Affiliate Marketing Blog

 No doubt there will be plenty of speculation, sensationalism & plausible deniability on which merchants will go into administration or close next year. So for 2009 affiliates as a whole will need to keep a much closer eye on the merchants they promote.

Look out for obvious indicators of merchants pulling the purse strings such as cookie reductions which often get changed & unnoticed, with consumers possibly making more considered purchases rather than spontaneous or impulsive, perhaps merchants should be encouraged to extend cookie periods to 365 day minumum, rather than this unwritten 30 day suggestion. Increasing the cookie period significantly will show good intent.

Commission reductions is an indicator, though some will use “”the” credit crunch” as an excuse when not really a legitimate reason.

Delayed invoice payments, as affiliates we should be more alert & report all incidences to the forum, this will ensure that merchants don’t become complacent or disrespect the affiliate channel. More merchants paying in escrow should be considered & looked into too .

Also, look out for networks who hang onto payments, accruing the interest affiliates should maybe receive. Even more regular payments from those that currently only pay monthly, like the weekly payment from Webgains or on demand like Paidonresults, this will keep the cashflow topped up for affiliates. It would be nice if all networks could switch to more regular methods. Granted a few networks have previously paid out when they haven’t been paid, we need to support the ones which offer guarantees (but isn’t that part of what override is about), but several larger ones do not pay regular enough. Just think about how much affiliate cash they are sitting on at any one time.

Also, look out for merchants delaying in approving pending commissions as they might only be hanging onto the cash a little longer(they possibly get paid by credit card companies within a few days & stock they have may well be on credit anyhow). The problem is when you may only get intermittent or a few sales for a merchant, but if affiliates enquire to the forum, then those interested can at least feedback their findings to ascertain any common thread. So we need to get this trickling down of payments to us affiliate bottom feeders quickly.

We just have to remain alert that the affiliate marketing channel doesn’t become devalued & prevent them merchants from thinking it’s the first place to look for where they can trim expenses, with networks in unison being more assertive with their clients too.

I know it’s obvious, but spread your risk and only rely / depend on yourself.

A blog post I liked was Goals - Setting And Achieving Them by Shane.

I wonder whether in a few years time, the traditional pyjama affiliate or scruffy bedroom affiliate will  be written into the historical archives as an urban legend or mythical entity that once graced the internet marketing world, unless some radical improvements are made … with the 2009 message being diversify, consolidate skill sets, think outside the envelope or become extinct. It’s not about evolving into a better being or developing a corporate persona or becoming  entrepreneurial, but unfortunately becoming more ruthless & less conscientious by relinquishing the values once guarded, because it certainly doesn’t pay dividends being a solitary sentinel “facing” into the wind. So then, what will be inscribed  or delineated onto the traditional affiliates epitaph?

Bah Humbug! … Without sounding like The Grinch who stole Christmas what does 2009 hold in store for us. “As Another One Bites The Dust” (See Youtube Video Below) with demise of the The Mighty Woolies Mammoth, where my sympathies do not go with the company but for the 25,000 people losing their jobs, who else will follow rapidly in their wake? If it can happen to this Titanic it can really happen to any retailer like the Not So Savvy Zavvi (with their dependency on their supplier, the EUK distribution arm of the Woolworths Group, calling in the Administrators. Zavvi apparently owing them £126 million.) Yep the same merchant who wouldn’t pay commissions on Wii Fits & other items. It makes you wonder whether Richard Branson had some kind of crystal ball selling off Virgin Megastore.

However, with the recent announcements from a couple of networks changing the way commission are paid to affiliates, to protect their own interests, which is understandable to a certain degree, it still leaves a question of which gang is left at the end of the payment chain, it does seem it might be affiliates more so. I think we need statements from all networks in the current & forthcoming harder times (though with hard times does come new opportunities) on what their current status is with regard to how they invoice & collect payments from merchants, together with methods, processes & guarantees. Then affiliates can Pick ‘n’ Mix accordingly.

Such as:

• Which merchants pay in escrow (pre payment)? Perhaps this should be significantly increased.
• Clear & concise single page flagging systems to which merchants are late with payments of invoices. Even their track record.
• What guarantees does the network offer for unpaid invoices whether a merchant is still on network or just left network?
• With late payments do networks charge interest & fixed penalties to their client & are these subsequently passed onto the affiliate? In relation to this why can’t affiliates introduce their own fixed penalty & interest terms? After all it is all their cash flow & accruing interest which is affected too.
• When a merchant leaves a network with pending commissions, are these conveniently deleted & disappear into the abyss leaving no audit trail?
• There should be an archive for affiliates to refer to historical unpaid invoices when a merchant leaves a network or any suspected pending commissions which were deleted.

Networks, in their unenviable task, though this is partly why they receive over rides in commission, should show affiliates what efforts they have done to retrieve commissions & if all their avenues pursued fail, allow the affiliate if they desire to pick up the gauntlet & chase payments.

One question I do have though, is that if the network is a third party invoicing on our behalf, isn’t the network liable to pay the affiliate anyway, even if the merchant hasn’t? Or are they similar to a glorified factoring service. Is there mileage down a factoring route?

Next year, more so than before, perhaps we should be more selective with our  Pick ‘n’ Mix of merchants we deal with. With generous affordable commissions, lengthy cookies, good conversions, reliable & payment in escrow.

As some merchants will no doubt try and squeeze the cheese, and no doubt use the credit crunch / recession as a reason (whether a legitimate one or as an excuse) in seeking cookie shortening & commission reduction exercises over the forthcoming coming months making Scrooge look like a spendthrift, it seems that The Chain Gang of affiliates may well be first in line for any forthcoming eventualities & would like to see what affiliates (apathetic by nature) are generally going to do to ensure they are first to receive payments.

What I am basically saying is that we need to safeguard ourselves a little more. The barrier to entry for a merchant launching an affiliate program is low, but even more so on how low the barrier is on how merchants can dictact the terms. Big brands shouldn’t get special treatment or payment terms by networks as we’ve seen, and as we know doesn’t necessarily make it a better program & thus shouldn’tbe permitted to use their brand status on leverage on payments & other terms.

I also wonder which networks will be around end at the end of 2009 or even merge or buy out with each other.

More so will there be less pyjama affiliates & less cheques cut by a networks each month.

One thing for sure, affiliates should maybe be given a little more scope & unbound from some over zealous shackles. No doubt networks & merchants will dither on some of the current concerns regarding Voucher Code Sites, BBG’s, Over Zealous T&C’s.

One hard lesson I have learned this year is to no longer be selfless, but take a more selfish approach to the industry.

Merry Christmas One & All.

Why should the intent of SEO’ing for a brand be a taboo area of discussion, when there is just as much intent via SEO, if not it’s more visible to rank for a brand then that by way of PPC? PPC is not always obvious or deliberate to “appear” for a brand or hybrid phrase, where with SEO it’s pretty much in black & white before your eyes.

Much of this PPC stuff has stemmed from knee jerk reactions when the single display url was introduced by Google. It seems that PPC has mistakenly been tarnished as a dirty word for purists or practise, when SEO for a merchant brand does essentially the same thing, both having elements of costs.

Now I am not suggesting there should necessarily be draconian restrictions applied to SEO too, but something has been lost in translation in affiliate marketing, In my opinion the mind set towards PPC is a somewhat wrong.

If you are inclined to think that imposing restrictions on SEO is a bad thing, then by the same token it’s a bad thing to impose on PPC too. Also would a merchant prefer proactive affiliates representing them positively on both marketing strategies or instead negative consumer reviews & competitors occupying the space?

There are too many mindless sheep around who find it easy prey to finger point at PPC affiliates, because they are easy targets.

The recent discussions seem to be around a plethora of voucher code sites adopting old school / old style title tag stuff to extreme limits ie “Argos Promotion Voucher Code Argos.co.uk Discount Voucher Codes …” then keyword stuffing as much as possible on that page. Is that quality? Is it right to SEO for something that doesn’t exist, but still probably win the last cookie because the consumer is now on that merchant specific page. It seems to me that are are plenty enough practises in SEO which might be considered as poor too. That’s if it is?

“29th February 2008 : Stop thinking SEO & Paid Search are different entities, preventing a merchant from appearing in organic search to a certain degree is just as easy or hard. So why aren’t SEO affiliates having the same restrictions imposed on them, ranking reasonably on Paid Search or Organic Results has their own elements of individual skill.

Why not turn to a SEO affiliate and say no more meta tags or name=”robots” content=”index,follow” or forcing javascript or images to be used for wherever the merchants name, variation or misspelling is mentioned.

Totally unreasonable isn’t it! Then in the same manner so is forcing negative keywords on paid search affiliates!” and to push the envelope still further perhaps restricting brand bidding too could be argued “When it seems there is lack in equality of who is receiving all the slaps by the happy-slappers, when perhaps neither paid search or seo affiliates should be be getting slapped at all.

Part of the problem is the training & perception of many network employees & merchants” … even affiliates … “was incorrect from the start, so much so that it becomes ingrained as a bad habit, which needs to be reprogrammed, as bad advice was originally being given out. “

I have to disagree about enforcing negatives on brand name in a generic campaign as there are too many permutations. If there are 1000 merchants with restrictions does that mean you would have to put everyone (mispellings & variations too .. even those they don’t actually hold trademarks for, I bet your bottom dollar most merchants don’t hold marks for the variations) in every single campaign / adgroup you run, no matter who or what you are promoting. Impractical & impossible.

Put the boot on the other foot, would any merchants put 30,000 affiliate websites & names as negatives in all their campaigns and adgroups. Then we can come onto the discussion on whats the difference between ppc’ing for a brand & seo‘ing for a brand or appearing on a hybrid term becuase of the generic element. Absolutely ludicrous and doesn’t worth entertaining the 5 minutes of my life wasted in writing this paragraph.

Any merchant which tried to enforce “appearing on” , personally I wouldn’t be keen to be part of that program.

Yet again this could get really impeding to industry growth & draconian if networks started going down this route of trying to enforce the “appearing” avenue.

Basically any restriction placed on PPC (barring display url)  can be applied systematically to SEO = Sun Emanating from (_O_)  … the objective & intent is essentially the same … which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The industry really does need to be careful, part of affiliates skill sets are SEO & SEM, restricting either or both is restricting the growth of the industry , if merchants are unhappy with that then let them find another performance marketting channel as efffective & transparent as affiliate marketing, there are plenty enough merchants who are willing to play ball, whilst the others can be educated or left to fester if they are uncompromising.

At the end of the day, ranking well or bidding for good generics is more valuable than ranking for the brand.

What makes me laugh or rather bemuses me are merchants who introduce heavy handed T&C’s on “brand”, and there are lots of them … you know the ones where the number of searches for a very obscure longtail term which might get a couple of searches a month yields more searches than the merchants “brand”, why have I quoted the word brand as “brand”, simple they are not a brand yet, yet they wish to suffocate the program from outset and thus less likely to aspire to one.

Hopefully this blog entry will get updated through the month Though not expected it warms the cockles of your heart when you receive presents from generous merchants & networks, so I would like to give a hearty thanks to the following.

Thanks Paid on Results - For the Magnificent Hamper

Thanks Webgains - For the Lovely Hamper

Thanks Buyagift - For the Magnum &  Jeroboam of Champagne (but how do I open the wooden box without a crow bar?) & the additional 6 bottles of Bollinger.

Thanks Market Ace (Jackpotjoy) - For the champagne.

Thanks Search 123 - For the mouth watering chocolates

Thanks Existem - For the yummy Chocolates

Thanks OMG - For the Pimms & Mixer

Thanks to the school girls football team for the present (which I haven’t opened yet) and the booze. Still waiting from the boys school football team.

As a follow on to this blog relating to a queuing system for cookies in an attempt to ascertain feasible solutions to sales affiliates reckon they could be losing to voucher code sites, perhaps another possible solution is a dual cookie scenario.

Previous blog entry: Cookie Overwriting - Is There Any Mileage In A Queuing System.
The continuation below:

So a consumer visiting a site via an affiliate link is dropped two cookies, one primary cookie will be valid for the normal cookie duration and can be overwritten by another primary cookie. Whilst the secondary cookie (with a timer) is fixed for a limited period of time, whether it be an hour or a few hours, however … this cannot be overwritten and takes precedence over other cookies until the timer lapses and then the primary cookie takes precedence. This might be a possible consideration to eleviate concerns of those losing out to voucher code sites.

Not everyone wants to have a voucher code site, or currently or wish to adopt it with their websites, some affiliates are focused on paid search direct to merchant. Why should non-VC affiliates lose out? Is it fair or not? Or is it just the way the cookie crumbles?

Bringing Forward Previous Comment:

The Need For Unique Voucher Codes

However, I still feel that each code distributed should be unique for any individual affiliate. ie appending a prefix or suffix to the discount code with the affiliates ID or a network / affiliate ID combo. So if the voucher code was XYZ, the network (abbreviated) ABC and the affiliate ID 123, then it would something like ABC123XYZ.

This way we can trace who had the last cookie (and even the preceding cookie) and who’s voucher code was used, thus gaining a slightly better overview, with an insight into the understanding of customer / consumer habits.

Don’t you just love long cookie periods, generally it seems cookie lengths are gradually shortening with well mindless reasoning like “bringing into alignment with other programs within the channel” and so forth. Thankfully there are merchants who value the affiliates a little more and the value of the customer the affiliate sends them.

Lets take Buyagift, one of my favourite programs with good old Grey-ham as their affiliate manager, a top top bloke. The cookie length is a generous 9999 days! So tonight I looked back at last months sales and the click reports on Affiliate Window for Buyagift. There were a number of sales for 2007 which I thought was very good, as I scrolled further down there were also sales from 2006 and even 2005 .. superb I thought … then last of all there was one dated 2004 … 14/12/2004 (19:57:03) .. almost 4 years ago … absolutely Fanriffic!

I scoff at these other menial cookie lengths … 30 days or less .. bah humbug to you all .. but most of all thanks Buyagift, last month alone I am better off by a couple hundred of squid to stick in the cookie jar, and yet again another good reason to promote you more with these little fortune cookies.

Q. “The role of the traditional media agency. Should marketers go direct or not?

In the same way that they got to grips with search, media agencies are now becoming focused on the opportunities presented by affiliate marketing.

This has traditionally been an environment where brands work directly with affiliates, but is it time that media agencies got involved?

What value would a marketer get out of this?

Benefits: Gets dealt with alongside rest of digital media. Agencies will argue that having all your media together offers economy of scale, convenience etc

Cons: Another link in the chain; another cost?”

————————————–
Media agencies can’t all be tarred with the same brush, each has to be judged on their own individual merits though it is accepted that a significant portion have been weighed, measured and found wanting.

A rule of thumb I have established, is where the affiliate department or company is operated by a recognised affiliate (not just a previous network employee (s)) whom was previously or still does operate as an affiliate with grass roots experience & knowledge, this is a fairly recent trend which I am pleased to report is increasingly going upwards.

You’ll find that that these companies are more likely to have a mindset more attuned with affiliates and the industry, knowing what is required for the fruition of an affiliate program to achieve an optimum potential. Companies include the likes of Existem AM, APA (Affiliate Program Advice), Shine Marketing & Total Search Solutions . Though their client base may not be considered blue chip, they generally know how to communicate effectively and are professional in their approach. .

However on the opposite end of the spectrum you have a number of agencies who though may talk the talk, you know … the real wind bags with eloquent use of vocabulary with bells & whistles presentations, blind you with numbers, yet can’t walk the walk.

Affiliates are dynamic professionals, unlike some larger lethargic agencies, who effectively get down to the nuts & bolts in layman’s terms. Some Agencies can easily be perceived as setting their own agenda, by having really restrictive terms & conditions or disallowing usage of the display URL in paid search because they have an in-house search agency or sycophantic brand bidding groups milking the cash cow on low hanging fruit (and that is not just brand terms), leaving the unwanted christmas turkey giblets for affiliates to try and market. They do act as another layer or even a buffer between affiliate and the actual merchant, where really the circle needs to be complete with direct communication / dialogue between the merchant dmc (decision maker contact(s) & the affiliate, though some agencies & even networks are protective of this direct contact, even to the point of them chaperoning clients at affiliate events, avoiding the, well let’s say more vociferous affiliates.

I do see the point with reference to all internet marketing kept in-house, but though some claim to have the experience, they actually don’t, and I would recommend the merchant seeking alternatives like the aforementioned expert affiliate consultants when dealing purely with the affiliate channel. There are possibly a few larger agencies we might feel comfortable dealing with, others generally fairly lethargic at getting affiliate suggestions into action, maybe even claiming the idea themselves or getting the required reliable tools, promotions, incentives, voucher codes or product databases necessary for affiliate to market effectively.

Affiliate management definitely has a need for integration with other channels, for example manage search, online PR and PPC as well as AM for some clients and knowing what’s going on in each channel can arguably get positive results, but remember affiliates also deal with paid search & SEO and not just websites.

It’s not exactly rocket science, though ironically I have some experience in that subject, they simply need to provide affiliates the tools they request, reward them appropriately & affordably, treat them with respect, don’t have draconian t&c’s & you’ll find they will overall endeavour aim to portray the merchant’s brand in a favourably hue & in the correct manner whilst delivering cost effective results from the best performance marketing channel available. The downside though is that because some larger media agencies bring blue chip clients to a network, the network themselves (not all) can be too yellow bellied to stand up to the media agency (cos of a risk of losing future clients), but will quite merrily dictate & scold affiliates, using terminology like “abused” & “violated”, not very pleasant terms and words you would only associate with paedophiliacs.

Merchants maintaining affiliate program management in house is a nice ideal, but in reality most don’t have the resources to nurture staff or possess the required skill set, that’s why media agencies with staff / owners of sound affiliate grounding have the specialist skills and relations that an experienced affiliate manager will have. Clients (merchants) should focus on setting their strategy, positioning, and even down to the detail of the marketing calendar, then involve the experts to work their magic in their respective fields.

Merchants should also invite & speak with key affiliates first before deciding which media agency would be best to manage the affiliate channel. Please note : not a network’s pet affiliate. The proof of the pudding may also be which agencies will work purely on a CPA basis,especially in the current climate, with a nominal management fee, excluding brand bidding privileges to the agencies in house paid search team. These are just a few important points as part the decision making process.

Whoopie bloomin doo … so what … Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced a 2.5% cut in VAT … so that equates to £25 saving in every net £1000 spend .. in theory. ie £12.50 on the £500 net price LCD TV … £1.25 on the £50 net price weekly food shop. Yeah that is really going to stimulate the economy … probably not.

And what is stopping retailers from not actually passing on that saving in the sense they will raise the net price of products to pocket the difference in the same way some banks haven’t been passing on the interest rate cuts or increasing charges on their other services.

Was there any news on wholsesale income tax cuts or corporation tax cuts for businesses. Perhaps there should have been more focus of these?

Whereby reduction in corporation tax might be the make or break to stop some of the 100 businesses a day closing, as well as actually keeping people in a job?

Where were the exciting income tax cuts on what actually goes into peoples pockets, so they can make the decision on whether to spend, save or pay off debts?

Obviously we are all going to pay for it later. Have I missed something ?

Finally, this £500 billion bailout of the embattled banking industry, would it have been more effective to put towards reducing income tax & corporation tax for UK citizens, when as mentioned it is likely some banks will pocket a lot of this or have been inert in assisting their customers who will still pay for it long term.

Am I missing something, perhaps someone with sound ecomonics background can explain to me in laymans terms?

Yours Faithfully

An Unimpressed Moose

Did you know that the Books Direct Incentive is probably the most generous CASH incentive there has ever mean in UK Affiliate Marketing history. So far the Prize Pool after Octobers Figures is a staggering £11,860.35 where a number of lucky winners already have their Golden Ticket.

There is still time left to win your Golden Ticket for the big prize draw.

So don’t be a BUB and get in with your chance one of those last few Golden Tickets.

Related Links

Books Direct “Golden Ticket” Prize Pool Incentive - Estimated £10000 Plus 

Sharing the Wealth - The Solution to Brand Bidding Groups