One of CJ’s sister businesses, PriceRunner, a rather brilliant price comparison site, is looking for an SEM Director.

The role is newly-created and so presents lots of opportunity to take ownership, get creative and take responsibility for driving SEM to a new level. It’s a senior role so we are looking for someone with significant SEM experience, with an eye for detail. Initially it will be fairly hands-on but in time you will be building a team to support you.

You (or if it isn’t you then maybe someone you know) would be based in the ValueClick offices in Putney.

There is a lot more detail about the role on this linkedin page.  If you are interested or know someone who would be suitable then please pass this on. For more information email hr.uk@valueclick.com

Sometimes late is better than never. Nonetheless, with a few week’s perspective under my belt (and with a recovery holiday in between) I thought it was about time for an A4U Munich wrap up.

From the start Munich promised to be an excellent venue for the event and was very convenient for CJ as this is the home of our German operations. With the turnout expected to exceed last year’s event in Amsterdam, it was with high expectations that the CJ team headed for the airport.

From the CJ UK team Florian, Sam, Ross, Tom and myself were set to attend however Eyjafjallajokull got going again, wreaking minor havoc on some travels and one traveller, Sam Richards our Sales Director, couldn’t make it.

The rest of us got there in one piece though – Ross and Tom were there to lend a hand with the Argos stand and Florian and I were going to be doing the normal networking and meeting preparation.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have launched a World Cup Microsite and the CJ Sweepstake today. The url is www.cjblog.co.uk/world-cup

As well as listing all of the CJ Merchants’ World Cup offers and products there is also a Pub Hub which has links to all of our merchants’ creative.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi All,

I just wanted to say a HUGE congratulations to Doug Scott and his family for their new arrival Nina, who was born Friday morning at 6.20, weighing 6lb 15 oz.

From all of the CJ team – CONGRATULATIONS!

Jason Baker

Once again, more advertiser training – here are our Q2 training dates and details If you would like to attend either course then please email me at admin@cjblog.co.uk

Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing (this course is suitable for merchants or agency staff with less than six months affiliate marketing experience)

Details: Thursday 17^th June, 9.30-13.00, CJ Offices, Breakfast Provided

Content

• Basics of a programme
• How to best utilise the CJ interface
• Publisher Business Models – a detailed analysis
• How to best communicate with affiliates
• Top 10 things that you should be doing on your programme

Intermediate Guide to Affiliate Marketing (this course is suitable for merchants or agency staff with between six months and two years affiliate marketing experience)

Details: Thursday 24^th June, 9.30-13.00, CJ Offices, Breakfast Provided

Content

• Strategy Planning
• Identifying, attracting and retaining the best affiliates for your programme
• Exploiting seasonality
• A creative approach
• What to do when it isn’t working

Anyone is welcome to attend but spaces tend to go very quickly. Let me know on admin@cjblog.co.uk

CJ’s parent company, ValueClick, is looking for a UK-based PR and Communications Manager to develop and implement a complete UK PR plan across all of the VaueClick businesses which include (as well as CJ):

• A successful advertiser-side ad serving business – Mediaplex
• The award-winning price comparison consumer website (PriceRunner)
• A large and successful performance media solutions business (ValueClick Media)
• A thriving Search marketing business (Search123)

Read the rest of this entry »

From time to time we like to get content from the team so here I hand over control of the blog to Eleanor Pickering, one of our key Account Managers who is going to give you some tips on how to avoid being rejected by advertisers. Here she goes…

We’ve recently changed the way that publisher enquiries are dealt with here at CJ. Any queries we receive are now split evenly across the Ad Dev team and we all take a bit of time each day to to go through and answer them. Over the past few weeks, one of the most common questions to cross my desk has been a variation on this:

‘Why has advertiser x rejected my application?’

This can be a tricky one to respond to. Each advertiser has their own set of criteria to determine who makes the cut, and this can vary considerably from programme to programme, but if you’ve recently applied unsuccessfully to one of our Advertisers, and you’re looking to find out why, here are some of the most common reasons for rejection and some tips to help you get accepted in the future:

Point 1: The Advertiser may have restrictions on certain types of publisher

Before you apply to an Advertiser, make sure you read the programme description. Advertisers will often use this space to flag any special requirements for publishers. For example, the Argos description specifically mentions that incentive sites will be declined.

Read the rest of this entry »

Old news really but we just wanted to share how delighted we were when we found out that we had been shortlisted for an a4u Community Choice Award in the Best Affiliate Network category. Not only was it a fantastic piece of news to share with a team who, we believe, are one of the most committed across the industry, but it was also great to be in such good company. A brilliant shortlist this year so congratulations to everyone who features and a big nod to the a4u guys for working so hard to continuously improve the awards and their significance to the industry.

We’ve just signed up to sponsor the Best Affiliate Marketing Blog category at the awards themselves and are keeping our fingers crossed for a number of CJ clients who are waiting to hear whether they have been shortlisted by the judging panel.

A massive thanks to everyone who nominated us and good luck to all those who have been shortlisted. We’ll be seeing you on the night!

It’s Friday and what better way to celebrate than with an interview with Andy Hibbert from Artemis8 - www.artemis8.co.uk .First we will start with a photo of Andy and the proceed to a little bit about what he does. After that he is fielding questions from the CJ team about the search market.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here are February’s tips of the month:

“Don’t set up a UK voucher code site! I know at least 15 publishers who are creating new voucher code sites as we speak and came across three more at the affiliate gathering in Canary Wharf, London last week.

I always say to publishers ‘think niche’. And if you must set-up a voucher code site, perhaps consider targeting some continental European markets rather than the saturated UK; countries like Germany have a dearth of voucher code sites.”

Florian Gramshammer

Senior Sales Manager

“In any PPC campaign, where possible, always split test your ads: create two ads in each ad group and let them run for a while. When it is apparent that one is outperforming the other, replace the less good one with a new one and start again. Over time you will gradually improve the performance of your campaign and save money!

If you want help with deciding when two ads have been running long enough to say confidently that one is performing better than the other, try using Brian Teasley’s free tool at SplitTester.com.”

James Lamb

Business Intelligence Engineer

“There are times when you’re trying to find out if there’s an affiliate or network link behind a text link or banner, but it’s masked or the URL changes too quickly for you to see the redirect URLs!

A tool called ‘Charles’ allows you to see all the URLs once you click on a text link or banner. You can download it here (I’ve been using it as a free trial for quite a while and it has not expired).”

Jason Baker

Head of Agency Account Management and Publisher Development