Moose on the Loose

Program restrictions & additional t&c’s of various descriptions have perpetually been trying to decrease the borders of the operational envelope of what is considered reasonably acceptable to the point where so many are now unreasonably unacceptable, with the boundaries being continually breached by encroaching on the free enterprise & marketing skills of affiliates.

We are now entering an interesting period where the tolerance levels of affiliates is encroaching their limitations, where previously they had remained relatively passive, the worm may well soon turn so that they will be become considerably more assertive in re-addressing the balance.

Unfortunately, we are still discussing the same or similar issues to those we were back in 2000, whereby no matter what spin or false sincerities a network may remark, when it comes to the crunch between a major brand & an affiliate, the affiliate will always be considered the second class citizen.

Will this change? I doubt this very much, whilst there maybe a vociferous few within the community with a selfless rather than selfish approach, most affiliates … and I will get flamed for this … have a weak backbone who lily-liveredly accept being rode roughshod over, thus without a collective effort, circumstances will not change, except some of those with financial leverage gradually moving their business away from the networks whilst simultaneously pulling clients as part of the collateral damage. With networks generally beckoning to the whims of larger brands or their appointed agencies, it won’t be just those networks but the industry as a whole which will be deemed as weak by nature & never gain the respect of being strong business people with a fine blend of assertivness, humility, good ethics, strict morals & professionalism.

The mindset of the average affiliate is so distinct from other business environments, it’s totally unique & a fine attribute that many just don’t comprehend.

As for an affiliate association, this is unlikely to materialise in the foreseeable future primarily due to time contraints of individual marketeers (what with time being an affiliates most precious commodity) and inertness of most people associated in affiliate marketing. Yes, regulation is required and it’s better that the industry becomes self regulated rather than being regulated by an outside body who is ignorant of affiliate marketing, unfortunately in the current climate, the latter may probably happen first, if at all. Perhaps there is an opportunity for one network to take the lead, by addressing the more critical aspects of affiliate concerns and adopting into new & existing contracts with merchants. Some merchants will oppose these & the network may lose some clients, but realistically are these merchants, no matter how big or small, the kind we really want onboard? The phrases “fair & best practice”, “transparency”, “trust”, “honesty” are being used to liberally without substance or conviction.

There is no disputing there are shady practices currently in effect & palms being crossed with silver, some call it nothing but conspiracy theories, but that is a firm opinion I am unwaivering & resolute on, these folk have already & will continue to reap their fortunes, but if efforts are focused on going back to the roots of what affiliate marketing used to be, the better the future standing of the industry will be, before we lose site of what the true meaning of the term “affiliate” is .. and thus totally lost.

You only have to peruse through the history of the affiliate forum to know what is required.

Here are a couple of personal blog entries, the grammer is probably quite poor, but you should be able to interpret the underlying message.

The Worm Has Turned

PPC Brand Name Bidding – The Need For Proper Guidelines

In affiliate marketing you either “get it” or you don’t, some proclaim the former but really don’t, and it really is a question of time before affiliates turn around and say “no more!”

Will we be having this same conversation this time next year? .. probably yes .. but I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong!

There is no denying it, love them or loathe them or sit of the fence, Google is indeed a magnificient beast, the subject of endless & intriguing debate, whether you are a search engine algorithmist, search engine optimisation specialist (even newbies), paid search advertiser, affiliate marketeer or humble blogger.

I have no idea to what Google’s utopia maybe, whether it be a natural progression to creating an Orwellian Style Society or something less innocent … or could be GOOGLE BANK!

Below is how we might envisage the latter option, with the creation of a new denomination. The $25 bill.

It is just for fun … oh by the way

Quiz Question: Do you recognise the serial number & what does it represent?

Have a nice day!

Disclaimer: Please note this is not actually legal tender. We have to say that as some people just believe anything.

As a natural progression to follow on from their recent Google Checkout technology, Could Google … maybe soon … be unveiling the Google Credit Card as seen below in a possible example?

Indeed it maybe early speculation , could it possibly be suggested that it might be something like a cashback card pertaining to merchants who have incorporated the Google Checkout Cart and will be in the order 3% on the first $10K spent in the year, then 2% thereafter, with 1% cashback on all other purchases* And a 2% flat on any Google Adwords expenditure.

Quiz Question: Do you recognise the number sequence in the 2nd credit card sample?

I’ve got mine, have you got yours yet?

Conspiracy Theory or Fact or Fiction or Maybe One Day ?

Is our colossal big brother enroute to possibly creating an Orwellian Style Society?

George Orwell was brilliant in highlighting the importance of privacy to everyone in his novels, who had the ability in foreseeing the potential clash between technology & privacy or is it simply that a big brother is born out of big business.

As you are aware I firmly believe Ebay UK and/or their associates are in collaboration to bid on a vast number of urls of major retailers & organisations, basically infringing on their trademarks or intellectual property rights. And quite possibly using the reporting on CJ for their own campaigns.

So here is an example of one of literally hundreds: On Google UK, Ebay UK are bidding on the url “www.rspca.org.uk” which is an animal charity site known as the RSPCA which stands for the The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Click Here : Note Geo-targetting may effect what you see so we shall put the screen grabs up soon.

Now you may have read my previous posts & comments about Ebay UK

Click Here for The Ebay Challenge

Beforehand they were using CJ (Commission Junction) links, now are they are doing it themselves with Ebays own rover technology (i realise this is also available to their affiliates as well & is currently compatible with the CJ system). When you view the link properties it reads as follows:

By the way, will the real PID=2021892 please stand up

www.rspca.org.uk

SID=r_uk156_39883 suggesting someone is tracking a lot of keywords

Ascertained from:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=L&ai=…zQmLpZuPAvv4hp
QF0IYDEAUYBSC2VCgFMAE4AFCz-bJgYLsGmAGHiAGYAcyeBqoBGm9yZy5tb3ppbGx
hOmVuLUdCOm9mZmljaWFsyAEB2QNQpQUqIqSdl-ADCA&num=5&q=
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5232-2978-1/1%3F
SID%3Dr_uk156_39883%26AID%3D9479574%26
PID%3D202189 2%26loc%3D
http%253A//search.ebay.co.uk/search/rspca.org.uk*_W0QQfclZ4Q
QfnuZ1QQflocZ1QQsaslcZ3&usg=AFrqEzcJtdJdwnCBAg7cgkyJtILSp-9KPg

However, analysis of other links might suggest it’s Ebay own paid search activity, once the full database is compiled is presentable enough, we should be forthcoming with it.

eBay Announces their own affiliate infrastructure

I do wonder if CJ are still reluctant to pursue any further because of Ebay being one of their main clients.

Anyhow, back on track .. this is the landing page

Click Here for Landing Page

As you see there is no relevancy, which illustrates another of non-existant Google’s Quality Score Algos. Plus Google have declared in communication by email & telephone that in their opinion there is nothing wrong with Ebay bidding on other organisation url’s and don’t see anything wrong with page relevancy, when all its displaying is yet another bunch of Google Adense. Hence, an MFA.

We have come across not only numerous url’s but many other obscure terms, some so strange maybe only one or two people bid on (where did they acquire this data from?) Whereby all of these simply point to Google Adsense Ads.

Now I have no objection to MFA sites and as for ourselves we don’t use Google Adsense. They have contacted me intermittently to try and persuade us to adopt it on our sites which we have always declined .. in the current climate there is no chance when there are better & more flexible options available … however examing the vast number of keywords we are aware off … Ebay seems to be a Glorified MFA Site!

The brand intrusion is my biggest gripe when “some” networks and merchants are too yellow to take on or question Ebay, yet they will happily yield a big stick & ride roughshod over affiliates, whilst Google simply permits the big boys to do as they please whether ppc or seo.

Here is a related thread from KirstyM, which may eleviate part of the problem.

No More Blue Bums & Fanny Magnets For E-bay Affiliates

Microsoft Affiliate Network BETA, seems to have slipped in under the radar. An interesting development but probably nothing to get too excited about yet, it’ maybe simply a question of how long before Google launches theirs? I might aim at finding out more about it & try & post here accordingly in due course.

Is Microsoft Affiliate Network BETA an affiliate network in the sense of how we traditionally understand it or something slightly different.

Further news today suggested that Microsoft is paying $6bn (£3bn) to buy digital marketing firm Aquantive in its biggest ever acquisition. BBC News

Possibly like any other affiliate, our inbox is continually bombarded with emails from merchants on various topics.

However as an affiliate & within affiliate marketing my time is my most precious commodity, a majority of the information sent through is superfluous to my requirements.

I appreciate that merchants or networks obo of merchants sending out promotional emails is proactive, but when you are signed up to a couple of thousand programs, an affiliates inbox can become overwhelming & time consuming to plough through. Maybe a couple of years ago, we might have been saying that we were not receiving enough, but the pendulum has swung to the other extreme.

Therefore as an affiliate I don’t wish to be automatically opted in to receive emails I am not interested in order to have to opt out, if that is at all possible.

Mandatory emails which should go out are PPC or keyword policy changes, programs opening & closing. Cookie period changes, commission changes or promotional emails should be optional. Thus networks should maybe start categorising emails more i.e. don’t blend a keyword policy change within some promotional email.

However, all in all it’s probably got to a stage where we should now opt into emails & specfically what type of emails these pertain too. Obviously direct communication emails still apply.

I think over the next week or so, we will approach each network with our instructions to ascertain who is accommodating or not & report back, quite possibly some may not even have that facility.

As a side note, internal mail systems should maybe run simultaneously with emails sent out, as proof of delivery is not proof of receipt.

Anyhow, back to my inbox now it’s about 3:41am and I only have another 607 emails to go … now where is that mass delete button, there’s a good film on the box.

Now that the cat is finally out of the bag, this blog is a warm congratulations to Princess Fiona & Fraser (author of Affiliateblog.co.uk) who are are expecting their first baby Shrek.

I am totally chuffed for you both & wish you every happiness in the world for your bundle of joy which is due on the 30th October, around All Hallows Eve … Wooo! Hooo!

It seems some affiliates are getting quite viril recently, what with Graham (from Buyagift) & Mel having their first child about 13 weeks ago and with Leona & Clarke (Supercod) (Affiliate Marketing Blog) expecting their 2nd in September .. Congratulations to them also.

If you are a dad and also an affiliate, an affiliate community has been set up on the newly relaunched Affiliates4U forum, called Affiliate Dads .. Click Here

Clarke wrote his first article on the new Affiliates4u forum today, called How to instantly kill your Affiliate Program (PPC side)! by Supercod

Which I thought was another angle to look at affiliates using paid search to promote merchants.

“I was told by our PPC Agency that Affiliates are bad and that I should not allow them to use our sites URL in any direct to site PPC activity. After I done this our Affiliates deserted us in droves including the guys I thought only done SEO. Our sales took a nose dive and I was fired as you don’t need an Affiliate Manager if you have no active Affiliates. I am still looking for a job, but no one will hire me after they heard what I done :-(”

Click Here for Rest of Article

My Comment: The introduction of brand name bidding restrictions, on what is a low hanging fruit, I have no problems with, except for the cartels, lack of notice in changes etc.

However, as for display url restrictions, well that is simply castrating the program, along with what Kieron mentions in his blog

But going back to Clarkes article, what is the “longtail” of it all? Quite simple really, the income derived from the override networks receive will diminish. There are possibly a couple of networks who’s survival is probably dependent upon this (apart from the revenue generation from good quality cashback sites). Why do you think that the odd one has their own little cartel op in progress? Unless networks innovate of course.

Therefore with a few networks, if you take away brand bidding closed groups, they possibly don’t actually have a sustainable business model.

The heartbeat of the UK affiliate marketing industry has always been the community around the A4UForum.

Today, it has taken that next revolutionary & evolutionary step by relaunching as Affiliates4U

I am still finding my way around and have been impressed with the extra features that are now available from covering everything from creating your own Communities on any topic you desire (or join others, if nobody joins yours, you could always create one called “Billy No Mates”), News & Articles, Blogs (where feeds are pulled from registered users & aggregated), The Traditional Forum Structure, Events (related to the industry) & Providers.

It certainly feels like there will be more social networking between members not just on affiliate related topics but anything & everything where the common denominator between us all will still be our enjoyment of affiliate marketing.

Matt & his team must be applauded for this … Bravo old bean!

But for the time being, take a look for yourself and join in the exciting development at Affiliates4U.

Just thinking out loudly … Which is never a wise thing … I am not 100% convinced the whole presell philosophy always works or is always necessary, especially conversion wise.

Unless after the presell on you website or within a pay per click advert, following the affiliate link actually inserts the product in the shopping basket by prefilling the basket or taking the user directly to the checkout.

I have yet to come across enough programs which prefill the basket after we have presold them on our sites or ppc activity.

Surely this would increase conversion rates as they (meaning the customer) are taken further down the corridor of the sales process … otherwise in effect the customer has to be presold twice?! Once on your site & once again on the merchant site. Where is the logic in that?

I suppose what I am rambling on about is that affiliate links should have the ability to take customers to the checkout and/or shopping basket … for improved CR … they may even soar!

Correct me if i am wrong, but who says you cannot presell a product in 3 lines of ad copy on a ppc search engine and do ppc > merchant?

What’s the better user experience in terms of time & bandwidth for a customer and conversion rates for the affiliate?

a.) ppc > publisher site > merchant … noting no basket prefill thus a product is effectively presold three times

b.) ppc > merchant ….noting again no basket prefill but a product is only presold twice.

That’s why in a.) ie those merchants who allow use of their display url will always have priority over those who don’t permit it. Less leakage & higher % transition of traffic … unless the landing page has an option of several products and ALL take the customer directly to the checkout on the merchants site.

We have the ability to deep link as as we know these generally convert better most of the time, so why don’t networks and merchants take that next step.

btw this is something I brought up on a forum back on January 2nd, 2005. Maybe it illustrates that the industry still hasn’t evolved enough to at least give us the option and try on a larger scale.