So, before you run a Facebook competition – just have a quick read through – as we explain just some of the things that can crop up.

1. The Guidelines

Facebook does have guidelines for promoters who want to run competitions. It’s worth noting them “just in case”. For example the guidelines say that “the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant”.

It also says that “you must not notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or pages” but again many brands do because they’re using likes and/or not using a third party application such as Easypromos.

The “just in case” part is for if/when Facebook ever decide to turn the screw and actually apply their guidelines. A lot of pages still offer prizes at X number of likes and winners are contacted by Walls and messages etc. To be honest it’s a surprise that Facebook haven’t created their own forced contest app for pages – imagine the data collection they could be doing with such an idea.

Top Tip: Just be aware that there are guidelines… you never know when Facebook will enforce them!

2. Voting Competitions

We’ve been involved with online competitions for 14 years now. We’ve watched Facebook evolve, we’ve seen good and bad things when it comes to competitions. So, when we (Loquax) say “voting competitions are a really stupid idea” – that means they’re a stupid idea! A voting competition will not result in the best entry winning – it will result in the person who can “cheat” the most winning.

Voting competitions attract groups of people who swap votes, pay for votes, have multiple Facebook accounts for votes – in fact pretty much do anything whatsoever for votes. Grand Marnier for example recently ran a competition for a “Sunset Photo”. The winner was to be determined by most votes. It took them until 3 days before the closing date to realise that what they were told at the start was true…. it wasn’t a “best sunset” competition but a “most clicks” competition.

In the end they got a judge in to decide the winner.

Similarly, a charity were offering 4 iPads in their Facebook competition. Towards the end of the promotion they realised that the winning “stories” were pretty poor – in fact so poor they would have gained no PR by using them (one of the aims of the competition). The top entries were simply using vote sites not “asking friends and family” as so many promoters ask. In the end they also changed their rules and went to the judge it yourself option.

If you do go down the public votes route, try and mix the prizes up. For example offer a token prize to the most voted entry, and the biggest prize to a judged entry.

Top Tip: Avoid voting competitions! Get an independent judging panel and pick a winner that way.

3. Photo Competitions

I like photo competitions as they give an added challenge to using your camera (mind, I really wish I’d not drowned my camera in the sea yesterday – that’s another story). A lot of Facebook promoters like photo competitions too. But if people cheat on voting, guess what… they’ll cheat with photo competitions too! It’s not unknown for images to be lifted off Google and entered into a Facebook competition.

Thankfully there are eagle eyed entrants who like to spot cheats. Photobox for example almost awarded a prize to a photo of a “Royal Toilet” lifted from The Daily Mail. They were alerted to the problem by another participant and acted swiftly to disqualify the “winner”.

On The Beach Holidays have encountered a similar problem. However, despite being told that a couple of their winning photos are plagarised they’ve awarded prizes. They’re now saying they’ll investigate any issues, but the damage has been done.

Top Tip: Use reverse image search sites like Tineye.com to check validity

4. Sob Stories

“Tell us why you should win” is a very bad competition question. If you choose this route you will get a rollercoaster of emotional answers that will pull on your heartstrings. But are they genuine or just sob stories. This is a real tough one for competition promoters. Therefore try and avoid questions that generate answers that range from “i have man-flu” to “i’m suffering from the recent loss of a family member”…. and much more beyond that.

Top Tip: Keep your competitions fun and light – it will make picking a winner a lot easier!

5. Listen To Your Wall

Not listening is a massive problem for many a promoter. If you announce your great prize promo on Facebook and it results in negative feedback (e.g. voting competitions attract cheating or that photo is borrowed) then act upon it. Don’t decide you know better.. because you probably don’t.

The great thing about Facebook is that it opens up transparency in a lot of competitions. It shows up cheating by entrants and it shows up errors by brands. You need to be on top of things and you need to act swiftly. As above, Photobox were very good at dealing with a problem – which left could have damaged their very successful (and enjoyable) 24 Hour Live Photo Challenge.

Top Tip: If you’ve encountered a problem head to Loquax and ask us for help!

6. Stop And Think

This is the biggest error of them all when it comes to brands running a Facebook competition. No one stops and thinks it through. It’s not just the voting and photo competitions mentioned above, it’s the smaller ones too. A “share this post and like it” competition can result in 100s of posts appearing on your wall… great for your competition, but what about your customers?

If you go to a brand’s page and see “Liked This” or “Enter Me” right the way down the page that doesn’t look great. If you see long arguments about cheating or vote rigging then that doesn’t look great either. You can run a promotion sensibly, fairly and also gain the social advantages you’re after. You just need to stop and think a little bit.

Top Tip: Look at other brands on Facebook and see how their competitions run.

Should You Be Running A Facebook Competition?

If you want to pick up numbers on your Facebook pages then “yes” running a competition is a great idea. Done properly it can be a good way to pick up followers and interact with them. The Photobox 24 Hour Live competition was in my view one that was done properly and a lot of brands could learn from that.

The trouble is many won’t learn… they’ll still be vote cheating, walls plastered with unnecessary comments, photo cheating and what have you. It’s easy to point the finger at the people cheating and/or complaining about compers – but actually the responsibility of your promotion comes down to you. If you do things right, create proper rules, adhere to them and listen to your users – then cheats can’t prosper.

Next time you’re in a social media seminar and someone says “use competitions on Facebook” ask them what the pitfalls are… if they don’t know the above, then they’ve probably never looked much beyond their own wall.

Banners also don’t seem to cut the mustard when it comes to sales. Most certainly we’ve found that search boxes and the like do a better job. Some merchants already kindly provide clever creative such as gift finders, hotel finders and offer of the day. For example there’s this cool little idea from Sky TV (which won’t centralise on this blog).

Outsourcing widgets seems to be the vogue for affiliate marketing. There are third party content providers such as Easy Content Units and various feeds from Fusepump (as the one above is). There are also Coull videos and perhaps a whole bundle of other stuff I don’t know about.

However, there’s now a new site – just launched – which could be worth a look, especially if you’re a travel affiliate.

Affiliate Widgets “offers a wide range of contextual widgets and banner advertising for travel affiliates looking to get the best performance out of their websites”. It’s provided by Adnet Media, a travel advertising platform.

At the moment there are just two merchants – Gap Adventures and easyJet Holidays. This I expect will expand rapidly! The site also says they’ll be looking into other sectors. In some ways I hope that they focus on travel and provide tools just for that sector. Trying to do too much for too many across multiple areas doesn’t always work.

Anyway, despite just the two merchants, I was quite impressed with the quality of the widgets and the options.

For example, easyJet Holidays you can create a Product Carousel, a Trip Widget and a Mini Directory. You can either have the ads as contextual or fix the location yourself. For example here’s a Product Carousel widget

It’s nice, clear and (hopefully) once installed on a site requires no changes. The best part for me, at least in this ad’s case, was that I could resize it! It usually comes as a 300×250 – which in a 500px space looks horrible. The resizing doesn’t effect the content or the look. Furthermore, it was easy to pick up and paste on site. Perfect!

At the moment the widgets are totally free. In other words all clicks and commissions are yours. After August 2011 some widgets may have a 1/5 click option on them. Others will be free depending on the working relationship between advertiser and network. It’ll be interesting to see how Affiliate Widgets develop and what else they offer in the coming months, especially given their travel connections.

With all these extra tools on offer, it’s perhaps no wonder affiliate networks aren’t overly worried about hosted banners and their own widgets. Instead they can concentrate on the other things that they do. If a third party can do content units and widgets better than the network then it makes sense to outsource them!

Good quality third party tools can save affiliates a lot of time – and lets them to concentrate on other things. If they’re easy to pick up, flexible and look good then they’re definitely something of interest.

By the way, if you offer tools for affiliates and want to be featured on OLD then just let me know.

Well perhaps not so much singing and very little dancing but it has had a bit of a makeover. If it was a TV programme or movie (Batman, Superman, Spiderman etc) then it would be termed a reboot, so that’s what I’m going to call it… One Little Duck Rebooted.

Blogging about affiliate marketing and online stuff had gotten a bit of struggle. Perhaps it was the curse of the A4UAward? The heavy burden of being the last winner of “Best Affiliate Blog” dragging me down under water like the concrete slippers on a recently acquired international terrorist (allegedly).

Or it could be that I’ve been distracted by many other things. Moving home is now done and to be fair walking by the sea (see below) is far better therapy to the trials and tribulations brought about by doing this online thing than any amount of blogging.

You might have noticed a fair few photos that are new to the blog as well. There’s good reason for that. OLD remains primarily an affiliate marketing/siteowner/grumpy old man blog, but it needed something extra. Something more personable! And so the photos (which won’t be just of ducks) are here to accompany things. It also saves me trying to run another site to put them on.

Boiling things down has actually been a big feature of the last few months. At Loquax we’ve been getting rid of stuff that doesn’t make money and working on things that do. Out went our shopping feed channel. As clever a bit of coding that it was, it just wasn’t good enough to do anything in SEO terms, it wasn’t really competitive enough in user terms and ultimately it failed in finance terms. In fact it was quite “expensive” to have as it played havoc with the server.

In truth, I think we got to it before Kung Fu Google Panda did!

I’ll not miss the shopping feed channel though. Trying to “price compare” everything and anything was an insane task to undertake. Feed quality varies from merchant to merchant and network to network – and at times it’s not great. We still use product feeds, but in a much more basic way and/or limited product niche way.

Top tip – don’t a shopping portal site with millions of products… and don’t run it as part of a competition portal… and don’t run a competition site either. Do something else and you’ll have more chance to earn a living as an affiliate!

In fact, the biggest change over the last few months has been my mindset. The amount of “free work” we do at Loquax is horrendous – that needs to be rebalanced a little (well a bit more than a little).

So what’s been happening affiliate wise?

Not a great deal, everything ticks along as usual as Pandas and recessions come and go. Stuff’s up, stuff’s down, life goes on! Thankfully I’ve finally recovered from judging this year’s A4UAwards.

This is the second year I’ve been a judge and this year was a lot tougher. There were more entries and some of such exceptional standard that it’s painfully evident how the industry has changed. An analogy – we are in affiliate marketing terms simply a scruffy moggy playing with a toy mouse for larks up against Prides of Lions devouring a bunch of dancing Gazelles.

A big congratulations to all those who are shortlisted.

I’ll probably not be at the awards night and I missed Think Visibility in March – so the aim will be to get to an affiliate event later this year. Not attending events doesn’t seemed to have much impact on what we do, but I’ll try and make an effort this year even if it’s just to prove I’ve not moved to a £1million compound away from prying eyes. The Swansea/South Wales affiliates did meet up last month for a bit of bowling, a lot of drinking and even a bit of magic and that was great fun.

WKD Cherry Pop is an alcoholic revelation by the way.

And on that note, it’s time to get on and do something that has a chance of generating revenue.

Anyway, a few weeks back Julie Wood of Affiliate Window sent over a brilliant email – it was a generic affiliate one about an O2/Take That offer. In the email was an explanation of the offer, a link to use, a graphic to use (see below) – all of which could be quickly adapted into something unique and used. So it was use, giving this overworked affiliate some content and the merchant some promotion! It might even have done a sale or two and it did also get us in some Google traffic too.

The question is how do I get more merchants to actually send emails that are constructive? Ideally they’d all be done by Julie – but that’s not feasible. The emails don’t even need to be as detailed as the O2 one was… something like this is useful!

Why? Because in a few seconds the content plus link can be added to our offers forum and then we can do a bit of social media milarkies to get the information out to the world. We get some traffic, which is good news, and the merchant might get a sale (no guarantees, sorry!).

Something like this though is a lot less useful…

This email is just ripe for deleting. The links don’t inspire me, although I might have to watch the video just in case, and time wise content isn’t going to manifest itself in any way based on this email.

Now, I do understand that one email has to fit all affiliates – but do people really get any benefit from emails like the above? Or the ones where they’re loving laid out in a table or graphic but then require extra work and reformatting? I’m guessing they must otherwise they wouldn’t be sent out ad nauseum – the sad thing is they drown out the decent stuff.

So networks – how do I get hold of more emails that we can actually use? Is there any way to tag the emails being sent out? For example [Voucher], [Free Delivery], [Content], [List of Product Links That Aren't Very Good For Loquax].. that kind of thing!

Secondly when are you going to stick a pointy boot up your merchant’s backsides and get them to use the code feeds properly? If a code goes in an email, the code should be in the feed – yes? If free delivery is on offer why isn’t that in the feed? Help reduce the amount of emails coming in by extolling the virtues of the tools you’ve developed.

Please!!

1. Read The Twitter Contest Guidelines!
Twitter do have some brief and flimsy guidelines about running contests. Sadly not many people adhere to them and I’m not sure if Twitter even administer them (or even care). But, if more brands and promoters followed them then a nicer place it would be!

2. Prizes For X Followers
Try and avoid competitions such as “we’ll give away a prize when we get to X followers”. It’s pretty poor! I know you want to have loads of followers and loads of followers boosts the ego and possibly helps spread the word, but try and attract followers on merit, for quality of service, for having a decent site. Perhaps that’s a tad old fashioned in this modern marketing world?

If you must go down this route then be realistic about the numbers you can achieve. Exploiting people to promote your brand under the premise they might win something that you’re not going to giveaway is going to come back and bite you on the backside at some point.

3. Don’t Do The Next Tweeter Wins!
I don’t see the point of these kind of giveaways. You may as well just pick a follower at random. All you do when you do this kind of contest is alienate everyone who has little or no chance of being first, second etc. Not a good way to promote your brand imo.

4. Xth Follower Wins a Prize
Another pointless exercise as it encourages your followers to follow/unfollow when you get close to that Xth point. It also encourages multiple account generation and that’s against Twitter’s guidelines.

5. Look Out For Auto Entries
Oh yes, people will even now “cheat” to enter a Twitter competition. They’re not online but they’ve paid for a service to tweet on their behalf to enter a competition from a brand they’ve not even seen. Don’t let them win or you might just face the wrath of people playing fairly. Of course if you’re happy with auto entry services then don’t expect people who make the effort to want to waste their time with your brand. Your call!

6. Don’t Encourage Spam!
Another Twitter guideline that gets frequently ignored. “Retweet as many times as you like” is not a good idea. It might flood a few timelines, but it’s spammy and it’s not going to do you any good in the long run. Try and stick to one entry per person and follow Twitter’s guidelines.

7. Make Your Retweets Tweetable!
Not everyone uses the same Twitter client, so make it easy for everyone to retweet your message without them having to edit it. You have 140 characters for a normal tweet so remember that entrants will have “RT @Yourname” less characters – tailor your competition messages accordingly.

8. Can You See All Retweets?
Twitter advises you include your @brandname in the tweet that’s being tweeted. We’ve found that on some clients you might miss who’s entering and who isn’t. Make sure everyone who’s participated has a fair chance of winning.

9. Try And Avoid Retweet to Enter!
This is actually the topic behind the Time For Twitter To Improve Contest & Competition Guidelines post on Loquax. It’s time to get a bit more creative people!

Whilst I guess brands might like seeing their message RTed over and over again, it actually doesn’t create much interaction between you and the user, does it? So why not try and get them involved with you by perhaps answering a question, picking an item from your site they might like to buy, writing a poem… anything! Be creative, make your entrants work. It may get you less entries but you’re now having social interaction with the people.

10. Get Some Terms and Conditions
It’s oh so easy to post on Twitter “we’re giving away an iPad” and then flitting off into the distance never to be seen again. That’s not good and so some rules, posted on your website and linked to in a tweet, will give you more credibility, protect you in case anything goes wrong and it protects your users. Not enough brands do this at the moment for my liking.

11. Be Transparent About Your Winner
After the competition has ended, announce the winner, but make sure they’ve entered properly. If they’ve RTed 50 times and you asked for once you will get customer feedback! If they don’t follow you and the requirement is that they must follow then expect a bumpy ride too.

12. Let Loquax Know!
If you are running a Twitter competition – and it’s a good one – then do let us know at @loquax or add it to Loquax.

Hopefully the above gives some ideas to both affiliates and merchants looking to build their brands via Twitter.

Except we don’t!

For such a basic feed that requires not much more than merchant name, description, discount, link, start date and end date you’d be amazed just how difficult it is to use properly.

First off let’s start with the merchants who don’t use the feed! It’s all well and good emailing affiliates with your new generic code, but it would be great if it was added to the central system designed by your network. If you don’t know how to do it – ask the network/agency to sort it out for you.

Secondly free delivery offers would be just as welcome as code offers in the offer feeds. Generic ones are fine! So if you’re offering free P&P, code needed or not, get it in the feed. Alternatively is there any network who can create a “free delivery feed”?

Thirdly let’s have some uniformity to proceedings. If the box for entry is “discount” please don’t write a novel in it. Leave it nice and short (e.g 10% Discount”). Save the lengthy Barbara Cartland’s for the description boxes, but don’t put links in or unnecessary nonsense.

Fortunately we can use some coding to sort out some of the mess, but it would help a great deal if there was a bit uniformity (feeds? uniformity? where have we heard that before?).

Dates are needed and they need to be correct! It’s no point complaining our codes are out of date when the date you’ve entered into the feed is wrong. It’s also useful to have expiry dates so as to avoid long term issues with the “click to reveal” sites who will show your code indefinitely as being valid.

In fairness I’m not sure if the above is a merchant issue or a network one.

Are networks encouraging merchants to use these systems? If an email is sent out from a network by a merchant do they get a little flag saying “don’t forget to update your offers in our feed”? Likewise when they go to the feed updating place are they told what to add and where? At a guess probably not given the mishmash of content that comes out.

From an affiliate point of view it’s frustrating. The tools are there – we’re here ready to utilise them – but they’re not much use of they’re not being used or not being used to a good standard.

5. Do you feel as much part of the affiliate community as say 5 years ago? If no – why? If yes – how?

Clarke: No not really, as new staff members move in they just see it as them versus us, they have no idea that I run a successful Affiliate Company and so you find that your excluded from certain events or only invited if you pay a premium/sponsor . I do however still feel part of the core group who really lead the way, helping get this industry to where it is today all be it still far from perfect but what industry is.

Jason: If you mean by community, a group of affiliates which help each other out, and meet up at various times of the year, then yes, in fact my affiliate community is growing what with the advent of Twitter. That said there seems to be an emphasis on performance, and less on helping others to perform, which I think made our community great. After all, none of us old timers would be where we are with out the helping hands given by other forum members.

John: I don’t think there is as much of an affiliate community (as a whole) as there was 5 years ago – Nowadays there are too many people for whom AM is just a job, and they tend to out-number those who genuinely have a passion for AM. There is still elements of that old community spirit which can be witnessed at some of the smaller affiliate events such as the Existem AM BBQ, or the recent Scottish meetup.. basically events where the sales team are left at home, and only those who truly care about AM come out to play!

Elaine: Unfortunately not. AM has become more professional, which it had to, but means that folk are far too busy to attend G2G etc or provide the help and enthusiasm of the old days.

Fraser: Not so much but I think that’s due to it being so large now that it’s not the same kind of ‘community’. Sort of like comparing village life to living in a city. There used to be a feeling that we are all part of something new and exciting and obviously it’s not new any more!

Keith: Yes and no, I still feel part of the affiliate community of 5 years ago but a new community has grown around us, while I enjoy networking with the newer people at the end of they day at events I still gravitate towards the familiar faces of my industry friends, that isn’t to say we are a closed shop, every so often someone new breaks into our circle.

6. What’s changed for the good over the last few years?

Clarke: More Merchants involved and more opportunities.

Jason: That’s a hard one. I think the ability to communicate more freely with say Twitter has only helped forge better relationships

John: For me, the single biggest change in the last five years has been the rise of WordPress – as a total non-techie, WP enables me to fairly quickly launch some decent looking sites, whereas 5 years ago I’d have to add site design to the “to-do” list of one of the techies and wait until they had completed it, or do a (truly awful looking) half-arsed job myself using a WYSIWYG editor (Even Dreamweaver was too advanced for me!)

Elaine: Networks and merchants have realised how influential AM can be, and some embrace it and provide the tools we need to flourish.

Fraser: Technology has improved, data feeds etc although not perfect are miles better. More regular payments via bank transfers instead of cheques. More affiliate programs, lots of choice.

Keith: The advent of wordpress it has made it so much easier to bang up and maintain a website.

7. And what’s changed for the worst?

Clarke: The close bond many Affiliates felt towards each other, looking out for each others backs and sharing genuine advice is less now and Affiliates standing up for the Industry, you don’t see that so much now either. The industry looks like its spiralling towards less choice Network wise, good for my Network I guess but I don’t see that as a good thing for Affiliates and Merchants overall.

Jason: We as affiliates now feel the pressure which merchants, agencies and networks have to perform. From constant marketing messages via every platform to threats of expulsion from programs unless you start promotions, it has all become very tiring.

John: I don’t know whether it’s “changed” so much, but it annoys me that newbies get so little support or help in getting started. We were all newbies once, and it seems that some people are only interested in the “super affiliates” that they ignore the small guy in his back bedroom just starting out, without realising that they could very well be the super affiliate of the future.

Elaine: Only the meetups etc – too many Agencies, Network staff not enough affiliates

Fraser: The level of competition means there have been various shady practices come into play and also means the openess has gone from the community which is a shame. We are a long way from the days where affiliates shared their top 5 affiliate programs on the forum!

Keith: Difficult one this but probably the fast that the competition is much fiercer, not from the bedroom affiliates but from the big corporations such as The Daily Telegraph et al setting up massive shopping portals.

8. Do you still see yourself involved in AM in the next 5 years?

Clarke: Pretty sure I will be. I am no megalomaniac, I am happy with slow, steady, safe growth, I owe no money to anyone and my businesses have weathered the recession as has a lot of Affiliates so testament that the industry has got sturdy legs even if the odd star goes super nova from time to time.

Jason: Oh yes, the bug is still biting, whilst that is happening, I will foresee a solid future in AM, albeit working less hours!

John: I’ll still be involved in AM as long as I’m still enjoying it, so I sure hope so!

Elaine: On some level yes – but we are a tad older than the norm – so either I’ll have sold up for caboodles of dosh or let someone else takeover – but I’ll still be dabbling with my lesserspotteds (no idea what these are – OLD).

Fraser: Perhaps – I still imagine my work will be be online but another 5 years of doing exactly the same thing doesn’t appeal so I need to shake it up a bit and I’m thinking about projects that might make more of a difference in the world. I find things like Kiva to be an inspiring example of using the internet for good.

Keith: Definitely in some way shape or form retirement isn’t an option I’d consider.

That’s all folks!

A big thanks to Clarke, Jason, John, Elaine, Fraser and Keith for taking the time to answer the questions.

If you’d like to be poked and probed in a similar fashion, perhaps you’re a merchant/agency/network so we can get a different point of view, then drop me a line.

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.

By doing them now, you might save yourself a bit of time when things get busier!

1. Check Your Links

Aside from the odd network closing it’s doors a number of merchants have either sadly gone into administration or closed their programs. What is notable is that those that are closing aren’t reopening elsewhere, at least not yet! Then there are also merchants like Prezzybox who have gone “exclusive”!

This may mean you have a lot of out of date links and they’re not going to be earning you anything. A few hours tidying up links, even on sites you’ve not given much attention too over recent weeks/months/years may be worth doing.

2. Check Your Scripts & Scripting!

When you use automation it’s sometimes very easy just to sit back and let things plod along. However, feeds change and that might be causing a few issues with your sites. Make sure that everything is running as it should be, there’s nowt worse than discovering things aren’t right on the afternoon of the “end of the busy Christmas period”.

For example today we found a site pointing to a domain holding page – oops!

3. Check Your Feeds!

This ties in with the two above, but make sure your feeds are up to date and are being picked up from the right network. Make sure any old feeds from defunct merchants aren’t hanging around and appearing in your price comparison results. They’re not good for conversions.

Automation should mean your feeds are usually ok, but sometimes old merchants/links get in when they shouldn’t.

4. Keep Focused!

Earlier this year we cut back on the number of sites we were trying to run – and guess what? We’re doing less work and our income hasn’t been effected. It’s tempting, especially as things usually pick up after the summer to start doing more and more. Don’t let it happen!

5. Find Your Affiliate Mojo

All jobs can become a bit tedious or frustrating and the grass may appear greener elsewhere, but then that may involve working for someone else – not good. If your enthusiasm for AM is waning then try and go back to doing what you enjoyed.

Look at working on the things you enjoy rather than slaving away on stuff that perhaps isn’t interesting or struggling to gain traction.

6. Have a Holiday!

You need one!

Now you might be wondering why I’ve blogged this list!?

Well they all apply to me and after quite a nice month or two doing slightly less work (hooray), there are a few jobs that now need doing. Ideally most will be done asap (the affiliate mojo may take longer) so come those Christmas promotion emails I’ll be ready and enthused to take them on.

Maybe ;o)

Reasons for the belief that “it’s our fault” stems from the issue of referrals from a competition listing site and concern that entries are deleted because they may be deemed from a “professional comper” (*).

In our experience only a handful of sites have ever really got the hump with people who like competitions, or enter them as a hobby, visiting their site. Usually this is because answers have been given out and occasionally it’s because the person running the competition is a bit naive. A handful over the years doesn’t suggest a major issue though.

By the way the term “professional comper” is total nonsense. I like taking photos, but I’m not a professional photographer. By the same token, aome people like entering lots of competitions, but that doesn’t make them professional. I really wish media people would get their head around this!

Anyway the purpose of this blog!

What I’m hoping for is some blog comments or private feedback about compers and how you, if you run or have ran competitions, perceive them. Do you embrace them as “well it’s traffic” or do you actively monitor them perhaps via referrals in your logs or check popular sites and forums to see if people are trying to circumvent appearing on your radar (using non-referral tags).

Another question that crops up is what is cheating? Do you mind that answers to your questions are posted freely, essentially turning what you’re offering into a quick and easy send in your data prize draw format.

Finally do you remove entries? Automated entries (where a bot will deliver a lot of competition entries without those people ever visiting your site because they’ve paid a service to do it for them) have already been mentioned here on OLD and I’m all for those kind of entries being disqualified. But do you (or have you) ever disqualified people because they’ve clicked from a comping site?

Hopefully they’ll be some replies. I was going to do a survey for siteowners who submit competitions via Loquax, but that’d probably be targeting those people who don’t mind competition people.

If you do want to make anonymous comments (or at least not reveal your site’s identity) then fair enough, but please use a valid email address.

Please post via comments or send via the contact form. Thanks!