Web Affiliate Marketing Blog

What tablets have Pixmania taken?
Which silly billy’s have been “advising” them?

For those that aren’t aware, I am referring to a recent email from Pixmania in which they have issued a whole load of discount codes for use when people purchase sepcific goods, or goods that come to a specific value. Their email reads;

OFFER IN BRIEF:
Pixmania are offering fantastic new codes on appliances and they have extended the expiry date for one TV code! Pixmania are also offering exciting generic codes for all affiliates, except vouchercode sites, and they have a list of their top products for you to promote!

So they have “exciting discount codes” yet they are not allowed to promoted on discount code websites. I mean thats ludicrous! Firstly I don’t find the discount particularly exciting when comparing the prices to competitors especially as Pixmania are apparently “#1 UK electronics e-retailer“. It’s like offering discounts for their Top 10 DLR’s, but refusing any website that focuses on DLRs to feature them! I also wonder how they distinguish which sales have been made via a voucher code website.

I am in the process of moving all my links from websites, to a centralised domain, something similar to OpenAds. This will allow me to easily track clicks myself and compare them with what merchants and networks are recording. It will also mean administering any movement of a merchant from one network to another, quick, simple and a one off job across all my websites. Therefore Pixmania, along with others, will all originate from a centralised domain – so will I be penalised for clicks from NON discount code websites?

I am surprised that they have decided to take this stance, and even more so that the merchant hasn’t changed their mind, especially as it follows Affiliate Windows announcement of a voucher code tool. I notice that the exclusion doesn’t include cashback websites which I find even stranger and see that others are annoyed and bewlidered by this rash decision.

A few months ago, Dixons offered me an incentive to increase my sales volume over a 30 day period. If I was successful, then I would be given a £200 voucher to spend on their website on anything I wanted, so immediately had visions of an XBox with Halo3. Although not a gaming person, I’ve seen Halo3 and think the multi-online player feature is simply fantastic, but never quite got round to buying one myself.

After the 30 day period had ended I quickly ran stats and found that I had surpassed my target and received notification that a £200 voucher would be heading my way. All excited I searched and earmarked the XBox system I was going to get and waited… Sadly days passed, followed by weeks without any word of the voucher code so I chased it up with Julia at Affiliate Window.

Did I get my XBox? No :(

Whilst waiting for my voucher I started to accept that I was never destined to have an XBox. I noticed files were becoming corrupt on my USB Flash drive followed by my electric razor breaking. I then decided I needed to stop eating cheese and eat more vegetables getting ready for my next 10k race and before you knew it, a steamer was added to the list of electrical items required. Finally, on the day I was told of my voucher code, my phone base station went on the blink meaning all the phones in my house were knocked out.

Not quite the same as an XBox but all in all, I’ve order a bundle of goodies which are on their way to me for a grand sum of £0.70 + postage;

• 8Gb SanDisk USB Flash Drive
• Philips Razor
• BT Cordless Home Phones
• Tefal Steamer
• Logik Internet Radio

Although disappointed that I still don’t own an XBox, I am extremely grateful to Dixons for the incentive in the first place, and deep down I am grateful I didn’t receive the voucher immediately. I would have had to buy all the above out of my own pocket so it couldn’t have come at a better time!

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!

Only minutes after writing a post about my trip to Barbados thanks to SunShine.co.uk and Affiliate Future, do I stumble across a thread over at A4U Forums detailing another affiliate incentive.

Again this is another beauty that’s well worth going for, and is achievable by everyone, not just ‘Super Affiliates’ or ‘Pretty Good Affiliates‘ ;)

The Prize
The prize is a brand new bathroom (fitting excluded as far as I can see) from Wickes. Obviously the merchant that’s offering the prize is Wickes themselves, managed by Equator via the Affiliate Window network.

How To Enter
All you have to do to gain entry to the prize draw is make a single Wickes bathroom sale over £200. Each affiliate can only have one entry, so once again the chances of winning are just as good for small new affiliates, as those larger more established ones.