Web Affiliate Marketing Blog

Well I’ve made a Christmas wishlist to help my family who have no idea what on earth I want or need this year. Goes without saying boxers and socks are always welcome, along with a few specifics such as:

• Lowepro Fastpack 250
• Photoplus Subscription
• Nude Photography
• Nintendo Wii Charger
• Landmark Trust Book

However this year, I’ve asked friends & family to send me Kiva vouchers if they’re stuck for ideas. I know some people aren’t happy receiving charity Christmas presents, but right at this very moment, there isn’t a great deal I need. Rather than see friends and family wasting money as they have to buy me a gift, I’d much prefer to give it someone who could use it to make a change in their life for the better.

Since first mentioning Kiva in June 2009, we affiliates have donated over $3,000 and invested in over 100 different projects all over the world ranging from a Barber Shop in Tanzania (no use to me) to a Pub in Uganda (what a surprise for affiliates!).

So who’s in our Kiva group and who can join? Anyone can join, and the more the merrier… To name a few, we’ve got;

• Trev Edwards
• Kirsty McKenzie
• Chris Clarkson
• Fraser Edwards
• Lammo
• Matt Wood
• Mark Boyd

I hope in the run up to Christmas, we’ll see more affiliates, merchants and networks join our Kiva group and donate $25, or £15, helping make someone elses life a little more comfortable. It’s only the equivalent to 2 bottles of wine, 3 packs of cigs or 4 beers!

7 days have now passed since my feet once again touched British soil after spending a week with an eclectic mix of people on the beautiful island of Barbados. The group was made up of affiliates, merchants and a few Affiliate Future staff after they ran the 3rd successive affiliate incentive trip to Barbados. I was lucky enough to have once again won a place, this time courtesy of SunShine.co.uk, after they offered a number of prizes enticing affiliates to join and promote their new programme.

Due to SunShine.co.uk offering such a prize I decided to give it the competition a go, and as such entered a completely new vertical to me. However, it wasn’t purely because of the prize on offer, it was also down to SunShine.co.uk being a VERY approachable merchant, one that’s available on email, phone and MSN and one that constantly introduces new and innovative ways to help affiliates!

I appreciate that not all merchants would be willing to spend £’s in order to send someone to Barbados, especially an affiliate who may not yet have proved themselves. However, it’s worth looking at what you will get for the £’s you spend!

• In most cases, you will attract lots of new affiliates. Some of these will be new to the sector (like myself) and therefore won’t have forged relationships with your competitors, so you naturally have an edge already!
• Most affiliates will make extra effort and push a little harder to win a trip to Barbados than win a 1% commission increase.
• Receive plenty of exposure from affiliates, not only in way of affiliate promotion but blogging and general network.

I hope to see more merchants on the Affiliate Future network take part and offer even more places for next years trip. Come one… lets fill every room in the hotel! Apart from the obvious fun had by everyone, including scuba-diving, horse riding and jet-skiing, the trip was a fantastic opportunity for those lucky enough to have been present, to ‘do business’ in a very relaxed non-resitrictive atmosphere.

This year I’ve returned home completely refreshed and have a whole load of ideas ready to implement, mainly focusing around the merchants whom I met and those that put the prizes up for offer… so it really does work!

Hat off, and thanks to both SunShine.co.uk and to Affiliate Future for being a leading network when it comes to arranging such incentives for affiliates. I understand I already have a place reserved for next year, as the official Scuba Diving shaperone ;)

After a cracking night at the A4U Awards, I awoke to vague memories of my name being read out asking me to go up on stage to accept something or other. I think it was some kind of thankyou/recognition thing, and along with Shane, Elaine, Kieron and Naomi, I was the happy recipient of a bottle of Veuve Clicquot 1996.

It was completely unexpected yet welcome all the same, but what was the score with the crazy lady who did an acceptance speech? After 5 minutes she was thanking her cat for not eating her goldfish or something!

Other award winners worthy of mention include Prezzybox for Best Use Of Creative and Best Merchant Innovation, Chris Clarkson from Sunshine.co.uk for Affiliate Manager of 2008 and Affiliate Window taking the most coverted title of Publisher’s Choice Of Network. A full list can be seen here and some official A4U photo’s have been uploaded to flickr.

A big thankyou to Matt, Chris and Claire (and the rest of Existem) for organising such a wonderful evening. To have NMA there covering the awards speaks volume as to how much our industry has grown (that reminds me, I must get my free subscription sorted…) and already people are looking forward to the A4UExpo in October. Existem have extended the A4U £100 discount until end of June – so for those who haven’t yet booked a place, pop along now and get a 1/3 off your official registration.

After the Awards took place, many of us moved to the Oxygen bar, where I was approached by someone asking if I was, or had seen, “Chris xxxxx”. After a few beers and the loud music, I didn’t think they were looking for me, so said no. Transpires the person did say my name, yet I told them I wasn’t me! :(

Apologies if that was you – please do give me a shout on the forums where I wont be so rude ;) Oh and if anyone does stumble across a bottle of Veuve Clicquot 1996, would you be so good as to pop it in the post to me?

As some of you know, I’ve decided to cut back a bit on travel and stopped spending my affiliate earnings on general crap that I don’t really need, and for once, Im putting it to good use. Being a diver I fell in love with Egypt whilst there over Christmas and New Year and once back in the UK, suffering from the holiday blues, had a mad moment and bought a place in Egypt. As you can see from this picture, it’s really beginning to take shape ;)

Sadly, I’m not yet in the position where I plan to live out there permanently and due to previously arranged holidays, I’m not even sure if I’m going to manage a trip once the building is complete later this year. However the next best thing came courtsesy of Sunshine and Affiliate Future – Raga Raga!

Yup, I’m one of the lucky ones who is getting to go to Barbados with the Affiliate Future crew (again) for 7 days of… well I can’t remember what happened last time to be honest. I vaguely remember being kidnapped (a long story), seeing James Little winning Karaoke, scuba diving in the hotel swimming pool, Mary being so hungover she missed the WHOLE of Independence Day and getting Happy Gilmour (a jock) to cheer on England in the World Cup.

To be in with a chance to win a place this year, Sunshine.co.uk made it as easy as possible allowing all affiliates (new and old) to have a chance of grabbing a spot. One of the options, which resulted in me winning, was to simply use their deeplink RSS feeds which I blogged about in April. I know a few of the others that will be going and I’m sure, if its anything like 2006, it will certainly be an week to remember!

So I just wanted to say a big thankyou to the guys and Sunshine (Chris and Happy) and also those at Affiliate Future. Tell the Captain to crack open the MGR!