Tradedoubler – Don’t You Dare Threaten Me … You Liars Liars Liars !!! www.tradedoubler.com Affiliate Network
posted in Affiliate Marketing |
Tradedoubler I have absolutely had it up to the back teeth with you guys. Don’t you dare threaten us & make false accusations.
If you want to threaten our business which the livelihood & financial security of my family & children, just be careful & ask yourself this simple question .. If you have kids how hard would you fight for them & their welfare! Do you think any responsible parent is going to “deliberately” do anything to jeopardise their future?
Watch your step!
The rest will follow soon but it really is about time this network got it’s ship in order, yet how many times have we said that, will it ever?
We will possibly / probably need to contact each merchant on their network to look at alternative solutions.
Unfortunately it’s a familiar situation, & in my personal opinion they try to make you look like idiots … annoyingly condescending in their demeanour … snobbish & aloof disregard for affiliates … unapproachable & unreasonable to deal with … unsatisfcatory resolution to issues & can’t accept when they are wrong or deal with matters amicably. One or two people in particular at Tradedoubler we have had the misfortune of dealing with have a mindset is so not attuned with industry. Where with most other networks with any similar concerns they are a lot more approachable & amicable to deal with.
There is also the same old lack of continuity in their keyword policies, there are in fact several different places you have to look as they can seem quite hidden & one day they might appear, when they were not there previously. And it’s a game of russian roulette if you receive notification of keyword policy changes. As for broadmatch / synonym match, do these rock apes still need further education in this. Changing the terms of a keyword policy is in effect changing the contract with each merchant.
Would they dare change the t&c’s of a contract at any period down the line with one of their clients without notifying them, of course they wouldn’t (or do they). But they expect you to be psychic.
This is not related but check out the number of merchants keyword policies for clause
| 4.6 | You are allowed to show adverts on trademarks, or variations, of advertiser’s competitors? |
And ascertain the number & proportion of merchants which actually say “yes”.
Lets take the first merchant I took at random … this is Lensway. To clause 4.6 they say “yes”, but further up on the page it says ” Lensway do not allow affiliates to buy keywords on competitor’s brands, in any combination.” Though whilst I agree affiliates or competitors shouldn’t, and I don’t think this should be encouraged either. There is a conflicting message. Historically there is a continuing problem with their lack of a single point of reference for keyword policies.
A second randomly chosen one who says “yes” to 4.6 is Natural Figures. The list goes on & on & on.
So Tradedoubler, don’t make out I am talking bull by requesting I name specific examples on the telephone. Just keep your eyes peeled on this blog you’ll see plenty more examples of merchants who say yes to 4.6 in due course. So guess what I will be doing this evening. Wasting my time again going through merchants, because in my personal (not company) opinion I think it’s incompetence on Tradedoubler’s behalf. There will be about 400 merchants to go thru & from the first 40 we have been through so far about a third of them had “yes” to clause 4.6 … Screwfix one of their recent programs says “yes” to, but really we wouldn’t look beyond Affiliate Window as the program is already on there, which is a more preferable network.
Oh, by the way where was the email that went out with regard to the keyword policy for Penguin? More like an ostrich, if you goto “Penguin UK FAQ”, the pop up has no information. On the merchant info page in program settings (not the same as the former) you’ll see the various restrictions which were added without notifying affiliates, if you go to the overview page for Penguin, you’ll see that the keyword policy says Open. If you go to program list it says open there too, so we have conflicting info again. So Tradedoubler accused “another” affiliate first, when nothing was there, then add them without notification. One of the problems is they find somewhere where it maybe is when they afflict their contemptious wrath.
The latest one is Vonage where there are currently no restrictions.
… and we haven’t even got onto affiliate support & payments yet which has been discussed a bit on the forum. So Tradedoubler be very careful when you accuse affiliates of doing something deliberately wrong, no doubt you’ll want to get your allies on board & I am sure one or two will be more than willing to furnish you with nonsense.
There are a plethora of merchants who we have wanted to promote a lot further than what we do already (if we do that is) on Tradedoubler, but as a message to those merchants, I can only apologise but Tradedoubler have historically made things inhibitive that for me & other affiliates they don’t offer the value of service when the need arises and thus lining their pocket with the undeserved over-ride doesn’t sit well.
Unfortunately some affiliates don’t speak up beyond airing opinions in private conversation as retribution is one of their fears.
From their representation at the AMC, there are one or two from Tradedoubler I certainly wouldn’t be comfortable with having any vote on affiliate marketing issues.
I wonder if that AOL offer is looking like an attractive proposition in hindsight at 215KR, when the IPO was circa 108. When the all time high was circa 225KR, 52 week high is circa 185KR .. and what was is it today … circa only 61KR .. ouch!
