We are seeing much earlier click activity in the Network, as holiday shoppers are trying to research and get the best deals possible this holiday season.  As you can see from the graph below, the increase in click activity is coming a full week earlier than in 2008.   Many retailers are offering special discounts earlier this year in an attempt to entice shoppers to buy before the big sales days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Here’s a look at top merchant categories (click growth year-over-year):

Looking at traffic to categorized merchants, we can witness a few notable trends -

• Strong growth from the Sporting Goods/Outdoors merchants as the winter season begins
• Traffic growth to “necessities sites” such as Children’s Stores and Beauty & Personal Care.
• Gift merchants are beginning to gain traction with the 2009 holiday crowd.
• Apparel & Shoes stores are seeing increased traffic due to the cold weather and the approaching holidays.
• Big ticket items, while showing strong growth, continue to lag other categories in traffic growth (Computers & Technology, High-End/Luxury Stores and Jewelry stores all with similar growth).
• Toy & Game merchants have not shown significant traffic growth yet early in the season, possibly due to the cost cutting measures taken by several large department stores.

Our Holiday Offers 2009 page in the Help Center makes it easy for Publishers to find the right offers to target their traffic this holiday season!

* Data does not include Department Store Merchants
* Data QTD to Nov 9 2009

Alex Czurylo, Director of Analytics

We’ve updated our LinkGenerator bookmarklet to include options for you to send to Twitter or Facebook directly from the bookmarklet link page - all done without logging in to the Dashboard.

Here’s a step-by-step guide for how to use our new SOCIAL LinkGenerator bookmarklet:

1. Install the bookmarklet.  Once you’ve completed this you’ll have a LinkGenerator bookmark on your browser.  
   
2. In the browser, navigate to an Advertiser page that you’d like to create a tracking link to.

3.  Select the LinkGenerator text and a pop-up window will display.  This window contains a regular tracking link to that page, a shortened link to that page, and options to share on Facebook or Twitter.

4.  Grab the regular link, shortened URL, or share on Twitter or Facebook!

You can install the LinkGenerator bookmarklet and watch a demo video in the Bento Box.

Ian Rosenwach, Product Manager

Imagine an online Twitter mini-mall, where consumers can find the best deals, cool products and Publishers can even make money. With more than 50 million live Twitter accounts, the online community represents a consumer base eager for information from people they trust – what to buy, where to buy it, how to find the best deals, etc.  Just today eMarketer came out with a report on how social shopping is becoming  more important to retailers.

We’re excited to announce a new Bento Box feature called the #tweetshop tool. It enables Publishers to find products to recommend from their Advertisers, and send them to their Twitter followers - all from a single interface.

Using the #tweetshop tool is easy -

1. Input your LinkShare token (what’s this?)
2. Enter your Twitter user name and password
3. Search for products. You can search within a single Advertisers or across all your partners.
4. Choose a product and shorten the link
5. Customize the tweet and send it!

Additionally, Twitter users can filter posts that contain the #tweetshop hash tag to see products that people have recommended.   We hope that the community embraces this hash tag and works together to build a virtual Twitter mini-mall!

If you’re not on Twitter, it could be a great way to reach customers. Here are a few Publishers who are active on Twitter today:

• http://twitter.com/shopathomewild
• http://twitter.com/stylefeeder
• http://twitter.com/TheFind
• http://twitter.com/savingsdotcom

You can find the #TweetShop tool here.

While we’re on the topic of Twitter, here are a few tips on how to optimize your tweets for search engine visibility (SEO).

Top Five SEO Tips for Twitter

Optimize front of your tweet with keywords

• The first few characters (48-62) are likely to show up in the title tag

Add a retweet (RT) to the end of the tweet

• The front part of your tweet is precious landscape so don’t waste the landscape up front

Include keywords in hashtags

• Optimize, optimize, optimize. If you’re on Twitter talking about a topic use the appropriate hashtag
• Hash tags provide unity to conversations and people can go to search.twitter.com and enter the hashtag to see who else in talking about that topic

Communicate immediately with someone on Twitter

• You’re tweet might have a higher chance of being noticed if you go out and engage to someone immediately
• If you communicate with them regularly, go ahead and ask within a DM (direct message) if they would be so kind to RT
• Don’t abuse your people on Twitter, so be selective when doing A and B

Include keywords in URL shorteners

• Using URL shorteners, there are some out there that let you customize them
• Use keywords you wish to target in your URL

Here is a quick demo video to show you how #tweetshop works:

Ian Rosenwach, Product Manager

We will post more as soon as we have news.

Update, 7 PM - We’ve spoken with AVG and the issue appears to be resolved.  LinkShare links are working as they normally would on computers with AVG installed.

Mark Kirschner, CMO

Coupon Web Service

The LinkShare Coupon Web Service is a new API for you to access coupon and promotional links from your Advertisers, without logging in to the Publisher Dashboard! These coupon and promotional links are compelling to consumers and therefore more likely to convert. We are also taking additional steps to guarantee that the coupons, promotions, and offers in the service are in fact quality consumer offers.

An important note is that Publishers must be approved before using the LinkShare Coupon Web Service. You can apply in the Publisher Dashboard and learn more in the Help Center. In the first phase we’ll offer text links only, but will be adding banners in the future.

Our Coupon API guidelines provide the details on which parameters to use. You’ll include your token in every request, for authentication purposes. Your token can always be found on the Web Service page in the Dashboard.

The advantage of using the LinkShare Coupon Web Service is simple – to expedite the process of getting creative that converts.

Offer Preview/Accept Tool

Starting October 21, you will be able to view and opt into upcoming Advertiser offers in the Publisher Dashboard. No more waiting until an offer is live to opt in. Now you can plan ahead, and know the offer will go live automatically the moment it is supposed to. This is another improvement to our system designed to make it easier than ever – just in time for the holiday season.

How does it work? On the Advertiser Details page (Program Details) and the Private Offers page in Programs, there is a new tab with “Upcoming Offers” on it. This section will contain offers that are not yet active. You’ll be able to opt-in to these offers before they start. Once the offer begins you’ll be commissioned at the level specified by the offer. Once the special or private offer expires, you’ll fall back into a previous private offer if the end date has yet to expire. If the end date has expired, you’ll be joined to the baseline offer.

This is a feature I know many publishers have been looking forward to, and I’m glad we could deliver it in a timely fashion.

Ian Rosenwach, Product Manager

2. Build Out Pages: Create more pages targeting the products you are focusing on should be targeted. The more those products are out there with unique content surrounding them, the more likely search engines and people will see them.

3. Make it Fun: Create fun and interesting blog posts and insert links to the products you wish to target within those posts. For example, if you’re a flower site, create a post on “3 Fun Crafts with Flowers,” and have links to the product pages you are mentioning in your post. Also, make sure those pages you are linking to within your post have GREAT calls to action, like “15% off” or “free shipping.”

4. Start Yesterday: Search Engine Optimization takes TIME, so stop wasting it by not planning your strategy in Q4. Have a calendar and start brainstorming your ideas ahead of time. Implement them before the holidays. Start the wheels turning so by the time the holidays are around, traffic to your holiday specific products are already ramping up and getting attention.

5. Paid Search + SEO = AMAZING! Do you know what keywords your paid search is targeting around the holidays? I sure hope so! Get those terms and develop mid- to long tail keyword phrases out of those and use your analytics to assist with the best phrases. For example if your paid search keyword is ‘same day delivery,’ then build out some pages using keywords like ‘holiday roses for same day delivery,’ or ‘Thanksgiving table arrangements available for same day delivery.’ Words to consider adding to your main keywords could be terms like “cyber Monday,” and “black Friday.” The more landscape you are taking up in search engines (organic and paid) the more you increase your chances of someone visiting and converting.

6. Repurpose Your Content: So you’ve got pictures on your site that are of products, right? Then create a Flickr account. Rename those images with holiday keyword targeted terms and post them on Flickr. Adding creative and unique (yes keyword targeted) descriptions. The more your products are out on different sites; the more you’ll be seen.

7. Name Your Pictures: Go on your website (in Firefox) and right click with your mouse over an holiday product image and scroll down to ‘properties.’ Does the ‘Alternate Text’ say missing? If so you need to add keyword targeted holiday terms. Search engines cannot see images, so having keyword targeted terms describing your images tells the search engines what they are, therefore increasing your chances of being seen by search engines. SEO is all about making sure your house is in order. Every little piece matters.

8. Tweet Your Deals! If you use Twitter, then let people know what deals you’ve got going on, but do it TACTFULLY!!! Too many sites I see shove deals down people’s throats and tend to over Tweet. Talk about getting unfollowed!!! If you’ve got a couple of people within the Twitter community you communicate with, then reach out to them. For example, a possible tweet could be, “Hey @tallchickvic, Holiday free shipping and 15% off orders over $100, check it out http://bit.ly/holiday-deal.” People viewing your tweets, seeing you communicate or reach out to another, are more likely to check out the link than if you just blasted it out to the universe.

9. While We’re On the Topic of Twitter: Use your Twitter background to promote your holiday’s deals and specials! You’ve got landscape that is available and FREE to do what you want with it, so utilize it! Create a fun, seasonal background and include deals and promotion or coupon codes, so when people see your profile they will be aware of the deals. This is less pushy and if you take note and do this on a semi-frequent basis, people will be more likely to come visit your profile for other promotions and deals.

10. Tell Your Peeps: No one knows you and trusts you like your friends and family, so put them to good use! Don’t abuse the privilege of having amazing people around you, but during the holidays promoting deals through your friends and family could help them and help you at the same time! If you’ve got a sweet holiday deal going on, then e-mail your posse and tell them about it. You can even ask them to spread the wealth and e-mail their friends or see if they can post the deal on Facebook. As said before, use this tactic with caution. If you bug friends and family constantly with e-mail upon e-mail regarding various deals, not only will they ignore you, but you could possibly say good-bye to any cool gift you were GOING to get.

Victoria Edwards, LinkShare SEO Specialist

The Performance Marketing Alliance has posted an opinion by  two attorneys with experience in Advertising that contains a concise overview and information relevant to affiliates.

It’s important to stay informed as new issues like this emerge. Subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter to make sure you are in the loop!

If enacted, bills like the one that became law in New York State impact entrepreneurs and small businesses that earn a living as an affiliate. Below you’ll find a few maps that illustrate the extent of affiliates in states that have considered the affiliate tax. Each red mark represents a zip code where affiliates reside in that state.

Tennessee

California

Florida

What is Signature?

Signature enables Publisher to track transactions on the sub-level. Signature can be used to track individual  members, pages on sites, or keywords.  Here are a few other helpful articles on using Signature:

• Implementing Signature
• How Signature Works
• Signature Guidelines (PDF)

Nicole Prodoehl, Sr. Network Development Manager

• Input your token
• Choose a Title
• Choose a Headline
• Choose a keyword
• Customize the size and colors
• Choose whether you’d like to include a search box and product description
• You can include a logo image
• Get the code!

Here’s an example gadget using the keyword “calculators” (just in time for Back to School) and searching Tiger Direct -

As usual, you’ll need to have a relationship to display products from an advertiser, and the advertiser must offer a product feed.

Ian Rosenwach, Product Manager