Red5 Links Now Redirect To Keloo, Are You Having A Laugh?

[MollyHunter]

Tweet

So all of the links on our site that we setup through webgains for Red5 now redirect through to Kelkoo...

Can someone explain?

Molly

[Andrew Copeland]

Hi Molly,

I'm not sure if you've received the communications sent by us earlier but the Red5 program closed on Webgains earlier today I'm afraid. In an effort to ensure that consumers received a wider choice of product, rather than redirecting traffic to another Webgains merchant, we have redirected the clicks to Kelkoo who offer a number of products.

Unfortunately, Red5 is an exceptional case as we normally are able to offer 30 days notice to affiliates to change their links to another merchant in the case of a program closure. In this case, we did not receive the usual notice for closure I'm afraid.

Normally, after a program has closed, very little (if any) traffic comes through for them as affiliates have either swapped links to an alternative merchant or to another network if the program has reopened elsewhere.

In the email communication you would have received from us earlier, we've outlined suggestions for alternative programs to promote on the Webgains network. If you have any questions, please do get in touch.

Please accept our apologies for the lack of closure notice in this case. We do our best to ensure we can give affiliates enough notice to make the required changes to your links but it's not always possible.

If you would like to discuss any of the above, please contact me directly and I'll do all I can to help.

[Paul Smith]

Thanks Andrew, that would explain it.

For reference we recieved no such email and would have expected to see a notice on these forums if a programme was closing on such a short notice to ensure the message gained maximum exposure to affected affiliates?

It's pretty poor to go to our site and find that none of our posts now make any sense because your redirecting our links through to kelkoo, which makes us no money and delivers an appalling customer experience to our users.

Really poorly handled guys.

[Andrew Copeland]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. We've definitely taken it on board and will do our best to ensure that a) we get as much notice to affiliates as possible and b) if we can't we use as many communications channels as possible to ensure that you're notified.

Hopefully, we'll only have to use option A and not very often

[Jeff]

In an effort to ensure that consumers received a wider choice of product, rather than redirecting traffic to another Webgains merchant, we have redirected the clicks to Kelkoo who offer a number of products.

Will Webgains or the affiliate be earning commission from these links to Kelkoo?


I've just been told that links on one of my sites to a merchant that closed some time ago (Kickback sports) are redirecting to Kelkoo.

I am not happy at all about this.



I consider Kelkoo to be a competitor and don't want any links on my sites to them.
If a merchant has closed I'd rather see a list of similar merchants, a "this item is no longer available" message, or a redirect to a search page on my own site.
The system used by POR, that allows affiliates to choose what to do with clicks to dead merchants is ideal for this kind of situation.

While most of my links are generated automatically from product feeds, I do have a lot that are hard coded and it would be impractical to remove them all.


I have never received any communication from Webgains to say they will be redirecting dead links in this way.

[Jeff]

In an effort to ensure that consumers received a wider choice of product, rather than redirecting traffic to another Webgains merchant, we have redirected the clicks to Kelkoo who offer a number of products.

Did you really do it in the interests of consumers?
Or did you do it to earn commission from Kelkoo?

The webgains redirected links to Kelkoo are Kelkoo affiliate links, with the affiliate ID 96939066.

Were you planning to pass commission you earn from this to the affiliates, or hoping no one noticed what you were doing so you could keep it for yourselves?

[MollyHunter]

I doubt affiliates will ever see commission from the kelkoo setup and I don't agree with the "Normally, after a program has closed, very little (if any) traffic comes through" comment because in cases like this you didn't even inform your affiliates, I haven't recieved any email whatsoever so if we hadn't noticed, the links would still be up.

What's more I highly doubt that on the day Red5 launch with AW they contact you and tell you they're not going to work with you anymore and you let them go without any notice period? Are you honestly suggesting that you allow your merchants to leave with 0 days notice?

It isn't like Red5 have gone into administration is it? They're still trading, I'm presuming there must be a contract there that isn't being honoured so who takes the brunt? Oh the affiliates take it again with an atrociously handled closure from webgains.

[Andrew Copeland]

Hi all,

Thanks for your comments. It appears that some affiliates haven’t received the closure notification for the Red5 program so I’ve included it below for clarification.

We do try as hard as possible to give affiliates enough notice of program closures to change/remove their links. However, this situation is unique in that we had to act immediately for the reasons outlined by the merchant below.

Regarding the Kelkoo redirect, this is currently a trial to determine the viability of sending traffic to a chosen partner. The introduction of this trial follows affiliate complaints where links were being redirected to merchants who no longer existed, or to a Webgains holding page, and the customer journey was therefore adversely affected by going to a dead page.

We also have had negative comments when we have redirected traffic to another merchant in the same sector in order to prolong affiliate earnings from the traffic.

I think this is a good opportunity to put the question out to the wider affiliate audience and ask you what you would like to do with closed program traffic?

We’re very interested to hear your thoughts.

In the meantime, we’ve taken on board your suggestions regarding communications and have built into our closure process a rule to ensure affiliates are made aware of where closed program traffic will go.

In the case of Red5, I’ve redirected the traffic back to the merchant until affiliates have had a chance to change their links.

If you have any further suggestions, please do let us know as we’re continually looking for ways to improve our network and your feedback is invaluable.

Red5 Closure Email:

“Dear ^^^affiliate first name^^^

Unfortunately we have had to close the RED5 affiliate program with immediate effect. Please see a note below from RED5 explaining the reason why:

‘As I'm sure you are aware RED5 launched our new website on Monday 4th July. The new site has been completely redeveloped from scratch and includes much more functionality (such as stored credit cards and a revamped My Account section) as well as improved navigation and search. The aim is to make the site easy to use for our customers which in turn will increase conversion and we hope basket size. We are already seeing great results. We will be developing the site further over the coming months.

You may also have noticed that no sales have tracked on your account since the 3rd July. As with all big development jobs there is always one thing that goes wrong and in this case with much regret it was getting the Webgains tracking code in place in time for launch. As we were planning to switch affiliate networks in a few weeks time anyway we will not be reinstating the tracking code, however we will be compensating individual affiliates. Compensation will be calculated based on any sales made between the 21st and 3rd July and paid through your Webgains account.

I would like to thank Webgains for their professional and helpful attitude in dealing with this and once again we apologise to all affiliates who have been promoting RED5 via Webgains and been affected by this. Silverbean will no longer be managing the account so please contact me directly if you have any questions.

Kate - Affiliate Manager RED5
affiliates@ tghp.co.uk
0203 176 4560’

Alternative merchants for you to promote include:
FireStar Toys
Gadgets.co.uk
Hawkins Bazaar
Science Museum Shop”

[Jeff]

I think this is a good opportunity to put the question out to the wider affiliate audience and ask you what you would like to do with closed program traffic?

This is what some other networks do:

Affiliate Window allows affiliates to redirect the traffic to a url of the affiliate's choice.

Paid on results allows affiliates to select from one of the following:
Display the standard Expired Merchant page with related Merchant links.
Display my own Customised Expired Merchant page
Continue to redirect to the Merchant as normal (no commission will be paid)
Redirect to my own URL

Tradedoubler redirects to a page with the message "The advertiser is not active." and a link to the Tradedoubler home page.

Buy.at redirect to the network home page.

Affiliate Future redirect to a page with a selection of alternative merchants.




Any of those would be preferable to what Webgains are doing at the moment.

My preference would be to redirect to a url of my choice.

[Andrew Copeland]

Cheers Jeff, that is very helpful.

Molly/Paul: do you have any preferences?

[Paul Smith]

Hi Andrew

I personally don't think you can go wrong if you let the affiliate choose where to redirect too, would be a great improvement

Paul

[Andrew Copeland]

Thanks Paul.

We're in the process of re-evaluating now so will take all suggestions on board.