Merchants shops = how many domains = we rip you off

[Itchy]

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A merchant has 2 domains .co.uk and .com both of these domains contain the Merchants shop with exact content as each other now you can gain acces to these domains by 4 different ways
www.blahblahblah.com
blahblahblah.com
www.blahblahblah.co.uk
blahblahblah.co.uk

Now if the contents are the same and the merchants are the same how many domains should there be? 4 3 what about 2 no your right just the 1 but your all being blatantly being defrauded by every merchant you promote by them not tracking on their other so called domains

This concerns every single affiliate as if like the onestop they only track on their so called one domain means we are losing out the merchants know it and the networks just dont care

[OME]

If each domain is truely independant of one another, the merchants IT team should be shot.

It's understandable for a merchant to have multiple domain names, in fact as an affiliate it should be a positive when taking repeat visitor cookies into consideration.

It's quite normal for a merchant (or any other website for that matter) to have one 'primary' domain, and have all the other domains pointing to that. It can even be done without any visible signs. Cookies however, regardless of the domain entered, should be carried across all domains because it is the same site underneath. Think of it as a house - you can enter via either the front door, or the back door - but the interior is the same. If you walk in with muddy feet, the house is still muddy regardless of the door used (sorry, best way I can think of putting that!).

What I'm basically saying is that a merchant using 2 different domains, with no 'visible' redirection, doesn't necessarily mean a sale won't be tracked. If however, a merchant has multiple identical sites but truely independent of each other, it's just sloppy.

[deadgoodundies]

Or to put it another way.

A merchant can have as many domains as they want .co.uk, .com. .org . eu

As long as they redirect to the one that the affiliates are promoting and tracking

[limboInternet]

I had to vote the last option on your poll I mean come on who's really gonna answer "I like being ripped off"

Justhom is right tho, as long as they redirect or track the cookie anyway does it matter how many domains they have, it prevents people cybersquatting on them.

[Hero]

you will often find that the merchants use the same checkout pages for all domains, and therefore the affiliate sale will track. For those with entirely standalone sites, we do insist they add the tracking code in all order confirmation pages when we set their programs up.
Please do let us know if you have any concerns for any merchants of ours with multiple domains.

thanks

[Itchy]

Or to put it another way.

A merchant can have as many domains as they want .co.uk, .com. .org . eu

As long as they redirect to the one that the affiliates are promoting and tracking

This is my point as many merchants are not tracking other domains as it was pointed out to me

my example is onestop all domains lead to the same shop same deals etc etc but it only tracks on the www.co.uk one the rest dont track..

we all know that visitors dont always buy straight away so if they went to the onestop via a affiliate link then later on they typed in onestopphoneshop.co.uk or the other 2 ways and brough the phone then this wouldnt be tracked
and for networks to allow this to happen is just %&^%&%$(*$)*&%*^

thats my point .....
and affiliates of all merchants should be aware of this activerty as its basically giving merchants free sales

do your domains track ok justhom? if your with AF then i reckon only 50% will thats of course if youve 2 domains, i dont know as im not in the pants biz but where being treated like a big pile o pants by merchants and networks alike with this issue

[Itchy]

I had to vote the last option on your poll I mean come on who's really gonna answer "I like being ripped off"

Justhom is right tho, as long as they redirect or track the cookie anyway does it matter how many domains they have, it prevents people cybersquatting on them.

Erm it appears you did

I agree with Justhom its just this is not happening across many merchants meaning you and i and everyone else are losing sales.. if that floats your boat then dont do anything about it sit back relax and lose those sales but i can tell you my boat aint floating on this one

[deadgoodundies]

do your domains track ok justhom? if your with AF then i reckon only 50% will thats of course if youve 2 domains, i dont know as im not in the pants biz but where being treated like a big pile o pants by merchants and networks alike with this issue

We do have several domains including justhom.co.uk but everything tracks fine as all domains are directed to our primary of www.justhom.com (just waiting for www.battlepants.com to update today )

[Itchy]

you will often find that the merchants use the same checkout pages for all domains, and therefore the affiliate sale will track. For those with entirely standalone sites, we do insist they add the tracking code in all order confirmation pages when we set their programs up.
Please do let us know if you have any concerns for any merchants of ours with multiple domains.

thanks

Thanks for that Hero its good to know that your network does track across all domains. i might point out though i didnt check your network so wasnt banging me drum about Webgains and now theres no need to

But i am banging my drum about Affiliate future for allowing this to happen

so any other networks want to say that their network track all domains ok?

[Itchy]

I cant beleve the reply from AF about the one stop

Hi Itchy,

My understanding is that the other domains are used for specific marketing campaigns, the .co.uk domain is considered the primary site,

you see if you promote the one stop you've got a 1 in 4 chance that if the visitor comes back itll be tracked if they put in the correct url

so if they type
onestopphoneshop.co.uk = lost sale
onestopphoneshop.com = lost sale
www.onestopphoneshop.com = lost sale

www.onestopphoneshop.co.uk = a sale thats of course if the tracking works that day

this is a very serious problem that effects all affiliates it dosent end with one stop .... phones2udirect fails to track etc etc so start moaning and banging your drum and maybe if they dont want to listen then FLOODNET might get them to

oh and i see onestop voted for 4 shops

[jamesm0]

Hi All

I cant beleve the reply from AF about the one stop

you see if you promote the one stop you've got a 1 in 4 chance that if the visitor comes back itll be tracked if they put in the correct url

so if they type
onestopphoneshop.co.uk = lost sale
onestopphoneshop.com = lost sale
www.onestopphoneshop.com = lost sale

www.onestopphoneshop.co.uk = a sale thats of course if the tracking works that day

please see the thread here for the full response on this, however - the http://.co.uk and http://www.co.uk query has now been resolved

thanks

james

[edit] BTW - we didnt vote

[Shane]

"other domains are used for specific marketing campaigns" sounds iffy to me I'm afraid.. if you are tracking campaigns that way then you are bound to get crossover so the integrity of the tracking is compromised as you get skewed results as users type in the wrong domain.

for campaign tracking just by url rather than any other route you'd need some domains that are very unlikey to be mixed up like :

onestopphoneshopDEALS.com
onestopphoneshopOFFERS.com
onestopphoneshopBARGAINS.com

I'd say it's simple case of formally requesting the merchant sort their tracking out..

if they are unwilling to do some then bin them.. find someone that does see the affiliate as a partner who is due payment for each action generated.

that's unless of course they are happy to increase the commission by a factor of 4

[Itchy]

www.battlepants.com

Is this sort of like fight club

Rule 1 ... we dont talk about Battlepants

[deadgoodundies]

Rule 2. You never talk about battlepants

[drivetowin]

Rule 3. The existence of battlepants can neither be confirmed nor denied.