An Affiliate Done Wrong
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I just wanted to share frustrating affiliate story with you. Back on November 2, 2007, I was accepted by the YouSendIt affiliate program.
I was interested in promoting YouSendIt, because I’ve been a satisfied, paying customer of their service for a while, and I’ve recommended them (without compensation) to lots of people.
If you’re not familiar with the service, it’s a way to transfer and share really big files (up to 2GB), and I’ve found it really useful to share big video files, PowerPoint, etc.
Anyhow, I was planning to run a whole big campaign to promote YouSendIt in my blog, sites, newsletters, etc.
But the other day, when I logged into Commission Junction to check my internal messages, I found out that they had booted me from the affiliate program.
There was no reason given, so I am assuming they had this idea that affiliates would become instantly active and generate tons of leads.
The reality is that it doesn’t happen that way.
A lot of people talk about the 80/20 rule, or even 95/5, where 5% of affiliates are generating 95% of the transactions.
Then there is the long tail of affiliates that can bring in a few leads each per month.
I think I could have been in the top echelon there for YouSendIt, and driven good number of new customers to them.
But now I’ve been alienated both as an affiliate and a paying customer.
I would encourage affiliate managers to take this into consideration before pruning bunches of affiliates from their program so quick and without cause.
Affiliate marketing isn’t a channel where you can hit a magic button and get results.
You need to do some hands on work – affiliates are partners with the merchants and should be treated as such.
I never got a phone call or e-mail from YouSendIt to try and activate me or ask how I planned to promote them. They just bounced me after a few weeks for no reason.
- Posted in Affiliate Opinions
20 Comments
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On December 3 @ 4:50 pm posted[...] enter your e-mail on the top right to get updates by e-mail.Last week, I commented that I had been booted from the YouSendIt affiliate program just three weeks after being [...]
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On December 5 @ 9:26 am posted
[...] in the United Stats. Indeed, I say disrespectful and can back that up with dozens of examples. Here’s one that just happened. I cannot think of a bigger name (indeed, a living brand) than Shawn Collins [...]
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On November 29 @ 10:56 am posted
[...] in the United Stats. Indeed, I say disrespectful and can back that up with dozens of examples. Here’s one that just happened. I cannot think of a bigger name (indeed, a living brand) than Shawn Collins [...]
This is like kicking Mozart out of the orchestra pit. Makes no sense. Makes me wonder if 98% of affiliate programs are even managed as they say they are, or just put on auto-pilot. Sad, and crazy that this kind of stuff is still going on after years and years in this industry.
This is the exact reason why I don’t use networks.
reply to this commentSeems to me that just right in line with CJ. I know they’re the 800 pound gorilla of affiliate networks but I cannot STAND their policy of de-activating an account in such a short time period if no sales are made.
Vic
reply to this commentJim – What does this have to do with the network?
Shawn – good post, Agreed on the overall theme… merchants should understand that this is a long term project and investment… Michael Coley actually has a really good post up on ABW about what to do with inactive affiliate that could further the education here if you want to link to it.
reply to this commentLet me rephrase Brian, this is why I don’t really use cj or linkshare. SAS is different, never, ever had a problem with an SAS merchant.
Why is that?
reply to this commentJim,
My comment wasn’t really about which network, etc… just in general, what the network has to do with a merchant that has a bad policy, etc…
It was my understanding that this wasn’t a network thing – that the merchant made the choice to decline/remove, etc…
Shouldn’t the focus be on how to improve the merchant, or educate… as opposed to what the network did or didn’t do, etc… ?
reply to this commentYou’re right Brian. I’m just bitter and I’m going to rant and blame the networks anyway. I can’t be objective on a Friday.
My point was that it’s pretty silly to not kiss Shawn’s butt in any program he applies for.
reply to this commentOne thing that’s important to note – Shawn says no reason was given, this is not really the merchant’s fault. CJ does not allow you to customize rejection emails! As a merchant you can customize your welcome email but CJ controls the email that goes out on rejection / removal. Yes they could have sent a special email besides the auto-email but they may not have seen the need. CJ does make communication difficult between merchants and affiliates.
reply to this commentI think it could be an affiliate manager who is worried that they have non-performing affiliates. It doesn’t appear to be managed by CJ.
Considering they just launched Nov 1, seems like they are pulling the trigger early removing publishers. It’s also interested that they don’t appear in the CJ network if do a search, you have to signup through their site.
Has anyone heard from the affiliate manager for YouSendIt?
reply to this commentTry: http://www.sendyourfiles.com/ Looks like a pretty good competitor and they use SAS.
reply to this commentShawn, if it’s any consolation, it’s actually sort of comforting to know that this junk happens even to you. Really hard to believe they dumped you. I posted about this at AffiliateAdvice on September 3, after Hammacher Schlemmer terminated me after 1 month of inactivity (though I had previously been a producer).
Then when I emailed them, they said that they would consider “letting” me re-join if I could share my plans for how I planned to expand their brand.
Yah… Not cool.
Anyway, rather than getting pissed (well, I was, but decided to do something constructive anyway), I came up with a guide for how an affiliate manager could deal with the situation of a non-productive affiliate.
http://www.affiliateadvice.us/affiliate_philosophies/dumping-affiliates-doesnt-produce-affiliate-sales.html
Would love any thoughts.
reply to this commentI wonder if Dr. Pepper will send you a case (or something) seeing as it was prominently displayed throughout the whole video.
Sorry to hear about YouSend It.
reply to this commentI wonder if some affiliate managers intentionally terminate affiliates in mass and hope the links will stay up and they will get free traffic? I know this is dishonest.
I have links on my sites that I am no longer an affiliate for and if I click the link it goes right to the advertisers website.
reply to this commentI sincerely doubt anyone is terminated with the hope of getting free traffic. Any time I’ve seen affiliates removed in bulk its because of concerns with brand exposure or removing affiliates with a lot of clicks and no sales to preserve EPC rankings.
reply to this commentMediaFire.com offers a lot for free. Max. 1 GB per file. No limit overall (I tried it, it’s true), no stupid delays before you can download the file.
I also use SendSpace.com, which is commercial. I use it for their “Drop Box” feature, which I show on my contact page, in case somebody wants to send me a larger file.
reply to this commentDude! They have to be nuts over there. I can not believe this. There had to be an error! Big time screw up or something.
reply to this commentShawn, don’t feel bad – I’ve been auto-terminated from programs in the past for inactivity – for not going live within 2 weeks. I consider these early warnings on program sustainability (or sales opportunties
It’s earth-shatteringly obvious that they don’t have a professional managing the program. If they’d read the book or attended even the most basic training they’d know that you can activate your dormant affiliates through such simple efforts as a personal mail or phone call.
Long live the CJ autoexpire tool!
Jonathan
reply to this commentI frequently get booted from affiliate programs on CJ and Linkshare with no real explanation. In fact, like you Shawn, I’ve found that it is usually affiliate managers who have done absolutely NOTHING to help me get active with a program who are the quickest to delete me from their rolls.
What’s so amazing about it is that, like you said, an affiliate manager has no idea who will be the next big Super Affiliate for them. Plus, it breeds bad feelings with affiliates. When will affiliate managers realize that people who have chosen affiliate marketing as a profession or business are the exact people you SHOULDN’T alienate because we are better than most at promoting good and bad experiences with a company.
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