The following is a Guest blog post by Helen Southgate – Head of Affiliate at dgm, and long-suffering Norwich City fan (they might have taken 6 points off Argyle this season, but they’re still our best hope of staying up this year!) Helen takes a look at the first 10 years of DGM, and I’m one of the few who remember them as UKAffiliates.com who, along with Your Cheque and Magic Button were one of the first UK Affiliate Marketing networks. Unlike YC and MB though, they’re still here ten years later!

Where were you in April 1999?

Can you remember what you were doing 10 years ago? I expect a lot of people reading this were not even involved in affiliate marketing yet and didn’t even know what it was, myself being on of them! But one man, Adrian Moss, was building the first UK affiliate network which was then named UK Affiliates.

This month is dgm’s 10 year anniversary which also means a 10 year anniversary for affiliate networks in the UK. It is incredible now to look back and see how much the industry has changed in 10 years and also how much dgm has changed.

I expect the name “UK Affiliates” brings back different memories for many people. For myself I started in the industry about 6 ½ years ago and UK Affiliates were seen as the leader of affiliate marketing and certainly a force to be reckoned with.

UK Affiliates became Deal Group Media PLC in January 2000 and subsequently became Deal Group Media UK Limited in January 2007 after the MBO.

So who are dgm now? What have we learnt over the last 10 years? I’m not sure where to start here. It is no secret that dgm has had its difficulties over the years but for a company 10 years old that is not unusual especially within such a dynamic market. I think if you look at the people in the industry that have at one point worked for dgm this says a lot about the type of working environment at dgm. It’s very much sink or swim and you learn very quickly in a fast changing environment with lots of challenges. The people that work at dgm are incredibly passionate about the company and the industry but also very resilient. Some names that have gone on to be key players in affiliate marketing are Duncan Popham (now at Total Search Solutions), Rob Berrisford (now a respected affiliate CK Net), Matt Bailey (now at i-level and chairman of the IAB), Kevin Edwards (now at Affiliate Window), Bruce Clayton (now at Existem Affiliate Management), Jess Luthi (Affiliate Program Advice in the US) … this is to name just a few, (you can give me the fiver later guys!)

The dgm today is very different from 5+ years ago but I think that is reflected in much of the industry as companies have become larger, more professional and affiliate marketing has actually become a lot tougher with more challenges and a wider scope of market to work in. Working in affiliate you need to have a lot of skills and experience from knowing about SEO / PPC, to customer service to being able to generate new ideas for clients. I believe network staff are not given their dues for how hard they work and the value they add as they are the middlemen and we can’t please everyone unfortunately.

The dgm today I would describe as humble, hard working and passionate about the industry we are in. We know we have not got everything right yet but what networks could say that they have? I believe we offer a great service 99% of the time to our affiliates and over the last 6 months we have been listening intently to feedback from affiliates and developing our tools and services to offer a lot more such as the dgmPromotions tool that has recently gone live, dgmCompare, new datafeeds, report enhancements, AccuTrak and more to come very soon. Much of these developments came from listening to our clients and affiliates. Client side our account managers work extremely hard to make sure that we are an extension of their marketing team rather than just an agency that tracks sales. We have some great blue chip clients such as Vodafone, Virgin Games and Wilkinson’s but work hard to make any programme work well regardless of size.

I asked a few people for some anecdotes on dgm that they could remember, there are plenty but one that stuck in most peoples minds which I found amusing was Adrian’s huge Dog, Louis, who used to join the team in the office! We are going to building a website around dgm’s last 10 years so if you have any anecdotes or memories you would like to share please pass them on to me Helen.southgate@dgm-uk.com.

If you agree that dgm have worked their socks off over the last 12 months to offer a better all round service then why not give us a vote for “Affiliate Network of the Year”. I know the team deserves it and I hope that many of you will too, if not, let us know or give us a try and I will personally make sure that we deliver for you.

Here’s to another 10 years ……

Thanks for that great post Helen! I remember meeting Louis a few times – we were convinced he was the real brains behind dgm I seem to recall there was a bird of some description in the office for a while – anyone remember him?

Finally good luck in the Bupa London 10k next month – I’m sure lots of Lammo readers will want to sponsor you a few quid to help you reach your target of £400 for the Alzheimers Society.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

It was Ten Years ago today…

Related posts:

1. Commission Junction died a slow and painful death many years ago New Look Blog – Yup, I’ve jumped on that...
2. 0% network launches today Today sees the launch of Looflirpa.com, the UK’s first...
3. 888 Sport Affiliate Program – Join today and earn up to 40% revshare 888 Sport Affiliate Program – Click here to join...

I’d like to welcome the nice people at Netpartner.com, our newest sponsors here at Lammo.net, without whom we would not be able to bring you such regular, and in-depth posts. Whilst the Netpartner model is not particularly new or revolutionary in most ways, they are relying on reputation and relationship building with both publishers and advertisers to create a strong and resilient CPA network, which can only be a good thing for all involved.

NetPartner’s positioning seems very well balanced across merchant and affiliates. There appears to be a recognition as to the real value of affiliate publishers which isn’t always discernable in some networks. Netpartners emphasises its established publisher network and states that it has global reach.

On top of their ethical business ideas their website is a very impressive looking creation as well, with the information for publishers and merchants organised sensibly and the page uncluttered by too much text, so you immediately know that they mean business. And now we come to perhaps the most interesting part of the Netpartner business model – the tried and tested introductory offer scheme! In a bid to attract new publishers to their network Netpartner are running a welcome promo by which new affiliates who sign up before the 28th February 2009 can have the opportunity to get a free gift or an instant cash payment on top of their commission. There are of course a couple of conditions to this offer that have to be met, so let’s get into the good stuff.

Firstly, once you’ve signed up you’ve got a period of 30 days to start making money in order to be eligible for the all important introductory gift. You can browse and pick the right kind of offers to add to your advertising space once you’ve activated your account, which the user friendly Netpartnet interface should help with, and then get it straight onto your advertising space. There is of course a minimum monthly balance of $25 to meet if you want to see any of your money but if you don’t make that much initially then it’s carried over to the next month so there’s not likely to be a problem. However, if you want to be in with a chance of getting the gifts then you’ll need to earn some serious commission. There are three grades that define the prize you’ll get. Make $500 or more in your first 30 days with Netpartner and they’ll send you some perfume from Anna Sul, a Polaroid camera or Ray Ban sunglasses. Alternatively you can just have a straight cash sum of $80 rather than the gift which to some people may well be more attractive in this lowest bracket.

The second introductory bracket requires you to make $2500 or more, for which you’ll have a choice between a BlackBerry, an iPod Touch or a PS3. The BlackBerry could potentially be registered to an American network so it might not be ideal, but the iPod and PS3 are more attractive to the inner gadget fan. The cash alternative is a generous $400, which in the current economic climate will do quite well for Brits with our once sturdy pound weakened. The highest introductory offer bracket is the $5000+ which may seem a little steep but if you’ve got the right traffic should be easily achievable. For your hard work you’ll have the choice of a Canon EOS digital camera, an iPhone or a HP Laptop. The cash alternative is $800, which again a few months ago when the pound was stronger against the dollar may have been less attractive than it is today.

So what’s the catch? Well, firstly of course you need to have a chance of making consistent commission dollars immediately after opening your account s the clock is ticking from that moment for the first 30 days and only transactions considered as ‘valid’ will count towards your monthly
commission. Secondly it’s stated that the offer is made on a first come first served basis, and that gifts can be changed or substituted at any time once you’ve made your first month’s commission and then made your choice. For this reason you might be further persuaded that the instant cash option
is the one for you, and to be fair I’d be likely to go for it myself (The recent Stirling nosedive means that getting paid in Dollars is like giving yourself a 40% payrise!). It’s all down to personal tastes of course, and it’s nice to see that a network is looking to reward hard working publishers with hard cash or gifts, and as an incentive to sign up and start making money it’s an interesting idea that isn’t always used to its best effect in the world of affiliate networking.

Click here to join Netpartner.com today

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Fancy a free PS3, iPhone, Laptop or Blackberry?

Related posts:

1. Wanted: Free Lunch I’m off to London Town all next week for...
2. Go to a4uexpo – for FREE! I’ve been speaking to several affiliates over the last...
3. dgm merchants are now 100% FREE on ECU Thanks to a unique partnership deal with dealgroupmedia, all...

DGM (Deal Group Media) has a wide range of products and merchants associated with them. DGM was de-listed from AIM via a significant management buy-out in 2007. That buy-out has now made them a private company again. OK, so, they’ve changed behind the scenes but of course what most people will want to know is the nitty gritty! Let’s get down to it and see what DGM are really like these days.

DGM now employs more than 80 staff all over the world and they’ve more than 250 well-known clients. They started out specialising in affiliate marketing but now also provide SEO services, PPC campaigns and other forms of online advertising.

Merchants
There are a good number of high profile clients with DGM with brands such as Orange and Pontins being just some of their better-known partners along with LearnDirect, Sea France and JD Williams. So, there’s a good range of product types and some big brand names to promote with recognisable appeal. Then there are some exclusive clients such as a number of UK charities and smaller companies.

Problems and Concerns
There’s no shying away from it – a while back, DGM suffered a number of bad reviews (including from yours truly) due to problems with their in-house software and lack of interaction with affiliates but those have now been addressed and it appears (fingers crossed, touching wood, etc) that there are no longer any major issues there although some minor irritants remain as described below. The management buyout sparked some concerns (in some quarters.. I thought it was a master stroke!) as to any potential change in direction as these things always do but this seems to have been unfounded. DGM also pay Affiliates monthly which in these troubled times is definitely helpful from a cash flow perspective! There are currently no 2 tier commissions with DGM and no search term tracking or referring URL tracking either, which is a little disappointing.

Some other networks provide extras such as custom content units but DGM doesn’t as yet – of course, that’s not a problem, as you can always use Easy Content Units which includes DGM merchants amongst their 5 million+ products! There are currently no 2 tier commissions with DGM and no search term tracking or referring URL tracking either, which is a little disappointing. It depends on what sort of service you want as to whether or not this will bother you. If you’re a purist or a traditionalist it probably won’t. All many of you will want is decent quality programmes from well behaved merchants with a decent EPM. Here DGM can certainly oblige.

DGM affiliate support has come under repeated fire over the years, mainly for their lack of support, failure to follow through on promises made, and their tendency to side with the merchant at every opportunity. I’m pleased to report that my experiences of DGM support over the last 12 months or so has been almost entirely pleasurable – I’ve got a key number of staff members available on MSN messenger, all emails have been answered and any problems have dealt with swiftly and professionally.

Benefits in Joining DGM
Don’t be too put off by the issues raised above – DGM really have turned the corner since their Management Buyout, and show no signs of returning to their bad old ways. The main benefit is DGM’s access to high calibre products and services. Backed by some decent brands there is a good opportunity to monetise your traffic in these areas.

There are also some healthy commission rates and bonuses for people who really go all out and drive high volumes of sales or applications. Then, there’s the fact that some programs have dedicated personnel to contact regarding questions and problems. There are occasionally also workshops, affiliate promotions and special events. You’ll also get a regular newsletter telling you about the hottest new clients and any website enhancements or special deals in your chosen field – which can be very useful.

You can also use the DGM affiliate interface, created to assist in managing campaigns and communicating with advertisers. It shows you how much you’ve earned and where you’re performing best so that you can make informed decisions. It also lets you choose creative and organise banners. DGM pro used to be pretty heavily criticised for being flaky but again it seems to have stabilised. DGM have, after all, been in business for around 10 years so many of the creases have now been ironed out.

Final Thoughts
DGM still have a little way to go to re-establish themselves as one of the leading UK networks, but if they continue on their current path, they won’t go far wrong. They could perhaps benefit from making the management area a little more user friendly, and less clunky, but on the whole I much prefer this DGM to the DGM I knew 5 years ago..

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

DGM – What are they like?

No related posts.

If you are looking to work with one of the leading UK affiliate networks, Affiliate Window (to be found at affiliatewindow.com) might just be the answer. They claim to be the UK’s leading independent affiliate marketing network, and with more than 70,000 active affiliates and a host of awards (such as “Most Innovative Network 2007″ and “Ernest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year”) – who are we to argue?

The first thing that strikes you about Affiliate Window is the impressive range of merchants on offer. There are nearly 700 different programs available to an affiliate, stretching across a dazzling array of categories; ranging from clothing and electronics to web hosting and online dating. The site also boasts some very well known brands, including Marks and Spencer, PC World and Woolworths. The programs are easy to search and browse, with the site allowing you to specify product categories and keywords relevant to your subject focus.

Merchant details are summarised on to one page per program; with detailed information from the merchant themselves, comprehensive commission rate and cookie information, and advertising material all displayed very clearly. Some merchants also provide specified information on their performance, with statistics for average earnings per click, approval rates and conversion rates all being presented concisely in graph and table format. It is worth noting however that not all merchants provide this information in such detail, with many simply offering basic statistics on conversion rates and validation times.

Merchant news is maintained by use of the websites “offers blog”, which posts regular news from merchants regarding promotions, changes to product lines or seasonal events. New advertising creative and changes to commission rates are also displayed there. For simple navigation of articles relevant to your programs, there is a searchable “latest article” section, whereby you can look for any areas that are relevant to you.

In addition to banners and text links provided by the merchants, Affiliate Window also offer a good range of marketing tools and materials for use with their programs. Most notably, there is a deep-link builder, access to CSV and XML data feeds and also their new voucher code system. In addition to this, Affiliate Window is widely held to be the most active of the networks when it comes to voucher codes and offers, with regular emails in addition to the on-site material.

Arguably Affiliate Window’s greatest offering, however, is the “Shop Window Toolset”, which allows you to create content widgets or even entire websites in order to promote your merchant programs. Their widget creation tool is very easy to use and is handled entirely online. You can choose from a wide ranging selection of templates in varying sizes. You may also select from an array of themed designs (for instance, widgets designed to promote electrical goods) and branded designs (for instance, Woolworth branded widgets). After choosing your initial design, you can then add products from any merchant and customise your template further to fit more seamlessly into your site design. When you have finished creating your widget, you are presented with a simple piece of code for you to easily integrate into your website.

In order to create entire websites to showcase merchant products, Affiliate Window offers a PHP template with an integrated search feature for you to use. If you have experience of PHP, then this allows you a great deal of flexibility and the opportunity to entirely customise your design. However, there is little support offered for those who have no experience of coding, and so this may not be an option for everyone.

Affiliate Window also runs special incentive programs for affiliates. In the run up to Christmas, they have launched a “Raffle Bonanza”, whereby each sale for specified merchants equates to a ticket in a prize raffle. They run a variety of similar events throughout the year and your progress within them is easily monitored by clicking on the promotion’s link in the navigation bar.

Should it be necessary, a support ticket system is provided for all affiliates who have queries or problems. The staff at Affiliate Window endeavour to resolve any queries within 4 hours, and there is a relatively comprehensive “Frequently Asked Questions” page for — well — frequently asked questions!

Functionality comes at a cost and some would argue that the Affiliate Window interface is a little intimidating. Since there is no standard layout for affiliate network interfaces it can take a little while to get used to the nuances of each. That said, the Affiliate Window interface is arguably the most feature rich of all of them, and most important information is readily accessible.

Affiliate Window is certainly a viable option for any UK affiliate. The “Shop Window Toolset” is impressive, allowing the creation of aesthetic and practical content widgets. Also, if you have some knowledge of PHP, you can use the template to create entire websites showcasing merchant products, with a level of customisation not offered with the online tools found at most other competitors. Most super affiliates use Affiliate Window to some degree.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Window – What are they like?

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Future – What are they like? Following the launch of its new Xenon range of...
2. Bank Affiliate Programs – Find Affiliate Programs for UK Banks and Building Societies Bank Affiliate Programs – Find Affiliate Programs for UK...
3. Working with UK Affiliate Marketing Networks Affiliate marketing is fundamentally a method of promoting products...

Following the launch of its new Xenon range of webmaster tools, Affiliate Future (to be found at affiliatefuture.co.uk) seems to be an affiliate program that means business. The website is part of the prestigious Internet Business Group in London, established in 1996, and has invested heavily in the affiliate offering over the last few years.

Affiliate Future offers all the features that we have come to expect from a good affiliate network. Their commission analysis tools are of a good standard, and allow you to scrutinise your earnings in relation to specific merchants and any time period. They also provide basic traffic statistics and conversion rates and give the option to compare between different programs.

Affiliate Future also offers an impressive communications centre. This comprises an internal emailing system, which most notably, allows you to subscribe to merchant specific newsletters which are sent on a regular basis. They also deliver regular company and generic merchant news through the system, allowing you to easily keep track of events together with any new merchant additions or incentive programs.

Where Affiliate Future really excels, however, is with the tools offered in their new Xenon range. This comprises three different areas for affiliate use, all of which have been created to allow for greater customisation. The first of these is the Xenon Data tool, which allows for the latest merchant data from their system to be delivered to you by a variety of different means. These include CSV and XML files, or you can obtain an excel file with the appropriate information (a video demo clearly displays how to create such information feeds). For the ridiculously busy affiliate (and who isn’t!!), a web API is also available. All of these are updated regularly and allow for easy and convenient access to the most recent data.

The second tool offered is the Xenon Content system. This allows you to create dynamic content for your site which displays various merchant products. The usability of the system is impressive, with the tool allowing you to select from a large array of product categories and then customise the display of your Xenon Content feed to fit nicely into your site. There are a variety of sizes on offer, ranging from 120px by 240px, to 750px by 500px, along with various appearance options including complete colour customisation. The range of merchant products available for use with this tool is also broad, with most categories having an wide selection of products from which to choose. At the end of the process, you are presented with a piece of html code to copy and paste into your site, making the tool very easy to use (again, a video demonstration is provided).

The final offering is Xenon Search – a tool designed to create search boxes for merchant products. As with the content system, the customisation offered is impressive. You can choose colours, text and other options, such as whether you wish the results to open in a new window. You can then refine the search options further by specifying whether text should be searched for in a particular category or product line. At the end of the process you are presented with a short snippet of code to place on your site. It is worth noting that you do not have to sign up to all merchants individually to use this tool, you can simply implement the search box in your website and earn commission on ALL sales.

The range and number of merchants on offer within Affiliate Future is excellent, and compares well to most other popular affiliate programs. Programs range from Health and Beauty to Food and Drink, with service websites such as Just-a-quote also offering programs. The information provided is also comprehensive, with many merchant pages displaying video interviews with company representatives and special resources for affiliates. Most merchants also offer seasonal promotional material and creative, with some even giving access to brand advertisements.

Many merchants run incentive programs within the site, including vouchers or experiences being offered for a certain number of sales. These are all easily monitored by using the website’s incentive bar, which clearly shows how far you have to go in order to achieve your award.

The general usability and indeed merchant coverage of the site is difficult to criticise. All key pages are easy to find within the side navigation bar and the FAQ section is relatively comprehensive. Your personal account information is found within a profile page, and all reporting information, merchant offers and program performance information are displayed clearly and are easily searchable.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Future – What are they like?

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Window – What are they like? If you are looking to work with one of...
2. Paid on Results – What are they like? The Paid on Results affiliate program (to be found...
3. Working with UK Affiliate Marketing Networks Affiliate marketing is fundamentally a method of promoting products...

The Paid on Results affiliate program (to be found at www.paidonresults.com) is a site that makes some big claims. They guarantee the best commission rates on the internet and claim to possess the most reliable and advanced tracking and reporting systems. On the whole, Paid on Results seems to live up to the hype.

The reporting tools available on Paid on Results are excellent. The main feature is a commission screen which provides a detailed breakdown of your current earnings, including clear information on important areas; clicks, impressions, commission earned etc. This data can be easily broken down into relevant days or months and is provided in both table and graph format.

The basic program performance report is supported with many other tools for monitoring your commission levels. The “Basket Data” tool allows you to view what your referees have been purchasing, and analyse the average basket values of your sales. This privileged insight into your visitors’ activity can be broken down into any specified period of time, allowing you to monitor how much money they are spending and what they are spending it on. This is supplemented with the “Trends” tool, which allows you to compare the performance of all merchant programs with each other. From this, you can easily ascertain which of your programs need attention and which are doing well.

The “performance tool” allows you to look at any merchant on the Paid on Results program with regard to average commission earned, average basket sizes, void rates, validation periods and details on the customer base. The information provided is, generally speaking, very impressive. You can compare all affiliates by table or graph format, and even specify which time frame the results should be based upon (this is ideal for comparing merchant performance and average basket sizes at peak times such as Christmas). The average merchant performance can be compared with your current performance, and this is done in both graph and table format. It is worth noting however, that not all merchants are included for customer base analysis.

The final reports tool is the “2nd Tier” page. This is designed for monitoring your referrals to Paid on Results. The site offers their own referral system, whereby you gain 5% of earnings for every referee who signs up from your link, for the life of their account. Paid on Results offers a good selection of promotional material in order to help you attract members and they suggest that over time their program can provide you with a steady and reliable income stream.

There is a good selection of merchants on offer, with the site proposing 128 merchants in total. They range across different categories, from gambling to apparel. There is also a small selection of Internet service options, such as E-learning websites. In addition to the merchant comparison tools above, essential information is provided about programs whilst browsing. This includes average commission rates and your last click and sale. Signing up to a merchant program is a slightly more complex affair with some other affiliate programs. You need to notify each merchant as to which websites (or – if applicable – email lists) will be advertising their links and also provide fairly detailed PPC information should you wish to use any system such as Adwords.

The ad material offered mainly takes the form of the program’s “Product on Request System”. This comprises heavily customisable content units for display on your site. You can combine products from multiple merchants and customise the colour, size and general appearance of the ad. The content is provided simply by a short section of html code, and is easy to incorporate into a website. All content units are updated in real time, offering your visitors the most up to date information of products on offer. It is worth noting however, that not all merchants are compatible with this service, and so you may be restricted to banners and text links with some programs.

The general usability of the site is good. All tools are easy to access within one or two clicks by the left hand navigation bar, and all commission and merchant information is displayed clearly and concisely. Merchants are easy to browse, with search and cross comparison tools are of a good quality.

Paid on Results seems to provide a good option for an affiliate who wants advanced reporting information, easily customisable and uncomplicated content units and a built in referral program. Whilst the sign-up process would benefit from some simplification, the merchants provide good commission rates throughout a range of categories, and to all intents and purposes, this network seems set to grow at a healthy pace.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Paid on Results – What are they like?

Related posts:

1. Paid on Results are on the ball Paid on Results launched yet another innovative new tool...
2. Affiliate Future – What are they like? Following the launch of its new Xenon range of...
3. Get paid 10% more – use ECU! I’m always harping on about how great ECU is...

Affiliate marketing is fundamentally a method of promoting products and / or services through an independent agent, or, in everyday terms, the process of driving traffic from one website to another for the benefit of both. Affiliate marketing is a powerful and controllable method of on-line marketing and yet in some quarters has been considered the poor relation of other online marketing activities. However, with the increased availability of broadband Internet, improved consumer confidence and the eCommerce industry in the United Kingdom predicted to exceed £50 billion by 2011, according to some estimates, more and more on-line retailers and marketeers are turning their attention towards affiliate marketing networks.

How Affiliate Marketing Networks Work
Affiliate marketing networks assist in the creation of mutually beneficial relationships between providers of products and services (“merchants”) and internet marketeers, owners of existing websites and specialist affiliate publishers (“affiliates”) willing to drive traffic to the merchants in return for commission payments. The affiliate networks are thus intermediaries, benefitting all parties by reducing the number of individual relationships they need to manage and providing economy of scale to all.

Understanding the Network / Merchant Relationship
For an individual merchant to manage literally thousands of direct affiliate relationships is almost impossible. A network thus offers several significant advantages to a merchant:-

1. The recruitment and management of a large number of relevant affiliates
2. ‘Push’ promotion of the merchant’s products, services and special offers
3. Tracking of all traffic, leads and sales and reporting / analysis
4. Affiliate payments and reporting
5. Campaign advice, creation, management and control

Almost all of the major UK networks charge merchants a monthly fee, in addition to a percentage of sales revenue driven through the network in question. Most merchants are only too happy to pay this: it would be far more costly (impossible in most cases) to manage the affiliate channel directly.

From an Affiliate Perspective
Once again, the key benefits are primarily those of aggregation and volume — the ability to identify and participate in multiple affiliate programs and to manage all tracking, sales and commission payments from within a single environment. That said, most experienced affiliate publishers will have accounts with all of the major UK networks including TradeDoubler, Affiliate Window, Paid on Results, Webgains, Affiliate Future and Commission Junction so in fact affiliates are managing several environments! Because the major affiliate networks handle and track high volumes of traffic, they can provide affiliates with considerable detail as to conversion rates and average earnings for a given program. This is of particular value when assessing a potential merchant. All tracking and reporting is also provided in ever more sophisticated interfaces. In fact the network interfaces are now so sophisticated that many affiliates struggle to find their way around them! The various text links, banner and graphical links available for a particular program can be accessed and the code generated and downloaded with the affiliate’s own tracking ID included in the links to ensure accuracy of tracking.

Merchant Exclusivity
In some cases, a merchant will sign an exclusive deal with one of the networks and its program can only be accessed through that route. In others, the same merchant is available in more than one of the networks although commission levels have been known to differ so it is always worth cross-checking occasionally. Sometimes the differential is transient and may simply be the network waiving some or all of its own commission element as part of a ‘sweetener’ deal to win the merchant and / or to boost affiliate numbers.

A Two Way Relationship
Whilst affiliates don’t pay the networks a monthly retainer, they are nevertheless regarded as a vital part of the business and treated accordingly. You may find this surprising after reading the many complaints on forums as to the quality of network support. Whilst there has historically been something of a tendency to put 12 year old account managers straight into the fray, there is a growing recognition amongst the better networks as to the need to recruit, properly support and groom strong affiliates. Ultimately, with ever increasing pressure on affiliates in both natural and paid search, which we will cover in other articles on lammo.net, really good affiliates are hard to come by.

An affiliate-network relationship is like any other business relationship. It needs to be properly serviced and grown. The affiliate needs to demonstrate solid performance and to play the game (sticking to brand bidding rules being a good example here). The network needs to maintain and grow a strong merchant base, pay its affiliates on time and to communicate regularly, clearly and effectively with both parties. On the subject of communication, most of the networks will communicate regularly via email with affiliates, advising as to the current offers and vouchers available from the programs in which the affiliate is participating. Whilst this information isn’t flawless and is often a little late, the networks are making strenuous efforts to improve this, most notably Webgains and Affiliate Window. Most networks will also alert the affiliate as to any merchant site or tracking failures (which occur surprisingly often) allowing the affiliate, if desired, to temporarily suspend or substitute affiliate links to minimise loss of earnings.

Making it Work
According to some estimates, at least 500, and possibly as many as 2,500, unique visitors a day are necessary for a website to generate sufficient revenue from advertising alone, to remain even vaguely profitable. These figures mean very little, however, if the visitors to a publisher site do not click through to a merchant site and actually buy a product or service. Affiliate publishers thus need to build trust and credibility with their visitors so that they return to the site again and again.

As in all other online marketing activities, traffic talks. Attracting visitors at a sensible economic rate is the greatest challenge in affiliate marketing and one we will explore elsewhere here at lammo.net.

Further Affiliate Marketing Network Information

Affiliate Home Based Business – Tips and advice on how to start an affiliate business from scratch. Read blogs and reviews on the latest products in the market…  
affiliatehomebasedbusiness.com

Online Affiliate Network – Agami Media is an online affiliate network that specialises in performance-based online affiliate marketing services….  
agamimedia.com

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Working with UK Affiliate Marketing Networks

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Networks: It’ll all end in tiers A huge proportion of my working day is spent...
2. Why you don’t need Affiliate Marketing ebooks to learn Affiliate Marketing A couple of times a week, someone will pop...
3. Can you teach yourself Affiliate Marketing? Terms such as Affiliate Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Pay...

Deal Group Media launched their new “dgmcompare Broadband” service for affiliates yesterday, which apparently is an easy way to incorporate comparison tables into your website content for the various Broadband Affiliate Programs out there. Which all sounds great, but as a renowned technophobe, I still didn’t quite get it. So I asked Jess from dgm to explain it to me in English:

We are very pleased to unveil a new tool aimed specifically at broadband affiliates. dgmCompare Broadband is an aggregator of broadband offered at a micro-geographical level using either postcodes or consumers telephone number.

The purpose of this tool is for the use of the long-tail affiliates and we will not be using it for our own PPC/SEO use. It is targeted more specifically at those affiliates who are not already in the space. We do not envisage that it will affect any current activity on any of our current broadband campaigns for those of you already promoting them.

This is the first of a suite of dgmCompare products that we plan to launch in the coming months. Each will focus on different verticals offering similar levels of functionality. dgmCompare Broadband can be created to your specification through your dgmPro (www.dgmpro.com) account.

If you would like further information on dgmCompare Broadband please visit our website where you will find a complete breakdown of the product or feel free to contact Cat or Jess. We would also welcome any feedback you might have to help us with future product development.

That made things a little clearer, but still as tech-savvy as a plank of wood, I decided the easiest way to find out what it’s all about is to have a play around. And the results were amazing – In less than two minutes, I knocked up the following content unit:

That’s just one of the swish themes that’s available, and at the moment I’ve set it to sort the results by monthly price, which I notice shows temporary introductory prices (i.e. £4.49 for the first three months) and then doesn’t show the actual price you’ll pay for the remainder of your contract which is a bit annoying, but I guess users might be more inclined to click through to the merchant to find out the fine print, which brings up another point – Doing this much pre-selling of contract lengths, prices, speed, download capacity etc, could (or should) Post Impression cookies come into play on this unit?

And the icing on the cake – you can even add Broadband affiliate programs (such as AOL Wireless Broadband) that aren’t on dgm to the unit! When doing the setup, you just choose the broadband provider from a drop-down box and paste your affiliate link in. You can do this for up to three broadband providers from other UK Affiliate Marketing Networks, which is a brilliant move – creating an affiliate-friendly tool that isn’t restricted to only work with that network’s merchants. Other UK Affiliate Marketing Networks should take note.

dgmcompare Broadband is still in beta, but as far as the first version of the first comparison tool goes, it’s a pretty good start – What will be the forthcoming comparison tools? Energy Prices? Mobile Phones? Credit Cards? Bookmaker’s Free Bets? It’ll be interesting to see how this one develops, and how the other networks will respond.

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

Compare Broadband Providers with dgmCompare Broadband

No related posts.

The latest subject in our Day in the Life series is Jason Baker, Publisher Account Director at Commission Junction UK. I’m grateful to Jason for taking the time to share a typical day at CJ Towers with us. Remember, if you would like to take part in “A Day in the Life..”, then please get in touch with me. Without further ado, it’s over to Jason..

So I have been asked to write this blog – I have to admit it’s a little daunting as I have as only been at Commission Junction for six months!

Here’s a little about me. As I said I have only been here at Commission Junction for a relatively short while. I came to Commission Junction after eight years in traditional press and B2B publishing, dipping my toe in the digital waters over the years, as anyone would while working for a national newspaper group or magazine publisher. So here I am in the digital space. When I was looking to move into digital ‘proper’, my brief was I wanted to work in the most fast moving, comprehensive and diverse area of online marketing, and boy do I realise now that I got what I wanted – I love it!

So here it is, a typical day in the life…

7am -It’s Monday morning and like pretty much everyone I know the reality has kicked in that the weekend is over and it’s time to get into the groove and get off to work. The usual routine and extra five minutes in bed is obligatory! J My wife Helen is just as chirpy (not!) as she has to get up earlier than me so I get out of bed and EMBRACE it!

8.50am – I forgot to mention what I just arrived back from a week away on holiday, so need to catch up the Everest size, mountain of emails I’ve received, deal with what’s urgent and park the ones that can wait. We have a new starter joining the publisher team today, Zhanna as an Account Executive – It’s great that we have another to person join the six of us resource-wise of course, but also we can now pen the title – ‘the magnificent seven’.

10am – the usual trawl through my email this morning is not as bad as I had predicted as lots of stuff was picked up by the team while I was away (thank you, thank you); I just need to make a few calls to clarify some details with my publishers this afternoon. Zhanna (the new starter) has arrived – I’m going to give her a little time to settle in, then take her round to meet the rest of the Commission Junction team, and also pop upstairs to introduce her to Mediaplex, Search 123, PriceRunner & ValueClick Media. There are around 120 of us in the UK office now across every business, so lots of names and faces for her to remember!

11.30am – Eventually… the morning is over! I have managed to catch up with a few of our publishers for a chat to see how their businesses have been doing whilst I’ve been away, talk through any spikes or dips in activity, and see if we can fix the dips. One publisher in particular had a great week as we managed to negotiate an increase in CPA from one of his merchants for a week to drive additional sales. Negotiating from £25 to £41 in CPA on a credit card for a cashback site will always go down well…. The publisher gives the advertiser extra exposure in the email bulletins and on their site, and sales go through the roof, everyone is happy J – so it’s clearly time to get the Advertiser Manager to go back to the merchant for an extension.

It’s always the way, but so much happens when you are off. Our second version of the Commission Junction Order Inquiry Manager has launched (otherwise known as the ‘cashback’ tool!) for our UK incentive and loyalty affiliates. What does this mean? In a nutshell this enables us to manage the transaction process more effectively and track any transactions that may have been blocked by anti-virus programmes or users cookies being blocked for whatever reason. Really useful bit of kit to take to market and, admittedly, to clear the backlog we had. So far it’s been received really well but as always it would be good to hear of any improvements you think we could make.

12pm – We have our publisher and advertiser team meeting at 12pm every Monday so we run through the strategy as usual, catch up on anything I have missed and what needs to happen in the week ahead. There is quite a lot to go through this week because in the next few weeks we are reviewing our progress on Q1-2 strategy and starting to work on the planning for Q3-4. A key part of the strategy this time of year will be to ensure we have the most appropriate publishers in place for the retail push later in the year, and Jan/Feb 09 next year for travel. We also need to ensure the merchants have appropriate commissions in place. Lots to do and I get the coffee and biscuits in to keep everyone raring to go.

Last but not least we are organising a publisher night out – what shall we do this time? Casino, comedy, a day out of team building and outdoor pursuits (yeah right) or straight down to Soho for a night on the tiles J … we decide on a comedy night for early June (some of you may know that we often do Soho beers so it will be good to do something a little different).

Now it’s time for a couple of calls to our finance publishers who specialise in PPC and content about a few new programmes that are launching, and to set up a few catch up lunches for later this week and the next.

1.30pm – Quick lunch which today means a Chinese takeaway (it is healthy!), then back to my desk to get everything together for a 2pm meeting. I am joining Florian, our Senior Sales Manager who is meeting a major PC and Laptop merchant who has just signed to join the Commission Junction network. They are coming in to also discuss becoming a Commission Junction publisher and meet some more members of the team. They want to place links to merchants (ideally software and technology) products and services on their site to drive incremental revenue. A pretty simple process, with set up taking around five minutes then they will have access to our full range of merchants and even be able to search by product if they want links to something specific.

It was a great meeting as it turns out that we also will be able to load Commission Junction tracked merchant icons on the desktops of all of their PC and laptops as well.

3.30pm – I’ve got some time now before a late afternoon meeting to go back to my ‘parked’ emails and do final prep for trip up north tomorrow to see a few of my affiliates. This will be a good one as Alison Guise (our European General Manager) and Cheryl Ingram (UK Client Development Director) are going as well, which will give our publishers a chance to give face-to-face feedback on their turf.

5.15pm – OUT of the office!!

I’m just off to meet a few of the regulars for some networking and beers. They’re a really good bunch and it gives me a chance as the new boy to bounce my ideas around as most of these guys have been around the block a few times and are really experienced affiliates.

1.15am (I think?) We ended up finishing the evening with some decent food before parting company having talked through some good ideas but latterly, enough rubbish to pack a small landfill site! Taxi home!

So there you go, that about sums it up before it all starts again tomorrow. Hope it sheds a little light.

Signing off, Jason Baker!!

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

A Day in the Life of… Jason Baker

Related posts:

1. A Day in the Life of… Elaine Forth It’s been a few weeks since our last Day...
2. A Day in the life of… John Lamerton During an interview with Chris Frost last month, I...
3. A day in the life of… Nadeem Azam It’s a bumper “Day in the life of” this...

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!

Originally written by Lammo.net, a blog all about Affiliate Marketing

A4uawards 2008 – Who I voted for and why

Related posts:

1. a4uawards: Who I voted for and why The nominations are in for the very first a4uawards,...
2. a4uawards – Last chance to nominate Just a quick heads-up to remind you that nominations...
3. a4uawards nominations now open – make sure your voice is heard! So the 2010 a4uawards are nearly upon us, and...