Important Tax Information for Publishers

Hey Publishers,

'Tis the season to look back to your success with the Shopzilla Publisher Program in 2009.  Remember when you first entered your account information, claimed that you were a US Resident, and submitted your tax id?  Well, once again the time has come to report your earnings to the IRS.

If you were paid over $600 in 2009 by the Shopzilla Publisher Program, then you should have received a 1099 from Shopzilla's parent company, Scripps Networks Interactive.  If you have not received your 1099, please contact us as soon as possible.  If you were not paid more than $600 in 2009, then please check all of your 2009 check stubs to calculate how much you are required to declare.

While some publishers are sorting out earnings for 2009, there are still other publishers who have not yet received payments because their payment information is not up-to-date.  Please take a moment to either add or check that your payment information is correct.

If you have any questions regarding taxes, payment information, or just general account management, feel free to contact us directly.

Show Us Your Payment Info and We'll Show You The Money!

Lately we've been running into a few issues with some of our hard working publishers - we want to pay you, but we don't have sufficient payment info!  If this sounds familiar, or you just want to double check that your payment info is correct, please see below:

Shopzilla US Publisher Program Accounts (US Resident):
Payment is made via check for all publishers participating within the Shopzilla US Publisher Program and who reside within the US.

1. When you log on to your account click on the My Account tab.
2. Click on the green Add Payment Info button. 
3. Select 'U.S. Resident', and submit.
4. Complete the payment form, then read and type your full legal name to acknowledge that you have read the Certification Statement...then submit!

Shopzilla US Publisher Program Accounts (non-US Resident, non-US tax payer):
Payment is made via PayPal for all publishers participating within the Shopzilla US Publisher Program who reside outside of the US. 

1. When you log on to your account click on the My Account tab.
2. Click on the green Add Payment Info button.
3. Select 'Non U.S. Resident', and submit.
4. Select your proper tax designation to define whether or not you are a U.S. tax payer.
5a. If you ARE a U.S. tax payer, please contact us so that we are able to help you set-up your payment information correctly.
5b. If you ARE NOT a U.S. tax payer, you will be taken to a page where you will enter your PayPal account name* and type your full legal name to verify that all your information is correct...then submit! 

* If you do not have a PayPal account, click here to set one up.

A Reminder To All Publishers
Our Shopzilla US Publisher Program minimum payout is $50.00 (USD); your monthly earnings will accumulate until you hit this level.  All earnings are subject to adjustment per our terms and conditions.

As always, please contact us with any questions or comments.

Reporting: Back on Track September 16th

Hey Publishers,

We are pleased to announce that our Publisher Portal reporting is in the process of being rehabilitated.  Over the course of September, we will be releasing improvements throughout our Publisher Portal in order to provide you with estimated earnings, payments and balance reporting data.

The first release of this rehabilitation will encompass estimated earnings data.  You will once again be able to view your daily estimated earnings, both within the Publisher Portal 'Home' page reporting snapshot pod, and the more comprehensive 'View Reports' tool. 

Released: Wednesday, September 16th

Notable Improvements:

- 'View Reports' will allow you to view historic earnings data within a 24-month date range

- Publishers previously unable to view estimated earnings data due to usage of Placement IDs above 99 will be able to view an aggregate total of their estimated earnings, currently labeled as '<not-yet-defined> (#)'

 

- 'View Reports' will allow you to download your estimated earnings data in csv, xls, and xml format (coming soon)

We know that many of you have taken advantage of our offer to manually provide you with comprehensive earnings reports, and hope that you continue to request the reporting that you need throughout this process.  Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for snappy release notifications! 

The Shopzilla Publisher Team

 

Earnings Report Returning an Error

Hey Publishers. 

You have probably noticed by now that we are experiencing some technical difficulties with our earnings report.  We understand how frustrating it is to all of you who login to your accounts but are unable to view your clicks and earnings.  Please be assured that your traffic is being tracked accurately and that we are logging all impression, redirect and earnings data in our database. 

This is a very high priority problem and our team are currently working on rebuilding the entire earnings report structure. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us if you need a certain report, and we can manually pull it from the system for you. To request an earning report please contact Bryan Byrne at bbyrne@shopzilla.com.

We thank you all very much for your patience and understanding while we work through this issue.

Earnings Report Not Displaying Data

Hey Publishers. 

You have probably noticed by now that we are experiencing some technical difficulties with our earnings report.  We understand how frustrating it is to all of you who login to your accounts but are unable to view your clicks and earnings.  Please be assured that your traffic is being tracked accurately and that we are logging all impression, redirect and earnings data in our database. 

We realize the importance reporting holds for you, our Publisher. This is a very high priority problem and our team will soon begin working to rebuild the entire earnings report structure.  In the meantime, please feel free to contact us and let us know if you would like to begin receiving your earnings reports daily via email.  We would be more than happy to set you up with a custom report that will be sent to you each morning showing your clicks and earnings from the previous day.  On top of the daily earnings report, we can also run comprehensive reports for any date range that we can send to you upon request. 

We thank you all very much for your patience and understanding while we work through this issue.  If you would like to request daily email reports, a comprehensive one-time earnings report, or both, please contact Talia Drake at tdrake@shopzilla.com or Bryan Byrne at bbyrne@shopzilla.com.   

Reporting returns 'there was no data found' message

We have had publishers comment that when they try to run an earnings report in their Publisher Program portal it returns with the message “There was no data found”. We are aware of this issue, and would like to apologize to those of you that are affected by this. This error message will return if a reporting date range greater than one week is called to the system. We are in the process of making some upgrades to our system, and as a result the system is timing-out and returning with no information. Please be aware that all of the reporting is safely stored in our system, and is not affected by this issue.

We do hope to have this issue resolved in the near future. We understand the importance of reporting to any business campaign, so, for the moment, we will run any manual reports that you require. Please email bbyrne@shopzilla.com with the reporting data you need for your account. Please include a date range, and if you want the information by day, week or month. You can also opt to for a report by placement ID. Again, we apologize for this inconvenience.

Thank you for your continued participation in the Shopzilla Publisher Program!

Exciting news: Earnings reports are back in business

Hey Publishers,

Previously, many Publishers were experiencing issues with our Publisher Portal reporting features.  Impressions and clicks would display, but their associated earnings were not correct.  These "missing" earnings were tracked properly on our back-end, but not able to be viewed in the Publisher Portal.

We're relieved to announce that your earnings reports are once again displayed on the Publisher Portal 'Home' page and available within the Publisher Portal 'View Reports' tab.   

You may notice this feature is not loving zeros in the instance of whole numbers to the right of the decimal.  Example: If your earnings are $1,252.60, it will be displayed as "$1,252.6".  We'll work on coaxing it, but in the interim, please excuse.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.  Please feel free to contact us should you need any more comprehensive historic reporting than is available in the Publisher Portal.

Thanks!
Shopzilla Publisher Team

Important Information Regarding Your Shopzilla Publisher Account

Dear Publishers,

As you may know, the retailer Circuit City filed for federal bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 on November 10, 2008.  As a result of this bankruptcy filing, Circuit City will not be providing payment for any leads that it received from Shopzilla or BizRate during the period of August 1, 2008 through November 10, 2008.  Additionally, Circuit City will not be paying Shopzilla or BizRate for any traffic generated during the period of November 10, 2008 through December 10, 2008.

This adversely impacts you because the Shopzilla Publisher Program makes payments to Publisher partners based on revenue received from merchants.  In this case, no revenue will be received from Circuit City for the period of August 1, 2008 through December 10, 2008, and as a result, no payments will be made to our Publisher partners for traffic sent to Circuit City during that time. 

Accordingly, we will be adjusting current account balances by the amount of estimated earnings that had previously been attributed and paid as a result of traffic to Circuit City during the period of August 1, 2008 through December 10, 2008.  Should you have sent any traffic to Circuit City during this period, your December 2008 payment, paid on or about January 15, 2009, will reflect this adjustment.  Many of you have received specific emails detailing this adjustment.  If you have not received an email, your adjustment is less than $50.00.

We sincerely regret this news and apologize for the timing.  We look forward to a continued partnership with you, so please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have.

Thank you for your understanding,
Shopzilla Publisher Team

Understanding the Earnings Report

As a Shopzilla Publisher, you produce earnings when the Shopzilla Website Activity that your users generate on Shopzilla results in revenue. Earnings typically depend on the level of integration and contextual appropriateness of the Sponsored Shopping Content on your site as well as the nature of your user’s activity on Shopzilla.

The Shopzilla Publisher Earnings Report can be shown for any date range you choose. It can also be filtered by day, week, month or placement ID and then be secondarily filtered by day, week, or month. Also, our reports give you the ability to sort by any of the columns presented, ascending or descending.

Let us explain what the different columns in your reports represent. Below is an example of what you might see if you created a report for "Last 7 Days" and then filter by day. In the reports, you will see Impressions, Clicks, Click thru Rate, Earnings, eEPC (effective Earnings per click), and eCPM (effective Commission per Mille - Impressions).

If you feel that you could be earning more through our program, click the "Contact Us" link located at the top of the Publisher Portal and we will get back to you within 48 hours with helpful suggestions and tips on how your particular site could earn more.

Also, click the "Contact Us" link if you have any questions regarding your earnings report.

It is important to note that it is entirely possible to generate clicks to Shopzilla.com with NO revenue. This occurs when the clicks you direct to Shopzilla do not result in revenue generating activity. For a more complete explanation on this, read our post titled Generating Clicks but Not Revenue.

Generating Clicks but Not Revenue

Affiliates in Shopzilla’s Publisher Program generate earnings on a per-click basis. However, if clicks that are directed to Shopzilla do not result in revenue generating activity, Shopzilla does not pay affiliates for those clicks. While this may occur from time-to-time, we encourage you consider your ‘effective Earnings per Click’ (eEPC) based on a meaningful sample of click activity (such as 500 – 1000 clicks).

Revenue generating activity occurs when the users you refer to Shopzilla redirect from product offer listings to the online retailer listing those product offers.