Affiliate Marketing Blog by James Little

I’m slightly late in blogging about this as I’m currently enjoying a few weeks off work with the wife and kids but the changes that google have recently made have some big implications for the affiliate industry and I’ve managed to find a few hours spare to jot down my thoughts on the various pros and cons.

I’m sure others have blogged about the topic already and apologise for a lack of links but I’m writing this on a trip to Manchester and for some reason Virgin have yet to enter the 21st Century and enable wifi on their trains!

So let’s firstly look at what the changes are.  For the unaware, trademark owners in the UK have been fortunate enough to be able to go through a very tedious process of registering their trademark with google and blocking anyone from bidding on their brand via the sponsored listings – the process may be slow but it has worked well.  In an effort to bring the policy inline with the US regulations however, this is no longer possible and on May 6th all previous blocked keywords will be opened up for sale.

This has big implications for brands across the online channels but as affiliate marketing is my “thing” I’ll try and stick to the various pros and cons of this – it’s still very early days and I’m yet to pass judgement but here’s some initial thoughts..

Pros

Better for the user ?
Whilst there is debate about if this is better for the user or not there is no little to argue with that it could help expose the user to products and services that they were unaware of previously and even help them save money.   If a user is searching for a previously blocked term like “ipod” they could see ads from various alternative suppliers like Archos who have a more superior product at a better price!

Good news for smaller brands
It’s getting easier to start an online store and there are some great “small brands” out there who can now start bidding against competitor terms, giving them further reach towards their target audience.

More volume though Affiliate Marketing
This is a biggie.  A VIOP affiliate will now be able to big against terms like “skype” and ultimately get more traffic and more sales – when paid search policies are done correctly this could be a great thing for the industry.

More brand affiliate programs
Rightly or wrongly Affiliate Marketing can all of a sudden be sold as a way to help protect big brands from being outbid by their competition – this could well mean we see more programs from bigger brands with more money to spend!

Cons

More Brand bidding / Overridden cookies
The most disappointing thing about all of this is that a few of us in the industry have been campaigning against brand name bidding for some time – my main issue with it has always been that it ends up overriding cookies from content affiliates as the last man approach is flawed by this.  It’s a real shame and hopefully we’ll see more done by networks to stop it from having such a negative impact;  Affiliate Window recently released a solution where cookies are not overridden by brand terms that seems a perfect way of preventing legitimate commission in being awarded.

Lower ROI for Merchants
Brand terms are cheap and increase competition will of course push up the prices of this – this may well see a much lower ROI to merchants; something that may end up affecting the overall prices to consumers.

Legal implications
Google may well of used the test case against Yahoo to define their position but that does not mean that it is legal for merchants and affiliates to target competitor terms; this may well lead to a lot of headaches and I don’t think it will be long before we start to see news in the tradepress of companies being taken to court for try to “pass off” as their competitor – be careful and check what you are doing is legal before doing it!

Harder work for Affiliate Managers!
There are some dodgy affiliates out there who try and get away with bidding on brand (or competitor) terms, even when it’s against the policy restrictions.  With all the terms being opened up the policing aspect will make it harder work for affiliate managers and networks!

That’s most of the things I’ve thought of so far – I sure there is plenty more that I have missed so please do leave a comment if you have any additions and I’ll get them added to the post.  It’s certainly going to be an interesting time for the UK market and hopefully the positives will outweigh the negatives but to be honest, I’m yet to be convinced it’s a good thing and been done for anything over than google’s profit margins!

At the end of today I’m going to switch off the computer for a few days and go visiting family and friends. In the mean time I hope that you’ll enjoy the song below:

For those who enjoyed it and want the lyrics, here they are!

On the first day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
A post on the a4uforum.
On the second day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.
On the third day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.
On the fourth day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.
On the fifth day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Five lost transactions,
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.
On the sixth day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Six programs closing,
Five lost transactions,
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.
On the seventh day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Seven affiliates from china,
Six programs closing,
Five lost transactions,
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.
On the eighth day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Eight freebie stressballs,
Seven affiliates from china,
Six programs closing,
Five lost transactions,
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.
On the ninth day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Nine brand name bidders
Eight freebie stressballs,
Seven affiliates from china,
Six programs closing,
Five lost transactions,
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.
On the tenth day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Ten out of date product feeds
Nine brand name bidders
Eight freebie stressballs,
Seven affiliates from china,
Six programs closing,
Five lost transactions,
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Eleven Christmas Presents
Ten out of date product feeds
Nine brand name bidders
Eight freebie stressballs,
Seven affiliates from china,
Six programs closing,
Five lost transactions,
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
a network sent to me..
Twelve commission changes
Eleven Christmas presents
Ten out of date product feeds
Nine brand name bidders
Eight freebie stressballs,
Seven affiliates from china,
Six programs closing,
Five lost transactions,
Four spamming blog comments,
Three ipod incentives,
Two discount codes,
And a post on the a4uforum.

The results from the first ever UK Affiliate Census (conducted by AffiliateProgramAdvice) are now available to download from E-Consultancy.

With over 1,500 respondents the to the survey which was released in November they provide fruitful reading.

Fraser has already posted some of his initial thoughts on his blog.  I’ll be going though them tonight and posting some of the highlights.

Download the full results

buy.at have today announced their new branding & tagline. The logo which they have had since they started in 2002 has been replaced and the new tagline is “more profitable growth, faster”.

Here is what they have to say on it:

This strapline embodies our focus as an affiliate network in 2007 and conveys that we are committed to overdeliver to our clients and partners. The market is maturing fast and so are we, the re-brand captures this in the new logo and following strapline.

I prefer the old logo, but putting aside the re-brand I really like what buy.at have done recently. Their new management area from both a merchant and advertisor perspective is very nice; i’m always a sucker for flash reporting interfaces!

They are certainly one of the best networks in the UK and hopefully the new changes will help continue to propel them.

From the excellent vecosys

I use lots of MS products - I’ve never been an apple fan but Mozilla has helped bridge a gap and more online word processing stuff from google means that I won’t be upgrading my office anytime soon. I have tried Linux as my main OS using Gnome a few times but always found some reason to switch back, but even my wife can use that GUI now so if I managed to back up my main HDD I may try again.

So i’ve just randomly arrived at russelldavies’ blog and learnt about Coffee Morning in London. It’s just round the corner from me at The Breakfast Club so I think i’ll go on Friday. It might help the hangover.
Anyone else fancy popping along to Soho for a coffee so that I at least know someone there?