Well done Dialaphone - Affiliate communication done well
It’s coming up to the busiest time of the year when some misguided retailers decide to lower or drop commission altogether on best selling products because they don’t think they need affiliates as certain in-demand products will sell very well on their own at this time of year, thanks very much.
So, what a breath of fresh air when I got an email today from Dialaphone who - now get this - are actually increasing commission on one of the most anticipated mobile phones of the year. I am of course talking about the Blackberry Storm. Here’s part of the email that I had to re-read 3 times in case I had got it wrong.
As Dialaphone are one of the few retailers to sell the Blackberry Storm we’ve decided to give a little extra commission on it this month - every successful Blackberry Storm order placed in November will be credited with an extra £10 on validation.
Can you believe it? Are you listening Carphone Warehouse? This is how you promote a new product, you don’t tell affiliates to sod off as you don’t want their sales. Instead you offer a bonus for every sale to incentivise affiliates to push your programme. Original eh?
Not only do Dialaphone increase commission but they also make it really easy for us to promote them and follow some of my golden rules.
First of all they offer creative to support this new product/offer. It may sound like such an obvious idea but there is many a time I get an email from a merchant to tell me about a super duper offer/promotion/product/event only to find no creative at all to support it. Dialaphone get this right and have released 4 banners promoting the Blackberry Storm. See below for example.
What’s even better is that Dialaphone have not one but two separate landing pages for the new phone. Giving us different angles to promote it. Brilliant. Wait though, I’m not finished yet. There was also 2 customised affiliate links for both of these pages included in the email. I didn’t have to log in anywhere and create my own, I just copied them straight from the email. Believe me, when you’re bombarded with literally hundreds of emails a day, the merchants and networks who make it easy for we affiliates to promote them, are the ones we will push.
I’m sure that there are another couple of merchants promoting the Blackberry Storm, but guess what? I can’t remember who they are. But the Dialaphone offer has made an impression. So much so I featured it on discount code site here. I did it as soon as I got the email in fact.
I get a few merchants asking me how they can be effective and break through the noise to reach affiliates. Well here’s a perfect example which I will point them to in future. Credit also to Affiliate Window, who manage the Dialaphone programme and who sent the email.
What almost beggars belief is that the Blackberry Storm is ONLY available on the Vodafone network here in the UK. However the Vodafone affiliate programme (on Affiliate Window and DGM) has no mention of the phone anywhere in their affiliate communications. No emails have gone out, other than to say it will be released on the 14th November. There are no incentives for pre-selling it, no text links to promote it and no creative either. Talk about missed opportunity.
What I’m listening to right now: Prince - “Scarlet Pussy”
Kieron takes delivery of his white Lamborghini
At long last I’m the proud owner of a white Lamborghini. Thanks to Peter at Getting Personal.
Peter obviously reads this blog and knows I have something of an obsession with white cars. So I was delighted to find a package on my doormat this morning with my very own white Lambo!
Sure, it’s a USB memory stick but we’ve all got to start somewhere right? Big thanks to Peter who enclosed a note saying “saw this and thought of you”. Lol, much appreciated Peter!
For anyone who didn’t know, Getting Personal sell all kinds of very cool personalised gifts and have an affiliate programme on Affiliate Window offering up to 17.5% commission. Lovely!
What I’m listening to right now: Prince - “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man” possibly my most favourite Prince song ever.
Possibly the best public car park in the world ever
World’s Most Impressive Garage - Watch more free videos
Thanks to Max for this absolutely awesome video that a couple of guys took whilst driving around possibly the best car park in the world…ever. Just check out the precious metal parked up, especially the pair or black and white Lambo’s at the very start of the video. Then there’s the Ferrari Enzo, a £500k+ supercar just sitting in a public multi-level car park!! Stunning.
What I’m listening to right now: Cassie- “I Wanna Fall In Love”
Free Graze box for everyone!
After reading my review the other week, the nice people at Graze have been in touch to offer my blog readers their very own Graze box - FREE! Not only that but you can get your second box for half price.
So, to order your free Graze box and get one for half price simply visit Graze, place your order and then enter discount code 62PD8B6 to qualify. There is no end date to this offer but it is limited to one use per person.
Please feel free to leave any feedback or comments for Graze below, as they are reading this and very interested in your thoughts.
UPDATE: Due to high demand this code has now been changed to entitle the user to any small box for half price.
What I’m listening to right now: Ryan Leslie – “Quicksand”
Ask The Super Affiliates a Question - Part 2
Following on from the “Meet the Super Affiliates” session at this year’s Expo I thought I’d follow up this post and answer some of the questions posted that we didn’t get a chance to on the day.
Question from Patrick Altoft: Where do you stand on SEO and obeying Google’s guidelines when it comes to affiliate sites? People cloak links, block affiliate links using robots.txt and buy links to promote their sites. Where do you draw the line and does the line vary according to industry?
A. Personally speaking for sites that I plan to promote long term I always stick to Google’s guidelines. Especially when it comes to buying links, as there’s too much at risk if Google were to find out and instantly ban you from the SERPS. It’s just not worth it.
Question from Daniel: As a merchant wanting to work with super-affiliates, what are the top 5 things I need to do?
A. This is a really easy one, yet it’s amazing how many merchants either don’t follow it or understand it. All merchants need to do is (1) offer a fair commission in line with the sector, (2) communicate effectively with ALL affiliates, not just your top ones (3) offer a wide range of marketing tools, i.e. good selection of banner sizes, datafeeds (up to date), widgets, plugins etc. (4) don’t have silly PPC restrictions like NOT allowing affiliates to mention your product/brand in sales copy for fear of outranking in the serps and (5) be fair, don’t cut affiliate commissions on popular products that sell well at certain times of year, i.e. the Wii at Christmas.
Question from Jude: We see super affiliates being extremely successful at what they do - however, have there been instances where projects you’ve worked on have gone pear-shaped? Are you successful at everything you do? Or are the super affiliates mere mortals like the rest of us?
A. God yes, I’ve had loads of projects that have tanked, or fell flat as I have got bored of them. However these are just as valuable as the projects that work as you can learn from your failures.
Question from Richard: Which companies would you recommend seeking inbound links from, excluding the major media portals like the BBC or The Guardian. In many cases they will be paid links, is this acceptable or are there risks attached?
A. Never pay for links, ever. If you do you need to accept the risk that Google could find out and kick you out of the serps, ask yourself is it worth it? Instead just concentrate on soliciting links from similar on-theme sites to yours. Its that simple.
Question from Ray Johnson: Please tell us more about how to be successful using your techniques. What are the risks involved. Being a newbie how and where should I start?
A. I’ve always said that when starting out you should create a site about something your are very knowledgeable and passionate about. This will make it so much easier for you when it comes to updating your site every day. Don’t forget about link building either, most of the successful sites I know either employ third parties to build links for them or do it themselves. It’s absolutely vital to do this.
Question from Mark: To what extent do you think the more famous / well known ‘bigboys’(& gals) are really the main super affiliates, with being a ‘name’ pretty much part and parcel of the super affiliate moniker, or do you think the well known supers are just the tip of the iceberg, with many, many 100’s of others doing equally well without anyone really knowing about that much about them?
A. Without a shadow of a doubt there are a load more guys doing very well in Affiliate Marketing who for one reason or another are not connected to the A4U Forum or Expo. In my other business I regularly come across people making a serious living from this industry who keep themselves to themselves and don’t attend networking events or even participate in forums.
Question from Elaine: Do you think that Affiliate Marketing is a sustainable business model going forward, say 10 years? Have you any thoughts as to what the next big change will be?
A. Yes. As long as you have successful sites then there will always be plenty of opportunity to monetise them, with affiliate marketing being one of the streams available. Especially as it is a pay-for-performance model and quite often the most profitable marketing channel for merchants. As for challenges I think that as we are in a growing industry the competition will continue to evolve, there will be more of it and more money thrown into it from the big players. Still plenty of room to shine though!
What I’m listening to right now: Justin Timberlake – “Magic”
Strawberry Revels replace Coffee Revels - the world has gone mad. Vote for your favourite here
First the Jonathan and Russell fiasco, now further evidence that the world has gone stark raving bonkers.
After eating healthy for a few days now I decided I deserved a treat in the form of a little bit of chocolate to ease my craving. So I headed to the shop, picked up a bag of my favourite chocolates - Revels, and proceeded to wolf them down like they were the last sweeties on earth. A couple of mouthfuls later I noticed an odd, unexpected taste that I couldn’t quite identify. It was pretty unpleasant, so I looked a bit closer at the packet to see if they were out of date. I wish they had been, as to my horror I noticed the “new sweets” flash on the packet (see pic above) along with a note that coffee had been “evicted” - due to some stupid marketing promotion - and was now replaced by a mystery flavour. So I bit the remaining Revels in half until I saw the culprit, a red Revel! Strawberry! Yuk!!!
Now I like strawberry creams when you get them in boxes of Cadbury Roses etc, but the strawberry Revels are plain disgusting, horrid, rank, rancid and minging - all combined.
I’m gutted. Revels are my favourite sweets ever, I even put up with the horrible toffee ones because the others are so lush. But alas I can not buy any more Revels as the strawberry ones are just disgusting beyond words. I’m very sad.
On the plus side, the rumour is that coffee will make a (very) welcome return in the near future. Not soon enough, in my opinion. I’m going to have to switch to Munchies until that time.
The question is, which do you prefer? Coffee or strawberry. Please vote below and tell everyone you know too! I can’t be the only fan of coffee Revels out there can I?
Loading …What I’m listening to right now: De La Soul - “3 Feet High and Rising” - best hip-hop album in the world ever?
Jonathan Ross & Russell Brand’s “offensive” call to Andrew Sachs - is it a slow news day?
I was going to blog about this yesterday but thought, no it’ll blow over soon, it must be a slow news day. How wrong I was. Today we have Gordon Brown and David Cameron appearing on TV and in the press giving their opinions on the whole debacle. Seriously, have our leaders got nothing better to do? Has nobody told them we’re *on the brink/in the middle (*delete where appropriate depending on what newspaper you read) of a recession?
I half expected the so called media “gurus” and “pundits” - mainly from the Guardian mind you - to grab their 15 minutes of fame and appear on the news to say that Jonathan and Russel were being bad lads and bleating on about them being a waste of our licence fees etc etc. But Gordon Brown?? Dear God.
I’ve read the transcript of the show and yes it could be perceived as distasteful and offensive but so is a lot of TV/radio. Have you ever seen Russell Brand live? He’s no angel. But then again neither is Jonathan Ross, he regularly tells his guests to f*** off on his Friday night TV show and gives them plenty of abuse. Do people complain? Sometimes yes, but not the Prime Minister!
Yes both comedians and the BBC should apologise to Andrew Sachs, and they have. And that should be the end of it. But no, our politicians are jumping in and adding their 2p worth. Why? Shouldn’t they be running the country, bailing out the banks and lowering fuel prices so I can afford to fill up my Range Rover? Do they really need to be involved with something so trivial? It was even reported tonight that 2 people have lodged complaints with the police. For goodness sake, do we really need to get them involved too? Heaven forbid they have to get up out of their “safety camera” vans to waste their time on this. Oh, wait…
UPDATE: It’s now October 30th, 12 days after the TV broadcast. In the news the United Nations say that they are “deeply concerned” about the safety of tens of thousands of people in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo; with the very real chance of a civil war imminent. But what does the 6pm news lead with today? Bloody Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand yet again. For goodness sake, Russell has quit, Jonathan has been suspended for 3 months and the controller of Radio 2 has resigned. Let’s move on shall we? BTW did you know that before the Mail on Sunday put this story on the front page there had only been 2 complaints made?
What I’m listening to right now: Joe - “Joe Thomas, New Man”
Graze.com - a very good idea
The one downside from working from home on a fulltime basis is that I’m never far away from the biscuit cupboard/sweetie jar 
As much as I try to be disciplined I find myself continually making trips to the kitchen to find junk to eat throughout the day. As a consequence of eating rubbish and drinking too much coffee I always tend to have low energy levels and come mid afternoon I feel tired to the bone. I’ve tried eating healthy and just snacking on fruit but that’s really dull and I don’t have the willpower.
So, when I heard about Graze.com I was very interested. The business was set up by ex LoveFilm.com people - and you can tell, compare the 4 step getting started guide to the one on Lovefilm and you will see what I mean Anyway the concept of the site is very simple, you order a box of healthy snacks and they get delivered to your door via first class post. Simple. What makes it really interesting is that they have approximately 128 different items to make up your Graze box. There are loads and loads of dried fruit, fresh vegetables, nuts and seed mixes, deli and bakery items as well as dipping sauces and natural indulgence snacks.
The way it works is that you pick the size of box you want - classic, luxury or specialist nutrition boxes such as a low GI box or post or pre workout boxes. All of which have been designed to give you a healthy balanced and nutritional supplement to your diet. Then after picking your box you get to “rate” all of their products by giving them a “bin”, “try”, “like” or “love” rating. After that you simply decide what days of the week you want your deliveries on then you’re off. They only bill you on the day that your box has been sent and you can cancel your orders or change your days at any time.
I’ve ordered a Graze Energy box to try and fight out the lethargy I feel in the afternoons. The first delivery is coming tomorrow and I’m genuinely excited! I’ve always wanted to eat healthier but just didn’t know what to eat and researching it seemed too much like hard work. So hopefully Graze will be the solution for me. However I’m now waiting for someone to launch a home delivery healthy fast food service. Again I want to cook healthy but I just don’t have the time to research, cook, prepare healthy stuff etc. So if someone could offer a service where they deliver hot, cooked healthy meals to my door then sign me up!
Going back to Graze.com, the site is an absolute joy to use, it’s very well laid out, logical and all of my questions were answered. It’s obvious the Lovefilm guys have took their learnings from Lovefilm and applied the useability to this site. They don’t have an affiliate programme yet but I’m told there is one in the pipeline. I will report back on my first ever Graze box tomorow!
UPDATE: Well my first Graze box came today and I’m very impressed. The packaging is very secure, no juices from the fresh fruit leaked and you get a nice customised label on the inside telling you all about the nutritional value of your box etc. The only problem was that the box didn’t fit through the letterbox! Now I have a standard size letterbox but the Graze box was just to wide. Not a problem if you happen to be in when the postman calls but if you’re not in then it will get returned to the post office for collection 24 hours later. And by that time I’m not sure what condition the fruit etc will be in.
UPDATE 2: Since my post yesterday I’ve received the second of my Graze boxes, and this one fit through the letterbox no problem. Well done guys! I’ve published a photo below as quite a few people were asking what the box looked like. I particularly like the personalised sticker on the inside lid. Also - the days when I have a Graze box I feel so much better in myself in terms of energy and overall feel good factor, muchy better than eating junk all day. Am very impressed
What I’m listening to right now: Keri Hilson ft Lil Wayne – “Turn Me Off”
Italian police do it in style with a little help from Lamborghini
Whilst our police force get to drive Astras and Volvos, the Italian state police have just had a brand new Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 donated by the Italian supercar makers. How awesome is that? It almost makes me want to take a road trip to Italy just to get caught speeding by one of these beauties. Can you imagine being followed on the motorway by one of these beauties?
Get this though…as well as being brutally fast (203mph) and fitted out with all sorts of police kit, the Lambo is also equipped with a specialised refrigeration system for the safe transportation of donor organs. I guess if anything’s going to get that heart to the hospital in time it’s going to be the LP560-4. I also particularly like the fact that the white stripes and lettering on the car follow the Gallardo’s “dynamic design angles“. Sweet
If that wasn’t enough, even the blues and two’s are specially designed, take a look at this excerpt from the press release:
“The police beacon on the roof of the Gallardo had to be aerodynamically optimized being that the new police car reaches a considerably higher top speed than regular service vehicles.. Despite the extremely flat construction of the signal lighting, blue LEDs are fitted round the base to ensure the visual signal cannot be missed. The roof-mounted lighting is supported by further blue LED signals on the front, sides and rear of the light’s aluminium shell. A total of four sirens integrated into the front and rear of the Gallardo generate unmistakable audible warning signals.”
Fanbloodytastic!
What I’m listening to right now: Corrine Bailey Rae - “Like A Star”
Stupid domain names
Domain names can be a bit like babies, you may think your son/daughter is the most beautiful baby in the world, when others just see a hairless chimpanzee.You may think your nice semi generic domain is the best thing in the world and worth £500k easily. Others will offer you £10.
But really, I mean really what were people thinking when they register domain names with a hyphen after every single letter in them? Take b-u-s-i-n-e-s-s.com as a perfect example. Who is going to type that into a browser? Yes people may type business.com into a browser but not with all the hyphens. Will it be any good for SEO purposes? Or course not. So why oh why do I still see these domains for sale. I mean here and now in 2008 people actually still think there is a market for these stupid domains with hyphens in. Just last week I saw some for sale on a couple of forums.
And what about those domains with the “www” as part of the domain, i.e. wwwbusiness.com. Again, who is going to type in www.wwwbusiness.com anywhere? If it was 1998 again and I saw these domains for sale I would half forgive the registrants for trying to flog them on, as it’s still a relatively new emerging market. But here and now, 10 years later what’s the excuse for trying to sell them on? Does anybody know?
What I’m listening to right now: Robin Thicke - “Something Else”
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate 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.
