Just trying to catch up…

I have had a hetic past week and a half. I think this is the last time I go on ‘Holiday’.

Came to Devon for a weeks holiday on the 19th - we are still here!!!

My lovely wife was 35 weeks pregnant and we thought that this would be the last oppertunity we would have for a family holiday as we were. Well last Monday - just over 1 week ago, the wife felt a bit ‘funny’ so we pootled over to the hospital being expected to be told to go home early, well they did some tests, then some scans, more tests and more scans and in the end (early Tuesday morning) they came to the conclusion that it would be best to deliver the baby by ceasarian that day!

Well as you can imagine - an early baby, delivered in this manner, was a bit of a shock for the poor chap and he was put on the intensive care ward. He got worse and had to be transferred to the R D and E in Exeter.

So I have moved in with my wife’s grandad - with our two other kids and am now working in his back room.

Good news is that everything is looking better and we expect the little lad to be making the 250 ish mile journey to our local hospital and things should get back to as normal as currently possible.

I am also working on the launch of a fantastic new affiliate program on affiliatewindow and also hope to be announcing another couple of exciting projects in the next week or two.

I think I have been responding to each enquiry as soon as possible, if you have sent me an email / text or voice message I will be getting back to you as soon as possible.

May 29th, 2007 Posted by admin | Uncategorized | one comment

Affiliate Networks - Like Mogwai in the Rain

Yes they are springing up everywhere this year, will 2007 be remembered as the year of the start up affiliate network. Putting google’s CPA network (ohh they hate it being called that) to one side (the best place for it?) there are a number of networks already arrived - and a bunch more to come. Also would love to hear from other upcoming networks. I will hopefully get a full review of each new network once I have a fuller list.


In no particular order new and upcoming networks:

Microsoft Affiliates

Are the words Band, Wagon and Jumping springing to your mind after the google announcement?

Profitistic

Prides itself on having no setup fees, no ongoing fees and just 30% override

Cleverat

Currently just one, well performing, program. full launch is expected soon with their shiny new website

Holidayaffiliates

Came across this one by accident, I know very little about this.

Epurplemedia

Super cheep affiliate network, no fees and just 15% override. Have they sold themselves too cheeply?

Z-mirage

Could possibly become a supprise hit this year.

Tradeindustries

Again I came across this one by accident, will be nice to see what they have to offer

May 18th, 2007 Posted by admin | Uncategorized | no comments

Affiliate Boot Camp UK

Affiliate Boot Camp is the first weekend Affiliate Marketing Conference to be held in the UK.

The Affiliate Boot Camp is being held at the luxurious Ettington Chase Conference Centre, near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire from Friday July 13th until Sunday July 15th 2007.
Conference registration fees include all education seminars, accommodation, meals and evening entertainment.
Delegates will also have full access to the leisure facilities at Ettington Chase, which include a spa, jacuzzi, steam room, gym, tennis courts, golf facilities, archery and clay pigeon shooting.

The packed seminar programme includes sessions on the following topics:

Understanding Affiliates and the Affiliate Marketing Space
Managing Affiliates and Pay Per Click
Optimising Affiliate Commissions and Incentivising Your Affiliates
The Agency Perspective
New Technologies
Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts of Managing an Affiliate Programme
Working with Incentive Sites

There will also be case studies from established merchants in the retail, travel and finance sectors.

The event is being supported by all of the top UK affilate networks including Buy.at, Affiliate Window, Deal Group Media, Online Media Group, Commission Junction, Tradedoubler and Affili.net.
Online marketing agency R.O.EYE and reward site rpoints are also playing a key part in the weekend proceedings.

There will be an opportunity to ‘Ask the Experts’ with a panel that reads like a who’s who of UK Affiliate Marketing, featuring well known affiliate marketing personalities including Keith Budden, Nicky Iapino, Rovin Dawson, Matt Reid, Matt Bailey, Kevin Edwards, Zak Edwards, Pete Norwood and Richard Yendall.

The conference is also about fun - there will be a gala dinner on the Saturday evening with a guest speaker famous for his appearances in the hit BBC TV series ‘Allo Allo’.
After dinner on the Saturday there will be a table football competition, a snooker competition and a giant Jenga competition, with prizes for the champions.

Booking is open now and there is an early bird discount of £70 per person until 31st May 2007.

Full details can be found at http://www.affiliatemarketingseminars.co.uk

May 16th, 2007 Posted by admin | Uncategorized | no comments

A4uforum transforms into Affiliates4u

The UKs best loved affiliate marketing forum has undergone change. More than just a reskinning of the forum but a complete entry into the world of web2.0

Yes the forum is still there and all the posts from the old forum have been moved but additional sections have been added.

News and Articles - Top Affiliates and professionals posting their top tips and news.

Feeds - A bumpzee style blog feed / news story rating system.

Events - A calendar promoting internet marketing related events

Providers - a B2B directory

Communities - Another tool in which merchants / networks and affiliate managers can communicate with its affiliates.

There were a few teething problems yesterday, these seem to have been resolved now. I found the new interface a bit scare as it was new - bit a little time and it will all be second nature. 

May 15th, 2007 Posted by admin | Uncategorized | no comments

The Central Dogma of Affiliate Marketing

You may have noticed that I have had a redesign of blog - and now this blog goes under the name ‘Affiliate Dogma’

Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas, Greek δόγμα, plural δόγματα) is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization, thought to be authoritative and not to be disputed or doubted. 

(Quote from wikipedia) 

Why ‘Affiliate Dogma’? Well this harks back to my days at university reading (of all things) Molecular Biology and Genetics. Key to molecular biology was the ‘Central Dogma Of Molecular Biology’ being that:

DNA makes RNA makes Protein.

That the template for life DNA produces RNA  which goes on to make Protein from the DNA code, which is the building block of all organisms.

With this in mind I propose that the Affiliate Dogma should read

Affiliates make Sales makes Profit

Again vastly over simplified - but the princeple is sound.

Hence the name of the new blog - www.affiliatedogma.co.uk! I hope you enjoy the new look.

May 14th, 2007 Posted by admin | Uncategorized | no comments

Monster Purple Parking PPC Keyword List Now Available!

Purple Parking, the one of the UK’s leading airport carparking service providers with car parking at 19 key airport car parks across the UK. Their affiliate program runs on Affiliate Future, TradeDoubler, Commission Junction and Zanox.Purple Parking offers a fantastic base rate of 10% commission on sales, rising to a whopping 15% commission dependant on performance.

Just now a MONSTER 19,000 (yes nineteen THOUSAND) word PPC keyword list has been made available for use to promote the Purple Parking affiliate program.

So that is an easy way to push the Purple Parking site.

Please remember though that PPC on purple parking is restricted. They do not authorise affiliates to use the keyword phrase Purple Parking, PurpleParking or any other keyword phrase which includes these words on any paid search engine listings. Purple Parking do not allow affiliates to use the display URL purpleparking.com or purpleparking.co.uk. So you will need that little bit of creativity for creating a landing page. Well we cannot do everything for you now can we?

For more information on this program please see http://www.azam.biz/uk/purple-parking/

May 9th, 2007 Posted by scifind | Uncategorized | one comment

New Kid On The Block

I was in London the other day to meet a very enthusiastic young gentleman by the name of Ryan Vaughan, a name that some of you may remember as he was an account manager on of the biggest UK affiliate networks until recently.

Anyway Ryan came across as a very energetic and surprisingly knowledgeable man for his young years. Anyway the reason that we had a meeting is to discuss a new network that he is involved with.

Though a new network with a limited set of affiliates it is clear that they have big plans and that with the current and expanding team they have with the network there is a huge talent base to realise these plans.

Their current programs are very lucrative and especially attractive to cashback, rewardsites and freebie sites.

Their Flagship program is ‘The Raffle Club‘

This offers £0.60 per lead for Free Draw (with some HUGE prizes), plus an amazingly high 50% commission on TheRaffleClub.com paid prizedraw.

In addition the only info needed to be provided by the user for a free draw is their Email, Title, First Name, Last Name, Chosen Password. This is alot less than some of the other free draw offers out there, I have tried some in the past and they want to know things like income, do you have a mortgage etc which can be very offputting for a user to complete.

If you wish to sign up all you need to do is just complete this form with your name, desired username, desired password, website URL and phone number and we will get you an account setup.

Some affiliates are already doing very well from this program, but as with all these things it is best to get in quickly

More Information (powerpoint presentations) Free Raffle Club, Paid Raffle Club

May 9th, 2007 Posted by scifind | Uncategorized | one comment

Nick - What are you doing?

ASOS CEO Nick Robertson. If you don’t know the story he basically slagged off the entire affiliate industry in an interview in NMA magazine a couple of months ago. Search A4U or Bumpzee for more information as I have enough of going over it myself.

As I am sure you understand this annoyed ALOT of people. .NET magazine has a bit about this this month, mainly in defence of Affiliates.

Anyway - he has just done another interview - see here http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/363198/q-a-asos-nick-robertson-speaks-out-on-grubbygate.html

And I am confused.

In the original NMA interview he says:

Next year we’ll reintroduce affiliate marketing

But in the new interview - well see what he says below

Are you actually going to re-launch the programme?

Right now, I have better uses of my marketing money. In the forseeable future, no. I’m struggling to come up with reasons why we would. The bigger we get, the more questionable it is. Seventy percent of our products are unique, so you can’t get them anywhere else.

So I would just like to know what is he doing?

Blasting all affiliates, saying he would be moving back into the affiliate arena. Now saying that he won’t - has this change of heart anything to do with the fact that most top affiliates have said that they won’t touch his program with a barge pole?

Ill say no more - but this thread on a4u will make additional extra reading - http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58887

May 2nd, 2007 Posted by scifind | Uncategorized | no comments