New Banners for Super Bowl XLIV

Hey Publishers,

It's time to get your game on!  With Super Bowl XLIV around the corner, we created new banners for you to put up on your websites.  Help your audience find their favorite team's gear before the big game on February 7th.

From the Publisher Portal, go to the 'Get Content' page and click on the 'Stock Assets' link.  Then, select the 'Holidays and Special Occasions' link.  You'll find our AFC and NFC banners close to the bottom of the page.

If you have any questions regarding these assets, please contact Jade Higgins.

Creating the Perfect Dynamic Asset for Your Website

Hey Publishers,

Have you experienced trouble building dynamic assets?  Have you searched for a specific item, but the results weren't what you had in mind?  If this has happened to you, or, if you want to prevent it from happening in the future, listen up!  There is a simple way for you to search and display the results you want.

When you are experiencing difficulties building dynamic assets, the keywords you enter into the search box for either Top Search Results or Product Pods might not be specific enough and therefore display top searched products that are not necessarily what you had in mind.  The solution is relatively simple- tweak the keyword or keywords you are using.  You can change the amount of detail, ie brand name, color, product type or use our category refinement feature.  Once you find the content you want, choose your dynamic asset and make it perfect by using our Color Picker Tool.  You can customize the asset's appearance in just about every way you could imagine.

So, you've created the asset you wanted and it complements your website's design perfectly.  You're seeing great results, but later while your viewing your site you notice your assets that were once displaying books are now displaying miscellaneous products - what should you do?!

1. Wait a half hour to see if the problem resolves itself.  We could be performing routine maintenance or experiencing brief program errors.
2. Check our Announcements for alerts.  You'll find updated information on taxonomy and any program errors.
3. Try creating a new asset.  Perhaps your dynamic asset code was altered the last time you updated your site.  The product categorization could have changed and therefore your asset would be out of date.  Also, the product your asset was built around could no longer be offered by our merchants.

***Please keep in mind that our Product Pods are only available for "compacted" products which have multiple offers aligned to that specific product.  For example, products like iPods and digital cameras are compacted where as our "soft" goods such as apparel and home & garden supplies are non-compacted.  If you do not happen to find a Product Pod of your liking, check back periodically, as we are always adding to our compacted product offerings.

If you have any questions about building dynamic assets or general questions about your account, please feel free to contact us.

Make Your Dynamic Assets Dynamite With Our Color Picker Tool

Why use our content as an everyday web ad when you can truly make it an asset?!  Our color picker tool allows you to customize your assets to complement your website's design, helping you to better attract your audience and improve traffic quality.

When you log on to your Shopzilla Publisher Program account go to: Get Content > Dynamic Assets > find the asset you're looking for > Get HTML.  Select the part of the asset you would like to change, then choose the color and other options depending on the part of the asset. 

Border: The border (outline) of the full asset.

Image Border: The border (outline) around each individual image/product inside the asset.

Background: The background color of the full asset.

Link: The links of the images/products shown inside the asset.

A-Link: The color the link turns when it is clicked.

V:Link: The color the link turns once it has been clicked.

H-Link:  The color the link turns when it is scrolled over by a mouse cursor.

Text: The text (non-links) inside the asset.

New Window (_blank): This link target will open the new page in a separate browser window.

Same Frame (_self): This link target will open the new page in the same page it was clicked on.

Parent Frame (_parent)*: This link target will load the new page in the immediate parent of the frame. 

Main Window (_top)*: This link target is similar to the Parent Frame, but will load the new page in the full body of the window.

Randomize: Definitely take advantage of this feature!  The products shown will randomly change every time the dynamic asset is loaded, giving your audience a different experience each time they visit your website.  If you are displaying a dynamic asset containing products from category 'MP3 & Media Players', rather than showing the same three iPods, your asset will cycle between various BizRate product offerings in that specific category.

*advanced

Another feature worth noting is that color preferences will be saved in your user cookie.  If you're building multiple dynamic assets, your color preferences will be automatically applied, you'll never have to worry about our dynamic assets clashing with your website design again!

Once you finish touching up your asset, click Get HTML and then scroll to the bottom of the page to get the new code.  Don't forget to update your dynamic assets periodically to take advantage of our new categories and product offerings, keep your shopping content relevant to your audience. 

Good luck and as always, contact us if you have any questions or comments about the Shopzilla Publisher Program!

How To: Use Dynamic Assets

Hey Publishers,

Recently, we've received quite a few questions about adding dynamic assets to websites.  For those of you new to the program or who just haven't pursued our dynamic assets yet - it's quite simple and can be very effective. Dynamic assets allow you to use a plug-in ad unit with specific shopping content relevant to your audience.  Here's the step-by-step process to get started:

1. When you log in to your account click on the Get Content tab.

2. Click on the Dynamic Assets link.

3. Enter a keyword, or, select the category related to the shopping content you wish to display on your website, and hit Go!

4. When you find the dynamic asset style you like the best, click 'Get HTML'.

5. You'll now be able to customize the color and font of your dynamic asset using our Color Picker tool.

6. Once you're happy with you customized dynamic asset, click 'Get HTML' again, and scroll to the bottom of your dynamic asset.  Now you simply paste the HTML code for your dynamic asset into your website!

For more information on dynamic assets, check out this previous blog post: New Ways To Create Dynamic Assets

If you have any questions about dynamic assets or the Shopzilla Publisher Program in general, contact us.

Good luck!
The Shopzilla Publisher Team

New Ways to Create Dynamic Assets

Hey Publishers,

For those of you who are unfamiliar with creating dynamic assets, now might be a good opportunity to try adding a few to your website.  Within the Shopzilla Publisher Portal you are able to build dynamic assets based on top keyword or category search results, as well as build comparison shopping assets for specific products.  These dynamic assets refresh their content each time your website page is loaded, offering your users a fresh shopping experience each time they visit your website.

We are pleased to announce a couple enhancements to the creation of dynamic assets:

1) Create dynamic assets with keyword OR category, or both
Previously, you were only able to create dynamic assets based on keyword or keyword+category search criteria.  You are now able to also create dynamic assets based solely on category.  This will allow for creation of more generic dynamic assets.  A good use of this sort of dynamic asset would be placement on a fashion website.  Rather than displaying products defined by a keyword, you will now be able to create a dynamic asset displaying results according to product popularity in a chosen category.

2) Create 'Product Pod' dynamic assets within any category
Previously, you were only able to create a 'Product Pod' dynamic asset within certain categories.  We have now expanded upon your category options.  Keep in mind, however, that the function of a 'Product Pod' asset is to allow for a comparison shopping experience, so you may find instances of a category not retrieving any results.  This is because there aren't any available products with multiple offers aligned to them that would support a comparison shopping experience.  (For instance, we don't have any products in category "Chocolate & Sweets" that have multiple offers aligned to them...I know, seems crazy...so, sadly, you won't be able to build a 'Product Pods' asset for your favorite chocolate-covered ants, but you will be able to build one for your favorite pans.)

To create a dynamic asset, log into the Shopzilla Publisher Portal and choose the 'Get Content' tab. From here you will find a "Dynamic Assets" link. If you need any help creating these assets, please Contact Us.

Enjoy!
Shopzilla Publisher Team

'Live Green' All Year Round

This year’s Earth Day has come and gone. But that does not mean you can’t continue to live a ‘Green’ lifestyle. To help you continue to do your part for the environment, we at the Shopzilla Publisher Program are making our ‘Live Green’ assets available year round. With so many people trying to be eco-friendly, we think it is the right time to get one of these assets on your website or blog and allow your visitors the opportunity to see what products are available on the web. What’s more, they will be able to compare and find the best prices on the products that suit their lifestyle. There are many different sizes available to choose from, check out the 3 examples below.

You can find these assets in your Shopzilla Publisher Program Portal. Click on the ‘Get Content’ tab, and then ‘Stock Assets’. From there, the assets can be found under the ‘Green Living’ section. If you have any problems finding them please let us know via the ‘Contact Us’ link at the top right of this page.

Mother's Day Assets Available

With Mother’s day fast approaching, we wanted to highlight some of the relevant static banners that we have available for our Publishers to use. This year Mother’s Day falls on May 10, 2009. 

It is not always easy to find the right gift for a parent, and that’s why we have created a special boutique at BizRate.com that gives many great gift suggestions. We have put together some static banners that will allow your site's visitors to easily find the perfect Mother's Day gift. Here are two examples of assets we have available to use.

You can find these beautiful assets in your Shopzilla Publisher Program Portal. Click on the ‘Get Content’ tab, and then ‘Stock Assets’. From there, the assets can be found under the 'Holidays and Special Occasions’ section. If you have any problems finding them please let us know via the Contact Us link at the top right of this page.

'Live Green' Assets Available for Earth Day

We here at the Shopzilla Publisher Program embrace the idea of being Eco-friendly and living green. With Earth Day just around the corner (April 22nd), we thought it would be the right time to remind you of our Eco-friendly assets that are currently available. (By Eco-friendly I mean ads that you can use on your site to promote environmentally friendly products rather than ads that can be sent to a recycling plant!). We invite you to use these assets on your website or blog to help promote environmentally friendly products and remind others to ‘Live Green’.

To find a selection of stock banners like the one below, go to Stock Assets and under ‘By Theme’ select ‘Green Living’

 

New Boutiques on BizRate.com

To give your users unique gift ideas, you may want to link to some of the newly released boutiques on BizRate.com. These themed buying guides are available for Easter, Mother's Day and Earth Day. Discover the perfect gifts for friends, family or even for yourself with a little help from our BizRate boutiques!

Create text links to BizRate boutiques by using our "Link to Any Page" custom link tool or grab ready-made stock text links by logging into your account and selecting "Text Links" under the Get Content tab.

Please keep in mind that many of these boutiques are seasonal and once the targeted shopping season is over, they will no longer be live on BizRate. So, please post your links with care and diligence!

If you have any questions about our newest boutiques, or if you would like assistance creating text links, please feel free to contact us!

New 300x250 Product Pod!

I'm happy to announce that we have created a new 300x250 Product Pod that is now available for use! Instructions to create your own custom 300x250 Product Pod:

1. Login to your account
2. Go to the Get Content tab at the top of the page
3. Select the Dynamic Assets link
4. In the Product Pods section enter your desired product name into the search box and press GO! Select the exact product of your choice and hit GO again!  After you choose the asset you want, click Get HTML to customize the colors and fonts of your new product pod!

Remember that Product Pods are meant only for compacted products. These assets are perfect for "hard goods" like digital cameras, iPods and GPS, but they will not work with "soft goods" like clothing or health and beauty products. If you have any questions about any of our dynamic assets, please feel free to Contact Us

Valentine's Day Banners available

It is getting close to that romantic time of the year again, so we have created and updated our Valentine's Day banners. To check them out and get them for your site, just log into your Shopzilla Publisher account, click on the Get Content page tab, then click on Stock Assets. When you get here, click on the 'Holidays and Special Occasions' section, where you will find lots of newly created banners! These banners will be available until the end of February.

We hope you find some that you like!

       

Super Bowl XLII Banners available

We have created two new banners for Super Bowl XLIII. The game, between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, takes place on Sunday, February 1st. Now is the perfect time to show your spirit and get your favorite team up on your website! These seasonal banners will be available for the next month.

To find these seasonal banners, simply go to the Publisher Portal Get Content page and choose the Stock Assets link.  From there, select the "Holidays and Special Occasions" link. This will take you to a list of banners, where you will find both NFL banners about halfway down.

               

New Holiday Text Links Available

New Holiday Shopping Guide text links are available for the Winter and Holiday season. Top 10 Gifts for Her, Top Gifts for under $50 and Top Holiday Tech Gifts are just a few of our new Holiday Boutique Links. They are all available in your Shopzilla Publisher Program Portal. Login to your account, go to the 'Get Content' tab, choose 'Text Links' and then 'Holidays and Special Occasions' under the Special Interest section.

One good way for bloggers to use these stock text links is to integrate them into relevant posts. For instance, if you have an article or post about Jewelry, it might be a good idea to add the Stunning Holiday Jewelry text link so that your visitor can use our holiday jewelry buying guide available this season.

These holiday boutique links are seasonal and are only available during the holiday season so post them while you can!

New Seasonal Shopping Banners available!

It is getting close to the holiday season, so we have updated our seasonal Holiday banners! They are currently available for Publisher's use until mid-January, when the banners will be removed from our program until next November. 

To find the new banners, simply check into your publisher account, go to the Get Content Page and choose the Banners link.  From there, select the "Holidays and Special Occasions" link. This will take you to a wonderful assortment of well-designed holiday banners.

Enjoy!

New Halloween Banners available!

Our seasonal Halloween banners are now available for Publishers!  These are stock banners that will be available for Publisher use from September-December.  Starting January, the banners will be removed from our program until next Halloween.  You can check out these banners by logging into your account, going to the Get Content Page, hitting the "Banners" link.  You will then select the "Holidays and Special Occasions" link which will take you to an assortment of holiday banners.

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Product Pod Formatting has been fixed

Hi Publishers!

I'm happy to report that the formatting issues we were having with our 450x450 product pods has been corrected.  The pods are looking good and as always can be created for any and all compacted products! 

Why are my ads showing digital cameras?

If you are using our Product Pods or Top Search Result ads, chances are that you have noticed a change either in your published ads or in ads that you are trying to create.  The change that I am referring to is the appearance of digital cameras inside the ads instead of the products you had selected.  The reason this is happening is because we have made digital cameras our default content in the event that your chosen content is not available.  So, instead of seeing an error message, a blank spot, or any other funky stuff, you will now see digital cameras.

Why digital cameras?  Well, it’s hands down one of the most popular categories.  That being said, we’d like to be sure you’re displaying what YOU want to display! 

Here are some ways to handle the appearance of digital cameras in your Product Pod ads:
1. IMPORTANT!  Product Pods are simply not available for any product that is what we call “non-compacted”.  Product Pods only work for products that are compacted, meaning that they are offered by many merchants and each of those offers are aligned to one another to facilitate comparison shopping.  Products like iPods and GPS Navigation Systems are compacted, meaning that you can see offers from several merchants so that you can compare prices to find the best deal.  Many "soft" products like clothing, home & garden equipment and most electronic accessories are not compacted, meaning a user can not compare prices on exact product matches.  We are constantly expanding our compacted product offering, however, so it’s worth updating your ads periodically.

2. So, if you try to make a product pod for a non-compacted item, the Product Pod will show (you guessed it!) digital cameras.  This does not mean the Product Pod is broken or that you are doing something wrong, the pod simply can not be made for the particular product you have chosen.  For products that will not work in a Product Pod, it is best to link to them using either Text Links or our Top Search Result ads found here: https://publisher.shopzilla.com/pp/links/dynamic/index.xhtml

Here are some ways to handle the appearance of digital cameras in your Top Search Result ads:
1. Wait at least thirty minutes to see if the ad showing digital cameras returns to normal or check our blog under ‘Announcements’ for any alerts as to whether or not we’re experiencing service issues.  Again, cameras are our default content for when something goes wrong.  We might simply be performing routine maintenance or experiencing brief program errors, so your ad might correct itself.

2. If the ad does not return to normal, try making a new ad.  We have been making lots of changes to our dynamic content service and altering some of our program rules.  It is possible that some products that you used to be able to link to are no longer available.  You might want to try using a slightly different keyword or not limit your search by category.

3. If you try to create a new ad and it simply will not let you, then you can either choose a new product/keyword or contact us for assistance. 

If you have any questions about this, please contact Talia Drake at tdrake@shopzilla.com.

Thanks!
Shopzilla Publisher Team

Compatibility with Google AdSense

We've had some questions lately about whether the Shopzilla Publisher Program can be used alongside of Google AdSense, and the answer is YES!  Since Shopzilla's ads are not contextual, you won't violate your agreement with Google.

Yesterday ProBlogger discussed the potential pitfalls of Google AdSense.  One of the strengths of Shopzilla Publisher over a contextual advertising solution is that you get to choose what is displayed on your site.  Take advantage of this by properly targeting advertisements to your users interests, and you should see increased earnings.

Often, the difference between mediocre earnings and strong earnings is simply knowing your users.

Shoemoney.com's Norelco Razor

Last night, I was rolling through some of Shoemoney.com's posts.

My wife and I took some delight in reading about how Shoe actually shaves his bald head. One of the first things I was tempted to do was email Jeremy saying: "Hey, how come you didn't link to your Philips Norelco 7745X Cool Skin Lotion Dispensing Cordless Rechargeable Shaver at Shopzilla.com?"

It's a good thing I didn't rush to judgment because, well, I'm embarrassed to say that we don't have anyone selling it right now!

If there are any merchants that participate in our Merchant Listings Program, we encourage you to list this item with us.

Nonetheless, that didn't stop me from buying the razor myself. I've never owned an electric razor; what really sold me about this one is that it can be used in the shower, which is where I shave.

Anyway, I wonder how much commission Shoe would've made had he used Amazon Associate Program links when pointing to the products he featured in the post?

Introducing the YourMinis Widget for the Shopzilla Publisher Program

We're working with YourMinis.com to offer a shopping widget using the Shopzilla Publisher Program.

As an affiliate of the Publisher Program, you can now embed the Shopzilla Product Search Widget into any number of sites, blogs and personal webpages and continue to generate earnings from traffic associated with the display of your widget.

Embedding the widget is easy. Follow these simple steps.

1) Go to YourMinis.com and search: Shopzilla Product Search
2) Drag the lower right corner to make the widget the size and shape you desire
3) Select "Edit Me" --> "Enter Affiliate ID"
4) Enter your Shopzilla Affiliate ID* and a Placement ID** in the fields provided
5) Select Copy Me and choose the site/blog where you want to ebed the widget

* Your AID can be found in the upper right-hand corner of your reporting page.
** We suggest creating a new placement ID specifically for use with the YourMinis widget for better reporting.

Here's a sample of what it looks like! Link on...

Shopzilla Publisher Program Launches RSS Feeds

Affiliates of the Shopzilla Publisher Program may now embed their tracking information into Shopzilla RSS feeds. Doing so will allow affiliates in the Publisher Program to publish frequently updated shopping content on their site and simultaneoulsy generate earnings. Publishers can select from 25 different RSS feeds. To pick-up RSS feeds, login to your account at http://publisher.shopzilla.com. Select "Get Content" and click on RSS. Contact us once you've published your first RSS feed and we'll put an extra $5 in your account!

Create A Text Link To Any Page

Through the Shopzilla Publisher Program, participants can create a link to any page on Shopzilla.com. This link building option is useful for publishers that want to integrate in-line links from blog posts, articles or other editorial.

The Link To Any Page link builder is easy to use. Simply navigate to the page on Shopzilla.com where you want to link, copy the URL, and then paste it into the Link to Any Page link builder.

For example, if you wanted to create a custom text link to Free Shipping Offers on Shopzilla, copy the URL on that page (as shown in the image below).

After you've copied the URL of the page on Shopzilla.com to which you want to link, paste it into the Link To Any Page link builder as shown in the image below.

PursePage.com is an example of a Shopzilla Publisher site that is using this feature effectively. At the end of this blog entitled "Chanel Heart Print Baguette", PursePage.com links to similar Chanel items on Shopzilla.com. PursePage uses the Link To Any Page link builder to generate these text links.

We encourage publishers to experiment with other Custom Text Link features.