The Good Times Roll Once Again: Internet World and Acorn Domains Gathering, London
03 May
Posted by Nadeem Azam as Domain Names, Events, Nadeem Azam, Sinead Hernen, Affiliate Marketing
Sinead Hernen reports on Internet World 2008 and Nadeem Azam on the Acorn Domains’ gathering, both held in central London last week.
Internet World 2008 played host to over 300 exhibitors and 200 presentations, as thousands of visitors keen to increase their digital business knowledge and contacts headed from throughout the world to the most attended internet-related trade show of the year in the UK.
I was one of the aforementioned people, eager to leave my ‘red-brick’ shelter up north and travel down to the big smoke, excited to learn in particular what the next big thing in online marketing is going to be and meet up with my good colleagues Nadeem and Ather as well as make some new friends along the way.
The usual suspects were there on the day including Affiliate Future and Valueclick, although surprisingly, no sign of any other prominent affiliate networks. However, this gap was promptly filled by many new and up and coming players to the European affiliate arena such as Linkshare and Intela.
Those that did put up their flags made sure they weren’t missed, with Affiliate Future outlining their idea of ‘Successful Affiliate Marketing in the World of Web 2.0’ to a full audience and CJ’s Dan Powell having his say in an expert panel discussion about ‘Monetising Web 2.0’ which was hosted by Avail Intelligence and Forrester Research.
After spending several hours walking around the stands and sitting in on a few seminars, I didn’t feel as though I was any closer to finding the holy grail of affiliate marketing but I did have the pleasure of making new acquaintances with the guys from Linkshare as well dropping in on a couple of old associate’s from my days at Littlewoods Shop Direct. I also had the fortune of meeting several very useful contacts. Definitely a case of being in the right place at the right time.
The British domain industry held its biggest ever gathering at the ‘My Old Dutch’ restaurant in Holborn in London in an evening organised by Acorn Domains and Memorable Domains. There was a healthy mix of domainers who owned many of the most valuable domain names in the UK, those relatively new to the game, and representatives from various domain parking companies such as Sedo, Namedrive and Fabulous.
The meal consisted of traditional Dutch pancakes which were delicious but left me and most people rather bloated: they are about 40 cm in diameter! This was followed by drinks paid for by the sponsors.
I thoroughly enjoyed the gathering which provided the chance to ‘talk shop’ with domainer friends and it was a thrill to see people such as Jonathan, our fantastic Sedo Account Rep., for the first time in the flesh. There are many sub-communities that come under the ‘online marketing’ fold and it is fascinating to see that, although they are all intertwined, each sibling has its own ways of operating, unique personalities and fears/excitement about the future.
Talking of which, I often get asked what the next domain TLD goldrush will be. My suggestion is to focus your crosshairs on .me domains which anybody will be able to apply for in a few days time. You may register the domain names through Godaddy who were selected by the government of Montenegro as one of the three partners to launch the TLD.
Exciting news in the pipeline, so subscribe to Azam.info blog updates here.
May Medley - Monthly Client and Company News
02 May
Posted by Nadeem Azam as Nadeem Azam, InkFactory, eDeals UK, Purple Parking, Company News, Affiliate Marketing
Greetings. Here is this month’s round-up of what our clients and us are up to:
InkFactory
Azam Marketing is pleased to officially relaunch the InkFactory.com affiliate program. InkFactory have been the leading inkjet cartridge supplier in the UK for several years and have had an affiliate program since time immemorial. We ourselves were promoting them as a publisher as far back as seven years ago on Tradedoubler and I was fond of them then, so it gives me an extra special pleasure to have them as an Affiliate Management client.
As previously announced, please note that the commission rates for InkFactory.com are as follows from the 1st May, 2008: 15% basic tier (for sales with a value of £0-£100), 16% second tier (for sales of £100-£500) and 17.5% highest tier (for sales above £500).
These rates are higher than any other ink cartridge supplier and the Ink Factory affiliate program is well known for its excellent conversion results.
As well as the above changes, there will be some exciting developments taking place with the InkFactory affiliate program this spring including:
- Thrilling competitions - affiliates will be offered the chance to win fantastic prizes such as a brand new Epson Stylus DX9400F Printer
- Regularly updated creatives and text links
- Plenty of buy one get one free offers on selected Ink Factory products including special offers on ‘green’ and recycled ink cartridges and paper
InkFactory is on three major networks. You may sign-up on Affiliate Future, Affiliate Window and Tradedoubler.
Purple Parking
As announced in newsletters to all Purple Parking affiliates and on several affiliate forums, as of the 30th April 2008, Purple Parking’s commission rates will be as follows: 10%, 12.5% and 15% for Purple Parking’s Heathrow airport car park and 7.5% for all other airport car parks.
The reason for the decrease in commission for non-Heathrow airports is because the partners through which they sell the parking space have cut Purple Parking’s commissions. Even though Purple Parking’s commissions have been reduced by more than 25%, they are only decreasing commission to affiliates by 25% for its affiliates, which means it is still presents a highly rewarding opportunity. There are many exciting plans in store this summer, including the launch of a new website. The extra long cookie period of 60 days remains.
Please also be aware that Purple Parking does not permit publishers to link to their website via an affiliate link if there is any voucher or coupon code for Purple Parking on their website or in an email they send out.
This is because when customers use a voucher code and make their booking through an affiliate link, Purple Parking often ends up losing money on the transaction. Discount Codes were only ever intended for the exclusive use of selected people such as Purple Parking Club members and not for the use of affiliate partners.
Any publishers found to be violating these guidelines will have all their commissions revoked and be removed from the affiliate program. These pre-announced terms are now being strictly enforced.
Xpango and Froggybank
The paperwork has almost been completed to get the affiliate programs for these magnificent reward sites underway. The banners have gone through numerous redesigns but are now all but ready.
Commission Junction have been amazingly helpful and we are looking forward to launching the Xpango and Froggybank affiliate programs on the network this month. Stay tuned.
Azam Marketing Goes Offline
Last week Azam Marketing launched our first ’real world’ business in 11 years. We have had plans to launch the venture for years, but the economic downturn and property price slump took longer to come about than we had predicted.
The business is joint-owned with a property firm which has 20 years experience in the field. They will be using their experience and we our marketing expertise to find and acquire properties in the UK and USA that owners are having difficulties selling in these challenging times. If you or somebody you know would like to sell a property without the hassle of going through Estate Agents, we can make a cash offer within seven days. Email us at results [at] azam.net or call +44 (0) 20 7436 4496 anytime. We will pay a generous bounty for referring sellers to us.
More about Moi
Two bloggers contacted me last month and said they wanted their readers to find out more about me (God knows why!). John Lamberton has published a ‘Day in the Life Of…’ in his blog and Doug Scott an interview:
I am not particularly looking forward to the publication of Part 2 of the interview, as Doug’s questions were quite probing and I may have given too much away!
Thank Yous
If I was to name everybody who makes online marketing the greatest industry in the world to work in, the list would be as long as my arm. So I’ll stick to offering a special cheers to WHSmith on OMG who sent us a Nintendo Wii and Webgains for the Selfridges vouchers. Thanks to our Account Manager on the former, Stephen Seage for always being there for us, and Sheema Luca on the latter for… just being her, which is the best compliment I can possibly give.
Oh, and I mustn’t forget CJ UK’s Publisher Account Director, a certain Yagmur Guven. Her dedication to publisher support surpasses anything I’ve ever experienced: the Wonderwoman rang me at midnight last Friday to deal with a query she hadn’t been able to get around to handling earlier in the day! (And how did she know I’d be working on the computer?)
A thumbs up also to PPC guru and all-round nice guy Stuart Reader. We went to meet a client in Essex yesterday, but then he kindly drove me over to the coast as I hadn’t seen the sea in a couple of years. Being the English seaside it was rather nippy, but it was delightful to unwind with Stuart and not worry about work for a couple of hours. I’ll have to start learning to taking it a bit more easy now as I’m now officially in the second half of my life (I was 36 yesterday)!
Coming Tomorrow: a wrap-up of Internet World 2008 and Acorn Domains’ London Meet-up.
Affiliate Marketing Industry Discusses Impact of Controversial Google Adwords Changes at Commission Junction UK Roundtable
17 Apr
Posted by Nadeem Azam as PPC, Search Marketing, Affiliate Marketing
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the 5th of May? May Day Bank Holiday? A lazy day sunbathing in Brighton or Blackpool or plonked in front of the tele?
The Bank Holiday, known around the world as International Workers’ Day, was a leftist initiative to celebrate the rights of workers and a managed economy, but this year more than ever we will witness the defeat of left-wing thought and the idea of regulated trading environments being superior to laissez-faire ones, as it will be the day the UK’s most talked-about advertising space sheds some of its remaining restrictions and becomes an almost free-for-all.
Instead of searching for a bucket and spade or a red flag when they wake up, many marketers will be switching on their PCs to see the fallout from the most historic development in the paid search marketing landscape since the launch of Yahoo Panama a year ago. From Bank Holiday Monday onwards, Google will allow anybody to advertise on anybody else’s brand name in the UK. You’re Vodafone and wish your advert to appear when somebody searches for T-Mobile? No problemo. Npower and wish to advertise on EDF or British Gas? Absolutely no restrictions – indeed, Npower are already bragging they will be bidding on their rivals’ brand names (Marketing, p.1,16 April).
Commission Junction held a roundtable gathering at their London offices on 16 April to allow advertisers, agencies, affiliates and their staff to discuss the development that they may either be anticipating or fearing, and help them formulate strategies to handle ‘G Day’.
Attending the session were representatives from publishers eConversions, Artemis8, Net Media Planet, Traffic Broker, UK Web Media, advertisers uSwitch, Lastminute, Argos and agencies Starcom, MindShare and Quantum. Present from Commission Junction were Alison Guise, Cheryl Ingram, Sallie Rance, Daniel Powel, Jason Baker and Yagmur Guven.
Dan Powel, who was Chairing the roundtable, recalled the turbulence that had occurred when Google had made similar changes in the United States four years ago. While rivals did advertise on each other’s trademarks, gentleman’s agreements also developed over time in which companies agreed not to bid against each other.
Everybody agreed Google’s Quality Score algorithm and the prohibition on using rivals’ trademarked terms in the ad copy would mean competitors would have to bid higher than the brand to attain a superior ranking in the PPC results, so there was some form of brand protection. One publisher believed there would be two types of ads on trademarks: “price attack” and “slander attack” ones. A number of people commented that comparison websites would be particularly well suited to take advantage of the changed landscape.
In terms of winners and losers, the same affiliate believed the development would benefit affiliates but not merchants or agencies. He thought affiliates would have to be deployed by the latter to protect their brands and stop rivals from attaining the top paid search spots. An agency representative echoed those views and said that, coming from an agency, “I can’t see any good news… the winners will be affiliates and affiliate networks”.
Dan believed that, if Google was not going to regulate the environment, networks and agencies would be called upon to handle disputes. It would mean “a lot more work and… having to devote more resources”. He talked about various scenarios such as CJ being called upon by Merchant A on their network to stop an affiliate of Merchant B on their network from advertising on their brand name. While there was no contract between the affiliate and Merchant A, CJ may not be able to enforce an agreement, but it could try to broker an agreement.
CJ European General Manager, Alison Guise agreed, and added the development should mean that networks will need to work even more closely with their advertisers and affiliates to ensure that objectives, procedures and so on are met. She also said networks will need to demonstrate their added value beyond just ensuring agreements between advertisers are put into place.
Although the consensus was affiliate marketers would come up trumps from the changes, one affiliate said it was likely rival merchants would disrupt closed groups, so there were threats to affiliates as well.
Whereas one affiliate thought the increased competition over brand terms may force affiliates to focus on generics and the long tail, most people were of the opinion affiliates would be paying more attention than at present to brand terms and that is where the real action would be. Another publisher raised the thought that if costs were going to spiral for brand terms and affiliates were continued to be rewarded on an exclusively CPA model, “we have to reduce our spend on generics for some advertisers”.
It was suggested if affiliates were going to be deployed to protect brand when returns were not attainable on a CPA basis, advertisers would have to consider other forms of remuneration such as CPC or percentage ad spend payments.
In terms of the motivation behind the changes, many believed it was yet another ploy, following on from changes such as automatic matching and internal site searching within Google, to enable the Big G to generate more revenue for themselves. I commented that Google had recently witnessed its first ever drop in revenue from paid search, which is by far its biggest revenue stream, and that the company’s share price had been on the wane of late, hence the need for reforms to maximise income.
The roundtable ran for over three hours and an engrossing afternoon of discussion and debate was rounded off with most people retreating to a pub near CJ’s delightful Putney location. Some of them were still discussing the impact of the Google changes when I left at 9pm!
Who do believe the winners and losers will be from the Google Adwords change? What will be the impact on affiliate marketing? Your comments are welcome below.
New 100% Cashback Site Launch – An Interview with Janine Sinclair
16 Apr
Posted by Nadeem Azam as Nadeem Azam, eDeals UK
Today sees the official launch of froggybank, an innovative loyalty website which not only pays 100% cashback to members but boasts a stack of extras: the site has a highest cashback guarantee, pays the highest referral fee of any 100% cashback site, and even purchases a whopping 250kg of carbon offset for every active member.
Janine Sinclair has been the charismatic Director of Customer Services at eDealsUK Limited, the company behind froggybank and nearly 60 other cashback websites, for the last four years. Nadeem Azam asks her about the new website and trends in the cashback business in general.
How long have you been working on froggybank Janine?
We have built over 180 websites, but this has consumed more time than any other. We first started working on froggybank a year ago. It has consumed a extraordinary amount of work because of the many innovative features.
In terms of just the look, froggybank must have gone through over 100 redesigns since last autumn! [Coming soon to Azam.info: one of the site designers talks us through the many revisions to froggybank before its launch.]
There are other 100% cashback sites. What makes froggybank.co.uk special?
We have so many USPs I wouldn’t know where to start. We guarantee the highest cashback. We buy carbon offsetting on your behalf when you join froggybank. We pay the most generous bounty for referring somebody to our site, £2.50 from the first £5 that a member makes.
We allow webmasters, charities and others to build a personalised landing page or fundraising pages. For larger referrers, we can even custom-build a landing for them.
I noticed a distinct section called froggy pond on the website. Could you please explain how that works?
I wanted to add charities to froggybank but was concerned about people signing up, making a small donation, and then pulling out just to get a generous cashback based on the CPA. I didn’t want such misuse to happen to charities and that is why I thought of the referral commission earned from these charity sites going into the ‘froggy pond’ and off-setting carbon with that money. People willing to donate to a charity will surely like the idea of off-setting carbon at the same time. Killing two birds with the one stone as the saying goes… they will be supporting two causes at the same time this way.
Are there any charities you are particularly passionate about?
My favourite charity is World Vision Child Sponsorship. I have always been involved with this charity since I first started working myself. It is rewarding to help a child in an undeveloped country. It’s a truly beautiful thing to receive letters, pictues and photos from the child you sponsor as well, and to be able to write to them. They absolutely love it and they love you as well.
Incredibly, it only costs £18 a month to sponsor a child, which is a measly 60p a day. I am really going to push this, as I really am passionate about it.
We will get:
1-15 Sign-ups: £25 per sign up
16-24 Sign-ups: £27.50 per sign up
25+ Sign-ups: £30.00 per sign up
1-15 Sign-ups: £25 per sign up
16-24 Sign-ups: £27.50 per sign up
25+ Sign-ups: £30.00 per sign up
… which means for every Child Sponsorship we get our members to sign-up to, not only will they have this wonderful new bonding relationship with a child in need, but we will be off-setting approx. 9,000 kg of carbon too. Isn’t that just grand?
It certainly is Janine. There seems there is a distinct emphasis on being green and giving to good causes?
Absolutely. Not only will our members receive all the money we receive from merchants as cashback, but we wanted froggybank to be about raising money for good causes..
We have set an ambitious target of offsetting 1 million tons of carbon by 2012 – just by using affiliate revenues.
That is wonderful. Despite these exciting and ambitious targets and the innovative features you have mentioned, do you think there is room for yet another cashback site?
My estimate is there are not more than two million people in the UK who are actively shopping via cashback sites. As Keith Budden said a while back, there is a potential for another 20 million people in the country to be buying via cashback websites.
Providing you are offering a good quality service, there is room for everyone to grow.
Could cashback sites not suffer if merchants decide not to work with them, as some have recently decided?
Merchants and networks are not doing enough to differentiate the cashback sites who put effort in and who are willing to work with merchants to prevent fraud and maintain the quality of traffic. They see all cashback sites as being the same and I do think that is not right.
We do understand that there needs to be extra care and a lot of effort put into maintaining quality of traffic . But treating all cashback sites the same without bothering to differentiate the more professional outfits is not fair.
Most merchants benefit a lot from cashback sites, with increased revenues, bigger basket values and better brand awareness, so I think it is unlikely there is going to be lot of merchants who would stop working.
Fraud is a major concern for many merchants. What measures do you have in place to try to root it out?
Over the last four years, we have spent thousands of man hours studying member trends. From studying the behaviour patterns, we have adopted what I believe to be the most stringent anti-fraud merchanisms and procedures in the industry.
For example, if somebody signs up to any one of our cashback sites and immediately applies for insurance, they get flagged up and are investigated. If somebody applies for two insurance products at any time, they are flagged up.
We belong to the The Loyalty Association along with Rpoints, GreasyPalm and The Mutual and, even during our teleconference on Friday, we discussed how we can eliminate fraud and build more confidence from both merchants and consumers. All four loyalty businesses are working together to improve things.
We believe in working closer with networks and merchants, but networks could do more to increase the awareness with the merchants on quality cashback sites with good standards. More networks should be working closely with proactive cashback sites such as ours and other members of TLA to improve confidence in the sector.
Which networks does eDealsUK find it easiest to work with?
Most of them. There are a few good networks such as Tradedoubler and Affiliate Window who have improved their untracked sales system. They have both been incredibly responsive. Tradedoubler in particular have come a long way and AW is one of our all time favourites in terms of support.
By launching a 100% cashback site, will it not impact on your white label partners?
No. Infact we think it would actually be beneficial for our entire network. All of us put together, we are not even scratching the surface of the market.
Most of our white-label cashback site partners are targeting different audiences to froggybank. And, as I was saying, with 20 million potential users of cashback sites, there is room for everyone to grow.
We think it will be benefical for our other websites and the white-labels in the sense that our white-label partners would rather us taking a share of the 100% market than another company. This will mean more commissions and better rates for their websites. We will be hitting higher tiers more, and this will mean higher cashback amounts for their members and more revenue for them.
There’s a lot of talk about an economic downturn in the air. How do you think this will impact on cashback sites?
When the economy is in a downturn people will be watching their wallets. Whereas people may not have bothered about saving a few pounds during the good times, they will be more keen to keep a grip on their expenditure and so more likely to utilise cashback sites.
Is there anything we’ve missed out?
If I may, I’d like to mention part of my job remit is to try to gain the maximum cashback for our members. So if any merchants on major UK networks can offer increased commission, we are willing to give them enhanced exposure on our 60-odd cashback sites. We are also seeking out voucher codes and competition prizes. If anybody would like to get in touch, my email address is janine [at] uspree.net or you are welcome to ring 0845 838 4687.
eDealsUK Limited is an Azam Marketing client. Read about froggybank’s target to help offset one million tons of carbon by 2012 by clicking here.
Recommended: find out more about froggybank’s generous referral scheme for webmasters here. Affiliate program also launching on Commission Junction soon.
Role reversal: you can read an amusing new interview with Nadeem Azam at Doug’s Mouthpiece.
Premium .eu Domain Names go on Sale - Exclusive 10 Day Promotion
06 Apr
Posted by Nadeem Azam as Domain Names
We’ve been on a roll with our .eu domain names, having sold three in the last three months. To keep the momentum going, we have decided to offer an exclusive deal to our blog readers for 10 days only: if you buy any .eu domain names from us, we will handle all the adminstration involved in transferring them to you and cover the full escrow and transfer fees. The promotion expires at 17:00 GMT on 16 April 2008.
.eu domain names are becoming increasingly popular, with more and more companies using them. Covering a geographic area with 490 million affluent people, the highest quality ones, which are the ones we focus on, are in short supply and likely to go up in value.
Nearly 2.82 million of the domain names have already been registered, making .eu Europe’s third most popular TLD and the world’s seventh most popular TLD. This is remarkable when you consider they were released just two years ago.
All you have to do is email domains [at] azam.biz with the domain names you are interested in, your offers, and your full contact details. You may also call +44 (0) 20 7436 4496 anytime if you have any enquiries.
You can see the .eu domain names which qualify for our limited period offer below. Some of these are being offered for sale for the first time ever!
These first 13 domain names will be sold to the highest bidder by the end of the 10 day promotion:
dubrovnic.eu
reverso.eu
smsgratuits.eu
erasamus.eu
homesale.eu
iambored.eu
nfleuropa.eu
nfleurope.eu
gratuitjeux.eu
wwwbuy.eu
tupac.eu
gole.eu
buyproperties.eu
The following domain names will be sold if your offer satisfies our minimum expected amount, based on what we believe each premium domain name is worth:
dragonballz.eu
interail.eu
registar.eu
mapeurope.eu
mobtv.eu
phaistos.eu
stadtereisen.eu
traducta.eu
ummah.eu
whosi.eu
islamicbank.eu
geurnsey.eu
herts.eu
bored.eu
eurobird.eu
serbie.eu
stanstead.eu
restraunts.eu
championleague.eu
imbored.eu
oppenheimer.eu
fynn.eu
nuri.eu
niclas.eu
alfie.eu
liza.eu
keira.eu
liam.eu
gel.eu
ww1.eu
786.eu
mov.eu
0j.eu
1d.eu
1y.eu
6b.eu
6u.eu
8j.eu
8u.eu
9c.eu
9e.eu
9k.eu
9q.eu
9s.eu
We have many more .eu and other domain names, as well as established websites, for sale: contact us at domains [at] azam.biz or +44 (0) 20 7436 4496 with your requirements.
eDealsUK Launches Exciting New Affiliate Network with 21 Merchants
01 Apr
Posted by Nadeem Azam as Domain Names, Nadeem Azam, This Blog, eDeals UK, Company News
Here is our regular first of the month round-up of Azam Marketing’s client and company news.
eDealsUK
Update on 8th April: this section about FroggyBank was an April Fool’s joke!
The rumours have been true and I’m delighted to report that, after a year of planning and preparation, eDealsUK Limited will be finally spawning an affiliate network in a few day’s time on the 7th of April.
With over 180 websites selling different products, five cashback websites of their own, 54 white-label cashback websites – several of them in partnership with major companies -, all of which will be promoting advertisers on the network, the network will be able to drive a significant volume of leads and sales to merchants. 
The network has the distinct name Froggybank and you can see the logo on the right.
The interface has been custom built from scratch and includes unique features which are not to be found elsewhere.
As well as a robust, feature-rich and user-friendly platform, affiliate and merchant support will be the foremost priority: eDealsUK Limited has 48 staff and 15 of them have been assigned to manage the network.
The FroggyBank.co.uk network is launching with 21 advertisers, 14 of who are not on any other network. And, before you ask, not one of them is a freebie, competition, survey or gambling merchant which tend to be the mainstay of other embryonic networks.
The countless advertisers who contact eDealsUK every week to receive more exposure on the company’s high-traffic websites will be able to work with the network.
Watch out for the Press Release which is being scripted as we speak. If you have any questions, please email affiliates [at] FroggyBank.co.uk or merchants [at] FroggyBank.co.uk.
P.S. If you’d like to sign-up to FroggyBank.co.uk, then hop over to the website on Monday from 09:00 GMT onwards. We will parcel over a pet frog to the first ten registrants.
Azam.net
There’s the old tale of the cobbler’s children having no shoes and our designers have been so busy creating websites for others – such as this one we have just finished for a psychotherapist – that they seldom find the time to spruce up our own websites. However, we have been working diligently over the last eight months in the spare moments we have had between client projects to create a site to replace the dire-looking Azam.net and it will launched on 24 April.
Domain Names
After nearly nine months of negotiations, last month we finalised the sale of a domain name to Deutsche Bahn and therefore complete what I believe must be a unique hattrack [sic]: three years ago we sold a domain name to a British train company, last year we sold one to SNCF, and now one to Deutsche Bahn, which means we have sold domain names to three of Europe’s leading rail operators.
We also managed to sell officiel.eu in March to Die Healthcare Gruppe in Wiesbaden in Germany, which is our third .eu domain name sale in three months.
We have a service in which we use our vast experience and connections to find buyers for domain names. It is charged at our standard hourly rate and, if you’d like to find out more, you may get in touch with details about the domain names you’re looking to sell.
We have a few hundred established websites and domain names for sales and you can save 20% off regular prices this April. Email domains [at] azam.biz if you are interested.
Advertising in the Blog
Despite not having the time to post as regularly as we’d like, we have built a loyal readership and am delighted so many people say they enjoy reading it.
In March I had two people contacting me about wishing to advertise in the blog. It’s not something we’re considering at the moment, but when the revamped Azam.info is completed and goes live in several weeks, we will have grown our subscriber list further and will start to feature advertising.
Job Opportunities
Azam Marketing is expanding at such a ferocious pace that we are recruiting more staff. We have roles for SEO, PPC, PR, Affiliate Management and content writing specialists with at least two years solid experience in their respective disciplines. If you’re interested, email us at results [at] azam.net with your CV/resumé and examples of your work. 
We are also seeking somebody to help orchestrate the whole band. For this position you must have at least two years professional experience with demonstrable profit in at least three of the following areas: Affiliate Management, Affiliate Marketing, SEO, PPC, Email Marketing, Public Relations, Domain Name Trading, Website/Graphic Design, Sales, Writing, Book-keeping/Accountancy.
You must be ambitious, hard-working and be based in the UK. Ideally should have had familiarity with running a business and/or management experience.
Number of hours per week: 20 - 60, depending on what you are able to commit to. Flexitime.
Good basic salary plus generous share of the business plus bonuses.
Please send detailed email with information about yourself and your experience, as well as full contact details, to results [at] azam.net . You should also include your CV and what you feel you can bring to the agency. Deadline: 25 April, 2007.
‘Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives’ by Madeleine Bunting - Book Review
31 Mar
Posted by Nadeem Azam as Life, Business, Nadeem Azam
by Madeleine Bunting
In John Maynard Keynes’ 1928 essay "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren" he writes, "Let us for the sake of argument suppose that a hundred years from now we are eight times better off than we are in the economic sense than we are today." The United States GDP is now, indeed, nearly eight times larger than 1928 (6.5 times to be precise).
Keynes predicted: "…for the first time since his creation man would be forced to confront his real and permanent problem, how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him to live wisely and agreeably and well" (Keynes 1972, p. 328).
He believed we would be working two hours a day.
For a few decades it seemed like the Western world was heading towards Keynes’ Age of Leisure. The ‘Journal of Labor Research’ published a paper entitled ‘The decline in average annual hours worked in the United States, 1947–1979’, based on US government data and that from Fortune 500 companies, which demonstrated working hours had “declined significantly” due to “the dramatic rise in paid time off since 1947” (Vol. 4, No. 2, June 1983).
Since 1985, however, citizens in two of the leading economies in the world, the United States and United Kingdom, are now working longer hours. (Ironically, it is no longer a case of the downtrodden breaking their backs in the workplace, but the senior management: whereas a blue collar worker in Europe will put in 41 hours a week, this rises to 43 hours for professionals and 50 hours for managers.)
Madeline Bunting’s polemic delves into the plight of the British, where full-time workers put in the longest hours in Europe at an average 43.6 a week, ahead of the EU average of 40.3.It’s not just the number of hours that Bunting rails against, but the demands on workers, in terms of not only their labour but their emotions (cf. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser) and stress levels induced by having to compete in a fast-moving global economy. Mike Harris, the Chief Executive of internet bank egg states:
“the pace of work is getting worse… It’s the rate of change in globalisation – you’re subject to competition from people who are far bigger than you and who do things you’ve never thought of. Whenever you look you see the global competition, and you no longer have the forms of protection because of deregulation.” (p. 47)
Bunting’s book is nothing but comprehensive: for 267 pages she narrates the stories of individuals up and down the UK, from supermarket cleaners to computer programmers, who speak about their long working hours and sense of disenfranchisement and alienation.
The tales of the individuals concerned are no doubt very real, but I can’t help but feel these chapters are overly biased. In fairness to Bunting, she never professes this to be a balanced study - or a study at all – but the book would hold more weight if she were to write about the plight of workers with some degree of balance. According to Bunting the British worker is, indeed, practically a slave and little has changed since the days of Industrial Revolution when workers were forced to sweat for 14 hours a day in factories with no rights.
Yes, the British work harder than other Western European nations - though that is not much of a benchmark to be compared against - but most people don’t exert themselves to anything like the degree that Bunting purports. A riposte to her book is David Bolchover’s The Living Dead: Switched Off, Zoned Out - The Shocking Truth About Office Life. It debunks the myth of the overworked, stressed employee and writes about the millions of workers who spend hours in the office doing very little and shying away from responsibilities.
Bunting would do well to read some statistics about office life: 40 per cent of all casual drugs users in the US (people who use drugs just once a month) still choose to do it at work. One in three midweek visitors to the UK theme park Alton Towers has taken the day off work on a dishonest pretext. One in five US workers has had sex with a co-worker during work hours - full sex, that is. 44 per cent of men and 35 per cent of women have had at least some sexual contact at work. One third of young professionals in Britain are hungover at least twice a week on working days. Two thirds admitted to having called in sick due to alcohol at least once in the previous month. 70 per cent of Internet porn sites are accessed during the 9 to 5 working day.
According to the first American Time Use Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, on an “average day” in 2003, people in the U.S. age 15 and over slept about 8.6 hours, spent 5.1 hours doing leisure and sports activities, spent 1.8 hours doing household activities, 4.8 hours eating, drinking, studying and shopping and only 3.7 hours working.
And Britain’s supposedly enslaved proletariat is watching an average of 25 hours of television a week, to top all their other recreational activities.
People may be working a few hours a week more than 1985, but the average Joe enjoys more leisure time than his historic counterparts: in the middle ages, the average person in England spent 2309 hours working, which rocketed to 3105-3588 hours in 1840, and this currently stands at around a mere 1900 hours.
The final part of the book is entitled ‘What can be done?’ and Bunting asserts: “Britain has a choice… the American route of low regulation and high employment experts a powerful hold over the political establishment of both left and right. But across the Channel is an alternative of effective social democracy which does not shrink from intervening in the economy to achieve a common benefit.” (p. 301)
She writes about the 35 hour maximum working work in France and the 16 months paid leave entitlement for parents in Sweden when a child is born with glee and envy. She is correct: some Western Europeans have reduced the number of hours they work to a point where it is but a petty nuisance that gets in the way of a life of leisure: whereas Germans worked an average of 2,372 hours per year in 1964, by 1998 this had been slashed to a mere 1,560 (‘National Academy of Social Insurance’ debate, January 22-23, 2004, National Press Club).
This is all well and good, but what Bunting fails to disclose is the relative idleness of the Old Europe worker is stifling economic growth and this will have far reaching consequences. Fareed Zakaria penned a foreboding piece in the Washington Post on 14 February, 2006, ‘The Decline And Fall Of Europe’, in which he refers to the Chief Economist of the OECD who predicts that, if current trends continue, the average American will be twice as rich as the average Frenchman or German in just 20 years. Zakaria warns: “People have argued that Europeans simply value leisure more and, as a result, are poorer but have a better quality of life. That’s fine if you’re taking a 10 percent pay cut and choosing to have longer lunches and vacations. But if you’re only half as well off as the United States, that will translate into poorer health care and education, diminished access to all kinds of goods and services, and a lower quality of life.” (p. A15)
The winners according to the game of Capitalism are those who produce and the losers are those who don’t produce. No value is given to anything else. All things being equal, the employee who is still sitting in front of a computer in the office working at 6pm or 7pm will produce more than the one who is sitting in a cafe sipping cappuccino.
No matter what the cost to family relations, psychological health or spiritual well-being, in a world where unfettered capitalism is the only game in town, the workaholic (the slave, as Bunting calls him or her), ends up the winner. In 1980, the French were 23% richer than their British counterparts. In 1999, the French were only 9% richer than the British. In 2008, the French are poorer than the British.
Because of the dog-eat-dog nature of the capitalist superstructure, the worker who prizes quality of life over material output ends up being shoved into the gutter. Over 500,000 Brits. have bought properties in France and priced the French out of buying properties in the villages, towns and cities they were born in. As the British invasion continues and the structural weaknesses of the French economy begin to impact on people’s lives, hundreds of thousands of young Frenchmen and women will not be enjoying an Age of Leisure, but instead be labouring long hours and suffering anxiety and ill health as they struggle to earn enough Euros to compete with the hard working, high earning British just to buy a home for themselves.
He who toils the longest hours wins.
How we got to this ludicrous position I’d share my two pence worth, but I would require a few thousand more words and you’d better return to your work before you are let go.
Do you think we work hard as a nation or not? What’s your situation? Are you so swamped with work that you don’t even have time for a coffee break or does your work day consist of watching youtube, reading forums and blogs, and surfing around travel websites trying to decide where to go on your next holiday? You can comment below.
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