Moose on the Loose

There are a number of continuing debates on the forum & various blogs recently pertaining to voucher codes & discount codes.

For example:

i) Spend over £50 and get 5% off your order … or …

ii) Buy a specific xyz item before a certain date & get 10% off

There is a flipside to this & something with a little twist. Now most affiliates don’t promote or utilise voucher / discount codes, thus they are of little use.

So, how about turning this into an incentive for the affiliate to the following which is efffectively the same thing.

i) If a customer an affiliate sends subsequently spends over £50, the affiliate receives an extra 5% commission.

ii) If a customer buys a specific xyz item before a certain date, the affiliate receives an extra 10% commission for that item.

Assuming of course a network has the technology to be able to track sales to an individual item.

Just a thought.

(Please make sure you read all the comments where it is elaborated on further) 

As you maybe aware there has been an interesting thread fermenting on the a4uforum pertaining to Next Directory with regard to their poor commission rates & for me what seems a derogatory disregard for the affiliate marketing channel, which in my opinion either lays firmly at the doorstep of certain personnel within their agency and/or under directive from their client (Next) or the merchant themselves, quite possibly a combination of all the above. Click Here For Forum Discussion

It looks like the Next Affiliate Program is unfortunately leaving Affiliate Window & joining Affili.net & Buy.at, as if that wasn’t predictable !! … for me it taints a bit of vulturism? … Hence the illustration above … or it could be contrived as simply shrewd business or interesting business alliances? The program might look swish on their portfolios when the logo radiates / glows from their corporate bumpf, but will it be a coal too hot to handle?

Something for the trade press perhaps?

For me personally, I don’t think this is a wise move with unresolved concerns for some affiliates & something smells rotten to the core or “bad to the bone”. Especially when it appears Affiliate Window have been left in the lurch to clear up the mess & receive the flack, pointing to the hard work they have done in trying to sort out the matter … then only to have the bones picked from beneath them.

Rapaciousness doesn’t sit well with me. But whatever happens, I think Affiliate Window will come out favourably from this and any disparaging glances will be afflicted elsewhere.

Will the commission deal be better? Well, possibly to pull the wool over our eyes & appropriately spun in process with some boisterous fanfare launch with a smidgen of gloating from the new beneficiaries, not forgetting any charm offensive. If the commission deal remains the same, then what was the point in moving?

I don’t think anyone needed to be an Inspector MOOrSE to establish that it was likely these two networks would be favoured in any re-pitching process, especially if you observe the social circles, previous career paths (companies of employment) & previous history of programs managed both at individual & company level. Therefore, as my own pov (point of view), I would question whether personal goals & relationships of individual (s) have got in the way of the best interests of their client. Thus, perhaps Next should look a little closer to home rather than finger point elsewhere. That’s why I reckon there is more to this than your average commercials of a merchant moving from one network or agency to another, in this example both.

Note : When the Next program originally launched on AW it was in conjunction with their agency who at the time was Mediavest until July 2007 (a decent company). The commission reduction was not a result of being with Mediavest. These latest unfortunate happenings have been while the program was with there current agency I-Level.

With regard to the forum a merchant/agency should take on board negative feedback & learn how to infer it. Then channel this into positive actions for the program, they’re meant to be mature adults, so act accordingly. IMHO their communication skills leaves little to be desired.

When the move is complete, I would like to get Affiliate Window’s take on events on how they were treated, their vision in affiliate marketing in my opinion supersedes the other two networks with the platform & tools they are creating, with other more favourable networks having european reach too. With anything like this most affiliates will forget & gradually promote them as normal, whilst Affiliate Window take the moral highground (though granted difficult) & liase with more worthy parties.

Before any numbskull thinks I am continually beefing up Affiliate Window, perhaps they should take a peruse of a few threads & blogs I have written or contributed to pertaining to Dixons, Toys R Us & a few other merchants like 0% on Wii’s over the last festive period.

I think there is a bigger picture here with regard to the lack of communication from merchant and/or agency. If they choose NOT to interact & engage with the forum, by that I don’t mean their junior messengers either … which is their prerogative .. though wrong … that strikes me as a superiority complex, yet failure by email to their affiliate base for me is simply discourteous & unprofessional.

I am all for discussing merchants on a forum of blog, it however appears Next don’t want to participate on the forum as there has been no response despite the threads about them … and to use that word again … perhaps they think they have omnipotent attributes. If so they must reconsider whether they should remain within the affiliate channel, if they feel discussing Next on an “affiliate forum” or “personal blog” contravenes some official secrets act & they are going to chuck their toys out of the cot cos of a few grubby affiliates. They’re supposedly mature adults .. grow up & get over it. Leaving one network or another in this manner was maybe too rash.

Next  might be a recognised brand, but they are replaceable, as for me being part of or excluded from their future program .. I couldn’t give a monkey’s either way.

“Please wipe your feet on the way out” … or … “Please turn out the lights when you leave” … I guess it depends on your perspective.

The story has finished, that are a few more saga’s & revelations yet to unfold for this unfortunate episode.

I am now adorned with a tin helmet.

Just a simple thought for the day which was raised as a topic of conversation many moons ago.

With a number of agencies representing various “brands” and merchants, quite often the traditional override a network “The Cheese” may receive from a merchant is negotiated in order to secure the services of the merchant on that network “The Cheese”. Now granted these negotiations may not necessarily be of any concern the affiliate, fair enough.

However, sometimes an agency may receive a kickback from The Cheese, based on part of that override. I don’t necessarily object to this either, unless this kickback impairs the judgement of the agency in selecting the right network for the merchant, but importantly is all of or part of this saving / kickback being disclosed and passed back to the client (the merchant). Ultimately The Cheese is being squeezed akin to cashback sites maybe? I wonder if all agencies are ethical in this process, like the trimming of both ends some agencies used to get from their clients advertising spend on Google Adwords?

As Mark Russell From Existem correctly says … “I have to say that comments about kick backs is very poor reason and any management agency that chooses a network on these grounds is doing a bad job for the industry, we are all aware that kick backs are available from networks, but if you want to be a good successful management agency why would you put a programme with a certain network that either cant or wont support the programme just for a very short-term gain. From what I have seen the amounts for kick backs is not something that should affect a decision. Not only do you want to have a good reputation for growing good clean programmes – the benefit of choosing the correct network(s) that can maximise affiliate revenues is of great benefit by any financial criteria, client / network or agency.”

Squeezing The Cheese A Little More

So, we see that networks “The Cheese” offer agencies kickbacks in order to secure the merchant on the network.

So, how about Squeezing the Cheese for the Affiliates Benefit? By this I mean, from the override an affiliate earns the network, how about offering the affiliate a % of override on a sliding scale basis based on how much the affiliate earns in commission. Perhaps this might induce loyalty from an affiliate to a particular network based on these performance incentives. If the override is being used as a bargaining chip for leverage, then the affiliate should have the opportunity to utilise that same chip too.

Perhaps I am just floating an air biscuit in the wind, with another long winded blog entry, but it’s just a thought.

So hands up if you want some cheese squeezed for you?

I like really Webgains, I have a lot of time for them.

They treat affiliates like adults & the service from them has genuinely always been good. I like dealing with people like Hong Kong Phooey Kier “Fanriffic” Marston, Hero “A4Uexpo Award Winner” Grigoraki, Ryan “Charismatic” Gilbert, Marc “Legend” Gear, Peter “What’s The Hair All About?” Dunham, Robert “Crocodile Dundee” Glasgow, Sachin “Balboa”Thanki, Emma Delaforce (sounds like some superhero) & Andrew “Capable” Copeland.

All in all, I like dealing with real people.

They are NOT yes men or sycophantical praetorians with self perceived omnipotent attributes which several networks think they possess, they have educated opinions of their own. The service from them has been excellent. I like the fact that more than any other network they generally provide better notice periods for program closures & keyword policy changes. They might not yet have all the bells & whistles, but they have the nuts & bolts which make them a reliable & dependable network.

For me they are The Last Big Network & potentially a sleeping giant.

They now have a vast range of merchants with individual feeds & the foundations in place, whereby if I had omnipotent powers, I would take them to take the next evolutionary step to really stamp their authority within the affiliate marketing space, where a few previous contenders are falling by the wayside.

I really hope early this year they develop a quality Product API solution, delivering fast accurate results when queried, with decent algo’s & good categorisation. Incorporating voucher / discount codes into the feed together with merchant logos. Also allowing affiliates to determine which products they want included within the feed based on merchants EPC or commission levels, allowing affiliates to preselect the deal which is right for them. And by the same token develop something similar to Affiliate Window’s Shopwindow.

If they wanted to go one step further they could introduce feeds from Kelkoo, Shopping.com & Pricerunner. Aggregate all the merchants & de-duped their own merchants who pay on a CPA basis, resulting in a fine blend of CPA & CPC for affiliates. Something we are already developing ourselves.

Message to Webgains : 2008 can really be your year. Please step up to the plate.

Well, I have just read this email which has literally just been received into my inbox from Commission Junction.

“Dear publisher, As one of our valued publishers we would like to find out how we can work better with you by asking you a few questions on various areas of your relationship with Commission Junction, from our services through to how we could improve our marketing and communications. The survey should only take you five minutes to complete, and as a thank you for taking part, you will have the opportunity to enter into our prize draw to win a brand new iPhone! Click here to complete the survey! he closing date is 31/01/08. Your participation is completely voluntary and all answers will be treated in the strictest of confidence. xyz Publisher Account Director
Commission Junction UK”

Well my survey feedback in response to that email, is this blog entry, so will I be entered for that draw?

For me the email smacks of desperation with no sincerity and is nothing more than a really hollow attempt or some lame marketing exercise to reach out to affiliates, which is a road well traveled, which will probably be followed up by some charm offensive exercise along the line. What Commission Junction habitually forget is that over the years they have in effect already received free consultancy from a number of affiliates, including myself, on what they need to do & where they have been going wrong. Whereby affiliates negative overview of this network is probably more in alignment than any other network … but yet again CJ try & do it on the cheap with some gimmicky giveaway which might have simply come from the closet as something a merchant may have given to them as freebie.

For CJ to come out of the closet they will have to go really far, so far out of the closet they may as well be in Narnia.

If You Pay Peanuts, You Get Monkeys!!

In response to John’s blog … Commission Junction died a slow and painful death many years ago … there is no way this phoenix will rise from the ashes, so it may as well RIP now, as John’s in-blog image clearly represents. With Kirtsy weighing with CJ – You Are The Weakest Link – Goodbye!, who I can only sympathise with with my own similar experiences.

I should have blogged a lot more about past anxieties with the CJ network whom in my opinion seem to be under the delusion of being omnipotent with god like powers. For which I only have a couple of entries.

Are Commission Junction the School Playground Bully?

CJ Network Quality at Commission Junction Needs Taking Down A Peg or Two

Message to Merchants on Commission Junction:

I don’t believe your program is realising it’s full potential by solely being on the CJ network. The least you should maybe consider is examine the options of dual network.

These two affiliate polls may provide you with a useful indicator.

Poll 1: If Argos was on another network?

Poll 2 : Should programs be allowed to be on more than one network?

Message to Commission Junction:

Barring all the problems we have had with you in the past, please pay what we believe is owed which has been outstanding for a number of years & probably enough to put a nice deposit on a house.

There is a plethora of pleasant & amenable affiliates within the industry, but part of where you have been going wrong is not respecting them, you are dealing with adults many of whom have been around longer in this industry than many of your employees & also more experienced & knowledgable. Treat them like adults, then maybe one day that respect might be reciprocated.

Right, I am pausing for breath now & moving onto something less futile, cos I don’t think this horse is interested in drinking.

The Pleo Robot Dinosaur as you are aware is on the upper end of the price spectrum for toys, however it has proved to be immensely popular.

As an affiliate some are conscious about finding products which are competitive in price & are in stock or can be pre-ordered if not.

As an affiliate you have to look at which merchant also provides suitable commissions for your efforts in pre-selling a product, amongst other important factors as part of your decision making process.

Unfortunately, too many affiliates don’t look beyond the end of their nose & promote via the largest recognised merchants, not realising they, the affiliate, could only be getting a fraction of what they could be potentially earning.

As part of my decision making process their are a number of factors, the combination of conversion & commission to create an EPC being the top two when “combined” generally.

However, big brand has little influence in my ultimate decision of which merchant to promote, and I have been fortunate enough to do relatively 0kay within the industry for the financial security of my family.

Recently there are been some vociferous threads on the froum pertaining to Next, Play.com & Dixons who have been offering unattractive commissions to affiliates, when the price of the product is very comparable and if not cheaper via other merchants. Resulting in you the affiliate earning a fraction of what you could be earning.

Here is a little summary of several merchants on that terrific network Affiliate Window who sell the Pleo Robot Dinosaur.

I have done a little homework for you on the Pleo Robot Dinosaur, pulling prices from Shopwindow, to illustrate just a typical example where Big Brands Pay Less & that affiliates should look further afield.

😀 Iwantoneofthose
Price £249.00 : Commission 10.00% – 15.00% = @ £25 to £37.50 : Delivery £3.95 : You Can Pre Order

🙂 Gadgetshop – Price £249.95 : Commission 7% = @ £17.50 : Delivery £3.95 : Out of Stock But In Feed : No Pre Order

🙂 thetoyshop – Price £249.95 : Commission 7% = @ £17.50 : Delivery £3.95: Out of Stock But In Feed : No Pre Order

😡 Play.com – Price £249.99 : Commission 4% = @ £9.99 : Delivery £3.95 : Delivery Free : You Can Pre Order

mad: Dixons – price £249.99 : Commission 2.5% = @ £6.25 : Delivery £4.95 But not available to buy : No Pre Order

I classify Play.com similar to Next & Dixons as taking advantage of their brand size by paying lower commissions.

So ….

IWantOneOfThose pays @ 400% to 500% better commission than Dixons

IWantOneOfThose pays @ 250% to 375% better commission than Play.com

IWantOneOfThose pays @ 142% to 214% better commission than TheToyShop

IWantOneOfThose pays @ 142% to 214% better commission than TheGadgetShop

—————-

I haven’t ascertained yet if we get paid commission on the delivery cost for any of the merchants … I am waiting to hear back so I can update this blog entry accordingly.

See Deal or No Deal

If I was promoting this product, based on “just” the information above, then [b]IWantOneOfThose (IWOOT)[/b] would be more favoured. Even though Play.com has Free Delivery, along with the other two merchants at 7%. But certainly not Dix0%ns.

So I wonder who as an affiliate would take a £15 less commission per item (ie as in Play.com example) to save the customer £2.96 from delivery charge & price differential. i.e. You lose £15 for the customer to save £2.96 … Unless you are a saint of course.

Maybe offer the option of the best commission & lowest overall price, however on face value (not inc delivery cost) IWOOT is the cheapest & offers the best commission (by a cinsiderable margin. I expect after doing the maths, it would probably be more financially rewarding to primarily list the main option as the one from IWOOT.

P.S. Play.com grates me with their poor commissions & conversion is only on a par with other options … & … I am not impressed with the management at The Toy Shop & The Gadget Shop or their draconian keyword policy. And don’t forget with Dixo%ns you cannot be sure commissions get categorised correctly.

FAO IWantOneOfThose affiliate program … I WANT ONE OF THOSE !!. Hint Hint

Hi, this is just a quick statement which shall be elaborated on later … putting it mildly…  it’s about time for Affiliate Window and affiliates themselves to Defenestrate Dixons and/or Apply Some Tough Love.

With a significant proportion of the Dixons product categories now set at ZERO %, together with 0% products appearing in the product feed … and … to add insult to injury genuine commissions are being wrongly categorised so that affiliates receive 0%.

A full audit for every affiliate and every sale for the history of this program is required so that the correct commission structures are attributed & affiliates receive the correct commissions they duly deserve.

2008 Resolution :

It’s time for Affiliates to start bucking up their ideas & getting tough with problematic merchants, even if it doesn’t effect them directly with any particular merchant.

Because when their own need may arise in the future, then they might wish they had contributed to any collective support in the first instance, rather than looking through rose tinted glasses & being an apathetic buffoon.

By the same token, we should make a concerted effort to push the decent genuine merchants within the same category to the fore & point them out so that the problematic merchants can be cast aside like an unwanted christmas turkey giblet.

So take stock … Stop accepting and promoting the unsavory types of merchant programs as simply an occupational hazzard.

The perception seems to be some of the major brands are the center of any controversy, which is true, but these are in the minority overall and are ruining it for all the other decent merchants … as they continue to ride roughshod over affiliates … is simply disrespectful & it’s these merchants which contribute to tarnishing the affiliate industry & devaluing it.

If these merchants don’t respect the channel, and through the application of tough love or education either doesn’t have the desired effect or falls on arrogant attitudes, then these merchant should be get out of the channel voluntarily or be ousted. They must be stopped from making unsuspecting mugs out of affiliates whom they are exploiting.

P.S. Please excuse the pun on Defenestrate : which means to throw out of a window.

From the screen capture below, we were number one / top listing in Google within 15 minutes of posting this blog article for the phrase “dixons electrical store” .. albeit it will only be temporary. Also notice the Vodafone affiliate apparently bidding on the same phrase.

Brand bidding is a senstive area, but unquestionably responsible for being one of the main contributing factors for the initial growth of the affiliate marketing industry, which wouldn’t be where it is today, however one has to consider whether any networks are sending out mixed messages.

For example if you find time, on Tradedoubler go to the search policy section on a number of merchant’s information pages & scroll down to a particular clause.

4.6 You are allowed to show adverts on trademarks, or variations, of advertiser’s competitors?

The merchant has an option for yes or no. With enough opting to permit affiliates to bid on competitor trademarks & variations.

What is your interpretation of this? Realistically what kind of mixed message does this send out not only to their clients, but may encourage some affiliates to do? Consequently, potentially contributing to allow the affiliate marketing industry to be tarnished.

The phenomenal growth of the industry, from revenues generated, has been mainly in part due to the allowance of brand bidding, and by judging networks at the moment, some are & will still be thriving in 2008 with coffers being filled from the over-ride of closed brand bidding groups. Which in all completely skews the sales figures the affiliate channel is earning/producing.

A solution certainly needs to be found, which prevents the content affiliates cookie being over-written. Whether a seperate link, or the referring keyword (which can easily enough be hidden anyhow) cross referenced against a whitelist of actual trademarks to ascertain who gets credited with the commission from the sale. A technical solution needs to be found.

But going back to clause 4.6 … is this particularly ethical?

I am surpised it hasn’t been addressed for wider debate & can only assume both merchants, affiliates & other networks have been oblivious to it. Or a worse case scenario, people simply don’t care.

Whether you consider it scrupulous or unscrupulous, the decision is yours, but this clause is a licence to print money!

In 2008 I think we need to re-examine this area a whole lot more for each network. The AMC (Affiliate Marketing Council) at the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) could certainly contribute by implementing a code of practice for its members on competitor to competitor bidding, with the asssumed weight to clamp down on merchant & non-merchant members on unethical paid search practices, they get the necessaryinches in the publications, and if they are to prove they have any teeth, this one aspect which should be addressed.

Following up to the most excellent read on Revenue Addict, this is just one of a numerous number of instances in the marketplace with competitor to competitor bidding which networks all too often think is just an affiliate affliction.

With the example illustrated below, take note how gimpish the offending merchant is failing to cover their tracks … Blatant & Unethical! … Do they have no shame? … I wonder if the actual client knows what their paid search agency is doing.

The clue is in the highlighted red text.

Especially when there is a conflict of interest when both merchants are on one network, and that is Buy.at. No doubt if they see this they might inform their client & claim it as their own superior client support. But you saw it here first. However if they do, then are they blagging on one of their clients (Play.com) who might not be impressed. But if they have a quiet word first with the culprit (Play.com) to suggest removing it, then wouldn’t Waterstone’s be aggreived that Buy.at didn’t inform them first. To add to the mix if Play.com employ an agency to do their search, does the actual client realise the agency is acting unethically on their behalf?

Reverse psychology? Mind games? No win situation? … Perhaps … A quandary it is though.

Merchants need to get a true perspective, for every affiliate which is inadvertently appearing to or actually breaching a keyword policy, there are multiple times more other merchants & competitors who deliberately are, yet affiliates get tarnished with the poor reputation.

Merchant’s if your network is truly looking after your interests, then insist they point out these other merchant competitors to you, or do networks/merchants not have the integrity to take on the likes of Ebay, Ask & other merchants.

Also if you have trademarks, though the process maybe tedious, register them with the various paid search engines. The initiative is in your own hands.

True to form, from below, you can see Ebay & Ask dominating the space on Waterstone’s brand. What else did you expect?

The cruxes (cruces) of affiliate marketing consist of multiple symbiotic relationships consisting of several synergetic elements, with affiliates pivotal at the core ensuring the wheels stay in motion.

For a successful program to appeal to an affiliate & achieve maximum potential the network & merchant have to be attuned to the affiliate mindset. False sincerity & sycophant tendencies, both of which are less endearing qualities, will eventually get rumbled.

From The Pyramid of Perception below ..

Which one do you believe is most relevant to the affiliate marketing industry from an affiliate, network or merchant/agency perspective & which do you honestly abide by?

Such that for the one you subconsciously know is right may not reflect in your conscious actions.

Putting unrealistic idealism’s of Utopia to one side, which pyramid structure do you feel reflects how the affiliate marketing industry should be?

A = Affiliate … M = Merchant / Agency … N = Network