Last Autumn Clarke Duncan of Director of affiliate marketing network Paid On Results handed me a business card, “this is our new corporate image” he told me, impressed I have been waiting with eager anticipation for the changes to be implemented on their website and now the wait is over the re-brand has begun here is the formal press release:

Paid On Results this week announced a rebrand as part of it’s strategy to grow and transform the business. This move will help to position the company to showcase its unrivaled knowledge of affiliate marketing, innovative technology and supportive staff.

The new branding includes a new logo and corporate colour scheme which better reflects the company’s vibrant and exciting vision for the future of ecommerce. Developed after months of internal and external consultation, the new image represents the core values of Paid On Results – friendliness, clarity, simplicity, dynamism, excellence. The new brand identity has been applied to all Paid On Results marketing materials including the website, blog, presentations and stationery.

Clarke Duncan, Director and Shareholder, spoke about the company’s new identity:-

“This is an exciting time for Paid On Results as we continue to grow steadily and recruit additional staff in the face of the global recession. The rebranding reflects this excitement and optimism. The future for Paid On Results sees further growth aided by an increased emphasis on sales and marketing. Today Paid On Results can look to the future with confidence, largely because of its strong background in bringing to the fore innovative technology and in employing knowledgeable, friendly staff. We will continue to build our independent business based on these strong foundations. “

About Paid On Results:

Established in 2002, Paid On Results has always been at the cutting edge of affiliate marketing in the United Kingdom. The company has developed an incomparable comprehension of the market and has built up positive relationships with many of the country’s largest and most successful affiliates. This combination of groundbreaking, yet extremely user friendly technology plus experienced, knowledgeable account management has made Paid On Results a potent force in the industry.

For the second year running I was lucky enough to secure my place at the Affiliate Future Barbados Event, and a very memorable event it was too for a variety of reasons.

Last year I said that I had regretted not being able to go diving or indeed visit the infamous Harbour Lights this year I managed both although the copious drinking, dancing and making merry at the latter was the most successful of the two pursuits.

Again it was great to spend some quality time networking and having fun with some fantastic people some of whom are great friends of long standing, and of the people I met for the first time I’m sure a few of them will also become more than just casual holiday acquaintances.

The Affiliate Future Barbados  event is invaluable for the Affiliate Marketing Industry, long standing business relationships and fantastic friendships are born out of it.

Thanks to the Affiliate Future team for organising the trip and being fantastic hosts, Pete, Alex, Jess and especially the wonderful J Lil who went out of his way to find me alternative accommodation when the first room proved unsuitable, thanks also to Chris Clarkson of Sunshine.co.uk for sponsoring my place yet again.

This awesome video sums up the whole Barbados experience:

As special occasions go you would be hard pushed to beat the glitz and the glamour of the A4uAwards held on Tuesday 2nd June at London’s Park Lane Hilton.

The UK affiliate marketing industry was well represented across all sectors, and everyone was done up to the nines, which proves that even us “grubby affiliates” do on occasion scrub up well.

I had the honour of being invited to the event by DFDS Seaways, so a big thank you to my hosts Andrew Cooper and Tom Fotheringham.

Basically this article is a whole bunch of plaudits, the venue was excellent, the meal was adequate, catering for 500 is never going to be the same as individual attention in a Michelin star restaurant.

The entertainment was great, and the awards themselves well presented.

Of course the company was fabulous so many good friends and acquaintances packed together in one room to applaud and honour the best of the best.

While all the awards are worthy of our fine industry and the winners richly deserving, my particular favourites  are the Publishers’ Choice Awards and Community Choice Awards which were voted for only by members of affiliates4u, my bias toward these awards comes from the fact that many of the winners, highly commended and indeed nominees are very dear friends of mine.

Publishers’ Choice Awards

Publishers’ Choice of Affiliate Network

Winner: Affiliate Window

Highly Commended: DGM

Publishers’ Choice of Account Manager

Winner: Hannah Swift (Existem A.M.)

Highly Commended: Julie Wood (Affiliate Window) & Agnieszka Marchewka (buy.at / Platform A)

Publisher’s Choice of Affiliate Manager 2009

Winner: Chris Clarkson (sunshine.co.uk)

Highly Commended: Naomi Brown (Firebox)

Community Choice Awards

Affiliate Management Agency of 2009

Winner: Existem Affiliate Management

Highly Commended: Azam Marketing

Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2009

Winner: Kirsty McCubbin (affiliatestuff.co.uk)

Highly Commended: Lee McCoy (leemccoy.co.uk)

Congratulations to each and every one of you.

The full list of awards and winners can be found here

Finally massive congratulations must go to  Matthew Wood a young man (he only hit the big 30 a couple of days after this years awards) who has helped shape the entire UK Affiliate Marketing Industry over the past seven or so years, he and his fine team at Existem do such sterling work. Without Matt and the team events like this and the popular a4uexpo may never have been established.

As you can probably tell by the tone of my humble roundup I loved each and every minute of the night, and am already looking forward to next year.

Only change I would like to see is the smaller affiliates and merchants being honoured in some of the verticals, people who wouldn’t necessarily put themselves up for nomination, how this could be achieved is anybodies guess, food for thought.

Being a bit of a lazy blogger its unusual for me to post more than 3 or 4 times a month on Keith’s Affiliate Marketing Blog often its a lot less, so it takes something special to make me do two posts in one day.

I had just hit publish on the Hootsuite article when my daughter told me Interlink had left a package for me, think she was a bit disappointed it wasn’t for her as she is 18 tomorrow and covered in chicken pox so not able to celebrate with her mates.

Well the mystery package turned out to be my prize from The All Up And On What Would You Buy Challenge run by Existem Affiliate Management.

I have always been of the mindset that you have to be in it to win it although with this one it was a little different, I had been looking for an angle to promote all-up-and-on and here was the perfect hook 3 products from their range in 3 different price bands, so I spent a little time sifting through the site and couldn’t come up with inspiration for a single post, no it spawned two The All Up And On Challenge and In the Kitchen with All Up And On.

Anyway come judgment day I was lucky enough to be one of the winners and today took delivery of the awesome Hucks designchain™ which you can see below stuffed with a few affiliate essentials.

Thanks to @allupandon and @Existem_AM for this fabulous prize and for running such a fantastic winnable incentive.

The first a4uexpo Europe in Amsterdam was amazing, I knew it would be good but it exceeded my expectations, the venue was ideal, the timetable well structured and the quality of the speakers was of a very high standard. The delegates were naturally of a more international flavour than at the London events however there was still good representation from the UK.

In all I attended a full 12 sessions over the 2 days of the conference, I managed in the main to stick to my timetable the only change I made was the first slot on day two where I ventured into “As Online continues to take its valid slice of the performance cake, what does the future hold for performance advertising in general?” presented by Nicky Iapino, this was by choice I might add not some mis-navigation due to the effects of a heavy night.

Regrets, thats easy I missed a further 7 sessions due to not being able to be in two places at once, however I’m hoping that these will be all available on video at some point.

In general highlights were many and disappointments were few, suffice to say I have a whole host of ideas, from link building to site structure to producing effective content and many other little gems, I have already implemented a couple of things with many more to do, hopefully the rewards will follow.

Changes I’d like to see

• difficult one but maybe a few more minutes between end of lunchtime sessions and start of afternoon sessions
• a way of asking questions without having to use the microphone (some of us are shy) possibly a tear off strip at the bottom of the feedback form.

Highlight of the exhibition hall for me was Conversion Rate Experts who were giving free eyetracking reviews of delegates websites, very illuminating.

I would now like to publicly thank Matthew Wood and his team from a4uevents / Existem for putting on an excellent event and all the speakers, exhibitors, other delegates, back room staff etc for making it a resounding success.

See you all in London in October.