Day 1 of Adexpo started with a bang. Michael Jackson took us on a marketing roller coaster and was met with rousing applause.
The speakers have been pretty good and the interest in OfferForge has been phenomenal!
At times our booth’s been crushingly busy, but I’m not complaining!
if you’re in the area stop by and have a drink with us! look out for the snappily dressed Forge team 
It’s not all fun and games at the Summit. It’s really hard work networking with the old-timers. As you can clearly see we’re hard at work putting the final touches to our devious plans.
On the positive side, I did get to connect with Skip Graham owner of the Old Timers Association and brother to the ever-engaging Chris Graham’s. Finally had the pleasure of meeting Steve from Adrants.com (who took the picture). Hard work indeed.
Tim Ash from sitetuners.com opened his Affiliate Summit session, ‘The Seven Deadly Sins of Landing Page Optimization’ by having everyone raise their hands and confess “I am a sinner!”
He then proceeded to explain the math around conversion optimization and how great conversion rates are the fundamental way to improve your and your affiliates bottom line.
He made everyone admit ‘Their Baby is Ugly!’ and then got down to business!
Tim’s rules for conversion optimization.
1. Have your visitors design your website. Ask them how they want to access information.
2. Subtle changes lead to big gains. There are thousands of on-page variables that affect your visitor’s behavior.
3. Landing Page testing is not Optional. If you’re doing head to head tests you don’t need tons of traffic. Implement AB testing on everything you do. Just because it converts well doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.
The Seven Deadly Sins for Landing Page Design.
1. Unclear call to action.
2. Too many choices.
3. Asking for too much information.
4. Too much text. mea culpa.
5. Not keeping your promises
6. Visual distractions.
7. Lack of trust.
My quote of the day was aimed at site designers: ‘Don’t take your creative urges out at work. Go pierce your nipples or get a tattoo!’
If you think you might be a sinner visit sitetuners.com and check out Tim’s blog!
Sundays will never be the same again at the Affiliate Summit. The expectation as the crowd formed at the entrance to the first day’s 6 hour Meet Market networking bonanza was almost palpable!
It’s unusual for us ‘tech folks’ to actually arrive on time, but unbelievably the queues had formed forty minutes before the scheduled opening time. Eventually the securitycouldn’t hold the crowd back any further and they swarmed into the room. The venue was abuzz with affiliates, merchants, agencies & networks mingling and networking as I’ve never before seen!
I have a long tradition of association with The Affiliate Summit and after 6 hours of high energy charged networking I was truly exhausted! It’s a testament to the growth of our industry that so many first-timers attended.
It reminded me of an African open air market as people jockeying for position at tables, grabbed swag and of course did business!
The Forge table did phenomenal trade and it was great to connect with so many of our affiliate friends and make new connections.
We launched 2 new products at the show including ForgeInsight, our analytics package for Affiliate Managers & the Offline Coupon Generator, a free offline affiliate marketing tool.
Of course, the most sought after man for the day was the ever popular Brian Littleton, who handed out highly sought invites to the ShareASale Party under the Stars!
That’s the subject of another post though, as it’s now Monday and it doesn’t seem as if everyone has actually returned from the party!
If only Tylenol had an affiliate program their booth would be swamped this morning!
forge meet market table at the affiliate summit
Crowds at the Affiliate Summit
Fun day today! Got out behind my desk and attending the 2nd Online Marketing Summit.
I’m speaking on affiliate marketing of course!
Gillian Meier from jobs.co.za gave a great seo presentation followed by Brett Sinclair from Admob with some really interesting mobile ad insights.
I’m currently listening to sa guru/blogger Louise Marsland on reputation management. Wow!
I’m up next and will be sharing some insights on affiliate marketing as a business model. I’ll add the slideshare presentation here later!
Gareth Ochse & Craig Corte from BuzzFuse, Jo Duxbury from Freelancentral, our own Jonathan Miller CEO of ForgeBusiness and Brian Carl Brown of Blue Catalyst who bought desert for everyone that nicely complimented the Stormhoek wine. Sadly Graham Knox didn’t make it.
We were very impressed with some of the presentations, as Mike Stopforth pointed out Jo showed what were arguably some of the most entertaining slides ever to grace a powerpoint presentation. Both Her and Jon’s presentations contained a lot of useful information supporting their understated but successful pitches. As for the body-parts video clip… nha…
I am truly looking forward to the next installment of 27dinner.
If you are interested in e-business in the SAfrican context, you might also enjoy attending one of our Online Marketing “Speed Briefing” sessions, details below and then on to a few snapshots I managed to grab on the night.
| When : | 17 April 2008, 15 May 2008, 19 June 2008 |
| Where : | Forge Campus, 1016 Clifton Ave, Lyttelton, Centurion |
| Cost : | Free |
| Time : | 3 hours |
“South African e-Commerce – Hype or Sound Business?” 8:30 AM – 9:30AM.
“The wrong e-commerce strategy could kill your business.”
“New Media Masterclass workshop” 10:00 – 11:30 AM
“Understanding what drives media pricing online, how to negotiate better online marketing rates and ensure your online marketing delivers guaranteed results.”
Perhaps you’d like to suggest some captions?
Join us each month for action packed 3 hour “Speed Briefing” covering topics relating to Online Marketing, e-Business, Social Media and the Technologies that drive them.
NEXT EVENT
| When: | 19 / 20 March 2008 |
| Where: | Forge Campus, 1016 Clifton Ave, Lyttelton, Centurion |
| Cost: | Free |
| Time: | 3 hours |
| Registration: | online |
8:30 AM – 9:30AM.
“The wrong e-commerce strategy could kill your business.”
e-Commerce is not just accepting payments. It’s about extending your brand beyond your mortar. Jonathan Miller, expert online marketer, will discuss e-commerce for South African and international markets, provide insight into must-know facts for building or improving your own e-commerce business and showcase products that enable e-businesses.
This workshop is specifically designed to benefit the Retailer, Wholesaler or Entrepreneur that has an established business and needs to expand either through new retail space or online sales.
10:00 – 11:30 AM
Whether you’re new to online marketing and brand building or a seasoned veteran you’ll benefit from this round-table discussion on New Media placement for South African businesses.
If you’re currently exploring or using Paid Online Media, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Pay per click advertising (PPC) or performance based Affiliate Marketing, you should not miss this essential industry update.
You’ll gain an understanding of what drives media pricing online, learn how to negotiate better online marketing rates and ensure your online marketing delivers guaranteed results.
This workshop is specifically designed to benefit the Business Executive, Entrepreneurs, Brand Managers, Sales and Marketing Directors.
If you’re planning on getting to Vegas for the Affiliate Summit this year you’d better book fast.
Shawn Collins, organizer of the Affiliate Summit just mailed me and let us know there are only 50 passes left! This year’s going to be the biggest get-together yet with 2,500 attendees at the 3 day event.
Of course Forge will be there in full force, exhibiting at Booth #424. We’re also key sponsors of the Monday Night Official Summit Party, being held at Tao, after the Gala Dinner – remember to rsvp if you want to mix it up with us and be entertained by the Blue Man Group.
Till vegas!
Jonathan
A quick heads-up about the next opportunity to meet with the affiliate marketing experts. Visit us at our booth, #424 for some face-to-face brilliance at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino – Las Vegas, Nevada, February 24-26, 2008.
If you’re looking for an affiliate marketing solution provider and you’re in London for Ad-Tech this week, stop by booth 440 for an engaging conversation.
The coffee’s free and so is the conversation!
Whether you’re looking to outsource your affiliate management or looking for reporting tools to simplify your management – especially in the fragmented UK affiliate market – chat to us about the solutions we’re using.
We’ll be showcasing our new ( community preview ) multi-network affiliate marketing analytics software suite, ForgeInsight, which aggregates reporting from most major affiliate networks such as CJ, OfferForge and other DirectTrack based networks, Zanox and Webgains and any other network with Merchant API’s.
Simply put, it enables merchants and their affiliate managers to consolidate reporting and gain a deeper understanding of how their affiliate channels are performing in real time. It saves us DAYS consolidating reports for our clients – and soon it’ll be available commercially.
So stop by and take a look at it! Be the first to become a beta user!
“We need to find a way to enhance our Customer Engagementâ€
“We're moving from traditional to online retailingâ€
“We're here to change our business modelâ€
“It's not just about branding it's about Direct Response!â€
“Forget Direct Response – it's the Loyalty 2.0 relationships that matterâ€
“New to File Customersâ€
“Nobody Talks about us – except ourselves!â€
“We're less interested in the new-to-files and more focused on the Life Time Value.â€
Just some of the outtakes from actual conversations I had over the last few days in the halls of CJU in Santa Barbara. Over the next few days as I catch up and decompress from the trip back to South Africa I'll talk more about each one of them and the implications for the company I interviewed.
I must say the perspectives held by some of the businesses were frankly startling. Some of the oldest, most established businesses seem ready to embrace change and destroy existing business models to adopt a new consumer centric approach, while other pure online plays are developing strategies to move to compete in the offline space!
More later — got to dash — calling my flight to Johannesburg!
Affiliate compensation is a tricky calculation at best, when setting up an affiliate program & few issues evoke as much discussion as the ideal compensation plan.
Pay too little and your program is never going to make it off the launchpad – pay too much and you'll run the risk of no return and an eventual marketing collapse.
I've assembled some of my slides on the “4C's of Affiliate Program Management – Commissions, Cookies, Competitors and CPA's” in response to a line of questioning last night!
If you’re looking to define your affiliate program you need to know what and how your competitors are doing it! This presentation covers highlights on what to look for.
Cookies are yet another contentious issue with varying acceptance on the duration, length or even efficacy of the tracking mechanism. We investigate some of the key issues.
Forging the right payout covers what you’ll be needing to focus on when developing your payout structure and includes case studies as illustration.
If you'd like the accompanying audio recorded at my last presentation at eComXpo – let me know, I'll be putting it out as a videocast soon.
Thank you to everyone who made yesterday’s event such a fabulous affair. For those of you who could not make the Jo’burg Affiliate Luncheon at the Uber-Kewl Afrocentric Moyo’s, Melrose Arch on Thursday 21 June; here are some photograph to let you know what you missed out on!
Forge Business (Represented here by your humble narator
Cindy, the Hostess
Jaco P & Neil V
Martin Rolfe-VP of Sales and Marketing & Geoff CB
Ferdie B & Mauritz Gifillan-VP of Operations
Jonathan Miller-CEO
Forge Affiliates
Ilze Britz-Network Customer Relations & Kelvin Jonck-Network Manager
Jaco P & Neil V
Paul S & Sylvia G
Johann N, Cindy & Riaz I
Jonathan Miller
Mark B
Ilze Britz
Ferdie B
Absolutely Amazing Platters
Sylvia, Jaco & Neil enjoying their meals
Riaz I after a cocktail-a fruit cocktail
Lee F
Jonathan Miller after a VERY successful luncheon
I just wanted to take the opportunity to comment on the Pretoria Affiliate Luncheon held
Tuesday the 29th May at Centurion’s charming Doppio Zero. The event allowed the Forge team to get to know the revolutionaries that make Forge what it is today, and I’m sure they also enjoyed putting faces to the people they work with. Kelvin Jonck and Jonathan Miller’s blog pictures just don’t do them any justice!
Doppio Zero delivered remarkable service even though they had a power intermission and we were presented with pizzas and pastas out of this world. The wine also greatly contributed to the flow of conversation and exchange of ideas. This experience reminded me that you can not spend more than ten minutes with our CEO, Jonathan Miller, and not gain some greater understanding and insight into the innovative world of Affiliate Marketing.
For all our affiliates who were not able to attend the luncheon, Forge will be hosting a Johannesburg luncheon in June that promises to be just as good, if not better than the last one! The luncheon will be held at Melrose Arch’s Moyo, loosely translated from the Swahili word for soul. Come share an afternoon with us and enjoy African inspired food, wine and conversation.
Details will be posted.
The office is going to feel empty this week! A full contingent of Forge Travellers are ‘Frisco’ bound to represent ForgeBusiness at the Ad-Tech San Francisco conference and exhibition. Arguably the online marketing industries biggest event with hundreds of exhibitors and an estimated 10,000 attendees over 3 days it’s not for the faint hearted!
Kelvin, Mauritz, Martin and Andre will be on hand to educate and inform visitors about ForgeBusiness Affiliate Marketing Consulting and Outsourced Management services and the BlogKits and US and South African OfferForge Advertising Networks which offer unique value to advertisers wishing to reach bloggers, log tail opinion sites and the US & South African markets.
If you’re attending please don’t forget to stop by our booth #5278, opposite the networking area!
The team from Forge will be out in full force at Ad-Tech San Fran next week. If you’re attending please don’t forget to stop by our booth #5278, opposite the networking area!
The team will be on hand to answer questions on Outsourced Affiliate Management, ForgeInsight Multi-Network Affiliate Marketing Business Intelligence & and our Ad Networks OfferForge and BlogKits.
Blogkits is the worlds first Blogger only Ad Network, delivering CPA, CPL, CPC and aggregated CPM distribution to thousands of niche blogs.
OfferForge is a niche Ad Network serving South Africa, USA and Canada.
Looking forward to meeting you at Ad-Tech!
Well, we’re all finally back in action after a very successful Affiliate Summit event in Las Vegas last week. For me (Jim), it was only a 4 1/2 hour flight back home, after which I got the flu and was laid up for 24 hours. However, for the rest of the Forge crew, I think they had a flight that was about 20-something hours back to South Africa?
I think you’re all back by now eh?
So what happened in Vegas? A lot! Here’s a quick summary: (more…)
Exciting changes at Forge, we’re back from NYC and Vegas was a Blast!
Phew, another week and more change at Forge! As you may note I’ve been radio (or blog) silent for some time now – both here and at revenews, my other regular hangout – entirely due to time pressure and the pace of change I assure you – not at all laziness on my part 
