Welcome to the AffiliateTip.com Newsletter. Be sure to check out the AffiliateTip.com blog for the latest news and information at http://www.affiliatetip.com/blog/

Topics in this issue:

1. 10 Tips to Get Maximum Value from Affiliate Summit
2. Ask Shawn Collins: Set Up a Cash Back Affiliate Site
3. Web Hosting and Email Reviews for Affiliates
4. Affiliate Program News
5. Affiliate Tip - Monitor Merchants with Google Alerts
6. Top 10 Affiliate Programs - October 2006

1. 10 Tips to Get Maximum Value from Affiliate Summit
Marty M. Fahncke, Founder of Conference Call University, recently sat down with me to discuss what is in store for the next Affiliate Summit, as well as sharing his tips for getting maximum value at the conference.

Download the segments of the first preview call in MP3 format: Shawn || Marty

Register for the next Affiliate Summit Preview call at http://www.affiliatesummitpreview.com/. The next call features interviews with Todd Taylor from TaxBrain.com and Sean Crotty from Art.com.

Todd will be speaking about getting maximum value from viral video, and Sean will cover the opportunities for taking an affiliate program to other countries.

You can listen to all of the Affiliate Summit Preview calls at http://www.cculearning.com/summitreplay2007.

2. Ask Shawn Collins: Set Up a Cash Back Affiliate Site
I am launching a site for school programs and want to add a page with affiliate links. While checking out, the buyer must select the school they wish to benefit by that sale (a portion of the sale goes to the school). How can we have that tracking for each school?

You will need to add a sub-ID parameter to each affiliate link that populates an ID for a given school when it is selected.

These sub-IDs are needed by many affiliates, such as affiliates that provide rewards or incentives to members and need to distinguish which person referred a given action.

The same applies to identifying which school should benefit from a purchase at your site.

You can break out the tracking for schools appending your affiliate URL with any word, number or combination with most affiliate solution providers. The number of characters varies from system to system.

Note - some companies require that you notify them in advance and/or sign a special agreement before using sub-IDs.

-----

Got an affiliate marketing question? Ask it anonymously at http://www.askshawncollins.com/ and I'll answer it for you in the AffiliateTip.com blog. Read the Ask Shawn Collins archives.

3. Web Hosting and Email Reviews for Affiliates
AffiliateTip.com has partnered with RealMetrics to provide hosting and email reviews for affiliates.

The hosting and email reviews include unbiased metrics for the top online service providers enabling customers to choose a service provider with confidence.

RealMetrics performs over 110,000 tests per day against real accounts established with each provider to publish objective reliability, speed, and customer service reports you can trust.

Reviews are available for shared hosting, VPS hosting, and email hosting.

Dedicated hosting reviews are coming soon. Read the reviews at http://hosting.affiliatetip.com/.

4. Affiliate Program News
Hydra Network - - the leading CPA source for affiliate publishers.
Over 1,000 campaigns and more than 300 exclusive offers available. Find all the right campaigns, market them to your site, email, path, pop or other audience, and get paid fast! Sign up today to begin maximizing your inventory profitability, while getting the attention you deserve from one of our Affiliate Managers. Call 310-659-5755 or visit: http://network.hydramedia.com/.

Join the Qwest Affiliate Program
Qwest sells DSL, telephone, and other services to consumers in all western states except CA and NV. We're offering a $50 Choose Your Own Gift card for consumers, a $1000 bonus for 50 qualified sales, a $43 payout per DSL signup, and free ppc landing pages. Visit telcoaffiliates.com or contact Brook Schaaf – brook@schaafco.com for more information.

Go Global with zanox
On Tuesday, November 7 (day 2 of ad:tech), zanox is running two events about global domination in affiliate marketing - the zanox XS Conference for advertisers in the morning and the zanox Academy for Affiliates/Publishers and Affiliate Networks in the afternoon. Go global or go home.

Payless.com Affiliate Deal
Free shipping with the purchase of $50 or more - offer Ends November 20th. Visit http://www.paylessaffiliates.com.

5. Affiliate Tip - Monitor Merchants with Google Alerts
One of the foremost tenets of affiliate marketing is know your partners. Monitoring merchants is something every affiliate should do, but how many really do it?

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) enables you to subscribe for updates on any company name or keyword with Google Alerts.

Google Alerts are e-mail updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

In addition to providing you with news updates for any keyword term you select, you can also get e-mails if your keyword is mentioned in a blog, the regular Google results, or Google Groups.

Continued at http://www.affiliatetip.com/affiliate_tip_61.php.

6. Top 10 Affiliate Programs - October 2006
Below are the Top Ten Affiliate Programs for October 2006 as tracked by the AffiliateTip.com Affiliate Program Directory.

The Top Ten affiliate programs are calculated by the number of clickthroughs each program received in the affiliate program directory.

Disclaimer: While we attempt to include only legitimate programs in this directory, no warranties are made. Please research each company carefully to arrive at your own conclusions. If you experience difficulties with any of the programs listed, contact us, so that we may investigate them.

1. GameTap.com
2. Lillian Vernon
3. Payless ShoeSource
4. Hydra Network
5. eHealthInsurance
6. Orbitz
7. Art.com
8. zZounds.com
9. Advanta Bank Corp
10. Scholastic Inc.

CPA networks are treated as individual affiliate programs for the purposes of the Top 10 Affiliate Programs list.

Affiliate programs can be submitted to the directory at http://www.affiliatething.com/reg.php.

As always, I'd love to hear from you! Drop me a line and let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.

Visit http://www.affiliatetip.com/advertise.php for information on advertising in the newsletter or on the site.

Take care,
Shawn Collins

shawn@affiliatetip.com
http://www.affiliatetip.com/
908-771-5574
AOL IM: affiliatetip
ICQ: 297448317
MSN: shawn@affiliatetip.com
Yahoo: affiliatetip
Skype: affiliatetip