Affiliate Marketing Time For Action

Author: Keith

24 Jan

In the main affiliate marketing is a fabulous industry to be in, most of the people involved are friendly and helpful often above and beyond the call of duty, however like everything else in life there are a few bad apples in the barrel, people who don’t want to play by the rules, people who don’t merely bend the rules but totally smash through them with the attitude sod the rules they don’t apply to us. Why should the entire affiliate marketing channel suffer because of a few rogues?

I’m not picking on one sector of the industry, PPC, voucher, cashback and content are all viable business models, and they all add to the user experience in their own different ways, but each area has an element that disregards the rules and they should be stamped upon.

You can spend forever taking about the problems but now its time to talk about solutions.

At the end of the day the onus on sorting out the rule breakers should not be on the merchant (unless they run an indy program) or groups of vigilante affiliates, no the action needs to be taken by the affiliate networks, they are the ones who should have the information at hand to see what is going on and the authority to do something about it.

I’m not saying that the networks are not already on the case, I’m sure they are, however examples of terms and conditions being broken abound so what I am saying is not enough is being done at this present moment in time, how long do we have to wait to see some justice handed out to the perpetrators?

There is a series of actions that can be taken, a warning should be given to first time offenders with a full explanation to what they are doing wrong and if necessary a helping hand to get them back on track, repeat offenders should be suspended for a period of time from the entire network, not just the merchant whose terms they have disregarded, after a suspension period has been served any further rule breaking should result in a permanent ban.

Networks should work together on this matter too, compile a blacklist and distribute it amongst themselves, this should help prevent playing a game of virtual pass the parcel.

No doubt much of the above is going on and in the main the networks do a sterling job as does the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council, however if we are ever going to have an industry where affiliates can compete on a level playing field ITS TIME FOR ACTION TO BE TAKEN and for it to be seen to be taken as a warning to others who are beginning to jump on the bandwagon with the attitude if you can’t beat them join them.

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Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

9 Responses for "Affiliate Marketing Time For Action"

Matt Bailey January 24th, 2009 at 2:50 pm 1
Great post Keith, and I agree with the sentiment. However, for the networks it’s not as easy as just deciding that something is wrong and kicking people off the network.

From a legal perspective you have to be 100% certain that you are covered when taking any decisions like this or you face the prospect of being sued. Even when you know affiliates are doing something dodgy it is a long process to remove them from the network.

However, as I say, the sentiment behind your post is spot on and hopefully, as part of the IAB’s council, we are working towards safeguarding the future of the industry. I would urge more people to get involved in the council, as the health of affiliate marketing affects all of us.
Mary January 24th, 2009 at 2:51 pm 2
Hi Keith,

Whilst I think you are correct that there is an unsavoury element to every market, however making up rules and having everyone follow them will probably never work because rules are meant to be broken. And the UK affiliate marketing is just to vast to try and control also who makes up the rules?
Keith January 24th, 2009 at 4:18 pm 3
Matt thanks for the reply, I’m not suggesting that networks take a gung-ho approach and go about it all guns blazing, I appreciate the need for tact and diplomacy hence my suggestion of a 3 pronged system, the point is some people have been taking a lot of liberties without apparently being taken to task, if my suggestion was implemented they would be given the chance to get their house in order without the need for anything as drastic as a total ban.
Keith January 24th, 2009 at 4:19 pm 4
Very cynical Mary
Duncan Popham (1 comments.) January 24th, 2009 at 8:12 pm 5
Timely post, its been a funny time on the forum lately with accusations from various quarters aimed at other affiliates, network staff and other parties. I think,to be fair that action taken on Voucher Codes was not taken swiftly enough but the action taken has made an impact (and certainly generated debate!) the first major regulatory measure from the IAB AMC will, I am sure lead to further cross network regulations with cross network policing solutions.
I feel that significant industry wide change on rule breaking and non ethical promotion will happen this year as, as Matt rightly points out above the Health of the industry affects us all.
Barry (1 comments.) January 25th, 2009 at 12:02 am 6
I think every town has a pub watch scheme where pubs and businesses choose to distribute the names, pictures and profiles of trouble makers among themselves to protect their worker and customers.

I see no difference in networks sharing the information of people who abuse the system. Plus to protect themselves further surely a disclaimer in the sign-up procedure of a network that states that anybody found breaking the terms and conditions given will have their identities passed to other networks within the scheme for the protection of the industry.

Ta

Baz
Bob (1 comments.) January 26th, 2009 at 3:07 pm 7
I don’t get the legal comment re: networks kicking affiliates off and needing to be 100% certain of infringement.

Seems rather odd to be able to refuse the original application for no reason at all, but then not being able to remove an affiliate without a long process.

So there’s a strict legal contract somewhere ?
Perhaps someone should change the wording – after all most of us have nothing to fear.
John Ayres (1 comments.) January 26th, 2009 at 5:09 pm 8
Nice thoughtful post Keith.
In my personal view, a merchant offers a commission to affiliates for incremental sales brought to fruition by the efforts of the affiliate.
When any affiliate by whatever means, engineers the stealing of a merchants existing sales the agreement is at an end and the affiliate should be banned from all programs if they persist in such behaviour.
If affiliate sales are not additional sales, what is the point in paying affiliates? please don’t answer that otherwise they direct your traffic to your competitor, that used to be called a protection racket.
Ash (1 comments.) January 26th, 2009 at 6:14 pm 9
Do Networks T&C’s and the data protection act allow networks to share affiliates details, in the form of a blacklist as you suggest?