In Response To The Attacks Made On National Shopping.

13-09-01

Although there is no need to justify why National Shopping is trying to help the disaster that has unfolded in America.
I feel that a few facts should be pointed out to person/persons attacking National Shopping.

A) Jessica agreed to let people know that National Shopping is trying to help in the raising of fund's for Red Cross.
At no time was Affiliate Windows Or Jessica trying to promote one of their affiliates for any reason other than to highlight Red Cross.

B) The reason why National Shopping is holding a banner on all major zones, was and still is as a mark of respect for those that have lost their lives.
If we were trying to cash in we would of had affiliate banners on all the pages to earn money. INSTEAD ALL affiliate banners were removed from ALL zones leaving Red Cross as the main & only banners. (Apart from one for KTB who host the site, as that is in their hosting agreement,we do not get paid for that. Also Digital Tome have a Siege Of Avalon banner, as I am one of their game testers as well, they do NOT pay to have a banner on the site).

C) The site already gets in access of 10,000 visitors a day, a fact that can be proved by Statistics Server Livestats.
So the site didnt need any promotion apart from to highlight the need of donations by the Red Cross.

D) Apart from the "Shopping Zone" the site is NON commercial, where the "Shopping Zone" is clearly stated as being just that. If we were trying to earn money then Red Cross would have only been mentioned only on the "Shopping Zone" & not every other zone.

E) At NO time was Jessica or Affiliate Windows trying to increase sales as it has been stated. Again affiliate sales are for withing the categories in the "Shopping Zone" ONLY.
NOT elsewhere on the site.

F) It has been mentioned that the site only carries an incidental link to the Red Cross. & I use the quote "HAVE YOU ACTUALLY LOOKED AT THE SITE".
If you had you would have seen that the MAIN home page has had it's logo removed & the Yellow Ribbon has been put in it's place.
ALSO I would hardly call a very large banner on ALL zones as being an incidental link either.

G) All zones ask for people to visit the Red Cross& offers are condolences & prayers. To say that it doesn't help in making a donation is beyond a joke!. Have you actually visited the site before you attacked it!

H) The Red Cross banner is NOT buried amongst all commercial activity. It is on the top of ALL zones. With NO banners even near by, so to make your comment was beyond a joke.

I) Lastly to attack Jessica when all she was doing was trying to help, is beyond childish. It seems Jessica , Myself & Cat are the only sensible people that have responded to this.

NICK GROW UP!

If anyone wishes to discuss this with me please feel free to contact me.

A quick message to those that have sent abusive Emails to National Shopping. Please be warned we will not tolerate this & action will be taken against ANYONE sending abusive Email to any of our staff.

OK Thats my rant over.

Hugz @ Jess & Cat
xXx

13-09-01

First of all, the issue is not with you adding red cross links to your website.

I am sure that you consider that to be a great gesture to the American people, and I can only wonder at how grateful the people trapped under the rubble of the Twin towers must be to you.

The issue is with using that as an excuse to promote your website in an affiliate forum. We here are all experienced webmasters and are fully aware of methods to promote websites, so you are not fooling anyone.

If you had been serious about drawing our attention to the red cross appeal you would have put a direct link in the post, and perhaps your link in a sig. But by just placing your link is blatant and I am sure the rest of this serious community will agree with me, quite unnecessary.

Secondly - you do not receive 10,000 uniques a day. So trying to pretend that your site is important to the UK's effort to aid the US is just laughable.

The events that happened in the US are dreadful, but trying to involve this community in your cheap tricks is insulting to our intelligence.

I hope that we can now draw a line under this issue and return this affiliate board back to the business of affiliate marketing.

13-09-01

Right Nick.
Your comment about the people trapped under the rubble must be feeling grateful. Is a disgusting remark & a slur on the efforts of the Red Cross in raising funds for such a tragic event.

Secondly if I had wanted to "Promote" National Shopping, I certainly wouldn't have done it to webmasters. I would have done a promotion campaign aimed at the average internet user.
I didn't.
National Shopping is in NO way gaining from the events in America.
The intention WAS & still IS to guide people if they do wish to donate to Red Cross, from anywhere in our site.
As to your remark about the visitors to my site.
Would you like me to pass that on to fasthosts & SS5 as I am sure they would love to hear that someone is saying that their LiveStats are falsified.
At NO time did I say that National Shopping was important to the UK's efforts to aid the USA.
All I said was that the banners were there for people to donate directly to Red Cross.
I suggest you try & read what people say more carefully.
Nothing was EVER claimed about being important, Just we were trying to help.
Is that now a crime too?
Please, explain for me? Why is it a crime to try & help the red cross using any means possible?

The "Cheap Tricks" that you stated. Where do they exist?
What have National Shopping got to gain from all this. Yeah I will admit maybe a few more visitors from this forum.
Whoopee!
The aim was never a traffic drive anyway.
We had nothing to gain at all.
Please tell me your URl I would love to see your efforts in all this, what exactly are you doing? Or are you limited to rants & preaching?
Please I would love to see your site & see what fellow webmasters are doing.
Before you slam other sites in their efforts. Take a look at yourself.
Least we are not sat down on our butts & preaching.
Least we are actively trying to help.
Before you even start about other ways of helping.
YES we ALL gave blood in Glasgow yesterday.
Are we going to be accused of gaining from that too?
Yes we did gain from it.
We got a lovely cuppa & three digestives. Is that a crime now?

13-09-01

You should have just provided a direct link to the red cross site. Whether you intended to or not, providing a link to your own site looks like you're trying to use the tragedy to publicise your site.

I've already received spam from people who are trying to 'cash in' on what happened.

13-09-01

Kev, Well I can promise you it was never our intention to try & cash in at all.
So if thats how it came across I apologise.

I have also recieved alot of spam, the difference being is that we , unlike the people sending spam, we are not asking for donations to be made to us, as some are.
If we didn't care we wouldn't have devoted such a large area of the site to this.
Once again many apologise to Kev & anyone else who was offended.

(All apart from Nick, my statement still stands there. GROW UP!)

:-))

14-09-01

I think National Shoppings intentions are very honourable. Remember it was not them that posted the initial link, what are people worried obout? - holistically there are far more important things to worry about...

Lets leave this thread as it stands can we and have some respect for what has happened.

Matthew.

14-09-01

"there are far more important things to worry about..."

Perfectly put. Regardless of the issues raised in this thread, let's give our thoughts to everyone affected, directly or otherwise, by the recent appalling events. I can barely keep my mind focused on anything work-related...

Might wanna lock this thread.