'Net Features : wm-affiliate

Canadians A Loyal Bunch, and Other Insights on Global Affiliate Marketing

Michael Garrity — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:15:00 GMT

Working online means running a business that has the potential to go global right from the get-go, which means keeping an eye on emerging trends from around the world is really important, especially for advertisers that use affiliates to reach new customers from all over.

Attempting to uncover these kinds of insights is what led Rakuten LinkShare to commission a study by Forrester about global selling through the affiliate channel called quite bluntly, “Key Trends and Best Practices Selling Globally Via the Affiliate Channel,” which surveyed more than 2500 online shoppers from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the United States, Canada, Brazil and the United Kingdom. Forrester rapped with various advertisers AND publishers that are either managing affiliate programs in multiple countries or preparing to expand internationally.

The survey was focused on finding out about the opportunities and challenges presented by cross-border selling through the affiliate marketing channel. Forrester determined that while advertisers and publishers should think globally, they should act locally by enacting country-specific strategies. Businesses should also build their brand in each new country they enter, focus on fulfillment operations and lever the “halo effect” associated with international selling.

For more country-specific data, the Rakuten LinkShare study also found:
-    68 percent of affiliate shoppers have made an online purchase from a company outside of their home countries in the last year
-    US affiliate shoppers spend more online than the global average, and they’re especially loyal to brands that make offers across multiple websites
-    UK shoppers also spend above average and are “highly likely” to reconsider an abandoned cart after receiving an offer
-    Canadian shoppers are the most likely to buy outside of their country, and use a lot of loyalty/cash-back sites
-    Australians care the least about duties and taxes, but they’re also the least likely to reconsider an abandoned shopping cart
-    Japanese shoppers use a lot of multi-brand and comparison shopping sites, but insist on offers to close a deal when they’re undecided
-    Brazilians avidly use the affiliate channel

In addition, Forrester also found that shipping costs and times are still the biggest challenge to cross-border e-commerce, but duties and taxes also inhibit many global brands from competing. Moreover, the survey determined that local payment types are essential to global online success.

All in all, this provides advertisers, publishers and brands looking to take their e-commerce businesses to the world with valuable information that will help them better make their way into the world’s most important economies. Food for thought, ya know?

VigLink Optimizes Affiliate Links

Allison Howen — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:15:00 GMT

A new link optimizing tool from VigLink aims to help publishers maximize their profits from product links.

The link optimization technology is an optional feature of VigLink Convert, and can be used to modify organic product links to point to different retailers in cases when it means earning more money. The optimized links can be used to not only help publishers earn more from their content, but also to help retailers drive sales from more customers. Plus, it helps keep links on the Web both relevant and working.

The technology works by aligning advertiser demand to publisher inventory and user experience. That said, publishers can also make it so certain links are never changed. Additionally, the technology can detect specific retailer mentions in text, so if an article refers to a company, VigLink won’t change the nearby link to connect with a different company.

The link optimization technology is currently in beta, and according to VigLink’s blog, the company plans to use this period to expand the universe of optimizable links, listen to feedback and improve the technology. Check out the graph below to see an example from Joe’s Photo Forum, which shows how much more the optimized links earned compared to the initial links that Joe chose for his post.

The Importance, Rise of Mobile Tracking

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:30:00 GMT

Everyone wants credit for what they do, and publishers are no different. With traffic through mobile handsets exceeding 12 percent of Affiliate Window’s total network traffic in recent months, it’s no wonder this performance marketing network is making mobile tracking a major initiative for its advertisers. It’s working.

Affiliate Window is now tracking 91 percent of revenue and commission generated through its advertisers and is confident it will track 99 percent by year end.

It’s becoming increasingly important for mobile tracking to be added to advertisers’ sites to ensure publishers are being correctly rewarded for the sales they are driving. Mobile tracking also allows publishers to make informed choices on which advertisers to promote.

Affiliate Window releases regular mobile updates to educate its advertisers on the importance of mobile tracking. May’s report saw these highlights:

*May saw a record 572 sales per hour through mobile devices

*The iPhone generated 3,100 sales per day throughout May

*One in every seven clicks and one in every 13 sales in May came through a mobile handset

*Affiliate Window has recorded more mobile sales so far this year than they did in Jan.-Nov. in 2012

Does Your Performance Marketing Program Need a Tune-Up?

Administrator — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:45:00 GMT

:: By Jason Hulott, SpeedieConsulting ::

Running an affiliate program is a lot like running your website. Simply having one doesn't mean you will suddenly see a huge amount of business from it. Even a program that has been running for a year or two can hit a rut and it can take some serious effort to get it moving again.

But if you are not even sure what the problem is, how can you fix it? Here are a few ideas to make sure your program is running smoothly.

Is the tracking broken?

Sometimes the IT department will make site changes and not notify the marketing department, as it could be a back-office system change and suddenly the tracking has been removed. This might only be on one product of many, but slowly you start to see a drop in sales and it can take a while to pinpoint the cause. Not only could you be losing recorded sales, but affiliates might also start leaving the program, as they lose confidence in your ability to track and allocate sales correctly.

Do your landing pages have detractors?

Following on from above, sometimes affiliate landing pages get caught up in big changes, so now all of a sudden your landing pages have a large phone number on them which is a big leakage point and can turn off affiliates. Again, if you take your eye off this kind of thing it can lead to a decline in activity.

Are your creatives updated?

Have your affiliate creatives been refreshed or changed in the last 3-4 months? Do you have updated marketing messages, are they being tested in other channels? Do you have all the relevant sizes and options? Remember that mobile is getting bigger and normal desktop display banner sizes might not work. Additionally, if you are only using flash banners, then they won't display on Apple devices.

How's your communication?

Do you communicate with your affiliates, or do you simply sign them up and let them get on with it? You need to make sure you are top-of-mind with your key affiliates and treat them as sales partners. After all, you wouldn't send out a sales force without being up to date on your business and products. Affiliates shouldn't be any different.

Are you still recruiting?

So outside of technical issues and creative ones, are you still actively recruiting new affiliates? Do not simply rely on your network to recruit for you. Search forums, visit sites, reach out to bloggers and search Google for your keywords. There will be new sites popping up all the time that will be a great fit for your affiliate program. Nothing grows affiliate revenues more than new blood.

As you can see, there are a large number of things you can be doing constantly to either keep your program running smoothly. Or, if you have let it lapse and it needs a tune-up, there are plenty of places to start.

About the Author:

Jason Hulott is Director of SpeedieConsulting and helps merchants globally grow their affiliate activities via SpeedieAffiliates.com.

Fraud Fears Loom, but Performance Marketing Booms

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:31:00 GMT

The affiliate/performance marketing space has always been one that the entire Web seems to look down its virtual nose at – and sometimes for good reason.

While the vast majority of affiliate marketers seem to be fine, upstanding Internet professionals, there remain a few that continue to abuse the model. Two well-known affiliates (Shawn Hogan and Brian Dunning), who eBay is claiming bilked them of millions of dollars using nefarious tactics such as cookie stuffing, are the latest accused perpetrators of fraud in the affiliate space.

Hogan and Dunning are far from your normal affiliates, but companies which still engage in the performance marketing practice (Internet retailers and online advertisers) likely won’t be dissuaded by this event or any event of that nature in the future. Why? Well, it works really well from a performance standpoint – particularly for those with limited budgets or those that are fed up with CPC and display advertising, social media and email. And the affiliate marketing space is booming.

Performance marketing agency Experience Advertising released an infographic recently which highlighted the popularity of this particular tactic over the years and what advertisers and merchants should expect in the future.

The infographic revealed that affiliate marketing spending in the U.S. increased by 256% in 7 years (according to the U.S. Affiliate Marketing Forecast (2009-2014) by Forrester Research) growing from $1.6 billion in 2007 to $4.1 billion (estimated) in 2014. And according to the IAB Affiliate Marketing Council, 77% of advertisers increased their affiliate marketing spend this year, while 71% expect to grow their spend in the future. And this growth occurred despite pervasive fears of fraud.

Interested in learning more about the digital world of affiliate marketing? Check out Website Magazine's Affiliate 360 book, a practical guide to ethical performance marketing for brands both large and small.

Q&A: How GAN's Retirement Impacts You

Amberly Dressler — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:32:00 GMT

Marketers were shocked in mid-April with the news that Google planned to retire the Google Affiliate Network. As they say, however, when one door closes...

With that in mind, Integrate SVP of Advertiser Relations, Kyle Gale, offers an exclusive interview about what's to come with Google out of the affiliate arena.

Website Magazine: What impact will the GAN retirement have on the credibility of the affiliate marketing space? And what, if anything, should marketers know about others trying to fill GAN’s spot?

Kyle Gale: Rather than having any lasting effects on the credibility of affiliate marketing, GAN’s retirement points more to the difficulty of performance-based marketing. Google bowing out of the game highlights the biggest obstacle in the affiliate space—credibility is in short supply, causing many to shy away from what they view as “dirty” marketing.

GAN avoided this stigma due in part to Google’s brand recognition. Lesser known and newer networks won’t be able to get away with the issues that plagued GAN, because they can’t afford to lose affiliates. If you have no affiliates, you have no fulfillment; if you have no fulfillment, you have no advertisers, and you don’t get paid.

In their search for a replacement, marketers need to be aware of these lesser-known solutions and ask the right questions before getting involved. It’s not just the name of the network or the high payouts that matter. What they’re doing to ensure quality will prove to be more significant—and ultimately determine if the network thrives or ends in an early retirement.

WM: What factors do you believe led to the GAN retirement?

KG: GAN was a part of Google’s 2007 acquisition of DoubleClick. It was never a priority for Google to make GAN a flagship product, and as a result, Google didn’t give it the attention needed for growth and dominance. Affiliates continually found fault with the lack of tools and support offered, compared to other vendors in the industry, and advertisers were seeing their returns on ad spend decreasing at disproportionate rates. Google knows as well as any company that when things aren’t working out, it’s time to take a step back and evaluate.

WM: Why will the next fold be the blind affiliate and ad networks and what do advertisers need to know?

KG: Blind affiliate and ad networks offer nothing to advertisers with regard to vendor insights. Networks must maintain a certain level of anonymity to protect themselves from circumvention, but vendors that offer little to no historical data on individual publishers are sealing their own fates.

Advertisers should partner with the affiliates that make sense for their objectives—that means having access to company descriptions, performance statistics, verticals of expertise and references when available. Without these bare minimum offerings, it’s difficult for advertisers to buy media from a network standpoint.

WM: Anything else you’d like to add?

KG: The highest quality-producing vendors will offer tools and support to advertisers and publishers, helping both groups adapt to an ever-changing marketing landscape. By paying constant attention to industry trends—and providing features that ensure quality and limit fraud—leading affiliate management systems will redefine the industry’s standards for performance marketing. Along with blind affiliate and ad networks, channel-specific vendors will lose ground to omni-channel affiliate platforms that feature consolidated access to all of their affiliate spend from a single dashboard.

Will There Ever Be Cookie-Less Tracking?

Administrator — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:30:00 GMT

:: By Matt Swan, Affiliate Window ::

With the recent news that the next release of Mozilla’s Firefox browser will come with third-party cookies blocked as standard, there has been a lot of uncertainty for online marketers. Indeed, the IAB has launched a petition which has been signed by in excess of 500 fearful online businesses, urging Mozilla to drop their plans. If this is implemented, it could potentially put a significant amount of companies reliant on cookie-based tracking out of business.

The threat to cookie-based tracking is nothing new though. The ‘do not track’ initiative is prevalent throughout the U.S. and has been a major risk to online advertisers and their publisher base. With cookie-based tracking the most widespread method of understanding user behavior, purchasing habits and preferences, this is something that needs to be taken seriously. The ePrivacy directive that is in place throughout Europe ensures that users have informed consent regarding what is tracked and by whom. They are then given the choice to opt out of this if they wish.

Concerns around the reliability of cookie-based tracking are not new. Anti-virus solutions that may be blocking or deleting affiliate cookies have been around for years. Advertisers have sometimes increased their commission rates to reflect that there may be some loss of commission due to this occurring.

While there are some concerns around cookie-based tracking, it is still by far the most reliable method of tracking, and reliability is paramount for online marketers – particularly those that operate within the performance marketing space. If cookie tracking was unreliable or these were blocked by default, it could negatively affect the customer journey in a number of ways. For example, if using a cashback site, a member expects to see their cashback track successfully. With cookies being blocked, this will not track correctly and the user will have had a negative experience of both the publisher and the advertiser and is likely to not return to either. It is easy to see why the most robust solution is the preferred one and why defending it is important.

With the increasing awareness of cookies amongst consumers, there are often misconceptions around what these are actually used for. There are some who still perceive cookies as spyware and this is a misconception that needs challenging. A number of online companies use cookies to understand user behavior and target consumers with relevant advertisements. Cookies are also used to improve website functionality and the user experience. Simple things such as remembering a user’s login details or preferences set for using a website. With cookies being blocked/deleted, websites will lose a lot of their functionality and user benefits.

Another common misconception that is heard across the performance marketing channel is that cookie deletion is rife. While there will inevitably be some instances where cookies will be deleted, this is minimal. Some cashback sites for example will mention in their FAQs that their members should clear their cookies prior to purchasing to ensure their cashback tracks, but their estimation of the proportion of people that actually do this is minimal.

Consumers actively deciding to delete their cookies is one thing, but whether or not browsers are accepting cookies is another entirely. As mentioned previously, the announcement that Mozilla will be blocking third-party cookies as standard has caused uproar within the online community.

This is not an entirely new practice though and has been common with mobile devices. The iPhone for example is set to only accept first-party cookies (those set by an advertiser’s own server) and by default blocks third-party cookies placed by other companies.

With other browsers like Chrome providing users with the ability to delete third-party cookies, first-party cookies like Flash cookies and other tracking solutions such as eTags are perceived as more necessary.

So to answer the question set out in the title of this post – will there ever be just cookieless tracking? No, not anytime soon. Cookies are an essential part ensuring a fully functional web-browsing experience and as such, consumers will be willing to accept the benefits of cookies – as long as advertisers are upfront and open about the cookies they use, and how this benefits the user experience.

Matt Swan is a Client Strategist at global performance marketing network, Affiliate Window. He works with advertisers to offer strategic advice to optimise campaigns. He also contributes to new business pitches and is an active member of the IAB AMC.

Affiliate Marketing, In-House vs. Network

Administrator — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:00:00 GMT

Affiliate marketing is a great way for a business to expand its reach into the online arena. Simply stated, an affiliate program is another way of saying reseller or introducer. You allow those signed up to your program to offer your products and service to their site traffic and in return you pay them on certain types of activities. This can be done on a low-cost and low-risk model.

There are two main ways to create and run an affiliate program.

1. In-house: You build an affiliate tracking platform for your business or you buy an off-the-shelf package to manage your affiliate program. All you need then is to go out and get affiliates.

2. Network: You sign up to an affiliate network that has all the tracking software already running and also has affiliates all ready and waiting to join your program.

As you can see both options pretty much do the same things and both have pros and cons.

In-House Option

Pros: Cheaper to set up; gives you full control; builds a private network; and with no network fees, this allows to you pay affiliates more.

Cons: No affiliate network and can take longer to start to see results.

Network Option

Pros: Built-in affiliate network; access to wide variety of affiliates; and can see sales quicker.

Cons: Higher setup costs and higher pre-sale fees due to overrides.

In summary, you can see there are benefits for doing both; it does really come down to expectations, budget and how quickly you want to see a Return on Investment (ROI).

Once you have decided which route to go down, you then need to think about a few more things. The first big one is remuneration.

Remuneration

There are a number of ways to pay affiliates:

Cost Per Click (CPC): You could pay affiliates on a pay-per-click basis to drive traffic.

Cost Per Lead (CPL): You would pay for a completed validated lead. Tends to work in B2B or insurance.

Cost Per Action (CPA): Again, similar to a lead but could be a survey, quote form, newsletter signup or guide download.

Cost Per Sale (CPS): Pay affiliates a flat fee per product sale or a percentage of their basket value. This works well in retail and travel.

Whatever payment type you choose, you need to make sure the numbers work for you as a business before you publish rates. Nothing kills a program faster than having to reduce commissions in week two because you missed something or tried to pay away too much.

Recruitment, Incentives and Communication

Once the program is up and running, it will need maintenance and work - even on a network you can't rely on them to be proactive for you. You need to make this work.

Actively go out and look for a potential affiliates, use Google and forums to find these guys and reach out directly. With current affiliates, incentivise them, run contests to drive more sales. Above all, make sure you communicate regularly. After all, these guys are your sales force. You wouldn’t go into a sales meeting without the proper product details, so make sure your affiliates don't. Affiliate marketing is a great way to drive sales and diversify your online income or traffic streams but it does take planning and effort to get it working for you.

About the Author:

Jason Hulott is Director of SpeedieConsulting and helps merchants globally grow their affiliate activities via SpeedieAffiliates.com.

Contact: Jason Hulott, Director of SpeedieConsulting. Tel: 01843 831088 / 07940 521056, email: jason@speediepr.co.uk

It's a Mobile World, an Infographic

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:55:00 GMT

The Internet space is running out of ways to say the same thing: mobile is hot. And there are countless statistics to back the claim.

Affiliate Window, however, has put together an insightful infographic that looks at the growth in m-commerce and the trends that are driving it (seen below).

:: And for more mobile news, check out Website Magazine's Mobile Channel that covers news, best practices and emerging trends in mobile. ::

Google Affiliate Network Retires

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:05:00 GMT

Google rocked the affiliate world last night with the announcement that it has made the "difficult decision" to retire Google Affiliate Network and focus on other products that are driving results.

While the search giant did note that it will continue to support its customers as it winds down the product over the next few months, Google's Plus page shows no signs of slowing down, even welcoming new publishers, offering advertiser tips and simplifying the application process for its affiliate, Paycare - all within the last week or so. Additionally, the Google Affiliate Network sign-up process is still active and everything seems to be business as usual on the network's website.

This change to the affiliate space will clearly have a ripple effect across the other major networks.

Google's full announcement is below:

Our goal with Google Affiliate Network has been to help advertisers and publishers improve their performance across the affiliate ecosystem. Cost-per-action (CPA) marketing has rapidly evolved in the last few years, and we’ve invested significantly in CPA tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer. We’re constantly evaluating our products to ensure that we’re focused on the services that will have the biggest impact for our advertisers and publishers.

To that end, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Google Affiliate Network and focus on other products that are driving great results for clients.

We’ll continue to support our customers as we wind down the product over the next few months. And there are other products that can help you achieve your goals. Affiliate publishers can continue to earn AdSense revenue through the AdSense network. And marketers can take advantage of other CPA-oriented Google tools like Product Listing Ads, remarketing and Conversion Optimizer to drive valuable online sales and conversions. These areas are growing rapidly and we’re continuing to invest heavily in them.

Thanks for your support of our affiliate product, and we look forward to helping you grow your business in the future.

Affiliate Program Monetizes Apps without Ads

Allison Howen — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Looking to generate a recurring revenue stream from your app without adding advertising or in-app purchases? If so, consider checking out the Placed Affiliate program.

This new program from the location analytics company monetizes location data for market research (not ads). By using the Placed Affiliate SDK, developers can turn location data from their app users into monthly revenue. This is because Placed measures mobile device information, including location, when the app has received explicit location permissions from the user. Moreover, to ensure privacy, Placed requires a secondary notification of measurement upon first install, along with links to the Placed Terms and Privacy Policy.

After the location data has been measured, Placed converts the information into income for the app developer. It is also important to note that developers who already monetize their apps through options like in-app advertising can still leverage the Placed Affiliate program to increase their total app revenue.

During this program’s run in private beta, Placed measured almost one billion locations. Now the company is expanding its Affiliate program by inviting developers to participate with this monetization channel. That said, interested developers must receive an invitation to participate, which they can sign up for on the company’s website.

"To date, developers have faced limited options in monetizing their apps, largely restricted to advertising, in-app purchases, or creating a paid version of their app," said David Shim, Founder and CEO at Placed. "Placed Affiliate opens up a new channel of monetization for app developers utilizing the unique element of mobile - location. This incremental revenue helps app developers focus on building the best apps, which ultimately benefits users."

Monetize Video Across Devices with Brightcove

Allison Howen — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:15:00 GMT

Brightcove has made it easier for businesses to monetize video across devices, thanks to the general availability of its monetization solution for HTML5 video.

The video solution includes support for Video Ad Serving Template (VAST)-compliant pre-, mid- and post-roll ads, a new HTML5 video player API for setting and changing ad policies, as well as HTML5 video plugin support for popular ad servers, including FreeWheel, Google, Videoplaza and YuMe.

By leveraging the solution, businesses can maximize the revenue potential of their online video initiatives across platforms, including desktops, mobile devices, operating systems and browsers, as well as choose the best ad servers for their business.

“Media companies today must have confidence that their online video platform can address the ever changing landscape of monetization opportunities across a wide range of screens and devices,” said Chris Johnston, vice president of digital media solutions at Brightcove. “From early on, Brightcove has invested heavily in building a strong ecosystem of HTML5 advertising partners and a flexible, open architecture that makes it easy for partners to integrate with our platform. We are committed to helping our media customers future-proof their online video advertising initiatives and ensure they can consistently and reliably reach their audiences and generate the most revenue.”

It is also important to note that Brightcove invested in its Smart Player framework over the past year, which automatically adapts the video experience to account for operating system and browser inconsistencies. This technology ensures that ad integrations will work consistently across both HTML5 and Flash-based desktops and mobile devices, as well as makes it easy for advertising partners to build integrations. Moreover, the Smart Player framework allows users to future-proof their online video investments and advertising strategies by offering support for new platforms and operating systems as they enter the market.

Currently, the Video Cloud platform provides HTML5 video plugin support for ad servers from FreeWheel, Videoplaza and YuMe and Flash video support across more than 30 other ad servers and networks. Additionally, Video Cloud is among the first online video platforms to support Google’s IMA3 SDK on both Flash and HTML5, which enables publishers to take advantage of advanced features in the DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) video module.

Mobile Traffic Increases, Sales Decrease

Allison Howen — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:00:00 GMT

Mobile traffic continues to impress, as a new report from Affiliate Window reveals that the company saw an increase in mobile traffic across its network in February.

In fact, the report reveals that one in every five clicks originated from a mobile device during February, which is a considerable increase from last year when the company saw just 9.6 percent of total network traffic come through mobile devices.

However, despite the increase in mobile traffic, sales through mobile devices actually decreased in February, down to 13.7 percent from 13.97 percent in January. That being said, advertisers should remember that mobile visitors often times are using their devices to look up information such as the location of the nearest store, rather than using their devices to make purchases.

When breaking down mobile sales by device, the report unsurprisingly shows Apple devices drive the most conversions. In fact, during week 8, 59.23 percent of mobile sales originated from an iPad, while 19.83 percent of mobile sales originated from an iPhone and only 14.54 percent came from an Android device.

Other important data from Affiliate Window’s February Mobile Update reveals that even though there was a drop in mobile sales during February, overall conversion rates remained the same as January – at 3.43 percent. It is important to note, however, that according to the study, the drop off in the share of sales through mobile devices is due to an improvement in the conversion rates across desktops as opposed to a drop off in mobile conversion rates. Desktop conversion rates, for example, increased to 5.64 percent, while the conversion rates of iPads also increased to 5 percent. That said, the conversion rates of iPhone, Android and other devices remained consistent with January, while Blackberry conversion rates dropped to 8.29 percent.

Manage All Your Websites in Google AdSense

Michael Garrity — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:35:00 GMT

Good news for affiliates that use Google AdSense to monetize their websites. The service is looking to make monitoring the revenue performance of all your websites (and their respective AdSense campaigns) significantly easier.

That is the basis of the new beta release of Site Management, a feature in the Google AdSense console that allows AdSense users to categorize their various ads by website. They simply have to add websites to their list in the console and then set site-specific actions for each one. Actions can include things like blocking a specific ad from showing on certain sites.

Both domains and subdomains can be added to site lists, but Google warns users that it’s very important to use the correct, complete URL when adding a site to make sure the selected actions work appropriately. So, if a user wants to block actions across an entire domain, they should add them to the list without the “www.” prefix, as subdomains that take that spot won’t be applicable for the rule change.

Have you started testing the Site Management beta feature yet? If so, let us know what you think about it in the replies.

Rakuten LinkShare Tops List of Affiliate Networks

Michael Garrity — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Awards season is upon us, and for the second year in a row, Rakuten LinkShare cleaned up.

Each year, the media company mThink compiles its Blue Book survey of various online advertisers, publishers and agencies to rank the top 20 CPA and affiliate networks in each respective industry. Survey participation rose over 40 percent this year, meaning mThink was able to consider the opinions of over 10,000 industry professionals with experience in affiliate marketing and working with various industry networks.

The survey’s results are then validated by an external panel of third-party industry experts that “span every aspect of the online marketing community.”

Rakuten LinkShare captured the number one spot on mThink’s list for the second year in a row, beating out a list of major names in the affiliate marketing industry, including Commission Junction (#2), Amazon (#3), ShareASale (#5), Affiliate Window (#12) and many more.

“We’re grateful to the industry for honoring and recognizing our commitment to performance marketing and to the success of our partners,” says Rakuten LinkShare CEO Yaz Iida. “Earning this award for the second year in a row further motivates us to continue to lead the industry in ways that will empower advertisers, publishers and agencies to see even stronger results in the future as we strive to maintain our ranking.”

In the CPA networks category, Clickbooth/Integraclick earned the top spot, followed by Neverblue, MaxBounty, PeerFly and MediaWhiz MonetizeIt, to round out the top five.