At a4uexpo in October, I was rushing around the place (OK, sauntering with a hangover) telling everyone I was keen to run a mobile site in 2008. I was a long way from achieving that goal as I could barely manage my existing website. So knowing I should walk before I could run, I set about creating a 5 point ’secret plan’ to get me there by Spring.

The plan included sorting out my brand; using a new tailored Content Management System and fleshing the site out with a new design.

What better way to launch all these new enhancements but on a new shiny domain too? How about ShopCodes.com that has been irritatingly just sat there useless with an ISPs default holding page for many months.

I had to own that site. It just made perfect sense. It would tick all the boxes and more.

During November I contacted Sedo.com, who buy and sell domain names. They would value the domain; I’d give them a maximum bid; they’d contact the owner; negotiate on my behalf and try to acquire it for me.

Sedo enjoy a success rate of over 70% but by the New Year they’d still not managed to get a response by the owner. All I knew was the domain was up for renewal in a couple of months time, so I registered my interest at Snapnames.com who could bid at a live auction.

Then just one month ago Sedo got back to me saying that they made successful contact and that the owner had immediately accepted my four-figure bid.

Then after a nervous three weeks of waiting and lots of support tickets between companies during the transfer process, the domain ShopCodes.com was finally in my hands and safely registered on TUCOWS with my current preferred ISP Servage.

I used my January trip to San Francisco to acquire some International exclusive codes and I was hoping I could keep the .com a different entity from my existing ShopCodes.co.uk.

I didn’t want to just use the .com to target the US but it was a good opportunity to try out a new CMS and design and avoid duplicate content issues by listing non-UK merchants at the start.

However, after I’d 302 re-directed the .com to the .co.uk as a temporary measure, Google started linking to my ShopCodes.com site at the expense of ShopCodes.co.uk. Even Google says this is the exception and not the rule.

It means that Google thinks users will rather see the .com rather than the .co.uk. Fair enough but I’ve no content on that domain yet.

Traffic also dipped as Google didn’t recognise the .com as a UK site. So the home page is not being returned in Google UK search results pages. It does in the full web search.

I quickly addressed that by using Google Webmaster Central tools. However, with that double blow, traffic has crashed 75% in the short term.

So I am walking before I am running but I am currently sprinting to fix these short term issues. So you may see the end of .co.uk and the launch of .com this week.

The site just won’t have any bells or whistles. As it’s blooming too early.

I have 34 emails in my inbox that are tagged with the word ‘closure’. These emails all relate to merchants that are closing their affiliate programs soon, moving to another network or have in fact closed.

I deal with these emails as low priority but sometimes if one of your better performing merchants is included, it’s wise to act fast.

The JD Williams brand recently moved all of their sites to the dgm network away from Commission Junction (CJ). I’d started to transfer many links over but I was made aware that I’d missed a few pages.

When you login to CJ it tells you how many links are ‘invalid’ i.e. going to a merchant that is no longer live on their network.

I saw that I had 75 clicks for the JD Williams brand and that I should really stop that leakage, as every visitor lost was a potential lost commission.

The report not only tells you what url the click came from but the creative used.

I changed all of the links on the page to those on dgm and included a network tracking code, so I could measure the effectiveness.

Immediately sales began to be recorded and the commissions stopped being leaked away.

Webgains recently announced that closed merchants links will be switched over to a similar merchant in the same sector, ensuring us affiliates can still receive commissions.

We’ll automatically be signed up to the new related merchants and if you want to see which links are affected, you can set up a daily or weekly scheduled ‘click error’ report which can be emailed to you.

My mission for this week is to stop further leakage. I now have 34 emails to action.

During Valentine’s month I thought I’d promote Figleaves a little differently on my site. The merchant was once my top performer for a while but sales stagnated.

Eagle-eyed visitors to my ShopCodes site may have spotted in the top right corner that my page was peeling away.

There was an intentionally subtle hint of an offer, if they clicked or ‘peeled away’ the page.

By hovering their mouse over the corner, the page would pull back and they’d see an existing Figleaves offer, promoting a 10% Valentine’s discount code and free delivery.

I created the background page by merging two existing Figleaves creatives together and I created the small teaser image by cropping another.

I heard a rumour that an affiliate network was offering this ad format over a year ago. It never happened so I bought the code for a measly $7.

For the first two weeks of February I’ve generated over £1,500 worth of sales for Figleaves.com who are on both the TradeDoubler and LinkShare networks.

With tracking code, I can see that buyers have directly used this new form of advertising space.

Now that Valentine’s is approaching and this code is about to expire very soon I’m looking for a new merchant to promote in this spot.

Personally I’d like a merchant to offer me a modest £100 bonus fee to be present there on top of any commissions I may receive.

I require two creatives. 75×75 pixels and 500×500 pixels. Not all of that space is used, so the key content should be displayed top and right.

Ideally the promotion would be topical (Mother’s Day/ Easter) and it would include a valid promotional code, so that the slot adds value and is more than just a click-through direct to merchant.

So, if you’re interested please get in touch.

12 floors below me in my 4-star San Francisco hotel there were 400 people networking at the LinkShare Summit and it was only 7am.

LinkShare had kindly paid $2000 for my flights and enough for a 4-nights stay in the Japanese style Nikko Hotel. So it was wise for me to get up early and attend.

It was Thursday and I’d arrived on the Tuesday afternoon after a 15 hour journey with KLM via Amsterdam.

On my first night in the United States, I made the mistake of venturing out alone in the dark, not knowing where I was going. Instead of walking into the bussle of Union Square I went in the opposite direction and was approached by people at every corner. I quickly retreated back into the hotel, switched on the 42 inch plasma tv and caught up on my sleep.

On Wednesday there were several people attending a LinkShare training day for advertisers and publishers and so I used this day to do some sightseeing.

It was a bright day and I got the cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf up to Alcatraz, where I took pictures and ate plenty of sea food. On the return journey I took a detour via China Town and again, just for fun, got lost in the dark.

I returned to the hotel to find a goodie bag from the likes of Boden and Mr and Mrs Smith in my room, which included soap and jewellery.

In the evening I met up with Andy Greaves, the UK face of LinkShare, who I’d previously had a chat with at the a4uexpo in October.

At the hotel bar I discussed that it was timely that I was in the US at this time as I’d just acquired the domain ShopCodes.com that week. More on that development another day.

So, on the Thursday, the main day of the Summit, I went downstairs and ate breakfast standing as I mingled amongst the crowd.

It was pretty much a fifty-fifty split between affiliates and advertisers, so it was a good mix. I particularly looked out for affiliates that had ‘bargain’ or ‘coupon’ on their name badge. Interestingly, I found that several of these affiliate sites are rather large and have up to 25 staff each.

I also approached merchants that offer coupons and managed to persuade a few to offer an Exclusive code, once my new site is live.

The keynote speaker was Ian Ayre and his speech on the value of number crunching got me immediately thinking in how I could A/B split test my site using free Google software and compare the click through rates. I implemented that thought the same afternoon and I’ll share the results in the future.

David Schatsky also had a TrendWatch presentation and basically, we’re all going to do fine us affiliates as more people are getting online and retail shopping.

The closing party that evening was held at the impressive Slide club, with a slide for an entrance. I seriously took advantage of the free bar and danced the night away with the best of them. Belatedly I realised that the LinkShare party had long gone and the only people left dancing wore masks.

On my last full day I took advantage of the good exchange rate and went shopping with a seriously bad hangover before going for a quick drink in a nearby Irish bar with Andy and Account Manager Tiina.

The next event is the LinkShare Symposium 2008 in New York, 23rd-24th June. If you fancy a shopping trip it maybe a worthwhile event to attend.

I’d love LinkShare to somehow get me over there again. Hopefully I’ll have a ShopCodes.com site full of exclusive codes from their US merchants by then.