Darwin?

[chrisg]

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Okay... Maybe my response came across as harsh.

I have made 4 posts in this thread (+1PM) and had no response from the AW team.
Maybe thats where I'm coming from with regards to treating people equally.


Anyway....
I've been excited about this whole thing from the start!
Would love to use this thing if it could work for me.

I'm just personally concerned about security for affiliates given the amount of information being available to everyone.
I've mainly worked with independent programs/merchants over the years and have built relationships on trust.

Please forgive me as I'm not used to working with networks in a big way.

So....
Is there anything you could say to reassure me as an affiliate of the security of my business by giving so much information away.

Or are there any guidelines on offer (or planned) for affiliates.

Or is there nothing to worry about and I'm just being paranoid?

Mike

Mike

Sorry, a reply is coming. It's a nice and comprehensive one so is taking a little time.

Chris

[csn]

For the next release, merchant profile pages will be added to the system as well as new functionality for merchants and affiliates to search for and join each other.

Looking forward to this.

We have spoken to many frustrated affiliates unable to effectively profile themselves to merchants and as a result have been suspended from programmes. We believe this is largely down to inadequacies in our system and we hope this goes some way to address that issue.

The new system certainly adds more of a transparency. If we could add all existing relationships to the site profiles, I believe it would add even more transparency. For example, if someone runs a gambling site and a financial comparison site, by adding just 3 merchants to each site profile is restrictive and may not give the desired level of clarity.

At present, merchants still have a poor understanding of who their affiliates really are and this is a great shame.

Get them to read my epic biography! This I forgot show size but that's about it.

This is all about making more successful business connections between participants in the Affiliate Window network and it is just the beginning.

Looking forward to future releases. Don't stay in Beta too long

[chrisg]

I'm just personally concerned about security for affiliates given the amount of information being available to everyone. I've mainly worked with independent programs/merchants over the years and have built relationships on trust. Please forgive me as I'm not used to working with networks in a big way. So.... Is there anything you could say to reassure me as an affiliate of the security of my business by giving so much information away. Or are there any guidelines on offer (or planned) for affiliates. Or is there nothing to worry about and I'm just being paranoid?

When we first devised this concept, privacy was front of mind. Therefore, affiliates have full control over what is displayed on their profile. If you don't want something displayed, you can either remove it, not add it in the first place or use built in privacy controls to stop that information being displayed to certain users.

Contact details are only displayed to a merchant viewing your profile if you (an affiliate) are joined to that merchant.

The website information you list is available to all merchants on the network. Other affiliates can also view that website information if you choose to grant them access. There will be privacy settings in place to control this when the affiliate directory is launched.

At present, affiliates have to supply very little information to new and joined-to merchants whereas merchants are expected to provide full details to affiliates. Darwin is about creating more of a balance. The fact that merchant commission rates and promotional information is readily available to everyone may slightly compromise their competitive advantage but the benefits of being open about it far outweigh the negatives.

Affiliate profiles offer an opportunity to remove the current shroud of mystery surrounding affiliates but this does not mean you need to give away the crown jewels. Your profile should be designed to attract merchants and showcase your business effectively to ensure you get approved on to as many programmes as possible. Being secretive about your websites and the way you promote only raises suspicions and may lead to some merchants feeling unsure about whether to work with you. We are positive affiliates will be able to better profile themselves without damaging their business. It is not about opening up how you do things but more about what you are doing.

The description about your business is viewable by all users, including affiliates so this should be an area where you put more thought in to what is displayed.

Affiliate networks have traditionally acted as a barrier to merchants being able to find affiliates. We don't make it easy. Merchants are only able to communicate with affiliates that are joined to their programme. This will solve that problem and hopefully make it as easy to find affiliates as it is to find merchants. In addition, the collecting of improved categorisation and promotional methods allows merchants and AW to easily identify the most appropriate partnerships.

I was hoping Darwin was going to allow 'new' / 'unknown' affiliates to shine through. Breaking into AM is the big barrier I was hoping to be brought down by Darwin. So many good affiliates are knocking on the door!

This was certainly part of our thinking when coming up with the new system. Merchants generally know who the big affiliates are – the old firm as you like to call them! This system is about enabling merchants to find the new and innovative affiliate businesses we see joining the network on a daily basis. At present, these are just numbers within the system. Now, they can sit alongside the ‘old firm’ and stand just as much chance of getting found, even if they specialise in niche areas.

AW only seem interested in the Old Firm!

I am most disappointed by this comment as we have always aimed to build tools and innovate for the entire affiliate community with great emphasis on content affiliates. ShopWindow and ContentWindow are prime examples of tools built for affiliates of all shapes and sizes. If we have given you the impression we are only interested in high revenue affiliates, please let me take this opportunity to apologise. Perhaps we might have a private conversation about where you feel we have let you down. We will do our utmost to rectify the situation so please get in touch.

[iphonehater]

Borwing, Borwing, Borwing!

No I don't have a lisp ;-)

[Mogga]

I will find it interesting to see what else Darwin can add to my affiliate existance.

I suspect it'll be a bit of a chore though adding all site infos and getting this set up to start with. Is Darwin going to automate as much as possible?

[Mike_Scott]

In Reply to Chris

Thanks for getting back...

Even though you have probably never spoke to me before - I think I first joined AW back in 2002 so I'm not exactly a newbie. (joined A4u about 1 year ago )
I had bad experiences with dealing with networks early on (Not AW) and I guess it helped steer me in a different direction to what affiliates normally take.
Its obvious AW are the network of choice and have been for a while for most affiliates who use them.

It may suprise you to know that there are quite a large number of affiliates who don't actually use networks in a 'big way' because they see them as another 'middleman' that they haven't really needed to use alot when promoting merchants.
I know quite a few 'big' affiliates that won't touch any of them with a barge poll.

All I'm trying to say is I'm probably not coming from the same angle as the majority here on A4u.

Darwin...

I got excited about Darwin as I thought it may actually be the thing that brings me back to a network and it could be a benefit to me with dealing directly with merchants.
Protection is the biggest thing for me because I've had first hand experience of information being abused by networks/merchants.

I appreciate this may sound like a contradiction - but I from where I am, its a very fine line between showing yourself off and giving too much away. (wouldn't want anyone else to get caught out)

It seems like you have some great plans and look forward to seeing how it pans out and develops.

I may make good use of Darwin one day... May just take me a little longer than most.

I will take your invitation and send an email later today.

Kind Regards
Mike

[Kostas]

Hi James

It would be a great thing, but it is unlikely to happen. The network that provides this interface would have access to the data provided by the affiliate/competitor network (it needs to, to allow support of the interface). I can't see a network ever allowing data to be used in this way by a competitor. Just think of the commercial advantage the service provider network would have. There are independent stats aggregators already available that offer this.

What about an independent service provider creating a reporting and analysis application that allows affiliates to view aggregated stats from all networks but also allows automatic access to the different network interfaces, possibly using some sort of OpenID style login system? Networks would then not get access to sensitive competitor data.

Chris

James, you may want to check out Staagg - Affiliate Statistics Aggregation, which is a free aggregation type service just like you mentioned.

Chris, an OpenID style login is definitely a good idea, not sure however how willing the networks will be to make changes to their login system. Sometimes it's quite difficult to even get them bugfix a service that they are already offering, so imagine trying to get them to change something that's not already broken

K

[gunneradt]

Unfortunately Darwin is not a new release of ShopWindow. We hope to announce more details about ShopWindow V3 soon.

as long as you keep V1 and V2 running that will may be great!!

[Frostie]

I'm liking Darwin myself! :tup

There are things missing, stuff needs fixing and odd things adding but it's heading in the right direction. I think it will be of immediate benefit for those affiliates with a multitude of websites, meaning less merchants jumping on the pidgeon hole train we've seen of late.

I'm disappointed I wasn't able to make the demo day last week, and am equally as disappointed at the lack of a goody bag Maybe the next Beta version will have this enabled?

Sam - I've emailed some suggestions...

[Mike_Scott]

Just like to say for the sake of the thread I have since spoke to Chris G.

It appears there was some kind of mix up with communication, which is why I didn't get to the event as I would have liked. (And threw my toys out of the pram)
Didn't help the fact I didn't have a contact page on my blog. (now fixed that)

Just for the record I also apoligised to him and the AW team for some of my comments on this thread which were obviously out of turn.
Unfortunately patience is not one of my best assests. (lesson learn't)

Of course the new interface is going to bring new opportunities to affiliates and everyone else and its all very exiting stuff. (else I wouldn't have wanted to be there so badly)
If you haven't tried it yet, take a look its cracking bit of kit which will only improve over time and a credit to the AW team for all the hard work they have put in over the last year or so.

Hope that squares things up a bit

Kind regards
Mike

[Sam Surry]

Just a quick note to thank everyone who has given up their time to test-out Darwin over the last week, your feedback has been invaluable.

If you have left suggestions on the a4u, on either of our twitter pages, our blog, or have e-mailed me directly please be assured these comments and ideas are being compiled into one lovely document for the Darwin development team.

If you were one of the group to have beta access then it's not too late to give us your thoughts if you haven't already done so. Simply drop me an e-mail at the address below.

Sam.

[Mogga]

So what should I be able to do on darwin at the moment?
I can tell it about my sites but have to have a primary merchant else it won't let me add the site...

[George_DW]

Hi Mogga,

Currently, Darwin - Profile Pages allow you to showcase your affiliate business and adding sites is a part of that overall profile.

For this beta introduction to Darwin we have requested that at least one merchant be included when adding a new website. The idea behind this was that you can display who you work with or who is performing best on that partiocular site.
However, since beta launch this is one point that has come up for review and we will be looking into it prior to full release.

Please do collate your thoughts and get those across to us on the Darwin email address.

Many thanks,

[Mogga]

I have sent an email - I would have added to discussion on the wiki but I don't understand what that page is for:

Permission error
From Wiki

You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reason:
You do not have permission to create new pages.

[George_DW]

Hello,

Within the wiki there are certain areas that are defined by their "namespace". Such pages, Talk: Wiki: etc. define separate areas with varying levels of access (some areas are admin only).

Currently, the Talk: namespace (discussion page for an article) is one of the pages that is locked. When Darwin goes live and full access is granted, this will have changed.

This should not inhibit you from creating normal articles :tup

I look forward to your contribution to the wiki.

Regards