Slow Day…
Posted under: It’s been a slow day today – so slow in fact that TD stats are currently at around 4 hours behind everyone else. It would have been nice if instead of screwing up the interface they’d invested in technology to keep stats closer to real time.
The delays are not good for affiliates! It’s nice to know if a day is going well or if a campaign is working. Take for example National Express – they announced a competition lead program yesterday that wasn’t tracking. The delay meant that we were unable to be sure the program wasn’t working for several hours. Fortunately TD did get the tracking sorted and all’s now working well…
… working so well, that a tinyurl link was added to our forums today for this competition. I’m pretty certain there’s an affiliate link hidden behind it, but have been unable to find out for sure. This kind of (possible) unscrupulous action is why some affiliates are now sorting out an affiliate association.
Whilst I can understand the need for an association, I’m still undecided if it’ll ever really work. Will networks, merchants, or other affiliates take notice of the association and will it have any serious teeth in which to act when there’s action to be taken.
Great Idea of the day/week/year in affiliate terms though goes to Lee on A4U. An affiliate/merchant ‘dating system’ (to pair up working partners, not date them) is pure genius and if a network or group can organise this then it should work well. We can help/advise with competitions, are active in other sectors away from competitions, and always interested in doing other things… a ‘dating’ system would help merchants know what we do/don’t do and hopefully lead to more business and contacts. Perhaps this kind of system is a better avenue to look into for an association (i.e. it’s members are ones who are serious about affiliate marketing – whether full time/part time).
Jason
The ‘dating’ concept is one being seriously considered for the Association.
Like your blog btw.