Affiliate Marketing blog by James Little

Not sure if anyone noticed but according to an article in the Telephraph on Saturday, Quidco is going to have a management buy-in this week by Michael Murphy, of friends reunited fame.   His appoinment as Executive Chairman has also been confirmed on their blog.

A lot has changed for Quidco over the past year - many people will remember the public falling out with Affiliate Window and whilst two very different sides of the story were told by each party it’s fair to say that despite some saying it would be the start of the end for Quidco they have continued to be the biggest cashback/reward site out there - double the size of their nearest competitor according to Hitwise stats.

There has also been a lot of new staff members - Tyson and Laura the two most recent recruits and both from buy.at.  There was also an advert in one of the big newspapers recently too so they are certainly looking at new ways of getting members.

Whilst it’s unclear what impact Michael will have on the business in the short term it’s fair to say that Quidco seems unstoppable at the moment and if the additional money & resource helps with more advertising then their possition as the most visited cashback site is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Hannah has been bugging me for a while to post these for almost a year, so here goes..

Clearing up the pile of papers on my desk I managed to find an old notepad and one of the things it contained was the 2008 Barbados awards!   These were written by a few of us on the flight back to the UK and the highlights of which cane be found below:

• Lord Lucan Award – Shaun (who disappeared for pretty much the whole week after a heavy second night out)
• Best use of Color – Sarah (for the sunburn)
• Best Piece of Art – MikeeT
• Best Celebrity Lookalike – Keith Bond for the Buddy Holly glasses
• Worse Driving Award – Lee McCoy
• Under the thumb award – Steve
• Diamond Geezer Award – Aldo
• Best Villain – The Worminator
• Dreams bed Award – Sinead
• Best Irish Accent – Siri
• Clean Nose Award – Joe
• Tourist of the Year – Keith
• Harbour Lights No 1 Fan Award – James
• Most Buoyant Award – Hannah
• Random Stranger Award – Chris
• Most reformed Award – Chris Frost (for not getting kidnapped again)
• Most disappointing performance – Tom Quinn (for NOT making it to the Ship every day)
• Pretty Boy Award – Lee McCoy

Make sure you head over to the refreshed AffiliateFuture blog to find out more about some of this years competitions to win a place on the trip in June!

I had the opportunity to visit Vegas for the first time a few weeks ago for the Affiliate Summit, where I was also lucky enough to speak (presentation will be online soon); previously I’ve only been on panels and whilst there was a small amount of stage fright it seemed to go well.

Vegas as a city was fantastic – the nightlife was amazing and the grandeur of the casinos was a world apart; even though I’d seen it on the TV before I was still mesmerised by the fact that New York, New York had a rollercoaster going around it!
Overall the conference was good – I was there for just two days but managed to get a number of meetings organised and continued to extend our relationships with affiliates over the other side of the pond – there were also a couple of UK representatives out there who it’s always good to catch up with. The only regret that I have is that I didn’t manage to attend as many of the conferences sessions that I would have liked (I think other than my own I got to two of them) but there is always next time for that.

One thing I did notice (and plenty may disagree with me) is that Vegas is the worse place ever to hold a conference! There are so many temptations that meant that visitors seemed to disappear quite early in the day – after visiting the Boston Expo I have to say that I felt this was better located and with the A4UExpo being completely out of the way from, err, everything, it tends to ensure that people stick around all day (and night).

The end of the conference also saw the first Affiliate Triathlon – a charity event where affiliates got the chance to test themselves against others in the industry, including, it seemed, me.

Someone had paid $100 to enter me without warning me in advance, meaning my name was read out after I’d already had a couple of beers and had another in my hand. Drink driving didn’t go my way and I ran over someone whilst competing in the bike race, whilst some managed to get 30 or so balls into the basket in the second test I only managed two and finally out of 5 go’s at hitting a golf ball to test its speed, only one registered and this was lower than everyone elses, even the girls. I finished last. Vengeance will be mine when I find out who registered me for this competition, that’s a real, 100% warning!

The next Affiliate Summit is planned for New York and if you want to learn more about the US market then there really is no better place. Thanks to Missy and Shawn for organising the event and for giving me the opportunity to speak.

As you may have noticed there has been a distinct lack of blog posts over the past few months because, quite frankly, I’ve had very little time – working late into the night and over the weekend seems to be commonplace at the moment but it’s all worth it in the end!

Life at AffiliateFuture is going very well – I’ve recently had a new guy (Sam) who has joined the team and is having a great impact; whilst there have been a few complaints about the interfaces there are some upgrades over the next two weeks which should see an end to these once and for all, which will be nice. Vegas for the Affiliate Summit was great and whilst I’ve yet to complete my write up there are a few blog posts that will be coming from that soon!

Family life is good but Connor has a tendency to cause my sleep deprivation; he only wakes once or twice a night, which is great but I’m definitely going to remember the long nights when Lindsey starts talking about number 4- something that is definitely not on the agenda for me! Our second youngest (Jacob) also started 5 days a week at the local state nursery before he goes up into Reception (full time school) in September.

Dietblog.tv is going to start again soon, once I have the info that I require from Rob B (if you’re reading this and wonder what that means Rob, it’s in reference to your tweet!).

Lastly I wanted to congratulate Matt Bailey for not only getting the IAB Chair but also for getting a blog up and running at last.

More posts to follow – don’t unsubscribe from the feed just yet!

It’s 9.30pm and the aim is to get to bed as soon as I’ve finished this blog post as I am absolutely shattered – I think ‘Expo Lag’ is worse than jetlag and I’m only 20 minutes away in a cab from the conference centre!

So – first things first, a few messages of thanks..

Thanks to Claire, Matt, Chris, Pete and everyone else from Existem for what was, in my mind, the best conference that I’ve ever attended – it’s a glorious thing that our industry has this event and the news of the European version to be hosted in April is very exciting indeed (though even with so much work getting done at these events, the trips away are going to get me divorced!).

Thanks secondly to everyone who turned up to the two panels that I was part of –I was just filling in for our sick MD on the first one (State of the Affiliate Nation) and hope that I did a good job of it, especially with such a huge turnout.   As for my second panel on voucher codes, Duncan made a comment earlier to say that he’d never seen it so busy that people were sitting on the floor and it’s just a shame we ran out of time so quickly and could not take any more questions.

Lastly a big thank you to everyone that sponsored the event, especially the evening parties, giving us all a chance to network – I’ve pretty much lost my voice now but it was absolutely worth it!

So onto the Roundup..

• I don’t want to discourage any other merchants from being innovative, but I think Sunshine.co.uk may already have a just cause to think that they will have another couple of A4UAwards in the bag next year!
   
• I wrote a whole post about the sessions I wanted to attend but only managed to two sessions outside of the ones I was participating in; I guess it’s always going to be the case, especially when I was described by a colleague as a “power-networker who doesn’t stop talking”.   Hopefully I’ll make a few more next year!
• I may have moaned about the lack of preparation time I had to think about the panel where I was filling in for Tom, but I secretly cherished being on another panel, especially one of that calibre;  not sure how it will come out on camera though!
• It was amazing to meet so many people that I’ve not had the chance to before, especially the likes of Doug and Kirsty whose blogs I read every day! 
• Affiliate Marketing is definitely changing – there were some big “traditional” publishers in attendance that last year may have dismissed Affiliate Marketing as a way of increasing revenue but are now actively engaging it.
• If blogging from an iPhone in the pub can get me linked to from e-consultancy and Search Engine Land then I have to do it more often!
• The cruise was good but needed more music earlier to get people in the mood, rather than sitting at the tables all night – a big thanks to DFDS and I’m looking forward to the free cruise already!
• The last night was the best of them all – I have one word to say to Tom Quinn from iPoints though – well, two words mate, Team Extreme!
• I said I’d blog it and I will – the only downer was the Sky VIP bar – I’m really against segregation and I was a little frustrated about it, even if I did manage to blag a way in!
• Can whoever has the photo of my kissing Aldo please burn it so that it doesn’t tarnish his street cred! 

That’s it for now – A successful year that I really enjoyed that was even better than my expectations, now I just need a new liver and a bit of sleep to get ready for the next one.  I’ll add links in to people’s names later etc later when I can function correctly!

At the A4U Expo (more on that when recovered tommorow!) and just heard reports that google will be allowing paid search on gambling terms in the UK from this Friday.

Massive news that I am sure will be confirmed very soon! Heard it here first..

Do you know the thing I hate the most about the A4UExpo – the fact that there are too many good sessions!  How am I meant to choose which ones to attend and which ones to skip?  Not only that, but I obviously have a few meetings and some general stand duty to attend to!

With that being said, here’s a few of my picks for this year’s fantastic A4UExpo, which is just a few days away.

Day 0 

Opening Party:  This is where it all starts; last year I only made it there about 10pm after a late night on the office but as we’re sponsoring it this year and I have a meeting before, I’ll be in the hotel bar from about 5pm.

Day 1

9am - Opening Remarks by Matt Wood

9.15am – Keynote by Michael from NMA

11am – Wordpress SEO by Joost (some other excellent sessions on at the same time though!)

12.30pm – 10 Ways to Get the most out of your Search Affiliates by Duncan

(I can’t do 2pm – but So you Don’t do Travel would be my choice here with Chris and Alan from Sunshine)

3pm – Extreme SEO all the way!

4.30pm – God knows here! Affiliate State of the Nation will be excellent, but I really want to see what Kevin Edwards comes out with in “Understanding Incentivised Traffic” after Quidco dumped them for, err, not understanding it?
The buy.at cruise that night should be good fun too – must find out how much a cab home will cost me!

Day 2

11am – Effective Voucher Code implementation (with yours truely)

12.30pm – Again a difficult choice – either the one with Rob Kerry or the one with Graham and Zak

3pm – either Affiliate Doctors Live or Do Incentive Sites add incremental valie

4.30pm – Mobile, Video, API’s and Social Media session

Finished off by the Ice Party in the evening.

I’m sure like last year I won’t make everything that I would like to but well done to Matt and the team for another fantastic line up.

Recently I went through my Google Reader account and noted down all the affiliate blogs that I read for a forum post.

I thought I’d share this and ask if there are any that I’ve missed off that should be added?  Please comment and let me know if so.

In no particular order…

http://www.3wdl.co.uk - James Little should write more posts.
http://www.pfft.co.uk - Chris Clarkson aka. Mr Sunshine is one of the newest bloggers but also one of the best
http://zacjohnson.com/ - US ‘Super’ Affiliate Zac Johnson
http://www.zarrblog.com/ - SEO, affiliate marketing and running your own business
http://www.revenews.com/ - US blog collaboration of the Excellent Revenue Mag
http://www.morleymouse.com/ - Alpharooms Affiliate Manager Dan Morley
http://www.monetisethis.net/ - Rob Powell, UK Affiliate
http://www.jonathanvolk.com/ - ‘Super Affiliate’ Jonathan Volk
http://www.affiliatestuff.co.uk/ - Kirsty’s excellent Affiliate blog
http://www.lammo.net/ - John Lamberton came out of retirement just so he could start this blog
http://www.onelittleduck.co.uk - I often find myself agreeing with Jason and his blog is excellent
http://www.nickycakes.com/ - Another decent US Affiliate - does lots of Facebook / MySpace advertising
http://davidfiske.com/ - UK Affiliate David Fiske offers some excellent advice and tutorials
http://uberaffiliate.com/ - Sometimes a little ‘out’ there, but Uber Affiliate is a good read
http://www.befuddled.me.uk/ - Ray should post more!
http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/ - 5 Star Affiliate Programs
http://blog.affiliatetip.com/ - Affiliate Summit organiser Shawn Collins
http://www.fishandclicks.co.uk/ - Paul Wright, who also blogs a lot
http://www.affiliateprogramadvice.com/blog/ - Jess & Co
http://www.affiliatemarketingblog.co.uk/ - POR Owner and all round affiliate expert Clarke Duncan
http://www.here.org.uk - UKOffers’ Kieron bas won best affiliate blog of the year for the past two years at the A4UAwards
http://www.affiliateblog.co.uk/ - Fraser Edwards blog featuring his excellent podcasts
http://www.leemccoy.co.uk/ - Prettyboy’s Affiliate Blog
http://www.mooseontheloose.co.uk/ - Paul is never one to beat around the bush!
http://www.shoemoney.com/ - Showmoney should need no introduction

EDIT:  Second time I’ve missed Doug off this list - Sorry!

http://www.asapventures.co.uk/blog/ - Doug’s blog is one of the first you should add to your Google reader (or bloglines, etc, etc) account!  Sorry for missing you in the first place Doug!

http://pistol101.co.uk/ - About time Pistol got around to blogging!

I’m after some help.

Can anyone explain to me the whole DGM and Linkedin thing?  It’s being advertised on the Affiliates4u site at the moment but I just don’t understand the benefits of it.  I get (and use) linkedin - it’s a great site for connecting with business contacts, getting some good introductions & finding who some of the key employees are at a company, great.

But what’s the point of having a link to it in DGM?   I’ve not managed to spend the time digging out my login details (as I’ve not used DGM since the launch of DGMP..) but their website doesn’t really seem to explain what it does and the benefits of the mashup (if you can call it that).  Is it just for getting in contact with whoever manages the campaign at the merchant?  If so what’s the benefit of linkedin over an email address (or a comms centre)?

Answers on a the back of a postcard (or in the comments..).

Wordpress is a powerful tool and I use it for quite a few sites that I have built but it’s plugins can be limited and at times I’ve had to look at other solutions.

One of the big things that I wanted to be able to do when building a site is create a review site – none of the plugins that I previously looked at handled this very well so I ended up installing Drupal as it was more powerful for this.

However, a new (paid) plugin has recently been released called WPReviewSite.

It’s currently just under $100 (so about £55) and includes both the plugin and theme to get a review site running pretty quickly out of the box.

Here are some of the features listed on their website:

• Adds Star Ratings To Your Comment Forms
• Sorts Your Posts by Weighted Average
• Integrates With WordPress Administration
• Powers a Whole Website or Just What Parts You Want
• Doesn’t Modify WordPress Database Tables

I’ve given it a quick go and it seems very powerful, although the proof is in the pudding and I’m aiming to get a full site using this within the next week or two and will publish the URL when it’s all up and running so you can give it a test drive

More information about the plugin and theme on their site