Win A Gold Pass To Affiliate Summit West 2009
This is my first blog contest ever. I’ll be speaking at Affiliate Summit on “advanced concepts for automating daily website tasks (such as downloading stats, uploading changes, etc.) without access to an API.”
What that really means is I’ll be showing you how to automate some repetivie tasks. I was thinking of showing you a way to log in, download stats into a spreadsheet or database, etc. But I figured I’d let you all have some input. Post in the comments below a particular task you would like to see how automate and whichever one I pick wins a free Gold Pass to ASW09 (means you get to come to my presentation).
Here is an example: Show us how to log into site XXXX and download the daily stats per ad to a mysql database. (or spreadsheet, etc) or show us how to automatically upload a spreadsheet of ads to facebook, etc.
I’ll be going over a few basic techniques such as automating a webform, dealing with AJAX and so on. All of this will be done with FREE software. There will be NOTHING TO BUY to use the methods I’ll be showing in my presentation.
So to win, enter what you would like to see for the example used in my presentation and you win a free Gold pass.
What would be awesome is - if you could pull subid data from direct track networks and auto post it on your prosper202 tracker. It is a pain in the ass with most direct track networks to get the pixel tracking to work, and if they switch the offer when it is capped, your tracking really gets mucked up.
That would be a nice automation.
ps. I don’t need the gold pass - but I would take it if I win and give it away on my blog as a contest.
I’m in with SOB! I also have problems doing automated uploads into CJ, do you do anything that way? Both of these would be a dream for me if automated, but especially direct track. If you need some access prior or a spreadsheet to look at with CSV formatting requirements from DT, I’d be happy to provide that for you.
Been a while, John. would love to see you speak. I don’t NEED to win, i’d just like to see how it can be done.
A
I’d really like to know how you would automate importing ads from google adwords into prosper if you were to use other tools to create lots of custom ads.
The other big thing I’d like to see done is automatically updating click cost data from facebook ads into prosper or some other tracker.
I’d love to win the pass
I’m going to be there but probably with just a Silver pass so an upgrade would be great.
These are things I’ve done before with my own software (for “free”):
1. Automate a data feed: Create an XML file for upload to another service or FTP the feed to another site. Works via cron. I used it to farm classified feeds to aggregator sites. (automate links and traffic)
2. Send an email when someone posts to a site. Great for custom software, or maybe even WordPress. I could track new classified listings this way, but I think this could work great for a custom review site or any “wisdom of crowds” type site. An affiliate could get updates on click-through counts, completed actions, or new leads for big-ticket sales that might require personal contact.
Safe remote “AJAX” style scripting. I’ve done a prototype using JSON, but Its not ready for prime time. What I’m building is handy JavaScript bits to cut and paste into other sites. An affiliate could build their own mini ad network and farm pre-made links out to hundreds of sites. No need to track links everywhere, because they are hosted on one server. I would LOVE to see that.
Opps! Last one (AJAX/JSON) should have a #3 in front!
I’ve already got my pass, but I just wanted to say that’s one heck of a session title. Maybe your contest should be to rename the session from “advanced concepts for automating daily website tasks (such as downloading stats, uploading changes, etc.) without access to an API” to something shorter
Are you going to be showing us how to use server-side stuff, like Snoopy, or client-side (Windows) software?
What I need is to grab yesterday’s PPC spend, per AdGroup, (from Google, Yahoo) and put it into Google docs.
While I’d like to see a specific example on how to grab revenue stats (like from CJ), I’d also like to learn some of the thinking behind it, as I don’t only work with the major affiliate networks.
Thanks,
Eric
@Eric Client Side/Windows stuff.
@ Think like a SOB - would the postback url or API access solve the issue you’re facing?
Pulling the primary subids from a DirectTrack network would be the most useful in my opinion. Having a pixel placed is a pain and slows down the ability to quickly launch a new campaign at some God-awful hour of the night.
It would be great if you could go over:
1. an easy way to automate conversion tracking/optimization by disabling keywords that don’t convert
2. a way to automate expanding keyword list by taking keywords that were being entered (that got matched via broad match but were not actually in your campaign) and add them to your campaign
3. an easy way to check competition on important keywords without having to search for each one individually
Automation is my passion in affiliate marketing, that’s the thing I’m most interested in. All your work as an affiliate is done in front of the computer-in theory you should be able to automate everything but the CAPTCHAs. I’ve already built some macros for batch uploading ads to Facebook, and am looking into expanding them further.
What I would like to see is some sort of simple automated bid management. So, for example, log into Facebook, download CTR of each ad, plug it into a simple formula, and post the new lower bid if CTR is higher.
Failing that, what about a split testing solution for social media like Facebook? Read in a csv/text file of headline, ad text, and image, autogenerate all the possible permutations of them, and upload all the ads to FB. Then have another script come back later and check the CTR of each ad and delete the ones with lower CTR.
I’m quite interested in seeing your presentation, and even if I don’t win and end up just buying a silver pass(sigh..) I would be interested in chatting about advanced automation with you at ASW.
Automation of any repetitive task is great idea. I would love to see a way to login in to Google/Yahoo/MSN and download PPC cost, Impressions and clicks automatically for any particular period. Hope to see you at the Summit.
I’d like to see what ideas you have about automating the extraction of data from facebook’s reports such as the responder demographics report. It would be even cooler if that data can be used to create a spreadsheet of ads matching the demographic targeting data, which could then be automatically uploaded to facebook.