Downloads may fail due to technical problems or as a result of user intervention. Using a download optimization program to identify and address the causes of download failure will enable you to improve your conversion rate and recapture lost revenue.

Technical Issues:

Customers may experience technical issues when trying to download your product. If they cannot successfully download and install your product on their PCs, laptops, or mobile devices, they are likely to become frustrated and click away from your website to look for a similar product from another source.

While it is impossible to guarantee that every download will be trouble-free, you can increase your chances of securing business from prospective customers by providing access to a call service. When customers are struggling to download your product, they are more likely to persevere if you offer them easy access to technical experts who can talk them through the download process.

Many online consumers have low levels of technical know-how and lack confidence in their ability to upgrade and troubleshoot their home computers. A 2011 survey of technology users by global technology company Accenture found that 57 percent would like help obtaining the latest software or security patches. Offering a download optimization program to support customers through the process of downloading and installing your product will increase your online conversion rate and increase sales revenue.

User Intervention:

In a 2005 study conducted by Oracle, the main reason for download failure was user intervention. Users may cancel downloads because they take longer than anticipated, or they may be unsure about the purchase and decide not to complete the download. By browsing your website and initializing the download, the user has demonstrated his interest in your product. If you follow up on this interest, you may be able to recapture the lost revenue represented by the failed download.

Marketing studies indicate that it can take between 5 and 12 contacts, on average, before a customer commits to his first purchase. By opening up a dialogue with the user about the failed download, you have the opportunity to address his questions and concerns. You will also have the opportunity to offer alternative products which may meet his needs more closely.

The provision of a download optimization program to offer technical support and follow up on failed downloads will reinforce your commitment to customer service. A CRMGuru survey found that 74 percent of respondents who had stopped using a product or service blamed poor customer service as a major factor in their decision. This contrasts with 14 percent who blamed the functionality of the product or service as a major factor. Customers will excuse some minor glitches, provided you listen to their concerns and take prompt remedial action.

(stay tuned for Part 2 of this article – coming soon!)

When: 6:30PM Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Where: PS450, 450 Park Avenue S New York NY

Why: Because everybody’s gonna be there!

url: http://www.meetup.com/meetup202nyc/events/16518702/

We look forward to seeing you madder than a hatter in the Big Apple. We’re bringin’ our A-Game so you best beware

And BTW. It’s the year of the rabbit. So get hoppin’.

This iS3 promotion starts December 15th 2010 and runs until January 15th 2011, and applies to your total unit sales of both products combined, for the duration of the contest (30 days).

Without further ado here are the bonus tiers:

$18,000.00 Bonus for 6000 units sold
$13,500.00 Bonus for 4500 units sold
$9000.00 Bonus 3000 units sold
$6,750.00 Bonus for 2250 units sold
$4,500.00 Bonus for 1500 units sold
$2,250.00 Bonus for 750 units sold

That’s a very festive chunk of holiday change! You can sell STOPzilla and STOPzilla AV starting December 15th 2010 to make some extra coin for Christmas gifts and trips. Not a member yet? Sign up with our affiliate network here.

Our affiliate team is here to help you achieve your goals along the way. Feel free to contact us directly for any additional information or resources you might require at affiliates@revenuewire.com. Happy holidays!

It’s your turn to 007 it up through our second annual Special Agent Contest.

The criteria is simple,
SELL ANY PRODUCTS ON THE REVENUEWIRE NETWORK AND YOU COULD WIN 1 OF 3 INCREDIBLE SPECIAL AGENT ADVENTURES.

If you’re already a RevenueWire affiliate, you’re automatically entered to win.  And if you’re not yet a RevenueWire affiliate, don’t worry, the odds are in your favor!  There will be two ‘Special Agent’ Winners: The Top New Affiliate, and The Top Incremental Increase Affiliate.

And don’t forget, we’re here to help you win, so feel free to contact us affiliates@revenuewire.com and we’ll work with you to help get you selling and on the road to 007 status.

Best of luck!!

Sincerely,
The RevenueWire Team

Afterwards, he described the ride as, “The most fun you can have with your clothes on.”

We thought that was a pretty positive response.

We also thought, hey, since last year’s contest was so much fun, why not make this year’s contest even bigger and badder? “That’s a great question, Mum. WHY NOT, indeed?”

So that’s exactly what we’ve done.

SELL ANY PRODUCTS ON THE REVENUEWIRE NETWORK AND YOU COULD WIN 1 OF 3 INCREDIBLE SPECIAL AGENT ADVENTURES.

THE BEST PART? YOU DECIDE WHICH ONE!

SIGN UP FOR THIS YEAR’S CONTEST NOW!

If you’re already a RW affiliate, you’re automatically entered to win. The contest includes all RW network products.

Competition starts November 15th 2010 and ends April 15th 2011.

NOT A REVENUEWIRE MEMBER YET? SIGN UP WITH US NOW »

WHEN THE TIME COMES, YOU’LL GET TO CHOOSE THE WINNING ADVENTURE FROM THE FOLLOWING PRIZES… (Adventures Voting Opens April 2011.)

LICENSE TO THRILL.

Get ready for an insanely exhilarating aerial experience. Two special agents receive basic training then go air-born with jet planes dog-fighting high in the California sky–capping it all off with a dangerously awesome night out in legendary LA.

• Fly to The City Of Angels, LA, California
• Arrive in Style with Limo Pickup from the Airport
• Stay at the Swank __ Hotel, Special Agent Style
• After Your Epic Jet Fighter Adventure, Hit a Top LA Club For Some Midnight Madness

LIVE AND LET DIVE.

Get ready to dive deep and swim with the big danger fish. # special agents will fly to the Bahamas, stay in style at the Ocean Club Hotel of Casino Royale fame, and leap into the radical aquamarine sea with a school of real live Tiger sharks.

• Stay at The Luxurious Beachfront Ocean Club Hotel, Bahamas
• Go Diving with Real Tiger Sharks (In a Protective Cage–You, Not the Sharks;))
• Take a Bite Out Of The Best In Bahamian Food, Music and Night Life

CLOUDSCRAPER.

This is your chance to truly kiss the sky. # special agents will climb to a massive altitude of 30,000 feet towering over Memphis, Tennessee, before taking a tandem halo-jump for up to 2 minutes of raw, heart-stopping free fall back to the birthplace of the blues.

• Stay in Memphis’s Classic ___ Hotel
• Do a Military-style, High Altitude, Low Open Parachute Jump
• Fly in The Legendary DeHavilland DHC-3 “Super Otter”
• Dress Up in Disguise and Hit The Town For An Authentic Southern Dinner, Music & More – Your Mission? Get Lit and Cut Some Rug!

How To Enter & Criteria To Win

All RevenueWire affiliates are automatically entered to win. Includes all network products.

To Win:

There will two ‘Special Agent’ Winners:

1. Top New Affiliate
*The RevenueWire affiliate who signed-up to the network on or after November 1, 2010 and generates the highest revenues during the contest period, net of adjustments and chargebacks.

2. Top Incremental Affiliate:
*The RevenueWire affiliate having the largest incremental increase in RevenueWire product transactions (net of adjustments and chargebacks) when comparing the contest period with the five month period prior to the contest.

Terms & Conditions Highlights

• Only one Affiliate per account can win
• If an Affiliate qualifies for event and is unable to attend, RevenueWire will invite the next available contest winner (No cash equivalent available)
• Affiliates’ flights will be purchased from closest major airport to local residence
• Contestants must be 21 years old to receive the prize (at time of event)
• Winners will be notified by the end of April 2011

Visit the SPECIAL AGENT CONTEST PAGE to LEARN MORE about the contest and SIGN UP WITH REVENUEWIRE.

Good luck becoming RW’s next elite special agent!

(And stay tuned for exciting story lines about RW’s special agent life…)

Sincerely,

- The RevenueWire Team

From an affiliate marketing perspective, Media Buying (also known as Display Advertising) is when you purchase ad space on a website or network of sites. It could be in the form of text ads, banners, rich media, or video ads. You then populate that ad space with creative pushing the product you’ve elected to promote–driving traffic and conversions to your designated merchant and getting a slice of the pie for yourself along the way–much the same way as it works in Pay-Per-Click. Media buys are usually priced on a CPM (Cost Per 1000 Impressions) basis, and can cost anywhere from 1K to 100K depending on how you negotiate the terms of your agreement. Media buys aren’t anything new.

They’ve been around since before the dawn of the Internet, most recognizably playing key roles in the offline world such as TV and radio advertising models. They’ve also been an important part of the online world for more than a decade now–albeit spending most of that time flying under the radar while PPC, CPA, and CPC took their superhero grip.

So what’s changed? The main development today is that PPC and other affiliate marketing strategies are becoming more crowded and less cost effective than in the early days. As a result, Media Buys are making a surge because they offer a profitable alternative to the more chock-a-block world of PPC. One of the key advantages Media Buys have over PPC is that you don’t have to dump tons of money into bidding on expensive keywords, and you won’t get Google slapped.

For a detailed look at the inner workings of a Media Buy, check out this great article by Erin Cigich at Clickbooth.

What’s your take on the future of affiliate marketing? We’d love to hear from you.

We can tell you that some powerful new information has come to light regarding how to avoid the Google Slap. Just how fresh is it? Enough that you’ll want to jot it down in your favorite spiral-bound notebook for later use.

But before we get down to the latest fight-back-against-the-slap-science, make sure to prep your head by downloading RW’s awesome one-page takeaway from last semester re: Avoiding The Google Slap. Just click the download link at the top of the page in The Source to get this meaty PDF anti-slap juggernaut.

Your one-pager includes, but is not limited to, the following tips:

*Niche site building
*Avoiding being flagged as a ‘bridge page’
*Linking to external websites
*Using dynamic keyword insertion effectively
*Self hosting .exe files and cloaking your affiliate links

These power-tweaks will provide you with a list of natural slap-proofing techniques to instantly raise the shields on your landing pages and protect your AdWords account from Google’s hard knocks.

For real-world examples on how to put these techniques into practice, watch our very own Avoiding The Google Slap video, already viewed by over 500 avid affiliate marketers.

Guaranteed kids, you’re going to want to have this wisdom in your arsenal when it comes to dodging the Google Slap bullet.

Now. Let’s move on to the new information.

Q. What’s today’s revelation, Mr. Teach?
A. Today we’re gonna talk about arbitrage.
Q. Never heard of it – What’s it all about?

Glad you asked. For those readers who don’t know, here’s how the Adwords AdSense Arbitrage system works:

Chalkboard Economics 101

An individual (or a company) buys cheap Google AdWords ads to drive search visitors to their own site where they write about topics that are likely to attract high-paying ads (e.g., health, medicine, loans, legal cases, etc.).

If a reader or search visitor clicks on this cheap Google ad to come to their site, and then leaves the site by clicking on an expensive ad, the website owner makes money on the difference, minus Google’s commission.

The minimum bid for buying a Google AdWords ad is 1 cent so anyone can experiment without spending a whole lot of money but, it doesn’t matter, because its against the rules.

Google’s Tough Stance On Arbitrage

Google’s position is and always has been that high ad quality and landing page quality are important for providing a positive user experience. It follows that Google AdWords doesn’t permit ads directing to landing pages that were specifically made to show additional ads (the nefarious practice known as “arbitrage” described above).

Furthermore, Google is extending the definition of arbitrage to include websites that are primarily occupied by display ads. In these cases, the ratio of ads to unique, non-ad content is measured to determine if a landing page violates the Google arbitrage policy. Google measures this ratio by looking at content above the fold (i.e. without scrolling).

Check Your Head For Excellence

A landing page is not considered arbitrage if all of the following conditions
are met:

1. The browser display area consists of a healthy ratio of unique and relevant content. Our guess is at least one-third. This excludes search boxes, headers, navigation links, logos, etc. Specific, well organized commercial offers (such as those found on retail sites) may count as unique and relevant content as long as they provide significant user value.

2. The browser display area used for ads cannot exceed the browser display
area used for unique and relevant content.

3. The site has user value other than just providing ads. For example,
Google provides web search, news sites provide regularly updated original
content, and other services.

The Arbitrage Litmus Test

To check that your website complies with Google’s arbitrage policy, take the following steps:

1. Open the site in a new browser.
2. Make sure you have minimal browser menus and your font is set to medium or normal.
3. Scroll to the very top of the page, as evaluation is based on what appears above the fold.
4. The site is considered compliant if the area of ads is less than or equal to the area of content.

The Consequences Of Non-Compliance

If you’re not in arbitrage compliance, you could receive a low landing page quality score, which will negatively affect your Quality Scores, cost-per-clicks, and ad positions. Lesson: It’s best to stay on top of the curve!

Learn more about landing page quality at:

http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113575&hl=en_AU.

You can review Google’s Landing Page and Site Policies here:
http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46675.

Improving. It’s not always easy, but it’s necessary if you want to compete. You’ve got to think and rethink. Change up your links, banners and marketing strategy. Never stop developing your ideas. Review and renew. Do everything you can to perfect your campaigns and don’t let the raspy noise of customary detractors discourage you.

Do you have what it takes? Of course you do. Here are a few key tools you can use to keep your edges sharp and your pockets money keen.

Only The Hottest, Most Slammin’ Banners Please

Straight up, when it comes to banners, you’ve got to test. For some reason there’s a deep-rooted stubborn reluctance on the part of many affiliates to test their creative. Maybe they’re afraid of finding out some ugly truth… That it’s going take some serious elbow grease and a dash of mad science to catch that big bad money fish. Who knows. But what’s clear and real is that to be a success in affiliate marketing, the testing must be done. All top performing affiliates test the tar out of their sales materials and reap the results in green. Guess what? So will you if you’re willing to take that extra step.

When you grab a banner from your affiliate network dashboard, don’t let it die all alone out there in the wild. Keep your eye on it. See how its getting on in those early days of the campaign. Be ready to jump in and save it from the rabid pack of wolves.

After a meaningful test period (1-2 weeks), if your chosen banner manages to ring up a click through rate of around 2% plus, it’s doing true yeomen’s work for you. Go ahead and run with it. If it’s leagues under that number, wait a bit more then drop it like a bag of flaming pretzels and put your paws on something mightier. You don’t have all kinds of time to mess around with anything less than your best. After all, you’re a budding super affiliate with bigger shows to rip!

Beautiful Design! Against Common Sense?

You would think that banners radiating beauty, style and visual grace would convert ultra well. Think again, again. This is one of those times when Mother Intuition misses the bus. Generally speaking, graphically-sensational banners DO NOT perform as well as their simpler more “Ockham’s Razor-like” kin.

Why? The primary culprit is download time. If your banner is the last thing to load on the page and it’s covered in tons of “butter”, by the time it’s finished drizzling onto your visitor’s system, they’ll have already scrolled to the bottom of the page, missing the banner altogether. Dare we say it? We do.

FAIL!

Nobody wants to crash and burn. You can avoid it by knowing your trade. Hefty graphic banners slow down the load-time of the page itself, frustrating the visitor into fits of derision, causing them to abandon their desired path. Overly chunky banners rich with motion and effects can also dilute your call-to-action and sales message. That’s why for affiliate marketing we recommend you use banners that are no more than 15KB whenever possible.

Banners with animation, such as rapid-flashing buttons, can be a great idea if used wisely. These little beasts can generate high click-through rates with their graphical hoots and shouts, but they’re also highly annoying to the simian mind. When you play this breed of banner you’re walking a thin line between love and hate.

The Lesson? If you do decide to choose banner mayhem, serve it up mild to medium.

Tie Your Campaign Together With a Brain-Sizzling Theme

Always use a theme or concept as the bedrock of your sales materials. This is where you’ll have to think like a mini ad agency. Come up with a conceptual thread that runs from your product, through your site, to your landing pages, all the way into any upsells in the cart, through to customer support.

When you create your site and sales pages, hold that theme in your mind like a blood diamond. The conceptual integrity of your campaign will set you apart from competitors with loosely glued, ill-conceived marketing Frankensteins to move product.

**TODAY’S BLITZ TIP!**: Make sure all your banner ads use a link that opens in a new window. That way, if a visitor decides to visit one of your advertisers, it’s easy for them to return to your page and review what they actually came to your site for!

STOP THAT! Pulling The Plug On Pop-Up Rock’

A lot of networks and agencies representing different advertisers provide their affiliates the option of using pop-up and pop-under ads. As far as RevenueWire is concerned, any ad that has POP-UP in the name is better left for dead.

Anyone with a functioning brainstem and solid sense of self will tell you pop-ups are 110% annoying. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a minute. When did a pop-up ad ever make you feel anything but twisted? You know, there’s actually a human genome that suppresses pop-ups. It has evolved over many millennia to make damn sure that when anything in nature suddenly ambushes us something deep within us tells our mind to tell our finger to tell our mouse to SHUT THAT FREAKIN’ POPUP DOWN. And that’s a fact.

Get Super Fly With Your Text Link Style

One of the most successful types of advertising is text link ads. They team up like a dream with your battalions of bandwidth, won’t take up a lot of cubits of cyberspace, and can be woven into the seams of just about any page layout.

Know this, however. The best text link ads don’t yodel. They croon. That means you need to put some craft into them, and not just lock them up with strong-arm sentences like “BUY ME NOW!” Take some of the jackhammer out of it. Get out your quill and write some poetry, for heavens sake. Make your Mom proud. Create text link ads that offer a linguistic hook to get your customer interested. Maybe its a simple but catchy turn of phrase or a direct reference to a hot topic, issue, or event that means something to your target audience.

Research and find keywords aimed at your consumer’s state of mind and their needs, then string them together eloquently and succinctly. Also, don’t be shy to ask your network or the merchant themself to provide you with some short text links that contain the product or company name. That way you can implement the links directly into your site content.

Where’s The Meat? Time To Cook Up More Content!

Ok. So the tips to this point have been quick fix tricks. Effective, but easy. The real meat (and the heavier-sledding) is in creating and acquiring original content for your site. Remember this: Whatever it is you’re selling, you need original content to surround it with. That’s the law of the jungle nowadays.

When you provide original content, your site visitors all of a sudden see that you’re an authority in your niche. And why shouldn’t you be? You’re making a living off this gig. Go coo-coo for your Coco Pops. Go the extra eight miles. Take a rainy Sunday to write a review on a product or service you’re advertising. On top of adding beef to the bone, fresh content will prove an irresistible meal for the search engine sharks to grapple onto.

Research the product, company, and niche you’re promoting throughly and accurately. Get in contact with your affiliate manager and ask for any product info, white papers, market studies and reviews they might have on tap. Leverage every angle you can in your content creation. Contact the manufacturer directly and ask for any documentation they can give you to enrich your sales pages. Of course they’re going to help you out. You’re an ambitious, innovative affiliate. You’re rare and in demand.

Create content that is legitimate, accurate, full of facts and overwhelmingly persuasive. It will benefit all interested parties in the end – you, the merchant, and the consumer. Once you’ve created (or bought) your original reviews and articles, you can send the merchant and your affiliate manager the link – you may be surprised at the response you get and the new insights you learn!

Email Marketing Is Not Even a Centimeter Dead

Despite and Everest of spam, email marketing is not a dead marketing method yet. You just have to be a bit more skilled to use it well. Once again, it’s a matter of quality and trust. Stand behind the products you’re promoting and make yourself available to answer any questions regarding them. The closer you are to the product in the consumer’s mind, the better the chance that your marketing strategies will get traction.

One highly effective promotional technique that more and more affiliates are starting to use is combining email offers anchored with original content. By providing regular content-driven emails, you’re much more likely to convert to sales than if you send just a barebones “Buy This Or Else” type communication.

The offer in the email itself doesn’t even have to up in the reader’s grill either. You can jolt the reader’s curiosity with a teaser call-to-action that contains a link to a unique article you’ve posted on your site. This way you have a good opportunity to promote the product or service, while providing valuable knowledge free-of-charge. Visitors to your site will be engaged by the substance of your pitch and ultimately be more inclined to make a purchase.

Remember – You Can’t Rush Greatness

Almost all most forms of advertising take some time to kick in. Posting a link up for a couple of days and then yanking it down right away isn’t very smart. Give it some time. Just not too much.

When you’re having trouble getting momentum, don’t be afraid to contact your affiliate manager and ask for advice. They will more than likely manage thousands of affiliates and will know what strategies are working best for what products.

Now go forth and get yours!

Questions or comments? We’d love to hear your voice. Post a comment and let’s keep the tide rolling.