Jess, you’re so right, it is about choice. If we lose the odd good affiliate because they are deterred by the sign up then this has to be weighed against the safety of stopping fraudulent attempts to set up accounts, (which are diminishing in frequency).

AdGuy and Franklin, I made a reply in the AW blog which probably covers in more detail why we chose £5 and the reason not to refund for fraudulent attempts.

Carsten, affiliates who set up their first AW account are able to contact account managers who will supply unique invitation codes which by-pass the charge and credit process when setting up additional accounts. Alternatively we can set them up for you. Once you’ve proved who you are, there’s no reason to have to do it time and time again.

I agree with you on AdSense but it would be interesting to gauge the comparison of custom ContentWidgets to display relevant products, especially if they carry specific codes or bespoke offers. It’s being used by numerous affiliates including some new media portals

http://www.virginmedia.com/shopping/goshop/
http://sunshop.shopwindow.com/

As mentioned in my last post on the AW blog, working with us hopefully makes the investment worthwhile, which is probably why so many of our affiliates have chosen to defend us. All networks will tell you what you want to hear, we want you to hear it from our partners as they have no reason to deceive.

OK just a bit of reiterated dialogue

Some generate more commission than others, depending on the subject and the amount of competition. Because of the amount of platforms and networks out there, did I end up with 50+ accounts or so, just for affiliate links for this one site alone. If each of them would require me to pay 5 pounds for the signup, I would have 250 pounds and more spent , just to add the affiliate link. I think I would have been better off with AdSense under such circumstances and made Google happy. However, I am glad that this is not the case and that I am able to use editorial links (affiliate or not) to monetize the site instead of ads where I do not have control over. Needless to say, the number of AdSense ads on my site is getting less and less.

At this point in my years online I would pay the fee that is being described if I had to in order to get into a good network, if they all started doing this. However, since we have great networks right here that are free to join, I personally see no incentive to join Affiliate Window even though there are a ton of testimonials in this discussion.

I would suggest that if they need this type of verification they could simply use a one time debit and credit of £1.00 by Paypal, and it would serve the same purpose, and all the affiliate is giving up is the email. Moneybookers would work too of course.

This may have had something to do with the wording on the sign up page. This has now been updated. Would be interested to hear your feedback on the new text.

Adam

Thanks for your perspective.

Please note that I was answering a question from a perspective affiliate, and she was concerned about it.

Based on her question, I would venture to guess that it has deterred newbies.

The move to charge £5.00 back in the day was met with some scepticism here, I myself wondered if this would be a barrier to entry, the answer is no, it’s not. Your looking at this from the outside looking in. Had you done your proper research and actually asked the people that use this network, from an affiliate’s perspective, agency perspective, merchant perspective, then I believe you may have drawn a different conclusion.

I am an affiliate, an agency within affiliatewindow.com

My clients expect me to do my due diligence with regards to affiliates, this £5 entry actually makes my job a lot easier. It does deter fraudsters, especially with the pay per lead programs. I believe at affiliatesummit Vegas last year, this was very much spoken about in one of the sessions. Pay Per Lead programs attract a certain element that need to be vetted. Seems to me some of those speakers spend a good chunk of time just vetting affiliates. If by affiliate window charging £5.00 for entry into their network deters just one fraudster, then clearly it works! I could understand your shock if awin pocketed £5.00 but you have been told, you get this back. And… as an affiliate referrer, I get £2.00 commission for affiliates I referr, so where does awin make its money if this is what you are veering toward? It doesn’t, it spends money to acquire serious affiliates. I work with affiliatewindow.com on a daily basis and I know what they do with affiliates, I know how proactive they are with affiliates. Quality control is evident with affiliatewindow.com which is seriously lacking in most other networks. I can count on one hand the number of affiliate networks home and away that actually care about who is joining their aff network. Something else re aff managers doing their due diligence… as an agency, we don’t always get to see referring links, some networks don’t support this, some clients don’t provide us with their back end stats. Meaning the way affiliates are allowed to sign up using one out of many websites urls (its all you need for most networks), any email address and taking onboard that in some networks you cant even contact your affiliates yada…yada… its nigh on impossible to be able to tell who is a potential fraudster. Affiliatewindow.com have put one measure in place which is not 100% full proof but certainly minimises the chances of a chancer and that can only be a good thing, surely?

I reiterate has this £5.00 ever deterred an affiliate I have referred from signing up?
No it has not!

Carston I agree with your comment regarding this approach being “in extreme opposition to the approach taken by companies here in the US ” …

We are well aware that many networks in the US market basically take all comers in any shape or form however they may drive traffic.

Now here’s a UK network moving the bar higher and taking the time to deter dodgy affiliates and validate genuine ones and you guys are grumbling over a fiver .. that’s a short sighted view IMO

I bet that most active US affiliates reading this have each lost more than £5 today (some far more !!) in traffic that they have had pimped via spy/adware publishers active on networks you may work with that don’t care to check just exactly who their affiliates are, and welcome anyone with sign up bonuses and open arms and no pertinent questions asked.

If you are a genuine affiliate then £5 (never mind the refund !) is a bargain to ensure that you’re not paying a ppc bill that another affiliate is benefiting from.