Monday, March 19, 2012
Check Out InkChoose.com!
InkChoose.com is a great resource to compare printer ink prices and find a low cost supplier of ink for your hungry printer. Don't burn money feeding your printer cartridges... find your best options for refilling it economically in seconds right here!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Great deals shipped anywhere
Every now and then something really interesting crops up in the ecommerce world - the latest trend seems to be megadiscounters in China shipping dirt cheap goods worldwide - often with free shipping to boot. How they do it is a mystery to us, but do it they do... our friends over at OwensDeals.com just put together a great list of the best of these sites on their Top Deal Websites page. Check them out and start saving!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Cybersquatting sites lie in wait for the unwary typist
An eye-opening article about cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting, or typosquatting) in the news recently: Cybersquatting sites lie in wait for the unwary typist . It is quite amazing that big companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are currently only protecting about 20% of the possible obvious variations of their brands, with 80% leaking traffic elsewhere, and potentially confusing and misleading customers. This is just the obvious variations with just one typographical error in the letters of their addresses - there are many others which automated tools such as the one described in the article cannot detect in most cases.
Traffikoo can help you protect your brand from cybersquatters. Learn more today.
Traffikoo can help you protect your brand from cybersquatters. Learn more today.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Traffikoo's Newly Redesigned Website
Our website here at Traffikoo was feeling a little dated so we decided to give it a facelift. Check out our new website at http://traffikoo.com. (If you're reading this of course, that means you're probably viewing it already!).
The new website is intended to give clients a better idea of all the services we can offer. The Services section of the website is now completely updated to reflect that Traffikoo is now a full internet services and solutions company that can partner with clients of all sizes seeking to create, expand or offload their internet presence and use of web resources.
Comments on the new site are welcome - please direct those to info {a} traffikoo.com. And thanks!
The new website is intended to give clients a better idea of all the services we can offer. The Services section of the website is now completely updated to reflect that Traffikoo is now a full internet services and solutions company that can partner with clients of all sizes seeking to create, expand or offload their internet presence and use of web resources.
Comments on the new site are welcome - please direct those to info {a} traffikoo.com. And thanks!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Top Seven Ways To Stop Burning Money And Save With Online Shopping
Whether money is tight or not, everybody loves a good deal, and the deals you can get online are better than ever. Contaya.com, Traffikoo's own online information shopping portal, put together this list of the top seven ways in which you can stop throwing money down the drain and save big by turning to online shopping:
Whether money is tight or not, everybody loves a good deal, and the deals you can get online are better than ever. Contaya.com (http://Contaya.com) put together this list of the top seven ways in which you can stop throwing money down the drain and save big by turning to online shopping:
1. You already know this - shop online whenever possible! Retail stores you can walk into with your own two feet cost money (rent, employees, etc.). Merchants who mail items from a warehouse instead can pass alot of savings along to you. Given that you can now buy anything from $1 toothpaste to a $20,000 diamond ring online, shopping online for most things is easy.
2. Plan ahead! This is closely related to 1 above. If you keep track of things you need regularly, you can order them online in advance before you run out and need them urgently.
3. Use sites like Contaya.com which carry details of coupon codes and promotions before you go online shopping. This can often save you alot of money if you do it before visiting the merchant site. On Contaya.com, for example, you can simply look up the merchant you were planning to shop from and see if there are any applicable deals, coupon codes, free shipping offers, sales, promotions, or other discounts available. (You can also browse the site via merchant category tags, or search by product instead of merchant, if you're not sure about what merchant you want to shop from yet.)
4. Make sure you understand how the coupon codes and promotions you found work. Coupon codes generally need to be entered manually on the merchant checkout page (sites like Contaya.com provide a convenient way of copying the code, so you can simply paste it later, and visiting the merchant site with a single click). Deals not involving coupon codes might instead require you to click on a specific link to activate the promotion. On Contaya.com, for example, that link would be the one in the "Deal Description" section of the coupon code/deal listing.
5. Think about sales taxes. If a merchant's shipping warehouse is located in the same state as you, they'll have to charge them. You could get around this by choosing a merchant in another state carrying the same or a similar product. Look carefully at your checkout page to see if sales taxes are being included in the total. (Note: technically you're still on the hook to report sales taxes yourself to your state if you can do this practicably.)
6. If an expiry date is listed on the coupon code or deal you found, as it usually will be, check it carefully. However, codes and deals sometimes work past their expiry date, or are reactivated later, so checking for that is also a good idea. (If you don't see the discount reflected clearly on your checkout page on the merchant site, however, it's safe to assume you won't be getting it!)
7. If you find a great deal and it's not listed online yet, share it with your follow shoppers! Karma spreads around. On Contaya.com, sharing a coupon code or deal for any merchant is very quick and easy (you can optionally also connect with your Facebook account to tell your friends about it).
Whether money is tight or not, everybody loves a good deal, and the deals you can get online are better than ever. Contaya.com (http://Contaya.com) put together this list of the top seven ways in which you can stop throwing money down the drain and save big by turning to online shopping:
1. You already know this - shop online whenever possible! Retail stores you can walk into with your own two feet cost money (rent, employees, etc.). Merchants who mail items from a warehouse instead can pass alot of savings along to you. Given that you can now buy anything from $1 toothpaste to a $20,000 diamond ring online, shopping online for most things is easy.
2. Plan ahead! This is closely related to 1 above. If you keep track of things you need regularly, you can order them online in advance before you run out and need them urgently.
3. Use sites like Contaya.com which carry details of coupon codes and promotions before you go online shopping. This can often save you alot of money if you do it before visiting the merchant site. On Contaya.com, for example, you can simply look up the merchant you were planning to shop from and see if there are any applicable deals, coupon codes, free shipping offers, sales, promotions, or other discounts available. (You can also browse the site via merchant category tags, or search by product instead of merchant, if you're not sure about what merchant you want to shop from yet.)
4. Make sure you understand how the coupon codes and promotions you found work. Coupon codes generally need to be entered manually on the merchant checkout page (sites like Contaya.com provide a convenient way of copying the code, so you can simply paste it later, and visiting the merchant site with a single click). Deals not involving coupon codes might instead require you to click on a specific link to activate the promotion. On Contaya.com, for example, that link would be the one in the "Deal Description" section of the coupon code/deal listing.
5. Think about sales taxes. If a merchant's shipping warehouse is located in the same state as you, they'll have to charge them. You could get around this by choosing a merchant in another state carrying the same or a similar product. Look carefully at your checkout page to see if sales taxes are being included in the total. (Note: technically you're still on the hook to report sales taxes yourself to your state if you can do this practicably.)
6. If an expiry date is listed on the coupon code or deal you found, as it usually will be, check it carefully. However, codes and deals sometimes work past their expiry date, or are reactivated later, so checking for that is also a good idea. (If you don't see the discount reflected clearly on your checkout page on the merchant site, however, it's safe to assume you won't be getting it!)
7. If you find a great deal and it's not listed online yet, share it with your follow shoppers! Karma spreads around. On Contaya.com, sharing a coupon code or deal for any merchant is very quick and easy (you can optionally also connect with your Facebook account to tell your friends about it).
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Contaya.com Launch Press Release - Traffikoo LLC Launches Contaya.com to better connect Consumers and Businesses
Traffikoo LLC is proud to announce the launch of Contaya.com, a sophisticated consumer shopping information and social networking portal intended to provide consumers with valuable shopping information about their merchant choices prior to making a purchase, and to attract new traffic and business to quality merchants listed on the site.
On Contaya.com, which consumers can freely connect to with their Facebook account, consumers can find and share a wide variety of online shopping information, particularly coupons, deals, coupon codes, reviews of merchants, merchant news and more. Consumers can share any useful information such as new product announcements, great deals, etc. that they post or discover on the site with their Facebook friends quickly and easily, and can recommend any merchants they like to their friends. As such the site is a particularly useful resource to consumers about to make a shopping decision. Currently Contaya.com already carries around 4,000 online merchants in its database, and is expanding rapidly.
For merchants, Contaya.com provides a means of finding new customers and sharing information and communicating with them effectively. Merchants can open merchant accounts on Contaya.com for free; this gives them access to a whole range of site features restricted to merchants, such as posting on the site in their merchant name, as well as Contaya.com's printable coupon creator (for local businesses). Merchants can also pick up banners on the site to inform consumers about their Contaya.com listing; by so doing, consumers can read any reviews about the merchant, review the merchant themselves, and recommend it to their friends on Facebook, spreading the word about the merchant concerned. Satisfied customers are a merchant's best advocate and most likely to be trusted by their friends, making this a particularly effective tool for merchants seeking to reach a wider audience.
In conclusion, Contaya.com should be a useful resource to both consumers and merchants, and it is growing daily. Consumers and merchants are invited to check it out at Contaya.com.
Traffikoo LLC is an online advertising and ecommerce services company based in Dallas, Texas, and serving client merchants worldwide. Traffikoo recently launched www.Contaya.com, a new consumer shopping information portal intended to better connect consumers and businesses.
On Contaya.com, which consumers can freely connect to with their Facebook account, consumers can find and share a wide variety of online shopping information, particularly coupons, deals, coupon codes, reviews of merchants, merchant news and more. Consumers can share any useful information such as new product announcements, great deals, etc. that they post or discover on the site with their Facebook friends quickly and easily, and can recommend any merchants they like to their friends. As such the site is a particularly useful resource to consumers about to make a shopping decision. Currently Contaya.com already carries around 4,000 online merchants in its database, and is expanding rapidly.
For merchants, Contaya.com provides a means of finding new customers and sharing information and communicating with them effectively. Merchants can open merchant accounts on Contaya.com for free; this gives them access to a whole range of site features restricted to merchants, such as posting on the site in their merchant name, as well as Contaya.com's printable coupon creator (for local businesses). Merchants can also pick up banners on the site to inform consumers about their Contaya.com listing; by so doing, consumers can read any reviews about the merchant, review the merchant themselves, and recommend it to their friends on Facebook, spreading the word about the merchant concerned. Satisfied customers are a merchant's best advocate and most likely to be trusted by their friends, making this a particularly effective tool for merchants seeking to reach a wider audience.
In conclusion, Contaya.com should be a useful resource to both consumers and merchants, and it is growing daily. Consumers and merchants are invited to check it out at Contaya.com.
Traffikoo LLC is an online advertising and ecommerce services company based in Dallas, Texas, and serving client merchants worldwide. Traffikoo recently launched www.Contaya.com, a new consumer shopping information portal intended to better connect consumers and businesses.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Traffikoo White Paper: Restrictions on search engine direct linking and the use of your display URL in your affiliate program
INTRODUCTION
Traffikoo LLC is an online advertising company established in 2005. We are involved in many aspects of online marketing, running websites of our own, as well as running advertisements on other third party websites via agreements we have in place with those website operators. One of Traffikoo's activities, an area in which it has acquired considerable experience and capabilities over the years, is in the area of advertising for its clients on internet search engines - Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others. This white paper is intended to explain to clients how to take maximum advantage of Traffikoo's capabilities.
NEGATIVE RESTRICTIONS
Traffikoo generally partners with its clients on an affiliate basis, i.e. as an affiliate of its clients, and is paid commission by its clients for each product sale or lead generated. Some of our clients have restrictions in place on the search engine marketing (SEM) activities they allow their affiliates to undertake. The following are two restrictions Traffikoo occasionally encounters in the course of its business:
1. Restrictions on the use of display URLs belonging to merchants in search advertisements
2. Restrictions on direct linking from search advertising to merchant websites
As an ethical advertising company, Traffikoo strives to abide by any restrictions merchants choose to impose on search marketing activities. The scope of this white paper is to explain, however, how these restrictions generally adversely affect a merchant's own business, and how it is usually in a merchant's best interest to relax these restrictions by granting Traffikoo an exception to them.
ONE RESTRICTION IMPLIES THE OTHER
Firstly, it is important to understand that the major search engines such as Google (alone responsible for approximately 70% of internet search traffic and related commerce) do not allow search advertisements to link to a website different than that shown in its display URL. This is the case even if the display URL is redirected to via other websites. If the search advertisement ultimately leads to www.mywebsite.com, then the display URL must also be www.mywebsite.com. So it is important to understand that the two restrictions listed above go hand-in-hand. Imposing any one of these restrictions automatically imposes the other. If you disallow direct linking, you automatically also disallow the use of your display URL, and if you disallow the use of your display URL, you automatically also disallow direct linking.
(In the past, Google has not enforced this rule in all cases. Please note that it is actively doing so now. So if your affiliates were successful in the past in running ads on Google which direct linked to your site but listed a different display URL, they are highly unlikely to be allowed to do so much longer.)
IMPACT OF THE RESTRICTIONS
Disallowing direct linking (or equivalently the use of your display URL) will result in a significant reduction of effectiveness of the advertising Traffikoo can run for you. Bridge pages are actively discouraged by the search engines, and in many cases their bids are now impossibly high ($5 or $10 bid minimums). Any requirement to go via an intermediate landing page will at the minimum therefore likely result in a loss of valuable converting traffic; in many cases, it is completely unfeasible to advertise merchants effectively in this way since affiliate commissions do not permit Traffikoo to profitably place bids beyond a certain level. As a result, as of 2008, Traffikoo is no longer offering its search services and experience to new clients which have display URL/direct linking restrictions in place.
With its years of experience in online marketing, Traffikoo is often able to generate thousands or tens of thousands of keywords relevant to a particular merchant's business. This of course whilst respecting any restrictions a merchant might have in place on particular keywords or phrases such as trademarks or trademark variations. In our experience, even merchants with professional in-house or third party search teams are very unlikely to be covering all possible search terms Traffikoo might come up with. If direct linking and the use of a merchant's URL are disallowed, then these keywords cannot be deployed to send traffic on to a merchant's website, and significant business may be lost.
Some merchants may have concerns over granting Traffikoo the ability to direct link and use their display URL. We next outline why we strongly believe these concerns are unfounded.
CONCERN #1 - AD APPEARANCE & MESSAGE
One concern Traffikoo sometimes encounters is that ads which direct link to a merchant's website and use a merchant's display URL may appear to be coming from the merchant itself, not an affiliate. The situation is of course no different than placing an advertisement on TV via an advertising agency - the advertising agency is also an anonymous third party in that case, and the advertisement appears to come directly from the merchant concerned - and directs viewers to only contact the merchant. Requesting viewers to go via any third party would result in a severe loss of effectiveness for the advertisement.
Traffikoo has years of experience in writing high quality advertisements and is extremely careful not to make promises the merchant cannot deliver on, or to position the merchant's brand in a way the merchant might find undesirable. In addition, Traffikoo is always open to simply running ad text supplied by the merchant if the merchant so chooses, or running any ad it writes by the merchant first for the merchant's approval.
CONCERN #2 - BIDDING COMPETITION
Another concern sometimes expressed by merchants is that Traffikoo's ads might compete with those of a merchant's own in-house search efforts if direct linking/display URL use is allowed. The search engines do have a rule that only one ad with a specific display URL can show for any particular keyword search, so on the surface competition could be an issue if a Traffikoo ad were to prevent a merchant ad from showing or require a higher bid by the merchant to show. There are a number of reasons why such competition is not usually an issue at all in practice:
1. As pointed out above, Traffikoo is expert at generating very large keyword lists for its clients, and it is unlikely that all but a minority of them are already being bid on by a client. All new keywords that Traffikoo brings to your keyword pool add business you would not otherwise get.
2. Keywords that both your in-house search team and Traffikoo bid on are likely well-known keywords that your competitors are also bidding on. In this case, your bids are probably set at high levels because of the competition you are facing in the bid auction from your competitors. Traffikoo's bids are in all likelihood set at considerably lower levels since Traffikoo cannot afford high bids if it is to remain profitable after deducting bid costs from its affiliate commissions. Customers ultimately have considerably higher value to merchants like yourself and your competitors than to Traffikoo because satisfied customers are likely to bookmark merchants and return to them directly (without going through a search engine) in future. So your competitors - and you if you wish to keep up with them! - probably are running bids at a level commensurate with this customer lifetime value. Traffikoo can only factor in the value of a single sale in setting its bids - even with extremely generous commission levels, our bids will likely be far below yours.
3. Traffikoo is happy not to bid on any particular keywords a merchant declares to us they are already bidding on via their in-house efforts. If you let us know which keywords these are, we will simply remove them from our campaigns for you.
CONCLUSION
Letting Traffikoo use your display URL and direct link to your website is a good idea and will generally result in Traffikoo being able to send you considerable new business. We therefore strongly recommend that merchants grant Traffikoo an exception to any such restrictions they may have in place. We look forward to sending you plenty of new business you would not otherwise have received!
* * * * * * * * *
Traffikoo LLC is an online advertising company established in 2005. We are involved in many aspects of online marketing, running websites of our own, as well as running advertisements on other third party websites via agreements we have in place with those website operators. One of Traffikoo's activities, an area in which it has acquired considerable experience and capabilities over the years, is in the area of advertising for its clients on internet search engines - Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others. This white paper is intended to explain to clients how to take maximum advantage of Traffikoo's capabilities.
NEGATIVE RESTRICTIONS
Traffikoo generally partners with its clients on an affiliate basis, i.e. as an affiliate of its clients, and is paid commission by its clients for each product sale or lead generated. Some of our clients have restrictions in place on the search engine marketing (SEM) activities they allow their affiliates to undertake. The following are two restrictions Traffikoo occasionally encounters in the course of its business:
1. Restrictions on the use of display URLs belonging to merchants in search advertisements
2. Restrictions on direct linking from search advertising to merchant websites
As an ethical advertising company, Traffikoo strives to abide by any restrictions merchants choose to impose on search marketing activities. The scope of this white paper is to explain, however, how these restrictions generally adversely affect a merchant's own business, and how it is usually in a merchant's best interest to relax these restrictions by granting Traffikoo an exception to them.
ONE RESTRICTION IMPLIES THE OTHER
Firstly, it is important to understand that the major search engines such as Google (alone responsible for approximately 70% of internet search traffic and related commerce) do not allow search advertisements to link to a website different than that shown in its display URL. This is the case even if the display URL is redirected to via other websites. If the search advertisement ultimately leads to www.mywebsite.com, then the display URL must also be www.mywebsite.com. So it is important to understand that the two restrictions listed above go hand-in-hand. Imposing any one of these restrictions automatically imposes the other. If you disallow direct linking, you automatically also disallow the use of your display URL, and if you disallow the use of your display URL, you automatically also disallow direct linking.
(In the past, Google has not enforced this rule in all cases. Please note that it is actively doing so now. So if your affiliates were successful in the past in running ads on Google which direct linked to your site but listed a different display URL, they are highly unlikely to be allowed to do so much longer.)
IMPACT OF THE RESTRICTIONS
Disallowing direct linking (or equivalently the use of your display URL) will result in a significant reduction of effectiveness of the advertising Traffikoo can run for you. Bridge pages are actively discouraged by the search engines, and in many cases their bids are now impossibly high ($5 or $10 bid minimums). Any requirement to go via an intermediate landing page will at the minimum therefore likely result in a loss of valuable converting traffic; in many cases, it is completely unfeasible to advertise merchants effectively in this way since affiliate commissions do not permit Traffikoo to profitably place bids beyond a certain level. As a result, as of 2008, Traffikoo is no longer offering its search services and experience to new clients which have display URL/direct linking restrictions in place.
With its years of experience in online marketing, Traffikoo is often able to generate thousands or tens of thousands of keywords relevant to a particular merchant's business. This of course whilst respecting any restrictions a merchant might have in place on particular keywords or phrases such as trademarks or trademark variations. In our experience, even merchants with professional in-house or third party search teams are very unlikely to be covering all possible search terms Traffikoo might come up with. If direct linking and the use of a merchant's URL are disallowed, then these keywords cannot be deployed to send traffic on to a merchant's website, and significant business may be lost.
Some merchants may have concerns over granting Traffikoo the ability to direct link and use their display URL. We next outline why we strongly believe these concerns are unfounded.
CONCERN #1 - AD APPEARANCE & MESSAGE
One concern Traffikoo sometimes encounters is that ads which direct link to a merchant's website and use a merchant's display URL may appear to be coming from the merchant itself, not an affiliate. The situation is of course no different than placing an advertisement on TV via an advertising agency - the advertising agency is also an anonymous third party in that case, and the advertisement appears to come directly from the merchant concerned - and directs viewers to only contact the merchant. Requesting viewers to go via any third party would result in a severe loss of effectiveness for the advertisement.
Traffikoo has years of experience in writing high quality advertisements and is extremely careful not to make promises the merchant cannot deliver on, or to position the merchant's brand in a way the merchant might find undesirable. In addition, Traffikoo is always open to simply running ad text supplied by the merchant if the merchant so chooses, or running any ad it writes by the merchant first for the merchant's approval.
CONCERN #2 - BIDDING COMPETITION
Another concern sometimes expressed by merchants is that Traffikoo's ads might compete with those of a merchant's own in-house search efforts if direct linking/display URL use is allowed. The search engines do have a rule that only one ad with a specific display URL can show for any particular keyword search, so on the surface competition could be an issue if a Traffikoo ad were to prevent a merchant ad from showing or require a higher bid by the merchant to show. There are a number of reasons why such competition is not usually an issue at all in practice:
1. As pointed out above, Traffikoo is expert at generating very large keyword lists for its clients, and it is unlikely that all but a minority of them are already being bid on by a client. All new keywords that Traffikoo brings to your keyword pool add business you would not otherwise get.
2. Keywords that both your in-house search team and Traffikoo bid on are likely well-known keywords that your competitors are also bidding on. In this case, your bids are probably set at high levels because of the competition you are facing in the bid auction from your competitors. Traffikoo's bids are in all likelihood set at considerably lower levels since Traffikoo cannot afford high bids if it is to remain profitable after deducting bid costs from its affiliate commissions. Customers ultimately have considerably higher value to merchants like yourself and your competitors than to Traffikoo because satisfied customers are likely to bookmark merchants and return to them directly (without going through a search engine) in future. So your competitors - and you if you wish to keep up with them! - probably are running bids at a level commensurate with this customer lifetime value. Traffikoo can only factor in the value of a single sale in setting its bids - even with extremely generous commission levels, our bids will likely be far below yours.
3. Traffikoo is happy not to bid on any particular keywords a merchant declares to us they are already bidding on via their in-house efforts. If you let us know which keywords these are, we will simply remove them from our campaigns for you.
CONCLUSION
Letting Traffikoo use your display URL and direct link to your website is a good idea and will generally result in Traffikoo being able to send you considerable new business. We therefore strongly recommend that merchants grant Traffikoo an exception to any such restrictions they may have in place. We look forward to sending you plenty of new business you would not otherwise have received!
* * * * * * * * *
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