New Zealand Affiliate Programs Forum launches

AffiliatePrograms.co.nz has been live and kicking for well over a year now and I’ve had enough feedback and questions that it’s time to setup the New Zealand Affiliate Programs Forum where people can ask questions and discuss their own experiences about affiliate programs and other internet marketing thoughts with a true New Zealand focus.

The forums have been a while coming and I’m sure it’ll take time for them to build a solid resource of affiliate questions, answers and insights but there has been enough positive feedback about the blog that I believe it will be well used.

New Zealand has been behind the rest of the world when it comes to online marketing and online advertising so it’s marketing forums like these that are going to bring us into play with the rest of the world.

You’ll find forum discussion topics relating specifically to NZ affiliate programs and marketing as well as International affiliate programs that ship to NZ, general internet discussions and there will of course be a place where you can promote your affiliate program to your hearts content.

I’ll be available on the forum to answer your questions as well as to discuss the issues that we currently face in the NZ online affiliate market. Even if you haven’t been involved in an affiliate marketing forum like this one before, you’ll find it a useful tool to learn from others who have already made their mistakes and are willing to share their knowledge.

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Google Ad Manager could change the affiliate industry ..

If you hadn’t heard that Google recently bought DoubleClick (still seeking commission appovals) then you must have been hiding under a rock for the past six months.

The question when they did this was what were they going to do with it?

Late last year I spoke with the Australian DoubleClick sales rep who essentially said they believed it would be business as usual.

It looks like Google have now shown exactly why they bought DoubleClick and it follows their new standard practice. Buy up a big company where small businesses can’t afford their services, roll a limited version of their services out for free to the small business, drop the price to enterprises and bring on ten times the number of enterprises thereby effectively becoming the default provider in the market.

This is what Google Ad Manager looks like it could achieve.

From an affiliate perspective, the constant complaint (or frustration for affiliate managers) is that affiliates just don’t have sophisticated systems for optimising advertising placements across their site. This has always been the area of enterprise level websites only.

Google Ad Manager has just launched its website as “Invitation Only” with a basic tour of what the package will be when it’s available.

It’s every affiliate’s dream.

A simple system the affiliate (or any publisher) can roll out on a new site to start serving adverts, optimising adverts and pulling them up and down based on timing and impressions.

To date the only options have been to do some basic HTML, use a system that an affiliate program has built just for themselves or go the whole way and install an open-source version of an ad server (like OpenAds). None of these provided an easy, quick or intelligent solution across multiple sites with many banner spots.

Check out the new Google Ad Manager yourself. Hopefully it’ll be available for more publishers soon.

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Affiliates are people too ..

If you’ve been an affiliate for a while or are an affiliate on any of the major networks, you can start to feel like you have username or account number stamped in your forehead because that’s all your affiliate manager ever actually considers you.

Sound familiar?

This is a reason why some affiliates prefer to work with smaller programs only. It’s not the answer to the best ROI (return on investment) you can get from your traffic but over the long-term this can be a way to help you stay sane and connected with real people.

Smaller affiliate programs are usually run by the main marketing people for the team and (assuming they know anything about affiliate marketing) this gives them the opportunity to get to know the affiliate a little better and build a bit more of a relationship.

If you manage to find a program like this, stick with it!

You’ll find that having that personal contact with the affiliate manager is gold when there’s something you need sorted out that’s specific to your website or business. Although it’s not always possible, nothing beats meeting and affiliate manager face-to-face. They then understand where you’re coming from and potential conflicts (where you both lose out because something wasn’t dealt with well) are reduced or even avoided completely.

I haven’t heard of any form of affiliate marketing meetings going on in New Zealand but if anyone else has let me know.

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