Affiliate Marketing Blog by James Little

It’s been debated in the past about if affiliate incentives, be them performance related or not, work.  I’ve always been a big advocate of them and suggest them to all of our clients, here are a few of the prizes that I’ve had a hand in giving away.

• 2 Trips to Barbados
• Weekend break (with helicopter transfer) to Monte Carlo
• Alienware PC worth about £2k
• £1,000 Prize draw
• Plasma TV
• Higher CPA’s!

To bring this point home, I thought I’d do a small blog about my affiliate experience with incentives and if they work after Chris (who just sold Holiday Watchdog to Trip Advisor) set one up for his new site, Sunshine.co.uk

About Sunshine.co.uk

Sunshine.co.uk is an online travel agent, selling cheap holidays to a UK audience.  It was created by Chris Clarkson, a well known figure in the affiliate space after successfully setting up, and then selling, holiday watchdog.

The Incentive

Rather than write my own version, here is the details of the competition posted by Chris on 11th March:

To give you a push to get your links to sunshine.co.uk up and running, we’re going to offer a rather nice incentive for March.

Drool
We’re giving away a rather stunning MacBook Air (the 1.6GHz model).

Cool, how do I get my grubby polluting paws on it?
Simply add our links to your site and email me with the URL(s) - each site featuring sunshine links = 1 entry in prize draw!

AND

Make 5 sales in March (yes, including sales already made) = 1 entry in prize draw!

So you can have multiple entries = more chances to win the coolest laptop out there.

Huh?
Every sunshine.co.uk affiliate who enters has an opportunity to win the prize draw for the MacBook Air, no matter how big or small!

Get Signed Up
If you haven’t done already, you’ll now be itching to join our programme on Affiliate Future

T&Cs
Closing Date - 31st March 2008
The winner will be drawn randomly - this decision is final. The draw will take place on the 1st April.

Contact
Please send your URLs to the email address given in my sig below. Anyone who’d like any more info about our programme please get in touch using same email.

And now why I think it works

Here are the reasons it was always going to work:

• It’s available to everyone, all they need to do is get up a link
• It’s a decent prize, relatively expensive and brand new
• All you need is a website, it’s not industry specific

On a personal note it has spurred me on to do something with my travel orientated domain name, online travel offers.  Not only have I now got a site up (that I’ll post more on once my server backup is complete tonight) but I’ve also started a competition to help build up an email database€¦ the competition itself has got over 300 applications in just a few days and runs till the end of the year, so I have a few months to earn enough to pay for it!

And lastly, to top it all off, the program is run extremely well - within 24 hours I had some new creative and a top selling product feed built from scratch after asking for them to be setup.

So well done to Chris, Happy and the rest of the team for their work and not only will I hopefully end up with a new Macbook Air to replace my broken PC at home, I’ll also hopefully end up with enough sales to justify the 20+ hours that I’ve put in so far working on it!

Last but not least, if you are thinking about going on holiday somewhere nice, make sure that you use Sunshine as it will give me a higher chance of winning!

If you managed to catch yesterdays article focused around brand name bidding then you may remember that the second part of the article was still to come and on another hot topic in the affiliate industry - merchant de-duping.

For those of you that are unaware it’s potentially worth reminding us all what I mean by de-duping before going on to talk about how I feel that it’s a disgrace that networks let merchants get away with it.

Imagine for a moment the following customer journey€¦

A web user, who we’ll call Bob, decides that they are in the market for a widget and goes searching on the web for different widget reviews to find the right one.  After spending a long time finding what he feels is the right widget Bob eventually clicks on the link to widgetstore.com.  He decides that he is not going to pay straight away (maybe he does not have the cash till pay day, maybe he wants to check with his wife, Margret first - who knows).  A few days later Bob decides to go ahead with it but as he didn’t bookmark the widget review site he searches for widgetstore.com and clicks on their PPC advert.

Bob pays for the item and is happy to find out that his item will be delivered in just a few days time.  Bob is happy, Widgetstore.com is happy but all of a sudden the Widget review site owner is not.

What happened, I hear you cry?  Well the agency that looks after the widgetstore.com marketing has decided that the sale did not originate from the widget review site, even if the cookie triggered, they have decided that it was of course their hard work in bidding on the widgetstore.com brand name that got the customer into buying mode and rejected the affiliate sale for that very reason - makes their CPA look a little bit lower too.

I may use a little comedy above but the reality is far from funny.   As merchants and agencies €œget smart€ more de-duping is done both network and client side and it’s not just brand terms in my mind that are unjustifiably causing affiliates to lose out on commission.

Yes - we all know that the last click €œwins€ is an industry standard but the issue here is massive and brings more questions than answers, here’s a few that I have..

1)    Why should content affiliates who spend hours and hours every day writing quality comparisons like the ones on widgets suffer and lose out because of multiple activity occurring.
2)    What kind of response do you think you would get from google if you tried to claw back the valid fees because of de-duplication?
3)    Why should affiliate networks sit on their back and let this happen?
4)    Why do affiliates have to put up with this crap.

I work in an agency and would never dream of doing this.  Here is an example of how we work it.

We work on an affiliate campaign and a huge PPC campaign with a sports retailer.  As part of the reporting process we look for duplications of order numbers across both the affiliate and PPC campaign.

We report back to the client on this happening and explain (quite rightly) that affiliates should not be screwed over just because the customer was not in €œbuy€ mode.  We explain that if we were to start reversing sales then less and less content affiliates would be in business and eventually it would get harder to get the sales in the first place.

Report - do not punish!

So how does it get sorted?

I think networks need to take a stance here and stop letting the retailers think they can get away with this; perhaps there is a better level of tracking required to stop it from causing problems and perhaps the last click wins needs to be revisited.

At the very, very, very minimum I think that the industry needs to ensure that the situation above in relation to widgetstore.com does not happen - perhaps de-duping will never go away but it should not happen on the brand name level like it is now.

Ever since I can remember there have been some strong views in the affiliate marketing world about brand name bidding and the latest hot topic in the industry is merchants de-duping their sales and reversing potential commissions to affiliates.

As someone that runs an affiliate network and someone that has in the past run a few affiliate sites I’ve been meaning to jot down some works about both for a while now and have finally found a few minutes to do so.

So let’s start with brand name bidding€¦

My view is quite clear - as a merchant there are very few reasons to allow brand name bidding - the only ones I can think of are:

a) You have a brand that is not possible to get trademarked
b) You’ve been waiting for ages to google to protect your trademarked brand
c) You don’t rank in position #1 in the organic search results

I’d welcome suggestions for other reasons but if your network is suggesting you allow it there is one clear reason why; they will make money from it.

I’ll highlight two things I have seen that show why on earth this is so mucked up.

A client being bullied by his affiliates

We were talking to a client based in American who sells online software. This client allows affiliates to bid on their very well known brand name and we suggested that they do this themselves and stop affiliates from doing so.

I was shocked when the client said they had spoken to their existing network and some of the affiliates and were told that if the policy changed, a number of the affiliates would stop promoting them and they would loose sales; essentially he explained that he felt he was being held to ransom by his affiliates but because they needed the sales they would allow this to happen.

What kind of world are we in when a client is saying he is being held to ransom by his affiliates!!

A network back hander

I’ve made it quite clear on previous occasions that when I have done affiliate work (especially the limited PPC I have done) I do not work with any programs that I manage; I feel this is an ethical decision that I have stuck to for years.

While we’re talking of ethics, imagine my surprise when a very large network that we were working with suggested to me that if we allowed a small closed group of brand name biddings, they would suggest that I myself was on that group.

Obviously I turned this offer down but imagine that this is not the first case of it happening.

So who should bid on the brand?

There are two very simple things you should do here/allow here:

1) Either set up your own campaign on Google, Yahoo and MSN for brand terms and bid on them yourself - you won’t need a large budget for this
2) If you work with an agency (on a % of media spend rather than % of sale basis) then get them to setup the campaign to do this, it will work out a lot cheaper.

I’d welcome further comments and suggestions from affiliates, merchants, agencies or networks about other reasons to allow this but still find it strange that there are so many closed groups for brands that really don’t need to waste money in this way.

Make sure that you come back to the blog soon for part 2 of my rant about merchant de-duping of sales!

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the first post of 2008.

Other bloggers like Kieron and Lee have mentioned that one of the secrets to success in affiliate marketing is going Niche as this is where the conversions are - long tail stuff..

With this in mind I thought some of you may be interested in an email I received this morning entitled Hot 100 in 2008 - it’s provided by Redpages a celebrity profiling service for marketing bods that is worth checking out if your interested in that kind of thing - last year they got it right with people like Lewis Hamilton and Kate Nash on the people to watch out for list..

Anyhow - here is the list.

Adele - rock & pop, singer, songwriter
South London acoustic soul artist winner of the inaugural Brits Critics Choice award and releases new album 19 in January.

Adil Rashid - cricket
Yorkshire cricketer who won the Cricket Writers’ Club 2007 Young Cricketer of the Year and PCA Young Player of the Year titles. Along with Matthew Prior, Adil signed to Slazenger in 2007 to promote the Slazenger SXi Series.

Agnete Hegelund Hansen -  model
Rising Danish model who is fronting campaigns for Pringle and Alberta Ferretti.

Alfie Allen -  actor
Younger brother of Lily, Alfie appears in 2008 films Flashback Of A Fool, Boogie Woogie and The Other Boleyn Girl as well as reprising Daniel Radcliffe’s role in Equus onstage.

Alice Dellal - society scene, model
Party girl and model Alice Dellal frequents the London party scene and is the face of Pussy Glamore. Alice mixes in the same social circles as Lizzy Jagger and Charlotte Casiraghi (who dates her brother Alex).

Aminaka Wilmont -  fashion
British fashion duo Marcus Wilmont and Maki Aminaka Lofvander were crowned as Fashion Fringe 2007 winners. In 2008, the duo hold their debut show at London Fashion Week.

Amy Ryan -  actor
US actress nominated for a Golden Globe for Gone Baby Gone and also appears in Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead and Dan In Real Life, both out January 11.

Andrew Garfield -  actor
Young British actor, who played Todd Hayes in Lions For Lambs, is set for big things having landed a part in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Ben Barnes -   actor
Stardust star who plays Prince Caspian in the next installment of the The Chronicles of Narnia series (out June 27).

Black Kids  -  rock & pop
US four-piece indie rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Currently unsigned though circulating their self-released, four-track debut album Wizard of Ahhs as a free download. Touring in the US from December 21, UK from late January 2008.

Blake Lively -   actor
Talented US actress who plays lead Serena in Josh Schwartz’s Gossip Girl. Airs on ITV2 in spring 2008.

Blood Red Shoes  -  rock & pop
Singer/songwriting rock duo from Brighton, formed in 2005. After joining the NME New Music Tour in 2007, 2008 sees the band begin a new tour of the UK and Ireland throughout January and February; the release of their single You Bring Me Down, February 28, and debut album Box of Secrets due August 2008.

Boris Johnson -   politics, non-fiction writer, editor, journalist
Controversial former Spectator editor is standing as a candidate in the London mayoral election (May 1).

Brett Harrison -   actor
US star of TV hit series Reaper which airs on E4 in 2008. Also in a band, Big Japan, with The OC actor Adam Brody.

Burial -  dance music
Anonymous dubstep producer/artist whose self-titled debut album was met with critical acclaim. His second album ‘Untrue’ was also given five-star reviews.

Charlie Cox -   actor
Young British actor who starred in Stardust and appears in Stone of Destiny alongside Robert Carlyle and Billy Boyd.

Charlotte Casiraghi -   royalty, society scene
Daughter of HSH Princess Caroline of Monaco and Stefano Casiraghi, Charlotte is dating fellow socialite Alexander Dellal and hopes to carve out a media career following her work experience at a national UK newspaper in 2007.

Charlotte O’Connor -   singer, songwriter
Lancashire-born acoustic singer/songwriter. Two weeks after posting her profile on Bebo she reached number one in the Bebo Unsigned Artist charts, and number 14 in the Bebo Download charts. Currently recording further material, touring across the UK and in discussions with major labels for the release of her debut album in 2008.

Chloe Hayward - model
Brit teen discovered by Select’s Sarah Leon. Currently the face of Topshop.

Chris Pine -   actor
US actor who has landed the role of Captain James T Kirk in JJ Abrams’s Star Trek movie, out December 27 2008.

Courtney Smerski -   model
Rising fashion model who has worked with top photographer Mario Sorrenti and due to appear in Italian Vogue and Wonderland. Also a face of Nina Ricci.

Dakota Blue Richards -   actor
Young actress who beat 10,000 hopefuls to land the lead role in The Golden Compass. Appears in The Secret of Moonacre in 2008.

Danny Cipriani -   rugby union
Promising London Wasps fly half and fullback who was called up to the England Saxons squad for the 2007 Barclays Churchill Cup.

David Jordan -   rock & pop
London-based singer/songwriter. Debut album, Set The Mood, was released October 29 2007. New single Sun Goes Down is out February 4.

Delinquent  -  dj, dance music
Emerging garage act likely to make an impact as bassline music returns to the club scene.

Diablo Cody -   scriptwriter
American screenwriter nominated for a Golden Globe for Juno. Currently executive producer on The United States of Tara (starring Toni Collette).

Doug Walker -   rock & pop, singer, songwriter
Indie pop singer/songwriter who found fame after handing an EP to Chris Moyles outside the Radio 1 studios. Doug embarks on UK tour in February 2008 and will release debut single The Mystery in March 2008, followed by an, as yet untitled, album in May/June 2008.

Duffy  - songwriter, singer
Welsh singer/songwriter. In 2008 Duffy begins UK tour, January 16 - March 11, releases single Mercy on February 25, followed by album Rockferry on March 3 2008.

Ebony Bones -  rock & pop, singer, songwriter, music producer, actor
Exciting self-taught British singer/songwriter who started out as an actress, playing Yasmin Green on Family Affairs. Debut single We Know All About You released November 26 2007. Zane Lowe dubbed her single as the ‘hottest record in the world’.

Ellen Page -   actor
Golden Globe-nominated young US actress who appears in Juno, among several major films in 2008.

Elliot Minor  -  rock & pop
British pop punk five-piece who recently supported McFly on tour. Single Still Figuring Out debuts on January 28 2008, with a self-titled album to follow in April.

Emile Hirsch -   actor
Emerging US actor who plays lead role in new Wachowski brothers film, Speed Racer (out May 16) with Matthew Fox.

Exit Calm  -  rock & pop
Yorkshire-based experimental rock band whose debut single Higher Learning is released on February 8 2008. Currently in talks with major record labels.

Foals  -  rock & pop
British experimental, indie punk band from Oxford. Debut album Antidotes is released March 2008, to accompany a UK tour.

Gabriel Agbonlahor -   football
Promising Aston Villa player who won the Barclays Premier League Player of the Month award in December 2007.

Gemma Arterton -   actor
St Trinian’s actress tipped to appear in Bond 22 and starring in Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla in 2008.

Georgia May Jagger -   society scene, model
Teenage Uniqlo model Georgia is a face to watch. She once sang backing vocals on father Mick’s album, Brand New Set Of Rules and has more recently been seen stepping out with mother Jerry.

Glasvegas  -  rock & pop
Glaswegian experimental surf pop four-piece. Currently unsigned and touring the UK following the digital release of debut single Daddy’s Gone.

Greg James -  radio presenter, tv presenter, voiceover artist
Radio 1’s latest signing Greg was plucked from student radio obscurity to front the early morning show on Radio 1.

Hannah Marshall - fashion
New UK designer who has set up her eponymous womenswear label. Received a 4Talent Award in December 2007.

Hattie Morahan -   actor
British actress who plays major role in TV drama Sense And Sensibility, and other roles in Trial & Retribution XVIII: Kill The King and The Bank Job.

Henri Lansbury -   football
Arsenal midfielder who has been with the club since he was 9, making him the longest-serving player in the academy. Debuted for the first team in 2007.

Irina Lazareanu -   model
Former squeeze of Pete Doherty, Canadian model Irina is one to watch in fashion. Most recently dueted with Sean Lennon at a Chanel fashion show. Also popular with Balenciaga and is the face of rival Kate Moss’s Topshop range.

Jack Hobbs -   football
British teen footballer who plays for Liverpool. Played only three minutes of professional football before Rafa Benitez signed him on his 17th birthday.

Jaime Winstone -   actor
Ray’s daughter and Alfie Allen’s other half appears in Boogie Woogie and Phoo Action in 2008.

James Haskell -  rugby union
London Wasps flanker. Widely regarded as the successor to Lawrence Dallaglio.

Jason Reitman -   film director, scriptwriter
US film director who’s the son of Ivan Reitman. Garnering praise for forthcoming comedy Juno (out February 2008).

Jean Sarkozy -   society scene
Chiselled son of French president Nicholas Sarkozy and former wife Cecilia, Jean is likely to be seen more on British shores as mother Cecilia relocates to the UK.

Jessica Ennis -   athletics
Rising star in British athletics. Competes in the heptathlon having equalled the 25 year-old British High Jump record for women in May 2007.

Jessie Cave -   actor
Brit actress who appears in forthcoming CBBC drama Summerhill and as Lavender Brown in Harry Potter And The Half Blood (released November 21 2008).

Joe Hart -   football
Manchester City goalkeeper who also plays for the England u-21 team.

Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong  -  rock & pop
Trendy London-based indie band whose single Lonely Buoy is out on February 18 2008, with an album to follow in May 2008.

John Bostock -   football
Crystal Palace teenage prodigy who has been trailed by Chelsea, Barcelona and Manchester United.

Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit  -  rock & pop
Contemporary blues/folk band from London. Debut single Leftovers is released on February 25 2008, followed by an album in May 2008.

Jonathan Kelsey -   fashion
British shoe designer who set up his own label after extensive experience in the fashion industry, working with Jimmy Choo, Cacharel and Giles Deacon.

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld -  model, fashion
The face of Tom Ford’s Orchid fragrance, Julia is the daughter of Parisian Vogue Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld and has been named the face of Eric Villency’s Restoration of the Monarcy denim line.

Justin Bruening -  actor
US actor who’s won the lead role in NBC’s new Knight Rider series.

Kaley Cuoco -  actor
Hot young actress who plays lead in US drama, Big Bang Theory. Airs on Channel 4 in 2008.

Kristen Bell -   actor
Veronica Mars actress returns in 2008 with major parts in Heroes and Gossip Girl as well as roles in films Dumped and Fanboys.

Lee Pace -   actor
US actor who stars as Ned in hit series, Pushing Daisies (airs on ITV in 2008). He’s been nominated for a Golden Globe.

Leighton Meester -   actor
Actress who plays Blair Waldorf in US series Gossip Girl, due to air on ITV2 in 2008.

Liam Byrne -   politics
Labour MP for Hodge Hill and Minister of State for Immigration, Nationality and Citizenship. One of Byrne’s forthcoming projects includes transforming the West Midlands region to create new homes and employment opportunities.

M.I.A.  -  rock & pop, singer
Controversial grime/ragga/electro artist and songwriter who has had a cult following throughout 2007 and is likely to emerge into the mainstream during 2008.

Make Model  -  rock & pop
Glaswegian indie-folk rockers. Recently signed to EMI records for the release of forthcoming single LSB, April 2008, and a debut album to follow in July. UK tour begins in the new year.

Megan Fox -   actor
Transformers actress soon to play Sophie in How To Lose Friends And Alienate People (released October 3 2008). Regular on the American party circuit.

Michael Cera -   actor
Superbad actor and star of Juno. Stars in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist in 2008.

Michael Johnson -   football
Young Manchester City midfielder who previously captained the youth team and has made an impact this season on the field.

Morwenna Lytton Cobbold -   model
Henry Lytton’s model daughter fronts Burberry’s fall campaign and is a regular on the London scene.

Natt Weller -   rock & pop, society scene, party organiser, dj
Model and DJ son of musician Paul Weller. Recently shot a fashion film with Zandra Rhodes and Marios Schwarb.

Nick Grimshaw -   tv presenter, dj, radio presenter
Up and coming quirky TV presenter, once linked to Sadie Frost, who fronts shows Sound with Annie Mac and Freshly Squeezed with Alexa Chung.

One Night Only  -  rock & pop
North Yorkshire five-piece indie rock band. Debut album Started A Fire is out January 28.

Palladium  -  rock & pop
British alternative rock group who release their debut album The Way It’s Not in March 2008. Upcoming UK tour dates include the band supporting Mika and The Kooks.

Paramore  -  rock & pop
Alternative female-fronted power-pop punkers from Tennessee. The band embark on a tour across the UK and Europe in January 2008, with dates already sold out.

Patrick Watson -   rock & pop
Canadian four-piece who scooped the Polaris award, Canada’s equivalent to the Mercury Music Prize, for album Close to Paradise. A UK tour begins in March 2008.

Paul Dano -   actor
US actor best known for his role as the non-speaking brother in Little Miss Sunshine. Also stars with Daniel Day-Lewis in oil drama There Will Be Blood (out February 8 2008).

Peter Pilotto -   fashion
Emerging Austrian fashion designer who has received numerous awards for his work, including the Top Shop New Gen Award in 2007. February 2008 marks Pilotto’s debut Spring/Summer 2008 catwalk show at London Fashion Week.

Poppy Adams -  novelist, tv director, tv producer
Documentary director/ producer, turned novelist. Poppy’s hotly-tipped debut novel, The Behaviour of Moths, is released on May 1 2008 and has been described as a cross between Daphne Du Maurier and Hitchcock.

Proxy  -  rock & pop
London-based rockers. 2008 marks the release of debut album Between The Sheets.

Ravi Bopara -   cricket
Rising cricket star who plays for Essex and most recently made his debut in the England squad. Mentored by Graham Gooch.

Remi Nicole -   rock & pop, singer, songwriter
Indie pop singer/songwriter who recently supported Amy Winehouse on UK tour dates. Debut album My Conscience And I was released on December 12 2007.

Ruby Stewart -   model
Teen daughter of Rod who is following her sister Kimberley’s footsteps into modelling. Fronts campaigns for Ultimo and Laura Ashley’s Archive collection.

Rumer Willis -   actor
Bruce and Demi’s 19 year-old daughter is Miss Golden Globe 2008 and also appears in I Know What Boys Like and From Within in 2008. Mixes in the same social circles as Riley Keough, Lindsay Lohan and Hayden Panettiere.

Ryan Babel -   football
Young Dutch international who signed to Liverpool in July 2007.

Saoirse Ronan -   actor
Irish teen who is due to appear in City Of Ember (2008) and The Lovely Bones (2009).

Sergeant  -  rock & pop
Scottish indie rock band who have recently signed to Mercury Records for the release of their debut album during summer 2008.

Shaun Bailey -  politics, activist
Conservative politician and founder of My Generation. David Cameron said of him, ‘He has got a real understanding of some of the most important issues in London. He will be a great role model for the future.’

Sheridan Smith -   actor
British actress who’s been cast as the lead in BBC series, Bewitched.

Simon Woods -   actor
Rising Brit actor who starred in BBC series, Cranford and Rome.

Stephanie Twell -   athletics
Teen Brit athlete likely to follow in Paula Radcliffe’s footsteps.

Summer Glau -   actor, dancer
US actress who stars in 2008’s anticipated TV series, Terminator: The Sarah O’Connor Chronicles.

T2  -  dance music, music producer
British 2-step and garage producer who released hit single, ‘Heartbroken’ in 2007. Set for big things in 2008.

Tamsin Egerton -   actor
Amazonian British teen who played Chelsea in St Trinian’s and stars in ITV’s adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Octavia.

The Bad Robots -  rock & pop
Camden-based energetic, rock and ska band introduced through C4’s Mobile Act Unsigned, where they made it into the semi-finals. In 2008, the band are working on recording/releasing a debut album and a tour of the UK.

The Courteeners  -  rock & pop
Mancunian indie quartet. Following the release of their single Acrylic, October 2007, the band begin a UK tour in January 2008.

The Dawn Chorus  -  rock & pop
Hampshire-hailed five piece rock band whose, as yet untitled, debut album is released in April 2008.

The Heavy  -  rock & pop
Alternative five-piece who are currently touring the UK on upcoming dates throughout Europe early 2008.

The Sugars  -  rock & pop
British blues trio who recently made it into the top 10 in the BBC Indie chart. The band’s UK tour runs until April 2008 and a debut album goes on sale March 2008.

Thomas Dekker -  actor
US star of anticipated TV drama,Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Also cast as lead in Brothers of the Blood.

Tom Everett Scott -   actor
US actor who plays lead as Lucy Liu’s boyfriend in US TV series Cashmere Mafia.

Yeasayer  -  world music
New York-based band who describe their music as ‘Middle Eastern-psych-pop-snap-gospel’. They were included in MTV’s list of ‘Seven Bands from SXSW That Will Matter’.

This is a strange one.  As I’ve mentioned a few times, we (Altogether Digital) are soft-launching our new affiliate network in a few weeks time and as part of this I had a query for the IT director at the provider we are using.

To give you a bit of background, we decided to use a new ASP based solution (NOT directtrack!) after weighing up a number of different ideas.

Anyhow - back to my point.  I spoke to the IT Director about some additional functionality that we wanted to add and as part of this it came out that this provider (who currently run a medium sized US network) work on a first-in cookie basis.

In other words, if a visitor visits a merchant via Affiliate A and decides not to buy, but goes back and purchases something after visiting Affiliate B’s site/ad (within the cookie period) then Affiliate A get the commission, even if they did not generate the sale.

This is the opposite to how all the networks in the UK tend to work and I did have to pinch myself and confirm that I was not mistaking things, in fact, I asked Pete at Affiliate Future to confirm that they worked on the last man in basis and was greated with the following reply:

Pete says: how long you been in affiliate marketing..lol

So maybe it’s a geographic thing, I tell myself.   I get back in contact with the software provider and tell them that as things stand we would not want to launch with the tracking set that way - we certainly don’t want to encourage cookie stuffing after all.  Luckily all is fine and they are able to change the tracking method for our setup but I kept wondering if it was a US thing.

I asked Shawn Collins to clarify:

Shawn says:  that’s odd - LinkShare, CJ, Performics, Shareasale, etc - all pay on last referrer - I don’t beleive there is even an option to go the other way

Shawn says: that’s really such a big risk being invited - I like how MYAP does it - they let you decide by afifliate with last referrer getting paid as the default. I set it as first referrer for some adware affiliates back in 2002 when we were debating whether they were cheating

Shawn says: so they would only get commission if they were the first and only referrer, as I expected, their numbers dropped big time

So it seems it’s not a location thing but Shawn does raise a good point about Spyware, something that due to the efforts of Clarke, Jess and a number of others has never been too much of an issue in the UK (unlike the US where it’s been a long term plague).

I’m really trying to think of other reasons for a network to work this way - the only other slight benefit I could see (if you can even call it a benefit) is that it may make things harder for brand name bidders but I really would be interested in hearing the views of affiliates, merchants and networks alike to if this kind of policy would make much of a difference to them.

I was directed to the Curve training site today and thought it was worth a mention.   It’s something that’s been on the cards for a while and it’s great to see it up and running with the first course organised for 3rd September.

Curve is a killer team with Jess Luthi, Helen Porter and Brendon Scott - all well known names in the industry and some of the nicest people I have met.   Courses are on Affiliate Marketing, PPC and SEO and I am sure that they will all be very successful and fill the seats.

The only criticism that I have is the fact that I am saying how good the courses will be and they don’t even have an affiliate program for me to use to get some cash for my kind words!

In all seriousness courses are a while off yet but if you are serious about learning about the industry and advancing your skills I can think of no better teachers

One of the glories of the web is the number of visitors that come to your website / blog via longtail search terms - it can drive lots of targeted traffic but often visitors come to the site only the once.

A small bit of php can be integrated into wordpress to try and combat this. Take a look at the screenshot below:

Now just follow our few easy steps to integrate this into your wordpress installation:

1) Save cookie.php.txt to cookie.php somwhere locally.
2) Open up cookie.php.txt and change the text and feed URL to match that of your server.
3) Upload the file to the root directory of your server.
4) Open up your wordpress backend (wp-admin) and select “Presentation” then “Theme Editor”.
5) Select style.css on the right and add the following code (you can modify it to change the colors, etc) in the file somewhere:

/* Cookie style document */

.cookiestyle {
width:450px;
text-align:left;
padding:5px;
background-color:#EAF4FF;
border:1px solid black;
font-size:12px;
margin-bottom:15px;
}

6) In the Theme Editor, select “Main Index template” and insert the following line:

<?php include(”cookie.php”); ?>

This should generally go near the top of the file and in my theme is above:

<?php $countervariable=1; if (have_posts()) : ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

Do the same with the Single Post page

7) Re-visit the site and you should now see the message display - Refresh and it will disappear.

It’s another “nice touch” and if your content is high quality it may well encourage your visitors to sign up to the RSS feed and visit more often.

Regular wordpress users will know that there are hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of plugins on the web and recently I think I’ve found my favorite yet, Comment Relish.

Once downloaded and activated you are able to setup text within your wordpress backend and whenever someone comments on an article for the first time, they are emailed thanking them and linking though to the RSS feed. Here is an example mine:

John,

Thanks for your comment on 3wdl blog at www.3wdl.co.uk

I hope that you like the blog and if you want to keep up to date with all the latest posts then you can subscribe to our feed at: http://www.3wdl.co.uk/feed/

Thanks again,
James
www.3wdl.co.uk

John is now happy at the seemingly personal touch and is more likely to convert into a long term subscriber, especially with the link though to the RSS.

This and the Subscribe to comments plugin fit in pretty nicely and are features that anyone serious about their blog should be looking at. Both are available on the wordpress pack that I put together.

This was posted on the a4uforum today as a quote from the latest edition of NMA.

“Next year we’ll reintroduce affiliate marketing but as it should be, as opposed to affiliates as they were” said Nick Robertson, ASOS CEO.

“(There’ll be) no silly commissions being paid to grubby little people in grubby studios growing income at our expense, getting in the way of genuine sales”

I am absolutely astonished (and that’s putting it mildly) at this quote.  ASOS was a big success story in the UK on how a brand can be built by affiliates but famously killed that relationship after culling affiliates and changing the terms before shutting it down completely towards the end of 2006.

Bearing in mind that sales are on a PERFORMANCE basis I still have no idea how on earth they can say that affiliates were €œgetting in the way€ of sales.  Can’t wait to see how their re-launch goes and will make sure I remember this quote at the time.

I’ve recently become involved in an email conversation with a merchant who is having a few problems getting Affiliates signed up and promoting his site.  Aside from the fact that the program is an independent one (and trust needs to be built up for these to succeed), one of the biggest issues he had with his site was the site itself.

Some sites just look like they will not convert.  There are really basic improvements that can be made. Even if you are giving away £10,000 CPA, it’s still £10,000 of nothing.

I’ve been working merchant side not for a few years and have looked at a number of ways to increase conversion rates - some working and some falling flat on their face, so here are a few things to look at:

• Is your checkout and quick and easy process?  Ideally there should be no more than 3 clicks from the basket to a completed order.
• Do you really need to take all that information?  Lots of merchants seem to be asking for more and more information because of the increase in fraud online.  This is fair enough but you should still never take more info than is required - ask too much and customers will shop elsewhere - you don’t need to collect five different phone numbers and ask what their fax is!
• Do you accept all payment types ?  Lots of sites don’t accept Visa Electron for example.  If you are one of these sites then make sure that you offer Paypal as a viable alternative.   I don’t have a VISA card and it annoys the heck out of me when I can’t pay for things using my switch - it’s 2007 for gods sake.
• Is the site itself usable?  Are products easy to find?   Conduct some usability tests.  You don’t need to go and pay thousands for this, all you need is to write up some tasks and get someone outside of the company (a friend or family member, for example) to give it a go and see how they get on.   Make sure they do it in front of you - watching what people do on your site can be extremely interesting!
• Use Analytics.   There is no excuse now - you can use google analytics for free!  Look and see where people are clicking using the Site overlay.  Look and see what the most popular dropout pages are.  You may think your site is perfect but that doesn’t mean everyone else does.

Don’t underestimate the importance of Conversion rate on your site and on your affiliate program - get it right and you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.