143 New Posts Today

[Gary-AvantLink]

Hello Everyone,

We are very pleased to announce the addition of Liftopia.com to our Outdoor/Recreation category. Liftopia is an exclusive AvantLink merchant, and they have a unique program because they don't actually sell outdoor gear and apparel. Liftopia.com is a new online marketplace where skiers can find discount lift tickets to top alpine resorts across the US.

Here is a quote from their program detail page on AvantLink:

"Liftopia partners directly with ski resorts to offer exclusive deals. Much like an airline or hotel, Liftopia resorts can adjust their prices up and down at any time for specific days, and customers purchase tickets for specific days in advance. Liftopia's direct partnerships allow us to offer deals that no one else has access to.."

Liftopia's unique Affiliate creative adds value to the program. In addition to compelling banners and text ads, they've also configured dynamic HTML ad campaigns that allow your site visitors to search the Liftopia database (by resort, dates, number of tickets, etc.). Once the search is complete, your Affiliate cookie is set for 120 days. The search form campaigns are standard banner sizes for easy addition. The payout on all referred sales to Liftopia is 3%.

For sites with qualified traffic from winter outdoor enthusiasts (especially ski-related web sites), consider adding one of the search forms to your rotation. Your feedback would be greatly valued as we help Liftopia build an effective program.

If you have any questions drop me a line, or contact Evan Reece, Affiliate Manager for Liftopia.com (evan[at]liftopia.com).

Sincerely,

Gary & AvantLink

Blog Post: Liftopia.com is now live in AvantLink!

[Chuck Hamrick]

This is a great launch as there is a definite lack of good sites for discount lift tickets. I was shocked when moving to a ski town last year I could not find deals online.

The snow industry is alive and well!! Plus they are turning it into a year round mountain industry, hiking, mountain biking, single tracks, climbing.

[Evmo]

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for your enthusiasm for our product. We will be adding to it as the season progresses, and hopefully we can be a value to you out in Park City soon (they should be loading at some point in the coming weeks).

Feel free to get in touch with us if anyone has questions, critique, or suggestions, and here's to a good one.

Best,

Evmo

[AlpineZone]

I started promoting this as some text links in the forums. Looking forward to more Northeast products coming on board.

[Evmo]

Originally Posted by AlpineZone

I started promoting this as some text links in the forums. Looking forward to more Northeast products coming on board.

Awesome, sounds great. Once our inventory rounds out (and the season really "starts"), conversion should pick up. We just confirmed Mt. Snow on board, so they should be loading in the next couple weeks. Other than that, we should have a solid list of NE resorts (Jay, Mad River, Smuggs, Bolton Valley, Ragged, Crotched, Gunstock, etc).

Did you take a look at our html ads? Once the season is moving, it would be fun to see how they convert compared to the text ads because the customer can (by default) make the results on our site more relevant...

Here's to a great season!

[AlpineZone]

Originally Posted by Evmo

Did you take a look at our html ads? Once the season is moving, it would be fun to see how they convert compared to the text ads because the customer can (by default) make the results on our site more relevant

I did. I also added the form to the ad rotation. Much of that inventory is accounted for once November rolls around, but it will still pop up here and there. If I start to see conversions increase, I'll be sure to weight it higher. It's obviously a very good fit.

[AlpineZone]

One other thing - have you considered adding a capability to browse by ski area, state or region to show all available products, regardless of date? Folks may be more inclined to set aside a date if they see a good deal pop up. Right now it seems you have to have a date in mind when performing a search.

[Evmo]

Perfect, sounds great. Definitely keep in touch about any ideas/special needs, we are committed to making this a solid program.

Thanks for the effort thus far, I am psyched to build this out even more. I will also post up special deals with likely high conversion (date specific special promos with specific resorts).

[Evmo]

Originally Posted by AlpineZone

One other thing - have you considered adding a capability to browse by ski area, state or region to show all available products, regardless of date? Folks may be more inclined to set aside a date if they see a good deal pop up. Right now it seems you have to have a date in mind when performing a search.

Funny you should mention that. This is on the top of our list of development items. I will let you know as soon as it is pushed out (I am VERY excited about this, will help conversion and our own merchandising substantially).

[AlpineZone]

Originally Posted by Evmo

Funny you should mention that. This is on the top of our list of development items. I will let you know as soon as it is pushed out (I am VERY excited about this, will help conversion and our own merchandising substantially).

Sounds good. It might be some work, but you might want to build out ski area specific links via Avantlink. Obviously by promoting such links on the resort profile page, we should see some decent conversions. You can't get more targeted than that.

[Evmo]

Great call. We will definitely do that.