Entrepreneur's Blog

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Big doesn't always equate to success. Previous to their cashback sites both The Mirror and The Sun had "shop" based sections - if they'd been successful they'd have kept them - they haven't! Whilst yes it's more competition, remember the advantage for affiliates is still speed and not having to jump through corporate hoops to get new offers online.

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Successful or not, I've no doubt they will prove disruptive. And that disruption will negatively affect many an affiliate. As for jumping through corporate hoops to get new offers online, my understanding is that both are "white label" - the papers just put their names to it and market.

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True about the white label managing things - we'll see - it'll be interesting to know how the GMTV version has worked as that's been established for a while.

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Didn't even know about the GMTV cashback site - I'm on the ball as usual :-) Thinking more about your point about big not always equalling success, I realised I don't actually need that big a share of the affiliate marketing pie to make a good living. I suppose it's all about finding the piece of pie with my name on it. Exciting times!

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I strongly disagree with nearly everything you've said here. This isn't "the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression", far from it in fact. When you see job centres with queues out the door, then you can feel free to call it that. You also assume that lots of people use cashback sites, which is true to an extent. However, there are countless more who don't know what a cashback site is - to say newspapers have automatically become "super affiliates" sounds like unnecessary hyperbole. This is also wrongly assuming that every retailer is happy with the cashback scene, which again is utter rubbish. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see some of them leave Quidco, etc. at some point soon.

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Dave, your opinion is as valid as mine. As for this being the biggest economic meltdown since the reaty Depression, can you tell me any other times since the 1930s when the entire banking system was at the point of virtual collapse? If that isn't economc meltdown I don't know what is. As for queues out the Job Centre doors, unemployment is rising daily and may well top three million by the end of next year. And remember those figures no longer include the "economically inactive" as the government calls them. This economic meltdown still has a long way to run too remember. The credit cycle turns slowly. As for calling the newspapers instant super affiliates, the figures alone will prove me right or wrong. I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest this though. I also don't assume all retailers are happy with cashback sites. Read my post and it's clear that they have good reason not to be happy.