A4UExpo Day 2 Round-Up

[Apologies about the lack of links - I'm on the train, dipping into and out of connectivity]

The first session that I attended this morning was slightly hamperd by the extreme tiredness that seem to exude from every pore. It was entitled "The Search Universe" and was aimed at covering what's going on in the search engine "space" at the moment.

Mike Grehan rightly pointed out that Google et al are moving towards embedding "content" within the search results using AJAX so that users don't have to navigate away from the SERPS.

I've been saying this for at least 20 months when I commented on the A4U forum last year as well on this blog. It's a process of improving immediacy - getting people to the right content sooner.

Another element that I've been sure of for a while, but haven't really implemented in any great way as an affiliate, it the process of keeping visitors on your site as long as possible before they click the back button. As an affiliate I've always been consicous of moving visitors on to merchants as quickly as possible. On my content based sites I'll be looking at making sure I reduce the bounce-rates.

I'm convinced, as Mike is, that the speed at which people reverse out of your site back into Google not only has a direct response on your AdWords quality score, but also you natural results rankings.

It's just a hunch, no concrete evidence, but I'm pretty sure that it's true.

The second session I went to was about "Monetising Social Networks". It featured a site called WAYN.com which is a social networking site in the travel vertical. Jerome Touze is the guy behind the site and gave a candid view of the site's progression and how they're partnering with related merchants to monetise the site now they've surpassed their target registration size.

I was hoping the session would be a bit more general, but it was still very interesting.

The third session I attended was the one on "Widgets and Blidgets and how it affects affiliate marketing". This was another fascinating discussion by Vinny Lingham from Synthasite (a very useful tool) about how you can make your own widgets to display information on your sites from other sites. Also he intimated about the new version of the Synthasite service which appears to have some great features and will some great benefits to a wide range of affiliates.

The fourth session of the day (and boy was I getting even more tired) was about the MillionDollarHomepage.com and how the PR process helped turn it into the phenomenon that it was.

I work a lot in the PR area as it is, and especially in the online PR area and it was good to see some of the things that my colleagues recommend to their clients also being recommended to the huge hit that was Alex Tew.

The best session of the day was left to me ole mucker James Little of Altogether Digital fame. It alsways going to be an intersting session given the diversity of camps on offer.

There was David Hall from Affiliate Window with his "Big Network" hat on. There was Mark Kuhillow who I've known for years with his affiliate management hat on. Neil Hutchinson with his "Professional Affiliate & SEM" hat and James Little with his "Former-affiliate, agency and new network hat".

The question that was posed to the panel at the outset was "Will you need a network in 2008?". You can take this from a number of different angles:

1) Will affiliates need networks - Neil proved that if you're successful enough you can go direct to merchant. The benefits of this, I believe, would be that the affiliate secure higher commissions as well as get greater feedback on data, conversion rates etc.

2) Will merchant need networks - The debate surrounded around how the size of the merchant will impact on whether a merchant needed a large or small network. David Hall contended that larger networks added value in terms of their ability to protect the merchants from "unethical" affiliate actions such as spotting unrequired brand-bidding or spyware. This assertion met with great derision from James Little who argued that size isn't important (cough) when it comes to spotting unethical practices. His comments were met with applause and support from Clarke Duncan (who in my mind does a fantastic job with POR).


The value aspect of using a large network surrounded from the fact that large networks generally charge a greater set-up, monthly fee and/or overide. There was consensus that a merchant's choice of network depended on many more factors than their size, how much they spend on free booze at G2G's and the number of "brands" they already have as merchants.

In my mind, it is worth smaller merchants to contact the networks that are most suited to their needs, be it because they are more accomodating about their feeds, they know more about the industry or have the more appropriate tools for their industry.

3) Will agencies need networks - James Little (I believe) rightly said that many agencies are moving into the network space because they are under pressure to reduce their clients' customer acquisition costs as well as take greater control as to how their client's are marketed online.

Agencies are often derided in the affiliate marketing community. Some agencies place there feet firmly in their clients' camp. They don't try and build strategic relationships. R.O. Eye in my mind, actively try and work to improve both their clients' "lot" but also the affiliates. This came accross in Mark Kuhillow's approach to the discussion.

Just as my eyes were dropping due to the lack of sleep and not the lack of open and frank discussion, Neil commented that he can not understand why merchants prevent affiliates from doing "direct to merchant PPC". This is something is close to my heart too. I feel sometimes that merchants (or their agencies, most probably) can't see the benefit of affiliates putting their own cash in to find the most effecient ways of promoting the merchant.

Proffesional affiliates won't bid up to around 10-15% of the break even point of a campaign/keyword. Allowing affiliates to use generic terms, direct to the merchant, can only work towards creating a more efficient marketplace as well as allowing the marketing of their products react more quickly to new launches or opportunities. The sooner there is an opening up of D2M PPC the better.

And there we go! A thoroughly great event. If you didn't think it was worth it this year, I assure you, you won't regret paying next year.