While in San Francisco for ad:tech, LinkTrust president Bret Grow got to meet with LinkTrust customers, a few potential customers and share his thoughts on the future of publishing.

VigLink has created a web series about the future of publishing. For a special episode focused on affiliate networks, tracking and optimization they hosted a panel interview with Bret Grow from LinkTrust, Gary Warnes from LinkShare and Phillip Kidwell from eHealth.

The interview asks a variety of questions about where the affiliate marketing industry is going, what networks are looking for in potential publishers and how to know if the network you are working with is trustworthy.

Part 3 of the interview talks about how to handle affiliate fraud. They each make great points about how you can have a variety of automated tools to help reduce fraud (LinkTrust has several fraud features available to all customers) but what it really comes down to is having good relationships with your publishers and advertisers. You can find Bret’s answer at about 3:23 in Part 3 of The Future of Publishing.

Check out the entire interview in the three parts below. Where do you think the publishing industry is heading?

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Are you swamped with all of the things you need to get done?

If you’re a LinkTrust customer you can save yourself some time by using the LinkTrust Task Manager.

In the LinkTrust training video below you can learn where to find the Task Manager and how to use it.

The Task Manager does more than just letting you add a list of “to-do’s”.

You can also associate tasks with a specific campaign, merchant and affiliate or any combination of the three.

Ask your supervisor or fellow employee a question and they can send it right back to you.

Learn more by watching this video:

We released new timesaving tools from LinkTrust this morning to help you work more efficiently.

You can learn how to use all of these new features in a LIVE webinar today, Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 11 a.m. MST.

Find out more about the LinkTrust Task Manager, how you can manage affiliates from the Campaign Details screen, check out the new look of the Affiliate Center and more when you attend the webinar.

You can also visit our release page to learn more about the features and see screenshots of where they are in LinkTrust.

My favorite feature of this new release is the LinkTrust Task Manager. Any one can add tasks for themselves, or create them for other LinkTrust users within their company. No more letting campaign requests, payout bumps or questions fall through the cracks.

Check it out!

When reports of DT being down first came out last week, I was hesitant to jump on the “down with DT” band wagon. It’s bad for all of us when any major player in the affiliate marketing industry goes dark for any amount of time.

However, in an article in the StarTribune, company officials from Digital River, the parent company of DirectTrack were quoted as saying: [the three-day hardware failure] hurt some of its smaller customers but didn’t affect the global commerce of its biggest clients.

Oh, Snap! They just called some of the biggest players in the affiliate marketing industry “small.”

If you are one of the hundreds of companies using DirectTrack for your affiliate tracking software, the last thing you want to hear after at least 72 hours of downtime is that you are not significant to their business.

It’s “small” companies like you that LinkTrust is built for. And by “small,” I mean all of you running traffic, whether it’s 250,000 clicks per month or more like 100 million clicks per month. If that’s insignificant, come to LinkTrust where every one of your clicks is a big deal.

“When we have a system problem that takes a customer down, it doesn’t matter who they are, I’m not sleeping until the issue is resolved,” says Bryan Call, LinkTrust VP of Technology, “We may not be able to prevent every system issue, but we will resolve it as quickly as possible.”

We know you have choices when it comes to affiliate tracking software, and we know you choose us because we are leading the industry in innovation and we treat you right.

For those of you out there thinking about switching, we asked a few of our current clients (of all business sizes) to tell you why you should come over to LinkTrust.

Here’s what they had to say:

“There is only one reason you should work with LinkTrust. You care about quality tracking and want your affiliates to trust you. LinkTrust is spot on with leads and we know that our affiliates are being credited for every lead they generate. LinkTrust’s name describes them very well. We appreciate our account manager Jeremy and owner Bret for all the extra effort they put into our business as well. A great team, great partnership and you’ll never look for another system again.”– George Avery, GetAds

“We switched from DirectTrack to LinkTrust in the spring of ’11 and could not be happier! LinkTrust has far superior tracking compared to DirectTrack, and other tracking solutions around. The staff over at LinkTrust provides unprecedented support, and is always available to help. I look forward to the many years to come!”– Jonathon Cole, DeluxeAds

“We have been working with LinkTrust ever since switching over from a legacy system, and I have to tell you that I am most impressed with their level of support. I mean who else will provide real time IM/chat support – that is just nuts in our industry! In addition, their staff is friendly and always customer service oriented. Lastly, in terms of pixel tracking, particularly in cases of multiple pixels, the level of accuracy is unequaled – server to server tracking and postback is no problem as well. If you haven’t already – get LT!.”– Sam Sim, Co-Founder Guppy Media

“LinkTrust is the best tracking system I have used in my 13 years in the online industry. It is a high-end, extremely stable system backed by a team of staff that are always responsive to any suggestions on system improvements. I highly recommend.” — Geoff Clay, Total Marketing Systems

When you look at your landing pages, you might wonder if there is better design or if the conversions are as high as they could be.

Stop wondering. Start Testing.

With Site Optimizer, now featured in LinkTrust, the testing is easy.

It’s as simple as point-click-change to start experimenting with your landing pages.

Once you’ve got versions of your landing pages you want to start testing, Site Optimizer shows you the results in real-time of conversions and clicks.

Learn more about why you should test and how to use Site Optimizer in a LIVE webinar, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012 at 11 a.m. MST.

You can register for the webinar today and we’ll remind you when it’s time!

See you there!

We started 2012 with a trip to Las Vegas to see our friends and customers at Affiliate Summit West 2012.

For our contest entry we used LinkTrust’s ability to generate a QR code. Everyone who scanned the QR code got entered in to win an iPod touch. Our lucky winners were Nicole Aranda and Francis Woo.

Many of our pictures from the event were taken in a hurry- we couldn’t keep these amazing companies from talking to potential affiliates or publishers for too long. We loved having DTM join us again this year.

We partnered with Experiment.ly to bring you the LinkTrust Optimizer. Stay tuned for more info to come!

Here are a few members of the GetAds team- including lucky Nicole who won our giveaway!

Traveling from Australia, Jigsaw Media had lots of connections to make at the show.

Our friends at National Web Leads were so busy we had to take the picture while their colleagues behind them kept the conversation going.

Also from across the ocean, LeadBolt stopped what they were doing to pose for my camera. They had a ton of people stop by the booth, I was lucky to catch them at a break in the crowd.

Classy, as always, OFFERweb ruled one corner of the mega-booth with their offers and advertisers grabbing attention.

Locals like Total Marketing Systems really know how to take advantage of all that Las Vegas has to offer. From the start of the show to the end, these guys were sealing deals.

Outside the exhibit hall we enjoyed the Affiliate Fight night with ring-side seats, the Tip-Off party and a few smaller meetups. For more wrap-ups of the show take a look at a few of the many affiliate marketing blogs who covered the show:

Affiliate Summit: Affiliate Summit West 2012 Day 2 Recap

Ebay Partner Network ePN TV: Emerging Trends at Affiliate Summit West

Sarah Bundy: Top 5 Highlights from Affiliate Summit West 2012

Nick Throlson: Affiliate Summit West 2012 Wrap Up

John Chow: Affiliate Summit West 2012 Show Floor

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello! Can’t wait to see you all at LeadsCon Feb. 28-29.

GetAds is a full service Digital Marketing Solution, catering to all sizes of affiliates and advertisers. We have worked hard to diversify the offers we have to encompass all verticals, which helps make us to be a one-stop shop. Not only are we working hard to deliver the best quality and service to our affiliates but we also have a dedicated team constantly looking for new and/or exclusive offers. The advertising team is reaching out daily to new advertisers seeking the best deals with the highest payouts for our affiliates.

To compliment the network, we also have our own internal traffic. This affords us the ability to test offers and find the ones that will work for our affiliates. It also allows for us to provide our advertisers traffic that they can always trust and is always available. This structure is a win-win for both affiliates and advertisers and has made GetAds a financially solid company you can trust.

GetAds is not content to remain a part of the status quo; the company’s goal is to deliver above and beyond expectations. The Digital Marketing business is constantly evolving and it takes steadfast devotion and ongoing research to stay on top of trends. GetAds welcomes the challenge with open arms. We see each new hurdle as an opportunity to improve our process and take our service to the next level.


As we enter our seventh year together, National Web Leads is excited to be bringing its whole team to Las Vegas for ASW 2011. Since we are a work@home company, the internet marketing industry tradeshows offer us the opportunity to convene our team in person and celebrate our accomplishments while planning our future endeavors.

Publishers and ad networks seeking exclusive subprime consumer finance offers can earn higher payouts by going direct with National Web Leads. In addition to our year round and seasonal brands (don’t forget to visit us in the LinkTrust mega-booth and arrange to pick up your Valentine’s Day themed payday loan brands while at ASW 2012) our library of exclusive payday loan offers now includes mobile optimized versions for traffic partners specializing in SMS. Our technology team at Applied Cognetics had a busy 2011 building out our acxFusion suite of services including a low-cost ping tree platform that any lead generator can plug into.

On the publishing side, our DailyDollar Newsletter which provides personal finance tips for consumers continues to build national attention. DailyDollar was recently cited in this article by Fox Business and the audio version of DailyDollar was listed among the 8 most savvy personal finance podcasts by US News and World Report. Our most valuable payday loan traffic partners are enjoying exclusive ad placement in the DailyDollar.

2012 will be another busy year as we become the technology department for more lead generation companies and provide loan underwriting and processing software services to payday loan and other lenders. In addition we will continue to build our boutique network of exclusive consumer finance offers. Consumer finance advertisers that seek access to quality traffic should contact us about offer placement in our ad network powered by our friends at LinkTrust.

Total Marketing Systems is a unique multidimensional affiliate network agency specializing in lead generation, list management, and data monetization. Formally known as RevStars Media, CEO Geoff Clay and his team have recently transitioned the company into what is now known as Total Marketing Systems.

TMS is your “one stop sub-prime shop” for direct and exclusive campaigns with the highest payouts to our publishers due to the team’s combined years of building relationships with the industry’s top advertisers. TMS also specializes in list management and data monetization.

At TMS we are continuously developing new strategies to maximize your current and potential revenue streams. Whether it be through our technologically advanced mailing platform, monetizing data, or maximizing your traffic generation, we at TMS work hand-in-hand to get the job done.

This year at ASW we are here to introduce ourselves as Total Marketing Systems, build on trusted relationships, and acquire new business. We will also be disclosing new ventures for 2012!

Find us at the LinkTrust mega-booth #420!

According to the information in this infographic from the Music Production School, ringtones are alive and well. I for one, downloaded my first ringtone ever last week. (The theme song from Indiana Jones was just too perfect, I had to get it for my alarm.)

I find the infographic interesting… but I wish they would have included where all of the ringtone downloading was happening.

Check it out!

Created by: Music Production Schools