SlideShare una empresa de Scribd logo
1 de 11
Descargar para leer sin conexión
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


MERCHANT PRODUCT DATA FEEDS FOR AFFILIATES – 101
Article by Carsten Cumbrowski, January 2006, August 26, 2006, September 9 and November 15
2006.This is an updated and greatly extended version of my original Scrap. Carsten, 11/15/2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS
        Page 1 - Introduction, Datafeedformat and Delivery Options
            o   Introduction
            o   1. Datafeed Format
            o   2. Delivery Method
        Page 2 - The Content
            o   3. Information to Include in the Datafeed / Content
            o   3.1 Comments on specific Content
        Page 3 - Comments, XML and Resources
            o   4. General Notes and Comments
            o   5. XML vs. Text Feed
            o   6. About this Article
            o   7. Resources, Third Party Datafeed Integration & Publishing Tools and Services


Note: Datafeeds or Data Feeds are the same thing. Both spellings are being used in the industry
(including the the grammatically wrong version). If you search for additional resources to the topic at
forums or search engines, make sure that you use the singular and plural version (feed/feeds) in addition
to the two different spellings. Search for quot;Datafeedsquot;, quot;Datafeedquot;, quot;Data Feedsquot; and quot;Data Feedquot; plus
your additional keywords to get the best results.


INTRODUCTION
I have dealt with feeds from hundreds of merchants, including every U.S. affiliate network: Commission
Junction, Linkshare, BeFree, Performics, ShareASale, Kolimbo, Dark Blue, you name it! The feeds come in
all kinds of formats and via all types of delivery methods.

I have also, as an affiliate manager, implemented datafeeds for merchants. With this in mind, you can
believe me when I say that I know what I am talking about. If you are an affiliate manager and want to
provide a datafeed to your affiliates, you might want to print this article and show it to your IT
department.

You can also contact me directly to ask any questions to affiliate datafeeds or give feedback on this
document.




                                               Page 1 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten




1. DATAFEED FORMAT
Delimited Text File. Please note: this is not CSV, which stands for comma separated values,
already a very specific delimited text file format which I do not recommend for automated
affiliate product datafeeds due to possible issues it can cause.

Using the tab character (chr(9)) as column delimiter makes a lot of sense for affiliate datafeeds, since it
can't be used on the web and should be replaced in the content as multiple spaces anyway. Tilde ( ~ )
and pipe ( | ) will do fine as well. I would avoid using commas or semicolons.

I will provide a clarification in a moment.

Row delimiter should be either
(A) a standard windows line-break: carriage return/cr (chr(13)) + linefeed/lf (chr(10)) OR
(B) a standard Unix linebreak: linefeed/lf (chr(10)) only without a carriage return.

If a quotation mark (quot;) is not specified as a text qualifier, don't enclose strings with it. Simply avoid using
a text qualifier such as a quotation mark or double quotes because people often misuse them and there
are no real benefits for using them in affiliate datafeeds.

Quotes and double quotes are often part of the feed content itself (product names like 19quot; monitor or
Joe 'Jay' Doe Doll). If you use a text qualifier and the text qualifier itself is part of the content, the
character in the content has to be replaced by 2x the character - ' becomes '' (2 single quotes) and quot;
becomes quot;quot; to prevent the characters from being mistaken as the beginning or end of a column's
content. The only case in which the text delimiter occurs doubly is when the column has no value. There
is no fixed rule; if text qualifiers can be used for empty text values, but it is a special case that must be
taken care of manually to prevent problems.

Column and row delimiters must be removed from the feed content itself or be replaced. They have a
meaning for the feed structure, and will be mistaken as errors in the feed structure if they appear in the
content.

You should provide column headers in the first row. Do NOT use SPECIAL CHARACTERS. You should only
use 0-9, a-z, A-Z and, if you have to, the characters quot;-quot; or quot;_quot; to separate individual words. Do NOT use:
!,?,&,%,#,',quot;,(,),,/ etc. Those are usually reserved characters in applications or programming languages.
Also, avoid blank spaces.

Use only ASCII code 32 (space) to 126 (tilde ~) for the content (called 7 bit ASCII, US-Char set, ISO
636 or ANSI [American National Standards Institute] Standard x3.4).

Delimited files MUST have the same number of columns for every single record!

If information is not available for a product, send the initial value of the column instead (0 for numbers,
0.00 or 0 for currency, nothing for text and character values and 1/1/1900 for dates).

                                                 Page 2 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


Yes, this comment is directed straight at Linkshare. To begin with, Linkshare uses no column headers.
Further, using a first row with four columns (quot;HDR,quot; MID, merchant name, date last updated) and last
row with two columns (quot;TRL,quot; number of products) is against the definition of quot;delimited.quot;

(By the way, thanks for letting me know at the end how many products I just read in sequential order.
My computer cannot count.)

XML format is fine, too, but only if you provide the data via a web services (SOAP/WSDL, REST etc.) or if
you can generate correct XML (most people can't). Do not use only XML if you provide the feed as a file
to download.

Use GZip to compress the datafeed file if necessary (for large feeds), don't use Winzip (not all affiliates
are using Microsoft Windows).

2. DELIVERY METHOD
Offer FTP download, make the datafeed available via HTTP on the site (if the feed is < 5 MB) or set up a
web service (SOAP/XML). If you can, do all three.

Don't provide FTP upload as the only delivery option (it's very kind if a merchant offers that, but most of
the time it's impractical for affiliates). It's fine if it is an option, but it should not be the only option.

If you make it available as a file, don't make the name dynamic (make the creation date part of the file
name for example). You might do that if the file is provided via FTP (NOT HTTP) for which affiliates can
write a script that checks what file(s) are available.

The file is scheduled to be generated automatically on A RELIABLE SCHEDULE: daily, weekly, monthly,
whatever. For files generated daily, make sure to consistently generate the file during the same time
window - which should be as small as possible and during the night. Do it as early as possible so that
affiliates can also pick it up (and process it) during the night.

When I say quot;night,quot; I do not necessarily mean quot;at night where you live,quot; but quot;at nightquot; for your targeted
customers, also known as quot;low business hoursquot;. Remember to consider that your customers may be in
different time zones.

If you can, provide affiliates the information about a change of an HTTP datafeed that affiliates can
check first if they need to update their content, before they waste time and resources downloading and
processing the whole and unchanged datafeed for no reason.

Have a second file with a fixed filename available via HTTP that contains information like: most recent
date/time the feed was updated, filename of current feed, size, number of records, etc.

Affiliates have different levels of sophistication and available tools. Some build links to selected products
manually, some use simple scripts or software, and others have a high-end enterprise server at their
disposal. Some run their stuff under windows, others use Linux.


                                                Page 3 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


The more formats and delivery methods you provide, the more affiliates can and will use
your datafeed.

Documentation is always king. A description of the datafeed structure and format takes the guesswork
out of working with feeds.

3. INFORMATION TO INCLUDE IN THE DATAFEED / CONTENT
Bold columns/attributes are considered quot;must havequot; or quot;requiredquot; by most affiliates. This does not
make the others unimportant. If you have the information and can provide it, do it.

        SKU/Product ID (unique)
        Name of the Product
        Description of the Product
        Price of the Product (retail: price the customer has to pay)
        Product URL (Affiliate Link)
        URL to Product Detail Image
        URL to Product Thumbnail Image
        Regular Price or Retail Price/MSRP
        Product Category
        ISBN Number (books) - ISBN-13 (transition to ISBN13 will be in January 2007)
        UPC (US Barcode) - UPC-A or UPC-E
        International EAN / EAN-13
        Manufacturer / Brand Name (separate columns if different)
        Manufacturer Part Number
        Color Properties delimited
        Size Properties delimited
        Keyword Suggestions
        Artist (Music, Art)
        Author (Books)
        Publisher / Label / Studio (Books / Music / DVD)
        Shipping Information (available options like ground/next day, restrictions)
        Shipping Cost for a single unit (if flat across the country)
        Availability
        Related Items (this could be a list of SKUs in delimited format like quot;123|321|456.quot;)
        Flags like Best Seller, High Rating, Clearance, On Sale, etc.
        Link to Product Category
        Buy URL/Add to Basket URL
        Brand/Manufacturer Logo (URL to image)

3.1 COMMENTS ON SPECIFIC CONTENT

SKU/PRODUCT ID
A unique ID for a product in the merchant catalog: either the internal product ID or SKU or
UPC/EAN/ISBN number of the item (which is also unique). The manufacturer's part number can work as
well in some cases. Most merchants already use some form of unique identifier for their products
internally. Use it and don't hide it from your affiliates. Ask yourself why you have unique IDs in the first
place and what you are using them for. Your answer is the same reason affiliates will use them.




                                                Page 4 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


If you have to generate unique product IDs for the affiliate datafeed only, consider the following:
numeric IDs work the best, because they leverage the power of database software. Avoid letters if you
can. Only use hyphens, dots or underscores if there is a practical benefit for doing so. Don't add them
just quot;for looks.quot;

MAKE SURE that there are no duplicate records with the same product ID in the datafeed.

If alternative categories are available for a product, use additional columns for the alternative
categories. Additional categories are often special promotional categories like Clearance and On Sale.
Or, for example, a category that can be a top category by itself can also be a subcategory. For example:
Sport Shoes can be top category and you also can have Sport Shoes as a subcategory for Women's
Shoes, Men's Shoes and Kids' Shoes. I will come back to categories and category hierarchies and
alternatives to static hierarchies a bit later (Faceted Classification).

If a product has multiple size and color options, don't send a record for each possible combination
unless you have a separate product detail page for each of them. Add the main SKU or Master SKU to
the datafeed and provide available options (attributes) in separate columns. I will come back to the
scenario where you might not have certain combinations available for the product, or you might have
different prices for different combinations.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODUCT
Use a short description or a long description (or both in separate columns). Additional information and
features may be included as separate fields, depending on how you have the data available yourself.
Don't use HTML code unless it makes sense, and remember to keep it simple and don't use formatting
such as font tags or colors, etc. Use tables only where absolutely necessary and assign a class to them
(CSS) to give affiliates the ability to change the layout of the table without jumping through hoops. Div
tags might be a better alternative to tables if you know how to use them. For everything else use bold,
underlined, unsorted or sorted lists, and that's it.

PRODUCT URL
Affiliate link (URL) to the product detail page includes the affiliate ID (or a placeholder for the affiliate
ID), which either you replace with the affiliate ID (on the fly when an affiliate requests the feed) or the
affiliate replaces. In the latter case make sure to provide easy to understand (not too technical)
documentation for your affiliates or you will end up with affiliates that do not replace the placehholder
with their affiliate ID and contact you with a message that quot;your tracking is not working.quot;

You might want to provide the direct URL without affiliate ID as separate column. This especially makes
sense if the affiliate link is a completely different URL than the direct URL and not only the direct URL
with the affiliate ID as additional parameter.

REGULAR PRICE OR RETAIL PRICE/MSRP
This column might have the same value as quot;pricequot; for some or all products, if the product is not on sale
and/or you don't have products on sale at all and/or no MSRP is available. MSRP (manufacturer's
suggested retail price) might be useful to provide as a separate column, if you have the MSRP for most


                                                Page 5 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


of your products - a regular price and a sales price. I know several merchants who do this. If you have
products that go on sale or clearance with a reduced price, provide this information to your affiliates via
the datafeed. It is a promotional sales tool not only for you, but also for your affiliates -- unless you don't
want to sell your price reduced items :). Don't use the argument that the price changes frequently.

If you are concerned about affiliates showing items on sale after a sale ends, you have multiple ways to
prevent and combat it.

Prevention: Add a column for the sale's end date. If you can, because there are no competitive reasons
not to, provide the sale's start date if you know that a product will be on sale on a specific date and
know the sale price. Some affiliates can work this into their marketing planning and increase exposure
and traffic to your offers.

If possible get datafeed access information, such as: which affiliate accesses the datafeed when (how
often), how (if you offer multiple delivery options) and in which format (if you provide the datafeed in
more than one format).

Combat issues: Check affiliate sites that use your feed (this is where knowing where to look for datafeed
access information comes in handy). Separate tracking and statistics for affiliate product detail links
might help or referral data in the Website log of your Webserver.

If you see something you don't like, contact the affiliate. For repeat offenders block access to the feed if
you can. In severe cases terminate the relationship. Adding guidelines to your affiliate resource pages or
terms and conditions might be a good idea, too.

PRODUCT CATEGORY
For example, quot;Jewelryquot; could be the product category; if an item is in a subcategory send it delimited by
quot;>quot; or any other unique delimiter that will never be part of a category name, for example:
quot;Jewelry>Rings>Engagement Rings.quot;

If you utilize matrix-like, faceted or dynamic drill-down navigation (Faceted Classification) without
having pre-defined paths or hierarchy offered by products like Endeca Guided Navigation, Dieselpoint
Faceted Navigation or Fast ESP Dynamic Drill-down, great!

I love the navigation based on Faceted Classification. The resulting dramatic increase in conversion
proves it is the right approach, and the way to do it.

You should provide all relevant attributes in separate columns via your datafeed.

But not everybody is that advanced yet. Also, the price tag for a professional solution that leverages this
method of content delivery, filtering and refinement is beyond the means of the average affiliate - and
many merchants as well.




                                                Page 6 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


If you have the money to afford the solutions mentioned above, you should have the money and
resources needed to generate for your affiliate product datafeed an artificial hierarchy based on the
common paths taken by users on your site.

Navigation based on Faceted Classification and XML Feeds excel and show their real power in cases
where you have products with multiple possible values for a single attribute.

In this case the delimited format shows one of its biggest weaknesses, which can only be worked around
to a limited extent by having multiple values for an attribute in one quot;Fieldquot; separated by a third delimiter
(not the same as used for columns and rows).

To provide information about the availability or the lack of specific combinations of values for two or
more attributes, delimited values for each attribute involved must be ordered, and nonexistent attribute
values for another attribute value must be specified via a value that indicates that it does not quot;exist.quot;

Example: Product A is available in three sizes: S, M and L and the colors: white and black. All but one of
the six combinations is available; L/black. quot;-quot; indicates that the combination does not exist and a comma
is used to separate the values.

The values for Size and Color in the datafeed
Size: S,S,M,M,L,L
Color: white,black,white,black,white,-

If you never have combinations of more than two attributes to worry about, the missing value pair for
the two attributes could be dropped. I used it in the example because you would need it for
combinations of three attributes.

No problem if you have a different price for each value pair. Simply add another column for the prices,
structured the same as the other attributes. Like this (0.00 indicates quot;not availablequot;, you could use
something like -1 to make it more obvious): Price: 5.00,5.00,7.00,7.00,10.00,0.00

As you can see, this method has its limitations and becomes impractical for large number of attributes
and/or values.

AVAILABILITY
Available, ships within 24 hours, back order, temporarily out of stock, etc. Don't add products to the
feed that are permanently out of stock; add only what you have or what you can get.

BUY URL
Add to Basket URL that automatically adds the item to the shopping cart.

This eliminates one more step for the user to purchase the product and at the same time eliminates one
more step where the user might decide to quot;bail outquot; and leave the sales funnel.




                                                Page 7 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten



4. GENERAL NOTES AND COMMENTS
CONTENT IS KING
The more, the better. Not all affiliates use datafeeds the same way. The more information provided
by the merchant, the more affiliates can and will benefit from it - it's as simple as that.

Some use only selected products while others use simple showcase creators, price drops, quot;on salequot;
features, price comparisons, or niche sites where people look for very specific things. Some use
datafeeds for multiple purposes and a few (often bigger) affiliates can use and leverage ALL information
you provide. The more information you provide, the more affiliates can and will use your datafeed.

DOCUMENTATION IS KING TOO
Documentation is always king when it is about technical things like product datafeeds, which are
essentially a data interface between merchant and affiliate. You can also call it API standing for
Application Programming Interface if data are delivered in real-time in response to affiliate data
requests. The best examples of APIs are web services. If you have interfaces to your vendors for other
purposes already, ask your IT department about the importance of good documentation. They should
actually write the first documentation for you (technical specifications). You should provide additional
documentation for non-technical affiliates. Practical examples are always good, use screen shots for
illustration of more complicated examples. Providing sample source codes (in as many programming
languages as you can get your hands on) to automate datafeed downloads will help you to have more
and more affiliates automate the download. Affiliates also appreciate links to resources on the web.

Provide information about the content, including what affiliates can expect to find in the
columns/attributes. This becomes especially important for network feeds where the feed structure is
fixed and you have to work with the given structure without the ability to add custom columns to it.
Examples of this are datafeeds provided by Commission Junction, ShareASale and Darkblue.

BeFree provides the option for custom columns; Linkshare allows up to 10 custom columns.

Linkshare feeds actually have either no custom columns or 10 custom columns with no other option in
between. Feeds that use one or all of the custom columns are the ones where quot;Attribute Filequot; is
specified as quot;yesquot; in the Linkshare Merchandiser participants list provided by Linkshare in Excel format.
The Performics datafeed allows custom columns, too.

Network datafeeds without descriptive columns require even more documentation, because some
networks completely neglect to mention what data, in what format, might be found in the feeds.
Network feeds without descriptive columns include datafeeds provided by ShareASale, Linkshare and
Kolimbo.




                                               Page 8 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


MISUSE OF STANDARD COLUMNS IN NETWORK FEEDS
If you have to use standard columns of a network feed for something else, fine, but you have to
document it (that's true for all network feeds including CJ, BeFree, Linkshare, ShareASale, Performics,
and others).

You will probably become subject to angry emails written by affiliates using language that becomes
worse depending on the time the email was sent, indicating how much time the affiliate wasted before
figuring out what the problem with your feed is.

Pick columns where the type of data the column was originally intended for by the network have the
same format as the data you put there. For example, don't dump a character string in a column that was
meant to hold dates or numbers or currency (some networks sadly allow that).

INITIALIZE VALUES
If you use a column/attribute of a standard network feed, always send data and do not leave it empty
for products where you don't have the information. For example, if you provide a quot;sale pricequot; send at
least quot;0quot; or the quot;regular pricequot; for products that are not on sale; don't leave the column empty. The
technical term for this is to quot;initializequot; the columns/attributes used.

SUMMARY
I can live with feeds that don't have enough information. I simply don't use them. I can fill some gaps
myself if I believe it's worthwhile to do so. What I cannot live with are errors in the file structure or
garbage in the content. Maybe a scraper site can use that junk, but affiliates who design sites for users
with the goal of providing value to their website visitors can't make gold out of it. They risk driving off
customers who never come back. No thanks.

I waste a lot of my time doing the following:

        Fixing datafeed structures (pre-processing); and
        Technically and often even quot;logicallyquot; validating the content of each column.

We use provided category structures or hierarchies. I have to spend a lot of time with messed up
category structures such as:

        thousands of products assigned to a single subcategory
        Category with a subcategory where both have the same name
        Subcategory with another single subcategory only, but no products
        Categories with hundreds of subcategories

The list goes on and on!

It includes all things that make the quot;catalogquot; not quot;browseablequot; by a user.




                                                Page 9 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


5. XML VS. TEXT FEED
XML files are much bigger and still not always as easy to process (especially if the XML format is
proprietary and you don't get the XML schema sent with the XML data file).

A benefit of XML is the amount of data per quot;recordquot; or product you can send. XML has something like a
2 GB limit.

This is different with delimited files. The maximum number of characters per quot;linequot; is usually limited by
the software that is using the files. 4 KB, 8 KB (kilo bytes, 1 KB = 1024 bytes or characters which usually
exclude the column separators), etc., but we rarely have an issue with that when we deal with product
datafeeds.

A merchant can never send too much information! If a merchant sends so much information that I have
a problem handling it, that's a good problem to have. :)

XML makes perfect sense for a web service (XML/SOAP/WSDL).

Tools that support the creation and/or use of web services are getting easier to use every day. You don't
have to deal with the actual XML most of the time anymore.

The conversion to XML typically happens in the background automatically, without you, the developer,
having to worry about it. XML as an underlying format for the communication between sender and
receiver is as good as any, because the interface provides the data in a useful structure and format that
you are familiar with in your particular programming environment.

A good analogy would be TCP/IP. You don't have to understand the structure of the traffic via TCP/IP if
you do an FTP transfer. It's used by server and client in the background, automatically, without you
having to worry about it.

I dedicate an entire article to XML and web services as data delivery format and platform for affiliate
marketing, where and when it makes sense and beats classic delimited datafeeds. The Article is called:
quot;XML Datafeeds and Webservices for Affiliates.quot;

6. ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
This article is a summary of various emails I have sent to merchants and networks. Some of the emails
were to complain about issues with the feed, while others were to make recommendations. I made
considerable additions and changes months later, after receiving a lot of positive feedback from
merchants, smaller affiliate networks and affiliates alike when I put the first version of this article online.

I have also sent emails to merchants who started an affiliate program and are thankful for every bit of
information that helped them to get their program going. I like those the most since they are usually the
ones who really listen and try as hard as they can to help you out. It works out to be a two-way street,
since I can consequently do a better job promoting them and generate sales for them and commissions
for me.

                                                Page 10 of 11
Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten


7. RESOURCES, THIRD PARTY DATAFEED INTEGRATION & PUBLISHING
TOOLS AND SERVICES
I am always on the lookout for useful third party services and developer tools that provide products or
services to make it easier and faster to utilize affiliate datafeeds.

To see the results of my research and years of spending time on this topic, check out my compiled list of
Affiliate Product Datafeeds Tools and Services.

Also visit the Affiliate Datafeeds Resource Page of my Affiliate Marketing Resource Site, my Web
Development, APIs and Webservices Resource Page.

Powerful Database Servers are the key for the work with large affiliate product datafeeds. If you are a
developer, you might find my SQL Server and MySQL Server Resources useful to expand your
understanding and knowledge of SQL and make you more effective in leveraging affiliate datafeeds, APIs
and web services.

Cheers!




Carsten Cumbrowski




                                              Page 11 of 11

Más contenido relacionado

La actualidad más candente (11)

Introduction To Xml
Introduction To XmlIntroduction To Xml
Introduction To Xml
 
Xml ppt
Xml pptXml ppt
Xml ppt
 
Web programming unit IIII XML &DOM NOTES BY BHAVSINGH MALOTH
Web programming unit IIII XML &DOM NOTES BY BHAVSINGH MALOTHWeb programming unit IIII XML &DOM NOTES BY BHAVSINGH MALOTH
Web programming unit IIII XML &DOM NOTES BY BHAVSINGH MALOTH
 
Link to action
Link to actionLink to action
Link to action
 
Wp unit III
Wp unit IIIWp unit III
Wp unit III
 
Database design
Database designDatabase design
Database design
 
Understanding about relational database m-square systems inc
Understanding about relational database m-square systems incUnderstanding about relational database m-square systems inc
Understanding about relational database m-square systems inc
 
Wp unit 1 (1)
Wp  unit 1 (1)Wp  unit 1 (1)
Wp unit 1 (1)
 
Xml
XmlXml
Xml
 
Introduction to XML
Introduction to XMLIntroduction to XML
Introduction to XML
 
XML - The Extensible Markup Language
XML - The Extensible Markup LanguageXML - The Extensible Markup Language
XML - The Extensible Markup Language
 

Destacado

06 November Presentation
06 November Presentation06 November Presentation
06 November PresentationRaj RANA
 
Resolució Del Problema De MatemàTica Comercial
Resolució Del Problema De MatemàTica ComercialResolució Del Problema De MatemàTica Comercial
Resolució Del Problema De MatemàTica ComercialElies Villalonga
 
F O'Connor, Lubricating civic reconstruction ppt
F O'Connor, Lubricating civic reconstruction pptF O'Connor, Lubricating civic reconstruction ppt
F O'Connor, Lubricating civic reconstruction pptNZ Psychological Society
 
Donnation Request
Donnation RequestDonnation Request
Donnation RequestPat Duffy
 
Leitura Basica Historia Ead
Leitura Basica Historia EadLeitura Basica Historia Ead
Leitura Basica Historia Eadguest7c79d19
 
Citrix Net Scaler V9.0 Lb Highload Mar2009
Citrix Net Scaler V9.0 Lb Highload Mar2009Citrix Net Scaler V9.0 Lb Highload Mar2009
Citrix Net Scaler V9.0 Lb Highload Mar2009Liudmila Li
 

Destacado (7)

06 November Presentation
06 November Presentation06 November Presentation
06 November Presentation
 
Resolució Del Problema De MatemàTica Comercial
Resolució Del Problema De MatemàTica ComercialResolució Del Problema De MatemàTica Comercial
Resolució Del Problema De MatemàTica Comercial
 
F O'Connor, Lubricating civic reconstruction ppt
F O'Connor, Lubricating civic reconstruction pptF O'Connor, Lubricating civic reconstruction ppt
F O'Connor, Lubricating civic reconstruction ppt
 
Communities+Of+Practice+Workshop
Communities+Of+Practice+WorkshopCommunities+Of+Practice+Workshop
Communities+Of+Practice+Workshop
 
Donnation Request
Donnation RequestDonnation Request
Donnation Request
 
Leitura Basica Historia Ead
Leitura Basica Historia EadLeitura Basica Historia Ead
Leitura Basica Historia Ead
 
Citrix Net Scaler V9.0 Lb Highload Mar2009
Citrix Net Scaler V9.0 Lb Highload Mar2009Citrix Net Scaler V9.0 Lb Highload Mar2009
Citrix Net Scaler V9.0 Lb Highload Mar2009
 

Similar a Merchant Product Datafeeds for Affiliates 101

Xml Data Feeds And Web Services For Affiliates
Xml Data Feeds And Web Services For AffiliatesXml Data Feeds And Web Services For Affiliates
Xml Data Feeds And Web Services For AffiliatesCarsten Cumbrowski
 
SMX West 2012 - Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping &...
SMX West 2012 - Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping &...SMX West 2012 - Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping &...
SMX West 2012 - Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping &...Nick Roshon
 
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docxAssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docxgalerussel59292
 
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docxAssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docxfestockton
 
Html & CSS - Best practices 2-hour-workshop
Html & CSS - Best practices 2-hour-workshopHtml & CSS - Best practices 2-hour-workshop
Html & CSS - Best practices 2-hour-workshopVero Rebagliatte
 
RPE - Template formating, style and stylesheet usage
RPE - Template formating, style and stylesheet usageRPE - Template formating, style and stylesheet usage
RPE - Template formating, style and stylesheet usageGEBS Reporting
 
SAP ABAP Latest Interview Questions
SAP ABAP Latest  Interview Questions SAP ABAP Latest  Interview Questions
SAP ABAP Latest Interview Questions piyushchawala
 
SessionFive_ImportingandExportingData
SessionFive_ImportingandExportingDataSessionFive_ImportingandExportingData
SessionFive_ImportingandExportingDataHellen Gakuruh
 
DATABASE PROJECT TIPS BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Beg.docx
DATABASE PROJECT TIPS BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Beg.docxDATABASE PROJECT TIPS BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Beg.docx
DATABASE PROJECT TIPS BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Beg.docxwhittemorelucilla
 
Dbm 380 Week 4 Huffington
Dbm 380 Week 4 HuffingtonDbm 380 Week 4 Huffington
Dbm 380 Week 4 HuffingtonAngela Ruiz
 
05. Physical Data Specification Template
05. Physical Data Specification Template05. Physical Data Specification Template
05. Physical Data Specification TemplateAlan D. Duncan
 
Mdb dn 2016_04_check_constraints
Mdb dn 2016_04_check_constraintsMdb dn 2016_04_check_constraints
Mdb dn 2016_04_check_constraintsDaniel M. Farrell
 
Did template
Did templateDid template
Did templateadeoke
 
Improving Effeciency with Options in SAS
Improving Effeciency with Options in SASImproving Effeciency with Options in SAS
Improving Effeciency with Options in SASguest2160992
 
POS/409 ENTIRE CLASS UOP TUTORIALS
POS/409 ENTIRE CLASS UOP TUTORIALSPOS/409 ENTIRE CLASS UOP TUTORIALS
POS/409 ENTIRE CLASS UOP TUTORIALSSharon Reynolds
 
Flat file tabs and their significance
Flat file tabs and their significanceFlat file tabs and their significance
Flat file tabs and their significanceebech0
 

Similar a Merchant Product Datafeeds for Affiliates 101 (20)

Xml Data Feeds And Web Services For Affiliates
Xml Data Feeds And Web Services For AffiliatesXml Data Feeds And Web Services For Affiliates
Xml Data Feeds And Web Services For Affiliates
 
Data type final
Data type finalData type final
Data type final
 
SMX West 2012 - Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping &...
SMX West 2012 - Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping &...SMX West 2012 - Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping &...
SMX West 2012 - Duplication, Aggregation, Syndication, Affiliates, Scraping &...
 
AtoM Data Migrations
AtoM Data MigrationsAtoM Data Migrations
AtoM Data Migrations
 
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docxAssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
 
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docxAssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
AssessmentStudents should demonstrate that they can distinguish.docx
 
Html & CSS - Best practices 2-hour-workshop
Html & CSS - Best practices 2-hour-workshopHtml & CSS - Best practices 2-hour-workshop
Html & CSS - Best practices 2-hour-workshop
 
RPE - Template formating, style and stylesheet usage
RPE - Template formating, style and stylesheet usageRPE - Template formating, style and stylesheet usage
RPE - Template formating, style and stylesheet usage
 
SAP ABAP Latest Interview Questions
SAP ABAP Latest  Interview Questions SAP ABAP Latest  Interview Questions
SAP ABAP Latest Interview Questions
 
SessionFive_ImportingandExportingData
SessionFive_ImportingandExportingDataSessionFive_ImportingandExportingData
SessionFive_ImportingandExportingData
 
Tableau Desktop Material
Tableau Desktop MaterialTableau Desktop Material
Tableau Desktop Material
 
DATABASE PROJECT TIPS BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Beg.docx
DATABASE PROJECT TIPS BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Beg.docxDATABASE PROJECT TIPS BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Beg.docx
DATABASE PROJECT TIPS BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND Beg.docx
 
Dbm 380 Week 4 Huffington
Dbm 380 Week 4 HuffingtonDbm 380 Week 4 Huffington
Dbm 380 Week 4 Huffington
 
05. Physical Data Specification Template
05. Physical Data Specification Template05. Physical Data Specification Template
05. Physical Data Specification Template
 
Mdb dn 2016_04_check_constraints
Mdb dn 2016_04_check_constraintsMdb dn 2016_04_check_constraints
Mdb dn 2016_04_check_constraints
 
Did template
Did templateDid template
Did template
 
Improving Effeciency with Options in SAS
Improving Effeciency with Options in SASImproving Effeciency with Options in SAS
Improving Effeciency with Options in SAS
 
POS/409 ENTIRE CLASS UOP TUTORIALS
POS/409 ENTIRE CLASS UOP TUTORIALSPOS/409 ENTIRE CLASS UOP TUTORIALS
POS/409 ENTIRE CLASS UOP TUTORIALS
 
Flat file tabs and their significance
Flat file tabs and their significanceFlat file tabs and their significance
Flat file tabs and their significance
 
PowerShell custom properties
PowerShell custom propertiesPowerShell custom properties
PowerShell custom properties
 

Último

Introduction to The overview of GAAP LO 1-5.pptx
Introduction to The overview of GAAP LO 1-5.pptxIntroduction to The overview of GAAP LO 1-5.pptx
Introduction to The overview of GAAP LO 1-5.pptxJemalSeid25
 
Developing Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, Ours
Developing Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, OursDeveloping Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, Ours
Developing Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, OursKaiNexus
 
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023Steve Rader
 
Michael Vidyakin: Introduction to PMO (UA)
Michael Vidyakin: Introduction to PMO (UA)Michael Vidyakin: Introduction to PMO (UA)
Michael Vidyakin: Introduction to PMO (UA)Lviv Startup Club
 
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access
 
Slicing Work on Business Agility Meetup Berlin
Slicing Work on Business Agility Meetup BerlinSlicing Work on Business Agility Meetup Berlin
Slicing Work on Business Agility Meetup BerlinAnton Skornyakov
 
Entrepreneurship & organisations: influences and organizations
Entrepreneurship & organisations: influences and organizationsEntrepreneurship & organisations: influences and organizations
Entrepreneurship & organisations: influences and organizationsP&CO
 
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.mcshagufta46
 
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...TalentView
 
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024Winbusinessin
 
PDT 88 - 4 million seed - Seed - Protecto.pdf
PDT 88 - 4 million seed - Seed - Protecto.pdfPDT 88 - 4 million seed - Seed - Protecto.pdf
PDT 88 - 4 million seed - Seed - Protecto.pdfHajeJanKamps
 
Intellectual Property Licensing Examples
Intellectual Property Licensing ExamplesIntellectual Property Licensing Examples
Intellectual Property Licensing Examplesamberjiles31
 
Lecture_6.pptx English speaking easyb to
Lecture_6.pptx English speaking easyb toLecture_6.pptx English speaking easyb to
Lecture_6.pptx English speaking easyb toumarfarooquejamali32
 
Plano de marketing- inglês em formato ppt
Plano de marketing- inglês  em formato pptPlano de marketing- inglês  em formato ppt
Plano de marketing- inglês em formato pptElizangelaSoaresdaCo
 
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...Brian Solis
 
Project Brief & Information Architecture Report
Project Brief & Information Architecture ReportProject Brief & Information Architecture Report
Project Brief & Information Architecture Reportamberjiles31
 
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access
 
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZMihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZKanakChauhan5
 
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and FestivalsFabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and FestivalsWristbands Ireland
 

Último (20)

Introduction to The overview of GAAP LO 1-5.pptx
Introduction to The overview of GAAP LO 1-5.pptxIntroduction to The overview of GAAP LO 1-5.pptx
Introduction to The overview of GAAP LO 1-5.pptx
 
Developing Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, Ours
Developing Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, OursDeveloping Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, Ours
Developing Coaching Skills: Mine, Yours, Ours
 
Investment Opportunity for Thailand's Automotive & EV Industries
Investment Opportunity for Thailand's Automotive & EV IndustriesInvestment Opportunity for Thailand's Automotive & EV Industries
Investment Opportunity for Thailand's Automotive & EV Industries
 
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
 
Michael Vidyakin: Introduction to PMO (UA)
Michael Vidyakin: Introduction to PMO (UA)Michael Vidyakin: Introduction to PMO (UA)
Michael Vidyakin: Introduction to PMO (UA)
 
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
 
Slicing Work on Business Agility Meetup Berlin
Slicing Work on Business Agility Meetup BerlinSlicing Work on Business Agility Meetup Berlin
Slicing Work on Business Agility Meetup Berlin
 
Entrepreneurship & organisations: influences and organizations
Entrepreneurship & organisations: influences and organizationsEntrepreneurship & organisations: influences and organizations
Entrepreneurship & organisations: influences and organizations
 
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
 
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
 
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
 
PDT 88 - 4 million seed - Seed - Protecto.pdf
PDT 88 - 4 million seed - Seed - Protecto.pdfPDT 88 - 4 million seed - Seed - Protecto.pdf
PDT 88 - 4 million seed - Seed - Protecto.pdf
 
Intellectual Property Licensing Examples
Intellectual Property Licensing ExamplesIntellectual Property Licensing Examples
Intellectual Property Licensing Examples
 
Lecture_6.pptx English speaking easyb to
Lecture_6.pptx English speaking easyb toLecture_6.pptx English speaking easyb to
Lecture_6.pptx English speaking easyb to
 
Plano de marketing- inglês em formato ppt
Plano de marketing- inglês  em formato pptPlano de marketing- inglês  em formato ppt
Plano de marketing- inglês em formato ppt
 
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
 
Project Brief & Information Architecture Report
Project Brief & Information Architecture ReportProject Brief & Information Architecture Report
Project Brief & Information Architecture Report
 
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
 
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZMihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
 
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and FestivalsFabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
 

Merchant Product Datafeeds for Affiliates 101

  • 1. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten MERCHANT PRODUCT DATA FEEDS FOR AFFILIATES – 101 Article by Carsten Cumbrowski, January 2006, August 26, 2006, September 9 and November 15 2006.This is an updated and greatly extended version of my original Scrap. Carsten, 11/15/2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1 - Introduction, Datafeedformat and Delivery Options o Introduction o 1. Datafeed Format o 2. Delivery Method Page 2 - The Content o 3. Information to Include in the Datafeed / Content o 3.1 Comments on specific Content Page 3 - Comments, XML and Resources o 4. General Notes and Comments o 5. XML vs. Text Feed o 6. About this Article o 7. Resources, Third Party Datafeed Integration & Publishing Tools and Services Note: Datafeeds or Data Feeds are the same thing. Both spellings are being used in the industry (including the the grammatically wrong version). If you search for additional resources to the topic at forums or search engines, make sure that you use the singular and plural version (feed/feeds) in addition to the two different spellings. Search for quot;Datafeedsquot;, quot;Datafeedquot;, quot;Data Feedsquot; and quot;Data Feedquot; plus your additional keywords to get the best results. INTRODUCTION I have dealt with feeds from hundreds of merchants, including every U.S. affiliate network: Commission Junction, Linkshare, BeFree, Performics, ShareASale, Kolimbo, Dark Blue, you name it! The feeds come in all kinds of formats and via all types of delivery methods. I have also, as an affiliate manager, implemented datafeeds for merchants. With this in mind, you can believe me when I say that I know what I am talking about. If you are an affiliate manager and want to provide a datafeed to your affiliates, you might want to print this article and show it to your IT department. You can also contact me directly to ask any questions to affiliate datafeeds or give feedback on this document. Page 1 of 11
  • 2. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten 1. DATAFEED FORMAT Delimited Text File. Please note: this is not CSV, which stands for comma separated values, already a very specific delimited text file format which I do not recommend for automated affiliate product datafeeds due to possible issues it can cause. Using the tab character (chr(9)) as column delimiter makes a lot of sense for affiliate datafeeds, since it can't be used on the web and should be replaced in the content as multiple spaces anyway. Tilde ( ~ ) and pipe ( | ) will do fine as well. I would avoid using commas or semicolons. I will provide a clarification in a moment. Row delimiter should be either (A) a standard windows line-break: carriage return/cr (chr(13)) + linefeed/lf (chr(10)) OR (B) a standard Unix linebreak: linefeed/lf (chr(10)) only without a carriage return. If a quotation mark (quot;) is not specified as a text qualifier, don't enclose strings with it. Simply avoid using a text qualifier such as a quotation mark or double quotes because people often misuse them and there are no real benefits for using them in affiliate datafeeds. Quotes and double quotes are often part of the feed content itself (product names like 19quot; monitor or Joe 'Jay' Doe Doll). If you use a text qualifier and the text qualifier itself is part of the content, the character in the content has to be replaced by 2x the character - ' becomes '' (2 single quotes) and quot; becomes quot;quot; to prevent the characters from being mistaken as the beginning or end of a column's content. The only case in which the text delimiter occurs doubly is when the column has no value. There is no fixed rule; if text qualifiers can be used for empty text values, but it is a special case that must be taken care of manually to prevent problems. Column and row delimiters must be removed from the feed content itself or be replaced. They have a meaning for the feed structure, and will be mistaken as errors in the feed structure if they appear in the content. You should provide column headers in the first row. Do NOT use SPECIAL CHARACTERS. You should only use 0-9, a-z, A-Z and, if you have to, the characters quot;-quot; or quot;_quot; to separate individual words. Do NOT use: !,?,&,%,#,',quot;,(,),,/ etc. Those are usually reserved characters in applications or programming languages. Also, avoid blank spaces. Use only ASCII code 32 (space) to 126 (tilde ~) for the content (called 7 bit ASCII, US-Char set, ISO 636 or ANSI [American National Standards Institute] Standard x3.4). Delimited files MUST have the same number of columns for every single record! If information is not available for a product, send the initial value of the column instead (0 for numbers, 0.00 or 0 for currency, nothing for text and character values and 1/1/1900 for dates). Page 2 of 11
  • 3. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten Yes, this comment is directed straight at Linkshare. To begin with, Linkshare uses no column headers. Further, using a first row with four columns (quot;HDR,quot; MID, merchant name, date last updated) and last row with two columns (quot;TRL,quot; number of products) is against the definition of quot;delimited.quot; (By the way, thanks for letting me know at the end how many products I just read in sequential order. My computer cannot count.) XML format is fine, too, but only if you provide the data via a web services (SOAP/WSDL, REST etc.) or if you can generate correct XML (most people can't). Do not use only XML if you provide the feed as a file to download. Use GZip to compress the datafeed file if necessary (for large feeds), don't use Winzip (not all affiliates are using Microsoft Windows). 2. DELIVERY METHOD Offer FTP download, make the datafeed available via HTTP on the site (if the feed is < 5 MB) or set up a web service (SOAP/XML). If you can, do all three. Don't provide FTP upload as the only delivery option (it's very kind if a merchant offers that, but most of the time it's impractical for affiliates). It's fine if it is an option, but it should not be the only option. If you make it available as a file, don't make the name dynamic (make the creation date part of the file name for example). You might do that if the file is provided via FTP (NOT HTTP) for which affiliates can write a script that checks what file(s) are available. The file is scheduled to be generated automatically on A RELIABLE SCHEDULE: daily, weekly, monthly, whatever. For files generated daily, make sure to consistently generate the file during the same time window - which should be as small as possible and during the night. Do it as early as possible so that affiliates can also pick it up (and process it) during the night. When I say quot;night,quot; I do not necessarily mean quot;at night where you live,quot; but quot;at nightquot; for your targeted customers, also known as quot;low business hoursquot;. Remember to consider that your customers may be in different time zones. If you can, provide affiliates the information about a change of an HTTP datafeed that affiliates can check first if they need to update their content, before they waste time and resources downloading and processing the whole and unchanged datafeed for no reason. Have a second file with a fixed filename available via HTTP that contains information like: most recent date/time the feed was updated, filename of current feed, size, number of records, etc. Affiliates have different levels of sophistication and available tools. Some build links to selected products manually, some use simple scripts or software, and others have a high-end enterprise server at their disposal. Some run their stuff under windows, others use Linux. Page 3 of 11
  • 4. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten The more formats and delivery methods you provide, the more affiliates can and will use your datafeed. Documentation is always king. A description of the datafeed structure and format takes the guesswork out of working with feeds. 3. INFORMATION TO INCLUDE IN THE DATAFEED / CONTENT Bold columns/attributes are considered quot;must havequot; or quot;requiredquot; by most affiliates. This does not make the others unimportant. If you have the information and can provide it, do it. SKU/Product ID (unique) Name of the Product Description of the Product Price of the Product (retail: price the customer has to pay) Product URL (Affiliate Link) URL to Product Detail Image URL to Product Thumbnail Image Regular Price or Retail Price/MSRP Product Category ISBN Number (books) - ISBN-13 (transition to ISBN13 will be in January 2007) UPC (US Barcode) - UPC-A or UPC-E International EAN / EAN-13 Manufacturer / Brand Name (separate columns if different) Manufacturer Part Number Color Properties delimited Size Properties delimited Keyword Suggestions Artist (Music, Art) Author (Books) Publisher / Label / Studio (Books / Music / DVD) Shipping Information (available options like ground/next day, restrictions) Shipping Cost for a single unit (if flat across the country) Availability Related Items (this could be a list of SKUs in delimited format like quot;123|321|456.quot;) Flags like Best Seller, High Rating, Clearance, On Sale, etc. Link to Product Category Buy URL/Add to Basket URL Brand/Manufacturer Logo (URL to image) 3.1 COMMENTS ON SPECIFIC CONTENT SKU/PRODUCT ID A unique ID for a product in the merchant catalog: either the internal product ID or SKU or UPC/EAN/ISBN number of the item (which is also unique). The manufacturer's part number can work as well in some cases. Most merchants already use some form of unique identifier for their products internally. Use it and don't hide it from your affiliates. Ask yourself why you have unique IDs in the first place and what you are using them for. Your answer is the same reason affiliates will use them. Page 4 of 11
  • 5. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten If you have to generate unique product IDs for the affiliate datafeed only, consider the following: numeric IDs work the best, because they leverage the power of database software. Avoid letters if you can. Only use hyphens, dots or underscores if there is a practical benefit for doing so. Don't add them just quot;for looks.quot; MAKE SURE that there are no duplicate records with the same product ID in the datafeed. If alternative categories are available for a product, use additional columns for the alternative categories. Additional categories are often special promotional categories like Clearance and On Sale. Or, for example, a category that can be a top category by itself can also be a subcategory. For example: Sport Shoes can be top category and you also can have Sport Shoes as a subcategory for Women's Shoes, Men's Shoes and Kids' Shoes. I will come back to categories and category hierarchies and alternatives to static hierarchies a bit later (Faceted Classification). If a product has multiple size and color options, don't send a record for each possible combination unless you have a separate product detail page for each of them. Add the main SKU or Master SKU to the datafeed and provide available options (attributes) in separate columns. I will come back to the scenario where you might not have certain combinations available for the product, or you might have different prices for different combinations. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODUCT Use a short description or a long description (or both in separate columns). Additional information and features may be included as separate fields, depending on how you have the data available yourself. Don't use HTML code unless it makes sense, and remember to keep it simple and don't use formatting such as font tags or colors, etc. Use tables only where absolutely necessary and assign a class to them (CSS) to give affiliates the ability to change the layout of the table without jumping through hoops. Div tags might be a better alternative to tables if you know how to use them. For everything else use bold, underlined, unsorted or sorted lists, and that's it. PRODUCT URL Affiliate link (URL) to the product detail page includes the affiliate ID (or a placeholder for the affiliate ID), which either you replace with the affiliate ID (on the fly when an affiliate requests the feed) or the affiliate replaces. In the latter case make sure to provide easy to understand (not too technical) documentation for your affiliates or you will end up with affiliates that do not replace the placehholder with their affiliate ID and contact you with a message that quot;your tracking is not working.quot; You might want to provide the direct URL without affiliate ID as separate column. This especially makes sense if the affiliate link is a completely different URL than the direct URL and not only the direct URL with the affiliate ID as additional parameter. REGULAR PRICE OR RETAIL PRICE/MSRP This column might have the same value as quot;pricequot; for some or all products, if the product is not on sale and/or you don't have products on sale at all and/or no MSRP is available. MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) might be useful to provide as a separate column, if you have the MSRP for most Page 5 of 11
  • 6. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten of your products - a regular price and a sales price. I know several merchants who do this. If you have products that go on sale or clearance with a reduced price, provide this information to your affiliates via the datafeed. It is a promotional sales tool not only for you, but also for your affiliates -- unless you don't want to sell your price reduced items :). Don't use the argument that the price changes frequently. If you are concerned about affiliates showing items on sale after a sale ends, you have multiple ways to prevent and combat it. Prevention: Add a column for the sale's end date. If you can, because there are no competitive reasons not to, provide the sale's start date if you know that a product will be on sale on a specific date and know the sale price. Some affiliates can work this into their marketing planning and increase exposure and traffic to your offers. If possible get datafeed access information, such as: which affiliate accesses the datafeed when (how often), how (if you offer multiple delivery options) and in which format (if you provide the datafeed in more than one format). Combat issues: Check affiliate sites that use your feed (this is where knowing where to look for datafeed access information comes in handy). Separate tracking and statistics for affiliate product detail links might help or referral data in the Website log of your Webserver. If you see something you don't like, contact the affiliate. For repeat offenders block access to the feed if you can. In severe cases terminate the relationship. Adding guidelines to your affiliate resource pages or terms and conditions might be a good idea, too. PRODUCT CATEGORY For example, quot;Jewelryquot; could be the product category; if an item is in a subcategory send it delimited by quot;>quot; or any other unique delimiter that will never be part of a category name, for example: quot;Jewelry>Rings>Engagement Rings.quot; If you utilize matrix-like, faceted or dynamic drill-down navigation (Faceted Classification) without having pre-defined paths or hierarchy offered by products like Endeca Guided Navigation, Dieselpoint Faceted Navigation or Fast ESP Dynamic Drill-down, great! I love the navigation based on Faceted Classification. The resulting dramatic increase in conversion proves it is the right approach, and the way to do it. You should provide all relevant attributes in separate columns via your datafeed. But not everybody is that advanced yet. Also, the price tag for a professional solution that leverages this method of content delivery, filtering and refinement is beyond the means of the average affiliate - and many merchants as well. Page 6 of 11
  • 7. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten If you have the money to afford the solutions mentioned above, you should have the money and resources needed to generate for your affiliate product datafeed an artificial hierarchy based on the common paths taken by users on your site. Navigation based on Faceted Classification and XML Feeds excel and show their real power in cases where you have products with multiple possible values for a single attribute. In this case the delimited format shows one of its biggest weaknesses, which can only be worked around to a limited extent by having multiple values for an attribute in one quot;Fieldquot; separated by a third delimiter (not the same as used for columns and rows). To provide information about the availability or the lack of specific combinations of values for two or more attributes, delimited values for each attribute involved must be ordered, and nonexistent attribute values for another attribute value must be specified via a value that indicates that it does not quot;exist.quot; Example: Product A is available in three sizes: S, M and L and the colors: white and black. All but one of the six combinations is available; L/black. quot;-quot; indicates that the combination does not exist and a comma is used to separate the values. The values for Size and Color in the datafeed Size: S,S,M,M,L,L Color: white,black,white,black,white,- If you never have combinations of more than two attributes to worry about, the missing value pair for the two attributes could be dropped. I used it in the example because you would need it for combinations of three attributes. No problem if you have a different price for each value pair. Simply add another column for the prices, structured the same as the other attributes. Like this (0.00 indicates quot;not availablequot;, you could use something like -1 to make it more obvious): Price: 5.00,5.00,7.00,7.00,10.00,0.00 As you can see, this method has its limitations and becomes impractical for large number of attributes and/or values. AVAILABILITY Available, ships within 24 hours, back order, temporarily out of stock, etc. Don't add products to the feed that are permanently out of stock; add only what you have or what you can get. BUY URL Add to Basket URL that automatically adds the item to the shopping cart. This eliminates one more step for the user to purchase the product and at the same time eliminates one more step where the user might decide to quot;bail outquot; and leave the sales funnel. Page 7 of 11
  • 8. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten 4. GENERAL NOTES AND COMMENTS CONTENT IS KING The more, the better. Not all affiliates use datafeeds the same way. The more information provided by the merchant, the more affiliates can and will benefit from it - it's as simple as that. Some use only selected products while others use simple showcase creators, price drops, quot;on salequot; features, price comparisons, or niche sites where people look for very specific things. Some use datafeeds for multiple purposes and a few (often bigger) affiliates can use and leverage ALL information you provide. The more information you provide, the more affiliates can and will use your datafeed. DOCUMENTATION IS KING TOO Documentation is always king when it is about technical things like product datafeeds, which are essentially a data interface between merchant and affiliate. You can also call it API standing for Application Programming Interface if data are delivered in real-time in response to affiliate data requests. The best examples of APIs are web services. If you have interfaces to your vendors for other purposes already, ask your IT department about the importance of good documentation. They should actually write the first documentation for you (technical specifications). You should provide additional documentation for non-technical affiliates. Practical examples are always good, use screen shots for illustration of more complicated examples. Providing sample source codes (in as many programming languages as you can get your hands on) to automate datafeed downloads will help you to have more and more affiliates automate the download. Affiliates also appreciate links to resources on the web. Provide information about the content, including what affiliates can expect to find in the columns/attributes. This becomes especially important for network feeds where the feed structure is fixed and you have to work with the given structure without the ability to add custom columns to it. Examples of this are datafeeds provided by Commission Junction, ShareASale and Darkblue. BeFree provides the option for custom columns; Linkshare allows up to 10 custom columns. Linkshare feeds actually have either no custom columns or 10 custom columns with no other option in between. Feeds that use one or all of the custom columns are the ones where quot;Attribute Filequot; is specified as quot;yesquot; in the Linkshare Merchandiser participants list provided by Linkshare in Excel format. The Performics datafeed allows custom columns, too. Network datafeeds without descriptive columns require even more documentation, because some networks completely neglect to mention what data, in what format, might be found in the feeds. Network feeds without descriptive columns include datafeeds provided by ShareASale, Linkshare and Kolimbo. Page 8 of 11
  • 9. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten MISUSE OF STANDARD COLUMNS IN NETWORK FEEDS If you have to use standard columns of a network feed for something else, fine, but you have to document it (that's true for all network feeds including CJ, BeFree, Linkshare, ShareASale, Performics, and others). You will probably become subject to angry emails written by affiliates using language that becomes worse depending on the time the email was sent, indicating how much time the affiliate wasted before figuring out what the problem with your feed is. Pick columns where the type of data the column was originally intended for by the network have the same format as the data you put there. For example, don't dump a character string in a column that was meant to hold dates or numbers or currency (some networks sadly allow that). INITIALIZE VALUES If you use a column/attribute of a standard network feed, always send data and do not leave it empty for products where you don't have the information. For example, if you provide a quot;sale pricequot; send at least quot;0quot; or the quot;regular pricequot; for products that are not on sale; don't leave the column empty. The technical term for this is to quot;initializequot; the columns/attributes used. SUMMARY I can live with feeds that don't have enough information. I simply don't use them. I can fill some gaps myself if I believe it's worthwhile to do so. What I cannot live with are errors in the file structure or garbage in the content. Maybe a scraper site can use that junk, but affiliates who design sites for users with the goal of providing value to their website visitors can't make gold out of it. They risk driving off customers who never come back. No thanks. I waste a lot of my time doing the following: Fixing datafeed structures (pre-processing); and Technically and often even quot;logicallyquot; validating the content of each column. We use provided category structures or hierarchies. I have to spend a lot of time with messed up category structures such as: thousands of products assigned to a single subcategory Category with a subcategory where both have the same name Subcategory with another single subcategory only, but no products Categories with hundreds of subcategories The list goes on and on! It includes all things that make the quot;catalogquot; not quot;browseablequot; by a user. Page 9 of 11
  • 10. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten 5. XML VS. TEXT FEED XML files are much bigger and still not always as easy to process (especially if the XML format is proprietary and you don't get the XML schema sent with the XML data file). A benefit of XML is the amount of data per quot;recordquot; or product you can send. XML has something like a 2 GB limit. This is different with delimited files. The maximum number of characters per quot;linequot; is usually limited by the software that is using the files. 4 KB, 8 KB (kilo bytes, 1 KB = 1024 bytes or characters which usually exclude the column separators), etc., but we rarely have an issue with that when we deal with product datafeeds. A merchant can never send too much information! If a merchant sends so much information that I have a problem handling it, that's a good problem to have. :) XML makes perfect sense for a web service (XML/SOAP/WSDL). Tools that support the creation and/or use of web services are getting easier to use every day. You don't have to deal with the actual XML most of the time anymore. The conversion to XML typically happens in the background automatically, without you, the developer, having to worry about it. XML as an underlying format for the communication between sender and receiver is as good as any, because the interface provides the data in a useful structure and format that you are familiar with in your particular programming environment. A good analogy would be TCP/IP. You don't have to understand the structure of the traffic via TCP/IP if you do an FTP transfer. It's used by server and client in the background, automatically, without you having to worry about it. I dedicate an entire article to XML and web services as data delivery format and platform for affiliate marketing, where and when it makes sense and beats classic delimited datafeeds. The Article is called: quot;XML Datafeeds and Webservices for Affiliates.quot; 6. ABOUT THIS ARTICLE This article is a summary of various emails I have sent to merchants and networks. Some of the emails were to complain about issues with the feed, while others were to make recommendations. I made considerable additions and changes months later, after receiving a lot of positive feedback from merchants, smaller affiliate networks and affiliates alike when I put the first version of this article online. I have also sent emails to merchants who started an affiliate program and are thankful for every bit of information that helped them to get their program going. I like those the most since they are usually the ones who really listen and try as hard as they can to help you out. It works out to be a two-way street, since I can consequently do a better job promoting them and generate sales for them and commissions for me. Page 10 of 11
  • 11. Merchant Product Datafeeds/Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101 by Carsten 7. RESOURCES, THIRD PARTY DATAFEED INTEGRATION & PUBLISHING TOOLS AND SERVICES I am always on the lookout for useful third party services and developer tools that provide products or services to make it easier and faster to utilize affiliate datafeeds. To see the results of my research and years of spending time on this topic, check out my compiled list of Affiliate Product Datafeeds Tools and Services. Also visit the Affiliate Datafeeds Resource Page of my Affiliate Marketing Resource Site, my Web Development, APIs and Webservices Resource Page. Powerful Database Servers are the key for the work with large affiliate product datafeeds. If you are a developer, you might find my SQL Server and MySQL Server Resources useful to expand your understanding and knowledge of SQL and make you more effective in leveraging affiliate datafeeds, APIs and web services. Cheers! Carsten Cumbrowski Page 11 of 11