Datafeed Updated
The monthly Datafeed update has been done, please check to see if the tours you are featuring have been discontinued or if there are new ones for the destination you focus on. Here is the direct link to the Viator affiliate datafeed, be sure to log into Shareasale first.

Deals Database
Instead of coupons we have been focusing on providing deals through the Shareasale deals database, where you can download a file of all of the tours that have short term deals. These deals convert *very* well. The tours in the Deals database are *not* included in the regular database because they have defined end dates and most are short term. The dates are clearly included to help you manage keeping fresh and current deals available.

Coupon Reminder
If you have outdated or customer submitted coupons on your website you need to remove them. Use links from the Deals Database to populate your coupon or specials pages. No, we aren’t handing out coupons (stopped you before you asked! ) but some sites have coupons posted that they shouldn’t have. This causes customer service issues for both you AND us.

DTM PPC Bidding
If you are asking yourself “What’s that?” you probably aren’t doing it However, if you are marketing Viator via paid advertising in the search engines (PPC) you need to be sure to read the Viator PPC guidelines.

In no case are you allowed to link from a paid search ad directly to Viator. You need to link to a page on your website that has Viator links on it. You are not allowed to make your ad look like you are the official Viator website.

To keep abreast of the latest Viator news be sure to visit our dedicated Affiliate Forum and Support Website.

And click here for podcasts and information to help you run your business even better.

As always, if you need anything, contact any of you Viator affiliate team:
Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare and Liz Ababon

Many of you have helped through the years by emailing me or PMing me information on trademark poachers, which I have always appreciated. I thank each of you for alerting me to the fact that there have been some affiliates that slipped by me. Since “Team Viator” (Team Loxly + Viator) has people working on the program literally around the world (New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Australia) we will be stepping up our efforts to catch and find affiliates that break the rules. We have enough “clean” affiliates that we want to protect them and their income from our program.

Viator has a very clear PPC and Direct to Merchant policy, we don’t allow it and if you are caught you lose the commissions you earned. No second chances. It is the responsibility of the PPC affiliates to know the rules for each of the merchants they promote, and the rules for Viator are not hidden or hard to understand. Here is a page where the rules are clearly defined.

The rules are simple, do not post any coupon code that was not personally assigned to your site. If you allow your site visitors to post codes: remove them! Customer coupon codes are not allowed to be posted on coupon sites or on any sites forums.

Viator has taken the position that offering great deals and savings through the Shareasale deals database is a much more efficient and cost effective way to provide savings and deals to your site’s visitors. The deals in the deals database are updated frequently, have start and end dates so you can manage them, and are converting much better than coupons.

Log into your Shareasale account and click the link below to be taken directly to the current links in the Viator Deals Database. These links are *not* in the regular product catalog since they are usually short term.

http://www.shareasale.com/a-dealscurrent.cfm?merchantID=18208

We will be checking all sites for compliance with our coupon policy, not limited to coupon specific sites, so if you have a forum on your site please check it for user submitted Viator codes and remove them promptly.

We look forward to continuing to work with you, and wish you much success.

Debbie, Vinny, and Liz
Viator Affiliate Team
http://teamloxly.com/viator

If you are familiar with affiliate marketing you already know what I mean about creating links and making a commission. To get started, join the Viator affiliate program at the Shareasale Network. We review websites and approve manually, so please note in the “Additional Information” text box what sites you are going to feature Viator ads on, and if you came over from MomBlogs please note that also.

If you are unclear what I am talking about, let me explain. On your blog you may already link out to resources about your blog topic. Maybe your blog is about being a Work at Home Mom and you have a dream vacation you would like to take. In your sidebar you can place a button to the Viator site that is coded with a special tracking code just for you, or in your blog text you can link using a text link. If one of your site visitors clicks that button and decides to book a tour at Viator, either the tour you linked to or any of our other 5000+ tours, you earn 4% commission on what they book! You get paid by the Shareasale network, who does the tracking for Viator, when your commission balance is over $50. We also have a wide variety of text links and banners for you to use to add to your posts.

The best converting links are our deals that are posted in a special section on Shareasale called the Deals Database. If you like to recommend specials and deals to your site visitors this is a great place to find links to feature. Log into your Shareasale account and click here to go right to the Viator deals. These are mostly limited time deals and aren’t included in our regular product catalog. You can also get links to our entire product catalog (excluding the deals) by downloading a file here.

To get started, join the program and if you have any questions email me directly at deborah @ viator.com

Can’t wait to hear from you!

ProductID|Name|MerchantID|Merchant|Link|Thumbnail|BigImage|
USDPrice|RetailPrice|Category|SubCategory|
Description|AUD|EURO|GBP|CAN|Country>City|LastUpdated|
status|manufacturer|partNumber|
merchantCategory|merchantSubcategory|shortDescription|ISBN|UPC|

Copy these into a text editor and make it all one line, and then you should be able to copy and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet and it will break out into the proper fields.

Then in the Drop Down box, pick Viator.

In the box labeled “Destination URL:” Put the link to the page you want to link to.

Click Create Custom Link.

The code will be generated, you copy and paste that code into your webpage.

Richard Petty Ride Along Experience at Las Vegas Speedway - Experience real life racing thrills by riding shotgun in a two-seat stock car. Experience a wind thrashing three-lap simulated NASCAR qualifying run at speeds in excess of 160 mph (250 km/h).

Here’s the code - replace USERID with your Shareasale tracking ID:

Richard Petty Ride Along Experience at Las Vegas Speedway - Experience real life racing thrills by riding shotgun in a two-seat stock car. Experience a wind thrashing three-lap simulated NASCAR qualifying run at speeds in excess of 160 mph (250 km/h).

Let’s show them that they need more NASCAR by promoting the heck out of this

Not an affiliate yet? Join Here! and put that you read our blog in the Comment box. Viator manually approves affiliates, so telling us where you are going to promote is going to get you approved faster.

Some other links you might find helpful:
SEMCast with Kelly Gillease
Follow Kelly on Twitter
Kelly’s Blog
Follow Loxly on Twitter

Guest Kelly Gillease talks with host Deborah Carney on how this practice has been used and why affiliates should have been sending the traffic direct to their own websites all along. And more importantly, how those affiliates can modify their practices to change with the new requirements.

SEMCast with Kelly Gillease
Follow Kelly on Twitter
Kelly’s Blog
Follow Loxly on Twitter
Team Loxly

Some areas to focus on are the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, before and after since the hotels are adding capacity and will be offering deals to get them filled and a surprising popular travel destination is Iceland. Their currency has fallen in value so there are deals there to take advantage of.

You can also hear Kelly at her own podcast SEMcast over at GeekCast.fm.

Be sure to follow Deborah and Kelly on Twitter and visit their blogs:
Inhouse SEM (Kelly)
Team Loxly (Deborah)

And listen to our Viator Merchant Spotlight Podcast if you missed it
More information about the Viator Affiliate Program