We have a new addition to the CREW!

Chad Streid has joined The Media Crew team as a Media Buyer. Chad comes from an extensive background in online marketing and Media Buying. Chad has a undergraduate degree from FSU and a MBA from UF. Chad was a affiliate himself while attending UF and then joined a neighboring company where he managed campaigns with affiliates, advertisers, and ppc companies. Chad will play a critical roll in generating traffic through building a relationship with our media partners to promote our offers and continue to help grow our advertiser and publisher base. 

We look forward to many successful years ahead with Chad!

Contact info:

Chad Streid
Media Buyer
The Media Crew, LLC
(P) 727-517-3839
(F) 727-593-9597
chad@themediacrew.com
AIM: themediacrewchad

TheMediaCrew team counts down the days to the Affiliate Summit West Las Vegas show. We love heading to Vegas not only for the great business but of course to play our offices favorite game; CRAPS! Unfortunately this year the craps table got the best of our team, but we did not give up. We ventured over to the blackjack table and had a profitable run at some 21. What was great was having fun with our team and enjoying some Vegas fun with each other.

This years show in our opinion was the best to date. The number of people and booths present was very impressive. The networking vibe was so powerful you could feel it as you walked and talked to people in the exhibit hall. The AS series of shows is quickly becoming a must in the trade show series of show. TheMediaCrew exhibits at 6 to 7 shows a year and will have permanently marked down ASW as a must do event for years to come.

We had a Free iPad giveaway at our booth this year. When 3 o’clock rolled around we counted over 100 people in front of our booth. The lucky winner this year was Ben Stevens from eSilverBullet.com. CONGRATS BEN!

This was Bill’s first time to Vegas with the team. Here is what he had to say about his experience, “Affiliate Summit in Vegas was amazing!!  From what I hear, the shows list of attendees was up 30% from last years.  I was able to meet with existing partners and discuss additional growth opportunities, came across many new business opportunities, we gave away an iPad….all while trying not to give all my money to the blackjack dealers!    All in All, great show! And I can’t wait for next year!”

Some affiliates like to fly “solo” and others prefer to utilize their Affiliate Manager’s knowledge and resources to maximize their opportunities and payouts. Over the years, I have had numerous negotiations with affiliates on offers and payouts. Before negotiating or discussing payouts, it is important for affiliates understand a networks business model and take full advantage of maximizing their relationship with the affiliate manager. Here are 4 keys to negotiating that I believe will create a “win-win” for both the network and the affiliate.

1. Understanding Margins
A network’s business model is similar to a manufacturer/distributor/retail sales chain. The Manufacturer (Advertiser) creates the product and utilizes the distributors (Network) resources and capital to generate sales through retail stores (Affiliate/Publisher). The network makes a margin for assuming the risk of acting as the middleman between the advertiser and publisher. Some affiliates receive payments daily or weekly which leaves the network assuming risk as most advertisers have longer net terms.

2.  Integrity
Just be open and honest! If you are interested in an offer and need a certain payout, then just ask. There have been times when I have told an affiliate that I couldn’t payout what they were requesting. Conversely, there have been instances when I approached management about giving a particular affiliate a certain payout with very slim margins. Bottom line, you have to be able to trust the affiliate manager and vice versa.

3. Capabilities/Results
Before entering any negotiation it’s imperative to know what’s important to you and what you’re willing to ‘give up’ for the sake of getting what you want. What’s the least you’re willing to accept in order to pick up the offer? Do your research and know what the going rates are. Let the affiliate manager know what type of results you anticipate and discuss any previous success or failures. There will always be “hot” offers, but you shouldn’t place all your focus on what’s hot. You know your business, what you’re good at and what you’re not.  Focus on what you know, and specialize in it.

4.  Communication
As I stated earlier, some affiliates prefer no or minimal communication with an affiliate manager which is perfectly fine. However, if you decide to actively work with an affiliate manager it is important to talk with the affiliate manager about your intentions. Communicate your goals, strategies and what you expect of the network and your affiliate manager. When it comes down to it we all have the same goal – to make money while not compromising our ethics. Be candid with your AM about your experience level. Everyone starts somewhere so don’t be shy; the affiliate managers job is to help you grow your business.

Keeping these four points in mind when talking and negotiating with your network affiliate manager helps foster a good working relationship and ultimately will create a long term relationship.

Colleen Darwent is an affiliate manager at RevenueStreet, a division of TheMediaCrew. (www.RevenueStreet.com)

Source: FeedFront Magazine

The staff at TheMediaCrew and RevenueStreet would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Using the internet as a way to help you build your business, whether it’s an online or offline business, is an extremely cost effective technique. When it comes to mass email marketing you can literally reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers all with the click of a button and with very little overhead (just the price of your internet connection and website hosting costs).

The low cost of this type of advertisement had a downside, companies started sending out millions of messages to unsuspecting email recipients who then started complaining about spam – unsolicited bulk commercial emails.

The rocketing number of spam emails that were being sent out created a back lash from the public which eventually led to new laws to prevent the abuse of the email message system, the CAN SPAM laws. These laws basically state that you can’t send out a lot of emails to random email addresses.

In order to be in compliance with the law, and not be accused of spamming, there are a few things you need to do:

1. Your email message must have an accurate ‘from’ heading where you put in your name or the name of your company.

2. The subject line on your email must be accurate and relate to the actual content of your email.

3. As the sender you must provide an actual physical address for you or your company.

4. Make sure to clearly label your email if it contains adult content.

5. You cannot have a false header on your email.

6. You must provide a clear, and free, link for the recipient to ‘un-scubscribe’ and if they click on that link they should immediately be removed from your email list and you should never send them another email.

7. Having an ‘opt-in’ list is probably your very best defense against being accused of spam. This method will encourage your website visitor to sign up to receive your emails. They are giving you permission to send them emails. In order to get them to sign up to your list you can offer them an incentive such as a free report or a multi part mini-course that they will receive over a period of a week or so. Whatever you offer them to get them to sign up, make sure it has real value to your subscriber. Take a little time and develop a report that has some real value and substance to it.

These are the basics of the law. I’m not an expert or a lawyer so make sure you take a little time and learn all the ins and outs of the CAN SPAM law so that you can make sure your company is in compliance. Don’t let the new laws scare you off from using mass email marketing since it can be a very effective marketing tool for your business.

If you take the time to find out what all the regulations are and then you follow them, you will be in compliance and you will be able to add a lot of customers to your business which will eventually lead to a lot more sales, and that’s what we all want.

Affiliate marketing is over a 10 year old industry now. It continues to thrive as a business model for many reasons. Let’s take a look at why affiliate marketing still works today and will continue to do so in the future.

1. The affiliate merchant gets what they want. All businesses have a simple goal and that is to sell more products.

As the Internet continues to mature virtually every industry has businesses who sell products through affiliate marketing. Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer. You can buy just about everything at Amazon.

Wal-Mart.com continues to drive more business to Wal-Mart’s bottom line. Black Monday recently had over $1 billion in online sales in one day.

Digital information is selling better than ever before. As a matter of fact Amazon reports now that digital ebooks outsell hardcopy books.

Affiliate marketing is a great way for businesses to get their products out in front of the public. They are able to generate way more in business than they ever could trying to do it all by themselves.

2. The affiliate gets what they want. People go online wanting to make money every day.

Affiliate marketing is one of the best business models to get started with. It does not take any initial cash outlay to become an affiliate marketer.

You can make money from the comfort of your own home. And you can do it without starting your own website or developing your own products.

There are many examples of affiliates earning six figure incomes per year. There are even examples of affiliates earning six figure incomes per day in cost per action programs.

Whether you want to make $200 a month, or become a millionaire you can do it with affiliate marketing. The merchants provide you with everything you need including marketing materials.

The best affiliate programs understand that their affiliates are the backbone of their success. High producing affiliates are treated very well and can even make a higher commission then the regular affiliate compensation plan offers.

3. The customer gets what they want. Customers continue to use the Internet to search for products in multiple ways.

They do not particularly care where they buy the product as long as they get a good deal. This levels the playing field for affiliates to make sales.

The affiliate merchant collects the money and ships the product to the customer right away. Many times consumers do not realize they are even on an affiliate website.

These are three reasons why affiliate marketing still works today. It is a mutually beneficial business model that will continue to thrive in the future as long as it satisfies the needs of the merchant, the affiliate, and the consumer.

Every year we are seeing more Fortune 500 company marketing budgets move to performance based models, (CPL and CPA) and subsequently an increase in the number of affiliate networks. As an affiliate or advertiser, the question becomes which network should I work with? Being a part of a network, I am asked this question frequently and have come up with a response of the Top 3.5 things to look for in a Network.

1. Experience: It’s important to know the experience of the company and its history. I am not talking about a timeline of the history, but the experience the company has had in the online space and the different avenues it has used to generate leads and sales online. This is still a young industry and many of the networks have pioneered new online strategies and have helped promote our industry. This should be recognized and acknowledged when you are choosing a network. How long has the company been in business? How many years has the company been in the online space? Who is the owner and how did he get into the space?

2. Ethics: This is probably one of the most difficult things to actually measure, but if you ask around the industry there are many resources which will give you a good overview of the company’s business practices. If you are an affiliates or advertiser, ask other affiliates or advertisers about their experience with the network. One thing you will notice is that a number of the bigger companies work in “co-opetition” with each other and work together to make positive outcomes for the industry.

3. People: A company is its people. At the end of the day, it’s the affiliate manager and/or advertiser manager that have the ability and knowledge to grow the business and synonymously make money for the affiliate or advertiser. Ask the people in the company about the network they work for, this will give you a ton of insight.

3.5 Offers, Payouts, Payment Terms: I typically discuss these 3 items at the end of the conversation with a prospect. Any decent network will have exclusive offers, excellent payouts, and net terms relative to the performance and capabilities of the affiliate.
Find a network based on the first 3 criteria, and I can almost guarantee you that the network will have 3.5 covered.

We celebrated Gina Meyers 5 year and Margaret Johnsons 4 year anniversary wth TheMediaCrew.  We look forward to man y more years with them.

Another show in the books. Ad-Tech New York was another great show. It’s always nice to see familiar faces. As we all know our industry is primary phone based so when we have a chance to see our clients and potential clients face to face we jump at the chance. We sent 5 team members to this years Ad-Tech, Ross Moore, Rustam Irani, Kim White, Bill Michelon and myself (Nick Foley). This was Bills first Ad-Tech with TheMediaCrew and he did an great job! I can’t tell you how important it is to have a group of people who know how to balance the business side of Ad-Tech and the social side. Enjoying a drama free show is always a plus. This year we only hit up one party, The Mailer Meetup. It was a good event with some great information if you’re a mailer. The mailers in our industry use to NEVER talk about email stratgies but now with all the regulations and big brother (our government) watching over us it’s a must us mailers communicate with eachother in a productive manner.

Day One of the show is always the busiest in my opinion. Everyone is eager and ready to create some business.   The business-buzz is in the air.  The second day is typically the opposite. People are recovering from the night before and only talk about how wasted they got the nite before, which does give us some funny stories to talk about. Never the less I give this show an A-. The number of people who attended was good, the numbers of exhibitors were good and the topics of the speakers were good. We look forward to Ad-tech San Fransico in April. We’ll see ya there.

And congratulations to our Kim White who won a Apple iBook in the Global Wide Media drawing .. Woo-Hoo !!!

Thanks,

Nick