Here is a picture featuring the eBay Team that was present at CJU 2005 last week:

From left to right, Stefan (Germany), Christel (France), Sebastiaan (Netherlands), Vinny (incuBeta – and no, that’s not a country), Phoung (Australia) & Alexander (Belgium):

I’ve just read some really good commentary on CJU 2005 from Linda at 5 Star Affiliate Programs. Check our her blog for the parts of the conference that I missed.

http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/

Presented by Dan Sweeney

I walked in late to this one, so excuse me if this doesn’t make much sense.

Some of the optimization techniques are listed as follows:

Show Categories
Large Number of items yield highest results – more items, more results.
Revenue for advertisers with product catalogs are a lot higher than without.

Refresh your catalogs frequently. Ensure that your pricing, inventory, offers are changed, added and deleted with regularity.

Provide smart alternatives if an item is out of stock.
Link to Search results
Link to category page
Customize error page

Provide as much details as possible. Include extra fields, additional descriptions, etc.
Use unique keywords and detailed descriptions. Use a full ontology (level by level categories of the product).

Deep Linking
Large # of Items
Keep it fresh
Provide Smart Alternatives
Use All Available Fields

Sync up with your Web developer – what is already available?

How can you make it happen? Who do you need to bribe? What efficiencies can you leverage?

Presented by Nathan Fish

Web Services Overview

What is A Web Service

Wikipedia Definition: A Web Service is a collectin of protocols and standards used for exchanging data between applications or systems.

They provide a programmatic way to access a software component via an XML call over HTTP.

Definitions:

REST – Representational State Transfer
SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol
XML – Extensible Markup Language
RSS – Really Simple Syndication

What are web services good for?

A company creates a Web Service for a specific feature or component of their software. The component can be used by others to build something unique.

Web services are not dissimilar to Lego pieces, which can be used to build your own cars, toys or castles.

Some existing web services offerings are provided by Yahoo, eBay & Google. Amazon’s API has been used by companies like www.sellerenginte.com.

Publisher Benefits

Less work
Real time data
Compelling user experience
Focus

Advertiser Benefits

Publisher Updates – links will be updated in real time
Integration – integrates data with backend systems
Increased Reach and Sales

Possible Publisher Users

Search Comparison Site
Contextual Content
Automated Link Selection
Integration with bid management software
New Platforms and other opportunities

Working with Commision Junction’s Web Services

Get a Developer Key (it’s free)
Review the API documentation and inspect the WSDL (Web Service Descriptive Language)
Got a question? Check with the community
Develop an application
Tell CJ about it

This group of panelists included:

Dan Murry – Ravenwood Marketing
Jeremy Palmer – QuitYouDayJob.com
Roshan Mendis – Travelocity
Terrence Thomas – Citi

Geoff Stevens – Moderator

The discussions were focused largely, around the fact that affiliate marketing is actually more like strategic marketing/partnerships. It was an interesting discussion, but nothing really worth writing about.

The basic premise is simply the eternal truth that success is driven by win-win relationships.