Internet Business Share Discussion Threads

[aleman] 13/5/2007 11:10

Cheers andnmand. I thought the minimum had gone up to £25. There was something in one of the recent links.



Payments: Minimum payout is £25 for which Payments tend to be made around 12 to 16 days after the end of the month in which you earn them, so Affiliate Future earn lots of brownie points for helping out affiliates with their cash flow.

[andnmand] 13/5/2007 10:49

My invoice on affiliate future has been updated for the end of April. The following is the increase in my invoice number month by month which I believe to be a measure of the number of active affiliates (i.e. those who earn some commission in the month but not necessarily the minimum £20 required for a payout).  Date Increase in Invoice No.   30/04/2007 89224 31/03/2007 86404 28/02/2007 84182 31/01/2007 81814 31/12/2006 80062 30/11/2006 76698 31/10/2006 68459 30/09/2006 65667 31/08/2006 61558 31/07/2006 59445 30/06/2006 57358 31/05/2006 55665 30/04/2006 54586 31/03/2006 45138 28/02/2006 45881 31/01/2006 45891 31/12/2005 35514 30/11/2005 33479 31/10/2005 31663   

[lord buffett] 11/5/2007 16:18

hirsch - Exactly, but that's because the story's not being sold in the right places/to the right people!

[hirschnathan] 11/5/2007 15:44

Blackster

As I understand it ibg dont have problems presenting the information, they seem to have problems getting into the right circles.

[stemis] 11/5/2007 12:44

Yes I read the IC article and noticed IBG's absence. I'm not sure whether IBG have a financial PR firm but its something they should consider if they haven't.

[aleman] 11/5/2007 12:05

I see Shares and the IC have both suggested internet advertising/marketing is a good place to invest recently with DGM and Burst getting mentioned. IBG yet again overlooked. I hope they take note of the coming results in a few weeks.

[the blackster] 09/5/2007 18:52

The company will have been taken over well before then

[baheid101] 09/5/2007 13:07

Here is another interesting blog entry from a well known affiliate, Shawn Collins on what makes a good network



He makes a number of observations that give reassurance about Affiliate Future's outlook

(1) 'As far as what affiliates are looking for in a network, I'd say a competent tracking technology and quality support staff, plus compelling, unique offers for them to run'

- AF's support staff are first class going by the feedback from affiliates on various forums and blogs. They also refuse to reverse a commission after 5 days have passed - this means affiliates have much more visibility over their commissions, and contrasts with some other networks who will seemingly reverse any sale that the merchant doesn't like.

(2) 'On the merchant side, one thing you're going to want to deliver to them, of course, is a stable of performing affiliates. It's sort of a Catch 22 there, because starting from scratch you won't have either one.'

- illustrates the network effect that AF enjoy - you only attract affiliates if you have enough quality merchants, and you only attract merchants if you have enough quality affiliates. Note Kirsty's (previous post) comment that AF have built a loyal base of affiliates through their high levels of support and a fair and resilient tracking system.

This gives a certain degree of confidence that new entrants offering to waive fees and reduce the override (e.g. profitistic and epurplemedia) are unlikely to tempt affiliates and merchants away from AF in any great number, or indeed prompt AF to reduce their override commission.

[baheid101] 09/5/2007 12:53

Kirsty McCubbin, an affiliate, has been writing overviews of the various UK affiliate networks to help people who are interested in getting into the industry. She has just written about Affiliate Future - interesting reading!

[clond] 08/5/2007 14:54

65p looking good !!!

What might I win ?

[the analyst] 08/5/2007 14:10

Noticed that DIGI is up again today. One of the new media and marketing companies that people never seem to mention.

An old piece of news, but shows what sort of price some of the private companies go for at the moment - as discussed before, there is quite a big difference between valuations of private versus publiuc company valuations.





Digital Marketinggrp Acquisitions

RNS Number:1827Q
Digital Marketing Group PLC
26 January 2007


26 January 2007

Digital Marketing Group plc

Acquisition of two companies for #24m creates leading UK digital direct
marketing platform

Digital Marketing Group plc ("DMG" or the "Group") today announces the
acquisition of 100% of the share capital of two leading UK companies, Cheeze
Limited ("Cheeze") and Alphanumeric Group (trading as "Jaywing"), for a total
initial consideration of #24m, comprising cash and shares. The acquired
companies' management teams will continue to develop the businesses within the
Group with further consideration shares and performance options in the group
dependent upon future growth. These cornerstone acquisitions follow on from the
Group's listing on AIM and acquisitions of HSM Ltd and Scope Creative Marketing
(trading as "Dig for Fire") in October 2006.

Acquisitions Highlights

* Acquisition of strong, profitable, and fast-growing companies in digital
direct marketing, with blue chip clients
* Group delivering on "buy and build" acquisition strategy ahead of schedule
* Integrated digital direct marketing offering positions DMG well to
capitalise on current and future market opportunities
* Strong platform for organic growth with significant cross selling and new
business opportunities, and potential for further platform-enhancing
acquisitions

Cheeze

Cheeze is a leading digital media planning and buying agency founded by
Katherine Jerman and Jamie Riddell in 1999. The company is based in Ipswich,
with offices in London and Leeds.

In addition to its core services of planning and buying for digital media
campaigns, Cheeze also offers search engine marketing, customer relationship
marketing ("CRM"), Web 2.0 services and digital direct marketing consulting.
Prior to its acquisition by DMG, Cheeze has already worked successfully with HSM
and Dig for Fire.

Cheeze has grown rapidly into a profitable business and its unaudited financials
for the year ended 31 December 2006 show turnover of #10.5m (up 64% on audited
2005 turnover of #6.4m), profit before tax of #768,000 (up 72% on audited 2005
profit before tax of #446,000) and net assets of #950,000 (up 71% on audited
2005 net assets of #554,000).

100% of the share capital of Cheeze has been acquired for a total initial
consideration of #9.5m, comprising #6m in cash and 6,140,351 shares in DMG. In
addition, Cheeze will receive a maximum of a further 1,754,386 contingent
consideration shares in DMG vesting in March 2008, subject to business
performance. The acquisition was based on a cash free debt free position at
completion.

Jaywing

Jaywing is a leading independent provider of marketing, credit and fraud
consultancy services, specializing in data interrogation and analysis and the
designing of data-driven marketing initiatives. Jaywing is also pioneering the
development of proprietary data-based marketing products and software for use in
digital media channels such as "Digital Brain" and "Smartdecisions".

The Company was set up in 1999 by Martin Boddy and Andy Gardner, and has offices
in Derby, Harrow, Wakefield and Witney. Jaywing has grown to achieve an annual
audited turnover for the year ended 31 March 2006 of #10.8m (up 98% on 2005),
with EBIT of #1.3m (up 143% on 2005) and net assets of approximately #1.1m (up
167% on 2005).

100% of the share capital of Jaywing has been acquired for a total initial
consideration of #14.5m, comprising #8.6m in cash and 9,833,333 shares in DMG.
The acquisition was based on a cash free debt free position at completion.

An application has been made by DMG for admission of the 15,973,684 initial
consideration shares, which is expected to become effective today. The total
number of 50p ordinary shares in the Company with voting rights is 50,126,437.
This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations
by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in,
or a change to their interest in, the Company under the FSA's Disclosure and
Transparency Rules.

Ben Langdon, Chief Executive of Digital Marketing Group, commented:
"We are delighted to welcome two such high quality and fast growing businesses
as Jaywing and Cheeze into Digital Marketing Group. With these acquisitions, we
have expanded our integrated digital marketing platform quicker than forecast.
We are now able to offer digital marketing, digital media, direct marketing and
data services within a highly focused, specialist Group, and will proactively
build on the enormous cross-selling opportunities this offers. We will also
consider opportunities to acquire businesses that further enhance our offering,
either in web design and build, mobile, b2b or digital media & entertainment. We
are determined to leverage our skills to become the pre-eminent digital direct
marketing group in the UK and we now have the core businesses to make this
happen."

Enquiries:
Digital Marketing Group Tel: [phone]
Ben Langdon, Chief Executive

Smithfield Consultants Tel: [phone]
Noemie de Andia / Libby Young

[aleman] 08/5/2007 13:26

Nice links hirsch and very appropriate, but potential new investors still won't buy until some newspaper tells them to. Nice to see the directors still working very hard. Thanks guys.

[hirschnathan] 08/5/2007 06:37

If you want to see what "hands on" means look at the time

[aleman] 04/5/2007 20:24

That's what I understood. They insist on using AF tracking because it is more resilient so the system doesn't crash when overwhelmed by volume from a TV ad campaign or whatever.

There was an interesting description of IBG at one point. IBG's strong technical team have developed lots of bits of proven software over the years that sort of sit on the shelf and can be used as building blocks for whatever application takes their fancy within the sector in which they operate. I would hazard the metaphor of ingredients in a posh restaurant. They have a few appetising meals on the menu already that sell well (AF, Henoo and so on) but they have a collection of proven quality ingredients in the kitchen with which they can dish up whatever meal you may want to dine on with a little bit of extra effort. (They could make a mortgage search for instance.) I suppose the Moneysupermarket thing would be like selling a few ingredients for a small profit to another restaurant down the street that can't source any as good. IBG's strong technical team means they will always have the best software ingredients and can put them together to make all sorts of different meals that the market might want to eat in the future. They can make their own websites or rent out bits of already developed software to others in the sector for a fee or commission. I suppose PlentyPoints might be like one of those dishes that doesn't sell much but isn't really much of a distraction because it wasn't that hard to make. It is not easy getting info out of the company because they have competition trying to copy their more successful meals. Maz is upset because the market doesn't realise how valuable the ingredients and cooking skills are and other restaurants may try to poach his kitchen staff or just buy the company on the cheap. IBG may be an affiilate marketing company, but it is in some ways more a software chef. Does that make sense? Does that some it up, Baheid?

Maz "How do I get those bloody shareholders to buy more?"


Dan Chic "Oops - wrong mushroom again! Oh well, it will cheer them up."


Board meeting "Okay - I'll go with the majority!" (No comments about non-execs.)

[muffinhead] 04/5/2007 19:12

B101
Useful explanation, thanks.

Affiliate Window's 'Shop Window' system automating product feeds seems better for affiliates who struggle to manually update. Some affiliates may have gained "super-affiliate" status ("90% income from 10% of affiliates") by superior IT knowledge. Automating it all improves access and productivity for the WYSIWYG software enthusiasts.


You lost me with travelsupermarket.com.....you suggest IBG media group gets income from travel purchases on travelsupermarket.com because travel merchants insist that it uses AF tracking. Have I understand this correctly?

[yump] 04/5/2007 17:41

Those are interesting observations.

I know its a bit picky, but I did start to get the feeling when plentypoints appeared that the eye might be off the ball a bit, although it was good to see experiments taking place. Also quite a bit has been made in the past about the technology that AF use, but I haven't actually seen it produce anything unusual at the affiliate end.

The figures are proof that the company is doing well, but imo the review is a good thing because the net is getting to the stage where any company that has been going a few years needs to clamp down its strategy very firmly. Otherwise as you say, things move fast and they won't be able to keep up on everything.

I have a minor gripe that has never been dealt with and its been mentioned on here ages ago. Theres no merchant search - just the directory. If you get a list of merchants its not alphabetical and you can't even order it so. Puts you off looking for merchants and I would have thought that's a key driver for maximising revenue.

Can't fault the service, but is the changing focus the result of 'ideas' people not quite keeping on task ?

Just little things like that, while at the same time you've got AW launching serious 'plug-in' affiliate applications.

I wonder whether the Henoo development is a play on the future of search ?
Not sure if everyone is always going to carry on putting in search terms if they know they can go to a kind of pre-searched specialist engine. Perhaps there's going to be one for electrical appliances, one for mobiles etc. All the most popular areas.

Plus Google are moving in the direction of personalised search, where if you use any Google applications / tools on your PC, it learns your search preferences and then gives slightly different results than the 'normal' ones.

The ultimate conclusion would then be that if you hardly ever click on review sites, or price comparison sites or other affiliate sites, then those search results will go off the first page of your search results. Its a kind of voting for the sites you really use, rather than those you click on because they've just appeared near the top of the list. At the moment Google can just tell that you've clicked. If you're running a Google app. of some sort, they might be able to tell how long you visit a site for and then draw some sort of conclusion about the value of each site to you.

In the real world people do the same things over and over again, visit the same places, drink the same beer. If that's what they end up doing online - just visiting their favourite places, then where does that leave affiliate sites that have no 'stickiness'.

Gone on a bit again- theraputic mind-dump. Time for tea.

[aleman] 04/5/2007 14:21

Yump - 121 seem like the biggest fraud I have ever seen. If they are such a good investment, why are there no buyers posting all over the thread after such a meteoric rise? There is no news in the market to justify the rises so fund managers must be getting info that ordinary investors aren't. What are they being told to make them buy when the company have no technical expertise that isn't available to many other competitors? They have announced nothing for about 18 months in a fast moving market?!? IBG's turnover has quadrupled in that time. Don't waste your time. You will get a better return researching elsewhere.


LONDON (Thomson Financial) - US stock futures are pointing to a higher open after a weaker-than-expected jobs report fuelled hopes of a cut in interest rates, and as shares in Yahoo surged on a news report Microsoft is seeking to acquire the internet search company.

[yump] 04/5/2007 13:59

o/t apology, but would be really interested in opinions over on the 121media thread. I'm not looking for support, don't have a holding and won't. Just really puzzled by this future of ISP advertising stuff and wondering if I've missed something. Its the only place I've seen it being discussed and I know there's loads of knowledgeable people on this IBG thread.

[aleman] 04/5/2007 12:54

The shares are on 7.25 x next year's cashflow. What is premium about that?

[the analyst] 04/5/2007 12:54

Hi LB,

Would be interested to know what your hopes for the outcome of the review are?

Cheers

t.a.

[yump] 04/5/2007 12:42

What premium share rating ? !