My iTunes Affiliate program saga continues...

[foxtucker]

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[forgive typos - it's 3am]

Regular Affiliates4U Forum readers may already be aware of my issues is the past regarding the iTunes Affiliate Program that's managed by TradeDoubler. If not, just search the forums for "iTunes".

I've made a number of posts regarding my disappointing experience with the iTunes program. Yesterday the light at the end of the tunnel was turned on. I've created this post, and will update the progress of my saga as I go along.

It's a little ironic that I'd given up on the iTunes program weeks ago, and yet I've spent the last few months working on iPhone / iPod Touch / iTunes Webapps & sites. The Google adsense stuff is really paying off since the launch of the new app store. Check out thumblounge.com for iPhone for the list of my most recent iPhone activities.

So here's where I'm at:

On Monday I received a telephone call from a publisher account manager at TradeDoubler.

On Tuesday another chap phoned. The actual affiliate manager employed by iTunes GB, named Grant Little.

Grant Little had taken the time to call me. I have to admit that I was a more than a little impressed.

My wife spends loads on iTunes, since I got her an iPhone 3G. It was bad enough with her old iPod Classic, now she can buy from iTunes 24/7. Doh!

After we spent 30 minutes or so chatting about my concerns, we established...

1. That we DO get paid on sales of the new iPhone/iPod Touch Apps.
2. That the dynamic updated "Free iTunes Single" creative will be updated each week, without fail.

Also, of great interest to me was whether sales referred via the 'Wireless App Store' and 'Wireless Music Store' that's pre-installed on the iPhone/iPod Touch would also be tracked. I really am getting incredible numbers of visitors to my iPhone Webapps.

[Oh just a quickie. I've been playing around with the new AdMob iPhone tools for both publishers and advertisers. They're rubbish, and I mean entirely, utterly and unreservedly ineffective for both advertisers and publishers. Ive written up my findings at http://www.doipod.com/ipod/iphone_webapp_marketing/]

Back to iTunes GB...

So, would referrals from my iPhone webapps to the wireless stores on the iPhone be tracked. The answer was yes, the tracking for the wireless stores is in place, but there's a potential issue with the iPhone safari brower & TD's redirect, that was being worked on.

I ran a some tests and the issue didn't present itself. It looks like it's working. I phoned Grant Little straight back to let him know the resulst of my tests.

So where am I at right now?

I'm waiting on TD's stats to show the two sales I got an independent 3rd party to make. It looks like TD is showing the correct commission for the sales, but it's only showing up one sale.

I sent an email to Grant yesterday to try and figure out what's going right and what's going wrong, if anything. I'll keep you posted.

[grantlittle]

As I mentioned on the phone, please be aware that iTunes sales are reported to TradeDoubler in batches. It will take 7 days for all sales to track and be reported by TradeDoubler.

Tools for linking to iTunes here.
App Store links here.
Sign up to the iTunes affiliate programme here.

[foxtucker]

As I mentioned on the phone, please be aware that iTunes sales are reported to TradeDoubler in batches. It will take 7 days for all sales to track and be reported by TradeDoubler.

Aha, I never knew that all sales were batched. I thought it was just the gift certificates. My mistake Grant.

It does bugger up my tests. I'll never know if the specific test purchases were tracked, they'll just be lumped in with others sales.

[foxtucker]

Talk about "rubbing salt in to the wounds" LOL - I just logged in to TD and apparently I made 9 sales on Wednesday, with a total value of £17,900 - That's a shed load of songs for just 9 people to purchase. The commission came in over £700. I'm pretty confident that it's an error

Bugger!

[TD Georgie]

Hi FoxTucker,

There are currently some reporting issues that mean that you would have been allocated the incorrect level of commission.

We are looking into this issue and aim to rectify it as soon as possible.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to email me (Gemma.Clarke@TradeDoubler.com)

Thanks for your patience,

Regards,

Gemma.

[foxtucker]

We're getting there. Early stats from my activities with iTunes USA via Linkshare show that there's definitely some cash to be made from the new iPhone / iPod Touch Apps.

Unlike TradeDoubler, I've not had it confirmed by LinkShare, that referrals to the Wireless App Store (installed on the iPhone/iPod Touch) are tracked. I'm guess that they are. My sales indicate that is the case.

I'm waiting on the batch reports from iTunes GB via Tradedoubler, before I can comment on how that's going in tyhe UK.

Working with iTunes USA/Linkshare is a bit of a nightmare when trying to link to an individual App in the iTunes Store. You have to go through a 'linkmaker' process for each of the 1000 or so products. The 'multi-linkmaker' is broken

Whereas TD make it dead easy. It's a standard link with just the PID changing for each app. Very Nice!

At te top of my wishlist from both TD and Linkshare, is an RSS feed for the Apps that I can generate to include my affiliate id's.

iTunes GB have one in the works, and LinkShare insist that they have one already available, but neither I or two other LS affiliates I'm in touch with can seem to find it.

So, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned on, and at this point I am fairly convinced that it's not an oncoming train.

Good Stuff.

[foxtucker]

As I mentioned on the phone, please be aware that iTunes sales are reported to TradeDoubler in batches. It will take 7 days for all sales to track and be reported by TradeDoubler.

That's the problem with batch reporting. I've bust my arse for 5 days on this, and still I haven't a clue if it's paying off.

[hobbsy]

My TradeDoubler control panel reported a sale on iTunes worth over £50,000 last week - giving approx £2,000 comission. Unfortunately it looks to have been an error and was removed ... ah well

[foxtucker]

So here's my final update regarding the iTunes App Store.

The iTunes GB affiliate program (through Tradedoubler) and the iTunes USA affiliate program (through linkshare) are generating me more commission than I expected, but not quite enough to make it worth my time and effort.

This will change when the 'affiliated' rss feeds for the iTunes App Store are made available through Tadedoubler and Linkshare, but I have no idea if or when these will be made available.

I'll keep my eyes open for any information on their launch, but I've wasted nearly 3 weeks getting to this stage, so I have to move on/back to more profitable activities.

Thanks to Grant at iTunes GB / Linda at iTunes USA and Gemma at Tradedoubler, for putting up with me for the last 2 and a half weeks.

The party begins when the RSS feeds launch!

[woobert]

Quick question that I can't for the life of me find out anywhere and linkshare/apple simply don't reply to my questions...

I'm a linkshare/itunes affiliate and I recently posted lots of download links to my own iPhone app ooTunes Radioon the iTunes store (so I know exactly how many sales I have, and pretty well how many I am referring!)

Anyway, all the clicks are showing up in my linkshare reports, but it shows 0 sales (and I know that to be false!)

So do the actual sales get reported in batches after some delay, and if so, how long is the delay and what is the frequency of them getting reported (it's been almost a week, > 700 clicks and still 0 sales!)

Thanks for any insight!
Steve

So here's my final update regarding the iTunes App Store.

The iTunes GB affiliate program (through Tradedoubler) and the iTunes USA affiliate program (through linkshare) are generating me more commission than I expected, but not quite enough to make it worth my time and effort.

This will change when the 'affiliated' rss feeds for the iTunes App Store are made available through Tadedoubler and Linkshare, but I have no idea if or when these will be made available.

I'll keep my eyes open for any information on their launch, but I've wasted nearly 3 weeks getting to this stage, so I have to move on/back to more profitable activities.

Thanks to Grant at iTunes GB / Linda at iTunes USA and Gemma at Tradedoubler, for putting up with me for the last 2 and a half weeks.

The party begins when the RSS feeds launch!