IAB Unveil Voucher Codes Best Practice … What Next?
On the one hand it’s great to see that The IAB have unveiled a code of best practice for voucher codes, but am I being a tad cynical in wondering why it won’t come into effect until 1st January 2009 rather than say 1st December 2008. Surely the fact that we’re in a busy time for retail sales hasn’t escaped anyone’s view?
Still mustn’t grumble too much the fact that a code of practice has been decided upon and that “sites must also not imply vouchers exist by encouraging the visitor to ‘Click To Reveal’ codes” is a massive step forward for all involved. Let’s hope that come 2009 this underhand tactic is removed - personally I’d have liked to have seen those involved in the practice strung up by anything they have that’s soft and dangly, but hey you can’t have everything!
The big question is will the networks involved (and the one’s who weren’t) take action if/when the time arises? Will affiliates need to have their sites ready for 1st January or will the code come into effect from then and affiliates will be given notice of change?
Most certainly the tide is changing in the voucher code sector with a number of merchants openly stating their position on click to reveal.
But what should be next on the IAB’s radar?
Some affiliates seem to think that creating a voucher code page for Merchant A and then using their brand/trademark to send traffic to competitor Merchant B is a fair tactic. This needs to be assessed and fair practice assigned accordingly - especially in cases where the affiliate is deliberately misleading the visitor.
And another issue seems to be getting under the skin of Orange and Next as this week they’ve emailed affiliates stating…
Affiliates must not promote Merchant X through means of a customer downloaded application that interrupts the sales journey, without securing opt in from Agency I. Examples of this are rebate catching tools which alert the user when they land on the merchant website that discounts or cashback are available
I wonder if this includes a toolbar that flashes “discount codes” when there aren’t any?
2009 promises to be an interesting year in the battle against grubbiness!
Adding a Poppy To Your Logo For Remembrance Day!
Christmas logos are already appearing on many websites - you know the drill a bit of snow here, a picture of Santa there - as many try to cash in on the most wonderful time of the year for shopping and retail. However, few make an effort to add a poppy to their logo for Remembrance Sunday and Remembrance Day - which is a real shame. Wouldn’t it be great if Santa could be held back just for a day or two so that big and small online businesses could do their bit to promote Remembrance?
Perhaps it’s because people don’t feel it’s necessary?
Most certainly there’s no website owner type media pack on Poppy.org.uk to encourage site owners or online businesses to promote this worthy cause. It’s not like they’ve not embraced new technology either as they are web savvy enough to include a Facebook application and email add-on in their new ways to support.
By simply adding a small poppy to your logo for just a few days, you’re helping to remind your users of Remembrance Day as well as demonstrating your own support.
Surely that’s got to be a good thing to do?
What Promotion Can A Merchant Get for Just £20?
On Friday I received a nice little message from the affiliate manager of personalised gifts merchant Gone Digging. As I’d just signed up for their program Jim kindly offered me a freebie. Now freebies are good (write this down merchants) and some that we’re offered do find there way to a new home in Duckland. However, we wanted to try a little experiment and Jim kindly agreed to this…
… unsurprisingly it’s a competition but this time it was to run via our Loquax Blog instead of our usual prize draw type pages. On the blog the user is asked a question about Gone Digging and they have to respond via the comments.
Now remember the prize is worth £20!
For that there’s promotional content (which will remain on site), traffic, brand and site awareness and come Thursday the competition will also feature in our newsletter. Plus they get a plug on OLD! Not bad for a prize worth just £20, eh!
We’d love to see more entries (and expect them) - although it does seem the blog mechanic has an impact on entry levels compared to a standard “join our mailing list” prize draw promo. However, just as a comparison we’ve seen a £200 of Star Wars toys competition with just 49 blog comment entries, and a High School Musical 3 Mobile Phone prize with just 35 entries!
Most certainly we’d love to see the traffic generate sales for Gone Digging (and any other prospective sponsors) not just now but in the future and we’d also love to run more of these competitions via our Loquax Blog! So we are keen to hear from merchants who would like to sponsor a giveaway or two - it doesn’t have to cost you a lot either (although the better the prize, the more interest it will generate).
If you’re interested then just contact OLD. Please note UK only! Thanks!
So How Do We Tell Networks & Merchants What We Do?
Despite being in affiliate marketing for what feels like eons now, it’s still a shock to the system when a merchant rejects you for reasons which aren’t valid for your website or because quite frankly they have no trust in the affiliate to promote them properly. In recent months we’ve been dubbed a cashback site (we’re not), a voucher code site (well yes we have them, but that’s not the be all and end all) and a gaming site (ditto).
On top of that one network even went so far to close our account with them (temporarily) because they didn’t believe our volume of traffic was legitimate (it was)!
Having spoken to a couple of people (and here I’d like to thank Matt Bailey at i-Level and Darren Newmark at Linkshare for their help) it was concluded that we’re either often overlooked, rejected, or totally forgotten about because no one knows what we do at Loquax. Most assume (quite correctly) that it’s something to do with competitions, but never one’s to sit around to wait for the grass to grow we’re (at least in our own eyes) a little bit more than that.
So a “Guide to Loquax” has been written. It’s a PDF file (thanks to Frostie) that explains what Loquax does in affiliate marketing. Hopefully it will give networks, merchants and agencies a bit more insight into Loquax and encouragement to work with us!
The big question how do we get this document out and about?
First off we could (and will) send it to networks via affiliate managers we know - likewise agencies - but the concern here is will it be lost or will it not get passed around to merchants (perhaps no one is actually even interested… ooh paranoia time LOL).
Which then got me thinking… wouldn’t it be useful if on a network management system there was an option for an affiliate to include a document explaining their work on their accounts. I know there are “profiles” but the reality is they’re pretty useless and lack significant depth (if they worked, no one would say we were a cashback site).
Offering such a facility would have to be limited to some affiliates (established/trusted/got off their backsides and written something types) otherwise a merchant may feel swamped by several hundred documents. However it would offer (1) the affiliate would know that it’s accessible all the time to the merchant and (2) if there’s any problems with a merchant - e.g. rejections or they’re just interested in that affiliate then they have access to an indepth resource.
Affiliate marketing has changed a heck of a lot - even in 2008 - so much so that we have felt the need to put together this information (accompanied by some lovely quotes from Zak Prezzybox, Sean Carter and Bruce Existem AM - thanks guys) so that networks, agencies and merchants understand what we do - and hopefully that will encourage them to work with us now and in the future!
If you would like a copy of the document please feel free to contact me!
The Greatest Ever Viral Game - King of Guitar from King of Shaves
Be warned this game could seriously waste a lot of your affiliate marketing day! This is the latest game for King of Shaves and it’s called King of Guitar. Based on the highly popular Guitar Hero format it features tracks from Electric Six, Eureka Machines, Beanius, The Dead Petal and The Wildhearts. Having just spent far too long playing this game already today I thought I’d share it with the rest of you…
Don’t blame me if you don’t get much work done today!
Update : I’ve removed the viral game from the site because the music was getting annoying every time I visited the blog. For free content it’s pretty good, but Killerviral need to have a tag in so that the music can be switched off!
