Does Affiliate Future’s Xenon Give The Right Reaction?

3 Comments September 22, 2008 / Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Networks

Xenon is a noble gas that exists in trace amounts in the earth’s atmosphere. It’s also highly unreactive! Xenon is also the name of the new suite of affiliate tools from Affiliate Future and whilst initially not impressed with the offering having now found the important stuff (see update below) it’s a welcome addition to the AF toolbox.

At first glance the Xenon suite of tools is impressive comprising Xenon Content (which are content units), Xenon Data (for datafeeds and a shopping API system) and Xenon Search (search boxes which lead to a white label shopping site). All sections are accompanied with easy to follow videos and for that AF should be congratulated.

The search boxes are a nice idea (ideal perhaps for inclusion on blogs) and the Xenon Data element will no doubt be developed to be along similar lines of Shop Window.

Compared to what they had on offer before, this is a major improvement!

However, there are some issues….

1. There’s No PHP integration!
All the content units etc are javascript or iframe based integration, but there’s no PHP option. This is available from Buy.at, Affiliate Window and Paid on Results though – and is usually my preferred integration method.

2. Fixed Content Unit Sizes
The Xenon Content Units are no more exciting than those offered by Affiliate Window. Same bog standard sizes with no flexibility. Come on give us the option to create our own sizes to fit in our own spaces. I may have a space 600 wide, but not 500 deep… so let me create a content unit to fit in the space I have.

3. Data Feeds – No Longer An Issue
The biggest frustration I’ve had with AF is their data feed systems. Other networks allow an affiliate to download feeds with tags all nicely in place. AF didn’t! So when Xenon Data was launched I hoped that finally their feeds could be added to other networks…. except there’s the following on the site “if you would like access to all the data rather than a single category or merchant, you should use our Web Service”…. except I don’t want to do that, so where’s the option to grab all feeds with tags in place?

Updated – “where’s the option to grab all feeds with tags in place” – it is there after all (thanks to J Lil for pointing me in the right direction) – so that has now changed my overall view on Xenon and means that getting AF feeds is a load easier. Hooray.

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3 Comments... What do you think? Subscribe via RSS
  1. Adam Ross said on September 22nd, 2008 at 3:26 pm

    Hi Jason

    Just wanted to point out that with Affiliate Window, affiliates can build and design their own content widgets which can be uploaded to the system.

    With affiliate designed/branded widgets, there is additional fuctionality provided such as the ability to edit price and text fields to accommodate exclusive offers you may have been given by the account managers.

    Branded units can be seen in action on the new Metro Newspaper Shopping Portal (http://www.meshopping.co.uk). Whilst the bulk of the site is a full ShopWindow integration, the units on the main page down the centre are designed by Metro. You’ll notice the text fields contain Metro specific offers and this can all be controlled through a CMS within the AW itnerface.

    If you would like more information on affiliate branded widgets, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

    Thanks
    Adam

  2. Steve Lownds said on September 22nd, 2008 at 8:39 pm

    On PHP content units, as a lot of people will tell you, a lot of PHP servers do not allow remote file access using the PHP include command and return an error when using this type of include. My own tests with this type of command would not work on any of the 4 public servers I own – just my private test machine with low security settings.
    We looked very closely at a way of offering SEO friendly content to our users, but since it cannot be implemented reliably for all users we chose not to. I have run some tests and it can be done reliably using CURL, but that is significantly slower, and cannot be done with one line of code. We don’t believe we should publish anything which stands such a high risk of failure on our affiliates computers.

    Modifying content unit sizes… on its way – already been planned for phase 2, but be didn’t want to make people wait for this version when it will already fulfil 90% of requirements.

    Mand thanks to Adam for his kind offer of assistance to our users and all the interesting AWin news. We will be sure to extend the same courtesy to AWin users and inform them about all the exciting developments at AF in the future.

  3. Adam Ross said on September 23rd, 2008 at 9:19 am

    Steve

    My apologies if my response was seen as discourteous in any way. You must agree there are similarities between the technologies and since the article referred specifically to Affiliate Window and contained a call for networks to offer resizable widgets, I just wished to clarify that point about our technology.

    Apologies Jason if it seemed I was hijacking this thread from AF.

    Adam