WatchDog Affiliate Managers (WDAM) Launches Tools to Give Affiliates and Merchants Selling Power Over Competition Affiliate Express and Merchant Express Grab Spotlight and Increase Sales for Businesses Selling on the Web

    /24-7PressRelease/ - SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 01, 2006 -- WatchDog Affiliate Managers, a leading performance-based affiliate marketing, management and web commerce technology company, today unveiled the launch of their Watchdog "Express" suite of tools:

• Merchant Express - http://merchantexpress.watchdogam.com
• Showcase Express - http://showcaseexpress.watchdogam.com
• Affiliate Express - http://affiliateexpress.watchdogam.com

These tools seamlessly work together to improve efficiency among merchants, affiliates, affiliate networks, and consumers. The net result is increased sales for Merchants and Affiliates participating in affiliate programs.

Watchdog's Affiliate Express is a complete affiliate resource center; a one-stop shop where affiliates can learn about affiliate marketing, download additional marketing and website content, and access tools like Watchdog's dynamic product showcase creator (Showcase Express), to increase their marketing reach.

Affiliate Express fosters improved communication between Merchants and Affiliates. Merchants can post information about their affiliate programs (FAQs, Program Overview, Commission Structure, and Past Communications) as well as upload resources for their affiliates to use in their promotional endeavors.

What makes this unique is that the resource center is used for a variety of purposes, and is not limited by a particular affiliate network. It is also an effective affiliate program marketing tool for Merchants and a cost effective approach to recruit affiliates and maximize exposure of their affiliate program.

Watchdog's Showcase Express is a dynamic product showcase creator that enables affiliates to quickly display potentially thousands of products on their websites with a single line of HTML. This ease of integration allows affiliates to instantly showcase an entire product set or selected products on their sites. Since the product display is created on-the-fly using a central database as its source, changes made by the merchant to their products are instantly reflected on all affiliate websites ensuring that only current product data is being displayed. This avoids customer confusion and aggravation stemming from outdated information product data on an affiliate site - a common problem retailer's face daily. This simplicity of integration eliminates the programming and database work required with using data feeds themselves, allowing the publishers to focus on pushing sales while working other areas of their Website.

"Our ability to display eye catching, rich informative media is critical as online marketing progresses to the next stage. Consumers are more informed and responsive to engaging in entertaining and informative advertisements. High speed internet plays a big role for this shift in online buying," says Jennifer Jordan, VP of Affiliate Operations at Watchdog. "Advertisers who limit themselves to product links and images tend to lose sales to competitors who are eager to reach their consumer base, adds Jordan."

Watchdog's Merchant Express allows merchants to manage their product feeds, their website content, and their Merchant Gallery using their browser anytime and anywhere they have an Internet connection. Merchant's product feeds, once imported, become immediately available in Showcase Express for use by Affiliates.

Merchants using Merchant Express to manage their data feeds have an abundance of features at their disposal. "Managed datasets" gives merchants the ability to go in and define subsets like "featured", "seasonal", "hot buys", etc. Affiliates that have picked up a feed using one of these subsets will benefit from this Direct to Affiliate capability so that as merchants make updates to the feed, the updates are instantly reflected on all affiliate websites.

Additional Merchant Express features include the ability to manage their Merchant Profiles which include merchant news, affiliate program details, FAQs, and email/newsletter communications as a one-stop-shop for affiliates. Resource galleries give immediate access to Watchdog-managed digital assets, resources, and tools to assist merchants in day-to-day program activities.

Merchant Express is a unique tool to document day-to-day affiliate program activities and targeted traffic objectives. It is well considered one of the best values in the affiliate marketplace today with packages starting at $199 per month.

"Watchdog's 'Direct to Affiliate' tools allow Yoox to circumvent past problems with keeping affiliates in synch with out constantly changing feed. Changes made through Merchant Express are instantly propagated to all our affiliate sites," says Alexandro Gennari, VP of International Marketing for Yoox. "This keeps our affiliates happy and keeps participation high in our program, which translates to sales for Yoox. We intend to keep WatchDog as an essential part of our marketing mix," adds Gennari.

Watchdog is experiencing tremendous growth due to the demand for outsourced program management services. It's expertise to identify and respond technically to merchants' and affiliates' daily needs has given Watchdog instant industry appeal. Watchdog is poised to grow and evolve with the ever-changing affiliate marketing commerce landscape.

For merchants interested in Watchdog's product or service offerings, visit their website for a free assessment to detail what Watchdog can do for you.

About WatchDog Affiliate Managers
WatchDog Affiliate Managers (http://www.watchdogam.com) is a leader in outsourced affiliate program management and direct-to-affiliate technologies fueling additional revenues for merchants and their affiliates selling on the Web. Affiliate Express, Showcase Express and Merchant Express, Watchdog's premier flagship suite of tools, continue to serve both merchants and affiliates in their direct and indirect sales efforts, giving them an edge over competition. The company's comprehensive offerings also include affiliate recruitment and management expertise, website redesigns, web hosting, and public relations services, thus providing a complete end-to-end solution for Watchdog's customers.

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