Posts Tagged "DGM"

Is It Time To Ditch Your MTV?

Posted on 6 Oct 2008 in Merchants | 7 comments

Abel and Cole are the latest merchant that appears to be suffering from MTV (merchants tunnel vision). Having applied to their programme via DGM, I received an emailing saying my application had been declined – the first in over 2 years from memory! The response didn’t come as too much of a shock as I was given a heads up by the lovely Jess at DGM that this was likely to be the case.

The reason is that Abel and Cole don’t want to be advertised on Discount Code or Voucher Code websites, which is fine and totally within their right. However, it appears that some merchants presume that if an affiliate owns a discount code website, then that’s all they own and are therefore refused to promote them anywhere else. Sadly Discount Codes don’t make me enough money to the point where I don’t have to venture out into alternative verticals such as beauty, valentines, flowers, holidays and of course Christmas.

The major annoyance is there appears to be one rule for one affiliate, and another rule for others. I notice that anyone who has a discount code website via iCodes, which is a type of white label discount website, is able to promote Abel and Cole – see here. So why do they choose to be selective? Is it just an oversight?

Despite the selective approval, I think sometime merchants should remember that affiliates have their hands in many pies. If you don’t want to feature on a discount code website then that’s fine and totally acceptable (even if it doesn’t make complete sense) but enforce your rules on everyone and make it clear. At the same time it’s worth realising that a discount code website isn’t always the only website an affiliate owns!

The Problems Of Working Fulltime

Posted on 14 Jul 2008 in Events | 7 comments

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

Half Yearly Results Announced

Posted on 10 Jul 2008 in Networks | 11 comments

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!

DGM & JDW – Don’t Jump The Gun, Get Your Facts Right First!

Posted on 2 May 2008 in Merchants | 3 comments

Sadly DGM have announced that the 30 odd JDW programmes will be suspended as of next Thursday, and understandably a lot of affiliates are disappointed by the decisions.

What has really surprised me is the reacion on the A4U Forums and how people, some of them long standing in the industry, are missing the blindingly obvious. Initially when a programme is suspended as they have “run out of budget” it is very hard to understand, as the majority of affiliate marketing works on a per sale basis.

In the normal scenario, a merchant will only pay an affiliate when a sale is made, and this is a very simple win win business model. However it is important to remember that not all programmes operate in this way.

JD Williams business model is somewhat different. In the majority of cases, they do not generate any money when an affiliate makes a sale because they are acquiring a debt as they are a “on credit catalogue”. For this business model, the normal scenario doesn’t apply to this, and a handful of other merchants.

I’m disappointed by the initial knee-jerk reaction by affiliates in the thread, where people are having a pop at the network involved. Sadly some of the posts have been made without reading the announcement in full. First of all some people are complaining that a weeks notice hasn’t been given by email – only for a few minutes later (7 days before the programme ends) and email arrives.

I think sometimes (and I’m just as guilty at times as others) we need to take a step back, think about it, absorb all the information before we go hell for leather. In this case, DGM are 100% not to blame so why have a poke at them?

Over the past few months after winning the contract from CJ (thank goodness), they have worked long and hard to ensure cross tracking for all 30 programmes worked. This not only takes time and effort, but the amount of money and resources required doesn’t come cheap either! Then the merchant goes and drops you in it, despite trying numerous alternatives in order to keep the programme live.

DGM aren’t going to be happy with the outcome after everything they have done, but sadly DGM are not the Chancellors of the Exchequer and so couldn’t not have predicted the credit crunch and how it may impact the AM industry. Sadly, people have questioned DGM, question the advice given to JDW when it is obvious to me, they don’t understand the business model the merchant is using.

Think about this from a network point of view;
- As a network you spend time and money winning a programme who then decides that with the credit crunch and the current financial cock-up, they wish to pull out of the AM industry. Would you try EVERYTHING possible to retain the programme?
YES

- If the merchant still decides to pull out of AM should the network be blamed?
NO

So why have a pop at a network?

Some are saying that DGM are their last resort for a network. So what? Personally I don’t give a toss! I have my last resort network and I’m sure out of a sample of 100 different affiliates, then “last resort network” will be evenly spread! However action by a merchant shouldn’t reflect badly on a network.

Lets remember we still have a 30 day cookie which hasn’t always been the case!

<–Rant over–>
During the making of this post, no DGM back handers were received. DGM are not my favourite network nor are they my last resort network.

Frostie Is Back To His Affiliate Winning Ways

Posted on 18 Mar 2008 in Merchants | 7 comments

Its been quite for a few months since I last won anything and I’ve noticed a few other affiliates have been hitting on my terrorty of prize winning, most notably Ray! I am glad to report that I’ve recalimed my territory and I’m back winning prizes but this time not all of them are affiliate competitions!

I enter a general online competition no more than once every 6 months, if that. However, by entering the K-Swiss competition at the end of February I was the lucky winner of a pair of K-Swiss Ariake Running Shoes!

The timing of winning these shoes couldn’t have come at a better time to be honest. Over the weekend I received my first Easter Egg thanks to the lovely Claire over at Gizoo (on the DGM Affiliate Network). Obviously the Egg has since disappeared, so now I will be making use of my new shoes in preparation for the Manchester 10k which is only a few weeks away. Also worth noting is that Helen Southgate from DGM agreed to take part in the Manchester 10k with me, so I am sure in the coming weeks we will be begging for sponsorship from all you rich affiliates

Finally, I am also the lucky owner of a Blackberry Curve 8310. The competition was held by DGM in conjunction with the Vodafone programme whereby prizes were put up for every affiliate that had partnered with them on DGM. One of the prizes was a massive £1000 cash lump sum! It turns out that the incentive was such a success that Vodafone & DGM are running the competition again, so now is the time to get those Vodafone links in place. You could be next to walk away with a cool £1000 in your back pocket!

I’ll be honest… I’m not quite sure how to use the Blackberry yet as there are so many options, and being a bloke, I refuse to read the manual