It's about time someone remodeled the existing Affiliate Marketing
Networks, so corrupted by an advertising mindset, into a model that works for both
Affiliates and merchants. I therefore have formulated all the pieces necessary to migrate
the easily abused advertising based model into a sales based model I dubbed The Safe Haven
Network in early 2004.
The goal of this business plan is to make the vision and promise of the
"pay for performance" advertising model into a entity that can't easily be
manipulated by the bad actors playing on both sides of the ecommerce fence. Important to
this endeavor was feed back from thousands of posts I made at AbestWeb's affiliate marketing forum
since year 2000 concerning problems in existing network's sales reporting processes,
merchant diversion tactics, shady forced return day cookie setting practices by both
domain bound and BHO (Browser Helper Object) software affiliates. Basically the goal was
to come up with a bullet proof pay-per-performance network model that made it impossible
for merchants not to report sales, or having any 3rd party mess with the links placed on
the affiliates actual web pages for diverting referral commissions.
Here are the important components of the Safe Haven Network model that
together expand the merchants sales opportunities while leveling the playing field for
value-added affiliates to earn a commission on those increased sales. Keep in mind startup
costs for the network and all parties has to be kept to a minimum.
#1 Goal: Eliminate merchants from not reporting sales
with a solution, which is totally opposite the current merchant aggregator network model
offered by Linkshare, ValueClick's Befree and Commission Junction, Performics and other
lesser networks like Share-a-Sale and others.
Solution: Require all SHN merchants to place their
product ecatalog items into a CyberMall shopping cart that is able to process sales from
multiple merchants placed in a single shoppers shopping basket. Possible carts come from
companies like www.Miva.com ,which allow quick existing
ecatalog database uploads with separate merchant administration sections for each SHN
merchant. Ability to personalize each merchant Mall storefront with HTML, artwork,
navigation and unique look and feel is a necessary differenciator performed by merchant's
staff. All affiliate coded referral links, to any SHN merchant, get sent through the SHN's
Cybermall domain URL to the secure shopping cart for setting the sales tracking cookie.
Option is available to notify each affiliate of a referral sale via e-mail with a fully
functional merchant/affiliate sales and traffic reporting administration backend.
Benefits: Tying merchants into the SHN shopping cart,
rather then their existing domain's cart, assures affiliates that the merchant cannot cut
off affiliate sales reporting without cutting off all sales activity. Immediate Trust
factor with the added benefit of the SHN's transparently publishing each merchants average
conversion ratio to the affiliate group. (Conversion ratio = average # of clicks to report
1 sale). SHN Merchants complete on their conversion ratio for prime real-estate on
affiliates sites by the perceived value and their closing ability on the actual referred
shopper. For the first time affiliates can judge their own conversion ratio against the
average posted for each SHN merchants and adjust their creatives and pre-sell spin.
Additional benefits: Applications like Norton's Internet
Security product and other Ad blockers blank out existing network banner and text links,
tagging these networks as spyware operators due to clickstream data mining. Coding links
to the existing networks domains setting a return day cookie or recording an impression,
before sending the referred shopper to a merchant's landing page, exposes them to blanking
or BHO hijacking without legal recourse. It is illegal to blank or block, in any manner,
an image or text link to a merchants shopping cart area as a restraint of trade legal
issue. So all affiliate links require a physical click pointing to a secure shopping cart
where the cookie is set and a server re-direct is performed to the chosen landing page in
the SHN Cybermall.
More Benefits: The 7 to 30 return day cookie, set in the
above scenario, applies to the initial referred Merchant-A. The bonus is the SHN Mall has
a navigation and search function to other competing merchants, where that referred shopper
can browse other offers or buy an item from Merchant-B, Merchant-C during the same
shopping cart session. The referring affiliate gets credit for any sales made during this
shopping session, as well as credit for future purchases during the return day period of
Merchant-A if their cookie isn't overwritten by another SHN affiliate. All merchant
commission earnings and payments are consolidated.
The Safe Haven Network model has strict rules for joining and
acceptance.
Rules for merchant's:
For merchants with more then 500 products.
Only the top selling 30% of products they offer in each product category can be placed
into their SHN ecatalog.
Coupons and special incentive offers can
only be displayed and credited from the actual merchant's pages within the SHN storefront
and shopping cart. Incentives cannot be used in affiliate creatives nor given to SHN
affiliates to use on their pages, SE listings, PPCSE and e-mail campaigns or BHO
applications to eliminate common spamming practices.
Merchants must keep their network
escrow account for monthly commission payments to affiliates at a level necessary to
assure payments by the 15th of the following month. No merchant is allowed to overwrite
affiliate return day cookies with "house cookies" by any means including PPCSE
campaigns. Use those ploys on your other network(s)... not the SHN. You'll get plenty of
non-cookied traffic from bookmarks, SERPs, and expired session only affiliate referrals
who browse your offerings having visited a SHN competitor.
Merchants may daily backup their SHN
ecatalog, but are not permitted to give this database file to affiliates for use to build
complete mirrored sites. Use of this database feed to power a Product Showcase Creator or
similar application is acceptable and encouraged.
Live -Help applications are allowed but must
be manned by non-commissionable operators. Use of 800#'s hotlines are allowed, but
can only be used on the "merchant contact page". No links to the merchant's main
website(s) outside of the SHN Cybermall are allowed.
Affiliates also are subject to SHN Terms of Service and Rules.
All Safe Haven Network links require a
physical click from the affiliates domain pages. No re-directs to merchants using any
PPCSE listings will be permitted. All e-mail campaigns must conform to CAN-SPAM
requirements.
No affiliate using a S/W browser plug-in
will be allowed into the SHN group. Those lending their SHN ID# to any forced cookie
stuffer or BHO will forfeit their commissions and be terminated upon detection.
All affiliate domains sending traffic to SHN
merchants must be identified in the affiliate administration area and have accurate
contact information on file with SHN to get paid commissions.
The time is right now for launching the Safe Haven Network as both the
merchants and domain bound affiliates are taking a bath from the sleazy un-ethical
practices so rampant within the existing major networks. Any Honest Merchant, with a
viable sought after product or service, can join and will be judged by their ability to
please the SHN shoppers with their offerings. Honest ethical affiliates willing to place
shopper friendly showcases on their domain pages also will make more money per click under
the SHN model then any other network model. They just have to leave the "tricks for
cookie setting clicks" behind and concentrate on focusing targeted traffic to the
higher converting SHN merchants knowing upfront the merchant's average conversion ration.
Over all this sales Network model is designed to remove the Gorilla deceptive marketing
practices, while empowering the shopper with a Safe Haven for their online purchases and
privacy information.
Unique copywrited concepts not practiced by any existing
affiliate marketing network....
1. All network merchant's products are administered and displayed to
referred shoppers from a common Cybermall Cart/eCatalog designed for checkout from
multiple merchant purchases. Current network models loose total control by having to
interface to existing merchnat carts and serve links routed through network servers.
The Safe Haven model has Network Sales tracking and affiliate return day cookie set
from within the secure shopping cart link coding, with redirect to merchant's chosen
landing page. Sample linking code tested since 2003 for one of my clients affiliate
program. Holdup Suspenders using the Americart program ....
http://www.cartserver.com/afl.cgi?c=p-1591&u=www.suspenders.com/doubleups.htm&a=tom1234
goes to their Double-Ups suspender page for details and purchasing. Blanking, hijacking or
interference in this links destination is a restraint of trade violation.
No merchant can turn off affiliate sales tracking without turning off their SHN shopping
cart. Smaller volume affiliates can opt to get an e-mail notification of each completed
sale in real time. Placing competing merchants within the same Cybermall site, with
navigation and search feature to Cybermall and product category directory is a time and
money saver for referred shoppers. It's their Safe Haven too as merchants who can't
compete on a level playing field get weaned by their published conversion ratio from prime
affiliate exposure, or just showcase their best sellers.
Thanks for reading this ebiz/affiliate marketing concept ...
Webmaster Mike Hyland
get-in2's webmaster, Mike Hyland has won the "Performance
Marketing's Most Vocal Advocate" award at the 2nd Annual
LinkShare Golden Links Awards held on June 22, 2005 in New York. This site has
always been committed to showcasing merchants who place real value at the end of a
click... from a shoppers viewpoint. We have always believed in affiliate
marketing's potential to add real value to online merchants, without resorting to Gorilla
marketing tactics. This Award recognizes Mike's vocal demands and suggestions for
eliminating the incessant popups, spam and deceptive advertising practices of desperate
marketers were all valid points. The Industry has listened and made the needed changes.
Read about this coveted Award and check out this years Gala event photos & videos!
Doing what comes naturally, what we enjoy doing, and what we do well, is
essential to our self-esteem, so it is not surprising that it defines our
"mastery" over the need to build on personal competence -- as one of the four
"Circles of Success" that gives each of us heart, self-confidence, and the
spirit to succeed. What is it that determines this special role we all seek, whether it be
building web sites, running, painting, cooking, writing or giving care to others? It is, I
think, a product of these four things:
Leverage our natural talents
-- things we inherently find easy to do well.
Focus our learnings and experience
-- which come from study, but more importantly from practicing in a real life environment.
Unleash our passion -- the
desire and focus and dedication to excel at doing this one thing to generate influence on
a willing audience.
Define our audience -- the
degree to which our work role is needed, appreciated,
respected and DESIRED by our intended audience.
The search for one's exceptional personal role, our place in community, is
often a lifelong quest. Today's wired world makes it hard to be anonymous or leave a
lasting impression within a Global online Internet community. So often, the fourth element
-- our audience -- can be the hardest one to influence in our efforts to
achieve success. When we have no audience, when we do not know where we belong, we are
left to choose what we will do in vacuum. As a result, many of us devote large parts of
our lives to study and diligent work only to find we have no audience, and that no matter
how great we see our own talent and acquired skill, it was all wasted time. Therefore we
have to focus on where the our Passion, Natural Talents and practiced skills come together
to address a needful audience.... read more of why IMS takes
visions to realities
All the good stuff ...Cheap! Browse our 2 malls or jump to some bargains shown below.
Our mission: Offer True value at the end
of every click rather then wasting your efforts on general search engines.
Always look to get-in2.com for showcasing the best
merchants who discount name brand merchandise daily.
Closeouts, open
box and Refurbished computers, notebooks and peripherals from TigerDirect!
Only $450.00... Gateway GM5472 Refurbished AMD Desktop Computer - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz (Dual-Core), 2GB DDR2, 500GB SATA II HDD, DVD±RW Dual-Layer, Flash Media Reader, TV Tuner, Windows Vista Home Premium multi-media system.
The Gateway GM5472 comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core
processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 500GB SATA II hard drive. Plus a Dual-Layer DVD±RW
burner drive you can use to burn customized DVDs, play your favorite movies and compile a
world-class music library. From the planet's most graphics-intensive games to the
toughest, most complex business applications - no problem! The Gateway GM5472 breezes
through any program with the greatest of ease. This is one powerful PC. And it's yours for
hundreds less than you'd pay for a comparable system. Plus, this Gateway has a TV tuner,
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE graphics and 7.1 channel High Definition sound. Vista at Home
professional… With Windows Vista, you’ll enter an astonishing new world of
entertainment possibilities in your home, with exciting new ways to preserve and enjoy
digital memories and music.
Priced under 500.00 this Gateway system will entertain
and meet the computer needs of the entire family for years to come.
Save $840 on this Ultra-lite Sony VAIO VGN-SZ460NC powerhouse Notebook net price $1749.
Sound advice to all you notebook road warriors out there. Always buy the older
model thin light weight models from Sony or IBM at closeout prices. They hold their value,
and are a pleasure to carry, while delivering great performance. This Sony Vaio SZ has the
Intel Centrino Duo Core 2 Duo T7200 2GHz processor and 13.3" WXGA super bright screen
- 2GB DDR2 SDRAM - 160GB hard drive and a DVD-Writer (DVD-RAM/±R/±RW) - Fast Ethernet,
Wi-Fi, EDGE, Bluetooth wrapped up hard shell Carbon black case and the new Windows Vista
Business operating system.
.gif){kind=small}
