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…