My colleagues and I are excited to announce a fantastic new addition to our affiliate management portfolio – DressRail.com.

A host of celebrities and TV stars have also been seen wearing key pieces from DressRail’s clothing range, including singer Dionne Bromfield and The Only Way is Essex star Amy Childs.

Customers can also dress like their favourite celebrities, with must-have outfits echoing the star style of Cheryl Cole, Kate Middleton, Victoria Beckham and Frankie Sandford from chart-topping girl group The Saturdays.

Key pieces for this season include knitwear, boots and jackets. Plus, with the Christmas party season coming up, it’s a great time to start promoting the fantastic range of low-cost party dresses, shoes and jewellery on offer! There’s FREE Delivery on UK orders over £50, with low cost shipping to Europe and the rest of the world.

- Average order value of £30
- Full product feed
- Seasonal banners and text links
- Speedy 14-day sale validations
- Advanced links and HTML email creatives available

COMMISSION INCREASE – To help incentivise affiliates to give the program an extra push this October, DressRail are offering increased commissions of 15% on every sale!

There’s also a voucher code – dra10 – which gives customers a 10% discount on all purchases.

Sign up to the DressRail affiliate program now to pick up links, or email us for more information and offers: dr [at] azam.net

For details of other lucrative affiliate campaigns managed by Azam, take a look at our advertiser portfolio or telephone our offices on +44 (0)20 7436 4496. We offer unrivalled affiliate support 20 hours a day, 365 days a year!

Welcome to the first of our quarterly blog posts featuring the latest news and information from a selection of our affiliate management clients.

We’ve provided information on the latest offers and promotions, ideas on what you could be pushing to boost your Spring commissions as well as the very latest voucher codes and customer offers!

Before we kick off, we’re very proud to announce another first, our Azam Summer Event scheduled for Friday 17th June!

Put this date into your diaries now – our friendly team will be hosting a fun event in central London and details of how you can be part of it will be released very soon. Watch this space or subscribe for updates!

Ministry of Paintball

New commissions! 50% flat rate for loyalty/reward sites on Affiliate Window, if you’re not listed as a loyalty/reward site, email pam [at] azam.net and we’ll get the new commissions set up for you. For everyone else, you can earn up to 50% on a tiered basis. More information on our blog here.

85% off code now live! The code DIS2011 is available for everyone to use, with no end date. The code gives customers a massive 85% off all the deals on the website.

Ministry of Paintball are also offering affiliates the chance to win some great prizes in their February Prize Draw. They’re giving away 10 VIP packs and each one contains:

> 8 Ministry of Paintball passes worth £30
> 6 Ministry of Comedy passes worth £15
> 2 Ministry of Makeover passes worth £70

The entry criteria could not be easier. Simply complete one of the following actions:

> 10 entries for every sale you make
> 5 entries for a link on a home page
> 2 entries for links on affiliate sites, per page
> 3 entries for a blog post

There’s no limit to the amount of entries you can make, so why not increase your chances by carrying out all of the above!

New Voucher Codes from Ink Factory

Since the launch of their affiliate program seven years ago, Ink Factory has consistently provided affiliates with among the highest commissions in the ink cartridges sector!

Throughout February they are offering customers some amazing deals on home computing and office essentials, including:

Buy One Get One Free, or 3 for 2 on JetTec ink cartridges
Buy One Get One Free on Photo Albums
Buy One Get One Free on Selected Recycled ink cartridges

Affiliates can also boost their earnings with the following voucher codes:

Codes: FW10 (for Affiliate Window publishers)
FF10 (for Affiliate Future publishers)
FD10 (for Tradedoubler publishers)

Discount: 50p of all orders, plus FREE DELIVERY
Valid from: 1st February 2011
Valid to: 28th February 2011

Please note that any sales made with these codes will earn 8% commission. Standard commission rates of up to 17.5% apply to all other sales.

To request a bespoke code for your website please email Karen – karen [at] azam.net

Boom time at Borro

It’s the perfect time to promote Borro with the number of loan requests sky high!

Borro offer short-term loans secured against collateral and personal assets such as jewellery, watches, gold and other valuables and is a great way to make the most of those assets lying around at home. Not only that, but loans can be paid off whenever the customer chooses during the term of the contract and the valuables they pledged are then returned.

The Borro program can be found on Affiliate Window and have a voucher code for everyone to use:

Code: WINDOW25
Offer: £25 FREE cash on loans over £100
Duration: Ongoing

They offer £8 per accepted lead and up to £25 for issued loans.

More information on Borro can be found on the Azam blog here. Any questions contact Pam – pam [at] azam.net

Belmont Thornton

Belmont Thornton specialise in helping people to claim back their money after being mis-sold a Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) policy with their high street bank loan, mortgage or credit card. On average they help customers to claim back £2,600!

Their affiliate program is available on Tradedoubler and pays competitive standard commissions of £10.00 per validated lead.

Increased commissions of up to £15.00 per validated lead are available to affiliates who can give the Belmont Thornton campaign an extra push this Spring. To discuss this opportunity or ideas for your website please contact Karen – karen [at] azam.net

Purple Parking

Purple Parking is the UK’s leading airport parking provider servicing over 50 airports nationwide. With many people now booking their Summer holidays, it’s a great time to give the affiliate program a go!

The program is available on Tradedoubler and Affiliate Future, and pays competitive commissions of 10-15% for Heathrow and Manchester airport bookings, and 7.5% commission per sale for all other airports.

We have a couple of new voucher codes for you to promote this February:

Codes: TD1 (for Tradedoubler publishers)
AF1 (for Affiliate Future publishers)

Details: 15% off Manchester & Heathrow Airport bookings & 12.5% at all other airports
Valid from: 1st February 2011
Valid to: 28th February 2011

You may also promote the campaign through Purple Parking’s own network.

For more information please contact Sinead – sinead [at] azam.net

UK2.NET

Find all your web hosting, domain sales and registration, server co-location, ecommerce shopping and internet services in one place – UK2.NET.

They are one of the biggest and fastest growing web hosting companies in the UK and have been a major player in the web hosting industry since 1998.

UK2.NET have a couple of great voucher codes available this month:

Code: FEBRESELLER
Offer: £20 OFF Reseller packages
Valid from: 1st February 2011
Valid to: 10th March 2011

Code: FEBHOST5
Offer: 5% OFF webhosting
Valid from: 1st February 2011
Valid to: 10th March 2011

You can promote the UK2.NET affiliate program via a number of networks.

ActivInstinct and Millet Sports

Find a huge range of fantastic sports-related products for all ages and abilities, ranging from running shoes and racket sports to fitness products and table tennis products.

ActivInstinct and Millet Sports are great programs to promote year round, especially during popular sporting events such as the Rugby Six Nations, Wimbledon and the upcoming Cricket World Cup.

Offering 7% commission on all sales, you can find the ActivInstinct program on Affiliate Window and Millet Sports on Paid on Results and Affiliate Future. Contact pam [at] azam.net with any questions.

Our Contact Details

For more information about any of our current programs, please download our advertiser portfolio here or contact us anytime – affiliates working on our programs enjoy unrivalled support 20 hours a day, 365 days a year!

Sinead Hernen
Sinead [at] azam.net

Karen Clayton
Karen [at] azam.net

Pam Sagoo
Pam [at] azam.net

Or you can call us at the Azam Head Office on +44 (0)20 7436 4496.

Latest Hitwise data (August 2009) reports a significant 47.5% uplift in UK internet searches for discount voucher terms over the last year (July 08 – July 09). Interestingly however, actual visits to specialist voucher websites have decreased by 5%, whereas traffic to retailers for the same keywords has increased by more than 10% from 28.2% to 41.5% over the same period.

Hitwise attributes these trends to the emergence of the “Maximising Consumer”, a new breed of internet shopper immune to the quick fix of generic voucher and discount advertising, instead choosing to extensively research and seek out exclusive offers and concessions for certain products and retailers.

This assumption is supported by research from the IAB Affiliate Council, which states that 95% of all voucher code publishers are now compliant with best practice procedures for the use of voucher codes. Could the 5% non-compliant publishers account for the 5% drop in traffic to specialist voucher websites – having been identified and eliminated by the savvy Maximising Consumer?

The same Hitwise report reveals that the share of total UK internet visits going to transactional websites (i.e. retail, business and finance and travel) has declined over the last three years, eclipsed by the growth in visits being driven to content websites in the entertainment, social networking, news and media and lifestyle sectors.

In July 2006, transactional sites accounted for 5% more UK internet visits than content-driven ones. Fast forward three years to 2009 and content-driven sites are now generating up to 73% more UK visits than transactional sites.

Hitwise concludes that the current recession has led to an increasing proportion of online time being spent browsing content, communicating and networking rather than shopping.

So what does this mean for the future of ecommerce, especially in the lead up to and beyond Christmas 2009? Will we see retailers and voucher code publishers start to form serious strategic alliances in an attempt to ignite consumer spending again? Or will a new type of affiliate appear, specifically targeting and capitalising on the rise of the maximising consumer? Things are about to get interesting, watch this space….