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 …..
We received an email yesterday from Jason Baker at Commission Junction begging for money. No, he’s not hit the skids and fallen on hard times - he’s running the marathon! After talking to him on the phone just now I told him he should put the link on the forum and ask people to donate to his cause, Whizz-Kidz - a very worthwhile charity, unfortunately as he works for a Plc he can’t, so as a favour to him (and to stop him harassing me by phone) I said I’d write a quick blog and put the link up here for him. This is the forth year running he’s done this and he’s a bit behind on his target, please dig deep. Thank you - end of sermon!
A little bit of information on Whizz-Kidz :
Whizz-Kidz aims to improve the quality of life of disabled children and young people in the UK through the provision of customised mobility equipment such as wheelchairs and tricycles. It is dedicated to providing help and advice to the children and their families and raising awareness of mobility-related issues through national campaigning.
Today whilst browsing through the blogs on A4U, I came across this Dodgy Bidder - Name & Shame? I, being me, put me 2 pence in. Almost immediately I was pinged on MSN with a ‘have you seen this?’ re the blog, ‘Yes, I have I’ve commented on it’ was my reply, ‘why do you ask?’ I was absolutely horrified at the answer - ‘because the word is it’s you’. Now, I know I’m not perfect but for one I’m female and this quite clearly is about a bloke - he mentions the word ‘him’, two - I’m not sure I’m high profile, three - I tend not to break the rules where brand bidding is concerned PROVIDING I’m given all the information when signing up for a program and the merchant or agency doesn’t change the goalposts without adequate notice or in some cases no notice at all and four - I can categorically state that I do NOT ‘gripes about “dodgy affiliates” bidding on brand terms and giving the industry a bad name - my pet hate is Closed Bidding Groups that are not disclosed on Networks (but that’s something I’ve bored you all with before and I’m sure I will again. Within 15 minutes I receive an email from TD saying the usual stuff - take it down or within 24 hours we’ll stand you against a wall and shoot you, so confused as at this point I don’t know it’s me, I log into TD and check the program information. This is what it says :
Sponsored Keywords/Adwords:
Important: We allow affiliates to buy sponsored keyword terms relating to the Jessops brand including miss spells, but excluding the exact term JESSOPS.We allow affiliates to buy sponsored keywords/adwords on search engines, so long as they are clearly marked as affiliate links (”affiliate” or “aff” in the supporting text). However, we DO NOT permit affiliates to buy keywords relating to our competitors brand names or trademarks. e.g. “Dixons”, or “CamerasDirect”, etc. Any affiliates who do so will be removed.
Okay - I’m sticking to the rules on this program and even have the word -[Jessops] in as negative exact match, why do people think it’s me, why have I just received the email from TD saying it’s me and why is Rob B now seemingly back tracking on what he had earlier said.
The moral of this story is ‘Get the facts right before you accuse people of wrong doing’ Several times we have been wrongly accused of deliberately ‘Brand Bidding’ but never have the accusers been proved right. Please don’t shoot yourself in the foot with comments like these :
It isn’t really my style to do this, but why should this affiliate get away with these dodgy tactics while pretending to be white as white at the same time?
My good friend Jason has posted a thought on the forum asking ‘why network staff back “social” blogs but not one’s with real issues about AM written by affiliates?’ He is of course referring to another newbie blogger, like myself, Robert B. Now while I’m sure Robert is a very nice guy and this is not in any way a dig at him, he’s blogged about how wonderful Mal is and of course shot straight to the ‘Top of the Blogs’ being backed by everyone at Buy.at and their mothers, grandmothers, next door neighbours, etc (I know I am liable to exaggeration at times), yet these same people never back a blog about Affiliate Marketing! Are networks too PC or are they a little bit scared of backing a controversial post? If affiliate A posted about network X would it be backed by any staff from network YZ? I doubt it very much, maybe because the way staff move around, maybe because today’s competitor could be tomorrows boss? maybe it’s simply because they lack the balls! Of course this doesn’t apply to all as some network staff are very supportive of affiliates issues and will back certain blogs.
What are your views on this?
RANT ALERT - RANT ALERT
Been monitoring Woolworths for the past couple of weeks and I’ve noticed my epc has taken a nosedive. Upon further investigation it would seem somebody has been BNB on the program, we’ve asked Awin and they’ve told us that yes, a trial has started on a closed PPC group.
I’m intrigued that no-one has told us that has been happening, I don’t want to line the pockets of other affiliates thank you very much. I don’t want to be in the closed group, but I reserve the choice to not be in competition on PPC with a closed group. I’m very surprised and disappointed that Awin haven’t notified affiliates that this is happening and I look forward to their response.
I’ve posted the above on the A4U forum and I await Awin’s response with baited breathe - somehow I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with it!
Rant over, back to work.
