Moose on the Loose

One category I feel I am really limited for choice on from the list below is, btw for those that have been on a different planet for the past few days, the Affiliate Marketing a4uAwards can be found here

Innovation in Affiliate Marketing (Network Award)

I think we are really limited for choices in this section and maybe only limited to a couple of good options which is really disappointing on the whole considering. Paid On Results for their platform, content units & various useful tools and then there is Affiliate Window for their Shop Window. Though both are very good it is disappointing there doesn’t seem much to choose from as alternatives. With a few acquistions by various networks from bid management tools to telephone tracking systems, it makes you wonder whether these actually will be made available for affiliates? Now, some might suggest Ebay API as a possibility, but whilst Ebay seem to unethically & continually breach trademarks in paid search advertising, I don’t think they are worthy See Here

One award I would like to see added is

Publisher’s Choice Award for an Account Manager at a Network – we should appreciate there are a few account managers who do work tirelessly, they are very good at their job, participate on the forum & are very pleasant people. Whether you agree with their opinions all the time or not, I do feel their role in the industry should be recognised. These could include several from Webgains like Hero, Ryan, Kier to Peter or Chris at Affiliate Future to Adam or Kevin at Affiliate Window to a few others.

Firmly laying my cards on the table, here is my own shortlist of candidates, though the beauty of these things is that they are all open to opinion & conjecture

• Innovation in Affiliate Marketing (Merchant Award) – A real shortlist for this one, though I might not be thinking out the box on this one but my personal three candidates are Buyagift, Prezzybox & Euroffice.

• Innovation in Affiliate Marketing (Network Award) – The aforementioned Paid On Results & Affiliate Window

• Innovation in Affiliate Marketing (Publisher Award) – Certainly not us for sure, though I rarely visit other affiliates websites to ascertain what they are working on, unless invited to offer an opinion. Though perhaps this could be maybe renamed to Best Publisher Website (for which by my own admission we wouldn’t qualify for either by a long shot). Though from the few affiliate sites I have seen, some are excellent & well marketed, to a few which if I had the inclination I would offer to buy out as they are extremely good, yet go unrecognised or are not marketed to their full potential.

• Publisher’s Choice Award for a Network – Down to your personal preference & relationship with respective networks, so for myself the four contenders are currenly Paid On Results, Affiliate Future, Affiliate Window & Webgains. I do hope affiliates simply don’t just go for the ones with the big brands or ones they currently do most business with.
  

• Publisher’s Choice Award for a Merchant – A few considerations here as there are some really nice merchants, but my personal unwaivering option will boil down to a head to head battle between Buyagift & Prezzybox.

• Publisher’s Choice Award for an Agency – Tough call. There a few nice agencies, though I don’t necessarily consistantly agree with them, however, they participate & remain proactive on the forum. Some options could be from R.O Eye, Equator, Summit Media to Mitch at BigMouthMedia. However my runner-up would be Jess at Affiliate Program Advice. My winner would be Existem.

• Affiliate Manager of 2007 – A duel between Graham Keen of Buyagift & Zak Edwards at Prezzybox. They both continuoiusly liase with the affiliate community, catering for & asking what we would like & more importantly they actually deliver, plus the fact they are both terrific people.
  

• Merchants Publisher of 2007 – Look at the guys which are selfless (not selfish) & contribute postively & proactively to affiliate marketing & the community. Notibly, those who also have blogs. A list of whom can be viewed in the right hand column on this page.

• Best New Merchant of 2007 – I was a little confused on this selection on who the “NEW” merchants are. So nobody really stood out. Thus on existing ones, guess what .. Buyagift & Prezzybox stood out again. So on the basis of an award title, it’s a weak category. However, just being launched on Paid on Results is the program Children’s Rooms being run by Dave & Elaine.
  

• Best New Publisher of 2007 – From the recent Affiliate Get Togethers, we have noticed an influx of the next generation of Performance Marketeers with some very bright minds amongst them.
  

• Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2007 – What a terrific choice to choose from. I thoroughly enjoy reading & being totally absorbed with Affiliate Blogs like those listed in the right hand column, with various perspectives, insights & topics of discussion. The best part is that generally we are singing off the same hymn sheet in relation to the industry. But my favourite is Fraser Edward’s Affiliate Marketing Blog & his Podcasts.

• Best Agency Account Manager – My winner would be the big gentle giant Mark Russell at Existem closely followed by Jess at Affiliate Program Advice

• Best International Publisher – Not sure who to classify in this one & whether it includes UK Affiliates. So there are a few in my social circle of friends who I would like to vote for.

• Industry Champion Award – Fraser Edwards !!!
  

To reiterate again, for your vote go to the Affiliate Marketing a4uAwards Ceremony 2007 … “Rewarding Excellence & Innovation in Affiliate Marketing.”

Let me start with a folk tale:

“The story is told that there once was a blind beggar (the merchant) who sat beside a road, fingering the rice in his little bowl. He wore only a loin loth and sat in poverty beside the road that stretched nowhere in both directions.

The scarce travellers occasionally gave him a little rice. One day he heard the thunder of a chariot in the distance. It was the grand entourage of the king (the affiliate). This was a moment that had never come before and probably would ever come again. Surely the great king (the affiliate) would stop and give him baskets of rice.

Indeed, the golden chariot of the king (the affiliate) stopped before the poor beggar (the merchant). The great one stepped down, and the beggar (the merchant) fell before him. Then the sky seemed to fall in.

Give me your rice, please” politely asked the king (the affiliate).

A fearful and hateful scowl masked the face of the beggar (the merchant). He reached into his bowl and thrust one grain of rice toward the king (the affiliate).

“Is that all?” said the king (the affiliate).

The beggar (the merchant) spat on the ground, cursed and threw the king (the affiliate) one more grain of rice, then got up & walked away in a huff. The great king (the affiliate) then turned, entered his chariot and was gone.

The beggar (the merchant), angry, empty & crushed, fingered the remaining rice he had hoarded in this bowl. He felt something hard, different from the rice. He pulled it out … It as one kernel of gold. He then poured out the rest of his rice, caring nothing for it now … He found one other grain of gold.

Had he trusted the king (the affiliate), he could have had a grain of gold for every grain of rice!!!”

Now this was a story I sent to a merchant (the beggar) sometime back, that merchant (the beggar) was Linkword Languages who was looking for more business from affiliates (the kings), so I politely asked him whether I could have a sample of the product to learn Portugese & properly test the product. His direct response was that we will have to purchase our own via the commissions in the sales we pushed to him! So I sent the story & heard nothing more.

So for some merchants (the beggars), think about this Parable. Free product samples can go a long way.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few generous merchants (this time the kings) out there from Buyagift to Prezzybox to occassional freebies we unexpectedly receive to sponsors of Affiliates4U events … and more recently a massive thanks to the sponsors of the Affiliates4U Fantasy Football Competition which Mark at Existem has organised like Historic Papers, Best of the Best & Subside Sports.

Definition: Parable … is a brief tale intended to be understood as an allegory illustrating some lesson or moral.

Definition: Allegory … the representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.

Even though I am not over keen on being overloaded with promotional emails from or obo merchants, there are some which do make a considerable effort  which are either created by the network affiliate (manager) or the merchant themselves, with pleasant images & copy pertaining to some of their products.

Which makes me think to myself that if they have gone the extra yard in the effort of a creative, good looking promotional email, why don’t they also simply produce a content unit to insert on our sites or solus email based on this same content / information that we can send out? It would take only minimal changes, saving us all time.

You may argue, that the affiliate could do this themselves by extracting the information, but again “less is more”, as one person making the changes is more time efficient than a number of affiliates making those same changes, thus affiliates can focus on the marketing via email or site implementation of this latest information.

Or is this solution too easy?

“Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”

… kindly provided by Shane … btw look out for Shanes Blog … Coming Out Soon

There are quite a few things I admire about Paid On Results, and one of them is being innovators. There is one tool you may have neglected to use, forgotten about or just simply didn’t know about which we find useful not only for ourselves but possibly for you affiliates as well … and that is their

Deep Link Generator

Using their browser based Deep Link Generator you can now create Deep Links for any Paid On Results Merchant at the click of a button.

The way it works is you add a special page to your browsers Favourites or Bookmarks menu and then, when you want to create a Deep Link you simply browse to the Merchants web site, navigate to the page you want to deep link to and click the link in your Favourites or
Bookmark menu.

You’re then be taken to the Paid On Results web site and shown the Affiliate URL you’ll need to deep link to the Merchant!

This tool requires either Internet Explorer or Firefox, with Java Script enabled.

Log into your affiliate account and see Tools > Deep Link Generator for full information and another demo video showing how it’s installed

It’s been around since December 2005! Try it out at least & see for yourself.

Okay, hear me out on this one, it might not be as daft as what you may originally think, then again it could be.

Have we been going about this affiliate marketing malarky all the wrong way, shouldn’t merchants be applying to affiliates & not the way it currently stands with numerous in depth additional T&C’s & over zealous keyword policies ?

Thus, affiliates could then post their own reasonable terms & conditions for a merchant to apply too. I don’t think it would quite be the “anarchy” or mutiny maybe predicted, but it would certainly put relationships on more of a level keel, than the unhealthy way it’s drifting towards at the moment.

“you would think most Merchants have products no one else has for sale the way a few of them act… but you know it’s not going to change any time soon, sucks but that’s just way it is…” – an affiliate

“some merchants think affiliates are disposable …” – another affiliate …. yep & so are these same merchants

“it’s a merchants perogative” – a network … no it’s not entirely & this is part of where it’s currently falling down

I am not quite sure on the angle I am approaching this from, but the concept might just be food for thought before it all goes awash & sinks into the abyss? But an affiliates operational envelope is being ever increasingly reduced which does need to be addressed & debated.

I was & wasn’t surprised, but definitely disappointed, to find out from different networks that when a merchant changes their keyword policy, they still don’t have an automated alert method to ensure that both the affiliate or network are made aware of any keyword policy changes, no matter how significant or insignificant they maybe/seem or deemed.

On a merchants information page these are too easily merged or at a later date appended into the program description, or if a merchant has a specific keyword restriction or keyword link, changes can all too easily be made without anybody knowing, unless of course you’re a psychic / clairvoyant or have some form of extra sensory perception by feeling a disturbance in the force.

Countless times have keyword policies been changed or sneaked in without notification, most networks are very polite about any breach of keyword policy you may have not known about, a few are not, or alternatively you are kicked off a program because your psychic abilities are not finely attuned or your Midichlorian count is too low.

Because some networks, merchants & agencies are so protective & over sensitive with keyword policy, & have been for quite a while at an increasing rate, it really is about time some basic parameters are implemented.

Firstly there should ONLY BE A SINGULAR POINT OF REFERENCE with regard to a merchants keyword policy and ONLY whatever is written in there should be applied / enforced. Yes, we know about not having ambiguous keyword policies & the need for it to be written clearly, concisely, politely & never in a forthright or dictatorial manner.

Any changes for keyword policy can ONLY be made within the SINGULAR POINT OF REFERENCE keyword policy section & nowhere else!

Lastly & most importantly, whenever the slightest change, no matter how minute or subtle it maybe, is made within the SINGULAR POINT OF REFERENCE for keyword policy there MUST, MUST, MUST be an automated communication sent out to both affiliates & the network via normal email as well as any internal mail system on the networks admin area which affiliates access.

This is a simple request & something which is well overdue within the industry. Come on networks, it’s not exactly rocket science to set up.

Right I am off to have my Midichlorians levels boosted.

Please, please, please will merchants with keyword restrictions stop using inappropiate wording & stop being so mellow dramatic in the choice of words they use, which only gives the perception they are treating affiliates like naughty, little, adolescent school children with reference to the pre-warnings in their keyword policy sections which only sounds like they are scolding affiliates from outset.

“The use of the official URL: www.whatevermerchant.com for any affiliate activity is strictly forbidden.

… how about saying “please do not use” or “it is disallowed”.

What if we, as affiliates, starting making demands like the following and having them inserted into contracts, saying it is for example … strictly forbidden for the merchant to be ever late with payment or it’s strictly forbidden for your tracking to EVER go array & it’s strictly forbidden not to pay remuneration for when tracking is down … etc … etc … etc ……. otherwise you’ll be chastised or hung, drawn & quartered.

“Rogue affiliates who refuse to adhere to the keywords and url terms and conditions will have their commissions voided and will be suspended from the campaign immediately.”

As for the term “rogue” … please will they grow up, it sounds more like some blood elf character class out of the game World of Warcraft.

It’s fine having keyword restrictions & mentioning it, but please, please, please use appropiate wording & treat affiliates like professional mature adults.

When I see wording like this, imho it simply creates the perception that the merchant has got a potential attitude problem & it’s preferable to avoid even if we did want to promote them via a non ppc route. As a side note we automatically do rank / order merchants on our website according to their epc’s & wording of keyword policies, so inappropiate wording does add a negative rating to their overall scoring … Yep, we have introduced our own quality score too which is applied to merchants.

PS Apart from a small handful of programs, we haven’t signed up to or promoted any new programs this year becuase of the trend we were noticing, except in the past week or so where we are signing up to most programs on various networks for incidental income , however we are starting to notice the wording of keyword policies are becoming more frequently frivolous than before.

Last night I was simply going through the process of signing up to a few programs on various affiliate networks & occasionally you see terms & conditions like these.

In this example we shall use AXA PPP “H“ealthcare

“Affiliates are not permitted to have the AXA brand in their URLs, display URLs, sub-domains or folders “

The part that grates me is “sub-domains or folders” when are networks going to tell merchants or their agencies, no to unacceptable “sub-domains or folders” restrictions. An affiliates website is their domain & it’s down to their own integrity, whether it be site architecture or sub-domain, folder structure, & that of the merchant or agency representing that merchant. Please, get the message that it is an affiliates property & a merchant has no claim to imposing undue restrictions upon this.

Some UK affiliates might remember the debacle for Marks & Spencers when they insisted on affiliates using the ampersand “&” rather than “and”. That was very petty. So in addition to AXA PPP “H“ealthcare affiliate program they had these little clauses too. I think there is a photo knocking about somewhere from an affiliate event with regard to Marks and Spencers. Is it the same agency which or did represent both?

“Our company name should always be written as AXA PPP healthcare (with a lower case ‘h’) and never split over two lines or abbreviated. Wherever possible, Helvetica or Arial should be used for body copy, if not then verdana. Eras demi should be used for headers.”

Cough … excuse me Mr / Mrs / Miss / Ms Agency, please get a reality check with the special conditions for the AXA PPP “H”ealth care program. Fine represent the merchant in a favourable hue, but please will they stop being so pedantic. There are other examples out there, but this one was used as actual T&C’s for illustration purposes.

Though not pertaining to this particular program, you quite often see PPC restrictions saying along the lines of “you are permitted to bid on generic terms and send them to your own affiliates site” … How gracious of you sir! – we surly say … it’s our site, off course we surely can … so go away. Will some of these merchants & networks please get a grip.

Side Note : Article working atm .. is called “Join the Dots” … It won’t win many friends & may end up as “Billy No Mates” 🙂

PS Just saw this one for Time Out … “Affiliates are NOT permitted to appear higher in the SERP than the merchant listing” … they just keep getting better .. erm well every affiliate will rank for something better, whatever that term maybe.

An Orwellian Society, hmm maybe a little melodramatic & out of context, however Facebook is continually the hot bed of conversation with regard to acquisition rumours for those on the path to becoming another of the “Praetorians” of “The Net”?

Who Will Buy Facebook?

Are the figures quoted for acquisitions currently becoming a little overvalued?

Now, think about it, with all these social media sites cropping up left, right & center like rabbit holes, it never ceases to amaze me how the general public quite willingly allow relatively loose acquaintances the ability to pry a little deeper into their private lives. Is this because of vanity or ignorance or simply the innocence of wishing to socially participate (the desire to socially interact) in perceived friendly environments, which is human nature after all, however this is where our natural guards & common sense are generally lowered & go on walkabout.

I do think we are potentially opening ourselves up not only to privacy issues but also personal security. Not from friends, off course not, but anyone who could casually glance over their shoulder or have access to the central database for more sinister intent. Granted, it is fun to keep up with friends, joining in & sharing their enjoyment & happiness of lifes experiences, but it could get misused / abused.

Think about it, no I am not scaremongering, but lets get realistic about it.

Think about who the acquisitors are, who do they really have loyalties with? On the face of it … it is or is it simply a means of mapping ip addresses & names to deliver advertising, or is there more to it?

FBI Spy Revealed

Not related, but just an additional story?

Now, I like Facebook, then again I have only been on there a few weeks or so, thus it is still at the stage of being a novelty factor for me. It does possess the potential for greater longevity than it’s predecessors until the next king of the hill arrives. Ask me the same question in 6 months, on how often I log in Facebook then.

Off course like keeping up with what friends are up to, even though it consumes your time, when time is an affiliates most precious commodity … “there’s thousands of people wasting good surfing time petting virtual rabbits” – Loquax

… I say … lets boil the bunny.

The Facebook.com: Big Brother with a smile – courtesy of Kier

Big Brothers, Big Facebook: Your Orwellian Community – courtesy of Lee

Make what you will off the above linked articles I am neither condoning or supporting, there are probably other articles around, but they are there just for an additional read, if you have others please feel welcome to submit them in comments. There is no intent on my behalf to create a conspiracy theory thread, but to simply step back & examine the bigger picture & address accordingly.

At the moment it seems like a fad, a better model than predecessors and will probably enjoy / endure greater longevity. I realise Alexa rankings are to be taken with a pinch of salt in some respects, but if you look at some of these charts, it supports this case. So the timing for them for optimum sale price is essential, if that is their intent.

Has Beens

1. My Search 2. Friends Reunited

Current Crop

3. Flickr 4. Facebook 5. Youtube (Utube :P)

Web 2.0

I am still sitting on the fence with regard to any firm opinions of Web 2.0 and certainly not dismissing it out of hand, but looking how this maybe somewhat slightly pretencious buzz word / coined phrase fits into the grand scheme of things & how it can be applied from my own business perspective. I don’t think I am being blinkered, but being more objective by assimulting the information available without it running away & leaving me behind, just in case.

However, I am not wholly convinced by Web 2.0 as anything trully innovative, but readaptations of existings ideas aggregated together, except, and I may be wrong on this that it is merely “user generated / degenerate content” in the sense they provide it all, i.e. the user does all the work for you & you provide the platform for this. Like content is king & creating website stickiness by forming a community with quirky bells & whistles & widgets & applications. The platform maker earns to wonga & the content providers diddly squat … generally.

For affiliates jumping on Web 2.0 … What are the thoughts on the monetisation of these sites for affiliates apart from hoping to be bought out? Yesterday was Myspace, today is Facebook, what is tomorrow? Web 3.0 was that refferred to as virtual realms and mentioned Affiliate Summit (which was a very good event btw)? Don’t we have that already with World of Warcraft & biting Facebook members by turning them into Zombies … note I am currently a Ninja Zombie 🙂 … Social media sites … are the rage … are fun, but how do we monetise it? Social media sites are just that, the mindset of the user is not to purchase at the time when they are using these, unless you deliver CPM or allow for a very low CTR with low ROI (might as well brand build) on ads or develop applications to piggy back on the existing current fad sites.

“There are so many strands of social media. Social networks in the form of blogs and newsgroups … This content has allowed a more open dialogue between consumers and between consumers and business. Review sites and blogs, and sites like this, enable people to openly discuss the merits and faults in businesses and play a huge part in influencing people’s buying processes.” Lee McCoy

Lee presents his points well.

Also from a your own personal perspective, you have to consider if your business revolves around your lifestyle or vice versa, if you prefer the freedom of the former, then the full implemenation of so called Web 2.0 ideas may be inhibitive to this, as I guess you would have to be more hands on to ensure that nothing offensive is being published, as it grows it will become more demanding. Thus, it’s down to individual needs & to what scale you want to manage this.

If the concept of so called Web 2.0 is the future demand, then we will have to look at doing more work for the equivalent income, unless innovative ways of monetising are come up with. Then how long will it be before privacy issues become more of a concern?.

Now, I am not dismissing “Web 2.0” out of hand, nor the opinions of those strongly in favour, it’s just that from a personal perspective, it hasn’t grasped my “rollocks” and inspired / impressed me yet. Though I will consider ideas which can pigeon holed as Web 2.0 cos it sounds cool and see if it fits in with our sites.

I think that is enough waffle on this for now …

I will quite gladly add links to this blog entry to those who are firm beleivers of the Web 2.0 concept, as I like to read opinions of those which differ from my own by considering other perspectives.

These articles may provide an alternative & equal view point to the discussion:

Segmentation of Affiliates, Social Networking and the ‘Thick Long Tail’ by Matthew Wood

Post For Facebook Lovers and Haters

All Those Social Media Knockers: Start Listening

Matt Wood quoted to me saying it’s “Evolution” and to check this out which some of you may have seen already.

Summary:

With Web 2.0, keep an open mind either way. With Social Sites like Facebook .. Think! .. Sites like these show a how users are easily seduced into letting strangers & organisations know too much information about them. For example, if you say on one of these that you are going on holiday, when you come back you might be burgled. Just don’t be over zealous in what information you volunteer as it’s not your friends you need to worry about, but who else is reading.

BTW The Film “The Net” was back in 1995 and Praetorians are ficticious.

Social sites can be used for good or fun or bad or to counter bad. I won’t spell everything out as the idea is to think & read between the lines, as well think about time lines. So will Facebook for example be acquisited or become the acquisitor or both.

I will update grammatical errors later 😛 as I am off to build a Web 2.0 widget, whatever that maybe.