A4U Expo interview series: Dixon Jones

Read the text interview with Dixon Jones and listen to the podcast we also made with him.

Listen to the podcast here

Could you tell us who you are?
After a decade in the Industry, I have recently taken on the marketing of Majestic SEO. If you haven’t heard of Majestic yet, you are missing out on what many believe is the most powerful back-link data in the world. I am also the founder of the Internet Marketing Consultancy, Receptional, who has been on the Affiliates4U scene since the very first meetings.

What will your session be about at A4U Expo and what will you be talking about in specific?
I’m on the “Affiliate Doctors Live” panel which I guess will be directed by the audience, so I’m planning on having the full suite of Majestic data on my laptop, so that I can analyze stuff on the fly if the opportunity arises. I’m also on the “Beyond Link Bait” panel. The panel is subtitled “Getting authoritative Mentions Online”, although I think I’m going to take my own view on what an “Authoritative Mention” is – so I can share a few secrets. New technologies  are starting to change the way in which we can analyze links and relationships between sites and we are now learning how to uncover new link targets.

What is the link between SEO and affiliates for you? Who needs who?
I started life on the Internet using SEO to build a site which also used affiliates in a direct relationship (non-network) to build up the ranking on the main keyword.  Who needs who certainly depends on the affiliate’s revenue model. If you live or die by voucher codes as an affiliate, then let’s face it – you don’t even need a website, let alone SEO! I think at its core, an affiliate will forever find SEO hard unless their business model has something over and above simply being an affiliate. Playing with product feeds from Merchants runs the risk of duplicate content issues. Writing review after review – without focus – will hardly build up a loyal audience. I love affiliate sites that take a different path. Ones that concentrate on building up a loyal audience first, and then sell to this audience second.

What makes A4U Expo a conference you want to be speaking at?
It is one of the slickest conferences in the industry. I have tried to be part of the affiliate scene for as long as I have been on the Internet and you can’t help but admire affiliates putting their balls on the line and risking life and limb.

Why should we visit your session?
I have been on every side if the affiliate fence (except for being a Network). I have been an affiliate, a merchant and an affiliate manager. Or to give you a more actionable reason, I can tell you how to identify your competitor’s strongest links/mentions and identify which ones you need to target first for best effect in search.

Which other session will you be visiting and believe that others should?
I want to be at the “Are Networks Dying?” Debate. Over the years, I have seen networks promise less and less to Merchants. I see how they help affiliates to aggregate small incomes from many merchants into one nice paycheck… but I can’t see why Affiliates of any value would not prefer a 30% override by going direct. If that’s the case, then why don’t merchants simply have their own technology and use an affiliate management company? If I ran a powerful network, I would be changing the game. I think Nectar is a fantastic idea… if you are Sainsbury’s or BP… Who’s the affiliate there and who’s the merchant?

Dixon Jones can be found on Dixon Jones' blog or on Twitter.

The series can also be followed on iTunes

In the series we also talked to:

Will Critchlow

Marcus Tandler

Lisa Myers

Christoph Cemper