We are pleased to announce that we have brought our payment for global (non UK originated bookings) in line with our UK programme, meaning we will now pay the standard 2% commission of the GBP booking value on any booking in any territory, excluding the great introductory 3% commission for three months for all new affiliates.

This development is really important for us, as publishers can now be rewarded equally for all sales made in and outside of the UK. Bringing the remuneration process in line with our UK programme should make it easier for publishers to understand our programme and know exactly what they will be earning from the bookings they make. We are committed to our affiliate programme and to giving publishers great opportunities to maximise their earning potential and over the coming months we will be communicating more and more special offers from around the world.

The change came into play on 24 February so all transactions from this date will be paid for at the 2% rate, which is fantastic new for our publishers!

If you have any questions at all please feel free to contact me.

Nicky March
Head of retail
nicky.march@affiliatefuture.co.uk

The AffiliateFuture team had a great time and we would like to thank the whole team at Existem for another successful event – it’s a shame the awards are only once a year!

Congratulations to everyone that was shortlisted and those who went on to win the award or be highly commended.

And now on to the Blog Competition – a caption contest for the following photo of Mark Smith (CEO of TMN) from the A4U Awards:

The winner (as picked by the AffiliateFuture team) wins a nice bottle of bubbly…. Just post a comment below but they will be moderated so please play nice!

This year the merchants that took part are:

• Sunshine.co.uk – 6 Places
• Foxy Bingo – 5 Places
• UK2 – 5 Places
• eGroup – 3 Places
• Jet2.com – 1 Place
• Jet2Holidays – 1 Place
• Think Bingo – 1 Place
• Littlewoods Bingo – 1 Place
• Magazine Group – 1 Place
• On the Beach – 1 Place
• Laterooms – 1 Place
• Triviala – 1 Place
• Monster Travel – 1 Place

We leave Gatwick for a week in Barbados on the 21st June so it’s now less than a month away and in total this year we’re taking 53 people – a combination of affiliates, wags and children! Here are the lucky winners who are all now confirmed as going:

Thuy from Intela
Peter from Real Holiday Reports
Ray from Shopcodes
Matt from Affiliates4u
Mike from Top Cash Back
Mal from Magazine Subscriptions
Alan from Acorn Domains
Martin from Warnfestivals
Joe Conner from Cantbarsed
Mike from UK Online Store
Barry from Discount Voucher
John from ei42
James from Dotnology
Kat from Asperity
Karel from Idealo
Lee Bradshaw from On the Net Media
Tom from iPoints
Rob from Van Insurance Britian
Keith from various
Tom from Magic Freebies
Gulshan from various
Amun from Freemax Media
Eke from Toyhound
Mark from UK Web Media
Lee from Get Visible
Max from various
Martin from Skyscanner
Martino from Which Budget
Mark from My Voucher Codes

Other attendees this year include:

Stacey from eGroup
Charlie from Chargrilled
Ant from Cho Yung/Love it Large
Sharron from The Travel Magazine
Hannah from Existem AM
Nadeem from Azam Marketing
Jim from Intela

It’s by far the biggest year yet (last year we took 34 people) and we’ve even got a sponsored “Rum Ball Rally” with 10 jeeps and around 35 people getting involved in a race to the top of the Island… other activities include swimming with the turtles, horse riding, deep sea diving and visiting Crane beach for some body-boarding; rated as one of the top 10 beaches in the world!

Congratulations to all those that won the prize and for those that didn’t I’m sure we’ll be running it again next year!

The blog will be full of photos and updates whilst we’re out there so make sure you add the RSS feed to keep updated..

Hi all,

We’re pleased to announce some more Barbados winners for Magazine Group, UK2 and eCarInsurance.

The lucky winners will be jetting out to St Lawrence Gap in Barbados on the 19^th June for a week of Sun, Fun and Rum!   Experiencing cultural delights such as “The Ship” and “Harbour Lights” it’s an experience that’s not to be missed.

And the Winners are….

Magazine Group

Malcolm from Magazine Subscriptions

UK2

Adam from Vouchercodes.com
Jamie from Hosting Review

eCarInsurance

Frank from Dotnology

Remember that there are still plenty of chances to win and you should take a look at the Barbados Incentive page for a list of all the current draws – there are another 10-15 places going live this month and it’s set to be our biggest trip yet.

Well in just 6 months time we’ll be jetting off to the glorious island of Barbados again for our annual affiliate incentive. The sunshine, location, fun and adventure… it’s definitely not to be missed, however “despite the rumors” it really is a fantastic opportunity to do business and network amongst like minded affiliates and merchants. An example of this is the joint venture from our Barbados 07 attendee’s Neil McHugh and James Zielinski.

Having been strangers before the trip, 18 months later Neil and James are the founders of the UK’s fastest growing mobile phone comparison brand www.rightmobilephone.co.uk with a host of upcoming projects, expansion and recruitment plans in 2009.

We caught up with them to see how the business originated and how everything was going.

Neil said, it all originated from the Barbados 07 incentive, whilst enjoying everything Barbados and spending our day’s poolside James used to comment on how awful it was being a Newcastle fan and I told him how great it was to be a Liverpool fan.:)

During the week conversation turned to work, our ideas and projects, it quickly became apparent we shared very similar views and ideas, and by combining our skills we could achieve our goals far quicker in a joint venture. Later into the trip over a few local Rums TRG Online Ltd was formed.

Neil added, the real bonus was that our knowledge was at different ends of the scale, James is predominately a coder with an eye for design, providing a solution for users and I’m more focused on sales, marketing and networking. It works very well, James looks after the user experience and I make sure they pay on the way out

James said, we started trading in November 2007 with the launch of our mobile phone comparison platform, it’s an immense project but we have made good progress, the site now offers consumers the ability to compare over 300,000 mobile phone deals in seconds from all the major UK networks and retailers. We have also developed a review area for users to give opinions and ratings on their handsets which has proved very popular and allowed us to become a valued and trusted source for mobile consumers.

James added, in any business the relationships you form are vital for success and the Barbados incentive from Affiliate Future not only provides a fantastic fun packed week in a beautiful location, it can also be invaluable to your business or it might just create one, like it did for us.

Affiliate Future incentives for Barbados 2009

Win a trip to Barbados with Jet2Holidays! Win a ticket to the much talked about AffiliateFuture trip to Barbados courtesy of Jet2Holidays!
Win a trip to Barbados with On the beach holidays! Win a ticket to the much talked about AffiliateFuture trip to Barbados courtesy of On the beach holidays!

Each sale you make between 1st January and 31st March gets you one entry into the prize draw, so the more sales you make the better chance you have of going to Barbados. This season is an ideal time to promote travel sales so get your promotions up, get that commission rolling in and earn yourself that trip to sunny Barbados!

Are you a merchant interested in taking part in the Barbados incentive?

There are still opportunities available for sponsoring tickets, and improving your sales figures before and after the trip!

For only £65 per week for a quarter (total cost £795), you can get increased exposure and sales from being a Barbados sponsor. There are several ways of running the incentive, e.g. Run a prize draw among affiliates generating over X number of sales or rewarding the most improved affiliate (on % increase). Interested? Contact Siri on siri.andersen@affiliatefuture.co.uk or your account manager for further information.

Terms & Conditions:
*Each sale made between 1st January and 31st March 2009 equals one entry into the prize draw.
*Only valid sales will be included in the prize draw
*Affiliates are responsible for their travel to and from Gatwick airport and their food, drink and spending money while away.
*You must have a valid passport or visa and there is no cash alternative.
*This prize is non-refundable and non-exchangeable.

The heady heights of Millbank Tower’s Altitude proved a more than apt venue for this year’s event where the forecast for how travel will fare in 2009 was reassuringly positive.

There was a fantastic turnout and guests enjoyed an afternoon of networking (and of course the obligatory few drinks!) in the breathtaking surroundings of Altitude Broadcasting Studios.  The Question Time Panel was comprised of a mix of merchant and affiliate businesses covering car hire, airlines, package holidays, accommodation and the full blend of travel products and services through affiliate sites like The Travel Magazine.

We’re looking forward to a successful 2009 in travel and we’d like to thank all of the sponsors of this event: sunshine.co.uk, Auto Europe, Hotelbook.com, Holiday Extras, Jet2.com, Jet2Holidays, Olympic Holidays, Monarch Holidays, Virgin Atlantic, Avis, Alpharooms.com and On the Beach.

To generate debate we’ll also be running a Question Time Panel on the day where guests are now invited to submit questions.  If you’d like an expert opinion on consumer confidence in online travel brands or an industry-wide view on how the economic downturn will really affect the online travel sector, simply email sinead.kavanagh@affiliatefuture.co.uk with your question for the panel.

Spaces at this event are filling up fast, but if you’d like to come along and enjoy an afternoon of networking, fine food and drinks as you take in breathtaking views of the capital, please email events@affiliatefuture.co.uk.  

The IMA (Interactive Marketing and Advertising) Awards, run by sister titles New Media Age and Marketing Week, are the only awards that cover marketing, advertising and interactive media.  All categories are hotly contested, so we’re delighted to be shortlisted with our entry for the launch of sunshine.co.uk! 

The awards ceremony will be taking place on 30th October, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed we’ll be successful on the night!

If you’d like to know more about the IMA Awards, please visit www.imaawards.co.uk

Look out for Nadeem having his nails done!

We’d like to thank everyone who came along to “Sell with a Splash”, our networking event for the retail sector, on Tuesday night!  We welcomed a range of top affiliates and merchants operating in the sector for a unique evening of networking and entertainment in the fabulous Haymarket Hotel Pool & Bar in London, where highlights included fabulous product showcases and beauty treatments from firebox.com, mobiles.co.uk, Savile Row and Beautique.com, along with fantastic interval entertainment from the Aquabatix synchronised swimming team!

Our keynote speaker on the night was James Roper, Chief Executive of IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group).  James presented guests with “e-retail, The Trillion Dollar Trade Route”, a presentation about the current state of worldwide retail.  Given today’s credit crunch concerns, this was a timely addition to the evening’s agenda and James offered some useful insight into the facts behind the trends and strategies for surviving the economic downturn.

We had a fantastic range of prizes, goodie bags and giveaways up for grabs on the night, kindly donated by Savile Row, Chargrilled, Beautique.com, firebox.com, mobiles.co.uk, LOVEFiLM, The Magazine Group, TVonics, Tightsplease and Lenstore, ensuring not many guests left empty-handed!

Again, a massive thank you to all who attended this event, and we look forward to welcoming you along to our next gathering!

Sell with a Splash was sponsored by:

firebox.com

mobiles.co.uk

Savile Row

Beautique.com

The Magazine Group

Savile Row