Azam Marketing’s Summer Prize Draw has been a scorching success and we’d like to thank everyone for their entries as well as the sponsors for their fantastic array of prizes.

We are thrilled to announce the winners are…

Five Fabulous First Prizes

Keith Scott and Mark Boyd - A Dell Vostro 3500 laptop each, worth £551 / $864 / €662 – donated by Aspect Web Media

Diane Drinkwater – Apple iPad WiFi + 3G worth £529 / $829 / €635 – donated by Free Cashback

Nazma Iqbal –  Tellallmyfriends voucher worth £500 / $784 / €600 to spend on anything you like – donated by UK2.net

Rob Barham – Microsoft Xbox 360 Slim worth £200 / $313 / €240 – donated by BidYell

Lots of Valuable Second Prizes

Christiana Naziris – Pair of TX-B1-BL speakers worth £219 / $343 / €263 – donated by Crystal Acoustics

Sharron Page – Waitrose vouchers – £150 / $235 / €180 vouchers to Britain’s highest quality supermarket chain (or to be used on Waitrose Entertaining if delivery not available in the winner’s area)

James Little – Personalised Malt Whisky gift boxed; leather personalised football book; framed newspaper spoof, and historic newspaper with date of your choice – worth over £160 / $250 / €192 donated by Gone Digging / Historic Newspapers

John Dale and Jennifer Smith -  Windows 7 Professional for each – worth £220 / $345 / €264 each – donated by Azam Marketing

Unique Runners Up Prizes

Vicki Macdonald and Joshua Cooper – 2 x framed newspaper spoofs – donated by Gone Digging

Max Bramwell – Historic newspaper of any date of your choosing – donated by Historic Newspapers (UK) / Simply Personalized (USA)

Megan Cutter, Ian Brown, Ian Maciver, Stephen Hill, Louise Damsell, Christina Massue, Gareth Hughes, William Ferris, Leonie Sanford, and Rob Proietti - a Sennheiser MX75 Twist-To-Fit In-Ear Stereo Sport headphone each - donated by Bidyell (UK – USA)

Tony Busko – Premium one year subscription to SpadeClub and one year subscription to Card Player magazine worth £153 / $240 / €183 – donated by SpadeClub

All the winners will be contacted within the next 24 hours to ask them for their details so we can arrange for them to receive their prizes.

You can win more terrific prizes at BidYell, who are one of our major sponsors of this prize draw and have a penny auctions website. They are offering 20 free bids to all new members!

Quick2Bid.com are one of the UK’s leading Penny Auction sites who have created a unique online auction game where savvy bargain-hunters tactically compete to win must-have products at a fraction of the retail price.

The site has hundreds of very happy Quick2Bid players who have won some great products at discounted prices.  Products on offer range from vouchers, console games and electronic goods to tickets for sporting events and even holidays!

Their USP’s are pretty impressive and include:

- New member registration incentives – £2 Free credit upon registration plus double your first top up plus a guarantee that you will win a prize in your first month (if you don’t, then all the credit you have spent during the month is returned to your Quick2Bid account)

- No hidden costs – Once you win a prize, there is no final price or shipping costs or anything further to pay. We want bargains to remain just that!

- 10% of our turnover is donated to Charity partners and our players get to choose how this is allocated

- Generous referral scheme and plenty of other opportunities and competitions to bag free Quick2Bid credit

- Impeccable feedback throughout the Penny Auction Review Sites for our honesty, integrity and excellent Customer Service

- A unique style of Penny Auction game that incentivises more tactical and skilful bidding

- Several methods of feedback and communication to us, with guarantees around response times and strong focus on customer service

- Free Text message and email Auction reminder system

Commissions

Commissions on the Quick2Bid.com affiliate program are pretty generous and offer commission for new members as well as for sales – here’s a breakdown:

- For each a valid lead (i.e. a new user who signs up to the site), affiliates are paid as follows:

10p to Incentive Sites & Freebie Sites.

£1 to Non-incentive Sites

We are planning to work very closely with freebie and incentive sites to ensure the quality of leads is good with a view to increasing commissions on a case by case basis.

- For a sale (i.e. the first time a lead from an affiliate purchases Quick2Bid Credit):

1 – 5 deposits – £5

6 – 10 deposits – £6

11 – 20 deposits – £7

21 – 40 deposits – £8

41+ deposits – £10

The program is available via Affiliate Future and you can sign up to the program here.

A generic voucher code is also available for all affiliates to promote, as follows:

- Code: Q2B001

- Offer: £2 free credit and your first top up will be doubled!

On top of this, Quick2Bid.com are offering all affiliates £10 free credit to try out the site for themselves! Get in touch with Pam Sagoo at pam [at] azam.net if you’d like to take up this free offer and also if you have any questions of comments regarding the program.

Happy Bidding!

The prize draw winners are here.

We’re thrilled to launch the Azam Marketing Summer Prize Draw in association with Free Cashback. The range of 30 valuable goodies donated by our wonderful sponsors have a combined value over £4,400 / $7,000 / €5,400!

All entrants also receive FREE paintball and beauty makeover vouchers worth over £100.00! (Terms and Conditions apply; only valid in the UK.)

Entry is completely free and you multiply your odds of winning by carrying out various simple actions.

Entries will be accepted from 1 to 31 August, 2010. The draw will take place on 2 September when winners will be randomly selected. Winners will be emailed and also announced on this blog on the 3^rd of September.

So what’s up for grabs?

Five Fabulous First Prizes

2 x Dell Vostro 3500 laptops worth £551 / $864 / €662 each – donated by Aspect Web Media

Apple iPad WiFi + 3G worth £529 / $829 / €635 – donated by Free Cashback

Tellallmyfriends voucher worth £500 / $784 / €600 to spend on anything you like – donated by UK2.net

Microsoft Xbox 360 Slim worth £200 / $313 / €240 – donated by BidYell

Lots of Valuable Second Prizes

Pair of TX-B1-BL speakers worth £219 / $343 / €263 – donated by Crystal Acoustics

Waitrose vouchers – £150 / $235 / €180 vouchers to Britain’s highest quality supermarket chain (or to be used on Waitrose Entertaining if delivery not available in the winner’s area)

Personalised Malt Whisky gift boxed; leather personalised football book; framed newspaper spoof, and historic newspaper with date of your choice – worth over £160 / $250 / €192 donated by Gone Digging / Historic Newspapers

2 x Windows 7 Professional – worth £220 / $345 / €264 each – donated by Azam Marketing

Unique Runners Up Prizes

2 x framed newspaper spoofs – donated by Gone Digging

Historic newspaper of any date of your choosing – donated by Historic Newspapers (UK) / Simply Personalized (USA)

10 x Sennheiser MX75 Twist-To-Fit In-Ear Stereo Sport headphones – donated by Bidyell (UK – USA)

Premium one year subscription to SpadeClub and one year subscription to Card Player magazine worth £153 / $240 / €183 – donated by SpadeClub (cannot be offered to residents of certain excluded North American states).

How to Enter?

All you have to do is email prizedraw@azam.info with (a) your email address, (b) your country, (c) the total number of entries you have, and (d) screenshots of each and every action which qualifies you for an entry (e.g. send a screengrab showing you have followed particular Twitter accounts). May include multiple actions in one screengrab.

2 entries – for submitting your entry i.e. you don’t have to carry out any action

8 entries – join The Aspect Network as a publisher. This is a lead generation / affiliate marketing network with a fantastic range of UK offers

8 entries – join FreeCashback.co.uk, a leading cashback site in the UK since 2003, for free

3 entries – for each of the following Facebook pages you ‘like’: Azam Marketing, FreeCashback.co.uk, UK2.net, Waitrose, Gone Digging, SpadeClub. 3 entries per like.

3 entries – for following these Twitter accounts: Azam Marketing, FreeCashback.co.uk, UK2.net, Waitrose, Gone Digging, SpadeClub. 3 entries per follow.

4 entries – keep up with the Azam Marketing blog by RSS, by email subscription, or adding to your browser bookmarks. 4 entries each; maximum 8 entries via this method.

8 entries – join the Gone Digging and BidYell affiliate programs on Webgains UK, the UK2.net affiliate program on any network, Crystal Acoustics on Tradedoubler UK, and/or SpadeClub on Commission Junction. 8 entries per affiliate program sign-up.

10 entries – add www.Azam.info or www.FreeCashback.co.uk to your blog roll or links page. Must be no more than 30 links on the page. Website must have either global Alexa ranking less than 250,000 and/or more than 200 RSS subscribers via publically visible counter (or send screenshot showing number of subscribers). If does not satisfy the minimum Alexa or RSS subscriber criteria, adding link to either site classifies as 4 entries.

6 entries – for each tweet about this prize draw anytime before 25 August 2010. Must have at least 500 followers. Maximum 12 entries via this method.

12 entries – blog or write an article about this prize draw anytime before 20 August 2010. Minimum 100 words. Website must have either global Alexa ranking less than 250,000 and/or more than 200 RSS subscribers via publically visible counter (or send screenshot showing number of subscribers). If website does not satisfy the minimum Alexa or RSS subscriber criteria, this action classifies as 6 entries. Maximum 12 entries via this method.

If you were already doing any of the above, you still qualify to receive the entries.

Terms & Conditions – Important

1.  UK and Eire prize draw entrants will be subscribed to the FreeCashback.co.uk newsletter which highlights each week’s best voucher code and cashback deals. You may easily unsubscribe. Your details will not be added to any other mailing list, nor used for any purpose other than one autoresponder email to confirm we have received your entry and another to inform you if you win a prize.

2.  Entries will only be accepted by 12 midnight Pacific Standard Time on 31 August 2010.

3.  We will verify all winners have qualified for the number of entries they state. If the number of entries they state is inaccurate (honest mistakes will be tolerated where there may have been confusion about the number of entries a certain action qualifies for), they will be disqualified from the prize draw. You must still be participating in the action (e.g. following a Twitter group) at the time when the competition organiser carries out their checks.

4. Entries accepted from anywhere in the world; prizes can be mailed to any country (as long as do not contravene that country’s laws).

5. Only one entry per household. Only one prize per entrant.

6. Sending an email is not proof that we have received your entry. No responsibility can be accepted for entries that are lost or delayed, or which are not received for any reason.

7. If you win a prize, we will notify you by email.

8. If you do not reply to the notification email informing you that you have won and requesting your postal details etc. to receive prize within seven days of the email being sent, another randomly-selected entrant will be offered the prize.

9. The judges’ decision will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

10. By entering the competition the winner agrees to participate in such promotional activity and material as the prize draw organiser may require.

11. No part of a prize is exchangeable for cash or any other prize.

12. The companies donating prizes have been asked to send prizes within a month of the competition end date but cannot guarantee this delivery time. While the prize draw organiser will do everything in its power to ensure prize winners are sent their winning item(s) by the prize donating companies, they cannot be held responsible if any company does not send a prize or it is not as specified.

13. Ministry of Experiences prizes may incur costs for participation. For example, paintballs have to be purchased. See Ministry of Experiences website for full details.

14. The prize draw is not open to employees or members of their immediate families of Azam Marketing or the companies donating prizes.

15. The prize draw entry email address is only for prize draw entries.

The prize draw winners are here.

SpadeClub offers a fun and affordable poker experience and their program is exclusively available on Commission Junction USA.

SpadeClub.com is not a gambling site as members are never asked to wager money and there are no deposits required. Instead, members can join thousands of poker enthusiasts for competitive play with real cash prizes without the risk incurred on standard online poker sites.

SpadeClub members can also sharpen their poker skills, get tips from SpadeClub’s gaming experts as well as joining a friendly poker community. Over $2.6m has been awarded to date.

SpadeClub pays a generous $15.00 in commission per free trial, so it’s easy to make money.

Members sign up to SpadeClub on a 14-day Premium Membership free trial where credit card details are required up front. Thereafter there are three membership types – Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly memberships.

Unlock all that SpadeClub has to offer, including unlimited poker play for over more than 100K in prizes each month, dynamic social networking features and choice partner offers.

Affiliates interested in promoting the program can sign up at Commission Junction by clicking here.

We welcome all affiliates to contact us with feedback or questions. Email: pam [at] azam.net or call +44(0)7985 123 921

Six members of the Azam team attended this year, and with nominations in five categories we had high hopes of walking away with a clutch of sparkling new trophies to put on the shelves at Azam HQ. There were smiles all round when the judging panel announced that our hard-working Paid Search Marketing team had been Highly Commended in the Best Lead Generation category!

 
We’d like to take this opportunity to pass on our thanks to the organisers Existem for another top notch event, and to congratulate all of the lucky winners.

Read on for a full list of who won what, and to view some of our favourite photos from the event!

Best 3rd Party Application

• Winner: Storm for Affiliates from DC Storm
• Highly Commended: Quidco for Instore Cashback

Best Advertiser Incentive

• Winner: Red Letter Days
• Highly Commended: Maximuscle

Best Agency in Affiliate Marketing

• Winner: Existem Affiliate Management
• Highly Commended: R.O. Eye

Best Lead Generation Campaign

• Winner: VoucherCodes.co.uk
• Highly Commended: Azam Marketing for Advent

Best New Entrant in Affiliate Marketing

• Winner: Affiliate Window for Sainsbury’s
• Highly Commended: FusePump

Best Paid Search Partnership

• Winner: Artemis8 with Premier Inn
• Highly Commended: Perfect Storm and Seatwave

Best Use of Affiliate Marketing as Part of a Wider Marketing Campaign

• Winner: Sky
• Highly Commended: LoveFilm

Innovation Award (Advertiser)

• Winner: eBay Partner Network
• Highly Commended: Red Letter Days

Innovation Award (Network)

• Winner: Affiliate Future for White Label Travel Products
• Highly Commended: Affiliate Window for Strengthening Relationships

Innovation Award (Publisher)

• Winner: top10.com
• Highly Commended: UK Web Media for Recombu

Finance Vertical (Publisher)

• Winner: Quidco for NatWest Home Insurance
• Highly Commended: Media Ingenuity

Finance Vertical (Advertiser)

• Winner: CreditExpert from Experian
• Highly Commended: Lloyds TSB Airmiles Duo Credit Card Account

Technology & Telecoms (Publisher)

• Winner: top10.com
• Highly Commended: UK Web Media for Recombu

Technology & Telecoms (Advertiser)

• Winner: Vodafone
• Highly Commended: BLM Quantum for T-Mobile

Casino & Gaming (Publisher)

• Winner: Loquax

Casino & Gaming (Advertiser)

• Winner: Locker Room for Bodog
• Highly Commended: Paddy Partners for Paddy Power

Retail (Publisher)

• Winner: VoucherCodes.co.uk
• Highly Commended: Quidco

Retail (Advertiser)

• Winner: Firebox.com
• Highly Commended: Argos

Travel & Leisure (Publisher)

• Winner: VoucherCodes.co.uk for hotels.com
• Highly Commended: Quidco for Expedia & hotels.com

Travel & Leisure (Advertiser)

• Winner: BLM Quantum for Haven Holidays
• Highly Commended: Commission Junction for Lastminute.com

Publishers’ Choice of Affiliate Network

• Winner: Affiliate Window
• Highly Commended: affilinet and Affiliate Future

Community Choice Publisher of the Year Award

• Winner: eConversions/VoucherCodes.co.uk
• Highly Commended: Quidco

Publishers’ Choice of Account Manager at a Network

• Winner: Julie Wood (Affiliate Window)
• Highly Commended: Helen Collins (affilinet) and James Little (Affiliate Future)

Publisher’s Choice of Affiliate Manager – In-house or at an Agency

• Winner: Naomi Brown (Firebox)
• Highly Commended: Joshna Patel (Red Letter Days)

Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2010

• Winner: Jason Dale (www.onelittleduck.co.uk )
• Highly Commended: Kirsty McCubbin (www.affiliatestuff.co.uk)

Related Blog Post: a4u Awards 2009 Winners

Liligo is an innovative travel search engine which already has a very loyal following in Europe, and is now expanding into the UK. The established sites in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Belgium have over 1 million unique visits per month and liligo.com also powers the travel pages on many well-known websites including MSN France and ViaMichelin.

The website’s sophisticated search technology enables customers to find the best travel deals available online within a few seconds, and regularly features great offers from all the major airlines, hotels and car hire providers. By crawling the widest range of travel suppliers (including low cost airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet) liligo.com promises that customers always have instant access to the cheapest prices!

Prices on liligo.com are displayed in real time to ensure availability, and the site uniquely helps customers to find the best fares by showing how they can travel to their destination with one airline and return with another.

The affiliate program is available on Commission Junction and provides an extensive range of affiliate tools including high-converting banners, search boxes and text links. White label sites are also on offer for publishers who can generate high volumes of leads each month – please contact us if you’re interested in these.

It’s easy to rack up big earnings with the high conversion rates and simple commission terms – affiliates receive a fixed fee per outgoing click as follows:

- 13p per click for flights
- 20p per click for hotels
- 33p per click for car hire

We look forward to working with new affiliates to ensure that the liligo.com program is the best in the travel sector! To begin promoting this exciting campaign, please sign up on Commission Junction or email karen [at] azam.net with any queries.

This is the first time that any agency has made it to the finals in so many categories, which makes it an even bigger achievement!

Azam has enjoyed phenomenal growth in the past couple of years with no fewer than six new staff joining our team since the end of 2008, and a host of new client wins including the likes of UK2.net and Disney.

The nominations for Azam Marketing are as follows:

• Best Agency in Affiliate Marketing
• Best Lead Generation Campaign (Azam Marketing for Advent)
• Best Paid Search Partnership (Azam Marketing and Advent)
• Best Advertiser (Azam Marketing for Gone Digging)
• Best Affiliate Manager In House or at an Agency

The awards, which will be held on 9th June at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair, are now in their fourth year and reward excellence and innovation with the shortlist of finalists being chosen by the online marketing community and a panel of judges. Last year’s glamorous black tie ceremony, where Azam was Highly Commended as Best Affiliate Management Agency, was attended by almost 500 of the industry’s most renowned online marketers.

Azam’s CEO Nadeem says: “These nominations are an exceptional accomplishment. Getting shortlisted for one award would be fantastic, but being recognised in five categories is really something special. I am very proud of our team and am delighted to see that their hard work and dedication is acknowledged by the judges and our peers”.

We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our fellow finalists and nominees – it’s certainly going to be an anxious wait until 9th June!

BidYell are a very popular penny auction site, a concept which is fast becoming all the rage. They offer fantastic savings on branded products, from Satellite Navigation systems and Games Consoles to DVD’s and much, much more.

They’re not just offering Penny Auctions, but also Knockout and Speed Auctions which sets them apart from their competitors. BidYell also offer free shipping on all products as well as rewarding referrers 10 free bids for every referral who purchases 10 bid or more.

Zaque Hussain, Managing Director at BidYell.co.uk, says “We selected Azam Marketing as they’re by far, the best in the business. They stand out from the crowd and have years upon years of online marketing experience. The affiliate program is an integral part of our business here at BidYell and we’re confident of seeing a lot more growth now that we have the backing of Azam Marketing and the expertise of their Affiliate Management team. We’re really looking forward to building a successful business as well as the affiliate program and welcome affiliates to contact us if they have any queries at all.”

There are several new features to the site as part of the recent redesign. Firstly, BidYell are offering a free pair of Sennheisers MX75 Sport Headphones for new customers signing up and purchasing their first 50 bid pack (terms and conditions apply and limited availability!).

Other enhancements include three features called Haggle, Buy Now and Win Limitations. You can read more about them in BidYell’s news section here.

The affiliate program is run through Webgains (program ID 2805) and affiliates can earn 15% commission on all bid pack purchases on a 90 day cookie.

There’s even a generic voucher code available – NJUKDFFU - which offers new customers signing up 25% extra free bids for all bid pack purchases. One voucher per customer only and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Voucher valid until 15th May 2010.

We welcome all affiliates to contact us if they have any queries or suggestions, as we aim to make this a successful penny auction affiliate program. You can contact us by email at pam [at] azam.net or call +44(0)7985 123 921.

Tradeyourgames.co.uk was the very first UK site to bring the concept of trading games to the web, and has unveiled a new website allowing gamers to sell and trade their old and unwanted video games and consoles at great prices.

Indy Sangha, Managing Director, says: “After going through a long process of identifying the best of breed in all our partner relationships, Azam stood out as the team we wanted to manage our affiliate program. We believe our site has great potential and Azam Marketing understood our ambition from day one. Their experience and reputation in the market is second to none.”

Read the press release here

Offering online trade-in rates of up to 40% more than the high street, Trade Your Games removes the hassle of using online auction sites such as eBay, and offers gamers a best price guarantee as well as free delivery on site purchases.

The vibrant site includes an innovative barcode tool to speed up the process for customers trading multiple items, and a Dynamic Pricing Algorithm which constantly adjusts prices according to current market rates, stock levels and demand. Registered users will receive updates via an online blog and free newsletter.

TradeYourGames is offering increased commissions of 7.5% per sale as a special launch incentive to affiliates (standard rate is 5% in commission) until 31st May 2010, so don’t miss out and sign up to promote the campaign today! Other benefits include:

- Bonuses and incentives to help you earn more commissions
- Voucher codes, special offers and discounts
- Regular affiliate newsletters, giving you the latest best sellers
- Dedicated affiliate support, including evenings and weekends

We’re really looking forward to working with Indy and his team, and are sure that the affiliate program will be a tremendous success. To sign up, please visit Webgains (program ID 3460) or email pam [at] azam.net for more information.

I wrote the following last year on her Linkedin profile and it summarises everything I believe about Karen:

“There are a lot of people in online marketing who jump up and down and brag about their supposed achievements. Karen is the opposite. She has achieved many things in her long, illustrious career in digital marketing and been pivotal to the success of many projects, but not often been recognised for it. Her personality is thus that she prefers to focus on getting jobs done than dance the hula-hoop and have everybody watch her. I feel incredibly privileged and fortunate to have such a talented and affable person as my colleague.”

Karen was called the most reliable person in the entire industry by a prominent figure on one of the affiliate networks and she has been a Godsend to the Azam team with her dependability and the diligence and quality of her work.

She’s a very humble person and will be embarrassed at what I’m writing, so I’ll stop. Suffice to say, Karen has been one of the unsung heroines of affiliate marketing for many years (on the day the shortlist was announced Karen was making a 500 mile round-trip to meet one of her Affiliate Management clients, who she’d travelled 450 miles to meet a few days earlier).

The shortlists for the four other Community Choice awards are:

Publisher of the Year

eConversions / VoucherCodes.co.uk

Quidco

ShopStyle

Skimlinks

TopCashback

Best Account Manager at a Network

Anne Budden – AffiliateFuture

Helen Collins – affilinet

James Little – AffiliateFuture

Darren Newmark – LinkShare

Aga Marchewka – buy.at

Chantal Williams – Affiliate Window

Julie Wood – Affiliate Window

Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2010

AffiliateStuff.co.uk

DavidFiske.com

eBay Partner Network Blog

Here.org.uk

Lammo.net

OneLittleDuck.co.uk

Best Affiliate Marketing Network

Affiliate Window

Affilinet

Affiliate Future

Commission Junction

LinkShare

Paid On Results

‘T-Orange’ or ‘Orange-T’ (or whatever you prefer to call the merger between the mobile giants!) will have a combined customer base of almost 30 million making it the largest operator in the UK, closely followed by O2 with 21 million customers. They say the merger is going to “improve mobile internet”, giving us a faster browsing experience.

Soon after this news was announced came rumours that Vodafone may be looking to join ventures with the 3 network, especially as they’ve already done so in Australia. There’s also been talk that 3 oppose the T-Mobile/Orange merger, saying that it raises key competition issues as it reduces the mobile broadband providers from five to four. Which leaves us thinking: Doesn’t less competition put the retailer in a better position?

As for the ‘Affiliate.at’ or ‘Buy Window’ merger, there’s been talk for years about the consolidation of the UK affiliate networks, and finally something really big has happened. So far, the industry reaction has been positive and at Azam we think it’s going to be an interesting few months as two of the biggest UK networks start working together.

While Affiliate Window’s recent partnership with Zanox has taken them into the European arena, the merger with Buy.at certainly makes it apparent that the U.S. is where they want to succeed next.

Whether the new merger will prove detrimental to the other UK affiliate networks out there remains to be seen, but I’m pretty sure it’s given them food for thought.

For us at Azam, it will give us one less network to look at when running comparisons and I’m sure it’s the same for affiliates too.

Whatever these mergers bring, it’s certainly an exciting move and we’ll certainly be keeping a very close eye on how things develop.

What are your thoughts on the mergers and acquisitions? Leave a comment below!

Read the interview in full here.

p.s. I’m not the only Azam team member who has featured on Murray’s website – you may wish to read an interview with our very own Nadeem Azam, here.

People let this phrase roll off their tongue without really meaning it, but I can honestly say ‘time has flown by…’

Before even starting my new job, I was given the opportunity to meet my London-based colleagues. We had, what was to be my first of two Christmas meals! A couple of my colleagues were on a high as they had just returned from visiting the Emirates stadium courtesy of Affiliate Future. As huge Arsenal fans, they took great pleasure from learning that I support Liverpool. Say no more!

A lovely meal later, I was left feeling pretty pleased with my decision to join Azam Marketing and looking forward to working with, and I quote, ’superstars’ at the company.

My first day and I was back in Brick Lane, home of my previous employer, LBi. I’d only left the agency a week or so before and didn’t think I’d be back in the area so quickly. But there I was, bright and early at Liverpool Street station, heading straight to a nearby cafe for a quick hot chocolate (not being much of a tea or coffee person…) and a chat with Nadeem, before setting off to meet one of our new clients, UK2.Net.

A couple of hours later we were meeting another one of our clients, Signature Gifts. Six hours in, and two client meetings under my belt – not bad going! The day was far from over though. That evening, we were kindly invited to a Christmas dinner by another of our clients, Purple Parking. The venue was ‘Da Remo’, an Italian restaurant in a lovely little rural village west of Heathrow called Denham (i.e. a million miles from Seven Kings, my home town).

We were wined, dined and entertained, and even treated to a rendition of the Purple Parking team song, set to the tune of Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. Just replace the words ‘walking on sunshine woah oh’ with ‘parking at purple woah oh’ – er yes, you had to hear it to believe it! I can’t remember what time my head hit the pillow that night, but I certainly remember thinking I’d never had such an eventful, memorable first day at any job before…

The following week I was up in Leeds for five days meeting and getting to know my colleagues, Karen, Sinead and James. There was a lot to learn and catch up on, so it was great to have the opportunity to do it face to face. Not only that, but I was treated to another Christmas dinner, this time with the Northern team in Leeds. I also had the pleasure of meeting the team at V A C Media in the beautiful setting of Riddlesden, which is a picturesque village on the outskirts of Bradford.

I had never been further north than Birmingham before, so it was a real treat to see the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the surrounding, scenic countryside.

Back down in London just before Christmas, the real work began. Intensive training sessions helped me to swiftly learn more about Azam’s clients and the background to our business. Meeting potential clients and nailing new contracts since then has been hugely satisfying and I’ve really enjoyed helping my colleagues with existing campaigns and building on what we’ve already hugely achieved as a company.

It’s going to an interesting 2010 as we continue bringing Azam Marketing to the forefront of people’s minds, educating advertisers as well as learning from our surroundings. Another year of striving to make Affiliate Marketing an even more innovative form of marketing a merchant’s products.

If you’re interested in learning more about us the services we offer, visit Azam.net or contact us here. If you would like to contact me directly, you can do so at pam [at] azam.net.

Azam Marketing has recently started working with the network from both an agency and publisher angle, and we thought it’d be the perfect time to invite Managing Director Andrew Slack to tell us more about the network. Here’s what he had to say:

Thanks for your time, Andrew. Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself and your background?

With a degree in Computer Science, I’m a techie at heart. I really enjoy solving problems and I believe that helps massively when running an online business.

I’ve worked in affiliate marketing for over 10 years now, starting out as an affiliate back when eBay paid per impression! I sold my first website in 2002 for $13,000 dollars which for a student was a very tidy sum. After university I went on to work for several affiliate networks and merchants to develop my understanding of the industry.

Why did you decide to set up MoreNiche?

MoreNiche has been going since 2002 in one form or another. To begin with, the focus was in the adult health sector, where affiliate marketing has long been the preferred online marketing channel.

In 2006 we sold a number of key brands: this multimillion pound deal allowed us to rebrand and develop a new affiliate platform from scratch. We invested heavily to make sure that we could include all the features we felt were missing from other networks.

What benefits do you offer?

At MoreNiche we pride ourselves on being very accessible. Our account managers each have a maximum of five accounts, spending at least one day per week on each program. This gives them the time to engage with affiliates on a one-to-one basis and focus on helping them to earn money.

We’re not playing a numbers game, we have small group of premium merchants who understand affiliate marketing and provide high commissions to affiliates.

We also offer lifetime cookies, the most aggressive tracking system in the industry (we get paid when affiliates makes sales, so you can bet your bottom dollar we want to track every sale!), 20-50% commissions as standard and a host of free tools such as YouTube training videos. See an example here:

What separates MoreNiche from other affiliate networks?

We care about our affiliates! Our team is addicted to internet marketing and we are not a 9 to 5 company.

We go beyond the call of duty to help our affiliates and reward them for their hard work. Our rewards scheme, where affiliates can earn free gifts from t-shirts to luxury sports cars, recognises the achievements of new starters as well as established super affiliates.

Tell us about your reporting tools/payment options

Our advanced tracking technologies ensure the correct affiliate always gets credit for the sale. With real-time reporting you can see sales instantly, and many affiliates find our SMS notifications very handy.

The average commission across the network is over £43. We pay affiliates every two weeks by cheque, bank transfer or Paypal.

What is the application/acceptance process for new affiliates?

Our approval process has been made as simple as possible. Just give us your name, email address and home address and your account is set up and ready to use. A member of our team then reviews each new profile, with 95% of all affiliates being approved.

“OMG… what about affiliate fraud?” I hear you scream! At MoreNiche we monitor all traffic and sales and have some pretty complex reporting tools; this allows us to approve a higher percentage of affiliates and catch any suspicious affiliates before they get paid.

With chargebacks and affiliate fraud at less than 1% of all transactions we do a pretty good job.

What technical developments do you have planned?

We have ambitious plans for 2010 and are busy improving the management of our affiliate resources so that our merchants and staff can use them more effectively.

We’re also putting together a list of proven suppliers which affiliates can use to outsource tasks such as copy writing, design and web development. Affiliates who do not have the time or skills to do this work themselves will be able to contact and manage freelancers via our network.

What trick do you think affiliates are missing right now?

My biggest recommendation for any business is localisation. We have been working with a number of super affiliates to help them build multiple versions of their websites for customers in different countries.

For example, UK surfers tend to be more conservative than their US counterparts, so instead of using aggressive, direct messaging such as “You will drop 3 stone overnight” affiliates should take a gentler, more measured approach, e.g. “When combining product XYZ with a controlled diet, users experienced a 17.6% loss in appetite”.

Which blogs do you read?

I have RSS subscriptions to many affiliate marketing blogs but some of my favourites are Lammo.net where John Lamerton manages to get the mix of great content and interesting topics spot on, and Fish and Clicks – Paul Wright’s blog. It’s updated less frequently but always worth the wait with lots of effort going into every post.

And finally, how would you convince someone to give MoreNiche a try?

MoreNiche is not for everyone, don’t sign up if you’re looking for a get rich quick scheme and think you know everything about affiliate marketing (nobody does). However if you’re willing to put the effort in I can guarantee more sales and more money than you can earn with any other network!

Here’s an incentive for readers of this blog:

To take up Andrew’s challenge and try the network out for yourself, sign up here or contact karen [at] azam.net to arrange a free one-on-one consultancy with the MoreNiche team at their offices in Nottingham.

Azam Marketing won the holiday back in August as part of a competition for affiliates to sell as many flights as possible to Dubai over a set period. Thanks to a lot of hard work and, after a tense few days constantly checking our campaign stats, Azam was declared the winner!

The prize, kindly arranged with the help of Andy Crowther at Brilliant Media in Leeds, included three nights at the five-star Raffles Hotel in Dubai and return flights with Emirates Airlines. When Nadeem offered me the chance to take the prize, I was absolutely ecstatic and couldn’t wait to pack my bags!

And so it was that my husband and I found ourselves excitedly heading down to Heathrow last week. The drive proved costly – an errant stone chip on the M1 cracked our windscreen – but with the prospect of some winter sun to look forward to, nothing could dampen our spirits as we checked in at Terminal 3.

The journey to Dubai took seven hours, and I passed the time by watching films on the widescreen seat back TV (the low budget horror Paranormal Activity was great, but in hindsight I should have given the poor Ricky Gervais movie The Invention of Lying a miss).

On arrival, we took a taxi from the gleaming marble halls of the airport to our hotel. The Raffles has been built to imitate The Great Pyramid of Giza, and although it seemed a bit strange at first (the Egyptian architecture reminded us of a Las Vegas-style theme hotel), we were soon won over by the grand interior and the gleaming Lamborghini and Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren parked outside.

After a quick freshen up, we headed out sightseeing and our necks quickly became tired from gazing up at the gleaming skyscrapers that Dubai has added to its skyline over the past few years. No expense has been spared in the construction of this modern city which is surprisingly green, thanks to its daily water consumption of around 500 litres per person per day.

One of our ‘must-see’ sights was the newly-opened Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure ever built. Our tour of other Dubai landmarks included the cavernous Dubai Mall shopping centre, the sail-like Burj al Arab hotel, the Al-Fahidi Fort, the Ski Dubai indoor snow resort, and the man-made islands of the Palm Jumeirah.

Our final night was spent in style, soaking up the atmosphere in the Raffles bar sipping on a couple of Dubai Slings (the local version of their Singapore sister hotel’s more famous cocktail) and watching wealthy locals smoking aromatic tobaccos through shisha pipes. A blissful end to an unforgettable break.

The nominations for the 2010 A4U Awards are now open. Please consider voting for Azam Marketing as Publisher, and Karen Clayton as Affiliate Manager in the agency category. Nominate here.