Too Many Cooks, Spoil The Broth

There are many affiliates with sites who work with one or more other affiliates, on some form of rev share, or a 'you put your links on what you write and i'll put mine on what i write'. For some people i am sure this works really well, but it doesn't always work and here is why;

They forget
Busy with their own sites, they forget to update the joint site, meaning you have to do all the work, yet are still paying them on a rev share, or for people sifting throught the site and clicking through on one of their links.

What they write is utter tosh
Some people, and yes that includes me, have poor spelling and grammar and will often forget to spell check. This means all the effort you go to writing decent content which looks professional is lost by the shoddy workmanship by your fellow affiliate.

You both write the same thing
If you are copying/altering content from other sites, you may end up both writing about the same thing. This can work well if the content is truly unique, but will just look plain stupid if you both copy the same content.

The Solution
This is pretty simple. Just make sure you have clear expectations from each other. Realistic expectations, so if someone has commitments that take up a Tuesday night, make sure you write the content or update the site that day.
Be fair with the money, if one of you is writing more and it is clear to both or all parties involved, then be honest and fair and pay them their dues. You would expect to receive the most money if you were doing the most work.
Have some form of plan that you can all work to. This will make sure you all write different and varied pieces of copy, or update different parts of your site.

All these scream out 'this is common sense' but you would be suprised to see and hear just how many affiliates are taken for mugs by other affiliates, or how many are taking the pi$$ of others.

AB

A4U Awards 2009 - Stop Begging!!!

There has been alot of buzz this past week about the next A4U awards. The Categories can be found here.

Now I personally think the awards are a great way of recognising the hard work and dedication each individual member of the affiliate marketing community put in to our industry. It is also a chance to get together (in a less grubby form) and have a good knees up. Last year we even made the telly!

What I don't like about the awards are the beggers, the ones who are so desperate to win an award they bombard msn, facebook and the forum itself with begging pleas of why they should be voted for. To be fair, I understand why, an award is recognition from all your peers for you exceptional work throughout the year.

By begging you are going to create the following;
a) you are going to really piss people off. Me for one. The more you beg me, the more I think you have too much time on your hands for begging, and the more annoyed I get.

b) you dilute the others. You may think this is a good thing, I see this as unfair. There are people in the industry who work incredibly hard everyday, but choose not to brag about it. Instead they remain modest and get on with their work. By diluting everyone available to vote for you, you are blocking people who *actually* deserve the award. Don't worry though, your time may come.

What I would like to see is a ban on begging. Although this cannot be policed on msn or email or phone calls, I would like to see the A4U forum owner and moderators put rules in place to stop the bullying tactics and begging and bribery which is sure to go on the closer we get to the awards.

Let's make the awards truly anonymous and let the true stars shine though...

Is Xmas all it is cracked up to be?

It seems the whole industry is gearing up at the moment for Christmas. Content writers are busy writing content, cashback and reward sites are furiously added merchants and launching Xmas incentives. Voucher code sites are adding vouchers and sorting expiry dates, sending newsletters.
The question that must be asked is, is it all really worth it?
The long nights typing frantically, the long days begging merchants for content, new offers and codes, the weekends working instead of socialising. The arguments with partners and children for not spending enough time with them.
So do affiliates really make their millions at Christmas? Well obviously I do not have access to everyones business or personal accounts. But I can guess the answers;

Yes - For many affiliates such as gift sites, pantomime sites, Xmas sites, code sites etc the answer is yes. With more and more customers using the internet to do their shopping, the answer has to be yes. They see increased traffic and sales with the run up to Christmas.

No - There are affiliates who write about BBQ's, outdoor equipment etc who rely on the opposite shoppers for their sites. People don't buy certain products at Christmas, and therefore some affiliates do not see the increases others do.

January Sales - people tend to purchase larger items such as holidays, bathrooms and furniture and kitchens in the January sales. Tempted by the vast marketing campaigns offering massive discounts, they think they are getting one over on the merchant, and buy buy buy...

Whatever type of affiliate you are, a little bit extra during the run up to Christmas, using good keywords can really boost your sales.

A View On Click To Reveal

Is it fraud? Is it good business practice? I think the only real answer depends on who is asking who. Let's start at the beginning. A click-to-reveal is basically a click here to reveal a code. The customer clicks and a code is revealed. Nothing wrong with that you might say. Another window is opened on the customers machine dropping a cookie and meaning that they will win the sale (following the last referrer wins rule). However some people have taken it upon themselves to list merchants who do not issue voucher codes. Therefore when the customer clicks to reveal, they are told there is no code, yet a cookie is still dropped. Ultimately conning the customer and dropping their cookie.

Some people who follow this practice will tell you a different story, they will tell you that by spreading their cookie seed (so to speak) they are still making money for the merchant, without them having to lose money on a voucher code. They will also tell you they use these merchants without codes for SEO on their sites, therefore helping many other merchants by people trawling the site and buying other things. Some may be arrogant enough to not care, as at the end of the day, they are the ones with money in the bank.

There are a million sides to this story;
The ones who write content - These affiliates take the time to trawl websites and write unique content, just to have their hard work pissed on by cookie dropping voucher sites.

The ones who list vouchers - The people who spend time trawling merchants for voucher codes getting frustrated by non-working or short expiring codes... People who seem to be all categorised under the same term - 'thieves'

The Merchants and Networks - These people get their money either way.

People who are doing their own thing and are earning some money regardless - they just don't care.

So the recent decision by many (not all) Networks to begin policing click to reveal is causing a stir from all camps of affiliate marketing. Some people strongly agree with the decision, others think it is an infringement on their rights of some form... Most are indifferent as it is only a small proportion of the industry who are using click to reveal when no voucher code is present.

Here are a few other posts around the recent news;

Loquax
A4U Forum Thread
Sinead from Azam

Me? I don't care... I am one of the smart ones who lists codes on my content sites. So no sales being stolen there! I will start getting really angry if people start attacking what I do to make money...

AB

The Term 'Super Affiliate'

It isn't often I stick up for people, but this time I'm going to. I am sick to the back teeth of people using the term 'Super Affiliate' when these so called affiliates don't use the term themselves.

How do you class a super affiliate? Is a super affiliate someone who is active on the forum? Someone who has an affiliate blog? Someone who is a top performing affiliate on a particular campaign? Someone who is a top performing affiliate in a certain sector? Who knows!

Surely a better term for people who fit into the categories above is 'Affiliate'. Let's face it, the way affiliate marketing is moving, all affiliates have a niche, so we are all experts in our own areas. Be it a blog about torches or a blog about keyrings, we all have our expertise and our own audience and hopefully customers.

It must be incredibly flattering to be termed a 'Super Affiliate' but I know for a fact that these people hate the term. They are honest enough to realise that they 'just do what they do' the fact that they happen to be good at it or are able to pass on the odd bit of advice is a bi-product.

Simon Cowell is the only person I can think of who is egotistical enough to like being termed one of these 'Super Affiliates'.

Let's stop using the term!

A4U Bitches

I have begun to notice over the years that the affiliates4u forum is no longer being used as a sounding board for ideas or a place to make new friends. It has slowly become a place to just slag people off and stab people in the back. Every single day at least one new thread is started with a whinge about this or that. So what does this show me? Are affiliates becoming more bitchy, or with the transgression of affiliate marketing moving to a serious part of the online and marketing world are people becoming more serious about what they do?

I would love to see the forum return to a happier place, and that is coming from the biggest bitch of all. I would like to get back to a place where everyone trusts each other not to steal ideas, bid on brands or any other bad and underhand thing you can think of. The forum should be used as the last place to bitch... That's why we have phones, mobiles, emails, msn's, skypes, pigeons and the Royal Mail.

If people don't respond to you via all the means above, and you truly feel you should warn other people, then yeah by all means let us know. But I really don't care if a merchant cancelled 1 sale out of 100.

Let's get back to discussing how we should all as a team of affiliate bods move the industry forward and come up with new ideas to make some cash!

AB

Cocky Newbee Affiliate Managers

I know I have been trying to be constructive with my last few posts but something has recently really peed me off!!!

Some cocky arsed newbee affiliate manager who quite clearly has no idea what they are going on about tried speaking to me about affiliate marketing. I put up with it for so long until the previous affiliate manager was brought up.

NEVER disrespect or slag off someone, when you have no idea who you are talking to. The person you were bitching about is a mate of mine. What makes it worse is I was later informed you did it infront of your predecessor and a bunch of influential affiliates.

Will I be promoting your programme? NO! Will I be naming you if anyone asks? YES

Idiot!