After a couple of days of hangover, sleep deprivation and pigman bird flu I’ve finally emerged to blog about the A4UAwards. I’ve shredded the acceptance speech and moved my ceramic fat duck from B&Q back to the vacant space on the mantelpiece as unsurprisingly the best blog went to Kirsty over at Affiliate Stuff. A well done to Lee too for his highly commended.

So there was I all togged up in a tuxedo for nowt…

Nowt but a good time that is (nice things being said on OLD = plan to win Blog Award for 2010).

Firstly a big thanks to the three time award winning agency Existem AM for inviting myself and Jude to their table. You guys are really deserving of the accolades you get and it was also great to see Hannah honoured as best affiliate manager. Very well deserved.

It might have been the copious amounts of red wine I’d drank and slight delirium brought on by Lemsip, but I thought all the awards seem to go to those that deserved them. I was especially pleased to see DGM amongst the highly commended although everyone has a battle on their hands to topple Affiliate Window as the top network.

The vertical awards, at least in my opinion, need a slight tweak – just to encourage more involvement from the affiliate side of things. I’d like to see merchants and networks putting forward affiliates next year for the shortlists as in one case there was just one entry (so well done Bingo Hideout for making the effort).

Whilst these awards most certainly, and quite rightly, celebrate the whole industry it would be great to see more affiliates on those shortlists and being recognised.

The comedian Jason Manford was entertaining, Johnny Vegas on keyboard looked a bit bored though but it was cool that Alan “The Voice of the Balls” did the voice overs for the awards.

Personally I’d have happily sacrificed “the balls” for a bit more veg and a spot of gravy at dinner. Perhaps duck, spuds and broccoli is a big favourite in Bristol, but the plate was screaming out for carrots and to be drowned in something wet.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening and it was great to catch up with some of the real “old school” people like Malcolm, Tyson and James Cooper (he’s on telly you know – 1pm Channel 5, not that he mentioned it) as well as the usual suspects who make being in the industry a lot of fun.

Nice one as ever to Matt and his Existem team for a great event and a very big well done to all winners, highly commended and nominees (not even a bloomin’ graphic to add to the site… sob).

Other blogs about A4UAwards 2009

Photos of the Event
Hannah’s Paltrowesque Thanks
Kirsty wins Best Affiliate Blog (humph – must add spiders – lol)
Lee is Second Best Blogger (double humph – must mention Barbados – lol)
Webgains are highly commended
DGM are highly commended
Prezzybox want someone else to win next year
Skimlinks get 3 awards
Awin Celebrate with Skimlinks

There are various schools of thought for newbies entering affiliate marketing. Go niche, go generic domain, go SEO or go PPC and fame and fortune will await you! Interestingly enough when the experts offer their advice not one ever mentions “go brand” and yet a brand identity could be one of your most important assets depending on where you wish to go with affiliate marketing.

Whilst any domain can be developed into a reputable site, gain recognition, backlinks, authority etc. over time, a bit of forethought about brand identity is in my opinion worth considering when starting off a new site.

A brand doesn’t have to be off the wall like Loquax. It can be generic like “Voucher Codes” or “Red Widgets”, but something a little different can often help you stand out from the crowd.

Take Lee’s Easter Eggs site for example (sorry Lee). Whilst he’s obviously done well with the generic hyphenated .org.uk version of Easter Eggs, could he have done as well or even better being say “IAmTheEggMan.co.uk” – ok that’s a bit of a lame name (and the domain is already taken), but you get the idea. It’s now something that’s not so generic, but a bit more brand identifiable.

Lee would still have the same excellent content and reviews but under a different umbrella it could possibly have helped make the site more memorable in terms of the media – as well as offer opportunities for branding (tshirts, chocolate bars) for users – something many affiliates overlook when starting out on new sites.

When we started Loquax developing a brand wasn’t at the back of our minds, nor was the fact that having an off beat name is quite useful when it comes to search engines. In fact we decided on a non competition or prize related name simply because at the time (1998) we could only afford to buy the one domain name. If the competitions thing didn’t work we could simply switch the site’s focus to something else.

For many affiliates domains are now cheap and disposable items that can be discarded once they’ve served their purpose or if they’ve failed to do as expected in the Google world. However, if you’re struggling to find that niche domain or generic-word.org.uk site that you so desire why not start thinking about coming up with a brand instead?

For us having an identity has been a huge asset and perhaps has been an integral part of the longevity of the site.

Back in April I blogged about a new affiliate blog award initiative by Bigmouthmedia – the B.A.B.E award (bigmouthmedia affiliate blogging excellence award). Yesterday, whilst out on car driving experience day with Jude, I was checking twitter and found out via DM from the bmm guys that One Little Duck had been chosen as the winner!

As you might imagine that news topped off what was already a memorable day.

So a big thank you to everyone at Bigmouthmedia for the prize and also for running the initiative. Thanks go to the judges, to the people who nominated and of course all those who read the ramblings of an affiliate here on One Little Duck.

I’m still in shock but genuinely pleased to have won.

Of course I don’t write this blog for awards (or for money come to think of it, d’oh), but it is nice to get some recognition. The last award I personally received was in 1997 and that was for geochemistry! The upside of all this is I’m over the moon and yes for once affiliate’s Mr Grumpy is as happy as Larry.

The downside is it does mean that I’m going to have to carry blogging on OLD with my views on affiliate marketing.

Thanks once again to Bigmouthmedia…

… the week could only get better if there was some positive news about the fortunes of Southampton FC…

… well what do you know?!

You think you’ve seen it all after over a decade in affiliate marketing, but the great thing about this industry is that it never ceases to amaze you! I’ve held off blogging about Blackpool Club Bingo in a clutching at straws type way that miraculously something will happen to remedy the situation we’ve encountered, but no – it’s now almost two months since tracking stopped and that’s more than adequate for anyone to come up with answers!

We used to promote Blackpool Club Bingo via the old Webroute Services system. All went well and it proved to be a reasonably ok program. However, when the program moved to the new William Hill merged Affiliate United network our links had to be changed. This was dutifully done and suddenly, almost to the day, commissions stopped.

Since April 5th we’ve earnt nothing from this program.

Having chatted to other affiliates they seem to be ok – so perhaps it’s just our links that aren’t working! Which is more than a little odd. We’ve been in contact with the affiliate manager but almost 2 months down the line we’re no further forward in understanding why my links don’t work, why revshare from previous sign ups aren’t earning, and what the hell is happening.

It’s a case for Mulder and Scully this one!

For a program to suddenly stop generating commission suggests something has changed. But what could have changed? Is it a cookie issue – you’d think not if other affiliates are tracking ok! Is the new system designed to track revshare as the guys I’ve spoke too are on CPA deals? Was the old system tracking properly? Or has something on my account been changed that we’re not being told about or that is known about?

Who knows… ?

What I do know is that I don’t expect to be kept in the dark for two months when a program that earns suddenly stops. It’s also a bit confusing that the network doesn’t seem too motivated to resolve the issue. If my understanding of the situation is correct the affiliate manager has done what he can but is now stuck between annoyed affiliate and inert technical support.

It’s a classic example of why affiliates get frustrated and have to resort to sharing their experiences to act as a warning to others.

See also Blackpool Club Bingo downturn? over on A4U.

In amongst the recent Please Stop Begging discussion over on A4U was a passionate and somewhat direct response from ex-Wolverine lookalike and new superhero to every affiliate manager Neil Mitchell. Neil outlined his day as an affiliate manager and how we should be open “to give Account Managers their 5 minutes of glory to build their cv’s up and get recognised for the work they do”.

I think that’s fair enough.

I’ve been having some issues of late which has resulted in a good merchant becoming a terrible one. Admittedly I’ve given the AM involved a hard time but if you go from a few quid commission each month to nothing it can be just that tad annoying. However, it’s not the AM’s fault that they’ve been landed with an inept new system. Hopefully it’ll be sorted!

As an affiliate you want to feel that the AM is on your side and when it feels you’re beating your head against a wall or being told stupid answers then it shouldn’t be a surprise that occasionally things can get heated. After all you’re just trying to get things sorted so everyone can go back to earning a living.

Anyway, all this got me thinking… what actually is it like to be an affiliate manager? Are all affiliates really ungrateful so and so’s who berate the affiliate managers and make their lives a misery? What would it like to be an affiliate manager for a day?

Perhaps it’s time networks or agencies encouraged affiliates to see things from their side of the fence with a kind of “bring an affiliate work day”!

Anyway the above video is especially for Neil, who having shaved off his trademark facial hair, is now modelling his hairdo on a young Nik Kershaw!

     

Grow back the Wolverine whiskers man!