Merchant Needs Feedback

[John Jupp]

Hi all

Please spare a few minutes to go through Tours, Sightseeing and Things to do Around the World | isango! and browse around.

The merchant has just launched this version as their new look.

Feedback no matter how horrid seriously appreciated.

[scriptmonkey]

Hi John, heres some horrid feedback, I'm just off to remove them from my sites, essentially because of that advert on the bottom right, I don't really want to promote my competitors.

[John Jupp]

Fair play but before you do, all affiliate traffic has a click reference which strips out third party advertising if referred by an affiliate. Try using an affiliate link and send feedback.

[John Jupp]

hmmm, well it failed that one didn't it.

It did stop that before so I'll get right on to them.

[scriptmonkey]

I do try to go through affiliate links, as I know that it can affect the behaviour of what is being displayed on the other side John, but, as you point out, in this instance it doesn't change much.

[John Jupp]

It shall be remedied. Was one of the first things I did when taking on this program a few months back and as the program is rocking and set to expand I want this right.

Please have a look through the format, structure and layout anyhow for your views on the site itself.

Isango has a massive "to do" list which they are slowly going through, including switching the UK affiliate program from the .com completely at some stage.

3rd party advertising is a particular pet hate of mine, so as they wanted to keep some I did ensure that affiliate links went to a sanitised version. That's not happening so it will be dealt with. As for the rest of the structure, there's a bug I noticed mid left on one of the pages (text not formatting), but I'd like feedback from affiliates in general as to the sites conversion potential under its new structure and whether it has that all important ease of use.

[John Jupp]

I have spoken to the head of Isango in the UK early this morning.

The 3rd party advertising SHALL be removed from affiliate referrals. I shall have a timeline for implementation presently.

[millionpoundlake]

Are the old deeplinks still intact?

Isango - Book your holiday tours, trips and activities

Bob Buttercup Your friendly online holiday consultant!
Find holidays, flights, hotels, car hire and cruises at Buttercup Holidays. Search for special deals and offers at top holiday companies

[John Jupp]

To my best knowledge, no links have been changed.

In addition it was noted that the search boxes supplied to affiliates didn't work properly. That is one of the "to do" items.

However I would with regard to existing links, please conduct a test and let me know the outcome.

[millionpoundlake]

My Deeplinks just go to a page with the following:

This page is coming soon
We have just launched a new improved isango! with a new design, new products, new features and new content pages making it easier and more rewarding for you to research your destination and book enriching holidays and experiences with isango! Unfortunately, there are some features of the old site that we are still in the process of improving and hence they are currently unavailable, including the page that you just searched for.

Will I need to do more deeplinks?

Bob Buttercup
Buttercup Holidays
Find holidays, flights, hotels, car hire and cruises at Buttercup Holidays. Search for special deals and offers at top holiday companies

[John Jupp]

!"£$%%^&%£&&**&%$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, thanks for checking. I'll talk to them in the morning and message them tonight.

My advice for now is going to be sadly, pull links and replace with new Isango deeplinks.

Isango is in the process as previously mentioned, of switching the UK programs to a different url. This will be in place soon and affiliates shall then be given notification.

The first step was to upgrade the main site and as has been highlighted..........waaaaaaayyy too many errors. However without your input this wouldn't have been caught so quick.

[John Jupp]

One added benefit of the new system is the multisave option developed which automatically gives customers a set discount depending on basket value. This is live on the new site and replaces the now expired discount codes.

I will do some tests with deeplinks please email me at john@affiliateprogramadvice.com with some sample existing deeplinks and I'll have a play and see what happens.

[millionpoundlake]

John, If it helps you - my deeplinking Ad banners for Australia, Italy, France & USA tours deliver the same message as above.

Isango - Book your holiday tours, trips and activities

The General banners are OK and correctly go to the Homepage.

Bob Buttercup
Buttercup Holidays
Find holidays, flights, hotels, car hire and cruises at Buttercup Holidays. Search for special deals and offers at top holiday companies

[John Jupp]

Bob

Cheers. Seriously mega thanks.

They had conducted tests and said all was well but your examples uncovered issues. These are now being addressed and they are sorting redirects as I speak.

Further I had an issue regarding datafeeds. They disappeared. These are now live again via the networks when they next update and I'll check with them tomorrow when I have got the monthly performance stats out the way for all the retailers we cover.

The RAW feeds can be acquired at:

http://www.isango.com/Feed/AF/Euro/Feed_AF_Euro.csv
http://www.isango.com/Feed/AF/GBP/Feed_AF_GBP.csv
http://www.isango.com/Feed/AF/USD/Feed_AF_USD.csv

http://www.isango.com/Feed/CJ/Euro/Feed_CJ_Euro.csv
http://www.isango.com/Feed/CJ/GBP/Feed_CJ_GBP.csv
http://www.isango.com/Feed/CJ/USD/Feed_CJ_USD.csv

http://www.isango.com/Feed/WG/Euro/Feed_WG_Euro.csv
http://www.isango.com/Feed/WG/GBP/Feed_WG_GBP.csv
http://www.isango.com/Feed/WG/USD/Feed_WG_USD.csv

[mattg]

John I've have had Isango on my radar for a while, partly because of your persistent promotion on travel vertical. (That's an observation, not a complaint).

As a specialist in destination experiences I could see a lot of potential - partly because it wasn't competing with tour operators and hotels so addressed the after-market very well, without dilution of the message to the customer.

It looks to me now like that's changed - 'holidays and breaks' themselves seem to be the priority. I don't recall seeing that on their site before. Is this new?

From my POV, this dilutes their USP and they become just another dynamic packager in the mix, so implementing is less attractive.

Is there an 'experiences only' site, that doesn't mix up the message?

(or was this always the case, and I missed it?)