They then stopped, no doubt spotting the merchant badge of Virgin Games and proceeded to just interrupt our conversation – no excuse me – nothing. He took one look at my badge and seeing I was a lowly affiliate decided to completely ignore the fact that I was there and already engaged in conversation with Virgin Games.

He then started pitching his agency to the embarrassment of both myself and Virgin Games.

At the time I’d have loved to taken the tiny little man to task for his abrupt rudeness and ignorance, but unfortunately I was too stunned by his behaviour. He most certainly made a big impression, because neither myself or Virgin Games could remember his name or the second rate agency he represented – which is a real shame as I’d have loved to posted it on here.

I appreciate people have to do “their job” and everyone is after a bit more business, but it doesn’t have to be at the expense of a bit of politeness!

Fortunately this guy’s intrusion didn’t last too long (probably because his audience seemed unimpressed with his pitching technique) and he soon scuttled off – perhaps unaware how close he had come to being named on an affiliate blog for being a total arse!

The box has 173 snap-fit parts that form a tower, that once mounted with a motor allows you to watch your balls go go go. Apparently this has hypnotic appeal and “will amuse, delight and enthrall boys of all ages”.

I’m not quite sure why Hawkin’s Bazaar sent them, but it’s a lovely gesture and thank you.

We’ll be using the freebie as a competition prize on Loquax, naturally promoting Hawkin’s Bazaar, and hopefully sending them some visitors in return as well as offering them a bit of extra exposure – all thanks to Techno Balls!

If any other merchants want to send gifts then feel free to do so… we’ll then use them to promote you (or keep it if it’s expensive and iPhone looking).

The way we’ve promoted Tiscali traffic wise is via their numerous competitions. It’s in my opinion unlikely to generate many leads or sales, but it’s a way of getting cookies burnt and users aware of Tiscali. It’s the basic method we use for competitions and lacks any kind of affiliate finesse – a sledgehammer to demolish a walnut approach.

The second way is through broadband offers. Loquax has been #2 on google for example for “best buy broadband” so it’s feasible that some, none, or all the leads for Tiscali we’ve generated to have come via people actually interested in joining the service.

So – why the problem?

The big issue has to be that whoever made the decision to remove us from Tiscali’s program didn’t actually bother to talk to us and find out what we do. A phone call asking to either remove linking via competitions or perhaps add tags to the affiliate code so that it could be ascertained where leads were generated from could have been the first step.

If all our sales came from our broadband page would that change things? After all it would be better targetted leads and that would surely mean the blame for lack of genuine customers falling on the side of the merchant.

I can sympathise if some PAYG dial up sign ups have been made by users wanting to be registered Tiscali users so they can enter their competitions. However, if someone has signed up for broadband and has not become a customer then that is not the fault of the affiliate…. it’s the fault of the product, and therefore the merchant.

Merchants need to start taking responsibility for their programs. As an affiliate we show people the gate, it’s up to the merchant to take them the rest of the way. If a person walks in to Dougie’s Duvet shop, picks up a duvet, decides they don’t want it and puts it back, the fault of the non-sale is the shop… not the guy stood half mile away with a sandwich board directing people to buy Dougie’s duvets! If Tiscali don’t want to pay for leads that don’t become customers, then the program needs to be changed so that they only pay per genuine customer.

The picture was taken from the upstairs bedroom window so she had no idea her place at the “bird buffet” was being watched!

The reason for the walk is to get in practice for a slightly longer walk later in the year – The Gower Macmarathon – Rhossili to Mumbles in aid of Macmillan. 22 miles of walking from Rhossili to Bracelet Bay – oh how I’m looking forward to that! 

Jude and her mum have done the walk twice, but this year is the first time I’ll be doing it and it’s probably a good idea to get a bit of practice in (Jade Goody’s marathon preparation of beer and curry sounds a better fitness regime, but I guess it doesn’t work!).

I’m doing the walk this year for my mum (awww). I don’t want to say too much here but thankfully she’s now doing well and on the road to recovery. A walk across the coastal paths of Swansea may not be much but it’s something – besides the walking should do me good too and it does mean the duck gets to appear in a photo or two  (even if it’s always cold and overcast) …

Although why this is funny you’ll have to ask the wife!! I don’t understand.

Oh, we will be looking for sponsorship for the walk – so watch this space ;o)

Whilst it’s not clear how many datacenters are seeing different results, so far we have seen a decrease in search terms – however we have also seen an increase is searches for our brand name not just on Google, but also MSN and Yahoo. New sign ups are slightly lower, but not too bad considering and 7 day average in fact is the same for this time last month.

Traffic doesn’t look to be too badly affected either – if anything the main drop has been in non-UK traffic, which as we’re a UK website isn’t something to be concerned about. There are some painful results including losing a #1 position for a specific section, however strangely we’re not #7 with the homepage. Revenue remains unchanged, which in the grand scheme of things is the best news of all.

Obviously this is taken over a short period of time and if the Big Daddy scenario as is takes hold then month to month this could have a bigger impact. The noises coming out of  Webmasterworld does seem to suggest that things will be resolved and that should/could mean an improvement in results. However, it does demonstrate that free search is not an easy way to earn a living, and that branding is an important feature for siteowners. That latin dictionary we picked up 8 years ago seems to have come in very useful!

Yesterday another voicemail – this time reiterating an unbelievable offer that would be ”of great interest” for “whatever it is you do on the internet”! Again there was an option to call him back if interested, Still wasn’t, so didn’t.

Today – this time another message. Not only do I get the offer to phone back, but if i send a fax he’d be happy to send me details of this unmissable offer. At the end though came the best of the messages “I might add, that the lucrative aspect of these proposals would amount to an 8 or 9 figure return”.

At this point temptation took over so I returned the call and proceeded to inform Mr Chester of Terrace Promotions (!) my views of his lucrative offer in a simple and clear cut way as possible. I don’t expect he’ll be calling again tomorrow.

Unlike Roy I don’t wish it to be Christmas everyday! Apart from the obvious eating and drinking issues and the worries over how snow arrives via the snowman, there’s just too much affiliate work to be done in a time when everyone else is stuffing old birds (!) and drinking sherry. There are affiliate programs closing, programs moving networks, new programs, pre-Christmas sales, post-Christmas sales, Christmas specials, January sales, Rate changes…. the list goes on!

Anyway thankfully it’s not Christmas everyday! However it is soon, so I’d like to wish the reader of this blog a Merry Christmas. So, Merry Christmas Clarke!!!! Oh and a Merry Christmas to everyone else too who drops by, helps us with the affiliate stuff, or is just a good mate.

2005 has been a pants year for us, we made no money, and are now having to live solely on christmas gifts and Jude’s chutney. We’re so poor we can’t afford posh cards like Kieron! ;o)

Merry Christmas to Everyone (except Roy Wood and the snow bringing snowman!)

So a thanks for pressies to…

Paid on Results (right address)
OMG (right address)
Buy.at (wrong address)
Mecca Games (wrong address)

Next year please make sure Santa knows the right place to send things. And don’t be like Kieron (or is Keiron, nope it’s Kevin) who used whois and sent a card to a different place altogether (ok it was my old address, but it sounded better this way!).

It should be… unless of course you’re not allowed to promote certain affiliate programs to your users because a brand wishes to protect their “integrity” or “brand awareness”. Or in other words, “we only want to work with a few people now so sod off the rest of you”!

Yes, we’re no longer allowed to promote a broadband program. Our policy with this as with other programs – few sales over many programs rather than many sales over few! We know we’re never going to generate huge volumes – but should that matter as we’re working legitimately and not doing anything wrong?

Now ok – I can see why they’d want to work closely with their big hitters – probably the bog standard enclosed groups of PPCers – but why chuck out the affiliates who are running sites along the lines of – yes you’ve guessed it – not trying to rely on SEO, get branding, community etc! If this format is the way forward for many affiliates, why is that merchants and networks are then happy to boot off these affiliates because they don’t do bulk order sales?

Unfortunately I don’t have the benefit of being able to see the bigger picture from a network or merchant point of view … I just have the benefit of seeing things in black and white and from an affiliate who works his butt off playing by the rules point of view. As I see it we’ve been hoyed off an affiliate program because we don’t reach a certain level – a level we know we’ll never reach. Fair enough.. can’t do a figgy pudding about that now!

But what really concerns me is what happens when the next merchant implements this idea? And the next? And the next? It’s all well and good rolling over and accepting this as “one of those things” – the one’s who say this probably aren’t the one’s whos income is being medddled with – but it’s a worrying development, especially as it does feel the networks have been happy to cast affiliates out to dry.

If you’re not a bulk affiliate but are developing a community/brand/content to avoid SEO and aiming to promote many offers to users – where do these rulings leave you? As I see it, quite possibly with a site that whilst not relying on SEO algo changes, unable to promote many affiliate programs via some of the networks and potentially working with independents where you’re much highly valued.