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Considerations for Working With Affiliates

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI was thinking about something today regarding affiliate relationships for your websites and online ventures. When you choose to partner with a company, make sure there are no ways for the customer to be lost during the hand off from your site to theirs. If a customer leaves your site, you should be guaranteed that they won’t end up making a purchase without your site getting the credit.

i can think of a couple examples off the top of my head, which will lead me to questioning my affiliates later this week:

1) If the customer can call the company, they should have to enter a unique code for your website. If they don’t have to do that, the sale won’t be attributed to your site.
2) If there is no automated sales process and they can negotiate the price with the company, you may end up losing the sale.

It’s important that you work with affiliates who make certain that you get credit for all sales attributed to your website. You should also work with affiliates where the product is easy to purchase, the sales process is seamless, and the entire process is trackable. All of this will lead to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.

Lizzy Grant’s YAYO

Elliot Silver
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2

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogYou’ve probably seen her at one of the domain shows in New York or Florida, and now you can see Lizzy Grant online, in her music video, YAYO.   In addition to a great family, Lizzy has some serious talent. See more of Lizzy Grant on her website, and if you happen to live in New York City, she is performing tomorrow at National Underground – 159 E. Houston @ Allen St. at 8pm.

Companies Monitor Your Comments

Elliot Silver
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2

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI read Andrew’s post regarding the ISO.mobi WIPO decision and I think people who post domain sales or commentary in public forums, domain blogs or other public venues should take notice. While many people think big companies won’t notice what is said about them in small niche forums, almost all companies closely monitor their trademarks and intellectual property online.

Any time someone mentions something about a company in a public venue, their post or site will probably be seen by that company, triggered by certain keywords or acronyms.   Not only is it a way for people to ensure a blog post or article is viewed by the intended audience, but it’s also a way to attract unwanted attention. This pertains to people who are utilizing their First Amendment right to give their opinion about a company, and it also pertains to people who are selling trademark-related domain names or potentially infringing domain names.

In addition to this, people should also realize that it’s pretty simple for a company to track a person’s online presence. A simple DomainTools registrant report will show many of the publicly maintained domain names owned by a person. A company could then search Google for these domain names, and if they find one that the person listed on a domain forum at any point, the company now knows that person’s nickname. If they are investigating a TM domain name, they can search that person’s posting history on the forum to see if that person has ever listed a TM domain for sale. If this person has, they can claim that the person has a history of cybersquatting.   It can be as easy as that.

When I started at AIG just after the Spitzer investigation, people were always cautious about sending emails, which can easily be tracked back to the sender and remain a perpetual paper trail.   The saying was that if you would be embarrassed to see an email you sent posted on the cover of the New York Times, you shouldn’t send it. Likewise, you should be cautious about what you post in public or private forums. Everything can be tracked back to you and will be used against you.

Domaining.com Introduces Star System

Elliot Silver
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19

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogDomaining.com has introduced a new “star system” on the platform.   Initially, bloggers who had a star next to their post received this by having a link to Domaining.com on their blog.   The new star system is as follows according to an email from site owner Francois Carrillo:

1 star: You are showing a wide site link to Domaining.com in your site.
1 star: You are showing a ‘Domaining Award’ in your pages visible without having to scroll.
1 star: you are no longer a free member, you paid the annual membership.
1 star: you are part of the top 5 bloggers having created the most headlines these past 30 days.

While I don’t think the system will get me to pay for a membership or put a domaining banner above the fold in lieu of a paying advertiser, I do think it’s a pretty neat idea. I also think it’s interesting for everyone in the industry to note how difficult it can be to generate revenue from a developed website. Domaining.com has become very popular and widely visited by many people, but in my view, turning eyeballs into dollars has been elusive thus far.

Great Domain Strategy from “Juice Pads”

Elliot Silver
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15

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogI was reading about new products at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, and one struck me as something that will probably be very successful and used by many people. The product allows you to charge devices wirelessly on a magnetic pad. I really don’t know the tech details, but it seems very cool.

From a domain POV, this company was very smart. In addition to owning the domain names of their brand, JuicePad.com and JuicePads.com, they also own the generic term for their product, the way consumers will probably come to know them, ChargingMat.com, ChargingMats.com, RechargingMat.com and RechargingMats.com.

The press has been referring to their product as a “charging mat” rather than by their product name, and I think it was a very smart move to buy the generics for this product. Now, whether the public refers to the product directly or via the brand, they have it covered. Additionally, when competitors come on the market with the same or a similar product, the company already owns the .com product vertical.

TinBu: Providing Relevent Content & Revenue

Elliot Silver
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Subscribe to Elliot's BlogOver the past couple of months, I’ve been working with a company called TinBu on my Burbank and Lowell websites, and I really like their product and customer service, and on top of it all, they are cool people. TinBu is a Florida-based company that provides interactive content modules for developed websites.

Some of TinBu’s modules include gas prices, horoscope, entertainment news, stock report, flight status sodoku, and a bunch of others. Unlike many content providers, TinBu’s modules keep visitors on my sites, as they are all self-contained within my site. In most cases, if a person clicks a link on a module, they will remain on the site – with the except of the gas module which has Map Quest links.

I use TinBu modules on my developed geo websites, which although they aren’t currently news providers, they do compete with the local newspapers and news outlets. Having TinBu modules on my site allows me to compete with the big newspapers – many of which also have similar modules. I’ve found that people are visiting the modules more frequently, and they tend to stay on the site longer.

While all of this is very important because it helps grow the site and stickiness, I didn’t even mention the revenue. I have a revenue share with TinBu for the advertisements that are displayed within the modules. I have never even checked to see their performance, because frankly, I am happy with the content.

Ease of installing the modules was important, and I found each module literally took 5 minutes to install. I added my own meta tags, inputted a couple of variables based on the city locations (per the instruction guide), wrote a bit of content to drive search engine traffic, and voila – the modules were live as soon as I uploaded them. Simplicity at its finest.

The service at TinBu is great too. Pete Hayward (VP of Marketing) helped me get started with TinBu, first by convincing me the company was going to help my sites, and then he helped me set up my account, get approved by their upstream ad partner, and then helped me with the installation of the modules. The whole process has been a breeze.

If you have a website where you think some of TinBu’s modules would be beneficial, I highly recommend you get in touch. It couldn’t be any easier.

Here are a couple examples of TinBu’s modules in action:

http://www.burbank.com/gas-prices.php

http://www.burbank.com/entertainment.php

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