CPA Talking | CPA Networks Talking, Making Money Online!

What a fantastic couple of days it has been at the London A4U Expo. It genuinely does seem that each year gets better, with the usual faces and fresh new faces in abundance. The event must be one of the best networking events in the UK. We are usually such a reticent bunch - comparing US (where power networking is the norm) events to UK ones just highlights to me how bad we tend to be at chatting to people we don’t know. None of that has ever been in evidence at the A4U Expo’s though - where the atmosphere is always very welcoming and relaxed.

That said - the first thing I saw when I ascended up the escalator on the first morning was a short, menacing squirrel. Scary, really scary. The picture is blurry because my hands were literally shaking with fear!

It felt very familiar when we all got to the stand. We have had the same spot for a few years now and most of the CJ staff have been with us for all the Expos so we all knew what to expect. This year we were next to our good friends and client Argos who had their own stand for the second year running so that they could meet with existing and new affiliates.

David Harding at the Argos Stand

Daniel Powel was speaking in two sessions. The first, on the first day was ‘Feeds can do WHAT?!’ which basically went in depth into the importance of feeds in the industry. He spoke with Robert from FusePump and Charlie from Thomson about the new Thomson feed. Any worries about scheduling conflicts with the Affiliate Doctors proved unfounded - the room was packed out. I am sure that the Existem boys and girls will be sharing the presentations if you missed out, or if you want a copy just email on admin@cjblog.co.uk.

The second session was the IAB panel about what the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council does for the industry. Lots of hot debate here - a bit disappointing that there wasn’t more time to field more questions but a good session none the less.

We had a good CJ crew out for all the networking, some sore heads were on display both in the office and on the stand. Lots of excited chatter about ‘I had a great conversation with so and so….’, ‘did you know that this person is developing…..’ as well as the obligatory industry gossip so all in all a great show once again.

As always A4U team, a job well done. Congratulations on another great show and thanks for keeping us involved!

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We have a wealth of new CJ starters for me to introduce to you over the next few weeks. I will start with the lovely Marta who has been employed as an Account Executive in Emmanuel’s team after a very successful internship. Yes, she joined us AFTER she had worked with us for a while. This means she must like us.

This is what Marta looks like (she is less blurry in real life!):

As Marta is not backward in coming forwards I will introduce her with a little interview.

I can tell from your accent (and the fact that you talk in Spanish with Brezo) that you are from Spain. Tell me about it:

Everytime someone asks me where I am from I think about making up a story about a terribley exciting place as nobody has heard of my home town, Logrono. I then explain to people that this is in the Rioja region. Automatically they smile, as if I am going to pull a bottle of red wine from my handbag.

Anyway, Logrono is a nice place worth a visit. There is a very popular road called Laurel Street where you can eat the most amazing tapas you could ever imagine - better than Brezo’s tortilla (Editor’s note - Marta is a liar, NOTHING is better than Brezo’s tortilla).

You’ve already been working at Commission Junction as an intern for a while. Tell me about it.

Yes, I have been working at CJ for quite a while. It has been and still is very amusing, and I mean at work, not when we go out…… This is my first job in the UK so I can’t tell whether this is normal or not, but I can tell you that it is very different from what I have seen in Spain.

I feel very lucky to be part of this company - the atmosphere and the people in the office  are things that make me enjoy coming to work every day.

What interests you about affiliate marketing?

It impresses me how many different ways there are to make money online. I find it really interesting every time we have publishers coming into the office to show us new/improved business models. I always wonder why I didn’t come up with the ideas, they’re awesome (Editor’s note - Marta is Spanish which means that she can get away with saying ‘awesome’)

Now some quick fire questions to help you get to know Marta better:

• Favourite colour - Green, but I never wear green clothes or live in the countryside.
• Favourite animal - Koala. I have never seen one in real life but they are so cute. Ross gave me a koala cuddly toy (one of the many random finds when we cleaned up the office) and I am much happier now
• Favourite sandwich - Anything without vegetables in it. I am not that picky, it is just that vegetables are not to be eaten between bread
• Favourite cartoon character - I would say Jessica Rabbit because of the resemblence (Editor’s note - hmmmmmmmmmmm). My favourite cartoon series is Fraggel Rock - and that is nothing to do with the resemblence.

Well thank you Marta. That was very enlightening. I will leave you now to get on with your day.

Welcome Marta!

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Every so often we allow people to leave the CJ offices for important events and client meetings etc. A few weeks ago we allowed Roger, Cheryl and Tom out to go to the Argos Supplier Summit which was held at Wembley. They were joined by a few publishers and Argos’ other digital suppliers.

The event was a chance to discuss Argos’ website and promotional activities across all digital channels and to look at how that integrates with offline promotions.They discussed what they were seeing in terms of trends and then planned on how to capitalise on these trends. These events are key to Argos’ multi-channel success which was, in case you forgot, one of the two awards that they picked up at the A4U awards earlier this year.

The event also provided Roger with an opportunity to hold the FA Cup. He was very happy - look!

We are also allowing people out for the A4U Expo next week. We are sponsors and will be at all networking events as well as manning stand 20. We hope that you will be allowed out to join us - see you there!

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“Some affiliate networks have an invalid link tool. This allows publishers to determine if you are sending traffic to advertisers that is not earning you any commission. Use this tool on a regular basis to ensure you’re not losing valuable income.

In the case of CJ, this tool can easily be found on the page publishers see when they login. It is under the “Quick Tasks” section. You need to click on the “Review x click(s) from invalid links”.”

Florian Gramshammer

Senior Sales Manager

“Did you see Dragons’ Den on BBC 2 on Wednesday evening which included a pitch from My Dish? Or Free Discount Card on the online version of the show?

Both publishers and advertisers should utilise the mass media to attact attention to their websites. A great way to start is your local newspapers or radio stations, who are often desperate for news content or interviews with interesting people. Carol Savage of My Dish got so much traffic to her site that it went down, so you should not underestimate how much offline publicity could benefit your online business!”

Hildegunn Iversen

Key Account Manager

“Many publishers and advertisers spend a large proportion of their day responding to emails. There is neat software out there to make this less of a chore and save considerable time.

For instance, ‘auto typing’ programs automatically insert phrases you use regularly into any software with the click of a couple of keystrokes. PhraseExpress is one such tool that does this - and much more - and it’s free.”

James Lamb

Business Intelligence Engineer

“Ad blockers are becoming increasingly popular and, by stopping banners from appearing when people view webpages, having a real impact on publisher revenue.

Most ad blockers remove images that are the exact pixel height and width as the IAB Ad Unit Guidelines. Therefore, when creating banners, even by making them one pixel more or less than the standard sizes, you will increase the likelihood of them being shown. (However, you should not manipulate banners from advertisers without their permission.)”

Jason Baker

Head of Agency Account Management and Publisher Development

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It only seems like a blink of an eyelid has gone by since I was preparing Commission Junction for the first ever A4U Expo. Unbelievably though, this is now the 3rd year that the Expo has been running and, once again, Commission Junction has secured ourselves a sponsorship slot at the event. We will be there on stand 20 so come along to say hi.

As well as just exhibiting at the event we will also be speaking. Along with FusePump and TUI we will be talking  in a session called ‘Feeds can do WHAT?’. This is an overview of how feeds can be crucial to the success of an affiliate marketing programme. It is at 12 midday on the Tuesday so do try to pop along if you can - we have been working with the FusePump guys on some really interesting innovations.

Commission Junction and FusePump recently joined forces to develop advanced feed solutions. You can read about it here. In addition, FusePump have deveworked with TUI to develop an AdCreator tool which you can read more about here.

We hope to see lots of you there.

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