Will give more thought on this.
But isn't this dependent on the service a network provides the affiliate, thus the onus would be firmly on the doorstep of the network. If another network was preferred because of the good service or support or had developed the correct tools (product feeds & db's , content units for example, trust in tracking).
The difference is, say, if you are required to give notice, it doesn't mean you have to maintain traffic levels or have links live, but at least the cookie period is still valid where with short notice program closures often this is not honoured.
I 'll be interested how it could be perceived by others as one rule for one & one for of another in what is generally very lop sided to favour merchants, it depends if a network has written this into an agreement or not. For example Ernest Jones launched on
AW, I couldn't join because it was on OMG who I signed up for, so i removed links & requested with OMG I didn't wish to be part of their program anymore on their network. In due course we got accepted on
AW.
Giving another example on what we had recently with easyroomate on Tradedoubler where it wasn't tracking,
TD or The Merchant didn't initially didn't sort out & still not to any satisfaction, during the interim I swapped links to Affiliate Future and it tracked fine. Via
TD I had to earn another 50% sales to clawback what we had lost & another 50% to get on even keel, when they offered double the commissions, missing the point (why should should we have to send more sales to clawback lost commission), so we kept our links with AF. When they should have remained with AF anyhow, guess I got lazy in changing links earlier or over-looked.
By the same token, I would like more affiliates to say that they wished program xyz which is on one network they don't have a decent relationship with or poor tools was on another network, if they know or are confident they can do increased volume with the other & have a better professional relationship. (hmm that might be another poll)
I do hope that next year merchants reevaluate their current network(s) & be critical of the tools & service to ascertain if they are developing in the immediate future or better still, now, the tools content affiliates require rather than sitting on laurels being dependent on closed brand bidding groups & cashback to some extent (note i have no opinion atm on cashback).
Granted there are new smaller networks emerging but the same ones that have been around for long enough, really haven't evolved & next year WILL find them out.
