Crawl and Auto_Submit Feed via FTP

Posted on by Jamie Birch

Several weeks ago we released a new “automagic” distribution method – FTP.  Many affiliate networks need you to submit your product datafeeds for your affiliate program via FTP.  In the past, if you had a feed, you would have to do this manually through an FTP client such as FileZilla.  Not anymore.  You no longer need to worry about distributing your feeds.  We’ll take care of that for you.  When you setup your account, we’ll ask you if you’d like to distribute your feed via ftp and your ftp credentions:

  • FTP host
  • FTP username
  • FTP password
  • FTP directory and
  • FTP port

That gets assigned to your account.  Each time the Chloe Feed Assembler creates your datafeed, it will then send that new product datafeed via ftp to your affiliate network.  You then receive an email that it was sent and usually most networks will send you an email that it was completed.

Easy as 1, 2, 3!

FAQ – Do you provide product feeds for international affiliate networks?

Posted on by Jamie Birch

Product Datafeeds for International Affiliate Programs? You betchya we do! The world is getting smaller, so it’s vital that your affiliate program reflect that. And you need a data feed that you can use in those markets! So we’ve integrated our Assembler to create and distribute your product feed to the following global affiliate networks: Linkshare UK and CA, AVantLink CA and UK, Zanox, CJ UK and Affiliate Window.

AvantLink UK

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CJ Affiliate by Conversant UK

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AvantLink CA

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Linkshare UK

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Zanox

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AvantLink CA

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Linkshare CA

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These are all available to be scheduled for any recurring time frame and to be “automagically” distributed to these networks via FTP, Email or Browser Upload. Now you can get your affiliate program product datafeed in almost every network with the Chloe Feed Assembler!

FAQ – How quickly can you get my affiliate program data feed done?

Posted on by Jamie Birch

Last week!  Well, if you contacted us then :)

It doesn’t take long, but let’s walk through it.  Day 1, you contact us and tell us you want the Chloe Feed Assembler to create your feed for [inset network here].  We then take that day to perform our initial crawl of the site.  Day 2 we map your network’s categories with the product information we extracted from your website.  The morning of day 3 we deliver you an example feed.  Once you approve, we then set that feed up for you on the schedule you wish.  Your done!  So, about 48 hours from start to finish.  Well, we should probably list out the extensive amount of work you’ll need to do to get your affiliate program product datafeed complete.  Pull up a chair, grab a coffee, this may take a while.

You will need to:

  • Give us your URL
  • Set up your account with your credit card
  • Review the feed

Ok, that’s really it.  But hopefully you enjoyed a cup of coffee :).  It only takes 48 hours, your url and your credit card :)

FAQ – How often can you crawl and extract product data for my datafeed?

Posted on by Jamie Birch

Another great question!  We recently launched a new and improved scheduler for our product datafeed creator.  This scheduler allows you to crawl your site and extract your product information, and distribute that feed once in the future, every week on a certain day, every single day and once a month on the first day of that month.  Each feed begins around 12am PST and is distributed to the network(s) of your choice upon completion.

Check it out:

product datafeed scheduler

Choose your date and whether you want your feed to be done at regular intervals and you’re done.  It’s really that simple to do.

You receive emails when your feed is created and then when it was “automagically” distributed to your network.

Have more questions – sales@chloeassembler.com

Looking for Google Product Feed Beta Tester

Posted on by Jamie Birch

We recently integrated Google’s product feed specifications into the Chloe Feed Assembler and are looking for an advertiser that needs a feed, isn’t able to create one themselves, and would like to Beta test this integration with the Chloe Feed Assembler!  We’ll include the setup and 6 months at no charge at all.  If you are interested, please contact sales@chloeassembler.com.

FAQ – How many products will you crawl for my product data feed?

Posted on by Jamie Birch

We field this question more often than any other.  “How much is it if my product inventory goes above 1000, 10,000, 50,000?”  “Can your system handle tens of thousands of products?”  “If we go above a certain number of products, will we see a higher charge?”  All great questions that I can very quickly answer for you.

Let’s start with the the functionality question.  Can the Chloe Feed Assembler handle tens of thousands of products or more?  YES.  There is no limit to the number of products the feed assembler can extract from your website.  If you have ten products or 100,000, the feed assembler will simply keep crawling till they are all added to our database and assembled in your network format.    The only thing that changes is the time it takes to complete the data scraping and extraction for your product data feed.  Higher number of products equal longer time to compile.  But don’t worry, we start pretty early in the morning to get these done :).

Let’s address cost.  We do not price the feed assembler based on number of products.  The current pricing allows for unlimited number of products extracted from your website with different packages based on frequency.  So, 4 products or 400,000, there is only one price based on whether you want your feed created weekly, monthly or unlimited times a month.

Easy right?

FAQ – How often can you create and submit my affiliate program datafeed?

Posted on by Jamie Birch

Frequency is an important aspect of your product feed management.  Chloe Feed Assembler is set up to handle this in several different ways.  Our automagic scheduler and distribution tool allows you to set up daily, weekly and monthly recurring feed creation and distribution to the affiliate network of your choice.  Beyond that, you have the capability to create your feed at any time on the fly.  When would this be appropriate?

When you:

  • Experience heavy traffic days/weeks and your inventory fluctuates frequently necessitating updated feeds frequently
  • When you have a huge selection of new products show up in your inventory and you don’t want your product datafeed to be innacurate in between scheduled feeds

How do you decide on the proper frequency?  That is a great question.  It really depends on the nature of your product and your organization as a whole.  One of our clients is a big retailer in the fast fashion category.  Their inventory levels can change multiple times a day, so they have a daily recurring feed and we update it twice a day manually.  We have other clients that have the same product year in and year out, we update that one quarterly just to be safe.  I don’t recommend going more than a quarter, even in a case like this.  Most advertisers see that a weekly feed update schedule is suitable.  But if you are not sure, a weekly or daily cost the same, so try each out, test and measure the results.  We are a huge advocate of testing and measuring, so give it a shot.  But in the end, it really depends on your product turnover.

In the past, the frequency of the feed depended entirely on your IT team’s willingness to get it done and the affiliate manager’s time and resources.  But, with the Chloe Feed Assembler, that isn’t a consideration any longer.

CJ by Conversant (Commision Junction) Product Datafeed Created by Chloe Feed Assembler

Posted on by Jamie Birch

Each week we like to highlight a new or prominent existing feature of the Chloe Feed Assembler that really makes it useful and different from our competition. No one has the ability to create feeds for all the affiliate networks like we do. And today, we feature our integration of the CJ by Conversant product catalogs (datafeeds). CJ by Conversant offers two ways to integrate their product catalogs based on the two ways advertisers can integrate tracking with CJ. These are Standard and Gateway integrations.

Standard Advertisers are advertisers who track every transaction on their website through CJ. They do not have any redirects or specific entry points that are unique to CJ by Conversant. They simply have all affiliate links go direct to the site, and only affiliate orders get tracked in CJ.

Gateway Advertisers are advertisers who do not display or track every transaction on their site through CJ. They implement a gateway url that only CJ referred traffic gets sent through that is designed to trigger CJ’s tracking mechanisms.

There are benefits and downsides to both, and that discussion isn’t appropriate here.

Basically, Gateway advertisers need to add that gateway url to the beginning of all the product urls in the product catalog.

And now Chloe Feed Assembler can export feeds in both formats! Need a CJ datafeed (product catalog) – we got ya covered!

If you need the specifications for the CJ product catalog, you can read all about them here – http://cjsupport.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/43. You’ll even find the actual specs on that page.

Rakuten LinkShare Product Datafeed Created by Crawling – Chloe Feed Assembler

Posted on by Jamie Birch

5 or 6 years ago we tried to find a solution for a LinkShare client of ours that would allow us to get a product datafeed, merchandiser feed as LinkShare has called it, with very little needed from our client. There just wasn’t an option at the time, nor has there been until we developed the Feed Assembler.

Who did we create this tool for that allows anyone to create a product datafeed with no IT resources and really no resources needed at all? Well, basically me, 16 years ago. I worked for a large women’s retailer and could not get the dev team to give me a feed, for years. I would have loved a tool that only required me to provide my upload and distribution information and a credit card. Now I don’t think I would have given a limb for that but maybe a digit :).

Several weeks ago, we released the Rakuten Linkshare Merchandiser product feed integration for Chloe Feed Assembler. Each formatted and distributed LinkShare Merchandiser Product Datafeed file includes your MID, Company Name, Time Stamp and all the required product information as well as all the non-required fields that we are able to find and map from the in-code and on page data from your site. When the file is sent to Rakuten LinkShare, it is in the format and has the naming convention required for a completed upload.

If you have an affiliate program on the Rakuten LinkShare affiliate network and you need a product datafeed, don’t spend any more time on it then getting out your credit card. There is no mapping, no meetings with your dev team, no begging for development time and no time spent hand building a datafeed. We do it all and within 48-72 hours you’ll have a datafeed that will help you drive more sales! Email us at sales@chloeassembler.com!

Chloe Feed Assembler – Watch the product datafeed creation in action!

Posted on by Jamie Birch

Many of asked to see the Feed Assembler in action as it is creating a product datafeed for one of our client’s affiliate programs.  Below is a screencast of one job being created.  Now, you won’t get access to the entire matrix Neo, but this should give you a great idea of how it’s done.

 

 

If you are in need of a datafeed for your Rakuten LinkShare, Commission Junction, Impact Radius, Affiliate Window, AvantLink, ShareASale or other network program, we’ve got the solution for you!