PEAPOD.COM CAMPAIGN NEWS

Summer – what does it mean to you?

Warm days spent by the pool? Having picnics and BBQs with family and friends? Getting active and stripping away the excess weight that found its way onto your body over the winter period?

Whatever summer means to you, be sure to catch the summer fever with our latest product, NutriFilter™. NutriFilter™ is already making a big impact since its launch. In case you’ve been hibernating the past few weeks, here’s the scoop on NutriFilter™:

NutriFilter™ allows the consumer to make smart food choices quickly and easily. It sifts through all products and highlights the products that meet the consumer’s dietary needs and nutritional requirements. No more reading labels or deciphering nutritional information – NutriFilter™ works that out for you.

By promoting NutriFilter™, you offer added value to your current visitors plus NutriFilter™ is a great product to use to attract new customers.

Once you make customers aware of NutriFilter™, NutriFilter™ sells itself. Why wouldn’t customers want to make their shopping more convenient, informative and nutritional?

Best of all, by promoting NutriFilter™ to your new and existing customers, you also give them the gift of more free time – to really enjoy everything that summer means to them!

Have fun!

Not part of the program yet? Click here to join

32Vegas And AmberCoast Payout Increase

We have some great news today for our affiliates running the 32Vegas and AmberCoast Campaigns.
32Vegas and AmberCoast have decided to increase their affiliate payout for the month of June.

The commission has been increased by R110; this means that you will now be earning a total of R600 per new depositing player you refer.

For affiliates not running these campaigns yet, be sure to jump on board quick to really cash in on this lucrative new commission payout.

Start promoting this campaign right now by downloading the creative that is available at za.offerforge.com.

If you would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Ryno Saayman
za@offerforge.com
086 10 36743

Winddancer Herbal Healing Launches Affiliate Program

The indigenous peoples of the world have known the outstanding healing & wellness properties of plants & herbs since the dawn of time; knowledge handed down through generations spanning thousands of years.

Winddancer Trading has captured the spirit of this phenomenon, by seeking out a route of excellence in Alternative Medicines & The Medicinal Herbal Markets, now dearly sought after by The Seekers of Wellness and Well-being Worldwide.

Affiliates will earn 15% of all sales they generate.

Start promoting this campaign right now by downloading the creative that is available at us.offerforge.com.

If you would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Ryno Saayman
usa@offerforge.com
USA: 1-800-841-1369 / UK: 0808-234-7039
CAN: 1-866-761-5644

Projjex.com “like an improved Google Docs” says one happy customer
Burlington, Ontario, Canada – May 15, 2008 – Projjex Software Corporation (PSC) today announced the launch of the affiliate marketing program for its Web-based collaboration and project management service located at www.projjex.com.

The affiliate program is the most aggressive in its industry and will pay publishers US$3 for each new registered member that opens a Free Projjex™ Personal account.

Projjex™ has partnered with leading affiliate marketing program management specialists ForgeBusiness USA Inc. to manage the affiliate marketing program and the affiliate relationships. The affiliate program is open to US and international web publishers, bloggers and business community networks. Referral fees are paid monthly by wire, Paypal or check through the OfferForge Affiliate Network.

PSC founder and CEO Alex Glassey said, “We set out to create a ground-breaking service in Projjex™ and felt we needed an innovative affiliate program to accompany it. The feedback we’ve received from our customers has been outstanding and customer adoption has been simply phenomenal. Projjex™ is unique in that it offers so much functionality and collaborative capacity as a free product, that it’s really in a class of its own.”

“The Projjex™ affiliate program is targeted at the business-to-business market and we believe it’ll compete very well through its unique offer and high customer adoption rate. We’re already seeing exceptionally high new visitor conversion rates and at these levels it’s realistic for affiliates to expect earnings in the $70 to $95 EPC range.” commented Jonathan Miller, CEO ForgeBusiness.

Projjex™ runs in web browsers and therefore doesn’t require software downloads or installation or any additional hardware or servers. New users can be up and running in seconds. Teams can easily add documents, tasks, milestones, meetings and notes – everything required for a successful project. Because it’s all stored centrally, updated information is immediately shared with all team members. In short, Projjex™ has everything small teams need to easily organize their tasks and collaborate on multiple projects. And to top it off, the entry-level version is completely free.

With Projjex™, teams can:
create new projects in seconds and fill them with tasks, milestones, notes, meetings and reminders;
store documents of any kind and share them with colleagues and clients;
use visual calendars to help understand which team members are busy or available;
record time and prepare invoice and profitability reports;
search across all projects including document contents; and
schedule daily email reminders to help keep team members on track.
Projjex™ makes team collaboration simple and seamless; it improves productivity and strengthens client relationships. In short, Projjex™ helps companies work better and be more profitable.
For more information about the affiliate program visit www.projjex.com/affiliates.html.

###
About Projjex Software Corporation (PSC)
PSC is completely focused on building and marketing web-based services for small- and medium-sized businesses. Based in Burlington, Ontario Canada, and led by serial entrepreneur Alex Glassey, the PSC team is expert in web applications. For more information visit www.projjex.com.
About ForgeBusiness USA Inc. (Forge)
Forge is a specialist outsourced affiliate management company that conceptualizes, implements and manages global affiliate marketing programs for leading US, Canadian, UK, Australian and Southern African clients. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa with local presence in the USA & UK the company manages over 50 leading programs in markets including apparel & jewelry, dating, business, finance and general consumer categories .
For more information visit www.forgebusiness.com

Have you ever tried to find something in a really dark room? Let me give you an idea of what this feels like (if you are living in a place that experiences midnight sun) – You think you know where it is geographically, so as you walk toward the supposed location you end up leaving bits of your shin on every item that has an edge (coffee tables, chairs, toolboxes, ladders, your first PC tower that you bought in the late 1920’s, etc).

After walking your first full circle (you realize that you went around in a circle by landing up at the door that you used to enter the room!), you try again. This time you have better luck because the skin from your shins has left mental markers on the territory that you have already covered.

This experience is similar to promoting an affiliate program that does not offer item tracking. You have to do a lot of “ground work” (testing different keywords, banners, product links, etc) before you reach your goals. Item tracking simplifies this process by allowing you to see the actual items that you are selling. This provides you with a real advantage over your competitors because you are now able to target relevant products at you audience. Gone are the days of promoting a polka dot bikini to your visitor, who is a sandal-loving-surfer-dude. By targeting the products that your consumers are interested in, you will drastically increase your conversion rate. Couple this with our awesome product feed (available via the interface) and you are on your way to earning serious commissions!

If you have not have not absorbed the message yet – the Beckersurf.com affiliate program now offers item tracking!!! To all of our loyal affiliates that are already producing awesome results: Consider this as a “thank you”. To all new affiliates: Consider this as a huge titanium carrot…..seed. We have planted it for you; it’s up to you to grow it.

Let us know if you have any questions regarding item tracking or the product feed. For more information on the affiliate program, or to join, click here.

For the past few months we’ve been working feverishly with the team from Projjex as they added awesome functionality to their pure-play online project management and collaboration tool and built a great business in the process

Today we’ve launched the affiliate program, exclusively available on OfferForge and we’re paying $3 for each free user that opens a Projjex account.

As a Projjex convert I can attest to the fact that its great for managing small distributed teams and getting instant feedback on project progress. Those of you that know me personally, know I’m a ‘give-me-the-lowdown-now’ kinda guy – so Projjex satisfies my craving for instant updates on what everyone’s doing – from affiliate recruitment to new client integration.

They’ve even added Basecamp and MS Project import capability – so projects don’t need a central administrator – and each team member can update progress in real-time. I’m so impressed by the product that we’ve adopted it as our new collaboration solution and chucked out our clunky old software!

Take a look at this video that sums up in 30 seconds why Projjex rocks

For more news on Projjex visit our affiliate site

LinkConnector Welcomes Top 500 Online Retailer, Peapod, and Produces A Fruitful New Affiliate Marketing Program

The launch of the new Peapod Program in the LinkConnector Affiliate Marketing Network gives affiliates something to bite into.

Cary, NC – April 24, 2008 – LinkConnector (http://www.linkconnector.com/), a leading Affiliate Marketing Network with progressive solutions for merchants and affiliates, announced today that Peapod (http://www.peapod.com), America’s largest online grocery delivery and shopping service, has launched an affiliate marketing program in the LinkConnector Network. The recently launched Peapod Program offers affiliates a competitive per sale commission structure based on affiliate performance. The Peapod name garners strong conversion rates and drives a high annual sales volume. The online grocer gives testament to this with its position among the top 500 retail sites found on the web, according to the Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide.

Affiliates promoting the Peapod Program through LinkConnector will earn revenue while providing their visitors with a smart grocery-shopping solution for busy schedules. The Peapod program pays its affiliates a tiered commission based on the number of new customers the affiliate drives to the Peapod website. An affiliate earns $12 per sale when they drive their first new customer to Peapod, and then up to $20 per sale once they begin driving 50 new customers or more to Peapod. The online grocer is excited to reward its affiliate partners with this premium payout and can do so given LinkConnector’s cost effective service solution.

“Given that LinkConnector’s pricing remains among the lowest in the industry, we have greater flexibility to reward our affiliates more for their effective traffic,” said Reshall Jimmy, Senior Affiliate Manager for ForgeBusiness.com, the Affiliate Management Agency of Record that manages all the affiliate relationships for Peapod, LLC. “Our affiliates come first. With the high quality support we receive through our LinkConnector service package, we are able to go the extra mile for our affiliate partners. We expect to reach new goals in our affiliate channel, and increase both our bottom line and those of our affiliate partners.”

Founded in 1989 as a smart shopping option for busy people, Peapod today stands as the country’s leading Internet grocer, serving 18 U.S. markets, primarily in the Northeast. With more than 10,000 products for shoppers to choose from, Peapod boasts not just the expected selection of grocery basics, but also farm-fresh produce, restaurant-quality meats and much more. For a fee as low as $6.95, most customers can place orders for delivery as soon as next-day. “The biggest hurdle was convincing consumers they could shop online and still maintain control over the quality of their picks,” says Andrew Parkinson, company founder and president. “That’s been Peapod’s cornerstone all along.”

The Peapod Affiliate Marketing Program is open to PPC affiliates (although they do have keyword restrictions), email and coupon affiliates. Historically, these affiliate categories have been top performers. With the launch of their program in the LinkConnector Network, LinkConnector provides its affiliates with another Internet Retailer Top 500 Merchant offer, according to the 2007 edition of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites. Affiliates, it’s time for produce.

About Peapod, LLC
Founded in 1989 by brothers Andrew and Thomas Parkinson, Peapod has grown to be one of America’s leading Internet grocers. Peapod is a wholly owned subsidiary of international food provider Royal Ahold, and works in partnership with Ahold USA supermarket companies including Stop & Shop and Giant Food.

Peapod combines the value of a well-priced, diverse product selection with the ease of Internet shopping and delivery. Peapod serves 18 U.S. markets including the metro areas of Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, Suburban N.Y. and Washington, D.C., and communities in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

To join the Peapod LinkConnector Affiliate Program, visit: https://www.linkconnector.com/affiliateprogram.htm?mid= 23818.

About ForgeBusiness

ForgeBusiness is a specialist multi-network outsourced affiliate management agency that works with leading Fortune 1000 companies and high impact startups to develop innovative affiliate marketing strategies. The company manages Financial Services, FMCG, Health & Wellness, Apparel & Jewellery and many other programs in the USA, Europe, Asia and South Africa. Founded in South Africa by industry veteran, speaker, blogger and relentless traveller, Jonathan Miller, in 2001 the company has fast become a market leader in the affiliate management industry. Forge employs 26 Affiliate Managers, Recruiters, Technologists, Copywriters, Web,-creative, -development & supporting staff who toil relentlessly for 18 hours a day to forge relationships with affiliates in 24 time zones! For more information on Forge visit www.forgebusiness.com

About LinkConnector.com
LinkConnector is an Affiliate Marketing network, helping merchants and affiliates increase online sales. LinkConnector is redefining affiliate marketing with its ground-breaking technologies like Naked Link Technology®, Affiliate Connections^TM, Pending Sale functionality, and Virtual Affiliate^TM tracking. Naked Link Technology gives merchants a way to boost their organic rankings while they promote their site on LinkConnector’s Network. Affiliate Connections provides affiliates with a quick and dynamic system to determine optimal promotions for their sites. LinkConnector’s Pending Sale functionality opens up pay-per-sale campaigns to any merchant who begins their sale process online. Virtual Affiliate tracking allows merchants to track, in real time, virtual affiliates such as organic search engines. Equipped with LinkConnector’s new technologies, merchants and affiliates can take their affiliate marketing efforts to new levels of success.

Affiliates join free at http://www.linkconnector.com/affiliatejoin.htm.
For a limited time, Merchant set up fees are waived. To join for free, visit http://www.linkconnector.com/merchantjoin.htm.

Peapod Affiliate Campaign News

Celebrate National Nutrition Month with Our New Shopping tool, Nutrifilter^TM!

Nutrifilter^TM is a powerful new tool that helps make smart food choices quick and easy. It identifies whether products conform to certain dietary plans or nutritional elements.

To help you promote this feature we have uploaded new creative which is targeted towards health-conscious and workaholic consumers who don’t always have the time to check the product labels when they’re shopping for groceries.

We are expecting NutriFilter to have a great impact on new customers. NutriFilter will definitely attract a lot of interest and we’re confident that it will allow our affiliates to take their efforts to the next level.

We have included some of the new creative in this newsletter along with a brief overview on NutriFilter.

New Creative

Here are some of the new banners

*If you can’t see the animations, please click on the banners to preview them in your browser

Nutrifilter™ Overview

NutriFilter helps you make smart food choices quickly and easily by sifting through all products and highlighting the ones that meet your nutritional goals.

It identifies whether products conform to certain dietary plans or nutritional elements. The plans may be popular diets that Peapod sets up for anyone to use, or the plan can be created by the user to achieve specific dietary goals.

Once the user has chosen which plan they would like to use (popular or custom), the items meeting the user’s profile will be sorted to the top of the product shelf and assigned a icon. This means that there is no need to read product labels or decipher nutritional panels; Nutrilfilter does all that for you.

Support Information

Let us know if you require assistance, have any questions or have any suggestions.

Kind Regards,

Reshall Jimmy
Account Manager

US: 1-800-841-1369
UK: 0808-234-7039
CA: 1-866-761-5644
Intl: +27-12-665-5088

Peapod’s Innovative Health Feature – NutriFilter

Health is a major concern to young and old alike. Proper nutrition is an essential ingredient to a healthy lifestyle. Mothers to babies and young children are very conscious of this fact and ensure that their children have the correct feeding and nutrition. However many parents often neglect their own dietary needs.To assist with this need, popular food and grocery supplier Peapod has come up with a unique shopping plan for selecting the correct foods for your individual needs, taking into account a variety of needs in any one family.

Their new innovative feature called NutriFilter allows for selecting foods that have ‘indicators’ reflecting the contents of selected foods, their nutritional value, their differing mineral contents and their compatibility to your personally required intake of appropriate food according to your very own dietary plan. Sportsmen and fitness enthusiasts can also benefit from this facility.

While shopping online at Peapod.com you can choose a standard dietary plan or customize plans to suit your particular needs from, calorie, vitamin, cultural foods to minerals, fats , protein, carbohydrate, sugars, protein, cholesterol contents with recommended levels of consumption. Sounds complicated? Not at all! Simply by choosing your own icon from a selection, selecting your own ‘dietary plan’ and the program will do the rest for you as you scroll through your shopping list. The icon will pick up the suitable products for you as you search for you ideal shopping supplies.

NutriFilter has an ongoing program to update suitable perishable products. Trans Fats are a particular issue as regulation thereon is still relatively new and full product updates need to be collected to increase the selection.

NutriFilter is the latest introduction to Peapod’s desire to bring to their customers the best quality, the best choices and the best of healthy food.

Take advantage of this feature by promoting Peapod via OfferForge, sign-up here.

MyJewelryBox Affiliate Campaign News

Affiliate Summit West 2008

The MyJewelryBox affiliate team was present at the Affiliate Summit West 2008. It was a great opportunity to rub shoulders with many of our partners and discuss the program. The Summit was a successful trip for the MyJewelryBox team and now the focus is to ensure continuous growth and form valuable relationships with all the partners.

Aquamarine Promotion

MyJewelryBox is currently running the Aquamarine promotion. The creative has been uploaded and is ready for you! The creative is appealing and is sure to entice consumers to purchase.

Accepting the Affiliate Agreement Again

Don’t be Alarmed!

All OfferForge publishers, don’t be alarmed. Next time you log into the OfferForge Affiliate Interface at http://us.offerforge.com or http://za.offerforge.com you’re going to have to accept the Affiliate Agreement again before you can continue to see your stats.Don’t worry, we haven’t sneaked in any new material changes – but we updated spelling errors and omissions.

Just as a good practice, please review the terms again and agree (if you do agree). If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact your affiliate representative.

Jonathan

Another great affiliate competition!

32Vegas and AmberCoast are so pleased with the OfferForge affiliates that they’ve decided to offer some very special bonuses!

Each affiliate that brings in more than 25 real qualifying players in March will receive a R14, 000 bonus in addition to regular commission!

There’s more.

The affiliate that brings in the most players (minimum 25) in March will receive a R35, 000 bonus!

Please note: A real depositing player is defined as a unique first depositor, depositing more than R7.

This offer is for both campaigns combined.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in running this offer.

Ryno Saayman
za@offerforge.com
08610-Forge

The dust has begun to settle after the big move into our new offices. Please note our new telephone numbers for calls from within South Africa:

• Direct: 086-10-FORGE / 36743
• Mobile Hotline +27-83-634-0011

Our new Offices are at 1016 Clifton Ave. Lytteton Manor.

Please drop in for a coffee when next you are around the Centurion area.

We’re passionate about love. It’s our business to bring people together. The incurable romantics at MyJewelryBox thought that it was about time that everybody had an equal chance to light up that special person’s life, so we decided to make things just that much easier this year.

Jewelry is a unique expression of love. At MyJewelryBox we’re so in love with love that we want to help as many hapless Lotharios seal the deal this Valentines that we’re offering an awesome 20% saving on all purchases & giving generous lashings of free Godiva chocolates with every purchase!

Well, there you have it. The perfect gift for the perfect Valentine. Beautiful Jewels, Free Seductive Chocolate and a whopping 20% saving on your purchase. What more could you want? ……it is Valentines Day so don’t answer that!

As for the amount of thought and time you put into the gift, let’s just say that you went to an expert and as for the discount, shhh…. It’s a secret. Let’s just keep that between you and me.

Sign up to the MyJewelryBox affiliate program here.

Communication will be intermittent for a few hours, you can reach us on +27 83 634 0011 or these email addresses while we unpack the box with the PABX and everyone gets settled in. (more…)

Beckersurf.com, the largest surf/California lifestyle e-commerce store on the web on Affiliate Management by ForgeBusiness

From the desk of Mark Marovich, manager of Beckersurf.com

“Hey Mark, Keith is going back to school, you’re the new ‘affiliate guy’” – and so it came to be, Beckersurf.com’s manager, part time customer service agent, part time shipper, part time product packer, part time fraud analyzer, and part time logistics manager became Beckersurf.com’s part time “affiliate” guy. Yep, that’s a lot of “part time” duties but hey, we were having fun, orders were increasing at a rapid pace, and, come on, how hard can this affiliate business be anyways, I mean, if Keith was doing it!

Did I know the affiliate world or even know our own program? Not really, but what did I know about any of this online stuff a couple years back? With this high level of blissful ignorance I cracked opened the virtual CJ 101 textbook and introduced myself to our existing partners, quickly realizing the difference between not knowing anything about the affiliate world and not knowing ANYTHING about the affiliate world!

“I thought you guys had abandoned your program? Nice to meet you Mark, do you have any new ______(incentives, banners, promotions)? Is your payout structure going to remain the same? What about a tiered platform? Can I get on your CJ newsletter list?” The questions kept pouring in, then all the requests to join from a seemingly random assortment of affiliates (who were these people, there are thousands of them?!)….EPC, CR, Advanced Link, Advertiser Smart Zone, Coupons, AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

It quickly became obvious that I/we were over our heads with the limited time that could be afforded to our affiliates considering our size and growth. Shortly thereafter we were approached by our knights in shinning affiliate armor, Forge Business, just in time to re-resurrect an affiliate program on life support.

Wary of the sales pitches’ norm to any online operation, I can’t say that we had to restrain ourselves from immediately signing a partnership agreement with Forge, but we were intrigued and genuinely liked these guys. We are not a company that throws $’s at every marketing opportunity and approach each marketing/advertising avenue with a high level of skepticism. Ferdie and Reshall did not give us the hard sell, rather they explained to us the world that they and all the crew at Forge are deeply knowledgeable and active in, leading us to realize what we were leaving on the plate by not being proactive with our affiliate program.

With the go ahead from ownership (“this better work!”) and a hop of faith, we partnered with Forge Business in 2006 and the partnership began to pay off almost immediately. After some “getting to know you” sessions, validating one of Forge’s mottos that you must know your clients to succeed, our EPC, ratings within our categories, and sales started to move up dramatically and haven’t stopped. We are now at the point whereby we rest easy knowing this large segment of total sales is being handled professionally and competently. But there is no satisfaction with the Forge team for what’s been done, as all eyes are trained forward.

Could we have done this on our own? Not a chance without bringing someone in-house that has the knowledge necessary to run a profitable affiliate program…but at what cost? With the payment structure Forge provides (let alone the incentive to succeed that might not be there with an employee), we are assured that we are receiving a high rate of return, higher than adding a highly qualified (and highly compensated) affiliate staff member.

Considering where we were, where we are, and where we expect to be we have full faith that we made the right move by partnering with Forge Business and look forward, without hesitation, to our future affiliate endeavors.

Beckersurf.com is the on-line arm of the Southern California based retail operation Becker Surfboards Inc. Started in 1998, Beckersurf.com is the largest surf/California lifestyle e-commerce store on the web.

Hello Everyone.

Welcome back to your office and this blog if you've been away over Christmas. I trust you are all rested and rearing to go to make 2008 your greatest year.

Thanks to Reshall, Nelson, Mauritz and the rest of the account managers & support staff in my team that held the fort at Forge HQ during Christmas.

It was a bumper Christmas season for every one of our retail clients with some achieving results beyond even our estimation! Once final sales are in, affiliates are paid and all is said and done we'll celebrate with a little bubbly!

Over this Christmas I reflected on what we've achieved as a company in the last year, as well as the wealth of learning experiences I've personally had. I'm sure each of you has similarly had a learning year.

This year we've invested literally millions of Rands (that's SA currency for all my US friends!) in on-the-job training and experience gains, development and marketing – resulting in a team that'll be sure to drive even higher results for our clients in 2008.

Already the affiliate marketing preparation for the second half of the year is underway. Not to mention looming deadlines for Valentine's Day, Mothers Day and a host of other promotions just over the horizon! Thankfully you can rely on my team to get the creative out on time!

Our aim is clear; To entrench our position as a globally competitive online marketing powerhouse that delivers significant value and revenue to our clients & partners through the use of integrated performance marketing.

What does this mean? It means we'll strive to add value to your business in everything we do. We'll focus on delivering revenue gains for our clients, advertisers & affiliates.

We'll use our Ad Networks, our Consulting Skills, our Development Knowledge, our Business Support experience and our Management, Marketing and Financial acumen to realize tangible financial value for our clients, advertisers and publishers alike.

So, in closing, I want to thank you for your hard work & continued support, your passion for affiliate marketing and dedication to growing our relationship.

I wish you success for 2008 and look forward to growing with you.

Jonathan.

Safe and Secure Shopping Online this Holiday Season
By: Jonathan Goldman
Vice President Technology & Strategic Marketing

Diamonds, Diamonds, Diamonds! This holiday season as more and more internet traffic and transactions increase, safety and security continues to be the hot topic for online shoppers so that gift giving is the only thing on their mind and credit and safety issues are not. As online jewelers we are always walking a balance between protecting our customer's security and managing fraud especially concerning diamonds and engagement rings. Jewelry is a slightly different purchase than electronics or flowers as it is a gift with a large potential value contained in a very small box. Jewelry has a direct value which can be retrieved by simply melting gold or silver or selling loose diamonds.

Protecting customers with secure shopping
Most customers are very worried about fraud and the validity of merchants. As a rule of thumb most online merchants tend to be legit and trustworthy (not all, so be vigilant). However merchants are much more susceptible to fraud than customers, as customers can complain to their bank or credit card company as a recourse, however merchants are usually left wide open to the risk of sending a high value orders.

Most jewelry merchants will contact a customer on a high value order in order to verify the validity of billing and shipping information and make sure the customer's expectations are met. In some cases due to the nature of diamond jewelry especially many customer may be required to ship to the same address as their billing address or make sure that their shipping address is on file with their bank. In additiona with very large purchased additional information may be required to ship the goods.

What's a Diamond Certificate?
When purchasing expensive jewelry, every online retailer usually offers the item details information, diamond size, weight and clarity and on higher-end diamond rings a certificate from the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and EGL may be included. Items which have a certificate included usually are priced slightly higher for this authentication. However jewelry without a certificate is usually fine if it is purchased from a respectable jeweler.

What You Should Look For From an Online Retailer When Shopping Online?
Do not judge a book by its cover. Many retailers with funny looking websites are very secure and many sleek clean websites are less than secure. Technology and proper fraud management come together to provide a secure website for their customers. Here are a few tips you should look for on the web site to help insure security.

1. Customers should always check if there is a toll free 1-800 phone number available to contact the merchant directly. The customer should be able to contact the merchant during business hours and verify that there is always a direct human contact for any enquiries and that proper information can be delivered in a timely manner.

2. Every online retailer should make their security policy available on every page of their website. This policy dictates the conditions for security within the website and if these conditions are being met.

For example >> http://www.myjewelrybox.com//pages/popup.php?section=securityPolicy

A secure socket layer certificate (SSL) is required for every online store to make sure your transaction is processed securely during the checkout process. Most web browsers today enable you to validate and authenticate specific information concerning a company and website via the certificate provider. MyJewelryBox.com for example uses VeriSign.

Shoppers should not be fooled by fancy logos, as security is not related to how fancy the security logos are on the bottom of a screen but rather the technical security and the level of encryption on your credit card data when the transaction is occurring. Today most online companies must be PCI compliant as well, which insures that your credit card data is being stored securely and that it is being erased within an acceptable period of time. A respectable merchant will not store your credit card data for more than 60 days.

3. Does the merchant offer a warranty or guarantee on the items which are being purchased. Is it easy to return the item that was purchased easily? Always read the fine print! Always review the retailers return policy. A good return policy is one which provides a 30 day money back guarantee or possibly longer before the Christmas rush.

4. Research the website you are purchasing from. Find out what others have to say about this website. Find 3rd party customer reviews from product comparison portals such as MSN.com product reviews, Bizrate.com and or pricegrabber.com. These reviews will help to authenticate the validity of the company. If many people have shopped at that retailer over a 12 month period, then usually that retailer is there to stay.

What Happens when I make an online Purchase with my Credit Card
Tips to Understanding Online Credit (http://www.myjewelrybox.com/?section=Bank_info)
Online merchants have a variety of methods available to charge customers. However when talking about credit card transactions they must follow banking practices and conform to a more bricks and mortar retail approach. Below is a quick understanding of what happens when you make a purchase with a credit card online. Remember a customer will always decrease his chances of being frauded by providing the most accurate credit information, address information and contact information and by sending a package to him/herself. The easier a customer is to contact the faster issues can be resolved.

How is credit charged to a credit card?
When an order is placed usually an authorization is performed on the customer's credit card. An authorization only holds the funds until a settlement of funds can be performed. Settlements on the customer’s account are usually done after the order is approved and ready for shipment. Occasionally customers click the “Submit Order” button more than once and may create extra authorizations on their credit card depending on the merchant. A merchant will usually only settle one authorization per customer and should not charge the customers credit card when multiple authorizations are placed.

What is an authorization?
An authorization is a freezing or holding of funds on a credit card for a few days, which can either be settled for money or canceled and never settled. Canceled authorizations can take 3-7 business days to be released by the customer’s bank unless a merchant contact's the bank directly to manually remove the authorization.

What is a settlement?
A settlement is when funds are requested from the customer's credit card company in order to fulfill payment on a purchase.

This holiday Season Make it a Secure Purchase and a great gift.
Holiday shopping should be easy, quick and secure online. The customer should always feel that they are able to process the order quickly and efficiently in a secure environment. Sites which offer user name and password account creation add an extra level of security to an order but no extra security within the transaction itself. Remember banks are very difficult to deal with sometimes for both the merchant and the customers and the best policy is to have patience and a good line of communication with the merchant to resolve any potential issues. As a rule, a good merchant will report fraud instances to the bank and to the customer who was frauded if possible. Remember every online merchants wants to provide a great service to their customers and try to offer the most secure environment they can. They want to make sure that every order is legit and it is the job of every lawful customer and merchant to work together to avoid fraud and keep a safe and secure online shopping experience for all.

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Christmas with MyJewelryBox

Christmas is around the corner! Oh, how time flies when you’re making money…
MyJewelryBox have focused on setting up exciting promotions around particular dates this festive season.

The first two dates worth noting at this stage are the following:

• Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employers give the day off, allowing consumers to get a head start on their Christmas shopping.

• Cyber Monday – The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. Whereas Black Friday is associated with traditional brick-and-mortar stores, “Cyber Monday” symbolizes a busy day for online retailers.

MyJewelryBox have put together some appealing Christmas creative and have upped the anti with a 20% consumer discount this festive season. These are very busy times and MyJewelryBox would like to help you maximize your earnings!

Christmas Promotions

MyJewelryBox have loaded some great new Christmas creative. The creative themes are focused around Christmas Treasures, Holiday Gift Guide, Holiday Shopping and the 20% Christmas discount offered to consumers.
MyJewelryBox have also supplied a 20% discount coupon code.

These are very exciting times indeed, for MyJewelryBox and all their partners!

We asked MyJewelryBox what they thought of affiliate marketing and the affiliate strategy that we created with them. Dave Mamane, the President of MyJewelryBox.com took the time to record this presentation on MJB.

In an industry that makes 40% of it’s revenue in the Christmas Quarter we’re looking to break from the traditional – can’t say more unfortunately – it’s hush hush!