Zoobooks has become quite the popular kids education affiliate program in Share Results. This is not only because of their coupon offers, and dual CPA and rev share commission models. But they are also right up there with The CuteKid.com and Sittercity, as programs that are perfect for affiliates that specialize in online retail offers for families. That being said, there’s more to a merchant like Zoobooks than first glance. Their audience is a little more comprehensive than most affiliates think. For instance, ever take into consideration the language of those customers, the education, the number of children they have, and what age their kids are? This family audience is not a one-size-fits-all type of demographic. Let’s break down the family audience a little more for a merchant like Zoobooks.

Firstly, families interested in Zoobooks are interested in promoting reading in their homes. With this in mind, it may be a good idea to look at offering their educational products to a more multilingual audience. Perhaps it’s not a bad idea to promote to families that don’t speak English as their first language and may want to help their kids further their knowledge of the English language.

In addition to language enhancement, more than 50% of customers for this product have homes run by college-educated parents. Most of those purchasing products are female and to be more specific, they range between 35 and 50 years of age. It also shouldn’t be surprising that grandmothers make for great potential customers of Zoobooks products. They’re as much invested in the education of their grandchildren as the parents are.

The range of products available from this online retailer include animal-themed magazine subscriptions, as well as DVD sets. The reason for this (besides branding) is the fact that families will have an average of 1.5 children with most averaging around 7 years old. The Zootles group (parents with kids two to 6 years) is also a popular audience.

Also, the average Zoobooks customer not only has college education, but they also have a higher income bracket. Besides 95% of Zoobooks customers owning their own home, they also earn on average $65,000 or more annually. This is a great shopping opportunity for affiliates that cater to this audience of online users.

Furthermore, paid search (with restrictions) is a highly popular method of promotion in this program as is email marketing. Evaluate how to carefully tailor your campaigns, especially when it comes to keywords for PPC. Bidding on keywords like “zoo animals” will be costly, so try using more distinct words or variations, such as “zoo” in tandem with other terms. Some examples are “zoo magazine”, “zoölogy”, “zoo hippos”, “zoo animal education”, “animal education for kids”, and “zoo monkeys”.

Because Zoobooks has a wide variety of products and subscriptions, it presents a unique opportunity for affiliates to cater to a niche market looking for unique educational products for their kids age two to 12. If you would like to learn more about Zoobooks or their affiliate program, feel free to view more details via their merchant co-branded page.

Because Share Results is committed to providing you with every service possible to help your business grow, we have started a new SEM Agency that offers services in PPC Management and SEO. We are now poised to offer services that help online business networks develop their Internet footprint and brand recognition. We are also offering supplemental Marketing Support because, at the end of the day, it’s really all about converting those leads into sales.

One of the most frustrating and challenging parts of SEO these days is the constant changing of the criteria that helps web pages to rank. Keeping track of these changes is really a full-time job, so unless you have someone employed within your company that can make sure that all of your codes and protocols are up to date, then you may be missing out on some small protocol that might be keeping your pages and PPC campaigns from ranking as high as you might like. That’s where we can help.

We have a team of dedicated professionals whose entire function in life (well, at work, at least) is to make sure that they have the most up-to-date SEO information. They can dissect your website, page by page, and show you where improvements can be made in coding, and keyword distribution. In addition, a navigational review of the site can be performed that will show you how you can keep traffic for longer, creating more opportunities for conversions.

It is one thing to get traffic coming to your site, but it’s something else entirely to convert that traffic into sales, so along with SEO support, Marketing Support is one of the most important aspects of the SEM Agency’s function. Our SEM professionals will help you to improve your web copy, and show you how you can more effectively reach your audience on websites and PPC campaigns. You’ll also receive some tips and tricks to help you increase your online presence and how to get there faster than your competition.

The best part of this service is that it is always personalized to your individual needs. We want to help your business be the best it can possibly be, and our new SEM Agency is just one more step in that direction. To find out more about how we can help drive qualified traffic to your site, feel free to contact us at agency [at] shareresults [dot] com and we’ll get you started in the right direction.

Are you active with social media marketing? A recent announcement by Google and Microsoft now makes social media marketing all the more important to marketing in general, and specifically search engine marketing.

Google and Microsoft have both secured deals with Twitter, and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to include updates into Bing search results. For now, Google will be focusing solely on including tweets in their search results, but rumor has it they will be looking into Facebook soon.

This announcement bodes well for marketers who are active with these two social media venues, meaning more opportunity to be found in real-time searches.

Both Google and Microsoft are still working out just how these results will be included among their other conventional search results. Bing is working on a beta tool for people to try out, while Google has now gone live with the Google Social Search service.

Bing features a “Best Match” option, which prioritizes certain tweets over others. Bing has stated that credence will be given to Tweeters that have the most followers. Google Social Search, meanwhile, is designed to return traditional results along with updates and tweets that users’ friends and other contacts they follow on various social networks have posted.

Are you active with social media? If so, how are you using it, and has it been successful? If you haven’t tried your hand at Facebook or Twitter, will this recent announcement by Google and Microsoft change your mind? We want to know!

The holidays present online retailers with tremendous earning potential.  With mere days left in the month of October, and the countdown to the real holiday madness just around the corner, now is the time to have a good look at your marketing campaigns to make sure you’re set up to enhance your sales volume, and ultimately, seal the deal.  Here are some key areas of your marketing campaigns that you should look at to make sure you’re in shape for the season.

1. Quality Affiliates
Having knowledgeable, capable marketing partners is crucial to the success of your online campaigns.  A quality affiliate will have an attractive, user-friendly website with a high page rank, and will employ multiple marketing methods to promote your product(s).  So make it a point of recruiting these affiliates and regularly logging into your account to evaluate the quality of partners that you are attracting to your program.

If you don’t feel confident about the caliber of your partners, you should speak to your affiliate manager, or consider re-evaluating your recruitment strategy.  Your Traffic Report can also help you identify your top-performing affiliates, along with their conversion rates, and can be pulled based on Affiliate ID.  Once you have partners whom you believe have the potential to perform well in your program, the more likely quality sales will be generated.

2. Click-Through Rate
Your click-through rate is an important indicator to help you determine whether (a) customers are attracted to your product/service, and (b) if they are abandoning your landing page for some unforeseen issue.  For example, you may create an effective banner ad or coupon, but a problem on an affiliate’s site, your landing page or your shopping cart could be impacting the customer’s ultimate decision to buy.

The Deep Linking tool is applied by merchants who want to help their affiliates highlight specific products that match the need of the customer.  This tool allows affiliates to send customers to an exact area of your site that truly responds to their buying need.  When a customer sees a product on a banner that they like, and then lands on a relevant landing page for that item, you are helping to seal the deal, and reduce the odds of shopping cart abandonment.  If you’re seeing low stats, consider permitting a tool like deep linking in your program, or talk to your Share Results affiliate manager to offer some insight.

3. Seal the Deal
Once an affiliate has sent a customer to your website, and the customer is ready to buy, it’s up to you to seal the deal.   Make sure you have the right tools, and are doing everything you can to make buying convenient and simple.
An example of a deal breaker might be a banner on an affiliate’s site promising a flat price for one of your products, only to have that customer discover shipping charges during the checkout process.  In fact, according to comScore, 43% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts because of unexpectedly high shipping charges, and 72% of consumers say that if an e-commerce site eliminated free shipping, they would use another e-commerce site that did offer free shipping.  Free shipping is just one of several incentives that are important to online shoppers, so make sure to incorporate this in your strategy whenever possible.

Most importantly, remember to apply your Share Results marketing software to its full potential by using the tools at your disposal, and to check in with your affiliate manager regularly to find more strategic techniques for closing the sale.

Is your affiliate marketing campaign ready for the holiday season? If not, this is the blogging event to get you ready for the busiest season of the year. Check out last week’s blogs, and make sure to tune in until November 27 for more tips and techniques to help you end Q4 with your most successful campaign yet!

Executing a successful Q4 campaign is possible for online retailers, even if the season’s shopping activity is expected to decrease due to the poor economy.   Merchants who wish to succeed this year will need to be strategic, and plan ahead.   In today’s edition of the holiday blogging series, we’re going to touch upon 5 tools merchants must have if they wish to execute a successful holiday campaign.

According to a recent article from RBR.com, trends show shoppers plan to pinch pennies this holiday season, while InternetRetailer.com reports more holiday shopping will take place on the web. Armed with this knowledge, merchants can tailor their tools and resources to help them better perform during the fourth quarter of 2009.

Here are some suggested must-haves for merchants who wish to succeed this holiday season:

Must-Have 1: Update Terms and Conditions

It is important to update terms and conditions on a regular basis, especially during a busy holiday season when there are likely to be increased transactions.  This is necessary so merchants don’t find themselves welcoming in sales generated through methods not permitted in their affiliate program in the first place (for example,  incentivization, brand name bidding, or social media links through Facebook and Twitter).  While it may seem like a hassle to update terms and conditions regularly, it is far less of a hassle than the alternative; if terms aren’t up to date, merchants have to have to go back, review transactions, and evaluate if the affiliate used methods that were in violation of program.   In order to avoid this headache, merchants should clarify the promotional methods with affiliates – NOW!

Must-Have 2: Marketing Tools

Linking, Banner and Email Creatives are all marketing tools that can be employed to maximize a merchant’s potential for success in the upcoming holiday season.  Deep or Direct Linking has been effective in allowing affiliates to help close a sale from a potential customer. Currently available in the Share Results software, it is being used by merchants like UGHH to allow affiliates to promote a specific product.  Co-branded Banner Creatives are great sales tools for affiliates to use to promote and attract potential sales. These can include a specific product, a coupon code or even a call-to-action like “Free Shipping”. HTML Email Creatives have been great tools for merchants like Zoobooks, who’ve have great success with email marketers who promote their magazine subscriptions to US families. Having attractive email creative (including suppression files and suggested Subject lines) helps a merchant’s affiliates to target specific demographics.

Must-Have 3: Effective Landing Pages & Secure Shopping Cart

Effective landing pages complete with a secure shopping cart can mean the difference between closing or losing sale.  A secure shopping cart convinces shoppers they’re spending money with the right retailer.  A recent DigitalHome.ca article confirmed that shoppers are encouraged to pay attention to issues like security and Privacy Policy’s of a retailer’s site. Language promoting security of shopping cart on landing page reassures customers that their personal details are protected. Generally, affiliates also want merchants to have secure checkouts as well.  After all, affiliates spend a lot of effort promoting for their merchants, and if traffic doesn’t convert, then that defeats the affiliate’s purpose.  A comprehensive merchant will want to research shopping carts extensively, to find the ones that are most compatible with the given business model.

Must-Have 4: Coupon Codes

You may be asking yourself why coupon codes aren’t grouped in with must have #2, Marketing Tools.  That’s because coupon codes are a niche unto themselves, which can be tapped by marketers all on its own. A recent eMarketer article highlights the popularity of coupons and points out that even the most affluent online shoppers are as likely to try and save a buck this holiday season.  Merchants can use this intelligence to be more selective and offer competitive and even co-branded codes. Exclusive coupon codes can be segmented for affiliates who are known or have potential to be top performers.

Must-Have 5: Affiliate or Account Manager

Given the current economic climate and the fact that shopping activity is expected to be down for Q4, merchants are going to need more than just hot items to woo customers.  Having someone communicate with affiliates to answer their needs, or an account manager to liaise with partners on the merchant’s behalf, is essential for creating dialogue, negotiating better placement of an offer, and answering affiliates who want exclusive promos to promote.  A proficient affiliate manager can help facilitate the process by aligning merchants with the right affiliates, and working with both parties to achieve their desired outcomes; brand exposure, increased traffic, maximized conversions and profitability.

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog.  Until November 27, Share Results is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

Last week we posted the first of a two-part interview with online education merchant eLearners. In addition to getting some great insight from them about the online education industry, we learned what popular degrees that students have been gravitating to and how eLearners has dealt with the ever increasing interest in the online edu affiliate marketing sector.

This week, we continue that conversation and find out what type of edu affiliates are preferred for their program and more…

Q: Tell us about the diverse education offers available to affiliates who join eLearners. What would you say is your most successful campaign to date?

A: OnlineStudentFinancialAid.com has had a long history of success and continues to be a dominant force, and Project Working Mom has been an instant hit, generating national press coverage, but we prefer not to dwell on past successes. We continue to work on innovative new campaigns to reach new demographics; The Career Stimulus Package just launched this summer, and the response has been overwhelming.

• Did you know that OnlineStudentFinancialAid.com can be promoted in Spanish to online users?

Q: What are some of the biggest misconceptions affiliates have about the eLearners affiliate program?

A: One of the biggest misconceptions is that we are just looking for a high quantity of leads. Our main focus is actually making sure our leads are of high quality and continue to enroll.

Q: With all the different type of affiliates who partner with eLearners, what promotional methods would you say do best in the program?

A: All promotional methods, whether SEO, display, PPC, etc., have their own strengths and weaknesses, but all serve a purpose within our program and add a specific value.

Q: What are the key elements do you look for when affiliates apply to your affiliate program?

A: When looking at sites to partner with, we look for (in no particular order) unique content, a good layout, a high page rank, good traffic, high ranking on key search terms, etc. In general, we are looking for something that doesn’t necessarily look like it is set up for just lead generation, but has a larger purpose.

Q: What would you say are the top 3 common inquiries from prospective students that affiliates should know when promoting to their audience?

A: Some common inquiries from prospective students include tuition prices, financial aid/scholarship options, school accreditation and even the location of the school offices so that students may be able to take care of things in person if needed.

Q: Based on your experience in the industry, what would you say are some of the forthcoming trends affiliates should expect to see in the overall online edu market?

A: Social media seems to be something that people are starting to make a big push for.

Q: What kind of exciting campaigns can affiliates expect to see from eLearners’ affiliate program in the forthcoming months?

A: I can’t reveal all our secrets just yet, but we definitely have some exciting things coming in the next few months…

Update: The Career Stimulus Package campaign has indeed been a big hit with online users; however, this offer is only available to be promoted until October 31, 2009.

If you have any questions about Career Stimulus Package or any other eLearners opportunity, please don’t hesitate to reach us via eLearners(at)shareresults(dot)com.

The popularity of online education affiliate programs has grown exponentially over the last few years with a few online edu lead aggregators playing a leading role in offering a wide variety of academic opportunities that benefit both affiliates and prospective students alike. eLearners, Share Results’ highly popular online education advertiser, has seen major growth within the online edu industry, and, naturally, increased interest from affiliates looking to promote online degrees from land-based colleges in the United States.

We took some time to chat with eLearners about their widely-recognized affiliate program in Share Results. In the first part of this merchant interview blog series, eLearners gives new affiliates the inside scoop on the online education industry, the most sought after degrees by students, and how they’ve adapted to the growth in online degree opportunities.

Q: For novice affiliates out there who are just entering the online edu space in affiliate marketing, can you explain exactly what eLearners is?

A: eLearners.com is the premier destination for anyone in school or considering furthering their education. We service all phases of the life cycle of a student —  from prospecting for students by connecting them with colleges, to introducing them to resources such as financial aid and scholarships, to ensuring enrollment and retention, to providing a safety net for current students who need support, to helping them move on to their next degree.

Q: What distinguishes eLearners from other online edu aggregators out there?

A: What makes eLearners unique is that we are more than just an aggregator, since our focus is applied more towards the entire life cycle of a student, but in addition to this, we work with over 200 fully accredited schools (more than anyone in the industry) while simultaneously carrying a strong reputation for quality and a reach that is unmatched.

Q: Studies show that land-based operators are seeing a drop in the number of student applications, but also another challenge is the availability of financial aid. How has eLearners been affected by this trend?

A: We actually work with a number of schools that provide financial aid options, and these schools have seen a great response from prospective students. What we have done on our own, though, to meet this trend head-on, is develop a series of scholarship programs to reach a multitude of demographics. Two of our scholarship programs, Project Working Mom and the Career Stimulus Package, respectively, have already given away a combined $6+ million in scholarships in 2009.

Q: How does the number of school applicants compare to two years ago? What valuable feedback from schools can you pass on to affiliates who partner with you about the wealth of online edu applicants?

A: The number of prospective students continues to grow year by year. Online degrees have become increasingly popular, and traditional schools have recognized this trend. Traditional campus schools understand that a virtual campus is now a necessity in order to maintain a competitive edge.

Q: Based on trends you are seeing, what would you say are the most popular degrees and subjects of study in the online edu space?

A: The online education space is ever-changing, but three areas in which I have seen pretty consistent interest are healthcare, business and criminal justice.

Q: What would you say distinguishes eLearners’ affiliate program from other online education affiliate programs out there?

A: We pride ourselves on the happiness of our partners and being available for them, so a high level of customer service is always our priority.  Our industry reputation, competitive payouts, unmatched selection of schools/programs and high conversion rates are what tend to attract people to our program.

Q: Some affiliates think that the education sector in affiliate marketing is too saturated. What do you think of this perspective and how has eLearners coped with the ever-growing online edu sector of affiliate marketing?

A: Especially with the recession, this arena has seen quite a bit of growth over the past year. We see it as a plus because this just means we have more potential partners to work with.

Next week in the second part of our blog series, eLearners will dish on the biggest misconceptions about their program, the three things student look for from online education, and what it takes to become an affiliate of their program…

In the meantime, if you have any questions about the eLearners offers that are available, please feel free to reach us via eLearners(at)shareresults(dot)com. If you have inquiries about any of our other education affiliate programs in Share Results, please email us: affiliates(at)shareresults(dot)com.

Affiliates in the education sector are constantly looking for a unique offers to promote to their prospective learners and students and with good reason. It’s the back to school season and there are plenty of people looking for ways to improve their way of life. Since this area has been gaining even more interest from affiliates, here are some merchants in this field that are offering niche opportunities.

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Career and employment are hot sectors in the affiliate marketing industry right now. You may have read my earlier post about online education affiliate programs like eLearners growing quite popular during the back to school season. Well, career and employment programs are a great compliment to that traffic.

SnagAJob.com, a US source for hourly employment, just launched an affiliate program in our retail network earlier in August, and within just a few days affiliates have found promoting to job seekers a perfect addition to their existing campaigns.

SnagAJob.com allows your users to fill out a registration application before embarking on a job search in the US. The site offers both part-time and full-time hourly employment, which is perfect for a few reasons:

1. The registration process is short and sweet.
2. SnagAJob.com appeals to all sorts of online job applicants in the US across all ethnicities, ages and locations. This makes for a broad appeal.
3. This is a highly appealing opportunity to high school, college and university students who need funding to help pay for school.
4. The program’s marketing tools allow your visitors to conveniently begin searching for employment by just typing in their zip code.

There was never a more relevant time to promote job opportunities to men and women in the US. If you would like to know more about the SnagAJob or other career-centric affiliate programs, then feel free to send us an email with your questions for advice.

In continuation of our last post about the Affiliate Summit East conference in New York, Share Results had the opportunity to attend the GLAM Interactive party. While the GLAM parties have been known to be all-female events, this time it was an all-gender affair. In fact, correct us if we’re wrong, but were there actually more men at the GLAM party than women? The GLAM party included a live performance from the band…  wait for it…
Touch my Pixel.

Share Results walked the floor for much of the conference. Monday of course was the first and most popular day for the exhibit hall where most of the networking takes place. The beauty of having the conference at the Hilton in Midtown New York was that there were two floors where companies were exhibiting. Sometimes exhibit halls can get much too chaotic and crowded, so breaking it up into two floors was a good idea. Perhaps it might be a great opportunity for the organizers of the event to segment future exhibit halls by specific sections for merchants, agencies, networks, what have you. We could definitely see how much easier it would be to help affiliates and other existing/potential partners to decide on just where to allocate their time.

Read More…