Today, our publisher partners will be getting a quiet (but very significant) upgrade. (Think iPhone 3G vs. iPhone 3GS)

Our engineering and product teams have been busy optimizing our Publisher site so that the MediaTrust experience is even faster and smoother.

Marc Tibbitts, our VP of Engineering commented: “With this release, we have made huge improvements in performance across the entire application. This will mean that publishers will be more productive on the MediaTrust Platform and can spend more time earning!”

Here are some of the details of the upgrade:

Increased speed: We have reduced HTML “payload” by making use of cachable libraries so pages load even faster. We have also reduced the number of lines of code by 8x.

Even more productive user experience: We have streamlined the user interface and simplified our URLs.

We hope our publishers enjoy the upgrade! As always, we look forward to your input on further suggestions for features or improvements. Please email product@mediatrust.com with your ideas.

Just a quick update on some new content you’ll now see on the site. As you now know, we acquired Kenzei recently and now feature those solutions under the MediaTrust Conversion Solutions moniker. All the updated content can be found here.  We encourage you to read through the section and check out the animation for further details.

As always, should you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our sales team with any questions. With our new capabilities we can make sure advertisers get the most out of their traffic!

MediaTrust’s Jivan Manhs will be heading to San Francisco next week to speak at the OMMA Performance event. He’ll be speaking on a panel called “Affiliate – Competition or Co-opetition.”

Here are the details:

As affiliate marketing continues to grow in importance for performance marketers, issues of clutter and competition arise, driving up costs for search and creating confusion in the marketplace for publishers. A good affiliate program takes into account how to work with the affiliates in a mutually beneficial manner and our panel will dive into the ways to organize and manage your affiliate program in the right way. Best practices and examples of what can go wrong, as well as how to avoid these pitfalls, will be the primary content of this session; a must for anyone managing an affiliate effort.

The full panel is:

Moderator:

Matt Quirie, Founder & President, ROI Marketing Inc.

Panelists:

Alan Chapell, President, Chapell & Associates
Brett Lofgren, SVP Sales, Epic Advertising
Rebecca Madigan, Executive Director, Performance Marketing Association
Jivan Manhas, Head of Sales, MediaTrust

We asked Jivan why a panel like this is important and who should attend. Here is what he had to say:

“With the growth of performance marketing and the concerns many publishers and advertisers have about each other, the panel on Affiliate – Competition or Co-opetition, could not be more timely. It is vitally important that both advertisers and affiliates work together to make any affiliate program a success and this panel has the knowledge and experience to steer an affiliate effort in the right direction.”

It’s not uncommon for people to stop me during a conference and ask about the type of gear I’m shooting with. Some have seen the show and are curious as to how we achieve the look we get. Others are just fellow techies and want to spend a few minutes talking cameras, audio recorders and microphones. It is uncommon, however, for someone to shoot video of us as we’re conducting our interviews.

We met Dave Dugdale outside the exhibit hall at Affiliate Summit West. We chatted about gear for a bit and he asked if he could shoot some video of the rig. Yesterday he sent me this video:

Really nicely done Dave! You’ve definitely got some editing skills – and I love the time lapse of the strip. Thanks for taking the time to make our first ever “behind the scenes” video.

An entrepreneur at heart, I started my professional career in tee-shirts in 1990 with two long time friends and with about $10,000 dollars Shreds Inc., a lifestyle surf-wear line was born, and distributed through JC Penney’s and various other retailers nationwide. In 1994 Shreds Inc. licensed the rights to a unique collection of intellectual property and adventure storylines to Digital Domain in partnership with Sony and IBM for the development of an interactive Play Station game.  Following the Adventures of Ted Shred I took my hands-on education and experience in active lifestyle apparel to Reebok International where I spent 6 years working with key accounts to develop and grow the Reebok apparel business. In 1999 I was bit by the entrepreneur bug again and joined a small start up: Prospectiv – Eversave.com where I worked with a group of passionate Internet marketing professionals and was forever inspired by the opportunity to be a part of the new world of online media. Intrigued by the potential and challenge offered by performance marketing I joined the MediaTrust team in 2007. At MediaTrust I work with advertising clients that seek solutions that deliver a measurable return on investment. Is it a challenge? Hell yes! And that’s what I love about it! Challenge is what allows us to grow, learn, improve, invent and create pathways to success. Being able to work with people who share the same desire and commitment to never ending improvement is awesome!

Outside work I have a wonderful family with two boys who keep my wife and I pretty busy. We all enjoy the outdoors, skiing, snowboarding, fishing, tennis, and (not so good) golf.

Hey Hey! I am Wynonia, an Affiliate Manager, from MediaTrust.

Where did your name come from?: I made it up.

Hometown: Hong Kong.

What did your do before joining MediaTrust?: Believe it or not, a part-time news reporter at a cantonese radio station.

How long have you been with MediaTrust?: Since Nov 12, 2007.

How did you become Affiliate Manager?: I started with MT as an Account Coordinator who mainly worked with advertisers, set up offers and did troubleshooting at the backend. Then after 3 months, I was promoted to be an Associate Analyst. And after another 3 months, I became an Affiliate Manager.

Question you have been asked the most: “What is hot on your network?” and “how tall are you?”

Signature drink: Shirley Temple and Pineapple juice.

Favorite Sport: Other than Shopping, Ping Pong (Come on! I am Chinese!!!) + video games (Yes I am a geek as well).

Your definition of Affiliate Marketing: FUN + Creative + trendy.

How would your publishers describe me?: “The type of aff manager that is there, willing to help and personable but doesn’t bug you about crap”, “crazy and fun”, ”Devine, Incredible, Amazing, Intuitive, Spectacular, 1 in a billion, superb, fantastic, incomparable” (screenshot available upon request, lol).

Headline: Make 2010 your richest year yet…setup your one on one with your publisher manager at Affiliate Summit West!

Details: As usual we will be at the Meet Market on Sunday (table 34), so come see us (we have some killer shirts this year). Also, our pub managers are anxious to sit down with you to discuss the best performers for you, your offer portfolio, and how we can make 2010 your best performing year ever.

Please feel free to contact your pub manager if you don’t already have time set up. We look forward to seeing you in Vegas!

I joined Commission Junction (CJ) back in 2004 as an Account Representative and quickly moved into a Program Manager role. As a Program Manager I was responsible for managing the affiliate programs of fortune 500 companies such as Verizon Broadband FiOS, Carnival Cruise Lines, and LendingTree.com. I left CJ in 2008 to join Retail-Convergence as an Online Marketing Manager where I was responsible for all online acquisition marketing programs for SmartBargains.com. I recently joined MediaTrust in August of 2009 as an Account Manager for top tier clients in the MediaTrust network.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelarsenault

http://twitter.com/MikeA96

My interests include any and all Boston sports teams, playing basketball, watching horror movies, and online marketing. I grew up 5 minutes north of Boston and received my BS and MBA in Marketing at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass.

I have been a Publisher Manager in MediaTrust’s Toronto Office for 2 years now and I love it! Every day is different and I really enjoy the challenges presented by the rapid pace of change in the industry. Building relationships & meeting new people are very important parts of my job, and I get great satisfaction from helping both new and experienced affiliates to grow their revenue and build their business while upholding the reputation and respect that MediaTrust has built. I look forward to helping more Publishers succeed in 2010!

Make sure you stop by Meet Market table #34 and say hello!

I am a founder and Head of Sales of MediaTrust. I’ve been in the performance marketing industry for 12 years now, dating back to 1998 when I was running programs for clients on Commission Junction and Be Free prior to the two companies merging. It’s great to see how the industry has evolved and also great to know we are still in our infancy as an industry and I look forward to the many changes we will see in the coming months and years.

I’ve worn a lot of hats at MediaTrust since its founding in 2004 but for now I am solely focused on sales and ensuring MediaTrust continues to grow aggressively in 2010. My job is pretty straight forward: give my colleagues the tools and resources they need to be successful in their day-to-day work. I’m also responsible to ensure MediaTrust skates to where the puck will be and to keep our sales team ahead of our competitors, with top performing, brand based advertisers and highly motivated publishers looking for a network they can partner with for the long term.

I’ve been at all levels of an affiliate/publisher network and been an affiliate myself. What I love to do is really work with our partners to help them see opportunities they may have missed, or working with them to build sustainable long term businesses (whether you are an advertiser or publisher.) I’ve seen many partners sell their businesses for substantial amounts of money and I’m always proud when I receive a call from them stating we had a hand in their success. That’s what it’s all about. When you love what you do it shows and when a potential partner notices, it starts things off on the right foot.

I’m not all about business. I have a daily P90X workout routine that kicks my butt, I enjoy time with friends and my nieces and nephews and love a nice bottle of red wine. I’m also a bit of an adventure seeker. I’ve been white water rafting, bungee jumping, did an open what shark dive and hope to start this year off right by traveling out to the rockies before the winter ends and do my first ice climb!