affiliate marketing
The Affiliate Tax: An End to the Affiliate Industry?
Monday, March 30th, 2009 | affiliate marketing | No Comments
As you may know, with 49Above being one of the leading affiliate marketing agencies in North America and many of our clients and affiliates being located in the United States, even here in Canada the affiliate / advertising tax that is going to be introduced in several states could be hugely damaging to our industry.
To date, 49Above has introduced many of our clients to affiliate marketing, and the results have been astonishing!
Until recently, online business strategies and sales, including affiliate marketing, have been free of regular sales taxes and business laws. This relatively simple business model has enabled many individuals, usually stay at home mothers and entrepreneurs, to enter into the affiliate market and make a decent living. This line of business has proven to be very profitable for merchants and affiliates alike and has been growing at a steady rate over the past few years.
Recently though, the state of New York has complicated matters by passing an affiliate sales tax, and many other states are following suit. Hawaii, North Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, Connecticut and California are currently considering implementing their own version of the law. In California for example, Bill AB 178 imposes a sales tax on all retailers engaged in business in the state. This includes online businesses and affiliates by definition. But what’s a stay-at-home mom of three to do when this is her only source of income for her family?
Although laws concerning online businesses are inevitable, critiques of the state sales tax movement are urging legislators to consider the consequences of such bills being passed. One of the largest criticisms is the increased confusion in dealing with different state tax laws as opposed to a standard federal law. In addition, many of the large online merchants have threatened to end affiliate marketing efforts due to the new tax. The online affiliate community is worried these new laws will mean lost revenue and lost jobs, and ultimately an end to the affiliate industry! This doesn’t only affect the United States, but the companies in Canada and all over the world who are managing them.
We are working with the affiliate communities to raise awareness about the current situation. One of the key ways is by showcasing the impact of these laws on individuals. By putting a face to the industry, affiliates, affiliate managers and those utilizing this very lucrative form of marketing, hope to raise awareness of their cause and stop the passage of these types of bills.
As always, we love to hear your thoughts on this current situation! How are you personally being affected by these laws? What are some ways to governments can compromise with affiliates to come to a mutually beneficial agreement? Please tell us what you think.
CPA is King in this Economy
Thursday, November 27th, 2008 | affiliate marketing | 2 Comments
For many years the affiliate CPA model was widely embraced by the online gambling industry due to the legal restrictions to market their services in traditional online channels in many jurisdictions, as well as by some traditional merchants.
However, the battleground has changed and more and more traditional online merchants and service providers turn their heads to affiliate marketing and its Cost-per-Action commission model. Why is that? Since the battle for customers in a challenging economy got fiercer and advertising dollars lesser it is simply a matter of efficiency. The merchant incurs an expense only in case a transaction occurrs and redundant spend, like in Pay-Per-Click, is eliminated.
Lasse Kubiack, Director at 49Above Marketing Inc. noticed a shift in services requested by clients asking for more security in advertising spend. “Affiliate Marketing is now shifting to industries which never have utilized this kind of marketing channel before“, Kubiack says. A prime example is an Adoption Agency which now utilizes affiliate marketing to find families for orphaned children or children whose parents are not able to provide for them.
“With affiliate marketing you get what you pay for” explains Director Kubiack, and this is true in every sense. To make your affiliate program stand out and generate the sales volume that your company needs, you need to have an affiliate manager, who knows the ins and outs of this industry and who has the connections to the high performing affiliates who are able to drive traffic and results to your organization. “Many clients come to us, because they tried to run the affiliate program through their marketing department, however never got the results they hoped for” reports Mr. Kubiack.
North America has a few very capable affiliate managers and 49Above Marketing is one of them. The company however is not restricted to North America, because its Affiliate Managers are multi lingual and serve German, Spanish, French and of course all other english speaking markets outside the US as well.
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49Above Marketing Inc.
sales (at) 49above.com
office: 1.778.785.0080
Online Marketing in an Ailing Economy
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | 49above Updates, World Events | No Comments
Daily news reports about falling stock prices, companies close to bankruptcy and recession talk are normal these days. In fact over the last months more and more economies steered towards a recession and so far there are no signs of an end to this trend. The International Monetary Fund revised its international economic growth projections twice in only 3 months and the year 2008 has every potential to turn out even worse than any predictions made.
The Challenge with Traditional Advertising
Large budget cuts are usually the first reaction of decision makers. However, no marketing certainly results in no sales and no sales drive any company into even deeper financial problems. The challenge with traditional advertising is that it is does not produce quantifiable results because it is impossible to establish any kind of accurate tracking data about the success of any given offline campaign or advertising medium used. For example, no one can know how many people have seen a billboard advertisement and subsequently turned into buyers for the advertised product or if the billboard had any affect since buyers might have come from another marketing channel.
Every Crisis Bears Opportunity
Online marketing is different. In the online world, marketing spend can be traced and evaluated for results since there is quantifiable data that shows, for example, how many people have been exposed to an ad, how many people clicked an ad, or how many people purchased after clicking an ad. This kind of data is available in the pay-per-click world of Google, MSN, Yahoo and other providers. However, even with the best tracking and campaign performance improvements in place, there is still the element of redundancy for clicks not resulting in sales. No PPC campaign can deliver a 100% conversion rate!
The market demands more efficient solutions as companies cannot and want not afford redundant ad spend. The solution is affiliate marketing. What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing leverages the highly targeted traffic from 3rd party website owners who wish to sell a product or service for any given company. Traffic sent to a merchant is tracked through a third party network and the affiliate usually is compensated on a cost-per-action basis, as opposed by a Pay-per-click compensation. This means, the merchant only has an expense in the form of commission if the traffic that came from an affiliate turned into a sale. No sale-no cost, however free branding for the merchant on the affiliates web site!
Often this relatively new online marketing channel is underestimated in its effectiveness. However, the truth is that companies across almost all industries experience monthly sales revenues from this channel in millions of dollars.
Vancouver based 49Above Marketing Inc. (http://www.49above.com) is one of North Americas leading online marketing companies, which offer this kind of marketing besides PPC and media buying services. 49Above Marketing’s Director and Co-founder Lasse Kubiack noticed an even higher number of clients who turned to online marketing over the last months as in the months preceding the financial crisis. “We see an even higher ad spend in the affiliate marketing industries as companies receive 100% of the desired return on ad spend with CPA models” explains Kubiack. Online Marketing is cost effective, quantifiable, flexible and highly targeted.
According to Mr. Kubiack, in these difficult economic times more and more consumers are looking to shop online in hopes to find a bargain, use a coupon code and to save a car ride with gas expenses to the overpriced local shopping mall. While brick and mortar stores have seen a dramatic decline in retail sales, their online competitors experience normal to elevated sales at the same time.
2008 ShareASale Think Tank Recap
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | Industry Events | No Comments
I just got back from my very first ShareASale Think Tank in San Diego which Brian Littleton, the CEO of ShareASale does every year to bring together the brightest minds in the affiliate marketing industry in order to create new levels of innovation, connection, effectiveness and community.
This year’s Think Tank was held at the incredible Grand Del Mar Hotel which was hand selected for its opulence and class. The grounds were prestine and the rooms to die for. I enjoyed my king size bed and bathroom that could have fit several small families.
The first night of networking was a blast as the casual yet professional atmosphere made it easy to meet people. Everyone seemed to be like old friends and even as someone who had never been to a Think Tank before, I felt welcomed and that I fit in.
The intimate feeling of the entire weekend made for thoughts, ideas and conversation to flow. During the next day’s round tables, people shared ideas and experiences in order to help other’s improve and grow. People were open to receiving constructive feedback and wanted to hear what others had to say, knowing that these were the top people that they should be listening to.
I was thrilled to meet so many good people in this industry who seemed to genuinely want to help create a stronger name for affiliate marketing as well as help each other grow.
I hope to receive an invitation again next year so that we can continue to build these incredible relationships with some of the top performing affiliates in the world and learn from them. Thanks to Brian Littleton and Judi Moore, especially, who invited me to come and learn with some lovable industry veterans.
King size bed at the Grand Del Mar Hotel
Rexanne Mancini and I - www.Rexanne.com
James Martell and I during the first night
Brian Littleton, CEO of ShareASale
Missy Ward, Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit
My good friend, Judi Moore
These are just a few of the pictures from the event. What a fantastic time we all had. I’m looking forward to next year!
Sarah Villeneuve Bundy
Leading Director and Co-Founder
Welcome To Our Blog!
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | 49above Clients, 49above Updates, Industry Events, Industry Interviews, Website Usability and Analytics, affiliate marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social network marketing | No Comments
Hello everyone and welcome to the 49above Marketing Inc. Blog!
We will be featuring all kinds of treats on these pages so please stay tuned to find out about program launches, industry updates, our thoughts and stories on Internet Marketing events and more!
Here you will learn all about our affiliate programs, affiliate marketing management, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, PPC, PPL, email marketing, social network marketing, tools and tips for conversions, website usability, analytics and pretty much anything you’ll want to know to be more effective in Internet Marketing.
We’re looking forward to having you visit our site. We’d love to hear your thoughts too so if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them on here. You can also check out our website at http://www.49above.com!
To your ongoing success!
_______________________________
Sarah Villeneuve Bundy
Leading Director and Co-Founder
49above Marketing Inc.
PH: 778.785.0080
sarah@49above.com
http://www.49above.com