Affiliate Marketing Blog | FluxAds

Push here for drama

2012-05-02T10:29:00.001-07:00

A great marketing tactic by TNT to launch their new channel in Belgium.

Sean Montana March Madness Bracket Winner!

2012-04-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Winner of the DatingGold March Madness bracket challenge!

Welcome to Austin! - Affiliate Summit Central Guide

2012-04-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

While many of you know that FluxAds is based in San Diego, CA, most of you probably didn’t know that we also have an office located in Austin, TX, and that we’re thrilled that Affiliate Summit is coming to Austin in just a few weeks.

We understand that the show is sold out, and the hotel is sold out, but we’re here to tell you that you should still come down, meet with your clients/contacts/industry friends and enjoy all that Austin has to offer. So here’s a quick “insiders view” from on what to do, where to eat, and where to stay.

First, the Hilton is in a great location. Sort of. But the room deadline has passed, and for our money, we probably wouldn’t stay there anyway. Other great options include the Four Seasons just around the corner (great waterfront location, and a wonderful restaurant), the new W in the Warehouse District, and our personal recommendation, the Driskill Hotel (where we’ll be hosting a few small events over the course of the conference). A word of warning about the W - it’s a great hotel, brand new and in a awesome Austin location, but it’s a much longer walk to the conference than the Driskill or the Four Seasons.

When we’re not in conference, we’ll likely be entertaining our clients – and ourselves. Known worldwide as a music and entertainment capital, the conference hotel is located in the famous 6^th Street area. But Austin has more sophisticated dining and entertainment options as well.

First and foremost is David Bull’s Congress Restaurant – an easy walk from your hotel. Featured in Esquire Magazine as one of the nation’s best new restaurants, Congress is appropriate if you want to impress a special client or two. Unfortunately it’s closed on Monday, but open Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s elegant, not rowdy, but it’s excellent. It’s companion, the more casual eatery, Second Bar and Kitchen is open 7 days a week and shouldn’t be missed.

Another block or three west you’ll find great BBQ at Lamberts, Fantastic authentic Mexican food at La Condesa, tapas at Malaga, and a menu for the more adventurous at Trace (in the W hotel).

Closer to the Affiliate Summit hotel, Parkside features a fantastic raw bar and it’s sister restaurant, Backspace has great Neapolitan pizzas and antipasti. More casual options nearby include Max’s Wine Dive (fried chicken and waffles – delicious) and Moonshine.

Steak dinners are an Affiliate Summit tradition, and Fleming’s is very close to the Hilton, with Sullivans and III Forks (my recommendation) a few blocks away.

Finally, you need to know about Uchi. It’s Austin’s best sushi, and it has a national reputation. It’s my personal favorite restaurant in Austin. You cant walk there, but it’s a short drive and you should go.

We suspect most of the bar action will be staying in the 6^th Street area, but if you want to venture out, we’d probably recommend the WEST 6^th area on the other side of Congress Avenue – it’s more grown up, not as dingy, and has an older crowd. It’s still got everything from beer (Woodrows) to classic cocktails (try the Duck Fat Sazerac at Haddingtons) but you won’t have drunk kids with fake IDs spilling things on you all night. In addition to the two places mentioned above, we’d recommend JBlacks and Molotov for its great rooftop patio.

Got questions? Need a recommendation for a client or an event, contact Sean, Jon or myself us and we’ll do our best to help you get your plans in order for Affiliate Summit.

Welcome to Austin!

James Leasure

Co-Founder, Fluxads

Google Announces Changes To Exact And Phrase Match Keywords

2012-04-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here is Google's notice:

“We're making improvements to our exact and phrase matching options so your ad will show when people search for close variants -- yes, that includes misspellings -- of your keywords."

How will this affect you? Well, now when you bid on a keyword you will automatically be bidding on misspellings, plurals, abbreviations and any other forms of that same keyword. In turn, you are going to see more impressions and clicks on your ads.

Why is Google doing this? Well, Google knows that this is going to increase traffic to your ads and in turn, your conversions should also increase. And what happens when your conversions go up? You increase your bids for those keywords to get even more traffic, which means more money in Google's pocket. This also allows Google to enter more advertisers into the auction for these keywords, which is going to increase your competition for traffic.

Here is an example from Google's website:

Exact match keyword	Ads may show on searches for	Ads won't show on searches for
[tennis shoes]	tennis shoes tenis shoe	red tennis shoes buy tennis shoes

Phrase match keyword	Ads may show on searches for	Ads won't show on searches for
"tennis shoes"	red tennis shoes red tenis shoes	shoes for tennis tennis sneakers

These “improvements” take effect Mid-May. The good news for you if this is something that you do not want to be a part of is that you can opt out. You can do this by going into your Campaign settings and select do not include close variants.

A little Friday humor: What Marketing Is

2012-04-13T10:37:00.001-07:00

Now I understand what marketing is:You are at a party and you see a very pretty girl. You approach her and tell her: "I am very good in bed". That is Direct Marketing.You are at a party with a group of friends and you see a very pretty girl. One of your friends approaches her and tells her: "That guy over there is very good in bed". That is Advertising.You are at a party and you see a very pretty girl. You ask for her phone number. The following day you call her and tell her: "I am very good in bed". That is Telemarketing .You are at a party and you see a very pretty girl. You recognize her, you approach her and refresh her memory by telling her: "Do you remember how good I am in bed?" That is Customer Relationship Management. You are at a party and you see a very pretty girl. You get up, fix your tie, pour her a drink, open the door for her, pick up her bag when it falls and you tell her: "I am very good in bed". That is Public Relations.You are at a party and you see a very pretty girl. She approaches you and tells you: "I heard you are very good in bed". That is BRANDING!!

What are you going to do with all those business cards?

2012-04-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

If you are anything like us here at FluxAds then you no doubt return from the Affiliate Marketing Conferences with two pockets full of business cards from potential clients and/or partners that you meet at the shows. Or you probably have business cards scattered all over the place, across your desk and in your drawers. Also, if you are anything like us it is hard to find time to manually enter all of the information from these business cards you have collected into whatever program it is that you use for your contacts and you will probably never get around to doing it. Am I right?

Well, we have a solution…

LinkedIn launched a new version of its CardMunch app that will help you solve all of your business card problems. Just take a picture of your business cards using your iPhone and you are all done. Within minutes, contacts are reviewed by LinkedIn’s employees and then returned to your phone with 100% accuracy. You can then add them to your LinkedIn contacts or send your new contacts emails. It’s as simple as that.

The best part about this app is that it is FREE! All you need is a LinkIn account so you can log in.

Simplify your life with Dropbox

2012-04-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

Dropbox is a free service that allows you bring your documents, photos and videos anywhere and share them with anybody easily. Never email yourself a file again!

After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website. With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go. Talk about a super handy app for those of us that attend the affiliate marketing conferences.

Read your documents or flip through your albums when you're out and about. Save photos or videos to your Dropbox and share them with friends in just a couple taps. Even if you accidentally leave your iPhone in a taxi, your files are perfectly safe and accessible through a Dropbox account. Any business can be handled right from a mobile phone in the event that you are away from your computer. Even if a computer is completely ruined, the files contained on it can be easily recovered.

Dropbox is available for every major operating system—Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone—and every user also gets a Web account with file access, too, just in case you're on a computer that doesn't have Dropbox installed.

Affiliate Summit Central 2012

2012-04-10T13:24:00.006-07:00

We are booked and will be attending. Contact us today to set up a meeting!

Never worry again about not finding a Wi-Fi internet connection

2012-03-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

For any affiliate marketer on the go, an internet connection is crucial on their iPhone or iPad. If you’re out and about with no clue of where there are WiFi connections available, WiFi finder ensures you can find any connection anywhere in the world regardless if you’re online or not. Its features include:

Access to over 145,000 free locations worldwide
Filter by location type, such as Cafe, Bar, Restaurant.
Phone numbers and address information.
"Near me" search based on your current location.

Users can bookmark their favorite locations.

This is a great app for affiliate marketers who are attending confrences in cities that they are not familiar with.

System Restored!

2012-02-26T10:20:00.001-08:00

We are excited to inform you that the FluxAds network has been restored and is back up live and tracking.

We truly apologize for the inconvenience and hassle this outage with DirectTrack has caused you and we assure you we are making all efforts to ensure in the unlikely event of this situation happening again, our network will have alternative tracking options to minimize any potential downtime.

Please keep your eye on your inbox for further updates from us as we have some really great things in store for you this month to help us move past this DirectTrack hiccup.

Again, our system has now been fully restored and you can now log into your account and re-implement your tracking links and get your campaigns back up and running.

Please feel free to contact your account manager or the FluxAds support staff with any questions or concerns.

Regards,
The FluxAds Staff

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-26T10:13:00.001-08:00

Update from DirectTrack:

We have started the process to restore your DirectTrack system. The first step in this process is “staging”.

During staging:
• Your newly-built database server is tested
• We test your restored data that will be moved to that server and make file corrections if needed
• Your system’s network configurations are tested and adjusted if needed
• We apply any needed updates to your system

There are a number of factors that can impact the duration of the staging and restore process. These include things such as size of your database, the condition of the restored data, or the need for applying updates.

While we cannot provide a specific ETA, once staging begins, we are close to fully restoring your system.

Please confirm to us that you’ve received this message, and let us know if you have any questions.

We appreciate your patience through this process.

Thanks

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

Update from DirectTrack:

DirectTrack Clients,

We will be sending a regularly scheduled message with our most up-to-date information. Currently, we will send this message each hour. We will modify the frequency of our message as status changes. If you would like a call or have a question, please respond to this email with your phone number and/or question, and a Direct Response Technologies Representative will contact you shortly.

Our current status:

We have made significant progress in rebuilding client database servers and preparing restored data for movement onto those servers.

The process to stage each system can take some time. It depends on a number of factors, such as the size of your database and the testing we perform against the system as we bring the data online.

We do not yet have an ETA on the time it will take for system restore to complete.

As your system is staged for restore, we will notify you. When your system restore is complete, we will notify you.
DirectTrack Client Services

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

Update from DirectTrack;

DirectTrack Clients,

We will be sending a regularly scheduled message with our most up-to-date information. Currently, we will send this message each hour. We will modify the frequency of our message as status changes. If you would like a call or have a question, please respond to this email with your phone number and/or question, and a Direct Response Technologies Representative will contact you shortly.

Our current status:

We have made significant progress in rebuilding client database servers and preparing restored data for movement onto those servers.

The process to stage each system can take some time. It depends on a number of factors, such as the size of your database and the testing we perform against the system as we bring the data online.

We do not yet have an ETA on the time it will take for system restore to complete.

As your system is staged for restore, we will notify you. When your system restore is complete, we will notify you.
DirectTrack Client Services

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-26T05:31:00.000-08:00

Update from DirectTrack:

DirectTrack Clients,

Our current status:

The issues encountered with our hardware restoration process have been resolved. We have restarted the process to restore client systems.

We do not yet have an ETA on the time it will take for system restore to complete. We do not yet have enough information about the restore process to provide specific timing to any client.

As a your system is staged for restore, we will notify you. When your system restore is complete, we will notify you.

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

Update from DirectTrack:

DirectTrack Clients,

We will be sending a regularly scheduled message with our most up-to-date information. Currently, we will send this message each hour. We will modify the frequency of our message as status changes. If you would like a call or have a question, please respond to this email with your phone number and/or question, and a Direct Response Technologies Representative will contact you shortly.

Our current status:

The issues encountered with our hardware restoration process have been resolved. We have restarted the process to restore client systems.

We do not yet have an ETA on the time it will take for system restore to complete. We do not yet have enough information about the restore process to provide specific timing to any client.

As a your system is staged for restore, we will notify you. When your system restore is complete, we will notify you.

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-25T20:03:00.000-08:00

Update from DirectTrack:

DirectTrack Clients,
We will be sending a regularly scheduled message with our most up-to-date information. Currently, we will send this message each hour. We will modify the frequency of our message as status changes. If you would like a call or have a question, please respond to this email with your phone number and/or question, and a Direct Response Technologies Representative will contact you shortly.

Our current status:
The issues encountered with our hardware restoration process have been resolved. We have restarted the process to restore client systems.
We do not yet have an ETA on the time it will take for system restore to complete. We do not yet have enough information about the restore process to provide specific timing to any client.

As a your system is staged for restore, we will notify you. When your system restore is complete, we will notify you.

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

Update from DirectTrack:

We have encountered an issue with certain services and hardware resources, and as a result, the process to continue restore of clients' systems is currently paused.

We anticipate this will be the case until the hardware issue has been resolved.

We have all of our best technical experts working along with our vendors' top engineers, and they are doing everything possible to fix the issue as quickly as possible.

As clients’ systems become available, clients will be notified.

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-24T17:58:00.000-08:00

Update from DirectTrack:

Efforts to this point in restoring clients systems have been effective, but exceeded our initial estimates for time to complete. Based on the work completed thus far and additional analysis of data transfer rates and system build time, we presently anticipate that the process for full restoration of the entire DirectTrack client base will take through the remainder of the weekend.

As clients’ systems become available, clients will be notified.

DirectTrack Outage - Update

2012-02-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

Update from DirectTrack:

We have begun staging to restore client systems.

A number of factors will drive the sequence in which client systems will be restored and the time it will take to perform the restore.

The primary factors include the technical complexity of a given client’s system. Additionally, each restore must be evaluated against a number of quality assurance criteria and must pass these criteria prior to system availability.

We are making every effort and applying all available resources to bring each client system up as quickly as possible. As a client system becomes available, we will notify the client individually.

Thank you.

DirectTrack Outage

2012-02-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

Earlier today we were informed there has been an outage at the DirectTrack central data center, affecting all networks using the DirectTrack platform. No ETA for restoration has been given. We will post all updates we receive from DirectTrack. Please check back for the updates.

Valentine's Day Offers

2012-02-07T14:02:00.000-08:00

We have over 50 Valentine's Day offers! From email submits, to flowers, to personalized jewelery...we got it all covered!

http://www.fluxads.com/offers/valentines-day.php

Payment Methods

2012-01-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a second to remind everyone of the payment methods available with FluxAds. Although it is not listed in the initial registration form, we do offer check, PayPal, ACH and wire payments.

If you are interested in receiving payments through methods other than the default check, then contact your account manager to make arrangements.

In addition, we offer weekly payment terms for affiliates with good quality and volume.

iDate conference

2012-01-23T14:26:00.001-08:00

Sean Montana from FluXads.com will be attending the iDate conference in Miami on January 24th, 25th, and 26th.

He hopes to see you there!

Approval

2012-01-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

Just because you call in after submitting your application does not mean you get automatically approved. Far too often I get an email from a denied publisher perplexed why their application was denied when they called in as instructed. The phone call is just one step of the screening/approval process. In fact, a phone call is not always necessary at times. If our approval department can verify all the information provided in your application before even receiving your phone call, you may be approved.

So again, just because you call, does not mean you are automatically going to get approved. It just helps your chances. :)

Facelift

2012-01-21T10:12:00.001-08:00

FluxAds website has undergone a facelift. Check out our new design: http://www.fluxads.com

This new site design provides more information and easier user access.