Kikabink News
=============
December 10, 2009
Hi welcome,
How an affiliate program increased sales by 400 percent...
====================== TABLE OF CONTENTS ======================
News and Comment:
"Inc. 500 Companies - 91 Percent Use Social Media"
"JustAnswer Verifies Experts"
Feature Article:
"FBI Prosecutes Money Launderers Involved in
False Advertising on eBay and Other Websites"
Kikabink Lab:
"How an Affiliate Program Increased Sales By 400 Percent"
======================= NEWS AND COMMENT ======================
"Inc. 500 Companies - 91 Percent Use Social Media"
--------------------------------------------------
The fastest growing private companies in the U.S. - as listed in
Inc. magazine's Inc. 500 - are certainly embracing social media.
Research by the Center for Marketing Research at the University
of Massachusetts Dartmouth has found that 91 percent of the 2009
Inc. 500 use at least one social media tool and three-quarters
see themselves as 'very familiar' with social networking.
Compared with similar studies on the Inc. 500 in 2007 and 2008,
the Center for Marketing Research found that this year's Inc.
500 firms have increased their use of social networking and
blogging, whilst maintaining or decreasing their use of other
Internet technologies such as wikis and (surprisingly) online
video.
Meanwhile, more than 50 percent of the Inc. 500 reported using
Twitter in 2009, and an impressive 68 percent were also
monitoring mentions of their brands in the social media space
(up from 60 percent in 2008 and 50 percent in 2007).
* * * * *
"JustAnswer Verifies Experts"
-----------------------------
Given the plethora of 'question and answer' websites on the
Internet, JustAnswer is seeking to stand out from the crowd by
verifying the experts - doctors, lawyers and others - who answer
questions on its site.
In order to provide '100 percent verified Experts' JustAnswer
proclaims to vet the answer-givers on its site by requiring them
to undergo such a rigorous screening process that only 5.3
percent of applicants are approved and become Experts on
JustAnswer.
Essentially, those applying to become experts have their
credentials reviewed by one of two Fortune 500 third-party
verification companies. Each prospective expert has their
identity and at least one credential verified - such as a
license, certification, educational degree, or employment
history - that is relevant to the category in which they're
answering questions.
Additionally, potential experts must pass tests in the subject
matter of their respective fields and, after approval, must
continue to earn the right to provide answers by earning high
customer satisfaction ratings and ongoing peer review by other
experts on the site.
The administrative burden and cost of reviewing potential
experts is probably a major reason why JustAnswer's competitors
and similar sites haven't adopted the same kind of positioning.
Yet, providing this kind of quality control is not only bound to
please customers, but also gives JustAnswer a powerful and
authoritative positioning. Provided the reality matches the
promise, it may work very well for the site.
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======================= FEATURE ARTICLE =======================
"FBI Prosecutes Money Launderers Involved in
False Advertising on eBay and Other Websites"
----------------------------------------------
The U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia has
sentenced two Bulgarian nationals to prison for their roles as
money launderers in a $1.2 million criminal scheme involving
false advertising on eBay and other websites.
Ivaylo Vasilev Pletnyov, 39, and Nikolay Georgiev Minchev, 45,
both of whom pleaded guilty to their respective charges, had
participated in a scheme to post advertisements on eBay and
other websites, fraudulently offering expensive vehicles and
boats for sale.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman sentenced Pletnyov to
four years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering,
along with three years of supervised release following his
prison term, and ordered him to pay $306,502 in restitution. The
judge sentenced Minchev to 30 months in prison for conspiracy to
commit wire fraud, three years of supervised release, and
ordered him to pay $270,444 in restitution.
So what exactly did Pletnyov and Minchev do? Read carefully
because as simple as their scheme was, it managed to net more
than $1.2 million from its U.S. victims!
According to court documents, from around July 2005 through May
2006, Pletnyov and Minchev posted ads on eBay and other websites
offering expensive vehicles and boats for sale. When respondents
to the ads expressed interest in the vehicles or boats, they
were contacted by email and instructed to wire transfer payments
through 'eBay Secure Traders.'
'eBay Secure Traders' was supposedly an escrow organization that
would keep the victims' money in escrow pending delivery of the
merchandise. In fact, it was a fabrication with no relationship
with eBay at all.
The victims' funds were actually wired directly into bank
accounts in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Greece
that were controlled by Pletnyov, Minchev and their
co-conspirators. According to court documents, in less than one
year, the criminal conspiracy netted more than $1.2 million.
The United States government is currently working with its
counterparts in Romania and Poland to prosecute the other
alleged participants in the scheme.
************************ ADVERTISEMENT ************************
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--------------------------------------------
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========================= KIKABINK LAB ========================
"How an Affiliate Program Increased Sales By 400 Percent"
---------------------------------------------------------
Recently MarketingSherpa profiled PrintRunner
(http://www.printrunner.com/), a printing company that increased
its annual sales by more than 400 percent to $13.5 million in
three years, almost entirely through its 60,000 or so online
affiliates.
What are the secrets to PrintRunner's success in managing its
affiliate program? MarketingSherpa gleaned these five affiliate
management tips from PrintRunner CEO, Mike Zaya:
Affiliate Management Tip 1: Choose Affiliate Networks Wisely
PrintRunner enlists affiliates and conducts its affiliate
program through such affiliate marketing networks as Commission
Junction and LinkShare. When considering joining an affiliate
network, the company looks for size, quality and 'platform.'
Size goes to the company's return on investment of its time,
money and resources. PrintRunner doesn't want to be tweaking
offers and analyzing reports for a small number of affiliates.
The company wants the kind of leverage from its efforts that is
only available from working with a sizable network.
At the same time, PrintRunner looks for networks with affiliates
capable of generating high sales numbers. According to
PrintRunner CEO, Mike Zaya, around 5 percent of affiliates
generate 95 percent of sales, so having both a sizable and high
quality network is important.
Finally, when it comes to 'platform' PrintRunner needs the
affiliate network to offer a simple and streamlined system it
can use to easily track affiliates, view and analyze metrics, as
well as manage its campaigns.
Affiliate Management Tip 2: Test Small, Then Scale
PrintRunner tests its campaigns - specifically offers and
commissions, on a small scale with known affiliates - before
reaching out to more affiliates and/or promoting offers via an
affiliate network.
Affiliate Management Tip 3: Create Win-Win Campaigns
PrintRunner seeks to establish and maintain mutually beneficial
relationships with both its affiliates and the operators of the
affiliate networks it works with.
Among other things, the company offers: higher commissions for
top-performing affiliates; vanity coupon codes that affiliates
can give to customers as sales incentives; and exclusive coupons
and high earnings-per-click ratio for the networks.
PrintRunner also pays one of its networks for extra assistance
in managing the company's account, on top of the account service
already provided by the network.
Affiliate Management Tip 4: Be Honest and Helpful
Being honest and helpful is about treating affiliates well and
includes such things as giving affiliates credit for generated
sales (even those originating through offline channels e.g.
phone calls) and providing them with data feeds containing
product updates including details such as inventory and prices.
Affiliate Management Tip 5: Keep an Eye Out For Fraud
The reality is that there are some bad apples out there and,
with some 60,000 affiliates, PrintRunner is bound to come across
a few of these now and then!
Consequently, PrintRunner monitors affiliates for unscrupulous
behavior that could negatively affect customers and damage the
company's brand. Examples of bad affiliate behavior include
affiliates bidding on branded search PPC keywords (or their
misspellings), affiliates using fake credit cards to buy
products and receive commissions, and click fraud whereby
affiliates get paid for clicking on their own ads (less of an
issue if a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) pay structure is used).
************************ ADVERTISEMENT ************************
"Seven Figure Affiliate Marketer Reveals His Secrets..."
--------------------------------------------------------
Super Affiliate Mark Ling has just released the 2010 edition of
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product.
This contains not only exceptional training, but incredibly
powerful software tools that will save you time and give you an
almost unfair competitive advantage over others.
What's more, the product also comes with a 'Live Bootcamp' where
you get to watch Mark build an affiliate website live in front
of you.
You can copy along as he builds it (you can copy in a different
niche) and you can even ask live questions on the live webinar
bootcamp.
If you can't make it live, you can watch the recording. This
part of the product he is offering is incredible.
Check out this video from Mark - even if you don't join you'll
probably find it very inspiring...
==> http://www.kikabink.com/offers/affilorama/premium.htm
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=================================================================
That's it for now. If you have any questions or feedback, feel
free to drop me a line at anna@kikabink.com.
To your profit,
Anna
Anna Johnson
Editor, Kikabink News
http://www.kikabink.com/news/
anna@kikabink.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/annajohnson
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