I was dabbling as an affiliate in some programs powered by Commission Junction a few years ago. One problem I encountered was how to track which of my keywords would convert into sales. The problem for affiliates is that they don’t control the merchant’s conversion page, so they usually can’t track which keywords convert unless the merchant allows them to place a pixel. Unless you’re a big affiliate, and even if you are, most merchants will not want to place an affiliate’s pixel on their conversion page. It can be a pain for merchants to install a pixel and they might be prevented by a bunch of internal corporate rules anyway. If you can get a pixel, by all means, do it. The good news is that there is an alternative.

Two years ago I wrote my own PHP script which performed A/B landing page testing and keyword conversion tracking for affiliates. I’ve long thought that I should offer the code as a product to others with the same dilemma.

So how does the script work? A number of affiliate program providers allow affiliates to pass in variables into their reporting systems. For Commission Junction the parameter is called an SID. I used the SID to pass an identifier in the the URL which tracked the landing page a user converted and they keyword which led to the conversion. It looked like the following when passed in the URL:

SID=lp1_blue-widget

Here the SID column of the Commission Junction reporting would say lp1_blue-widget. In the example above, the user would have converted on landing page 1 with the keyword phrase blue widget. Commission Junction only gives you one field to play with. That’s why I separated the landing page and keyword with an underscore. This system works fine if you’re not doing too many conversions. However, it will take a bit of Excel crunching if you’re fortunate enough to have many conversions.

Enter, HLOLA. This company is taking the tracking method I’ve explained to the next level. They’re not doing any landing page testing like my script did, but in terms of keyword conversion tracking for affiliates, the system is way more advanced. Currently HLOLA can track conversions from Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter that are captured in Commission Junction, Clickbank, Share A Sale, Link Share, Azoogle Ads, CPA Empire and NCS Reporting. The secret to HLOLA is that you need to upload your reports into their system which then parses the info to offer rich analytics information and build pretty graphs.

I have not tried HLOLA myself, but I do appreciate their approach to keyword tracking for affiliates and I’m glad it’s finally being offered.

Update: HLOLA is providing is offering a discount on the first month of service for readers of JamieShiller.com. For details visit see PPC Conversion Tracking For Affiliates - HLOLA Exclusive Promo.

So I met another tech company in the Internet marketing space operating out of Kuala Lumpur. As I mentioned before there are only a few companies working in the Internet marketing category over here. This is a European based company that was drawn to open a development office because of the supposed benefits the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) would provide.

From speaking with this company and others, I get the sense that they feel the MSC benefits are a bit of a sham or not worth the trouble of jumping through the required hoops. It seems the official designated MSC zones conveniently correspond to the properties of certain landowners. Other places in the city just don’t qualify for the program.

I’ve only been working in an office for three days, but I’m not sure how “Super” the MSC is when the Internet data transfer speeds are painfully slow in central Kuala Lumpur. It’s amazing that I can even make calls on Skype.

Overall, even with the bureaucracy quirks and the slow Internet, I do get the sense that Kuala Lumpur is a great place for a startup of a shoestring.

Update 3/10/2008:

After further conversations, I’ve been told by business owners in the tech business here in Kuala Lumpur that they like the MSC program because makes it easy to hire foreign workers and they pay no taxes. Makes sense.

The Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is a collection of areas in and around Kuala Lumpur which offer attractive incentives to draw in multi-national tech businesses and encourage local entrepreneurship in tech. The initiative has been modeled after Silicon Valley. It is intended to provide first-world knowledge and infrastructure but at developing-nation costs. Malaysia plans to have a knowledge work based society by 2020 when multimedia corridors will crisscross the country.

Companies operating inside the designated MSC zones enjoy the following bill of guarantees from the Malaysian government:

1. Provide a world-class physical and information infrastructure.

2. Allow unrestricted employment of local and foreign knowledge workers.

3. Ensure freedom of ownership by exempting companies with MSC Malaysia Status from local ownership requirements.

4. Give the freedom to source capital globally for MSC Malaysia infrastructure, and the right to borrow funds globally.

5. Provide competitive financial incentives, including no income tax for up to 10 years or an investment tax allowance, and no duties on import of multimedia equipment.

6. Become a regional leader in intellectual property protection and cyberlaws.

7. Ensure no Internet censorship.

8. Provide globally competitive telecommunications tariffs.

9. Tender key MSC Malaysia infrastructure contracts to leading companies willing to use the MSC Malaysia as their regional hub.

10. Provide an effective one-stop agency – the Multimedia Development.

New office buildings are going up all over Kuala Lumpur. If these buildings lie outside the MSC areas of the city, their space might rent at a discount of up to 60% because MSC benefits would technically not be available. I am told this is the case with the building being constructed in the picture below. However, even without the MSC benefits, this building will offer premium, brand-new, office space for cheap when compared to Silicon Valley prices. Plus, it’s right next to a train station.

For more information about the Multimedia Super Corridor visit http://www.msc.com.my/.

UPDATE 3/21/08:

So I wrote the post below a few weeks back when I had just arrived in Malaysia. I had this idea that I would work with MindValley to take one of their new products to market within 30 days and turn a profit. While that’s a nice idea and I’m sure it could have been done, we realized that it’s more important to have a really successful launch, successful meaning make a bunch of cash in a short time, than to rush it. So we’re religiously following the launch steps outlined in Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula. Oh boy, there are a lot of steps, but we’re working through them and I think you’ll be very impressed when the product is released.

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Thirty Day Challenge

The concept of holding a challenge comes from the Thirty Day Challenge produced by Ed Dale and Dan Raine. I stumbled across the Thirty Day Challenge a few months ago. It’s an excellent beginner course covering Internet marketing. It also includes really good information about leveraging the social Web for marketing. Technically, the Challenge is a contest to see who can make at least $10 through Internet marketing within 30 days. Once the Challenge begins, new content is provided to challengers each day to help them get their Internet business up and running. The content from the 2007 Challenge is still live, so I encourage folks to take a look. Ed and Dale are currently working on new content for the next challenge in August 2008.

Some folks have complained that it’s very time-consuming to watch all the Thirty Day Challenge videos to extract the real useful pearls of knowledge. From a marketing viewpoint, this format worked well for Ed and Dan because people had to read every email and watch ever video to truly understand the teachings of the Thirty Day Challenge. In doing so, Ed and Dan built a very strong relationship with the challenger participants. In the future, these relationships will be leveraged to sell product to these people. I have a feeling they’ll take out their credit cards while wearing a smile since Ed and Dale have already provided tremendous value for free. If you want to cheat, below are links to a few resources which attempt to summarize the teachings of the Thirty Day Challenge.

30 Day Challenge Action List

Mike Mindel - Thirty Day Challenger

Carsonified

When Carsonified, makers of the very popular DropSend service, decided to build a new Web application, they documented how the web application was built through their blog, but did not disclose the nature of the web application. This strategy helped them to build a lot of buzz. What they did was essentially a form of pre-selling. Demand was built for the product before it was even completed. Only once the product was ready for release, they revealed that Amigo is an exchange to buy and sell email newsletter advertising.

Amigo

DropSend

I shall try to do something a bit similar here. I’m not going to tell you too much about the product until it’s released.

I’m in Malaysia because the product I’ll be marketing is here, but more important, the company behind the product is here. I’ve been invited by a Kuala Lumpur based company called MindValley to learn more about their business and manage the launch of a new product they’ve developed. I think of MindValley as a sort of startup company incubator. They’re not operating as a traditional incubator, but rather funding their own ideas and building them internally.

I used to work with Vishen Lakhiani, the Co-Founder of MindValley when we both worked at LegalMatch in San Francisco, California. Vishen and Mike Reining, formerly of eBay, started MindValley in 2004. I’ve been curious about MindValley for quite some time. I essentially invited myself to Kuala Lumpur to see what’s going on with the company.

In my opinion, MindValley is a bit of an anomaly. First, they’re operating in Malaysia which is not common for notable Internet businesses. Second, they’ve had an incredibly high rate of success in running profitable businesses that span diverse categories. Currently, these businesses include the social bookmarking service Blinklist, a collection of personal development courses on meditation and self-actualization, Internet marketing courses, and Internet marketing tools. Third, they’re innovating faster than any other company I’ve encountered. The managers of each of the company’s businesses spend one day a week trading notes on ways to improve performance across all the businesses. Fourth, MindValley is aggressive about growth. They intend to launch at least one new Internet based business a month. Over the last four years, they’ve developed the processes and systems to make this possible.

You’re probably still wondering about the product I’ll be marketing. Well, I’m going to keep that under wraps for now. I will tell you that it can dramatically improve a company’s Internet marketing efforts. You’ll have to follow along to hear more.