Has the lounge become a merchant promotion section!

[pistol101]

Seems more merchants are using the lounge to promote their programmes!

Play.com twice, H Samuel, Mobiles.co.uk are just the ones on the first page now!

[amilo]

Someone needs to start an affiliates forum with NO advertising.
This place is becoming a money maker for the forum owners with the members running around like sheep.

[drivetowin]

I think you will find that the forum is anything but a money maker - the costs of running a forum like this are massive and while Matt has advertising now let us all not forget that for many years he ran it totally footing the bill out of his own pocket.

[kier]

A US focused forum called WickedFire is very tough on this kind of thing. I myself have just been banned for life for promoting some of my programs, didn't realise it was against the rules!

[cyates]

This place is becoming a money maker for the forum owners

whats wrong with that ?

ive made a fair amount of money via this forum in 1 way or another and thanks to teh people on here i was kicked straight back onto the "UK style" of affiliate marketing after going off the tracks and touching on "US Clickbank style"

I was in need of motivation and felt like packing it all in but this forum kept me going

so i really do object to your comment which sounds like you object to the forum owners making money

[amilo]

Well my comment sure got a few fast replies !

I have no problem with the forum owner making money.

I just find it hard going reading through all the members pushing there own products while I am looking for the gold nugget posts.

Maybe I should of said "a forum without sig links".

[pistol101]

This place is becoming a money maker for the forum owners

Good, nothing like someone make lots of money for something that people use and is successful.

We just need less people posting their promo's in the lounge.

[Julie H]

Sorry guys, have been trying to do some real work today - I have moved some of the threads into the promotions & incentives forum. I can only ask that if you do see something in the lounge that shouldn't be here if you click on the warning triangle the mods are then notified and able to deal with it. Thank you.

Jules

[sgpratley]

Just seen this in the Wickedfire TOS

17- Paying it forward -- This is a brand new rule to increase reputation levels to people who give back to the community (normal posts with meaning and value), and to start elimination those who just sit around leeching and doing nothing productive. It's fine to join WF and sit in the Shoot the Sh*t area if that's all you want to do, but if you are negative with your posts and annoying, your ass is going to be banned until you learn how to give back to the community. Instead of just banning you for life, you'll be issued a sort of "community service" probation. Depending on the degree of the punishment or probation, you will be required to post a minimum amount of original posts/articles in the sections that have more value. If you still feel like being an a****le, we'll ban you and you can continue your c**p on some other forum where you'll be appreciated as an idiot.

Brilliant. I doubt they've a hope in hell of enforcing it, but I love the sentiment.

[kier]

I wish I'd had the chance of community service! It's a very rude and crude forum compared to here but I made some decent contacts through it.

[Paul Wright]

Seems more merchants are using the lounge to promote their programmes!

Play.com twice, H Samuel, Mobiles.co.uk are just the ones on the first page now!

Thanks for posting this up Pete, was thinking the exact same thing earlier today. Sure dupe threads are a pain in the butt but there's obvious reasons when posting in specific Affiliate Network forums. The Promotions and Incentives forum is slightly different but posting in the Lounge is a real bug bear of mine. Yes it's the busiest forum and yes your post will get a couple of extra views but if every merchant was to post in there it would simply become unbearable and worthless.

Let's all use a bit of common sense here and stamp on this before it gets out of hand.

Cheers
Paul

[nim-b]

I think there's a case for making clearer which posts should go where.

I personally find it confusing sometimes. If you have a post about your business, that would be usefull for affiliates, but isn't a promotion or incentive, where does it go? What if for example there's a problem with your site you'd like to let affiliates know about (please note: there is no problem with Firebox, I'm just using it as an example!).

You could put it in the network forums, but if your programme is with more than one network, that would create duplicate posts which I think are pretty pointless.

Agree that posts with discounts, new products, promotions etc should go in the promotions and incentive forum.

Is there a 'how-to' guide somewhere, or should we come up with something between us all? Would be useful for newbies.

[Gridlock]

I think there's a case for making clearer which posts should go where.
<snip>
Agree that posts with discounts, new products, promotions etc should go in the promotions and incentive forum.

Is there a 'how-to' guide somewhere, or should we come up with something between us all? Would be useful for newbies.

For a start, a "new product" is hardly a promotion or incentive - it's an update.

I think merchants use the lounge because the posts get the most views if there - so who's to blame for this, the merchant (who is after ROI) or the affiliates who don't check the 'correct' forum?

I second the "newbies" guide...

[pistol101]

Is it not a case that merchants should be using their signature to promote their latest offers and incentives. That would then force them to adding meaningful content to discussions.

[channel5]

I don't like it when some users reply to a question asked with

"Good question, i'll PM you"

Which basically means, i'm hijacking you to try and make you a client.

A forum is a shared resource where we can share knowledge and experience for everyones benefit, not a place to leach people off.

If someone asks a question in a forum then answer it in the forum.

If you are good and for hire then by all means have a link to your site in your sig, but don't turn a public thread into a private discussion for your own gain.