Comments for AffConnect http://www.affconnect.com Affiliate & Web Marketing Stuff Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:36:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 Comment on Acer Laptop Power Cable Catches Fire by eat http://www.affconnect.com/uncategorized/acer-laptop-power-cable-catches-fire/#comment-356 eat Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:17:17 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/uncategorized/acer-laptop-power-cable-catches-fire/#comment-356 Amy, I'd contact Acer as well. You'll likely need both the one you just bought and the free one you'll get under warranty well before you stop using the laptop. May be a good idea to stock up on the things... Amy, I’d contact Acer as well. You’ll likely need both the one you just bought and the free one you’ll get under warranty well before you stop using the laptop. May be a good idea to stock up on the things…

]]> Comment on Acer Laptop Power Cable Catches Fire by Amy http://www.affconnect.com/uncategorized/acer-laptop-power-cable-catches-fire/#comment-355 Amy Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:08:04 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/uncategorized/acer-laptop-power-cable-catches-fire/#comment-355 My Acer's AC adapter also caught on fire last week, and I, too, burned my fingers. I haven't even had the computer six months... It was a headache, and I'm glad I was home when it happened. I didn't think about calling Acer directly -- I just ordered a new adapter from another site that cost me $75 with shipping. My Acer’s AC adapter also caught on fire last week, and I, too, burned my fingers. I haven’t even had the computer six months… It was a headache, and I’m glad I was home when it happened. I didn’t think about calling Acer directly — I just ordered a new adapter from another site that cost me $75 with shipping.

]]> Comment on Trademark Poaching - Who’s Stealing Your Holiday Commissions? by Kathy http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/trademark-poaching-whos-stealing-your-holiday-commissions/#comment-212 Kathy Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:49:42 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/trademark-poaching-whos-stealing-your-holiday-commissions/#comment-212 Had taken a quick peek at this after it was mentioned in one of the threads but didn't get time til now to look more at it.. really is eye opening. After reading about it I've done some searches on my own and found quite a few, too. Really is pretty demoralizing that this is tolerated so much. Hard to imagine but guess a lot of the merchants just don't really pay much attention either or they'd realize this can't be good for their business. Don't know about any of the others but Kim from 4checks did just send out a revised terms the other day not allowing it. Think I know the answer but even if the merchant or affiliate manager does allow the bidding on their domain name.....that's not a good thing for another affiliate is it? I've had some merchants where I've gotten an awful lot of searches for relevant terms for them and clicks but not many purchases. This could possibly explain that what meagain mentioned in their post. (about looking then going back to find the link and it being one of them) Thanks for researching this. Gonna subscribe to the feed so I don't forget about this. lol :) Had taken a quick peek at this after it was mentioned in one of the threads but didn’t get time til now to look more at it.. really is eye opening. After reading about it I’ve done some searches on my own and found quite a few, too. Really is pretty demoralizing that this is tolerated so much.

Hard to imagine but guess a lot of the merchants just don’t really pay much attention either or they’d realize this can’t be good for their business.

Don’t know about any of the others but Kim from 4checks did just send out a revised terms the other day not allowing it.

Think I know the answer but even if the merchant or affiliate manager does allow the bidding on their domain name…..that’s not a good thing for another affiliate is it? I’ve had some merchants where I’ve gotten an awful lot of searches for relevant terms for them and clicks but not many purchases. This could possibly explain that what meagain mentioned in their post. (about looking then going back to find the link and it being one of them)

Thanks for researching this. Gonna subscribe to the feed so I don’t forget about this. lol :)

]]> Comment on The Ant and the Grasshopper by Meagain http://www.affconnect.com/program-management/the-ant-and-the-grasshopper/#comment-206 Meagain Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:11:42 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/program-management/the-ant-and-the-grasshopper/#comment-206 The grasshoppers of today are waaaay kewler than to do all that work. Now they just scrape a piece of text off a top ranking site and paste it into a script that bounces a redirect from the paid search through a parked template domain (freebie from WordPress) and voila, direct to merchant. Why go through all that heavy lifting of template set up when they can just borrow your SEO work? The grasshoppers of today are waaaay kewler than to do all that work. Now they just scrape a piece of text off a top ranking site and paste it into a script that bounces a redirect from the paid search through a parked template domain (freebie from WordPress) and voila, direct to merchant. Why go through all that heavy lifting of template set up when they can just borrow your SEO work?

]]> Comment on Trademark Poaching - Who’s Stealing Your Holiday Commissions? by meagain http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/trademark-poaching-whos-stealing-your-holiday-commissions/#comment-121 meagain Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:07:20 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/trademark-poaching-whos-stealing-your-holiday-commissions/#comment-121 As long as AMs defend and encourage the activity and it is not policed by the merchants or the networks you will see those kinds of results. Several on that list were formerly on my sites. An affiliate has to wonder when they are promoting a merchant/merchants that match their traffic very highly, and receive lots of clicks and month after month of zero sales. Some items are impulse purchases and people will just click and buy - but many items are "just shopping" type products so that when they do make a BUY decision they would need to remember where they saw that link before; or else just google it. Bye-bye commish. BTW I see the Land of Nod up there - who needs Trademark Poachers when you've got Upromise? My Bambino was converting very well for me until all of a sudden sales went into a black hole. More clickthroughs than ever, but not one sale. Took a look and sure enough justjewelrysavings.com/mybambino.html. I contacted the merchant originally because McAfee had him redlisted but when I saw the poaching I just took down all the pages and quit the program. Maybe he followed the link I sent to educate him, maybe he just wised up? Until all parties see the damage done it will continue. Makes it hard to find merchants to work with though. As long as AMs defend and encourage the activity and it is not policed by the merchants or the networks you will see those kinds of results. Several on that list were formerly on my sites. An affiliate has to wonder when they are promoting a merchant/merchants that match their traffic very highly, and receive lots of clicks and month after month of zero sales.
Some items are impulse purchases and people will just click and buy - but many items are “just shopping” type products so that when they do make a BUY decision they would need to remember where they saw that link before; or else just google it. Bye-bye commish. BTW I see the Land of Nod up there - who needs Trademark Poachers when you’ve got Upromise? My Bambino was converting very well for me until all of a sudden sales went into a black hole. More clickthroughs than ever, but not one sale. Took a look and sure enough justjewelrysavings.com/mybambino.html. I contacted the merchant originally because McAfee had him redlisted but when I saw the poaching I just took down all the pages and quit the program. Maybe he followed the link I sent to educate him, maybe he just wised up? Until all parties see the damage done it will continue. Makes it hard to find merchants to work with though.

]]> Comment on All Hail the New Parasite by » Trademark Poaching - Who’s Stealing Your Holiday Commissions? AffConnect: Affiliate & Web Marketing Stuff http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-92 » Trademark Poaching - Who’s Stealing Your Holiday Commissions? AffConnect: Affiliate & Web Marketing Stuff Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:33:52 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-92 [...] eat in Online Merchant Stuff, Program Management, SEO SEM PPC, Affiliate Marketing In my last post, All Hail the New Parasite, I ranted a bit about networks, OPMs and affiliates taking advantage of merchants on the TM PPC [...] […] eat in Online Merchant Stuff, Program Management, SEO SEM PPC, Affiliate Marketing In my last post, All Hail the New Parasite, I ranted a bit about networks, OPMs and affiliates taking advantage of merchants on the TM PPC […]

]]> Comment on All Hail the New Parasite by eat http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-88 eat Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:00:14 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-88 My beef isn't so much with direct to merchant PPC (we allow it on our retail program and I've used it with some success as an affiliate), but rather with the rampant abuse of merchant policies and how that abuse is driving much of the market data at the network. It's getting way out of control. My beef isn’t so much with direct to merchant PPC (we allow it on our retail program and I’ve used it with some success as an affiliate), but rather with the rampant abuse of merchant policies and how that abuse is driving much of the market data at the network. It’s getting way out of control.

]]> Comment on All Hail the New Parasite by meagain http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-87 meagain Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:12:12 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-87 Uh-oh! Looks like there's another reason that DTM PPC using the merchant's URL is a bad idea: http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=98352 Don't get me wrong, I do not think there is anything wrong with sending clicks DTM using PPC, but not disguised as the merchant. If the merchant has terms prohibiting it then it should not be done. If your campaign is directly targeting a particular product and the landing page is the merchan't product page and if they don't prohibit the practice then it is competition between advertisers. I have never done this but it doesn't bother me if other affiliates do. Maybe there is some aspect to it that I don't see but there is only one practice that should not be permitted by networks and that is the use of the merchant's URL as a display URL, IMHO. Using the Merchant's URL as your display URL is deceptive, misleading and overwrites other affiliate's cookies - those that sent them searching for that URL, plus costs the merchant extra commissions without bringing in NEW clients. Uh-oh! Looks like there’s another reason that DTM PPC using the merchant’s URL is a bad idea:
http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=98352
Don’t get me wrong, I do not think there is anything wrong with sending clicks DTM using PPC, but not disguised as the merchant. If the merchant has terms prohibiting it then it should not be done. If your campaign is directly targeting a particular product and the landing page is the merchan’t product page and if they don’t prohibit the practice then it is competition between advertisers. I have never done this but it doesn’t bother me if other affiliates do. Maybe there is some aspect to it that I don’t see but there is only one practice that should not be permitted by networks and that is the use of the merchant’s URL as a display URL, IMHO.
Using the Merchant’s URL as your display URL is deceptive, misleading and overwrites other affiliate’s cookies - those that sent them searching for that URL, plus costs the merchant extra commissions without bringing in NEW clients.

]]> Comment on All Hail the New Parasite by eat http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-85 eat Sat, 01 Dec 2007 06:30:15 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-85 "...or condone it because they get a percentage." You see a well structured set of program terms detailing everything from a to z and it looks like the OPM is on the job kicking ass for the merchant, but that same set of terms fails to even mention PPC. Sorta' makes you wonder which side of that conflict of interest was favored when the program was set up... "The nonsense about displacing your competition is ludicrous, your competion cannot place highly bidding on your trademark, it would cost them a fortune because of the lack of relevancy to THE keyword." Spot on! It's a pile of absurd horsecrap that keeps getting flopped on the table, flies and all, whenever the topic comes up. “…or condone it because they get a percentage.”

You see a well structured set of program terms detailing everything from a to z and it looks like the OPM is on the job kicking ass for the merchant, but that same set of terms fails to even mention PPC. Sorta’ makes you wonder which side of that conflict of interest was favored when the program was set up…

“The nonsense about displacing your competition is ludicrous, your competion cannot place highly bidding on your trademark, it would cost them a fortune because of the lack of relevancy to THE keyword.”

Spot on! It’s a pile of absurd horsecrap that keeps getting flopped on the table, flies and all, whenever the topic comes up.

]]> Comment on All Hail the New Parasite by meagain http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-84 meagain Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:08:07 +0000 http://www.affconnect.com/affiliate-marketing/all-hail-the-new-parasite/#comment-84 --"shouldn’t OPM firms educate their clients and suggest they put a PPC policy in place, shouldn’t legitimate marketers get annoyed that these folks are posing as merchants and potentially overwriting their hard won cookies?" -- You bet, but I am starting to think that some of the OPMs either are the bidders or condone it because they get a percentage. I could name a few mechants whose programs I quit because of this and hundreds of others that I won't join for that same reason. Very simply it is stupid to permit the practice because it brings in zero new customers and steals from other affiliates plus causes the merchant to pay unnecessary commissions. I have heard merchants defend the practice, even debated one back and forth over it. I have written many emails to potential 'partners' trying to understand the blindness. When I'm building a site and want to round it out with products that are available through these dummies it just seems such a shame - but I will not spend my time to send visitors to a vulture. The nonsense about displacing your competition is ludicrous, your competion cannot place highly bidding on your trademark, it would cost them a fortune because of the lack of relevancy to THE keyword. An affiliate sending traffic directly to your URL on the other hand pays next to nothing, much less than affiliates sending clicks through their own domains - again due to relevancy. There is a feature in the SAS reports where you can see how long after setting the original cookie that the sale was made. Immediately: 1 percent; more than 14 days later: 98 percent. Of couse I'm sure none of those 98 percent would go look through Google to find 'that place' after two weeks..right? –”shouldn’t OPM firms educate their clients and suggest they put a PPC policy in place, shouldn’t legitimate marketers get annoyed that these folks are posing as merchants and potentially overwriting their hard won cookies?” –
You bet, but I am starting to think that some of the OPMs either are the bidders or condone it because they get a percentage. I could name a few mechants whose programs I quit because of this and hundreds of others that I won’t join for that same reason. Very simply it is stupid to permit the practice because it brings in zero new customers and steals from other affiliates plus causes the merchant to pay unnecessary commissions. I have heard merchants defend the practice, even debated one back and forth over it. I have written many emails to potential ‘partners’ trying to understand the blindness. When I’m building a site and want to round it out with products that are available through these dummies it just seems such a shame - but I will not spend my time to send visitors to a vulture.
The nonsense about displacing your competition is ludicrous, your competion cannot place highly bidding on your trademark, it would cost them a fortune because of the lack of relevancy to THE keyword. An affiliate sending traffic directly to your URL on the other hand pays next to nothing, much less than affiliates sending clicks through their own domains - again due to relevancy.
There is a feature in the SAS reports where you can see how long after setting the original cookie that the sale was made. Immediately: 1 percent; more than 14 days later: 98 percent. Of couse I’m sure none of those 98 percent would go look through Google to find ‘that place’ after two weeks..right?

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