I have just been reading a thread on the Affiliates4u forum started by Jess Luthi P3P does it matter any more? which is very worrying this quote from Jess stood out:

… 9 out of 10 merchants site who dont have P3P but who have an affiliate program, I could not add a product to the basket

As I commented on that thread it is yet another reason for shopping cart abandonment, which equals less sales for merchant, less commission for affiliates and less override for networks.

For the record the other posts where I have touched on shopping card abandonment are here
Christmas is coming checkout your checkouts and Why do people abandon online shopping baskets?

I’ve blogged about this in the past however it must have got lost during the recent blog migration

Is it just me that is fed up with the standard Commission Junction deactivated advertiser email?

You have received this email because one or more of the advertisers you are affiliated with in the Commission Junction network has recently been temporarily deactivated.

Why CJ just can’t let us know who the merchant is, what the problem is it would save a lot of logging on and searching for the report.

And another thing when the merchant is reactivated why don’t affiliates get notified? Surely it makes sense in order to get links back live on affiliate websites.

Take a moment Commission Junction to review your communications procedures, you may find that a whole load of potential super affiliates will take more notice of what you have to offer.

Oh while I’m in moaning mode in the UK what CJ term an advertiser is a merchant and a publisher is an affiliate.

Commission leakage has always been around but it used to be a bit more subtle like a mile high flashing free phone number, now some retailers have plumbed new depths in the bid to avoid paying commissions.

On the back of the news from certain mobile phone outlets that any iPhones sold via affiliate links if copy has not been approved will not be eligible for commission, (come on what if we are simply promoting something else and the customer buys one by mistake), we are now seeing the worrying trend from some big name electrical retailers that no commission will be paid on the Wii console.

Imagine if it happened in a high street store.

Manager “Have you got a minute Jones?”

Jones “Certainly sir”

Manager “I’m afraid you won’t be getting paid for the last half hour while you served that last gentleman”

Jones “Why is that Sir? the customer purchased an Apple iPhone (or Wii)”

Manager “Well you see Jones he came into the shop through the wrong door”

I’m sure you agree that there would be total uproar, mutiny in the ranks, so why on earth should it be allowed to happen in affiliate marketing?

If you came here looking for a Wii stockist Amazon had some last time I looked.

Being a one person business my time is extremely precious and when I get the many emails from affiliate networks and merchants (oh and please don’t send them all on a Friday afternoon things get missed) I tend to skip through them highlighting those that maybe I can use, then go back through them actioning them often choosing the easiest to handle first so I get more pages up.

The ideal communication has among other things:

• Plenty of text which I can rewrite as unique content
• Deep links to the various items and offers mentioned in the email.
• My affiliate code already inserted in the above mentioned deep links.

This email received today for Cloggs via Webgains sent by Mark Russell of Existem-am has it all.

Great Brands, Great Prices For Christmas: “Ho Ho Ho” said santa to the elves, look at these boots that have just flown in on Rudolph express. Want comfort and style? Look no further than the Ugg Australia Boots for Christmas. Or a classic Dr Martens boot is the perfect Christmas accompaniment. How about these Rockport Boots, the most known of the range, the classic Mweka in black and silver is a must for any fashion conscious lad for Christmas. Dont forget Skechers that come in loads of colours and styles like Skechers – Bikers – Tinseltown – Bronze, Skechers – Bikers Untamed – Tan / Brown and Skechers – Bikers Scenster Waterlily – Brown the choice is yours just dont forget to put them on your Christmas list before they sell out. Until 3rd December: Your exclusive discount code is CMAS10 Exclusively for you, We are offering 10% Off any product in our Christmas Shop. Orders must be placed before 3rd of December 2007. We are not promoting this on our website so this offer is EXCLUSIVE. So get your Christmas present buying off to an early start and don’t forget, there’s free UK Delivery on all our Rockport and Timberland too! How do I claim my discount? Redeem in Order Summary page by clicking on the link in the Additional Services section above the payment option box. Input “CMAS10“ and enjoy 10% off your order Gift Ideas For Her! Click the gift box to view even more gift ideas for Her Gift Ideas For Him! Click the gift box to view even more gift ideas for Him Gift Ideas for Kids! Click the gift box to view even more gift ideas for the Kids Last Order Dates Outside Europe – Friday 7th December European – Wednesday 12th December Standard UK – Tuesday 18th December Express UK – Thursday 20th December Why not take advantage of our Extended Christmas Returns Policy? Any items ordered between now and our last order date can be returned as late as January 19th 2008! Click here to go to our Homepage Click Here to go to our Timberland Section Click Here to go to our Rockport Section Click Here to go to our Converse Section Click Here to go to our New Rock Section Click Here to go to our Dr Martens Section Click Here to go to our Merrell Section Click Here to go to our Ugg Section

So please take note, merchants and networks, the more effort you put in providing your affiliates with information etc the more likely it is to be used.

One question I often get asked by newcomers is how do I write unique content, sometimes this question comes after they have been penalised by the search engines for duplicate content.

There is no definitive answer however here is one method I have been known to use.

Take the content that you are sent by merchants and networks in newsletters and make it your own, for example checking recent emails one merchant had some copy which included the following paragraph:

Waiting for the Christmas rush, take care of your customers and give them great opportunities to start their Christmas shopping the best way!

Now I could just reproduce that on my web page however it is highly likely this may be done by several affiliates, also it may be on the merchant website and possibly even posted on a forum and published in a blog (well it is now), Google will eventually get round to indexing many of these very similar pages and there is no guarantee which one it will chose as original source. Best thing to do if you want to use this content is rewrite it and make it your own, here is (in true Blue Peter tradition) one I made earlier:

Expecting Christmas shopping to go ballistic, look after your clients by giving them plenty of fantastic chances to begin buying gifts in the easiest possible way.

You can take as much or little time as you like doing this but the end result is a piece of unique content which is your very own to publish on your website.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not literary wizard with an extensive vocabulary I use the tools available, my bible is the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, I also use a number of online Thesauruses, and when in a hurry its often easiest to google a word as you get this in the blue bar at the top of the page:

Results 1 – 10 of about 19,500,000 for Thesaurus [definition] with Safesearch on. (0.21 seconds)

Click on [definition] to get a hat full of ideas.

Hope this gives you a starter for ten on content writing, quick tip before I finish, remember to pepper the content with the keywords you want the page to rank for, pointless writing a page about ‘bionic snowmen’ if you forget to add ‘bionic snowmen’ somewhere in the copy.