Webgains were generous last year and have done it again this year. Massive thankyou to all the guys there for the Virginia Hayward Christmas hamper that arrived yesterday.
Webgains are a brilliant affiliate network, great people, great technology and some fantastic programmes. Thanks again guys!
What I’m listening to right now: Lil’ Wayne ft Bobby Valentino - “Mrs. Officer”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Original post by Kieron
Following on from my last blog post, more credit where it is due, this time to Red Letter Days.
This time of year there are loads of affiliate incentives kicking around, but very few are actually any good. Whereby a lot of merchants are giving away an iPod (yawn) for the best improved affiliate (something that will automatically go to the brand name bidders anyway) Red Letter Days have gone for something a bit different.
Here’s how the incentive works. Between 1st November 2008 and 23rd December 2008 simply generate the target sales value below to receive your choice of the following prizes at each level. So there are no chances here, no prize draw, lottery or competition. The prizes are GUARANTEED!
Sales value £1,000+
Champneys Ladies’ Spa Hamper
Champneys Gentlemen’s Spa Hamper
Six Bottle Case of Classic Wine
Sony Wireless Headphones
Philips Skype Cordless Digital Phone
The Bedale Hamper
Sales value £2,500+
Philips DVD Micro Theatre
Sony Slimline PSP
Krug Champagne Gift Box
Philips Portable DVD Player
Links of London Sweetie Bracelet
Tiffany & Co Bottle Opener Keyring
Sales value £5,000+
Tomy i-SOBOT
Garmin GPS Satellite Navigation Unit
Sony Blu-ray Disc Player
Sony DV Handycam and Case
Links of London Allsorts Sterling Silver Necklace
Formula 1 Electric Car
Sales value £10,000+
Philips Streamium Wireless Micro HiFi
Tiffany & Co cultured freshwater pearl Toggle Necklace
Sony Home Theatre System
Sony Giga JUKE Micro System
Philips 32” HD-Ready LCD TV
Wilson Golf Irons
Sales value £12,000+
Tag Heuer Gent’s Aquaracer Sports Watch
Tag Heuer Ladies Aquaracer Sports Watch
The average order value at Red Letter days is a massive £140, so that means you only need to make around 8 sales to be guaranteed a prize. Yes I said guaranteed. I love these type of promotions.
The Red Letter Days affiliate programme is available on Affiliate Window and Affilinet and pays between 13% and 15% commission. What are you waiting for?
What I’m listening to right now: Lemar – “Little Miss Heartbreaker”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Red Letter Days Christmas affiliate incentive - GUARANTEED prizes
Original post by Kieron
It’s coming up to the busiest time of the year when some misguided retailers decide to lower or drop commission altogether on best selling products because they don’t think they need affiliates as certain in-demand products will sell very well on their own at this time of year, thanks very much.
So, what a breath of fresh air when I got an email today from Dialaphone who - now get this - are actually increasing commission on one of the most anticipated mobile phones of the year. I am of course talking about the Blackberry Storm. Here’s part of the email that I had to re-read 3 times in case I had got it wrong.
As Dialaphone are one of the few retailers to sell the Blackberry Storm we’ve decided to give a little extra commission on it this month - every successful Blackberry Storm order placed in November will be credited with an extra £10 on validation.
Can you believe it? Are you listening Carphone Warehouse? This is how you promote a new product, you don’t tell affiliates to sod off as you don’t want their sales. Instead you offer a bonus for every sale to incentivise affiliates to push your programme. Original eh?
Not only do Dialaphone increase commission but they also make it really easy for us to promote them and follow some of my golden rules.
First of all they offer creative to support this new product/offer. It may sound like such an obvious idea but there is many a time I get an email from a merchant to tell me about a super duper offer/promotion/product/event only to find no creative at all to support it. Dialaphone get this right and have released 4 banners promoting the Blackberry Storm. See below for example.
What’s even better is that Dialaphone have not one but two separate landing pages for the new phone. Giving us different angles to promote it. Brilliant. Wait though, I’m not finished yet. There was also 2 customised affiliate links for both of these pages included in the email. I didn’t have to log in anywhere and create my own, I just copied them straight from the email. Believe me, when you’re bombarded with literally hundreds of emails a day, the merchants and networks who make it easy for we affiliates to promote them, are the ones we will push.
I’m sure that there are another couple of merchants promoting the Blackberry Storm, but guess what? I can’t remember who they are. But the Dialaphone offer has made an impression. So much so I featured it on discount code site here. I did it as soon as I got the email in fact.
I get a few merchants asking me how they can be effective and break through the noise to reach affiliates. Well here’s a perfect example which I will point them to in future. Credit also to Affiliate Window, who manage the Dialaphone programme and who sent the email.
What almost beggars belief is that the Blackberry Storm is ONLY available on the Vodafone network here in the UK. However the Vodafone affiliate programme (on Affiliate Window and DGM) has no mention of the phone anywhere in their affiliate communications. No emails have gone out, other than to say it will be released on the 14th November. There are no incentives for pre-selling it, no text links to promote it and no creative either. Talk about missed opportunity.
What I’m listening to right now: Prince - “Scarlet Pussy”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Well done Dialaphone - Affiliate communication done well
Original post by Kieron
I got back yesterday afternoon absolutely shattered from the 2nd annual A4U Expo at the Excel in Docklands, London. It is only now a day later that I feel mentally fit enough to switch on the PC and write down my thoughts. It wasn’t the 3 parties over 3 nights that has left me exhausted, but rather the 2 solid days of networking, meetings, panels and presentations that has me worn out. Well OK, maybe the parties didn’t help either 
So what were the highlights for me?
One thing that stood out this year was the number of SEO people who were involved in the panel sessions. People like Becky and Dave Naylor, Mel Carson, Dixon Jones and Joost De Valk to name but a few. Sure, they’re an odd bunch 
but our sectors are so closely linked that it made perfect sense to have a few more SEO sessions this year.
One panel that I particularly enjoyed was the “Effective Voucher Code Implementation” session with Frostie, Duncan, J Lil and Richard from Comet the DSG group. Hero did a grand job of presenting an overview of the sector but unfortunately we only had 10 minutes to ask the panel questions. With voucher codes being such a hot topic at the moment we could have done with a 15 minute overview and 45 minutes of questions and answers. Maybe next year.
I missed Al’s presentation on “Million Dollar Blogging Strategies for Affiliates” which I was gutted about. Happily I heard nothing but good feedback about his session though, which is great considering I was the one who twisted his arm and suggested he be involved in the Expo in the first place.
I was also delighted to hear loads of positive stuff about the new sunPress tool from Chris and the gang at Sunshine.co.uk. It’s certainly a fantastic tool for my favourite blogging programme WordPress.
Then there was my “Meet the Super Affiliates” session with Jamie, Doug and superbly moderated by Shak. We were in one of the biggest rooms and the session was packed, however as we were the very last session of the last day I think that this took it’s toll on the audience. When we opened up the floor for questions we got a few but nowhere near the volume of questions that we had on the same panel last year (which was on in an earlier time slot). Speaking to a few people after the session, they said they enjoyed it and would have liked to have asked some questions but were a bit daunted as nobody else was. If I had been prepared, I should have brought some of the great questions asked by my blog readers in this post. But as ever, I wasn’t but will answer them in a separate and upcoming post. Thankfully the session went OK and we didn’t have to revert to Doug’s questions that he had hastily prepared just before the presentation on his notepad. Thank goodness!
I was also pleasantly surprised to meet up with Carrie from the Google Affiliate Network. She made the trip from Chicago to do a bit of fact-finding before a full blown launch of the Google beast into the UK. Should make for an interesting time ahead.
Finally I’d just like to thank everybody who took the time out to come and say hello to me and shoot the breeze about affiliate marketing, ContentNow.co.uk or white cars Great to talk to you all and meet so many new people. While the exhibition and the sessions themselves were great, for me it was the networking and the drinking with friends old and new in the parties afterwards that proved really invaluable. This is where deals are struck, domains and sites are sold, joint ventures are born and new opportunities created. Roll on ʎU Expo 2009.
Here are some other people’s experiences of the 2 days…
Awesome A4U Expo 2008
Doug’s A4U Photos
A4U Expo Day 1 - by Fraser
A4U Expo Day 1 - by Jason
ʎU Expo Day 1 - by Pete
Best A4U Expo Event Ever! - by Jason
Didn’t we have a lovely time
Day 1 photos
A4U Expo was great, yet again
SEO Dinner at A4U Expo
A4U Expo presentation online now
WordPress SEO tips
Was the A4U Expo any good? My review
My A4U Expo Roundup
A4U Expo - Conversion rate experts reveal conversion is all a matter of persuasion
Can I got to bed now please? A review of the A4U Expo 2008
What I’m listening to right now: Ne-Yo ft Jadakiss - “By My Side”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
The big bad A4U Expo wrapup post
Original post by Kieron
Anyone who is anyone in the world of Affiliate Marketing will be at the A4U Expo this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. As well as making an appearance on the “Meet the Super Affiliates” panel on Wednesday afternoon, I will be there for the duration of the conference (apart from sneaking our for a bit of big city shopping). So please do come and say hello if you see me wandering around.
If you would like to talk about my ContentNow.co.uk service then please also grab me anytime of get in touch before the event and we’ll set aside some time to have a chat about what we do.
See you there!
What I’m listening to right now: Steph Jones - “La La La Means I Love You”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Original post by Kieron
As some of you may know I manage the SecretSales.com affiliate programme on Buy.at. As well as a recent redesign and a 25% conversion rate I’m delighted to announce that for the first time we have some discount codes to offer affiliates:
• Free delivery
• Discount code: D12RxdF
• Valid until midnight October 31st 2008
• 5% total discount on any order
• Discount code: sm4rtBuy
• Valid until midnight December 31st 2008
If you would like to get in touch to discuss how we can help you promote the programme then please email me at secretsales@ukoffermedia.co.
We are offering up to 10% commission on sales as well as 25p for every new free email subscription. Full programme details can be found here.
What I’m listening to right now: Eric Benet:”Love and Life”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
SecretSales.com launch discount codes for affiliates
Original post by Kieron
With the A4U Expo only a few days away now, myself, Doug and Jamie are preparing for our “meet the super affiliates” session. This year though we thought we’d invite questions from the audience in advance, just to kick start proceedings off. You can still ask us questions on the day, we just thought a few questions in advance may be interesting.
So if anybody has anything that you’d like to hear us talk about then please either leave a comment here or get in touch. We’ll then pick a few questions to get the ball rolling before our session next Wednesday afternoon.
What I’m listening to right now: Keri Hilson Ft Lil Wayne – “Turn Me Off”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Ask the Super Affiliates a question
Original post by Kieron
It’s that special time of the year again and my toy site, eToys.co.uk always does particularly well in the run up to Christmas. During September 2008 the site received approx. 50,000 hits and this will most likely double, triple or even quadruple in October, November and December; if previous years are anything to go by. Actually January is always a really big month too.
The 2008 “Dream Toys” are announced on October 15th this year, in other words the Top 10 Toys list. This always generates massive interest, press and therefore traffic. I am expecting a huge Christmas this year in the online toy sector.
So, with that in mind I am offering 1 x sponsorship slot on the site. The position is the 468 x 60 banner that you see on the top of the site and which sits on EVERY page. The price is £799 a month, fixed fee. If you are interested in getting some exposure for your toy/gift/gadget site in the “Golden Quarter” then please get in touch.
What I’m listening to right now: Jennifer Hudson Feat Ludacris – “Pocket Book” - what a tune!
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Sponsorship opportunity - eToys.co.uk
Original post by Kieron
There was an interesting debate going on over at the A4U forum the other day where a user asked if people would pay “£50 to see a £50k Xmas 2007 Profit Strategy“. The post was made from a forum member called “Affi Liate” geddit? - and he seems to model himself on the Rick Jerk. For anybody who doesn’t know the Rick Jerk is an infamous “make money online” scheme from America that stands out from the crowd by being obnoxious, rude and full of it.
Reading through the thread it seems that quite a few people would happily pay the £50 for this report, no problem. But why would anyone do this? If you have something that does well, be it a PPC strategy, some tasty keywords that nobody else is bidding on or whatever - why would you sell it for a measly £50 a go when you can earn tens of thousands of pounds profit from it? Well it could be of course that it’s all hype and all you’re doing is selling some basic info that you have cobbled together from sites, forums and blogs over the years and then repackaging it as “Super Affiliate Killer Marketing Strategies That Will Explode Your Income Online” or whatever. Believe me, a lot of that goes on. Or it could be that you’re trying to build a reputation and a marketing list so you’re offering some genuine relevant advice. Now I’ve seen some of Affi’s stuff before and it’s not bad. It’s not rocket science however, but then again he openly admits that he is pitching for the newbie affiliates and not experienced affiliates. I haven’t seen what is in this 2007 profit strategy thing at all but if I were a betting man I would probably say that newbies will find it useful, based on the stuff I’ve seen so far anyway.
But then again it still begs the question, why sell it instead of just using it yourself? After all by selling it isn’t he just inviting more competition? I mean I have some PPC campaigns that make very, very good returns but I’m not going to tell anybody about them. Why would I? I’d cut off my income stream as soon as the new competition gets wind of it. Sure it’s a big market and the strategy probably isn’t limited to just one sector but still why would you give the competition an edge for the sake of just £50? Speaking of which how big is the UK market for products like this? The Americans seems to lap this stuff up but we’re a different culture and a lot more cynical. Even if he sells 100 copies, which I think is the maximum market if honest, that’s still only £5k. Hardly worth it.
I think that Affi is making the mistake of trying to replicate an American business model over here in the UK, when we just don’t have the appetite for it. I’ve just finished reading Click Here To Order by Joel Comm and was massively disappointed with it. I was hoping for inspirational stories of people who have made their living online but instead the book was full of anecdotes from “Master List Builders” and so called “Internet Gurus” who seem to do nothing else but sell the idea of how to make money online. None of whom seem to actually have any of their own ideas or real online business models they just repackage the same crapola over and over again and then sell it to our gullible cousins via God-awful sales letters and eBooks.
In my experience this type of stuff just doesn’t wash with us. For proof of this take a look at US based forum, DigitalPoint and compare it to our very own Affiliates 4U Forum. DigitalPoint is full of people hawking eBooks, online seminars, tutorials and other money making tat. Thankfully we have none of that at all, just a helpful community and very few hidden agendas. If the Make Money Online people to pop in to try and sell their wares then they soon get kicked into touch - just how it should be.
I’d be interested to know if any readers have bought and eBooks or other Make Money Online guides/strategies and if they found them useful?
P.S. Give me the Poor Loser over Rich Jerk anyday
What I’m listening to right now: R Kelly Feat Keri Hilson – “Shake It Like A Dog”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Sell it, give it away or keep it to yourself?
Original post by Kieron
I’d like to extend a big welcome to my latest blog sponsors, Linkshare UK. I’ve been using them for well over a year now and am pleased to see they have been going from strength to strength, they have an easy to use interface, some genuinely unique affiliate programmes that you won’t find anywhere else as well as a very proactive team of account managers. That’s my take, here’s the corporate stuff -
Launched in late 2006, LinkShare’s UK network has partnered with a number of high-profile merchants, half of which are exclusive. The network includes marchants from the fashion, travel & finance verticals – Avon, Boden, British Airways, Figleaves, French Connection, House of Fraser, Kurt Geiger, Links of London, LEGO, LOVEFiLM, Misco, Radisson and UNIQLO amongst others.
LinkShare was founded in 1996 in New York and has over a decade of experience in Affiliate Marketing, as well as Search Marketing and Lead Generation offerings. Superior consultative services combined with patented technology innovation allows merchants & affiliates to acquire and retain new customers, increase revenue and drive results.
WHY JOIN LINKSHARE?
• Weekly commisssion payments
• Exclusive list of UK merchants
• Superior affiliate support
• Non-cookie/pixel-based patented tracking
• Advanced tracking types – keyword, member, cashback
• Leading the way in tracking technology (mobile commerce, iTV)
LinkShare is on the cutting edge of new technologies that offer Advertisers and Publishers the ability to create tracking links through new channels and with new rich media options.
• Video with LinkShare Flex Links
• Flash, Product information widgets with LinkShare Flex Links
• Predicative Widgets with LinkShare Easy Links for presenting the right product at the right time to your shoppers
• Mobile Tracking Links for Mobile Commerce
• Support for Real Simple Syndication or RSS
• Dynamic Creative with Dynamic Rich Media (DRM) links
• Scored Merchandiser – intelligent product selection for higher conversion rates
For more information on starting an affiliate program with LinkShare please contact Kevin on 020 7031 0955 or email him at kkozinchik@linkshare.com.
Affiliates should contact our network development team for further information on uksupport@linkshare.com or call Darren on 020 7031 0947.
Or visit the website for additional info at Linkshare.co.uk.
What I’m listening to right now: Robin Thicke Ft Mary J Blige & Wale – Magic (Mark Ronson Remix) wow!!!
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Welcome to my new sponsors - Linkshare UK
Original post by Kieron
Within hours of the news that the UK’s third largest package holiday group XL, went into administration yesterday, the above sponsored ads on Google started appearing.
As well as the top 3 ads featured above there were further ads from the likes of Fly BMI, British Airways, Travel Republic and a fair few other online travel agents.
So is it in bad taste? Should other travel operators and airlines try to capitalise on the downfall of one of their competitors? And what about that ad from “The People’s Post Office”? Is it me or do they seem to be gloating? Almost as if to say “Don’t you wish you had booked some travel insurance with us? If you did you wouldn’t be in this mess”.
Or is all fair in love and the Internet? Are the above ads just there to help stranded passengers looking to get home, any way they can?
Personally, I think it’s a fine line to walk. I find the Post Office ad distasteful and it’s put me off ever booking insurance with them. However, the other ads could be seen as offering a useful service to XL customers. I’m particularly impressed by the speed in which Thomson have put together a dedicated landing page.
What do you think?
What I’m listening to right now: John Legend Feat Kanye West – “It’s Over”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Profiteering from the collapse of XL? Or shrewd marketing?
Original post by Kieron
To celebrate the second A4U Affiliate Expo taking place in London on the 14th and 15th October I’m giving away 2 full affiliates passes worth £299 each. As well as access to the exhibition and all of the presentations these passes will also give you entry to the 3 parties taking place too
So what do you have to do to win? Well I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible, all you need do is look at the Day 1 agenda and the Day 2 agenda and then tell me which presentation you are looking forward to the most. I don’t need War and Peace, just a few words on what you think will be the most interesting.
To kick things off, here’s a few that I’m looking forward to:
Day 2, 4.30pm to 5.30pm: “Meet the Super Affiliates”
In this session myself, Doug and Jamie will be answering questions from the audience about any aspect of affiliate marketing. Between the 3 of us we cover a ton of niches and all drive traffic to our sites in different ways. I really enjoyed this session last year, so look forward to seeing everyone again this year and interacting with everyone. If anyone has anything in particular you would like us to cover for the talk then please get in touch.
Day 2, 9.30am to 10.30am: “The mydeco Story - Life as a Start-Up in Affiliate Marketing”
I’m really looking forward to hearing David Kelly, the CEO of Brent Hoberman’s mydeco tell us all about how the high profile startup embraced affiliate marketing as one of it’s core methods of monetisation.
Day 1, 3pm to 4pm: “Extreme SEO Strategies for Affiliates”
A well respected panel full of SEO experts including Dave Naylor will make this a must-see presentation doing exactly what it says on the tin.
So there you go, there’s 3 of my top picks although I must admit I could have listed 10 more, as there is loads of great stuff to choose from. Leave your comments below on what presentation you would like to see and I will pick 2 winners after the closing date of midnight 26th September 2008.
What I’m listening to right now: Jazmine Sullivan – “Need You Bad”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Win 1 of 2 ʎU Expo tickets worth £600 by leaving a comment
Original post by Kieron
To celebrate the second A4U Affiliate Expo taking place in London on the 14th and 15th October I’m giving away 2 full affiliates passes worth £299 each. As well as access to the exhibition and all of the presentations these passes will also give you entry to the 3 parties taking place too
So what do you have to do to win? Well I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible, all you need do is look at the Day 1 agenda and the Day 2 agenda and then tell me which presentation you are looking forward to the most. I don’t need War and Peace, just a few words on what you think will be the most interesting.
To kick things off, here’s a few that I’m looking forward to:
Day 2, 4.30pm to 5.30pm: “Meet the Super Affiliates”
In this session myself, Doug and Jamie will be answering questions from the audience about any aspect of affiliate marketing. Between the 3 of us we cover a ton of niches and all drive traffic to our sites in different ways. I really enjoyed this session last year, so look forward to seeing everyone again this year and interacting with everyone. If anyone has anything in particular you would like us to cover for the talk then please get in touch.
Day 2, 9.30am to 10.30am: “The mydeco Story - Life as a Start-Up in Affiliate Marketing”
I’m really looking forward to hearing David Kelly, the CEO of Brent Hoberman’s mydeco tell us all about how the high profile startup embraced affiliate marketing as one of it’s core methods of monetisation.
Day 1, 3pm to 4pm: “Extreme SEO Strategies for Affiliates”
A well respected panel full of SEO experts including Dave Naylor will make this a must-see presentation doing exactly what it says on the tin.
So there you go, there’s 3 of my top picks although I must admit I could have listed 10 more, as there is loads of great stuff to choose from. Leave your comments below on what presentation you would like to see and I will pick 2 winners after the closing date of midnight 26th September 2008.
What I’m listening to right now: Jazmine Sullivan – “Need You Bad”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Win 1 of 2 A4U Expo tickets worth £600 by leaving a comment
Original post by Kieron
The annual report of the state of Affiliate Marketing in the UK, as conducted by E-consultancy in association with R.O. Eye has just been released.
The report is based on a survey of 150 agencies and 259 merchants and as such is aimed fair and square at this audience. However as a UK affiliate it also makes very interesting reading. Here are some of the key highlights as I see them:
1. Since the 2007 merchants’ survey, the average proportion of online marketing budget designated to affiliate marketing dropped from 18% to 14%, while the proportion of sales ascribed by merchants to affiliate activity has decreased from 16% in 2007 to 12% in 2008.
Not a good start, not only has budgets dropped in this sector but sales have too. Or maybe sales have dropped because budgets have been cut?
2. The proportion of merchant respondents saying that affiliate marketing drives high volume has decreased from 26% last year to 15% in 2008.
Wow, that’s a huge drop. It could maybe be attributed to people’s perception of what “high volume” actually means, but still, not a positive outlook at all.
3. The proportion of respondents saying that PPC drives high volume has decreased from 52.5% in 2007 to 44% this year, although it is still the biggest driver of volume.
To be honest this is probably a good thing. I among many other affiliates I know have branched out into other areas and actively tried to lower our dependence on PPC. By investing a tiny fraction of what I used to pay for PPC into content creation and link building I’m seeing some fantastic results.
4. Communication between merchants and affiliates has not improved since 2007. The proportion of merchants reporting good direct communication with all affiliates has fallen from 13% to 12%. The percentage of those with good direct communication with top-tier affiliates has also dropped, from 29% to 25%.
Not good. But merchants/agencies, why don’t you do something to address this?
The report authors sum my feelings up about these numbers very well. Here’s a direct quote from the report:
During a worsening economic downturn, it is surprising that less money is being invested in affiliate marketing when it is purely performance-based and therefore inherently low risk for merchants. Part of this decrease may also reflect the fact that companies are getting better at tracking their sales and deduplicating across different channels.
Whatever the reasons, these figures represent something of a wake-up call for the industry and highlight the importance of well-managed affiliate marketing campaigns in ensuring that the channel is driving incremental sales.
The good news for affiliate marketing is that merchants continue to regard it as a cost-effective channel for driving customer acquisition. Some 46% of merchant respondents now say that the channel is very cost-effective compared to 44% last year.
Great to see that 2% more of merchants think that the affiliate channel is cost-effective, but this still doesn’t ring true based on the above survey results.
Some more key facts and figures:
5. A third of merchants (34%) say that five or fewer affiliates are driving 80% of their affiliate sales or sign-ups. A further 23% say that between six and 10 affiliates account for 80% of sales.
We can take this to mean that 10 or less affiliates account for most sales (80% or more) of the merchants polled. Very interesting, and something which I have suspected for a long time now.
6. According to merchants, the most valuable affiliates – as a group - are SEO / content publishers, deemed to be driving a major contribution by 42%. This compares to 36% for paid search affiliates, 26% for loyalty / cashback sites, 20% for price comparison sites / aggregators, 17% for email affiliates and 10% for affinity sites.
Very good to see that merchants recognise content affiliates as more valuable than PPC affiliates.
You can get a copy of the report in full here. It makes for fascinating reading, as you can see from some of the highlights above.
What are your thoughts on the state of the Affiliate Marketing sector in 2008? Is it really as bad as the report suggests? Or are we just suffering from the economic downturn, the same as everybody else? Please share your opinions in the comments below.
What I’m listening to right now: Mario – “Applebottom”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Affiliate Marketing Report 2008 - not a great year for Affiliate Marketing
Original post by Kieron
Affiliate Window have just pinged me to ask if any of my blog readers would like to attend their annual Black Tie event that takes place this Thursday. Always happy to oblige, here are the details:
Affiliate Window’s annual Black Tie event takes place this Thursday (11th) at the Brewery, Chiswell Street, London, EC1Y 4SD. Nearly 50% bigger and better than last year, this years theme is Japanese, think ‘Kill Bill meets Memoirs of a Geisha’.
Nick named Nakama, (meaning, circle of friends) the planned entertainment is outstanding and promises to be both unusual and an experience to be remembered.
Merchant tables include the likes of Comet, Vodafone, Woolworths, Phones4U, Dial-a-Phone, Dixons, Currys, Red Letter Days, Firebox, NPower, IWOOT, Scotts & Co, Kitchen Science/Laskys, Arcadia Group, M&M Direct, BuyaGift, Screwfix, Zavvi, Boden and many more.
Affiliate Window have 12 places to offer to affiliates of the a4u forum and readers of Here.org.uk. You do not have to work with Affiliate Window, hence posting in the lounge but must fulfil the following criteria:
1. Dresscode ‘Black Tie’
2. Free from 6:30pm on Thursday 11th until 1am (or 3am if you like to party)
3. Want to mingle with AW Staff, merchants and like minded affiliates
4. Can travel to and from the event
If all the above answers are ‘YES’ then email Mathew.downs@affiliatewindow.com and your name will be entered into tomorrow’s draw. All confirmations will be sent out by tomorrow afternoon 9th September 2008.
What I’m listening to right now: Keri Hilson ft Timbaland – “Return The Favour”
Post from: Affiliate Marketing Blog Here.org.uk
Free tickets to the annual Affiliate Window event this Thursday
Original post by Kieron
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