MarkCo - here to annoy?

**befuddle** · 07-11-07

Mark, I met you at a4uexpo with your partner in crime and I enjoyed the friendly chat.

Shame you couldn't turn up at the meeting where fellow code site owners and networks chatted about things that aren't currently right with some code sites.

So today I'm amazed to see that even though you've told me in person that you're no longer going to publish my Exclusive codes, you've gone down another route to annoy me.

Why on earth have you got my url shopcodes.co.uk pasted on the foot of your pages?

You must be raking it in? Surely you don't need to capture my traffic too.

Tell you what, I've just registered mycodes.co.uk

Lets see if it can work in reverse and I can land grab some of your visitors.

Cheers mate.

**Frostie** · 07-11-07

Ray

This is something I brought up a couple of weeks ago;
http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/347067-post55.html

I said, if you want to list my domain, then LINK to it or remove it... heard nothing but I guess thats because I haven't emailed, phoned, faxed, written letter, pidgeoned or any other way of communicating with him.

Dirty Tactics once again sadly. I wonder what, if anything, will happen? Just annoys me that so many of us play to the same rules, yet there is always one.... person... always tries back-handed tactics.

**befuddle** · 07-11-07

Exactly Frostie. Not only has he ignored your request, he's listed more sites since.

**shyguy0507** · 07-11-07

Originally Posted by befuddle

Exactly Frostie. Not only has he ignored your request, he's listed more sites since.

I don't normally read the small print on websites, but it caught my eye the other day too - I think adding more to the list at the bottom explains why I saw it now - I hadn't noticed it before.

**Barry** · 07-11-07

Cool mine is listed too

Personally I couldn't give a hoot what he has on his pages as my domain name is not that memorable or searched for. I registered it when keyword rich hyphenated domains where a good idea. (Mmmm)

However its not something I would do myself as I do think its a bit underhanded and may also lead to other website owners maybe waging a 'cyber war' against me or my site, which would always be a bad thought.

Ta

**renegade** · 08-11-07

Our site is listed too. And it gets worse he's PPC bidding on ALL our site names:
shopcodes.co.uk - Ask.com Web Search
discountcodes.co.uk - Ask.com Web Search
discount-voucher.co.uk - Ask.com Web Search
discountcodes.tv - Ask.com Web Search
and some other sites we're familiar with like:
hotukdeals.com - Ask.com Web Search

**Barry** · 08-11-07

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

**renegade** · 08-11-07

Originally Posted by Barry

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

Yeah, let's just give up

**Mogga** · 08-11-07

Why don't networks ban people who abuse other codes?

**renegade** · 08-11-07

I had an MSN chat with Mark and he agreed to remove our site from his footer and his PPC Ad.

**purple** · 08-11-07

Sadly I not got a site worthy of being used in a PPC campaign by this affiliate something to aspire to

In all seriousness I totally sympthasise with all effected.

**Bud** · 08-11-07

Seems to me that all the merchants with their own policies of "thou shalt not use our name and keywords otherwise all commissions are void etc" are quite happy when they are reaping the benefits of someone else doing it for them!

Would be nice to think they could operate to similar standards and block someone who is blatantly profiting at the expense of others using these techniques.

No consistency.

Any merchant/network want to lead the way?

**befuddle** · 08-11-07

Thanks Mark for removing some of the sites from your footer (including my own) in your latest redesign.

**Frostie** · 08-11-07

Mark - You have removed one of mine, however another is still there so please remove it. Infact to be safe and not piss people off, just remove them all!

Bud - It would be great if merchants and networks took this stance, however as long as networks and merchants make money they really aren't bothered about ethics as far as I have seen so far (exc POR and Webgains).

I recall a post earlier about when my Truffle Shuffle codes were 'borrowed'. The network (Affilate Window) said they had such and such in place to stop this and to reward the correct affiliate.... since then zip, nada, zilch, sweet fa.... Too busy polishing their A4U Award I suspect, and here's me voting for them

**lowndsy** · 08-11-07

At least one merchant is cracking down on this sort of thing (because it's me), but most sites which are worrying us aren't just taking the mick with one aspect - it's lots of little things which combine to become a problem, and getting them to change them all is a big job, with the only other alternative being to remove them from the program, which should be a last resort, though one or two people are coming close.