No Fun For Affiliates

Twice in one afternoon I’ve heard affiliates say that affiliate marketing is not as fun or enjoyable as it once was. The first affiliate (we’ll call them Affiliate X) said in in response to his battles with networks not playing fair, and the second came from John who runs the excellent NetFreeStuff site. He has formally announced his retirement on a4uforum and his honest declaration of his reasons plus the other affiliate’s problem with networks does offer food for thought.

In some ways I envy John’s position (apart from the fact he’s a Plymouth supporter.. just goes to show you can’t have it all) and wish him well - but is the fun still there at Loquax? The last couple of days it hasn’t that’s for sure. Server issues, phpBB upgrades resulting in an 8 hour recode of the site late into the night, followed by a four hour wait for our ISP to sort out a reboot issue isn’t exactly day to day fun!

However, the site is now running and all seems to be well - so we’re back to the day to day task of running Loquax (or Loquax Ltd to encompass the various sites). And whilst admittedly I feel shattered and thankfully holiday time is imminent, well yes the fun is still there.

Each day there’s new things to do - there is the laborious and tedious updating of the competition details - but we get to interact with our users, share in their wins, have fun with the duck holiday, and put up links for affiliate programs without any real pressure. And I think it’s those ingredients that help to keep things interesting.

So what happens if it stops being fun!? I’ve always maintained the day I stop enjoying doing any job then I’d walk away from it if I could. The same has to apply to Loquax.

We are fortunate though in that we don’t have to deal with too many people who could influence the day to day enjoyment of running a website. The main culprits in “affiliate day ruination” are the networks, especially one’s who one day kick you off a mobile phone program for a, at best, grasping at straws reason then two days later re-package the program so that kicking you off was in fact totally unnecessary. Good thing they don’t run a brewery!

If you’re dealing with issues like that day in day out, as it would seem Affiliate X is, then I can understand why being an affiliate may not be so much fun. The options are to “do a John” (a newly coined affiliate term for walking away from the industry into the sunset), or to take the fight to another place.

Just because a network exists does not mean you have to work with them! If they treat you like crap, then go and work with a network who treats you well. It’s as simple as that. The fun can still be there if you want it to be - but sometimes you have to look for it in other places.