Lightspeed Affiliates Blog

Changes in Management

2005-04-12T17:27:00.000-04:00

Hello to all Lightspeed Affiliates:

We are transitioning management of the program this week. I won't be working on this particular program as of tomorrow but will be passing my management responsibilites over to other Lightspeed Research staff.

I'm proud of the growth I've seen and have you, our Lightspeed Partners, to thank! I've also had fun posting polls, chatting with publishers in the forums, and updating you on various program activities like our bonuses, industry news, and more.

I remain intrigued by the ever-changing technologies that keep this industry alive and challenging. I will continue working in the affiliate marketing industry in both a manager and affiliate role. I hope to see you around and hear from you at some point, as this is a small world at times.

In the meantime, please write Lightspeed at affiliates@lightspeedresearch.com with any questions or concerns.

Take Care,
Michelle

Coming soon ... new promotions and fresh creatives!

2005-03-04T15:55:00.000-05:00

Be on the "look-out" for some affiliate promotions in the very near future. We're planning some springtime promotions to reward all affiliates for their performance. You will also have access to new creatives.

I'll be writing with more updates soon.

Be Well,
Michelle O'Grady
Affiliate Manager

New Affiliate Poll: How many hand-code, how many WYSIWYG?

2005-02-08T16:24:00.000-05:00

Several publishers wrote me about the challenges of learning HTML to build their site(s), which motivated me to post a new affiliate poll. I asked how many publishers hand-code, how many use WYSIWYG editors, and how many use text editors, or other software.

Here are the results:

26.14% are hand-coders:
2.27% use nline editors provided by their hosting service
17.05% use text editors (like Notepad, Macromedia Homesite, NoteTab)
32.95 use WYSIWYG editors (like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Arachnophilia)
18.18% use more than just one site builiding method
3.41% identified other site building techniques

Care to read the comments? Click here.

Announcing the Winners of the "Turn up the Volume" Affiliate Bonus Program

2005-01-10T18:46:00.000-05:00

The results are in, and I'm pleased to announce the winners of the year-end "Turn up the Volume" Affiliate Bonus Program.

First Place
Congratulations to TrafficSwarm, who will receive a $1,000.00 commission bonus for driving the highest volume of leads from November through December, 2004.

Second Place
Congratulations to Amazing-Offers, who will receive a $500.00 commission bonus for driving the second highest volume of leads from November through December, 2004.

Third Place
Congratulations to Surveymania, who will receive a $200.00 commission bonus for driving the third highest volume of leads from November through December, 2004.

I'd like to also extend a big thanks to all Lightspeed Affiliates for taking part in the Bonus Program. We're looking forward to working with you in 2005 and providing more incentives to benefit all publishers.

Kindly,
Michelle

Michelle O'Grady
Affiliate Manager
Lightspeed Research
http://affiliates.lightspeedresearch.com

How do publishers gear up for 2005?

2004-12-29T13:50:00.000-05:00

The following poll was posted on the ABestWeb forum last week:

According to a recent study by digital marketing technology provider, Atlas DMT, as reported by the E-Commerce Times, the 2004 holiday shopping season’s busiest days have come and gone (it was last week). How do you stay productive during a post-holiday season?

Here are the stats:
55% said they post new content
2% said they update landing pages and/or creative
0% said they check links
0% said they re-read content
27% said they have other ways to stay productive.

The feedback received from the poll was impressive, with most publishers writing in to say they have absolutely no "down-time" after the Holidays. Here’s a good size list of projects that keep these publishers very busy after the Holiday season has passed:

- Cleaning up/tweaking/fine-tuning of pages and metatags;
- Identifying new affiliate programs;
- Planning of post-Christmas promotions;
- Planning for Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. was described as a "never-ending cycle";
- Conducting "major site updates" and planning for the post-holiday/New Year’s resolution health craze; (the term "busy work" was frowned upon by a few publishers);
- Putting together a "to-do" list for upcoming months;
- Adding new products for future holidays;
- Moving pages between sites/consolidating;
- Taking down old merchants;
- Removing old content and under-performing pages;
- Gearing up for year-round sales;
- Developing new links for January;
- Building out some sections on existing sites with lucrative areas;
- Building new pages around new merchants;
- Planning/outlining for content development;
- Looking over Spring and Summer sites;
- Taking lessons from this Christmas and getting ready for next year;
- Clean up/organize office;
- Emptying out email accounts;
- Analyzing EPC by merchant for year and driving traffic to them;
- Looking for new niche merchants;
- Learning how to "make more with less" in 2005

Just a few publishers wrote in to say that they relax after the holidays doing the following:
- Admiring handiwork;
- Planning a kitchen-remodeling project;
- Not doing "squat" until after New Years excepet sitting back with "contented smile and count the money";
- Taking a vacation;
- Doing shopping;
- Crocheting pot holders;
- Playing pin ball when bored;
- Taking a break.

The feedback from this poll gave a great view of how different publishers gear up for the New Year and new promotions. Hope it’s of interest to you. More polls to come from Lightspeed Research in 2005.

2004 Post Holiday Lightspeed Affiliate Newsletter

2004-12-29T11:12:00.000-05:00

Illuminating News, Tips and Ideas! http://affiliates.lightspeedresearch.com

With the Holidays behind us, the New Year fast approaching, and the up-coming announcement of our year-end "Turn up the Volume" bonus winners, we've been very busy at Lightspeed Research (as I'm sure you can relate). We'd like to remind you that on Monday, January 10th, we'll be awarding cash bonuses to the three Lightspeed Affiliates who drive the highest volume of leads from November 1st through December 31st. The bonuses will be awarded as follows:

Highest Volume Driver gets $1,000.00
Second Highest Volume Driver gets $500.00
Third Highest Volume Driver gets $200.00

Will you be one of the winners?

One other reminder: We've increased December commissions by $0.50 for all Lightspeed Affiliates who joined the program prior to December 1, 2004. We hope the bonus and the commission increases demonstrate our appreciation to you as a valued Web Partner. Although the commissions will revert back to the original pay-out of $0.75, we will be planning more affiliate incentives for next year.
Although we're all very busy dealing with our year-end business, it's customary to look back upon this year and review what has been accomplished. We've provided a brief "2004 review" on the Lightspeed Affiliate Program accomplishments along with an overview of our plans going into the New Year.

In This Issue

Top 10 List of Lightspeed Affiliates
Top Earner for November 2004
Accomplishments of 2004
Looking Ahead into 2005
Holiday Down Time
Marketing Tool of the Month
Lightspeed Affiliate Blog Postings
Lightspeed Affiliate Forum Postings

Top 10 Lightspeed Affiliates

Traffic Swarm
Amazing-Offers
PaidSurveys.com
ThePaid.com
Paid Survey
Get Paid Guides
SurveyMania.com
NX2
Six Questions
JustMoneyTalk.com

Top Earning Affiliate

Congratulations are in order again to Traffic Swarm , our Top Performing Affiliate in November! TrafficSwarm is an Internet marketing service that delivers free, targeted traffic to Web sites in its expanding network. As the leading online traffic syndicate, TrafficSwarm's mission is to help webmasters, small businesses, and “netpreneurs” market their sites more effectively to achieve their long term performance goals.

Accomplishments of 2004

The Lightspeed Affiliate Program announced it’s launch on September 9th of this year and has quickly grown into a quality program with well over 1,000 affiliate Web Partners, managed both in-house and via the Commission Junction network. There’s a lot to look forward to as a Lightspeed Affiliate, but let’s take a moment to look at what’s been achieved thus far:

Lightspeed Affiliate Blog launched early September, 2004
Private Lightspeed Affiliate Forum launched 9/16/04
Affiliate Poll on Publisher Incentives posted 9/29/04
AffiliateTip listed Lightspeed Affiliate Program in their October list of Top 10 Affiliate Programs
Affiliate Poll on Traffic Building Tips posted 10/14/04
20 Low/No Cost Ways to Generate More Traffic posted 10/21/04
Lightspeed year-end “Turn up the Volume” Affiliate Bonus Program announced on 11/8/04
First Issue of Lightspeed Affiliate Newsletter sent 11/10/04
Temporary commission increases for month of December offered to all Lightspeed Affiliates on 12/7/04
Affiliate Poll on Staying Productive during Holidays posted 12/20/04
Lightspeed Affiliate Bonus Program Winners announced on January 10th.

Looking Ahead

In 2005, you will hear and see much more of the Lightspeed Affiliate Program. There will be more blog postings, informative affiliate polls, forum discussions, affiliate contests, and special promotions.
What we most want to accomplish early on in the year is to establish better one-on-one communication directly with you. We want to make contact with you, to talk about the program, how it’s working for you and how we can improve the Lightspeed Affiliate Program overall. We will be planning to attend upcoming conferences and events and would love the opportunity meet you in person.
In the meantime, please take a moment to write to us with this feedback, in either the
ABestWeb forum or the RevenueSource forum. You can also email us directly at affiliates@lightspeedresearch.com. Your feedback is always grealy appreciated.

Got Holiday Downtime?

According to a recent study by digital marketing technology provider, Atlas DMT, as reported by the E-Commerce Times, the 2004 holiday shopping season’s busiest day was projected to be the week of December 13th.

Site-Reference suggests doing the following to stay productive during a ho-hum post-holiday sales season:

Re-assess your marketing strategy;
Host fresh, original content (RSS feeds, polls, contests, etc.) for repeat sales;
Update landing pages;
Use free web-page analysis sites;
Check all links for functionality;
Read through your content.

Marketing Tools of the Month

Do you know which keywords are on your Web site? Do you know how often they appear on each page? How about the same for your competitor sites?

GoRank.com offers a neat little tool to help you with your keyword density analysis and that of 4 competitor sites. If you have too high of a keyword density, you might be in risk of being omitted from some search engines. Too low can put you at a disadvantage.

Lightspeed Affiliate Blog Postings

How do you stay productive during Holiday down time? (posted 12/20/04)
Do you target car-buyers? (posted 12/20/04)
A Sincere “Thank-You” from Lightspeed Research (posted 12/7/04)

You can read all Lightspeed Affiliate Blog postings through the link below; be sure to bookmark this URL address in your favorites file: http://lightspeedaffiliates.blogspot.com/.

Lightspeed Affiliate Forum

For your convenience, we’re now running two affiliate forums; one is hosted at ABestWeb and the other is found at the new popular forum, Revenue Source. We’re presently running the following poll in both forums: How do you stay productive during Holiday down time?

Your votes, opinions, questions and comments are always greatly encouraged.

Thanks for reading the December Lightspeed Affiliate Newsletter.

Take Care,
Lightspeed Affiliate Team
Lightspeed Research
180 Mount Airy Road, Suite 100
Basking Ridge, New Jersey 07920
affiliates@lightspeedresearch.com

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How do you make the most of holiday down-time?

2004-12-20T17:05:00.000-05:00

According to a recent study by digital marketing technology provider, Atlas DMT, as reported by the E-Commerce Times, the 2004 holiday shopping season’s busiest days have come and gone (it was last week).

Site-Reference.com suggests doing the following to stay productive during a ho-hum post-holiday sales season:
- Re-assess your marketing strategy;
- Host fresh, original content (RSS feeds, polls, contests, etc.) for repeat sales;
- Update landing pages;
- Use free web-page analysis sites;
- Check all links for functionality
- Read through your content;

How do you stay productive during a post-holiday season? Please take our poll and send us feedback.

Take Care,
Michelle

Michelle O'Grady, Affiliate Manager
Lightspeed Affiliate Program
Visit the Lightspeed Affiliate Forum
Not a Lightspeed Affiliate? Join Now.

Do you target car-buyers?

2004-12-20T10:36:00.000-05:00

The Lightspeed Affiliate Program is looking for a few publishers and/or Lightspeed Affiliates whose Web sites target car-buyers who may have purchased a car in the past 2 years. Do you meet that criteria? Interested in talking about an extended offer? Please write me at affiliates@lightspeedresearch.com.

Hope you're enjoying the Holiday Season.

Take Care,
Michelle

Michelle O'Grady, Affiliate Manager
Lightspeed Affiliate Program
http://affiliates.lightspeedresearch.com

Visit the Lightspeed Affiliate Forum

Not a Lightspeed Affiliate? Join Now.

A Sincere "Thank-You" from Lightspeed Research

2004-12-07T10:10:00.000-05:00

As we approach the Holidays and the coming New Year, we would like to thank Lightspeed Affiliates for being important Web partners and working to build membership to the Lightspeed Consumer Panel. To demonstrate our appreciation, we have increased affiliate pay-outs for the month of December by $0.50. Individual letters have gone out to everyone announcing this December commission increase and providing further details.

We wish you and yours Wonderful Holiday Season and Happy New Year!

Michelle O'Grady, Affiliate Manager
Lightspeed Affiliate Program
http://affiliates.lightspeedresearch.com

Not a Lightspeed Affiliate? Join Now.
Visit the Lightspeed Affiliate Forum

November Lightspeed Affiliate Newsletter

2004-11-19T13:40:00.000-05:00

Illuminating News, Tips and Ideas!
http://affiliates.lightspeedresearch.com

As a member of the Lightspeed Affiliate Program, Affiliates receive ongoing support, informational tools, and resources needed to earn big commissions. This monthly newsletter is designed to acknowledge the top performing affiliates, announce special contests and bonuses, provide monthly tips and tools, and encourage an open forum of communication.

November's newsletter theme is traffic. We hope you enjoy and benefit from the information we have provided.

In This Issue
Top 10 List of Lightspeed Affiliates
Top Earner for October
Affiliate Bonus Program
Tips on Promoting the Lightspeed Consumer Panel
Low or No Cost Traffic Building Tips
Marketing Tool of the Month
Lightspeed Affiliate Blog
Lightspeed Affiliate Forum

Top 10 Lightspeed Affiliates
Traffic Swarm
Amazing-Offers
PaidSurveys.com
Six Questions
Get Paid Guides
The Paid
Paid Surveys
SurveyMania.com
NX2
JustMoneyTalk.com

Top Earning Affiliate
Congratulations to Traffic Swarm , our Top Performing Affiliate for October!
TrafficSwarm is an Internet marketing service that delivers free, targeted traffic to Web sites in its expanding network. As the leading online traffic syndicate, TrafficSwarm's mission is to help webmasters, small businesses, and “netpreneurs” market their sites more effectively to achieve their long term performance goals.

"Turn up the Volume" Affiliate Bonus Program
To reward affiliates for high volume, Lightspeed is launching a year-end commission bonus program open to all US and Canadian affiliates.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE:
The "Turn up the Volume" Bonus Program will run from November 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004.

BONUS DETAILS:
Three affiliates who generate the highest number of leads will be rewarded with cash bonuses on top of their regular commission. The bonuses will be awarded as follows:
Highest Volume Driver: $1000.00
Second Highest Volume Drivers: $500.00
Third Highest Volume Drivers: $200.00
The winners will also be given special recognition in the January, 2005, Lightspeed Affiliate newsletter.

WINNER SELECTION:
On January 10, 2005, the top three volume drivers from November 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004, will be selected. On the Winner Selection date, the total leads acquired from all affiliates shall be figured in an excel document from highest volume to lowest volume. The Manager of Panel Operations at Lightspeed Research shall determine the winners by selecting the affiliates with the three highest numbers. Decisions are final. Winners will be notified via email. Commission bonus checks shall be sent to the winning affiliates upon verification of account details.

The Bonus Program is open to all publishers who are registered with the Lightspeed Affiliate Program. Publishers shall use legal and ethical means of driving leads/registrations to the Lightspeed Consumer Panel and shall comply with the legal terms and conditions of the Lightspeed Affiliate Program. Publisher may only win one prize per Bonus Program.

Best of luck to all affiliates!

Tips on Promoting the Lightspeed Consumer Panel
Here are some tips on promoting the Lightspeed Consumer Panel offer on your web site:

TIP #1: Combine images and text links together when promoting the offer. Text links far out-perform stand-alone images and can serve as a call to action to drive higher click- through rates.
Tip #2: Promote the Lightspeed offer on an area of your site featuring freebies, contests, sweepstakes, and other related areas. Lightspeed Research has seen excellent conversion rates when promoted in these areas.
Tip #3: Consider adding a "Surveys" or "Opinions" category to your web site. Most people enjoy giving their opinions, especially when they're rewarded.
Tip #4: Every 4-6 weeks, change up the creative with a new ad or text link that you've not yet run.
Tip #5: Seek assistance from your Lightspeed Affiliate Manager as often as needed. Email your questions to Michelle O'Grady at affiliates@lightspeedresearch.com

Marketing Tool of the Month
MarketLeap, an internet marketing firm specializing in search engine optimization, provides a free search engine marketing tool to check on your link popularity and that of your competition.
The tool is quick and easy to use. You simply enter your URL, three competitor URLs, and an access code provided for security. Seconds later, an industry benchmark is generated.

The report places all submitted sites into the following "presence" categories: 1) limited, 2) average, 3) above average, 4) contender, 5) player, and 6) 900 lb gorilla), as indexed in the major search engines (Alltheweb, Alta Vista, Google/AOL, Hot Bot, MSN, and Yahoo!). This tool lets you view all incoming partner links and benchmark them against your competitors' links. With this information, you can initiate contacts with new link partners, increase your incoming links, and subsequently boost your link popularity rating to a stronger "presence" category. Your traffic will benefit as well.

Take the tool for a spin: http://www.marketleap.com

Low or No Cost Traffic Building Tips
Lightspeed recently polled publishers about effective low cost, or no cost, methods of generating traffic. Below are a few tips from this poll along with quotes from the publishers.

#1: Build a quality site: One publisher suggested this is the most important thing to successfully drive free traffic.
#2: Optimize for natural search: Google, News.Google, Newsbot.msn, Yahoo, Rss.Yahoo, MSN Search, and blogs linking to good content can bring high traffic volume; hardwaregeeks.com gets between 1.5 -3 million visitors monthly from natural search alone.
#3: Publish Unique Content: Unique traffic can drive loyal visitors.
#4: Try SEO solutions/software: Software like Webposition Gold offers a 30-day free trial and can improve keyword density to increase search engine rankings. One note, however, is that some publishers have complained of being banned from some search engines like Google after using this kind of software.

Read more traffic tips in the blog posting: http://lightspeedaffiliates.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_lightspeedaffiliates_archive.html

Lightspeed Affiliate Forum
Have you visited the private Lightspeed Affiliate forum yet? Program news, updates, and regular opinion polls are posted in the forum. Your votes, opinions, questions and comments are greatly encouraged.

Presently, there are several polls running in the forum and in ABW's voting booth. Publishers visiting the forum are being asked to vote and submit their comments. Please take a moment to visit the forum and take part in our polls: http://abw.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=frm&s=548608979&f=8866074082

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The Lightspeed Affiliate Bonus Program is Here!

2004-11-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

We're excited to be running our first incentive program for our affiliates. I've received approval to give out a year-end bonus to our 3 highest volume-driving affiliates. This bonus is offered to existing Lightspeed affiliates. Here are the details...

PROGRAM SCHEDULE: The Year-end “Turn up the Volume” Bonus Program will run from November 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004.

BONUS DETAILS: Three affiliates who generate the highest number of leads in during the program will be rewarded with cash bonuses on top of their regular commission. The bonuses will be awarded as follows:

Highest Volume Driver: $1000.00
Second Highest Volume Driver: $500.00
Third Highest Volume Driver: $200.00

Winners will also be given special recognition in the January, 2005, Lightspeed Affiliate newsletter.

WINNER SELECTION:On January 10, 2005, the top three volume drivers from November through December, 2004 will be selected. On this Winner Selection dates, the total leads acquired from all affiliates during the program shall be figured in an excel document from highest volume to lowest volume. The Manager of Panel Operations at Lightspeed Research shall determine the winners by selecting the affiliates with the three highest numbers. Decisions are final. Winners will be notified via email. If a winner cannot be reached by email, the Manager of Panel Operations shall award the bonus to the affiliate next on the list. Commission bonus checks shall be sent to the winning affiliates upon verification of account details.

Note: The Bonus Program is open to all publishers who are registered with the Lightspeed Affiliate Program. Publishers shall use legal and ethical means of driving leads/registrations to the Lightspeed Consumer Panel and shall comply with the legal terms and conditions of the Lightspeed Affiliate Program. Publisher may only win one prize per Bonus Program.

Best of luck to all affiliates!
Michelle O'Grady Affiliate Manager
Lightspeed Research
http://affiliates.lightspeedresearch.com
Visit the Blog: http://lightspeedaffiliates.blogspot.com/

20 Low/No Cost Ways to Generate More Traffic

2004-10-21T09:11:00.000-04:00

Last week, we polled publishers on the Lightspeed Affiliate Forum about free or low cost traffic builiding methods that worked for them. From this poll, the forum discussions, and a bit of web research, I've compiled 20 methods here:

Have a quality site: One publisher suggested this is the most important thing to successfully drive free traffic.
Optimize for natural search: Google, News.google, Newsbot.msn, Yahoo, Rss.Yahoo, msnsearch, & blogs linking to good content can bring high traffic volume; hardwardgeeks.com gets 1.5-3m. monthly)
Publish unique content: Unique traffic can drive loyal visitors.
Try SEO solutions/software: Software like WebPosition Gold (offers free 30 day trial), can improve keyword density to increase search engine rankings.
Build more link exchanges: Link popularity improves search engine ranking. Link popularity is built by increasing the number of inbound links to your site. An easy way to do this is to trade links with Webmasters of related sites. Software like LinkCapture can help with making contacts with quality Web sites that are also ranked well in the search engines.
Write highly targeted content: Having information that your visitors are looking for will help increase return visitors.
Keep your content fresh: Adding a new page to your site every day will drive more traffic. Some publishers have seen their new pages explode with traffic.
Offer content syndication or provide free content: For your blogs, you can post a "syndicate" link allowing some publishers to post your updated content on their site, or your can provide your website content free to another site (be sure to include a functional return link in your content).
Offer opt-in newsletters: Connecting with your visitors monthly will turn your existing traffic into loyal and regular visitors.
Run an e-Zine or opt-in newsletter text ad: Some e-Zine's offer inexpensive text advertising.
Encourage book-marks: One publisher with 120k monthly visitors sees 26% of this traffic from bookmarks or URL type-ins and the rest from natural search.
Launch and moderate your own forum: From running an outdoors/fishing forum, one publisher was contacted by a local radio fishing show to discuss the site.
Try Online Classifieds: AOL classifieds or Yahoo classifieds can be a cheaper option than running an ad in their high visibility spots.
Consider offline advertising: Can be relatively low cost; see some options below.
Try postcards: They're inexpensive to order and sending them to a targeted mailing list can drive good response rates. Someone I know uses ExpressCopy.com.
Run newspaper ads: Posting an ad in Computer/Technology sections can drive visitors; phillyburbs.com leverages strong market share into strong audience and traffic by placing ads in their sister newspapers
Run Magazine ads: Can help to drive visitors to a highly targeted site, like a fishing site.
Try local print newsletters: Local advertising can also bring in low-cost traffic; one publisher is paying $350 for 8 weeks of advertising (exlusive, no other online ads) in a local coffee shop for the holidays.
Consider TV: The same publisher running ads in the coffee shop newsletter is also contacting TV stations about an internet shopping story. Certainly TV advertising wouldn't be low cost, but there are creative ways to work a low cost plug into a story or news item.
Make your email signature work for you: Adding a hyperlink to your email signatures will help to increase your visitors.

A big thanks goes out to all publishers who voted and for those who sent in their traffic success stories.

Take Care,
Michelle O'Grady
Lightspeed Affiliate Manager

Not a Lightspeed Affiliate? Join Now.
Want to Join the Lightspeed Consumer Panel? Click Here.
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New Lightspeed Poll: Low/no cost traffic building tips

2004-10-14T13:11:00.000-04:00

I recently received an email from a Lightspeed Affiliate, asking me for advice on how to get more people to visit her site. Indubitably, traffic is top priority for most publishers. Not being an SEO expert, but willing to help, I decided to scour the web and initiate some forum polls and discussions on this topic. Specifically, I'm looking for low cost/no cost methods for building traffic.

Please take a moment to vote in our traffic poll, and tell me about which methods worked best for you. We've had a few publishers already share some of their most effective methods. Check it out here.

Kindly,
Michelle O'Grady

Not a Lightspeed Affiliate? Join Now.
Want to Join the Lightspeed Consumer Panel? Click Here.
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Results of "Publisher Incentives" Poll

2004-09-29T14:45:00.000-04:00

Last week, we polled publishers visiting our affiliate forum on their preferred performance incentives. Sixteen results have been counted so far:

3 people (19%) voted for Bonus Programs (on top of regular commission)
9 people (56%) voted for Commission Increases
1 person (6%) voted for Cash Prizes
2 people (13%) voted for Tangible Prizes (like iPods, free Computers, and other prizes)
1 person (6%) voted for other incentives.

Here's some of the commentary on this poll:

"The best incentives for me are:

Merchant can be trusted - is parasite-free.
Merchant's AM is responsive to affiliates needs.
Merchant offers a variety of linking options including deep linking to categories & products.
Merchant's website converts & tracks sales accurately and pays on time."

"A one-off reward for good performance (ie: a bonus) is all very well, but I personally would prefer to be paid commensurate to my worth to your company."

"I dont want parting gifts... I always want CASH!!!I want to get paid for my work... I cant eat an iPod! A free computer wont keep me warm in the winter without electricity...."

"There is no point of having Bonus Programs or Increased Commissions if the merchant do not stand side by side with their affiliates and protect their sales with saying NO to parasites and tracking the sales effectively. First thing an affiliate needs is a security that his/her hard earned money is safe.Yes, everybody would love to get some extra cash coming in through bonuses or increased commissions but that would only be possible if base commission is tracked and protected."

The poll is still open. Please vote, or visit our affiliate forum to discuss your preferences.

Not a Lightspeed Affiliate? Join Now.
Want to Join the Lightspeed Consumer Panel? Click Here.
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What are your thoughts on performance incentives?

2004-09-22T15:18:00.000-04:00

Lightspeed Research is planning a Q4 program for Lightspeed Affiliates to earn additional incentives for driving volume to the Lightspeed Consumer Panel. What are your thoughts on performance incentives? Please take a moment to vote in our poll:

Not a member of the Lightspeed Affiliate Program? Join Now.

The Lightspeed Affiliate Program launches a Private Forum for Affiliates

2004-09-16T13:03:00.000-04:00

Got a question for the affiliate manager? Want to communicate with other Lightspeed Affiliates? Or, do you just want to keep on top of what's happening with the program?

Lightspeed Research has launched a private forum dedicated to their Affiliates. The Lightspeed Research Affilate forum is hosted on ABestWeb, under the Indie Programs category. The program will be updated regularly with program news and discussions will be initiated and moderated by the Affiliate Manager, Michelle O'Grady.

Not a member of the Lightspeed Affiliate Program yet? Join Now.

MediaPost's Online News Brief

2004-09-10T16:54:00.000-04:00

Please take a moment to view the Online News Brief, titled "Lightspeed Takes On Affiliates", as posted in MediaPosts's Media Daily News section on Friday, September 10, 2004.

Lightspeed Research Launches the Lightspeed Affiliate Program in the U.S.

2004-09-09T16:26:00.000-04:00

Basking Ridge, NJ, September 9, 2004

Lightspeed Research, a leading provider of global online market research, today announced the launch of the Lightspeed Affiliate Program, located at http://affiliates.lightspeedresearch.com/.

The program provides an opportunity for website owners to earn money by driving visitors to the Lightspeed Consumer Panel, a free website where hundreds of thousands of U.S. and Canadian residents participate in online surveys. Affiliates will earn $0.75 for each active panelist they acquire for the Lightspeed Consumer Panel. Lightspeed Research uses both in-house, proprietary tracking technology as well as tracking provided by their affiliate solution provider, Commission Junction. Commission checks are issued monthly.

To extend their reach to new affiliates and communicate program news and updates, Lightspeed Research has created a blog, http://lightspeedaffiliates.blogspot.com/, and will soon be launching a private forum on the ABestWeb™ affiliate marketing forum.

There is no fee to join the Lightspeed Affiliates Program. Affiliates will complete a brief registration form. Once the affiliate is approved, they will have access to GIF, Flash, and text ads. Affiliates can actively manage their account with real time tracking statistics and a payment history. They will also receive support from a dedicated affiliate manager.

"Since everyone has opinions, our affiliates promote a website that appeals to a very large general audience," said Anne Hedde, President/CEO of Lightspeed Research. "People who join the Lightspeed Consumer Panel participate in online surveys and voice their opinions directly to the people who produce the products and services they purchase. Since our members’ privacy is protected, they can provide feedback in a safe, anonymous fashion. Our members do not pay to join the Lightspeed Consumer Panel. In fact, we pay them with Lightspeed Points, which can be redeemed for cash or prizes, and with entries into the $5,000 Lightspeed Sweepstakes." "As our business grows, our online panel needs to grow with it. The Lightspeed Affiliate Program is another strategic step to extend Lightspeed Research’s panel recruiting operations."

About Lightspeed Research

Lightspeed Research provides rapid, reliable research solutions through global online panels. Through its network of proprietary panels and accredited panel partners, Lightspeed Research can provide access to over 14 million household members through more than 6 million registered panelists across 25 countries in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Lightspeed Research's proprietary panels are recruited and maintained to ensure quality and representative sampling to support studies that range in scope and complexity across most industry sectors. Lightspeed Research also operates specialty panels covering healthcare, financial services, automotive, family, and more. The company also provides custom panel solutions for clients, building bespoke panels to address specific client needs.

Through Lightspeed Research you can reach both low-incidence and large samples cost-effectively, access extensive background information, and find your target audience through unique screening capabilities. Lightspeed Research is a member of WPP, one of the world’s leading communications services groups.

To contact a sales representative, please call +1 (908) 630-0542 in the US, +44 (0)20 7896-1900 in the UK, +61 (0)2 9927-0020 in Australia or send an email to info@lightspeedresearch.com. Visit Lightspeed Research at http://www.lightspeedresearch.com/.

Press Inquiries: Lightspeed Research, Joan McCann Symmons, Marketing Director, (908) 630-2964 in the US.

Lightspeed Affiliate Blog

2004-09-01T11:22:00.000-04:00

The Lightspeed Affiliates Program was successfully launched in mid-August, and in less than one month, we've acquired more than 300 publisher relationships; some are more active than others. We will be working to help our publishers increase their earnings in order to make this program a success.

To all Lightspeed Affiliates: Please check this blog regularly for announcements related to the Lightspeed Affiliates Program as well as industry news.

Not yet a Lightspeed Affiliate? Join Now.

Kindly,
Michelle O'Grady
Lightspeed Affiliates Team