If you’ve never displayed advertising banners before, now is the time to get familiar with them. Especially after the usual annual slump in January/ February just after Christmas, Spring is the best time to get back on the online marketing bandwagon when sales pick up again.

For Mother’s Day banner ideas, try out the following in the Shopzilla UK Publisher portal.

Her –> Health and Beauty Supplies–> Perfume and Cologne

Women–> Gifts, Flowers and Food

Gifts, Flowers and Food–> Flowers and Plants

Any problems finding what you want, please let us know.

Otherwise, if you have other good suggestions, don’t hesitate to share it with us!

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So why should bloggers engage in this Tweet-world?

It is a great way to build communities around your brand or blog. By communicating with like minded people (aim for targeted followers and follow those whose interests lie in the same field) you create an awareness of your blog and increase visitor numbers to your site.

Tweet about your latest blog post, or throw a question out there to get a discussion started. Whatever you decide to tweet, make it relevant to your site or the subject on which you base your blog (without spamming) and include links and tags. The tags help fellow tweet-folks find you on a keyword search and can be a great way of increasing the number of people that see your Tweet.

Keep an eye on the Trending Topics and if you have something to say, use these keywords as a basis - you’ll find you appear amongst the hundreds of others tweeting about this particular area and again, increase the likelihood people will find you and start following you. All this generates those much needed visitor numbers to your blog and guess what…it’s all free!

A great post which gives more of an insight into the way bloggers can make the most out of Twitter can be found here on Social Media Examiner. Darren Rowse, more widely known as the man behind Problogger.net, gives an interview with some great advice on Twitter for bloggers.

Follow us @ShopzillaUK and keep up to date on the latest Publisher and affiliate news.

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Additional websites to add to your Publisher account?

Follow these three simple steps and monetise your other sites too!

1. Tell us about the site you wish to add the content to.

Send us the URL and a short description about the website and how you’d like to integrate Shopzilla content.

2. We’ll review it and give you the green light when it’s been approved.

You will normally receive an answer within one working day - please note that we are very focused on content related ads and this applies not only to your principal site but to your additional ones too.

3. Implement straightaway.

If we approve your website (using the same criteria we look at when approving your inital site) then you can begin adding content as soon as you wish.

The great thing is there’s no need to re-regsiter with your site - you can keep them all together under one Publisher account.

Another Publisher feature you may find useful to integrate are our Placement IDs.  Attribute your own IDs to be able to keep track of which ad on which site is performing best - you can customise them in the portal so you’ll always remember which ID refers to which ad.

Just remember, give us a shout if you’d like to add other sites to your account!

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Build on or add your own price comparison element to your website

The Shopzilla team is proud to offer you FTP Data Feeds as part of our Publisher Program. This allows Publishers to build on or add their own price comparison section on their site.

About the Data Feeds

We allow you to download BizRate’s entire inventory of merchant product offers from one FTP location, comprised of approximately 1,000 individual product offer files in XML format and which is updated daily to provide the latest product offers.

It sounds easy but in order to be able to successfully integrate this product you will need to have the technological capabilities as well as the time necessary to make full use of the advantages this data feed can provide. It can be time-consuming but for those will the right resources, it is well worth the effort.

Advantages to the Shopzilla FTP-data feeds

- access to shopping content and ability to create the design of your choice at the same time.  Create your own shopping elements using XML and set up your own online shopping section on your website.

- affiliates can download either the entire BizRate inventory or specific categories of interest, thus millions of product offers can be used and displayed.

- flexibility in what and how you display - we enable you to pick and choose the information you wish to display on your site. Whether this be the merchant logo, delivery information, price or product description etc, you have the freedom to choose and to adapt it to your site.

About the API:

For those looking to add a price comparison element but who may prefer an API integration, we are looking at introducing our Catalogue API early next quarter so it would be perhaps best to wait those few extra months.

In the meantime, however,  start earning from today by implementing our large 600×600 dynamic asset pods which will add that comparison factor to your website. Your earnings will rollover each month and keep adding up until the Catalogue API is launched so you’ll never lose out. It will give you some extra pennies in the run up to its introduction on the UK market.

The great thing about the API is that it will enable you to dynamically retrieve product results from the BizRate catalogue which means no manual updating. Once installed, you can sit back and relax as the data is called automatically. The current feed product requires you as the Publisher to update your site in sync with Shopzilla’s daily updates - product offers may change, therefore it requires particular attention and time if you really wish to benefit from it.

Read more about how to use the Shopzilla FTP-data feeds.

Set up a Publisher account today and see how much you can make.

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Searching for a niche?

How do you choose which niche to promote? And how do you find a successful one?

The best piece of advice we have seen so far is this: write about what interests you.

Affiliates often find that the content needed for creating a successful website can be a slow slog and is often difficult to keep constant (check out our post on Overcoming Writer’s Block for ideas on how to inspire fresh content). So, if you start with a niche in which you’re already interested, one of your hobbies perhaps (?), then without realising it you already have that much needed content. If, for example, you’re a golf addict who likes nothing better than to spend a Sunday on the course, blog about your games and offer tips for better play or advice on which clubs to buy.

As for choosing a successful niche - do some research before jumping in; search Google AdWords for a keyword match estimate and see how popular a chosen niche or keyword is. This will also give you ideas for a domain name which, as we know, can be an important part of SEO.

Do some searches on Google to have a look at the types of sites that appear in the search results for any one, or a combination, of keyword (s). You’ll know what you’re up against then.

If you’ve still no idea what you want to write about, get creative and think about what people look for these days. Can you answer a question for your readers? Can you provide information on a subject for which there’s not much information available on the net? Get talking. The more you talk to others, the more likely you are to find that niche you’ve been looking for.

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Check out some of our Pancake Day utensil banners and make your visitors’ mouths water!

Help your visitors in their Shrove Tuesday preparations

Try some of the following keywords within the Publisher portal and integrate your banners today!

Spatula –> Home & Garden –> Kitchen Gadgets & Utensils

Frying pans –> Home & Garden –> Cooking & Baking Equipment

Pancakes –> Home & Garden –> Cooking & Baking Equipment

If you’d like any help with finding your banner, please contact us.

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Communicate with your readers via Social Media

Social Media is the phrase on everybody’s lips at the moment…can adopting a Social Media Strategy really help your site? The answer is, yes. It’s a channel of promotion, but, most importantly, a channel of communication. How you advertise your site to others is crucial in helping drive more traffic and attaining that all important ranking in Google.

The best thing about Social Media is that it doesn’t cost you a penny! A wise and well thought out strategy can  really make a difference.

1. Communicate regularly on Twitter.
Twitter is now widely accepted as one of the best forms of communication and reaching out to fellow bloggers/site owners. If you begin tweeting your posts and articles you will find you can create a little community and a higher volume of traffic will naturally find it’s way to your site. Be careful not to spam though as this only serves to decrease interest. (Tip: Add the Twitter plug-in and everytime you publish a post your tweets will automatically be updated).

2. Add social bookmark links to your site.
Many sites such as Delicious, Stumble Upon and AddThis are just waiting for you to begin sharing your website with their user base!

3. Facebook it.
Set up a fan page dedicated to your site. Reply to any messages and ask all your friends and family to become fans! It helps spread the word about your site and distributes your content further.

4. Integrate RSS.
This tool allows you to provide your readers with the latest up-t0-date post on your site. Encourage them to subscribe so they will be informed as soon as your content goes live!

5. Interact with your visitors.
Reply to comments on your blog with personal messages - this makes for great interaction with the people that matter most - your readers. And if you own a website, think about creating your own blog and linking to it. The more interaction with your core reader, the better.

So, there you go. A few ideas as to how you can increase your social media interaction and communicate your website to the world. By no means are these exhaustive so keep doing your research and look out for the latest Social Media trends - there are always new mediums to be found, it’s just a case of being creative and using them to your advantage.

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February 16th: Digital Brand Building course with the IAB - a guide to the key digital marketing disciplines.

March 13th : Think Visibility - “things that usually get left behind in the web process”.

April 27th-29th: Internet World - sessions on digital marketing,  ecommerce, content management and hosting.

May 17th-19th: A4u Munich - Munich is hosting this year’s international affiliate conference.

May 27th : E-Commerce North - meet the big names in ecommerce.

June 16th-17th: eTail - online retailing for muti-channel and ecommerce businesses.

August 20th: Existem AM Summer BBQ - meet the Existem Team and talk AM with fellow affiliates overlooking Plymouth Sound.

October 11th-13th: A4U London - start with the warm up social networking event and get down to business on 12th.

October 12th: Internet Retailing - regarded as THE annual industry conference.

October 19th-20th: E-Commerce London - the South’s turn to get together with e-commerce experts.

November 15th-18th: Affilicon Europe in Berlin - learn the newest trends in affiliate marketing from experts in SEO, Social Networking, Media, leading internet technologies and related fields.

Monthly meetups:

London Blogger’s Meetup - meet other local bloggers whilst sipping a drink or two!

Inbound Marketing Meetup - gather together to discuss the intricacies of inbound marketing.

Meet affiliates and merchants alike at the various affiliate events this year.

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Almost 200 exhibitors and 250 attendees walked the halls of the conference to share best practices, experiences and new developments in Digital Marketing.

Yohan, our French national here on the team and Emma, who helps Yohan look after the French market, mingled with all their fellow affiliates from across the channel, representing Shopzilla in stand number 152.  They got to meet some really interesting people (sampling the delights of Paris at the same time!) and even had the chance to catch up with some of their lovely existing French partners.

Keep an eye on this jet setting duo…they may just happen to be present at other conferences this year (A4u and E-Commerce amongst others) both in the UK and abroad. For dates to put in your diary watch this space.

Emma and Yohan from the Shopzilla UK Publisher Team

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Get romantic and offer gift ideas with product banners

Valentine’s comes but once a year and whether you’re all loved up or not, make the most out of this year’s red hot day by adding Valentine’s Day gift banners to your website and earning some pretty pennies in the process.

Whether you wish to add deep product links direct to the Bizrate.co.uk product page, dynamic assets, or comparison pods, you can find everything you need in the Publisher portal.

Try adding Valentine wishlists to your site and help those who are stuck for gift ideas.

Here’s an example of a shopping ad you can integrate to appeal to those romantics looking for that special something for their beloved:

Happy Valentine’s!

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