We’re thrilled to announce the release of our newly upgraded Merchant Explorer. Equipped with updated features, it makes for a better user experience, improves the planning of your editorial calendar and provides further insight into which potential links provide the most value for your content.
The new features of the Merchant Explorer include the determination of your eligibility to affiliate at the campaign level, merchant-approved countries for incoming consumer traffic, and whether a selected campaign will affiliate via cost-per-acquisition (CPA) or cost-per-click (CPC) pricing models.
Program eligibility provides insight into whether or not a publisher’s product links have revenue potential with a specific merchant. When logged in, a publisher has visibility to three levels of eligibility.
The updated country feature provides understanding into where merchants will accept consumer traffic from. Publishers with an international audience will find this information is especially useful. Additionally, the new Merchant Explorer comes with upgraded search and filter controls.
We proudly work with over 40,000 merchants that want to be the destination of your influential links. These extensive relationships afford you top negotiated commision rates and CPCs. With the updated Merchant Explorer all the information you need to know to be successful is at your fingertips.
Written by Hanna Fritzinger
Tags: launch, merchant explorer, tech, upgrade, VigLink Posted in News and Updates
The inaugural San Francisco Text Meetup is scheduled to take place at the VigLink offices Tuesday, February 10th at 6:45 PM. VigLinkers Adam Pingel, Katrin Tomanek and Gabor Melli are teaming up with Alexy Khrabrov of Nitro as hosts. They were inspired to start this meetup after realizing most meet-ups tend to be technology oriented, yet so many companies are building text related products.
The San Francisco Text Meetup will provide as a social venue to bring this group of people together to discuss best practices and so much more. When asked what he was most looking forward to, Adam Pingel stated, “I’ve meet many of these people online but never had the chance to physically connect with them. I’m really looking forward to properly meeting some of the key figures in the text community.”
Alexy is a founder of Scala By the Bay which was sponsored by VigLink, and is currently leading the process of planning Text by the Bay. The SF Text Meetup will be a preview of what’s the come at the conference which is scheduled to take place in April. Adam described the uniqueness of this meetup as it blends the academic community and industrial users. The evening will include mingling, pitches from the audience, and a presentation by Adam Pingel, Katrin Tomanek and Gabor Melli. Grant Ingersoll, CTO of Lucidworks, will close the meetup with an overview of the current status of the most trusted open-source SOLR in the world.
If you’re unable to attend, you can watch it here after the event! We look forward to seeing you Tuesday!
Tags: Meetup, San Francisco, scala, sf text meetup, tech, VigLink Posted in News and Updates
Last week I attended and presented at the SoFabU On the Road event in LA on behalf of VigLink discussing all things content monetization with one of our fabulous publishers, Heidi Nazarudin. The event was filled with top influencers from the LA area and with so many fantastic tips being shared, I wanted to post the highlights from the event.
SEO and Social Media
Alea Milham, Founder of lifestyle blog Premeditated Leftovers, shared advice on how bloggers can strategically use SEO and social media to increase traffic and income. Her top tips included:
Content Monetization Strategies
We partnered with Heidi Nazarudin on a panel to discuss how bloggers can best monetize their content. Heidi’s number one tip for bloggers is to be able to explain what your blog is about in two minutes. If you can’t do that, then you have a content problem. I also shared how VigLink helps bloggers optimize their content for monetization and turn their passion into a business.
Bloggers and Brands
The lunchtime brand panel included reps from Johnny Rockets, TONI&GUY USA, STI – The Drive Experience Company and Muller Quaker where they shared their top preferences on working with brand influencers.
We had a great time at the event meeting fabulous bloggers, answering questions about driving commerce through content, eating delicious Johnny Rockets burgers and listening to Miss California talk about social media and inspiration. We look forward to the next SoFabU event in Miami on Feb. 28th, we hope to see you there! For details and to RSVP visit: http://bit.ly/1ucks2L
Written by Lucy Bartlett
Posted in Content-Driven Commerce, Events, News and Updates
It’s been a big year already at VigLink and we’re excited to announce that we’re expanding our operations to New York! Mike Stigliano has joined the VigLink Executive team as our Head of East Coast Sales. He will lead East Coast publisher development increasing VigLink’s relationships with traditional media.
“VigLink sits uniquely at the intersection of content and commerce at a time when publishers are increasingly looking for ways to diversify and grow their revenues,” said Mike Stigliano, Head of East Coast Sales at VigLink. “I’m very excited to join the VigLink team to help further the mission of making all content intelligent and valuable for publishers. I look forward to establishing a presence for VigLink in New York and helping publishers leverage the VigLink platform.”
“I am thrilled to have Mike joining the VigLink team as Head of East Coast Sales,” said Josh Jaffe, VP of Business Development at VigLink. “His vast experience and leadership will be paramount as we expand our operations to the East Coast and grow our business.”
Mike has previously worked in sales and business development roles at large media companies including Conde Nast and Hearst, and more recently for early stage technology companies. Mike led Business Development in New York for LinkSmart, a company acquired by VigLink, where he was instrumental in building the publisher network from the ground up. He has also worked in Business Development at SpotXchange, a video advertising platform, focusing on building partnerships with premium publishers. Mike holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business as well as a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Delaware.
Tags: eastern region, mike stigliano, tech, VigLink Posted in News and Updates
We are excited to announce our newest addition to the executive team, Mike Campbell! Mike joins the VigLink executive team with more than a decade of digital marketing and advertising experience. He will lead the product team to update and expand VigLink products which offer publishers a powerful way to monetize their content and offer advertisers an effective marketing channel.
“I’m delighted to join Oliver and the rest of the VigLink team in their vision to make every link intelligent and valuable,” said Mike Campbell, V.P. of Product at VigLink. “VigLink’s strong publisher relationships, close merchant ties, and top-notch technology have made VigLink the leader in this space.”
Mike previously led product management at Twelvefold where he worked with the world’s largest brands, including Intel and Toyota, to help them build rich relationships with consumers online. He was also the V.P. of Product at LookSmart where he established mutually beneficial relationships between advertisers and publishers.
Mike holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics from Harvard University.
Tags: Mike Campbell, news, Product, tech, VigLink Posted in News and Updates
The Performance Marketing Association is a wonderful asset that provides publishers with industry insights and tools to help them optimize their practice. One important offering of the PMA is their numerous councils including the one most dear to VigLink’s heart, the Publisher Recruitment Council which aims to, “attract new publishers to performance marketing and help publishers identify new monetization strategies and opportunities”. In doing so, they review different monetization strategies and evaluate key aspects of each, including pros/cons and use cases.
In their latest white paper the Publisher Recruitment Council reviewed Google AdSense and came to the conclusion that there are three main benefits that are offered by affiliate links, but not Google Adsense. One example being that affiliate links tend to be far more relevant than Google AdSense. Tricia Meyer, experienced this firsthand when she was curious as to why her traffic was high yet revenue low. She describes looking back at her content and seeing “in the middle of (her) post about Champagne was an ad for an auto parts merchant.” Due to the irrelevance of the ad, it wasn’t surprising that despite her high volumes of traffic, she was seeing very low conversion and revenue. With Tricia’s vast experience using numerous monetization strategies also comes valuable insights. In a recent podcast she participated in with Lisa Picarille, who sits on the PMA board alongside Oliver Roup, they describe the different councils of the PMA and how they can assist various parts of a publisher’s overall monetization strategy.
We sat down with Lucy Bartlett, our Manager, Marketing and chair of the Publisher Recruitment Council, to get her thoughts on Google Adsense…
Q: For those who might not know, can you explain how Google AdSense monetizes blogs’ traffic.
A: “Google AdSense is a form of display advertising that is targeted toward your audience and is, to some extent, customizable. It’s a free service and payment received on a PPC basis.”
Q: Other than irrelevancy, loss of control, and loss of revenue what other issues have you heard of people having with Google Adsense?
A: “There are certainly many positive aspects about Google AdSense but the algorithm is not perfect. I’ve heard of many instances where the ads are not quite as targeted and useful to their audiences as publishers would hope and they have then not helped to enhance the reader’s experience.”
Q: How does Google AdSense impact the user experience of those visiting your site?
A: “When it works well and is relevant to your audience it can be a positive experience to your audience. That being said, if it isn’t aligned with your content it can be distracting and take away from the aesthetic and intrinsic value your content affords.”
Q: Who is a publisher that is using Google AdSense in conjunction with affiliate links and doing it well?
A: “Design Milk does a wonderful job of placing Google AdSense banners strategically throughout the site. In addition to the banner ads they also use VigLink to curate monetized links within their content.”
Q: What are the insights you get from Google AdSense compared with insights provided by VigLink?
A: “With VigLink there are deep insights into your audiences’ experience such as where they go after they leave your site, which content is most appealing to them, and which brands they are most engaged with.”
To learn more about the other various benefits of using affiliate links over Google AdSense be sure to download the free white paper provided by the Publisher Recruitment Council!
Tags: Affiliate Links, Google AdSense, Monetization, Performance Marketing Association, PMA, Publisher Recruitment Council Posted in News and Updates
Happy Holidays from our family to yours!
We wish you a very happy and healthy new year. We’re excited for another year of hard work and innovation. Be sure to stay tuned for many exciting updates during 2015. For more pictures from our annual holiday party, check out our Facebook album!
Tags: christmas, Holiday, new year, tech, VigLink Posted in News and Updates
Last week, Viglink attended BlogHer Pro and we’re thrilled to share some of the best tips we picked up from the wonderful speakers and attendees. To kick off the conference, the BlogHer team enforced the value of influencer content showing the evolution of advertisers’ monetization strategy over the last ten years.
Know Your Value
Today, brands recognize the importance of user-generated content due to publishers strong influence across their audiences. Various publishers have the ability to develop content around a brand or product in their own voice. This is very powerful, especially to brands which now realize interest across online networks is just as important as the product they are selling. The term for brands being integrated into content where readers and users are is commonly referred to as native advertising. Along with native advertising, a couple other key topics of BlogHer Pro 2014 also included viewability and video.
Viewability is Key
Viewability isn’t a metric that all publishers have easy access to, for example Google Adsense does not provide publishers with their viewability. However, many of the BlogHer network have full confidence that will change in the near future. An ad is deemed “viewable” when an audience member is exposed to it for one full second while not scrolling the page. This is more difficult than it might seem. Follow these great key tips to help with viewability and minimize “missed opportunities”…
On the contrary, there are several factors that decrease viewability such as too many ads concentrated in one place and users scrolling down the page before ads have time to load. The goal of most publishers should be ~70% viewability.
The Importance of Video
Kate Ferrara of Hearst Digital Media presented audiences with staggering statistics on video. For example, online video ad revenue will reach nearly 5 billion in 2016 up from 2.8 billion in 2014, while TV will decline 3% per year during the same time. Additionally, content with video embedded performs 24% better than content without. One key advantage to using video is increasing audiences’ time spent on site. This is strongly considered by both Google and Facebook. Kate’s top tips for optimizing your videos include…
Videos over a minute are likely to perform poorly over social, and those without overlays make it difficult for viewers to engage with the video unless they use sound. When optimizing videos for Youtube write detailed metadata following keyword strategies and annotate the video with call to auctions and links to related content. To optimize for Facebook, which has 1 billion video views a day, it’s imperative to upload videos directly into the Facebook player where the video begins automatically when a user hovers over it.
Stay tuned for further tips and posts from BlogHer Pro 2014!
Posted in News and Updates
Today, we are thrilled to announce an exciting upgrade to VigLink Anywhere with a simple, yet powerful bookmarklet feature. The bookmarklet lets publishers build links more quickly and efficiently, particularly when they’re intended for use in social media.
Using the bookmarklet, you can create an Anywhere link in one click, without needing to leave the merchant’s product page. With a second click, the URL can be converted into a Bitly link. With a third click, you can share the link directly on Facebook or Twitter, or copy it to the clipboard for use elsewhere. Sharing affiliated links on social media has never been easier!
The bookmarklet lets you choose a default Campaign for links’ revenue, and also to override it on a link-by-link basis. Finally, the bookmarklet plays nicely with the pages it’s loaded on, going out of its way not to interfere with scripts (such as jQuery), and cleaning itself up when it’s dismissed. You can share a page and earn, all while enjoying an undisturbed browsing experience!
Download the bookmarklet today!
Tags: Bookmarklet, Feature, Release, tech, VigLink Posted in News and Updates
We are excited to announce our newest addition to the executive team, Eric Soli. A veteran of the advertising technology industry with deep experience leading teams domestically and abroad for a range of companies, Eric will oversee VigLink’s finance function and work alongside the executive team to grow the company through new market opportunities.
“Eric marks another great addition to our VigLink team,” said CEO, Oliver Roup. “His experience and skillset within the fast-growing field of advertising technology will be instrumental as we continue to evolve and scale our business models.”
“When I heard about this opportunity, I really got excited,” said Eric. “I’m looking forward to working with this talented management team that Oliver assembled and provide advertisers and product enthusiasts with additional revenue opportunities through our evolving real-time auction platform.”
Prior to joining VigLink, Eric was Vice President of Finance and Operations with advertising technology leader Zeta Interactive, which acquired his former company Adchemy Actions in 2013. At Zeta Interactive, Eric led the integration of infrastructure and multiple operational and reporting platforms. Eric led Finance and Operations at Adchemy Actions from 2008 through the acquisition, during which time the company grew from $28 to $60 million in revenue.
Before entering the advertising technology industry, Eric led various finance and management functions for several companies, including Catalyst Semiconductor (acq. by Cree, Inc.), Spectrian Corporation (acq. by REMEC, Inc.), Levi Strauss & Company, and Ernst and Young.
Eric holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from the University of Nevada and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Tags: Eric Soli, Finance, tech, VigLink, VP of Finance Posted in News and Updates
