Mark Pearson (MyVoucherCodes) - Please Stop!

[Affility]

Affility,

Firstly a big apology for this mistake, it should not have happened and will not happen again. Sorry to you personally. It was a genuine mistake by one of my new employees who compiled this week’s newsletter. But it does not matter who did it, it is still my company and I take full responsibility to make sure no such mistake will happen again.

Mark

A mistake is when "you're employee" adds an exclusive code to MVC which they may have found on a forum, and didn't recognise the brand within the code.

It is no mistake when said "employee" registers for a competitors' email newsletter, copies & pastes a huge chunk of it, and distributes it as their own work. And it is certainly not a "genuine mistake".

Do you really think that we believe your stories of employees? Even if I had the huge team that you seemingly have at your disposal, I would be the one to personally write the newsletter.

[purple]

mvc is featured in the metro today

[Elaine]

Just been perusing young Mark's sites and clicked on the link which promised to take me to the discount codes for Childrens Rooms (news to me!) and obviously we haven't issued any discount codes yet but when I clicked the back button to return to Mark's site it just refreshed the Children's Rooms page - can someone explain that to me please?

cheers

[Darren M]

The whole iframe cookie dropping when they don't even have a code really winds me up! It is just all about being the last referrer & they are taking direct sales from the merchant and sales from other affiliates.

Merchants should be refusing to work with anyone doing this as it is costing them & their affiliates money. Networks should be bringing it to their attention, but it is all about the override.

The network will get the same amount of override no matter who the last referrer is. There's no advantage for the network in letting this practice carry on, they should stamp it out to keep other affiliates and merchants happy.

I wonder how much of an affect cookie stuffing is having on the ROI for PPC campaigns. If people are pulling previously successful PPC campaigns because the profits are falling and that fall is due to cookie stuffing, it can't be good for the merchant or the network.

[Darren M]

Just been perusing young Mark's sites and clicked on the link which promised to take me to the discount codes for Childrens Rooms (news to me!) and obviously we haven't issued any discount codes yet but when I clicked the back button to return to Mark's site it just refreshed the Children's Rooms page - can someone explain that to me please?

cheers

Maybe you're clicking back to a redirect script which keeps sending you back to Childrens Room.

[Elaine]

Maybe you're clicking back to a redirect script which keeps sending you back to Childrens Room.

but why - shirley it would be better for Mark for visitors to return to his site - wouldn't it?

[purple]

but why - shirley it would be better for Mark for visitors to return to his site - wouldn't it?

Maybe one of his employees made a mistake, if you have an issue, just give him a call or email and he will no doubt look into it.

[drivetowin]

This will happen on pretty well any site with a redirect script Elaine, when you hit the back button you are returning to the redirect script which then sends the browser back to your site - if you hit the back button twice in quick succession (i.e. double click on it) you should get back to Mark's site.

On the point of networks getting the same override whoever the last referrer is this is not strictly true

a) the cookie stuffer makes it more likely that there will be an affiliate cookie in place when the sale is made, and if the merchant is not de-duplicating across different sales channels then an affiliate commission will get paid where it wouldn't have done otherwise (and hence the network gets its override)

b) if the merchant in question pays commission on tiers, the cookie stuffing affiliate is likely to be on a higher tier (due to volume of transactions) and so the network will get their override on the higher rate of commission too (and 30% of 10% is much more than 30% of 5%)

so there is some disincentive to networks in curtailing the activities of cookie stuffers, which is one of the reason some networks held out for while on spyware, it can be hard to justify to shareholders taking a cut in your bottom line for purely ethical reasons.

[fizzbird]

Just been perusing young Mark's sites and clicked on the link which promised to take me to the discount codes for Childrens Rooms (news to me!) and obviously we haven't issued any discount codes yet

I've noticed on lingerie for instance he gives you codes from magazines (which if I've been advised correctly) he won't get anything for. However, it gives value to his visitors and takes business away from his competitors.

[Hero]

But regardless of why its there and what you think its there for, legaly, theres nothing wrong with it, so your wasting your time trying to change it?.

considering that mark has been using codes found in all the other affiliate sites, has been copying their marketing copy & techniques, telling his customers that his site is better than theirs is ridiculous, to say the least. Defamatory also springs to mind.

and this is a network stance, btw

[Barry]

Your public comments on behalf of your network are welcomed Hero.

Thanks

[hpops]

Big up to Webgains for the first network voice on here, I know a few of us "agency types" have been following this with interest.
I'd be interested to hear the forums thoughts on appropriate merchant/agency actions. My thoughts are that these practices should be dealt with by a network compliance team (and it is a real problem that most networks either don't have one, have an impersonal ill-mannered one, or have a "if we get prodded enough" approach)
For the record Mark, my thoughts are that this has not been conducted as a witch hunt and other siteowners have legitimate concerns. It may be prudent as well as ethical for you to consider how the communities support may be vital for your long-term business plans once the short term attentions have focused elsewhere.

[jrisby]

Just been perusing young Mark's sites and clicked on the link which promised to take me to the discount codes for Childrens Rooms (news to me!) and obviously we haven't issued any discount codes yet but when I clicked the back button to return to Mark's site it just refreshed the Children's Rooms page - can someone explain that to me please?

cheers

Elaine, that is exactly what he has been doing for our shop all year - claiming he has vouchers when he doesn't. He's just trying to steal commission in my view.

We've been trying to get him to remove it since February and it took until last week for him to take action after we finally kicked him off the affiliate scheme. He then put up a page claiming we didn't want his users to know about offers on our site and recommened they shop elsewhere and made the links to our site redirect to his site. So basically he was keeping a site up to try and attract people looking for our shop (targetting our name and url) with the sole intention of stopping them getting there.

He also said that he would recommend to his 6000,00 users that they don't use us unless we allow him back on the scheme. He removed that text after I made it clear I would pursue it legally if he didn't.

I've emailed both Miles Mendoza at the BBC and Martin Lewis to explain how Mr Pearson conducts his business and the threats he has made to damage our business, and also pointed them both to threads on this site.

Well done to Webgains for speaking out. Now, what about the other networks?

[jess1]

I do think this is turning into a bit of witch hunt as I can cite quite a few other affs doing the same thing and an irony one of them is shouting Mark Down. I dont like what Mark or the other affs are doing and we will deal with these chaps in our own way. Going forwards it may be prudent to not keep honing in on Mark and address to the other affiliates in general way who are using similar methods. Just a thought!

[max99]

Congrats on getting into metro mark. Must have a good PR team working for you.

My view on all this is that Mark has not done anything technically wrong and kept it , when he's been pointed out to do something banned by networks, etc he has changed it. He may work on the closer side to unethical ways. He seems to be suffering from Tall Poppy Sydrome...for those who don't know what that is , basically its when a large business recieves criticism simply for being the biggest. Tesco are said to suffer this. Now tesco do also do some unethical things such as pay to farmers etc but they are still the biggest. So I suppose it's just how you view his site...the biggest and most successful using some debatable methods !? Now would you prefer if it was your site to be the above or not as successful and more ethical. And thats 2 choices that many will have split views on