Whether you’re an affiliate or offer or manage an affiliate program, you can increase your income by knowing how to run effective Social Media advertising campaigns.

ABC Plus Forum is delighted to announce that we have two tickets to give away to your choice of Influence People‘s London or Miami premiere Social Media Advertising event. Two of our members will win one ticket each.

Leading agencies, brands and marketers will teach you to use the latest tools and techniques for running effective, integrated Social Media advertising campaigns at your choice of one of these upcoming Social Media Advertising Events.

• Do you know how to maximize and measure your Social Media advertising ROI?
• What is the best way to combine Social Media engagement with an effective advertising presence or which are the most effective networks on which to advertise?
• Do you know how to best reach mobile networks, location-based networks, or use Social Gaming?

Both of these premiere events cover the basics so you can choose the speaker lineup or location you find most compelling.

“Together, earned and paid media are far more effective when the programs are humanized. The difference between social network advertising and marketing and traditional online campaigns are the ecosystems where engagement is fostered” – Brian Solis

Both conferences are fully interactive with presentations, case studies, Q&A sessions and panel discussions. Social Media advertising tools and services will be showcased in an Exhibition Area. The ticket price includes refreshments, lunch (optional) and a handbook. There will also be networking drinks at the end of the day.

The London event sponsored by Viadeo Network Development Solutions and Synthesio Web Monitoring focuses on combining Social Media engagement with an effective advertising presence. Easily locate all the buzz surrounding this event by searching Twitter using Hashtag #SMMUK10.

• How to Run Effective Social Media Ad Campaigns
• Twitter and Promoted Tweets
• Case Studies and Best Practise Examples
• Paid, Owned and Earned Media
• Advertising through Apps
• Blog Advertising and Sponsored Posts
• B2B Advertising: Business Networks

Program Highlights

• Facebook Advertising Campaigns: How to Optimize and Manage Them
• Social Targeting : Understanding Social Media Data Mining & Analysis
• How to Get Started in Mobile Social Advertising
• The World’s Most Compelling Ad Campaigns: Social Gaming
• Drive Social Media Traffic Using Advertising
• Advertising: New Forms of Measurement
• 10 Tips to Leverage the Viral Power of Social Media with Video Advertising

Some Early Bird Tickets are still available
Save 10% on any ticket to the London Event by using this link
Or type in discount code abcsplus manually

The one day Miami conference sponsored by Leading Email Marketing Solution provider Constant Contact, offers tips on how to maximize the impact of your campaigns, how to monitor and measure your results, expert-led guidance on how to engage with customers via advertising and promoted content in social media, trends to watch out for and insights into new tools and services.

Topics we will cover during the day include:

• Expert Review: Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn Ads
• B2B & B2C Social Media Advertising
• Case Studies and Best Practise Examples
• Viral Writing to create Tweets that Travel
• Geo-Targeted Marketing Innovations (Foursquare and beyond)
• How to Create Highly Effective Ad Campaigns
• Insights into the Latest High Profile Viral Marketing Campaigns
• Using B2B Social Media to Connect with C-level Execs
• The Psychology of Persuasion: Next Generation Marketing
• Blog Advertising and Sponsored Posts
• Tools and Trends to Watch in 2010

Quickly find Event Buzz for this Miami event by searching Twitter using Hashtag #SMMiami

Some Early Bird Tickets are still available
Type in discount code abcsplus manually or use these links:
SAVE 10% on any ticket to the Miami event by using this link
Save 10% on any ticket to the London Event by using this link

Interested in any other Influence People Events including Monitoring Social Media or Integrating Email Marketing & Social Media? Save 10% by entering discount code abcsplus when buying tickets.

Read more:
Social Media Marketing and Advertising Event

We made a handout for Affiliate Summit East 2010 that we thought would be good to share here too:

http://teamloxly.com/downloads/teamloxly2-ASE-flyer.pdf

This pdf lists all of the merchants we manage and has some special offers for some that you as an affiliate can post to your sites. Be sure to check the Shareasale Deals Database for all of our merchants to get the latest deals. Check out our Affiliate Support Forums for information and quick links for each of our programs.

Also, easy to remember reference about direct to merchant bidding: all of our current clients *except* Viator allow it with prior permission, that goes for Social media bidding in addition to pay per click advertising bidding.

None of our clients except Loxly Gallery and Our Handmade Gifts allow trademark or brand bidding.

For a wrap up of what happened at Affiliate Summit East in NYC read this series of posts by Vinny O’Hare.

Original post:
Team Loxly At Affiliate Summit and Our Handout

Join your Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare and their guest Wade Tonkin of GTO Management as they discuss BlogWorld Expo and the benefits of going plus the benefits of promoting their affiliate progam.

Find us on Twitter:
Wade Tonkin
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney ( a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Read the original post:
Affiliate ABCs #35 – Why You Should Promote and Be at BlogWorld Expo

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk to Karen Varecka, Client Services Manager at buy.at, about SEO, SEM and PPC marketing. What are the basic differences and how to utilize SEM in your site traffic plan.

Questions we discuss are:
What is the difference between SEM, SEO and PPC
What are the pros and cons to SEO and PPC advertising
What are the major search engines and the second tier and how can you use them all.

**Yahoo search could be entirely powered by Bing as early as September

How to use 2nd tier search engines – less competition, lower conversions, but lower costs.

Miva –> used to be FindWhat
Searchfeed -> now takes you to Miva
Dogpile
Kanoodle
7search
Pageseeker
Metacrawler
Alta Vista – yep, they’re still around
Webcrawler

Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Read more here:
Affiliate ABCs #34 Search Engine Marketing 101

Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare talk to Amy Ely (Marketing Manager) and Kim Salvino (Sr. Account Manager & Affiliate Evangelist) about the buy.at network. We talk about the network history and the special tools they have available for affiliates and merchants to use.

buy.at is a global affiliate network and a leading industry player in the UK. A wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Window, buy.at drives growth for over 300 of the world’s leading brands.

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

Find us on Twitter:
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Follow this link:
Affiliate ABCs #33 – Network Spotlight buy.at

Join your Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare and their guest Angel Djambazov, Custom Tailored Marketing and Managing Editor for Revenews. The topic for this episode is how affiliates that think “outside the box” and get on board with local niches and social technology will be just that much ahead of the game.

Couponing on Twitter and Social Media – Not the way to go. There is too much.

Groupon – online and local

Some things affiliates can do that are “out of the box” and can be very lucrative.
Virtual Products:
Zynga, Second Life

Tie virtual products to real life products, gifts
Gift the virtual product, but let them know the real product is available
Popshops – 48 million products – make a virtual product tie to a virtual goal then link to the physical product
Prints – virtual art – create and send as a real print not just a virtual print
Loxly Gallery, CafePress, Zazzle are perfect examples of sites that can be utilized. Always check with the merchant first!

Second Life – JCPenney failed there because you can get the products locally
Virtual High End items – Create unique products only available there
Create a virtual storefront

Twitter – smart merchants use it to manage customer service

Good affiliate talks about snowboard bindings, gives good information, then tweets the link with the information in answer to questions or complaints. Offer alternatives, give links to reviews and share your experience with a product.

Mice – right handed, for left handers tell them where to find mice that are ergonomic for left handed people
Extension of review sites, more recommendations, tell why the products you recommend are better, don’t just sell. Tell people why they should buy the product you are promoting.

Jones Soda as wedding favors
Keen Shoes – why are they better than other sandals

Facebook app – needs to serve a new function with a new purpose

Set up a Facebook group vs a page – more interaction

Own local – Foursquare – have a local meeting at a place you are an affiliate for, post photos to flickr, drive customers to links on your site to sell.

Find us on Twitter:
Angel Djambazov
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

The rest is here:
Affiliate ABCs #32 Social and Local Affiliate Opportunities – Think Outside of the Box with Angel Djambazov

Lisa Picarille was the moderator for this discussion about trademark bidding with our guests, Deb Carney and Joe Sousa for the AffPlan Strategy Session about Trademark bidding.

Today’s Topic: Trademark Bidding and PPC Policies in Affiliate Marketing

In the wide ranging discussion we defined trademark bidding; discussed when it’s a good thing for affiliates and when it’s good for merchants; gave examples of when it makes no sense; the motivation behind merchant’s decisions to forbid trademark bidding; how some affiliates game the system; what it takes to police these policies; how to educate merchants and affiliates on the topic; software that helps affiliates do trademark bidding and more.

For complete show notes and to listen to this podcast, click here.

See the original post:
AffPlan.com Strategies Session #7: Trademark Talk, Affiliate Style

Join Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare as they talk to James Martell about what to do around New York City while you are in town for Affiliate Summit East August 15-17, 2010.

You can also listen to find out what to do in New York City anytime you find yourself in town for a visit.

Click here to listen.

Read more:
New York Locals Vinny O’hare And Deborah Carney (And Industry Veterans) Share Sightseeing Tips On Getting The Most Out Of Your Trip To Affiliate…

I am puzzled by a question that has been raised frequently as of late: “In my store can I affiliate link to other products that I don’t carry?” The short answer is no. The longer answer is to actually ask a question back – “Why do you want to send the shoppers looking for your products away to someone else?”

If you are an ecommerce site (meaning you sell products using a shopping cart) and you have an affiliate program (meaning you pay affiliates to make sales of your products) you want to keep your traffic on your site purchasing from you. Many affiliates will not promote merchants that are featuring products not for sale on their own site. They don’t want to send you their traffic when you might receive compensation, but they definitely will not.

Aside from the affiliate aspect, there is the fact that you as a merchant want to look professional and trustworthy to the shoppers that find your site. If you have links that send your shoppers away, even if they were going to purchase your products and they were just curious and they clicked a link that took them away, they might never find their way back to you. Oops. Plus, it devalues your site and your product(s). Shoppers could get the uneasy feeling that you don’t believe in your product line if you are also selling other people’s products through outbound links.

While you may not have enough merchandise to sell, or you think people are looking for something you don’t have when they land on your site, the better way to handle that is to be sure that your site marketing efforts attract the right shoppers. Then once you have them, you make them feel that you are the only place they should be buying from. If you are selling blue widgets and people are landing on your site from searches for pink widgets, then you need to look at your site structure and content so that you are getting consumers who want to buy blue widgets.

It is the same for information products and sites selling services. If you can’t supply the service directly, have your visitors contact you about what they need, and then you can refer them privately after you have discussed their needs and determined you aren’t the right fit. Sites selling information products tend to cross promote, but again, you are sending your potential buyers off on a “maybe”. It’s much better for you to focus and sell them your own product instead.

You built an ecommerce site to make money by selling your own products. If you want to sell other people’s products, make a separate Web site.

Deborah Carney is an Outsourced Affiliate Program Manager and eCommerce Consultant (TeamLoxly.com) with a site dedicated to teaching affiliates and merchants (ABCsPlus.com) how to maximize their online earnings.

Originally published in FeedFront Magazine Issue 9.
Download the entire FeedFront issue 9 here

Continue reading here:
The Merchant as Affiliate Conundrum – By Deborah Carney

Join your Affiliate ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare and their guest Angel Djambazov, Custom Tailored Marketing and Managing Editor for Revenews. The topic for this episode is Emerging Technologies, the affiliates that think “outside the box” and get on board with new technology will be just that much ahead of the game.

Pay per Call:
Ring Revenue
Shareasale
Commission Junction
LinkShare

Plugs phone “leak” – good for merchants where shoppers make calls
Pay per lead, more frequently pay per length of call
Affiliates get their own phone number
Good for high priced merchants

Legacy Learning Affiliate Program – up 30% with pay per call

Smart Phone Apps:
Jones Soda – Affiliate created a special iPhone app
Affiliate will need to work carefully with a merchant on something like this
Needs to be something special, not just a “go buy”.

What cool interactive thing can affiliate approach merchant with, must be interactive
Game plan proposal
Acceptance, legal agreement with merchant, needs access to merchant api, graphics that wouldn’t normally be available.

Customization merchants would be good to approach, like Zazzle

Merchants don’t have the technology or time to develop themselves.

Don’t create another “coupon app” – there are enough, Apple stops allowing duplicate or similar apps.
Don’t limit to iPhone, go into other Smart Phone platforms as well – Droid, Blackberry, etc.

Site where you can build an iPhone App

We would love it if you can leave comments about other emerging technologies, and links to resources for building phone apps.

Find us on Twitter:
Angel Djambazov
Vinny O’Hare
Deborah Carney ( a.k.a. Loxly)
Affiliate ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

More here:
Affiliate ABCs #31 – Emerging Technologies Affiliates Can Harness