Moose on the Loose

The US Government has had no alternative but to bow to public pressure and have subsequently handed over a copy of the cockpit video of the friendly fire incident in which a British soldier, Lance Corporal Matty Hull, was killed in Iraq. It’s a vital piece of evidence that The Sun must be applauded in publicly releasing, so that it must be shown at the inquest into this brave soldiers death. And quite rightly spark a flurry of angry reaction from us all, without adding any undue pressure on his family.

Reading & listening to the transcripts as well as watching the video several times, there is a lot to answer to, which must never be brushed under the carpet.

The Pentagon described the incident as “quite regrettable and unfortunate”. Sorry but this is extremely shallow & distasteful coming from them. This is only antagonised by the comments from Defence Secretary Des Browne who apparently “welcomed the decision”, saying it was “the right thing to do” … ask if he didn’t know it was available? If he didn’t then he’s not doing his job properly.

Lance Corporal Matty Hull’s widow Susan said:

“Not knowing is worse than knowing sometimes.”

“the life of an exceptional man, cut short by sheer and utter incompetence.”

The Sun’s defence editor Tom Newton Dunn said: “During our investigations we’ve come across a quite staggering amount of both US and British military personnel who are more than happy to see this creep into the public domain.” This was encouraging to hear & most welcomed, but I am not surprised. Gradually force commanders are starting to be a little more liberated in their comments about the government and their equipment, operation environment & living conditions.
The MOD says – The tape has not been played at the inquest yet because the Ministry of Defence said it did not have permission from the US. Excuse me, but the MOD initially categorically denied the existence of a tape. Since when should we have permission from The Pentagon over the death of our British Soldiers! We can only blame Mr “Poodle” Blair for that one. Lance Corporal Matty Hull’s inquest was recently adjourned because of the US government’s refusal to release the “classified evidence” … Poppycock!!! The MOD, The Pentagon, The UK & US Governments can only be perceived of having every intention to be deceitful and LIE to first & foremost Lance Corporal Matty Hull’s family, as well as the UK & US Public.

It’s not necessarily the pilots who should be made scapegoats, though they may have been stupid & ignorant of some combat arena procedure, coupled with conflicting orders and poor communications with air controllers on the ground … They do seem to have shown genuine remorse, however we don’t know for sure. It’s the governments which need bringing to justice, and why should American forces have immunity against prosecution in foreign courts … this i cannot fathom … I would like to see the pilots voluntarily coming forward to give evidence, I cannot assume whether they have or haven’t, but can assume if they did, their government would suppress these urges. Who allowed this international law in the first place?

I am not sure if the american pilots should be brought to justice but they should at least answer questions in a UK court of law as to what intelligence these orders were given which came from air controllers who seemed confused in what area they were in, but who actually instructed the air controllers. How many times leading up to the attack were orange marker panels mentioned by the pilots, surely they could have made a better judgement call?

In a military arena, no matter how many precautions are taken, blue on blue does happen, and casualties from friendly fire will occur. What I do find hard to stomach is the deceitfulness from both the UK & US government in their complete denial that a tape existed & unwillingness to release it until exposed by The Sun newspaper. I would be curious to know how they came about it, but glad they did.

Though I have no idea if the family wish to take civil action through the American legal system, or simply need the whole truth & nothing but the truth. If they do, then whatever diplomatic row occurs, so be it, but the government should finance & support them in this. Blue on Blue (Friendly Fire Instances), will unfortunately continue to occur because of the envelope / limits they are pushed too and the technology isn’t there to take out human interference. This doesn’t excuse mistakes, or poor / inaccurate intelligence but goes some way to explaining them. In the first Gulf War we lost as many men to friendly fire as we did to enemy fire. Deceitfulness shouldn’t be attributed to the people of the UK or the US, but only the Governments.

Defence Analyst Francis Tusa says:

“There seems to be a doctrine in US circles to fire first and ask questions later. In the UK it would be ‘ask first, fire later’

Obviously our sympathies lie with the family, friends & colleagues of Lance Corporal Matty Hull, and perhaps they are a little nearer to the truth. whether they will ever find out the full truth we don’t know. One having closure can be such an inappropriate word in circumstances like these and is occasionally used too flippantly.

What makes the US or UK government different from any other in situations like these, in the so called examples they try to set by being so self righteous & deceitful. Basically they LIED … It’s the not citizens which cause conflict it’s the governments.

The US Government (not the people) admit nothing because they live in their own world and don’t care about anyone but themselves. Historically there have been a number of recent military instances covered up by the US Government / Military like >> TO FOLLOW.

A simple little tool we occasionally utilise is Mike’s Adwords Wrapper, something I guess in time we will knock up something similar, but it’s useful nonetheless and only fair I mention it with a customary link. I haven’t yet explored the rest of his site to see what other useful tools are available, but this one is a little time saver if doing a number of Google Adword Campaigns / Adgroups.

Mike’s Adwords Wrapper

“The Google AdWords Wrapper is a FREE time saving tool that wraps keyword phrases in “quotation marks” (phrase match) and [square brackets] (exact match) for use in Google AdWords campaigns.

Duplicates are automatically removed, and the list is sorted in character code order. Options include change to lowercase, remove bids, and remove URLs.”

“No Bells & Whistles … Just Nuts & Bolts”

Following rapidly after Buy.at’s overdue overhaul of their interface (a good improvement) plus rebrand, Tradedoubler (aka The Borg) have just launched theirs, with an interface facelift, as well as redefining their market offerings.

The product range caters to advertisers and affiliates who are looking to utilise the various marketing and advertising opportunities presented by the internet. TradeDoubler’s range of marketing solutions now have a clear & concise distinction to accommodate advertisers across multiple industry sectors whether they are looking to generate increased brand awareness or drive direct response in the form of clicks, sales or registrations.

The portfolio / product range is now defined as:

• td Pull (Affiliate network)

Long-term partnerships between advertisers and publishers. Publishers are paid a commission by an advertiser when advertising on their website results in an actual sale or registration for the advertiser.

• td Push (Campaign network)

Short-term activity with pre-defined deliverables. TradeDoubler will create a bespoke network of targeted publisher sites to meet the advertiser’s specific objectives.

• td Reach (Ad network)

A plug and play network with extensive reach. An advertiser ‘plugs’ into the existing network of publisher sites and ads are rotated across the network reaching a wide target audience.

• td Talk (Pay-per call network)

Advertisers can use the reach of the internet to drive sales and registrations over the phone. td Talk allows publishers to easily promote more complex products and services on their website and receive a commission for phone calls generated.

• td Toolbox (Marketing interface)

A tracking and ad serving interface. Advertisers and publishers can track, analyse and optimise the performance of all online marketing activity (advertisers) or advertising carried on their website (publishers).

My Opinion:

td Talk (Pay-per call network) – is what caught my eye the most. We have had a trials with a few of merchants in the past, so it’s far from being new yet still remains unexploited, and those we had made a real concerted effort on had reaped dividends indeed. With the increasing untake of VOIP, and traditional use of ordering by telephone still prefered by a good proportion of internet users (especially holidays), this will help plug the leakage where potential customers reach for the phone rather than ordering online, whereby previously an affiliate would have lost out on the commission. Unfortunately, though fairly much in it’s infancy, the market requires a greater uptake by merchants / advertisers of this option if they wish to be taking seriously by high revenue generating affiliates, frustratingly so many merchant / advertiser sites still have prominent order numbers displayed. Therefore, I do hope a lot of energy is focused in this area not only by Tradedoubler but other networks too by encouraging their clients to adopt & embrace this option … Maximising revenues to affiliates who can create landing pages with improved monetisation … The downside of where it hasn’t worked particulalry well so far is Miva UK, the quality of advertisers being poor in our opinion and the uptake of only a few in the finance sector. Still this is an exciting avenue to pursue / explore and one we will be keeping a keen eye on.

Their strap line “Market like you mean it” has more of a buzz to it, rather than the previously mundane “The European Affiliate Network”. As for the logo, well take it or leave, it simply looks like the typical pebble dashing after a few too many beers & a dodgy kebab. More likely they have let a kid loose with with one of those old spiral drawing kids sets. You know the one, where you create beautiful designs using cogs, stencils and colouring pens. Tradedoubler should have commissioned my kids. To be fair it is an overall improvement.
At first glance, the functionality of the interface seems fairly similar to before, the colour scheme reminds me very of DGM.. is that a good? The first thing I noticed was that our so called publisher manager had changed without notification … nice of them to let us know … It used to be Nick Roveta, and over the past year despite many attempts to contact him via email or telephone, little was ever returned. I used to have a lot of respect for him, unfortunately this has somewhat withered with our zero respect for the network. On the whole their rebranding will work out to be a good thing for them and the industry as a whole (pending if the proposed takeover from AOL materialises), but scratch beneath the surface of the veneer / make up and it’s still the old mutton dressed up as lamb Tradedoubler. A leopard doesn’t change it’s spots and I see no commitment or genuine conviction from them that this will change. If I ever had the deciding vote on the takeover, I would have gone against the boards recommendations who I feel have reached their exit strategy of looking to cash out with their cash cow.

On a minor note they claim a be “network of more than 100,000 website publishers”. This really needs to be taken into perspective on a market by market or country by country basis. This number simply blinds prospective clients. Realistically most of the main players in affiliate marketing are signed up to most networks anyhow, the figure you really need to examine is how many cheques a network actually cuts per month, then you will quickly determine that’s it’s fairly similar across many of them. They have over 1000 advertisers which is true .. so quickly looking at this, the ratio of publishers to advertisers is 10:1, then surely the dedicated account managers looking after affiliates should be a similar ratio you would expect wouldn’t you? So if there 100 account managers looking after merchants, then there should be 1000 publisher managers as a rule of thumb, therefore I think you’ll find that the ratio in relation to affliliate / publisher : merchant support is somewhat inverted.

“An Affiliate’s Life is All About Arse! … You’re Either Laughing Your Arse Off, … Kicking Arse, … Busting Your Arse, … Kissing Arse, …Covering Your Arse, … Trying to Get a Piece of Arse (only if you are single), … Behaving Like a Arse, …or You Live / Work with an Arse. (not you dearest if you are reading this)”

There is more humour & interesting articles on a more serious note on this affiliate blog.

5 Star Affiliate Programs

I will be posting shortly on some more important issues, but unfortunately I am still suffering a bit with jet lag after Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas .. “Bless, his cotton socks” .. In addition to this I’ve had a more than normal focused mindset on a couple of new projects and revamping of a tired looking website, with a resurgence in the never lack lustre self-motivation.

“Well done is better than well said”

This is an interesting development:

AOL LLC Makes $900 Million Bid For TradeDoubler AB (Aka the Borg)

More info is here at the Morning Star

It’s not particularly a great surprise, rumours had been circulated about Tradedoubler, though not specific to whom the buyer would be. Until now it had simply been gossip & conjecture, with a hint or two dropped along the way.

I am not sure how I feel at the moment, so really it’s still all hypertehtical until the deal is set in stone and the required majority of shareholders accept the offer. With a giant like AOL coming to the table, my initial gut reaction is that it’s unfortunately & gradually taking away the independent network feel good factor. Those very foundations on what affiliate marketing flourished, yet it is inevitable that these roots will be corroded away in favour of big bucks business.

However, there maybe no need to be pessimistic, on the more positive flip-side, this may actually elevate the image & perception of affiliate marketing & thus improving our own stakes with it. Another positive result /outcome could be that it acts as a catalyst for some networks to give their reporting tools & interface a fresh lick of paint to ensure they are more appealing & subsequently a more attractive proposition, since a few more bells & whistles will both improve awareness of them & naturally with it comes further credibility (though this shouldn’t necessarily be the case). Perhaps a couple of networks may actually move their backsides into gear who have been recently lagging on several fronts. But, you cannot get away from thinking will there be a conflict of interest with access to affiliate’s data!

On the A4UForum, one member rightly quotes “I think we’ve all predicted consolidation and Mergers/aquisitions being a theme this year. I wouldn’t imagine the effects will be felt by publishers/affiliates for a half year. Certainly interested in how this will affect the market in the long run though”

This makes me wonder how many networks are contemplating 2007 end, as an “exit strategy / opportunity. There was various speculation last year surrounding DGM, however who else can shares be speculated in?

What difference it will make short term or long term? … one can only hazard at a guess …. Will it be good, bad or indifferent, thus business as usual for affiliates? Is this acquisition more for other territories other than UK & Europe? What kind of shake up in operations can we envisage?

With a brief reference to other networks, I feel Affiliate Window, still independent, have progressed significantly and by doing this relatively quietly in the background, growing rapidly with a good solid base of merchants, improved interface & interesting product search developments due for launch fairly soon. Whereas DGM is unfortuantely still in limbo-land, if & when they can turn it around your guess is as good as mine. Buy.at now have a good new interface & with the capital injection from last year, they are pursuing their own agenda & will certainly be a market force to reckon with in the UK. IBG (Affiliate Future), a very nice network to deal with, maybe haven’t quite got the merchant base yet but are long overdue for an interface redesign & that fresh lick of paint, their niche will be Holiday & Travel. Paidonresults independent & staying, sincerely hoping they get more larger branded names on board, but they too are ripe for cherry picking. OMG, again likeable, still haven’t quite got it, being finance focused they perhaps need to move towards a better version of the Moneysupermarket model.

I don’t feel Tradedoubler were the friendliest indy ever anyway though! Will this only increase the aloofness & make them more difficult to deal with, alienating them still further from affiliates that asissted in getting them there?

You can check out Tradedoubler’s shares on Yahoo Finance, which are currently enjoying a surge.
Yahoo Finance

When i last looked they were at 230 today, Shareholders are offered cash at 215.

Which is another thing, Yahoo would be an interesting option to enter into the fray as it would fit their existing criteria & business model? And with Google / Froogle offering their CPA product to merchants whereby they themselves would be the both network & the ONLY affiliate, will as predicted lead to interesting times ahead.

I am still deliberating whether to purchase more, hold or sell existing shares. As it currently stands the value of my existing investment has doubled. As a shareholder this looks good, as an affiliate .. well time will tell .. One concern is whether as a result will they trim the fat from their affiliate base affecting a number of livelihoods, in their Borg realm of control by having to do as they say, though against your best interest, in their pursuance of this total assimulation.

The timing of this proposed takeover is interesting to, with Google some time ago suspected & consequently rumoured to become a network, did the directors & soem of the major shareholders feel it was an appropiate time to cash in their cow. If the deal is scuppered, with some major shareholders holding back for a better deal and AOL withdraw, what then? Will AOL seek someone else like Commission Junction? Will there be changes in senior management at Tradedoubler who might lose patience?

On the whole congratulations to Tradedoubler and their Shareholders, as for affiliates, we can only speculate but as ever be cautious.

As you are probably aware a few of today’s larger search engines have historically used sponsored listings or back fill results from other sources, and simply branded in their own image msn, yahoo & ask jeeves are to name but a few.

A small, non time consuming, un-innovative side project we are embarking on is to reproduce something similar utilising what is currently available out there, to offer user functionality which is fairly similar to any other search engine whereby some search engines look familiar in the way results are displayed, together with similar userability.

However we have a few interesting innovative ideas up our sleeves on how to monetise those results more effectively, something we have trialled with existing sites with some success without too much effort. We are confident this little twist will reap dividends.

We have absolutely no delusions of grandeur, but our initial target is to gain 10k (10,000) UV’s (Unique Visitors) a day by end of Quarter 1 rising to 100k UV’s by year end. We feel this would be easily achievable & reward us with a nice modest income to supplement what we already earn.

Initially we will be starting with the UK market & duplicating the formula to other english speaking nations such as the US. Other territories will be rolled out once we are satisfied with the results, but cross promotion will assist in ski ramping the sites. One of our main focuses will be to ensure that results displayed are demographically clean & relevant to a UV’s country with geo-targeting to assist this both from a users & advertisers perspective.

Over the festive period of Christmas & New Year and even into new year there will be less posts than normal. Usually from about 21st December to 15th January as my son has a birthday in this period too. So no apologies for any lack of posts.

I’ve tried to always maintain that business revolves around my family lifestyle, not allowing business to rule my life. So far i’ve managed to pretty much hold firm to this principle and would suggest the same to anyone to adopt.

Anyway, may I take this opportunity to wish everybody a healthy, enjoyable & successful 2007, it what will be no doubt an interesting year.

Also a warm thanks for some fabulous Christmas presents from Fraser & Fiona, Paid On Results (Clarke), Buyagift, Search 123, Affiliate Window, Virgin Mobile, Tradedoubler & Google.