Last week was a busy time for Blue Phoenix as we traveled East and West to visit multiple industry trade shows.  Our CEO Amy Sheridan traveled to Florida and Colorado to partake in the Career College Association Convention and Expo in Orlando and Affiliate Convention in Denver.  Our Sales team represented here in New York City by visiting DM Days at the Jacob Javits Center.

The Career College Association Convention and Expo was from June 14th-June 16th and included informative seminars, one of which featured famous newsman Ted Koppel, interesting panels and a great networking exhibition.  Many key players of the Education space and plenty of partners we currently work with were there in full force.  The show overall gave us something to think about and set up potential new business.

The Affilate Convention was from June 17th-June 20th and was a small but intimate conference filled with the youth of this industry.  There were panel discussions and an exhibition but the highlight of the show was the fact that there were a lot of affiliates present, which made networking a breeze.  There were a lot of younger affiliates in the 18-20 year old range, who were eager to learn and it help us see what the new generation of affiliate marketers have to offer.  There was definitely a huge potential for new business.  After the show the parties were intimate and there was also time to catch up on work as needed.  It was a great city to have a show in for the future.

DM Days was from June 16th-June 18th and included informative seminars, one of which featured Ivanka Trump, and a networking exhibition.  The exhibition was smaller this year but there was still potential for business.  We managed to touch base with clients old and new and have some new business in the works as we speak.  The Buzz Party on the 16th was a jam packed party with a few free drinks, appetizers and fellow marketers anxious to do business.  We met with some great potential clients there as well and overall though a smaller show, the turnout was still a success.

Stay tuned for more trade show news when we exhibit in August for Affiliate Summit and Leads Con!!

In today’s employment world, the recession has caused some bleak predictions: The consensus of private forecasters is for the unemployment rate to get close to 9% next year, with some forecasters looking for a 10% rate. The Federal Reserve doesn’t expect the unemployment rate to fall below 7% until 2011.  Only education and health services reported job gains¹.  The struggle for employment is steadily increasing, and the rise in education service positions confirms that people are going back to school to get an edge on the competition.

With more people enrolling in schools and education programs, the need for viable access to information is vital. That’s why we’ve created http://mynewdegree.com/.  As the newest addition to our Academic Network, MyNewDegree can provide prospective students with the information they need to find the right schools, colleges and education programs.

MyNewDegree provides new and existing students the tools to a wealth of information from the top online databases for education needs to find the right schools, colleges, and education programs, including:

• Distance education
• On-site campus colleges and universities,
• Financial aid information
• Scholarship information
• Grants information
• Loan information
• Education guides

People believe education is one of the greatest investments anybody can make². Confronted with a shaky economy and limited job prospects, some recent and soon-to-be college graduates are prolonging their careers in higher education and attending graduate school, rather than immediately breaking into the workforce³.  The increase in student enrollment has also increased the number of grants and scholarships to help offset the cost of keeping up in the job market.

If domestic students utilize the full amount of resources available to them then they can finance their education. The increase in grants combined with work study will help students pay for their tuition⁴. With so many people returning to school and extending their studies, MyNewDegree can not only help students get the most out of their money by providing them with information for scholarships, grants and financial aid, but also be their source in finding the educational programs best suited for their needs.

¹http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/payrolls-down-651000-feb–/story.aspx?guid={3C16959C-FFFD-45BF-848F-9B36B187AB24}&dist=msr_9
² http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=28&a=388399

³http://media.www.thejambar.com/media/storage/paper324/news/2009/03/05/News/Students.May.Ride.Out.Recession.In.Grad.School-3661599.shtml
⁴http://media.www.themhnews.com/media/storage/paper999/news/2009/03/05/News/Stimulus.Plan.To.Provide.Relief.For.College.Students-3660925.shtml

Blue Phoenix Media is excited to be attending the upcoming Ad:tech San Francisco 2009 conference! We’ll be doing plenty of meet and greets and are looking forward to seeing you all there!

For those who may not know about us, we are a CPA Affiliate Network with over 2,500 publishers and over 200 campaigns. We have also built our own Proprietary Lead Generation technology which we use to power over 20 of our own web properties.

Our primary focus is Education, Health and Pharmaceuticals and we also do well with Travel, Entertainment and Consumer Products. We work with many Fortune 1000 clients and we have a variety of exclusive and Brand name campaigns.

If you’d like to know more about us and discuss business opportunities with our company, the owners of Blue Phoenix Media, CEO Amy Sheridan and COO Malaika Schmidt will be walking the floor. Email us to schedule a meeting, they’d love to meet you!

Blue Phoenix Media will also be sponsoring a party after Ad:tech on Wednesday, April 22^nd 2009 from (9pm - 4am at 1015 Folsom, RSVP here!

With our current economy effecting job stability, Education is in high demand. Consumers are looking to improve their skills to maintain their jobs or are looking to change careers altogether due to layoffs or demotions. Online degree programs can provide the solution consumers need to fulfill their goals as well as help alleviate other economic stressors they may face. Online degree programs provide more concentrated areas of study that follow the trends of the real-world job market. They also help consumers save on out-of-pocket costs such as gas for travel, room and board, and other outside expenses.¹

You can take advantage of this wave in consumer demand and increase your revenue in the long run with the right marketing strategies. We decided to rethink our marketing strategies and provide verticalized Education portals to improve conversions in this huge market.

We have launched NEW Network Exclusives – Free Criminal Justice Info, Free Culinary Info, Free Nursing Info, and Free Graduate Info this year. By focusing on specific concentrations we are able to get better results. “According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 14 million job openings are projected to spring up for degree-wielding professionals between 2004 and 2014.”² We can help consumers take advantage of this opportunity now.

The programs we chose are based on what’s hot in the job market currently. The Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition from the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that “employment of probation officers and correctional treatment specialists is projected to grow 11 percent between 2006 and 2016.”³ The same is true for police officers and detectives as “a more security-conscious society and population growth will contribute to the increasing demand for police services.⁴ This percentage also pertains to the employment of chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers, which ”will have among the largest numbers of new jobs arise, about 351,000 over the period.” ⁵ The highest growth in the same time frame is for registered nurses, which is expected to increase 23%. ⁶

We expect to pull in tremendous revenue with these new Education portals. Contact your Account Manager today to pick up these programs and maximize your ROI!

¹ http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/800637/online_degree_programs_to_be_preferred.html?cat=15
²http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-2008_job_outlook_for_new_grads-353
³ http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos265.htm#training
⁴ http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos160.htm#training
⁵ http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos161.htm#training
⁶ http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos083.htm#training

Blue Phoenix Media, Inc. is prepping for our first exhibit at Affiliate Summit Las Vegas ’09. With this show being in early January, it is the perfect opportunity to meet new prospects and rekindle current relationships in a brand new quarter.

CEO Amy Sheridan and COO Malaika Schmidt will be there to go in depth about the three sides of our business. To give you a head start, here are the three things we do:

1st – We are a CPA Affiliate Network made up of over 200 Advertisers and over 2,500 Publishers.

2nd – We have over 20 Web Properties that we built and own, which range in verticals such as Education, Health, Entertainment and Travel.

3rd – We have our own Proprietary Lead-Generation technology that we built and own and we have our own Coreg Platform that we can serve into registration pages to monetize websites.

Contact us now to schedule an appointment.

We look forward to doing business with you in the New Year!

With customer spending going down, layoffs sweeping through traditional marketing and media channels, and marketing and advertising budgets being cut, the fate of online marketing may look like it’s in for a grim state. However, there is still hope - performance marketing.

For Advertisers, cost-per-acquisition (CPA) marketing provides a pay-as-you-go solution as opposed to pre-paying for estimated leads that may not come through. It also cuts cost in online real estate since some CPA networks do not require a pre-pay to advertise with them. Also, unlike traditional marketing methods, online marketing allows you to track and measure your success rate and be able to target your audience better. CPA networks have a gamut publishers targeting all types of consumers and using various methods such as display, email, and search marketing. This provides you plenty of opportunity to make money without draining your budget.

Publishers can benefit from CPA marketing as well if they keep an open mind. “Those who adapt will do well; those who have a more rigid structure will find it tougher to thrive even though they are in the performance space.”¹ This means moving along with new verticals that are currently successful and possibly moving away from what has worked in the past but may not be in tune with today’s economic climate.

Blue Phoenix Media/Blue Phoenix Network can be that beacon of hope for advertisers and publishers now and into the New Year. We provide advertisers cost-effective solutions to guarantee high success rates with their campaigns. This includes providing a clean network of hand-picked publishers and a self-service tracking system that provides real-time reporting. For publishers, we provide a variety of verticals to choose from and though we stick with our tried and true education and health campaigns, we also adapt to the ebb and flow of the market and provide relevant campaigns suited for the current state of consumers needs. Contact your account manager today to find out how performance marketing can work for you!

Sources:
http://www.dmconfidential.com/blogs/column/Trends/2091/
http://www.dm2daily.com/

¹http://www.dmconfidential.com/blogs/column/Trends/2091/