AffPlan Podcast – AffPlan Strategies Session #4

Welcome to another episode of the AffPlan Strategies Session, a podcast where industry leaders share their expert advice to help you with all aspects of creating and refining your online Affiliate Marketing Plan.

Lisa Picarille moderated this episode about datafeeds in Affiliate Marketing, featuring Deb Carney and Eric Nagel.

Deb Carney, president of Team Loxly.

Team Loxly is an outsourced program management firm. Deb has been creating websites for more than 15 years. She is currently an affiliate as well as an OPM. She enjoys teaching affiliates how to optimize their sites.  You can hear her tips on Affiliate ABCs and Make Your Mark (art marketing) podcasts on Geekcast.fm. In addition, Deb has also been a professional photographer for 30 years.

Eric Nagel, president of Eric Nagel & Associates.

Eric Nagel is an affiliate marketer specializing in PPC and SEO. He started his career as a freelance web designer in 1998.  In 2005 he became a fulltime programmer for an affiliate in London. Four years later he left that job to become a fulltime affiliate.

Today’s topic is “DataFeeds and Affiliate Marketing“.

We started out by defining datafeeds as a database or digital catalog of a merchant’s products that can come in a variety of forms (including .xml). These datafeeds can be subscribed to by affiliates, who would then use that information to help them build their website.

We also discussed the benefits of datafeeds to affiliates and merchants; how hard it is to implement a datafeed; why datafeeds are not standardized (Deb would like them to be standardized. Eric took the opposing view); the challenges of dealing with them such as categories and broken links; using datafeeds as a tool for keyword generation and more.

Here are some of the tools mentioned in the show that help with datafeed process including creation and management:

• DataFeeder

  http://www.datafeedr.com/

• DataFeedFile

  http://www.datafeedfile.com/

• PopShops

  http://www.popshops.com/

• Golden Can

  http://www.goldencan.com/

• Web Merge

  http://web-procreate.com/wm-about.htm

• ShareASale Make a Page

  http://www.shareasale.com

Thanks for listening to the AffPlan Strategies Session. For more information and resources to take your affiliate marketing plan to the next level go to www.affplan.com.