Hi all, Although this post is focused on Gaiam, I think the tool that's being used will likely interest most of you. AMWSO has been loooking for a way to effectively use video through our programs, and we think we've finally found the a complete solution. The tool is called: WebVideoZone and it has been created by a guy called Joe Chapuis. Anyway, I have had a play with the tool and this is one example of what I have come up with: http://www.affiliatecreatives.com/gaiam/the_secret/the_secret.htm. (This very basic landing page that promotes a product that was featured on Oprah last week that's stocked by Gaiam). Here's the cool part: - The Gaiam logo on the top left hand corner of the video player is a clickable affiliate link. - When the video is done there's a message to; “Click on the video screen to buy “The Secret’â€. Once the screen is clicked on you are led to a Gaiam landing page for ‘The Secret’ through an affiliate link. - Anyone can add the video to their site via the “Add To Site†button, and of course the video player includes an affiliate link. - You can email a friend a link to your video player via the “Share†button, and again the video player will include an affiliate link. - The video is not hosted on your site so you don't have to worry about bandwidth issues. If a merchant/Affiliate Manager wants to distribute this sort of video all they have to do is direct their affiliates to a page like the one below where they add their affiliate ID and then they can grab the resulting source code that's generated on the page to add to their website. Here is an example of the page for 'The Secret' DVD: http://go.webvideoplayer.com/aff/nC1cvJefTxV3rUahHPkE1347. (In this case you'd add your Linkshare Click ID to grab a copy of the video which has your affiliate links embedded throughout the video). We're going to use this tool for Gaiam/GT Media first of all as they have loads of very well produced videos advertising their best-selling products (I have about 40 videos so far and there are many more available). So far we have three videos available for affiliates and I have just sent out a newsletter which explains how the system works and incudes the various links to them all etc. If you're interested, check it out here: http://www.affiliatecreatives.com/gaiam/newsletter_200207/Affiliate_Newsletter2.1_Feb07.htm. N.B. If you want to use the Gaiam videos on your website and get paid a commission on sales you must be signed up to the Gaiam affiliate program run through Linkshare. You can get more details here: http://www.amwso.com/gaiam.php. It'll be interesting to see how this goes. There is no doubt that high quality video can certainly help sell products (especialy if surrounded by some solid sales copy). Let me know your thoughts on this. I'd welcome any feedback you have on the system.
i don't see any tool capability there? just links for selling gaiam vids... and that logo they put in the corner is butt-ugly, it should be semi-transparent at least. with the advent of the bubbleply technology, i'm wondering why affiliates can't just add their links to any video hosted by the bubbleply-capable partners. i don't see any need for the webvideozone membership, when you can do it for free with bubbleply.
Great job James! danimal, there's a lot more too this than you realize. I just blogged about it and show how it all works. This will BLOW YOU AWAY! (or at least blew me away) ROCKIN Video Ad Tool for Merchants and Affiliates http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/2007/02/22/video-ad-tool-for-merchants-affiliates/
that doesn't really answer the question of why people would want to use webvideozone instead of bubbleply. both webvideozone and bubbleply give you players for the vids... the latter is free, but with the former you can control aspects of the player on a global basis, which is nice, but it costs a minimum of $20/mo, plus an $80 sign-up fee. so the big question is, what are you going to use for content? are you going to create videos from scratch for the affiliate products that you are selling? how are you going to get people to sit thru home videos? with bubbleply, you can at least spam any video clip with clickable links back to your site, for free... take the most viral stuff on youtube, put your link on it, post it to your site, and drive traffic to it.
Hi danimal, Most of AMWSO's clients have professionally produced video - especially Gaiam and GT Media since they do so much TV advertising in North America. I feel (from an Affiliate Manager perspective) The main advantage of webVideoZone is it's so easy for affiliates to use! BubblePly requires some work to get going, whereas WVZ just requires literally one minute to add the video to your site. I played with BubblePly, and while I like it and consider it a very useful affiliate tool, WVZ is way better for affiliates in general (and arguably merchants too). AMWSO absorbs the costs for the affiliate programs we manage, as will the majority of AM's/merchants so affiliates pay nothing to add the videos to their site(s).