MyVoucherCodes new trick

[hpops]

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Doug, can you edit your posts mate, that language has no place on a professional forum and does your argument a detrimental service.

[buspassjohn]

And some people wonder why merchants like us turn away from voucher code marketing?

[Travel Pixel]

And some people wonder why merchants like us turn away from voucher code marketing?

Can you persuade the hundreds of others who blindly do though please.

[DanWBC]

The guidelines allow click to reveal when a valid code is available, so aslong as they have at least 1 valid code for each merchant they can get away with click to reveal.

This is not "click to reveal", it is simply a forced click as when I am selecting a code to cut/paste (and not intending to click anywhere at all) MVC forces click and opens affiliate link stuffing cookies. The "click to reveal/visit" button is located well above the area where click is forced.

Such practice is explicitly banned by all networks and what it means now is that networks
facilitate in ripping off merchants and squeezing their margins due to a greed of unbelievable scale.

Every network must answer to their merchants why they are doing this. This scam is unprecedented.

[TimL85]

I think he's a shrewd businessman. Fair play....or not fair play as the case may be.

[aotagain]

I have a list of words to describe the behaviour we've seen and 'shrewd' or 'clever' aren't in there.

...In the same way that 'shrewd' or 'clever' don't appear in my list for the following people:

Social Security cheats.
The Fat Cats who f....d our banking system (and no I don't buy the 'complexity of the system confused the poor little chaps') argument ;-)
The people who walk on their knuckles who keep setting fire to stuff down our back alley.
The people who park on double yellows near our school, blocking the main road view when they have been asked not to.
The people who, when there are some lane restrictions signed, pull out from behind you to overtake and then push in further up, causing the inside lane to take much longer than it should. (All hail the lorries who pull out and block the outside lane).

etc. etc. etc.

[aotagain]

btw, does the buyagift trip involve parachuting ?

[jezaff]

On the forum I run people are swapping codes and cashback deals and they are clearly coming to my site to aid their decisions and then going to the voucher code site to get the discount.

As this is not strictly a commercial venture for me I don't mind but it is obvious that the system doesn't really work. It has put me off trying to build content sites as a commercial venture.

Voucher codes are now so well publisised that it seems that a large % of internet users routinely search for a code once they've already made the decision to buy. I don't get how that helps merchants! Why don't they just make their prices cheaper in the first place - that would gain lots of natural linking from price discussion forum threads and they'd get a reputation for being good value. And then they wouldn't have to pay for traffic so much perhaps?

What a crazy idea!

[dougs]

Duncan - tell him to stop doing it, people have been nice to him for ages and he does not change.

BusPass John - You are one of the prime examples I am trying to explain John. You felt too many people were abusing you and so tyou binned the complete affiliate markerting channel. I think affiliates can add value, but I do see your point.

Doug

[bazza99]

Without delving into the ethics of one particular affiliate, I think this thread has highlighted an interesting issue.

I guess it's a question for the networks really: Are forced clicks now acceptable?

Since a number of leading affiliates are using them, it seems that they are now accepted by all the leading networks.

If true, this is a shame and a massive backwards step for the industry.

[hpops]

Doug - I do have some concerns over his actions and how they effect the reputation of the channel, I will pursue this.
However, the reputation of the forum is my job as moderator, just protecting that at the moment. (btw, wasn't me who moderated)

Forced clicks are not tolerated, if I was king, Click to Reveal wouldn't be either.

That cut and paste malarkey (of which, I may add MVC is not the only guilty party) in my opinion violates key terms in most networks guidance. It will be raised heartily at the next IAB AMC meeting (next Thursday).

[bazza99]

hpops - thanks for that very speedy response.

It's good to hear that someone else is concerned about this trend - it feels like there are too many people turning a blind eye to it.

As you say, there are numerous large affiliate sites now making use of forced clicks and it's by no means restricted to the affiliate mentioned in this thread.

[dougs]

Cheers Duncan.

My job is the voice of unreason to show when a spade is a spade....now the genie is out of the bottle I am happy

Cheers

Doug

[bapages]

I wonder if MVC is big enough not to need the networks and go direct to merchants affiliate programs?

[dougs]

The dispute is if merchants would want the traffic, better for Mark to hide behind the networks. Then his stats get hidden amongst real visitors.

Mark why not just cloak your traffic and cookie drop on the way through....save the hassle of a customer having to even click

Doug