Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today, well you can’t after today anyhow. The pre-agenda early bird rate for a4uexpo 2008 ends 31st May 2008 ! Yes, that is today! … Where you can save a mammoth £100 on all delegate rates by registering before the end of today, infact simply do it now!
Today it’s very hot & humid and I’m about to leave to watch my team the Mighty Spurs play against Liverpool at ‘The Lane’. This is the last game of what has been a very tumultuous season for us Tottenham fans. Losing easy games, winning harder games and admittedly since we beat Chelsea to the Carling Cup we seem to have gone on holiday! Lets hope we can turn the reds over today, if not lets hope we actually turn up and play - not been seen for a while!
I will be eagerly awaiting news of the other games too, Man Utd and Chelsea results for one. Not a fan of either club but I’d much rather United win than Chelsea, I also hope they win the Champions League, mostly because they are so much better to watch than any other team in the Premiership.
We will wait with bated breath in the transfer window to see if Berbatov will stay with us or move on. I’m not one to say he must stay at any cost as the team is mightier than the player and neither he nor his agent can keep holding us to ransom. Of course, I’d prefer it if he stayed, who wouldn’t, but enough of the dramatic histrionics please.
On a last note lets hope Didier Zokora can stay on his feet today, must be something to do with the name Didier …..
Well, the votes are in, they have all been counted, de-duped and verified and the the nominees have been notified and duly posted on the A4U Awards blog. There are plenty of surprises in there, namely the Publisher 2008 (well not really a surprise), not one content affiliate in there just the familiar Brand Bidding Groups and Quidco. IMHO it shows the ’special relationships’ these particular affiliates have with certain networks and agencies, seriously it makes you wonder if it’s worth it! I wonder when content affiliates will get a look in on that award.
The blogs one would be what anyone would expect and I’m sure it will be very close (even though the Moose disagrees with me about that).
The shock came when looking at the Networks 2008, where is the mighty TD, the not so mighty anymore CJ and the disappearing DGM? Not one of the Networks who just a few years ago was thought of as the big 3, unstoppable, popular, with huge respect from affiliates - not one of them gets a mention. In the case of TD and CJ is it time they stood back and took a long hard look at themselves and actually listened to what affiliates have been telling them for ages? They have zero communication skills and are only interested in their own self promotion - you can say what you like about them - as long as it’s positive. If you dare to post anything detrimental about TD on the forum they ask for it to be removed, if you post on your blog they report to a network who has a similar name to that of your URL (or is that only in my case?). Maybe if they put as much effort into their network they may not find themselves in the situation they’re now in, cast out into limbo land! DGM seem to be trying to communicate better with affiliates and the forum, or should I say Helen Southgate is, one woman though, however good she is, cannot single-handily save this network from travelling down the same road as TD and CJ. They should take good advice when offered and go back to basics, be upfront and FFS dump the BBG’s - it pisses off too many content and ‘normal’ PPC affiliates!
Affiliate Manager award threw up no surprises and I’m so glad I’m not in that area as it’s such a highly contested competition between those guys, I was however, a bit surprised that I didn’t see Naomi from Firebox in the list.
Publishers choice of Affiliate Manager, how different is that one this year? I can honestly say I know two people on that list. Not that I know everyone of course (maybe I think I’m more popular than I am), but where is Julia Stent? Hero? Helen Southgate? Even god forbid Matt Bailey?? (only joking).
I won’t be at the awards this year as I’ll be chillin’ with my homies in the Algarve, but the best of luck to everyone in the running to pick up an award - well everyone apart from the BBG’s that is, they steal enough away from the rest of us as it is!
As it’s such a long time since I last blogged I thought I’d ease myself in gently and also give myself a chance of winning a fab limited edition 2008 A4U Expo mug.
Chris, you can send it now. Thank you very much.
