Now that affiliates4u, the hub of performance marketing, has had a long overdue redesign it is time to remove the “Back Me” buttons and messages from your affiliate blogs and replace them with the new buttons available at www.affiliates4u.com/buttons/

I’ve plugged mine in as seen here:

There’s a choice of black or white and subtle and bold and you’ll need to select one as your old button will link to a “Sorry, we couldn’t find that.  We’re not sure what you were looking for” page.

Clicking the new buttons will take you to a submit page to the new ‘The Pool’.  Here you specify a title and summary and it’s worth expanding on the 250 character limit summary as this is what will prompt people to read and potentially vote for your content.

In the new system you can’t see which supporters you have for your content, the voting is all anonymous, which takes away part of the appeal and fun of it. But it does mean you can “slap” a post and hide.

Scratch2Cash are an itch I have the pleasure of no longer doing business with. I received an email at the weekend from their Market Budget Analyst to invoice them for any money they owe me from 2009 for their accountants.

Knowing that I’d referred a $3,500 paying customer I logged into the NeoGames Partners account to check on my total commission. The Scratch2Cash email included the caveat:

“If the amount is less than 100 EUR, we are not obligated to pay, as disclosed on the affiliate agreement listed on the website. Any amount under the “Minimum Amount” (100 EUR) will be written off.“

I’ve never read anything so ridiculous. Now I owe lots of companies less than 100 Euros and I just can’t write that off.

“Fitness First, you know that £38.75 you want off me for the couple of times I enter your gym, well I’m writing that off!”

“British Telecom, you know that £39.47 I owe you just to have a landline, well I’m writing that off!”

When I questioned this via email , they replied that they were closing my account.

“Since you unfortunately were not able to bring us €100 or more of traffic, we will close your account.“

Imagine if a reputable affiliate network chose not to pay you because you’d only made one sale – but not only that, not give you the opportunity to make more sales so that you could reach their self imposed payment tier?

Affiliates, you have been warned. I’d write-off the Scratch2Cash affiliate program today.

Still have that itch? Don’t Apply Now!

It’s that time of year where you do your reflecting on what you could have done previously and what you should be doing more of in the coming months. I’ve been reflecting and thinking every single day this year.

2009 has been a good year for my site ShopCodes, such that my accountant said to me before Christmas, “You need to lose your comfort blanket”. He was referring to my full time day-job.

To put it into context the turnover and profit, since Halloween passed by and the gift shoppers arrived, is exactly the same as what I earn as salary in my well paid day job.

For my business over 91% of my turnover is profit as I don’t withdraw a salary as a Director and the 9% goes on Internet and networking costs.

And with not withdrawing even much as dividends from the business, there’s enough in the rainy day pot for my accountant to say, “you can pay yourself a substantial salary for at least four years”.

And what if the business starts to suffer from more competition or other threats? “Start looking for work after two years”.

During early 2010 it’s all change in my full time job. Change of boss, job title and location. The office we’re moving to is on the same street I currently live. I’ve a fear that I’ll get cabin fever working, living (also exercising, drinking and gambling) in the same place.

But that’s also now the fear I have if I decide to leave my ‘comfort blanket’. I’ve never liked change and previously it was about financial security. Now, it’s about cabin fever.

So there’ll be more reflecting from me for a few months yet.

It may not get me extra traffic or indeed more commission but it does make my results stand out from yours.

If you search for “argos voucher codes” or some other combination like “argos promotion code” within Google, my ShopCodes Argos page is either bottom of page one or mid page two but what is striking is that the search engine has chosen to display an Argos video clip integrated into my results listing.

So even on page two, it stands out from the crowd. And if the result were say fourth on page one, those below would probably get ignored as your eye is drawn towards the image.

So merchants start making those videos available as I’ve a feeling a few more affiliates shall take my lead and display them.