So, almost a week has passed since I read about the now infamous awards ceremony. In that week I’ve been told that I’m a dinosaur, I need to ‘embrace’ change and to alter virtually all my ethics and get more ‘corporate’. Well, where do I start? There have been many blogs, comments and posts about the awards, the buy/at sale (like does anyone apart from their puppets or is that muppets really care) so I held back for two reasons, to gain perspective and to calm down.

To use a quote from Existem’s Claire Hoyland’s blog ‘The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance’- ok, so we all know that over the past 10 years I’ve been involved in this industry we have seen lots of changes and have been aware of those changes, have we accepted all those changes? Damn right we haven’t! We were aware of spyware and did we accept it - like hell we did. Change and acceptance do not have to go hand in hand, at times there is no place for change and definitely not for acceptance. What really infuriates me about all this ‘change is for the better’ attitude is that some of us were investing our time, money and energy in Affiliate Marketing when a lot of these so called ‘corporate’ bods were still in high school and very wet behind the ears. Seriously guys would you tell your grandmother how to suck eggs? I doubt it somehow, she’d give you a clip around the ear.

We can all dig up quotes which we think will back us up but it doesn’t make us right and anybody with an iota of common sense could pull it apart without even trying, facts are what we base our industry on, facts and stats. There will never be a time when everybody will agree or sing from the same song sheet, life isn’t like that, but, you have to have respect for the people you work with - directly or indirectly. You also have to have respect for the friends you make and not to plough through their beliefs and feelings like they’re just an annoyance standing in your way. You have to respect your community or the people that built you up will get very pissed off and bring you back down with a huge bump. I have been very hurt this week by the ‘goings on’ and actually being told by someone I respect a hell of a lot (from a gobby cow like myself that’s a bit deep) that there isn’t a place for me in the ‘new era’ of affiliate marketing, that I am not to be trusted to make decisions as they wouldn’t be for the good of the industry - all because I challenge people. Is it a bad thing to NOT accept what I’m being told all the time? Is it wrong to have an opinion? Am I too old or set in my ways?

I’ve never been a ‘yes’ man / woman and I pride myself on that fact. I will also stand up for what I believe in not what I’m told I should believe in just because it is the best way to move the industry forward. WTF? In my personal opinion the best way to move the industry forward is to have complete transparency across all networks, agencies and affiliates, STOP all closed PPC BNB groups and make the affiliate space an even ground for all those wishing to partake in it. Kick out all the rogue elements, be they Merchants, affiliates or networks, there really is no place for them.

As for the Buy.at thing, I’m just not interested in them anymore.