Matthew Wood and his Existem team who organize the must attend affiliate marketing event a4uexpo (14th -15th October) have opened up the floor for suggestions as to the topics that delegates would like to see included this year.

The potential subject matter which could be included is wide and varied and the level that it is aimed at can also be very broad, from complete beginner to expert. To read about this call for ideas pop over to the a4uexpo website and take a look at SEO, Social Media or Paid Search Strategies? We Need Your input…

For what its worth some of the things I’d like to see included are:

• Advanced SEO Techniques
• Anything by Dr Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson of Conversion Rate Experts, their session on Conversion Rate Optimisation was the highlight of the 2007 a4uexpo in my opinion.
• Email list building and marketing - beginner / intermediate. This is an area I know very little about.
• Newsletter structure - intermediate - I suppose this is really an extension of the topic above although I’m sure there is enough for it to be worthy of its own slot.

Don’t be shy Matt, Claire and the team are eagerly awaiting your suggestions, you can help to make a4uexpo 2008 a resounding success.

Its still not too late to Save £100 on the delegate rate for a4uexpo 2008 - but be quick, as this EarlyBird rate is ending on 31st May (This Saturday).

Why should you register for a4uexpo today?

• £100 off EarlyBird rate
• Ample networking opportunities at the exhibition & pre/post event networking parties
• 2 Days of Conference Tracks and Sessions

What’s New for 2008?

• A Thames River Cruise on the middle evening, courtesy of buy.at
• Vertical Networking Receptions
• Bloggers Cafe’

In the words of the a4uexpo blog - don’t procrastinate and end up paying more! - Click Here to Register Now

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I promised in my last post that I would give you a few ideas about what things to do if you are a merchant (or represent a merchant) and want to be featured on my websites. I’m not guaranteeing all these methods will work but they may move you up my priority list.

Communicate with me

Talk to me, but don’t be pushy, don’t ask how I’m going to promote you, let me know what you have that I may be able to use, tell me about promotions, special offers, sales, new lines, best sellers, what makes you better than everyone else selling the same thing.

Help me

The best way you can help me is by providing copy about the products you sell, ideally unique copy, this is a great way of getting featured as fresh content takes time and every little helps.

Bruce Clayton at Existem-Am recently asked what he could do to help me feature one of his clients so I asked for information about all the brands they sell, 80 - 100 words each I told him would be ideal, Bruce immediately accepted the challenge and said that would be his train project, a couple of weeks later he sent me a nice word document with the bio’s for all 26 brands his client currently features, so far I have added pictures and links tweaked and published three of them and over the next 2-3 months the rest will also be published meaning his client will have 26 articles on my fashion website which gets a steady stream of traffic day in day out.

Give me an incentive

I’m not really one for entering competitions but as I mentioned a couple of weeks back Sunshine held a number of missions each with its own prize but with the ultimate reward being a place on the Affiliate Future Barbados trip. I am happy to say that even though I left things late getting started I was rewarded handsomely for the missions that I took part in winning not only a years subscription to the Hotel Chocolat tasting club but also a place on the trip too. Thank you Sunshine and Affiliate Future

Send me freebies

Possibly my favourite way of being asked to promote a merchant, and the beauty is you don’t need an affiliate program, you send me a sample of what you sell and I will write about either it or your website depending on what you want doing. Over the last year or so among other things I’ve received numerous t shirts, a flashy mobile phone, pants, shoes, a cd, books, my wife and daughters have also benefited as I have been sent pashmina’s, dresses, a beautiful tailored shirt, plus a hat and gloves.

Special mention must go here to Chris Bishop affiliate manager for House Of Fraser who above and beyond the call of duty sent me some hayfever stuff when he found out I was suffering, cheers for that kind gesture Chris, more Hof articles are in the pipeline.

For further ideas regarding getting promoted by affiliates read this article Take a Ticket & Get In Line - You Can’t All Be No.1! by Jason, yes I know I am always mentioning his stuff thats because he talks a lot of sense.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Hard to believe that a year has passed since I wrote this post, but it still holds true so worth bumping back to the front of my blog.

5th 6th Anniversary Of Nothing

Most people have dates indelibly etched in their memory, both personal and professional, in affiliate marketing circles it is often the first sale or the first cheque (check) however the date that sticks in my mind is 15th May 2002 this was the last day I drew a complete blank, no sales or leads, no residual income, absolutely nothing no transactions what so ever. Looking back the next day wasn’t much better a $2.88 (it was all $ on CJ then) from some long forgotten merchant on Commission Junction and after advertising May 2002 actually made a loss.

I don’t know when the significance of this date came to me, possibly a couple of months later when I realised there were earnings every day since May 15th and since then it has always been there spurring me on, no way do I want another day where the tumble weeds rattle and roll though my websites.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing, a total roller coaster ride, there have been numerous days where I have made a loss Christmas Day 2004 springs to mind, someone had hit the casino hard making me a loss of about £500 however it all came back with a few more £££ on Boxing Day.

How the industry has evolved in the subsequent years, in 2002 I was working with just four networks, CJ, Tradedoubler, DGM and Affiliate Window plus Amazon, now I’m unsure how many networks and independents I am signed up with.

I have evolved too, five years ago I had a scatter gun approach, if a new merchant launched up went the links and quiet often nothing, now I’m more interested in promoting a handful of quality merchants, who I hope appreciate my efforts, to hundreds of merchants and many networks I wont even register as an active affiliate, the only scattergun stuff I do these days is on my totally neglected freebie site.

Don’t get me wrong, in no way do I consider my self a super affiliate in any way shape or form but my advice to anyone just starting out is, don’t spread yourself too thin, select four or five merchants that you are going to make a special effort for (this is your A list) and build a business around them, don’t be frightened of change, ease back if a merchant stops performing, push harder when conversions are flying, keep your eyes and ears open you may pick up a gem from an industry event or forum that you never even considered, test the water cautiously with new affiliations before deciding to push the boat out and promote to the A list and if you come across a turkey drop it, what works for someone else may not work for you.

Above all have fun and try to avoid ‘nothing days’.

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Over the last week or so, in the wake of the Google abolishment of the rules on trademark bidding, I am certain you have been inundated with emails from merchants reminding and revising their ppc policies, possibly to the point where you are screaming “no more” and getting itchy with the delete button finger.

Of all the emails that landed in my inbox the one that is etched in my mind is from gadget merchant Firebox simply for this paragraph:

No Competitor Brand Bidding - Please do not bid on the trademarked brand names of our competitors when promoting Firebox.

It makes us look bad and feel icky.

(Plus we get nasty phonecalls from our competitors, which nobody likes.)

That one line (It makes us look bad and feel icky) should be enough to put off anyone from even considering allowing competitor brand bidding on their affiliate program, although it would be a bit naive to think that it would put off everyone, as unfortunately there are plenty of people of low moral fibre.

I will let you dear reader undertake your own research as to who is allowing the dubious practice of brand bidding on competitor terms.

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Are Banks Targeting Good Payers In Credit Squeeze?

In my experience the answer is yes, well they certainly are not bothering with those that can’t pay or won’t pay, no point really it would just be a waste of effort.

I have a credit card that I have always used for my affiliate marketing activity, ppc being the biggest expense, in November they increased my credit limit by £900 and I thought thats cool if I decide to run any vigorous campaigns over the festive period the credit is there, as it turned out I never used this extra credit as I had made a conscious decision to reduce ppc activity so when they reduced me back to the previous limit in January I thought nothing of it.

However every month since my limit has been reduced on this card by a few hundred pounds, I’ve never had any defaults on it and quite often paid off a couple of grand a month, now because of this constant chipping away of my credit limit I am reluctant to over pay in case it drops by more, consequently there is very little spending power on that card now, luckily my seo activity far exceeds my ppc at the moment, if it had happened twelve months ago it would have been a disaster.

I’m sure that many other card users with a good payment record are also being squeezed.

And Is It Starting To Affect Online Shopping?

Hopefully not, April was a pretty good month for me ppc was at an all time low and money earned was pretty reasonable, other affiliates have reported similar results, however if the banks continue to squeeze, disposable funds are going to be reduced making it harder for consumers to make online purchases.

Have any merchants been affected by the credit squeeze?

Has anyone else seen their credit card limit systematically reduced month on month?

Any affiliates noticed a marked downturn in sales?

Anyone got anything else to say about this situation?

Just comment in the box below.

Popularity: 24% [?]