Affiliate Marketing Blog

Webgains are actively seeking hackers & slackers. They have taken into consideration that interested participants have holidays, so have kindly provided a choice of dates to ascertain which dates people would like to slope of for the meet.

The choice of dates are 11th July, 18th July & 25th July.

Oh … did I neglect to mention it was for their 3rd annual Affiliate Golf Day … of course they were … so if you are looking to slope of work for the day & fancy hacking your way around a course, no matter what your ability or how green you are at playing golf, then get your name down for a fun day out & let them know which day “suits you sir” by letting them know on the forum.

Click Here

Last year was really good fun & I thoroughly enjoyed the company of everybody there, even though our group only lost by about 0.1 of a shot with the Texas Scramble format, which is the best format to play as a team for an entertaining golf day. There were also a couple of sponsors who provided prizes. One of whom was a merchant we didn’t know at the time, so we started promoting them & became one of their top affiliates by winning £500 in a sales incentive. There were even prizes on the day for best dressed plus closest to pin & longest drive.

So if your a hacker and/or a slacker or even a bit of a bandit (golfing terminology) then show your support for the efforts Webgains put into the day by getting putting your name down. Are you up “fore” it?

Click Here

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today, well you cannot anymore anyhow.

The pre-agenda early bird rate for a4uexpo 2008 ends on today ! yep that is today! … Where you can save a mammoth £100 on all delegate rates by registering before the end of today, infact simply do it now!

If you want to know a little more about a4uexpo 2008, Click Here which will convince you that this will be the hottest, must attend Affiliate Marketing event of the year!

To Register Click Here

The A4UExpo is quite simply the one event every affiliate should write in their diary at attend, it truly represents the many great aspects in affiliate marketing to educate yourself & implement, synergize & network with like minded professionals to forge flourishing business relationships, listen & participate with high quality speakers in the seminars, engage & debate in round table discussions, socialise with your peers .. the list goes on … To Register Click Here

If you’re shrewd enough you can even earn a generous 10% commission as they have an affiliate program on Paid On Results.

“This year there are two different types of passes available to purchase for a4uexpo;

The Conference Pass includes full access to all of the Workshops, Conferences, Networking Sessions and Exhibition Hall, complete with Luncheon & Refreshments. This pass includes a place on the Thames River Cruise during the second evening, plus networking opportunities at the pre-event Networking Party as well as the After Event Party on the last night.

The Networking Pass includes unlimited access to the Exhibition Hall & all networking areas, access to the pre-event networking party plus Luncheon & Refreshments on both days. The Networking pass does not provide access to the Thames River Cruise or the After Event Party.

Affiliates can earn 10% commission on all sales, with the cookie period custom set to reward all sales up until a week prior to the conference.”

They even pay you commission on the VAT element. Keep an eye on their blog, and press centre to acquire ideas on how to promote the event to their audience.

Click Here to Join the Affiliate Program

Yes we have used affiliate links on this blog entry, but if you sign up to the network Paid On Results, you can get your own.

Are affiliates generally too accepting of reductions in cookie periods without objection because its not headline news?

Somehow I think this is the case.

We hear excuses alikened too … “The reduction in the cookie window is in a bid to bring affiliates in line with all other media. Before making the final decision whether or not to implement this change, customer journeys were examined and it was found only a small % of sales were completed outside the new cookie period. “

Poppycock I am afraid.

That extra small % is better in an affiliates pocket than that of the merchant own. To put a different slant on it, are they going to increase the commission by the same % as a proportion of the current rates? … Thought not!!!

It seems that little offence is taken when the cookie period reduces, which though not of the same scale, is still effectively reducing the commission that can be potentially earned .. akin to dropping the commission rates.

Some merchants are too gun-ho in reducing cookie periods, to increase their own bottom line by a few %. Look after the pennies & the pounds will look after themselves. Therefore in theory there should be an increase in commission by the same minimal amount, it’s just something networks / merchants implement without a secondary thought for the affiliates.

Then we hear excuses from a network like “the rest of their online media strategy runs with this and despite putting across our arguments it is very difficult to get a client to change their whole strategy to fit around our affiliate’s expectations. Either it levelled up to the affiliate cookie period or it levelled down to the search, display and partner cookie period and affiliates are not the biggest stakeholder in that strategy”

Which doesn’t answer the question of whether they will inversely reciprocate this reduction in cookie period with an equal increase in commission.

Before we know, we have a domino effect, with merchants using excuses of coming into alignment with others in the same vertical sector, then what happens is one reduces still further & there becomes a  knock on effect whereby others follow suit & so forth.

But hey ho, in what seems to be an ever increasing apathetic industry on the whole, it gives more reason to look at hybrid commission structures or CPC models.

It would interesting to know though, on the whole have cookie periods generally gone up or down, because it’s not documented enough & often goes under the radar of grabbing an affiliate’s attention. Sometimes these cookie reductions can be perceived as simply a “shameful tactic in the clawback of commission” & squeezing the affiliate that little bit more.

Not a massive outburst, I am illustrating how affiliates are too often secondary in others thoughts and how affiliates generally don’t question cookie reductions or worse still session cookies … like when a merchant revamps their site, first thing out is affiliate tracking, last thing in is affiliate tracking … that’s if it is remebered.

Statement of the Day : We are not a good news bible.

“An Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength, actually or potentially leading to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to their downfall are common.” - Wikipedia

There are probably several common factors we could roll of the tongue which sometimes seem like an eternal ground hog day from a general lack of innovation, only a few decent api product feeds, problematic tracking, occasional payment problems, zero notification on policy changes causing friction, programs closing without due & proper notice.

… but one surpasses them all.

This is the affiliate marketing industry’s dependency on search engines whether it be Google, Yahoo or MSN. Quite obvious you may think, it doesn’t matter if you do PPC or SEO, it’s the common factor most rely on to a great extent, take that source away and the industry goes into freefall.

I often come across merchants who foolishly think they have some divine right to appear number one or organically for their own brand. Even affiliates maybe sometimes take this source of traffic for granted. But really though what divine right has anyone to appear well or at all in search engines. None what so ever !!! It’s the search engines which own them, not you, me, nor anyone else has any jurisdiction to what does & doesn’t appear on that & the sooner we all stop taking these things for granted the better & make the necessary contingency plans to at least off-set the potential impact of being shot in the Achilles Heel

Nobody has any Divine Right to list well in organic search engines, because quite simply none of us own the search engine.

So what are the solutions? What’s our fallback biatch apart from going for 5 stars working in MacDonald’s or stacking shelves in Tesco & thus losing our quality of life as scruffy bedroom affiliates.

I don’t know the full answer & perhaps we need to discuss this openly to safeguard our own futures, because there are some Goldmines search engines, like Google’s Embedded Site Search, haven’t exploited yet which could seriously put a dent in all our incomes but prolifically increase theirs more than any loss affiliates might incur. It’s simple stuff we have been doing to some mediocre success which I’ll elaborate on in my next blog. Though this turn-off the traffic tap may not be imminent, the safeguard solution / plan may need to adopted sooner rather than later.

One simple part of the solution, note not the whole solution, is to aggregate the knowledge of affiliates we know or trust to create our own search engine. Not to go head to head with the majors as that is just foolish, but gain incremental traffic by outflanking. It’s like a military operation, to defeat any nemesis / enemy you go for the supply line. As mentioned before this is partly why Google introduced automatic matching because the quality of other sites was getting better i.e. more sticky & users were returning to the search engines less & less.

Hence, if on all our existing sites we can incorporate a half decent search engine for web search utilizing free & paid for sources out there, or better still aggregate the plethora of affiliate skills out there to develop one selves, then the more of us that do this, then the less likelihood or need there is for visitors to return to the main search engines. A way of monetising this I will come into on another blog.

All very obvious … but we do need to think about it & actually develope something as the business model of “affiliate marketing” needs to secure it’s own future.

AWESOME .. EXHILARATING .. THRILLING .. LAVISH .. ADRENALIN FUELED RUSH .. are just a few words to describe what was an absolutely fantastic few days in Las Vegas, last weekend, courtesy of an incentive from Buyagift. I have to start of by saying Thank You .. Thank You .. Thank You to Graham (call sign “Puke”) & Dan (call sign “Whirly Sprinkler”). Even though I served in the Royal Air Force until 1992, having the opportunity to actually fly & take control of a Fighter Aircraft, has always been a dream since my childhood, by pushing the envelope of my normally modest comfort zones, pulling positive G’s of between 3 to 4.6 whilst Dog Fighting over the Nevada Desert in scorching heats of 108 degrees, was an experience I ’ll always remember with excitement. Even since returning last Tuesday & quite jet lagged, I am still buzzing.

Like those who were some of the lucky attendees / winners from last year to Las Vegas, we thought it couldn’t be beaten, but Buyagift surpassed those high levels of expectations once again.

The Outbound Journey : The Boneshaker : Morning : Friday 16th May

We all met at Gatwick Airport on Friday morning & departed on one of the traditional bone shakers which Virgin Atlantic Airways operate, because the flight wasn’t full, we managed to spread ourselves out over a few treble & quadruple seats enroute to recoup as much shut eye as possible to charge the batteries (I don’t do mornings) for the few days ahead. Landing was a little turbulent, imho synonymous with Virgin Atlantic & as for the pilot, I think any of us privileged affiliates possibly could have mastered a slightly smoother approach & landing with a High Yoyo (HYY) & a Low Yoyo (LYY) to throw into the mix.

Airport Transfer to hotel was in some kind of beefed up / pimped stretched Limo type bio fuel bus, called Earthbuses. With music pumping, leather seats, booze onboard, neon/disco lights & LCD TV. These Executive & VIP Limousine Buses are really comfortable with room for up to 25 passengers, which are ideal for large corporate events, airport transport, and nights on the town. The vehicles run on bio diesel and produce ultra-low emissions, their sales pitch is something along the lines of being committed to style & service whilst saving the earth. These little trimmings & indulgences Buyagift generously afford adds to the enjoyment and reduce our own carbon footprint (well sort of).

http://www.earthbuses.com/images/fordreserve.jpg

It’s the only way to travel in style for the short journey to our hotel, no other than the lavish Luxor Hotel and Casino on the famous ‘Strip’ in the heart of Las Vegas. For myself who is quite interested in Egyptology, this was quite a befitting theme for a superb weekend. A marvel of modern construction, the iconic pyramid of Luxor Hotel & Casino climbs 350 feet into the desert sky containing an enormous 29 million cubic feet of space and is crowned with the world’s brightest beam of light. Within the soaring walls of the great pyramid, more than 2,200 Deluxe Rooms overlook a spectacular and expansive atrium. An incredible thirteen 747 Jumbo Jets can fit inside the Luxor’s stunning Atrium

http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/sandiego/las_vegas1.jpg

Lap of Luxury : Sapphires Gentlemen’s Club : Evening : Friday 16th May

After a quick freshening up, it was a quiet, gentle & relaxed winding into the weekend at Sapphires Gentlemen’s Club. Apparently it’s the world’s largest gentlemen’s club, featuring some 70,000 square feet of topless entertainment and serving variety of cocktails, wines, champagnes and cigars. We were told there was apparently at least 100-150 topless laptop dancers there. We can neither confirm nor deny … plausible deniability … … I think we rolled in about 5am, but really nobody was keeping time.

http://www.sapphirelasvegas.com/grfx/header.jpg

Mexican Standoff at The Gun Store : Lunchtime : Saturday 17th May

A last minute addition to itinerary was a visit to the indoor shooting range at The Gun Store which is a full service gun shop specializing in self-defence security & police equipment with a massive arsenal of varied handgun & sub-machine guns available to shoot. It was MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) with 10 of us plus instructors in a confined space firing an assortment of live firearms in quick succession, something I haven’t done for quite a few years, it was organised & well drilled chaos. But you can’t help thinking that it could be relatively easy for an accident to happen i.e. if someone didn’t keep there weapon pointed down tin can alley or some unbalanced individual decided to liberally spray bullets in all directions, though with the number of instructors there, they would have pounced on any culprit fairly quickly. I guess it’s little surreal for the uninitiated, but it was a certainly different & fun start to the day.

Apparently they turnover $50k a day with a high ROI, when you see the continuous queues & rapid turn around of gunslingers it’s not surprising the place is making an absolute mint.

http://www.blackdossier.net/users/m-a-images/The-Gun-Store-Las-Vegas-sign.jpg

Days of Thunder: Afternoon & Evening : Saturday 17th May

The Indy Car USA Track in Las Vegas is known as the ‘Diamond in the Desert’

Originally, I wasn’t really into driving sports or racing cars, until the baptism of fire from last years incentive with Buyagift when we were driving sports cars in the Nevada desert & I started watching the TV program BBC Top Gear, even now after doing relatively well in affiliate marketing over the years, my personal car is only a family Toyota Previa (which I am quite happy with), so I am not really into owning flash cars or yatchs. Indy Car racing proved to be a whole new world of driving enjoyment.

The sheer scale of the place shocks and puts most venues in the shade. It boasts not one but two road circuits, a dirt track, kart circuit and motocross facility as well as the main 1.5 mile oval speedway.

Obviously our focus was on the oval when we took the challenge of the Indy Car Experience where oval racing is a unique discipline and not for the faint of heart. The speeds achieved are extraordinary and the racing takes place just inches from the perimeter wall.

With the short briefing over and safety kit on, we took to the track. After the obligatory recce laps in a road car you get strapped into the racer. Fire-up the engine and, even within this vast complex, the sound is simply fantastic. Master the correct line and you will quickly be able to build your speed. With massive downforce, super sticky slicks and 12 degree banking you can expect some fairly serious g in the corners. The purpose built 650 bhp Indy cars can quite easily achieve fast-paced action of up to 200 mph on the Las Vegas Oval … Crikey.

I think most of us got to about 146 to 149 mph as we chased the lead car having to stay within only 4 to 6 car lengths if we wanted to go faster. Doing these speeds on a flat motorway would be quite easily achieved I guess (not that I have tried), but doing on a race track is a whole new thrill.

I only wished there was an onboard camera to record the event so that we could all relive our experience. It was again another very hot day, but by the time most of us got to ride, the sun had set over the back of the main stadium so that we wouldn’t swelter in our dashing racing suits & helmets as we completed about 6 laps of the circuit. Even though we had a brief initial tuition it was pretty much hands on as you played yourself in, realise your limitations, and then really savour the scintillating experience as you raced around the track, it was absolutely brilliant.

An almost ideal way to get the juices flowing for a night on the town in LV, for me the perfect day was to come.

Early Night

For the following day to keep the adrenalin pumping we were going to be flying ‘air combat dog fighting’ missions in a fully aerobatic Marchetti fighter aircraft high above the Nevada desert. We were going to be split into two groups. The earlier one meeting at 7am the following morning, yep, anyone who knows me knows that I burn the midnight oil (a natural body clock) and I don’t do mornings, so I was in the early bird group, thus I was tucked up in bed by about midnight after a light dinner with no intention of breakfast in the morning.

Top Gun : AIR COMBAT USA : Sunday 18th May : Some Unearthly Hour in The Morning

“I feel the need, the need for speed”. Even though I served in the Royal Air Force until 1992, having the opportunity to actually fly & take control of a Fighter Aircraft, has always been a childhood dream, by pushing the envelope of my normally modest comfort zones, pulling positive G’s of between 3 to 4.8 whilst Dog Fighting over the Nevada Desert in scorching heats of 108 degrees, was an experience I ‘ll always remember with excitement.

“Picture yourself strapped into your fighter aircraft, high above the Nevada, when suddenly out of the sun comes a bandit. Sweeping into a banked roll you come round on his tail, line him up in your gunsight and let him have it! A trail of smoke appears to signify your hit – victory is yours! This is Air Combat USA? – a unique chance to be a Fighter Pilot for the Day!.”

The Air Combat USA program allows civilians (either pilots or non-pilots) to experience the exciting adrenalin rush of the Dogfight in real military trainer prop aircraft all under the expert guidance of professional instructor pilots. My instructor was Jim “Bogey” Reed who received his BS from the USAF Academy in 1972. During his 30-year career in the Air Force, he flew a variety of aircraft including the F-4, OV-10, and F-15, amassing over 5,000 hours of tactical flying experience. Receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross as a squadron commander during Desert Storm, his unit was credited with 6 aircraft kills. Before coming to Air Combat USA, he was an air combat instructor in the T-34A with Sky Fighters.

On arrival we were kitted out with our own personal flight suit, we had the pre-mission ground school briefing on format of the course, safety and tactics, prior to the one hour of flying with formation flying, practice manoeuvres and six dogfights followed by a mission debrief and gun camera review. Oh, and incase of “Bail, Bail, Bail” we were told of when the canopy jetisons on how to climb onto the wing & fall low off the trailing edge below the rear stabliser & rudder.

Each “pilot” then picks his opponent from the group and throws down the gauntlet with the challenge of an aerial Dogfight!, full theatrics are of course encouraged, I “Moose” (call sign) challenged Graham “Puke” Keen who was going to “crash & burn”

The aircraft used for the mission was an Italian built Marchetti SF260’s specially modified for the purpose. Each aircraft is equipped with modern safety harnesses, rapid deployment parachutes and special equipment for the Dogfight including laser weapon systems fitted to underwing pods, gunsights and three video cameras which record all the action and “kills” on video tape. Originally designed to transition pilots to jet fighters, they have a stick grip and gun trigger identical to the F4 Phantom.

Upon boarding your aircraft you are given a final safety and cockpit briefing and without further ado you are strapped into the aircraft and the mission begins! Once airborne the instructor pilot gives you time to acclimatise with level flight and a series of gentle manoeuvres to assess your comfort levels.

This is very much hands-on so once in the air you do 90% of the flying! Working with your pilot you’ll used canny tactics and teamwork to out-manoeuvre your opponent and get him within your gun-sights. With the aircraft able to pull an incredible +6g and –3g you’ll need to focus hard on first sighting the enemy then pre-empt their every move before arming your weapons system and going for the kill.

You can’t run out of bullets so you can get totally trigger-happy if that pleased you. A direct hit will register with real to life sound effects and a dramatic trail of smoke trailing from the other aircraft (whioch looked great on the debrief & souvenir video. The whole thing is an intense and uniquely exhilarating experience!

During the course of your flight we learned a series of air combat manoeuvres including - High and low Yo-Yos, Lead, lag and pure pursuit - Gunsight tracking & Physiological effects of “G” Force … HOOK !!! … HOOK !!! … HOOK !!!

Unfortunately for Graham it was like shooting fish in a barrel as he was blown out of the sky, I get quite bad motion sickness, hence not having breakfast, by nauseous moment (white bag time) was on negative g’s, though there was no follow through by praying to Hugh, thus no loss of points nor any spillage.

Once back on terra firma we had the opportunity to study the video footage to see where it all went right or wrong. The video we got to keep! So once this is reformatted I’ll get it on the blog. When you run your opponents video footage with yours side by side on split screen it was exciting to watch. It is the ideal way to relive what for me was the experience & thrill of a lifetime. Being the first to go out, I hanged about for the rest of the day, seeing how the other guys got on & the joy of their reactions.

It was a great pulling positive & negative G’s all weekend, but the biggest G is G for Graham from Buya”G”ift & big boss Dan. Thank you both for a fantastic few days. Now I know what the “G” in Buyagift stands for. Not just “G”raham but also the G‘s from the experience we had.

The Nightclub Tour : Sunday 18th May : Evening

To wrap up the tour of Las Vegas, we enjoyed a tour of the nightclubs with limo transfers & VIP admission to some of the top clubs and all in one remarkable night. Our first stop was the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino next door, with a glass elevator all the way up to the sixty something floor, with a fantastic view over Las Vegas.

Other clubs we went to were

Body English - Arguably, the new ‘daddy’ on the Las Vegas Club scene, Body English at the hard Rock evoked the image of a rock star’s English country mansion complete with leather Chesterfield sofas, acres of gilded mirrors and crystal chandeliers. Opulent and decadent – just what you would expect.

Tabu - Located at the MGM Grand, Tabu is a decent new ‘ultra-lounges’. It strikes a good balance between chill out lounge and happening club. Sumptuous décor, fashionable crowd and gorgeous waitresses combine to make a pleasant.

CatHouse - is an upscale ‘uber-lounge’ based on a French 19th century Bordello which manages to remain intimate and uniquely provocative. Two styles of music with two separate DJ’s juxtapose tastes in different areas within CatHouse. Dancing, not restricted to a dance floor, is encouraged throughout the ‘loungerie’, with lingerie clad performers enticing participation.

I think we strolled back to our hotel about 6am, after wisely leaving one of the other hotels before someone else got thrown in jail, I dunno, whatever ever happened to liberally sprinklings of enjoyment, whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas But that is another discussion saved for the bar & not on a public blog, boys will be boys!

No apologies for a long blog post, as this was something I personally wanted to document for posterity as a truly tremendous few days. I will populate this blog with a few photos a bit later.

Many thanks once again to Graham & Dan from Buyagift.

As you are aware Brand Bidding Groups (BBGs) have generally been for the familiar privileged few & favoured affiliates within some networks with the result of maximum reward with minimum effort with content affiliates suffering the stealth tax of cookie over-writing. There are a affiliates who are millionaires by doing something a monkey could do & offer little or nothing to the affiliate marketing space apart from being suited n booted & pretending to have a corporate persona as wide boys talking industry jibberish.

The solution I propose opens this all up to protect content affiliates & share the wealth where no network has suitable reason to withhold integration of the concept, unless there is possibly something to hide.

Here is the process of how it would be set up, now you must read through the WHOLE of this to understand this is quite simple & the real potential for all affiliates & the merchant.

1) An affiliate agrees to volunteer themselves!!! They look after the brand bidding group on a non-profit basis on direct to merchant paid search activity on brand terms, hybrids & obvious variations & mis-spelling. Obviously they would liaise with the merchant regarding the content of ad copy if it is necessary, though often this is best left to experienced affiliates to manage the campaign responsibly & professionally. You’ll also find volunteer affiliates will be more expansive in their use of keywords & not just exact match of brand [BRAND]

2) A separate Google, MSN Adcenter or Yahoo (YSM) account would be set up for each merchant so that the network, merchant and affiliate(s) involved have access to as well for keywords used & advertising spend. The reason for this will be more apparent a little later, so start licking your lips now.

2) What is paramount is transparency!!! The name of the affiliate(s) and the keyword database are available. Other affiliates not directly involved with the non-profit brand bidding group can also put forward suggestions of keywords to add to the mix & possibly integrated.

3) There will be no overwriting of content affiliate cookies at all!!! Content affiliates also include those who do paid search on product or generic keywords in paid search whether this is direct to merchant (i.e. permitted to use the display URL of the merchant in advertising or bringing traffic into their own site). This would require a separate network account being set up (an easy enough process), the main bit of work would require liaison between the network & some integration of code on the merchants behalf. Now at the moment we see Affiliate Window have done the honourable thing with Woolworth’ s. I don’t wish to knock it and it’s good progress, but the disadvantage of the Woolworths approach though is that it rely’s on cross referencing with a white list of keywords. The beauty of this scheme I am suggesting is that this separate link NEVER overwrites other affiliate links, but it can be overwritten in the normal manner of last referrer currently adopted. This content affiliates cookie always wins.

4) Obviously this non-profit affiliate can promote the merchant in the familiar manner as a content affiliate, on generic & product related terms in the normal way by using their affiliate links from their day to day account.

5) Now, the above is a great start within itself, but with paid search engines you can only use a certain display URL once (i.e single display URL policy). This is where some work is required on behalf of the network to earn their over-ride. Quite simply separate domains (either owned by the network or merchant) are set up for creation of landing pages or templates probably (preferably varying in design). The network would create these template / landing pages in liaison with the merchant for the brand bidding purposes, but if flexible enough these can also be utilised by normal content affiliates to integrate into their sites, thus offering multiple usage of the templates / full page sized content units.

The purpose of this is to provide more coverage in advertising listings with an increase in advertising slots incase competitors are bidding on the merchants brand & hopefully increase the transition of traffic actually going to the merchant. This needs to be only fully adopted if competitors are appearing in the space for keywords relating to the merchants brand. It’s a safeguard to counter competitor advertising or could be used in unison with the merchants own inhouse brand activity if they have one.

Now, the Non-Profit BBG can use one of their own URL’s to display the template (when bidding on brand going direct to a landing page), but there would need to absolutely zero leakage to other parts of their web site or web sites they own to make it fair i.e. to ensure other parts of their web site don’t benefit from bidding on brand. For their normal (non BBG) link then they fall into the same offerings as other affiliates.

It is important networks do work for their over-ride rather than sitting on their laurels ensuring these templates whether created by merchant or network are updated at reasonable intervals.

Now for the Deal Clincher

6) You are maybe asking what happens to the commission earned from this brand bidding. Well, we share the wealth of course, it all goes into a massive Prize Pot to share amongst other content affiliates who promote the merchant. The cost of the paid search activity (remember from a separate Google, MSN, Yahoo account) is deducted from the total commission earned via the brand bidding. These figures are released to the affiliate community for transparency.

7) The way the Jackpot Pool can be shared out is as follows. The Jackpot can be divided into 5, 10 or even 20 equal amounts. For the content affiliates promoting the merchant, 1 sale = 1 ticket where an affiliate can win no more than one prize for that specific merchant. Prize funds could anything for £20,000 to £100,000 or even more (don’t forget Millions have been made by these brand bidding groups, agencies & networks), which is a lucrative cash bonus for any content affiliate. Alernatively half the prize pool could be divided proportionally amongst their top 10 affiliates & the remainder going into the lucky dip. The frequency of these draws could be quarterly for lesser amounts of annually for a huge bonus.
Whereby:

• Content affiliates will more likely be incentivised to promote the merchant. Of which some could be used to launch their own bigger or greater projects, plus of course reaping the rewards of their own hard work.

• The merchant has a greater potential to receive an increase in incremental sales because of the generous Jackpot / Prize Pool available.

• The network still receives their over-ride, with any increases in incremental sales, plus they would be held with higher esteem with affiliates for their transparency & dedication to sharing the wealth amongst content affiliates.

• The wealth is shared amongst more worthy content affiliates across the industry rather than the familiar pre-chosen select few that some networks embrace.

Disadvantages

a) Some networks may jump on the bandwagon - Using the spin of strategic groups by maybe only offering a token program here or there trying to fool un-savvy affiliates or those that see things through Rose Tinted GlASSes. A network must be committed to this fairer solution of handling BBGs.

b) Finding volunteer affiliates - This wouldn’t be too difficult as I know, including myself, there are content affiliates who would embrace this. Setting up brand bidding campaigns on the different paid search engines only takes a small amount of time & requires little managing, except for occasionally updating ad copy & ensuring ROI is obviously profitable.

c) Who will fund the PPC activity? Well this should be the network of course. Why would they object? They have to do something for their money, it’s a no brainer really, since they would still receive an over-ride whereby PPC costs are recouped anyhow, rather than the volunteer affiliate awaiting for their expense. Any network objecting to this would need their scruples testing, when this should be weighed up against the increase in incremental sales & esteem they could gain & hold amongst affiliate peers which would transcend to other programs on their network. Just think about it for a moment!

You may ask, then why doesn’t the network simply do the whole branding themselves. Well who says some don’t do this already through mates or their selected cartel of affiliates with kickbacks. At least with what I propose it’s transparent & again the wealth is shared.

This solution in my book will clearly demonstrate which networks, merchants & agencies truly have any sincerity to what is a very workable solution. What traction this idea developes into, I cannot predict, but the opportunity is there to do the right thing for content affiliates & the industry as a whole, with the ball firmly served into their court.

There you go my fellow peers. The proposed solution to brand bidding groups & sharing the wealth amongst the true content affiliates.

Any additional advantages you feel this offers please offer a comment, so that we can get this solution rolling. And any volunteers please feel welcome to put your name forward. Any merchants interested in trialling this concept can email me “moose [at] mooseontheloose.co.uk” or PM me through the forum where my handle / username is “Qui Gon Jinn“

“People doing well under the current system are not inclined to look favourably on those who question the system.” !!! - Morpheus from The Matrix

From: Do You Take the Red Pill or The Blue Pill?

My faith in tracking, generally, has probably reached the ends of it’s tether to the point I have no T.I.T.S, yes I have the Moobs (Man Boobs) but I am taking about Trust In Tracking Solutions.

It’s not unless you send a decent enough volume of traffic to a merchant with a fairly constant conversion that you notice something is amiss. If you only send low or incidental traffic, then realistically you have no way of knowing and are at the mercy of the gods. It doesn’t matter how long it’s down for, it’s still pennies which should be in the affiliates pockets.

Only this week we have one network who doesn’t have the common courtesy to communicate with affiliates when it was obvious tracking was not working. It hadn’t been tracking from about the 16th April, then I noticed on the 23rd April when taking a cursory glance at reports. The merchant had reported it to the network prior to that but the network even took a couple of days to get back the merchant. I think that merchant may leave the network soon.

There is absolutely no excuse for a network not notifying affiliates and any apologies are hollow without true sincerity because it’s not an isolated incident!

These woes are familiar to affiliates so why haven’t things generally improved with some parties. Simple … they just don’t care! Granted a few networks keep you in the loop but some are so incompetent.

That was not all this week, to fill a brace, we had been running a very targeted campaign for a merchant, with about 15,000 keywords each deeplinking to specific products. Scraping the site for relevancy & introducing a number of negative keywords for improved quality of traffic via paid search. The conversion ended up worse than generics with no negatives, indicating that sometimes the tracking worked on deeplinks & sometimes it didn’t. This is currently being looked into as the conversion was only 0.3%. The reason for scraping the site was because the network, agency & merchant were totally useless at providing a very basic product feed. In fact all i wanted was a list of products they sold, we could have done the rest.

For the hatrick we have another merchant pleasant they are who recently launched on dual network, their advertised cookie of 30 days actually seems to be just a session cookie with session time outs too, where potentially affiliates have been potentially losing out loads over the years. The second network is looking into it, but what is worrying is that it had been on another network for a few years and they never noticed. Yet again it’s myself like other affiliates who notice the problems. Oh and the network who hadn’t noticed all these years is the same one that still hasn’t informed affiliate the tracking isn’t working.

There are other programs we suspect too, but it would probably be less stressful if we simply drop the program. I would rather keep what remnants of hair follicles I still have left, than inference from any suggestions that I mighty be indulging in a magic mushroom pizza or chasing the dragon.

Short Notice Programs Closures

Yet again all this year we continually see short notice program closures, and program T&C’s with hollow meaningless wording “we apologise for the inconvenience”. What total poppycock, their not sincerely sorry or apologetic at all. It shouldn’t be permitted.

Bring On CPC & CPM

I wonder what proportion of sales affiliates lose through lost tracking which isn’t identified, poor remuneration policies in place, de-duping of sales against merchants own paid search activity on brand or super cookies which maybe in place where it doesn’t matter if you are the last referrer, because the customer visited the merchant’s site sometime in the past the affiliate will not be credited the commission.

My answer is too much, keeping on top of program changes and no T.I.T. has led me to gradually move away from the performance marketing CPA model for the simplified & more harmonious model of CPC where I get paid per click & even CPM to supplement this. It means less relationships being managed & I can focus more on marketing the merchant. Keeping on top of changes is a full time task in itself whether it be openings / closures / suspensions/T&C’s.

As you know most merchants convert poorly, even if product targeted sometimes, so we shall culling them like the grim reaper soon and maintaining a fraction of programs we had previously where the bar for EPC’s & ROI’s will be raised considerably. If the merchant wants to appear on any of our sites, then they will have to pay CPC at the minimum level we determine. Personally I think more affiliates should request this from poor quality / poor converting merchants, even including the big brands. This change in focus I know will be more rewarding whilst a couple of networks & number of merchants can fester in the stew of inadequacies.

I am confident I will deliver quality traffic on any CPC model with the added benefit of less frustrations managing it, improving still further the quality of lifestyle.

Hybrid Commissions : A Possible Short Term Solution

A possible solution to this is to escalate the introduction of hybrid commissions, rather than affiliates being Guinea Pigs, until a merchant program comes up to scratch on a suitable EPC for their sector. Barring abuse from a minority, introducing a hybrid commission with an element of both CPC & CPA may go some way to off-setting these tracking problems we endure.

Please Read: Affiliates Need TIT - The Need For Trend Graphs and why networks are bottling it with regard to any implementation.

Opening The Brown Envelope .. Oops Sorry .. I Mean The Gold Envelope … drum roll …

Farcical, that is the only way I can describe the nominations for the Publisher (Affiliate) of 2008. Lets not hold back the expletives please with false pleasantries.

I’ll come onto the other more respected categories a little later, but the aforementioned one, left me lacing my football boots, grabbing the ball bag & heading down the park to burst a couple of footballs whilst kicking them against the crossbar.

The nominations for this category seems to have been left in the hands of the inept, who’s drinks I can only assume had been laced with something hallucinogenic. However, on a serious note it amplifies & underlines the incestuousness there is between the Praetorians in ensuring that the brand bidding groups remain within closely controlled circles with secret rituals in order to gain entrance into the inner sanctum and the clear divide between these parties (networks & agencies) associated with brand bidding groups & the majority of normal affiliates. Basically they are scared, and more attractive propositions which are presentable in-front of them more notably … Sharing the Wealth - The Solution to Brand Bidding Groups … puts the wind up their pipe.

Note: We have our first merchant coming on board which will be announced later this month. Estimated annual prize pool maybe about £30,000 (based on previous figures)

This category partially explains the lack of innovation from a few networks, brand bidding is easy so there is no need or requirement to innovate since life is just bliss down on Easy Street where it seems there is a clear divide between affiliates. Though there is gradually similar opinion and concessus for which networks & merchants we should shun and leave to their ways. A few of last years nominations indicated this, this category just reaffirms. It’s incredulous to say the least.

“Not sure who got to nominate for the “Publisher (affiliate) of 2008″, but it looks like a “who’s who” of brand name bidding + Quidco. Nice choices for the bloggers award though.” - Ian

I won’t bother listing the nominees for the Publisher (Affiliate) of 2008 Award, as I don’t even wish to even soil my blog by putting it type. There is one cashback site called Quidco amongst them, I don’t know much about cashback sites and there are friends & colleagues with very mixed opinions, perhaps is better that they won the award rather than any BBG affiliate or company. I will enquire though why is it companies that have been nominated & not individuals?

Now, I was quiet vociferous when it was initially announced there would be a voting panel for the awards, and I still am, if this particular one was one of those that was relinquished to a public vote, then I openly apologise to Matt and the Existem team, because i’ll reiterate again the nominations for the Publisher (Affiliate) of 2008 is Farcical.

Though this has laid down the challenge for other traditionally content affiliates to aggregate skills into a synergy to develop something spectacular, though they won’t have the easy cash from BBG’s to finance it.

Let’s not beat about the bush on this one … It’s unhealthy & not good for image of the industry!!!

But on a brighter note lets look at the other categories.

Affiliate Manager of 2008

• Chris Bishop (Hotel Chocolat)
• Chris Clarkson (Sunshine.co.uk)
• Daniel Morley (Alpha Rooms)
• Graham Keen (Buy a Gift)
• Jasper Van Der Bliek (Jackpot Joy)
• Zak Edwards (Prezzy Box)

I don’t know Chris “B” or Jasper, but this category represents class & quality, illustrating affiliates voting with their brain. I was surprised on a couple of omissions like Adam from JustHom & Naomi from Firebox to name just a few, I don’t know the latter but they are always proactive on the forum.

Publisher’s Account Manager of 2008

• Jonathan Erwin (OMG)
• Julie Wood (AW)
• Kier Marston (Webgains)
• Thuy Pham (AW)
• Vicky Long (OMG)

I only deal with a c couple of managers here, but many congratulations to them all & thoroughly deserved. I was hoping Julia Stent from Affiliate Window (who got rid of 0% on Dixons products) would be a nominee, and again surprised at a couple of omissions which again illustrates some of the quality staff there is around on the favoured networks, there must have been some good competition. Well done.

Affiliate Marketing Agency of 2008

• Equator
• Existem AM
• Media Vest
• Quantum BLM
• R.O.EYE

The usual suspects here, we need more candidates, a couple of these I associate with BBGs (Brand Bidding Groups) so disappointed to see them there. Personally I think Sean “Hong Kong Phooey” Carter from Media Vest are on the verge of being fan-riffic, so I’ll give them the nod together with the ever so nice chappies Bruce & Mark over at Existem AM.

Publisher’s Choice Of Network 2008

• Affiliate Future
• Affiliate Window
• <expletive removed>
• OMG
• Paid On Results
• Webgains

I am not surprised with a few of the obvious missing candidates, it’s not the time & the place to elaborate now as I could dedicate a whole blog to each one, but its curious how times have changed on the networks which used to be the so called big three, notably Commission Junction, Deal Group Media & Tradedoubler. Though I would have substituted one of these for the nominee with the <expletive removed>

Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2008

• Jason Dale (www.onelittleduck.co.uk)
• Kieron Donoghue (www.here.org.uk)
• Kirsty McCubbin (www.affiliatestuff.co.uk)
• Lee McCoy (www.leemccoy.co.uk)
• Paul Wheatley (www.mooseontheloose.co.uk)

I will have to demand a recount on this one, I think my vote should have the decimal point moved to the left a couple of notches. I am not one for the limelight so I really don’t have much to say except I am quite surprised with my nomination & quietly chuffed to be amongst a group of respected peers & friends. There are some excellent affiliate blogs out there which I read regularly, so there must have been some stiff competition in this category. Enough said on that & cheers kindly for the vote.

Have you noticed how its mainly the affiliates who have been both around the block and not in the BBG inner sanctum who have blogs?

For more details about the nominations and the wonderful efforts by those at Existem in the events they organise … Please Click Here

Let me commence with a definition of Praetorians, these people were venal & corruptible. Venal means these are people capable of betraying honour, duty, or scruples for a price. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr summarised this quite nicely as “A large praetorian bureaucracy, filled with ambitious, possessive . . . and often sycophantic people, makes work and makes trouble”, ruthlessly seeking personal advantage. Historically the Praetorians were eventually defeated by the citizens & Constantine who united the empire at the cost of much toil and bloodshed. In my opinion these Praetorians are the affiliates, merchants, networks & agencies associated with brand bidding groups who plunder at the expense of the citizens (decent & ethical content affiliates)

Today, May 5th, as you are probably aware marks the introduction of the Google AdWords Trademark Policy Revision, Google will no longer prevent you or anyone else using AdWords to place adverts on Google for trademarked terms of other companies or competitors nor will they prevent previously unauthorised ads from showing.

Initially I doubt there will be any almighty surge & it will probably commence with a whimper, but it will gradually gather pace into a crescendo. So don’t panic Mr Mannering just quite yet, just monitor you brand & have contingency plans in place if the situation arises.

It’s probably worthwhile reading my previous blog and those from other respected affiliates to give you a little background on this latest Google policy change Click Here For Details.

Personally, I sit on both sides of the fence on this topic depending on the circumstances. Bidding on competitor brands isn’t particularly good practise & shouldn’t be encouraged though for the competitor this can be extremely beneficial in increasing the profile of their smaller unrecognised brand by riding on the back of a larger brand (not necessarily better reputation).

No doubt gentlemen’s agreements will increasingly unfold, mainly between larger brands, where parties agree not to become embroiled by bidding on each others trademarks. The problem is misspellings, variations & hybrids are not realistically covered and sometimes encroach other marks in the process.

If a merchant has any fairly generic words in their brand name, there isn’t a whole lot they can do on broadmatching issues & any networks trying to enforce affiliates putting in negative phrases can take a run & jump from a very tall building.

Put the boot on the other foot, would merchants put 30,000 affiliate brands as -[negative] keywords into all their campaigns … Of course they wouldn’t. And with paid search affiliates having dozens or hundreds or thousands of adgroups it’s impossible & impractical.

So any network or merchant telling you to put in negatives can be prodded with the poopy end of a highly electrical charged cattle stick on the genitals & requested to shove off, wiping their feet on the way out.

The Exception to The Rule

If you followed the link above Click Here If you didn’t, then those Praetorians involved with BBGs I consider as legitimate targets, these parties involved have never considered the rest of us affiliates with cookie overwriting by selling out & “Getting Rich Quick by Selling br$and to the Arabs for £75m” or getting on some broadsheets rich list plus the other familiar BBG’ers. There are primarily four networks.

Therefore I will openly applaud any advertisers, affiliates or competitors, to target these parties. Will I personally involved with this? I haven’t yet decided, but I wouldn’t be foolish enough to have anything traceable back to myself, but will possibly / potentially quite happily furnish the foot soldiers the keywords required. It’s about time we rightfully clawed back some of what has been taken.

There is a small army of citizens (content affiliates) who have simply had enough. Those Praetorians in their Ivory Towers can quite happily have their discussions about myself & a few other affiliates. The Gauntlet has been picked up it’s been “enough is enough” for sometime now.

I haven’t forgotten the quote from a newly appointed UK network representative in Las Vegas last year who expressed they as a network wouldn’t change their ways & that this person was there to build up #29 & other BBG businesses.

Therefore if you are a merchant who currently has a BBG in place then I suggest you rethink & rapidly adopt alternative options like the one proposed here. “Sharing the Wealth - The Solution to Brand Bidding Groups”

Please note if a merchant doesn’t have a BBG then please don’t target them.

In the immortal words of Citizen ‘Wolfie’ Smith … “Power to the People” & a thumbs down to the The Praetorians. (relevant wrt to Roman times when the original Praetorians existed & the thumbs down given by the emporer in arena battles)

Rules of Engagement

Parties involved with BBGs manipulated the unwritten rules of engagement & worked the system via sheer greed with zero concern for anyone else, the seeds of this incentious period are quite obvious when you examine events chronologically, patterns, career paths, social circles with information volunteered quite freely when alcohol induced & a Penfold (the mole from Danger Mouse). The rules of engagement will change & for the better.

Ask Yourself

Are you a Praetorian, A Citizen or an Apathetic Buffoon?

Opting Out Required

Due to some networks reluctance to disclose which merchants have BBGs, I propose an Opt Out form or application where the merchant has to publicly say they don’t operate a BBG, thereby reducing the chances they will be subject to competitor bidding. As having to opt out seems to be the fashion, this maybe a prudent course of action to get transparency once & for all.

Exciting Product Launch

Hopefully, very soon, maybe this week even I’ll be able to blog about an exciting product launch pertaining to competitor & affiliate brand bidding, which may upset a few apple carts of those in their Ivory Towers & is highly recommended for merchants to use.

Happy Birthday Grandad

Finally I would like to say Happy Birthday to my grandad, who passed away a few years. He is fondly remembered & his words of wisdom I still follow.