Comments on: Win A Gold Pass To Affiliate Summit West 2009

By: Nana

Nana — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:06:46 +0000

I’d like to see what ideas you have about automating the extraction of data from facebook’s reports such as the responder demographics report. It would be even cooler if that data can be used to create a spreadsheet of ads matching the demographic targeting data, which could then be automatically uploaded to facebook.

By: Sunny

Sunny — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:56:37 +0000

Automation of any repetitive task is great idea. I would love to see a way to login in to Google/Yahoo/MSN and download PPC cost, Impressions and clicks automatically for any particular period. Hope to see you at the Summit.

By: Ilya

Ilya — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:17:54 +0000

Automation is my passion in affiliate marketing, that’s the thing I’m most interested in. All your work as an affiliate is done in front of the computer-in theory you should be able to automate everything but the CAPTCHAs. I’ve already built some macros for batch uploading ads to Facebook, and am looking into expanding them further.

What I would like to see is some sort of simple automated bid management. So, for example, log into Facebook, download CTR of each ad, plug it into a simple formula, and post the new lower bid if CTR is higher.

Failing that, what about a split testing solution for social media like Facebook? Read in a csv/text file of headline, ad text, and image, autogenerate all the possible permutations of them, and upload all the ads to FB. Then have another script come back later and check the CTR of each ad and delete the ones with lower CTR.

I’m quite interested in seeing your presentation, and even if I don’t win and end up just buying a silver pass(sigh..) I would be interested in chatting about advanced automation with you at ASW.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:45:52 +0000

It would be great if you could go over:
1. an easy way to automate conversion tracking/optimization by disabling keywords that don’t convert
2. a way to automate expanding keyword list by taking keywords that were being entered (that got matched via broad match but were not actually in your campaign) and add them to your campaign
3. an easy way to check competition on important keywords without having to search for each one individually

By: audax

audax — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:26:36 +0000

Pulling the primary subids from a DirectTrack network would be the most useful in my opinion. Having a pixel placed is a pain and slows down the ability to quickly launch a new campaign at some God-awful hour of the night.

By: andrew wee

andrew wee — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:56:18 +0000

@ Think like a SOB – would the postback url or API access solve the issue you’re facing?

By: John Hasson

John Hasson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:56:39 +0000

@Eric Client Side/Windows stuff.

By: Eric Nagel

Eric Nagel — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:21:42 +0000

I’ve already got my pass, but I just wanted to say that’s one heck of a session title. Maybe your contest should be to rename the session from “advanced concepts for automating daily website tasks (such as downloading stats, uploading changes, etc.) without access to an API” to something shorter

Are you going to be showing us how to use server-side stuff, like Snoopy, or client-side (Windows) software?

What I need is to grab yesterday’s PPC spend, per AdGroup, (from Google, Yahoo) and put it into Google docs.

While I’d like to see a specific example on how to grab revenue stats (like from CJ), I’d also like to learn some of the thinking behind it, as I don’t only work with the major affiliate networks.

Thanks,
Eric

By: coglethorpe

coglethorpe — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:27:49 +0000

Opps! Last one (AJAX/JSON) should have a #3 in front!

By: coglethorpe

coglethorpe — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:27:08 +0000

These are things I’ve done before with my own software (for “free”):

1. Automate a data feed: Create an XML file for upload to another service or FTP the feed to another site. Works via cron. I used it to farm classified feeds to aggregator sites. (automate links and traffic)

2. Send an email when someone posts to a site. Great for custom software, or maybe even WordPress. I could track new classified listings this way, but I think this could work great for a custom review site or any “wisdom of crowds” type site. An affiliate could get updates on click-through counts, completed actions, or new leads for big-ticket sales that might require personal contact.

Safe remote “AJAX” style scripting. I’ve done a prototype using JSON, but Its not ready for prime time. What I’m building is handy JavaScript bits to cut and paste into other sites. An affiliate could build their own mini ad network and farm pre-made links out to hundreds of sites. No need to track links everywhere, because they are hosted on one server. I would LOVE to see that.