It seems that we can’t go a week with out adding exciting new features to ECU which are designed to maximise your commissions.  This week it’s something which can increase your comissions by 400% or more.

The performance plan for Amazon is great – it gives you a fab tiered commission structure meaning the more you sell, the more you earn. There’s only one downside – On the Performance Plan, any Electrical items are capped at £7 commission, meaning if you sell a £1,000 TV, you get £7 commission (less than 1%).

If you sell the same TV through the Classic program however, you get a flat rate of 4%, meaning you’d pocket £40 commission – £33 more for the same product!  Let’s look at some figures:

option 1 Classic – 4% on all products…
sell a £100 tv, and get £4 commission
sell a £200 tv, and get £8 commission
sell a £500 tv, and get £20 commission
sell a £1000 tv and get £40 commission
option 2 – performance based, starts at 7.5% (for a direct link) but theres a £7 cap on electronics
sell a £100 tv, and get £7.00 commission (better than option one)
sell a £200 tv, and get £7.00 commission (worse than option one)
sell a £500 tv, and get £7.00 commission (worse than option one)
sell a £1000 tv and get £7.00 commission (over 400% less than on the Classic plan)

So what have we done?

Well, we’ve now set up ECU so that if you have seperate Amazon IDs for Classic and Performance, you can enter both of them into ECU, and the system will automatically use the best link for you.  It’ll use the performance link as default, however any items in the electrical category priced over £175.00 will automatically switch to the Classic plan, ensuring you don’t miss out the full commission for on any big ticket electrical items!

Check your Amazon IDs:

Log into ECU and on the ‘My Details’ page you’ll see that you can enter an ID for the performance plan (first box) and a different one for the Classic Plan (second box). It is set that electronics items (priced over £175) will show the classic ID (if entered) under/all other products will show performance plan ID.

Amazon products v 3rd Party Sellers

Affiliates have asked us to distinguish between products being sold by Amazon and those being sold by their 3rd Party Sellers.  You can now see by the logo in the search results this information, what’s more, if you click on the logo, you’ll be taken to the product page so you can check it’s the corrent item before adding it to your ECU.

If you have any other ideas for development of ECU, please send in a support ticket.

Managed Units are great eh? The top products by sold by the merchant, kept up to date by them, so all you have to do is put it on your page and forget about it… What more could you possibly want?

Well today we are launching a major development to the way that you can use these managed units which means you can now have them your way.

That’s right, the merchant picks the products, and you can now choose how they are displayed on your site, you’re no longer tied to how they’ve been made by the merchant, you can change all the styling so that they fit in perfectly with your site.  In fact you have access to the same customisation tools as if you created the unit yourself, without the choosing of products.  Change the size/colours/number of products/items to show and more!

Let’s take a look at how this works:

First up we’ve created a new page, sorted alphabetically where you can select the merchant.  

For those that are on more than one network or offer a range of managed units click on the merchant name and you’ll see the options available.  To select a particular unit click on ‘View Unit’.  Bear in mind, you have to be accepted onto the affiliate program with the network for the unit you want to use.

The next page is where the magic begins… You’ll see a quick preview, including the products the merchant has selected, where I have added the arrow, you’ll notice there’s a tick box, which will take you tot he styling page, so you can change any of the styling on the unit.  So tick the box and click on ‘Add to My Units’.  (Of course if you’re happy with the look, you might not need to tick the box – though you might want ot add tracking ID/url etc?).

Change the styling – you have access to all the customisation options you’ve come to expect form Easy Content Units, so if you tick the box, you’ll see our familiar styling page for this unit.

‘Add to My Units’ did you say? – I sure did, for yes, he’s the next major function we’ve added to the units.  Now you’re able to add it to your own list of units, the stats for the managed units will show up in your stats page.  You’ll be able to see the number of impressions and clicks each of these have generated for you.  All the managed units are grouped together on your stats page for convenience, you can of course move them about if you want.

We’ve launched with 60 managed units, with more being added each day.  If you are a merchant who would like to provide your affiliates with this fantastic promotional creative which is converting at a little over 10% (network wide) then please contact us.

With the launch of ECU Pro, we’d thought it would be great to take a look at some of the new functionality that Pro users can use with their Easy Content Units.   To access affiliate pro, you will need to be a member of ECU (join here), and then visit our Upgrade to ECU Pro page.

Removal of Revenue Share:

As we’ve already mentioned, for Pro users, the revenue share is removed, meaning that your units show your links all the time – all commission is yours, with no leakage.    This means that for affiliates earning more than £100 commission from all of their ECUs, will be better off on the Pro subscription, if you’re not quite there, then the current scheme is maybe the right one for you.  Unless you want the shiney new functions we’re also throwing into Pro.

Advanced Stats:

The stats we provided with ECU was great for the first few months whilst affiliates were getting to grips with it, but now there’s lots of units, and they spread out over months, they really don’t help too much.  So in the Pro version there are a few additions, like being able to filter by unit,  sort by date, and coming soon, individual click data for your units.

PHP Coding:

One of the things alot of affiliates have asked for is the ability to include a php version so that the contents of the units can be ‘readble’ by the search engines.  Although we resisted at first (because of the duplication issues for affiliate sites) we have included the options in the Pro account.  At the bottom of the styling is a new link ‘PHP Code for this unit’ click on this and a box will open up with the code you need to paste into your page.  For wordpress users you will need the Exec-PHP so that the php will execute in your posts.

Branding Opportunity:

The Pro subscription will also give you the opportunity to ‘Brand’ the units with extra images and links in the header/footer so that you can create a totally unique unit.

By adding these extra images you can create units that look like this Buy a Gift one.

There’s plenty more features and developments scheduled for Easy Content Units, keep an eye out on here, or on our Twitter for news of them as they are released. 

To access affiliate pro, you will need to be a member of ECU (join here), or fill in the form below if you are an existing member:

 

Your existing ECU username:

Oh and if there are any features you’d like to see, drop us a comment, or a support ticket and we”ll try and add them!

As you may have heard last week, dgm have secured a partnership with Easy Content Units which allows their affiliates to use ECU for free, thus removing the revenue share for their merchants featured in your content units. This is great news for you, as it means that you can build your content units for dgm merchants, in the safe knowledge that all commissions that you earn will be yours.

This means that for PPC affiliates, there’s now a new tool which you can use to create killer landing pages, and for content affiliates, you will be rewarded in full for using dgm merchants.

So let’s take a look at which merchants are available on ECU:

Ben 10 – store selling products from this popular childrens television character
BSi – store selling hard copies and subscriptions of British Standards
Bump to 3 – store selling products for maternity to 3 months
Car Audio Centre - are the UKs’ car audio specialist for the latest in car entertainment systems, from portable DVD audio visual equipment to CD head units, iPod ready car stereos to CD multi changer and satellite navigation. 
Gizoo - Gizoo has a fantastic selection of what’s sexy, slick, smart and funny in the world of lifestyle gadgets and accessories
Gray and Osbourn - is a mail order ladieswear company providing elegant co-ordinates and versatile outfits for stylish women over the age of 45.
High and Mighty - are the market leader in European big and tall clothing, delivering fashion that fits to men of above average stature.
Hit Store -  is where parents can find the complete range of all their character’s toys. Thousands of products are available onsite from tiny toys to full bedroom sets.
Jacobs Digital Photo and Video - are the Largest Independent Photographic Retailer in the UK
Lakeland Leather - Renowned for being the leading specialists in leather, suede and sheepskin
Machine Mart -  is Britain’s leading specialist supplier of tools & equipment for DIY & Trade
Microwarehouse - is the perfect choice to supply customer’s IT requirements being the market leader in providing high quality computer equipment and consumer electronics to consumers and business
Nick Shop - store selling character products from this popular childrens television channel
RED5 - was created to fill that much neglected gap on the high street, for all things cool and unusual, innovation in gifts and gadgets from all parts of the world.
Report Buyer - is a leading online-shop for business information, carrying a comprehensive range of market research.
Sleeping Solutions - is the number one online shop for Silentnight, Sealy and Milbrook beds, as well as other well know brands. 
Snow+Rock – sells winter sports and outdoor equipment
SoleTrader - provides a superior collection of shoes for men and women, including timeless classics, slick casuals and sports labels.
Terrys Fabric - is a leading retailer of curtains, fabrics and other homewares
The Alternative Gift Catalogue – offers alternative gifts which will benefit the third world, like chickens, water wells etc
The Dog House - online gift store with a huge range of gifts and gadgets for all occasions
Toystore - is where you can find the complete product range of every pre-school character brand
Virgin Vie - offer a fantastic range of skincare, body care, make up and men’s toiletries. They also offer some beautiful costume jewellery and a luxurious home ware range.
Vodafone - is the world’s largest mobile phone network with a massive global brand and presence
Wilkinson Plus – offer nearly 7000 products across it’s huge product range from cosmetics to garden sheds

As you can see from this list, there’s quite a few merchants there, which are exclusive to dgm, so to be able to build a content unit for these merchants is something new and special for you and the merchants.

If you are already signed up to ECU then you can just log in, if you’re new to ECU then check out the sign up page.

Keep an eye out on our Twitter page for new merchants as they are added, plus coming soon, some managed units for the merchant’s best selling products.

R.O.EYE have created a new content unit for their client MacWarehouse. They will regularly update this unit with the top selling products on the MacWarehouse site.

You will need to be accepted onto the MacWarehouse Affiliate Program which can be found on Affiliate Window.

To get this managed content unit on your site please follow the instructions below:

The Code:

<!-- BEGIN EASYCONTENTUNITS.COM CODE --><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="javascript" SRC="http://www.easycontentunits.com/js_unit.php?ecu_mid=ECUID&ecu_uid=4366"> /* Unit: MacWarehouse */ </SCRIPT><!-- END EASYCONTENTUNITS.COM CODE -->

To add this to your site:

1. Go to My Details section and get your Easy Content Units ID
2. Grab the code above
3. Replace ECUID with your Easy Content Units ID
4. Place the code on your website

The resulting MacWarehouse Managed Unit:

If you have any questions about the content of this unit please contact Daniel at R.O.EYE (daniel@ro-eye.co.uk) direct, any questions about Easy Content Units, please send in a support ticket.

We have the pleasure to announce an exclusive launch partnership with dgm affiliate network.  For affiliates this means that links to dgm merchants in the content units will show your ID all of the time, removing the 80/20 revenue share.  This means that for almost 200000 products that dgm merchants offer, you will receive 100% of the commission.

Easy Content Units allows you to add Price Comparison to any page, showcase the merchants best sellers, sell related products and allow your visitors to choose a style/colour before leaving your site.

Whether you use Easy Content Units to create a whole site, or just a landing page for Pay Per Click, you can relax in the fact you will be getting all of the commission from using dgm Merchants.

dgm have, by forming this partnership secured extra exposure for their merchants products, whilst providing their affiliates with our very easy to use tool.  

To start benefiting from Easy Content Units, visit our join page.  If you’re already signed up to Easy Content Units, your dgm links will automatically show 100% of the time.  If you haven’t joined dgm as an affiliate or merchant but would like to, then please visit dgmPro

The small print:

Using other network’s merchants in the content units will still be subject to the revenue share

This deal is exclusive to dgm for the next two months

So we have been running Easy Content Units for 4 months now. We thought it would be a good idea to share with you some key information about how things are going and what the future holds for Easy Content Units.

Since launch we have attracted 370 affiliates who have used ECU to create 4437 content units. These content units have been shown 611108 times on the affiliate’s sites generating 59691 clicks through to merchants showing an impression to click ratio of 9.77%.

As far a product data is concerned, we have support for 11 of the UK’s largest affiliate networks, covering 1000 merchants giving affiliates the choice of 7515375 products to add to their content unit. This figure doesn’t include Amazon which offers a huge catalogue for affiliates to choose from.

Whilst Amazon products are called live from their API, we update the merchant’s products daily for you to keep the prices and availability as accurate as possible.

So what kind of affiliate has found ECU good for them? Well there are two main groups of sites that are featuring ECUs. Voucher code sites (and shopping directory type sites) have taken ECU and are showing the greatest results in terms of impressions and clicks. For details on how they are utilising ECU check out our ECU for Voucher Code article.

The other kind of sites which are utilising ECU to good effect are the niche sites which have been created as a result of Smingle’s post on A4U. We are seeing lots of sites which are now starting to show some good levels of impressions. On subjects from Beach Clothing to the Chopping board there’s a call to use our huge product database to fill their sites.

Although the price comparison feature has been used to great effect on model type review pages, the use of the ECU to showcase ranges of products is by far the most employed use of our units. How affiliates are putting together sites using ECU can be seen on our showcase page.

We’re always looking for ways to improve Easy Content Units and have made nearly 200 tweaks based on affiliate and merchant’s needs. The best way to request a feature is by support ticket, which incidentally is monitored so closely that we have even managed to reply to a query within 7 seconds of the member posting it. Not something which we’ll guarantee to do often, but is something we strive for.

So what’s on the horizon for Easy Content Units?

Coming shortly (in fact in mid May) is affiliate Pro, packed with lots of advanced features, and of course the removal of the revenue share.

More managed units, with some of the top agencies offering best selling content units for their merchants, we envisage that individual merchants will pick up on this service and provide ECUs for their affiliates. If you are a merchant who would like to find out more, please contact us, or check out our merchant’s page.

There’s lots of new features to come for both affiliates and merchants, keep an eye out here and via Twitter.com/EasyContentUnit If you have any ideas you’d like to see please let us know via a support ticket or below: