Meet the newest member of the team: Tessa Szymkiewicz

Tessa Szymkiewicz is an affiliate manager for Schaaf-PartnerCentric who, like all of the members of our team, has extensive experience managing the marketing programs of big brands. She’s adept at developing sound Internet marketing strategies through e-mail marketing, social networking, blogging, search engine optimization and affiliate marketing.

Tessa began her career in online marketing in 2003 when she joined Safe Computing as the Online Marketing Manager/Principal where she directed all aspects of business operations, devised and implemented innovative marketing and sales strategies including affiliate marketing. She went on to be the eCommerce Manger for Western Blue and Mervyn’s. For the past two years she has been the Online Marketing Manager for TaxBrain.com, where her responsibilities included planning and executing key internet marketing initiatives to profitably acquire and retain new customers through all online marketing mediums including, affiliate marketing.

Tessa resides in Northern California with her son, their two cats, Tiger and Shadow, and their devoted Golden Retriever, Carson. In her free time she enjoys volunteering in her son’s classroom, wine tasting, cooking, gardening and spending time with friends.

Peter Bexelius joins Schaaf-PartnerCentric

Schaaf-PartnerCentric is pleased to announced that Peter Bexelius has joined our team as an affiliate program director.

Peter Bexelius has a long and illustrious history in affiliate marketing. He got his start with Commission Junction, working as a program manager with clients such as eHarmony, Cooking.com and Countrywide Financial. He then joined the eBay team at CJ as account manager, working on the eBay portfolio of international programs as well as various eBay properties including PayPal, ProStores and StubHub. He managed the eBay team at CJ until the launch of the eBay Partner Network.

Peter now joins Schaaf-PartnerCentric as director of the Schaaf-PartnerCentric team that provides affiliate management services for the eBay Partner Network.

Schaaf Consulting to attend ad:tech San Francisco

Brook and Forrest Schaaf will attend ad:tech next week in San Francisco to represent their company, Schaaf-PartnerCentric, which became one of the largest outsourced program management (OPM) firms in the affiliate marketing industry earlier this month when the former Schaaf Consulting acquired PartnerCentric, Inc.

ad:tech, which takes place April 19-21 at Moscone Center North, offers a marketing education series led by industry experts on topics such as social media, mobile marketing, e-mail, Web analytics, branded publications, ad networks, affiliates and search. Its trade show features a lineup of big brands that includes Google, Facebook, Verizon, AOL, ValueClick Media, Advertising.com and Casale Media. Keynote speakers include Chris Anderson, best-selling author and editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine, and Loïc Le Meur, founder and chief executive officer of Seesmic.

Schaaf Consulting looks forward to interacting with industry peers and hearing from other experts in attendance. Founded in 2006, Schaaf Consulting manages programs for a variety of top performing clients. The company won the Ad:Tech Limelight Award for Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign in 2008. To learn more about the company’s approach to outsourced affiliate program management, and to see a full list of the programs it manages, visit www.schaafco.com.

For a full list of ad:tech exhibitors, speakers and events, and to register for the conference, visit: www.ad-tech.com.

Hear Linda, Brook talk about Schaaf-PartnerCentric

Brook Schaaf will join Linda Woods for a special podcast at noon Pacific (3 p.m. Eastern) on Thursday to discuss the news that Schaaf Consulting has acquired PartnerCentric, Inc. Tune in for the Affiliate Marketing Insider podcast on WebmasterRadio.fm.

Brook and Linda will discuss the histories of their two companies, the process through which they agreed to the acquisition and the vision for the new company. Find out what it means for clients, affiliates and the affiliate marketing industry at large.

The Affiliate Marketing Insider podcast features leaders in the affiliate marketing industry who join us for lively conversations about the tools and technologies, the strategies and tactics, the people and products that are driving the future of the industry. Now it its third year of public broadcast, Affiliate Marketing Insider airs at noon Pacific (3 p.m.) every Thursday on WebmasterRadio.fm. Previous shows are archived on WebmasterRadio.fm.

What people are saying about Schaaf-PartnerCentric

We’ve been hearing from all corners of the industry since announcing the news today that Schaaf Consulting has acquired PartnerCentric. We want to offer our sincere thanks to everyone who has been so generous in sending their kind comments to us today. To join the conversation about Schaaf PartnerCentric, follow us on Twitter @schaafpc or on our Facebook fan page.

Here’s what people are saying about our news and our new company, Schaaf PartnerCentric.

Brook / Linda,
Congrats on the sale Linda and acquisition Brook! I’m super proud to count you both as friends and wish you the absolute best!
This represents the merger of two of America’s leading OPM’s creating what is in my opinion the most formidable OPM in the business!
Kudos.
- Kristopher B. Jones
Chief Blogger
http://www.krisjones.com

Congratulations on this big accomplishment. Everyone at NETexponent wishes you all the best in your future endeavors.
Cheers,
Peter Figueredo
CEO & Brainstorm Chaser
NETexponent

PartnerCentric has been one of my clients for over 6 years now – in fact I came up with the name PartnerCentric. Linda Woods is a close personal friend as well, so I’m glad to be able to share the big news.
- Linda Buquet
5StarAffiliatePrograms.com

Congrats! That’s quite an acquisition.
- Michael Coley
ABestWeb.com Admin and Amazing-Bargains.com Founder
http://www.abestweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131569&highlight=schaaf

Wow , that’s some big news! Congrats on the acquisition!
Cheers,
- Chris Sanderson
AMWSO
http://www.abestweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131569&highlight=schaaf

Wow! Big news. Congratulations on a tremendous accomplishment.
- Brad Waller | VP, Business and Affiliate Development
EPage: Classified Ad Affiliate Program | uBuildApp: Build your own iPhone App
Member, Board of Directors Performance Marketing Association
http://www.abestweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131569&highlight=schaaf

We’ve also been the subject of articles on the following industry sites today:

Internet Retailer

Online Media Daily

ReveNews David Lewis: A Schaaf-Centric World

Shawn Collins Affiliate Tip

AffSpot Blog: Mergers, Acquisitions, and the new Affiliate Marketing

San Fernando Valley Business Journal: Consulting Firm Expands

Schaaf Consulting Acquires PartnerCentric

Schaaf Consulting, an affiliate program management firm, today announced it acquired PartnerCentric, Inc. The combined entity creates one of the largest outsourced program management (OPM) companies.

The new company, which will be known as Schaaf-PartnerCentric, will be led by Schaaf Consulting CEO, Brook Schaaf, and headquartered in Los Angeles. PartnerCentric Founder and President, Linda Woods, will remain with the new company as a strategic advisor. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are excited to leverage the powerful combination of our two companies for the benefit of our clients, our partners and our industry,” Schaaf said. “We will be able to bring best practices of two great companies to the affiliate programs we manage and will continue to deliver innovative, indispensable program management.”

The two companies already manage many of the top-performing affiliate programs, including the eBay Partner Network, 21st Century Auto Insurance, Constant Contact, SnagAJob.com, Moosejaw Mountaineering and Quicken Loans.

“I have been working with Schaaf Consulting since 2007, and I haven’t been this impressed since my best friend’s boyfriend tried to kiss me at prom,” said Kate Runyon, Internet Marketing Coordinator at Moosejaw. “Maybe that didn’t come out right but you probably get it.”

Woods said she agrees that the clients of both companies will be well-served by the experience and expertise to be found within the combined company.

“This is a win-win for our clients and affiliates who are going to gain even more tools and technologies, support and service in order to grow their businesses,” Woods said. “We have enjoyed a long and friendly relationship with Schaaf Consulting, and we all saw the great potential that would come from bringing our two teams together.”

Relationship building with affiliate partners has always been a key strength of both companies, which will continue to have a dedicated team managing affiliate development for the eBay Partner Network.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to success when you’re talking about building relationships with quality affiliates,” said William Martin-Gill, Director of Internet Marketing at eBay. “PartnerCentric’s team of affiliate managers has helped us develop our existing and potential publisher base by working closely with publishers to optimize their sites using our Quality Click Pricing model. They have also opened our affiliate channel to non-traditional publishers. We know Brook and Forrest and look forward to what they’ll bring to the combined entity.”

About Schaaf Consulting
Brook Schaaf and his brother, Forrest, joined forces to create Schaaf Consulting in 2006. Los Angeles-based Schaaf Consulting now employs a team of seven full-time workers and manages programs for a variety of top performing clients including Moosejaw Mountaineering, Intuit Websites and Constant Contact. Schaaf Consulting is the winner of the 2008 Ad:Tech Limelight Award for Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign.

Previously, Brook Schaaf was the Affiliate Program Manager for Zappos.com, Shoes.com and Edmunds.com. Schaaf Consulting is a charter member of the Performance Marketing Association, for which Brook serves on the board of directors. For more information, visit www.schaafco.com.

About PartnerCentric, Inc.
Founded in 2004, PartnerCentric, Inc. was among the first Outsourced Program Management companies. Previously, Linda Woods, started her career in affiliate marketing with Commission Junction in 1999, and then became known as a consultant to the industry doing business as Affiliate Goddess, where the concept for Outsourced Program Management was first created. President Linda Woods and her team of affiliate program managers currently manage the affiliate programs of such merchants as 21st Century Insurance, eBay Partner Network and Quicken Loans. PartnerCentric was a finalist for the CJYou Award’s Agency of the Year category in 2009. The company’s headquarters was located in Santa Barbara, CA., until relocating to Chestertown, Maryland last fall.

For more information, visit our Schaaf-PartnerCentric information page.

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Ring Revenue executives to share success stories

Spievak

Ring Revenue’s solution has been licensed by some of the major affiliate networks, including Commission Junction and ShareASale. To cite one success story, ShareASale advertiser Legacy Learning Systems launched pay-per-call services through ShareASale in January 2010. Within the first 30 days, Legacy generated nearly 200 calls. One hundred percent of the calls that qualified for an affiliate commission payout have converted to a sale. Some affiliates have done so well that Legacy increased their commissions by up to 25 percent.

Ring Revenue makes it easy for affiliate networks and advertising agencies to track purchases made by phone. The company’s patent-pending pay-per-call platform makes it easy for online and offline publishers to promote call-based campaigns through the leading affiliate networks, and its proprietary call quality processing engine ensures delivery of the highest-quality callers to advertisers.

In addition to making pay-per-call campaigns available to affiliates to promote, merchants are also using the Ring Revenue platform to track and manage their own direct call-based campaign promotions, where they don’t pay affiliate commissions.

Affiliate Marketing Insider is now in its third year on the air and is broadcast at noon Pacific each Thursday on WebmasterRadio.fm. For an archives of previous shows, visit http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/affiliate-marketing-insider/.

Wysong affiliate program now offering Pay Per Call

The affiliate program for Wysong has just incorporated Commission Junction’s Pay Per Call solution to its affiliate program, which is being managed by PartnerCentric. CJ’s Pay Per Call solutions enable affiliates to include a dedicated phone number in their affiliate marketing promotions and earn commissions for all sales that result from those calls.

In developing your Pay-Per-Call program, you will receive unique, trackable toll-free phone numbers that drive calls to our own call center. You can implement these phone numbers on your website, in keyword information, and offline! Commission Junction will even place your unique toll-free number in any creative you request for this program. This will enable you to drive calls right off of a banner!

All commissionable calls are tracked through the Commission Junction Pay-Per-Call platform, and will be credited to you at the beginning of each month. Commissions will appear as a “bonus” within your traditional CJ Account Manager.

If you would like to participate in the Pay-Per-Call program, please sign up for a Pay-Per-Call Publisher Account here. If you already have a Pay-Per-Call account, you may apply to our program through your existing account platform. Prior to applying to our Pay-Per-Call program, please ensure that you are actively joined to our traditional affiliate program through your CJ Account Manager.

Please note that, in order to receive commission for calls driven on the Pay-Per-Call platform, you must belong to our affiliate program through your standard Commission Junction account.

To learn more about Commission Junction’s new Pay-Per-Call platform, please click here. Alternatively, you may contact our Client Support line at 1-800-761-1072 Mon- Fri 6am-5pm PST.

PartnerCentric was an early adopter of the new PayPerCall platform that CJ started offering in late summer 2009. Get more information about PartnerCentric’s experience in outsourced affiliate porgram management.

Driving affiliate marketing success in number of ways

PartnerCentric created success in the affiliate marketing channel in a number of ways for its list of e-commerce clients.

For the new FlirtCatalog affiliate program that launched in Sept. 2009, PartnerCentric front-loaded the new program to bring maximum results in time for Halloween. Through the first four months online, Flirt experienced a doubling of its revenue through the affiliate channel. Success was due to a number of factors including affiliate recruitment and activation, innovative creative and constant communication through newsletters, e-mails, phone calls, Flirt Alerts, etc. Read how PartnerCentric strategies and tactics made a new affiliate program an overwhelming success.

The measure of success came in other ways as well, including how the company managed the problem of affiliate fraud. After purging the Stamps.com affiliate program of fraudulent affiliates, PartnerCentric reinvigorated the affiliate base, recruiting more than 2,500 new affiliates to the program over the course of the year. By December, with no major coupon or fraud issues, the program had grown year-over-year by 14%.

Another key measure of success is how PartnerCentric responded to the advertising tax issue that arose in numerous states. When the advertising tax passed in June 2008, most of the major networks severed their relationships with New York affiliates. This had dire consequences for The Company Store affiliate program, so PartnerCentric shifted into high gear with outreach to New York affiliates, re-opening the program to them. By the end of 2009, PartnerCentric had grown the program’s dwindled affiliate base by 82%.

To read more about PartnerCentric’s successes in affiliate program management, read our case study series.

This week’s podcast: Mommy bloggers as super affiliates

Debbie Bookstaber joins us on this week’s Affiliate Marketing Insider podcast to discuss mommy blogging and affiliate marketing. Join us at noon Pacific (3 p.m. Eastern) Thursday on WebmasterRadio.fm for the podcast.

What are the characteristics of a successful mommy blogger? How can mommy bloggers work with affiliate program managers to increase their success in affiliate marketing? Hear about all of this direct from a successful mommy blogger who also works for an interactive marketing agency.

Bookstaber has more than ten years of experience in online marketing, business development, product management and affiliate marketing. At the Jar Group she works with new and existing clients to formulate and implement a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Her previous expererience includes managing Travelocity’s white-label affiliate relationships as well as Expedia’s affiliate marketing programs. Passionate about social media and affiliate marketing, Debbie started a successful product review site, which was picked as one of six influential mom blogs by Playthings Magazine in February 2009. Debbie has advised PR firms and Fortune 500 companies on blogger relations and effective social media strategies.

Affiliate Marketing Insider is a weekly podcast on WebmasterRadio.fm that features affiliate marketing leaders and highlights innovations and ideas. Tune in at noon Pacific (3 p.m. Eastern) each Thursday on WebmasterRadio.fm.