Here it is, the much anticipated first section of the WickedFire resource area. We decided to run with the directory as the first channel to launch because it's something the industry really needs, and without bullshitting, it's our bread and butter.
We had originally planned to have this launched in October sometime, but due to delays with programmers, constantly hiring and firing because they either couldn't do what was promised or just stopped working, it was a total pain in the ass to deal with. Also, I didn't realize just how much work was involved in creating this from an image into the real working thing. We had approached one of the lead developers of vbulletin.org to do the work for us, and he even balked at it because he said it was an impossible project and could not be done. Just to let everyone know, this is not made in php or some type of foreign page, it's completely coded within the realm of vbulletin, and it's the only one of it's kind ever done before. So we're really proud of our 3rd and final programming team for their amazing work. Also many kudos need to go to Ben for dealing with my ideas and designing what I wanted to see, and Brandon for being the real architect of the project.
Our goals with the resource area are to change the way affiliates and network folk get their information and interract together. This is not just another resource site or portal. We've spent A LOT of time and money on this to perfect it to the exact specifications I had thought of many months ago. While it's been a long road, it's also been a pretty educational one. We expect to keep everything free for the affiliate and make our money from advertising dollars. This was, in a sense, the "premium section" I spoke about in the summer, so instead of charging for it, it's all yours, for free, forever.
Screenshot #1:
Here we have the opening shot of the rough draft of the directory. As you can see, the header with the channel buttons and the WF logo are different, because work was started on this before we made any changes. We want to showcase the advertisers here based on relevance and rank rather than who can pay more for the top spot. There are no premium listings to purchase, and the part where it says "featured listings" has since been removed (or we'll just replace it with the top ranks of each directory category). We're going to be adding new directory slots as the directory itself is worked on and taken out of beta. Seperating and organizing them is also of great importance so that people find exactly what they are looking for. We've got between 8-10 sections we are working on within the directory, and each one will be different inside to cater to that specific category's topic. This way each advertiser section is targeted and can deliver the proper information that you are looking to find.
One VERY important part of the directory is that there is a list of minimum requirements that each advertiser's category needs to meet. The reason for this is so that you never wonder "well, are they on here because they paid for it, or are they really good to use". By making the advertisers meet a list of rules and requirements it forces the ones that probably shouldn't be listed out of our space, regardless of whether or not they can pay for it. For example, Commission Junction as an ad network will not be listed. Sure, they are a big and well known company, but due to so many complaints on how they treat their affiliates, hold back payments, and run a careless operation, they won't meet the strict requirements. I don't care if they offer us $50k a month, they aren't going in there until they change their policies and fix what's been broken. We want to be the first to set standards, and not make it about the money, and so far, there are no directories out there that have done it, so we're officially the first!
Screenshot #2:
Here we have the inside of the directory. For example purposes we chose Azoogle to showcase. As you can see, unlike every other directory out there, the advertiser doesn't just get a link, a logo, a quick paragraph and some stars made 4 years ago by 2 people ranking them as 10/10. Sorry, but that doesn't fly here. We wanted to really show everything about the advertiser so they get the maximum user interraction and are graded farily on how they present themselves and do business with affiliates. Perhaps this can be an incentive for the networks to keep up their good standings with affiliates and thus increasing their reviews and rankings on here.
As you can see on the left hand side we put every important piece of information to get the user searching as well acquainted with the advertiser as possible. All of their contact information is there, along with information answering questions that appear on every forum, such as payout cycles, types, whether or not they accent US/Intl, traffic types they'll accept, their contact information, location of business, AIM/phone contacts, conferences they attend, WF usernames of their AM's, plus a lot of other things not shown on the screenshot that have been added.
The advertiser's WF reputation is very important and depends on how they will appear in the listings within the directory. It's up to the users to rank them and write reviews explaining what they approve or disapprove of the advertiser.
In the middle section you'll see two sample reviews given to the advertiser by WF members. Although anyone on the internet can view the directory, only WF members with enough "trust" will be able to vote/review an advertiser. This is where rep plays a big part. The new sections also come along with a new trust algorithm giving WF members the ability to rate and rank one another depending on their activity and contributions to the WickedFire community. Users won't be able to give anonymous reviews or rankings, because we want the advertisers to be in touch with the users who review them and work out why a negative review or rating was given. Doing so will only help everyone, instead of just accepting a neg review/rating and thinking "I'll try harder next time". Now there will be no excuses for advertisers to just keep coasting along and operating the same way. We are here to make a change, and keep everyone informed, not ignore the problem (if there is one) and just go about our regular business without doing anything about it. Also, no more hiding behind your computer when giving negative reviews and ratings, so we should see a lot less abuse overall.
Finally, the far right section shows the contact information of the advertiser's top AM (in this case, for hosts it may be sales rep, etc.). Being a top AM means you should be getting privalages that other AM's don't get, and in this case, it's being the primary rep of your network, so in turn, you'll be rewarded with more affiliate signups under you. For the affiliates it acts as a great way to quickly get in touch with someone at the advertiser's company in case of an emergency or just to speak to a human being if you need answers. We're also showcasing their top converting campaigns, and their exclusive campaigns. These are two sections that the advertiser can edit and will be required to update at least once a week.
So there you have it. As you can see, there was a ton of work, creativity, and innovations being put into this section, and it's still only the first channel of a total of seven new ones to add to the forum. Personally, I'm glad we'll finally have something to show for our hard work and investments on this project. We hope to have all seven sections launched and complete by mid-March 2007, although we are ahead of our new schedule by about a week now.
If you have any ideas, feedback or constructive criticism, don't be afraid to tell us, we want to get as much of it as possible to keep everything up to date and as user friendly and easy to approach as possible.
Remember, without your help, we'd be nowhere, and without the investment of time on your part and the advertiser's part our industry will finally have a one stop shop portal/resource area that we so desperately need.
We had originally planned to have this launched in October sometime, but due to delays with programmers, constantly hiring and firing because they either couldn't do what was promised or just stopped working, it was a total pain in the ass to deal with. Also, I didn't realize just how much work was involved in creating this from an image into the real working thing. We had approached one of the lead developers of vbulletin.org to do the work for us, and he even balked at it because he said it was an impossible project and could not be done. Just to let everyone know, this is not made in php or some type of foreign page, it's completely coded within the realm of vbulletin, and it's the only one of it's kind ever done before. So we're really proud of our 3rd and final programming team for their amazing work. Also many kudos need to go to Ben for dealing with my ideas and designing what I wanted to see, and Brandon for being the real architect of the project.
Our goals with the resource area are to change the way affiliates and network folk get their information and interract together. This is not just another resource site or portal. We've spent A LOT of time and money on this to perfect it to the exact specifications I had thought of many months ago. While it's been a long road, it's also been a pretty educational one. We expect to keep everything free for the affiliate and make our money from advertising dollars. This was, in a sense, the "premium section" I spoke about in the summer, so instead of charging for it, it's all yours, for free, forever.
Screenshot #1:
Here we have the opening shot of the rough draft of the directory. As you can see, the header with the channel buttons and the WF logo are different, because work was started on this before we made any changes. We want to showcase the advertisers here based on relevance and rank rather than who can pay more for the top spot. There are no premium listings to purchase, and the part where it says "featured listings" has since been removed (or we'll just replace it with the top ranks of each directory category). We're going to be adding new directory slots as the directory itself is worked on and taken out of beta. Seperating and organizing them is also of great importance so that people find exactly what they are looking for. We've got between 8-10 sections we are working on within the directory, and each one will be different inside to cater to that specific category's topic. This way each advertiser section is targeted and can deliver the proper information that you are looking to find.
One VERY important part of the directory is that there is a list of minimum requirements that each advertiser's category needs to meet. The reason for this is so that you never wonder "well, are they on here because they paid for it, or are they really good to use". By making the advertisers meet a list of rules and requirements it forces the ones that probably shouldn't be listed out of our space, regardless of whether or not they can pay for it. For example, Commission Junction as an ad network will not be listed. Sure, they are a big and well known company, but due to so many complaints on how they treat their affiliates, hold back payments, and run a careless operation, they won't meet the strict requirements. I don't care if they offer us $50k a month, they aren't going in there until they change their policies and fix what's been broken. We want to be the first to set standards, and not make it about the money, and so far, there are no directories out there that have done it, so we're officially the first!
Screenshot #2:
Here we have the inside of the directory. For example purposes we chose Azoogle to showcase. As you can see, unlike every other directory out there, the advertiser doesn't just get a link, a logo, a quick paragraph and some stars made 4 years ago by 2 people ranking them as 10/10. Sorry, but that doesn't fly here. We wanted to really show everything about the advertiser so they get the maximum user interraction and are graded farily on how they present themselves and do business with affiliates. Perhaps this can be an incentive for the networks to keep up their good standings with affiliates and thus increasing their reviews and rankings on here.
As you can see on the left hand side we put every important piece of information to get the user searching as well acquainted with the advertiser as possible. All of their contact information is there, along with information answering questions that appear on every forum, such as payout cycles, types, whether or not they accent US/Intl, traffic types they'll accept, their contact information, location of business, AIM/phone contacts, conferences they attend, WF usernames of their AM's, plus a lot of other things not shown on the screenshot that have been added.
The advertiser's WF reputation is very important and depends on how they will appear in the listings within the directory. It's up to the users to rank them and write reviews explaining what they approve or disapprove of the advertiser.
In the middle section you'll see two sample reviews given to the advertiser by WF members. Although anyone on the internet can view the directory, only WF members with enough "trust" will be able to vote/review an advertiser. This is where rep plays a big part. The new sections also come along with a new trust algorithm giving WF members the ability to rate and rank one another depending on their activity and contributions to the WickedFire community. Users won't be able to give anonymous reviews or rankings, because we want the advertisers to be in touch with the users who review them and work out why a negative review or rating was given. Doing so will only help everyone, instead of just accepting a neg review/rating and thinking "I'll try harder next time". Now there will be no excuses for advertisers to just keep coasting along and operating the same way. We are here to make a change, and keep everyone informed, not ignore the problem (if there is one) and just go about our regular business without doing anything about it. Also, no more hiding behind your computer when giving negative reviews and ratings, so we should see a lot less abuse overall.
Finally, the far right section shows the contact information of the advertiser's top AM (in this case, for hosts it may be sales rep, etc.). Being a top AM means you should be getting privalages that other AM's don't get, and in this case, it's being the primary rep of your network, so in turn, you'll be rewarded with more affiliate signups under you. For the affiliates it acts as a great way to quickly get in touch with someone at the advertiser's company in case of an emergency or just to speak to a human being if you need answers. We're also showcasing their top converting campaigns, and their exclusive campaigns. These are two sections that the advertiser can edit and will be required to update at least once a week.
So there you have it. As you can see, there was a ton of work, creativity, and innovations being put into this section, and it's still only the first channel of a total of seven new ones to add to the forum. Personally, I'm glad we'll finally have something to show for our hard work and investments on this project. We hope to have all seven sections launched and complete by mid-March 2007, although we are ahead of our new schedule by about a week now.
If you have any ideas, feedback or constructive criticism, don't be afraid to tell us, we want to get as much of it as possible to keep everything up to date and as user friendly and easy to approach as possible.
Remember, without your help, we'd be nowhere, and without the investment of time on your part and the advertiser's part our industry will finally have a one stop shop portal/resource area that we so desperately need.
