A sad day and also a new opportunity
I feel kind of sad that Buy.at have, after nearly 3 years stopped advertising on this blog. I still remember the day when Big Mal (now a movie star) rang me up and said that he liked the blog and Buy.at would like to support it by taking out an advertising slot. In those days Buy.at were still very grass roots and were reaching out into the affiliate community to help grow their network. They saw advertising on here as a good way of communicating their programmes to a very targetted audience. However, people and departments change and blog advertising isn’t part of the overall marketing strategy at the moment for Buy.at. This is absolutely fair enough, I appreciate that positions change and budgets can come and go. I just feel a bit sad on a personal level as Buy.at were my first sponsor. Silly to feel sentimental about a sponsor, maybe it’s because Buy.at are based local to me in Newcastle and I had a great working relationship with the “old guard” 
Naturally though things change and Buy.at are now part of AOL and they’re a different beast altogether. Lots of the key staff (with a few exceptions) have now moved on. Perhaps nost telling is the fact that Buy.at weren’t shortlisted in the “Innovative Affiliate Network of the Year” at this year’s A4U Awards. I would hope to see this change by the time the awards come around next year and after speaking to a couple of their staff the other night, I think they recognise there are still opportunities for them to strengthen their links within the affiliate community.
Anyway….what this all means is that I now have a 728×90 ad slot available on this blog for the first time in 3 years. For now I’ve filled it with a ShareMyPlaylists.com ad but it’s available for either £410 a month or £450 a month. More details here. So if there are any affiliate networks, agencies or even merchants who want to feature their affiliate programme please get in touch.
What I’m listening to right now: Jagged Edged – “Let’s Get Married” – (Jermaine Dupri 09 Remix)
Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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[...] a short break of 7 months or so I’m really glad to welcome back Buy.at as a blog advertiser. In the time that [...]
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other businesses. I thought it would be fun to blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
It does feels a bit sentimental especially when you have the same sponsor and that too your first one for three consecutive years.
The price figure you mentioned per month for the 728 x 90 seems to be a perfect one. I will try and get back to you if I or any of my friends are interested for this advertising slot. Cheers!
30000 readers a month is a big audience but I guess buy.at are so well known they dont need it for branding anymore - if someone knows your blog they prob know about aff marketing and may well already know buy.at and most of the merchants they have.
Could be a good opp for someone like moreniche or a smaller newcomer to get attention though.
Or for a merchant it could be good to get up there as a link building exercise - i’m sure you’d talk about the new sponser and they would get links by association - could make £5k look cheap:)
All the best mate
Russ
The nature of relationships are cyclical, and advertisers will come and go. It is nice of you to give them a big thumbs up as they’re leaving, which means that the relationship is still there, and you could maybe approach them with other marketing plans and ideas too.
It’s sad to see them go after so long. But oh well, it shouldn’t be hard for you to find equaly good advertiser - maybe you could even get a lot better deal now that the site is so big.
Great opportunity for all the advertisers to chip in, this may also serve as a blessing in disguise for you.
Hi Kieron, I can certainly understand your feelings after a 3 year relationship comes to an end, especially after the buy.at company being your first paying advertiser for your blog and keeping it going for such a long time. Hopefully someone will pick up the spot soon and continue a new long lasting relationship.
Till then,
Jean
…oh and by the way - we’re back
and thanks for all the comments - and we’re still the same innovative and friendly network.
Chris