Thanks for the heads up Paul.

Just a few months ago I recal one merchant refusing to work with anyone without a LTD CO number and a VAT number, as these were the clearly the “professionals”

I’m sure there will always be a place for the bedroom affiliate, they’ll just end up working with those merchants who still “get” affiliate marketing and understand it’s not about fancy offices, 20 page docments abouth how they’ll drive traffic (then do 90% of it via brand bidding) with big fake smiles but it’s about generating esults and adding value to the merchant’s business.

The biggest opportunities come in periods of wild change so the bedroom affiliates are as well placed as any to exploit them, I seriously recommend everyone buys and reads the four hour work week by tim ferriss, especially bedroom affiliates!

Just because somebody has loads of staff or fancy offices does not mean they are profitable (just check the news every single day over the last six months to see how the supposedly-mighty have fallen). Too many larger companies have got people who have managed to blag their way through an interview and are in cushy well-paid jobs yet barely know what they are talking about, and certainly don’t generate profit for their businesses. I know a few one-man band affilites who are generating a quarter of the net profit of affiliate networks and agencies with 50+ staff. And, as a business, net profit (NOT turnover) is what it’s all about, not how ostentatious your parties are or how many exotic holidays your staff enjoy.

Since the networks can work together to police voucher code affiliate perhaps it’s time they also jointly police merchants.

If a merchant leaves one network with unpaid bills no other networks should put their program live until their debt on the original network is cleared.

If a network has bad business or financial practise then ultimately it could (if you read most terms and conditions) land in the lap of the affiliate.

Ultimately the advertiser gets the benefit, the network (even if companies go into administration) can take steps to protect their invoices, using factoring etc. so there should be no excuse for not paying affiliates, unless the quality of what is being sent is poor, in which case there should be a period for scrubbing then a final total agreed.

If affiliates are investing heavily in SEO/PPC/e-mail/staff then they deserve to be paid for what they deliver…..no questions asked. They should also be paid fast.

Most of the advertisers we work with we start out at pre-payment/weekly payments and go on from there. As can be seen from the rapid demise of the likes of Woolworths, Whittards of Chelsea (into administration yesterday), being a big brand counts for nothing without solid financial backing.

Doug