The entire Adscend Media team would like to wish all of the dads out there a happy Father’s Day! Being a father is a tough job, so we want to recognize you for your wisdom, support, dedication, and sacrifices!
We hope that you had a relaxing day and were able to spend Father’s Day with your loved ones.
We now give you permission to fall asleep in your recliner 
.
If you have ever been to Affiliate Summit, you probably have been to the Meet Market. If you haven’t had a chance to experience this unique networking event, here is a brief rundown of what to expect:
Taking place on the first day of the Affiliate Summit conference, the Meet Market is a fast-paced networking event that typically takes place in an area about 1/4 of the size of a regular convention exhibit hall floor. There are no elaborate booths with beckoning lights, plush couches, or wacky game areas at the Meet Market, there are only rows of tables. With its layout designed for speed, Meet Market attendees are often able to meet a large number of companies in a short period of time. If you are looking to “check off” a lot of companies from your Affiliate Summit pre-conference networking list, the Meet Market is the event for you!
Adscend Media will be hosting a table at this year’s Affiliate Summit East Meet Market on Sunday, August 18, 2013 and would love if you would stop by our table to:
To connect with the Adscend Media team during the Affiliate Summit East 2013 Meet Market, stop by table #67 or click here to schedule a time to meet. To view a map of all of the participating companies at the Affiliate Summit East 2013 Meet Market, click here.
Affiliate Summit East 2013 is being held in Philadelphia, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, from August 18-20, 2013.
Who doesn’t love summer?
Vacations…barbecues…get-togethers with family and friends…it doesn’t get any better than that! And though summer is a great time for fun and relaxation, it can also be a time of great prosperity. The hard work that you put in on your content locking campaigns during the summer can put you in a position to yield high returns during the high volume traffic months of the winter.
In order to help you get ready for the large volume of traffic that strikes each year during the winter holiday months, Adscend Media has several resources available to help you develop strong content locking campaigns (and we are always adding more!). Utilizing these resources during the next few months can help you lay a foundation for strong lead generation for winter’s high traffic months. With clearly defined niches, compelling content, strong traffic, and optimized gateway integration, you will be in prime position to monetize your content when your audience will likely be at its largest size. Always available free of charge, Adscend’s many publisher resources include:
Gateway Guide: Adscend’s Gateway Guide is available exclusively to Adscend publishers and features step-by-step content gateway and file/link gateway installation instructions, content locking best practices, and troubleshooting tips. The Adscend Gateway Guide can be found in the “Resources” section of your publisher dashboard.
Content Locking Advice Column: We love answering your content locking questions! Therefore, if you have questions about niches, content, traffic sources, or our gateways, our resident content locking expert, Dr. Lock, is ready to help you out! Feel free to submit any content locking related question to Dr. Lock by emailing doc.lock@adscendmedia.com. To view previous submissions to our Ask Dr. Lock content locking advice column, visit: http://www.adscendblog.com/category/ask-dr-lock.
Adscend Media Publisher Forum: The Adscend Media Publisher Forum is your one-stop-shop for discussing traffic sources, content ideas, developing gateway strategies, and discussing anything content locking campaign related! Our forum also includes a chatbox, where you can instantly chat with other publishers who are online. Finally, if you want to partner up with another Adscend publisher on a business initiative, our forum also has a Joint Ventures sub forum. To view the Adscend Media Publisher Forum, visit: http://forum.adscendmedia.com/forum.php.
Adscend Account Managers: Our account managers are dedicated to helping you succeed! Therefore, we highly recommend that you reach out to them whenever you need gateway support, niche or content ideas, new offers, or anything that can help you generate more quality leads. To find out what your Adscend account manager can do for you, visit: http://www.adscendblog.com/what-can-our-affiliate-managers-do-for-you/.
Finally, if there is a guide, tutorial, video, or any other content locking related resource that we can create to help make your life easier, please let us know at support@adscendmedia.com.
Though content types, niche choices, and traffic sources are huge factors in revenue generation through content locking, large amounts of money can be gained (or lost) through how you implement your gateways. Therefore, we have compiled a list of best practices below to ensure that your gateways generate as many quality leads as possible and maintain high compliance standards. We call this list: “The Keys to Gateway Implementation.”
The Keys to Gateway Implementation
Pay Attention to Your Verbiage: Did you know that the words that you have listed on your gateways (or in the areas surrounding them) may cause you to violate our terms of service, an advertiser’s terms, or the law? Therefore, when choosing how you are going to introduce your gateway to your visitors, make sure to choose your words wisely. Always avoid words and phrases that mislead your visitors by not describing the gateway process and/or gateway offers properly. For example, two words that should never be used in conjunction with a gateway are free and survey.
Free: The word free can only be used when an item is in fact “free,” and requires no money, or anything else of value, be paid or given to obtain. Content locking offers can vary between free offers and offers that contain a cost associated to the user. Therefore, using the word free in conjunction with a gateway will most likely not accurately describe the cost to the user of completing a gateway offer. To maintain compliance with the terms of service provided by our network and our advertisers, it is essential to not use the word free in association with our gateways.
Survey: Using the word survey must also be avoided on, or near, our gateways. The term survey, or survey offer, is used to refer to a classification of offers, which includes offers of different structures. Thus, while some survey offers are actually opinion surveys, many other survey offers are actually registration for newsletters, requests for more information, quotes for services, etc. To call such offers surveys would be considered misleading and potentially deceptive. Therefore, you can’t assume that the survey offer that a user completes will actually be a survey. To stay compliant, you can simply use the word offers or advertiser sponsored offers in place of the word survey.
Be Honest with Your Visitors: Why did you install a gateway? Being open about the reasons why you have installed a gateway on your content can help your visitors understand your motivations for installing a gateway. Let your visitors know that they are supporting you, your website, or your ability to keep producing great content through the advertiser sponsored offers shown on your gateways. The more that your visitors know about your use of gateways, the more comfortable they will likely become with them. Additionally, never say anything on, near, or about your gateways that misleads or deceives your visitors about their purpose. Making false or misleading claims about your gateways, such as the gateway being a spam prevention mechanism, is a violation of our network, advertiser TOS, and the law. Similarly, it is impermissible to make false or misleading claims regarding the content that you are providing through the gateway as well as the advertiser’s offer.
Make Sure Your Gateway Blends In: To increase conversions, be sure to set up your gateway in the least invasive way possible. Choosing the right gateway type (content gateway, file/link gateway, API), customizing your content gateways to look more like your website, implementing gateways incrementally, and listing clear instructions are just a few of the many ways that you can maintain your great user experience when implementing your gateways. If you need some more techniques to help ensure a smooth transition for your visitors to using gateways, don’t forget to reach out to your account manager!
Testing: Split testing multiple gateways is a great way to fine tune your gateways for maximum effectiveness. Changing your gateways’ colors, images, text, deployment time, and integration points are just a few of the many ways that you can split test your gateways. Your account manager is also always available to discuss which potential gateway changes may have the highest impact on your earnings!
We are Here to Help: Every publisher, every site, and every piece of content is unique. Therefore, we are always here to assist you! Our account managers are available to provide recommendations for gateway implementation, assist with niche and content ideas, and answer any questions that you may have about content locking. Besides our staff support, we also offer several educational tools to help you achieve higher levels of revenue generation through our gateways. One of our newest tools, the Adscend Media Gateway Guide, provides step-by-step gateway installation instructions and gateway best practices. Besides our gateway guide, we also have a members only forum, content locking advice column, and live demo.
Members of the Adscend Media team will be headed to Affiliate Summit East 2013 (August 18-20, 2013, Pennsylvania Convention Center) and would love to connect with you during the conference.
If you are a publisher, advertiser, or see a potential synergy in working with us, we are interested in meeting with you!
This year, there are three ways to connect with the Adscend team at Affiliate Summit East:
See you in Philly!
With Mother’s Day (May 12) and Father’s Day (June 16) holidays coming up, online shoppers are scouring the net looking for deals for their loved ones. Here are five ways that you can profit off of this influx of holiday traffic:
1. Online Coupons and Coupon Codes: Just because you don’t sell flowers, jewelry, or candy, doesn’t mean you can’t profit from holiday traffic. Thrifty spring holiday shoppers are looking for deals, and they don’t mind putting in a little extra effort to get them. Therefore, if you have access to online coupons or coupon codes, it’s time to lock access to any discounts that relate to Mother’s Day or Father’s Day items.
2. Survey: As we mentioned in a blog post a few months ago, its always important to survey your visitors during times of increased traffic, such as during the spring holidays. Though surveying doesn’t immediately improve your cash flow, the information that you receive from visitors can be helpful for future marketing efforts.
3. Testing: Ramping up your marketing efforts during Mother’s Day and Father’s Day may yield more than just immediate results. Successful traffic sources, content types, and information gathered during the spring holidays can be used as a strategic foundation for holiday marketing efforts throughout the rest of 2013.
4.Team Up with Another Adscend Publisher: Don’t have content that relates to Mother’s Day or Father’s Day? No problem! You may be able to team up with another publisher who has spring holiday related content on our Joint Ventures sub-forum.
5. Reviews and Guides: If you are a publisher with a successful content site and/or with a large following, your knowledge and experience is in demand during May and June. For spring holiday shoppers, making larger purchases for their loved ones often requires some research. Therefore, to attract savvy shoppers, consider creating reviews and guides for popular Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gifts.
P.S. Happy Mother’s Day and Father’s Day from Adscend Media!
Know a few people who might be a good fit for our network? If so, the Adscend Media Referral Program might be your chance to add a little extra cushion to your monthly earnings check!
For every publisher who you refer to Adscend Media, you will receive 3% commission on their lifetime earnings with our network! Yes, you read that correctly! We aren’t talking about receiving commission from your referrals first month’s earnings or first year’s earnings. Adscend referral partners receive 3% referral earnings forever!
Referring publishers to our network is made even easier by a custom referral link that you can email and/or paste everywhere. For example, some of our publishers post their referral links in social media channels such as Facebook post or Tweets, while others drop their referral links in AIM or Skype chats. Once someone clicks on your referral link, he or she will be taken to our sign up page with your referral code automatically added. Once your referral is approved, you can then track your commission from that referral on your referral page. Additionally, we have also provided you with a set of banners that you can post on your site or blog, which contain your referral link. To find your referral link and view available referral banners, please visit: https://adscendmedia.com/referrals.php.
Have you picked up your copy of the Adscend Media Gateway Guide yet?
Available exclusively to Adscend publishers, the Adscend Media Gateway Guide was designed to be an asset to gateway publishers of all skill levels!
Stuffed with over 20 pages of gateway related content, the Adscend Media Gateway Guide features:
To get your copy of the Adscend Media Gateway Guide, click on the Gateway Guide link in the Resources section on your publisher dashboard or request a copy from your Adscend account manager. Please note that the Adscend Media Gateway Guide is available to Adscend publishers only. To become an Adscend, please complete a publisher application at https://adscendmedia.com/apply.php.
The Doctor is always available to help you make more money using Adscend Media’s gateway technology. To ask Dr. Lock a question about content locking, please email your question to doc.lock@adscendmedia.com.
Today’s Question: April 16, 2013
“How can I change the appearance of my Adscend content locker to look more like my website?”
Travis D, Las Vegas, NV
Dr. Lock: Hey Travis, first off, thanks for choosing Adscend for your content locking needs! Customizing your content gateway to match the overall look/style of your site can be achieved quite easily through our gateway customization options. The first step in customizing your content gateway to look more like your website is to log in to our site and go to the main content gateway page: (https://adscendmedia.com/gateway.php). Next, select the gateway that you want to edit, click “edit” and you are now in the content gateway editor. It’s now time to do some customizing!
Each tab in the content gateway editor has options which you can change to make your content gateway look more like your website. Below, I will cover some of the most common options that our publishers use to help make their content gateways look more like their websites. However, these options are just a few of the many ways that you can alter the appearance of your content gateway. I recommend that you explore each of our content gateway options and choose which ones work best for your needs!
Background Image or Background Color (located in Appearance and Text Tab): Tinkering with these options will allow you to alter the appearance of everything behind the text on your gateway. Changing your background image can go a long way towards creating a gateway that matches the appearance of your site, as this option allows you to add images to your gateway (including your company logo, product images, and seasonal graphics!).
Changing the color of your background allows you to choose a color that matches the main color featured on your site. Additionally, if you want to take an exact color from your website, try adding the color’s hex color code to the background color option in the content gateway editor. If you need help finding a hex color code, you can try a free hex tool, such as Hex Color Finder.
Header Text and Instructions (located in Appearance and Text Tab): Your website is unique in its design, colors, and images, as well as in its writing style. Therefore, to further match your gateway to your site, I recommend personalizing the header text and gateway instructions to read as if they were taken directly from your website. If your site “speaks” to its visitors in a more friendly tone (such is often the case on a video entertainment site, personal blog, or how-to site), then more informal language should be used in customizing these areas. If your site is of the more professional variety (such as a financial news site or technical blog), formal language should be used in altering these gateway text options.
Main Color Options (located in Advanced Appearance Tab): The Advanced Appearance Tab has many customization options to allow you to match your content gateway’s colors to that of the colors of your site. Essentially, the color of almost every area of your gateway can be changed to any hex color that you desire. I recommend that you review all of the areas with color on your site and match them one by one to your gateway. These areas include the colors of your links, backgrounds, dividers, body and heading text, and section headers. Then, apply as many of your site’s colors to your gateway as possible by adding their hex color codes in the appropriate fields on the Advanced Appearance Tab. By making just a few adjustments to the color options on this Tab, you will be surprised how close you can match the overall color scheme of your gateway to your site!
Overlay Color (located in Advanced Appearance Tab): Changing the color of the overlay on your content gateway should be your last customization option to help match the look of your gateway to your site. The overlay is the area that covers a visitor’s screen, shows up behind your gateway, and is typically black. Use this option to add one last touch of customization to your gateway by matching the color of your overlay with the main color of your site.
Finally, when trying to have your gateway match the overall look/style of your site, I recommend that you explore each customization option on the gateway editor and test as many options on your gateway as possible.
Good “Lock”
-Dr. Lock
Dr. Connie Tent Lock is the “World’s #1 Content Locking Expert” according to himself. When not content locking everything, you can find Dr. Lock roaming the halls of the Adscend Media offices.
Adscend Media is headed to ad:tech San Francisco this week to meet some of the world’s brightest publishers, advertisers, and entrepreneurs!
During the conference, you can follow the activities of the Adscend team and receive conference news through the Adscend Live Blog. Located on the Adscend Media Blog, the Adscend Live Blog from ad:tech will officially start on Tuesday, April 8th and posts will run through Thursday, April 11th.
So, if you won’t be joining us for ad:tech this week, don’t fret! Tune in to the Adscend Live Blog tomorrow to catch all of the action from the show!
Update 4/8/13: The Adscend Live Blog is now active! Click here to check it out!
We are super excited to announce that we have partnered with Justin Timberlake to create the special edition Timberlocker. This new content gateway technology will allow publishers to lock offers from advertisers that Justin personally knows. So far, we have a short form offer from Justin’s mom for quilt design lessons and a free bowling team registration email submit offer from Justin’s childhood friend Randy, who owns a bowling alley in Nashville.
According to Adscend Marketing Manager Tony Cohn, the Timberlocker could be a “game changer” for the performance marketing industry. “We love Justin and believe that he is fully committed to ditching his singing career and becoming a full time publisher,” states Cohn. “This is just the first step in a long content locking career,” Cohn adds.
To install a Timberlocker on your site, visit… April Fools!
April can be an expensive month for many of us. In April, our taxes are due, vacations are starting to take place and some of us have begun working on our homes in order to get ready for summer entertaining. Wouldn’t a little extra commission in the next few months help make things a little easier?
Earning more with our network in the next few months isn’t a matter of trying a new “get rich quick” marketing method or running a campaign on a sketchy fad offer. What will help you see an increase in your earnings is making a few adjustments to your content gateways, a little analysis, research, and interaction. Executing the strategies mentioned in the steps below may not work for every publisher, however, we view these strategies as best practices for publisher success.
1. Talk to Your Affiliate Manager: It may seem simple, but we recommend that you reach out to your affiliate manager any time you need help. Our AMs are happy to help brainstorm niche ideas with you, recommend offers, and can even help you create the perfect gateway for your visitors. Reach out to your Adscend affiliate manager today to see exactly how he or she can help increase your monthly earnings!
2. Customize Your Content Gateways: You may be missing out on some leads due to not customizing your content gateways. Customizing your content gateways allow you to tailor your gateways to cater to the interests, desires, and motivations of your visitors. Just a few of the many available content gateway customization options that you may not be aware of include:
Customizing your gateway isn’t something that should be done randomly or without some research being conducted first. Your website has its own unique set of visitors, products and appearance. Therefore, before you decide to customize your gateways, we recommend that you review your Google Analytics or site tracking software, review feedback from your loyal visitors, and identify the needs of your visitors.
3. Split-Testing Content Gateways: Installing a content gateway and customizing it to meet the needs of your visitors are steps one and two of increasing your conversions with our gateways. The third step involves split-testing. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, split-testing is the process of deploying two different items (offers, ads, creative pieces etc.) simultaneously in order to see which one performs better. In terms of content gateways, split-testing refers to creating a minimum of two content gateways with at least one differing feature (i.e. choosing different colors using different text, or selecting different offer types). Once you have two content gateways created, you can add a piece of code to your site that will randomly display each gateway to your visitors (the code can be found on the Get Code page, which you can find via the Content Gateway page. After the code is inserted into your site, you can view the performance of each gateway by using the ”Compare Profile Stats” feature on the Gateway Stats page. Note that we recommend that you let each gateway accumulate at least two hundred clicks before you evaluate each gateway.
4. Hit the Forum: One of the best perks of becoming an Adscend publisher is that you get access to our members only forum. On our forum, you can interact with other publishers to brainstorm traffic and content ideas, discuss promotion techniques, get answers to your content locking related questions, partner up with other publishers to work on a new business venture, and directly chatting with other publishers via private message or though the forum Chatbox. The publishers on our forum are mainly using content locking as their primary promotion method. Thus, if you visit our forum enough, you are bound to pick up a tip or two that may help increase your conversions. Finally, our publishers are located around the globe, so whenever you decided to visit our forums, you probably will find a publisher online that you can chat with.
5. Evaluating Your Content Strategy: One of the fundamental concepts behind content locking is that if you create quality content that is in demand by your visitors, conversions will follow. Therefore, we recommend that you develop a method to be able to consistently evaluate the types, quality level, and frequency of the content that you create. Some great ways to get started include viewing the content being created by leaders in your niche(s), exploring your site traffic statistics to view which pages with lockers are seeing the most conversions, and working in seasonal events and industry trends into your content.
Members of the Adscend Media team will be attending ad:tech San Francisco (April 9–10, 2013, Moscone Center West) and would love to meet you!
Currently, we are looking for new advertisers, publishers that know incentivized offers, and potential business partners. If you fit the description of any of the groups listed above, let’s connect during the show!
To schedule a meeting with the Adscend team during ad:tech, please click on the following link: http://meetme.so/adscend.
See you in San Francisco!
Name: Michael Thompson
Title: Business Development Manager
Favorite Food: Salmon
Favorite Drink: ?
Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink: Iced tea
Tell Us a Little About Yourself:
How long have you been at Adscend Media and what is your role at the company? I have been with Adscend Media for about two years. Currently, I am a business development manager, and work mostly with managing publishers and network accounts.
Are you able to explain to your friends and family what you do? Yes. Usually there are multiple questions, but we wind up getting there!
What do you like most about your job? The dynamic environment. Every day is a very new day and there are new challenges every day. And with those challenges come new opportunities to grow skills and become better educated. It is an exciting field.
How would you recommend someone get started in affiliate marketing? I would recommend to be as active and as hands-on as possible. Networking, being active on forums, actively keeping updated on industry news, and reading press releases are all great ways to get started and get familiar with industry buzz words and day-to-day processes. Creating your own publishing channel can also help you increase your knowledge at your own pace as well.
If you could give only one piece of advice to your affiliates, what would that be? Pay as much attention as possible to daily communication. In your daily conversations and email exchanges, there is a lot of information and potential growth opportunities for your business. Whether it’s communication between a business partner or a user from your website – carefully considering all details in your daily communications to identify where there might be growth potential can help you grow your business.
What do you like to do for fun when you aren’t working? I enjoy listening to music and playing guitar.
What is the best way for advertisers to reach you? By company email: Michael@AdscendMedia.com
With several industry conferences coming up, including LeadsCon Las Vegas, ad:tech San Francisco and Affiliate Summit East, it’s time for many internet marketers to begin planning their business trips. With the non-stop, 24/7 nature of internet marketing, many internet marketers don’t have time to properly pack for their business trips. Therefore, we have prepared a time saving checklist of items that are essential for business travel and the unique needs of an internet marketer.
The list below is designed for internet marketers who are in a time crunch, and need to know exactly what he or she should pack for an upcoming trip. Our goal is that you will print out this list, throw the items listed in a suitcase, and be ready to travel. Feel free to try this list on your next business trip and let us know how it worked!
Essentials
Electronics
Clothing
Materials
Misc.
With their schedules filled with one appointment after another, networking, industry parties, and local entertainment, it can be very tempting for affiliate marketing professionals to slack off on their daily responsibilities while at a conference. Frankly, who can blame them? After a long night at an industry party and a full day of networking, hitting the hotel pool with a mojito can sound like a pretty good idea. However, just because you are away from your office, doesn’t mean that your daily responsibilities will magically disappear. The professional world doesn’t stop revolving once you hit the exhibit hall floor of ad:tech or Leadscon. Campaigns still need to be monitored, emails still need responses and deadlines still must be met.
Fitting in your daily responsibilities while at a conference is a difficult task for even the most focused industry pros. However, with a little bit of organization, time management and scheduling, you can manage to keep up on your daily responsibilities while weathering the chaotic “roller coaster” that is an affiliate marketing industry conference. Therefore, in order to help you meet this challenge, we have listed five strategies below that will help you execute your daily duties before, during and after your next industry conference.
1. Programs and Files: About a week before your trip, take an inventory of which items you will need to stay productive while at your conference and download/install/sync those items to any electronic devices that you will be taking with you to the conference. Often, you will be without Wi-Fi during travel and while at the conference. Therefore, we recommend that you also download as many apps for the programs that you typically use as possible. Downloading app versions of popular productivity tools, such as Google Drive, WordPress and Basecamp, will allow you to work quicker and save data. By having all essential documents and programs with you while you are away from your home office, you can knock out some of your daily responsibilities whenever time allows during travel and during the conference. For example, an hour and a half layover between flights makes can be a great opportunity to get some work done.
2. Know Your Wi-Fi: Internet access is of vital importance to keeping up with your daily responsibilities. Knowing where internet access is available during travel and your conference will allow you to better schedule blocks of time to focus on your daily duties. We recommend that you create a simple document before you leave for your conference that lists all potential “hot spots” and their associated fees on your travel route and in the areas surrounding your conference. A great way to flesh out this document is to begin calling your hotel, venues along your travel route, and businesses near your conference to determine internet availability. Consulting travel sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor can be helpful as well. Additionally, most major airlines including Southwest, United and American Airlines, have information about which flights have Wi-Fi (and power ports) now listed on their sites.
3. “Nicheworking” Opportunities: Everyone knows about the large parties that are held at most affiliate marketing conferences. Often happening simultaneously, these events are held at nearby night clubs and last until the sun starts to rise. If you choose to attend one of these events, time for working on your daily responsibilities often gets “kicked to the curb,” as your evening is basically booked up. Therefore, when scheduling activities for an upcoming conference, we recommend that you search out a few nicheworking events. Often held in bars, hotel suites, or restaurants, nicheworking events are small gatherings (less than 100 people) that center around a particular interest, marketing style, or vertical (i.e. Affiliate Karaoke or the Blue Keel ASW Happy Hour for payday affiliates at Affiliate Summit West 2013). Featuring a smaller and more informal setting than major industry events, nicheworking events allow for quicker networking. Therefore, after a nicheworking event, you may actually have some time to head back to your hotel room to get some work done. Taking place during the day and evening, nicheworking events can also help you knock out more of your daily duties by providing your schedule with more networking flexibility. Basically, you are no longer tied to the events that “everyone” is going to and now have more opportunities to focus on your daily duties at whichever times are most convenient for you.
Nicheworking events can be found on Facebook Groups, Twitter, Meetup.com, conference websites, or through a search for conference meetups.
4. Schedule Everything: As soon as you begin planning for your conference, you should also begin inputting all of your activities (conference and non-conference related) into a calendar. Inputting everything, including industry parties, meetings, nicheworking events and leisure activities, will allow you to mark off blocks of time that can be used to catch up on your daily duties.
5. Get Your Health On! The number one complaint that we hear from our colleagues post-conference is how everyone got sick. To avoid being sidelined for weeks after your conference, make sure to load up on zinc and vitamin C, eat fruits and veggies, wash your hands regularly and try not to stay out too late during the conference. Though these measures may be tough to follow during a conference (especially not staying out too late), remaining healthy after a conference will allow you to take on the challenge of conference follow up and jump back into your daily activities at full strength.
We are interested in meeting with advertisers and publishers who are open to learning more about how our content locking technology can help increase user engagement and generate revenue. If this sounds like you, let’s chat! Our team would be happy to meet with you to help determine if content locking is a fit for your unique business needs!
To schedule a meeting with Adscend team members, please visit http://meetme.so/adscend. Additionally, don’t forget to add your cell phone number and desired meeting location to your meeting request.
Everyone is familiar with the practice of spring cleaning. Around mid March, many of us head to the garage, backyard or other cluttered areas of our homes to begin clearing out the clutter that has accumulated throughout the winter. Spring cleaning allows us to work on removing the clutter from the winter and prepare for the activities of the summer.
Internet marketers can benefit from their own version of spring cleaning. February and March provide internet marketers with an opportunity to review their year-to-date efforts and prepare for the rest of the year. We recommend that internet marketers take some time in the next few weeks to remove the “clutter” or negative factors impeding success so far this year and refocus for the rest of 2013. Below are five key areas to begin your internet marketing Spring Cleaning:
1. Niches: Now is the time to evaluate your current niches. Are they producing? Are there any threats to their longevity? Are there new niches that may be worth your time? Niche marketing is the backbone of internet marketing. Therefore, its important to ask yourself questions like those listed above to determine whether you are on the right track with your niche marketing.
2. Creative Testing: It’s still early in the year, therefore there is still time to create the foundation for a successful year through the creation of highly optimized creatives and landing pages. Now is the time to check out your creatives and decide if they need refreshing. If they aren’t converting, now is the time to test some new creative pieces. How are your landing pages? Have you tested different calls to actions, buttons, colors, images etc.? We recommend that you spend the next few weeks testing under-performing pages to nail down a prosperous 2013.
3. Research: Have you taken some time this year to research new industry promotional techniques, identify potential success roadblocks from information provided on industry board and blogs and look into events and networking opportunities to build your business? Taking some time in the next few weeks to research ways to improve your business can pay huge dividends for the rest of the year.
4. Organization: Are you working enough? Working too much? Take some time in the next few weeks to evaluate your time management so far in 2013. Figuring out ways to increase your productivity while avoiding burnout, will set you up for a strong year. Areas to consider reviewing are exercise levels, marketing tool usage and your general working schedule.
5. Goal Progress: Are you on pace to achieve your year-end goals? Are there new goals that deserve your focus? Spring time is early enough in the year that longer reaching goals are still achievable. So, if you aren’t hitting your marks so far, its time to figure out how you can get back on track.
The Doctor is always available to help your site make more money using Adscend Media’s content gateway technology. To ask Dr. Lock a question about content locking, please email your question to doc.lock@adscendmedia.com.
Today’s Question: February 10th, 2013
“I have released a few eBooks on relationship advice for men and have been using your content gateways to make some money. I have a decent amount of traffic, however, with Valentine’s Day coming up, do you have any tips to help increase my conversions?”
-Ryan G, Toronto
Dr. Lock: Ryan, first off, it’s good to hear that you already have a good amount of traffic coming to your site (and some conversions too!). Thus, you have conquered one of the bigger steps in content locking. Now that traffic generation appears to be taken care of, let’s focus on your content gateways.
You probably spent a lot of time and effort creating your eBooks and your site. However, how much customization did you add to your content gateways? Our content gateways have tons of customization options that can help increase your conversions during the holidays. You want to keep your visitors focused on why they are trying to gain access to your site’s content during the holidays. Thus, you have to keep holiday themes, images and motivations top-of-mind. For Valentine’s Day, here are several options to give your gateway a Valentine’s Day makeover:
Let me know if those tips helped increase your conversions! Have a happy Valentine’s Day!
That is your prescription for the day.
Good “Lock”
-Dr. Lock
Dr. Connie Tent Lock is the “World’s #1 Content Locking Expert” according to himself. When not content locking everything, you can find Dr. Lock roaming the halls of the Adscend Media offices.
Name: Candice Blaesing
Title: Sr. Campaign Manager
Favorite Food: Anything Italian
Favorite Drink: Mimosa
Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink: Skinny Vanilla Latte
Tell Us a Little About Yourself: Sports medicine pro, book buyer, legal analyst, search engine marketing manager, the list goes on. Let’s say that I’ve tried on a lot of other people’s “hats” in my day. For the last seven years, I’ve had an absolute “love affair” with affiliate marketing and I know that I’ve found the right “hat” that “fits” me!
How long have you been at Adscend Media and what is your role at the company? Started in 2010 as an affiliate manager and currently am a senior campaign manager.
Are you able to explain to your friends and family what you do? Do you remember the game we sometimes played at camp as children, where you tell your friend next to you something and they then would pass it on to the next kid and so on? By the time it gets back to you, it’s an entirely different “animal.” That sums it up. I’m certain they don’t get it, but it’s more fun to hear what it is they think I do.
What do you like most about your job? This list is big, so I’ll pick three of my favorites. I have a very chaotic schedule, so working from home is definitely a plus. Next, our brilliant “family” of advertisers, who I have had the pleasure of doing business with and who are beyond amazing! Last, but certainly not least, our insanely hard working team! Without any one of them, I would not be able to do my job efficiently.
What is the most common question that advertisers ask you? 1. What does my competition look like? 2. What’s the daily EPC network average in various countries?
How would you recommend someone get started in affiliate marketing? While I agree it’s smart to read up and learn as much as you can, I’m a “hands-on” person and think it’s always best to jump right in and “get your feet wet.”
If you could give only one piece of advice to affiliates, what would that be? Find your passion and build your marketing plan around it.
Do you see any new publisher traffic generating techniques emerging in affiliate marketing in 2013? Let’s face it, social media is here to stay, but content (locking) is king!
What do you like to do for fun when you aren’t working? Playing the piano, reading and drawing (anything creative). I admit to some pretty terrible guitar playing and also enjoy hiking in Great Smoky Mountain National Park, located about 15 minutes from my house!
What is the best way for advertisers to reach you? Email is usually the fastest method (Candice@adscendmedia.com) or Skype: Candice.adscend.
The competition was so fierce for our 7 Must-Read Internet Marketing Blogs post, we decided that we had to create another top seven list. Essentially, you can never have too many quality feeds to plug into your Google Reader account.
Therefore, Adscend Media is proud to present another list of must-read blogs that should be a part of your morning reading. Without further adieu, we present:
1. Affiliate Tip Shawn Collins’ blog is a must-read for anyone planning on attending Affiliate Summit and provides an insider perspective into the world of the affiliate marketing industry’s largest conference.
2. AM Navigator Geno Prussakov’s blog is listed as a must-read because it provides resources for affiliate managers. Being an affiliate manager is a challenging job, due in large part to the lack of a body of knowledge that explains the roles and responsibilities of becoming an effective affiliate manager. Geno’s blog provides much needed guidance for affiliate managers looking to hone their crafts.
3. Plenty of Fish Blog The POF blog is an invaluable resource for any marketer who places ads on leading dating site, Plenty of Fish. The POF blog features posts designed to help POF affiliates tweak their campaigns and gain more insight into the many unique advertising features that POF offers affiliates.
4. Ivan-Ong.com Ivan’s blog is the destination for any internet marketer who wants to learn Pay Per View (PPV) marketing. Due to its relatively short lifespan as a internet marketing discipline, there aren’t too many quality blogs in existence for would-be PPV marketers. Therefore, if you want to learn PPV, why not learn from super affiliate Ivan Ong?
5. Adscend Media Blog Why shouldn’t we include ourselves on this list? Our blog contains resources to assist internet marketers in their quests for internet domination Adscend network news and most importantly, our blog is your destination for content locking strategy and tips. If you want to learn content locking, or improve your content locking proficiency stay tuned to the Adscend Media blog.
6. HubSpot A go-to source for internet marketing info for many years, HubSpot is a must-read blog due to its social media, marketing and advertising guides. Upon subscribing to HubSpot, you will be inundated with free guides from internet marketing industry experts. These comprehensive guides are function almost as Cliff’s Notes for popular topics such as how to get more followers on Twitter and the basics for creating an advertising schedule.
7. Mashable No list of internet marketing blogs would be complete without Mashable. Covering all topics relating to internet marketing, Mashable is the Swiss Army knife of internet marketing blogs. Each day, Mashable readers are treated to stories relating to social media trends, SEO tips, and mobile industry news. If you aren’t reading Mashable daily, its safe to say that you now have a homework assignment for this week.
It seems that everyone has a blog about internet marketing these days. With the task of finding a quality internet marketing blog about as tough as finding a low calorie food option at Dunkin’ Donuts, it’s tempting just to stop searching. However, our goal is to make your life easier by always being on the lookout for resources that will help you work smarter. Therefore, we have scoured the “net” to find the internet marketing blogs and sites that have the greatest chance of impacting your bottom line. We could give you the traditional list of ten, however, in honor of Adscend Media being named the 7th Best CPA Network by mthink for 2013, we are going with a list of seven.
1. JohnChow.com John’s blog is probably the best spot for affiliates who are looking for new ideas on how to make money online. Each day, JohnChow.com features a new post detailing how to profit off of a different internet marketing niche or marketing technique. One of our favorite recent posts was How To Make 2013 Your Best Blogging Year, which provides step-by-step guidance on how to begin profiting from your blog posts.
2. Dukeo Written by Stephane Kerwer, Dukeo is similar to JohnChow.com, in that it is another frequent posting blog dedicated to helping affiliate make money online. The main selling difference between Dukeo and Chow is that Dukeo posts tons of lists. With everyone’s time at a premium, quickly scanning a Top 10 or Top 5 list provides a quick burst of information, without a large time commitment. Think of Dukeo as the In-and-Out of internet marketing blogs.
3. ZacJohnson.com Zac’s blog is a must-read due to its focus on making money through paid advertising and SEO. Zac’s posts are full of search marketing tips that are simple to understand and implement. One of our favorite areas on Zac’s blog is his Affiliate Marketing Guide Book, which covers everything from the basics of affiliate marketing to more advanced social media advertising strategies.
4. AdRants Not your conventional internet marketing blog, AdRants primarily covers the traditional advertising industry (television ads, print campaigns etc.). What we like most about Steve Hall’s blog is that he constantly posts lists of parties for major internet marketing conferences (which comes in handy when trying to plan your conference activities) and his comprehensive sales, advertising and media position job board is a hit with job seekers.
5. Performance Marketing Insider Though not technically a blog, PMI is a great resource due to its frequent video content and informative e-blasts. Everyone loves watching Murray Newlands interview industry noisemakers and PMI email blasts cover all of the latest news in the affiliate marketing industry. Need to know which network just closed its doors or which one just opened for business? Check out PMI.
6. PPC.org If you are passionate about Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing, PPC.org is definitely a must-read due to their posts exploring more advanced PPC techniques. If you are a newbie, don’t let the advanced nature of PPC.org’s posts scare you. Breaking a complex marketing technique into easy to understand terms is what makes PPC.org such a great resource.
7. IanFernando.com Ian is one of the most down-to-earth people that you will ever meet in the internet marketing industry. His easy going demeanor and ubiquitous presence at all major internet marketing conferences make him someone that you want to know more about. Ian’s posts are direct, practical and come from the perspective of a super affiliate.
