WH Smith Partners Programme.

Just logged into WH Smith and my payment and stats are showing as zero. I reached the £50 threshold a few months ago but have never been paid anything.

Has anybody else had their stats go missing, and has anybody ever actually been paid by WH Smith?

Mark.
clickprofits.cjb.net
Affiliate Program Reviews
Mark.
clickprofits.cjb.net
Affiliate Program Reviews

Hi Mark,

We've been getting paid for WHSmith and their predecessor, the Internet Bookshop, for over three years. They pay a fair amount of commission: 10% which is excellent for a household name company in the UK. Beats the 2% of other high street retailers.

Only problem is their payments are often late and you have to chase them up.

Plus, like you the online tracking section has not been showing sales/commission for the last few months. Steve Leeming, the affiliate manager (a wonderful guy), has told us WHSmith are working on it. I just wish they'd hurry up - a few months of not being able to see your stats. is not acceptable.

Thanks and welcome to the forums! Still no stats for me either and no cheque - chasing them up is on my 'to do' list! (And several other late/non payers) I'm sure they will pay eventually, I just prefer it when it's 'automatic'! Don't supppose you have a direct e-mail for the Steve Leeming fella you mentioned, as it would speed things up. Do I need to invoice them?

Mark.

"online tracking section has not been showing sales/commission for the last few months"

Litamania I havent seen my online stats workin for almost 2 years now.... steve did mention to me about guinea piggying some new software they had in mind (which I would have loved to have seen) but nothing as yet.

Mark:

Steve.Leeming@whsmithonline.co.uk

He's very good and usually replies within about three days. I'm not sure if one has to invoice them or not! There was a period when WHSmith required invoicing, but for the last few quarters we've received our cheque (usually late!) without an invoice.

Let me know if you have any joy getting your money.

Chris:

The lack of stats. for affiliates is a huge problem at WHSmith and that is a major deterrent to them picking up more affiliates. Sometimes it seems that just you and us are the only affiliates who push them seriously We'd promote them even more if their stats. worked.

The online affiliate tracking stats. at Bookshop.co.uk, you're right haven't been working for two years.

But here's a neat trick I've got for you:

Click on 'Become a Partner' on the WHSmith.co.uk homepage (navigation bar on left). Then click on 'Your Account'. Can't hotlink to this section from this messageboard for some reason.

Enter the email address you are using as an affiliate at bookshop.co.uk and password.

Then click on payment displays.

*Usually* these stats are up-to-date and show your sales at the Internet Bookshop network of sites (inc. CDParadise etc.) + WHSmith.co.uk

However, ours have not been updated since November 2001.

At least they're more up to date than the ones at the affiliate section of bookshop.co.uk which, as you say, haven't been working since about the Millennium

Good luck Chris!

P.S. Don't know whereabouts in London you are based, Chris, but if you can tear yourself away from your PC and want to meet for a coffee let me know. It'd be a pleasure to meet up - and maybe we could bounce some ideas off each other...

Nadeem
Dot Com Domain Names - ALL domain names are half price until 14 February - you'll love 'em! :smokin:

I've mentioned it to Steve b4 that I myself would promote smithies more if there was someway of seeing how effective the traffic I was sending there way was ... its all fine having a nice little check each month but if you cant see which methods are working the best for you then you cant judge things ...

nahh that little trick isnt workin for me Nadeem..

1855494981 1 £17.59 £1.76 £4,953.47
0393020231 1 £24.79 £2.48 £4,955.95
0385302312 1 £11.23 £1.12 £4,957.07
5281252 1 £12.99 £1.30 £4,958.37

Approx No. Payments Pending: 5085 Commission : 10% Total Balance Due : £4,958.37

Should be at least 10x as much

I think it ws just before or after xmas that steve mentioned that where in talks with a third party affiliate management company and I was quite chuffed that he asked me to be a "guinea pig" however it dos'nt look like that will be happening now, which is a great shame.

As for invoices, I never get a payment if I dont send in one, which I dont see why theres a need for this... last time I just sent them an email saying forward this amount which is all i'll think I'll do in future.

Have to say, Smithies are loosing a fortune for not gearing there program to the same level as Amazon, I can make 4-6 times as much from Amazon on half the traffic I send to Smithies and this is mainly because I cant see how effective my methods are with smithes.

Anywayz i'm seriously thinking my efforts might be more rewarding on the other side of the fence... I've got a new project underway which is a webhosting company and I should be able to put a nice little affiliate package together.


Have to have that coffee sometime m8!

BTW Mark, I think most of the payment problems are due to staff changing at Smithies... When Sarah was doing the accounts there always used to get my monies every month with out fail. Its not so much they dont want to pay you (unlike other affiliate programs around) but more that theres too little staff in the affiliate dept. considering the large amount of affiliates they have. (although they state they have 10,000 affiliates I think there only represented by 2 :O)

I have dropped smiths due to lack of reporting. That was why I dropped audiostreet too.

As you say amazon reporting is excellent. I would go back to audiostreet though if they could get similar reporting as I found there customer service excellent and prices used to always be lower.

I must admit that I've had it with WHS and am now going to give them the push. We made a big effort in November to promote them and it was bad enough working with minimal reporting, but now none at all.

It's like trying to work in the dark.

On a brighter note, I have been talking to Streets Online in recent weeks. They are about to outsource their affiliate program to one of the networks. I believe they have been talking to at least 2 or possibly 3 of the networks here in the UK so it will be interesting to see what gives.

Thanks for info on audiostreet keep us posted on the news they might join one of the affiliate programs

Audiostreet dont track... Ive lost hundreds with then.

Toby the only way I can track my smithies links is by seeing how large the cheque is I get at the end of the month, which is hardly a good way. Theres no way I can improve on my links or search terms effectively.

Having said that I ve been with smithies for maybe 5 years now and I've always made good money. Infact this one program has paid for my mortgage each month. So cant complain 2 much.

Yeah audiostreet must have taken loads off me over the years.
Only recently gone back to amazon after being with them first 4 years ago.

Excellent reporting, and with your scripts aquanuke have had superb results.

Aquanuke, I guess I've become so used to working with stats now, and that combined with a reasonable level of distrust with merchants that are obviously not too concerned about making a commitment to their affiliate program, starts to give me the heeby jeebies.

We've been with WHS for about 3 years and was reasonably comfortable with just seeing the sales show up on the account was okay. But you have to wonder when a company like that paid £10m for what was the Intenet Bookshop, and can't even be bothered to fix their tracking.

I worked with WHS for a while in another area. We had a 2 year supply contract with them which they broke after 9 months. It was really unbelievable what goes on behind the scenes there. It was a real "bunch of monkeys" affair. People arrived at 9 in the morning and went home at 5 and nobody gave a toss about anything. It's no wonder they can't ever make a profit.

I've tried contacting several times in the last month, but they simply can't be bothered to return calls. So I don't know.