Happy New Year

2007 was a fantastic year for UK affiliate marketing, the industry finally coming of age, two major conferences, the Affiliate Summit was great but the a4uExpo was awesome.

Innovation came from from many of the networks and merchants.

Down side has been the worrying trend from some merchants who are cherry picking what to pay commission on, thankfully other merchants appreciate the strength of the affiliate sales channel and actually raised commissions, I know which ones will get more attention from affiliates

This is not a 2007 review that has been covered by several others including Kieron and Ray.

Predictions

• Consolidation - there have been an awful lot of new network startups in 2007 some good, some bad, some will simply fade away others will stand the test of time, however I predict some consolidation, very possibly we will see two fairly major networks joining forces.
• Growth of Mobile Technology - something I hadn’t considered before the affiliate summit when Shaun Collins spoke about how a significant proportion of his blog visitors use mobile devises, then at the expo my good friend Ray Theakston spoke of his plans to launch a mobile site. Initially I expect the growth of mobile to be slow, maybe a network or two will introduce a mobile interface so we can check stats, and hopefully A4u will also go mobile, after all if facebook can do it We will probably have to wait until Autumn before we see mobile shopping, I expect Amazon to be the first major merchant to go down that route, in time for next Christmas.
• Widgets - Prezzybox have already given us a Wordpress widget expect more to appear as other merchants catch on.
• Video - merchants and affiliates will be racing to produce bigger, better more lavish films to promote their wares, video casts will take over from podcasts on the more technical blogs.
• International UK affiliate event - We got a taste of this in March 2007 when DFDS took a number of affiliates for a day trip to Amsterdam, this year I predict a full blown UK affiliate event to be held abroad (not Wales Jude although I’d love to come to Swansea sometime) .

For a more tongue in cheek look at the year see what Jason has to say in Affiliate Marketing - 2008 - The Year Ahead.

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