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Several member of our team took the train down to Plymouth on Friday 20th August for a lovely summer BBQ on the English coast for Existem’s Annual Affiliate BBQ. The event provided plenty of networking with a mix of people from the affiliate industry and proved to be a success for Existem through the amount of attendees who turned up and the money raised for charity. The event went well into the early hours and I’m sure the CJ members who went were glad it was the start of the weekend the next day, to nurse their heads.

Last week we sponsored the A4U Roadshow in Dublin and are sponsoring the Roadshow in Bristol tomorrow, where A4U will be teaming up with IAB. Dipa Shah (Account Director) and Sam Richards (Sales Director) are attending this and Sam Richards will be speaking at the IAB speaker panel.

On the A4U front, we have also just signed a sponsor for the A4U Expo in London on the 12th and 13th of October, which will be our 4th year running of sponsoring them. Dan Powel our Solutions and Operations Director will also be speaking twice at the event and Valueclick’s European CEO Carl White is hosting a panel on the future of online marketing. This will be an event not worth missing!

This can be useful for a publisher as you can have total control over the type of data that is delivered within the feed. This is especially useful for advertisers who supply very large product feeds, and who only wish to obtain specific data which means feeds can be better manipulated and imported into your system’s database or website.

There are several filtering options, including categories, sub-categories fields, and the ability to restrict the data set, based on keywords or price ranges.

The below screenshots show you how to discover which advertiser make SmartFeeds available through the CJ network, and how you can configure and start making use of them.

After clicking on the “Find” button, you will be presented with all advertisers who offer SmartFeeds:

Click on the “Get HTML” link and you will be presented with the following screen:

CJ will redirect you through to our partner fusePump, where you can start configuring the SmartFeed. The following 4 steps will show you how to do this.

Step1)

Step 2)

Step 3)

After you are happy with your configuration, you can proceed to the final step. Here you will be able to immediately download the customised feed to your computer or obtain the static feed URL where the feed will be hosted and updated. SmartFeeds are updated daily.

Step 4)

You can also save your custom feed configuration, or amend/overwrite it if necessary.

Feel free to contact us at Commission Junction with any questions or feedback you might have regarding SmartFeeds. 

First of these is Miss Clare Hannaway:

Clare Hannaway joined the CJ team a few months ago and has already shown she’s in the right place, and not just for her being united with her ‘long lost metaphorical twin’ although you won’t be blamed for mistaking them from time to time.

• So where were you before you came to work in picturesque Putney?

I’m from Marlow in Buckinghamshire but now live in Islington (Editor’s note: Oh er very nice!). I’ve also spent 18 months lapping up the sunshine living in Mallorca, and 6 month swooping around the Alps in France (Editor’s note: Very Jealous of this little jetsetter).

• What did you do before Commission Junction?

Before I came to Commission Junction I worked for an Advertising agency planning and buying media space, a brief spell with Sam R in digital recruitment and most recently I was doing CRM/email marketing for Livebookings – Europe’s largest online marketing network for the restaurant industry! (Editor’s note: Free food)

• What is your job here?

I’m an account manager in E-man’s team. He’s a VERY brave man to put up with 3 noisy girls on his team (Editor’s note: Yes he is, especially sitting next to the loudest of the lot Marta)

• Tell us something interesting about yourself

Vikki is my twin. Pay attention you will often spot we have the same clothes on.

• What do you think about affiliate marketing?

I think it is a great industry to be in! (Editor’s note: Yes it is!) When planning and buying advertising space 3 or so years ago all my accounts were going online and wanted to work on CPA but they just didn’t exist. I think there is loads of scope for lots of exciting developments in the online space moving forward too.

• Do you have any pets? Tell us about them?

I had a gold fish called Bob. I won him at Marlow Regatta fair after several jugs of Pimms. I was sooo pleased with him, when I got home that night I lovingly placed him in a measuring jug. Needless to say the next morning when I woke up I wasn’t so excited about him and found myself having to go the pet shop to buy a fish tank. £50 lighter Bob had a lovely new home. About 2 weeks later I cracked the glass bowl and had to buy another one, not long after that he died.

• What did you want to be when you grew up?

Uurrmmm – is it bad I had no real goal/ambition? Obviously I’m very ambitious now!!

• What is your favourite sandwich?

I prefer baguettes – chicken salad is my all time favourite but if we have to go for a sandwich it’d have to be a cheese, ham and tomato toastie! (Editor’s note: Not technically a sandwich, but good choice!)

• What is your favourite colour?

Blue!

Our second new recruit is Matt Baker who is from Wolverhampton (it’s OK, we have Babelfish!) and is undoubtedly very pleased with Mick McCarthy’s boys at the weekend. A quick catch up with Matt revealed he may be a man of few words, but was able to place Wolverhampton into his interview three times. Matt, I think we’ve got the hint you support Wolverhampton FC, we’ll get you a calendar for Christmas!

• Where are you from?

Born in Wolverhampton, moved to Telford at the age of 7 and spent the last 7 years living in Brighton. Moved to London in August 2009

• What did you do before Commission Junction

Business Bank Manager

Domains Account Manager

• What is your job at CJ?

Key Accounts Manager

• Tell us something interesting about yourself

Wolves fan (best I could do)

• What do you think about affiliate marketing?

I think it’s great. (Editor’s note: accurate and to the point)

• Do you have any pets? Tell us about them?

1 Cat – Called Noel and 9 months old. He/she is actually a girl, but had already named her a him by the time I found she had no man bits. (Editor’s note: At least Noel is unisex, it could have been worse; you could have called it Bruce or some other manly name…)

• What did you want to be when you grew up?

Affiliate marketing manager (real answer – Video Editor)

• What is your favourite sandwich?

Ploughmans

• What is your favourite colour?

Old Gold (The official Wolves colour) (Editor’s note: Oh mentioning Wolverhampton again Matthew?)

Mike ‘the mountain bike’ Thurgood, a Kentish Man posing as a Man from Kent, found trawling the countryside on his Yeti (bike) any chance he gets.

• Where are you from?

I live in a town called Orpington (home of the Orpington Buff Chicken) in Bromley; I am what is affectionately known as a Bromley boy!

• What did you do before Commission Junction

6 years as a recruitment consultant for my sins, working in the IT, Energy and Construction Markets. Before that I worked in IT as a web designer and network support.

• What is your job at CJ?

I am an Account Manager on the Agency team; I manage relationships with advertisers who have an intermediary agency. Clients include Ann Summers, AllSaints, Thomas Pink, Crucial Technologies and Fenchurch

• Tell us something interesting about yourself

I am a fanatical cyclist and cycle 20 miles each way to work every single day (Editor’s note: Keep off the pavements just before 9am), I have done rides from London to Lands end and London to Paris, I race cross country and downhill mountain bikes  – I have also broken over 30 bones and been in an air ambulance!

• What do you think about affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a new industry to me but one I have been keen to get into for some time. I love the variety of work and interesting clients and individuals I meet and work with on a day to day basis and the chance to play with cool new technologies.

• Do you have any pets? Tell us about them?

I no longer have any pets but I did used to breed rabbits (yes breed rabbits not breed like a rabbit) and had over 60 at one point, I am also a cat person but my cat recently died and I haven’t quite got over it enough to get a new one.

• What did you want to be when you grew up?

A fighter pilot – unfortunately I stopped growing at the age of 12 so wouldn’t be able to reach the controls.

• What is your favourite sandwich?

Ham, Boursin & Lettuce on a Cheesy Baguette. (Editor’s note: That’s not a sandwich either!)

• What is your favourite colour?

Not sure – don’t really have one. I just like colourful!

And finally me, my name is Emma Morgan and I have just joined the Commission Junction team as Marketing Assistant.

• Where are you from?

Born in Sidcup, but moved around Kent until I went to University in Cheltenham. I have just moved to Putney so now am in walking distance of the office… and all the pubs!

• What did you do before Commission Junction

I studied Marketing, Advertising and Communications at the University of Gloucestershire, based in Cheltenham.

• What is your job at CJ?

I am a marketing assistant, and have already been given the opportunity to participate in many projects.

• Tell us something interesting about yourself

I am an avid skier, and started at the age of two. I haven’t been in a few years but am desperate to get on the slopes again soon! I have been lucky enough to ski in America, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, New Zealand and multiple times in the French Alps.

• What do you think about affiliate marketing?

I did not have much prior knowledge on affiliate marketing before as it was something that I hadn’t focused on in my studies. But working at CJ has been a fantastic chance to apply my knowledge and learn new skills.

• Do you have any pets? Tell us about them?

I used to have a house-share rabbit in Cheltenham called Tallulah Buttercup (Bunny for short), who was adorable and strangely calm for a rabbit. She is with her actual owner in Worcester at the moment, so don’t see her much anymore. I also have a family dog called Sally who is a ten year old black Labrador but she still acts like a puppy. The only tell-tale signs are the white hairs on her chin.

• What did you want to be when you grew up?

Anything and everything, I was quite indecisive. But after some work experience at Microsoft London I realised I wanted to pursue a career in marketing.

• What is your favourite sandwich?

BLT, but the bacon has to be nice and crispy.

• What is your favourite colour?

Fuchsia pink

They are looking for someone who is enthusiastic and passionate about the industry, with great networking, communication and interpersonal skills to take on this job. You would also need to have experience in a similar role.

For a full job description, go onto the LinkedIn page.

If you think this job is suitable for you (or someone you know) please email hr.uk@valueclick.com

“If you’re developing mobile websites, you need to bear in mind the diverse range of viewport dimensions you will be designing for.

Something that looks good on the iPhone may look different on an Android enabled phone and completely different again on a Nokia smartphone running Symbian S60.

At the very least, keep your mark-up W3C standards compliant and don’t rely on emulators - they are not yet sufficiently sophisticated to accurately reproduce what the phones are displaying. Ideally you’ll need to have the hardware to test out your cross-platform site.”

  

 

 

 

 

“To minimise the amount of spam you receive, you should place your email addresses online in a way that spambots usually can’t pick them up.

Write your email address as email [at] domainname.com rather than email@domainname.com.

If writing your email on a website using HTML, use Mailtool: to make it as user-friendly as possible for people who wish to contact you. Then obfuscate it with Hivelogic’s incredible Enkoder Form.”

Brezo Sanchez Ocaña

Account Manager 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“A large proportion of publishers I know own dozens if not hundreds of domain names. Later on they regret having purchased so many as they don’t have the time to build websites for them. Also they don’t attract the amount of type-in traffic they were hoping for. Therefore discipline yourself to only buy domain names that you must have.

Be cautious of hype-ridden new TLD releases. There is currently a lot of hysteria surrounding .co domain names, but they could end up being just as much of a damp squib as .tel, .ws and other TLDs. One thing many people are not aware of is a .co domain is seen by Google by default as a local Colombian domain; great if you want to rank well in Colombia, not so great if you wish to use it for a UK site.”

Dipa Shah

Account Director

 

 

Overall Winners - Green Team

The one day a year the whole office waits for… Sports Day. This monumental occasion took place on Thursday and ended in a very jolly group of people populating Putney, and some slight headaches the next day.  The sports day consisted of Dodgeball matches and the (realistically named) ‘mini olympics’.

Michelle demonstrating 'W is for White Team, W is for Winners!'

The ‘mini olympics’ included many respectable sports, such as three legged racing, skipping and hula-hooping. There was some disputing over who the overall champions were, but the Green team were victorious as the overall winners, and the White team valiantly (although debatably, according to the other teams) took the Dodgeball title. There’s nothing like a healthy bit of competition in the workplace.

Dodgeball in all it's glory

Of course after such a strenuous afternoon of extreme sports the only ending to the day was to go to a local public house for refreshments and a BBQ, where the winning teams celebrated and the losers drowned their sorrows.

So follow the link above to be in with a chance of getting your hands on these highly sought after prizes, thanks to the generous people at PriceRunner.

Click here to be re-directed to the PriceRunner Facebook Page.

They are looking for a Marketing Manager with experience in multiple channels to look after all online marketing communications, manage acquisition and retention and develop marketing strategies.

If you know anyone or are interested in hearing more then please email hr.uk@valueclick.com

For starters (and the sake of clarity), it is against our network rules for publishers to drop click cookies without a user initiated action; in short, force clicks.  In many cases, forced clicks can cause a poor user experience.  In my opinion, it almost always leads to the overwriting of other affiliate’s cookies.  With that in mind, how is PI/PV different?

PI/PV, if done right, does not force a click cookie.  But a cookie is dropped on the impression.  The impression cookie can help reward action that might not be otherwise credited.  This could be of particular concern to content sites or other models at the top of the click stream funnel.

That might sound ok at face value, but what happens when the impression cookie runs into the click cookie from another publisher?  For CJ, its simple, the click cookie would win.  The impression cookie is there to make sure the merchant is taking advantage of all the gaps that normal click based transaction correlation might miss, not create duplication of payouts or overwritten click cookies.

Why would merchants want to do this?  As many PI/PV publishers buy on large portal sites and other tier one websites, the merchant gets access to spare inventory without having to pay tenancy or CPM rates; they only have to pay if a sale happens (and that sale happens in the absence of competing click cookies).  Also, in many cases the PI/PV publishers will accept a lower payout to run a campaign in this manner, although that depends on the agreed commercials for each party.

The debate around the value of PI/PV will not go away overnight and could become more controversial if approached inappropriately.   If done right, it provides advertisers with additional inventory at a new payment metric.  It also provides publishers with opportunity to monetise unsold inventory.

Finally, as a network we’ve developed the technology to do this fairly and with scale.  If you are interested in how it could work, please drop us a line.

Daniel Powel.
dpowel@cj.com