For example, imagine a TV advert showing offers/promotions for an electrical retailer converted into this format! Just hover and click – and you’re on your way to buying. Similarly take a Marks and Spencer ad and use the same technology – one click on Mylene Klass’s bikini and you’re one step away from purchasing!

Another useful feature is that the ads can also be shared socially with an embedding facility that’s integrated into the ad. Very clever!

The major challenge for affiliates is integrating this content into their sites so that it is used by the user and a major challenge for networks is providing options in terms of sizing to enable affiliates to meet that challenge. One size doesn’t always fit all!

That aside a very impressive step forward in the use of video creative!

Easiest to use and work with are Paid on Results content units, and after discovering there’s a more malliable version of their content units I was quite pleased that I managed to go into their system and come out with something that plugged in via PHP. The downside was that it wasn’t quite in the tabulated format I wanted, not POR’s fault and nice to see the options. What I would like to see is a number of products per column/row and customisable width options.

Width was an issue at Affiliate Window too. Their content widget system is a bit more cumbersome, but you can search for specific products at selected merchants which is good… but then you have to select each item you want (no multi select option though) and if you’ve only got a 468×60 banner that shows 2 products I’m not sure why I’d need more than 2 selected products anyway. All that aside, the good news is the units are customisable in colour… but are all specific in size. Why? Why not give me the option to size the unit so I can fit it in with my website? It would be so much better if I can integrate units into the space I have!

If I have a space 500 wide – what good is a 720×300, 300×600, 250×250 or 468×60… let me decide columns/rows!!

Now Buy.at do allow me to decide columns and rows with their Content Engine – hooray! It’s customisable, has a PHP option, although the v3 interface is so painfully slow (bordering on impossible to use – if fact it’s so slow it’s still easier to get banners from v2 which all things considered is pretty poor) and they’ve got no Marks and Spencer Pyjamas! They’re in the product feed we get from M&S, but when I try building a content unit for ‘Pyjamas’ specifically for ‘Marks and Spencer’ (presuming this uses the same Buy.at product feed affiliates use) can I get more than just a “Winnie the Pooh Hot Water Bottle”? Can I eckers like! Where are the pyjamas? Who’s got them? How do I find them?

There are some great tools here – and there are some network omissions from the above simply as those networks don’t even have the tools (or if they do they’re that bad they’re not even worth using) – but the one’s here do need to be improved… not least to preserve what remaining hair I have left on my head for the forthcoming winter!

Whilst I’m having a frustrated with creative day the same message has to be echoed to merchants too – what’s with the odd sized content units? Too often they’re designed for “your site” not “mine” – some are just huge monstrosities that I’m sure few affiliates actually use! Another bugbear – why do merchants offer a search system 468×60 wide, but in no other sizes? Why do Amazon have such great widgets, but no customisable Top 10 widget? Why don’t Woolworths have any Christmas creative? In fact, come to think of it, why do so many merchants not have Christmas creative?

Darn, there goes some more hair! )

5. Paid on Results Content Units

Here’s an example:

These units are fully customisable! They are available in various sizes, with and without image zoomovers, floating and standard appearence (the above is standard, floating just means the products appear when you mouseover). You can select the number of products you show and products too.

The best thing though – you can integrate them with php so that they become part of your site. Units are available for BeCheeky, Dead Good Undies, Designer Pitstop, Euroffice, Everything But The Music, HQhair, Not Designer, Prezzy Box and QED-uk.

Other networks have taken up the challenge for content units – which is great news for affiliates. I’ve been particularly impressed with Buy.at’s Content Engine but is it good enough to be a great invention?

The Euroffice ink selector content unit is available to affiliates now (see affiliates4u for full details), and provides affiliates with a simple plugin tool that allows users to search for ink cartridges for a wide range of top brands. The results can even be fine tuned to colour or black ink cartridges! The unit is available in 3 preset sizes, but it is customisable, and it can be added using javascript, a basic text link or PHP.

Other networks take note – these kind of things are very useful for all affiliates! And whilst javascript content units are “ok”, having PHP includes is an option that should also be provided as standard. If networks provide good quality tools then (hopefully) affiliates will use them! PPC affiliates can use them as landing pages, whilst SEO and content sites can create pages based around the content unit.

Whilst as an affiliate I hope to see similar innovation (in fact I’d prefer to see more innovation) from other networks, I hope all merchants take a serious look at what’s happening over at Paid on Results. They’ve provided this content unit for their merchant and for their affiliates – the idea is simple – the affiliate make sales, the merchant make sales and the network actually earns their override.