2007 the end of leakage/low quality

**pricethat** · 15-12-06

Originally Posted by Shackattack

Yes but how do you monitor inbound calls for ever affiliate

More over:-

Who has the infrastructure in place?
what is the time, cost vs revenue schedual?
would the investment be better spent on rewarding the affiliate, see my previous thread?

me thinks there is more to this than meets the eye.

It is important not to turn this into a how we do it thread or the ins and outs of various types of tracking. What this thread is about is whether a merchant is friendly, or not friendly to the affiliate. Each merchant on its own merit we have to decide whether there i leakage, who the good guys are and who the offenders are (naturally oblivious). If a merchant wants to get into the clean list then maybe the networks can advise them but for now it does make a good resource...

Perhaps we can ask that if you want to contribute do so but please tell us who are clean and who are not while you do otherwise this will just turn into a complexities of tracking thread which is not what it is about.

**renegade** · 15-12-06

Great list, such an obvious thing to collaborate on - well done for starting it.

Buyagift are clean AFAIAA

**Shackattack** · 15-12-06

I would add Netcars and E-financialaffiliates to that list. Major none payers I know several people who have had problems with these charlatans.

E-financial are a two bob, 2 man outfit in Manchester who share an office with another company, who incidently also answer there calls from time to time.

Netcars and Netloans are another shadey company in the making. Netcars (Jason) owes me several thousand pounds. The problem with affiliate networks is that most of it is based on trust.

How do i know who has clicked on the banenr and gone on to make a sale. Sure Affiliate Networks will tell you they audit the merchants now and again, but do they really have the resources?

**Hero** · 15-12-06

Leakage points for affiliates (order lines and links to other sites that divert the traffic to convert in ways the affiliates are not compensated for) are an issue we take very seriously at Webgains and we put every effort in trying to eliminate them for our affiliates. We heavily audit the websites before and after the sales process and during the consultation and setting up process of the program, not just in the homepage and product pages, but during the checkout process too.
We insist greatly on removing that leakage at least for the user's session, ideally for all visits from affiliate-referred traffic.
All the programs with leakage points removed are clearly stated in the program description.
In the event where one of our programs hasn't removed them, that's because the merchant refuses to. In some instances, it's because it's a helpline rather than an order line and orders are not being taken over the phone. In some other instances, the merchant has seen a drop in sales when the phone is removed, even though the percentage of phone orders is small compared to the online sales - they believe the customers feel more confident shopping from an online store when they can see the contact details at any stage with minimum effort, if something goes wrong. In some other instances, the merchant simply refuses to listen to our advise.
Sometimes, the merchants make changes to their sites and add in order lines and banners to other sites, without notifying us - obviously when you spot anything, please get in touch with us.

Focusing on the positive, I am listing below those merchants whose programs I look after who have taken our advice and have eliminated the leakage points:

*brew it yourself (order line removed, I keep trying to remove the banner at the bottom too)
*element jewellery
*extreme direct
*lets buy gold
*mumstheword
*my beauty secrets

For any of our merchants you are having problems with any leakage points, please do let us know so as to put more pressure on them - it usually has a great impact on most of them when an affiliate actually complains to them...
Well, with some bright exceptions, in Matt's case...

**Mitchy** · 19-12-06

A couple of others to add to the various parts of the lists:

WarnerBreaks: No telephone number. Any tel number on site is a web-only number, where customer calls and is then directed on how to use the web booking engine.

Goldshield Healthcare: Tel Number reduced from orginal size and described as health help line, but still looking to remove upon affiliate entry

Parcel2Go: No tel number

Park Resorts, Siblu, HotelHippo, CarCraft, all aware of problem and are working on solutions for early 2007.

All managed by Global Media.

Cheers! Great thread by the way.

**malcernie** · 19-12-06

Originally Posted by pricethat

Well to date i never saw a law that says you can't be a sole trader or a limited company unless you had a telephone number so i think it is unreasonable to suggest that a website has to have one.

This gives an overview of trading regulations within the UK. However, as a consumer I would be concerned if I was unable to find a contact number of some description, especially if it was a site I was unfamiliar with.

Don't forget the consumer in all of the "we're (the affiliates) are being shafted" threads; without them there would be no industry...... just a small thought.

**pricethat** · 19-12-06

So would i, lets move on shall we.....

Telephone numbers for customer service are fine, we are talking about leakage, merchants that gain a benefit from affiliates hard work without paying for it or addressing it in a seperate policy or process.

Again, there is no legal requirement to have a telephone number!

**Hero** · 19-12-06

Originally Posted by malcernie

as a consumer I would be concerned if I was unable to find a contact number of some description, especially if it was a site I was unfamiliar with.

So, you don't shop from amazon, do you?

**pricethat** · 19-12-06

Ok, list updated - anyone i have missed credits for or what network they are on give me a shout and i will add them, added a couple of new sections like credits for individual networks, lets hope the networks don't feel like they are going to be drawn into something negative and contribute with their own lists.

I think more than solutions a big fat dose of comparison and transparancy will set a good tone, there is i am guessing about another 1200-1500 merchants to get into this thread so if anyone wants to add some to the list please give me a hand, even if its just to stick your neck out and show the good guys, does not have to all be negative.

Ideally i am just trying to get a comparitive measure, i know a lot of you here may not have an issue with the numbers, including Keith but some do and as it is this is about the only thread where people either side of the fence can see what programs are doing what.

Hope it is of some help to people, please if you can help it will be most noted

**Itchy** · 19-12-06

A few to add to the we like to bypass the affiliates list

onestopphoneshop - AF - free phone sales number displayed left nav bar
three - Buy.at - Sales number appeared left nav bar
e2save - AW - sales number appears using Firefox no show using IE
Orangeshop - TD - sales order number at the top
mymemory - AF - sales number + loads of TD affiliate links

**drivetowin** · 19-12-06

I would not say I don't have an issue with telephone numbers, I do, and indeed in my seminars I advise merchants to remove phone numbers wherever possible.

However, if they insist on having a phone number, then I think we have to be pragmatic and say 'ok - up your commission to compensate then'.

**zinc** · 22-12-06

1 more to add

Great Magazines - AWIN

Surely the networks could make it a requirement for merchants not to have a telephone number anywhere except a contact page.

It's a simple if statement - if this is an affiliate ID then dont display the number else display it. Maybe too easy?

**pricethat** · 22-12-06

Originally Posted by zink

1 more to add

Great Magazines - AWIN

Surely the networks could make it a requirement for merchants not to have a telephone number anywhere except a contact page.

It's a simple if statement - if this is an affiliate ID then dont display the number else display it. Maybe too easy?

One more to add to what zinky, good, bad or the ugly? (no offence to ugly people)

**marcko100** · 23-12-06

drinkstuff.com AW - Telephone and email at top right, but not only that, check out this product which is in the shopwindow datafeed.
http://www.drinkstuff.com/products/product.asp?ID=354

An item at over £4000 but next to the price and add to cart button is a message "Please call to order".

Infact the feed title also includes the "Please call to order", but not the actual product page title so it looks like it's been changed just for the feed.

I can imagine processing online credit card orders for that sort of money might be a problem but then maybe this item shouldn't be in the affiliates feed if there's no commision going to be paid? There doesn't appear to be a code to mention when calling to identify the affiliate refering the visitor.