As popular BBC Two TV series Dragon’s Den returns to our screens on Wednesday 15th July, some of the UK’s best known online entrepreneurs have announced the launch of a new investment fund to assist digital start up businesses. With the online industry continuing to prove its worth during these difficult times, this news is likely to be well-received.

The new project, PROFounders Capital, has been set up by respected online gurus Brent Hoberman (co-founder of high end home furnishings site MyDeco, and dotcom success lastminute.com), Michael Birch (founder of social networking site Bebo) and two other investors, Peter Dubens and Jonathan Goodwin.

The fund aims to support and finance new online initiatives and technologies as well as helping to encourage new businesses to remain within the UK and Europe. This last point is of particular significance with more and more established businesses announcing plans to axe marketing jobs in lieu of centralising their operations overseas where costs can be lower. The BBC online Jobs Tracker shows how serious this trend has become since the start of 2009.

The initial pot of cash available from the PROFounders Capital fund is reported to be £30/$48.5 million, with the founders hoping to double this figure over the next few months with additional entrepreneurs coming on board. And, like the gang on Dragon’s Den, the founders are pledging to get actively involved with each start up business in order to lend their skills and considerable online experience (as well as their enviable lists of industry contacts!)

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I’m posting the following announcement on behalf my wonderful friends at Steak who are participating in a 10k run next weekend to raise money for charity in memory of their former Affiliate Director Peter Banham.

“Dear Friends of Steak,

We’ve got a great venue booked for our post-10K run event on Sunday 12^th July, and would love to see you there!

Please join us at the ICA café from 11 am onwards for a fantastic raffle, post-run refreshments, and congratulatory pats on the back, all in the memory of Peter Banham to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

The ICA is located just down The Mall from the Macmillan Supporters’ point, where you can cheer us on as we near the finish line.

If you aren’t able to make it, but would still like to show your support, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/steak-runners to make a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support in memory of Peter Banham, our former Affiliate Director.

The run begins at 9:35 am at Hyde Park Corner, winds through the streets of London and along the Thames, and finishes just outside Buckingham Palace.

For further information, please email us at steak.runners [at] steakdigital.co.uk, and for Peter’s story, please see below:

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Today is the last day of June and  according to the UK Meteorological Office, we should be in the middle of a ‘level two heatwave’. But sitting here in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire watching rain trickle down the windows in time-honoured fashion, it seems like a different story. 
To be fair, I can’t complain too much – it has been beautifully sunny for the past week or so, and the rain has come as a welcome relief from the humidity that has been hanging around for the past couple of nights, bringing all kinds of unwanted flying insects into the house and forcing me to finally admit defeat and bring the desk fan down from its winter hibernation in the loft!

It’s a well-known fact that British people like nothing better than to endlessly talk about the weather – when it’s hot, we want it to be cooler, and when it’s cold, we dream of escaping to hot balmy climates and distant sandy shores…and I am no different. Although, according to the latest weather reports, Yorkshire has a much smaller chance of reaching these temperatures than the South, the prospect of a heatwave has got me thinking about how the weather affects our mood and whether the high temperatures are a good thing or not.

The hottest day of the week is forecast to be this Thursday, when temperatures in London and the South East could potentially rise to 32C (90F).  The BBC Weather site notes that the government has announced its official ‘heatwave plan’, which involves local hospitals setting up special emergency cool rooms for people who might be feeling faint or having breathing problems. Vets at the Blue Cross animal charity have also reminded people to take extra care of their pets during hot spells.

It is recognised that hot weather can bring on crime sprees as people become more iritable and short-tempered in the heat. Other undesirable traits associated with hot weather include tiredness and lack of concentration – some office workers claim that hot weather causes them to make more mistakes when typing (a real issue for online marketers!) and there have long been calls for UK workplaces to introduce summer dress code policies to combat stuffy offices without air-conditioning.

Still, on the plus side, the heatwave might give UK coastal resorts the boost they need from people travelling to the seaside to spend their money on donkey rides, B&Bs and ice creams. And after a difficult financial year, families could benefit from the opportunity to have a low-cost, fun-filled and traditional beach holiday without the need to travel abroad.

It seems like the summer is finally here – who needs Barbados, eh?!?

Azam Marketing’s client, Purple Parking, has some great airport parking deals for families travelling abroad this summer.  The affiliate program is available on Affiliate Future and Tradedoubler. For more information please contact purpleparking [at] azam.net.

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Our relentless pace of growth shows no sign of abating and we’re hiring again. Below are a list of six exciting new vacancies we have.

These are all senior roles; you must have at least two years full-time or three years part-time experience in the discipline you are applying for the position in.

Click on the job title for detailed information about each role.

Paid Search Marketing Specialist – full-time

Search Engine Optimisation Specialist – part-time

Affiliate Marketing Manager – full-time or maximum part-time

Website and Graphic Designer – full-time

Business Development Manager – full-time or part-time. This position is for professionals with experience in winning new business in the field of online marketing and/or design. Must be ambitious and have excellent presentation skills. Please send your CV and a short case study of a contract you won for yourself or your employer. Whereas we are flexible in terms of location for the above four roles, this candidate will need to be based in the South-East of England where the majority of our prospective clients are located.

Chief Executive Officer - full-time. You must have run a profitable online marketing and/or design agency, affiliate business, or affiliate/advertising network, or held a senior position at one. Must be highly ambitious and willing to work long hours. Please send your CV and a covering letter explaining why you feel you are ideal for the role. Candidates will need to be based in the South-East of England where the majority of our clients and staff are located.

You may find out more about Azam Marketing on our website and see all the fun we have in our Facebook Fan Group.

Please send applications to Melissa White at hr [at] azam.net

Applications without the information requested in the job ads will not be considered.

If you recommend a candidate to us who we hire, we will pay a generous referral fee.

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For the last two days I’ve been pacing up and down my room trying to think up the mother of all excuses. I was going to have to explain to AffiliateFuture that I had to drop out at the last minute in going with them to the Caribbean on this year’s annual affiliate getaway they had kindly invited me to. The reason was because my new passport hadn’t arrived, but I thought they may not believe that, so I had settled upon telling J Lil that my chihuahua had chewed the passport while I was intensely focusing on adding deeplinks from an AffiliateFuture merchant to my website.

However, I am now sitting here eating a bounty and sipping Lilt (well, it’s really Diet Coke, but gimme some leeway). Why, I hear you ask? Because just a few hours ago a courier brought my passport and hence… I will be able to alight on flight VS037 at 10:00 on Sunday morning to Barbados!

I am not your average affiliate or Affiliate Manager who seem to spend as much time jetting between continents as in their offices. While I probably go more to the airport than anybody in the industry, because I have to have regular meetings with our email marketing and affiliate management client Purple Parking at Heathrow, I’ve been so busy building our and our clients’ businesses that I’ve not had the opportunity to go abroad for over five years (hence not having the passport).

And until a few hours ago it seemed like I was going to have to remain in sunny England for a while longer because, with only about 40 hours for the flight to take off, my passport still hadn’t arrived.

I’m not going to express my views about the British Passport Office, but I kept ringing and emailing them every two hours for days and days and they’d promise me delivery would be “today” but the passport would never arrive. Hence the reason for bringing my (non-existent) dog in to the fray to save my skin and explain to AF why I would not be on the flight!

But here is me now:

The next 36 hours are going to be the busiest of my life, as I both pack my bags and complete an avalanche of work, but it’ll be worth it in the end. There are fifty smashing people going and I’m looking forward to snuggling on the beach with Marilyn and sipping a cool cranberry juice … it’s not only my first trip abroad in five years but my first holiday per se in that time, so it’ll be good to recharge the batteries.

I’d best dash as lots to do, but a heartfelt thank you to everybody who pressured persuaded me to go, including all my colleagues at Azam and the staff at AffiliateFuture; I had originally decided to turn down the ticket, as I had last year, because I had too much to do, but I eventually conceded to everyone’s relentless encouragement! Were it not for you wonderful folk it may have been another half a decade ’til I got to tear myself away from my work.

And a special thank you to my good friend, the inimitable Mark Smith for signing my passport application and photos half way through the A4U Awards ceremony a few weeks back!

After negotiations more arduous than those between the USSR and USA at the height of the cold war AffiliateFuture have agreed to allow me to work three hours a day in the internet cafe near the hotel, so if anybody does need to contact me I will be answering my emails.

Though, if you are contacting me about those 2010-2013 cashback revenue projections I promised you, my dog ate them.

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The results are in, the black ties and cocktail dresses are at the dry cleaners, the hangovers have been dealt with, and the A4U Awards are over for another year… and what a fantastic night it was too!

Event host and organiser Matt Wood announced that attendee numbers were up 30% on last year, with almost 500 people at this year’s event at London’s Hilton Park Lane Hotel.

I was able to join in the fun this year for the first time with my colleagues Nadeem, Stuart and Yagmur. We all had a great time catching up with our friends and industry contacts and shared a fantastic evening with the various agencies and networks who generously hosted us at their tables.

After a delicious three course meal, the awards ceremony began at 9pm. We were thrilled when Manchester comedian and compere for the evening, Jason Manford announced that Azam Marketing had been Highly Commended as Affiliate Management Agency of 2009 by the online community. Big thanks to everyone who voted and cheered for us! We’re proud and humbled to be recognised by our industry peers and appreciate all the goodwill that was shown to us by our fellow nominees.

Affiliate Window cemented their position as many people’s favourite UK network by taking home two awards:  Innovative Affiliate Network of the Year and Publishers Choice of Affiliate Network.

I was also delighted to see Kirsty McCubbin pick up top honours for her excellent blog, AffiliateStuff, which strikes a successful balance in providing an invaluable source of tips and advice for affiliate newbies as well as witty features on Kirsty’s own adventures in online marketing.  Although Kirsty couldn’t collect her award in person as she now resides in Australia, she sent a note of thanks to express her delight and gratitude. 

 Here’s a full list of the award winners and runners up:

Innovative Publisher of the Year

• Skimlinks (Winner)

• Easy Content Units (Highly Commended)

Innovative Merchant of the Year

• PrezzyBox (Winner)

• Books Direct (Highly Commended)

Innovative Affiliate Network of the Year

• Affiliate Window (Winner)

• Webgains (Highly Commended)

Best New Entrant in Affiliate Marketing

• Skimlinks (Winner)

• Harveys (Highly Commended)

Best Use of Affiliate Marketing as Part of an Integrated Campaign

• Argos (Winner)

• LoveFilm (Highly Commended)

Affiliate Marketing Digital Media Agency of 2009

• I-Level (Winner)

• BLM Quantum (Highly Commended)

• RO Eye (Highly Commended)

Best Use of Technology within Affiliate Marketing

• Skimlinks (Winner)

• Awin Analytics (Highly Commended)

Finance Vertical (affiliate)

• Leadbay (Winner)

• Dot Zinc Limited (Highly Commended)

Finance Vertical (merchant)

• CreditExpert (Winner)

• Virgin Money (Highly Commended)

Technology & Telecoms (affiliate)

• Top 10 Broadband (Winner)

• Net Media Planet (Highly Commended)

Technology & Telecoms (merchant)

• Vodafone (Winner)

• T-Mobile (Highly Commended)

Casino & Gaming (affiliate)

• Bingo Hideout (Winner)

Casino & Gaming (merchant)

• Paddy Power (Winner)

• Sporting Bet (Highly Commended)

Retail (affiliate)

• VoucherCodes.co.uk (Winner)

• Mydeco.com (Highly Commended)

• V A C Media (Shortlisted)

Retail (merchant)

• Argos (Winner)

• Red Letter Days (Highly Commended)

Travel & Leisure (affiliate)

• Artemis8 (Winner)

• Carrentals.co.uk (Highly Commended)

Travel & Leisure (merchant) • Lastminute.com (Winner)

• Fly Thomas Cook (Highly Commended)

Publishers Choice of Account Manager

• Hannah Swift (Existem AM) (Winner)

• Julie Wood (Affiliate Window) (Highly Commended)

• Agnieszka Marchewka (buy.at / Platform A) (Highly Commended)

Publisher Choice of Affiliate Manager

• Chris Clarkson (Sunshine.co.uk) (Winner)

• Naomi Brown (Firebox) (Highly Commended)

Publishers Choice of Affiliate Network

• Affiliate Window (Winner)

• DGM (Highly Commended)

Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2009

• Kirsty McCubbin (www.affiliatestuff.co.uk) (Winner)

• Lee McCoy (www.leemccoy.co.uk) (Highly Commended)

Our congratulations go to all the companies and individuals above, and commiserations to those who were unluckily pipped at the post on the night. See you all at the 2010 awards!

Thank you to Existem Events for some of the pictures.

Azam Marketing’s strapline is ’simply results’ and, since starting in affiliate marketing in 1997, we have hit the bullseye for our valued advertisers and partners time and time again. We can produce results your business too. Click here to find out more about our acclaimed Affiliate Management and Consultancy services.

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Azam Marketing are delighted to announce our affiliate management, design, public relations and business development client V A C Media has taken top honours at this year’s prestigious Association of Online Publishers (AOP) Awards.

At the glitzy red carpet event held in central London on 2nd June, V A C Media and Trinity Mirror Group overcame stiff competition in their category from the likes of the Guardian, Channel 4, Renault and Jack Daniels to win the Commercial Partnership award for MirrorCashback.com, the highly successful cashback site launched in November 2008 which Azam Marketing has been heavily involved with.

The Azam Marketing and V A C Media teams were attending the A4U Awards for the affiliate marketing industry on the same night, for which they were also shortlisted, and the AOP Prize was collected by Paul Hood, Head of Digital at Mirror Group Newspapers (pictured above).

“By partnering with V A C Media, Trinity Mirror was able to move quickly and launch a differentiated, stand-out product, owning the cashback concept in the eyes of its readers and users,” the AOP stated. “Through strong editorial support and sustained in-paper and online promotion, the partnership has brought cashback to the mainstream, a valuable, timely service which in turn strengthens the Mirror’s ‘Peoples’ Champion’ credentials.”

The judges’ commented: “In exploring new commercial activities, this partnership provided a fundamental understanding of the consumer and the potential for longevity.”

Azam Marketing offers our congratulations to everyone who has worked on the Mirror Cashback project and wish both the V A C Media and Trinity Mirror teams ongoing success with the website.

To read more about the AOP Awards and see a full list of the winners, please click here. Read press release here.

Related news: Azam Marketing announce the launch of MirrorCashback.com.

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The pet hate of many online marketers is the ever increasing level of spam emails which reach out to unlucky recipients with a bewildering array of bizarre product offers and services. According to Microsoft, more than 97% of all emails sent over the internet are now classed as unwanted or ‘junk’.

The first recognised email marketing message was sent by a marketing company on 3 May, 1978 in Florida to advertise their new range of mini-computers. In 1994, lawyers Canter and Siegel sent a marketing message to 6,000 Usenet discussion groups which is acknowledged to have been the first example of mass unsolicited email. Since that fateful day over 30 years ago, spamming has turned into a huge industry which sees millions of unwanted messages sent out worldwide every day.

Some ’services’ offered by spam emails (marriage proposals and the like) are so ludicrous that they can be dismissed as an irritating but amusing distraction. However most people would agree that spam is a daily annoyance that can only be controlled with the liberal use of the delete button. Inconvenient and frustrating for sure, but is there a more serious consequence too?

In today’s world where we are all encouraged to be more eco-aware, it’s empowering to read that email spammers have become one of the green lobby’s latest targets: The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam report published by antivirus firm McAfee reveals some eye-opening facts about the ecological cost of spam emails. According to their estimates, the average year’s spam in the US alone is responsible for producing 17 million tons of CO2 and 33bn kilowatt hours of wasted energy as people sift through their inboxes in search of genuine emails.

So what can be done to limit the amount of spam that you receive? Thankfully, most ISPs offer spam blocking as part of their service, and there are also free downloads for your mail client from sites such as Mailwasher and Spam Assassin. These delete spam on your server before they even reach your inbox.

Another good tip that I picked up recently is to be cautious when attending industry events. In February I visited the TFM&A Show at London’s Earls Court, and on entering my colleague Nadeem advised me not to let anyone scan the barcode on my badge so that they couldn’t sign me up to their email lists. This turned out to be sound advice as I was surprised by how many people I had to stop doing exactly that!

Whilst it’s clear that spam is never going disappear completely, its good to know that there are still a few ways of fighting it, and you can now be assured that you are doing your bit for Mother Nature too!

Client News: The Belmont Thornton affiliate program is now live on the Tradedoubler network. Earn a generous £10.00 per lead. Contact karen [at] azam.net for more information.

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We’ve had a poll in our blog giving you the chance to pick your favourite major US affiliate/advertising networks – we hope you were able to cast your votes.

After some late voting activity, we’ve closed the poll and you can see the results on the left-hand side. Commission Junction have taken top honours with a decisive 50% of the total vote. Congratulations to CJ on being voted the most popular network; we count ourselves amongst their many fans.

Jennifer Lovette, Vice President of Client Development West for Commission Junction’s US operations, says the following about the result: “We are delighted to be chosen the best US network. Commission Junction is committed to growing relationships on both sides of the pond and we would be glad to help any affiliates who are interested in extending into the US market”. 

CJ have a truly impressive roll call of advertisers in the USA including Yahoo!, Home Depot, Buy.com and Dell. The annual CJU events, held at their sunny headquarters in Santa Barbara each year, give publishers and advertisers the chance to network and exchange marketing tips in perhaps one of the most enticing conference locations in the world!

Second place in our poll was taken by Linkshare, the ‘grandfather’ of all networks, which remains at the forefront of affiliate marketing with clients including iTunes, Delta Airlines and Walmart. Specialising in Finance, Retail and Travel, the network has made a big impact on the international affiliate marketing scene since starting up in 1996 and we recommend them as very worthy runners-up!

Perhaps most surprising was that AzoogleAds and Pepperjam came bottom and second bottom respectively, with only 5% and 10% of the votes. Both networks have gotten a great deal of publicity over recent times, but it seems that this does not reflect on how they are rated by the community.

We now invite you to vote for your favourite social networking media in our new poll, which you can find on the right-hand side bar if you scroll down the page.

Client News: The Belmont Thornton affiliate program is now live on the Tradedoubler network. Earn a generous £10.00 per lead. Contact karen [at] azam.net for more information.

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I’m pleased to announce the launch of our latest client Belmont Thornton’s affiliate program on Tradedoubler.

Belmont Thornton have been trading since 2007 and specialise in helping people claim back their money because they were mis-sold a Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) policy with their high street bank mortgage, loan or credit card.

PPI protection is intended to meet repayment costs in the event of sickness, accidents or unemployment, but unfortunately for some consumers, their policies have proven ridiculously expensive and often worthless in the event of having to make a claim.

After years of the big banks unfairly making money through mis-selling such policies, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has ruled that many customers now have a right to claim compensation which could amount to thousands of pounds. Some of the UK’s largest lenders have already been fined sums of up to £7 million by the FSA including Capital One, Egg and Alliance and Leicester.

Belmont Thornton aim to make claiming easy and risk-free with their No Win No Fee promise and no upfront costs.  As an additional incentive, customers can enter voucher code BTAV0509 onto the website enquiry form to receive a 5% discount on fees if they go on to pursue a claim.

With an estimated 20 million PPI policies having been sold in the UK, earning big commissions on this program is easy. Affiliates earn a generous £10.00 for every new valid customer who registers their details on the quick and easy online form – no payment is taken from people. There’s a 30-day cookie to ensure that affiliates can are rewarded for as many leads as possible and eye-catching banners to download.

The program also offers TD Talk functionality, Tradedoubler’s Revolution award-winning pay-per-call service which allows affiliates to be rewarded for any leads that occur offline via phone calls to the Belmont Thornton call centre. Affiliates selected to use TD Talk will be given a unique phone number and will earn £10.00 for every phone lead that lasts over two minutes and results in a customer requesting more information by post.

Sign-up to the affiliate program here on Tradedoubler, or if you have any questions feel free to email karen [at] azam.net.

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