Shopzilla’s free affiliate program - turning quality traffic into revenues

Posts Tagged ‘affiliate program’

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How to use Shopzilla’s Product Pods?

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
Shopzilla dynamic banner featuring MacBook Pro

Bizrate dynamic banner featuring MacBook Pro

One of the biggest new trends in online advertising is behavioural targeting - a technique using information collected on an individual’s web-browsing behaviour, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be influenced by them (Wikipedia). At  Shopzilla’s affiliate program we don’t use this technology ( yet ;-) ), but we give you Product Pods.

A Product Pod is a graphic ad for a product of your choice.  How does it work? Product Pods enable you to “target” your visitors, without their browsing history! It’s quite simple, really - if you write a review on the Apple MacBookPro, you could make an educated guess that your readers will be interested in seeing an Apple MacBookPro advertisement.This type of advertising not only gives you the opportunity to monetize your content, it also makes it more appealing!

Shopzilla dynamic product banner - 234x60

Shopzilla dynamic product banner - 234x60

Currently, we have 5 different formats of Product Pods. To explore this feature log in to your account and go to Get Content > Dynamic Assets > Product Pods.

Any questions? Give us a shout! We are happy to answer any of your queries.

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Posted in Assets tutorials, Tips & Tricks | 2 Comments »

Understanding Effectivness and Evaluating Success

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
How to measure the success of your affiliate programs

How to measure the success of your affiliate programs

Your statistics table provides you with very important information: how many impressions your ad received and how many clicks those ads generated. It divides clicks into impressions to tell you your clickthrough rate — the percentage of people who see the ad and click on it. The number of impressions your ads receive depends on the marketing of your site. The number of clicks the ads receive will depend on a whole load of other factors, including:

  • How closely does the subject of the ad match your content?
  • Where is the ad unit placed on the page?
  • How well is it optimized?
  • And even the type of users who visit your site (targeting)

Much of your job will always be to get all of these factors right to push your clickthrough rate up as high as possible.

After the clickthrough rate comes your most important piece of information: the amount you’ve actually earned.

The eCPC and eCPM can be a bit confusing. The eCPC is the amount of money you are “effectively” earning per click, and the eCPM is the amount that you are earning on average for every thousand impressions.

Since  Shopzilla’s affiliate program does not necessarily give you money every time someone clicks on one of your ads, you might think it’s difficult to compare it against other advertising programs, but actually it isn’t: AdSense reports, for example, will tell you also exactly how much you’re earning for each click on an ad unit. That’s when eCPC and your eCPM stats come to play:  those two values will enable you to weigh Shopzilla Publisher against other affiliate programs (regardless of whether it is CPC, CPA, CPM, etc), in this example compare it to AdSense.

It’s only when you’re able to compare like for like that you’ll know what to do. Shopzilla’s provision of the equivalent earnings in CPC and CPM rates make those comparisons much easier!

Read more about earning reports in our affiliate program.

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Posted in Affiliate Hot Topics, Payments & Reporting | 2 Comments »

Adding shopping content to your site

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Devising advertising strategy is one of the most difficult tasks that our Publishers face when joining our affiliate program.

Monetize your website - try adding shopping content

Monetize your website - try adding shopping content

Whether you already have a website or you are building one, the key is to plan the content you want to include. Think ahead of the topics you want to write about (adding category structure to your website/blog will not only  help you with your writing but will make it easier to navigate through your site!) and make sure that at least one of them is commercially oriented.

Example: you are a music buff and you own a website dedicated to classical music. Every day you write about your favourite concerts, arias…But how can you monetize this content? How about adding a category dedicated to albums/books reviews? or instruments? - topics that like-minded visitors of your website might be interested in reading and, most importantly, you can cash in on!

The key to creating good shopping content is relevancy: your ads have to be relevant to your content in order to spark interest in your visitors. Linking to LCD TVs on a cycling website is unlikely to bring you revenue, but the same ad placed on a DVD review site - it’s  a different story!

If you have any questions on how to implement our ads or you need advice on making your website/blog profitable, give us a shout!

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Posted in Tips & Tricks | 1 Comment »

Dynamic banners - colouring your ads

Friday, July 10th, 2009

Many of you wrote to us in the past asking about the possibility of changing the design of the banner ads to better match your sites. Here, at  Publisher, Shopzilla’s affiliate program, we understand the importance of ad optimization and how crucial it is for your earnings. That’s why, when creating the dynamic banners product, we made sure our affiliates would have full control over the appearance of the ads they created!

Now you can colour your ads!

Shopzilla's dynamic asstes - Now you can colour your ads!

Now you can customise your ad unit by changing:

  • ad border colour
  • image border colour
  • background colour
  • link colour (that includes before it’s clicked, after it’s clicked, when it’s clicked and when you hover over it…)
  • text colour
  • link target (you decide whether the link opens in a new window, leaving your site open).

How can you customise your ads in order to maximize your earnings? Try to make the ad fit your website’s design. At the same time don’t try to blend it in too much - your visitors should always be able to tell the difference between your own and sponsored content!

If you have any questions regarding this feature contact us and we’ll try to help!

Good luck!

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Posted in Assets tutorials, Tips & Tricks | 2 Comments »

Dynamic assets: Build your very own banner!

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Shopzilla Europe are pleased to announce the launch of dynamic assets. Now you can build your own, individual ads.

Within the portal of our affiliate program you are now able to build dynamic assets based on top keyword or category search results, as well as build comparison shopping assets for specific products.  These dynamic assets refresh their content each time your website page is loaded, offering your users a fresh shopping experience each time they visit your website.

dynamic-banners-create-your-own

Build your very own banner with Shopzilla's dynamic assets

Here a few highlights of what this feature include:

1) Publishers are now able to create dynamic assets based solely on category.  This will allow the creation of more generic dynamic assets.  An example of a good use of this sort of dynamic asset would be a placement on a fashion website.  Rather than displaying products defined by a keyword, you will now be able to create a dynamic asset displaying results according to product popularity in a chosen category. This means you will always have the hottest items in your banner.

2) Why not be more specific and create a ‘Product Pod‘ with the dynamic asset within certain categories? This feature allows you to add a comparison shopping experience to your site. However please note that the function of a ‘Product Pod’ asset is to allow for a comparison shopping experience, so you may find instances of a category not retrieving any results if we can’t offer any price comparison for the particular product you have chosen.  This is because there aren’t any available products with multiple offers aligned to them that would support a comparison shopping experience.  (For instance, we don’t have any products in the category “Candles & Home Scent” that have multiple offers aligned to them …I know, seems crazy…so, sadly, you won’t be able to build a ‘Product Pods’ asset for your favourite  vanilla scented candles, as the same candle isn’t necessarily sold by more than one merchant, although we have a great choice of vanilla scented candles.  But you will be able to build one for your favourite mp3 player or laptop.) Best thing to do is to check on BizRate first, whether the product you want to promote has a  “Go compare” site.

3) Another nice element of the dynamic content is that you are in control over the appearance of the ad you want to place on your website. This means you are pretty much the designer of you own banner. Choose the colours that best match your site.
To create a dynamic asset, log into the UK Shopzilla Publisher Portal and choose the ‘Get Content’ tab. From here you will find a “Dynamic Assets” link. If you need any help creating these assets, please Contact us.

Enjoy!

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Posted in Info on Publisher Program, Publisher Program Updates, shopping banners | No Comments »

XML-based FTP Data Feeds now available

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

We are pleased to announce that we are now offering our shopping content in the form of our XML-based FTP Data Feeds, too. This allows Publishers to add their own price comparison section onto their site or add more choice to their existing inventory.

Shopzilla now offering XML product feed

XML data feeds - Get your own price comparison started on your site

With Shopzilla’s affiliate program FTP Data Feeds, Publishers are able to easily download BizRate’s entire inventory of merchant product offers from one FTP location.  As a Publisher we give you the flexibility to download only the product offers found in categories that are of use to you.

If you are an experienced affiliate marketer and e-commerce is your bread and butter, then think about utilizing our XML FTP Data Feed product!  If you are interested in our feed product, you will find more information what is necessary by  applying for the feed product on our blog or contact Shopzilla Publisher Team for any further questions!

Enjoy!

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Posted in Publisher Program Updates | No Comments »

New Office Supplies banner ready to roll!

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Calling all Publishers! Due to an increasing demand from our Affiliates we are happy to introduce Bizrate’s newest Stock banner for Office Supplies.

office-supplies-advertising-banner

Get our latest Stock banner featuring Office Supplies

Be one of the first to implement it onto your site and reap the benefits …REMEMBER : increased clicks = increased revenue! Attract your audience with a well-placed and up-to-date banner advertising office supplies such as office chairs, desks, stationary and more…

Don’t miss out on this latest version, find it now available in different formats in the portal and let the clicks begin!

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Posted in Banner Ideas, Publisher Program Updates | No Comments »

Shopzilla’s Publisher team will be at ecommerce Expo North

Friday, June 5th, 2009
Shopzilla Publisher @ ecommerce North Manchester

Shopzilla Publisher @ ecommerce North Manchester

Earlier this week the Shopzilla Publisher team attended the ecommerce Expo North in Manchester.  In total over 850 people attended ecommerce Expo North and there were more than 35 exhibiting companies in attendance. The conference was focused on selling goods and services online. After its previous successful events in London,  ecommerce launched their first sister event in Manchester. It was particular interesting because of the North West status as a centre for digital and media is increasing with the construction of the ‘Media City’.

The event has been great to learn more about the challenges online retailers are facing, exchanging best practises  and an excellent opportunity for us to meet some of our current publishers and connect with new people.

If you missed this one and are interested in retail, there is another event coming up later this year.: the E Commerce Expo  in London will  take place in October. With over 120 exhibiting companies, a free conference programme with spacious theatres the organizers expect  over 3500 attendees as it’s one of the largest e-commerce event in the UK.

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Posted in Conferences & Upcoming events | No Comments »

Shopzilla Publisher Program - we’re expanding!

Thursday, May 7th, 2009
german and french flag plugged in computer

First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin...and Paris!!

Yes, the struggle for world domination in affiliate marketing world never ends! After conquering the United States and recent launch in UK the time has come to take on continental Europe. And following Shopzilla Europe path, France and Germany will be the first two countries to enjoy the benefits of Shopzilla Publisher Program.

With the preparations to get the show on the road at full speed, we are hoping to get the French and German portals ready in no time. Watch this space for further updates!

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Posted in Info on Publisher Program, Publisher International, Publisher Program Updates | No Comments »

Understanding earning reports in our affiliate program

Friday, March 20th, 2009
Using our affiliate program, you make earnings when Shopzilla traffic, which is generated by your website, results in revenue for Shopzilla. Earnings typically depend on how the Sponsored Shopping Content is integrated into your site. Make sure it is contextually linked to your own content. It will also depend on the nature of your user’s activity on Shopzilla.
The Shopzilla Publisher Earning Reports can be shown for any date. It can be filtered by day, week, month or placement ID. Then, it can be secondarily filtered by day, week or month. You can also sort the reports by any of the columns presented, ascending or descending.
The illustration below shows what you might see if you created a earnings report (here for “Last 7 Days”). The different columns, consisting of Impressions, Clicks, Click thru Rate, Earnings, eEPC (=effective Earnings per Click) and eCPM (effective Commission per Mille - Impressions), are explained in detail.
Shopzilla Publisher Program - reporting

Shopzilla Publisher Program - reporting

Click on image to enlarge
In order to receive feedback on how to increase your earnings, please feel free to contact our Shopzilla Publisher team. Just click on the “Contact Us” link located at the right top corner of the Publisher portal. We will get back to you within 48 hours and provide you with helpful tips and suggestions on how to earn more.

Also, click the “Contact Us” link if you have general questions regarding your earnings report in our affiliate program.

Important note: It is entirely possible to generate clicks to Bizrate.co.uk with NO revenue. This occurs when the clicks you direct to Shopzilla do not result in revenue generating activity.

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Posted in Payments & Reporting, Tips & Tricks | 5 Comments »

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