How to create a successful entry for the a4uAwards

The only awards that matter in Affiliate Marketing, the a4uAwards 2011 have been announced and will be held at the Grosvenor hotel on 17th May this year. as in previous years I will once again be on the judging panel. Last year I was slightly disappointed with the entries for 2 reasons... Reason 1 - Not enough affiliates entered. Sure, some entered but there were a few notable exceptions. I'm talking about some of the guys old and new who have great affiliate sites in some great niches but for whatever reason, chose not to enter the awards. Please don't let the same happen this year. Don't think you have to be a "super affiliate" earning £500k a month to enter either. Some of the most interesting and innovative affiliate sites are from the bedroom affiliates or startups. Remember, if you don't enter then you can't complain when the usual suspects win. Reason 2 - Some of the entries were just terrible. If I'm honest it was mainly the agencies who were responsible for this. Some seemed to totally disregard the judging process and send in entries that I can only assume were copied from their sales brochure. If I have to read once more that "we are a multi channel agency who specialise in email marketing, affiliate marketing and PPC" then I won't be held responsible for my actions, which will be both disturbing and heinous. So...here are my top tips on how to create a successful entry and impress the judges 1. READ THE JUDGING PROCESS AND TAILOR YOUR ENTRY ACCORDINGLY This is so important I've put it first and even put the title in caps.The first thing that ANYBODY thinking of entering should do is read the judging process here. As you can see we judge each entry on certain criteria such as clear campaign objectives, feasibility, success and ROI etc. So...<HUGE TIP ALERT> why not tailor your entry using those headings? as that's the basis that we'll be judging you on. It makes it really difficult for us to mark an entry if it's just a sales pitch with no clear KPI's. 2. Make it pretty I'm going to contradict myself here a bit by saying it doesn't have to be pretty to win. Myself and all the judges will mark each entry purely on the content within. But...put yourself in our shoes, we have well over 100 entries each to mark and evaluate. Some can be 4 or 5 pages long. That's a lot of stuff to read so why not make it easy for us? Now before you say "but I'm just a startup and I have no money to create a professional entry" all I'm asking for is your logo on each page, short paragraphs and bullet points. When you've been judging entries all day and the next one you come to is a 3 page document with paragraph after paragraph of tightly typed text then it just makes our eyes bleed. So why not help us out and pretty it up a little? 3. Use images Similar to what I'm saying above. If you're going to be talking about any metrics whatsover (and you most definitely should) then use a nice chart or graph. Again, make it really easy to demonstrate your achievements. Feel free to use screenshots or even video too. Just don't give us page after page of dry words. Do you see the theme here? 4. Use examples and case studies Again, be as specific as you can. If you ran a particularly successful campaign or piece of marketing activity then please refer to it. Give us as much detail as possible including all metrics. All of the judges sign NDA's so don't worry we won't share your entry with anyone or steal your ideas and successes. 5. Don't be wooly Here are some terms to avoid when submitting an entry... "December was our biggest month of the year" - No shit Sherlock. Figures please. "The campaign was our most successful ever" - Great, how so? "Our software/app/toolkit is the best on the available" - Again, how so? I'm sure you get the gist by now, please offer hard facts and figures. If you wear a tinfoil hat and are worried about sharing financials then fine, why not just tell us that you're turnover increased by 30% then? That'll work. 6. "we send out a weekly email to our affiliates" If I had a £1 for the number of times I read entries that said "we send out a weekly email to our affiliates" last year then I'd be sitting on my own island in the Bahamas right now. Sure, it's great that you communicate with your affiliates weekly but this alone won't make you a winner. I hope the above helps and I look forward to seeing you all on May 17th. What I'm listening to right now: Last night a DJ saved my life