View
417
Download
1
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
What Makes a Good Affiliate Product Data Feed?
Tips for Merchants (updated April 2014)
Presented by Carsten Cumbrowski
•Each type of affiliate has different needs and requirements to be able to leverage your
product feed and integrate it into their web sites.
•What are those different types, what are their individual needs and why?
•Technical best practices and specific actionable tips for how you can make your data
feed easily accessible and to work with.
•How to make them work across different platforms to avoid losing big chunks of affiliates
for mere technical reasons.
The ingredients for a data feed that is actually useful for your affiliates.
This presentation is also available at:Slideshare.net/Cumbrowski.com
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Carsten Cumbrowski - Short Intro
• Born in (East) Berlin/Germany
• Came to the United States in May 2000
• Affiliate marketer since early 2001
• Affiliate manager for BevMo.com 2002-2006 (via CJ)
• Operated a price-comparison site for several years, where I worked with
hundreds of product data feeds; from networks and custom
• Blogger at ReveNews.com and SearchEngineJournal.com
• Marketing resources collection at Cumbrowski.com
especially http://www.Cumbrowski.com/datafeeds
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
The 2 Part Structure of this Presentation
Part I : The use of Data Feeds and their Content
Part II: Technical Tips to Format, Deliverability and Structure
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Feed Affiliates are Made EqualFeed Affiliates are NOT Made Equal
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Types of Feed Affiliates (Generalization)
1. Price Comparison Sites
2. Niche Directories
3. Coupon Affiliates/Price Drops
4. Content Affiliates/Specialty Sites
5. Bloggers
Should not use raw product data feeds,
but sometimes do, due to the lag of alternatives
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Content Affiliates/Bloggers
Should not use raw product data feeds!!!
Provide tools that are based on product feeds!
1.Widgets/Gadgets
2.Product Show-Case Creators
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Content Affiliates/Bloggers
Use 3rd Party Providers and/or Custom and/or Networks
Provide tools that are based on product feeds.
1.Widgets/Gadgets
2.Product Show-Case Creators
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Types of Feed Affiliates (Generalized & Simplified)
1.Price Comparison Sites
2.Niche Directories
3.Coupon Affiliates/Price Drops
4.3rd Party Tools Providers
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Examples: Price Comparison Site
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Examples: Price Drop/Coupon Site
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Examples: Niche Directory
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Examples: Content Site (Widgets)
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Everybody Likes
•Unique Identifier of Product within Feed(s)
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
1. Price Comparison Affiliates like...Information to match & group identical products from multiple merchants
1. BAR Code Information
oEAN / EAN-13
oUPC-A / UPC-C
oISBN / ISBN-13 (“Bookland”)
and/or
2. Manufacturer Part # / Manufacturer Name
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
1. Price Comparison Affiliates also like...
•Info to determine/estimate FINAL purchase price
oShipping Cost
oPackaging and other Surcharges
oTax Information
•Usually smaller product images/thumbnails preferred
•Detailed Description is often appreciated to build info
page for “master product”
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
2. Coupon Affiliates / ”Price Drops” like...
•Start/End Date/Time for “on-Sale” Price, if available
•“Regular-Price” is used for MSRP (SRP or RRP) ?
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
ALLWAYS!
MSRP Problem Illustration
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
category*
3. Niche Directories like...
1
* Consolidate products, which are assigned to sub-categories with only a single product attached to them, 1 level “up”
product 1
provide Product Categorizations that make sense
“lump” thousands of products into ONE category ...
DO!
DON’T!
-OR-
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Categorization Problems Illustration
1.
2. 3.
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
NOW LET’S TALK TECH!NOW LET’S TALK TECH!
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Basic Elements of a Product Data Feed
1.Format
1.1 Column Delimiter
1.2 Row Delimiter
1.3 Escaping of Special Characters/String Formatting
1.4 Headers/no Headers
2. Structure
2.1 Column Names, Order, Types and Defaults
3. Delivery Methods/Access to Feed
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
1.There is NO Right Format or Delivery Method!
2. Provide as many Options as Possible!
3. Let each Affiliate Choose for Itself!
In Simple Terms: ...
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Document it! Affiliates are NO Fortune Tellers!
Knowing is ALWAYS better than Assuming!
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Whatever you do is entirely your choice and should be
controlled by business sense and economics.
Most Affiliates can work with what you got, if you provide Documentation.
One Exception! It must be possible to Access and Process
your Feeds without any human interaction! That means:
1.No Login Forms to fill out
2.No Messages that must be acknowledged
3.No Choices that must be made manually every time
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
There are many options to provide automated access to
current feeds. Here are some examples:
1. HTTP Access with settings and account credentials as URL Parameter.
For security reasons I recommend the use of SSL for those (https://…)
e.g. https://merchant.com/aff/datafeed/?aid=12345&pw=MYPW&opt1=...
2. Access to pre-generated feed-files via FTP Server
3. Web-Service using SOAP or REST etc.
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Canon - PowerShot 10.0-Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera – Silver
SKU: 8800577
http://.../images/products/8800/8800577_sc.jpg
http://.../images/products/8800/8800577_sb.jpg
http://.../images/products/8800/8800577_sa.jpg
Thumbnail Images (Product Listing)
Medium Size Image (Product Detail)
Large Image (Pop-Up)
The Power of “Know” - A Practical Example
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
The Power of “Know” - A Practical Example
Sony - Cyber-shot 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Green
SKU: 8943129
Guess the URLs to the different sized product images for this item!
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
http://.../images/products/8943/ 8943129_ra.jpg
http://.../images/products/8943/ 8943129_rb.jpg
http://.../images/products/8943/ 8943129_rc.jpg
Sony - Cyber-shot 10.1-Megapixel Digital Camera - Green
SKU: 8943129
http://.../images/products/8943/ 8943129_sc.jpg
http://.../images/products/8943/ 8943129_sb.jpg
http://.../images/products/8943/ 8943129_sa.jpg
Thumbnail Images (Product Listing)
Medium Size Image (Product Detail)
Large Image (Pop-Up)
Correct?Oops!Why r and not s ? I have no Idea!
Let’s see the real URL’s
used by the Merchant
for this product.
The Power of “Know” - A Practical Example
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Now Some Specific Technical Tips...These tips are based on my own personal experience and talks with other
people who work with data feeds and both end of the process, including:
•Merchants
•Networks
•Third Party Vendors
•Other Affiliates, including “competitors”
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Product Data Feeds - Technical Tip: #1
Column Delimiter: TAB character (ASCII character code 9)
● Feed content is used in almost every case for the use on the Internet and thus rendered in HTML.
● HTML does not have a TAB character or an equivalent for it.
● Any TAB character in content of your product catalog should be replaced with something appropriate.
You probably do this already on your own website, where you have the same problem.
● Ask your webmaster what they do for your site! There might be no TAB characters left in your data
anymore, because they were all replaced with a fixed number of spaces.
● Whatever the case might be, do the same during the export of your feed and include this information
in your feed documentation for your affiliates.
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Row Delimiter: Line-Feed (ASCII character 10)
The format to indicate a new line in text files (line-break) varies between computer platforms.
I strongly recommend to let your affiliates specify the platform they are using to process your feeds, save it
with their account and generate feeds for them according to this setting.*
● Microsoft Windows (and MS DOS) uses the character combination of Carriage-Return
(CR, ASCII character 13) and Line-Feed (LF, ASCII character 10)
● Unix and Linux systems only use the Line-Feed character (LF, ASCII character 10)
● Macintosh uses only the Carriage-Return character (CR, ASCII character 13)
* If “choice” is NOT an option, use the Unix/Linux line-break option, because most Windows and
Macintosh DB applications are capable of handling the Unix line-break, but not the other way around.
Product Data Feeds - Technical Tip: #2
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
No special enclosure of text values, e.g. using double-quotes
There is no need for this special treatment, especially if you replaced all column and row delimiters that
appear in the content itself.
I did not have the space left in the previous slide, but I strongly suggest replacing any line-breaks that
appears in your content with something else and again include this information in your feed
documentation.
I suggest using <BR/> , which is the HTML tag to generate a line-break.
The advantage of doing this is obvious and publishers who do not like it can easily strip or replace it during
the import of your feed, if they want to.
Product Data Feeds - Technical Tip: #3
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
● Include Column header as the first Row within the feed.
● Do not use any special characters in the name, including spaces. Use only the characters:
a-z and/or A-Z, 0-9 and if you want to _ as a separator between words for better readability.
● Make the column titles as descriptive as possible, but also as short as possible.
● This is not a substitute for a written documentation of the feed structure. It only supports it, like a
reference card only supports a user manual, but not replaces it.
● Do not make the titles longer than 64 characters!
Use First Row in the Feed for Column Titles/Headers
Product Data Feeds - Technical Tip: #4
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Transmitting Hierarchical Information
● You often want to relay hierarchical information within your two-dimensional data feed, for example a
product category structure.
● The semi-standard method of doing this is to include all parents of the node in the column data, which
contains the information about the node where the item is attached to in addition to the node itself.
● The individual levels are usually separated by the character “>”.
● The value starts with the top parent node in the root and ends with the node itself.
Example:
Item A is attached to sub-category Z.
Sub-category Z is a child node of Category Y, which is right below the root of the hierarchy.
The content for the category information of Item A would look like this:
Category Y>Sub-category Z
Product Data Feeds - Technical Tip: #5
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Initialize cells with no values for the item properly
Numeric Values
● Usually 0, if there is no value.
● You can use the initial value to relay information about the format of the data in this
column, if you actually have data for an item.
● This is especially helpful, if only few items have a value for it or if the value is seasonal in
nature and not used all the time.
1. 0.000 Numeric values with up to 3 digits after the decimal point (e.G. weights)
2. 0.00 Numeric values with up to 2 digits after the digital point (e.G. price values)
3. 0.0 Numeric values with up to 1 digit (e.G. length, dimensions)
4. 0 Numeric values without digital point (e.G. counts, numbers)
Product Data Feeds - Technical Tip: #6
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Initialize cells with no values for the item properly
Date/Time Values
● Often left empty if item has no value for this property. What is the format, if there Is a value?
● Is it just a date or only a time or date & time? U.S. date format, British? Maybe ISO xxxx or
something entirely different . Maybe even just text entered by a human with no rules (oh horror!).
● There are ways to let publishers know (in addition to spelling it out in the documentation of the
feed) via the initial values in the feed data.
Here are 3 Examples for some initial date/time values that can “talk” about the format for records that
do have real values to watch out for:
1. 01/31/1900
2. 31/01/50 12:00 AM
3. 19001231
Product Data Feeds - Technical Tip: #7
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
…
There are many more tips like this, but beyond the time limit and scope of this presentation.
I included the ones that I consider to be the most important ones and caused me at least the
most headaches and problems with the processing and use of merchants product data feeds.
There is much more.
See the resources recommendation at the end of my presentation.
… and more; and more… etc.
Product Data Feeds - Technical Tip: #7 1/2
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
Recommended Data Feed Resources
Article
Merchant Product Data Feeds for Affiliates – 101
http://www.Cumbrowski.com/datafeeds101 and Slideshare.net/Cumbrowski.com
Collection of Resources
http://www.Cumbrowski.com/datafeeds
continue
What Makes a Good Data Feed? Tips for MerchantsJan 28 -29, 2009
Internet Marketing Resources Portal
This Presentation is available at:
Slideshare.net/Cumbrowski.com
Carsten Cumbrowski
Carsten@Cumbrowski.com
www.Cumbrowski.com/about
www.Cumbrowski.com/contact
Thank You!
Note: This Google Docs Version of this Presentation was optimized and enhanced in 2014.
Finished
Recommended