News | Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA)

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:56

SEMA News—December 2019

INDUSTRY NEWS

Photos courtesy SpiedBilde, Brian Williams. Reuse or reproduction without the copyright holder’s consent is prohibited.

McLaren 750LT Long Tail Mule McLaren is understood to be readying a faster, lighter Long Tail version of the 720S for launch next year, and a prototype caught testing appears to confirm it. Although this mule appears to be a standard 720S with some modifications, telltale cues include Gurney flaps and a substantially larger front splitter. Although the traditional Long Tail extended rear end doesn’t feature in this early mule, the extended spoiler plastered in tape suggests engineers are testing for such bodywork modifications prior to completing them. McLaren has yet to confirm whether it will use the 750LT name for the Long Tail model, but a 750hp figure is expected.

’21 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Mule This is a mule for the ’21 Jeep Wagoneer, caught flexing in Death Valley, California. The Wagoneer and larger Grand Wagoneer will be based off the ’19 RAM 1500 platform. Wagoneer models will get independent rear suspension for better ride as well as interior packaging to fit in a third-row seat. Adjustable ride height is also expected to be lifted from the RAM. It’s predicted that V6 and V8 engines will be offered, while a new inline-six with a turbo and 48-volt mild hybrid system is also expected to be introduced on the Jeep models. A plug-in hybrid variant is also projected after initial launch. Expect to see the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer as early as spring 2020, likely at the New York Auto Show.

’20 C8 Corvette in Rapid Blue Here’s the ’20 Chevy Corvette Stingray in Rapid Blue, providing a more complete look at the new color. The bright-blue hue is notably lighter than the Elkhart Lake Blue Metallic shared earlier. The prototype seen here is wearing the optional Z51 performance package, has a body-color rear spoiler and the optional carbon-flash double five-spoke wheels. It was caught around the Milford Proving Grounds undergoing testing.

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:56

SEMA News—December 2019

INDUSTRY NEWS

Photos courtesy SpiedBilde, Brian Williams. Reuse or reproduction without the copyright holder’s consent is prohibited.

McLaren 750LT Long Tail Mule McLaren is understood to be readying a faster, lighter Long Tail version of the 720S for launch next year, and a prototype caught testing appears to confirm it. Although this mule appears to be a standard 720S with some modifications, telltale cues include Gurney flaps and a substantially larger front splitter. Although the traditional Long Tail extended rear end doesn’t feature in this early mule, the extended spoiler plastered in tape suggests engineers are testing for such bodywork modifications prior to completing them. McLaren has yet to confirm whether it will use the 750LT name for the Long Tail model, but a 750hp figure is expected.

’21 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Mule This is a mule for the ’21 Jeep Wagoneer, caught flexing in Death Valley, California. The Wagoneer and larger Grand Wagoneer will be based off the ’19 RAM 1500 platform. Wagoneer models will get independent rear suspension for better ride as well as interior packaging to fit in a third-row seat. Adjustable ride height is also expected to be lifted from the RAM. It’s predicted that V6 and V8 engines will be offered, while a new inline-six with a turbo and 48-volt mild hybrid system is also expected to be introduced on the Jeep models. A plug-in hybrid variant is also projected after initial launch. Expect to see the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer as early as spring 2020, likely at the New York Auto Show.

’20 C8 Corvette in Rapid Blue Here’s the ’20 Chevy Corvette Stingray in Rapid Blue, providing a more complete look at the new color. The bright-blue hue is notably lighter than the Elkhart Lake Blue Metallic shared earlier. The prototype seen here is wearing the optional Z51 performance package, has a body-color rear spoiler and the optional carbon-flash double five-spoke wheels. It was caught around the Milford Proving Grounds undergoing testing.

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:56

SEMA News—December 2019

INDUSTRY NEWS

Photos courtesy SpiedBilde, Brian Williams. Reuse or reproduction without the copyright holder’s consent is prohibited.

McLaren 750LT Long Tail Mule McLaren is understood to be readying a faster, lighter Long Tail version of the 720S for launch next year, and a prototype caught testing appears to confirm it. Although this mule appears to be a standard 720S with some modifications, telltale cues include Gurney flaps and a substantially larger front splitter. Although the traditional Long Tail extended rear end doesn’t feature in this early mule, the extended spoiler plastered in tape suggests engineers are testing for such bodywork modifications prior to completing them. McLaren has yet to confirm whether it will use the 750LT name for the Long Tail model, but a 750hp figure is expected.

’21 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Mule This is a mule for the ’21 Jeep Wagoneer, caught flexing in Death Valley, California. The Wagoneer and larger Grand Wagoneer will be based off the ’19 RAM 1500 platform. Wagoneer models will get independent rear suspension for better ride as well as interior packaging to fit in a third-row seat. Adjustable ride height is also expected to be lifted from the RAM. It’s predicted that V6 and V8 engines will be offered, while a new inline-six with a turbo and 48-volt mild hybrid system is also expected to be introduced on the Jeep models. A plug-in hybrid variant is also projected after initial launch. Expect to see the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer as early as spring 2020, likely at the New York Auto Show.

’20 C8 Corvette in Rapid Blue Here’s the ’20 Chevy Corvette Stingray in Rapid Blue, providing a more complete look at the new color. The bright-blue hue is notably lighter than the Elkhart Lake Blue Metallic shared earlier. The prototype seen here is wearing the optional Z51 performance package, has a body-color rear spoiler and the optional carbon-flash double five-spoke wheels. It was caught around the Milford Proving Grounds undergoing testing.

Hackers’ New Trick: Stealing Your Computing Processing Power

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:56

SEMA News—December 2019

INDUSTRY NEWS

Photos courtesy SpiedBilde, Brian Williams. Reuse or reproduction without the copyright holder’s consent is prohibited.

McLaren 750LT Long Tail Mule McLaren is understood to be readying a faster, lighter Long Tail version of the 720S for launch next year, and a prototype caught testing appears to confirm it. Although this mule appears to be a standard 720S with some modifications, telltale cues include Gurney flaps and a substantially larger front splitter. Although the traditional Long Tail extended rear end doesn’t feature in this early mule, the extended spoiler plastered in tape suggests engineers are testing for such bodywork modifications prior to completing them. McLaren has yet to confirm whether it will use the 750LT name for the Long Tail model, but a 750hp figure is expected.

’21 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Mule This is a mule for the ’21 Jeep Wagoneer, caught flexing in Death Valley, California. The Wagoneer and larger Grand Wagoneer will be based off the ’19 RAM 1500 platform. Wagoneer models will get independent rear suspension for better ride as well as interior packaging to fit in a third-row seat. Adjustable ride height is also expected to be lifted from the RAM. It’s predicted that V6 and V8 engines will be offered, while a new inline-six with a turbo and 48-volt mild hybrid system is also expected to be introduced on the Jeep models. A plug-in hybrid variant is also projected after initial launch. Expect to see the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer as early as spring 2020, likely at the New York Auto Show.

’20 C8 Corvette in Rapid Blue Here’s the ’20 Chevy Corvette Stingray in Rapid Blue, providing a more complete look at the new color. The bright-blue hue is notably lighter than the Elkhart Lake Blue Metallic shared earlier. The prototype seen here is wearing the optional Z51 performance package, has a body-color rear spoiler and the optional carbon-flash double five-spoke wheels. It was caught around the Milford Proving Grounds undergoing testing.

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:51

SEMA News—December 2019

INTERNET

Hackers have a new trick: stealing your computing processing power when you’re not looking.

In a marked shift from previous years, hackers are much more likely these days to be bent on stealing your computing processing power than embedding ransomware or other malware in your network, according to a March 2019 report from IBM (www.ibm.com/security/data-breach/threat-intelligence). That’s because it’s much safer for hackers to simply steal your computing processing power over the internet—and use it for mining crypto currencies such as Bitcoin—than to get involved in planting other criminal software on business and corporate networks, according to the report’s authors.

The impact on individuals and companies overall can be significant. Computer power theft generally results in a slowdown in computing performance while the theft is underway, making it more difficult to work on your device and decreasing your overall productivity. Computers can also become unstable during a theft, and hackers hijacking computers for mining often have no qualms about driving computer processors and supporting systems at maximum speed, which often results in shortening the life of the devices or overheating their batteries.

Gold-plated firewall systems.
IT network security software.
Regularly installed security updates for all software.
Employee education programs that train staff to beware of suspicious emails, suspicious websites and suspicious phone callers asking for passwords and other network access information.

“People need to expand their defenses or they will pay the price for someone else using their devices,” said Symantec’s Haley.

Individual computer users can further protect themselves by installing browser extensions that help protect against Black Hat mining, such as the following:

AntiMiner (www.tinyurl.com/detail-anti-miner)
Coin-Hive Blocker (www.tinyurl.com/coin-hive-blocker)
MinerBlock (www.tinyurl.com/minerblock-origin)
NoCoin (www.tinyurl.com/no-coin-block)

And they can also test to see if their web browsers have been corrupted by Black Hat miners with a free service from Opera Browser (www.cryptojackingtest.com).

Meanwhile, network administrators can use tools such as WhatsUp Gold, by Ipswitch (www.tinyurl.com/ipswitch-network). WhatsUp enables them to monitor for CPU usage spikes over time and set up alerts for when CPU usage exceeds a threshold. The app can also be specially tuned to monitor a network’s CPU usage during off hours—the witching hour for many Black Hat miners.

In some ways, this latest sleight of hand from hackers seems like so many others they’ve used to take advantage of everyday computer users. The only real difference this time is that it’s so insidious. With Black Hat mining, it could take months or even years for a company to discover that a hacker is taking small sips of its network computer-processing power when no one is looking.

Joe Dysart is an internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan.

646-233-4089

Hackers’ New Trick: Stealing Your Computing Processing Power

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:51

SEMA News—December 2019

INTERNET

Hackers have a new trick: stealing your computing processing power when you’re not looking.

In a marked shift from previous years, hackers are much more likely these days to be bent on stealing your computing processing power than embedding ransomware or other malware in your network, according to a March 2019 report from IBM (www.ibm.com/security/data-breach/threat-intelligence). That’s because it’s much safer for hackers to simply steal your computing processing power over the internet—and use it for mining crypto currencies such as Bitcoin—than to get involved in planting other criminal software on business and corporate networks, according to the report’s authors.

The impact on individuals and companies overall can be significant. Computer power theft generally results in a slowdown in computing performance while the theft is underway, making it more difficult to work on your device and decreasing your overall productivity. Computers can also become unstable during a theft, and hackers hijacking computers for mining often have no qualms about driving computer processors and supporting systems at maximum speed, which often results in shortening the life of the devices or overheating their batteries.

Gold-plated firewall systems.
IT network security software.
Regularly installed security updates for all software.
Employee education programs that train staff to beware of suspicious emails, suspicious websites and suspicious phone callers asking for passwords and other network access information.

“People need to expand their defenses or they will pay the price for someone else using their devices,” said Symantec’s Haley.

Individual computer users can further protect themselves by installing browser extensions that help protect against Black Hat mining, such as the following:

AntiMiner (www.tinyurl.com/detail-anti-miner)
Coin-Hive Blocker (www.tinyurl.com/coin-hive-blocker)
MinerBlock (www.tinyurl.com/minerblock-origin)
NoCoin (www.tinyurl.com/no-coin-block)

And they can also test to see if their web browsers have been corrupted by Black Hat miners with a free service from Opera Browser (www.cryptojackingtest.com).

Meanwhile, network administrators can use tools such as WhatsUp Gold, by Ipswitch (www.tinyurl.com/ipswitch-network). WhatsUp enables them to monitor for CPU usage spikes over time and set up alerts for when CPU usage exceeds a threshold. The app can also be specially tuned to monitor a network’s CPU usage during off hours—the witching hour for many Black Hat miners.

In some ways, this latest sleight of hand from hackers seems like so many others they’ve used to take advantage of everyday computer users. The only real difference this time is that it’s so insidious. With Black Hat mining, it could take months or even years for a company to discover that a hacker is taking small sips of its network computer-processing power when no one is looking.

Joe Dysart is an internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan.

646-233-4089

Recognizing Leaders and Legends

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:42

SEMA News—December 2019

By Chad Simon

EVENTS

Recognizing Leaders and Legends

The Industry Celebrates Its Trailblazers and Raises Money for SEMA Cares at the 2019 SEMA Installation & Gala

About 500 members of the automotive specialty-parts industry attended the 2019 SEMA Installation & Gala, themed “Recognizing Leaders and Legends,” at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, California, on July 26, to pay tribute to the specialty-equipment industry’s pioneers and dedicated volunteers.

Jarod DeAnda and the late Jessi Combs served as the evening’s emcees. Honorees included the SEMA Hall of Fame class of 2019—Bob Chandler, Bigfoot 4x4; Bruce Crower, Crower Cams & Equipment Co.; and Marla Moore, Legendary Companies.

The festivities kicked off with the Pinewood Drag Races—an annual fundraiser for SEMA Cares charities, including Childhelp, Victory Junction and Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer. In addition to the Build-It-For-Me (BIFM) class, the races included the Council Cup, People’s Choice, several different industry classes and Industry Cup Challenge. Children living at the Childhelp facilities and Victory Junction campers built the vehicles for the BIFM class and donors sponsored their racecars for $95. This year, SEMA Cares raised a total of $43,355 for its three partner charities.

Shortly after the races ended, SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting and Chairman of the Board Tim Martin took the stage to personally recognize the efforts of outgoing Board of Directors officials and welcome the incoming Board. They included:

Immediate Past Chair/Secretary:

Doug Evans of Crower Cams & Equipment Co. Inc. (outgoing)

Treasurer:

Peter Lehman of Granite Creek Capital Partners LLC (outgoing)

Board Members:

Kyle Fickler, Aeromotive Inc. (outgoing)
James Lawrence, Power Automedia (outgoing)

Chair-Elect:

James Lawrence, Power Automedia (incoming)

Manufacturer’s Category:

Kathryn Reinhardt of Pilot Automotive (incoming)
Melanie White of Hellwig Products (incoming)

Treasurer:

Kyle Fickler of Aeromotive Inc. (incoming)

Here’s a look at the pinewood leaderboard:

Council Cup

First Place: ETTN
Second Place: ARMO
Third Place: SBN

Build It For Me Class (cars and trucks built by kids)

First Place: James Holmes. Holmes Enterprises
Second Place: James Holmes. Holmes Enterprises
Third Place: Gregg Ovist, Geezup

People’s Choice

Gregg Ovist, Geezup

Unlimited:

First Place: Comp Performance Group
Second Place: Comp Performance Group
Third Place: Wes Mills, Mills Crafts

Stock:

First Place: Rebeca Olavarrieta, Roco 4x4—Average lap time: 2.6327
Second Place: Elena Gurganian, Piston Driven LLC—Average lap time: 2.6466
Third Place: Gregg Ovist, Geezup—Average lap time: 2.6616
Fourth Place: Car #6, Kevin Tanaka—Average lap time: 2.6592

Industry Cup Challenge

First Place Champion: PSKB Rep Firm, Bob Knight
Second Place: Car #13 Hellwig Products, Melanie White
Third Place: Car #1 All Pro Distributing, Mandi Woodell

Media Class: Motor Trend Network
Service Provider’s Class: E Tool Developers
Rep Agency Class: PSKB
Warehouse Distributor Class: All Pro Distributing
Manufacturer’s Class: Hellwig Products

While the racing is over, it’s not too late to make a direct donation to Childhelp and Victory Junction via SEMA Cares.

The following photos showcase activities from the 2019 SEMA Installation & Gala:

The Gala was emceed by industry personalities Jarod DeAnda (right) and the late Jessi Combs.	SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting welcomed attendees to the Installation & Gala.
New SEMA Board Chairman Tim Martin took the stage to personally recognize the efforts of outgoing Board of Directors officials and welcome the incoming Board.	2019 SEMA Hall of Fame inductee Bob Chandler.
The family of Bruce Crower, who had passed away, accepted the SEMA Hall of Fame honor on his behalf.	2019 SEMA Hall of Fame inductee Marla Moore.
SEMA Cares Chair Melanie White encouraged guests to sponsor a Pinewood car to help raise money for children’s charities.	Outgoing Immediate Past Chair/Secretary Doug Evans (second from right) of Crower Cams was recognized for his contributions.
Outgoing Treasurer Peter Lehman (second from right) of Granite Creek Capital Partners LLC was thanked for his service to the industry.	Incoming Chair-Elect James Lawrence (second from right) of Power Automedia was welcomed to his new role on the SEMA Board of Directors.
Chris Douglas (second from right) of COMP Performance Group will continue his role on the SEMA Board of Directors.	Kathryn Reinhardt (second from right) of Pilot Automotive was welcomed to the SEMA Board of Directors.
Les Rudd (second from right) of Bob Cook Sales will continue his role on the SEMA Board of Directors.	Melanie White (second from right) of Hellwig Products was welcomed to the SEMA Board of Directors.
This year’s Pinewood Drag Races brought in a total of $43,355 for SEMA Cares charities.	The 2019–2020 SEMA Board of Directors.

Recognizing Leaders and Legends

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:42

SEMA News—December 2019

By Chad Simon

EVENTS

Recognizing Leaders and Legends

The Industry Celebrates Its Trailblazers and Raises Money for SEMA Cares at the 2019 SEMA Installation & Gala

About 500 members of the automotive specialty-parts industry attended the 2019 SEMA Installation & Gala, themed “Recognizing Leaders and Legends,” at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, California, on July 26, to pay tribute to the specialty-equipment industry’s pioneers and dedicated volunteers.

Jarod DeAnda and the late Jessi Combs served as the evening’s emcees. Honorees included the SEMA Hall of Fame class of 2019—Bob Chandler, Bigfoot 4x4; Bruce Crower, Crower Cams & Equipment Co.; and Marla Moore, Legendary Companies.

The festivities kicked off with the Pinewood Drag Races—an annual fundraiser for SEMA Cares charities, including Childhelp, Victory Junction and Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer. In addition to the Build-It-For-Me (BIFM) class, the races included the Council Cup, People’s Choice, several different industry classes and Industry Cup Challenge. Children living at the Childhelp facilities and Victory Junction campers built the vehicles for the BIFM class and donors sponsored their racecars for $95. This year, SEMA Cares raised a total of $43,355 for its three partner charities.

Shortly after the races ended, SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting and Chairman of the Board Tim Martin took the stage to personally recognize the efforts of outgoing Board of Directors officials and welcome the incoming Board. They included:

Immediate Past Chair/Secretary:

Doug Evans of Crower Cams & Equipment Co. Inc. (outgoing)

Treasurer:

Peter Lehman of Granite Creek Capital Partners LLC (outgoing)

Board Members:

Kyle Fickler, Aeromotive Inc. (outgoing)
James Lawrence, Power Automedia (outgoing)

Chair-Elect:

James Lawrence, Power Automedia (incoming)

Manufacturer’s Category:

Kathryn Reinhardt of Pilot Automotive (incoming)
Melanie White of Hellwig Products (incoming)

Treasurer:

Kyle Fickler of Aeromotive Inc. (incoming)

Here’s a look at the pinewood leaderboard:

Council Cup

First Place: ETTN
Second Place: ARMO
Third Place: SBN

Build It For Me Class (cars and trucks built by kids)

First Place: James Holmes. Holmes Enterprises
Second Place: James Holmes. Holmes Enterprises
Third Place: Gregg Ovist, Geezup

People’s Choice

Gregg Ovist, Geezup

Unlimited:

First Place: Comp Performance Group
Second Place: Comp Performance Group
Third Place: Wes Mills, Mills Crafts

Stock:

First Place: Rebeca Olavarrieta, Roco 4x4—Average lap time: 2.6327
Second Place: Elena Gurganian, Piston Driven LLC—Average lap time: 2.6466
Third Place: Gregg Ovist, Geezup—Average lap time: 2.6616
Fourth Place: Car #6, Kevin Tanaka—Average lap time: 2.6592

Industry Cup Challenge

First Place Champion: PSKB Rep Firm, Bob Knight
Second Place: Car #13 Hellwig Products, Melanie White
Third Place: Car #1 All Pro Distributing, Mandi Woodell

Media Class: Motor Trend Network
Service Provider’s Class: E Tool Developers
Rep Agency Class: PSKB
Warehouse Distributor Class: All Pro Distributing
Manufacturer’s Class: Hellwig Products

While the racing is over, it’s not too late to make a direct donation to Childhelp and Victory Junction via SEMA Cares.

The following photos showcase activities from the 2019 SEMA Installation & Gala:

The Gala was emceed by industry personalities Jarod DeAnda (right) and the late Jessi Combs.	SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting welcomed attendees to the Installation & Gala.
New SEMA Board Chairman Tim Martin took the stage to personally recognize the efforts of outgoing Board of Directors officials and welcome the incoming Board.	2019 SEMA Hall of Fame inductee Bob Chandler.
The family of Bruce Crower, who had passed away, accepted the SEMA Hall of Fame honor on his behalf.	2019 SEMA Hall of Fame inductee Marla Moore.
SEMA Cares Chair Melanie White encouraged guests to sponsor a Pinewood car to help raise money for children’s charities.	Outgoing Immediate Past Chair/Secretary Doug Evans (second from right) of Crower Cams was recognized for his contributions.
Outgoing Treasurer Peter Lehman (second from right) of Granite Creek Capital Partners LLC was thanked for his service to the industry.	Incoming Chair-Elect James Lawrence (second from right) of Power Automedia was welcomed to his new role on the SEMA Board of Directors.
Chris Douglas (second from right) of COMP Performance Group will continue his role on the SEMA Board of Directors.	Kathryn Reinhardt (second from right) of Pilot Automotive was welcomed to the SEMA Board of Directors.
Les Rudd (second from right) of Bob Cook Sales will continue his role on the SEMA Board of Directors.	Melanie White (second from right) of Hellwig Products was welcomed to the SEMA Board of Directors.
This year’s Pinewood Drag Races brought in a total of $43,355 for SEMA Cares charities.	The 2019–2020 SEMA Board of Directors.

New Tools for Affiliate Marketing

Sun, 12/01/2019 - 10:37

SEMA News—December 2019

INTERNET

New Tools for Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a tried-and-true method for driving increased sales.

Long established as an easy way for businesses to generate referred sales from other websites, affiliate marketing has only gained in popularity in recent years, bringing in significant pay-for-performance sales. One of the primary reasons the marketing concept has remained so popular is its simplicity: Encourage websites to post links advertising your product or service, then pay them a small commission for each sale they generate.

“When done right, it cultivates mutually beneficial and authentic relationships between brands and publishers,” said Adam Weiss, general manager and senior vice president at Rakuten Affiliate Network (www.rakutenmarketing.com/affiliate).

In fact, more than 80% of advertisers spend 10% of their marketing budgets on affiliate marketing, according to a recent study by market research firm Forrester (https://go.forrester.com), and 84% of publishers run affiliate programs.

One of the greatest advantages of affiliate marketing is that it offers businesses the opportunity to seek a wide variety of websites that can sell for them. Essentially, you can partner with a traditional publisher, such as an online media company, but you’re also free to try out nontraditional websites for sales referrals, such as blogs, mailing lists and channels on YouTube.

For businesses, the best affiliate deals are usually pay-for-performance: You pay a commission only if a click on an affiliate’s link to your website results in a sale. Other deals offer affiliates payment simply for posting your advertisement and link on their sites.

Among the best ways to get a taste for how affiliate marketing works is to check out an affiliate brokerage service. Those vendors essentially pair businesses with affiliates looking to advertise products. One of the most established of such brokerages is CJ Affiliate (www.cj.com). It’s been around more than a decade and has a well-established reputation as a straight shooter.

To give CJ Affiliate a whirl, all you need to do is register with the brokerage and detail what you’ll pay affiliates who send business your way. CJ Affiliate then takes care of the rest, publicizing your offer, keeping records of affiliates that send you business and making sure those affiliates get paid by you.

Of course, you’ll have to pay CJ Affiliate a cut of every sale that you make through its service, but many beginners are willing to pay the fee to avoid setting up and managing their own affiliate marketing system. And going with CJ Affiliate offers potential affiliates peace of mind: They know they can rely on CJ Affiliate to pay their commissions, as opposed to relying on your business (which may be unknown to them) to pay.

Once you’re up and running and have decided that affiliate marketing is for you, you may want to opt for other tools that enable you to up your game. Here’s a representative sampling of what you’ll find:

ClickInc (www.clickinc.com): Businesses looking to take their affiliate programs in-house can use a service like ClickInc, which will manage the details of the affiliate marketing program while leaving the job of securing affiliates to you. While you’ll pay less of a cut of your sales than you would using a service like CJ Affiliates, you’ll need to convince potential affiliates that your business can be trusted and that you’ll actually pay the commission on each sale you’re promising.

One of the key advantages of ClickInc is its low cost of entry. You can get started at as little as $25 per month, which brings you 50,000 clicks per month on all affiliate links, unlimited impressions on your affiliate advertising, and an unlimited number of affiliates you can bring on to advertise your product/service. Similar affiliate management services include:

AffiliateWP (www.affiliatewp.com)
Get Cake (www.getcake.com)
HitPath (www.hitpath.com)
iDevAffiliate (www.idevdirect.com)
ImpactRadius (https://impact.com)
LeadDyno (www.leaddyno.com)
LinkTrust (www.linktrust.com)
Oministar (www.osiaffiliate.com)
Post Affiliate Pro (www.postaffiliatepro.com)
Tracking Desk (www.trackingdesk.com)
Tune (www.tune.com)

Wordpress Affiliate Management Plugins: Given that Wordpress is the most popular authoring system for websites and similar online properties, it’s no surprise that there are a number of plugins you can use to add an affiliate management program to your business’ website or similar online property. The plugins (software add-ons that can be installed to your Wordpress site in seconds) include:

Affiliate Manager (www.wpaffiliatemanager.com)
Affiliate Royale (www.affiliateroyale.com)
AffiliateWP (www.affiliatewp.com)
Magic Affiliate (www.magicaffiliateplugin.com)

Offer Vault (www.offervault.com): As one of tens of thousands of businesses seeking affiliates, you’ll need to be competitive in your commissions if you want to secure affiliates that are best in securing sales for your business sector. Offer Vault is a search engine that helps solve that challenge for you by unearthing all the commissions that are being offered by affiliates associated with the search terms you input. Once you know who’s paying what, you’ll be able to set your own commissions competitively.

BuzzSumo (www.buzzsumo.com): In an ideal world, your affiliate program will feature scores of affiliates known to be top performers in sending along sales in your business sector. BuzzSumo is designed to help you find those top influencers by scanning blogs, YouTube stars and the like for people who have the reach, authority and influence to deliver real results for you.

BuzzSumo also allows you to build outreach lists and engage with key influencers, and you can use the service to add influencers that you want to track to your Twitter account.

The service also enables you to see the kind of content candidate influencers are sharing, review the topics they share on most often, and monitor the domains they’re sharing. You can also use the app to export all that info into a .csv file for analysis in another program such as Excel.

Another tool similar to BuzzSumo is Followerwonk (www.followerwonk.com).

Adplexity (www.adplexity.com): This is a data analytics service that enables you to monitor competitors’ affiliate marketing ads to see what’s working for them and what’s not. Included in the service’s features is the ability to find ads promoting affiliate offers from 100 affiliate networks with a
single click.

Tipalti (www.tipalti.com/customers/affiliate-networks-tipalti): Once your affiliate marketing program takes off, you may want a tool that automates payments to your affiliates. Tipalti is designed for that purpose and integrates with affiliate management programs such as LinkTrust, HasOffers, HitPath and Cake.

With Tipalti, you can pay affiliates in their currency and with their desired payment method, make thousands of global affiliate payments in minutes, and communicate payment status to affiliates automatically. Tipalti also enables you to reconcile payments instantly and integrate the payment system with accounting programs such as QuickBooks.

You can also use Tipalti to perform risk checks that determine if a candidate affiliate may be a known fraudster. It does that by determining if the affiliate that wants to join your program has an association with blocked or suspended payees or if the affiliate candidate has multiple accounts with the same payment method details associated with a known fraudster, such as social security number, email address, company name or phone number.

Thirsty Affiliates (www.thirstyaffiliates.com): It turns out that our friends the hackers have also infiltrated affiliate marketing. One of their favorite tricks is to hijack affiliate links and redirect any money generated by those links back to their bank accounts. An honest affiliate with links compromised in that way could advertise your product/service for months only to see all the commissions for those sales be illegally redirected to the bank account of a hacker.

Thirsty Affiliates solves the problem by safeguarding affiliate links from such hijacking, so you’ll want to recommend this tool—or a similar one—for use by your affiliates to ensure that they’re protected. Other services offered by Thirsty Affiliates include affiliate link categorization, analytics on how affiliate links are performing, affiliate data export to Excel or Google Spreadsheets, integration of affiliate data with Google Analytics, and affiliate link health checking.

Flippa (www.blog.flippa.com): Designed for businesses with extremely aggressive affiliate programs, Flippa enables you to bid on and buy a website that you believe could bring in significant affiliate sales for you business. The concept: Why pay an affiliate piecemeal when you can simply own the website you think will bring you serious affiliate sales.

Joe Dysart is an internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan.

646-233-4089