[ian]

Originally Posted by UKOffer OK so if they are the "established big boys in PPC" I can presume that they are big because they are successful and generate a lot of sales for the merchants and networks. So isn't that a good enough reason for them to be nominated? Or should small affiliate sites that generate little sales be nominated? Remember affiliate marketing is a business and business is traditionally measured by sales, volume and profitability so what's wrong with that?

Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all, and I don't have a problem with them being nominated. My reference to "the big boys in PPC" was to establish the reason for the publisher award rather that use it as a reason to exlcude them from the awards.

Originally Posted by UKOffer I don't really understand what you are saying when you say "a content affiliate hadn't made enough of an impression to get listed". Maybe UK Web Media were nominated as they were one of the first affiliates to launch a cashback site that gives to charity? They spent a small fortune building it and marketing it so aren't they worthy of a nomination for that? Just because these guys spend a lot of money buying traffic to their CONTENT sites doesn't mean they shouldn't be nominated does it???

Nope, but based on the shortlist being among the top earners in the industry, it would appear that its a volume thing, and it would have been nice if other criteria could have been included to get onto the shortlist for ultimate consideration. Maybe one award can't cover all eventualities.

Originally Posted by UKOffer OK we're maybe getting to the point a bit here. I think what you are saying is that there should maybe be an award for "best newcomer" or "affiliate innovation". I agree.

Originally Posted by UKOffer However just because the guys listed as nominees spend a lot of money on PPC doesn't mean they shouldn't be rewarded and recognised. And who's to say that they don't utilise their PPC budgets to send traffic to their own content sites? Let's not jump to conclusions. Trust me, I've seen some of their sites and they are very good quality content driven sites. We all know that Google have cracked down on "thin" sites so they have to be, in order to buy traffic from them.

I have said below that they produce some nice sites, and I hope you can see that I agree they should be recognised, it just comes down to how you see the criteria used for the "publisher award 2008"