This is a guest post from <strong>CT Moore</strong>part of the affiliate marketing team at <a href="http://www.shareresults.com" target="_blank">ShareResults.com</a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cool-photos/486199850/" target="_blank"><img class="alignright" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/198/486199850_881ef841b8_m.jpg" alt="" width="166" height="240" align="right" /></a>In time of economic slowdown, education is a potentially lucrative vertical. As companies down-size or close their doors, many consumers start considering other career options and looking into furthering their education.
Recently, I had a chance to interview <strong>Gen Tanabe</strong> of <a href="http://www.supercollege.com" target="_blank">SuperCollege.com</a>, a portal that helps consumers get into and pay for college and other adult learning programs. It features college and scholarship search functions, forums, and a variety of expert pieces that college applicants can use to find a college that?s right for them and the resources to finance their higher education.
Gen explained how community, content, and affiliate reporting and management are behind the success of SuperCollege.com. In a <a title="affiliate marketing blog" href="http://blog.shareresults.com/interview-with-supercollegecom/" target="_blank">second part of the interview</a>, Gen also discusses how he thinks affiliate marketing will evolve, as well as how SuperCollege.com is using social media to drive sales.
<strong>CT Moore: How long have you been in affiliate marketing?
Super College:</strong> We are actually a "returning" user to affiliate marketing. We started way back in the late nineties when we launched our website, and at first were disappointed with the results. We ended up leaving affiliate marketing and focused on more traditional display advertising.
However, several years ago we began to experiment with affiliate marketing programs again and were surprised to discover the range of products offered and how effective well targeted offers performed. In part, this was probably due to the fact that our online community is much more firmly established now -- which we believe is important to creating engagement that leads to positive response.
<strong>CT: What kind of promotion methods you currently use?
SC:</strong> We are 100% about community and content. We promote our sites the old fashioned way with links from high school and college websites and relying on our deep content to create high search engine ranking.
<strong>CT: What are the top challenges you encounter dealing with merchants?
SC:</strong> So far we have not had any issues with merchants. Thanks ShareResults!
<strong>CT: What really makes an affiliate program stand out to you? Tools, reports, software, support, etc?
SC: </strong>Reporting, reporting, reporting. Being able to see real time reporting on all aspects of a campaign (clicks, leads, approvals, earnings, etc.) is critical. Without the reporting tools we have no idea if we are presenting the best offers to our users.
User attention is a precious commodity. There are times where we will swap an offer within only a few hours because the reporting is showing us that it's not working. We love this degree of granularity.
<strong>CT: What do you expect of your affiliate manager?
SC:</strong> There are never enough hours in day to do everything. We love that our affiliate manager keeps us informed with unobtrusive emails to let us know of new promotions and updates to existing programs. We don't have time to log in everyday to check on new advertisers or even new promotions. It's nice to know that our affiliate manager is doing this for us and making sure we stay informed.
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<em><strong>CT Moore</strong> is part of the affiliate marketing team at <a href="http://www.shareresults.com" target="_blank">ShareResults.com</a>. A relationship-based affiliate marketing agency, Share Results works closely with affiliates to help them optimize their marketing campaigns. The software that powers their network is also available for white labeling.</em>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cool-photos/486199850/" target="_blank"><img class="alignright" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/198/486199850_881ef841b8_m.jpg" alt="" width="166" height="240" align="right" /></a>In time of economic slowdown, education is a potentially lucrative vertical. As companies down-size or close their doors, many consumers start considering other career options and looking into furthering their education.
Recently, I had a chance to interview <strong>Gen Tanabe</strong> of <a href="http://www.supercollege.com" target="_blank">SuperCollege.com</a>, a portal that helps consumers get into and pay for college and other adult learning programs. It features college and scholarship search functions, forums, and a variety of expert pieces that college applicants can use to find a college that?s right for them and the resources to finance their higher education.
Gen explained how community, content, and affiliate reporting and management are behind the success of SuperCollege.com. In a <a title="affiliate marketing blog" href="http://blog.shareresults.com/interview-with-supercollegecom/" target="_blank">second part of the interview</a>, Gen also discusses how he thinks affiliate marketing will evolve, as well as how SuperCollege.com is using social media to drive sales.
<strong>CT Moore: How long have you been in affiliate marketing?
Super College:</strong> We are actually a "returning" user to affiliate marketing. We started way back in the late nineties when we launched our website, and at first were disappointed with the results. We ended up leaving affiliate marketing and focused on more traditional display advertising.
However, several years ago we began to experiment with affiliate marketing programs again and were surprised to discover the range of products offered and how effective well targeted offers performed. In part, this was probably due to the fact that our online community is much more firmly established now -- which we believe is important to creating engagement that leads to positive response.
<strong>CT: What kind of promotion methods you currently use?
SC:</strong> We are 100% about community and content. We promote our sites the old fashioned way with links from high school and college websites and relying on our deep content to create high search engine ranking.
<strong>CT: What are the top challenges you encounter dealing with merchants?
SC:</strong> So far we have not had any issues with merchants. Thanks ShareResults!
<strong>CT: What really makes an affiliate program stand out to you? Tools, reports, software, support, etc?
SC: </strong>Reporting, reporting, reporting. Being able to see real time reporting on all aspects of a campaign (clicks, leads, approvals, earnings, etc.) is critical. Without the reporting tools we have no idea if we are presenting the best offers to our users.
User attention is a precious commodity. There are times where we will swap an offer within only a few hours because the reporting is showing us that it's not working. We love this degree of granularity.
<strong>CT: What do you expect of your affiliate manager?
SC:</strong> There are never enough hours in day to do everything. We love that our affiliate manager keeps us informed with unobtrusive emails to let us know of new promotions and updates to existing programs. We don't have time to log in everyday to check on new advertisers or even new promotions. It's nice to know that our affiliate manager is doing this for us and making sure we stay informed.
<p align="center"><span style="color: #999999;">???????????????????????????????????????????</span></p>
<em><strong>CT Moore</strong> is part of the affiliate marketing team at <a href="http://www.shareresults.com" target="_blank">ShareResults.com</a>. A relationship-based affiliate marketing agency, Share Results works closely with affiliates to help them optimize their marketing campaigns. The software that powers their network is also available for white labeling.</em>
