JohnOBrien.com

Webgains have just launched their voucher management tool which provides;

An overview of available discount vouchers with start date & expiry dates, individual commission per voucher and promotional details.
Voucher code based tracking as last referrer.
Reporting on voucher code use for each order.
Offline marketing tracked and reported online based on the voucher use.
 
The voucher tool gives the affiliate the ability to see all the discount codes, not only  the generic codes, but also those created specifically for them.

The voucher management tool can be found in the webgains affiliate area under the programs tab, named voucher codes, affiliates can view available vouchers for each program they are joined to and enabled to use the tool, broken down by availability, generic and exclusive codes.

The exclusive codes will only be visible to the relevant affiliates. The retailer will have specified the voucher code, the start & expiry dates, the details of the promotion, the destination and the specified commission for that voucher.

Once the vouchers have expired, they will be removed from that list unless the merchant changes the expiration date.

If an exclusive voucher code has been used in the online order, that transaction will be attributed to the relevant affiliate, overriding any cookie data and preventing other affiliate marketers from using the exclusive voucher.

The voucher code used will also be reported in each orders details page, so that affiliates can see which codes are performing well and run extended reports on the vouchers themselves.

The voucher tool also offers the chance for offline marketing to be tracked online, as webgains don’t need the cookie data for exclusive vouchers, so if a shopper uses the code they saw being advertised offline, you still get the commission. 

To view all the affiliate programs that are using the voucher tool you can check in the affiliate area under programs, search programs, voucher code enabled yes/no. Affiliates can also see which programs have vouchers available in the programs joined/not joined area, where there is now a new tick box in the choose columns.

Webgains new voucher tool seems a fair way of dealing with unauthorised discount codes being used and some sites that may “borrow” the vouchers from other discount voucher websites without asking to use them so well done to webgains for creating it. 

I think discount code sites have a very prosperous future along with cashback sites with more and more merchants generating codes for affiliates to use every week. I think its time to get in on the party so watch this space for more details of a new UK voucher code site in the pipeline.

Buy.at have started a great mobile phone affiliate incentive today called mobile mania.

The competition gives anyone on their affiliate network the chance to win up to £3,000 by promoting at least 3 of the 9 mobile affiliate programs from 3 Mobile, Carphone Warehouse, Dial-a-Phone, O2, oneStopPhoneShop, T-Mobile, The Phone Spot, Virgin Mobile & Vodafone during the period 11th February - 6th April.

To win you will need to increase your mobile contract applications over the next two months. The biggest % increases in contract applications will win one of the prizes.

The affiliate competition has been split into three groups to make it fair for everyone with the group you fall into dependent on the number of mobile contract applications you have sent in the last two months.

Group 1; 0 - 50 applications – prize of £1,000.
Group 2: 51 - 100 applications – prize of £2,000.
Group 3; 101 + applications – prize of £3,000.

The winner of each group will be the person that makes the biggest % increase in the total number of applications they submit and if you have sent less than ten mobile phone applications in the previous two months then you will have a starting rate set at 10 sales.

AOL have announced that they have acquired the independent UK affiliate network buy.at which will now operate as a stand alone business of Advertising.com, which is a part of AOL’s Platform-A organization.

Buy.at believes the planned investment will allow them to continue its growth in staff, technology and infrastructure to maintain and even grow its offerings of products and services.

“Advertising.com and buy.at will be able to expand their advertiser offerings, driving more revenue opportunities for affiliate publishers who specialise in both e-commerce websites and retail focused content. This will help to generate sales for advertisers and increased revenue for publishers. Publishers will be able to work with Advertising.com and buy.at across several product lines, earning revenue for inventory across their display, video, mobile, and affiliate channels”

Buy.at has offices in London & Newcastle in the UK and New York in the U.S. They employ around 70 people and offer affiliate marketing in both the UK and the U.S. with over 200 leading businesses as its clients including 3 Mobile, The AA, Argos, BT, Carphone Warehouse, E.ON, HMV, John Lewis, Littlewoods, M&S, MBNA, o2, Sky, Tesco & Viirgin Media.

Advertising.com also has operations in the U.S. and ten other countries including nine in Europe.

For more details see the buy.at press release here.

Commission Monster one of Australia’s leading affiliate networks is set to launch in the UK this week and are offering UK affiliates a deal hard to beat with no network commissions charged on their affiliate programs, meaning the affiliate will get 100% of the commission they earn.

The normal affiliate commission rate for the big existing UK networks is around 30% with the affiliate marketer only getting 70% so this could be a great opportunity for affiliates if Commission Monster get some decent merchants onboard.

“We already have advertisers / merchants who want to run global offers in the UK, and we also have some affiliates we already work with in Europe and the UK, but we want more!  We want to prove to UK and European-based networks that we are a great network to work with, so we are going to rebate all of our commission earned”

I wish them the best of luck as the UK will be a hard marketplace to enter and have registered my interest on their sign-up page here