Category Archives: News & Updates

Epic Fail! Google Deindexed Me

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I went to check on my Google Analytics stats last week to discover that my traffic had completely stopped. As in, there was NOBODY coming to the site. I know I haven’t posted much lately, but that seemed a little odd. I normally get at least 1500 visitors a month just from Google sending traffic to my old posts. So I did some more digging and discovered that around the end of June, my traffic took a nosedive and never came back.

Analytics Nosedive

I logged into Webmaster Tools, and found that my site mysteriously stopped getting crawled. Then came a couple of hours of wandering around forums and blog posts trying to figure out what happened. Something was blocking Googlebot from verifying my site, but what?

In the end, it was an issue with my .htaccess file. During some site speed optimizations, I inadvertently blocked all traffic from Google’s servers. Oops! That was a huge mistake… I’ve resubmitted my site to Google, updated my sitemap, and am waiting for the traffic to come back now. The moral of the story is, if you are working on your .htaccess file, be sure you know what you are doing!

 

TrafficVance Goes International (At Last!)

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According to my good friend Grayson Gold, TrafficVance is finally serving international pops as of now! That includes all the major english speaking countries: United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. They have been serving text links in these countries for a while now, but for those of us that are addicted to pops this is a massive announcement. Lead Impact had the edge internationally for a long time, but I guess all those GameVance installs you guys have been promoting have paid off.

trafficvance

Keep up the good work, and get those international campaigns up!

New Tracking202 Is Coming

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The news was dropped today by the legendary Nana Gilbert-Baffoe that a new version of Tracking202 / Prosper202 is on the horizon. I’ve been wondering when they would fire back with something new to answer all the new tracking systems released this year (primarily Bevo Media and CPV Lab). I don’t have any details about what new changes version 2.0 of 202 is going to include, but according to the beta signup website, it will be “a game-changing totally re-engineered version of Tracking202”.

New Tracking202

My interest is definitely piqued. Sign up for the beta here if you want to check it out before the general public gets to see it.

UPDATE

Once I confirmed my email for the beta they gave a couple more teasers about functionality:

  • Unparalleled Flexibility – Track everything in ways not yet available on any of the tracking systems in the market.
  • Lightning Fast Redirects – We all know slow redirects cost you money and conversions, so we’ve optimized the new Tracking202 to serve up redirects in the blink of an eye
  • Fully Open and Expandable – We built this from the ground up to allow you to modify and customize the software via the powerful API we expose
  • Enhanced Workflow – You shouldn’t have to spend hours setting up your links, and with our new enhanced workflow, you won’t have to. We’re talking bulk uploads and automation galore!
  • There’s more to share – Like the new robust offer rotator, impression pixels, path analysis, enhanced reporting, tons more data points tracked so you can slice and dice things just the way you like it, and the list goes on!

Checking In: Location Based Affiliate Programs?

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Location based services have been all the rage lately.  What was started by Foursquare and others has been expanded upon by Twitter and now Facebook.  Now it seems like every social media website out there wants to know where you are located at all times.  Personally I think it’s a bit odd that people are willing to share all that info with the general public.  How long until thieves just sit on Foursquare and wait for people to check in at the local bar for the evening then head straight over to their house to rob the place?  But that’s neither here nor there.

Four Square

Remember playing the actual game of four square when you were a kid? Good times at recess.

All of the coverage about these services and seeing the shiny Check-In button on my Facebook Mobile app has got me thinking: will we soon see Affiliate Programs that take advantage of these services?  Right now mobile and local advertising are still trying to gain traction with a larger number of advertisers in the industry.  We have mobile pay-per-call campaigns like those provided by RingRevenue, so the check-in based offers can’t be far behind.

It would definitely lead to an interesting challenge.  Not only do you have to get the consumer to click on an ad, but also follow through by going to a physical location and checking in?  It all seems like a lot of work.  But it could be worth it if advertisers are willing to pay for that kind of user engagement.  Current ad campaigns that stores are running on Facebook Places and Foursquare are offering things like 20% of your total purchase at an H & M store if you check-in first.  That’s a pretty significant value for the consumer as well as the store.

To me this just illustrates why I love this industry so much.  There is always so much going on right at the cutting edge of technology that can give us new and exciting ways to make money and market products.  Some may see this new location-based world as being a little too similar to the ads that Tom Cruise experienced in Minority Report, but I think we are a long way off from that.  Besides, who cares?  I’d rather see ads about things that are actually targeted to me and my interests any day.

A New Challenge

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It was only 5 short months ago that I joined the team over at GetAds.  I’ve known them for years and it was a natural fit.  In fact, things have gone so well that I was promoted this week to Marketing Manager.  This is going to be an awesome challenge and opportunity for me to help grow the company as a whole, but I will be pulling back from managing affiliate accounts.  The good news is, if you were working with me as an affiliate (or thinking about signing up), you will still be able to work with one of top AM’s in the industry.  We only hire the best at GetAds.

So what will I be doing as Marketing Manager?  For one, I’ll be taking over the GetAds Blog.  If you haven’t read it before, definitely add it to your RSS reader.  I’ll be blogging there regularly and there will be exclusive posts you can’t find anywhere else.  I also am taking over our ad campaigns.  The goal is to have as many active affiliates as humanly possible in our network.  I will be in charge of promotions and contests, and other snazzy stuff to try and get you to run with GetAds.

Bottom line, my job is to increase the revenue for the company as a whole.  It will be a definite switch from working with affiliates as an AM on a daily basis, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and I’m grateful for the opportunity.  I’m always about trying new things and finding new ways to make more money for myself and my company.

Don’t worry, I’m still running affiliate campaigns on the side, and I’ll still be blogging here regularly as well.  So don’t touch that dial.  I just wanted to give you an update on what’s going on, in case you are one of my affiliates and suddenly logged in to see a different pic up in the top right-hand corner.

The Shoe Has Spoken

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I wanted to give a shout out to Shoemoney for letting me guest post on his blog.  It was a lot of fun and I hope I will be able to do it again in the future. It’s amazing how many new readers have discovered my humble little blog from the post!

I wanted to return the favor as much as possible,  and turn some of my readers on to what Jeremy has been working on recently.  His new and updated Version 2.0 of the Shoemoney System is looking even better than the first one so far.  Just watching the free intro video he gives out some pretty good tips.  If you’ve got a spare 30 minutes to check it out, I told him I’d let you guys know about it.

You can watch the video here.

Shoemoney's Swimming in Pool

Shoemoney's pool is freaking epic.

If you ever get the chance to meet Shoemoney at a conference or industry event, you definitely should take the time to introduce yourself.  He’s not a big ego type of guy, even though he has every right to be.  It’s always fun to chat with him since he is so down to earth and really passionate about internet marketing.

On that note, if anybody is going to Affiliate Summit East this year, be sure to get in touch with me so we can meet up.

Hydra Acquired by Adknowledge

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Well, it has finally happened. MediaPost is reporting that Adknowledge has acquired Hydra.  Everyone knew this was coming, no surprises here.  Numbers were not disclosed, but I’m guessing that it wasn’t much money.  Nickycakes speculated that this was coming back when they canceled all those affiliate accounts a few months ago.  Looks like you were right, Mr. Cakes.

hydra

Google TV: Coming To Your Living Room

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Google is at it again. After dominating the search world, and making a play to dominate the mobile advertising world, now they are inviting themselves into your living room with a new product called Google TV.  It is a joint effort with Sony, and it is supposed to be way better than WebTV (remember that?).

The Big G definitely has their work cut out for them.  It’s been tried before, and it didn’t do too well.  Nowadays there are plenty of Media Center PCs about.  So if consumers want web on their TV, wouldn’t they just get one of those? Only time will tell.

Google TV

The interesting angle here is for marketers.  As with mobile, there will be a big opportunity for people who jump into this fast.  There’s a very strong possibility that if Google is the one behind it, there is going to be advertising involved.  What new types of ads and user engagement will Google TV provide?  Capturing someones attention while they are at home and relaxing could be a good thing for some offers, especially entertainment-based or even dating offers.

I haven’t heard anything yet on how the ads will work, and I’m only guessing at this point that there will even be ads.  Maybe the new device will just display the web we are all used to seeing, and there won’t be any platform specific ads.  Either way, new and different ways to connect with people online are springing up at a rapid rate, and the next ten years looks to be a good decade for the online world…