Tis The Season To (Not) Be Jolly
10 Comments November 3, 2009 / Posted in Affiliate MarketingTis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la etc! Is it chuff! Barely 60 hours into November and my festive spirit has packed it’s suitcase, grabbed it’s passport and is currently en route, by taxi, to Heathrow for 2 months of sand, sea and whatever else festive spirits get up to on holiday. This duck is not a happy bunny.
And the reason for that is it’s good to be grumpy. According to scientists “being grumpy makes us better at decision-making and less gullible”. So if the scientists are right (and who’d argue with a scientist eh) a grumpy affiliate should be better at picking the right merchants to promote and not be taken in by a boatload of flannel.
So that explains why I wrote planning for affiliate Christmas!
Hmmm…
Talking of grumpy affiliates, Clarke Duncan has helped explain the mysteries of the benefits of Twitter Lists to me in his latest blog – Twitter Lists to Discover Affiliate People. I’m not a listy person and quite like the anarchy Twitter brings, but Clarke’s made a pretty good case for creating them. All I need now is to sit down and start listing.
Doing lists is the in thing this year – next year it’ll be mobile!
There are Twitter Lists, Kieron’s Share My Play Lists (coming next year sharemylistlists) and the inaugural Top 100 Affiliate Marketing Companies List. This interesting survey from the guys behind A4U aims to “provide the industry with an unbiased view on the top Affiliate businesses working across the entire channel”.
If you want to get involved then sign yourself up and let them know how well you’re doing. You can also nominate a “most respected company within the Affiliate Marketing Industry” and “most respected individual within the Affiliate Marketing Industry”. Note the 100AMC is only for affiliates.
I can guarantee you’ll be above us because we’re opting out, at least for the first year. This isn’t a reflection on the concept, I’m sure a lot of people want to know where they rank or more importantly where their peers rank in such list. We did check up with Matt and Chris on a couple of issues first, to get some points qualified, and then discussed things after that. So it’s not a knee jerk reaction but a business decision.
All said and done, our personal reasons for not being on such a list far outweighed those for being on it (had we actually qualified). A bit of grumpy decision making if you like because of a few “what if…” type worries, but sometimes you have to go with those instincts.
Now that last statement may set off a few fireworks – hopefully not – or at least hopefully not as many as those sent to us by the lovely St Minver. Thanks for the prize for being a good affiliate last month – all we need do now is figure out what to safely do with The Armoury (perhaps a cash bonus next time might be good eh? LOL).
|
Related Posts...
It’s August – It Must Be Christmas New Season New Sites New Football Season Southampton Get Relegated Theo Walcott Signs for Arsenal |
 |
Call me cynical but I suspect the 100AMC will be a list of who is popular, or who gets the most “RTs” and not necessarily who is the most respected or influential individual in the industry, nor do I see what benefit this list will add to the industry either?
… and yes, my memory is freakin fantastic!
I agree with you Frostie. The opinion of a few people who read the A4U Forum is no basis to hold a subjective view of the great and good of affiliate marketing.
If there is desire for this kind of information (and I don’t see much reason for it) then could we not hold a quantitative study taking into account factors such as turnover, no. merchants they work with and what sectors they operate in?
Like you Frostie, I suspect this will just be another popularity contest (a charge levelled at many of the A4U Awards) and will just polish a few already inflated egos.
Spot on Frostie and Matt.
It’s like me and my mates dishing out awards to each other every year over a beer, and then asking each other how much we earn.
Interesting but ultimately unneccessary.
It’s about the cash not popularity: “The annual survey uniquely identifies the leading Affiliates operating in the space each year, ranked by financial return”
It’s about the cash not popularity: “The annual survey uniquely identifies the leading Affiliates operating in the space each year, ranked by financial return”
Its optional though. They’re are a lot of big affiliates who don’t shout about it (not saying either way is right or wrong) and probably won’t enter. then there are lots of smaller affiliates like me who don’t want to be embarrassed
I think these lists work for agencies because they need to show they are large and influencial in order to win clients. A lot of affiliates don’t need to win clients, they get to choose them.
Anyway, I’m just following the Jason Dale grumpiness advice. I should really wait until its published before judging!
From what I can see it’s not based on financial return but on turnover, what use is that? We can all increase turnover using adwords. I would much rather see the top 100 affiliates ranked by profit. The only people interested in turnover will be the merchants and networks because they make money based on this whether you make a profit or not.
Apart from bragging rights, the only reason I see for submitting your details is for better recognition with merchants.
Ray if you choose to believe every official line in this world, then I better keep an eye on you in Vegas. They have signs saying stuff like “You can hit the jackpot here!”… and hand out cards saying “She’s alone and waiting for your call”
I understand why these lists would be beneficial to agencies, however, I’d expect networks already have this information to hand? I’m not really interested in the top x affiliates as it doesn’t cloud my judgement or feeling towards them. I’m friendly and respectful of people in the top and bottom 100, selected for who they are, and not on what they can do for me.
As has also been pointed out, anyone can increase turnover (therefore getting into the top 100) by creating a load of PPC’s where the profit margin is below 5%. But whats the point of that? Give me a 50% return and I’ll create my own award cermony complete with trophy!
I’ve just caught up on this. I really don’t like the idea of this list, I see what the guys at A4U are trying to do but i don’t think it can work in the affiliate sector like it does in the agency world. I agree with a lot of the comments above that it seems like a bit of an ego boost, I also suspect that many affiliate companies would not want to be published here anyway. As a client this would not affect who I decided to work with or how I work with affiliates so not really sure what the point is. I would also be concerned it could have a negative affect on the way clients perceive affiliates, I can see the “well if they earn that much then I’ll pay them less” creeping in as there will be a lack of understanding around the significant difference between turnover and profit.
Why am I (not) surprised you’re still grumpy, me too, no surprises there.
The top 100 list will only ever be a partial list of people who want to be on lists and I’ll be able to see where I would have ranked on the list if the turnover figures are published – and it wouldn’t be hard to find them out if they’re not.
As others have pointed out it’s easy to increase vanity turnover by running lots of PPC so turnover isn’t proof any anything useful.
I can’t think of any reason I’d want to be ranked and displayed on such a list and for that reason I’m out, even before I was in, or not.
Ah the plot thickens. Identify the top 100 affiliates according to turnover. Publish the list. Mr Merchant sees published list and decides “I want those people promoting”. Special commission deals increase. Networks earn more override. Merchant gets fleeced. Agencies get pat on head for recruiting top 100 members to programs plus enhanced bonus structure. Cynical? Moi?