Product Categorization Featured in PopShops V3 API

 

PopShops is pleased to highlight a new feature found in PopShops V3 API service –> product categorization.

Popshops integrates merchants from various sources and those merchants arrive with various feed and category quality standards.  In fact, merchant categories can vary widely, from some merchants that have good to great categories to those that have none at all.  A significant issue  for those feeds that do include categories is that each merchant has its own system of assigning products to the categories in their product feeds and each merchant has their own taxonomy.  So, regardless of how good the categorization is, it will still be inconsistent across merchants for publishers to utilize.

This is where PopShops V3 API comes in!  Popshops has developed a thorough taxonomy where we are able to tag merchant categories and products in a consistent way.  Having uniform product categorization gives publishers categories that they can depend on and utilize to feature specific products on their websites.

For details on PopShops V3 API categories -

http://www.popshops.com/support/api-3-categories

PopShops V3 API service is available for premium PopShops subscribers.  Please contact us at support@popshops.com if you are interested in learning more about product categorization or other features of our V3 API service.

Performance Marketing Insights: a new event in town!

Watch out – there’s a new event in town, and we’ll be there! PopShops founder Jessie Jones will be part of a panel at Performance Marketing Insights, a brand-new, limited-attendance conference for senior affiliate industry professionals. PMI is coming to NYC on March 12 and 13.

“Jessie is a great addition to our panel at Performance Marketing Insights next month,” says A4u Content Director Chris Johnson. “Having technology-based publishers not only in attendance at PMI, but sharing their thoughts on panels, adds value to delegates who are looking to understand how they can work more efficiently with them, not only through the affiliate channel but across the many performance facets,” he adds.

Become one of those delegates, and join a select group to hear Jessie as she shares her experience and fresh insights on Day One. The panel will cover key focus areas for an affiliate network over the next year, including new technologies, stakeholders, taxes and the push toward more regulation. In Chris’ words, “We’ll be able to discuss in full the network offering and where resource needs to be increased in order to keep innovation and budget flowing through the channel.” Bring your questions!

Make connections. Learn from the leaders. Be inspired by great thinkers. The event is small by design, limited to 600 seats, and promises “You won’t get lost or hounded. You will have conversations with the right people!” We’re told to “expect the usual A4u party with an American twist.”

Friends of PopShops will enjoy a 10% discount on two-day passes – use the code POPSHOPS10PMI (case-sensitive) at registration, and tell them we sent you! See you there!

More information at www.performancemarketinginsights.com

speaking large

Happy New Year and Sub-IDs!

As the first month of 2013 comes to a close, (wow that was fast), all of us here at PopShops would like to take a moment to wish you the best year ever!  We are looking forward to sharing another year with you and developing new and innovative tools for your use.

A frequent query that we receive from our subscribers is, “Can I utilize Sub-IDs in PopShops?”  I am happy to say a resounding YES!

You can utilize self defined Sub-Id tracking to help you manage your sales.  This will give you the ability to run reports via the networks for the specific sub-ID.  It is important to note that various networks may have different names for Sub-IDs.

If you use ShopBuilder you may have two choices depending on your subscription level.

  1. You can click on the Preference tab, then click on the “tracking with sub-accounts” tab, then enter your personal Sub-ID in the box.   The default sub-ID is set to PopShops.
  2. If you are a DataPack subscriber using ShopBuilder, you also have the option to add a line of code to your “Pop it in” code for a dynamic Sub-ID.  To add a dynamic ID to your shop, do the following:
    • Add an additional parameter to the code snippet that you copied from the “Pop it in” tab.
    • $psps_parameters .= “&psps_subid=MYCUSTOMSUBID”;
    • In other words you just add a psps_subid parameter set to whatever you want the final sub-ID value to be.

If you utilize PopShops API service you also have two options.

  1. You can dynamically append the URLs provided in your API calls and include Sub-IDs for commission tracking, which will be reported through your network account by using parameter “&url_subid=XXXXXXX” where XXXXXX is your unique Sub-ID.
  2. Alternatively you can on any PopShops redirect URL (r.popshops.com) append Sub_id information by inserting “/”followed by Sub-IDs at the end of the PopShops URL.

If you have any further questions regarding Sub-IDs please reach out to us at support@popshops.com and we will be happy to assist you.

 

AvantLink and PopShops!

PopShops is pleased to announce the integration of our latest affiliate marketing network partner – Avantlink! 

AvantLink is the premiere Affiliate marketing tracking, analytics and technology platform for web retailers. Founded in October, 2005 on the ideas of innovation, quality and service, AvantLink offers an array of tools and maintains a zero tolerance policy for fraud or other rogue practices pervasive in other affiliate networks.

The current list of programs live in PopShops is located here – http://www.popshops.com/affiliate-programs/avantlink .

We are continuing to add more AvantLink merchants please check that link for current availability.

What if… My affiliate links don’t work?

This is important!  As a hard working affiliate you want to ensure that all of your links are working.  I will always advise PopShops subscribers to check two things when I hear of this issue.

First, and yes I know it seems quite obvious, please verify your relationship with the merchant in question in the affiliate network.  If you do not have an active relationship with the merchant in their network, your links will not function in PopShops.

Second, is have you entered all of your affiliate IDs correctly on the PopShops Settings Page?  This is necessary so all of your clicks can be tracked by the networks.  Most of the networks are very straightforward using a simple ID number.  The two exceptions, and therefore the two most prone to errors when entered are GAN and LinkShare.

 

For GAN: It is only a bit tricky due to the replacing of the “K” in the ID.  These directions are also available on the setting page when entering your IDs.

  • Log in to Google Affiliate Network.
  • In the upper right corner you will find a six digit number preceded by a K.  It looks like this – K123456.
  • To create your publisher ID please replace the K with 21000000000
  • Your GAN publisher ID will look like this – 21000000000123456

 

For LinkShare: It is a bit trickier, you will need to find your encrypted code.  Again this information is available on the setting page when you click to add your IDs.

LinkShare encrypts their affiliate IDs AND is case sensitive.  To locate yours, you will need to get a LinkShare link that you generated from your LinkShare account.  I cannot stress this enough, your LinkShare ID number is NOT YOUR affiliate ID and it will result in broken links.  Also note, you may have more than one LinkShare profile.  Make sure you change the profile ID drop down in the upper right-hand corner of your LinkShare account to generate the correct ID.

  • Log in to LinkShare.com.
  • Generate a link and grab the code
  • Take a look at a the URL in the link that you have generated. For example:

http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=NS2Epm6ZsJo&offerid=80901.10000022&type=3&subid=0)

  • Your encrypted link ID is the 11-character alpha-numeric string that follows “click?id=”.
  • Do not include the “&” in the ID. In this case the encrypted link ID is “NS2Epm6ZsJo.”
  • Test your link:  Go into ShopBuilder and find a LinkShare merchant that you know you have an active relationship with, click a product, then click “landing page.”  If the link goes to the merchant’s site, your encrypted ID has been entered correctly!

 

The good news is once you have the network IDs (and LinkShare’s encrypted code) set up properly it is all set and you will not need to change or update the codes.  Please do remember if you join a new network to add their ID prior to promoting any of their merchants’ links.

If you still have an issue with links after checking the two most likely culprits, then next step is to email us at support@popshops.com so we can investigate.

PopShops Version 3.0 platform update for Price Comparison and UPC search and more!

At PopShops we are obsessed with developing technologies that provide affiliate marketers the most efficient and flexible data and tools to improve their visitor experience and sales.  We’ve been preparing the world’s most comprehensive repository of product information and have been at work these past two years developing the PopShops Version 3.0 platform which will be the first service of its kind for affiliate publishers.  Here are some of the new capabilities that PopShops has successfully implemented recently that will benefit our customers and affiliate marketers.

  1. Infinite horizontal scalability:  Our  new architecture  now imports, improves, and updates over 95 million SKUs from over 4000 retailers each day, without incident.  We also have the ability to scale this horizontally, easily!  This means more affiliate products and networks for you to choose from and promote.  Kudos to PopShops Chief Architect Brock Barkley, PopShops CTO Dan Harms, and their team!
  2. Data quality:  We source data from multiple sources (affiliate networks, direct from merchants, retailer websites, and more) and each source has its own custom formats and fields.  Some sources prepare data better than the others.  PopShops proprietary technology and process validate and transform this data as never before imagined by other industry players.  We are making over 1.5 billion data point improvements each day, yes that’s ‘billion’.  This means more accurate, up to date, and useable content for you to promote and higher sales from your website and apps.  There is more to be done and stay tuned for even more improvements in data quality.
  3. Product focus:  PopShops Product Knowledge Engine offers ‘product-centric’ data instead of inefficient data from thousands of islands of individual merchant feeds.  This means that instead of thinking about the quality of individual merchant product content we are able to take a product-centric approach utilizing data from additional sources to improve the overall data quality for you.  This means sophisticated browsable and search content generating more sales for you.
  4. International: For our international customers, yes, PopShops new platform enables you to promote merchants with local currency and language.

PopShops API V3.0  was recently released in private alpha testing to select customers.  The new API brings to you more sophisticated search algorithms, product identifier searches and responses (upc, isbn, etc.), product taxonomy (browse, search, filter products by product categories), unified search for products, coupons, and merchants.  There are a lot more capabilities in the PopShops API V3.0.  Introductory specs are available at http://popshops.com/support/api-3-new-features .  Please feel free and contact support@popshops.com if you are interested in PopShops V3.0 API access.

There is more coming! You can receive updates on our upcoming next generation affiliate widgets, API, and additional services by joining us on Facebook.

My oh my, Merchants and More!

PopShops team is like a solid old oak tree, with a solid foundation and many parts that help the whole grow and flourish.   I am happy to be part of one branch of this fun and vibrant company that helps so many publishers accomplish their own personal goals.  I am Michelle Gordon, known to handle all things merchant related and more.

If you email support@popshops.com  you are likely to hear from me.  Our goal has been to develop our product and service in a natural and common sense way so you can focus on your business rather than needing support from PopShops.  However at the same time, if you do need some assistance, we are right here and strive to provide support in a timely fashion.

As publishers, we recognize that you have established relationships with merchants, over time this has helped to build our merchant base, well over 4000 merchants and growing every day.

If one of your favorite merchants is not available in PopShops, please send us a short email requesting their integration to merchants@popshops.com .  The information that we need to process your request is; the merchant name, the network they work with and if you happen to have their network ID that is helpful, but not required.  Please include that information in both the subject line and the body of the text with a short note requesting their integration in PopShops.   Once I receive a request I can begin the integration process.    This entails applying to the merchant in the network, integrating their feed into our system and ensuring the product feed meets all of PopShops quality standards.

Various factors affect the timeline for completely integrating a new merchant, but a few weeks is the norm.  If all things align perfectly, merchants may be integrated in a few days.  Of course, we also have the flip side of that, when a merchant has a glitch in the feed that needs updating which can extend the time frame extensively.  There is also the occasion when we simply are not able to integrate a new merchant.   In all of these cases our integration team will get back to you regarding the status of the integration once it is complete.  One of my favorite things to do is to let one of our subscribers know we have their merchant request new and live in PopShops!

Affiliate Marketing and SEO with PopShops

I run business development and marketing at PopShops. As an affiliate and online marketer myself, I keep a keen eye on online marketing channels and techniques and am often asked how PopShops helps publishers with SEO marketing. Here’s  how PopShops can help you with SEO marketing.

The server-side snippets from PopShops are coded in way that improve a site’s visibility to search engines when writing custom content for products. These snippets offer an advantage over Javascript snippets because they render the shop contents, including product names and descriptions, to the search engine. Additionally, with the PopShops SEO Rules editor (provided with PopShops Enterprise plan), publishers can customize data feed content to include targeted keywords and tags. Also, PopShops’ ‘no-follow’ link tool informs search engines to not follow affiliate links which favors your search index ranking. Here is a sample demo site using PopShops settings and tools, in this case targeting budget bridesmaid dresses. You can also find more information at https://www.popshops.com/support/seo-rules.

Broad-scale SEO and SEM can be implemented with PopShops DataPack API that enables the more technical affiliate publishers to publish detail pages for millions of products, discounts, and coupons. Some PopShops customers utilize the API to implement browsable and hierarchical keyword-driven strategy, while some publishers utilize browsable and hierarchical store (merchant) focused pages, and some utilize a pure coupons-focused SEO implementation. PopShops API ensures a fast response time (and we’re talking fast — we’re currently averaging less than 500 ms), resulting in fast loading of content, which feeds favorably into the leading search engine indexes.

The SEO marketing community knows all too well that there is no one action item that makes SEO a big success. There are many steps to be taken for a successful and continued SEO campaign. Creating a dynasty of niches with unique and custom content will make SEO and your site visitor experience far more relevant than any broad SEO effort lacking depth in content.

I also highly recommend giving Google’s webmaster guidelines a good read.

Welcome to PopShops.com blog!

Hello and welcome to PopShops.com blog. The PopShops team will be using this blog to share with you what we are excited about, industry updates, sneak peek into upcoming PopShops features, tips and tricks on how you can get even more from your PopShops, and more. We hope you will find our blog useful and insightful.

You can find PopShops team profiles at http://www.popshops.com/support/about-us. We are only an email away at support@popshops.com, if  you have any questions.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The PopShops Team