Last night’s A4UAwards 2010 was probably the most glitziest and glamorous affiliate marketing event ever held in The UK. The Grosvenor Ballroom was an amazing venue, yet for a few minutes the whole place was a very scary place to be – and that’s when this blog was announced as Best Affiliate Marking Blog 2010 and Loquax picked up Best Casino/Gaming Affiliate.

I have never shaken so much in my life. The distance from seat to stage seemed like a mile. I did wonder whether I could safely collect each award without passing anyone who I’d upset on this blog. No wonder Duncan Jennings and the eConversions team took at least 60 people up for every award they won – there’s safety in numbers.

In all seriousness, thank you!

For the blog award I’m especially pleased as it’s a community choice. Thank you for voting and for reading. Thanks for the comments too made last night at the event and also today via Twitter and Facebook.

Big hand too to the other shortlisted blogs – KirstyM at AffiliateStuff, who was Highly Commended and who sent me a lovely message via FB, and the eBay Partners Network Blog.

I thought the only way OLD was ever going to win this award was to try and outblog everyone else. Most affiliates give up blogging after a while, so I was banking that by around 2015 award they’d be just me left and this award would be a shoe-in!

I only started blogging because it’s cheaper than therapy and it saved Jude hours of earache about what I thought of affiliate marketing. So, a big thanks has to go to Jude who gets to read things before they’re published and for her love and support (ooh Gwyneth Paltrow moment *sob*).

As well as the blog award, Loquax also picked up the Best Casino/Gaming Affiliate award from the amazingly talented Mr Chris “Tubes” Johnson. In 2008 we were the only affiliate shortlisted for this category when there was no merchant/affiliate split so this year’s win kind of makes up for that.

Our background has always been competitions and so we know more than most that “you’ve got to be in it to win it”. The award is a nice accolade for the company and it’ll give us a boost for the next 12 months.

However, what I hope the Loquax win will do is encourage other affiliates to have a look at entering the A4UAwards 2011. Putting together a quality entry doesn’t involve that much time and it’d be nice to see more affiliates getting involved. I’d also like merchants/networks encouraging their affiliates to have a go.

There must be campaigns where merchants/networks know a particular affiliate has done well, perhaps on limited means, or been outstandingly innovative?

Vouchercodes thoroughly deserve their plaudits in 2010, but in 2011 wouldn’t it be great to see a range of winners across the whole affiliate spectrum? Or at least more affiliates giving them a run for their money? They’ve set a high standard for this industry which can be competed with in terms of innovation and inventiveness if not in monetary scale.

A big congratulations to all A4UAward Winners 2010 and also to all those who made shortlists.

And a massive well done to Matt, Chris and the Existem team for the event. It’d have been brilliant whatever the outcome of the awards… but the two wins just made it that bit sweeter. And being on a table with Jude, long term affiliates like Kieron, Dave, Elaine, Ray and original Buy.at guys Mal and Paul just added to the night.

Thank you.

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When we first got our hands on an iPhone one of the first things we did was create a version of Loquax. It was very limited, but it worked. However, it didn’t really have much purpose in life and was left to it’s own devices. One reason for this was it didn’t really tie in with the main site (other than replicate the information) and entering competitions via the iPhone is a tad fiddly to say the least.

Fast forward two years and the iPad and we’ve dusted off iLoquax and made it more useable for the iPad generation. It ties up our competition tracking system (quacker tracker), allows users to login, and has incorporated some bits and bobs for Facebook and Twitter. It seems to have more purpose now in terms of being part of the site- and if people do start using iPads more at least we’re in a good position now.

Note that if you want to see your logo on your iPhone/iPad or get your users to bookmark it. Just create a 60×60 button and call it apple-touch-icon.png and save it in your home directory. That way you’ll have a shortcut to your site enabled. It also looks like you’ve been clever and developed an app too, plus there’s a nice bit of branding to boot.

Our iLoquax version is still in Beta. The discounts section hasn’t been touched for almost two years now, and there’s some quirkiness with the tracking system. It works, but the duck seems to get stuck until reload.

However, what it shows is that it can be quite easy to convert a database driven site into a simple but usable format. As we’ve stuck to just putting it into a browser we’ve not had to worry about apps, app stores or figuring out what we’d need to do if it was an app. After seeing this blog from Fred Wilson tweeted by Patrick Altoft it seems that going this way wasn’t too bad an idea.

The big question is, and the same no doubt applies to apps, is will people use it?

There are at least a few people who will – and that’s the people who run and manage Loquax. We’re all iPadded up and not only do we have the user version but our own admin setup so we can do a few site tweaks whilst on the move. For example we can now tweet competitions or send them to Facebook at a touch of a button. Although the iPhone is ok for this, the iPad gives us a better sized window in which to work in.

What we’ve found in recent years is that we don’t want to be tied to our desks all day every day. The iPhone gave us a bit of freedom, but the iPad should be able to offer us much more in terms of being able to do work on the move. With the developments we’ve done back office wise then they could be paying for themselves very quickly indeed in terms of flexibility.

Of course, we’d love our current and future users to use it but to enter competitions via Loquax you need to be online and visiting lots of other sites. Because of this we expect laptops and PCs will always prevail. However, if you’re on the move and want to see what’s new or what’s closing soon on Loquax then it’s ideal and more flexible for reviewing than say the www based version of the site.

We’ll continue to develop the version, tidy up the few bugs and hopefully get some user feedback to continue to improve things.

If you have time do check out A4U’s post Publishers Must Evolve for the iPad Generation. It’s important for publishers/affiliates to adapt and evolve. What this blog hopefully shows is that it’s not too difficult to get started.

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Some of you might have gathered that affiliate program conversion rate tends not to be a big issue in the world of the duck. The only number we tend to look at is the one with a pound sign in front of it, and provided that’s moving upwards it’s good news. However, conversion data provided by networks for programs is I expect useful to some people in order to judge who to promote and not.

However is it time for that data to be kicked into touch?

For example Merchant X on a network has a conversion rate of 2% and an EPC of 0.15! What does that actually mean to you as an affiliate? Let’s assume you choose not to promote this merchant as the conversion rate is low and instead pick a competitor, Merchant Y, who’s conversion rate is much higher.

Now consider this – what if Merchant Y only has a higher conversion rate due to extensive work with vouchers or even cashback. In comparison Merchant X doesn’t work with these kind of sites, but it’s CR for say blog content is actually higher than Merchant Y.

In the table above, Merchant X’s average CR is 2%. They don’t work with loyalty or vouchers so aren’t included in the average. Merchant Y does, but is poor for blog content and therefore has dragged down the average. Yet it still looks a better proposition than it’s competitor.

The above is a rough demonstration, and not based on any reality, but it serves a point. If you were going to write content for Merchant Y then you’d know that any text you put together that you should include their discount codes in order to improve the chances of conversion.

Although the table above only selects 3 areas of affiliate marketing there are of course plenty more. Email and Search for example. If you knew a merchant converts better via email than pure content then that could a great deal.

Opening up this kind of data to affiliates seems to me logical, but it’s probably akin to opening a can of worms, discovering pandora’s box inside and then opening that for good measure. Would networks and merchants be happy for this level of openness? Is the data there in the first place? Would it reveal more about a program than is currently available?

Then of course there’s the question would affiliates use the data? In theory it should help them make more astute decisions about who to promote and more importantly how. However, many affiliates prefer the suck it and see method. Sometimes a turkey for one affiliate is a golden goose for another.

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Affiliates are often asked to put themselves in the position of the merchant (or their agency) and take into consideration what they want from the relationship. For this blog post if you’re not an affiliate, climb into our shoes for a change and see whether you think differently.

Let’s say you have some content on your site. You have a link to Retailer X that you’ve given them for free. You’ve never misrepresented that retailer and you have a (hopefully) decent reputation. The retailer also has never complained about that link and in fact they (and many of their peers) seek you out to use the service you offer.

Retailer X then launches an affiliate program. This means that you can potentially monetise that link on a paid on performance basis. You’ve now gone from officially earning nothing to potentially picking up a few bits and pieces sales wise.

Now, you know that it’s unlikely that big potatoes are going to come your way from this relationship. However now that you’ve got Retailer X as a “favoured link” it means that they get extra promotion, possible newsletter coverage and inclusion in your offers/codes sections as well as, provided you have time and the offer is good, stuck in front of your community.

So the question is this, bearing in mind that your focus is quite simply generating revenue for your business, so that you can continue giving your users the free service they enjoy and offering many sites a free service they enjoy….

… would you leave the link as “free” or stick on the affiliate link and go for the hope to earn from it option?

Now let’s flip that over to the merchant (or their agency). They’ve now gone from paying definitely nothing to potentially paying something for a few sales that they may or may not have gotten from the traffic you’ve sent. Sadly no one will ever be 100% sure.

Should they be upset or bothered by your actions?

Is it right for an affiliate to try and monetise their free traffic to a merchant site?

This is a follow up to my last post – Will Our Conversion Rate Ruin Your Affiliate Program – II and the comments within. Whilst I don’t like arguing with merchants publically (honest guv) sometimes needs must as no one else will fight our battles in AM. In this case a number of interesting points have been raised which are worth exploring, so thanks to those who have commented.

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Back in January I blogged will our conversion rate ruin your affiliate program. The reason behind that blog was that a retailer, Thorntons, were concerned that our clicks to sales rate was an issue. The reason for that issue was because we can drive a large amount of competition traffic, and at the time Thorntons were running competitions.

Guess what?

Yes, Thorntons have now kicked us off their affiliate program and gave us 48 hours to remove their links.

After careful consideration, we have decided to discontinue our relationship with you as our analysis shows that your conversion rate is significantly lower than most affiliates on the programme. Although we greatly appreciate your efforts in promoting us, we see no value in continuing this relationship at this time.

Now I guess that’s their perogative but let’s just examine this so called relationship!

1. Are we causing Thorntons any work?

No! We’ve never once asked a Thorntons affiliate manager, network or otherwise, to do anything for us that would take up a large amount of their time.

2. Are we costing Thorntons any money?

No! Not unless they’re having to pay Affiliate Window for every click we send. We also “cost” them the time they’ve taken to email us generic offers and also to ask why we send them so many clicks. Hmmm, not a big cost now is it?

3. Are Thorntons getting anything from us?

Yes! They’re getting free promotion and visitors to their site. They’re also picking up users for their mailing lists. Oh yes, they don’t pay for those sign ups and they still have an awful “thanks for entering” page.

4. Do we get anything from this?

Not really! Some sites we send competition traffic to get us sales, some don’t. Thorntons rarely converted, even on gift and chocolate related elements. The only time it really did well for us was on one of those “spend £20 get a box of chocs free offer”. We did get several emails asking us “what are we doing” so that’s a bonus.

5. Did it cost us much time?

No. Our only “cost” is the time it takes to add the fact that Thorntons have a competition into our database. We may, because it’s an affiliate link, include it in our newsletter too. So more free exposure!

So the question is this – why kick us off the program? Is it really costing Thorntons much time or is something slightly more sinister?

Yes, it’d be nice if we were doing sales, but the only reason behind this is that our click/conversion is upsetting someone’s stats. We’re not taking up anyone’s time, we’re not doing anything wrong, we’re the one’s giving Thorntons exposure and not being paid for it.

Thorntons could have looked at their competition mechanisms, let us get on without taking up any of their time, paid us for leads or simply just said “hey, don’t use an affiliate link to link to our competition please”.

Kicking off affiliates because to make your stats look pretty. Done!

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