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Can’t find matching keywords for your posts? Now you can add them!

June 28th, 2010 View Comments

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Is that a common screen when using our WordPress affiliate plugin?

If so, there are now two ways you can change that! First by adding your own keyword suggestions to our database and next by recommending which advertisers or category of products you’d like us to focus on.

1. Adding your own keyword suggestions

If you can’t find relevant keywords or phrases that match your content and would like to add your own, this is the perfect feature for you. Navigate to your profile (this will soon be available within the plugin as well), click on Suggest Keywords (screenshot to the left), and select “Suggest More” next to the corresponding advertiser. Type your keywords in the field box provided and we’ll add them within 24 hours.

Let’s do an example together. Let’s say I want to add “fitness program” to the P90X program. I would look under Advertisers for P90X, click on Suggest Keywords and type that keyword into the field box provided (see below). It’s that easy!

Note: The keywords and phrases MUST be relevant to the advertiser. One of the keys to success of affiliate marketing is matching appropriate keywords and ads to advertisers. Irrelevant links don’t perform and we want to ensure we’re always providing you with as many opportunities as possible to make money from your blog.

2. Recommending advertisers

If there are specific advertisers like GoDaddy.com or BestBuy.com you’d like us to add, let us know here and we’ll do our best to add them or a similar advertiser. We’re adding as many as we can and will make your suggestions a priority if you share them with us.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions, ideas or comments!

Philadelphia Magazine features 123LinkIt as “Startup to Watch”

June 4th, 2010 View Comments

We’re excited to announce we received a mention in June’s issue of Philadelphia Magazine! We’re grateful to be in such good company with other amazing entrepreneurs and startups. Check out the online link or click on the image to the right for a close-up.

More Goodies in Version 0.5…

May 15th, 2010 View Comments

Our latest changes does NOT require you to update your plugin but don’t worry – it’s still jam-packed with new features. These include updates to your profile and the affiliate plugin.

Profile Updates:

First, you’ll notice your sub-menu changed (see the picture on the left)! It now includes an Advertisers Database. What is this exactly? You can now view the advertisers in our system as well as the keywords connected to them. This is useful if you want to search what advertisers/keywords you can promote while drafting your blog entry.
Going back to the top of the sub-menu, there are more changes. Your Quick Stats now has more information on your commissions. Click on it to discover the advertisers, the sale price, and more.
We’ve also updated our Payments page. You can now specify if you’d like to be paid by PayPal or Check and add in the necessary information so we can send your payments.

Plugin Updates:

We now have a version of our WordPress plugin just for MU users! We’ve had a lot of requests for this version and even though the big WordPress 3.0 release is coming out soon that will include MU features, this allows you to get it if you’re not planning to upgrade.

And our final update for now – our algorithm can now detect special characters. You may have noticed that we couldn’t pick up on numbers, dashes, and periods but now we can! For example, we can now recommend affiliate links for P90X and BestBuy.com as well as 1-800-Florals .

The best part about this new tweak is you’ll have even more recommendations to choose from after writing your blog entry.

Questions? Feedback? As always, you can find us at support@123linkit.com or at our online community.

April 2010 Advertisers and Ideas on How to Promote Them

May 4th, 2010 View Comments

A few weeks ago, we announced we were going to start listing our new advertisers in a bi-weekly blog post. This is so our users can get a sense of what type of advertisers we have in our system in case they want to promote them or create content around them. We’ve decided to go even further and provide monthly updates on new advertisers as ways you can promote them. So this blog post showcases some of the new advertisers we’ve added over the past month. They include coupon codes and promotions you can mention in your posts as well as topic ideas on how to introduce them or promote them to increase the likelihood of conversions. This is the longest post we’ve put together and I hope you find it helpful. Good luck!

For health, fitness and diet bloggers:

Tony Little – America’s Personal Trainer has his own store where he sells exercise equipment and DVD’s, apparel, footwear and wellness products. The most interesting product he offers are “Cheeks Exercise Sandals” that are scientifically engineered to firm your legs and buttocks while you walk. It’s one of their best sellers and they’re currently offering free shipping on the product.
Zone Diet – Created by Dr. Sears, this is one of the most popular diets in the country. The site offers a free 7-Day Meal planner and various health and wellness products.
FitOrbit – Online personal training service that pairs you up with your own trainer to help you get in shape and lose weight. An entry discussing the service and their blogs written by personal trainers would make an informative entry. To increase the likelihood of conversions from this post, add pricing and how they’re currently offering 20% Off any FitOrbit online personal training package.
DietToGo – Deliver low-fat, low-carb, vegetarian and diabetic meal plans that are prepared by chefs and never freeze-dried. A side by side comparison on how this compares to BistroMD and similar services would make a great blog entry. Let your readers know they can try it out for free by using coupon code “CJFM19″ or they can use “CJ2000″ for $20 off first orders.
Sunfood Nutrition – Sunfood’s online store offers nutrition information for health buffs and sells raw and organic superfoods. Health and fitness blogs should definitely devote an entry to them discussing ways the site can benefit their readers.
Swanson Health Foods – This is one of the top online discount vitamin stores on the web. They also sell supplements, organic foods, natural skincare products and homeopathic supplements. They have a great ranking in Commission Junction and are worth mentioning when discussing vitamins. The site also has a section dedicated to sale items that have great deals you won’t find in your local vitamin store. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting Started Guide

April 29th, 2010 View Comments

First, thanks for signing up and welcome to 123LinkIt!

To get started, check out our 1-minute video below (Note: There is no sound) that walks you through installing the 123LinkIt affiliate plugin for WordPress, creating a 123LinkIt account, and inputting your API keys.

How to setup your 123LinkIt account from 123LinkIt.com on Vimeo.

How has the plugin changed since it was first released back on March?

Shorter cloaked links (e.g. yourblog.com/advertisername)
One-click integration of your affiliate links (select the affiliate offer and click “Add”)
Compatibility with WordPress pages
No-follow tags option
Option to set affiliate links to open in a new window
Add affiliate links to one or multiple keywords

Need further assistance? We’re here to help! Contact us at support@123LinkIt.com.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q) Why do I need to add the API keys?
A) These keys help us track your clicks and commissions. Please ensure they are inputted correctly or the plugin will not work.

Q) How do I get my payments?
A) Once you reach your first $25 dollars, we’ll contact you about your preferred method of payment (this is temporary until we add more functionality to our site). We’ll then cut you a check or send your payment via PayPal.

Q) Is 123LinkIt completely free?
A) Our plugin is free to use and we only make money when you make money. We take a small cut out of the commissions our tool helps you generate. After we reach scale and can negotiate better commission rates, it’ll be like you’re using the plugin for free.

Remember, this is our alpha stage and we’re looking for your input to make this tool something you love. Your feedback and ideas are truly appreciated! Thanks to everyone who’s contributed so far.

What’s new in Version 0.4?

April 23rd, 2010 View Comments

In case you haven’t seen it, our new 0.4 release is now available. We had to take our site down for two hours last night (1AM to 3AM) to push through the updates. The three new changes are:

1. (This is the one I’m most excited about)You can now use the 123LinkIt affiliate plugin for your WordPress pages! This was the most commonly requested feature we had since we launched our first version 7 weeks ago. Your wish is our command. Upgrade to the latest version and give it a whirl right now!

2. Forgot Your Password option- Not a major update but we had to manually reset our users passwords before. Users can now request their own password change.

3. Plugin is now set to appear right below the text editor. Some of our new users had problems viewing the plugin correctly and it’s now set to appear beneath the editor as default.

As always, your feedback and ideas are always welcome. Questions? Visit our Zendesk page and let us know how we can help!

123LinkIt Wins First Place and $10,000!

April 22nd, 2010 View Comments

We’re excited to announce we placed First in the Graduate/Faculty/Alumni category of Temple University’s Be Your Own Boss Bowl yesterday. We’ll be receiving $10,000 in cash and prizes that will go towards growing the business and marketing our beta launch.

How did we get this far?

We entered our business plan into the competition a few weeks ago and it received glowing scores from the preliminary judges. We learned we were finalists last week. It was a GREAT feeling as we entered the previous year but did not make it. Back then, we only had an idea. We’ve come a looooooong way since then. We rounded out our team, started developing the software, and as you know by now – launched 7 weeks ago.

Yasmine Mustafa, the founder and presenter, had a really good feeling 123LinkIt was going to win. “As soon as the judges started nodding, I knew they got it. Our unique selling proposition is clear – affiliate marketing is complicated and time-consuming. Our tools make it dead simple and saves bloggers a lot of time. Who won’t want to make money from what they were already doing?”

We won’t have gotten this far without help from A LOT of people who were involved in refining our pitch and getting us ready. The support we’ve been getting has also been astounding – thank you all!

Top 5 Tips & Tricks on Using 123LinkIt

April 5th, 2010 View Comments

We like to think our 123LinkIt affiliate plugin is intuitive. However, I found myself forgetting one of these “tricks” I’m about to mention so I thought I’d turn it into a blog post.

1. Refresh your affiliate link recommendations

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve revised my post based on the recommendations I’ve received. There’s a simpler and faster solution than refreshing your browser. Instead, “Add Affiliate Links” acts as a refresh button. Click on it again and the plugin will scan your post again and provide you with updated recommendations.

2. Sort your columns.

Just click on the column heading and it’ll sort that column from A to Z or highest to lowest number. An up and down arrow will appear on the right side of the column heading to signify how the column is sorted. Why is this useful? There are two main reasons. The first is for finding a keyword or advertiser relatively quickly when you have a long list to sort through. The second reason is so useful, we gave it its own number…

3. 7-day EPC/3-Month EPC

Here you have an option of 8 different advertisers for the same keyword. You want to use the 7-Day/3-Month EPC numbers to determine which affiliate link you want to add. EPC stands for earnings per 1000 clicks. The best way to start is to sort EPC column from highest to lowest. You can either go with the highest 3-Month EPC or the 7-Day EPC. The 3-Month EPC shows how well that advertisers has been doing over the last 3 months. The 7-day EPC represents a much shorter timeframe BUT it can show a new trend. That advertiser could be running a hot new promotion or they might have released a new landing page which increased conversions.

Let’s analyze this table as an example. Network Solutions has the highest 3-Month EPC but it’s 7-Day EPC is zero, yuck! The next highest is PowWeb Hosting (Please note note EPCs are always changing). Looking closer though, I can see this is not the best pick. iPage and Startlogic have MUCH HIGHER 7-Day EPCs. Doing the math, iPage wins with a 175% increase vs. StartLogic with 119%. In the future, our algorithm will be able to determine this for you automatically AND it will replace your old links with the best performing links at that moment, so you’re always taking advantage of the hottest new promotions.

4. Select All/None

When the plugin table first appears, the affiliate links already come preselected. Did you know you can deselect all of them with one button? This button comes in very handy when you want to check off more links than you want to add.

5. Remove all Links

With one button, you can remove ALL the affiliate links you’ve added with our plugin. Why is this useful? If you change your mind on the number of affiliate links you have in your post, you can get rid of them with one full swoop instead of removing them yourself.

Honorable Mention: Blog Post Recommendation

A few users have asked us how they can get more recommendations for their blog posts. The answer’s easy! Tell us what advertisers you want or topics you write about and we’ll make an extra effort to get them for you. We set up a section in our GetSatisfaction page to make it easier for you.

Questions? Please let us know in the comments.

Latest advertisers in 123LinkIt database – Week of March 29th

April 1st, 2010 View Comments

We’ve had a few users ask us what kind of advertisers we have in our system. We’re working on making that list more readily available. In the meantime, I’ll be publishing a bi-weekly blog post on the latest advertisers we’ve added to our database.

Here are the advertisers we’ve added last week with their corresponding category and a short description:

Electronics and Games:

Best Buy – Added a range of products in consumer electronics, furniture, accessories, video games, software, computers, laptops and Geek Squad services.

Geeks.com – Added computer-related products such as as printers, modems, laptops, etc. If Geeks.com is recommended, include the following two specials running on their site to entice them to make a purchase:

Save 10% off anything not marked “special” by using the coupon code GEEKBERT.
Get free shipping on purchases over $99.00 by using the coupon code FREESHIP.

GamersGate – Offers many PC and Mac games.

EA Store – Added many popular video games for PC, Xbox, Wii, Playstation, PSP and Nintendo DS.

Weight Loss & Gym Equipment:

Bodybuilding.com – Their site offers more than 10,000 health and fitness products to help their customers achieve their fitness goals. Three specials worth mentioning include:

Save $5.00 off orders of $100 or more by using coupon code 5off100
Save $10.00 off orders by $200 or more by using coupon code 10of200
Save $20.00 off orders of $300 or more by using coupon code “20off300″

BeachBody – offers many popular in-home fitness and weight loss solutions you see in late-night informacials such as P90X, Slim in 6, Turbo Jam, Hip Hop Abs, 10 Minute Trainer and the INSANITY workout.

SmoothFitness.com – Fitness Equipment such as treadmills, ellipticals and fitness videos. They’re currently offering free shipping on all their orders (no code required).

Shoes & Fashion

The Walking Company – Offers brand-new footwear such as UGG, Dansko, Ecco, MBT and more. They’re currently offer free shipping on orders of $100 or more (no code required).

Up and Riding – Offers snowboarding and surfing gear for kids infants, kids, and teens.

The Knot Wedding Shop – Added keywords for wedding essentials as well as wedding gifts.

Winter Sports:

Killer Dana and Evogear – Added a slew of surfing and snowboard products and gear. For specials you can promote, Evogear is offering free FedEx shipping on any order over $100 as well as 35% off all snow gear when you use the code “snow35.”

Finance:

EZtrader.com – an options trading platform.

TheStreet – Jim Cramer’s Mad Money site where you can stock quotes and the latest Wall Street news. They’re currently promoting a 14-day free trial where subscribers can get inside info on Jim Cramer’s portfolio.

Wall Street Survivor – a free fantasy stock trade game where players manage their own portfolio and compete against friends or other players for real cash prizes. This is a great site to check out and write an evaluation on.

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Any particular keywords or advertisers you would like us to focus on? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll do our best to add them!

Demo Video of v0.2 Release

March 27th, 2010 View Comments

123LinkIt.com – v0.2 release from 123LinkIt.com on Vimeo.

Video shows a demo of the latest 0.2 release which allows:

- automatic embedding of the links

- easy cloaking of links

- nofollow tags added

- add affiliate links to one keyword or more

- sort table by highest to lowest EPC numbers

Helping maximize the monetization efforts of bloggers with ease.