Doug’s Mouthpiece - Droug.co.uk

Interesting facts

Uncategorized written by Doug Scott

In 21 states of America, Wal-Mart is the single largest employer.

Jim Gordon, drummer of Derek and the Dominos (”Layla”), killed his mother with a claw hammer.

Eric Clapton did not play the very famous first riff on the song “Layla”. That was Duane Allman. Clapton comes in later.

There are more cars in Southern California than there are cows in India.

The province of Alberta, Canada is completely free of rats.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.

There are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being than there are human beings on the surface of the earth.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

Doug amused

Top A4U Publishers are not the ones who make real cash

Affiliate Money Grabbers written by Doug Scott

Well done to the nominations for Publisher of the Year 2008, Click Angel, Net Media Planet, Quidco, Spear, UK Web Media, eConversions.

So five ppc affiliates and one cashback site. So basically what we are talking about here are 5 companies who spend lots of cash to get traffic and make lots of cash from it and a cash back site who just give most of the money they make away.

Some simple observations about these PPC affiliates, all who openly state they put over £50 million through their accounts. Assuming they are making 5% on a deal, they will be spending atleast 3.0% to get that traffic. Hence operating profit is 2.0% of total sales. Let say they all make £1 million profit per annum excluding all other costs.

To manage 500 to 2500 merchants and ppc campaigns is labour intensive and I know most of these companies have roughly 20 staff. Lets say a staff bill of £500K, unless you are based in central London, which 3 of these companies are. So they now have to pay office costs etc etc out of the £500K. Profit now at best is £500K……scary on that turnover, the risk of getting it wrong now are massive.

Merchants are getting better and find the terms themselves and also driving the bid prices up…scary model. No wonder they all want to be agencies and manage other peoples cash and rake off a margin.

I prefer being a company who are very active in organic search, with a smaller dependency on PPC. So go on link to our new one www.latestvouchers.co.uk :)

Doug who really does not want to be doing PPC

Buy.at gave me some cookies

Affiliate Money Grabbers written by Doug Scott

Well the guys and girls at Buy.at kindly invited me to come down to their get together in London yesterday. They held a discussion about issues in affiliate marketing and had some merchants/agencies/affiliates on panels to talk about things. Alas prior to the event I had been to lunch with Duncan Jennings, a scarily clever and driven individual:

and the git only bought me a sausage sandwich and hence I was found wandering round the Buy.at event stuffing my face with cookies all afternoon….I may soon be as fat as Steve Brown the founder of Buy.at…..Steve mate you don’t have to eat your way through the £70 million that AOL gave you.

It was not Buy.at’s fault but it appeared to be a theatre production about affiliate marketing with me and Keith Budden of Arctic Sunrise there to heckle. Tyson Pearcey the smiling American or Canadian:)

tried to steer things along in the late afternoon, but the ship was sinking. I do appreciate what Buy.at were trying to do, but some how it felt like it got lost.

Normally I never bother listening to the waffle at most events and sit in the bar talking with who ever went to the toilet, alas I was alone for part of one session. There are exceptions, fat seo Dave Naylor is always worth a laugh as he says it how he sees it and Dixon Jones I find informative, honest mate I do.

Anyway the networking was well worth the effort, I got to talk to expedia again, they have a new guy their, Eric Solem,who is Head of Affiliates Europe, Middle Easte and Africa. He seemed very straight and honest……….I get confused at that place as they seem to change staff like a whore changes her knickers. Any it was a pleasure to talk to him, he was very open and frank and I hope he hangs round.

The after party do was very good and much more informative, as they always are. Maybe it is the nature of this industry as it is growing up that no one wants to say anything in public incase it comes back to haunt them at a later date.

Thanks again Buy.at for the effort and if you invite me again I will make sure to eat beforehand.

Doug trying to get thinner

Commision Junction are moving out of London

Affiliate Money Grabbers written by Doug Scott

We are not worthy, we are not worthy, we are not worthy…..repeat. It appears that CJ are thinking of relocating to the midlands to be closer to me. Now I know Carl White, the ValueClick European MD is from the midlands and an avid fan of Birmingham City:

But I never thought he would be able to persuade CJ to move from the Ivory Towers of Putney.

Of course the other reason is may be CJ are actually getting off their backsides and visiting people, so hats off to Alison Guise, Cheryl Ingram and Jason Baker (again) for coming to see us, even if they happened to be 4 hours late for the meeting:)

I know many affiliates are not CJ fans and we still send them next to no business:

But talk is cheap and they are talking to us now, so we atleast now like them, unlike some people, who seem to not know where we are:)

Doug a Newcastle fan

Google algorithm has to change

Google written by Doug Scott

Contents and links is all you need to rank - rubbish!!!!

It may work now but it can’t work much longer.

Content auto generation is now just too easy………or employ really cheap Indians or old people

Putting links on blogs/articles/etc automatically is now just too easy….

Whats next?

Doug

Fat guy defending the fridge

Affiliate Money Grabbers written by Doug Scott

Following on from my post about who is stealing your affiliate cookies.

Who should be attributed for any sales can be really complicated, but hey don’t worry we have some really ethical “fat guy” affiliate networks and “fat guy” online agencies advising merchants what they should do. That is the scary part.

The simple reality in my dealings with agencies, networks and affiliates over nearly 10 years in this game is that most people have no idea what they are talking about. Some simple facts:

• 80% of these people are simply stupid…sorry if you are reading this but it is a fact
• 80% of people are unethical, especially when the idea of easy money is mentioned
• most merchants deal with 3 different companies related to online advice

Hence only 1 in 25 people who you talk to in this industry have a grasp of the facts and are honest enough to tell them to you.

As a merchant listening to 3 people, the chances are that none of them know what they are talking about or have your interests at heart. If as a merchant you have 1 “good” advisor, the other 2 will override their view. If as a merchant you have 2 or even 3 “good” advisor’s you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams.

Doug :)

Money = Stupidity. Mathmatical fact

Fun written by Doug Scott

From physics:

POWER = WORK/TIME

We all know:

TIME = MONEY

and

KNOWLEDGE = POWER

Therefore:

KNOWLEDGE = WORK / TIME

Therefore

KNOWLEDGE = WORK / MONEY

Therefore

MONEY = WORK / KNOWLEDGE

The less you know the more you make.

Doug trying to be stupid:)

Green Electricity - Green Power - GreenEnergy.com

other written by Doug Scott

I recently switched all my electric use to Green Energy , not an affiliate link:)

This is a photo of the wind farms near Tarifa in Spain. A strange view the first time you see it.

Doug windy

More people stealing your cookies

Interesting stuff written by Doug Scott

My head really is starting to hurt now:)

A visitor can do lots of visits before making a sale, so who should be attributed for the sale

Affiliate content site

Affiliate ppc campaigns

Brand Bidding Group PPC campaigns

Merchants PPC campaigns

Merchants organic site

Cashback site

Banner display

So if you are a merchant who you going to pay for the sale?

Doug with a sore head

Merchants stealing from affiliates?

Affiliate Money Grabbers written by Doug Scott

Following on more from the brand bidding groups thread I feel in my head I have opened up even more of a bag of worms.

Most brand bidding traffic does not actually go to the brand bidding affiliate, but actually straight to the merchant. Now many merchants will overwrite the affiliate cookie with this cookie and not pay the affiliate.

From our viewpoint as an affiliate we are simply trying to understand what is happening with merchants to decide if we will work with them or not. We are much more likely to give something ago if we know what the rules are up front. I feel at present that we get paid what a merchant wants to pay and they are able to cream off money without recourse.

Historically we have looked at earnings per click and if they make cash then we continue, but going forward with new merchants I think we will investigate more and more what the deal is upfront, so as to not waste our time.

Or maybe a more sensible view is just send our organic traffic them to adsense and let the merchants war it out how much they are willing to pay.

Doug confused