We are pleased to announce that Blue Phoenix Media Inc. will be in full effect at this year’s Ad Tech New York City event!  This action packed conference will be taking place from November 4th-6th at the Jacob Javits Center.  Some presenters include Jimmy Wales who is the founder of Wikipedia, WPP’s Chief Executive Sir Martin Sorrell and Jonathan Miller who is the Chief Digital Officer of News Corporation.  Other speakers will be coming from companies such as MTV Networks, Walmart.com, Google, and Hyundai to name a few.  The conference will include over 200 speakers, more than 60 value driven panels and the expo will feature 250+ exhibitors, including ourselves. 

Aside from Blue Phoenix Media being known for its affiliate network which is comprised of over 200 advertisers and 3,000 active publishers, we also boast 20+ exclusive web properties to maximize brand awareness that we’ve built and own as well as various Education Portals that generate quality leads.  Although our most successful verticals are Education, Consumer Products and Health and Pharmaceuticals, we offer campaigns in over 20 other verticals.  Alongside our proprietary lead generation technology, we have a Coreg platform to serve into registration pages to monetize websites.

Other than some remarkable and well experienced speakers, you’ll find our staff of affiliate managers at the upcoming Ad Tech NYC event.  Talk about another great reason to go, right?  Our CEO Amy Sheridan and COO Malaika Schmidt, founders of Blue Phoenix Media, Inc. will be present as well.   If you would like to set up a meeting in advance, please email meetings@bluephoenixmedia.com.  So, if you haven’t been hiding under a rock, you know better than to not miss this event.  Stop by booth #2118.  See you there!

If you’re a publisher starting out in affiliate marketing, more often than not, you will face the daunting task of figuring out which networks you should work with. Here are a few, hopefully helpful tips to navigate you through picking the right network partner for you.

The first question that every affiliate should ask themselves when considering a network partner is to ask, what does this network have to offer me? One of the great keys to finding success in affiliate marketing is running offers that not everyone is running, so you’re not faced with a ton of competition. This means working with networks that have campaigns direct with the advertiser and, even better, working with networks that create their own exclusive offers. For example, Blue Phoenix carries its own exclusive education offers that you cannot grab anywhere else.

Next is figuring out what payouts your potential network partner is offering for the campaigns that you are interested in. The general rule with payouts are that the bigger number is most of the time better. However, this might not always be the case though. One example is if you are considering a campaign that pays at $40 in one network and $33 in another network. Be sure to ask your account managers how long a campaign has been up. You don’t want to put time and effort into a campaign at a $40 payout and then have that same campaign go down in two days. Your better bet would be to run a slightly lower paying campaign but have that campaign run it for a longer period of time.

Another important factor are payment terms. Net 30 payment is standard, however, be sure to ask your affiliate manager for campaigns that pay earlier so that you have funds ready on hand to continue promoting the offers and maybe even pick up new ones to run in the process.

Perhaps the more important aspect that affiliates sometimes forget to take into consideration when choosing a network is how great is the customer service of your network partners. Are your account managers calling you and making sure that you have everything you need to promote their network’s offers? Are they sending you emails in regards to the newest campaigns to arrive on the network or the latest payout increases? Is your network taking a proactive approach to combating fraud so that publishers who are legitimately promoting do not lose out on quality campaigns due to fraudulent activity?

With the number of networks that are out there, you can never be too picky with the networks you choose to work with. After all, these networks do sign your checks at the end of the day.

Blue Phoenix Media

I was reading an article by Cheryl Kellond titled “Shining A Light on Performance Display Advertising.” In it, she breaks down the components of what makes a successful advertising campaign – that it’s a two-part system, where it’s not all about creative size, better positioning, and smart campaigns, but that it’s also making each ad relevant to the customer. She asks the question, “What good is a perfectly branded, perfectly placed, creative ad if it’s for a product the consumer doesn’t need or want?”

I agree with her wholeheartedly, but my spin on successful advertising campaigns focuses not on the need and rather on the want. According to Maslow’s theory of basic needs, the two most basic needs that must be met are deficiency and physiological needs. These two needs must be met in order for any other higher need to come into focus.

So how does this hierarchy of need fit into a good advertising campaign you may ask? Well, I’d like to think a good marketer is a marketer that can turn any consumer want into a need. Now some of you might think that this is exactly why performance marketing has come under heavy fire, because of deceptive marketing tactics. However, there is a huge difference between using Oprah’s face to market a product when she has not endorsed it versus using a customer testimonial who praises a product.

Put together a campaign that focuses on your product as an aid, a facilitator (not as a panacea) to helping customers fulfill whatever need they are looking to fill and you’ve got yourself a happy customer as well as money coming in.

Blue Phoenix Media

With Oprah Winfrey and celebrity surgeon, Dr. Mehmet Oz, filing lawsuits against makers and marketers of dietary supplement products recently, online marketing practices in regards to products like Acai and Resveratrol are currently under heavy fire. And with good reason. Dr. Oz praising the anti-aging properties of acai berries on the Oprah Winfrey show is being translated into ads by some internet marketers as these two celebrities endorsing the products when they have not.

What happens when people find out they have been misled? According to an article by the Chicago Tribune, Oprah’s web site has fielded more than 2,000 complaints related to acai-berry products. In addition to the complaints, I imagine this resulted in many charge backs for those marketers who chose the misleading route and a damaged reputation.

Rather than using celebrity names and gimmicks, makers and marketers need to go back to the basics of honest salesmanship – using scientific studies, statistics and testimonials from actual users as the driving force as to why a customer should be purchasing a product. Just as brick and mortar shops need to establish a name and reputation, marketers need to look at their online marketing practices the same way – perhaps even more so, as all you do have on the internet is your name and reputation.

Blue Phoenix Media

We are excited that Affiliate Summit East 2009 is coming to our hometown, New York City, August 9^th-11^th! Of course we will be exhibiting at the event for both the Meet Market on Sunday and the Exhibition event on Monday and Tuesday. For those who don’t know, Affiliate Summit is one of the best industry affiliate marketing conferences that gives affiliates the opportunity to meet with affiliate managers and merchants in person. This is set to be one of the most anticipated networking events in our industry!

As always, expect the hottest after parties to proceed each night. We are happy to be sponsoring The Bottom Line @ Touch, 240 West 52^nd Street, NY, NY! The party is Monday, August 10^th from 9pm to 2am. Be sure to RSVP at http://headlinesandheroes.com/bottomline/. See you there!

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.

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

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!

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!