Today, Seattle 2.0 released the January edition of their Seattle Startup Index, and HasOffers moved up to number twenty-one.  That means we went up 29 spots from the last index.

The list is complied by Marcelo Calbucci of Seattle 2.0 using traffic data from Compete.com and Alexa.com.  This combined data determines the aggregate Reach (unique visitors) of all properties owned by a start up organization. 

The move forward in the Seattle 2.0 index is a representation of the fantastic growth we have been experiencing at HasOffers.  We are excited to see so many affiliate networks, affiliates, and advertisers pouring in, turning to HasOffers.com for their tracking and management needs.  As always, keep the feedback coming! 

Do you have your own exclusive offers?  Are you looking for new traffic sources to promote those offers? 

The Offer Exchange is an excellent way to instantly distribute your offers to new traffic sources and quickly increase conversions and profits.  Below is all the information you need to get started. 

Sharing Offers on the Offer Exchange™
After creating an offer, you can share that offer with other networks on the Offer Exchange from the edit offer page.  Click on the offer you want to share from the Manage Offers page and click the edit link at the top of the page.  Scroll down to the second section titled Offer Exchange and use the toggle to changed the setting to Enabled.  You will then have the option to create a custom name for that offer which will display to other networks on the Offer Exchanges.  Fees for sharing offers are 5% of affiliate payout – (the amount of money paid by the parent network to affiliates advertising the offer). This fee is calculated and billed monthly.

Shared Offer Options
Shared offers function like normal offers.  You maintain all of the power and control to manage the offer and maximize results.  Set approval processes, include additional screening questions, add additional terms and conditions, define redirects and converted offers settings, set custom cookie lifespans, and choose offer categories.  Only performance based offers can be shared (pay per conversion and pay per sale). 

Shared Offer Requirements
Only offers that are exclusive to a specific network can be listed in the Offer Exchange.  It is required that you either own the offer or have exclusive rights to advertise that offer –( agency of record).
This exclusive standard ensures quality of the Offer Exchange. It enables networks participating in the exchange to work directly with the advertisers.  Additionally, only performance based offers can be shared with other networks (pay per conversion and pay per sale).

Parent Network (Advertiser) Approval
HasOffers has developed an extremely efficient approval process for networks to share offers.  If a requesting network has never imported an offer from a specific parent network (advertiser) before, then an affiliate relationship must be established. Approval depends on the approval settings of each parent network. If the parent network requires affiliate account approval, then the requesting network will be submitted for approval to the parent network.  The requesting network may be subject to answering additional questions before being submitted for approval.  The parent network can view pending networks and their answers to these questions on the Pending Affiliates page, denoted by the words “Offer Exchange.”  While waiting for approval, the offer status will show as “Pending Parent Network Approval” for requesting networks.  If the parent network allows auto approval of affiliates, then the request to import an offer will automatically be approved.
     
Managing Approved Networks from the Offer Exchange™
The Offer Exchange automatically syncs offer information from the parent network (advertiser) to the approved network. The parent network can view account details of the approved network on the Manage Affiliates page just like any other affiliate but denoted with the words “Offer Exchange.”  By clicking on the “Affiliate” ID of a network from the Offer Exchange, the parent network can view basic profile information, payment details, fraud score, and more.

Removing Shared Offers from the Offer Exchange™
To remove a shared offer from the Offer Exchange, simply go to the edit page of the offer and change the status to Disabled in the Offer Exchange section. Disabling the Offer Exchange will terminate all connected relationships and prevent you from sharing the offer again. It is not recommended to share and unshared offers more than once.  Please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with questions about re-enabling an offer.

So what are you waiting for?  Take advantage of the incredible traffic sources provided by the Offer Exchange. 

HasOffers is extremely proud to present the Offer Exchange™.  Several months, and many long days have gone into this incredible new feature where you can share offers with other networks and search for new offers to advertise.  We hope you will all login today and take a look!

 

Find New Offers to Advertise

As an affiliate network you can browse the Offer Exchange™ for new top paying offers.  Already have great affiliates and traffic sources?  Then give your network a boost by applying for offers on the Offer Exchange™ and maximizing the revenue of your network.  All offers on the offer exchange are direct from advertisers or from affiliate networks with exclusive advertising relationships, meaning high payouts and on-time payments.

Share Offers

Advertisers and affiliate networks with exclusive offers can now share their offers with thousands of other networks using the HasOffers platform.  Once offers are approved for sharing, other networks can apply to advertise your offers. Usage charges (5% of payout) apply to all conversions that occur through the Offer Exchange™ and are billed directly to the owner of the shared offer. Only paying account holders with a credit card on file can share offers on the Offer Exchange™.

Automated Setup and Tracking

Every time an offer is shared with another network, the offer is added to that network’s “Manage Offers” section as a shared offer, but to affiliates it appears similar to any other offer provided by that network.  All tracking is immediately connected and requires no additional setup or pixel placement, enabling networks to easily manage the success of shared offers.

Shared Offer Updates

The Offer Exchange™ makes it easy for sharing networks to send updates and notifications, providing information like conversions caps, expiration dates, new terms and conditions, and any other changes to shared offers.

 

Learn more about the Offer Exchange™ or login to your HasOffers account and start browsing shared offers now.  As always, we can’t wait to here your feedback and continue to improve this already incredible feature.

Last week’s release included not only the Ad Manager, but several other beneficial features that are live and ready for you to use.  Many of our most successful networks have patiently awaited this release, and we hope that the introduction of these new features will quickly enhance the efficiency and profitability of your businesses.

Faster Statistic Queries You will notice that load times are much faster for paging data on various pages and analyzing statistics in reports.  The development of a new data layer with an API (which will later be available to our clients) have greatly increased our efficiency in retrieving data and displaying it.

Third-Party Affiliate Tracking Previously, one of the problems with image conversion and server response (cookie-less) tracking was that affiliates had no way of tracking conversions in their own third-party system. Affiliate Postback URLs can now be added to offers for affiliates. Now when an offer that uses image conversion tracking or server response tracking registers a conversion, the affiliate server postback URL is loaded by HasOffers notifying the affiliate of the conversion as well. Affiliate Postback URLs can be added the same way affiliate pixels are added. Add affiliate postback URLs from the offer view page or via the Affiliate Pixel / URL page. The offer ID can also now be passed into affiliate pixels and postback URLs using {offer_id}. Plus the same variable can now be used multiple times in affiliate pixels and postback URLs.

CPC/CPM Pay affiliates and publishers based on cost per click and impression models rather than conversions.  This more traditional advertising model is a great way to managing affiliates and publishers who are providing traffic you trust.

Additional Cookie Lifespan Cookie lifespans determine how long after a user interacts with an advertisement for an offer that conversions are recorded. We have added many more options for designating the lifespan of cookie sessions.  You can also set the lifespan to a custom number of hours.

Offer Approval Questions If offers require approval, specific questions for affiliates to answers are displayed when are applying for approval to run offers. Answers to offer approval questions, can be optional or required. Also, setup global offer approval questions that will be displayed on all offers that require approval.

Bulk Conversion Approval For offers that require conversions to be approved, two additional methods have been added to streamline this process. Now on the Conversion Report, select multiple conversions to approve or reject. Also, approve conversions by uploading transaction IDs from a file.

Export Billing Information to CSV Easily export invoices, payments, and balances in a CSV format to be easily reconciled by your accounting personnel and enables you to import this information into third-party systems.

Account Signup Question Signup questions can now be added to the advertiser signup process. New signup question options for advertisers and affiliates including drop downs and yes/no boxes.

Adding Google Analytics to HasOffers You can now track usage of your application by adding your own Google Analytics script to every page in the application. Simply add your Google Analytics key in the customize application page and analytics will immediately start tracking for your account.

Thanks to all of our clients for their incredible suggestions and support.  Keep an eye out next week for the Offer Exchange™ our most exciting release yet!  Share your direct offers with other networks on the Offer Exchange™ and search for shared offers to add to your network.

After two months of production, HasOffers is excited to release the first of many new features scheduled to appear this month.  Today, we have released the Ad Manager, which is available to all paid HasOffers account owners and their affiliates.

  The HasOffers Ad Manager is more than just a banner rotator.  It is a comprehensive solution for managing advertising campaigns.  With the Ad Manager, you can create your own banner and text ads.  You can use creatives that are assigned to offers or upload new creative images and flash banners on-the-fly.  Add an unlimited number of creative combinations to an offer campaign and utilize advanced optimization algorithms to maximize success. 

Learn more about the Ad Manager http://www.hasoffers.com/ad-manager-ad-server-tool
or login to your HasOffers account and try it out for yourself.

Automatically optimize one campaign that includes hundreds of offers and thousands of banners, while targeting over 50 countries.  The Ad Manager optimizes every factor to produce the best results.  Help your affiliates by passing this exciting new feature along.  It is a great way to increase conversions on the traffic you already have. 

View Ad Manager Press Release

 

HasOffers 2010 Roadmap
This year has been an amazing time of growth, advancement, and recognition for HasOffers.  In 2009, HasOffers developed the fastest and most efficient performance advertising platform, creating countless new features and growing to a customer base of over 2000 networks.  There is much to be celebrated, but in light of all their successes, HasOffers has already begun tackling some of their most ambitious goals, predicted to boost performance-based marketing dramatically in 2010.

Some long anticipated features like Multi-Language Translations, Recurring Affiliate Commissions, SEO Tracking Links, and Direct Affiliate Pay are all rolling out in early 2010, but this is just the beginning of the roadmap. HasOffers is also releasing a fully integrated Ad Manager for networks and affiliates.  The Ad Manager allows users to create their own text ads and banners within the HasOffers platform, and more importantly allows them to manage and optimize those campaigns by click through rates, revenue per click, conversion rates, and more.  This tool provides advertisers and affiliates with everything they need to generate the most effective advertisements for their traffic sources without the need for additional banner systems.

So by now you are probably impressed by the hard work HasOffers will be doing while the world is taking a winter vacation, but the most exciting news is still to come.  In January of 2010, HasOffers is incorporating an intelligent campaign distribution and sharing feature.  This marketplace style environment will securely and profitably connect networks with direct offers, using unprecedented methodology and attention to industry needs.  Unlike competing attempts to share campaigns between networks, HasOffers is committed to the quality and security of globalized offers, fully utilizing the value of sharing profitable advertising offers.  

Online advertising is a constantly changing landscape, and with performance-based models quickly gaining ground, HasOffers is poised to lead the market into the New Year with the technology, features, and relationships to boost client revenues exponentially.   

To all of you that came by the booth at Ad:Tech, thank you for your interest and gracious complements. We were overwhelmed with excited new customers and enthusiastic current customers. Referrals and kind words kept coming the entire time, and for that we would like to thank all of you for making our first Ad:Tech a huge success.

For those of you not able to attend, I wanted to point out a few cool things you missed. For one, we had a dedicated server set up in the booth running statistics with dummy traffic. With that one server we were processing 250 clicks per second (or over 21 million clicks per day), and all that with only an average of 1.5% cpu usage. This just shows how efficient our platform truly is, making our unbelievable pricing model possible.

We are busy responding to all of you that came by the booth, but feel free to reach out to us any time you wish. Our support and account management teams are always there for you!

 

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of new features and exciting progress. At this point we truly believe that we have the best available features and technologies for tracking CPA advertising. However, the innovation continues, thanks to so many of you that are utilizing the HasOffers platform to run successful online campaigns. Below are a few of the features that we hope you are enjoying.

Snapshot Redesign: We have long believed that the snapshot page is a key element to organization for HasOffers account administrators. This release is the first of many changes to come, enhancing the quick view of the overall network. some new features on the snapshot page include:

QuickLinks: These links help you quickly find the information you are looking for. You may also add additional links to the “Quick Links” section.

Network Totals: This field shows quick statistics for the entire network like clicks or revenue for the year, or the number of affiliates and advertisers that are active on your tracking platform.

Approve/Deny Tasks: This extremely useful section provides information on any pending processes that the administrator needs to resolve. This might include pending affiliates, pending offers, applications for private offer access, and more.

Fraud Score Summary: Professional and Enterprise accounts receive quick summaries of fraudulent activity occurring on their networks.

Featured Offers: This field allows an admin to feature offers on the affiliate snapshot pages. By selecting the offers in the drop down menu and clicking the plus sign, these offers (along with their thumbnail images) will appear on affiliate snapshot pages.

Additional Pages

This exciting innovation in customization allows networks to create new pages that appear in the drop down navigation of advertiser and affiliate systems. Simply click “create page,” select where the page will appear in the navigation, and insert the title and HTML for that page. Feel free to use our API to create additional statistics pages for affiliates and advertisers. Additional Pages is a great way to personalize your network and provide supportive materials for your affiliates.

Time Zones

Administrators can now change the time zone for which time stamps are recorded within the platform. This can be changed at any time, but you must be aware that the change may cause a gap or overlap of time stamps for the period of change.

Thanks again to all of you providing feedback and words of encouragement! You are reason HasOffers has become the best affiliate tracking platform available.

 

We are extremely proud to introduce the newest addition to the HasOffers platform, HasOffers Dedicated Solutions, which includes the option of self-hosted servers or server management services.  This solution is targeted toward larger networks and advertisers seeking the privacy and control of a self-hosted system with the features and support already provided by our hosted editions.

Dedicated Solutions also provides the possibility of custom designed features to meet the specific needs of an affiliate network or advertiser.

“We are always taking customer feedback, constantly improving functionally and introducing new features to the HasOffers platform.  The development of HasOffers Dedicated Solutions is a product of that mission, designed to meet any and every need of large volume advertisers and affiliate networks, providing new possibilities for custom features.”  -  Lucas Brown, COO

Read more about Dedicated Solutions on our most recent PRESS RELEASE or contact us for a free consultation.

As usual, we’ve been busy, and we would like to make sure everyone is up to date on a couple new features.  If you have missed the last couple of updates or have not been active, please take a see below for an archive of updates over the last couple of months.

Creative Manager

 

It just keeps getting better.  Thank you to all of you who are providing wonderful suggestions on how to make HasOffers the best affiliate tracking and management software available.  Not only have these most recent updates taken the HasOffers platform to a new level, but they have set the stage for some exciting additions to be released in the next month.  Be sure to take a look at these most recent updates and let us know if you have questions!

Country, Browser, and User Agent Statistics
This feature is completely unique to HasOffers, allowing you to run reports on conversions that show the countries, browsers, and actual user agents in real-time. Advertiser Billing
Similar to the affiliate billing system, the advertiser billing allows networks to create invoices for advertisers and mark those invoice as paid once an advertiser remits payment. 

User Interface Changes
Our talented design staff has made some UI framework changes to allow for some exciting new themes.  Stay tuned for these new themes and layouts within the next few weeks. 

Affiliate Tiers
Create different payout tiers for your network.  Save time by adding tiered payouts for each offer and then assign affiliates to those tiers.  This allows you to upgrade a affiliate payout levels across your entire network of offers.

Offer Thumbnail images
Upload images (.jpg, .png, .gif) for each offer and allow affiliates to browse your offers by images.  This is a simple way to dress up your network, showcasing the creatives available for your offers.


Select Multiple Offer Groups and Categories
Each offer can now be assigned to more than one offer group or category by using the shift key or ctrl key.

API Hosted Sign-Up Forms and Login
Networks can now have users login and fill out sign-up forms virtually through our API.  This is great for creating your own user interface or just hosting your own sign-up form.

Additional Currency Symbols
Previously we added the ability to change your network’s currency symbol.  In this release you can now change it to virtually any currency available.

Extended Cookie Session Times
Now you can choose to extend cookie life span up to one year in length.  Allow affiliates to receive credit for conversions that occur over the span of an entire year!


New Enterprise Features Coming Soon….

Fraud Detection
In the next production release HasOffers will be unveiling a new Fraud Detection suite enabling networks to set thresholds and alerts for fraudulent sign-up requests as well as fraudulent affiliate activity. 

Email Client
We are also planning to release a new email client for enterprise networks to email specific affiliates or groups of affiliates based on various criteria. 

We hope you are all as excited as we are about the amazing developments with HasOffers and we look forward to your reviews and suggestions.  Please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with any questions.

Here comes a new set of features from the HasOffers team.  Make sure you take a look at these new features and consider how they will help manage your affiliate network.

We would like to start by saying there has been a very basic terminology change throughout the application.  All references to “Leads” have been changed to “Conversions,” as we feel that this more accurately describes the final destination of various affiliate campaigns.  Please keep this in mind as you create new offers and look at campaign reports. 

Conversion Adjustment Report - Previously we gave network administrators the control to adjust conversions per affiliate.  Now those adjustments can be easily tracked and evaluated using the Conversion Adjustment Report.  -  /admin/stats/conversion_adjustment_report

Exporting to PayPal – This feature removes one more step in the process by allowing administrators to export payment information in PayPal “Mass Payment File Format.”  This allows anyone with a Premier or Business PayPal account to send multiple payments instantly, saving time and money.

Blocking Affiliates – Network administrators can not only block affiliates from specific offers, but they can now block affiliates from all offers coming from a specific advertiser.  This helps to protect advertisers from unwanted traffic.  -  /admin/advertisers/view/# - @ the bottom of each Advertiser Page

Advertiser Stats API – Just like affiliates, advertisers now have access to statistics via the HasOffers API.  Please speak with support for questions on how to help advertisers utilize this feature.

Export User lists to CSV – Easily generate email/contact lists by exporting User information in .CSV format. 

As always, we are here to help you utilize all of the features HasOffers provides, empowering you to manage a successful network with accuracy and stability.  If you have any questions do not hesitate to email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or AIM support @ hasoffers.

- Peter Hamilton, Director of Marketing -  .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Promote a Great Product for 40% of Sale

If you are impressed by the HasOffers affiliate network software, then you know that others will be interested in using HasOffers to run their own affiliate networks.  That is why we created the HasOffers Partners Program for those wanting to promote HasOffers with their own traffic sources.

Through the HasOffers Partners Program, you can promote Paid Subscriptions to our Professional and Enterprise Editions and receive $39 to $320 per sale!

This offer is good for all countries and regions, has no lead cap, and shows tracking in real-time.  You can also choose from several banners hosted on an ultra fast CDN.

Visit: http://partners.hasoffers.com/

and sign up to promote HasOffers for 40% of sales.

The HasOffers developers have been hard at work on this anticipated set of features.  This release focuses on increased Advertiser participation, network customization, reports, and several new offer features.  You will also notice a change in our pricing structure, maintaining HasOffers as the most efficient and affordable solution for affiliate networks.

New Features – July 2, 2009

Advertiser Offer Management - Give advertisers the control to add and manage their own offers and creatives along with access to real-time performance reports.

Customizable Affiliate Sign-Up Form - Network administrators can decide what questions to include on the affiliate sign-up form.  Include optional or required questions about traffic sources, websites, references and more, vastly improving affiliate management.

New Design for Reporting and Statistics - Reports and Statistics using HasOffers is even faster and more efficient than before.  Data view pages can easily be searched and sorted accurately even with multiple pages of data.

Statistics Totals and Sums - View total numbers of Clicks, Impressions, and Leads on any report.  Networks can also quickly see sums and calculations for CTR, Revenue, eRPC, Profit, and more.

Updated Tracking Links - Updated tracking links that are easy to understand. Sub ID tracking has been updated as well as new Source Name. Specify a Source Name in the tracking URL to easily drill-down and analyze performance.

Adding Custom Variables to Tracking Links - New improved process for adding additional variables to affiliate tracking links. Simply enable the Custom Variable feature for an offer and then use the simple wizard to easily add variables to tracking links that will be passed to the offer landing page.

Disable Lead Caps - For those offers that don’t have lead caps, our system now allows you to completely disable lead caps.

Multiple Conversions Per Offer - This gives networks the option to allow offers to convert more than once, giving affiliates the credit when a user converts more than once on the same offer.

Send to Product Specific Landing Pages - New feature that allows specific landing pages to be specified in the tracking links. Users will then be redirected to the specified website link. Start tracking leads and sales for websites with hundreds to thousands of products or services.

New Pricing Structure - If you have already created a HasOffers account, you are not subject to the new pricing changes, however, all new accounts will choose from the new Free, Pro, and Enterprise Editions.  http://www.hasoffers.com/pricing.html

As always, we love to hear from you!  If you have any questions about these features or would like to contribute your own ideas please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)m.  Find us on AIM @ hasoffers.

- Peter Hamilton, Director of Marketing
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
AIM: peteradapp