Voip > blog
Voip Blog
Landing Pages
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The history of landing pages goes all the way back to the start of commercial emails (not necessarily spam emails!). Online marketers used to use links in their emails, and if clicked, the visitor "landed" on those pages.
Nowadays, the importance of landing pages is very well seen all over cyberspace. With Google's AdWords and Yahoo!'s Sponsored Search, landing pages play an even more crucial role in online marketing.
Landing pages are important because they can:
- Make a visitor purchase your products or services
- Educate the visitor about your products and services
- Redirect the visitor to other desired pages
- Opt in or register your visitor
Most of the times affiliates change the landing pages by product/service campaigns, by target markets (e.g. by demographics) or by seasonal marketing promotions.
Affiliate Sales Performance
Friday, October 27, 2006
Measuring ROI provides the complete picture for monitoring sales performance, however, keeping track of just the actual sales supplies the Advertiser detailed key information. Sales numbers used with other data can be a real eye-opener.
Here are a few pieces of useful data to consider:
Amount per Sale is the actual net dollar amount the affiliate makes from selling the product or service. Since it's a net amount, the number is always adjusted by cancellations (by credit card chargebacks) taxes and other refunds.
Commission (dollar amount or percentage) shows the Advertiser how much it agrees to pay for each product/service sold. If the service is based on monthly payments the performance can be further analyzed by calculating lifetime revenues.
Gravity - a term used by ClickBank - is the number of affiliates who earned a commission selling the product.
Affiliate ROI
Thursday, October 26, 2006
There are many benefits of calculating Return On Investment (ROI) on both the Publisher and Advertiser side of the business.
As a publisher you want to find out how well your dollars are spent on specific campaigns. Return On Investment data also helps to evaluate the success of various affiliate programs you signed up for as an Affiliate.
On the advertiser's side, ROI measures the success of the affiliate program in general, as well as the success of each affiliate and their campaigns. This internally used information provides crucial data to support sales, including special sales offers for top sellers and adjustments for payment terms. Moreover, ROI helps to determine whether marketing expenses are better spent on PPC campaigns rather than on the affiliate program or vice versa.
Yes. No. Yes. No. Maybe. Who knows?
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Jordan's been as ambivalent about voip as a thirteen-year old girl trying to decide what to wear on the first day of school. At least they've finally come clean about the real reason for outlawing voip--economics. Specifically, their explanation for the recent banning of independent voip companies, is that voip internet phone providers will bring about the downfall of the incumbent telecommunication company (Jordan Telecom) and it was, "in the best interest of the national economy to protect local telecom investors."
Hunh. That sounds totally different than the "security concerns" they originally cited. You know, now that I think about it, it sounds like they tried to copy other popular voip-banning countries, like China and the neighboring UAE. But after a month of intense public outcry and global criticism, the ban was finally reversed...for now. Chalk one up for the blogosphere. Wonder what happens next week?
A matter of life and death
Monday, October 23, 2006
Latency, or the amount of time it takes your network to process a packet of information, is the bane of great voip internet phone sound quality and, believe it or not, can also cause you to miss your shot when playing Call of Duty 2: Xbox Live. Hence the newest item on my family-generated to-do list: get a broadband optimizer or accelerator that priorizes traffic in such a way that certain persons, who shall remain unnamed, may continue to successfully frag the bad guys and lay down smoothly coordinated blankets of cover fire for their allies.
That's where the Hawking HBB1 Broadband Booster comes in. Actually it comes in between your broadband modem and the router, where it quietly takes care of streamlining network demands on your broadband connection. At around $80, it seems a sound investment to make when the fate of the entire world is resting in your hands. Or, maybe you'd simply like to find a better voip sound experience. Either way, the HBB1 has you covered.
Holey Moley, we have a winner!
Friday, October 20, 2006
Introducing the Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000. You know that feeling when you first get home after Trick-or-Treating and pour your hard earned candy out on the living room floor to assess the night's haul? A cross between shivery anticipation of the coming sugar rush and nervous dread that your healthy snack to chocolate ratio will be way, way off. That's what came over me as I stumbled across the Pro 4000. I think it's got just about everything I want and the MSRP comes in at $79.99, which is pretty reasonable, considering what you're getting.
First off, it's got CCD imaging and a 640 x 480 resolution capability, not to mention 1.3 megapixel stills. Use it to manually capture video and still photos, or enable the motion sensor Face Tracking ability--it will automatically keep you in frame and act as a motion-sensitive camera, turning on when something comes into its field of vision.
Then there's the innovative flexy foot mount contraption that sits flat on your desktop or CRT monitor, but can also be bent to hang securely from a flat screen or notebook monitor. Gotta love that. And speaking of flexibility, it's practically a candidate for Cirque du Soleil. Full 360 degree rotation, with 45 degrees of movement if you're tilting it to the ceiling and 10 degrees if you're trying to get footage of your feet.
The integrated microphone is supposed to be surprisingly impressive with echo cancellation and a superior ability to filter out everything that isn't part of the conversation. It will not, however, to the best of my knowledge, automatically screen out things like parental lectures or a thorough dressing-down by a disgruntled significant other.
Of course, there's always the chance it'll be all Raisinettes and apples when I open the package, but I'm betting on the chocolate. Voip internet phone-flavored chocolate. Now, with video over voip!
Next on my HoneyDo list: make the office camworthy.
Hooking up
Thursday, October 19, 2006
I've got this !@#$% voip internet phone headset, with cruddy mic quality and hot earphones and while we're at it, let's not forget the fiddly jack connection that is nothing less than the galaxy's penultimate static generator. It sucks all the fun-and-easy right out of any voip experience, trust me.
Naturally, I'm looking at USB phones. Something that's easy to pick up and answer, because I'm going to level with you, if anyone managed to immortalize the spectacle of me trying to answer a PC voip call using my Headset, we could make a fortune on one of those funniest home video shows--ahem, coordination isn't natively part of my skill set.
That shiny, silver, Enterprise-looking doohickey up there isn't a USB phone, but for $40, it'll let me plug any one of the regular old phones currently languishing in my junk drawer right into the laptop and use it for calls. It's called the V901 converter, and it acts as a USB/PSTN switch, letting you take PC or traditional calls as needed. Now that's just cool.
Filed under: I did not know that
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
I always thought that your phone number was intrinsically tied to a specific location. I mean, I know you can get a voip internet phone number that's actually a New York number even if you're really located in Los Angeles, but I had no idea that different area codes might share the same local exchange code.
See, phone numbers, regardless of whether they're voip or PSTN, are basically made up of three parts: the area code, the local exchange, and your specific location. So a number that looks like this: (323) 681-xxxx means you have a California number (323), in the city of Pasadena (681), at such-and-such a street address (xxxx). Here's the interesting part, Pasadena shares that 681 local code with a lot of other towns all over the country, including: San Francisco, Daytona Beach, Salt Lake, Detroit, and Philadelphia, to name a few. This means that if your San Francisco number isn't being used in Daytona Beach, it should be possible to hang onto your phone number but tack on a Florida area code, instead of your California one.
What a crazy concept. If you want to find out which area codes share local exchanges, go to Fone Finder and search by number using only the local exchange.
Get in character
Saturday, October 14, 2006
If your Halloween shindig has a 1950's psychorockabilly vibe, boy are you in luck. Digital Cowboy has just the retro voip internet phone you need.
Digital Cowboy is a Japanese site, but Google obligingly translates their page into a close approximation of English, with charming phrases like this:
- The eye which you saw is the classic telephone of good old days, but to tell the truth the up-to-date USB connection Internet telephone. (Translation: cue dramatic movie-of-the-week music In a world where bakelite phones still exist, nothing is as it seems. Lurking just beneath the surface...a USB voip phone.)
- Because the telephone receiver is telephone type, in the ear just fitting. Different from the earphone microphone, there is no strange feeling which is in the midst of speaking by telephone. (Translation: You're gonna love this...nothing to stick in your ear! It's classic design makes conversation comfortable and natural. Why should technology get in the way?)
- Equipping the bell speaker in the substance. The arrival sound of Skype (the classic) it expresses to real. (Translation: Our phone is Skype ready and rings for incoming calls.)
- The classic telephone it seemed, made the simple design. It is optimum as an interior. (Translation: We kept the clean, simple lines of a classic phone and updated the interior components with modern voip technology.)
The love is gone
Thursday, October 12, 2006
<rant>
I remember when DSL was a heady luxury no one could afford; not like it was even offered in our back-of-beyond area, anyhow. Seriously, more cows than people here. Even so, after years of patient waiting, when we finally saw the great DSL and cable rollouts, we jumped right in and oh--that first trip out on the Information SuperHighway with our turbocharged browser...pure farking magic and not a traffic cop in sight.
But then, after a while, enough people joined the stampede that service started getting seriously clogged up. And later, there was this ginormous merger fiasco that resulted somehow in our DSL dropping out and coming back on like every other nanosecond ALL THE FREAKING TIME. We had a good run, but at the end of the day, we were tired of the fighting and the broken promises and the relentless spending of money for pure and utter doggie do. That cable service was looking pretty darn good. Also? With the constant fluctuation in our service, we couldn't really support a voip internet phone. So we switched.
Our honeymoon over the summer was glorious, to be sure, but Honey, we really need to talk. I know you're trying to stretch your wings, evolve with the times, blah, blah, blah. But you need to stop with the lying, already. Don't tell me you're going to be having minor broadband outages from zero dark-thirty to well before dawn and then knock my service out half the night and most of the next day. And the next. No voip. No interwebs. Sigh. I will wither and die if you don't knock this shite off.
Anybody else ready for true broadband provider choice?
</rant>
V-Click: not doin' it for the folks over at Engadget
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
And it's not hard to see why. On the one hand, D-Link's upcoming V-Click WiFi/Voip phone will be able to toggle between using a wireless cell network (for your cell calls), or any available WiFi cloud (for any and all voip internet phone calls). That seems pretty high on the nifty scale, if you ask me.
The problem, I think, isn't so much them taking issue with design weaknesses (notice the plurality of that word) as it is with the part where V-Click looks like Riker got a hold of Picard's brand spanking new dual-mode phone from that last time they pulled into Achrady VII for shore leave and then when no one was looking he stuck it in the Replicator so he could have one of his very own. With a different sticker on the front, of course.
See for yourself. It looks just like a rebadge of France's Neuf Twin, or Taiwan's GW1. Would it have killed D-Link to reprogram the replicator so that battery life lasted longer than 3-5 hours? And whither the 850 MHz band?
Here's a little word problem for the kids watching at home: with an expected sticker price of $600 for Q1 2007, how long will it take the average cell phone user to accrue enough savings before this phone starts making sense?
Affiliate Payment Methods
Advertisers usually don't provide a large variety of payment methods for their affiliates. To be exact, 99% of the time there is only one method offered. Often the payments to top sellers are exceptions as advertisers give choices of how earned commissions are received.
There are pros and cons (for both affiliates and advertisers) of the commonly used payment methods:
Payment by Check
Pros: Small processing fee, Traceable payment
Cons: Slow, Can physically get lost, Mailing costs
Payment by PayPal
Pros: Fast, Free for advertiser, Traceable
Cons: Heavy transaction fee for the affiliate
Payment by Wire Transfer
Pros: Fast, Traceable
Cons: Expensive fees
Payment by Cash
Pros: well, it's cash
Cons: it never happens that you get paid in cash
The Power of Voip
If you're an IT type decision maker and you've been itching to find out what this voip stuff is all about, head over to Philadelphia The Hub on October 19 & 20 for a free, 'breakfast seminar" geared toward helping businesses understand how voip internet phone systems can fit into their telephony picture.
Located in downtown Philadelphia, in The Hub's CityView location, participants will enjoy a complimentary breakfast from The Hub's outstanding catering service, before diving into the main event. 5 separate presentations are slated between 8:15 AM and 11:00 AM, followed by a brief Q&A session:
- Voip Delivery Models: What's Best for My Business?
- Understanding Converged Data Networks
- Evaluating Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, and ShorTel Cost Models
- Case Study: The True Cost of Voip
- ShorTel Demos
The seminar touches on the different types of voip implementation, from a pure voip rollout to a melded approach and explains how voip can both streamline day-to-day operations and offer a significant reduction in telecom costs. After a mid-morning coffee and networking break, presenters lay out various cost models and get into a case study featuring a 14-site, 800 employee voip solution for the Wilson School District, which managed to save them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Finally, ShorTel winds up the morning with a hands-on voip demonstration that gives decision-makers a taste of what to expect with their voip systems.
If you can't make the October dates, there's another seminar on November 9th. For more information about the Power of Voip seminars or to fill out your registration, head over to their website.
Form W-8
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
In continuation of my earlier blog entry about tax reporting for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, let's look at the form meant for affiliates outside the United States. Both are required to be received by the advertiser prior to the first commission payment.
For non-U.S. affiliates the form is called W-8-BEN, also known as Beneficial Owner's Certificate of Foreign Status for U.S. Tax Withholding and it's very similar to Form W-9 except that one has to provide the proper information regarding the tax relationship between the affiliate's country and the United States. Form W-8 also assures the tax authorities that the "Beneficial Owner" (the affiliate) is not conducting actual business transactions with the U.S.
Affiliates outside the U.S. that have businesses in the country are required to submit other W-8 forms. If that's the case, contact an accountant to make sure your documents are correct.
The direct link to the form is http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8ben.pdf
For complete instructions visit http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8.pdf
Mac might want to get his handkerchief back
Monday, October 09, 2006
I love the Mac-PC commercials that Apple has been putting out recently and it isn't because I run a Mac. Well, actually I do run Mac. And Windows. And Linux. Does that make me a techwhore? Ahem...moving on.
Anyway, one of my all time favorites is the one where PC catches a virus and Mac bails him out with a loaned hankie. Used to be, you never had to run virus protection on your Mac...you could just get out there on that big old information superhighway and essentially leave your doors unlocked and the windows down.
Now, however, we get headlines like this, and this. Popular computer-to-computer voip internet phone application Skype is the latest to join up, having to patch a vulnerability that threatened one of two outcomes: the voip program crashed or another person could potentially gain control of your computer. Skype versions for Mac V1.5.0.79 and older are affected by this vulnerability, but you can get the fix here.
Form W-9 for Affiliates
Affiliate programs that follow the tax rules require their affiliates (U.S. citizens and resident aliens) to fill out the Internal Revenue Service Form W-9. The purpose of the form is to collect information to report affiliate commission earnings that exceed $600.00 for the previous year. The form also reports the tax withholding status of the affiliate.
Most programs ask the affiliates to download and fill out the W-9 in PDF format. The forms must always be signed. Others, like voip.com, collect the information straight through an online fill-out form. The IRS allows this option to be used by companies as long as the required fields match those on the original W-9. In most cases the completion and return of the form is a requirement to receive the first commission payment.
Once the information is collected, the advertiser sends a 1099-MISC Form to the IRS by February 1 every year for commissions earned the previous year.
The direct link to the form is: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf
Monkey say what?
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Just in time for Halloween, practical jokesters at MonkeyDoo have harnessed the power of voip internet phone and video calling to create customized prank calls you can send to your friends. Inspired by the horror movie The Ring, subscribers fill out a form containing their intended victim's cell phone number, some personal tidbit of information about that person and a message to send.
The Ring prank V1. sends a text message to the US or Canadian cell number of your choice, while V.2 sends a voip voice call to either a cell number or landline. There are 24 male and female voices available in a range of accents, including: Spanish, American or UK English, Italian, French Canadian, German, and a number of "character" voices. Each voice selection can be further modified by changing its speed, pitch, and adding special effects.
Members are limited to a total of three free pranks per day and according to the terms of service, "all information is logged for security purposes." If you attempt to use this service to send vulgar or threatening messages, or if you're caught using proxies to avoid identification, your IP (including any proxies) will be summarily banned from the system and your information will be turned over to the relevant authorities.
Seasonal Campaigns
Friday, October 06, 2006
Managed well, running your own affiliate campaigns does many good things for you. Besides tracking and channeling, campaigns are excellent tools for seasonal sales. Products and services that are highly seasonal must be supported by special promotions to maximize your revenues.
To decide what and how to prepare for this cycles take note of the following criteria:
Hot products/services: follow the consumer trends by simply reading about the market. Combine the top selling products - such as TMX Elmo - with your pre-qualified target list to ensure good conversion rate.
Holidays: always prepare special campaigns for times when consumers are spending more money (e.g. before Christmas). If you are lucky, the advertisers will support your sales with their own campaigns, which will boost your sales. One of the best features you want to pursue is to make shipping faster than usual for last minute shoppers.
Other Shopping Seasons: these periods are determined by actual seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) and by events, like going back to school. We are currently in the 4th quarter shopping season, which is the hottest period during the year, unless you're selling bikinis in Minnesota.
Just what the Doctor ordered
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Like many growing businesses, Dr. Martens AirWair (the Dr. Martens distributor for most of North and South America)discovered that their ageing PBX analog phone system was both expensive and poorly equipped to adapt to the company's changing needs.
When looking for a replacement, Dr. Martens turned to a voip internet phone system. In fact, according to Kristi Wirebaugh, Dr. Martens business analyst, they were ready to jump feet first into the world of voip as soon as they heard about all the "impressive features we could get with voip for the same price as the [other] analog system without any bells and whistles."
How long did it take to deploy the new voip system and migrate all the info? Try half a day. Yep. Half a day to get all the new equipment set up and properly configured. The new phone system helps people stay coordinated between the Oregon-based offices, warehouses, and retail stores, all the while, saving them money.
News of the cool, part: the umpteenth
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
I am utterly and completely hooked on all the unusual applications for voip internet phones. They're often an elegant solution to particularly difficult problems that might well be unsolvable, but for voip's extreme flexibility. Talk about your wow factor.
For instance, Stena Drilling, a global leader in independent drilling, recently decided to heave their old PBX system overboard (well, probably not literally overboard) and replace it with voip. Their biggest complaint was a lack of flexibility. Drilling platforms tend to be somewhat mobile, which traditional phone systems have a hard time handling--imagine moving your entire office building, a la Howl's Moving Castle.
Now, with their IP-based phone system, they don't have to wait days just for engineers to get out to the rigs and reprogram telephone ports or headsets; they can configure, add and make changes to the voip system completely in-house. Their people can easily communicate on the rigs and telecommute from home and the company expects to see a significant cost savings in both what they spend and down time wasted waiting for outside engineering support. Plus, as an added and unexpected bonus, their new voip system is completely compatible with Stena's pre-existing videoconferencing hardware.
So let's recap: they solved their problems, the new voip system works with existing equipment, and they're expecting to save a bundle of money while streamlining their operation. What's not to love?
Focus on International Rates
Voice-over IP and traditional phone agents, affiliates and call centers often make their selling point by focusing on the international rates provided by the companies they represent.
The good side of the story is that the market for international phone calls is growing rapidly and there is plenty of room for more expansion and competition.
The hard part is to keep the information updated. Rates for international calls change all the time and affiliates must put a lot of time keeping those comparison charts fresh on their websites. At least the calling codes don't change.
There is one smart expense affiliates and agents should not save money on; if you are going after the 'international calls' market hire a professional translator and make the most important information available in a few major languages. You don't need to translate everything, just the good sales stuff.
In synch with voip
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Distance learning might just be the single most empowering educational innovation in the last 100 years. Judging from the latest Census results, there are a whole lot of people living wonderful lives that just don't fit into cookie cutter norms.
Which is fine, until you get a wild hair to do some crazy thing like finishing that degree or going for your Master's. It's not easy navigating a higher education system that was designed for wide-eyed 18 year olds, whose only responsibility beyond getting their homework done is deciding where they're going to party next.
eLearning helps make education accessible for those who have to support themselves, take care of families, or are already working in their chosen field. What started out as independent correspondence courses evolved into asynchronous interactive visual learning experiences, which are substantially more engaging than paging through a text all by your lonesome. Voip adds synchronous communication to the equation, creating an "best practices" learning environment for students.
Running a class over voip internet phone systems allows instructors to simulate a face-to-face interaction. Students have the opportunity to take part in discussion and ask questions through a chat interface or using voice. Video over voip lets students see their instructor during lectures or have a "normal" conversation during office hours. Ultimately, voip makes virtual, real-time learning possible, opening university doors for millions of prospective students who would otherwise have no chance to pursue their educational goals.
Writing Press Releases
If you are an established affiliate you may want to consider writing and sending out press releases.
Press releases serve a number of goals. First, they are meant to announce the news about your business. Second, they are excellent public relations and communications tools. Third, they reach media people, who might pick up and develop your story. And last but not least they create great content if you insert them into your website.
Just like your regular site content, your published press releases can - and should - be optimized for search, including the right keywords and URLs - if it's electronically distributed.
You can send out press releases through your own database of media channels or use one of the pricey but well-established services, such as PR Newswire or PR Web. Both of these distribute press releases electronically; over the Internet, through email and RSS feeds. PR Newswire also reaches a large printed network.
To build your own media list just research the names and contact information of newspaper editors, television stations, magazines, and radio stations in your selected market. These channels all provide the needed information for press release purposes.
Wonder if PETA knows...
Monday, October 02, 2006
Pushing the boundaries again, the Hulger design gurus have teamed up with luxury LeatherMeister Bill Amberg to produce a truly edgeworthy collaboration of one-off voip internet phones. Aptly named, the Hide and Speak, this collection takes Hulger's already unconventional phones and wraps them in designer leathers and exotic skins.
The new phones were unveiled in time for London's 2006 Design Week and, while they aren't available for purchase yet, you can sign up to be automatically notified as soon as they hit the market.
Covered in materials like neon blue snakeskin and bubblegum pink calf hide, the Hulger/Amberg phones are unlike any other voip phone out there. If you're not put off by using animal hide for decoration, they'll make a beautiful and functional addition to your desktop.
However, in light of PETA's recent Steve Irwin debacle, Hulger and Amberg might want to consider whipping up a series of snazzy little designer phone cases, waterproof of course...I'm pretty sure whatever PETA might throw out is guaranteed to wreak havoc with your phone's delicate innards.
Choose Your Affiliate Program
If you are ready to be an affiliate but don't know what programs you should join then here is little help. There are literally thousands of programs available and many competing ones are offering similar affiliate plans making your pick even harder.
Assuming the industry choice is irrelevant here, try to make your selection based on the following criteria:
Success: Make sure the program is going well and has proven success stories.
Competition: Research who else is selling the same products and services. The more you know about other affiliates the more likely you can make a better decision on whether to join the program or not.
Payment Terms: Read the payment schedules and rules carefully. Go for the programs that pay more frequently.
Tracking: In general, the more control you have over your sales tracking the more reliable the program is - at least for your side. A dependable tracking system is also the key to avoid disputes over commissions.
Support: Good programs provide internal online, e-mail, chat and phone support for affiliates. Programs that offer one e-mail address or just a fill-out form are less responsive making your daily activities more difficult.
Flexibility: Hoping your sales will pick up, make sure the advertiser is willing to negotiate. Many programs with large networks lack the ability or the willingness to sit down with you to discuss special deals.
Support Materials: Browse the online & offline materials provided by the advertiser. These can tell you a lot about their programs and their ability to adjust to market needs.