MarkCo - here to annoy?

[Barry]

Tweet

Yep my url has gone too which is good I spose.

Its nice to know that I am though of as a big competitor by Mark in a way, but in the end I am glad its gone. Thanks.

We are all in a competing sector and I see nothing wrong in fair competition but getting into little cyber wars is always draining on the old energy. And energy is something I dont seem to have enough of at the moment.

Ta

[ParisEngLtd]

Yeah can see it on all those results and on your domain too.

Oh well, not much that can be done about it really I spose.

Bit of a bummer though.

Ta

If he's ppc bidding on your names surely you can just click his links on a regular basis and get everyone you know to do the same (could start a war through!!), surely if it costs more to use the names than he'll make he'll stop using them soon enough . . .

[Elaine]

I'm following this with interest as we, hopefully, will be introducing voucher/discount codes at some time in the future, and speaking from a personal point of view, as a merchant, I certainly wouldn't be working with any affiliate who deemed it OK to borrow/steal/aquire discount codes intended for someone else etc. Tit for tat is permissable in the playground - not in business.

This is just sound common business sense - why would I choose to work with someone who thought it OK to use underhand tactics, no matter how much revenue was at stake -maybe thinking about the bigger picture beforehand would be a good move!

[Greavsie]

Erm, not sure if you guys want a network guy on board.

LS take PPC merchant infringement very seriously, but we cannot be held accountable for all our affiliate websites too. We just don’t have the resources to help every one unfortunately (LS have well over 2 million); however I always try to help my/our affiliates as much as possible to improve their revenues and business outside of LS's interests (ask Nadeem). So a few points.

Trademark your Web Name (if possible) and URL with Google?
- If any of you spend enough money with Google, then you may have account manager. If not, check out the help section on your AdWords account
- The move on to Yahoo, MSN and MIVA etc.
- If you are still having trouble, then I’d be happy to help you as much as possible.

Codes – Feedback needed
I had an idea to introduce a unique code for every voucher/code affiliate on our network. Let me know your thoughts!! Email your feedback support to agreaves@linkshare.com

1. To use an LS code, affiliates have to use our tracking technology called Signature. Typically this is for Loyalty sites, but actually you can add the “Voucher Code” at the end of the link i.e. “….&u1=SCL1”; equals ShopCodes Laura Ashley code for free delivery etc..

- Voucher sites who do not care or want to use the tracking, get generic codes.
- Voucher sites who want to protect their unique codes, use Signature

LS then scrape all data for codes at the end of the month and compare with the merchant data, if “SCL1” is used on any other website either all or a % of the commission is given to Ray as compensation. I’d appreciated constructive feedback on what you deem is fair.

Therefore based on the example above, only Ray can use this code to drive sales on his website. If another affiliate does, then Ray will be a very happy chappy and not have to spend a penny promoting his codes, because someone else is doing it for him and making him money in the process.

Obviously some newbies will make a mistake, so I could easily drop them a line telling them why the code's not allowed; but if affiliates can also run "exclusive X code" it would help.

Let me know your thoughts. This only applies to LS merchants obviously, but we're growing pretty quickly, so if we get it in place now it will reduce problems next year and so on.

Greavsie

[Barry]

I don't like talking adwords and adsense on a public network but i wouldn't do that. Its just a bit childish really, though I am sure you are being tongue in cheek.

He knows he is being policed by the 'unsaid affiliate agreement' and has taken down most the links (more to follow hopefully frostie)

I remember when I first started af marketing and though no one would be looking. Soon learnt that lesson.

Ta

ta add, i would be very interested in the voucher code tracking system mentioned by LS

[Greavsie]

thanks barry. let me know which merchants you want codes for and I'll set it all up for you.

[mdrussell]

Hi

As a management agency that has clients that provide exclusive voucher codes, we do regularly monitor the use of voucher codes and do communicate with affiliates that we notice using someone else’s voucher code.

I have recently highlighted 2 affiliates that were doing this for our merchants and have spoken to both affiliates and have resolved this now.

My only concern about the way we deal with it is that we will offer the affiliate using someone else’s code one of their own, and would be interested in peoples opinion on this as I don’t want to be seen as rewarding affiliates that put someone else’s code up, however sometimes and I am sure you will all agree can happen accidentally by members of staff that work for companies?

We are more than happy to set up voucher codes for people who ask and we do communicate this to people that speak to us, as many of you will know.

I am quite annoyed that I didn’t hear about the meeting at expo till after the event as I would have liked to attend that as this is something that is of a concern to me and would like to see how this can be resolved, as kicking someone straight off the programme if they use someone else’s voucher code is difficult but I think if we all take a stance that we will try and monitor this to the best of our ability we should be able to agree some way forward.

Please feed back your thoughts and if you want voucher codes for merchants please let me know and I will sort them for you.

[Greavsie]

hi Mark, sorry but i had to comment on the irony. did you guys not run the expo?

opinion,
as an affiliate - i'd want my money for my code.
as a network - i see people making legitmate mistakes every day, so think one strike and you're out probably suits better i.e. we have warned you, from now on you will not receive any monies until you change the code.

[mdrussell]

Hi Greavsie

Just to clarify this thread is not about me...lol...is about another mark time to change name to not so common one...lol

The a4uexpo was organised by Matthew Wood and the team at Existem Ltd and as far as i am aware the meeting was not organised by Matthew or anyone in his team, hence why i didnt hear anything it was nothing to do with expo was people who spoke outside of the conference.

I hope this clarifies why i didnt know about it?

Cheers

Mark

[befuddle]

The meeting in question wasn't part of the formalities. A few of us code site owners just took advantage of a small gap in the schedule to have a beer and discuss several of the code site issues and enhancements of the moment.

Even though as affiliates we're direct competitors, at least five of us are pulling in the same direction and all want to move forward against the backdrop of new code tracking systems by POR and LinkShare being introduced.

[befuddle]

To use an LS code, affiliates have to use our tracking technology called Signature. Typically this is for Loyalty sites, but actually you can add the “Voucher Code” at the end of the link i.e. “….&u1=SCL1”; equals ShopCodes Laura Ashley code for free delivery etc..

Hi Andy, this is something I'd quickly like to make a start on. If you could please set me up with this for all or as many of the LS merchants I'm subscribed to, then I'll implement this over the weekend.

Cheers,
Ray

[Frostie]

Mark (Existem)
As has been mentioned, the discussion was originally just a few people to get together to voice problems many people have been having in relation to discounts. It was not and official meeting, just a chin wag and hour before the awards. Basically, it highlighted that many people see this area as needing to be regulated in some sort of way but no clear way forward was discussed. It's going to take time I guess. It wasn't a case of being selective when asking people to join us, just a case of asking those that had been involved in the previous 48hrs due to the copying of codes. It is something that I think will need to be progressed over time, and I am sure there will be many more discussions to come.

Marck (MyVoucherCodes)
Despite emailing you, PM'ing you, and requesting on the forums on more than one occasion I still see my sites are listed and once again ask that you remove them unless you want to link to my site. I see you have managed to read other peoples requests, emails or PM's and have actioned their requests.

[renegade]

I just wanted to publically thank Greavsie for helping me get some Linkshare UK links set up, you're a star. It's fair to say I'm not a fan of the Linkshare interface

[Barry]

Wow this thread is open again - how come?

Greavsie, can you PM me please so we can talk about getting it setup for me as well please.

And to follow - my url and everyone elses has reappeared on Mark P's site which I thought was quite funny.

Ta

[befuddle]

my url and everyone elses has reappeared on Mark P's site

I think it was an oversight that the links were removed in the first place and he's 'rectified' it since.