When you’ve run an active forum for a number of years one thing you get really good at spotting is ’seeding’ - the crafty, sneaky and underhand way that companies and agencies go about getting some free advertising on forums whilst then claiming to their clients or superiors how clever they are abut getting the word out there without paying the sites they’ve stolen advertising revenue from!
The fact is they’re not clever, in fact most are just plain stupid.
Firstly they always post the same kind of thing, usually along the lines of “I’ve just found this website” or “Has anyone been to this site, is it genuine?”. It’s usually the first post they make too, although sometimes they might introduce themselves before launching their little advert.
The second reason why these people are stupid is because they don’t understand IP addresses - especially when it traceroutes back to their company HQ!
What we need is an example!
Our example arrived today in the form of Lucky Hammer. They’re owned by Data Media and Research Ltd, the people behind Win4Now and they’re based in Sheffield. Here’s our new friend Davros12 earlier just before being exterminated:
Now a bit of IP checking and we discover not only is the address a Sheffield IP address, but in fact other people using this IP have previously registered on Loquax - and they have email addresses that tell us that it’s the people behind Lucky Hammer doing the posting.
What to do with this kind of spam?
Usually it just gets deleted, but sometimes it’s useful to tell your users (or even blog readers) what is happening. In this case we’ve replied to the post, told our users that the company is breaking our forum rules (again) and suggested that as they can’t be upfront and honest why should anyone trust the site that is being advertised.
It’s one way to make sure that this kind of forum spam backfires on the people who continue to do it!
If you are a seedy forum advertiser in future why not contact us first, perhaps even pay us for the privilege to show your advert, but please don’t be sneaky about it - it just annoys everyone and gets you nothing, except maybe a bit of public “outing” on an affiliate blog.
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One of the big surprises amongst this year’s A4UAwards, other than this blog getting a nomination, was the shortlist for Publisher’s Choice Of Network 2008. Despite being number one in a recent list for UK Affiliate Marketing by NMA (Webgains Blog), Tradedoubler failed to attract enought nominations to make the shortlist of six which comprise:
Affiliate Future
Affiliate Window
Buy.at
OMG
Paid On Results
Webgains
If I was to draw up my own list then OMG (Online Media Group) would be replaced by TD.
So why have TD failed to make the shortlist?
When Nick Roveta left the network a massive hole that linked affiliates to the network was created, and I don’t think TD have ever filled this void! That said, I’ve rarely had any major issues with TD, and all support emails have been answered.
I don’t think TD have suddenly gone bad, so as to not warrant a nomination, but their competitors have just got better - in terms of innovation, affiliate support, brands and taking up issues such as forced clicks, voucher codes, brand name bidding etc. - and deserve the plaudits.
For example…
Affiliate Future unveiled their new interface; Affiliate Window are still riding high with big merchant gains, widgets and Shop Window; Buy.at may court controversy in some quarters but they continue to grow; OMG is a surprise imo, but I know their AMs are great and a new interface is now in place.
Paid on Results continue to be the most innovative network and really deserve recognition and finally Webgains are also pushing on with their innovation and a superb set of AMs too.
I doubt there are many concerns down at TD towers at not being nominated, but it will be interesting to see whether things do change and if next year they’re back in the forethought of affiliates when it comes to making nominations for 2009.
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It might have been because the a4uawards were announced, or because everyone was outside in the sun the last few days, but an announcement by AlphaRooms regarding discount codes seems to have slipped under the affiliate radar…. until now! It’s regarding that old chestnut, the click to reveal voucher code. To combat this issue AlphaRooms have amended their terms and conditions to include the following:
Alpharooms.com permits affiliate sites to show relevant discount codes and/or promotional offers to their visitors. These codes or offers must be visible to the user without an action that would trigger your affiliate link and create an affiliate cookie on the visitors machine.
That on it’s own isn’t particular exciting, but what makes this announcement much more highlight worthy is the additional information that they provided to qualify the decision making process:
The majority of sales driven by sites hiding discount codes or offers that force a click to reveal the content have a click to book lag of less than 10 minutes. This is a lot lower than the average click to book lag. It is also noticeable that the majority of bookings via these sites have a marketing source already assigned which we retain as the previous referrer.
Well done to AlphaRooms, and A4UAward nominee for best Affiiate Manager Dan Morley, for taking this stance.
The one thing we don’t know is the volume of sales effected, but one could possibly surmise that it must be a significant enough percentage to implement these measures. Let’s hope other merchants start doing similar analysis on their sales and reacting accordingly.
Enforcement of these changes starts on 12th May, and for the record we have dropped the click for code policy and returned back to normal.
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One thing the A4UAwards throws up each year is a bit of discontent and discussion regarding the nominations (actually it’s throws up discontent and discussion about the type of awards, the voting process, the nominations, the winners etc etc so should it’s not really a surprise). There are though one or two surprises in each category, but it’s the Publisher of the Year award that has sparked the most amount of debate on Affiliates4U and on various blogs including Moose on the Loose and 3WDL.
First off, well done to the nominations for Publisher of the Year 2008, who are: Click Angel, Net Media Planet, Quidco, Spear, UK Web Media, eConversions.
The group apparently comprises 5 PPC affiliates and one cashback site. There’s no place for what many affiliates would regard as a pure “content affiliate” - but is that really a surprise? We all know good, honest, hardworking content affiliates, but that often doesn’t stand out in a world of money making for networks and merchants alike. For example, Loquax is a content site, but it’s built primarily to earn it’s owners a living and then for it’s users - in terms of revenue generation it would barely get on radar compared to the nominations.
Now if we assume that the nomination process is made with a “these guys earn a fair bit of wedge we’ll vote for them” attitude, then it’s inevitable that content affiliates are going to struggle to secure sufficient nominations. In fact, I’d suggest that it was impossible for ‘old school’ style affiliates to ever pique enough interest amongst sufficient numbers of merchants, networks and agencies to get noticed above the PPCers, however they earn their corn, and the UK’s biggest cashback site.
The nominations possibly reflect affiliate marketing as it currently stands in 2008!
Perhaps for 2009, things will be different?
For example, Matt & the A4UAwards Gang could change the blurb for the nomination process?
For 2008 the information offered was simply “You are invited to nominate who you feel deserves this prestigious title in 2008. The top 5 will go through to a final round of multiple choice voting before the winner is announced at the a4uAwards ceremony” - perhaps including additional advice like “consider all your affiliates not just those who have earnt the most commissions. Think about how an affiliate has added value to your brand and added innovation to generate sales” may help?
Alternatively there could be “Best Publisher (Content)”, “Best Publisher (PPC)”, “Best Publisher (Cashback)” etc, however this could get confusing. By 2015 there could even be “Best Publisher (with Latin Name Beginning with L and ending in X combining Use of Aquatic Bird in Logo”) - at least I might have a chance with that one!
Just out of interest, are there any merchants, agencies or networks willing to reveal their choice of nomination and why?
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The A4UAwards Community Awards shortlist has been announced today and the full list is on the official site. Phone calls they said… we’re making calls they said. Did my phone ring? Did I check 1471 a few times? Did I make sure my mobile was charged up? Did I check that the phone was working? Have I done absolutely nothing all afternoon…
Well yes, and that’s the only bit that’s right, but that’s because it’s been too darn hot and broadband has been awful today.
The good news is that this little duck blog has received a nomination for Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2008. At this point I’d like to thank my reader for taking the time to nominate. Thank you.
The blog is up against some tough competition: last year’s winner Kieron, The Moose on the Loose pertaining to be Paul Wheatley, Kirsty M who writes some Affiliate Stuff and GetVisible himself The Real Lee McCoy.
Well done to them all for making the final five affiliate blogs… may the best blogger win!
You can vote for your favourite blog as well as the other community awards over at the a4uawards site. Winners will be announced on June 5th. Good luck to everyone who’s been nominated.
Oooh the phone’s ringing… “hello Matt?… oh sorry, thought you were someone else… erm, no I don’t want any double glazing”!
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