Affiliate Marketing Blog by James Little

I should make it clear from the start that I do not have a problem with the idea of voucher or cashback sites - I often use them myself when I do my online shopping and ensure that when topping up my house insurance I use them to get some great CPAs!

But whilst networks, merchants and the affiliates themselves are happy seeing the sales come in, more and more affiliates are seeing a negative effect on their sales as customers €œget smart€ and cookies are overridden by these sites.

So is there a solution?

There have been a couple of suggestions.  One is that merchants should set up their sites so that if the visitor comes via affiliate traffic a discount code field is not available or that across the board discounts are not needed for returning customers.

Another mentioned a few times is that networks should create the ability to ensure that cookies are not overridden when visitors use cashback / discount code sites but this has yet to be implemented as far as I am aware.

In an effort to restrict my own views I thought it would be fun to ask a few affiliates what they think about the issue.

Wardy, a popular character in the industry said he has concerns about it all;

€œI think that all it does is benefit the minority and the majority get shafted by such sites€, so what would be the solution? €œIf there was a way that if one affiliates cookie was replaced by a voucher site cookie within a small time frame then there could be some split commission€ he continued.

Peter Dickenson from Affiliate Future had a very different view;

€œI think it’s more an issue for merchants than affiliates.  Customers are changing their buying word of mouth as people are looking for more discount codes and returning customers are costing more€

Mark from myvouchercodes.co.uk - one of the larger voucher code sites had a bit to say about the matter:

€œI do feel that voucher sites provide sales without taking other affiliates last cookie etc, because we have nearly 200,000 people subscribed to our email newsletter, 2 million unique visitors a month, customised email alerts etc a lot of our visitors are return visitors, so they come to sites like mine as a way to shop online, not as a simple last minute look for a discount code€

In summary

I’d love to see some more comments from all areas of the industry about what they would do (if anything) to resolve this issue.  I really do think that technology is the key here and I expect to see some changes over the coming months from pro-active networks that see this as a real issue.

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.

There have been a few buyouts in the affiliate market place recently, and specifically with networks:

• Buy.at didn’t tell us what they sold for, but industry mags are saying around £70m
• Affiliate Future deal went through the courts yesterday for £10m
• DGM did the whole management buyout thing

And now I will give you my own prediction… first a bit of silence so I can concentrate…

*silence*

Mystic James predicts that the next acquisition, announced within the next 3 months will be the buyout of Affiliate Window.

That’s right folks - you read it here first.  It’s based purely on speculation and the fact that I had someone coming to my site on the search term “Affiliate Window buyout”!

Good luck with the sale Kevin!

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’.

It’s all go in the world of Affiliate Marketing! Just days ago it was announced that DGM had a management buyout and it’s now been reported that TMN (a large online/DM group) have made “an agreed all-share bid for Internet Business Group PLC” - the company behind Affiliate Future.

More Details here and here
Wish I had bought some shares in IBG now! Certainly an interesting time for Affiliate Marketing and will be interesting to see how this pens out and what kind of changes we may see if this goes through.

Only a few days ago I wrote on the Altogether site about how new technology in affiliate marketing is begining to take affiliate marketing offline.

As if by magic Greasy Palm have now launched their offline transaction service.

Depending on how well this is promoted it could be the start of some changes in the industry as sites like Necor and Airmiles have struggled to get much of an online presence - will the user base that they have and the cardless technology have much of an impact offline?

Only time will tell - would be interesting to hear what others think..

Obviously the 3-2 loss to Croatia a few nights ago may still be a sore point for a few of us and whilst I’ve never really enjoyed being the bearer of bad news it’s fair to say that the loss wont be going away anytime soon.

It is expected that the own goal by England will cost the country over £2bn and affiliates will be one of the ones to foot the bill after the British Retail Consortium predicted that they would have seen an extra £1.2bn in sales if England had qualified.

So what does this mean for affiliate sites I hear you ask?

Here are some of the things that customers may no longer be rushing to the shops for next year:

• HD Widescreen TV’s/DVD Recorders (multiple programs)
• Pizzas (Pizza hut launched/launching soon?)
• Replica shirts (multiple programs)
• Collectables / Patriotic items (multiple programs)

Let’s hope that the next manager has more luck in getting us qualified for the next world cup.

I’ve mentioned it on the affiliates4u forum and on the Altogether Ads blog so through I might as well go all out and put it on here as well!

There is just 22 days left to be part of the first prize draw of the Altogether Ads golden ticket campaign.

(Above is the Mazda RX8 - not the best photo of it but shown in white especially for Kieron)

To recap, Altogether Ads are giving away 15 golden tickets over the next few months.  The ticket contains a £200 cheque and a VIP ticket to an event being organised later next year where each of the 15 winners will battle it out on stage and one of them will walk away will walk away with a brand new Mazda RX8 to keep for life.

Altogether Ads believe it’s the largest value prize ever to have been given away as an affiliate incentive in the UK.

The first ticket will be given away in a prize draw to any affiliate that signs up by the end of November 07.

You can find out more about Altogether Ads at www.altogetherads.com

Matt, Claire, Chris and everyone else at who had a hand in organising the A4U Expo should get a massive pat on the bank for what turned out to be the best affiliate event that I have had the pleasure of attending (and I’ve attended a fair few).

Day 1

My roundup is potentially going to be quite different to others who went as I only managed to make a small handful of the actually talks throughout the day after being left with Ken (who did a fantastic job) to man the stall that we decided to purchase at the last minute.

It all started on Wednesday night when we left the office just after 9pm after managing to get our network, Altogether Ads (which I’ll talk more about in a further post) launched just in time for the big day.

As our office is pretty near to the Jubilee line we managed to make it to the Buy.at pre-event party about 10pm when it was in full swing.

Thank you to buy.at for the drinks and the party.  It was great to catch up with old friends who I’ve not seen in a while and enjoy a few beers with some familiar and non-familiar faces.  I ended up giving up at Canning Town search for a cab with some other people who had managed to miss the last Jubilee line and promised to myself not to do the same thing again the next day.

Day 2

So after a few hours sleep and arriving back in the office to pick up the last bits and pieces for our stall at 7.30am we managed to get down to the event at 8.30, setup and start talking about some of the things that as a company we try and do well.

The stands were an excellent mix of Merchants (Sky, Littlewoods Direct and BT to name a few), Networks (AltogetherAds, Buy.at, Affiliate Window, DGM, Affilinet, Affiliate Future, OMG, CJ and Paid on Results) and even Affiliates (UK Web Media had one of the best).

I managed to make it along to my first session of the day to see fellow Altogether Digital staff member Ciaran Norris, a man I never get tired of listening talk, and a close friend Lee Mccoy in €œLets get social€, a session aimed at encouraging both merchants and affiliates at thinking outside of the box and embracing the social media to help improve both traffic and online acquisitions.

Both Ciaran and Lee have their own very unique styles and it was in my mind one of the best sessions of the entire event and I certainly came away buzzing with ideas - if only I had not given up my affiliate sites recently!

Most of the rest of the day was spent at the stall but I did make it to the final session entitled Extreme SEO which talked about the values (or not) of paid links, negative SEO and a battle between the white and black hats.  The Q&A from the audience went well and the only grumble I had was when I managed to get the microphone to ask the final question I got heckled from some of the speakers themselves!

The event wrapped up around 6pm when most people headed down to the after party and awards event.

I’m going to keep my views on the awards short and sweet - the only comment I will make is that it was a complete and utter tragedy that:

a)    Fraser didn’t win anything after single handily helping the industry develop with his great series of podcasts and

b)    Next winning an award.  Anyone that voted for the high street store can I please remind you of the following.  (1)  How can they be the best new affiliate program when they have had one for a few years and (2) They have decided, in their great wisdom, to LOWER the commission values just before the Christmas rush - great for them that they have to pay out less but come on guys - how on earth is this setting a good sign?  I’d love to hear from anyone who voted for them for the reasons behind it€¦

Day 3

Whilst it is the 3rd day that I’m writing this blog post on (sitting on the bus home) I find it hard to write too much about this day as the only session that I managed to attend was my own, a discussion panel on if we would need networks for 2008.

The day was great and I managed to find the time to take a better look around the stalls and continue my Nintendo Wii dominance by winning Tennis on the UK Web Media stall!   Business was good and I found myself thankful that I once again got the opportunity to speak to a great mix of people while hurting my feet standing up all day.

3pm shortly arrived and I found myself slightly nervous and apprehensive on being included in a panel with some industry heavy weights.

The €œWill you need a network in 2008€ session went over a number of points but the one I was potentially more vocal about was the differences between large and small networks with David Hall (from Affiliate Window) managing to suggest that smaller networks suffered from Spyware, Duplicate Sales and a general lack of decent tracking.

I disagreed with this strongly and mentioned to what seemed to be applause from Clarke that the size of the network has absolutely nothing to do with the technical aspects that that the network can bring to the equation.

As I said at the time - in terms of staff numbers commission junction is much bigger than Paid on results, for example, but CJ’s only recent tracking innovation was to try (and fail) to introduce JavaScript links, while Paid on results became the first UK network to actively promote video banners.

Anyhow - after packing up the stall I managed just about an hour at the after show party before getting home to spend some much needed time with the wife and kids.

Congrats once again to Matt and the Existem team - every single person I spoke to agreed it was above expectations and I look forward to seeing this progress once again in the 2008 show, pencilled in for early October.