19th September 2007

Default Pages for Closed Programs

posted in Affiliate Marketing |
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It often gripes me that when a program has closed on a network, at any point in time afterwards, an affiliate may have links in various places universally spread over the surface of the earth (their portfolio of websites).

Sometimes you don’t know if a program is closed or know where all your links are. In the former you may test the link for a closed program, yet it still goes to the merchants website, thus the affiliate falsely assuming that the program maybe still live.

For me I find that quite frustrating, it doesn’t matter if the level of traffic is insignificant or considerable, affiliates should maybe be given the option of the following, because why should a closed merchant get free traffic!

1) The network sets up a landing page of same categorised merchants, with that affiliates links on those listed.

2) Allow the affiliate to set a default destination url for each merchant, which the link redirects to for a closed program.

3) Or if an affiliate prefers, allow the link to continue to the merchants page, even though the affiliate will not earn any revenue.

In addition to above, I do feel all networks should have a tool set up whereby affiliates know the source of clicks from invalid links for closed programs, so that we can weed them out.

But just think about all the programs which have closed over the years where there are stray links and multiples more when you think network wide how much traffic is going via invalid links, meaning lost revenue to affiliate & on an even bigger scale lost revenue for the network. The same should also be applied to suspended programs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 11:29 AM 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 4 responses to “Default Pages for Closed Programs”

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  1. 1 On September 19th, 2007, Stephen Pratley said:

    Nice idea Paul, I know some networks try to be helpful by pointing to other similar merchants which is a start. The approach I hate most is sending traffic to the network homepage (AF) which doesn’t help anyone.

    A network-run directory site which swaps your url’s in would be a great tool anyway I reckon.

  2. 2 On September 20th, 2007, Nadeem (Azam.biz) said:

    Well said Paul. I completely agree with you.

  3. 3 On September 22nd, 2007, Paul said:

    Steve, I see your frustration and yes agree, however personally I would maybe prefer it going to this network page than still going directly through to the merchant, in the sense that at least I know the program is effectively closed as against incorrectly assuming the program is still live. Though as the blog entry suggests, simply going to network homepage is still not sufficient.

    Another problem is that generally with most networks, I guess this is very low on any list of priorities, what those priorities are .. well your guess is as good as mine .. as many affiliate suggestions seem to be low on their list of priorities.

  4. 4 On September 22nd, 2007, Stephen Pratley said:

    Perfect timing for this post. Just found Primeq have very ‘helpfully’ pointed an expired survey panel program at a poker site. I think that trumps the AF homepage!

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