How well do you know your clients/partners? Do you ever think about visiting them and learning more about them besides the occasional conference call “talk”? If there is an opportunity for you to meet a client outside of the typical conferences or on the phone, take advantage of that. There is nothing like the old school meeting and handshake with people that you truly value as partners.

This is a topic very near and dear to the Leadpile families’ heart.  Starbucks.  We as a company could probably support a single Starbucks on our own.  Combine the rich coffee blend with the free Wi-Fi they started providing in July, we could setup offices there.

Starbucks also recently announced the launch of its digital network later this fall.  The new, in-store digital network will offer localized content, entertainment and news.  A splash page will be presented to customers when they log on to the internet in Starbucks stores that they can choose to explore or navigate away from to continue to their desired destination.

The popular Zagat review will lookup local restaurants; runners, bikers and hikers can plan routes through Rodale using geo-targeted maps and Patch will offer local neighborhood events.

Revenue sharing opportunities will be available to marketing partners for customers that purchase downloads or subscribe to partner services.

Do you know what others in the affiliate marketing world are doing? If not, you might want to pay attention to all those in your industry so you can keep abreast of what is going on. Knowing what others are doing is a great tool for you to be fully informed of your industry for your publishers, but it is also great to know if there is maybe something you or your company are not doing and needs to possibly look at doing. Knowledge is power when keeping up with this industry. Don’t be the one left in the dust……

DoubleVerify recently announced it’s new fraud division – Advertising Fraud Detection.  This new division will offer ad verification, security and antivirus experts to research fraud sites that are using malware, spyware, and adware.  This will be useful for companies watching for advertising that is wasting budgeted dollars or any legal concerns.

This new lab will fight malicious activities that can potentially harm brands, legitimate publishers and users, and negatively affect industries overall.

A white paper detailing the findings from the first few months of its inception and recommending actions to minimize publisher fraud and risk will be published this fall.

Creativity is an important attribute to our daily activities, especially in this fast paced industry, where new ideas will help you and your team to get a competitive edge.

Few things to remember when it comes to creativity: Negative emotions block creative thinking; Relax more – it will help you get some great ideas; Don’t be too worried – it will make your day worse; Stay positive and project positivity to your team.

Industry blogs and forums are a great place to potentially bring on new business.
There is nothing better than having someone who believes in your services refer people over that they see as a good fit.
Keep your eyes open to this sort of situation because it could really help to build your business.

A recent study indicated that the use of at least three social media options in email marketing campaigns lead to a 55% higher click-through rate.  The interesting thing is that only about half of email marketers are adding some sort of social element to their email campaigns.

The real ROI comes in the shared messages of these type of campaigns. Messages that included a sharing option generated 30% higher click-throughs than emails without the social sharing links.  Three or more generated 55% higher click-throughs.  Twitter alone showed a 40% higher CTR than without a sharing link.  Twitter appears to be the most popular option at 67.2% of all social emails with Facebook coming in a close second at 62.7%.

Think about it, you send an email to a million users in your email list.  If 55% of the users that click through your message and share it with their 130+ friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter, imagine how much ROI you are getting on that email campaign without any additional cost!  Folks, time to start A/B testing!

Try to visit your clients, and when you do that, listen to them more than you talk. Understand their needs and what short term goals they have. That will help you with achieving good results right now, but also in the long run. Choose two or three of your clients and see if you can double their numbers in 2 months time frame.

Twitter has exploded over the past few years, empowering news to travel at nearly lightening speed.  Over 50 million people post on Twitter per day right now!  But this big question has always been, what are their plans for a business model?  Well, the latest news is that companies will now be able to advertise on Twitter.  This plan for advertising will start with 10 companies including Starbucks, Virgin America and Best Buy.

The advertising program will be called Promoted Tweets.  The ad-matching and pricing formula for this advertising has not been announced yet, but preliminary discussions indicate a CPM pricing model.  As they continue, Twitter will likely seek other alternative ways to charge advertisers.

In the new Promoted Tweets program, when a company pays for a tweet, the promoted message will appear at the top of the results, regardless of the time it was written.  Promoted Tweets will also appear in the organic Twitter stream rather than on the side like other social networks promote.  Additionally, they will also be highlighted so that companies have the capability to respond if conversations turn negative.  It is still unclear how these promoted posts should appear, but it may be based on topics, geographic locations or shared interests.

Much more to come on the Twitter Promoted Tweets program, but affiliate marketers all over are likely “tweeting” about how to capture this audience even more with this new program!

These days, everyone is looking for a way to save some of the hard-earned dollars we are all clinging onto so tightly. Most people would probably say they have really cut back on their spending. However, people spend money as a part of their daily routine and a couple bucks here or there never really compute to the reality of what that number looks like over the course of a year. Walletpop.com recently published an article highlighted exactly what some of these bad habits really cost you, and after reading it, you might cringe yourself. According to the article, if a person participates in all of the daily spending habits, they are looking at around $12,288.50 per year. We’ve listed just a few of these habits that were highlighted in the article below.

Soda
For example, if you go to the vending machine or the gas station one time a day and spend $1.50 on a soda, that translates into $547.50 a year (before tax). Make that three a day and that’s a whopping $1,642.50.

Coffee
The daily trip to the barista for one cappuccino a day will cost you on average $1,442 per year. If it’s only during the work week, you’re still looking at $1,031 per year.

Lottery
A buck to win millions of dollars.

Doesn’t sound bad, does it? But, you do that every day and you’re looking at $365 per year in lottery tickets. And do people usually just buy one? Probably not. Statistics say you have more chances of getting in a car accident, plane accident or struck by lightening than winning the lottery. Doesn’t mean it’s impossible to win. After all, Hurley won, right? But, wouldn’t you like to put that $365 back into your savings account?

French Fries
Now we all know how bad French Fries are for you, so never mind the medical expenses they may cause down the road from health problems. But, getting fries with your combo meal three times a week at a fast food restaurant will cost an extra $80 per year. Get fries with your restaurant meal twice a week and you are looking at $312 per year.

Car Maintenance
Before you go out and purchase a new car, consider the cost to keep your current one. Small changes in the maintenance of your car can save money and is much less expensive than a car payment. Driving your car with the correct amount of pressure in the tires could save you as much as $172 per year. A clogged air filter could cost $180 per year.

Cigarettes
This is one of the more expensive categories. A pack of cigarettes at the gas station will cost anywhere from $5 to $10/pack depending on what state you live in. At that price, one pack per day translates between $1825 and $3650. Make that two packs a day and you are looking at $3650 to $7300 per year.
There’s probably 50 other things we all mindlessly spend money on, but it’s always good to take a step back and evaluate the budget and determine where to cut back and where to spend more. We still have to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, so if that Starbucks coffee or lottery ticket puts an extra bounce in your step, then by all means enjoy it.

No really? The social networking site Facebook has hit it BIG because it passed Google in the number of visitors coming to their site. Information Week stated, “For the week ending March 13, Facebook accounted for 7.07% of all U.S. Internet visits, while Google accounted for 7.03%, according to Hitwise. It was the first time Facebook had held the No. 1 spot for a week.” This is great news for Facebook, because this sort of ranking could potentially help them out financially. So, who will benefit besides Facebook themselves on this sort of increased ranking?
In the lead generation space I wish there was maybe some additional opportunity for this mega social networking site to be able to truly produce some great lead generation results. I have yet so see a publisher we work with at Leadpile that is effectively using Facebook to generate leads. What needs to happen in order for Affiliate Marketing to truly be able to capitalize on this site, or are there publishers that are showing success with monetizing Facebook traffic? I would like to speak with them if it is happening!
Great job Facebook… keep doing what you are doing, because it’s working!

Leadpile is excited to be a part of the upcoming Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, NV. If you are an affiliate that will be attending this weekend’s upcoming show, please make sure and stop by our Meet Market booth on Sunday January 17th. This show is a great opportunity for us to see some past, present and new partners all in one place. We would love to talk about lead generation, publisher opportunities, advertisers opportunities, affiliate marketing, traffic and anything else related to affiliate marketing. If you are not attending the show, make sure and reach out to us so we can discuss how we can potentially work together (mari@leadpile.com).