11th May 2007

In the Good Spirit of Affiliate Marketing

posted in Affiliate Marketing |
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As you maybe aware Affiliate Window had a recent coup by capturing the brands of the DSG group which includes Dixons, Currys, The Link & PC World. Now this blog entry isn’t gloating about whether I was pleased or not about DSG changing networks, but about what happened in the aftermath.

Before any notifcation was sent out from Tradedoubler (btw I’ll have to check emails to ascertain if it has yet been sent out), the commissions were lowered and set to a paltry 1% on Tradedoubler with immediate effect. Thus, once again there was inadequate notice to the change in a contract, which left affiliates in the lurch. It doesn’t matter whether they were a large affiliate or affiliate, or to what degree any affiliate had implemented those brands or what proportion of their time it related to. Affiliates would have been out of pocket.

What did Tradedoubler do about it?

Well not a lot it appears on the surface of it all, did they enforce the finer details of a contract on the DSG group or were those finer details not in print in the first instance, conversations may suggest the latter from the awkward & unenviable position they were unfortunately left in. Note: DSG left affiliates in a awkward position to forcibly change links quickly with little regard to them & thus lose money while Affiliate Window could have had trouble in a smooth transition of the programs.

However, though the fault lies squarely at the feet of the DSG Group, this presented an ideal opportunity for the Gauntlet to be picked up for the cause & good spirit of affiliate marketing, for those affiliates which would have beeen left out of pocket.

Now, I’m not suggesting this is the case, though it could be inferred as so, based on the subsequent events & how they unfolded, to the point it could be suggested / interpreted that Tradedoubler washed there hands of the matter or acted distinctly inertly. Whether they did or didnt’ and what ever the politics the result is still remained the same.

Affiliate Window came up with the following statement:

“We have been following the discussion regarding lost commission for sales that occur on TradeDoubler, post commission reduction.

(http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58929)

In order to limit the loss of any revenue during this transition from TradeDoubler to Affiliate Window, we are offering to compensate for all verified transactions, including those from existing TradeDoubler cookies.

To clarify, AW will add an extra 2% commission to the existing 1%, to be applied as a manual commission via your Affiliate Window account.

In order to process this quickly and simply, we will require all affected affiliates to supply an export of their TradeDoubler DSGi sales data to cover the period 2nd May to 30th May. This will be verified with each brand so we can calculate the total compensation to apply to your account. A reminder will be posted after the 30th.

DSGi are keen for you to migrate over, and we at AW want this to be as painless as possible, this therefore seems like an equitable solution and we hope you see it that way too.”

Now, blow me down with a feather, what an ideal solution & fantastic offering. Now granted Affiliate Window wanted as smooth-a-transition of the programs to their network possible, but in effect remunerating the affiliates like this and in effect picking up the tab of another network is awesome. A very good PR exercise where the right thing was done.

Hats of to Affiliate Window! Tradeodubler really missed out on a good PR opportunity.

Duncan Says- “Awesome move, other networks should notice the positive PR a move like this generates, goodwill may be intangible, but its value in this instance will (I believe) far outway the absorbed cost of the exercise. “

Now I am no fan of DSG, PC World owe me over £10,000 (maybe circa £13,000 or so, I will have to check reports) in unwarranted reversal of click & collect commissions when the program was on Tradedoubler. Whereby we were let down by both merchant & network. The merchant only offered a poultry* £500. *spelling mistake paltry

Granted, I have maybe been full of praise recently for Affiliate Window and they are maybe one of the current Goldenboys out of the networks, but my advise to them is to make sure they keep their feet firmly on the ground & don’t take their eye of the affiliates’ requirements plus remain squeaky clean in their actions. A previous & phony pretender to the throne will no doubt glance over with an envious eye & jealous rage .. and .. whilst trying to deflect negative attention from themselves, will quite probably try & dig up as much about Affliate Window as possible to tarnish their name. Because, if there is something to hide or ignorantly doing something untoward, they will try and unearth it.

Any Network can fall from grace quite easily as we have already witnessed, but at the “moment” they seem to be going in the right direction.

“You can fool some of the affiliates all of the time, and all of the affiliates some of the time, but you can not fool all of the affiliates all of the time.”

But for the time being, let’s take the postives from this, well done & thank you for demonstrating something good & done well, all in the true spirit of affiliate marketing.

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  1. 1 On May 20th, 2007, Chris Neale said:

    Did you perhaps mean a paltry £500 ?

    Five hundred quid’s worth of chicken isn’t quite as good …

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