We have been working closely with a variety of established affiliate marketers to design this new program and now, we would like to extend the invitation to participate in beta testing to the rest of our suppliers and affiliate marketers.

Specifically, we want your feedback about the following:

• General usability of the system
• Fullness of the 2CO Affiliates feature-set in comparison to existing networks
• Overall functionality
• Missing features and functions that are crucial to your success as an affiliate
• Accuracy and helpfulness of our help topics

If you would like to participate in this beta program, please provide the following information in an email to affiliatetest@2co.com no later than September 25, 2009:

• Your Supplier/Vendor ID Number
• Your Name
• Your Website URL

We will begin responding to approved beta testers with welcome letters and other necessary information on October 2, 2009.

Affiliate Summit provides updated educational sessions and networking for professionals in the affiliate marketing business. When I entered Summit’s signature networking session — the Meet Market – my jaw hit the floor. Can you say, “baptism by fire”? Wow! Affiliates walk from table to table in a fury to strike deals with individual merchants and networks. It looked and sounded like the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. In many cases, you had to almost scream to be heard! The interaction between merchants to find affiliates willing to market their products was a feeding frenzy. The Meet Market was an impressive introduction to the aggressive nature of the business, as well as the thriving heartbeat of affiliate marketing.

Educational sessions were packed with topics such as incorporating more video into affiliate sites, how social marketing is impacting the industry, and what the increase in mobile ecommerce means to the business. A majority of the topics were a bit recycled from “how-to” lists posted daily on industry blogs, but I guess you can never be reminded enough about the fundamental building blocks of SEO, analytic tracking, and quality networking.

Many thanks to Carolyn Tang from ShareASale for volunteering to serve as my mentor. It was obvious from the swarm of people surrounding her that she is a respected expert, well networked and attuned to the industry. Hats off to Affiliate Summit for having the foresight to incorporate a mentorship program into the event planning and choosing Texas-based affiliate Teresa Caldwell – the friendliest affiliate in the business — to marry mentors with “newbies.”

I look forward to introducing 2Checkout’s affiliated brands to the industry and carving a unique niche of our own. Based upon the hot verticals promoted at Summit, I am confident a number of 2Checkout merchant products will raise eyebrows and pique the interest of affiliates. See you in Vegas at Affiliate Summit West!

Seven roundtable panelists from a broad range of internet backgrounds including affiliate and internet marketing, ecommerce, and consulting will travel to 2Checkout headquarters in Columbus, Ohio to preview 2Checkout’s affiliate interface, learn about the program’s unique design and payment features, and provide constructive feedback for the final rollout. The goal is to generate unique opinions from professionals who have experienced the affiliate marketplace from different business perspectives. The six-hour rap session will prove fruitful for fine tuning features before the upcoming official product launch.

2Checkout is grateful for the impressive group of panelists scheduled to participate in the roundtable. The following is a list of bios highlighting their expertise.

Blagica Bottigliero is the President of Bsolutions LLC, a consulting firm specializing in creating and implementing online marketing strategies for companies of various sizes. She is also the founder of condoperks.com and galsguide.com . CondoPerks is a unique site providing members the ability to shop online, save money, and earn CondoCash for their building’s community funds. GalsGuide targets ladies aged 20 and up and serves as a guide “from gals who were once there themselves.” Before consulting and founding her current businesses, Bottigliero gained valuable affiliate experience managing and constructing the Orbitz.com affiliate program.

Justin Chelf is President and CEO of Website Mentors, LLC, websitementors.com , a creative interactive agency specializing in website development and internet marketing. He is based in Louisville, KY and assists clients nationwide in growing their businesses online.

Ian Larsen is a private marketing consultant specializing in third party relationships, affiliate marketing, social media, email marketing and other services for internet based e-commerce businesses. Larsen spent a number of years working in the affiliate business for a large e-commerce company and currently specializes in marketing consultation and maximizing affiliate program technology.

Tricia Meyer has worked in the affiliate marketing space for a number of years and is owner of helpingmomsconnect.com and sunshinerewards.com. HelpingMomsConnect is a resource site for moms to find diverse information including recipes, pet advice, and parenting tips. SunshineRewards is a loyalty community where members find discounts, take surveys and earn cash back on shopping.

Austin Rude is an active affiliate marketer and software developer. Rude has followed a traditional affiliate marketing strategy of managing a number of niche websites. His web based business interests include a retail site (buybapehoodies.com) , an airport database (airportdata.info) , software (technobound.com), real estate (casper-wyoming-real-estate.com) , and ppcpanther.com, a project under development introducing new pay-per-click advertising software.

Paul Wallerich has nearly 20 years of direct marketing experience with the last seven directly related to Internet and affiliate marketing. Wallerich worked for a large e-commerce company for five years where he headed up the launch of their internal affiliate network. Currently, he is spearheading the Internet charge at Provell, a leading membership services company.

In addition to the six panelists above, an executive from Miami, Florida-based Comersus Shopping Cart will also be present. Comersus is a leading e-commerce software solution provider. The company’s main product is the free, Open Source Comersus ASP Cart. Additionally, Comersus provides installation and customization services, tech support and training courses. The Comersus client list includes the likes of British Telecom, UCLA, Disney, Volvo, and Creative Labs.

To add an established product to the affiliate program, first locate the product in the listing by logging into the Vendor Administration area and clicking on the Products main tab. Find the product in the listing and click the Edit icon next to that specific product under the Actions column.

Once you are on the page to edit the product, you will see in front of you all the product’s options. Adding the product to the affiliate program requires that you have two additional product settings defined: Product Categories, and Affiliate Commission.

First, scroll through the Product Categories list and click on the category that best fits the product.

Second, specify the commission amount that will be paid out to the affiliate in the Affiliate Commission field. This amount can be either a fixed value or a percentage of the total product price. For example, if your product is worth $10.00 and you set a fixed amount commission of $1.00, you as the vendor will receive $9.00 and the affiliate will receive $1.00. Similarly, if your product is worth $10.00 and you set a percentage commission of 10% (IMPORTANT: do not include the percent sign when specifying the number in the input box), you as the vendor will receive $9.00 and the affiliate will receive $1.00.

After you have selected the product’s category and set the commission rate, click the Save Changes button to apply the settings and add the product to the affiliate program.

Your affiliates are now ready to start offering your product on their websites! You can find a tutorial that will show your affiliates how to sign up for a free account and access products to offer here.

Once you have logged into your account you can browse our affiliate opportunities by clicking on the ‘Affiliates’ tab on your account homepage. Here you may search affiliate resale opportunities by keyword. You can also browse the affiliate resale opportunities by product category.

To search the affiliate resale opportunities please use the ‘Opportunity Locater’ to enter the keyword for your search. You may also narrow the search by selecting a category. Once the search terms have been defined please click on the ‘Search’ button.

To browse the affiliate resale opportunities please click on the ‘Browse Opportunities’ tab. From here you may select a category and browse through the opportunities.

Once you have found a product you are interested in you may click on the product name to obtain the HTML snippets and product image source. This information can then be added to your website to create the product listing and purchase button or link.

The commissions you have earned on each sale can be viewed by clicking on the ‘List Commissions’ tab on the affiliates page. This page displays a table that includes the commission amount, product name, commission status, date the order was placed and the date you were paid. You can click the column headers at the top of table to sort sales listings by the date, product, status, or commission amount.

In order to be paid out for your commissions you must fill out your payment information in our banking wizard. To do this please select the “Account” tab on your account homepage and then select “Bank Account” from the Account menu. From here, you will need to click on the “Banking Wizard” button and provide the requested information for the payment method you select. Affiliate earnings are held for 60 days before being released to the affiliate.

Once you have logged in please click on the ‘Affiliates’ tab and then select the ‘Browse Opportunities’ sub category. From here you may view the affiliate opportunities by selecting the affiliate category that you would like to browse. The affiliate opportunities page will display the following fields for each affiliate product. (You may click on each field to sort the products in the affiliate opportunities table.)

• Image- Thumbnail image of the product.
• Name- Product Name
• Price- Product Price
• Description- A short description of the product.
• Commission- The commission amount you will earn on each product.
• Category- Category listing for the product.

Instructions on creating a product in the new 2Checkout vendor admin area can be found here.

We’re expanding the beta program now, so if you’ve been waiting for the second round, now’s the time to apply.

UPDATE:

February 18, 2009:  All 2Checkout suppliers may now enroll in the Affiliate Program and are no longer required to apply to be enrolled. To enroll in the Affiliate Program, suppliers will first need to agree to the new Terms of Service and Operating regulations for the program. To review and agree to the new Terms of Service and Operating Regulations, suppliers will need to login to their account using the New Vendors Administration area and then click the Affiliates tab on the account home page. Suppliers will then be able read and agree to the new documentation.

To learn more about the Affiliate Program Beta, see these previous posts:

• Affiliate Program Limited Beta
• 2CO’s New Affiliate Program
• TUTORIAL: Adding Products to the Affiliate Program
• TUTORIAL: Finding Affiliate Opportunities

Our developers have been working on the new affiliate program and are now ready to release a limited invite-only beta.

UPDATE:

February 18, 2009:  All 2Checkout suppliers may now enroll in the Affiliate Program and are no longer required to apply to be enrolled. To enroll in the Affiliate Program, suppliers will first need to agree to the new Terms of Service and Operating regulations for the program. To review and agree to the new Terms of Service and Operating Regulations, suppliers will need to login to their account using the New Vendors Administration area and then click the Affiliates tab on the account home page. Suppliers will then be able read and agree to the new documentation.

To learn more about the Affiliate Program Beta, see these previous posts:

• Affiliate Program Limited Beta
• 2CO’s New Affiliate Program
• TUTORIAL: Adding Products to the Affiliate Program
• TUTORIAL: Finding Affiliate Opportunities

Here’s a roundup of recent blog discussions and forum threads where 2CO is asking for your feedback:

• Affiliate Signup Program Update
• 2CO’s New Affiliate Program
• Possible Integrated Affiliate Network?
• Beta Project: Beta RC 7.5 (discuss the new purchase routine before it’s released)

If you want to get really involved, 2Checkout is still hiring! (all openings)

*As always, an extended list of all blog posts can be found in the 2Checkout Blog category.