2012 is off to a great for MGECOM. Some of our monthly highlights include:

· Blowing away the competition, MGECOM jumped 8 spots in the top 10 Rankings of the Best Affiliate Marketing Companies, moving ahead of affiliate industry powerhouse Commission Junction. A leading independent authority on online marketing vendors, TopSEOs, has ranked MGECOM in the top 10 Best affiliate marketing companies for quite some time. As of January 2012, MGECOM has rapidly risen from 9th to 2nd in the TopSEO rankings, and has sights firmly set on the number 1 position. Of this momentous feat, MGECOM CEO Matt Enders says “MGECOM focused heavily throughout 2011 on reinvesting in our own technology, staff, processes, and exclusive affiliate program management software. These fundamental improvements across every key metric of the company have already begun paying dividends, not just for our clients, but for MGECOM’s brand name recognition as well.”

· MGECOM’s premium, turn-key affiliate marketing program management solution was chosen through a vigorous comparison of affiliate advertising service providers by ClickN KIDS, developers of online research based education products and software for schools and homes. Created by Dr. J. Ron Nelson in 2003. Current products in its family are ClickN READ, ClickN SPELL, and the newest member, Looney Tunes ClickN READ Phonics that incorporates all the characters from the beloved Looney Tunes line-up.

· The affiliate industry’s most experienced and successful Affiliate Account Executive team took another significant leap forward with the addition of industry veteran Chris Mohler to the MGECOM roster. With affiliate Superstar Mohler in the mix, the MGECOM Program Management Division boasts over 76 years of combined Affiliate Industry experience. The larger MGECOM, Inc. organization is rapidly approaching 100 years of combined success in the Affiliate Industry.

· Every January the MGECOM team represents our clients at the biggest conference in the Affiliate industry: Affiliate Summit West. For ASW12 the MGECOM team hosted a private, invitation only cocktail party at Caesar’s Palace. The party was well attended by some of the most productive ethical affiliates in the industry and was a huge benefit to MGECOM clients. Pictures of the event can be seen here: ASW12 Pictures.

· The 2011 results are in and MGECOM drove record affiliate program growth for clients. The trend of skyrocketing average sales growth continued with over 275% average year over year affiliate program sales growth among MGECOM clients. That is nearly tripling the affiliate advertising channel sales, on average, across a client base of about 50 different brands. This amazing performance was delivered on the heels of a strong 2010 where MGECOM clients enjoyed nearly doubled affiliate channel sales (94% average YOY sales growth).

Who is MGECOM?
MGECOM, Inc., based in Cary, NC, is the best Agency for Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Program Management & Affiliate Advertising Services. Specializing in affiliate program growth, affiliate recruiting, fraud prevention, and affiliate nexus tax compliance.
2011 TopSEO top 10 Affiliate Marketing Agency
ABestWeb 2010 Affiliate Agency of the Year Nominee
Winner of the 2011 & 2009 Small Business Commerce Association Best of Business Award
Trusted by great Internet Retailer Top 500, Internet Retailer Second 500, and Internet Retailer Hot 100 brands.

Hello everyone!

We have a new coupon from Scrubs & Beyond that we wanted to share. Customers can take 14% off an order of 2+ items (some brands excluded) with coupon code WCJ14LUV. This code expires on Feb 29 so you can promote this all month.

Scrubs & Beyond also has ongoing promo codes with no expiration dates:

WCJ5POff - Extra 5% all scrub apparel.

WCJ10200 – 10% off $200+ order.

Free Shipping on $125+ Order.

As a reminder, Scrubs & Beyond pays an 8% commission, and you can join them on CJ here.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Jordan Wilson if you have any questions.

Thank you!

MGECOM Team

Join the best affiliate program management at the Affiliate Summit West conference in Las Vegas, January 8 – 10th. The MGECOM team is scheduling meetings throughout the conference in a private hospitality suite at Caesar’s Palace. Appointments are now being scheduled with our affiliates, merchants and potential new clients who would like to explore needs and be introduced MGECOM’s Premium Affiliate Program Management and Affiliate Support services.

Also in Las Vegas the same week is the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) conference. Merchants attending CES can meet with MGECOM without buying a pass to Affiliate Summit West. Simply email our staff for a private appointment in the MGECOM suite at Caesar’s Palace to discuss brand specific needs and for an invitation to the MGECOM cocktail party.

The excitement is growing within the MGECOM team. Director of Business Development, Mike Bump says “Come meet and relax with the team that will lead your affiliate marketing to deliver record Performance and Profits in 2012 and beyond….MGECOM!”

A private, invitation only Cocktail Party for Affiliates, Merchants, and mainstream Affiliate Networks will be held the evening of Monday, January 9th in the MGECOM suite at Caesar’s Palace. This exclusive event will feature a drawing for $1,000 in Caesar’s Palace Chips and an open bar. Many of the big parties at Affiliate Summit West can be loud, smokey, and crowded. The MGECOM Cocktail Party will be hosted in a relaxed setting to chat, network, and socialize before hitting the mega-parties later in the evening. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to explore options to boost the profitability of your affiliate efforts, while relaxing… and maybe even winning some cool prizes.

Affiliates/Publishers:
Rock Stars from the MGECOM Affiliate Account Executive team will be on-hand to discuss the challenges that affiliates are facing and develop personalized strategies and support for an even more productive and profitable 2012.

Affiliates can schedule private meetings or request cocktail party invitations by emailing info(at)mgecom(dot)com.

Merchants:
Interested in boosting Affiliate channel performance? taking affiliate program performance to the next level, reducing risk, and saving money? Schedule your private consultation with the MGECOM team to learn more about Premium Affiliate Program Management services and explore options for your business.

Merchants can schedule private meetings or request cocktail party invitations by emailing:
Mike Bump (West)
mike(dot)bump(at)mgecom(dot)com

Jeff Cress (East)
jeff(at)cress(at)mgecom(dot)com

Who is MGECOM?
MGECOM, Inc., based in Cary, NC, is the best Agency for Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Program Management & Affiliate Advertising Services. Specializing in affiliate program growth, affiliate recruiting, fraud prevention, and affiliate nexus tax compliance.

2011 TopSEO top 10 Affiliate Marketing Agency
ABestWeb 2010 Affiliate Agency of the Year Nominee
Winner of the 2011 & 2009 Small Business Commerce Association Best of Business Award

Trusted by great Internet Retailer Top 500, Internet Retailer Second 500, and Internet Retailer Hot 100 brands.

What is Affiliate Summit West?
Affiliate Summit was founded by Missy Ward and Shawn Collins in 2003 for the purpose of providing educational sessions on the latest industry issues and fostering a productive networking environment for affiliate marketers.

Santa came early this year for the lucky brands that chose MGECOM in December. “We continue to be humbled by the great brands that have evaluated all options for managing their affiliate program, then choose MGECOM’s premium affiliate program growth service. Our client’s faith drives us to innovate and create new ways to grow the profitability of their affiliate programs“, says Jeff Cress, VP of BD & Marketing.

Some of the brands that signed in December with MGECOM to make more money, reduce their risk, and save money by outsourcing their affiliate advertising program management include:

PhotoBin – Preserve, rediscover and share the favorite moments of your life with photo scanning services, online photo sharing, premium canvas prints, photo books, and personalized photo gifts.

Aqua SuperCenter - The perfect pool supplies for your swimming pool, home and backyard.

Nearly Natural – Floral collections that…“look so real, they’re Nearly Natural!” Nearly Natural is the first artificial floral company to hire head designers with years of experience in the live plant industry.

Adding to the excitement in December, MGECOM is honored to be awarded the Small Business Commerce Association Best of Business Award for 2011.

As the year closes, the team shifts focus to the final preparations for the biggest conference in the Affiliate Industry, Affiliate Summit West. MGECOM will promote all client affiliate programs, interview prospective new team members, meet with Agency representatives from all of the major affiliate networks, and entertain prospective new clients from a private hospitality Suite at Caesar’s Palace.

Affiliates interested in meeting with MGECOM at Affiliate Summit West should email info@mgecom.com to schedule an appointment.

Merchants interested in meeting with MGECOM at Affiliate Summit West to learn about Premium Affiliate Program Management services at Affiliate Summit West please contact:

Mike Bump (West)
mike.bump@mgecom.com
919.39.0415

Jeff Cress (East)
jeff.cress@mgecom.com
919.439.0013

Who is MGECOM?
MGECOM, Inc., based in Cary, NC, is the best Agency for Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Program Management & Affiliate Advertising Services. Specializing in affiliate program growth, affiliate recruiting, fraud prevention, and affiliate nexus tax compliance.

2011 TopSEO top 10 Affiliate Marketing Agency
ABestWeb 2010 Affiliate Agency of the Year Nominee
Winner of the 2011 & 2009 Small Business Commerce Association Best of Business Award

Trusted by great Internet Retailer Top 500, Internet Retailer Second 500, and Internet Retailer Hot 100 brands.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, affiliates and merchants should have a common goal. Whether it is to increase sales or new leads, both parties should be on the same page to accomplish that goal. However, over the past year we have seen instances where merchants have made decisions regarding their affiliate program that have left affiliates saying, “Huh?”

Sometimes a merchant’s decisions can be so egregious that they’ll end up on an affiliate’s “Naughty List”. In fact, veteran affiliate marketer Tricia Meyer has written a great blog post about merchants who deserve lumps of coal for their actions this year. We would like to expand on that list with a few additional things we have seen merchants do this past year that would certainly qualify them for placement on an affiliate’s “Naughty List”

So merchants – Please take note of the things you can be doing to avoid being put on that list and getting lumps of coal next year!

1. Lack of Advance Notice:
Wouldn’t it be nice to receive an email that informs you of a new coupon that is going live next week, and if you can try to give it extra exposure? No, instead affiliates receive urgent emails that say, “OUR NEW COUPON IS GOING UP TODAY, CAN YOU PLEASE POST IT ALL OVER YOUR SITE ASAP?!?!”

Affiliates are busy business-people so merchants need give affiliates as much advance notice as possible so they can prepare their websites and marketing plans as needed.

2. No Promotional Details:
Some merchant’s not only fail to give advance notice, but further drop the ball by not giving the complete story about a new promotion. So, affiliates are expected to drop everything to promote this great offer, but are not told the coupon’s expiration date or that the deal is only available for 150 sales and suddenly that promotion must come down RIGHT NOW! Accordingly, the merchant shouldn’t be surprised when affiliates decide it’s time to move on to the next program.

3. Changing Commission Rates:
It is natural in the course of business that circumstances beyond a merchant’s control often necessitate change. However, cutting an affiliate’s source of income (i.e their commission rate) should be one of the very last steps a merchant considers when reviewing the long-term sustainability of their affiliate program. If a merchant decides to essentially reduce the affiliates income, the merchant should not be surprised when affiliates drop them like a hot potato to find a comparable program to promote. There was even one story of an affiliate’s commission being cut from 4% to 1.5%! I hope the affiliate said “Adios, amigo” to this merchant!

4. Putting a Program on Auto-Pilot:
There are far too many well-managed programs out there for affiliates to work with instead of working with a merchant who thinks they’ll a successful affiliate program by auto-approving every application received from China and Taiwan, from ToolBar/BHO affiliates, and PPC hacks. If an affiliate finds themselves in a program that suddenly appears to have no one steering the ship, the affiliate will look elsewhere to find a professionally managed program.

5. Vague PPC policies:
A merchant should have a Program manager that knows the ins and outs of PPC management and whether affiliates should be allowed to do PPC-Marketing. Any successful PPC-Marketer that a merchant works with should not be subject to constantly-changing keyword and PPC-linking policies. A merchant needs to set their policy after carefully considering the pros and cons of what keywords are allowed and which are restricted, then stick with and enforce it.

6. Keeping Outdated Links Available:
A sure sign of a program that needs professional management help is a program that has coupon codes for Christmas still available in mid-July. It is cumbersome enough for an affiliate to find the right link to use in the network interfaces, so merchants need to take the responsibility of removing dead and expired links from the networks.

7. Reactionary Decision Making:
When merchants react to situations they may not fully understand or don’t want to invest the resources to research, they often react with knee-jerk decisions that lead to terminated relationships with quality affiliates and ultimately, the death of their affiliate programs. Many times the decision to terminate their affiliates comes with little advance notice, rather the merchant sends an email which states something to the effect of, “Effective immediately, affiliates in the state of XYZ, are terminated from the XXX Affiliate Program”. Making snap decisions without doing proper due diligence leads to bad decisions which ultimately hurt a merchant’s relationships and the affiliate programs success.

8. Having Tracking Problems:
This has to be one of the most frustrating thing a merchant can do. An affiliate works hard to get a customer to their site, they market and pre-sell a product, a customer clicks over and YES, there is a conversion!!! Then, for some reason the tracking suddenly stops working and future sales do not get credited to the affiliates. Merchants that are not consistently reviewing their affiliate tracking systems for accuracy are doomed to fail.

9. An Unusually High Reversal Rate:
A sale was tracked and commission was paid, but for whatever reason the sale gets reversed. Yes, reversals are something every e-commerce site has to deal with, but a unusually high reversal rate will keep the smart affiliates from investing their time promoting the merchant. And merchants that fail to respond to questions about the reasons their orders being reversed will only further alienate their affiliates.

10. Working with Parasite Affiliates:
With the amount of self-policing that occurs in this industry, if a merchant is working with affiliates that are the so-called “Black Hat” affiliates and does nothing about it, you can be sure affiliates will make it well known that the merchant’s affiliate program is one other affiliates should avoid.

11. Providing Very Short Cookies Times:
In e-commerce, comparison shopping is a given, meaning a customer that comes to a merchant’s site from an affiliate’s site may not complete the transaction after that first visit. Why penalize the affiliate with a very short cookie time because the customer decides to leave the merchant site in order to read one more review before completing their purchase? Merchants should permit the maximum allowed cookie time thereby giving the affiliate maximum time to earn a commission.

To sum it up, a merchant’s communications should be clear, thorough and should provide advance notice whenever possible. Secondly, a merchant needs to proactively manage their affiliate program to eliminate any pitfalls that come from program negligence. If a merchant does these important steps, they will have a much greater chance of maintaining successful relationships with their affiliates over the years.

Surely this list is not all encompassing and there are other things merchant’s have done over the year to end up on an affiliate’s “naughty list”. Please feel free to share what you have seen – with your input merchants can work towards improving their affiliate program for everyone’s benefit!

Happy Holidays and Happy E-Commercing!

It’s that time of year again when everyone is making a list and checking it twice to see who has been naughty and nice. This year the staff at MGECOM.com decided to share with you things we have seen affiliates do over the past year that has put them on a merchant’s “naughty” list. We share so you know what practices to avoid and can stay on the “nice” list to enjoy a long, productive and profitable partnership. (Note that this list is geared more toward affiliates just starting out in the business, however even our veteran affiliate friends may find a tip or two they can use).

So without further ado; we present to you our “List of Things Affiliates Should do to Stay off a Merchant’s Naughty List”.

1. Posting of Expired Coupons:
We know affiliates receive hundreds of coupon codes since they work with so many merchants. It can be hard to keep up with expired codes, deleted offers and dead links. If manually entering codes is too cumbersome, then you need to enlist the help of a coupon-feed service like Goldencan.com, ForMeToCoupon.com or CouponFeed.net. These services can be integrated with most backend admin systems to automatically display current codes and remove the expired ones.

Here is a great tip from one of our team members – “If a coupon has expired, but the affiliate has a large amount of original content around it, at the very least apply a strike-through font tag to show that the coupon code in question has been expired.”

2. Violating Merchant’s Pay-Per-Click Policies:
Affiliates should research the merchants policies before going through all the time and effort to set up a killer campaign and make a few sales, only to get busted and have those commissions removed because they used a trademarked term in their PPC campaign. Along the same lines is when affiliates…..

3) Day-Parting Pay-Per-Click Ads:
Affiliates that think they can make a quick cash-grab over a long holiday weekend when no one is looking are mistaken. The tracking software these days will find the PPC ads, report back to the merchant what was displayed and the affiliate will have all those ill-gotten commissions reversed. An affiliate who clearly communicates their PPC marketing strategy to the merchant will enjoy a long and profitable relationship with the merchant.

4. Applying to Programs with an Incomplete or a Poorly Designed Website:
Merchants are not going to approve affiliates that apply with one-page get-rich quick website, a banner farm (c’mon, its not 1988 anymore!) or a website that is lacking contact information. Affiliates that put a little time into the design and their plan in the beginning will find many more approvals from merchants.

5. Requesting Higher Commissions:
Unless an affiliate is a “super affiliate”, they should not request a higher commission rate until they have proven themselves in the merchant’s program. Pay for Performance means just what it says. Perform well and get paid for it. See Albert Pujols’ contract with the Los Angeles Angels for further explanation (yeah, that’s 9 digits in that contract).

6. Not Responding to Merchant Emails:
One of the key things we all learn in this business is that “Its about the relationships”. Affiliates that make it hard for a merchant to start a relationship will have a tougher path to success in the long run. If a merchant wants to talk to an affiliate about how they can work closer together to have success, the affiliate should go to the effort of replying to the email and begin a conversation.

7. Auto-Responding to Every Email:
Next to “not responding to email”, is its ugly cousin – the auto-responder. It works like this: Every time a merchant sends an email to affiliate, the merchant gets an email back stating something along the lines of, “Great to hear from you! Your products are in such demand we really could use custom vanity code to sell even more for you”, or “Thanks for reaching out to us. If we can get a better commission rate, we can promote you even more!”. Please stop this affiliates, and go to the trouble of replying to email from the merchant.

8. Copying Content.
Everyone knows the Google mantra that “Content is King!”. That does not mean affiliates should simply go to the merchants website, copy what the merchant has written for their products and “re-purpose” the copy for use on the affiliate website. Duplication of merchant’s content is a bad idea, rather the affiliate that takes the time to write keyword-friendly copy will end up looking much better to Google’s algorithms, thereby ranking much higher (perhaps even better than the merchant!)

That is our list of things affiliates can do to stay on a merchants nice list, now and all throughout the year. We welcome your comments for other things that affiliates can do – and be on the lookout for our list of things merchants do to get on the affiliates “naughty” list. And, in the spirit of fairness – we will be posting a similar list of things merchants have done to end up on the affiliate’s naughty list!

We would love to hear from other Program Managers, Affiliates, and Merchants that have thoughts on other things affiliates can do to stay on the nice list this next year. Please feel free to comment below!

-the MGECOM.com Team

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may have come and gone, but GolfEtail’s deals for these big shopping days are still live for one more day! Make sure you make the most of these promotions while they are still live. After today, they’ll be gone for good!

Black Friday:

Offer: 12% off all orders at GolfEtail.com for Black Friday! Use code: AMMGE-12P-BF11
Dates: Black Friday (through Tues., Nov. 29!)
Code: AMMGE-12P-BF11

Cyber Monday:

Offer: Get $10 off any purchase of $75 or more! Use code: AMMGE-10D75-CM11
Dates: Cyber Monday (through Tues., Nov. 29!)
Code: AMMGE-10D75-CM11

So Cyber Monday was fantastic! So great in fact that Heels.com has decided to extend their Cyber Monday deal for another day! That’s right…it’s Cyber Tuesday SHOES-day! Below is a reminder of the offer in case you were under a rock yesterday or just need a refresher…

Offer: 30% off all orders, plus FREE 2nd day shipping at Heels.com! Use Code: CYBERSALE
Date: Nov. 29
Code: CYBERSALE

You’ll definitely want to get this deal up as it preformed amazingly yesterday and I’m sure there are some shoppers out there kicking themselves for missing out on this discount!

It’s Cyber Monday! Go buy some shoes (or tell your readers to!)

Heels.com is offering 30% off and FREE 2nd Day Shipping on all orders for Cyber Monday! This type of discount doesn’t come around very often, so shoppers should be buying shoes for all the ladies on their list and stocking up! Below are the details…

Offer: 30% off all orders at Heels.com plus FREE 2nd Day Shipping! Use Code: CYBERSALE
Dates: Cyber Monday ONLY!
Code: CYBERSALE

Why are you still reading? You should be telling people about this deal! If you’re not an affiliate, you can’t earn commissions for your referrals, so sign up today!

It’s hard to believe that we’re just a couple days away from Black Friday! This year has flown by and our affiliates have helped to make it the best yet. Now it’s time to finish strong through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and on into the rest of the holiday season. To get things kicked off right, Heels.com has a fantastic Black Friday offer that starts a day early! That’s right, you can start promoting this one Thanksgiving Day for all those shoppers out there who just can’t wait until Friday to start buying gifts. Check out the offer details below….

Offer: Save $50 on orders of $150 or more, plus get FREE 2nd Day Shipping at Heels.com for Black Friday! Use Code: YAMS
Dates: Thanksgiving Day through Sunday, Nov. 27th
Code: YAMS

At this threshold (which is just a few dollars higher than our typical average order size this time of year) customers are saving 33% on their orders! As always, customers will still qualify for FREE 2nd Day Shipping as well!

What about Cyber Monday you ask? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see. We’ve got a deal planned that’s so good we can’t let anyone know until Sunday, or else they wouldn’t buy anything on Black Friday! Check back here and keep an eye out for an email Sunday afternoon.

You can only promote these amazing deals and score 14.5% commissions if you’re a Heels.com affiliate, so if you’re not, sign up today!