SERIES ONE NAVIGATION
"The LinkConnector Difference
LinkConnector, unlike many of our Series One listings, is an 'actual' affiliate marketing program. Specifically, it it what is known as Performance Marketing, also referred to as CPA (cost per action/acquisition), CPS (cost per sale), and CPL (cost per lead) marketing. Performance-based marketing is pretty much what is sounds like it might be: You generate a commission if, and only if, there is an action performed that fulfills the terms and conditions of that action. Commissionable actions are defined by the merchant with whom one affiliates with through any given
performance marketing program. Typical actions are things such as the
individual who has clicked on your affiliate link filling-in a form, being from a
specific geographic region buying something through your affiliate link, etc, or
any combination of these things.
Naturally, CPA marketing has upsides and downsides. The primary upside is
that CPA marketing, when done correctly, can make one a lot of money. The
primary downside is that if one markets the wrong things and does so incorrectly,
one can potentially make no money; and, in the event that one is paying to
market a merchant through things such as SEM (search engine marketing), one
can loose a bundle, and do so quickly. Given that TMMD.com is aimed towards
beginners and intermediates looking to make money on the Internet, we will
concentrate on the risk-free aspect of LinkConnector's CPA affiliate program;
which, just like the CPC and CPM programs we have listed, involves simply displaying a merchant's creatives (ad units) on your website or blog.
LinkConnector offers a nice range of offers, mostly from relatively obscure advertisers. However, one should not view the relative obscurity of their advertisers as a negative--indeed, it is, as counterintuitive as it might seem at first, an advantage. To illustrate, when is the last time you bought a Nissan because you saw ads for Nissan on the Internet? How about a Taco from Taco Bell? Or car insurance from Geico? Fortune 1000 companies advertise
on the Internet to increase what is called "brand awareness," not sales as a
direct result of those advertisements. These ads are almost never clicked, due
to hyper-exposure; and, people very rarely make a purchase as a result of major
companies advertising on the Internet. The smaller, more obscure services and
products, on the other hand (i.e., merchants that people have not been
hyper-exposed to), sell a great deal on the Internet as a direct result of their
online advertising. Given that people are not as aware of some of these
merchants, products or services, people click more; and, subsequently buy more.
This means more money, more often, in your pocket.
LinkConnector offers standard IAB banner sizes, text links, promotions and other
types of ad units for you to display on your web property. They have an extremely
nice ad rotating feature they call "Affiliate Connections," where one can select
a specific ad unit size, select specific ad units from the list of merchants with
whom one is affiliated; and, select the "weight" of each ad unit (the percentage of the time that each ad unit will display relative to the others on your list). These ad units are all then rotated through the same one ad zone (the position on your web page where you have placed the ad unit). These ads will then optimize over time, showing the best performing ad unit more often, and the least performing less often. You have the choice of "fast" or "slow" optimization, as well: Unless you have an extremely trafficked web property, it is probably wisest to choose the "slow"
optimization option, as this is likely to yield better results over time.
LinkConnector also offers a text widget one can install on their site.
LinkConnector affiliates can choose some or all of merchants with whom they
are affiliated to appear in this text widget. Like the Affiliate Connections ad
rotator, the advantage to this widget is that you are decreasing the overall ad
real estate that you are using, effectively maximizing the productivity of that
space.
LinkConnector also enables their merchants to run what they call a "Naked Link"
campaign, where affiliates can directly link to the merchant's site. However, it
doesn't appear as if too many of those merchants advertising through the
LinkConnector platform are opting for this feature.
Affiliates receive payment by check, PayPal and, soon, direct deposit.
LinkConnector combines all earned commissions from all merchants for each affiliate. They then issue checks for the previous month's events on the 20th of the month for affiliates where the account balance exceeds US$100. Until an affiliate's account balance reaches US$100, the balance rolls over into the following month. They pay on time, every time.
Customer service is other-worldly good with LinkConnector. There are a few constants with all affiliate marketing programs: They all claim to pay the most; they all claim to be industry leaders; and, they all claim second-to-none support. It's nice when we find an affiliate marketing program that backs-up these claims with proof and action. We could not recommend LinkConnector more highly. Click here for our interview with Jackie Lane Bates, Director of Marketing for LinkConnector.
SOURCE: LinkConnector website
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