Today’s article is all about how to nurture customer relationships between affiliate networks.

The hard part’s over: you’ve laid the foundation by establishing contact, exchanging information — along with some campaigns.

Now to keep the relationship between affiliate networks strong, customer service comes into play. At Synervation.net our account managers learn and follow some simple but effective guidelines and they’ll work for you too:

•   Stay in touch with your accounts with e-mail, IM or the phone (even better: all three)
• Ask “How are we performing for your advertisers?”
• Reinforce the fact that you want to know about everything — even one bad lead
• Let them know you are going to check in with them on a weekly basis about your performance
• Ask your accounts, “What more would you like to see from us?”
• Conduct a weekly review of how the campaigns are performing on your side to head off any possible problems

You may be saying “Everyone knows that … what’s so new?” Actually doing it would be new — instead of saying you’ll do it. Trust me, the results are fantastic.  I have watched firsthand as accounts become more comfortable working with us. I’ve also gotten (and our staff has gotten) countless accolades for being so on top of everything.

The silent – but omnipresent — fear that one rep may have to call another rep and tell them a lead is bad is instantly lifted, a priceless gift for everyone involved.

Another thing to keep in mind about good service is e-mail and the dreaded spam/junk folder. If you have a regular e-mail correspondence with someone and they suddenly stop responding, have someone else from your team e-mail them to find out if it’s being received – or going straight to the junk folder. Usually this works very well and demonstrates that you value their relationship – not just their money.

Some things to avoid as a network:

•  Dropping another network without warning. If you’re an affiliate network this has happened at least once to you, so you know how frustrating it can be. It’s also a sure way to slowly sink your company and chip away at industry trust.
•  Waiting until three months later to remove fraudulent leads – this can be avoided by setting up a certain time each month to check lead quality and catch other networks before they pay their affiliates for leads that may have been fraudulent.
• Make sure to alert the network of possible problems that may arise. The quicker two networks work together and are prepared the better each feels about the relationship. Example: We had a campaign that the other network campaign manager noticed the IP’s were off – we looked into it and were able to stop the fraudulent leads that day and everyone was happy. In the old days – ahem, last year — this campaign would have built up bad leads and only discovered the problem weeks later – by which time both sides would have lost a lot of money.  But now … since we have awesome customer service several things have happened:

1.    the network rep no longer feared bringing up bad leads

2.    we jumped right on it, found the problem and fixed it

3.    Both networks are now happy (yeah!)

4.    The advertiser is happy (double yeah!)

5.    Now we are near the top (I like to think the very top) of the networks’ list to give first dibs at the next hot offer that they receive.

•  Lastly, I know sometimes turnover can be high among affiliate network sales teams, but that’s not an excuse to let accounts slip through the cracks.

This article should serve as a reminder: yes some of it’s basic but let’s face it – most of the time we all let it fall by the wayside. And I know I’m not perfect! I still have some customer service skills I want to tighten up on too: I’m sure people would appreciate if I answered the phone more often. I’m easy to find on e-mail or IM, but that doesn’t mean I can’t work this whole “phone thing” too.

Hears to a happy month of improved contact among networks! Next month I’ll follow up with tips that will keep your affiliates and publishers happy.

A few years back co-registration was hot, and then it died down a bit, because some advertising channels did not want to share leads, the advertisers didn’t really share leads, and they didn’t like the idea that their campaign was listed on a page with several other campaigns. In essence they didn’t want to share the space.

Sadly, little by little, co-reg became a quiet phrase.

For those of you not familiar with co-registration, co-reg is a quick way to build your database/list. Co-registration can build your mailing list or generate leads fairly quick, quicker than some banner campaigns. The leads or subscribers generated are legitimate because they have to opt-in to your service, newsletter, subscription, etc.

Some popular co-registration sites are:
- Coregmedia.com
- ValueClickMedia
- The Useful

Also, a good amount of top Affiliate Networks will run co-reg campaigns as well, just need to speak to your Account Rep to find out if they will entertain a co-reg campaign.

When speaking to your rep let them know what type of co-reg offer it is, meaning is it a link out or a hosting offer.

If the offer is a link out, this means the link can be inserted into the sites co-reg path.
If the offer can be hosted, this means they (the site) rebuild the required form/landing page to post the leads.

A Co-reg path is generally a page that the advertisers share in order for the publisher to generate revenue from more than one co-reg offer. With a bit of coding know how or enlist a programmer, they can help create a co-reg path for you.

Now in 2007 I have noticed co-reg making a hot comeback. Almost every day for the past few months, I receive emails asking if we have any co-reg campaigns; or if we can run this or that co-reg campaign. I found this intriguing and wondered why it has comeback so strong; therefore I interviewed a top Account Executive at a well known Affiliate Network (this person wants to remain anonymous so we’ll call him Mr. Reg.) I asked Mr. Reg a few questions to get the Account Exec point of view:

Q. Mr. Reg do you feel co-reg is making a comeback?
A. From what I have seen so far in this industry co-reg is still strong. I have noticed that more and more people in this industry are doing co-reg.

Q. Why do you feel it is becoming more popular again?
A. It is becoming more popular because it is an easy way to trap a lot of data for your database.

Q. As an Account Rep how do you convince your clients to use co-reg as their form of advertising?
A. Usually if an affiliate is running co-reg and I have an offer they agree to do a small test.

Q. Do you feel co-reg will succeed better this time around?
A. I feel it would succeed especially if you position it the right way. It is really a way to start a list and build your database.

Q. Is co-reg an easier way to advertise or more intensive?
A. From what I have seen easier. Some affiliates can have your offer in a path within a couple of hours.

I know from an Affiliate Network point of view, we currently have co-reg offers for our partners and publishers to run. We are also looking to create our own co-reg path, because it is a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of co-reg and grow with the industry.

And co-reg is very affordable. Although there are offers out there that may offer $18.00 per co-reg lead, you can still get in on building your list with smaller co-reg sites or directly with some publishers that run co-reg for a lesser dollar amount.

Be armed as a client, when discussing your advertising campaign, ask “What is co-reg and how can I do a small test?” It never hurts to try new things out, who knows co-reg could turn out to be the best thing for your campaign and advertising budget.

At this point I realized, we are still not sharing ad space and we should be. Being part of an ad agency, I believe in utilizing all types of media and combining them. After all, there is one main goal all clients want…MONEY! The client wants the money to come in at least one of three ways: Leads, visitors and sales.

Below is a list of all the different types of separate media (sorry if I miss a few) a client can choose from and it’s our job to show them how to make good use of their money and ad space:

- Television- commercials, infomercials
- Radio — online and traditional
- Print- magazines, newspapers, flyers, circulars, direct mail
- Outdoor advertising — billboards, mobile billboards
- Online ads — banners, rich media
- Email marketing
- Search words-Pay Per Click
- Pay-Per-Call
- Mobile — Cell phones, Ipods
- Podcasts
- Blogs
- Websites
- Affiliate Networks

To start, having a website is a must; if a client has something to sell then they definitely hear “Do you have a website?” The answer should always be “Yes.”

Once the website is in place, they are ready to move forward. If your client says I only want magazine ads, then by all means set them up with magazine ads and make sure to make enough room to add the website, it doesn’t take much room and won’t take away from the ad itself. This way the client gets two ways to achieve their goal, Money!

I know this seems a little obvious to the bigger agencies reading this, but to other readers this may be something they have not realized they can do with their ads.

If you are a traditional media ad agency, and don’t want to spend the time hiring, then find a few online ad agencies to outsource your online work; be sure to include the online agency in client meetings and reassure the creative teams, that their creativity will not be over-powered by adding a url to the ads. Same goes for online agencies, make an effort to reach out to traditional media agencies, let them know you are out there to help them and work with them if your online client wants direct mail, billboards, etc.

As an owner of an ad agency, this question comes up quite often. Clients hear how awesome MySpace, Googtube (my acronym for Google and YouTube), and the millions of blogs that are out there. Clients want to know how to have their product featured on these sites and how much will it cost.

They want to know what a social network is. I say it is the new age of socializing. It rarely takes place in person and is mostly done online. People create “friends” online, exchange pictures and thoughts about various things from should I dye my hair blue to political opinions. This is the new age way to find a date, find others to chat with in similar life situations, and blow off steam in a somewhat anonymous environment.

As an ad agency you need to be very to extremely savvy in this arena, because you can get torched and the cost ends up losing you and your client way more than money.

Below are a list of reasons I give clients for why they can advertise on such sites and why they should think carefully before moving forward:

Reasons to advertise:
- No matter your target audience you can find them on most social networks
- Social networks have taken on an older audience, for instance it has been reported that MySpace is no longer just teens and 20 somethings, now there is an overwhelming amount of 30-54 year olds socializing on places like Myspace.

- Good for branding or announcing a new addition to your product line
- Good possibility of partnering your product with some other big names out there
- There are social networks for about any age range you can think of; college social networks, business social networks, ethnic social networks, kid social networks, baby boomer social networks, music social networks, pet lover social networks, etc.

Blogs: I’ve highly promoted blogs and rockin’ syndication feeds, and I have yet to find a subject that has not been covered out there. When promoting a product in a friendly non-press release way, stick to respectable blogs.

Not only is this awesome for me, but it is awesome for Pittsburgh as well. The city has succeeded in two major ways. First, they said they were going to make downtown wi-fi enabled and they did. Which shows a city that is following through on their promise to its community. Secondly, they have accomplished what a lot of cities have not been able to do; they worked through the political and technology barriers to get it done.

Here are a few reasons why other cities should step it up as well, since the launch on September 13th:
- 2300 people have signed up for a free wi-fi downtown account in less than a month
- There have been over 3500 user sessions, which translates into:
- Approximately 92 people on the system at one time
- About 80 users during the day
- About 40 users at night

- Log-on times are generally between 11-noon and 1-2 pm, seems people are using their wi-fi hours on their breaks.
- It is keeping people downtown longer, which translates into more money being spent downtown.
- Users are finding that the Wi-Fi system is reaching into buildings downtown and even onto the riverboats. So far the riverboat people have said they have yet to find a “dead spot” on the water.

Pittsburgh had 3 major issues to overcome:
- Money
- Public Access
- Finding the right Wi-Fi company

Money
-The money was the easiest part

Public Access
-Securing approval was a bit difficult, just because it was a long process
-Politically, the city was on board, because it was seen as a way to improve business development and a big part of restoring downtown.
-Public Works had to be involved, because the equipment had to be placed on street poles
- The set-up of the Wi-Fi system had to be designed so neighborhoods could not be cherry-picked. Meaning, for every system that is placed on a street pole, a fee has to be paid. This would leave the wealthier neighborhoods with Wi-Fi and disadvantaged neighborhoods with nothing.

The system has been designed that disadvantaged neighborhoods will have the fee waived. This ensures that ALL neighborhoods and communities will receive Wi-Fi no matter the income level. The system is working, as part of the lower hill district has Wi-Fi and this is considered a disadvantaged neighborhood. Cool neighborhood though, don’t let the word disadvantage fool you.

Everywhere you turn people are tooting the greatness of wireless technology, mainly wireless laptops. Commercials show people sitting in trees working on their laptops, why in trees? Because they can, it shows if you have a wireless laptop you can work ANYWHERE! Right? WRONG!

I have a wireless laptop and often enjoy working on my deck on nice days, but needing the chatter of people I decided to head to a local coffee shop, drink some tea and work. Much to my dismay, I had to pay to log into their Wi-Fi connection. I thought, no big deal, except it took forever for the page to load in order to “buy” some time online. Please…buy some time online, that’s like paying to put air in your tires–oh wait, you have to pay for that now, too.

So trying not to think that I could have been wi-fied already for free at home, I tried again and the page just conked out. So I asked a guy next to me if he knows where I can go to enjoy my freedom as a wi-fi’er. He laughed and said McDonalds or Panera Bread. Knowing I didn’t want to spend my morning at McDonalds or Panera Bread, I kindly asked, where else? He said that’s about it that I know of around here. Geesh, how lame, then it hit me…I live in a Lame Wi-Fi town, how could this be?

All of the commercials pump you up to enjoy your newfound freedom, with wireless you can work from anywhere. What you can’t read in the fine print saying, “Unless your town is wi-fi lame, then you must work alone at all times in your home office.”

I got to thinking, how could this problem be solved. Maybe big name advertisers could sponsor Wi-Fi places that would be kinda cool. But better yet, the restaurants and cool hang-outs could make a minimum 1 coffee or scone to use their Wi-Fi. I would gladly do that, because after all, you’ve gotta eat.

So, hint, hint ad agencies and businesses out there, if you have a restaurant as a client, throw a few suggestions their way and work in some coupons or something that we wi-fiers might see on their website, in their blogs or even on their phones and PDA’s. You figure if people are wireless they are going to have their cell phones on them and PDA’s if they own one.

Even though I’m not a big fan of getting ads on my cell phone, I would gladly go for a tracking technology so when I was close to a wi-fi place, my cell phone would beep with a message saying go to Joe’s eatery for free wi-fi and a sandwich. Now THAT would be cool.

I checked out several sites to see what wi-fi places were in the area…*sigh* I am embarrassed to say in the Pittsburgh area there are only 20 free wi-fi sites listed, though there may be more…
http://www.wififreespot.com/

Philadelphia has a minimum of 30 listed free wi-fi spots, so that means even the local KFC has wi-fi in tow…

Even Moscow, Idaho has more free wi-fi spots than Pittsburgh; I think I need to move.

Next, I checked out a Wi-fi map locator for your area, this I thought was pretty cool. It didn’t help me out, but I’m sure it will be good for you:
http://www.wifimaps.com/modules.php?
name=News&file=article&sid=96

If you are a business, local hangout or want to become a local hangout, consider becoming a free wi-fi spot. And if you are in Pittsburgh, by all means contact me. I need somewhere to go, as I’m tired of sitting on my deck with my neighbor’s cat all day.

This time, I will show proof that it is pretty simple to get it up and running and that you can bypass installing an RSS reader by using a simple and free browser.

First, if you install Mozilla/Firefox this has an automatic RSS reader already installed in the browser. Once you install the browser, go to a blog or page that you like that has an RSS feed on it, such as Landolakes.com Then look for the RSS feed icon or RSS feed link in this case go here: http://www.landolakes.com/rss/rss-help-page.cfm

Now open up your Firefox browser (by the way you can run firefox and another browser at the same time) and click on Bookmarks in the toolbar, scroll down and click on Manage Bookmarks, click File then New Live Bookmark. Once this window opens, type in the Name of the feed i.e. Land O Lakes recipes and copy and paste the url of the feed into the Feed location box. I chose the Top 10 recipes feed so I would paste in this link: http://www.landolakes.com/rss/top-10-recipes.rss

Hit OK and you are all set. Every time they add a new recipe your feed will automatically update. Now all you have to do is open up Firefox to stay up-to-date with all the feeds you have chosen.

Next you can create your own RSS feed by using notepad and a bit of HTML, or copy what is below for your template and just change what is highlighted in red to make it your own. Due to the fact the html code won’t show correctly online, click here to view the sample code: http://www.webservices4all.com/rsshtmlsample.html

Copy and paste the above code in notepad, then save it as an rss file, I saved mine as webs4all.rss, then upload it to your server, add RSS Feed or the RSS icon (usually orange or gray) to a good spot on your site and link it to your website url/yourrssname.rss, so mine ended up looking like http://www.webservices4all.com/webs4all.rss

Just remember, like your blog each new article goes on top of the next, so your feed needs to read the same, when you add a new item, just copy and past the previous code:

If you cannot view the code correctly here please visit this link again and click on Adding new articles code: http://www.webservices4all.com/rsshtmlsample.html

Once it is complete, check it out in your new Firefox reader or an RSS reader if you already have one.Lastly, if you want people to be able to find your Rockin’ feed, you can go around and tell people, orrrr…you can submit your feed. I will be the first to admit, it is a bit time-consuming but worth it. Do a bit every day or if you see your co-worker staring into space, have them do it. Below, I’ll list the sites I liked for my feed submission, there are more but this will give you a good start:

- RSS Feed Specifications — RSS Feed Submit — this site gives you a ton of sites to submit your feed to and as a bonus it lets you submit your blog url too! I can personally say this site works, I have received a ton of comments lately to my blog than I have before.
- RSS Compendium — This one is another list that allows feed and blog submissions

I would like to say that with the several comments received from the previous Rockin Syndication article, people commented they are truly surprised how slow the Online Industry has taken to using such a simple thing. Trust me, if I can get this figured out with Huge help from my friend at Qclix.com, then those of you that work in large agencies surely have no excuse for not giving this a try. If you come across any technology/server issues, you have a whole staff to figure it out–unlike me. I thought I was losing my mind as I can only understand so much techie stuff before my head starts spinning…

Get that client, grab a tech person and your co-worker that stares into space and get it going! I look forward to seeing your Rockin’ Feeds soon.

Did we tune out too quickly on the RSS feed craze? Well, a year ago, we did…According to a Pew Internet survey done between May and June 2005:

- Only 9% of Americans are relatively aware of what RSS Feed means.

- 65% are not really sure

- 26% never even heard of an RSS Feed

- 12% of Men knew what RSS meant compared to 6% of Women

- 12% of People ages 18-29 knew what an RSS Feed is compared to 5% age 65 and over

And while we were looking for the next big thing, did the small publishers outdo us with RSS feeds? Yes, I believe they have. From looking at the statistics above and seeing some of the sites that were listed on Google, a lot of the sites were geared toward the teen/young adult audience and male audiences.

In 2006, it seems that the RSS Feed playing field is starting to increase, according to the stats below:

RSS User Demographics
• 71% Male
• 50% 18-34 yrs old
• 36% College graduates
• $74,116 Average Household Income

Again, what are we needed for if we are not beating our clients to the punch with this stuff?

What does my RSS Feed stand for? I like to call it Rockin Syndication Simple Feed. I call it Rockin Syndication because of all the cool things you can do from one piece of free XML code. As you’ll see below you can do press releases, promos, calendars and publish your articles all from one link, no worries of bounced emails, fees for PR pieces or trying to get your articles submitted over and over again. To me, that Rocks! It rocks because it is simple and quick…and did I mention free?!

Now, comes the part we are missing out on, use RSS feeds to market your clients sites. Every client you have has a website and if they do not, they are looking into getting one. As in my last article I mentioned all sites should have a blog and along with this blog they should use RSS feeds. Why?

Who should have an RSS Feed:
- Male/Female oriented sites
- Teen Sites
- Any site for any of their promos and campaigns

Uses for RSS Feeds:
• Keeps fresh updated content on your site.
• Instead of a mailing list, let users subscribe to your RSS feed.
• Blog a promotion and it’ll be picked up by all your RSS Feed subscribers
• Press Releases
• For more uses visit RSS-Specifications.com and About.com (remember them?) you will be amazed at how simple you can drive traffic to your clients site.

What the RSS feed implementation can do for your client:
• RSS feeds keep your customer coming back for fresh content and news.
• More people will subscribe to an RSS Feed than sign up for a mailing list anymore
• Just imagine how wide-spread your online promotion can be through a feed
• Easy and inexpensive(free) way to let people know about new Press Releases

But reality is, our clients can never out pace us, otherwise what good are we? The clients/advertisers might as well do their own online advertising campaigns…right? WRONG!

A few things below may help you guide your next client into blog heaven:
What is a blog?

According to dictionary.com a real blog definition is:

Main Entry: blog

Part of Speech: noun

Definition: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log

Example: Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.

Etymology: shortened form of Weblog

Usage: blog, blogged, blogging v, blogger n

Source: Webster’s New Millenniumâ„¢ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)
Copyright © 2003-2005 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

The teen definition of a blog is: and I quote from my 16 year old cousin “a place to talk about what I want to anyone that will listen…”

Who writes a blog?

According to a report in 2005
• Most likely a blog writer is Male
• Under the age of 30
• Have been online for 6 years or more, so pretty savvy
• Well educated

Who is reading the blogs?

• Men and women of all ethnic backgrounds
• People between the ages of 30-49
• Teens, teens, teens

What kind of blogs are out there?

• Political blogs
• Self help blogs
• Community blogs
• Angry teen blogs
• Blogs for women
• Blogs for men
• Company blogs
• Pet blogs
• How to blogs

There are several good reasons to consider this version of online media:

• More and more people are listening to their favorite radio stations online at work
• With online access, people are able to find radio stations outside of their hometown
• If they are listening online that means they have a computer and Internet access
• Listening to online radio at work means easy access to pen and paper to write down the product or website mentioned in the radio spot
• Listening to online radio at work means easy access to quickly check out the website mentioned in the radio spot
• Online radio/audio streaming is surprisingly inexpensive
• Online radio stations are being created for many demographics out there, such as: small business owners, webmaster, work at home moms and more…didn’t know that did you?

With all of that being said, let’s see some stats:

• Online radio has grown from 37 million users in 2005 to approximately 52 million users as of April 2006.
• Online radio reaches 19 percent of users 18-34 per week and 15 percent of users 25-54 per week. How can you not find your target audience?!
• AM/FM Radio online has a listening time of 2 hours and 45 minutes for the average consumer.
• The statistics are still coming out about online radio, it is after all a fairly un-explored media that needs more attention

There are several things to know about when buying online radio placements:

• 15 second spots, 30 second spots and 60 second spots (obviously one is longer than the other). This is the amount of time you have to say your promo (it’s longer than you think).
• Ask if their online radio is the same as their regular station. Some radio stations don’t have exact matching between their regular play lists and shows as online.
• Ask about the most popular times for their streaming audio, most likely it will be during work hours (which will be more expensive but worth it).
• Also ask if their audio streaming is broadcast locally or nationally.
• Ask who their parent company is. Chances are if you are already working with the parent company, you may be able to get some value-added placement for your spots. I.e., if you are working with CBS and have placements on the CBS website you may be able to place a few spots on Star 100.7 radio station.