We picked up with Katie Sebire, online marketing manager at Directline holidays.  She talked about what she thinks are the biggest gripes within the affiliate industry and what Directline holidays is up to at the moment.

CJ: How long have you worked in affiliate marketing?
KS: I have been in affiliate marketing for over five years now.
CJ: What attracted you to the sector?
KS: The affiliate landscape is always changing. We’re seeing new affiliate business models emerging all the time with innovative and exciting ideas and technologies. There are always things to learn and affiliates to meet which helps to keep the industry fresh and exciting. I have enjoyed moving from the network side to the merchant side as I’ve been able to put  all I have learned (through working on some top affiliate programmes) into practice to benefit and grow the Directline Holidays affiliate programme
CJ: What technologies are you investing in at the moment?
KS: We have recently invested in the Commission Junction Pay Per Call and our aim is to take this to the next stage where we will pay out commission for a sale (we currently pay on a cost per lead basis). We have also recently developed our product feed and are working hard to make sure this is provided in the best possible way for affiliates to easily implement. We also have search boxes and widgets available.
CJ: What advice can you offer publishers looking to work with Directline Holidays?
KS: We are quite unique in the market as we sell package holidays from all the major tour operators as well as packaging our own holidays with the best value flight and accommodation, thereby giving the consumer a breadth of choice. Our advice would be to make your lives simple and use our feed, search boxes and widgets to maximise conversion and make searching for a holiday as simple as possible.

Tell us a bit about Savoo….
Savoo promotes savvy shopping, deals and discount codes and is the international arm of the US deals giant Savings.com.  Savoo.co.uk, launched in 2009, is dedicated to offering consumers the best user experience while working closely with merchants and agencies to promote deals in a controlled and transparent way.

Recent examples of consumer driven innovation from Savoo include launching Savoo Personalisation where consumers complete a short wizard about their shopping preferences, and in return get their own personalised deal feed offering deals on exactly what they like.  Other recent innovations include Savoo Local, which features local restaurant deals, and Savoo Compare offering mobile, broadband and, soon to be launched, holiday and flight comparison.

And what is your roll within the company?
I’m the GM which basically means I manage the UK P&L, recruit and retain staff.  I also work with HQ in LA to implement successful US products and innovations.  On a day to day basis I meet and work with networks and merchants to help them maximise their ability to reach and optimise; I also work with our marketing team to grow our UK consumer reach and ultimately become a savvy shopping destination site.

What do you think are the most important factors facing publishers in the affiliate marketing space at the moment?
The major one for me is Google rankings and SEO – PANDA – and attempting to build a web presence that does not rely solely on Google is the ultimate challenge.  We always want to prove the worth of our business models to merchants – working to increase merchant spend. As we are working on performance we want to become a higher % of their spend as we grow and move forward.  Innovation is key and we can’t rest on our laurels – as the market becomes more competitive we must ensure that we continue to innovate to stand out.  The other issue facing us is in the deal space, ensuring affiliates are mindful of deal overload and deal fatigue – guaranteeing consumers receive relevant and timely deals.

Are you investing in or pioneering any new technologies with Savoo?
New technology is always at the front of our minds at Savoo and Savings and we are currently working on a number of new products.  Right now though we are looking to continue the success of personalisation and refining e-mail communication.  We also want to build on our local service pushing restaurants and promoting regional merchants.  We are lucky in that we have started to build a great community of what we call DealPros and we want to expand on that and we also want to successfully launch our new holiday and flight comparison service.

I know Savoo has strong US heritage; do you think we’re developing into a global economy and does this help or hinder an affiliate site?  
Yes I think we are developing into more of a global economy – e.g depending on exchange rates consumers are buying from other countries and I think it helps.  As sites operating from different companies start to receive traffic from other countries it’s important to work with affiliate or ad networks to geo target offers to that consumer.  However, at the same time it can be challenging – if your site does not offer relevant content to that individual it affects site stats like bounce rates which can adversely affect SEO.

Do you notice any huge differences between the US market and the UK market?
Yes we do – the UK seems to be more regulated and merchants are more distributed across a wider number of networks.  In the UK it’s easier to meet and network due to less of a geographical divide whereas more deals done over the phone in the US.  One obvious detail is that the US is a much bigger market where the volumes are huge.  In the deal space the US is far more centric towards grocery deals – in the US consumers grew up on cutting out coupons from newspapers, therefore it’s a cultural norm in the US to save money using coupons – it’s growing in the UK, however.

You’re one of the big publishers in the UK, what advice do you cherish that helped Savoo make its way in the market?
There’s a lot!  But make sure whatever you do, you think about what your USP is of your product or service to both consumers and merchants.  How are you actually adding value?  As you are their sales person, get under the skin of merchants – find out what they want to sell more of, and where are their margins?  Help make them look good!  In the deal space – don’t constantly nag the merchant for an exclusive deal. Put yourself in their shoes and realise they are working with other deal sites too – what makes you special? Why do you deserve that exclusive code or CPA increase?

The new EU cookie legislation is slowly being implemented in the UK, what impact do you think this might have on the affiliate industry? 
It depends on the final ruling which I don’t think will be as vigilant as what was embraced by the Netherlands which was actual consent (quite intrusive web pop-ups where consumers confirm cookies from the website).  Assuming the UK adopts informed consent versus actual consent, then affiliates need to work with the guidance provided by the IAB/ AMC. Overall it shouldn’t be as significant an impact as we all initially thought.

What changes would you like to see within the affiliate industry?
I think we need more transparency from affiliates and merchants alike. I’m a firm believer that the reason why merchants sometimes don’t hold the affiliate channel in high esteem (compared to other channels) is that affiliates aren’t being transparent enough with them. Affiliates need to work closely with merchants to share what’s happening on their landing pages to help to optimise the overall consumer journey.  More networks should be facilitating hybrid tenancy/ display deals – most merchants don’t take into consideration the power of all the millions/ billions of free impressions their affiliate channel drives them. Don’t dismiss this free exposure – work with key affiliates to encourage more brand building activities.

CJ: Where are you from?
KH: I’m from Durban, born and bred.

CJ: What did you do before CJ?
KH: I worked in finance for a company called VATit. I enjoyed my time there and made good contacts but I felt it was time for a change.

CJ: What are your impressions of CJ so far?
KH: Great! I already feel like I fit in and I’ve learnt a lot in the few days I have been here.

CJ: What do you think about affiliate marketing?
KH: I think it’s a great industry to be in, lots of exciting developments, I’m looking forward to it.

CJ: Where was your most recent holiday?
KH: That was to ‘The Berg’ (CJ: We are guessing Johannesburg Kegan?) for a family golf weekend. What made it even sweeter was winning and having the bragging rights for next year (it’s a pretty big thing in our family).

CJ: What did you want to be when you grew up?
KH: As far back as I can remember I wanted to be a professional cricket player.

Who is your hero/heroine?
KH: My mom! (CJ: Oh Kegan, really?)

CJ: Give us two interesting facts about yourself?
KH: I like to try everything at least once – I’ve been sky diving, so now I can say I’ve been there, got the DVD and WILL NEVER do that again. I am also an only child.

CJ: Very insightful stuff Kegan, good luck trying ‘everything’ at least once and welcome to the CJ team.

We accosted Neil from iSPY to see what he thought of the day.

CJ: How long have you been a publisher Neill?
N: For a year now

CJ: And for how long of that year have you worked with CJ?
N: For about four months

CJ: What were your objectives at the CJ Travel Publisher Day
N: Mainly meeting the CJ team, and meeting face to face with advertisers to explain how our publication will develop and can meet their needs

CJ: Did you get all the information you wanted from your meetings?
N: You know, I had so much to discuss there wasn’t always time, but the important thing was I had established a channel of communication, details could follow later.

CJ: What was the golden nugget of information you gained on the day?
N: Be open to challenge your assumptions about your publication.

CJ: So would you recommend other industries to attend a CJ Advertiser/Publisher day?
N: YES! It’s an invaluable chance to pitch directly to many advertisers and gather an understanding of their mindset, it’s not often that you get this opportunity so it’s definitely worthwhile.

CJ: So do you think the Travel Publisher Day will benefit your business?
N: Again yes, this has given me the opportunity to develop new relationships with advertisers which might have previously taken a long time. In addition I am now thinking about my own publication techniques and objectives in a new light, feedback is integral to the growth of any business and having lots of people who know what they’re talking about throws up some great suggestions.

UK2.Net is one of the biggest and fastest growing web hosting companies in the UK and has been a leading player in the hosting industry since 1998, having sold over a million domain names and being host to thousands of websites and dedicated servers for customers across the globe. Their affiliate program has been on Commission Junction since 2007. We recently caught up with Liz Ponsford, the affiliate manager.

Describe yourself in three words

LP: Confident, cheerful and insightful

When and how did you get into affiliate marketing?

LP: After the recession hit in about 2008/9, my media sales profession clearly needed some serious thought. I went on one of these “Traffic Summits” where top internet marketers try and sell their courses and mentoring. Being smart I waited until the last day and signed up with Alex Goad and Brian Johnson and his Google Conquest course which included a multi blog management tool. This taught me all I needed to know about keyword research, finding markets, building, SEO, PPC, ad networks, social media, and a host of other underground methods for driving traffic as well as providing me with a network of other like minded individuals.

What were the main challenges you faced as an affiliate?

LP: Friends’ negative attitudes to what I was doing and their unshared enthusiasm. Learning to not be the child in the candy shop after a keyword research session, and learning to focus in one niche and milking that for all it was worth. I spread myself too widely.

What top tips can you offer to other affiliates?

LP: Focus on one area of interest and build one main authority site with other feeder sites to link to it. Explore product feed based sites but be aware that you will still have to write unique content to rank well. Be selective in which webinars you watch as learning is easy but it’s the doing that will bring the pennies. Each week make a list and stick to it. Get to know affiliate managers and ask their advice on which banners are working the best, which products are selling best, what are the forthcoming opportunities etc.

What made you switch from being an affiliate to being an affiliate manager?

LP: Well, it wasn’t something I actively searched for. UK2 contacted me via Monster. It was originally to include PPC as well but it soon became apparent that the affiliate role needed more attention to grow and support it correctly. I went for a chat and within three hours had a job offer in my inbox – not bad in a recession and especially since it was a brand new career that would never have happened if I hadn’t been made redundant and had the time to learn something I was interested in.

What are the main challenges you face as an affiliate manager?

LP: Making sure affiliates are on the case with new offers. All affiliates are different and it’s impossible to cater differently for all affiliates across four networks all the time. Therefore we make sure a monthly newsletter goes out in quick, easy to read sections that always have a simple list of the top offers which could be made into extra voucher codes listings by savvy voucher sites (some already do this) and can also be used in affiliate reviews and so on.

I make myself available on Skype and IM too so that people can always ask me questions.

What do you love most about being an affiliate manager?

LP: All the entrepreneurial people you meet without a doubt – this industry is smart and always looking towards the future and it gives me a thrill to be a part of this technology revolution where there is something new to learn every day.

What are your top three tips for other affiliate managers?

LP: As a new affiliate manager, I found it all a little daunting, but it’s basically a role of servicing, developing, and communicating to the right audience. Know your top 20 affiliates in each network and know what they need as a business and what their web properties are and what turns them on. It’s already assumed they will get their commissions so always think about added value ideas. As well as this there will always be sites that haven’t set up the links yet so research via the listings in Google and make sure the top rankers have your links too.

Where do you see new opportunities for affiliate marketing?

LP: Lots of issues have already faced the affiliate marketing industry; the Google Slaps, Google Sandbox, Google Panda and now the recent Panda 2. This will always continue. The new E privacy laws are the next big thing but I think there will be some relaxing of the law as it becomes apparent that the user experience of the web will be too greatly affected and that there could also be the potential for affiliate cookies not to get tracked correctly.

As more and more companies make their sites mobile accessible, more and more mobile CPA campaigns will become available. The mobile advertising market is already growing as affiliates are taking advantage of this new wave and getting in there before extra rules come into place.

Why should affiliates promote the Uk2.net affiliate program?

LP: UK2.NET is a well established brand since 1998 and when you do the maths on the earning potential it can be massive on the right web site. Since our commission rates increase from 35% to 45% at six or more sales a month, then go right up to 60% after 21 sales a month, it’s not hard to see why more and more affiliates are sitting up and taking notice. The growth of the programme on CJ over the last year has been tremendous but really it’s been just about getting the word out, and with four networks it’s hard to make contact with everyone; but we shall keep going until we have.

How can people contact you?

Skype -  uk2.net-affiliates

Email – liz.ponsford [at] uk2.net

IM – affiliates [at] uk.net

What is your role at Artemis8 and how long have you been there?

I’m the Head of Partnerships, and have been for about a year and a half now. I spend my time looking for new PPC commercial opportunities and developing relationships with clients, networks and agencies. It’s a really enjoyable role – I’m out and about a lot, meeting new and interesting people who are looking to get more from their search marketing. My wife thinks I spend too much time in nice restaurants and ‘networking’ in pubs. She may have a point.

What do you think the role of a search affiliate is? And a search agency?

A search affiliate’s role can be pretty varied, but essentially it’s about driving additional and incremental traffic (either directly or via a landing page) whilst also adding value to the merchant proposition – offering brand protection and filling gaps in the client’s own activity.

A search agency typically takes on a broader PPC strategy to manage a client’s PPC spend to maximise clicks and conversions whilst also trying to get more value from the budget. Usually this means making sure that all key brand and generic terms are covered.

From an Artemis8 perspective, we like to think that we offer both – with our experience as a search affiliate giving us a real advantage as a search agency. For example, we know that marketing spend usually doesn’t result in greater value for the client as there is rarely any incentive to reduce costs. This is why, as an agency, we work to a performance-based cost per acquisition. Okay, pitch over

Whilst your core business is based on SEM, what new channels are you looking at to further drive traffic?

After our success with building affiliate sites for clients such as Premier Inn – http://premierinnhotels.co.uk/,  we are being encouraged to look at re-creating these for web mobile and smart phone applications. Outside of mobile we are also already driving a fair amount of business from social media channels where, although the search volumes are not there yet, they will be. In fact, it was interesting to see recently that Facebook has just overtaken Google in weekly traffic levels. Staggering – and we have to ensure that we are also reaching this audience for our clients.

What are your thoughts on the Mobile SEM space? Do you see it evolving enough to justify significant investment? What are the strengths and weaknesses of Mobile?

Outside of recreating affiliate sites for mobile (as above), the challenge is really about looking at brands that could benefit from search activity through mobile. From my perspective, I am happy to search and buy music, or even book a restaurant, but I would be less inclined to book my two week holiday to Italy via mobile. So until that changes the investment will be minimal or very targeted.

Looking into your crystal ball, where do you see the next Google “change” going?

Google Caffeine, or the new real-time Google features, are slowly being implemented which is going to be both a challenge and an opportunity. Also, Google appears to be offering more and more price comparison functionality thremselves through the results page, reducing the number of clicks for the user to get to the purchase. If this expands out to all sectors, that could change everything.

Do you see a point where the search engine isn’t the first place users go to search?

Facebook, as I mentioned earlier, is still growing and is already being used for search, and the ‘overhyped’ Twitter will also drag more users its way with its new ad platform, when that lands. Outside of these, the next big site is almost certainly on its way. Search engines are constantly evolving and they will have to keep users on side.

We  heard you were running somewhere?

Yes, dusting off the old silver shadow Hi-Tecs for an epic three mile run (yeah, yeah, it’s not far but it’s for charity!)

We thank you Andy. Lots of food for thought there.  If you give us the charity details we will surely scrape some dosh together to help you on your endurance mission.

So – time to hear from one of said experts in the industry. Jason Brockman, Director of Easy Content Units (ECU) has kindly taken the time out to be interviewed for the CJ UK blog. So with no further adieu, here is a photo of Jason for the purposes of visualisation and then we will leap straight into the interview!

Tell us a little bit about youself!

I live in Plymouth with my wife, Emma, and three children plus one due in March! There’s  four cats, two chickens and a horse on the scene too.

What made you get involved in affiliate marketing?

John Lamerton (lammo.net) asked me to join him to help run Net Free Stuff back in 2003 which was our major site with over 100,000 freebie hunters as members.

Tell us a little bit about ECU

Basically we take all the merchants’ datafeeds, clean them up and pop them into our database. Then affiliates can choose to show a content unit on their site with a random set of products, or (and more useful) a specific list of products which they choose by searching and adding them to their units. The units are fairly customisable – I do not think there is anything you cannot do with them, from layout to colour to background. If there is let us know and we’ll add!

ECUs are being used to display product ranges, price comparison, to show accessories or related items, for PPC landing pages, by domainers etc…In fact, the only limit to their use is your imagination. Our showcase page shows how some of our members use ECU.

What made you decide to set up ECU?

Easy Content Units came from an idea we had for one of our own sites. We asked our techies to create an easy way to feature some products from a merchant on our shopping directory. By the time we’d finished we realised that it would be useful for all affiliates, and so Easy Content Units was born.

How long did it take?

It took us nearly a year to develop it to final release. That said, it’s an ongoing project which has seen over 150 tweaks and new functions added since launch. As affiliates ask for new features and functions we work hard to make them happen.

Did the process go as smoothly as envisaged?

Mostly yes. We have had a few hiccups, mainly thanks to merchant datafeeds, but fortunately our system doesn’t need too much from them, so this is fairly minimal.

How many of you are there in your offices?

We chose a couple of years ago to leave our offices and return to everyone working from home. The offices were too restricting and didn’t really match our style. We went through the ‘let’s get corporate’ stage (we had two offices at one point and fifteen staff) but, costs aside, there were so many issues that work lost the fun appeal. So back to basics we went and we haven’t looked back since.

What are your plans for ECU in the future? Any plans to broaden your international reach?

We are constantly developing ECU – adding new functions and features which are mainly requested by our members – and I think that this is one of our strong points. We have, however, reached a point where we are happy with the functionality of the system and are now concentrating on internal systems and appearance.

We realise that we have kept adding things to the front end and not really addressed the layout for our members, especially those that have just joined. It must be really confusing! So that is our first priority, then early in the new year we shall indeed look to expand territories. I, for one, was surprised by the number of affiliates who operate internationally from the UK, so it is to those affiliates that we are first looking to for direction.

If there was anything that you would change about the affiliate marketing industry, what would it be?

I would like to see it return back into the domain of the affiliates a bit more. By that I mean less corporate, less high-brow events and more involvement in decision making by affiliates. I appreciate the purse strings for these things are held by the networks and agencies, but they really only have this money available because of the hard work that affiliates have put in. Even our own forum (A4U) has now been taken over, it seems, from the money machine, and as a result there’s less interaction from affiliates.

Do you have any tips for merchants?

Top tip is to provide a datafeed. We’re currently adding functionality for RRP and Delivery Cost, so if you add this information then great! We offer a service to merchants called ‘Managed Units’. These are great for top selling products, special offers or maybe even new stock. But as a minimum I would recommend the best sellers as affiliates love the ‘put up and forget’ creative, and having top-converting products is a bonus.

Do you have any tips for affiliates?

Use the managed units, make sure you’re signed up to the merchant, join all the networks to give you greater choice of products to feature, especially when creating a unit for price comparison. The most important tip is to ensure that you customise the units to fit your site – ECUs work at their best when they look part of the site rather than an Ad block that’s been posted in – take the time to really blend the units into your site structure and you’ll really reap the rewards.

Is there anything that the industry isn’t talking about that we should?

The importance of creating and maintaining datafeeds. Affiliates love them – whether using ECU or another whole site tool (such as Price Tapestry, Datafeedr or Affilistore). It is so important that they hold as much information as can be added and that they are updated regularly and maintained too so that fixes are quick. I know that we’re sending over 400,000 visitors each month through our datafeeds, so make sure that you get on board and stay there.

Another topic is helping new affiliates to find their way. I know from the support that we give that we have helped a large number of newbie affiliates start to earn money out of affiliate marketing. Whether it’s our role as a third party affiliate tool providers, just us helping out our fellow affiliates, or in fact anyone else’s role is something which should be discussed as newbies actually receive very little help and advice from anyone else at the moment.

What do you think the burning issues within affiliate marketing will be in 2010?

Well the last year was one of Voucher Codes and Voucher Codes. This year I hope that as an industry we can move on! I think that Price Comparison/Cashback/Voucher Codes will feature in our news this year, along with advances in tracking. I think that although the EU has decided not to impose the cookie restrictions, it’s only a matter of time before this (or something like this) is introduced. Related, the idea of sharing commissions between all involved on the customer’s journey is going to be discussed a lot in the coming year, though this is my view is futile – there should be another way.

Finally, if you could start again would you do anything differently?

I’m not so sure. Pricing is maybe one thing we would consider again, not because we need to charge more but it seems that some people have the impression taht the £20 a month price tag in some ways means that the service is poor – ‘if it was any good you would be charging £100 a month’ was a comment we’ve heard more than once this year! All of our members know this isn’t true, but talking to some people at the Expo and at the roadshows before this is the thing which has put them off trying ECU. Strange but true.

Well thank you very much Jason – that was really interesting. As promised, some controversial opinions in there!

So, with no futher ado, here is an interview with Amy Sullivan from Global Travel Market.

How did you become an affiliate?

By default to be honest and certainly not based on my then technical prowess, although it is astounding how much you can learn quickly in this dynamic sector. Dave and I had worked before together during my previous lif with Tourism Australia and so when the opportunity came up to join GTM I jumped at it, having recognised its potential very early in the game

Share with us a little bit about your business

Global Travel Market is the world’s first meta-search network, specialising in destination and segment-specific search engines. The first site, Australia Travel Market, was launched in February 2006 and we now have over 70 sites, including our affiliate side of the business, hosting in excess of 1 million visitors per month. We are also proud to have developed strategic relationships with key tourist boards in the UK including Tourism Philippines, Cayman islands Department of Tourism, Tourism Authority of Thailand, and Dubai Tourism ad Commerce Marketing to name a few.

How many of you are there in your office?

We have six people in our Twickenham offices, and we also have offices in Australia, New Zealand and Russia, which is the base of our development team, also India and China. We are truly global….:-)

How do you structure your day?

My days are really varied due to client meetings mixed with a fair amount of travel. The more varied the better for me.

From who or where do you get inspiration?

To be honest and a little ****y, the GTM team inspires me – it’s great to every now and then take stock of how much you and your team can achieve in such a short space of time. The web itself is also an inspiration in its own right, its capabilities and its dynamic pace – there is so much scope. Oh, and Mother Theresa of course.

What do you like most about affiliate marketing?

 Mainly it is the people – there are a really interesting bunch of people in the business. I find the affiliate sector to be a truly unique side of online marketing with enormous potential.

What effects do you think the credit crunch will have on affiliate marketing?

It really depends on which segment you operate in. Ironically from where we sit. we can see that Meta Search is actually doing better these days as consumers look for the best value for money under trying economic conditions.

What events will you be attending in 2009?

Every sing one that we are invited to. We want to  be as ensconsed in the industry as possible, to learn, to meet people and top stay on top of what’s happening in the industry. If you don’t, there’s a real possibility of being left behind.

Any top tips for affiliates?

Don’t want to give away any trade secrets do I….

Any top tips for merchants?

Communication, communication, communication. Provide your affilates with as much destination-specific content as possible. Oh, and did I mention communication?

Back to me now… Thanks Amy for taking part and I hope that you all found it useful. More to follow soon…