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

Posts Tagged ‘dynamic banners’

Christmas ad banners - be one of the first

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Christmas is nigh…

So it’s time to think about Christmas again. Well, if truth be told, most of us have been thinking about it since August (thanks to those cards and decorations peppering shop windows)  and it seems to be getting earlier every year.

Put a twinkle in your eye with early Christmas earnings

Put a twinkle in your eye with early Christmas earnings

Consumer habits are rapidly changing and stores adapt to feed those habits. If shoppers wish to plan ahead and buy Christmas presents in late Summer, why shouldn’t they have the same great deals that last minute shoppers benefit from? Some of you may be aghast by the sight of dancing Father Christmases when the sun is still high in the sky at 6pm. Others may delight in the early festivities.

More and more people are preparing themselves  in the weeks, even months, in the run up to the jolly holidays so that when the 24th December arrives they can look at their panic striken pals, still hunting for that perfect gift, with an expression that implies “told you so”.

Shopzilla’s got some fabulous gift ideas on our site and we offer some great product ads to go alongside. If you were already starting to think about doing something Christmassy for your site, why not integrate our Christmas banners and take advantage of the fact that people are already looking for decorations, Christmas lights and those extra xmassy stocking fillers..and if you’re getting yourself in the festive mood, why not your site as well!

Get in early for some pre-December earnings.

Try creating a wish list, including a dynamic ad in your navigation bar, or even a text link amongst your product reviews.

Have a look at this example* to get you going:

christmas-ad-banners

If you’d like any assistance in finding certain products within our portal, please do not hesitate to contact Emma.

*In the UK portal, find this example in various formats under Christmas –> Gifts, Flowers and Food

Halloween is almost upon us

Monday, October 26th, 2009
Have you got your costume?

Have you got your Halloween costume?

Another year, another excuse to dress up as Morticia Adams from The Adams Family. Yes, it is once again that time of year in which you can don white face paint and fake blood without attracting strange glances. The shops are full of costumes, pumpkins, witches hats, dracula teeth, cobwebs  and anything else you can think of that would give your nan the heebie geebies.

We want to give you the chance to not just dress yourself up but to also dress your website up by adding the latest Shopzilla Halloween banners. A great site on which to see an example of our themed dynamic content is herfashioneye.buy.co.uk; you can see the banner at the bottom of the post.

Don’t forget that we are still offering the £5 bonus to anyone who hasn’t already implemented the dynamic assets, all you need to do is send us the URL showing the banner in action.

We have a great range of banners and products on offer - halloween party decorations, costumes, accessories…

halloween-banners

To find yours in the Get Content Dynamic Assets section, we recommend searching under Toys and Games –> Fancy Dress Costumes & Accessories if you’re really after costumes or alternatively for decorations, go to Gifts, Flowers and –> Food Party Supplies.

Why not play around with the background by using our Colour Picker tool and implement an orange Halloween-coloured banner on your site?

We’ve  got our outfits sorted for the Shopzilla office party next week, have you got yours?

For any questions regarding the product ads or for keyword/category suggestions, please feel free to get in touch with us here.


Dynamic Assets in-depth

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Why use our content as an everyday web ad when you can truly make it an asset?!  Our color picker tool allows you to customise your assets to complement your website’s design, helping you to better attract your audience and improve traffic quality.

When you log on to your Shopzilla UK Publisher Program account go to: Get Content > Dynamic Assets > find the asset you’re looking for > Get HTML.  Select the part of the asset you would like to change, then choose the color and other options depending on the part of the asset.

colourpicker

Image Border: The border (outline) around each individual image/product inside the asset.

Background: The background color of the full asset.

Link: The links of the images/products shown inside the asset.

A-Link: The color the link turns when it is clicked.

V:Link: The color the link turns once it has been clicked.

H-Link: The color the link turns when it is scrolled over by a mouse cursor.

Text: The text (non-links) inside the asset.

New Window (_blank): This link target will open the new page in a separate browser window.

Same Frame (_self): This link target will open the new page in the same page it was clicked on.

Parent Frame (_parent)*: This link target will load the new page in the immediate parent of the frame.

Main Window (_top)*: This link target is similar to the Parent Frame, but will load the new page in the full body of the window.

Randomise: Definitely take advantage of this feature!  The products shown will randomly change every time the dynamic asset is loaded, giving your audience a different experience each time they visit your website.  If you are displaying a dynamic asset containing products from category ‘MP3 & Media Players’, rather than showing the same three iPods, your asset will cycle between various BizRate product offerings in that specific category.

*advanced

Another feature worth noting is that color preferences will be saved in your user cookie.  If you’re building multiple dynamic assets, your color preferences will be automatically applied, you’ll never have to worry about our dynamic assets clashing with your website design again!

Once you finish touching up your asset, click Get HTML and then scroll to the bottom of the page to get the new code.  Don’t forget to update your dynamic assets periodically to take advantage of our new categories and product offerings, keep your shopping content relevant to your audience.

For further information have a look at the Dynamic Banners section here on our blog, and as always, contact us if you have any questions or comments about the Shopzilla UK Publisher Program!

Feedback on Shopzilla’s Dynamic Content

Friday, August 28th, 2009

As you all know, we released our long-awaited Dynamic Content a couple of weeks ago and encouraged you to try it out for yourselves. Thanks to all those who have already integrated it!  If you haven’t got around to having a look just yet, now’s the time to see what the new feature can offer you. Read more about our Dynamic Content*.

And if that doesn’t inspire you, we had some great initial feedback from some of our Publishers about the adaptability and efficacy of implementing these customisable assets:

Shopzilla's Dynamic Content - something to shout about

Shopzilla's Dynamic Content - something to shout about


“Great chance of getting more revenue…customer service is great”
britishbay.co.uk

“very useful and could be used instead of data feed related to the page content” shopire.com

“easy to integrate, looks fantastic and I was able to create a dynamic banner with exactly the content I wanted” dutchovenmonkey.blogspot.com

“very pleased with the result” drmventurestrading.co.uk

“love being able to colour the ads” herfashioneye.buy.co.uk

“I was able to find the matching products for my blog post and  add shopping experience” love-handbags-for-life.co.uk

“the cutomisable aspect is great, you can integrate it seamlessly into your website” Skylia.com


Your opinions are highly valued by us here in the UK Shopzilla Publisher team so if you have any questions or comments whatsoever regarding our Dynamic Assets please do not hesitate to get in touch. We are continually striving to improve our program so that you as Publishers get the best experience possible!

Try it for yourself; we’re sure you’ll give it raving reviews!

*Find it under the Get Content tab when you log in to your account on the portal.

How to use Top Search Results?

Monday, July 27th, 2009

The easiest way to create a Shopzilla unit is to use the Top Search Results. It’s the first item on Shopzilla’s dynamic assets list — and it’s the one that requires least work.

How does it work? Type the keyword into a search box, choose a department and a category…and voilà! You have a page-load of ads to choose from!

top-search-results-dynamic-banners

One unit can contain up to 5 different ads; you don’t have an influence over what products will be displayed, as these are (as the name suggests) Top Search Results - it’s up to you though what type of product the unit contains and what format the banner is in.

Serving an ad with several products can help you target the visitors who haven’t yet made up their minds on “what to buy” and are still researching.  That means that these sorts of units are likely to see the best results on a page with general information about the topic, like buying guides. What about single product pages? For these we suggest using Product Pods - ad units with a single product. However, as always we encourage our Publishers to test what works best for them! Whichever ad format you go for remember the golden rule: be relevant.

As always: if you have any questions, leave a comment or contact us using contact form!

Video tutorial - how to get dynamic assets

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Shopzilla’s affiliate program for the UK has recently launched its new dynamic assets. Using dynamic content means that you can adjust the look of banners and product pods to the layout of your website or blog. The displayed products within the dynamic assets automatically change every time a user visits your site. Please have a look at our video tutorial to find out how to get dynamic assets in the Publisher portal.

As always we value your feedback and comments on these assets, whether it be to tell us how much you like them or suggestions for improvement! Please contact us to let us know what you think.

UK Shopzilla Publisher Team

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.

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!

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!

Dynamic banners - get ready!

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Example of a Shopzilla Publisher US dynamic asset

Shopzilla Publisher Teamhas worked hard to deliver you a top of the range product thus enabling you to become successful Publishers. That’s why we have been investing a lot of our time and resources in developing a new feature: dynamic assets.

What’s so special about them?

1. As the name says, the ads are ‘dynamic’ - the offers you display change just as offers on BizRate do. This way you never risk linking to a product that’s no longer available!

2. Dynamic assets feature will enable you to populate the ads with products you choose - you build dynamic assets based on top keyword or category search results, or build comparison shopping assets for specific products.

3. You can choose the length of your creative - if you are an experienced affiliate marketer, you probably know that sometimes short description works better; in other cases long creative, including more details, will be more attractive to your readers/customers. Our new type of ads give you best of both words, with the choice of ads with long or short descriptions!

4. Customize your assets to complement your website’s design -  you will have the full control over the appearance of your dynamic ads: from the background colour to the link colours before they’re clicked, when they’re clicked and when you’re thinking about clicking them. And more!

Are you excited? We certainly are!!

So now the big question - when can our Publishers expect this new feature to be available? Well, it will be available on 7th July and onwards.

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