Web Affiliate Marketing Blog

Wanting to see what other people thought about personalised car number plates, I searched for a Twitter application that would allow me to post a poll which other people could quickly and easily take part in.

Came across Twtapps which, in my opinion, is a fantastic suite of Twitter tools that are useful not only for personal Tweets, but business too!

TwtPoll
Create an online poll by simply typing in a 140 chars question, multiple choice answers, and embed or share it!

Twtvite
Create an event, enter the location, date, time, your 140 chars description, and share it whilst managing RSVPs.

TwtBizCard
Send and manage your Twitter business card by adding #twtbizcard to your tweets.

TwtQpon
A simple coupon creator for businesses. Enter your promotion details, choose an image and enter a code + url!

Twtjobs
Got a job opening or wanting a change in career? Create your “Twitter resume,” post job openings, apply to jobs, and embed and share them!

TwtBiz
A Twitter business directory allowing you to find businesses, entrepreneurs and even investors!

Other useful and fun applications twtapps have developed include;
twtTRIP – travel organizer
twtwlst – gift registry
twtcard – greeting cards
twtpets – game for pet lovers

As you would expect, you can follow Twtapps and keep up to date with their new developments and suggestions on how best to use the mini applications to help promote your business.

A4U Awards

Before heading off to the A4U Awards in Park lane, myself and Jane headed for a cheeky drink or two courtesy of the DGM guys & girls in the Met Bar where we were lucky enough to stumble across the current F1 Leader, Jenson Button.

After chatting to him for 5 or so minutes, it transpired that we has on bottled water as he was racing (and won) in Turkey at the weekend. He was surprised at the number of people Tux’d up in the Met Bar, and asked what was going on. Didn’t bore him with what affiliate marketing was, just explained there was a big party with about 500 people just down the road and left it at that.

The awards took place with not too many surprises (well done to all!), and the next morning a rather sore head was dragged out of bed to make the Eurostar to Paris for the next 5 days. Luckily we had fantastic weather in Paris and made plenty of friends by opting for Italian Wine with our meals :)

Sadly we didn’t go in the Moulin Rouge but headed to Crazy Horse instead. After little more than 10 minutes I was counting the number of lights in the ceiling and look at my watch wondering how much more I had to endure. If we could have, I think we would have escaped at the earliest convenience especially as it was €20 for a regular bottle of Leffe!

Sadly my entry didn’t make the shortlist for the A4U Awards (wish the comments had counted towards the votes!). Having said that, I’m sure I would have faced extremely touch competition especially from the two most notable entries – ECU and Skimlinks. I’ve seen their innovations and think they truely deserve to be in the running!

Anyway, the full list has been posted on the A4 Awards blog, and as usual, a few surprises have come out. Congratulations to all those that made it and look forward to having a few jars with you all in 2 weeks time!

I guess my innovation was a little ahead of its time ;)

Spotted this when walking about town at lunchtime today! Would love to know who’s responsible!

After a long time in the making, an idea of mine has finally come to fruition, is downloadable from the Microsoft website, meets all IAB guidelines, and as far as I’m aware is completely new to Affiliate Marketing.

I’m sure in the coming weeks and months, we’ll see a lot of similar inventions appearing, but have I been truly innovative I wonder…

What is it?
It’s a Vista Gadget! Anyone who uses Windows Vista, may already know about the Vista Sidebar and how useful it can be. You can add Gadgets to your desktop that interact and update automatically via the internet such as Weather Forecasts, BBC News and Currency Rates.

What does my gadget do?
The Discount Codes gadget allows people to see the latest discounts, sales and special offers available to the UK consumer. There’s no need to visit any website as the Gadget updates itself every 15 minutes based on an RSS feed. See a video clip here.

Additional functionality
I’ve also built in a search funtion that directs users to my website, with the result of their search term.Built in is a search function, which will direct users to my Discount Codes website.

Finally, there is room for merchants who want an extra push, to appear in a small banner at the bottom. This banner is also controlled dynamically allowing me to push new merchants to people who, for instance, downloaded the gadget months previously. These banners, limited to 6 different merchants, again rotate every 15 minutes.

Where can you get it?
Well, as its been officially accepted by Microsoft, you can actually download it from Microsofts Live website by clicking here.

Does it qualify for an A4U Award?
This gadget was developed over a long period of time, making sure I didn’t break any IAB guidelines and making sure it ran smoothly as anticipated. I’ve already pinged a few people about this asking what they thought at which point Matt Wood asked whether this was being entered into the A4U Awards.

I hadn’t really thought about it, but when Matt pointed out the two categories it could fall under, I am now wondering whether the judges will see it as a possible entry…

Best Use of Technology within Affiliate Marketing
Judges are for this award looking for well executed implementation or use of new technology within Affiliate Marketing, either as an affiliate, merchant, or network.

Innovative Affiliate of the Year
As an affiliate have you developed and published a unique or innovative site, campaign, service, application or tool that fully embraces the concepts behind the many facets of Affiliate Marketing.

Not sure I will be a winner, but certainly think it could be worth an entry. It’s definately something new to the Affiliate Marketing Industry.

Did you see it?

ITS NOW AVAILABLE ON CHANNEL4 CATCH UP SERVICE

I’ve just been working while plonked in front of the TV when suddenly I heard my name, followed by Kieron’s, Naomi’s, Elaine’s and Keith come out of the surround sound :) Instantly I looked up to see a very bored looking Kevin from Affiliate Window then I realised what it was, and thanks to Sky+ quickly hit the rewind button :)

As many know, Olivia Lee (the lass from Balls Of Steel) gatecrashed the event and did a thank-you speech that continued for over 10 minutes from memory. It went on for so long, that Channel4 actually split it in two, and also deleted a whole chunk from the middle on the Comedy Labs programme.

Hopefully for those that missed it, Channel4 will make it available on their CatchUp Service or failing that, will have it along with the other Comedy Lab series on the 4 On Demand service. I’ve got it stored on my Sky+ so if you really wanna see it, then we’ll have to have an affiliate do at mine :)

What drunken muppets we were to put up with it for such a long time, before Claire and myself man-handled her off stage :)