IAB Affiliate Council revised Voucher Code Guidelines

[dougs]

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Expired codes/offers of hand written content saying CLikc here....rellay there is no difference...Alsong as the content says what it is

Ultimately merchants will vote with theri feet and eventually deal with the people who they feel are working with them

Doug

[KieronD]

I'm sorry but the guidelines regarding expired discount codes are too woolly for my liking. It's great that Matt and people like Kevin say that they don't want to be too prescriptive etc etc. but I've just received an email from Webgains, part of which goes like this:

3. A valid code is defined as a code that has been legitimately issued by a merchant for your use online. This code will have an activation date and, where provided, a deactivation date. When a code has expired it must either be removed or the fact that it has expired must be clearly stated in writing, not simply by listing the expiry date.

So, as per my example right at the beginning of this thread, my site "simply lists the expiry dates". just like this:

Save 10% on all children’s books at Waterstones using discount code NA2738. Hurry though as this offer expires at midnight 23rd February 2009.

In my opinion that is perfectly legitimate as I'm not trying to deceive users or mislead them in any way. None of the text is too small or hidden. Likewise I don't force clicks either.

But...if I wasn't aware of this thread or a newbie I would panic as the above email makes me think I'm breaking the guidelines.

So my point is, if there is flexibility and all you want is for affiliates not to mislead the public then you need to reword the above and either (a) not be so prescriptive or (b) me more prescriptive so you cover all bases.

[Leeky]

Yesterday I was booted off a programme by a particular merchant, on asking for an explanation they said they blanket banned all discount code sites due to them being promoted with invalid codes.

As nobody makes up codes, invalid codes are codes which are no longer valid and the most widespread use of this has got to be expired codes.. which ARE invalid codes (for those who don't know was invalid mean, it means something which is NOT valid).

I replied to their email stating that we do not list expired codes and emailed our site urls, and within 5 mins we were re-instated with an apology, if I had not questioned their decision then those affiliates who choose to promote merchants via invalid codes are causing us and others loss of business... how many more merchants will blanket ban for this reason without us knowing?

Lee

[kier]

But...if I wasn't aware of this thread or a newbie I would panic as the above email makes me think I'm breaking the guidelines.

So my point is, if there is flexibility and all you want is for affiliates not to mislead the public then you need to reword the above and either (a) not be so prescriptive or (b) me more prescriptive so you cover all bases.

It is simply impossible to write a set of rules that covers every base and as Kevin says below to do so would be detrimental to the industry. I think you'll also agree that the IAB simply stating vague principles that enforcement will be based on with no concrete examples provided would be very tough too. I think the guidelines form a good balance between the two. In the instance you're discussing I don't think your site would fall foul either in terms of the specific wording (because you are not 'listing' the dates, but have them as part of a sentence which is pretty clear) you're discussing or the overall aim of the code which is quite clearly spelled out in the opening paragraphs.

[dougs]

Merchants blocking the use of exired codes is purely stupid. People will just create rubbish content to replace it

Doug

[Leeky]

Merchants blocking the use of exired codes is purely stupid. People will just create rubbish content to replace it

Doug

Replacing rubbish with rubbish is a bit pointless don't you think?, if individual affiliates decide to do this then it's their choice but it would only effect them and not other affiliates.

Lee

[dougs]

Its what people will do.....once code is expired it will be replaced with generic rubbish with merchants name in. If that happens then it does not have to state anything like "EXPIRED"

On a system like yours Leeky thats probably a neat little trick you could add in

Doug

[befuddle]

Yesterday I was booted off a programme by a particular merchant

You had a good day then. I was booted off by two

[Leeky]

Its what people will do.....once code is expired it will be replaced with generic rubbish with merchants name in. If that happens then it does not have to state anything like "EXPIRED"

On a system like yours Leeky thats probably a neat little trick you could add in

Doug

As you know we do have an editable generic message saying the [merchant] has no valid codes available, and also allow the ability to add real content to each page, but we do not and never have promoted expired codes containing out of date and useless info.

We make it possible for affiliates to add unique content, and we make it hard for the affiliates to promote with the use of expired codes, but obviously if the affiliate doesn't use our feed live and stores our feed in their own database then we cannot stop promotion of expired codes being used, but that would mean the affiliate is not using our service as it was designed for.

Lee

[Leeky]

You had a good day then. I was booted off by two

At the end of the day we all want to make money, and unless we get overly strict with ourselves then we are going to get booted off by merchants daily.. bending rules is great in the short term but in the long term its not so great.

If we did promote expired codes then we would have not got that merchant to re-instate our account.

Even if merchants were happy that we promoted them via expired codes I still wouldn't do it, before we had anything to do with voucher codes I went to a certain well known code site for a code to use myself and couldn't find the wood for the expired trees!

Lee

[dougs]

expired codes saying expired

useless info saying rubbish

What's the difference

Doug

[Leeky]

expired codes saying expired

useless info saying rubbish

What's the difference

Doug

A generic message saying "sorry but [merchant] currently does not have any voucher codes, but you can still visit the [merchant] site by clicking here" is not rubbish, its letting the visitor know straight away that we do not have what they are looking for for that merchant, yet gives them the option to visit it anyway.

Filling the page full of expired codes is wasting everyones time, confusing visitors, spammy, and hoping for the visitor to click through with the increased chance they do not notice the 'expired' text on a cluttered or rule bending site.

Lee

[dougs]

We are argueing over wording Lee

Here is something misleading:

Carrentals.co.uk UK Voucher Codes Carrentals.co.uk Discount Codes Carrentals.co.uk Discount Vouchers Carrentals.co.uk Promotional Codes - My Voucher Codes UK

Here is not:

Expedia Voucher Codes - Expedia Discount Voucher Codes

Doug

[Leeky]

We are not arguing over wordings though Doug, we are arguing over intentions.

We both know that 'expired codes' create keyword which are no longer valid and so still come up in search engines.. ie.. "10% discount on the samsung lcd tv at ASDA"

A visitor will search google for 'samsung lcd tv discount" and your 'expired page' may appear, the visitor has then wasted time going to your site because the code is INVALID, they may then still click through and buy the tv without using the discount code and you will get the commission.

The same visitor may have found a site with a valid offer of a discounted samsung tv and the owner of that site would have rightfully got the commission because they have took the time to find a valid offer.

With a generic message just saying "no discount codes available" will no longer contain those keywords and so will be indexed as such, and the visitor will have not wasted time searching for what they are looking for.

Listing expired codes is underhand and not good for anyone only your pocket.

Lee

[dougs]

code sites that pull their traffic from google are just taking money from the merchant in lots of cases anyway

stand back

Doug