Moose on the Loose

Amercican Presidential Elections, repeated inauguration … & looming UK Elections are all tittle tattle when compared to impending vote for the chairman of the IAB Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC).

The potential elected Grand Master, from the two proposed candidates who will sit in the East, since all learning emanated from the East, the Grand Master will be able to bequeath their knowledge for the good of the affiliate brethren and guidance to the affiliate marketing industry.

The two candidates are:

Duncan Popham – MD of Total Search Solutions & A Moderator on the A4UForum.
Matt Bailey – Head of the affiliate channel at i-level

Ben Wood’s one year tenure as chair of the AMC ends next week, with the new appointment to be decided at an IAB AMC meeting on Thursday.

Who will you elect & who will you black ball?

For a bit of fun you can vote here on the forum. By request it has been made a secret ballot & individual votes are not publically viewable. Though I am not a fan of cloak & dagger & would have preferred a publically viewable vote, it’s only a bit of fun after all.

Click Here To Vote Hopefully the poll might engage a few more affiliates. For me I want to see less focus of what affiliates should & shouldn’t be doing but a lot more on what merchants & agencies shouldn’t be doing!!!

Is content really king or a pretender to the throne?

Or when you get down to the actual bottom line, the king is the winner of the last cookie, irrelevant of content (except where de-duping occurs)

Epitomise by the bloodied fued between the tyranny of Longshanks (King Edward I) and the moral premise of Braveheart (William Wallace).

Gordon Brown & Alistair “Captain” Darling (Blackadder Goes Forth), so called strategy to recapitalise Britain’s banks and get them lending again, which has been copied all over the world, has not worked, and what’s more disconcerting is that the Treasury’s “cunning” Plan B might simply be a replication of the failed Plan A. Like clueless generals sending hapless soldiers (general public & small businesses) over the top from the relative safety of the trenches towards the inevitable result from incoming shells & bullets.

Seriously, does anyone think that lining the coffers of banks still further, is going to leverage them them into lending again .. I wouldn’t bank on it … These Pontius Pilates seem to be crucifying the rest of us by pocketing the dough to save their own sorry backsides instead of assisting Joe Public and / or small businesses. A number of banking institutions haven’t even passed on the full interest rate reductions (The recent half percentage point reduction brings interest rates below 2% to 1.5% for the first time since the Bank of England was founded in 1694). Let’s not forget the majority of savers whom too have been affected by banks, making scrooge looking like a spendthrift.

As for the current temporary VAT reduction, well I don’t know whether to be bemused or laugh so much that my spleen wobbles.

A senior “adviser” to chancellor Alistair “Captain” Darling insisted that lending shouldn’t be taken as the sole measure of success: “Plan A has not failed, because the banks are still standing.”

Huh … but at the expense of who & what .. so a juicy fat raspberry to that comment!

Although UK banks are open for business, Britain is still facing a lending drought with banks & building societies continuing to reduce the amount of credit available to businesses & would-be homebuyers.

This has left Alistair “Captain” Darling with a gambling dilemma, does he stick or twist by throwing / chucking more money at the banks, (who haven’t really assisted economic recovery) effectively admitting that £billions of taxpayers’ money wasn’t enough, or does he wait (stick)?

No ! No ! No ! No more money for banks, please.

“I have come up with a plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.”  – Blackadder

Instead, as I suggested said before … reduce income tax & corporation tax, even if you have to maybe reduce public spending temporarily. this will at least put monies into employees pockets & improve cashflow of small businesses (even survivability). That way the economy can find a natural “real” equilibrium, with the increase of net income in peoples pockets, they can wisely decide whether to reduce or eliminate any existing debts they have, spend to revive the retail industry or save. Though I do wonder if savers will start seeking more attractive rates overseas or take riskier options with buying shares in markets they might be unfamiliar with, then what would the financial institutions do in the UK.

This will hopefully get everything & everyone Thrifty. (Definition Below)

1. Practicing or marked by the practice of thrift; wisely economical.
2. Industrious and thriving; prosperous.

I am no economics expert, but the above is just common sense. If I put my hat in the ring again, why do we have National Insurance & Tax calculated & paid seperately. Why can’t they be merged? That might save a few bob.

Alistair “Captain” Darling has got to stop relying on the banking regimes to assist in any economic recovery, any more charitable donations (of which is effectively public money) to the banks would be a public & political humiliation. Risking public money by gambling at russian roulette will bound to explode in his face. (singeing those eyebrows might well do him a favour)

Alistair “Captain” Darling saviours ARE / WILL BE the discerning public, where Alistair “Captain” Darling should literally tell the banks to “Goe Forth & Multiply” and place his trust in the UK public by reducing income tax & corporation tax, which in itself will be a huge vote winner.

Will Alistair “Captain” Darling listen to the public? … well … once again there goes the oinky sonic BOOM of another pig flying past the window.

PS Someone tell Alistair “Captain” Darling too sort out his hair & eyebrows, he looks like a photo negative (for those that don’t have digital cameras). I guess it characterises an undecisive politician who doesn’t know whether to dye his hair or eyebrows to match with his economic decisions which are leaving SKA’s. (deliberate spell variation).

If we are cohesive enough the credit crunch / current recession is an opportunity not to be missed to firmly place affiliate marketing on the map.

Affiliate marketing is probably the Holy Grail of an opportunity for merchants to commence their activity or increase their involvement, by allocating resources & budgets by rewarding appropriately, affordably & improving the terms & conditions for affiliates.

It is a holy grail for merchants, yet we read nothing … nada … zilch … zero … in the broad sheets or business sections of reputable newspapers & publications about how affiliate marketing can assist merchants in a difficult financial climate. Why, because the industry doesn’t act as a united collective nor assertive enough, affiliate marketing is unfortunately often too fragmented & apathetic (though there is obvious passion), the credit crunch has given us (affiliate marketing) an opportunity to get noticed. It’s been presented on a platter so why not cease it?!

Where networks have been guilty of pandering to their bigger clients / brands.

“yes true, but networks are in a very different place these days.  losing clients is bad for business and I think the general attitude of networks is that they are scared to stand up to clients as we know another network is knocking at the door … dog eat dog … and we have lost certain big name clients as we didn’t do this” –  A network representative.

What it needs is a collective action for the industry to announce to the press (broadsheets, tabloids & even TV) the key advantages of affiliate marketing which could be the difference between make or break for a merchant i.e. performance marketing / CPA etc etc … you know the score … & encourage them to start diverting more of their offline budget & superfluous banner advertising costs towards the affiliate channel by rewarding appropriately & affordably.

“offline advertising is really going down the pan so as an industry we should be shouting about what we can do” – Helen Southgate DGM

I don’t think the IAB are the right voice for this as they don’t represent me as an affiliate, and it would probably take them too long / a little lethargic to get anything into motion.

Don’t get me wrong, now affiliates may not quite exactly be the saviours, but with their tremendous skill sets they can certainly make some difference.

So perhaps networks should start blowing the dust of all those harvested testimonials from clients & get some more whilst they are at it, then get onto the national press.

As … it would be a shame if we  let the credit crunch become “A Missed Opportunity For Affiliate Marketing To Put Itself Firmly On The Map”.

The intention of the post is not to be an all bugle calling rallying cry, but highlight that an opportunity has possibly presented itself to be grasped.

Additional Crib Note:

There is practically no difference between seo & paid search for a brand. Either paid search on brand or hybrids shouldn’t be restricted if seo is permitted … or .. seo should be restricted if paid search is … also merchants with display url restrictions, especially  relatively unknown brands are really quite foolish, preventing growth potential of any program. Networks or the industry needs to start educating merchants about relaxing display url restrictions. Having a big brand means nothing in the current climate (they are probably just bigger targets for the press to aim at) paid search affiliates can fill the void as no single person or party can cover all bases, ad copy can easily be approved if need be. Since affiliates work on less a ROI, they are not really going to increase the ad spend of any merchant who may already conduct varying degrees of paid search activity.

 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.