Fraser's Affiliate Marketing News

• Cashback Clashes

  Two interesting items of news occured today in the cashback realm. Firstly Quidco chose to stop working with Affiliate Window in what seems to be a bit of a power struggle. The issue is over Quidco trying to impose new terms under their “SureShop” agreement. I have to admit to not being [...]

• The BBC hasn’t a clue

  I was amazed today to see this story on the BBC website complaining about the issue of spam. Now I hate spam as much as anyone but there is a huge difference between unsolicited commercial email and email you have requested. The well respected Free UK Stuff affiliate site operates on a best practice policy [...]

• Some Recommended Reading

  This week has seen the launch of Affiliate Bitch which looks like it could be very interesting. My only thought it that on the about page it says You chose the job you do, so do it, and deal with the crap, moaning about it won’t make it better. The deed has already been done. Which [...]

• Doug Scott - ASAP Ventures - Interview

  In this podcast I've been speaking to Doug Scott of ASAP Ventures. I recorded this podcast a couple of weeks ago but it's taken me till now to find time to catch up and get it edited and properly produced. More...

• Time To Expand The Business

  I’ve been far too busy recently so it was great to take on a new assistant who recently entered into discussions with an unmentioned affiliate network which led to this follow up email.. Hello, It was good to speak to you earlier regarding Merchant X, I’m glad to hear you’re keen to give them a bit of [...]

• A4uawards & Twitter

  I’m off to the a4uawards. Keep in touch with the news on twitter. http://twitter.com/fraseredwards

• A4uexpo Earlybird Rate Finishes This Week

  No sooner had I posted about the a4uawards deadline than Chris at Existem started hassling me to let you know that the a4uexpo early bird rate closes on Saturday and then it will cost you £100 more after that. The expo is a definite in my affiliate calendar and so it makes sense [...]

• A4uawards Voting Deadline

  Just a quick reminder that the deadline for voting on the a4u community awards is 3pm this afternoon so make sure you take the time to vote before then!

• Alison Guise - Commission Junction

  It's podcast time again at last and this time I have been speaking to Alison Guise who is General Manager Europe, Commission Junction.
  More Details

• Final Podcast Review

  Here are a few more podcasts from the archives that you may have missed. These don’t fit so neatly into affiliate, network or merchant so I’ll just include this as a mixed bag of audio joy! Shawn Collins - Affiliate Summit - Podcast Interview Interview with Sam Harrelson Interview with Matthew Wood - Existem & a4uforum Dan Redfearn [...]

• Merchant Podcast Review

  Carrying on with my review of some of the best podcast you might have missed here are a few that I recorded with merchants. Zak from Prezzybox Graham from buyagift It seems like those two are the only merchants I’ve spoken to so I’ll need to track down a few more soon!

• Network Podcast Review

  Since I seem to have spent most of my time speaking to networks there are quite a few good podcasts to review here Interview with Clarke Duncan from Paid on Results Webgains Interview - Robert Glasgow & Ryan Gilbert Interview with Nicky Iapino - Affilinet UK - Part One Interview with Malcolm Cowley - buy.at Affiliate [...]

• Affiliate Podcast Review

  While I wait to record a new podcast (which I have set a date for!) I thought it might be worth a quick review of some of the best of the old podcasts in case there was any you missed and might like to listen to. For starters here are some interview with affiliates. [...]

• The Future of This Blog

  I haven’t blogged for a while and it’s mostly been down to a lack of time. Becoming a parent has led to less working hours in the day and so a few things have slipped. The following set up is not ideal for getting work done I realised that last year [...]

• BizPod TV Mention

  I’ve been discovering a few video podcasts recently including Geekbrief, thanks to Joe However I was delighted to get a mention on a relatively new video podcast called BizPod TV unfortunately they managed to get my name wrong but that’s ok! I’ve watched a few episodes of BizPod TV now and it’s definitely interesting [...]

• Freshbooks Invoicing Service

  I mostly work with networks which are all set up for self invoicing but there are a few direct deals that I have including advertising on this blog and I’ve found that Freshbooks has been an excellent tool to help with the administration so I thought I would share this tip with you. You can easily [...]

• Next - An Affiliate Marketing Disaster

  I haven’t written about Next until now but I’ve been watching in disbelief as the program lurched from one bad decision to another over the last few months. How far they have fallen from winning Best New Merchant of 2007 at the a4uawards last year. If you’ve somehow missed everything that’s been happening regarding Next [...]

• Domain Name Resources

  I’ve just started buying domains again! I tried to stop a while ago but I’ve cracked and gone back to reading lists of expired domains and buying a few that sound catchy. Nothing outstanding so far but I view it as a long term investment. With that in mind I was [...]

• Affilinet For Sale

  Looks like Affilinet are for sale after United Internet put AdLink on the market according to NMA. I have to admit that affilinet have been quieter in the UK than I expected them to be after my podcast interview with Nicky Iapino. It seems that a deal would also include the domainers [...]

• Well done dgm

  When I was doing my last quarterly accounts I had a bit of a rant about some things I was finding annoying. One of them was about dgm’s payment process but Helen Southgate was good enough to post and let me know things should be changing. Fast forward to this week and I [...]

• Closed Group Brand Name Bidding

  This is an issue that’s floated around for a long long time now and I’ve never totally had my mind made up about. I want to stay well clear of the ‘corruption’ discussion this time as it’s not worth debating rumour but I’m struggling to appreciate the business case for a closed brand name [...]

• Kevin Edwards (Affiliate Window) & Matt Bailey (DGM) Podcast - Part Two

  This is the second half of the podcast with Kevin Edwards from Affiliate Window and Matt Bailey from DGM.

  More...

• Kevin Edwards (Affiliate Window) & Matt Bailey (DGM) Podcast

  This week on the podcast I was joined by Kevin Edwards from Affiliate Window and Matt Bailey from DGM. It was a chance to explore the network position on a few common affiliates complaints and to give a bit of an insight into the issues networks face. More...

• Holiday Watchdog Bought By TripAdvisor

  Just a quick post to congratulate Chris Clarkson & Chris Brown on the recent sale of their excellent Holiday Watchdog site to TripAdvisor. More details over at Travolution. It’s great to have watched some of the good guys in the affiliate world build a site from scratch to become an excellent resource and then to [...]

• Affiliate Summit West 2008 Preview

  If you are heading to Vegas in February then you might want to have a listen to this preview podcast along with some other great audio content on Geekcast.fm Here are more details about the preview show The Affiliate Summit 2008 Preview show on WebmasterRadio.FM was hosted by Affiliate Summit co-founders, Missy Ward and Shawn [...]

• How To Start An Affiliate Program

  I’ve just read an excellent article written by Mark Russell from Existem AM which outlines all the information you might need as a starting point for launching an affiliate program. Mark outlines the main considerations as well as some great Do’s & Don’ts. I often get emails from merchants asking for advice [...]

• Discount Codes Podcast

  As I mentioned in a previous post we have been working on a podcast involving some affiliates who specialise in promoting merchants using discount codes. The affiliates who agreed to take part were Joe Connor, Christ Frost & Keith Bond. More...

• Questions for Voucher Code Affiliates

  In my appeal for podcast ideas to make sure the content I produce is relevant Joe Connor suggested a podcast involving a few top affiliates who run discount voucher sites (probably better known as coupon sites in the US). I thought this was a great idea so we are just working on getting a [...]

• Getting Back In The Groove

  Happy New Year! So I’ve had a bit of an extended Christmas break due to a couple of weeks of planned holiday followed by a week of looking after an ill baby but now it’s time to get back to work and in January that’s sometimes a bit tricky to find the [...]

• Thank You & Happy Christmas

  One of my last blogs posts of the year is a chance to thank those merchants & networks that send Christmas gifts & cards. In some ways it’s a small thing but it really does mean I feel more loyalty towards these companies and it marks them out as the “good guys” that I [...]