13th August 2007

Have We Been Doing It All Wrong?

posted in Affiliate Marketing |
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Okay, hear me out on this one, it might not be as daft as what you may originally think, then again it could be.

Have we been going about this affiliate marketing malarky all the wrong way, shouldn’t merchants be applying to affiliates & not the way it currently stands with numerous in depth additional T&C’s & over zealous keyword policies ?

Thus, affiliates could then post their own reasonable terms & conditions for a merchant to apply too. I don’t think it would quite be the “anarchy” or mutiny maybe predicted, but it would certainly put relationships on more of a level keel, than the unhealthy way it’s drifting towards at the moment.

“you would think most Merchants have products no one else has for sale the way a few of them act… but you know it’s not going to change any time soon, sucks but that’s just way it is…” – an affiliate

“some merchants think affiliates are disposable …” – another affiliate …. yep & so are these same merchants

“it’s a merchants perogative” – a network … no it’s not entirely & this is part of where it’s currently falling down

I am not quite sure on the angle I am approaching this from, but the concept might just be food for thought before it all goes awash & sinks into the abyss? But an affiliates operational envelope is being ever increasingly reduced which does need to be addressed & debated.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 4:34 PM and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 11 responses to “Have We Been Doing It All Wrong?”

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  1. 1 On August 13th, 2007, Jason said:

    Once upon a time all English League clubs were part of the same group, governed by The FA. When the money started to roll in, the clubs started to demand more “control” and eventually The Premier League was formed putting 20 top clubs essentially in charge of finance within English football – money begets money and now there’s a situation as is with the big guys in charge. Lower division clubs continually struggle as more and more money filters out at the top and doesn’t reach the lower echelons.

    Will there come a time when the “super affiliates” decide that they want a lot more control and form their own “Premier League” – perhaps offering merchants the opportunity to tender their own bids to work with the “creme de la creme” on their own super affiliate network under their own terms and conditions?

    How likely would that scenario be? And what would happen, not only to networks, but lower division affiluates, if the “super affiliates” started to compete for exclusive merchant contracts.

  2. 2 On August 13th, 2007, Eric Nagel said:

    Does this mean we get to set-up booths at Expos and hand out goodies? Are you just keeping me around to be your future booth-babe? 😉

  3. 3 On August 13th, 2007, Richard said:

    Meanwhile on the other foot, when a merchant is seeking super-affiliates, where are they all?

    We’re desperate to work with some great affiliates, but because we have an extensive PPC program already, it seems that affiliates don’t have much more to offer us… That can’t really be the case, can it?

    Can super-affiliates earn super cash without PPC?

    We’d happily apply – just tell us which booth to go to and what you can offer… beyond PPC.

    Richard

  4. 4 On August 14th, 2007, Paul said:

    Hi Richard,

    Thanks for your point & valid it seems pertaining to the point beyond ppc, which transgresses into closed bidding groups too. Though one merchant or affiliate can never have all bases covered, so hence it’s good to work with affiliates who operate in the PPC environment who at their own expense market merchants until sales are made.

    But getting back to your original point “just tell us which booth to go to and what you can offer”, I cannot pre-comment on how heavily you are involved in the following suggestions, so sincere apologies if it’s showing you how to suck eggs, but here it goes.

    1. The biggest booth of all is the affiliate forum http://www.affiliates4u.com/ , how active are you are in participating on there?

    2. Do you attend the organised get2gethers, where you can build up a good rapport with affiliates, beyond going in at a business angle. Successful business chords are stuck by building genuine friendships / rapports with affiliates. We are a scruffy lot, but we scrub up nicely & we stay up late.

    3. Do you send out a bi-weekly or monthly promotional emails with your best selling products. Don’t always depend on a network to do this for you, rely on yourself.

    4. Beyond ppc affiliates & cashback sites which are often labeled, maybe mistakenly, super affiliates, though you maybe could reconsider some how supplementing your existing ppc activity by working more closely with these rather than “shunning” (maybe to strong a word). Though it seems you currently don’t restrict display url, there is a workable solution there. But, there are a number of successful affiliates away from ppc & cashback sites, it’s a matter of getting in amongst them. Though often it’s perceived a major bulk of sales maybe derived from ppc affiliates & cashback sites, the sum of the smaller parts could end up more than the larger part.

    5. Who are your competitors who operate affiliate programs, selling the same products as you? How competitive is you commission structure compared to those & more importantly how does your conversion rate compare? If better, then project this point assertively to affiliates.

    6. Send freebies to affiliates, product testing .. cough.

    Pertaining to points 1,2,3 & 5 & maybe 6… Be honest with yourself to how active you actually are within this area … you have to actually buy a ticket in order to win a lottery / prize.

    Once again, if I have taught you to suck eggs, I do apologise. But you are one of at least 2500 UK affililate programs, you have to stand out.

  5. 5 On August 14th, 2007, Richard Longhurst said:

    Not an egg-sucker at all, Paul, all good advice, thank you.

    As for 6 – join this and tell me your username… 🙂

    http://www.orgasmarmy.com/

  6. 6 On August 14th, 2007, Paul said:

    Eric,

    I have just the frock for you, it’s a hand me down, but you’ll look great in it! 😉

    Jason,

    Fair point as always, perhaps that has happended already? And hence the blog posting.

  7. 7 On August 14th, 2007, Stephen Pratley said:

    After the Miami experience and seeing how plain speaking some of the large affiliates are out there I can see a time when the affiliate asks the merchant to sign their contracts.

    A lot of little incidents all added up to a picture of much stronger affiliates over there.

    “If you don’t get your tech guys to remove that number I won’t promote you” was heard several times, spoken to representatives of brands who would have people fawning over them in the UK.

    No malice or anger in it, just an attitude of “why should I promote you when there are so many other better programmes to chose from”

    In the end, the numbers do the talking and poor programmes wither on the vine, which is a shame, because with a bit of education there are plenty that die off that could be making good money for merchant and affiliate alike.

  8. 8 On August 14th, 2007, Julie H said:

    In response to Stephen I have to say that there are a lot of affiliates that I know who would say the same/similar the thing, even if it was God that was the merchant in question. The majority of affiliates won’t stick together and will accept any terms and will never answer back, I however am never quiet and network staff often avoid me like the plague. Does anybody remember the dark days of spyware, the US affiliates didn’t seem to be as proactive about it, but we did. Some of us stood together and it worked, it would again if apathy wasn’t rearing it’s head!

  9. 9 On August 14th, 2007, Stephen Pratley said:

    Good point Julie, put all the little guys together and you get one big affiliate that can make a real noise.

    I only started seriously as an affiliate at about the same time as the spyware debate was getting results and the industry has only really been seen standing together over the grubbygate comments since then.

    It does show what can be achieved when affiliates stand together, but an individual programme has to do something really dire before that happens. The problems seems to be a gradual eroding of what is considered as an acceptable set of T&C’s. No individual action is bad enough to cause an issue on it’s own, but put together it is a big deal.

  10. 10 On August 14th, 2007, hero said:

    radical approach as ever :-p

    Affiliate Ts & Cs: isn’t that what the network is here to do? Protect the affiliates’ interests (and therefore their own)? All the advice we ever give to merchants is based on what affiliates request and expect from an affiliate program and a decent merchant.

  11. 11 On August 18th, 2007, Paul said:

    Hero,

    With a few networks, that is what you would think wouldn’t you? … And there wouldn’t be any need for this blog post if that was fully the case. All bases need to be covered to protect affiliates & not restrict affiliates uneccessarily.

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