First Direct Email

22-03-03

I am writing to inform you that first direct has suspended its pay for performance programme on Commission Junction. The programme will be live until Monday 21st April so please accept this letter as 30 days notice of suspension. We hope that this is a temporary measure, however we thought that as a publisher who makes a significant and valued contribution to first directs marketing efforts it would be only reasonable to explain the reasons behind this.

first direct has recently migrated its pay for performance programme from Tradedoubler to Commission Junction. In the last few days it has come to our attention that an individual, posing as a genuine Tradedoubler publisher, has been sending out bulk spam emails encouraging people to apply for a first direct bank account and therefore earn commission on behalf of this individual.

This is an extremely serious issue for first direct. No one likes spam. It is unsolicited, irrelevant, and annoying. No company would want to be associated with it and especially a trusted, customer focused company like first direct.

Until we are satisfied that procedures are in place to prevent this happening again, we have no choice but to suspend the programme. We hope that you will be patient with us during this period and would like to thank you for all the efforts that you have made on our behalf so far.

Yours sincerely,

Alex Jeffries
Agent on behalf of first direct

22-03-03

translated does this really read as

"One person sent spam e-mail with our program in it so we are closing down the program"

???

22-03-03

What a shame - I love this program (why cant more affiliate programs perform this well?).

I don't quite get the comments referencing someome 'posing as a TD affiliate' nor understand why they are suspending the whole program rather than just closing the spammers account.

*hopes* it's just a knee jerk reaction and CJ talk them around before the 30 days expires!

22-03-03

Hasn't it finished oN TD yet anyway?

22-03-03

Nope still on TD at this time. It's a bit of a worry that a good program that has been excellent, is going to shut down because of one bad apple.

If you see an affiliate spamming, report them to the network, spamming is just not on and look what happens when folk get away with it, we all lose out. For me it will be a huge blow in income, with no one half decent to replace them at present.

22-03-03

It's a shame that it's closing/suspending but the program seems to have had problems since it's move to CJ and it does seem odd to close the program based simply on this one incident.

Surely all you do is remove the affiliate involved and let it be known to others that that's what you do when the rules are busted?

Dunno... these things just make the lives of genuine affiliates working hard in this game just a tad bit harder.

Jason

22-03-03

Doesn't this thread link in with the affiliate union thread?

I can totally understand first directs problem as CJ (and affiliate networks in general) have no way to stop spammers. These things tend to go right to the top, MD's etc rather than lower level people so they wont understand the principles of affiliate marketing.

If someone really wants to spam they can and it gives all of us a bad reputation as affiliate marketing is seen a bunch of scammers.

How about we approach first direct and convince them to implement a walled garden in the interim period with only selected affiliates allowed to participate?

22-03-03

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>How about we approach first direct and convince them to implement a walled garden in the interim period with only selected affiliates allowed to participate?[/quote]

As long as I'm inside then yes.

24-03-03

Has First Direct disappeared now ?

25-03-03

Hi Everyone

The move to Commission Junction was to enable FD to have a tighter control over their program. Unfortunately, this incident with spamming has come at a time when the program was just starting to take shape. We agree that one bad apple should not spoil it for everyone and are working hard to convince the parties involved that working with known Publishers in a controlled manner will prevent this from happening in the future. Unfortuntately, companies no longer accept that these things happen, so we need to ensure that there are tight restrictions - hence the recent changes to their program terms. Bare with us while we try and assure this client that the recent changes were the right steps to protecting them from spamming activity.

I can assure you all that we are trying to resolve the situation ASAP.

We will keep you posted

Nicky Iapino

25-03-03

Good stuff Nicky, please tell me you kicked the spammer out that is jeopardising not only mine but other peoples substantial monthly income. First Direct is a great program; we don’t need idiots spoiling it for everyone.

25-03-03

Agreed Clarke, it is a superb earner for us. It's not my best performing banking/cc merchant, but it'd be a real shame to lose this. I don't have that many merchants with an EPC of $165.