Affiliate Association

[hpops]

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Just posted my first article for affiliates4u and wanted to draw attention to it on the main forum. Would really appreciate comments either on the article or over at my blog

Some of that reputation stuff I've been hearing about wouldn't go amiss either!

[Donk]

Your link to the article give a 404 error try this one

[hpops]

Cheers Donk - have changed it now

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Nice article which stimulates a bit of thought.

[Bruce Clayton]

I am sure you are aware of the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council, which tries to fulfil many of the aims and objectives that you mention, and it requires the sort of perspective that you express. It is hoped to be a permanent and body with representation of all groups that make up the industry. I attend the Affiliate Council meetings with my Existem Affiliate Management hat on.

That said, this is purely a personal post in response to yours - I make no comment about the council other than to say that it is fully aware that not enough affiliates attend (for whatever reasons) for them to be fully represented and for their perspective to have a representative influence on the business of the council forward. Consequently there has been an open invitation to affiliates which has stood for as long as I have been in attendance.

Duncan, your presence would be welcomed along with other affiliates.

Please get in touch with Dan Redfearn by email - dan at iabuk.net or 0207 747 9482. I believe the next meeting is in early July.

Keep up the good work and see you there I hope.

[drivetowin]

Bruce

Having attended a couple of the IAB meetings (and unfortunately having to have missed the last two due to other work commitments), my main concern is that their code of conduct is only going to apply to IAB members, which, with no disrespect to them at all, probably represents less than 10% of all of the merchants with affiliate programmes, and probably less than 0.5% of affiliates.

What I feel is really needed is something to address a much wider audience - how we go about it though god only knows - I've spent lots of hours trying to get something going and in the end admitted defeat - impo there just are not enough people in this industry with enough time to devote to getting it going.

[KieronD]

Consequently there has been an open invitation to affiliates which has stood for as long as I have been in attendance.

Where is this open invitation? Have I missed the post where members of the IAB have came on this forum and introduced themselves and opened a debate about their intentions? Surely this would be a wise move if they want affiliates represented?

Not having a go at you Bruce mate, I just haven't seen the IAB interract with us affiliates anywhere.

[Bruce Clayton]

I would perhaps encourage more worthy council members than I to update the affiliate marketing community on the meetings of the council, however I know that Dan is following this thread and will perhaps be so kind as to make a statement!

Again speaking purely personally my understanding and belief is that the council is aiming to achieve a wider consensus than is currently perceived. This consensus can only be achieved from wider affiliate participation. If this were not what I felt to be the case then I would not continue to attend.

There is a floating roster of network and management representation and as such it would be equally good if there was a similar quorum of affiliates who would attend on an ad-hoc basis thereby ensuring that wider representation is achieved without compromising other commitments.

Speaking personally again, perhaps the A4U provides a connection between the council and the affiliate community at least in the interim?

As I say, I do not feel that I am in any way the best person to formally state where the council currently stands and would reiterate that anyone who wants an update contact Dan on 0207 747 9482 or by e-mail.

[Donk]

Bruce

In a market where the main criterion is ROI I have to ask If I were to pay £500 join IAB what's in it for me.

IAB would appear to be a "club" for the large marketing corporations. The major "decision makers" are AOL, MSN, Yahoo & Orange. What benefit would an affiliate marketer gain from joining this elite? Would AOL etc dictate the terms?

As Driveto win says "What I feel is really needed is something to address a much wider audience".

I believe any Affiliate Association should be an association of affiliate marketers, affiliate networks, affiliate agencies and the associated merchants not a subsection of a wider group.

[Donk]

I just haven't seen the IAB interract with us affiliates anywhere.

There was a mention of a invitation on this thread but it did not come directly from the IAB.

[KieronD]

Thanks for the reply Bruce.

If Dan from the IAB is reading this then I can only hope he contributes to this thread and gives us all some clear guidance on what the IAB is trying to achieve and how affiliates can participate and have a voice.

P.S. Good article btw Duncan mate, going to give you some rep love and "backs" love right now!

Cheers!

[3wdl]

A few points of note from someone else who has been going to the IAB meetings:

1) As an affiliate, you don't need to be a member of the IAB to go to the meetings, you just need to email Dan.

2) The "code of conduct" is aimed at networks, not merchants, and networks who are not IAB members are also invited to attend.

3) The idea behind the whole IAB Council is to help their members (i.e. merchants) understand affiliate marketing and have a little more confidence - the thrust of the meetings is to develop an IAB handbook (not sure if this will be avaliable to just memebers or everyone) to help merchants understand and gain confidence in affiliate marketing.

Overall I think it's a good thing for the industry and affiliates have been encouraged to attend, however most of this was though Frasers podcast and blog rather than the forums - this is simple because the IAB do not consider themselves as experts in affiliate marketing and don't know too much about the forums themselves - they are just trying to help facilitate more confidence.

Ultimately any affiliate who wants to attend just needs to email Dan who will let you know when the next meeting is and keep you in the loop - I raised the issue of updates from the meetings and these will be posted on the IAB website in the affilaite section that they are developing.

[iaber]

Hi Everyone

I’m sorry to hear that a number of you haven’t felt that the IAB has done enough to reach out to the affiliate community. The primary aim of the IAB is to help advertisers (and merchants) understand the online advertising market and as a non for profit organisation our resources are mainly directed at advertisers.

As part of this remit we run a number of sector councils for our members to help us achieve our aims. Our councils including search, email marketing, B2B and advertising technology. All of these councils have been set up and exist in response to member requests that we provide a neutral setting which makes it possible to come together and work towards promoting and educating people on their discipline.

With the affiliate marketing council myself and David Hall the AMC chair did a recent podcast (which you can listen to here http://www.affiliateblog.co.uk/dan-r...g-council.html) which I hope goes someway to addressing the role and aims of the council.

Affiliates can currently attend this council for free. However simply because we only have a finite amount of space around the table I would ask that affiliates contact their relevant network representative and come along as a guest, or contact me directly and let me know your interest. I want to stress that this is only because we have a limited amount of places (maximum 20) in our meeting room and not because we want to exclude anyone from the meeting.

Networks - I’ve spoken to a number of networks who aren’t currently members of the IAB and there is an invite for them to attend the next council. However in the long term I will have to ask networks to join as a member of the IAB as it is unfair on our existing council members whose fees ultimately pay for the council to go ahead.

Merchants - If merchants want to attend I would ask them to again contact their agency or network contact to attend the meeting.

If as an affiliate or merchant your network or agency is not on the list of council members below please contact me directly and I will try and reserve you a place. However priority has to go to our members and their guests. Similarly if you represent a network and I haven’t spoken to you please contact me directly.

The next meeting is on Wednesday 3rd July 15.00 – 16.30 at the IAB offices .

Current members of the council are: Advertising.com, Affilinet, CJ, DGM, Digital Window, Eyefall, ipoints, Mvi, buy.at, Pigsback, R.O.EYE, Stream:20, Tradedoubler, Unique Digital, Zed Media, Existem Affiliate Management

If you have any questions or require further clarification (or would like to see the minutes from the last meeting – I’m conscious this is a very long post!) please feel free to contact me off the list. My email is dan@iabuk.net and phone 020 7747 9482.

Cheers!
Dan

[hpops]

Thanks for posting Dan, I do feel that theres a misrepresentation of what the IAB are looking to acheive with the council - its aims are fairly specific and would not cover the breadth of aims that an association would. However I feel that its a positive move for the space and allows the industry to be represented in an appropriate manner. I will definitely be attending the next meeting.

[Donk]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to the forum.

I have listened to Fraser's blog podcast with David Hall and yourself and, while I applaud your efforts on behalf of IAB's 350 members, I feel your efforts to create an affilite council don't go anywhere near the sort of ideas and aims that I understood Drivetowin, Qui Gon Jinn and others where trying to promote on this forum.

I note in your comments (dated May 15th) on Fraser's blog:

Any points raised at the next meeting will be posted online on the IAB site for you all to comment on them which will then be fed into the next meeting. I will post the link on the A4U forum

But your first posting on the A4U forum (over a month later) states.

I’m sorry to hear that a number of you haven’t felt that the IAB has done enough to reach out to the affiliate community.

I feel your words don't reflect your actions in respect of affiliate involvement.

As I understood it an affiliate council would involve interaction between the merchants, networks and affiliates but now you have brought a fourth group, the advertisers, to (the head of ?) the table.

Some of the concerns faced by affiliates are highlighted in Kirsty's recent blog - Affiliates Suffer From “Grubby Little People” Syndrome.

So, here’s a challenge to the networks. Who’s going to be the first to stand up and protect your affiliate workforce?

I extend Kirsty's challenge to the affiliate council.