Spent the afternoon in the cinema watching Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and finally George Lucas has delivered a prequel worthy of the original trilogy. Lightsabers, Battles, Humour, Wookies and loads of action made this in my opinion one of the best Star Wars movies…. ever!

The downsides to this dark side film is that Jar Jar Binks did appear, albeit thankfully briefly, but no one lightsabered him into oblivion. Padme and C3PO were both sadly under used, as too was Chewbacca and the Wookies – but this could have been because in the battle scenes so much was happening. Also I’ve never really taken to Samuel L Jackson being in a Star Wars movie. His character Mace Windu is neither a fighting Jedi like Obi-Wan or a cool loveable green Jedi like Yoda. In the fight scene with The Emperor Jackson could have gained much more credibility had he whipped out a gun and gone into full Pulp Fiction tirade.

That aside there were a lot of plus points. The story flowed well (there seemed to be less dialogue than the previous prequels, which was good as Lucas is awful at dialogue) and the action ploughed along relentlessly. Of course we all knew the eventual outcome of the story, but it was all cleverly played out and at least we could feel sorry for Anakin as he became the biggest baddy in movie history. The Emperor was pure class (although a little too often bordered on OTT pantomime villian rather than demonic Sith Lord) and the battle with Yoda superb.

All in all, Sith does merit the hype and is a worthy addition to the Star Wars universe. Sadly, it does also demonstrate just how woefully poor The Phantom Menace was in comparison. Lucas has said there’ll be no more movies, just animated cartoons and TV Series spin offs – however the excellent novels by Timothy Zahn could easily be Star Wars VII to IX and therefore fulfill the prophesy of 9 Star Wars movies.

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Affiliate network Tradedoubler unveiled their new improved interface today and it’s not gone down too well in the affiliate world. The upgrade seems to make the system cumbersome and clunky and has tried to be too clever for it’s own good. Rather than take the old system (which was probably the easiest of all affiliate network interfaces to use) and add new features (like being able to change your username…. woooo!), they’ve introduced a new system AND the new features.

The new system is meant to make our lives easier – yet it doesn’t. The links and banners are in there somewhere, but they’re awkward to reach. The useful program descriptions are now gone and the little directory that sat on the first page is replaced by a search box with options that imo are not necessary, except for advanced affiliates.

The look is ok, but the old format was fine. The new Ad Management system is the same (or a similar) complex system they introduced back in November. And options like changing username and deleting sites aren’t exactly thrilling. Especially when all you want to do is login, go to a program, grab a link, and move on!

It does feel that someone who has never spoken to an affiliate, been affiliate or understands what an affiliate needs has developed this system. It’s too quirky, too cumbersome and is a giant leap backwards in terms of useability.

It’s a case of “this is we think you need” as opposed to “what can we do to improve to help you”. Buy.at are due to launch a new interface soon, but at least they’ve had the foresight and intelligence to ask affiliates how they can improve! TD should have tested the system they’ve launched on affiliates first and if they have any sense they’ll replace the carbuncle of the new system with the old format and go back to the drawing board – yes it’s that bad!

Away from networks our friends at Trafficsales contacted us again. No, we’re not still not interested!

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The phone rings…

“Hello”
“Hello! Is that Loquax”
“Yes it is”
“Can you tell me your mailing address please”
“No”
“Oh, ok! Bye!”

They put the phone down.

I did 1471 the call and from searching for the number on Google i’m 90% convinced the call came from an ad agency. What they wanted is anyone’s guess, but if callers can’t be bothered to introduce themselves or say who they work for then it’s quite unlikely we’ll be giving out information to them!

Somedays I do wonder how people manage to get employment!

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The great networking weekend finally came to an end and the quote that perhaps stands out most for me was being told our business was “stagnating” because we didn’t do pay per click.

This was from a network!!

Based on our earnings (which have in recent months declined) they have decided our business is stagnating and the only way forward is for us to spend money on PPC. That is spend our money and take the risk to generate leads for their merchants – for which they will earn money on override.

We don’t do PPC… but despite this according to the network representative we should be able to earn from PPC because we’re good at affiliate marketing. Now maybe I’m wrong but there’s quite a bit of difference between running a website and doing PPC to a scale that would make it worth our time (i.e. become say 25% of our monthly earnings!). PPC done properly requires finance, research, hard work, vigilance and a lot of time.

The meetings this weekend were all organised well and on the most part a worthwhile experience. I was disappointed that there were a lot of absentees from Buy.at’s Speakeasy (based on the number of uncollected name badges). The guys gave their time, effort and cash to provide a vehicle for affiliates and merchants to meet, the least people can do is make the effort to attend.

More tomorrow… I’m off to endure Southampton’s relegaton on Match of the Day!

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There was no Great Escape, no last minute reprieve, no last hoorah! Southampton finally gave up their Premiership status and were relegated as the bottom place club. For 57 minutes we were safe and then West Brom scored, Crystal Palace scored and Manchester United scored. After that there was no more hope. Relegation was the result!

So attention turns to what next for the Saints. Rumour has it a press conference is being called for Monday which will see Harry Redknapp’s tenure as manager come to an end. Personally I feel this is a good move. Southampton need stability and a long term plan to equip themselves for the battles ahead. Redknapp at most would only stay one more season, so a new man coming in now has plenty of time pre-season to sort out the club.

Player wise we’ll probably see the end of Le Saux, Jamie Redknapp, Camara and Bernard through retirement or contract expiry. Peter Crouch may want to move on too following his England call-up. The good news is Niemi has said in one of the papers he wishes to stay. If this is true it’s the only bit of Southampton related good news today has brought.

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