PublisherSpot

Updated - 12/08/2008

Go to www.xy7.com

One of the affiliate networks that was featured in the Top Affiliate Challenge Internet reality TV series during the middle of 2008 was XY7.com.

By and large, this affiliate-based advertising network is much the same as others like it, but there are a few differences that may be worth noting. For example, in addition to CPA-based advertising, XY7 also features some advertising campaigns that are based on CPC instead.

According to the official website, XY7.com offers "many top exclusive deals not found anywhere else on the net." These offers can be used by a wide range of Internet marketers and publishers to maximize their revenues. In addition to website owners, XY7.com also has offers that are well suited for online newsletters, e-zines, opt-in lists, blogs, and search engine marketers.

Most of the advertising campaigns offered through XY7.com are based on commissions. This is dependent on each individual advertiser, but the typical campaign would require a site visitor to fill out a short survey, provide an email address, or otherwise fulfill a certain action before the publisher earns a commission. Depending on the advertiser, the action could be based on impressions, clicks, leads, or sales.

XY7.com is based out of Las Vegas and is a division of Rapid Response Marketing. These are the same people who entered the market with ROIdealsdaily.com seven years ago. Perhaps one of the best features of XY7.com is the level of dedicated support that publishers receive right from the beginning. An affiliate manager is assigned and will work with the publisher to find the best-converting and best-paying deals given the publisher's specific niche and area(s) of expertise.

Upon logging into the XY7.com control panel, the publisher is presented with two sets of links.

The top set of links serves as the main form of navigation through the site's various sections, whereas the second set of links offers quick access to some of the top affiliate offers. For the latter, publishers can choose from criteria like Hot, 1 Field, International, Dating, Exclusive, and Ringtones. The 1 Field quicklink is particularly useful, because it highlights offers where a site visitor needs only submit a single field in order to generate a commission for the publisher.

In terms of the main navigation links near the top of the page, they lead to eight different sections:

• Affiliate Home: This is the main homepage where publishers can see the amount of money made today, yesterday, and so far in the current month. Any pertinent announcements from XY7.com are also displayed here.
• Getting Started: This page provides an excellent guide for understanding the DirectTrack-powered affiliate management system. The walkthrough includes information on how to run campaigns, passing a unique ID, viewing campaign statistics, tracking earnings, managing the account, and using the support forum.
• Campaigns: Aside from the secondary navigation links described earlier, publishers can also use this primary section to search for available campaigns. The main search page features the current top five performing CPA campaign. Publishers can search for campaigns based on a variety of criteria, including category, type of banner, countries, and more. This is a very powerful internal search engine.
• Tools: A series of tools are offered to publishers, including banner rotation by category, optimized rotators, popup/popunder campaigns, and the ability to see referral statistics and links.
• Statistics: Publishers can choose to either view aggregate statistics or statistics for each individual campaign. The date range can be completely customized and the breakdown can be either cumulative or daily. When the report is generated, publishers can see the number of impressions, clicks, click thru rate, leads, sales, sale amount, sub-sale, and total earned.
• Account Info: Basic information -- address, website, payment threshold, password, etc. -- can be edited here. This section is also for filling the appropriate tax forms and for reviewing the terms of agreement.
• Payment Info: Publishers can access data regarding amount due, amount pending, totals earned to date, and total paid to date. Payment history is also accessed from this page.
• Help: Useful information about each of the sections under the XY7.com control panel are outlined in the help section.

To register for an account with XY7.com, a fairly extensive form must be submitted. This form will ask for basic information like name and mailing address, as well as pertinent information about the applicant's website. This would include information about the site type, traffic levels, and categories. There do not appear to be any minimum traffic requirements.

After submitting the online form, a message will be sent to confirm the email address. After that, a representative from XY7.com will phone the applicant to verify and complete the application process. During this phone call, the representative will ask about the nature of offers desired and what experience the applicant has with affiliate marketing. This phone call is typically done within 24 hours of registration.

Each and every XY7.com publisher is assigned an "affiliate manager" right from the get-go. This provides a personal contact for the publisher should any specific needs arise. This could be anything from the implementation of ad creatives to seeking out the most lucrative deals. These affiliate managers are available via email, telephone, and AOL Instant Messenger. If currently unavailable, most managers respond to queries by the next business day.

Payment from XY7 is typically handled via a check in the mail on a net-15 basis. This means that all earnings accrued will be issued approximately 15 days from the end of the month in which a publisher reaches the payment threshold. For example, a publisher would have their payment sent out for the month of January on February 15th.

The minimum payment threshold is $50. If an affiliate's earnings does not reach $50, it is rolled over to the next month.

The XY7.com referral program pays publishers for referring other publishers to the network. Publishers earn 5% of their referrals' revenue for the first six months. The referral link can be found under the Tools section in the control panel.

Overall, it seems that XY7.com has all the components required of a successful CPA-based advertising network. Publisher support is very strong and there is a 1-866 number that publishers can use if they cannot get in contact with their specific affiliate managers.

The campaigns are varied and the control panel is reasonably easy to navigate. The $50 minimum threshold should be attainable by most publishers, but it would have been nice to have an option for PayPal payment.

The ability to filter the campaigns based on such a wide range of criteria is a definite plus, including filtering based on country and type of campaign (CPC, CPA, etc.). Aside from that, there isn't a lot that separates XY7.com from other similar CPA-based networks.

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