One Little Duck - Affiliate Blog » Networks

Best Buy UK To Launch Exclusively With Affiliate Window

Jason Dale — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:24:31 +0000

With the run in to Christmas sales on it’s way there’s some exciting news for affiliates from Affiliate Window – the exclusive launch of Best Buy UK, a leading consumer electronics retailer, on their network. With product feeds being promised this could prove to be a popular new merchant on many sites during the festive period.

One interesting element of this launch is how will rival merchants take it!

The consumer electronics sector is notorious for messing about with commission levels and even Amazon, for example, have limited what can and can’t be earnt on select items. If Best Buy get their numbers right they could not only be taking away customers and sales from the competitors but also some of their top affiliates too.

If feeds are in place alongside top notch Christmas creative and offers then this could be a top program for the season and the New Year Sales. With VAT due to rise in early January 2011 there may well be a flurry of purchases to save on high ticket items too.

Here’s the official announcement from Affiliate Window.

Following on from the successful opening of Best Buy stores around the UK in Thurrock in Essex, Hedge End near Southampton and Merry Hill in West Midlands earlier this year, the popularity of Best Buy’s website and the reach of the Affiliate Window network “will combine to establish the Best Buy site as the designated destination for consumers wishing to take advantage of the very latest and greatest technology, services and content as well as inspiration and impartial advice – and competitive value”.

Best Buy UK’s affiliate marketing campaign will kick off this Autumn and “will be an integral component to the success of their new transactional website which launches simultaneously”. The site will include innovative elements such as ‘My Best Buy’, the company’s customer retention and rewards programme and a consumer forum, as well as comprehensive advice for those seeking knowledge and inspiration.

deVere Forster, MD Online for Best Buy UK added: “We’ll be working closely with Affiliate Window and the broader publisher community to ensure that the launch of our transactional website in the Autumn builds on our already established and ground-breaking presence online, and provides our customers with another way to shop with us.”

Mark Walters, Managing Director for Affiliate Window said: “Best Buy UK has a progressive outlook towards affiliates and I’m confident we will see the company using relationships and tools in equal measure to maximise opportunities for all parties.”

It most certainly sounds like one to watch!

The main concern is that Best Buy currently don’t have an online transactional site, so only time will tell just how affiliate friendly the site is! Of course they may offer low commission rates too but here’s hoping that they do come in with a competitive deal for all.

Another concern is that some affiliates don’t like to risk things too much at Christmas. A known merchant, who’s been doing sales over the past 12 months, is often preferred over a new rival. Best Buy UK will need to work quickly to convince apathetic affiliates that they are worth the promotion time.

The program is due for launch in the Autumn.

Paid On Results Shines as The Sun Sets on DGM

Jason Dale — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:43:35 +0000

It was with a touch of irony that I read an A4U piece on OLD’s 2010 blogger award this weekend. In an interview after the awards they asked me why I thought so few UK affiliates maintain a blog… and pretty much since then I’ve hardly posted here. In part because I’ve been doing other stuff like taking photos of boats and bees, but also because sometimes it’s nice just to take a step back once in a while.

But the affiliate world doesn’t stand still and the fortunes of three UK affiliate networks are in focus at the moment.

At the end of July DGM went into administration, but it’s taken a further fortnight for the plugged to be pulled. As of the end of last week affiliates who had not removed links were given a pretty lousy 12 hours notice that dgmPro for the UK was being switched off by ADH Holdings who had acquired the system.

There’s an announcement on A4U and some quite direct comments in response to things.

Going public with views, at least in The UK AM industry, is often not the “done thing” so it’s quite refreshing to see some open commentary, especially from those involved. Quite often (and I’ve said this before) there’s an assumption that those involved in AM know what’s happening “behind closed doors” when they don’t.

Actually in fairness, I’m a nosey so and so and just want more gossip.

However open commentary isn’t being confined to just the end of DGM in The UK. Sunshine’s Chris Clarkson has posted an emotive post on his blog about Affiliate Future. His open letter is an interesting read and hopefully those who can react to his suggestions take them on board. In fact it’s Sunshine’s and their affiliates’ frustration with AF’s development (or lack of it) that has led to them opening with Paid On Results.

This move could be a key one for POR and early indications suggest that they realise this with the launch of their Sunshine Report. This is a bespoke reporting suite for affiliates of Sunshine.co.uk on POR and first impressions are pretty impressive. I’d be surprised if other travel merchants and affiliates aren’t raising one or two eyebrows in POR’s direction after seeing what they can potentially offer them versus what they may be getting elsewhere.

In fairness POR aren’t the only network innovating. Tradedoubler quietly announced Product Level Tracking (PLT) with RouteOne. From the email “PLT enables commissions to be offered to you on individual products”. So if RouteOne want their affiliates to focus on DC branded gear they can raise the commission for it. An interesting development to keep an eye on in the future.

For now though, the sun is most certainly shining on POR up in Scotland.

The DGM Administration Ripple Effect

Jason Dale — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:53:21 +0000

There’s an interesting and important post about DGM and their administration over on Affiliates4U. The post reveals something about the administration and also comments about leaving links up especially as “you are unlikely to realise the value of the sales commissions you are generating”. It also appears that any rescue of the network will not be forthcoming.

Administration has a horrible ripple effect.

There are obviously those caught at the eye of the storm such as ex-employees and there are merchants who need to move to other networks asap. Plus of course, possibly a little too glossed over in many respects, there are the affiliates who could be losing out on significant and much needed income. Some may have PPC bills to cover, whilst others may be having a few sleepless nights until their merchants move or they figure out what to do next.

Cashback sites and their users are also caught up in this ripple effect. The reaction from affiliates to DGM’s administration has been one of a quiet acceptance, in my opinion, but hell most certainly has no fury than a cashbacker scorned.

In the firing line over on Money Saving Expert are Quidco who whilst quick to explain the administration then got both barrels and a lot more besides from unhappy punters. Their problems were compounded further when a rival site announced they would be paying up any monies owed from DGM affiliates.

What’s quite fascinating from the discussion though is the varying degrees of knowledge regarding cashback, affiliates and tracking. In some cases cashback customers didn’t know a tracking company, such as DGM or Awin, were the middle man.

The issues Quidco are having on the money saving forums also highlights one of the problems of doing “customer services” away from home and the relative safety of your own forums. Having tried to do it, albeit thankfully no where near on the cashback site’s scale, it’s not something I’d rank as a highlight of the working week.

Because of that, and many might be shocked by this, I feel a tad bit sorry for Quidco. They reacted to the situation as they saw right but then got battered and bruised by all and sundry for being perhaps too quick off the mark. Maybe they misjudged “what to do” but perhaps the blame really has to fall on the poor way the administration has been announced and the uncertainty of what’s happening (or not).

In contrast to DGM, Clash Media also went into the admin corner last week and immediately switched off their UK network links. That’s a pretty good indicator of “we’re not in right now”. Just as an aside to this it’s interesting to note that there’s been less comment and little cashback or affiliate furore over this particular network’s end, despite their ukprizedraw program being run via a number of other networks.

Anyway, at least today’s “unofficial DGM announcement” should bury any hopes of a reprieve or uncertainty about keeping links in place “just in case”! The start of August for some affiliates is going to mainly revolve around switching links. But here’s the thing – if you’re unhappy about that, stop and think “at least I’m not running a cashback site” (unless you are, then go and get the beers in).

Recession Hits Affiliate Marketing as DGM Enters Administration

Jason Dale — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:04:50 +0000

Just after a month after being the co-sponsor for the A4UAwards, DGM have announced that they have gone into administration. The news comes on the same day that Affiliate Window announced a merger with Zanox, thus highlighting the varying fortunes of the two networks who have been part of UK Affiliate Marketing for a considerable amount of time.

Given the economic climate it’s perhaps not a surprise that a network has hit this point. Even so, it’s a sad day for affiliate marketing and for those who have been involved with DGM and it’s previous incarnations of UKAffiliates. For many affiliates, including ourselves, it used to be their number one earner and despite a few issues around the “Pro” era there’s always been affiliate affection towards the network.

In fairness the road has always been uphill for DGM since they moved from DGM2 to the ill fated DGMPro. In essence this has been the albatross attached to the millstone that’s been round their neck, whilst a (Cheeky)monkey played on their back. The affiliate system wasn’t the most user friendly and whilst DGM tried to sort things out, Awin and Buy.at emerged like Seb Coe used to do having sat behind Steve Ovett for 700m and leg it to the finishing line to grab the gold.

After a management buyout – at least on the surface it looked like New DGM were moving forward. They introduced new innovative ideas, like the mobile and broadband comparison units as well as travel maps. New clients, including The National Trust, were appearing too and with the merger of Buy.at/Awin there was opportunity for them to continue that climb and establish themselves as a network of choice for affiliates.

Sadly, for whatever reasons, that climb has now been halted by the grim reaper of administration. The knock on effect to affiliates is as yet unknown. But, it’s a stark reminder to us all how the fall of one business to which we are somehow linked can have an impact on our own. Affiliates do need to make sure they have several eggs and several baskets!

DGM’s administration though has, as you’d expect, resulted in some lively and interesting discussions on Twitter about networks and their future.

Are the days of the affiliate network numbered? Will there be other casualties? Do networks need to adapt their business models? Will agencies take to the space and remove the need for networks?

Perhaps there are more questions to be asked – like were the clients won really ideal for affiliate marketing or more intriguingly are there the affiliates in situ willing or able to promote new wins, not just for DGM, but other networks who as yet haven’t been absorbed by Affiliate Window? Has affiliate marketing hit a critical point, where as a discussion ensuing on affiliates4u suggests, that it’s now simply voucher code marketing?

Who knows the answers to these questions and how these events will effect AM in the months to come?

In the meantime, let’s hope there’s minimal impact for those effected by this administration.

New Deeplinking Tool From Paid On Results

Jason Dale — Thu, 20 May 2010 11:31:45 +0000

Creating deeplinks can be an annoying and time consuming process, especially if you’re busy blogging or writing content for your website. Most networks have tools to help you generate deeplinks, but the guys over at Paid On Results were the first to provide a one click browser based solution. They’re about to relaunch the tool and they’ve kindly let me have a sneak peak.

And blimey, it’s pretty damn good!

The process is very simple. You put an icon on your browser toolbar, which is done as simple as dragging the necessary link, and you’re ready for deeplinking fun. Under the first system POR launched, when you wanted a deeplink for one of their merchants you clicked the link when on the merchant site. This gave you a text link to use!

The new system gives you so much more than just a link!

For example let’s take this lovely looking giant cup cake tin that’s available from Prezzybox. I want the deeplink link for this and so all I have to do is click the “Paid on Results Deeplink Generator” on my browser. This results in a pop up box appearing as follows:

Not only do you get a deeplink for the product you’re looking at, you also get options to customise the link including shortening the url which is ideal for Twitter promotions. If you’re worried about the link there’s even an option to test it! You also get a product image to use direct from POR’s feed system. The image can be resized with a number of options.

If that wasn’t enough they you also get links to banner creative that can also be used in my promotions. It totally removes the need for logging in to the CMS, rooting around for banners, copying images from a merchant site and figuring out deeplink structure.

Quite simply – brilliant!

It’s compatible on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera too, so there’s no limitations imposed there. The only thing missing is that the pop over box is static and I’d like to have the ability to move it, but that’s a minor quibble over what is a very clever and intuitive tool from the POR guys.

The new deeplink generator tool will be available for all to use from next week.

Can This Creative Get DGM on The Map?

Jason Dale — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:39:22 +0000

One of the things I’ve found with affiliate marketing of late is that it all seems so much faster. Blog this, tweet that, email the other! The days of leisurely adding content and then having a week before the next email from a network have gone forever. So, when new tools are released by networks they have to be usable from the off… I don’t want to be messing about with APIs, or spending time writing code, especially as we have a system in place to use feeds already.

I’m more interested when content creative is released by a network. If it’s something I can use straight away, perhaps around our own written content, then that’s infinitely better than any techno techno techno stuff that gets churned out by networks. Yes we can do the API coding if needed but there just isn’t enough hours in the day to do everything.

The new creative from DGM utilises Google Maps and are called DGM Travelmaps. They’ve taken all the locations of their travel merchants hotels and holiday parks and stuck them on a map. Click on a locality and you get a description and affiliate link to the merchant site. Pretty cool!

A quick example is shown below.

I say a quick example as all I’ve done is resize one of the options from the creative suite. When I first looked at DGM Travelmaps admittedly my heart sank as all sizes with 600×800. For some reasons all networks seem to provide content units that are infinitely bigger than most websites. However, there’s good news. DGM allow you to resize the units to fit your page. Good work.

But it gets better. By playing around with the settings you can zoom and focus onto the map to highlight particular areas you want to show to your visitors. There’s an explanation on the DGM interface how it all works.

There are some minor niggles! For example, I’d like to be able to remove the legend as on a resize it kind of overpowers plus an option to not include a merchant would be cool. Not being too demanding, I’d also love to be able to include the code via PHP rather than an iframe, but these options could possible be included in a future release?

Travel affiliates perhaps may have their own in house versions of this kind of creative and include feeds from other networks, however for other affiliates this kind of creative is a useful additional extra when perhaps writing about a local region or promoting a special offer from one of the travel merchants included.

DGM Travelmaps is pretty much a usable straight out of the box solution and more importantly it’s functional. Even better it isn’t all API techno trousers and therefore doesn’t take up valuable time to implement.

Come Away Come Away From William Hill

Jason Dale — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:12:26 +0000

How many times have you had a merchant who for a while was good, but perhaps not so now, on your site and you’ve thought “well, I’ll leave them there for a bit longer, perhaps it’ll pick back up”, even though you should listen to your head and work with other merchants instead? We’ve done that far too many times and whilst occasionally commissions or relationships have improved, in general the initial gut instinct of abandon ship is usually right.

This week, William Hill finally moved their affiliate program from Netrefer, a simple and easy to use CMS, to Affiliates United, quite possibly the slowest and worst system I’ve encountered in over 10 years in affiliate marketing. In short it’s awful and I just don’t understand the thinking behind using this set up. Anyway, as all the old links now won’t track it means picking up new ones and changing them over to the new ones… oh joy!

Poor CMS + Extra Work = Not a Happy Affiliate!

Which got me thinking!

Why switch links to a network with whom I’m not 100% happy with when I can promote merchants, like Paddy Power, Blue Square or Skybet who I like working with and seem to understand affiliates and want to have a good working relationship with them?

So that’s the answer – work with merchants which aren’t a problem! There’s a temptation to muddle on with Affiliates United and William Hill, but my instinct is that it’s just not going to work out well. So the big affiliate tip of the day is don’t be afraid to walk away from a merchant – sometimes you just have to do it!

Of course there’s a downside and that’s in the form of potentially losing lifetime revshare issues and old links.

The revshare issue is a concern – will old players still be tracked properly? You’d hope so, but here’s an interesting point. AU casino links go to William Hill Casino Club where players are told that their William Hill accounts don’t work on this casino and that they must register a new account.

That to me sounds like any casino players previously sent to WH on the old system now can’t be tracked for revshare as they’re essentially entering a new casino? Maybe that’s not the case, but it doesn’t look good and hopefully clarification of revshare tracking for old players will be made available.

Old links can be addressed in two ways. We could change some links to the new ones, but what’s more probable is that we’ll add some code that will basically remove all links to William Hill.

In terms of work it’s probably as much effort, it may lose us commission (but I have a feeling that would happen anyway), and it does mean a well known brand being removed from our site. However, it means we’re not going to have hassle in the future (it’s expected), we don’t have to waste time with a network who we’re not happy with and we do get to work with merchants who are a joy to promote.

Good news all round!

Finally the title of this blog relates to the William Tell Overture “Come Away Come Away with William Tell” – and so to end on a fun note, here’s a cool Youtube video of a guy drumming what was also the theme to The Lone Ranger.

Now it’s time to get changing those links!

Affiliate Window, Darwin And Evolution Uncovered!

Jason Dale — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:31:58 +0000

Affiliate Window are currently teasing affiliates with a campaign titled Darwin. It’s being promoted via a splash page, Twitter and Facebook and suggests that evolution is taking place in affiliate marketing – and you’re invited to be part of it.

Keith Bond and Lee McCoy have already blogged their thoughts on what Darwin may entail, but are they right?

The teasers from Awin are based around quotes from Darwin like “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge it is those who know little, and not those who know much who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

My initial reaction was that Awin were intending to bring back TV game show 3-2-1 (dodgy 80s programme featuring Ted Rogers and Dusty Bin where contestants could win a car or a dustbin by solving impossible clues – a kind of forerunner for Saturday Takeaway but without Ant and Dec).

That may still be the case but after carefully analysing the above quote for over 5 hours I’m no closer to figuring out whether I’m going to get a Ford Fiesta or the booby prize – perhaps I’ll reject this one and hope for a better clue.

So there must be more to it.. and where better to get inspiration than the You Tube!

Can watching a bunch of videos on Evolution and Darwin help shed any light on what’s going on over at Affiliate Window?

Sir David Attenborough seemed to know about evolution but doesn’t mention Awin – so no help there!

Bill Hicks didn’t help much either, but he’s funnier than Attenborough when it comes to evolution!

There’s a possibility that Prezzybox are involved as Zak surely is voicing over this evolution animation?

But it seems that the answer lies in this video….

Perhaps Awin have unearthed this YouTube clip and realised that all affiliates are really geeks and that their days are numbered unless they start to evolve into more “normal people”.

Maybe Awin have scientifically proven, after years of study by “Dr” Kevin Edwards, that affiliates need to go out into the sunlight occasionally, sleep proper hours, get away from their computers, and interact with other people at various affiliate events taking place during the rest of 2009.

Darwin, therefore, is Awin’s cunning plan to make sure affiliates attend at least one event from the following: A4U Roadshows, Networking Event – London, Existem AM Plymouth BBQ, A4UExpo.

Awin want their affiliates to get outside and mix with others in AM. They don’t their affiliates staying in behind their PCs making them inward thinkers when it comes to affiliate marketing pursuits.

And in true 3-2-1 style, the proof of the pudding is that if you evolve from being inward to being outward then you’ve transformed. An anagram involves the transformation of letters, and if you transform the letters that make up the word ‘inward’ you get …. Darwin!

Could this really be Affiliate Window, Darwin And Evolution Uncovered?

Culling Affiliate Emails – How To Respond – If You Can!

Jason Dale — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:31:00 +0000

I hate emails from merchants and/or networks who tell me that as an inactive affiliate, maybe due to lack of sales or we’re not promoting them, we’re being kicked off their program. Culling affiliates from a program just because they’re inactive is, in my opinion, a pointless exercise for all concerned and I’m never really clear what it achieves.

Speculatively you could say it’s to make statistics look pretty (look we have no inactive affiliates) or even demonstrate that whoever is managing the program is managing something… but let’s not go there, eh!

Anyway the emails that come in about inactive affiliates used to rile me a little but it’s pointless getting stressed by them as no matter what someone in AM will think it’s a good idea and continue to do it!

Rather than get annoyed, it’s far easier to either delete the email and accept you’re in the bin (after all if you’re inactive you’re not going to miss the merchant immediately). Or better still, fire off a quick reply like the one below (feel free to cop/paste as required) and let the network/merchant know that you’re still interested.

We’re still interested in being part of the program – as we don’t put any burden in terms of time/energy on anyone regarding the program I don’t see the need for de-activation. Let me know whether we can continue on the program.

And that’s it! A thirty second email, no stress and all in the garden is rosey…. unless of course you can’t reply….

Step forward the Post Office program on Tradedoubler.

They are asking discount code publishers to remove their links before 15th March as “a number of concerns have been highlighted by our management team around how Post Office is being represented in this space”. Fair enough… no problem!

They do want to keep “relationships open” though….

We do wish to keep the relationships open and would like to include you in our strategy recommendations so would welcome any feedback on how you believe we can work together in compliance with IAB regulations. We look forward to hearing from you.

The email address to send them feedback? Oh yes…. no_reply@ext.tradedoubler.com

So who do I send my reply explaining we don’t promote The Post Office in the manner they describe to then?

Come on Tradedoubler and Post Office people – you really can do better than that… surely?

Stop Press: Big thanks to Gemma who replied to my email and forwarded it on! All in the garden is back rosey again!

Affiliate Network Christmas Games!

Jason Dale — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:58:38 +0000

Whilst you’re sat waiting for Santa to pop down the chimney and leave you a rather large item from Bean Bag Bazaar that looks uncannily like a beanbag – why not while away a few minutes/hours/days/the rest of 2008 playing some fun little Christmas games. The nice people at Affiliate Window, DGMPro and Virgin Games have come up with these crackers…

Cookie Collection is from Affiliate Window. Use your elf like figure to catch cookies, presents, candy canes and stars and score points. It’s ridiculously annoying (especially as if you don’t catch stuff you lose a gingerbread man life) and highly addictive. A nice “click to reveal” your score at the end is a fun addition too.

DGM’s offering is Christmas Bounce. Here you have to bounce baubles, featuring pictures of DGM staff, across the screen to score points. You can also get bonuses by answering questions about DGM too and if you’re topping the leader board by Christmas Day then you’ll win a prize.

Las Vegas is the setting for Virgin Games’ affiliate game! Snowing in Vegas (which is now very topical as it the city is suffering it’s worse snow storms in 30 years – The Times) requires you to cob snowballs at people (some who are dressed as Elvis) and Yetis to score points. You lose lives by getting in the way of snowballs and angry Abominable Snowmen! Get a high score and take a screen shot as it could also win you something nice from Virgin Games.

All good fun and should help you waste the time in between getting into work and heading to the pub for a few christmas drinks!