31st May 2007

Thinking Out Loud – Never A Good Thing

posted in Affiliate Marketing |
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Program restrictions & additional t&c’s of various descriptions have perpetually been trying to decrease the borders of the operational envelope of what is considered reasonably acceptable to the point where so many are now unreasonably unacceptable, with the boundaries being continually breached by encroaching on the free enterprise & marketing skills of affiliates.

We are now entering an interesting period where the tolerance levels of affiliates is encroaching their limitations, where previously they had remained relatively passive, the worm may well soon turn so that they will be become considerably more assertive in re-addressing the balance.

Unfortunately, we are still discussing the same or similar issues to those we were back in 2000, whereby no matter what spin or false sincerities a network may remark, when it comes to the crunch between a major brand & an affiliate, the affiliate will always be considered the second class citizen.

Will this change? I doubt this very much, whilst there maybe a vociferous few within the community with a selfless rather than selfish approach, most affiliates … and I will get flamed for this … have a weak backbone who lily-liveredly accept being rode roughshod over, thus without a collective effort, circumstances will not change, except some of those with financial leverage gradually moving their business away from the networks whilst simultaneously pulling clients as part of the collateral damage. With networks generally beckoning to the whims of larger brands or their appointed agencies, it won’t be just those networks but the industry as a whole which will be deemed as weak by nature & never gain the respect of being strong business people with a fine blend of assertivness, humility, good ethics, strict morals & professionalism.

The mindset of the average affiliate is so distinct from other business environments, it’s totally unique & a fine attribute that many just don’t comprehend.

As for an affiliate association, this is unlikely to materialise in the foreseeable future primarily due to time contraints of individual marketeers (what with time being an affiliates most precious commodity) and inertness of most people associated in affiliate marketing. Yes, regulation is required and it’s better that the industry becomes self regulated rather than being regulated by an outside body who is ignorant of affiliate marketing, unfortunately in the current climate, the latter may probably happen first, if at all. Perhaps there is an opportunity for one network to take the lead, by addressing the more critical aspects of affiliate concerns and adopting into new & existing contracts with merchants. Some merchants will oppose these & the network may lose some clients, but realistically are these merchants, no matter how big or small, the kind we really want onboard? The phrases “fair & best practice”, “transparency”, “trust”, “honesty” are being used to liberally without substance or conviction.

There is no disputing there are shady practices currently in effect & palms being crossed with silver, some call it nothing but conspiracy theories, but that is a firm opinion I am unwaivering & resolute on, these folk have already & will continue to reap their fortunes, but if efforts are focused on going back to the roots of what affiliate marketing used to be, the better the future standing of the industry will be, before we lose site of what the true meaning of the term “affiliate” is .. and thus totally lost.

You only have to peruse through the history of the affiliate forum to know what is required.

Here are a couple of personal blog entries, the grammer is probably quite poor, but you should be able to interpret the underlying message.

The Worm Has Turned

PPC Brand Name Bidding – The Need For Proper Guidelines

In affiliate marketing you either “get it” or you don’t, some proclaim the former but really don’t, and it really is a question of time before affiliates turn around and say “no more!”

Will we be having this same conversation this time next year? .. probably yes .. but I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 1:49 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.

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  1. 1 On June 6th, 2007, Jess1 said:

    “Unfortunately, we are still discussing the same or similar issues to those we were back in 2000, whereby no matter what spin or false sincerities a network may remark, when it comes to the crunch between a major brand & an affiliate, the affiliate will always be considered the second class citizen.” Yes I agree, which is why I find it even more astounding that some affiliates do seem to take any old crap that is thrown at them. Seems some affiliates would rather promote a well known brand with appalling commissions and cookies and communication and so many restrictions (which some are so ludicrous) rather then promote a lesser known brand, better conversions…yada yada yada… so why is this? I can only speculate and say, affiliates are still thinking that consumers are looking for those trusted high street names. Yet if we look at our stats and reports we can see that consumers are getting more web savvy, they are going where the prices are cheaper, they are taking more of their perceived “risks” with their credit cards. Perhaps affiliates are losing touch with their traffic and what they want, like merchants should know their customers affiliates should know their traffic, I dont have the stats to back this up just seeing a pattern of throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. I would go further and say to some of the big high street brands, affiliate marketing is so not for them as some of them seem to be in permanent conflict with affiliates re PPC, Offline marketing and so on. But whilst affiliates still promote merchants who have a less then desirable set of ts and cs, merchants wont know any different. It’s a bit of a catch 22.

    Paul, I agree with so many points but when affiliates turn around and say “no more”, they will always be in a minority, that’s the problem. I reckon less then 1% of this forum care enough to stand up and be counted, 99% I suspect would rather keep their heads down. We don’t have any stats to say that affiliates want the same changes we want to see, cos no one has asked them yet. We are only assuming based on “common sense”

    I wish some one would do a proper survey and ask affiliates what they want, then armed with the information each network can respond to those requests and bobs your uncle a blue print to getting some transparency in place. So who is going to do that? APA and E-consultancy did the census, yes it was hard and yes it took time, Im really hoping some one else will take the baton and run with it, now there’s a challenge :0)

    Another problem is that some affiliates abuse technology and are really doing some pretty unethical (not illegal) affiliate marketing. I have some affiliates that I have known and trusted for years doing some really dodgy things, perhaps it’s a sign of the times that some affiliates are only focussed on making a quick quid rather then focussing on longevity. PPC being a classic example, now you have affiliates competing with affiliates. Its not as simple as changing the ts and cs if some of the affiliates themselves abuse the ones (the good ones) that are already in place. Again it’s a catch 22.

    If you want to bring about change you have to go to the source, this is the networks. But do they have the guts to remove high profile persistent affiliate offenders and what consitutes an offender? Is it the affiliate that buys merchants domain name ext or the one that drops a cookie b4 the traffic has seen the merchants site or products? Is it the affiliate that copies other peoples websites and business models? Do affiliate networks have the guts to make some pretty radical changes that will send potential or existing clients running off to their competitors? Financially, it’s not in their interests.

    jfy.. I did not agree with the closed bidding formal network request, simply because it compromised the networks. Also impo… there are going to be good reasons why there are closed groups, some times its about teaching merchants who have little knowledge about PPC what its all about, some times its about google’s unresponsiveness to ppc requests, some times its about knowing that individuals can turn things around really quickly. I neither agree nor disagree with closed groups, it should be decided on a case by case basis, I believe the reasoning behind a merchants decision should be clear 🙂
    Did I babble on too much? Have a great week catch up with you soon I hope – Js 🙂

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