Back in May I blogged about an issue that had arisen with Blackpool Club Bingo on Affiliate United and the fact that my as good as useless affiliate manager had literally given up looking into why his affiliate had gone from earning £££ to nothing overnight. In fact his good as useless boss also couldn’t be bothered as I’m still waiting for his return call.

Enter Nik Kershaw lookalike Mr Neil Mitchell, my AM’s and his boss’ colleague!

At the A4UAwards, knowing that there was an issue, Neil went out of his way to listen to our complaints and after returning back to his office started to look into what was happening. He managed to achieve more in one afternoon than his colleagues did in 2 months, including getting things tracking!

He subsequently then went out of his way to figure out why our commission was always 0 and it was only yesterday that he finally cracked the case regarding our lost commission – which has been AWOL since 5th April.

Sadly, just 24 hours later, Neil tweeted that the bingo and casino side of Affiliates United was moving to Israel and that he was out of a job. An insane move by Aff United as from my point of view, Neil was the only trustworthy person I’ve dealt with on that network. It will be very difficult to work with them going forward as they seem to have no interest in looking after their affiliates.

So someone please offer Neil Mitchell an affiliate manager’s job

He’s hard working, keeps his word and goes out of his way to maintain good affiliate/partner relationships as well as protecting his employer’s brand. How he remained committed to William Hill and Affiliates United when all around him weren’t I don’t know.

Neil Mitchell is, at least from what I’ve encountered, an asset to affiliate marketing, and I’m pretty sure he will be snapped up by a company who truly deserves him. William Hill and Affiliates United loss will be someone else’s gain.

This morning I had one of those phone calls that leave you astonished at just how potentially dubious some merchants are when it comes to treating their affiliates. For now the merchant will remain unnamed as I’m still seeking 100% confirmation from the merchant and other affiliates that I’ve understood the practice they are adopting is exactly how I’ll describe below.

I’m blogging about it now as, regardless, there’s grounds of an interesting discussion about who gets last referrer!

The problem came to light when a splash page (a special landing page for affiliates) was changed by the merchant for the umpteenth time. I like to know my visitors can reach the site that we’re telling them about, but with the latest splash page version they can’t. They have to click “register” then follow a link in a pop up box. It all seems a bit of a faff to me and so an email was sent in questioning the brains behind such logic.

It turns out that this set up is required because if a visitor clicks your link (therefore setting a 45 day cookie) and doesn’t register – the merchant can’t track the fact you set the cookie unless the user returns to the splash page.

What that seems to mean is if your visitor clicks your links (therefore setting a 45 day cookie) and doesn’t register, but then returns to the merchant site (e.g. via a non-affiliated link like browser type in or via a free search link) then your cookie becomes irrelevant as the merchant can’t track the fact that you were the last referrer.

In fact what happens is that if your player goes via a type in or free search link they actually end up on a different splash page, and if they click register the last referrer becomes the merchant not the affiliate. This makes the 45 day cookie totally and utterly redundant unless your player returns to the affiliate splash page.

Assuming I’ve grasped the right end of the stick is this acceptable?

If I send a user to a site, burn a cookie, and at some point they return to register and my cookie still holds first place then I’d expect that to be honoured. I wouldn’t expect that the merchant would create a boundary in the form of a splash page so that the cookie is, in my view, forcibly discarded.

I really hope I’ve misunderstood the practice, but early signs are it is what’s happening and may well explain why this merchant, as a big brand, isn’t as good as you’d perhaps expect.

Anyway, I’d love to hear your views.

Perhaps someone has heard about similar practices, is it normal practice or is there validity in the method described? Should affiliate cookies be superseded by type in or free search referral? Or is there a possibility that a major brand merchant is behaving in a dubious way?

Affiliate Window are currently teasing affiliates with a campaign titled Darwin. It’s being promoted via a splash page, Twitter and Facebook and suggests that evolution is taking place in affiliate marketing – and you’re invited to be part of it.

Keith Bond and Lee McCoy have already blogged their thoughts on what Darwin may entail, but are they right?

The teasers from Awin are based around quotes from Darwin like “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge it is those who know little, and not those who know much who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

My initial reaction was that Awin were intending to bring back TV game show 3-2-1 (dodgy 80s programme featuring Ted Rogers and Dusty Bin where contestants could win a car or a dustbin by solving impossible clues – a kind of forerunner for Saturday Takeaway but without Ant and Dec).

That may still be the case but after carefully analysing the above quote for over 5 hours I’m no closer to figuring out whether I’m going to get a Ford Fiesta or the booby prize – perhaps I’ll reject this one and hope for a better clue.

So there must be more to it.. and where better to get inspiration than the You Tube!

Can watching a bunch of videos on Evolution and Darwin help shed any light on what’s going on over at Affiliate Window?

Sir David Attenborough seemed to know about evolution but doesn’t mention Awin – so no help there!

Bill Hicks didn’t help much either, but he’s funnier than Attenborough when it comes to evolution!

There’s a possibility that Prezzybox are involved as Zak surely is voicing over this evolution animation?

But it seems that the answer lies in this video….

Perhaps Awin have unearthed this YouTube clip and realised that all affiliates are really geeks and that their days are numbered unless they start to evolve into more “normal people”.

Maybe Awin have scientifically proven, after years of study by “Dr” Kevin Edwards, that affiliates need to go out into the sunlight occasionally, sleep proper hours, get away from their computers, and interact with other people at various affiliate events taking place during the rest of 2009.

Darwin, therefore, is Awin’s cunning plan to make sure affiliates attend at least one event from the following: A4U Roadshows, Networking Event – London, Existem AM Plymouth BBQ, A4UExpo.

Awin want their affiliates to get outside and mix with others in AM. They don’t their affiliates staying in behind their PCs making them inward thinkers when it comes to affiliate marketing pursuits.

And in true 3-2-1 style, the proof of the pudding is that if you evolve from being inward to being outward then you’ve transformed. An anagram involves the transformation of letters, and if you transform the letters that make up the word ‘inward’ you get …. Darwin!

Could this really be Affiliate Window, Darwin And Evolution Uncovered?

The curse of the voucher codes has reared it’s ugly little head again this month with news from Linkshare that Sweaty Betty are binning off all their code affiliates, except for one who’s being kept on as an “exclusive partner” (or perhaps they’re worried if they kick them out they’ll redirect their links to a competitor… that’s never happened now has it?).

Anyway, the exclusivity nonsense aside, it’s surely time networks and merchants devised a better set of plans for dealing with the wholesale booting of “voucher code affiliates” from promoting them.

Currently it seems networks and merchants favour Plan A, but perhaps there’s room for a Plan B?

Plan A

Dear Code Affiliate,

We’ve decided to stop offering voucher codes. However, we’re also unable to grasp the fact that you may run more than one website and have also decided that you are incapable of removing a site from your code directory.

To this extent we’re no longer going to work with you at all as we don’t think you’re intelligent enough to comply with our wishes. May work with you again in the future if this idea goes the way of the pear.

Yours Marketing Genius Merchant

Plan B

Dear Code Affiliate,

We’ve decided to stop offering voucher codes. However, we would still like to work with you in a non-codes capacity, especially if you run other sites that relate to our business. To this extent could you please remove our site from your code directory within the next 7 days and inform us of the changes.

We will then be in touch to offer alternative suggestions on how we can continue to work together in a non-code way. Unfortunately if the listing isn’t removed then we will have to regretfully terminate our affiliate agreement.

Yours Marketing Genius Merchant

Surely Plan B is better than Plan A?

Both have the same message, except Plan B offers a bit of an olive branch to the affiliate to maintain a working relationship with the merchant. Many affiliates run multiple sites, including code sites, just to cover their bases as various factors over the years have conspired to drive revenue into other areas of affiliate marketing.

We’d all love to concentrate on content this or blog that, but the simple fact is many affiliates need to run code sites and cashback sites in addition to other sites. In other words, we need to run different kinds of sites just to get a finger tip in the affiliate marketing revenue pie.

Kicking off an affiliate just because you, as a merchant, deems them a “code affiliate” is often blinkered and shows an inherent distrust of the affiliate you’ve been doing business with. It’s not good!

If a merchant doesn’t want to appear on our site they just have to ask… it’s not a puzzle so why do merchants/networks make life so difficult for themselves and for affiliates?

We have things set up on Loquax that if asked, in most cases, one click and all merchant offers are switched off or even removed… we work in what we believe is an appropriate way, so it’d be nice if we were treated with a bit more respect.

Life on OLD has been quiet for a few weeks as work wise things have been hectic. I’m sure many years ago the “old school” guys anticipated an easier affiliate existence but that’s not the case.

In fact AM is moving at the speed of Twitter and I swear that one day in the future there will be ex-siteowners, affiliates and online entrepreneurs reduced to something resembling Father Jack from Father Ted…. and here are just a handful of reasons why!

Drink! Why can’t merchants stick to using one tracking platform or at least make sure that the old links still work indefinately on their new one? I’ve changed so many links this week it feels like I’ve written a whole new site. Yes I know our links should be databased but hey…

Drink! And if a merchant changes tracking platforms which results in commission and sign ups being significantly different on the new system versus the old system isn’t that actually a good indicator that something is perhaps wrong and may need investigating? Surely that’s obvious?

Drink! And why do merchants keep messing about with landing pages? It’s all well and good that they look pretty and convey an important message but if our visitors can’t actually get to your website from the landing page it’s kinda pointless isn’t it? It’s like turning up the O.K. Coral and not being able to have a gunfight.

Drink! Talking of changing links, why do some merchants open on one network then on another then on another etc? Surely it makes sense to get the program working properly on one network first before just opening up willy nilly all over the place. Makes no sense to me!

Drink! And what’s worse than the above is when a merchant who runs their own network totally ignores their affiliate emails but next thing you know they are launching their “standalone” products on a network. All I want is a bit of chit chat from the affiliate manager!!

Surely life should be easier than this?

Anyway the sun is shining so perhaps it’s time to put the old feet up, enjoy a nice glass of red wine and forget about the trials and tribulations of AM for an afternoon!

What’s that? We have no Rioja and who wants their links changing?

Ah f…….!

Footnote: Some of you may have never heard of Father Ted. It was a Channel 4 comedy programme that featured three priests (Ted, Jack and Dougal) and a housekeeper. Well worth watching if you’ve never seen it!