I’ve often wondered about the power of blogging after seeing Lee gets easter eggs and Kieron gets phones. Today I’m going to put it to the test and see if I can get myself a pen!

This quest isn’t for any ordinary pen… oh no! What I’m after is the “Montblanc” equivalent in the Affiliate Marketing world.

Platform-A, or Buy.At as most will know them, often appear at affiliate functions such as the A4U, AdTech, Affiliate Summit etc, and are usually world class leaders when it comes to goodie bags and the bits and bobs contained within.

In 2008, to promote their Platform-A branding exercise, they had some silver/black twisty ball pens created that were simply the dogs bollox in the pen world. These magical writing instruments screamed of beauty that Miss Universe can only dream of. The simple, yet effective smooth twist action revealed a ball that glided over paper similar to Torvil and Dean’s Ravel’s Bolero in 1984.

The problem with developing such a fine design, is that one must protect it due to its demand being so popular. Sadly the two specimens I managed to obtain have been “borrowed” - the joys of working in an office!

Sadly due to commitments, it’s unlikely that I will be able to get to any A4U gatherings this year (sigh of releif for those that pay the bar bills), so therefore will be unable to grab a goodie bag or two.

I wonder if  my blog is enough to grab the attention of Platform-A / Buy.At and secure another fine example of writing finesse…

In the past, I’ve kept track as to the amount of sales I done on behalf of merchants purely out of interest. 2008 has been a good year mainly due to the introduction and focus on new sites, especially niche and seasonal ones, helping to bump up sales throughout the year.

Sadly the huge increase in sales, isn’t reflected in the same way when it comes to commissions. Trust me, I would be jumping for joy if I could say an average 10% commission was paid for each sale, and certainly would be giving up the day job!

Even so, it goes to show that us small affiliates (the ones that do it along side fulltime jobs, in our bedrooms) can still help companies achieve growths and profits.

NETWORK	2006 SALES	2007 SALES	2008 SALES	07/08 CHANGE
Affiliate Future	£20,375	£18,380	£74,985	308%
Affiliate Window	£25,390	£1,020,799	£2,085,969	104%
Buy.At	£114,620	£316,979	£563,201	78%
CJ	£16,575	£174,675	£919,591	426%
DGM	£1,171	£26,643	£130,063	388%
POR	£3,917	£22,745	£52,697	132%
TD	£32,929	£211,931	£782,572	269%
Webgains	£854	£22,256	£301,227	1253%
TOTAL	£215,831	£1,814,408	£4,910,305	171%

So why the changes? Well once again a lot of it is down to my relationships with networks. CJ, who in the past I’ve found to be a bit of a faceless company, have made contact with me. Just having a contact on MSN (thanks Hildegunn) has driven me to look at and push their merchants a little more, resulting in a 426% increase.

Another possible reason is the introduction of a bi-weekly newsletter. After collecting email addresses since I care to remember, I never did a single thing with them. Now my newsletters are sent out every 2 weeks, pushing merchants who in turn offer me and my visitors something special.

All in all a good year, but I’m not holding out much hope for this year with the credit crunch, yet think Eco Friendly stuff maybe worth a punt.

I thought it was about time I did a quick Christmas round up, to thank everyone who has sent cards, presents, festive well wishes and competition prizes over the past few weeks. Looking at the list it’s probably the best Crimbo so far

COMPETITION PRIZES

• £200 Shopping Spree from Play.com
• £50 Voucher from IWoot
• Personalised Calendar From Prezzbox
• Naturally Gorgeous Book from Green People

UNEXPECTED (YET STILL WELCOME) GIFTS

• Newspaper, Football Book and Personalised Calendar from Gone Digging
• Selection eco friendly products from Gizoo
• Chocolate Hamper from Thorntons
• UEFA Champions League Tickets (Liverpool vs  Marseille) from Vodafone
• Virginia Hayward Hamper from Webgains
• Virginia Hayward Hamper from Buy.At

All the above are very much appreciated. The gifts and competition prizes are fantastic and very much appreciated. I’m also glad to report that my Christmas website has generated more sales than ever before which has prompted me to start preparing for Valentines Day Presents!

Its also good to read about other affiliates who are reaping rewards from their efforts. George blogs over at Entrepreneur.co.uk and he’s tracking his success on a monthly basis. Although not yet reaching his targets, its good to see it heading in the right direction!

Just a quick post to say a huge THANK YOU to Thorntons for the unexpected lovely surprise I had waiting for me when I got home tonight.

I didn’t realise that chocolate hampers came in this size! There’s 10 chocolate goodies that make up the “I Love Chocolate” hamper;

• Continental Chocs
• Original Toffi Chocs
• Milk Chocolate Smothered Vanilla Fudge - DEMOLISHED ALREADY!
• Continental Belgian Bag
• Continental Praline Bag
• Choc Chip Choccies
• Milk Dark and White Classics
• Dark Chocolate Bar
• Milk Chocolate Bar
• White Chocolate Bar

You don’t realise that this couldn’t have come at a better time, chilling me out a little and putting a smile (albeit it chocolate covered one) back on my face :) Enclosed was a gift card that read;

We’re looking forward to working with you at Christmas and throughout 2009. Hope you enjoy the hamper. Best wishes from the Thorntons team.

You and me both… Thank you very much!

For those of you wanting one of these hampers next year, the Thorntons programme is on the Buy.At network and pays 8% over a 7 day cookie.

Despite loving and being passionate about this industry, I still treat Affiliate Marketing as a kind of hobby and have chosen to stay as a full-time employee due to enjoying my job and the challenges its brings. HOWEVER over the past few weeks, I have found that it’s becoming more and more difficult in juggling both full-time employment and a number of successful affiliate websites.

CONTACT
Firstly I ask that merchants and networks contact me by eMail or MSN first, purely because most of my day is spent in meetings or voice conferences and so I am not always available on my mobile phone. Its a lot easier to have a box pop up and flash, sitting there until I get a spare minute. Sure it may mean a 2 minute phone call changes to a 20 minute MSN conversation, but its less obtrusive.

Another problem is hours, something that Affiliate Bitch has already blogged about. Like many other affiliates, I only work on my sites in the evening or weekend, when most networks aren’t available. I’m not suggesting making staff work late into the night after working all day, but in the not too distant future, I think the network that introduces 24×7 support for affiliates and merchants alike, will become a force to be reckoned with.

Affiliates dont stop at 5pm! Online shoppers don’t stop at 5pm! Merchants websites don’t close at 5pm! So why do networks? Some networks I find are available late into the evening - namely Webgains, and a few others work past the 5pm hooter too. But as Lee’s post and comments demonstrate, Network are still blind to the REQUIREMENTS of some affiliates. Whether they choose to implement out of hours support or not is their call, but at least acknowledge there is a need.

NETWORKING
Recently I’ve been invited to DGM BBQ in Manchester, and to Affiliate Window’s Nakata in London. Although I’d like to attend both, being an employee means I have a set number of days which I am allowed off per year. London therefore is usually out of the question unless the function is on a Friday, in which case I can travel home on a Saturday without using a days holiday.

If you take into account all the networking events that take place on an annual basis such as A4U Expo, A4U Awards, Buy.At Christmas Cracker, Affiliate Summit (depending on location ), and now the A4U Roadshow(back to basics networking which I am chuffed to see return), you can see that working full-time AND being an active affiliate is getting more difficult.

EMAILS
I get loads!
Its a nightmare!
Everyday I struggle to keep on top of emails and try to filter out the usual non personalised ones (they go straight in the trash can). I do however get personal ones which I read, take notice of and think “I must reply”. Sadly unless I reply the same day, it often sinks down out of view and before you know it (usually 1 or 2 days) is completely forgotten about.

GENERAL STUFF
On top of all this I still have to update my websites, create new websites, monitor PPC campaigns, innovate, have a personal life, eat drink and sleep, wash and iron, read blogs (merchant, network, agency and affiliate), catch up on the forum and moan on my blog. With my full-time job, I sometimes have to work weekends, but also provide standby one week in every three, resulting in being woken up at 3am to fix something.

WHATS THE ANSWER?
I still have no intention of entering Affiliate Marketing full-time, but need more hours in the day. Not wanting to deprive myself with only 2 hours of sleep every night, does anyone have any suggestions?
Answers on a postcard… although I may not get time to read them all

Yesterday Purple posted a comment against one of my blog entries that got me thinking. He’d done a mid year analysis of his affiliate activities, and found that his sales generated (or maybe its commission?) is up by 199% on two major networks and another has seen an increase of over 2000%! Those figures are brilliant to hear as I’m aware he’s been busier this year than ever before, and it’s always good to hear about other peoples success when they make the effort.

Purples effort and reward shows that given a bit of concentration and hard graft, increase can be achieved despite the ‘credit crunch’ no matter what size an affiliate you are

In the comments, Purple asked how my stats were shaping up. After a few simple calculations later, I was happy to find that for 7 out of the 8 major networks, my sales for the first 6 months of 2008 have already surpassed my TOTAL for 2007.

My projected 2008 increase is a simple x2 formula and doesn’t take into account Christmas which should hopefully push the increase higher still!

	2006	2007	2008 (till 30 June)	Projected Increase
Affiliate Future	£20,375	£18,380	£41,292	349.31%
Affiliate Window	£25,390	£1,020,799	£1,149,178	125.15%
Buy.At	£114,620	£316,979	£196,128	23.75%
CJ	£16,575	£174,675	£395,815	353.20%
DGM	£1,171	£26,643	£84,448	533.92%
POR	£3,917	£22,745	£24,317	113.82%
TD	£32,929	£211,931	£298,830	182.01%
Webgains	£854	£22,256	£48,672	337.38%
TOTAL	£215,831	£1,814,408	£2,238,680	146.77%

Last Friday Next, iLevel and Buy.At held a voice conference in order for them to explain the recent ‘behaviour’ of the Next affiliate programme, allowing affiliates with concerns about the programme, to be heard. As many know, I have been somewhat outspoken about my recent concerns and despite no longer being involved with the merchant, decided to join to hear what they had to say. The intention wasn’t to stir up a hornets nest, but to hear from all 4 corners (affiliate, agency, merchant, network) and what they proposed for the future of the programme.

I have to say that once on the voice conference I was disappointed by the turn out from fellow affiliates. I know some were unable to make it due to prior commitments as a few apologies were read out at the beginning, some like myself work fulltime and therefore were never going to make it and some people had no intention of joining, for which I whole-heartedly respect their decision.

BUT… 2 affiliates - myself being 1 of them?…. and I’m no longer an affiliate of theirs!

My blog post got 112 backs, Next was blogged about by many other affiliates in the following days, and a simple search on the A4U forums shows that Next threads are by far the most hotly debated. This was a chance for affiliates to hear what Next propose to do in coming months, why they took certain decisions in the past and a chance to raise any issues. Yet no one took the opportunity?

I’m not going to blog about what was discussed in detail, as iLevel will be producing minutes which I’m sure will be made available shortly to anyone wanting to read them. Sadly I came away feeling that Next and iLevel heard what I said, but with some of the counter arguments, I am not too sure if they listened.

An example of this was when I stated that a 7 day cookie was being poor. My gripe was countered with the argument that M&S also offering a 7 day cookie. Granted, however M&S however offer 5% flat rate commission, somewhat more than what we have come to expect from Next. There was however mention of the introduction of tiered commissions, similar to Dixons, where it’s dependant on the product purchased.

I just wish more affiliates had been on the voice conference, even those that still believe the programme is acceptable as it is. I honestly believe this was a chance where the industry really opened up for the good, and I think it’s a prime opportunity that’s been missed by many to raise concerns, and hopefully steer a merchant in the right direction.

Anyway I also wanted to thank Next, Buy.At and iLevel for the chance of having the discussion. Whether I agree or not with what was discussed, it was a move in the right direction.

Next Affiliate Programme
You will not silence me!

… A bit of history

The Next Affiliate Programme joined Affiliate Window and at the time I thought what a great programme, managed by a great agency (MVi) available on a great network (AWin). Sadly, it didn’t perform as well as I had hoped, but still managed to push close to £250,000 sales their way last year. It was one of those programmes that ticked over by itself I guess.

… Where they went wrong

Sadly for Next, things started to go wrong the minute they were nominated (and went on to win) the 2007 Best New Merchant, and some affiliates have questioned whether their award should be revoked! That’s how strong the feeling is in the Affiliate Community towards this merchant. Sadly Next have their head buried in the sand as are not open to any constructive critisim and never discuss their programme. They obviously think they are too big to engage with affiliates!

Don’t get me wrong, the Affiliate Marketing industry is one I love, find challenging and have made some very good friends from all sides, merchants, affiliates, agencies and networks. However I feel that merchants such as Next don’t bring anything good to the table, and are only to happy to abuse the industry and those involved in it.

… Oblivious and in denial

If Next actually cared about their affiliate programme, or if the agency or networks promoting them had the balls to stand up to a big brand and educate them, then they would soon realise why there is so much ill feeling. For a network or agency to add Next to their books doesn’t impress me at all, as I dont see any contribution they have made over the past year worth noting. With their attitude to affiliates in the future (see below) I am not convinced that they are even willing to learn by their mistakes - yet they wanted to wipe the slate clean! Lets have a quick look at their achievemtns to date in the affiliate marketing industry;

In Summary;

• Next dropped commissions just in time for Christmas (see here)
• They moved from a perfectly good, proactive, agency and network citing they wished to “clear the slate” (see here)
  • There was nothing wrong from an affiliate POV, with the agency or network involved at the time. If Next wanted to clear the slate, then they should have started in-house and not laid blame at other peoples doorsteps!
• Next bid on trademarks of their competitors (see here)
• Next do not honour their 7 day cookie upon transfer of network (see here)

… New developments

Over the weekend I applied to join Next via the Buy.At network. Why? Well because I have some good SEO’d pages out there in the wild, and I guessed it would be best to make use of them. Upon applying, I received an email from Buy.At asking me to complete an “Affiliate Application” form. It was sent under the pretense that Next want to ”get a better understanding of their affiliate base”! Sorry, but anyone falling for this bullshit is in LaLa land! Next don’t give a toss about their affiliates, they simply want to clamp down on anyone who has anything bad to say about them, any gripes or groans, or they just want an alternative way to screw affiliates even more!

Do you have a blog?
Do you PPC or SEO?
Do you own a voucher code website?

What business is it of Nexts whether I have a blog, whether I SEO or PPC my websites or whether I have a discount code website? They should only concern themselves with the website where I promote them to ensure I do not break any guidelines.

I replied to Buy.At that if they wanted me to answer their questionnaire then I would request that Next answered my own set of questions, to determine whether they were a merchant I wanted to associate myself and my websites with. Remember a partnership is a two way agreement. I stated that in my questionnaire I would be asking about the future of commission levels, the bidding on other merchants trademarks etc. I presume from the response, Next wouldn’t complete my questionnaire;

“I appreciate that you have had issues with Next in the past and have been quite vocal in your thoughts regarding their programmes. In light of this Next has decided that they would prefer not to work with you moving forward, particularly after your last blog entry.”
- presume you mean this blog entry, where I question their failure to honour sales within a cookie period, that in my eyes, amounts to theft!

OK, so to become an affiliate of Next you must NOT question their ethics, their business model or lack of morals. If you want to become a Next affiliate, you have to accept their decisions, conform to them, and never question anything. Basically become a nodding dog?

Sadly there are many nodding dogs out there in the Affiliate Marketing industry from all areas but I aint one. Some people will stoop to any level, given a back-hander or a favour and that leads me to question the future of this industry. Is it one I really want to be part of, yet continue to be disillusioned by?

Sadly I haven’t seen anything that Next have brought to this industry that they can hold their heads up high an be proud of. They have simply taken from affiliates, messed them around with changes in agencies, networks and commission structures and let them down by not honouring 7 cookie periods.

I sincerely hope this is a one off and no other merchants go down this route. In-fact Next could be held up as the prime example of how NOT to run an affiliate programme! I also hope in future, networks tell merchants who operate like this to sling their hook rather than focus on the £/$ a programme of this nature could generate for them. Get some balls!

Update
Just wanted to say thanks to everyones support on this. It’s a real eye opener to the numbers who are upset and dismayed at the Next affiliate programme, and their bully tactics. Sadly for Next the number of people who are pulling away from their programme as a result of this, is phenomenal. No affiliates want this to be seen by merchants as acceptable and I think if it’s allowed to continue, it could be a very bad precedent that’s set.