were snatched up quicker than the free beer at the Convert2 booth.   Every year a new artist designs the decks, and this year we decided to go a little bit wild and had both sides of the deck decorated in artwork!  My personal favorite is a quote from Miss Eleah Portillo herself, “What happens in Vegas… End up on Facebook.”In a few cases I had a few people that yelled at the AKMG ladies and myself when they came over for a deck and there weren’t any left…. Sorry folks…. come to the booth earlier next time! 

For those of you that we promised to ship boards to… they are on their way!Since this is pretty long - I am going to conclude this as part 1 of my blog post - Part 2 coming later this week!In the mean time enjoy the photo of the ladies from the AKMG booth!

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?

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’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/

With the internet being a ubiquitous tool, the business never stops. We never stop.  The majority of us who work in the industry are available via one communication tool or another, working to get campaigns live, driving traffic to them, analyzing their performance, or optimizing the pages and creative. And although it is an ongoing process that knows no days off, it is also Thanksgiving weekend. 

So put down the crackberry (even if it’s for a few minutes) and take the time to count your blessings and appreciate all the good fortune in your life.  Be thankful that you live in a place where internet even exists, let alone a resource you can make money from. Be thankful you even have a job to take a break from. And last, but not least, be thankful that you get to look forward to great food, friends and family.

Happy Thanksgiving from all at AKMG!

 MyFunCards Thanksgiving

As a network, there are various prerequisites we look for in a campaign when deciding whether or not to bring it in, and a unique exclusive tops the list. Since we are always in search of a competitive edge to promote popular campaigns (payout, creative, landing page design, amount of fields, etc.), it makes sense for us to work with advertisers to create us exclusive campaigns.

Affiliates are pitched the same offers over and over. If an advertiser gives exclusivity to a network, it will not only receive more attention from the network itself, but the network will also be more inclined to promote it to affiliates, knowing the campaign is unique.

When we have free reign to design our own creative and landing page, affiliates often provide feedback as to how to optimize the campaign.  They are on the front lines and know what is or isn’t working.  The freedom to provide feedback and get continual performance on a campaign allows for its longevity and continued success for all parties involved.

Long term, profitable campaigns = happy affiliates. Happy affiliates translates into increased revenue for all parties involved. And that my friends, is why we are in this fabulous business of affiliate marketing.