Affiliates, why sign up but not promote?

[DanielAustin]

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A quick post just to pick the brains of affiliates as it seem a common occurrence for affiliates to sign up to programmes I help look after but then never promote the merchant.

Why is this and what would make you promote them?

I know a lot of affiliates are busy and time is an issue, I am also aware that people are carrying out research for whatever reason and that not having voucher codes available will immediately stop affiliates promoting.

What I am also trying to find out is what do you need from me, regular top selling products and special promotions aside which is a given, how can I help the time strapped affiliates.

I know a lot of people are going to say exclusive codes and incentives etc but this is a little difficult without historic sales data from affiliates. It has happened a number of times in the past when merchants and myself have put in a lot of work and effort for exclusive deals for affiliates, sometime at large cost, and generated little or no sales.

With the current economic client businesses in general are looking at their bottom lines and are even more reluctant to give thing away, certainly without anything in return.

I have been going over lists of inactive affiliates on a few of our programmes and giving them a call to find out their plans, are affiliates happy to receive phone calls as I know a lot of you work other jobs?

What about a personal visit?

Would PPC affiliates like lists of keywords that are relevant to that sector?

I am also thinking of trailing staying at work late and then calling affiliates after 6, would you be happy with this?

Any thoughts on this from affiliates would be greatly received, feel free to PM, IM, Call or email me if you like.

[DavidCartlidge]

For me it's simply to get programmes signed up so that as and when I am ready to promote them I can.

This may be within a Newsletter which (is normally) written the day it is being sent and it's too late to sign up then.

Or, for future articles which are going to be written, but the content writers have 150+ articles to write and they are in no particular order, but once the copy arrives for uploading I want to add affiliate links there and then - not wait to see if I get approved for a programme.

Or, for a new site that may take months to complete and a few more months before generating any traffic. I want the links in place during the site build, not have to go back and add them later.

What does annoy me is when merchants boot me whilst in the periods outlined above.

As for what you could do, I don't expect any network or merchant to do much for me unless I am already generating sales or intend to promote them on a high traffic page /site - sure a conversation and some advice, but certainly not creating bespoke content / offers / codes.

[MikeFishcake]

Hi Daniel,

This is an interesting post to me, especially as I just signed up for some AW programmes that list you as the contact, my site won't be functional for a few months at least, and I know a certain ex-colleague of yours. Or at least, I used to know him until he decided to move halfway around the world

For me, the reason that the programmes I've signed up for won't be generating any leads is because my site is a little experiment that I'm doing, and I want to make sure I get it perfectly right before I unleash it on the world. Bwahahahaha

[hairycornflakes]

yep ive been known to sign up to pretty much every program in a network. only for the reason that when I want links I want them there and then!

[Travel Pixel]

Hmm, good post. Here is a few reasons I can think of:

- signing up then finding there is a brand bidder (this really annoys me if I have been told the program is CONVERTING AT AN AMAZING 10% !!! - I wonder why!?)
- signing up then finding an agency/the merchant overwrites affiliate cookies on a brand bid
- signing up and discovering leakage on the merchant's site (phone numbers etc)
- signing up and finding a feed that is non existant
- signing up and then getting an invite to an in house program


Im sure there are more....

Dave

[web-strategies]

My pet peeve is when a network requires you to join a programme before you can access the data feed.

It's a catch 22 when working on a new data driven site - you need access to the feed to find out the format and plan how to integrate it with the site, but the site won't be ready for 2-3 months so you cannot drive traffic, by which time some merchants will have kicked you off the programme for inactivity.

[Shimrit]

For me, it's because sometimes it takes affiliate managers a while to get around to approving new affiliates, so I sign up as soon as I have the idea, hoping they'd do it by the time I'm ready to promote.

[stu-art]

For me, programs get pushed to the back of the pile if:

Sign up and then find out you can't deeplink.
Rotten product feeds
Loads of brand+voucher PPC (or dodgy codes with no expiry in top results)
Bigger, better brands need sorting out first
You get no response from networks to simple questions. (This is the killer)

I prefer contact by phone to discuss plans and ideas. Better for motivation and to get a feel for who you're dealing with. There's nothing wrong with giving affiliates a boot up the backside and it can work to the advantage of both.

[DanielAustin]

What does annoy me is when merchants boot me whilst in the periods outlined above.

It is difficult for merchants to know your plans so probably why they contact you, there are just keen to ensure affiliates are promoting them.

[DanielAustin]

Hi Daniel,

For me, the reason that the programmes I've signed up for won't be generating any leads is because my site is a little experiment that I'm doing, and I want to make sure I get it perfectly right before I unleash it on the world. Bwahahahaha

A valid point, please email me if you need anything before site launch.

[DanielAustin]

For me, it's because sometimes it takes affiliate managers a while to get around to approving new affiliates, so I sign up as soon as I have the idea, hoping they'd do it by the time I'm ready to promote.

The reason this is in place is for affiliate manager to vet each site before approving them, sometimes that takes a while but I can see why this is annoying for affiliates.

[DanielAustin]

For me, programs get pushed to the back of the pile if:

Sign up and then find out you can't deeplink.
Rotten product feeds
Loads of brand+voucher PPC (or dodgy codes with no expiry in top results)
Bigger, better brands need sorting out first
You get no response from networks to simple questions. (This is the killer)

I prefer contact by phone to discuss plans and ideas. Better for motivation and to get a feel for who you're dealing with. There's nothing wrong with giving affiliates a boot up the backside and it can work to the advantage of both.

Can see why all these points would make you think twice about promoting a merchant

[DannyW]

For me the main bug-bear and reason why I sign-up yet don't promote certain merchants is because certain agencies or networks aren't as pro-active as they could be in their communications. Like having to hear things through the grapevine.

[sabian1982]

My pet peeve is when a network requires you to join a programme before you can access the data feed.

I totally agree - even in some cases knowing what the products are isnt enough, i actually need access to the feed to see how poorly the product information has been put together!!!

[Shimrit]

The reason this is in place is for affiliate manager to vet each site before approving them, sometimes that takes a while but I can see why this is annoying for affiliates.

I wasn't complaining. I'm an affiliate manager myself and when I used to work on a massive campaign, it used to take me about a week to approve affiliates. But it does mean affiliates have to try and anticipate.