Books Direct Brand Bidding - Prize Pool

[Sarah @ BCA]

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Dear all,

A merchant aiming to build a successful affiliate programme needs to ensure that affiliates are rewarded for their efforts fairly, as well as running an engaging programme that isn’t afraid to try new things in an ever advancing industry.

For some time after launching with Affiliate Window back in April this year we discussed PPC options that were available on the programme. We wanted to explore ways to combat concerns that might arise from allowing varying PPC terms and conditions from affiliate to affiliate on the same programme.

A suggestion then came in the way of two affiliates – Fraser Edwards and Paul Wheatley.

The idea was for Books Direct to close down their privately run PPC campaigns and in place these two affiliates would work together to replace the revenue stream through brand. We would be paying the campaign cost but apart from that the campaign would be run at no profit to these two affiliates.

Although both are active on Books Direct through their own accounts a completely new and separate one was set up solely for brand activity. The commissions that would be generated through this Books Direct brand affiliate account would then be put into a prize pool and this money would be re-distributed to active affiliates on the programme.

Therefore since 1st June 2008 all of Books Direct PPC has been run through the affiliate channel. We have allowed it to run for the first two months to give time for the affiliates to stabilise their campaigns and to give us a chance to assess the potential pool fund. The cost of running this account is being paid by Books Direct, while the remainder of the commissions earned plus the network override generated through the brand activity has been stored as a prize pool.

<b>So why have we done this?</b>

The profits generated through private allowances on brand activity will now be shared back to those affiliates who potentially risk losing commissions from their cookies being overwritten by brand cookies.
We are by no means suggesting that the system adopted by Books Direct is feasible for all programmes, or that it is a total solution to these concerns, only that it is a trial we have decided to undergo.

<b>So what does this mean for you?</b>

We plan to run this activity until the end of the year. By which point the prize pool generated will be a substantial amount.

For more of an idea of the amount; activity for June collected a pool of £1,236.97, activity for July collected a pool of £2,627.38 that’s a total so far of £3,864.35.

If you already are a Books Direct affiliate you will be included with a chance to receive this prize pool. If you are not already an affiliate your participation can be secured by joining the programme and generating commissions from now until the end of the year.

<b>How will the pool be distributed?</b>

Each month, all affiliates who have made a sale, or at least 100 clicks, on the Books Direct programme will be entered into a prize draw. Each sale will count as one prize draw entry, so the more sales you make, the more chances you have to win. If you have made more than 100 clicks, but no sales, you will receive one prize draw entry.

Each month, 5 winners will be selected who will each receive a prize of £50, as well as a Golden Ticket to enter the main draw in December, to win the remaining prize pool, which will be divided between 2 winners.

Each month the prize draw starts afresh, but you can enter every month and increase your chances of winning the big prize!

If you have not yet joined up to the Books Direct affiliate programme and would like to do so please <a href=https://www.awin1.com/signup.php?merchant=1952> click here</a>

We would welcome your comments and suggestions so please feel free to get in touch.

Kind regards,

Sarah Day
Online Acquisition Manager
Books Direct
sday@bca.co.uk
01793 747015

Affiliate Window Account Manager: Anjulie Truong
BooksDirect@affiliatewindow.com

[anjulie]

<img src="http://www.affiliatewindow.com/logos/1952/logo.gif">

Hi all,

Following a great month on the Books Direct affiliate programme the prize pool generated by Paul Wheatley and Fraser Edwards’ brand activity for August was £2,239.77.

Books Direct have now randomly selected the 5 winners for August. Just a reminder of how this is working; each month every affiliate who has made a sale will be entered into a prize draw. Each sale will count as one prize draw entry (if you have made more than 100 clicks, but no sales, you will receive one prize draw entry.) Each month, 5 winners will be selected, receiving a prize of £50, as well as a Golden Ticket to enter the main draw to win the remaining prize pool.

The 5 lucky affiliates have now been randomly picked for August and awarded a bonus of £50. Each now holds a Golden ticket entry to the main prize draw.

…and how much is that prize now totaling at? Well, after adding August's money to the pot means the Books Direct grand prize pool now stands at a staggering <b>£5,854.12</B>

The golden ticket draw is now running for September, so all you need to do is generate those sales on the programme. The more sales you generate the better your chance of winning £50 at the end of the month and getting your hands on a golden ticket. For those affiliates who already have the first tickets you can still be in with a chance of getting another ticket this month!!!

If you haven’t joined up to the programme yet and want to do so, please click <a href="https://www.awin1.com/signup.php?merchant=1952"> here <a>

If you have any questions on this, or want some more information on the Books Direct programme please feel free to get in touch.

Best wishes,
The Books Direct affiliate team

[hpops]

This is an absolutely superb concept.
I'm sure I've already added this somewhere else but I'm going to big it up everytime it gets mentioned.

[anjulie]

<img src="http://www.affiliatewindow.com/logos/1952/logo.gif">

Morning all,

It’s time for another re-cap on the Books Direct Prize pool. Fraser and Paul’s brand activity for September generated £3,850.75. The lucky five Golden Ticket Winners have now all been contacted, each receives a bonus £50.00 and one entry ticket into the final draw.

The grand total for the main draw now stands at £9,454.87

As we’re half way through October you still have chances to get your hands on a much talked about Golden Ticket.

Every sale you generate in October will count as one entry (if you have made more than 100 clicks, but no sales, you will receive one prize draw entry.) Each month we select five winners who each receive a bonus of £50, as well as a Golden Ticket to enter the main draw to win the remaining prize pool. Any affiliates who already have a ticket can still be in with a chance of getting another ticket the following month.

If you haven’t joined up yet and would like to do so <a href="https://www.awin1.com/signup.php?merchant=1952"> click here </a>

If you have any questions just give me a call/email.

Thanks,
The Books Direct Affiliate Team

[anjulie]

<img src="http://www.affiliatewindow.com/logos/1952/logo.gif">

Hi all,

Great News! Books Direct want to release five EXTRA Golden Tickets in the form of a great affiliate competition. All you have to do is email us with the URL or a screengrab (URL preferable) showing your landing pages which promote Books Direct offers only. Please make sure you provide us with your Affiliate ID also!

Books Direct will then judge these for quality and content and will award the five best landing pages with a Golden Ticket! This competition is now live and will close on 12pm Friday 14th November 2008. The 5 winners will be announced on Monday 17th November.

Entrants must be emailed to lashley-cox@bca.co.uk

If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch.

Best Wishes,
The Books Direct Affiliate team

booksdirect@affiliatewindow.com

[anjulie]

<img src="http://www.affiliatewindow.com/logos/1952/logo.gif">

Morning all,

October figures have been calculated for the Books Direct Prize pool and the months activities generated £2,655.48. Adding this to the prize pool we are now at a total of £11,860.35 to be won.

The 5 winners have now been allocated for October, each earning a £50.00 bonus and a Golden Ticket to win the prize draw.

The golden ticket draw is now running for November. This is likely to be the full month left to enter as we’re looking to pick the winner mid December (ensuring a very merry Christmas for a few!) We’ll announce the closing date in the next few weeks. Remember the more sales you generate the better your chance of winning a golden ticket. For those affiliates who already have the first tickets you can still be in with a chance of getting another ticket this month.

Books Direct have also released five EXTRA Golden Tickets up for grabs. All you have to do is email us with the URL or a screengrab (URL preferable) showing any landing pages where you are promoting Books Direct offers on your site. Please make sure you provide us with your Affiliate ID also.

Books Direct will then judge these for quality and content and will award the five best landing pages with a Golden Ticket! The competition will close on 12pm Friday 14th November 2008. The 5 winners will be announced on Monday 17th November.
Entrants must be emailed to lashley-cox@bca.co.uk

If you have any questions on this, or want some more information on the Books Direct programme please feel free to get in touch.

Best wishes,
The Books Direct affiliate team

[anjulie]

<img src="http://www.affiliatewindow.com/logos/1952/logo.gif">

Morning all,

We’re really pleased to announce the penultimate figures for the Books Direct prize pool. November figures have been calculated and last month Paul and Fraser’s brand activity generated the biggest value yet - £3,622.65.

Adding this figure to the rolling prize pool the grand total is now £15,233.00.

We can now announce that the prize pool will officially close at 23.59 on the 31st December 2008. December’s figures will be calculated in January and the prize pool draw will take place on Thursday 15th January 2009. Two winners will be picked from all those who hold Golden tickets. The entire prize pool will be split between these two winners.

The 5 winners have now been randomly selected for November, each receives a £50.00 bonus and a Golden Ticket to win the prize draw.

There are five final tickets available, and anyone can still earn these. Each sale you generate in December will count as one entry to win a Golden Ticket. That means you have 20 days remaining…20 days to generate as many sales as possible. The more sales you generate the higher your chance of getting one of the final five!

If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch.

Best wishes,
The Books Direct Affiliate Team

booksdirect@affiliatewindow.com

[ronjon]

Hi,

Has anyone heard about the results of Books Direct Price Pool? It's all gone a bit quiet...

Regards,
Ron

[KevinEdwards]

I believe from memory we extended this to take account of cookied sales from the cut off point.

[Sarah @ BCA]

Hi all

Sorry we've been so quiet on this! Kevin is right in that the delay is down to the 30 day cookie period - we wanted to ensure that we included every sale that was generated, right up to 31st December, which meant allowing until the end of January.

We selected the December Golden Ticket winners yesterday, who are in the process of being contacted. and then we'll be in a position to announce the total prize fund and, more importantly, the winners, within the next few days!

The good news is that the prize fund is bigger than any of us had anticipated, so the winners are in for an amazing amount of money!!

We'll ensure that we keep everyone updated, and apologise for keeping you waiting.

Watch this space for updates!

Thanks

Sarah
Online Acquisition Manager, Books Direct
01793 747015
sday@bca.co.uk

[Loulabelle]

Hello All,

The wait is finally over!

The final amount for the prize pool has been confirmed at a whopping £17,331.86, which will be split between two lucky winners in the draw.

We will be holding the draw and celebration at the Affiliate Window Offices in London on Friday 27th February at 1.30pm, and anyone with a Golden ticket is invited to attend.

For those of you who do have tickets, you should already have received an email, but on the off-chance that you didn’t get it the details of the event are as follows…

Directions to the venue can be found using the link below
Map

Affiliate Window
3rd Floor
100 Leman Street
London
E1 8EU

The afternoon should last around two hours, and the agenda will be as follows:

• Welcome
• Update on Books Direct
• Background on the Prize Pool
• The Prize Draw
• Q&A session
• Drinks and nibbles

We’re really looking forward to seeing you there, and would be grateful if you could confirm whether or not you’ll be able to join us by Wednesday 25th February. You can get in touch either by phone or by email.

Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the draw. Every ticket will be included in the prize draw regardless of attendance and has an equal chance of winning. Winners will receive confirmation by email or phone no later than Monday 2nd March.

Thanks and regards
Louise

Online Marketing Executive, Books Direct
Lashley-cox@bca.co.uk
01793 747153

[hpops]

I love this
Sadly I can't win but I just think its supremely great all round

[anjulie]

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<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" src="http://www.affiliatewindow.com/ads/1952/728x90_20.gif" alt="" /></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span lang="EN-GB">Books Direct Prize Pool Closed and Won!</span></span></strong></p>
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<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><strong><span>Affiliate Window HQ recently played host to an affiliate afternoon where the two lucky winners of the Books Direct Prize Pool were picked and announced.</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span>The Prize pool ran since the 1^st June 2008 and closed on the 31^st December 2008.<span> </span>During this time two affiliates – </span><span class="smaller">Paul Wheatley</span><span> and </span><span class="smaller">Fraser Edwards</span><span> ran the brand Paid Search through a specially set up affiliate ID.<span> </span>The commission paid was at the standard rates but Paul and Fraser only received payment for the cost of running the paid search.<span> </span>The rest of the commission was set aside into a rolling prize pool that accumulated each month.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span>Every month any affiliate who had driven at least one sale or more than one hundred clicks was entered into a draw.<span> </span>Five winners were picked at random, each receiving a fifty pounds bonus alongside a Golden ticket entry into the draw.<span> </span>The draw took place each month from August through to December, totaling twenty five tickets.<span> </span>At the end of October Books Direct also ran a landing page competition, choosing another five Golden Tickets from the best landing pages created and submitted.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span>So there were a total of thirty tickets in the draw and the final prize pool totaled £17,331.86.<span> </span>Sarah Day – the </span>Online Marketing Manager for Books Direct presented a company update to the attending affiliates followed by a short open discussion.<span> </span>Some interesting suggestions on how to improve the Books Direct programme were raised and we will be looking at how best to implement these in the very near future.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Finally, after months of anticipation the time came to pick the two winners.<span> </span>Helen Smith, Head of Online and Creative at Books Direct performed the honour and the first name to be pulled from the draw was <strong>easyfundraising.org.uk</strong>.<span> </span>Unable to attend the day we were able to contact <span lang="EN-GB">Jonathan Scott</span> on the phone later in the afternoon to share the good news.<span> </span>The second winning ticket that was pulled out belonged to Richard Gibson from <strong>Freebiejeebies.co.uk</strong>.<span> </span>Richard was in attendance and needless to say utterly delighted at the result!</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">So congratulations to both easyfundrasing.org.uk and Freebiejeebies.co.uk, both win a staggering £8,665.93 each!</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span>Overall the afternoon was a great success, and something Books Direct plan to do again in the future.<span> </span>The prize pool is now fully closed but Books Direct is certainly eager to try new enterprises like this again in the future.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Here are some pictures of the day, and after the event when the fab 'novelty' cheque was presented to easyfundraising!</p>
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<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><strong>The Tickets!</strong></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="http://offers.affiliatewindow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc01479.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-3283" title="dsc01479" src="http://offers.affiliatewindow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc01479-300x225.jpg" alt="The Tickets" width="300" height="225" /></a></p>
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<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><strong>Freebiejeebies.co.uk </strong><strong>receiving their cheque </strong></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="http://offers.affiliatewindow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/p10103812.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-3289" title="p10103812" src="http://offers.affiliatewindow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/p10103812-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a></p>
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<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><strong>easyfundraising.org.u k receiving their cheque
</strong></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="http://offers.affiliatewindow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/p1010405.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-3286" title="p1010405" src="http://offers.affiliatewindow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/p1010405-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a></p>
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<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Finally, a huge thanks you to both Paul and Fraser for all their hard work in making this unique opportunity materialise into a great promotion.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span>If you have any questions about Books Direct, or the prize pool in particular please do feel free to get in touch.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span>Best wishes,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span>The Books Direct Affiliate Team</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span><a href="mailto:booksdirect@affiliatewindow.com">book sdirect@affiliatewindow.com</a></span></p>