Lammo.net: Affiliate Marketing Blog

Well, it’s (already?) That time of the year - Time to vote for the a4uawards, and once again, I’m sharing my votes publically, as well as giving my reasons why I’ve given my votes to these people - My reasons are personal in many cases - Fully deserved winners will be discarded out of hand because I don’t do much business with them, and this is just my opinion - I haven’t written this for people to follow my nominations - I’ve written it to get people to think about who they’re voting for, and why - Something that I don’t think happened at last years award (Next anyone?)

So, without further ado…

Affiliate Manager of 2008

* Chris Bishop (Hotel Chocolat)
* Chris Clarkson (Sunshine.co.uk)
* Daniel Morley (Alpha Rooms)
* Graham Keen (Buy A Gift)
* Jasper Van Der Bliek (Jackpot Joy)
* Zak Edwards (Prezzy Box)

Bloody hell, that’s a tough one to kick off with - all of the nominees could certainly deserve to walk away with this award. But I can only chose one, so by process of elimination, I’ll knock out Chris Bishop as I’ve never spoken to him, Dan Morley and Graham Keen as I don’t really do anything with their companies.

I’m also going to knock out last years winner Zak from Prezzybox, cos it’s no fun if the same people keep winning is it? Finally, I’m going to chose to lose Jasper from Jackpotjoy - Jasper has been brilliant with regards to sending us content to use on our site and is always ready with a friendly word, but for sheer impact getting affiliates motivated to promote Sunshine.co.uk, whether it’s giving away Macbook Airs, trips to Barbados, a4uexpo tickets or just sending affiliates off on free holidays, my vote goes to Chris Clarkson.

Affiliate Marketing Agency of 2008

* Equator
* Existem AM
* Media Vest
* Quantum BLM
* R.O.EYE

Ah, a nice easy one.. I’ve only had conversations with two of the nominated agencies in the last year, so it’s no hassle eliminating Equator, Media Vest and Quantam BLM. RO EYE seem to be pretty pro-active, but their merchants just don’t do it for me for some reason.

My vote therefore goes to Existem AM, who have consistently provided me with some great content to use on our site, as well as exclusive discount codes, or just a heads-up that a program is doing well. There’s no BS with them either, so you know if they tell you something’s worth pushing, it’s not ‘cos they wanna hit some target, it’s cos it’s worth pushing!

Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2008

* Jason Dale (www.onelittleduck.co.uk)
* Kieron Donoghue (www.here.org.uk)
* Kirsty McCubbin (www.affiliatestuff.co.uk)
* Lee McCoy (www.leemccoy.co.uk)
* Paul Wheatley (www.mooseontheloose.co.uk)

Argh, another toughie.. Lee McCoy was my nomination, and again, all the bloggers nominated would make deserving winners. So I’m going to roll a dice, and vote for.. Kirsty, who has produced some fantastic articles for newbies and old hands alike. Whoever wins though fully deserves all the praise they get.

Publisher’s Choice Of Account Manager 2008

* Jonathan Erwin (OMG)
* Julie Wood (AW)
* Kier Marston (Webgains)
* Thuy Pham (AW)
* Vicky Long (OMG)
* I don’t know who to vote for

Another easy one for me - I don’t recall speaking to any of the nominees in the last year, so it’s none of the above for me! My nomination, and I can’t believe she didn’t make the shortlist, was Helen Southgate from DGM, who has been simply fantastic since we decided to give DGM a fifth chance late last year.

Publisher’s Choice Of Network 2008

* Affiliate Future
* Affiliate Window
* Buy.at
* OMG
* Paid on Results
* Webgains

Hmm, where did I put the dice? I don’t think AWIN have put a foot wrong to deserve to lose their award, but more a case of the other networks are catching them up. AF (finally) launched their new interface and some fancy new widgets, but my vote is going to go to Paid on Results for the sheer fact that they picked up on a comment I made on this blog back in February, and by mid-March had developed and launched a brand new tool to make affiliates lives easier - It’s this sort of innovation, and refusal to rest of their laurels, that happens behind closed doors and without huge fanfare that makes POR my preferred network right now.

And of course, there’s the vote for merchants:

Publisher Of 2008

* Click Angel
* Net Media Planet
* Quidco
* Spear
* UK Web Media
* eConversions

It does seem strange that the “Publisher” of the Year award doesn’t have any pure content affiliates in there - Surely a contradiction in terms? And of course, merchants are going to vote for who appears on their sales reports the most, so it’s not going to show who adds value to the Industry.

My vote would have gone to Quidco - Love em or hate em, they came from no-where and completely cornered the cashback market, knocking established sites out of the water, and are the closest thing to a “Publisher” from that list.

So there you go, another year of contentious nominations, toys being thrown out of prams, sore losers, sour grapes and arguments over winners and nominations. Yes, it can only be an Industry awards ceremony!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!