Free Shipping Day Just Around The Corner

Consumers are shopping for the holidays earlier than ever, but the shopping season still extends well into December. Of consumers responding to our Google/OTX Consumer Intentions Survey from September, 46% plan to purchase the majority of their gifts in early and late December or wait until the last minute. As of last year, consumers have had a new incentive to finish their last minute shopping online: National Free Shipping Day.

Thursday, December 17, 2009 marks the second annual National Free Shipping Day, in which participating retailers ship products for free and guarantee arrival by Christmas Eve. Looking at 2008, we see that search traffic upticks at the start of December for "free shipping day," well before the actual day as users begin researching participating retailers.


Repost from the Google Retail Blog - View Entire Post

Sign In Issues

We are currently experiencing issues with signing into the Google Affiliate Network platform. Tracking is not impacted.

We will update this post when the issue is resolved.

Update: 3pm CST - services have been minimally restored, we are working to get back up to full capacity. Reporting data for today is catching up. This post will be updated once data is fully restored.

UPDATE: The sign in issue is resolved.

Google Affiliate Network Winter Holiday Retail Insights

As we head into the busy holiday shopping season our water-cooler conversations turn to prognostications about the upcoming seasonal peak. With a vast publisher network helping consumers find offers and product information, the affiliate channel is typically a very accurate reflection of ecommerce trends, particularly during peak shopping seasons. And of course the most interesting change during the holiday season, we (online marketers), really look forward to Mondays!

Cyber Monday is a widely accepted phenomenon and it's dueling with its offline counterpart, Black Friday, for attention from shoppers and advertisers. But November 30th is just the first of the exciting Mondays during the online shopping season. The most important indicator of the holiday shopping peak is the calendar. It all depends on where the holidays fall relative to shipping deadlines. Google Affiliate Network captures a summary of our advertisers shipping deadlines to help affiliate publishers with their optimization schedules. Publishers can access the shipping deadline calendar in the Google Affiliate Network user interface. Sign in and visit the announcements section on the publisher home page.

During the holiday season we see activity accelerate around the first of November and that trend continued this month. We look at four key indicators: visits, conversions, average order size and conversion rate. Visits peak first, with the spike in conversions lagging by 2-3 days. Conversion rates peak just before the average shipping deadline as last minute shoppers move into transaction mode. Average order size has proven to be a good indicator of the overall e-commerce environment, as in 2008 we saw the average order size drop pretty significantly over previous holiday seasons. The consensus at Google Affiliate Network is that we'll see the most significant spike in volume on November 30th but we anticipate the following Mondays (Dec. 7th and Dec 14th) will rival Cyber Monday in overall volume and conversion rates will peak on Monday, December 14th as the shipping deadlines loom.

Note: Data presented represents "Google Affiliate Network's Same Store Sales" to illustrate affiliate channel trends. The trend data is based only affiliate programs in place during the previous year, it does not include new advertisers and excludes certain anomalous publishers.

Google Affiliate Network Publisher Terms and Policies Update

In August, Google Affiliate Network updated the terms and policies for new-to-network publishers to better reflect our integration with AdSense. We also recently released the updated terms and policies to all publishers who joined Google Affiliate Network before August 12, 2009. These new terms and policies help streamline and consolidate a number of issues that are now shared between Google Affiliate Network and AdSense. Since our affiliate terms and policies are largely based around existing AdSense terms and policies, we are making it easier for the one million+ AdSense publishers -- largely content websites and blogs -- to participate in affiliate marketing for the first time.

However, while we believe there is an opportunity to expand the affiliate opportunity to traditional AdSense publishers, affiliate ads and AdSense ads are different. The updated Google Affiliate Network terms and policies explicitly address the important differences between cost-per-click and cost-per-action advertising. For example, publishers running AdSense ads may not click on their own AdSense ads (or encourage users to click on their ads.) In the affiliate channel publishers may encourage users to convert through their specific Google Affiliate ads (and this is what many affiliates do best!)

Another change to highlight is our Google Affiliate Network software applications policy, which clarifies some of the previous rules around software applications and toolbars while focusing on increased transparency and choice. This new software policy is heavily oriented around protecting end users from unwanted, deceptive, or malicious software. Publishers who use, distribute, or generate traffic from applications that do not meet this policy may have their accounts immediately disabled.

We encourage all affiliate publishers to review these new terms and policies closely to understand how they may impact you. If you happen to be one of the many Google Affiliate network publishers who has experience with AdSense ads, these affiliate network terms and policies should be quite familiar. If you are a Google Affiliate Network publisher who is new to AdSense and who chooses not to run AdSense ads, that's okay too (you are under no obligation to do so). But it is important that your AdSense account remains in good standing.

Publishers will be prompted to review and accept the terms and policies upon signing into the Google Affiliate Network platform.

We thank you for all of your patience through this period of transition and wish you a happy (and productive) Q4!


UPDATE: Google Affiliate Network publishers must read and accept the updated terms in the platform by 1/31/2010

Posted by: Your Google Affiliate Network Team

Make Sure You Update your Payment Preferences

Affiliate publishers have new payment options through the integration with AdSense. As we head into the busy holiday season, please take a few minutes to check on the status of your payment preferences.

Publishers can view payments that have been posted to your AdSense account in the Google Affiliate Network platform; on the "Home" page click "Payments." This view captures all payments and a detailed breakdown of your earnings per advertiser.

Payment information is stored in your AdSense account and Google lets you select your desired form of payment. Publishers can currently choose to be paid by electronic funds transfer, check, Western Union Quick Cash or Rapida. Check out the Help Center for a detailed overview your options.

Note if you see a message in your AdSense account prompting you to complete your payment information, it's important you act quickly. This message means that there is some information missing in your payment profile and action is required to avoid payment delays.

Google Retail Advertising Blog Provides Insight

We are avid followers of the Google Retail Advertising blog and wanted to share some posts that are particularly insightful as we move into the holiday shopping season. Search interest is a leading indicator of consumer trends. Check out these recent posts...

Coupons & Promos Are Here To Stay (posted Nov 11)

With consumers both savvier than ever online and turning to the web for free shipping, discounts, and deals, coupons and promotional codes are also driving substantial search interest. In the Google Insights for Search graph below, searches for coupons are growing fast in 2009, even compared to 2008 when the recession was nearing its worst. And, as we head into the holidays, 68% of consumers report that they plan take advantage of coupons this season...

When Incented, Consumers Will Buy (posted Nov 10)

Even in a recession, consumers have shown that they will buy if they are given a reason or incentive to do so. Programs such as Cash for Clunkers have breathed life into the Auto industry, generating 700,000 new car sales and jetBlue's 'All You Can Jet' promotion ran in August and was so successful, they sold out their airline passes in 2 days. So even if money is tight, consumers respond to a strong value proposition.

A simple way to capitalize on this consumer behavior is through advertising your discounts and free shipping online. 87% of consumers plan to take advantage of price discounts or sales this holiday season [2] and, as we see in the Google Insights for Search graph below, search interest in 'discounts' is consistently trending above 2008 levels online...

Black Friday Shoppers Already Searching For Deals (posted Nov 6)

Earlier this week, we saw that search interest in Black Friday is starting earlier than ever. Today’s consumers invest more time searching for a bargain, and Black Friday has proven to be a key example of consumer savviness. In fact, using Google Insights for Search, we see that over the last seven days, 50% of the top ‘Black Friday’ related search terms include ads, sales, and deals...

Reposted from http://googleretail.blogspot.com/

Posted by

Kristin Hall, Google Affiliate Network Team

AdSense Payment Integration

Google Affiliate Network publisher payments are now delivered through Google AdSense. In order to retire the legacy payment systems, all Google Affiliate Network publishers were required to link their affiliate account to an approved AdSense account before October 31, 2009. This integration is central to the development of our affiliate network and it provides a foundation for future growth and further improvements.

Nearly all productive Google Affiliate Network publishers successfully linked. Publishers who either chose not to link, could not link because of a previous issue with an AdSense account, or thought they linked but for some reason were unsuccessful have been deactivated. However, missing the October 31st deadline does not mean a publisher cannot continue to work with Google Affiliate Network. Any publisher (with an approved AdSense account) is welcome to reapply through our new-to-network process.

We recognize that change can be confusing and we truly appreciate our users cooperation. We look forward to closing out 2009 with a great holiday shopping season.

Posted by

Chris Henger

Head of Google Affiliate Network

Maintenance This Evening, Oct 26 @ 8pm CDT

The Google Affiliate Network interface will not be available for approximately thirty minutes this evening beginning at 10 p.m. CDT (UTC-0500).  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.  Tracking will not be interrupted and reporting data will be restored shortly after the interface comes back online.

Regards,

Larry Adams

IP Address Range for Google Affiliate Network

Please note that the IP address range associated with Google Affiliate Network is changing:

Current IP Network	New IP Network
65.167.65.0/24	216.73.92.0/23

This change may impact your workflow for product feeds, link subscriptions and any automated reporting you built. Please make sure to add the new IP network (216.73.92.0/23) range to firewall settings by 10/26 and leave the old IP network range (65.167.65.0/24) until November 8th, the old range can be removed from your firewall settings.

You can also view this information in the Google Affiliate Network Help Center.

Posted by Kristin Hall

New FTC Advertising Guidelines

Earlier this week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission released revised guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials that take effect on December 1, 2009. Among other things, these guidelines say that a blogger that endorses a product or service must disclose compensation received directly or indirectly from the seller of that product or service.

You can review the FTC press release or the full text of the FTC guidelines. If you have questions or need advice on interpreting these FTC guidelines, we encourage you to consult your own legal counsel to help you understand how these changes may affect you.

The Performance Marketing Alliance is a good resource to monitor how these guidelines are impacting the affiliate industry.

Here are some interesting links to some recent press about these new guidelines
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091006-709182.html
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2009/tc2009106_866275.htm
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/10/bloggers-face-11k-ftc-fines-for-not-disclosing-paid-endorsements.html

Posted by Dan Chiss
Manager, Affiliate Marketing

Providing Transparency Into Affiliate Traffic

We recently added a new option to our advertiser UI that is visible on the approved publishers page (Publishers > Approved). Below each publisher's EPC information, you'll see a link named 'View Traffic Sources.'

Clicking on this link produces a summary of the number of times consumers visit your site for each web page that contains your ad. A publisher may place your ads on several different pages, this report provides details on each of the pages that are driving traffic to your site.

The results will appear in a popup window similar to the screen shot to the right.  Here are some common questions we get when we talk about referrer data with advertisers:

What does count mean?

• Count is the number of clicks from a given referrer in the past seven days

What if the publisher doesn't have any clicks?

• You'll get a message stating that no results are available

What does 'No Referrer' mean?

• The link may have been opened in a new window (e.g. by using javascript)
• The user's browser could be preventing the referrer from being passed
• The publisher may be editing the referrer

What should i do if all of a publisher's referrers is blank?

• This isn't necessarily a problem, but you should communicate with the publisher and ask them to show where on their site(s) your ads are being promoted.  You can find each publisher's email address on the right hand side of the screen when viewing your approved publishers.

Regards,
Larry Adams, on behalf of Google Affiliate Network

Problems updating your login to a Google Account?

If you attempted to update your Google Affiliate Network account login to a Google Account login sometime between September 2nd and 10th, 2009, there may have been an error in processing your update. As a result, you may have been unable to log in to your Google Affiliate Network account using either login. This issue has been resolved, and you should now be able to log in using your original credentials.

Once you have signed in to Google Affiliate Network, you should see the yellow reminder message offering you the option to update your login to a Google Account. Please either update to an existing Google Account or create a new Google Account to use as your Google Affiliate Network login.

Note: If you created a new Google Account between September 2nd and 10th, 2009 (as part of your original attempt to update your Google Affiliate Network login), that account was created successfully and you should choose the option to provide the information for an existing Google Account.
If you have since logged in and completed the update process successfully, you do not need to take any additional steps regarding your log in credentials.

Questions?
Please refer to our Help Center for any questions you may have regarding updating your sign in to a Google Account. FAQ's include:

• Should I use my personal Google Account for my Google Affiliate Network access?
• Can I have more than one Google Account?
• Can I access Google Affiliate Network from more than one Google Account?
• I have several Google Affiliate Network profiles. Should I create a separate Google Account for each one?

Problems?
Please submit a ticket if you are still encountering problems with your Google Affiliate Network account.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

System Maintenance on Saturday, September 25

We will be performing system maintenance September 25; the interface will be unavailable at this time. Tracking will not be interrupted and reporting data will be restored shortly after the interface comes back online.

We anticipate the interface will be unavailable from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. CDT (GMT -6).

AdSense Payment Integration

Google Affiliate Network is now paying publishers through AdSense, a platform that offers the widest array of publisher payment options in the industry. We have asked all publishers to link their Google Affiliate Network account to an AdSense account. For some this means linking to an existing account, while others are creating an AdSense account for the first time. The process is simple and tens of thousands have successfully linked.

We gain significant efficiencies by executing payments through the AdSense platform. Effective publisher payments are fundamental to affiliate marketing and we recognize that our legacy system needed improvements. AdSense offers users more payment options and we believe that our publishers will benefit from more transparent and predictable payments.

We understand some publishers are concerned about the integration of Google Affiliate Network and AdSense, particularly those who are unable to successfully link/create an AdSense account. But the fact is that fewer than 1% of all accounts that have attempted to link have been unable to do so. We are working to address publishers who have invalid account information or duplicate accounts, but we may not be able to continue working with those who have a disabled AdSense account due to policy violations.

I am also pleased to report that in addition to efficiency gains, Google Affiliate Network advertisers are already recognizing the benefits of expanded distribution through the growing number of AdSense publishers that are monetizing their sites/content with affiliate ads for the first time. In the weeks following the integration announcement we have seen more than twice as many new active and productive relationships created versus the same period last year.

Publishers should link by today to avoid any payment delays. After October 31st, publishers must have an approved AdSense account ID linked to their Google Affiliate Network account in order to continue participation in our network.

Chris Henger

Head of Google Affiliate Network

Changes to the Login Screen

Yesterday we made a slight change to the login page that has been causing confusion for some of our users. When you visit the login page for Google Affiliate Network you are now prompted to sign in with your Google Account instead of your legacy user account. If you would like to use your legacy username and password there is a link below the login form that will allow you to do so.

Please note that in the next couple months we will be turning off support for legacy logins and you will be required to set up a Google Account in order to access your Google Affiliate Network account. If you would like to take care of that today, please follow these instructions. If you run into issues during the process, we have a number of help articles that answer the most common issues we've seen users face.

Publishers-Get Found

One of the common phrases you hear in Affiliate Marketing is that this is "a relationship business." That's a broad statement; and at Google Affiliate Network we ask what does that actually mean? We believe it's our job to help both publishers and advertisers create effective relationships through highly productive partnerships. We take our role in facilitating these relationships seriously. As the holiday shopping season approaches, I want to alert our publishers to a tool in the Google Affiliate Network interface that can help you establish more and better relationships with our advertisers.

Earlier this summer we launched the "Opportunity Center." Advertisers use this tool to find new publishers and to identify opportunities for growth.
Google Affiliate Network advertisers have the ability to view a report that highlights two things:

• Publishers who are under-performing in their program but are performing well in the advertiser's category


• High potential publishers who have not joined the advertiser's program.

Advertisers are constantly looking for ways to improve the productivity of their affiliate programs, and this feature will help you "get found" by engaged advertisers.
To appear to advertisers looking for new publishers, visit your Communications Preferences in our interface and opt-in to "Non-Joined Advertiser Opportunities." Publishers are identified as opportunities for existing advertiser programs when you opt in to receive promotional communication for specific advertisers.

If you want to "get found" by advertisers who want to add you to their programs or do more business with you, we recommend you update your communication preferences. We wish you a successful holiday shopping season.


On behalf of the Google Affiliate Network Team,

Tony Nelan
Manager, Publisher Services

Announcing Google Affiliate Network payments through Google AdSense

Google Affiliate Network publisher payments will now be made through AdSense to offer publishers a wider range of payment options. Publishers can also manage their payment information in new ways and enjoy consolidated payments from Google if they use other Google products.

Starting on August 13, 2009, the primary user of your Google Affiliate Network publisher account will see an account notification asking them to create an AdSense account or link to an existing account. Accounts linked before midnight (Eastern Standard Time) on September 21st, 2009 will receive payments through AdSense for July and August 2009 earnings (depending on relevant advertiser payment terms). Publishers should create or link an AdSense account as soon as possible to avoid delays in Google Affiliate Network payments.

Earnings prior to July 2009 will be made through the existing Google Affiliate Network payment system.

On behalf of the Google Affiliate Network team,

Sheila Parker
Product Manager

Affiliate Tax Legislation Update

While affiliate marketers and industry peers continue to work to oppose 'affiliate tax' proposals around the country, a nexus law passed yesterday in Rhode Island. There are also proposals pending in other states, most notably North Carolina, where a nexus law is included in the budget proposal and could pass on July 1st and Hawaii, where the legislation will be enacted unless the Governor vetoes it by July 15th.

Google continues to work with trade associations around the country to ensure that policymakers understand the implications of these proposals on businesses and consumers. And we encourage publishers who may be affected by these proposals to take action in their home states.

Online sales tax is a complex and dynamic issue and each advertiser must evaluate the implications of any legislation on their business. Google cannot provide counsel on potential implications.

The Performance Marketing Alliance is a good resource to monitor progress on these issues.

Here are some interesting links to some recent press about the proposals:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124605688876763507.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-ri-amazon-ri-taxes,0,6524224.story

Posted by Kristin Hall and the Google Affiliate Network team

Google Affiliate Network: One Year Later

It’s been just over a year since our affiliate business became part of Google. To say a lot has happened seems obvious but I am proud of what our team has accomplished. To name just a few of the achievements: a new brand & UI, numerous platform enhancements, fantastic client and employee satisfaction in the midst of integration and many, many, new customers. Google Affiliate Network is fully integrated operationally within Google. We had an exciting year, but I am even more excited about where we are going.

Our focus remains the same, drive exceptional customer satisfaction through affiliate channel growth; however, being part of Google brings a mindset in how to best achieve our goals. A culture focused on the user and the tenet that ads must be high quality now permeates the Google Affiliate team.

Our goals are clear as we invest in our Platform, integrate our Network and continue to refine and evolve the Practice of Affiliate Marketing. To this end, we recently launched an “opportunities center” in the platform allowing advertisers to more easily identify underperforming relationships. This capability generates growth by improving optimization. We currently are beta testing data feed integration with Google Base which will drive growth with improved category taxonomy and data validation, as well as an improved user experience for advertisers who will only have to send one feed to Google. Publishers benefit from a higher quality data feed. The integration with Google Base is also an example where integration with other Google products and systems enables our Affiliate engineers to focus on affiliate innovation, while the engineers supporting Base will drive that product forward. Our team and our users benefit in many ways from Google’s scale and engineering excellence.

Google brings a focus on making decisions based on facts and data, rather than intuition. Our Practice embraced this focus, and has conducted more than 20 structured optimization projects this past quarter, resulting in measurable lift in program performance. These are just a few of our accomplishments to date, and the possibilities and ideas endless.

There is a lot of hard work ahead. I am sure we will make mistakes and things won’t go as fast as we want. But know that we are 100% committed to our customers’ satisfaction and to bringing unprecedented innovation to affiliate marketing. Our collective futures are very bright.

Thank you for your business and continued support.

Chris Henger

Head of Google Affiliate Network

Searching for Publisher Opportunities?

We just updated a new feature for advertisers that should benefit both our advertisers and publishers.  Advertisers can now view lists that highlight high performing publishers that are either underperforming for the advertiser, or have not joined the advertiser's program.

Advertisers:

    My network displays a list of publishers that are doing better on a relative basis in your category than they are for you.

    Rest of network displays a list of publishers that are not in your program that have a history of performance in your category.

  

If you are looking for a way to improve the productivity of your affiliate program, this is a great place to start.  The feature can be found by navigating to Publishers > Opportunities.

  

Publishers:

    In order to be visible to advertisers looking for new publishers, you must opt in to not joined opportunities on your communication preferences page.  To be visible to your existing advertisers that may be looking to expand their relationship with you, opt in to receive promotional communication for each advertiser to which you want to appear.

On behalf of the affiliate team,

Larry Adams

Sales Tax Legislation

In 2008 the State of New York enacted legislation which expanded the definition of sales tax vendors. There are currently several state legislatures, most notably California, considering similar proposals. Online sales tax issues are a dynamic and important issue for our industry. It is important that we not only stay abreast of these issues but work together in the best interests of our industry and consumers to educate policy makers on the dynamics of digital marketing.

Google and several other California based companies submitted a formal letter of opposition to the proposed California legislation. The Google Affiliate Network team and other teams at Google are working with trade associations across the country to ensure that policymakers understand the implications of these proposals on businesses and consumers.

Google cannot provide counsel on potential implications. We encourage businesses to follow the situation closely and evaluate any potential impact on your particular business.

Following are some relevant links regarding the situation in California:

California Chamber of Commerce:

http://ct2k2.capitoltrack.com/BillInfo.asp?inarchive=true&org=all&measure=AB%20178&ss=413calchamberbillinfo.xsl

California Taxpayers Association Fact Sheet:

http://www.caltax.org/SalesTaxNexusFactSheet3-2-09.pdf

Performance Marketing Alliance:

http://www.performancemarketingalliance.com/2009/03/19/the-fight-against-california-assembly-bill-178/

New Notification Features Released

The ads provided by our advertisers are often time sensitive and require replacement by publishers on a regular basis. We have been told by many publishers that they have a hard time keeping track of out of date ads present on their site(s). To help alleviate this challenge we will now display notifications on the publisher home page whenever we detect traffic on links (ads) that have past their end date.

A new message center, featured prominently in the top center of the publisher home page, provides a daily summary with the number of clicks recorded on out of date links. Users can view a detailed list of the ads generating these clicks including the creative, if applicable, and a link to a list of current ads for each advertiser associated to an out of date link. Notifications may be dismissed, but will continue to appear daily if traffic on out of date links is detected on subsequent days. The first notifications were generated as we pushed out the feature, so publishers may see a notification upon their next login. Please note that while a promotion may be past its end date we will continue to track clicks and conversions, and commissions will accrue for any conversions recorded for an active but out of date link.

Google Affiliate Network provides multiple features to help publishers keep up with these frequent changes; we offer daily updates of promotional ads (via email or FTP) and advertiser product catalogs (FTP only). We strongly encourage publishers to try out these features by visiting Links > Link Subscriptions and Links > Product Feeds.

Finally, we have added a feature to automatically send an email notification to publishers when a change to commissions specific to an advertiser/publisher relationship is made; advertiser users will also get a copy of the message. Publishers must opt in to receive these notifications on the Settings > Communications Preferences page. Please note that notifications are not yet available if advertisers change their default commission rate, or if the advertiser is using Category/Product Level Commissions. We are working to provide coverage for these types of changes too, and will be making improvements based on your feedback as we enhance this feature.

As a reminder, we have altered the naming convention for Link Subscriptions. Files will now come in the form Link_Subscriptions_YYYYMMDD.txt. Beginning March 13, all files will follow this convention.

Larry Adams
Product Manager

Maintenance Window Thursday, Mar 12: Changing Filename for Link Subscriptions

The Google Affiliate Network UI will undergo maintenance this Thursday, March 12 between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. CDT.

In addition, publishers please take note that the file naming convention for link subscriptions will be changing to:

Link_Subscriptions_MMDDYYYY.txt

If you are a publisher and are not currently signed up for link subscriptions, it is highly recommended. You will receive a nightly feed via email or FTP of new ads created by your advertisers in the Google Affiliate Network.

You can subscribe via the UI by navigating to Links > Links Subcriptions.

Regards,

Larry Adams
Product Manager

System Maintenance Saturday

We will be performing system maintenance this weekend, during our normal Saturday maintenance window.  During the maintenance, the Google Affiliate interfaceswill be unavailable beginning approximately at 10:00 a.m. EST (3:00 p.m. GMT), Saturday, February 28th.  The interfaces will be restored no later than 6:00 p.m. EST (11:00 p.m. GMT).
 
Please note: tracking will NOT be affected during the maintenance period.  

Update Your Google Affiliate Network Sign-in to a Google Account

You can now update your Google Affiliate Network sign-in information to a Google Account. This will let you access all your Affiliate Network account and Google products with a single sign-in. After you update to a Google Account, you’ll be able to:

• Use the same sign-in for Google Affiliate Network and other Google products, including AdWords, AdSense, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Personalized Search, and much more.
• Switch among Google Affiliate Network and other Google applications without having to sign in again.

The following image provides an overview of the process to update to a Google Account.

Please note: We cannot update the Google Affiliate Network sign-in pages until all users have updated. Therefore, we recommend that you bookmark the Google Account sign-in page for Google Affiliate Network.

Users who have updated to Google Accounts have the option to bookmark their new sign in page or select the link marked Already Updated? Sign in with my Google Account from the legacy sign in page. In addition, if you are already logged in to your Google Account (via another product) and navigate to either of these pages, you will be brought to your Affiliate Network dashboard (no need to enter login information again).

Users that choose to not update to a Google Account at this time can continue to log in with their existing credentials from the legacy sign in page.

For more information about the benefits of migrating to a Google Account, please visit our Advertiser or Publisher Help Center.

Sheila Parker
Product Manager

Google Affiliate Network User Forums - Ask questions, share ideas and search for answers

We are pleased to announce the addition of user-to-user forums within the Google Affiliate Network Help Center. And we invite you to join the discussion!

Our Help Center now hosts a unique user forum where you can feel free to ask questions, share ideas, search for answers and talk to other Google Affiliate Network advertisers and publishers. 

This is not a moderated forum but we have "Google Guides" who may clarify factual errors and/or provide product help if required.

You do not need a ConnectCommerce login to access the Help Center or the forums. You can access the forums with a simple click. If you want to ask or reply to a question, simply sign in with any Google Account and create display/username for the Affiliate Network forum.

Google Affiliate Network's adoption of the user-to-user platform is an example of the value of the ongoing integration with Google's powerful systems. The forum has an innovative interface, clear categories, and robust search capabilities. Since this is a user forum the content will only be as good as the questions that are asked so we encourage all Google Affiliate Network users to participate.

The forum is part of the Google Affiliate Network Help Center where you will find product documentation and answers to product related questions.

We invite you to participate in the Google Affiliate Network User Forums. Check it out!

Posted by Kristin Hall

Product Feeds Only Available Via FTP Starting January 15, 2009

Attention Google Affiliate Network Publishers:

Starting January 15, 2009, advertiser product feeds (also known as data feeds) will only be transmitted via FTP.  

If you currently receive your product feeds via FTP, this change does not impact you.

If you currently receive your product feeds via email, please go to your Google Affiliate Network account and change your product feeds settings.

You can now sign up to receive product feeds through the Google Affiliate Network interface.  To sign up for product feeds, sign into your Google Affiliate Network publisher account, go to the 'Links' section and click on 'Product Feeds'. 

For more information, see this from our Help Center.

Dan Filowitz 

Affiliate Publisher Support