I just re-read the following comment regarding a merchant-side affiliate tracking problem that Kaycee posted to our forum some time ago.

I was appalled by her merchant’s response and wanted to make all of our readers aware of how best to handle a sticky problem such as this one.

I have a niche website featuring several merchants. Of those, two have been very steady earners for me for the last year …

About 6 weeks ago, all of a sudden conversions from the one of those merchants completely tanked! Zilch, zip, nix, nada, nothing. I’m not doing anything different, links are working fine, their merchant account is active, nothing broken on their website that I can see and I’m still sending them more or less the same amount of traffic which is reflected in my Shareasale stats. Their overall performance on SAS has flatlined also.

As a comparison, the other merchant is still converting at their usual rate.

Should I ask the program manager about this? I’m not even sure what or how to ask …

Any thoughts?

It sounded to me like the problem was probably a tracking issue at the merchant’s check-out and recommended that Kaycee should contact them ASAP.

Kaycee later posted that the merchant confirmed that they had indeed updated their site and accidently left the affiliate code off the “thank you” page and that it was now fixed.

I suggested that Kaycee contact them again and ask that she be paid commissions on estimated sales.

She did, and the merchant’s reply was “No, sorry, we can’t do that”.

Say WHAT?

Over the years, I’ve encountered affiliate commission tracking issues on the merchant side several times and the merchants ALWAYS paid up – based on each affiliate’s previous traffic and earnings history.

In many cases, a ‘bonus’ percentage was added to the commission payment as an act of good faith.

Those merchants realize on which side their bread is buttered. They were still making sales because their affiliates were still sending traffic.

They also know that if they don’t take the appropriate course of action to compensate their affiliates fairly, their reputation is at risk. There’s no shortage of opportunity to out bad merchants on affiliate forums.

So, “no, sorry” isn’t an answer.

The correct response is just basic common sense — you break, you pay.

After receiving an unsatisfactory initial response from the merchant, I would have broached the issue with the network directly. In the unlikely event the network couldn’t solve the problem, I would most certainly have advised the merchant that I would no longer promote their product. Seriously, why would an affiliate want to work with a merchant who apparently doesn’t know how to work on their own site without breaking it and then cheats affiliates out of commissions.

Last but not least, I would have chatted the issue up on other affiliate forum and named names.

And therein lies the biggest clue. I’ve never had to resort to that last step.

Have you encountered affiliate commission tracking issues on the merchant side? What was your merchant’s response? Were you able to come to an amicable solution? Let us know.

I was wondering why I hadn’t earned a commission on a particular product in quite awhile.

The merchant had given me a free domain set up to redirect to their store with my affiliate link, so I went to that URL and it was still redirecting, no problem.

However, when I clicked on “Buy Now!” and arrived on the Clickbank order page, this is what I found.

Rotten – simply ROTTEN. They apparently stripped my affiliate link from the redirect. Unbelievable. That’s the first time since 1998 – and sending a LOT of traffic to free merchant domains – that I’ve been scammed like that.

Needless to say, I’m no longer promoting their service.

Lesson – Unless you’ve worked with a merchant successfully for a long time, stay away from their offers of free domains. It’s simple enough to code your own redirect and you won’t have to worry that they’ll scam you by changing out your links.

Linda Woods, host of the weekly “Affiliate Marketing Insider” podcast on Webmaster Radio invited Kathleen Lindsay of Allegiance Marketing Resources and me back this week to talk with her on the subject “What Merchants Do Wrong to Mess Up Their Affiliate Programs“.

As Super Affiliates, all I can say is that Kathleen and I had a LOT of fun with this particular topic!

The show airs tomorrow, April 16th at noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern.

If you miss the broadcast, you can always listen to it via the show archives.

“You spammed me” I said with a smile to the affiliate network manager standing next to me as we posed for a picture together at the last Affiliate Summit. Her smile suddenly disappeared.

Kind, compassionate and understanding person that I am, I fervently hoped to hear an honest, if not apologetic reply that would give me the slightest reason to consider ever doing business with her network’s merchants.

Despite tripping over herself with admissions of having been “horrified” when she realized that she’d spammed me, she left me in the dark as to why she would try to solicit my attention through the email address that I use only for domain registrations.

Affiliate Tip

Creating a unique email address for individual functions such as domain registrations is an effective way to ferret out spammers. Filter email sent to that address into a separate folder and check it occasionally to see who is operating on the dark side. Delete the address to which the spam was sent and make a note never to do business with that company.

OK, it should be fairly obvious that I have almost no compassion for spammers. I was simply curious to see what excuse she could come up with on the fly. However, there was no excuse because there simply is no excuse.

First of all, spamming is illegal, which makes it a lousy way to try and recruit super-affiliates for anyone who cares about their reputation as a trustworthy business partner.

Secondly, I am hardly an under-the-radar affiliate. My contact information is almost too easy to find. Google my name with or without quotes and my affiliate marketing “how-to” site floats to the top of the natural search results. In the upper right-hand corner of every page on that site there is a link to my Support Desk, at which my virtual assistant, Joel, is eagerly standing by to field questions from affiliates, managers and merchants alike. Our Support Desk is open to anyone and everyone. No proof of purchase is necessary and the only skill required is the ability to correctly enter an email address.

If a not-so-savvy surfer somehow misses the listing for that site in the search results, the vast majority of the other 999 results which Google serves on a query for my name are affiliates who link to another of my sites, which also includes a clearly labeled link to my Support Desk.

Regardless of how one chooses to get to the Support Desk, the manner in which a solicitation is worded determines the response (or lack thereof) that it receives.

Authors of generic blasts that do not include my name or are addressed to some variation of “Dear Affiliate” or “Future JV Partner” are sent a canned but friendly TYBNTY (Thank-You-But-NO-Thank-You) note. And they should consider themselves lucky that we take the time to do them the courtesy of a reply.

Those who address their request appropriately but then hype the offer receive the same note, as do merchants and managers who provide insufficient or incomplete details.

The number of correspondents that fail to show basic courtesy by including their real name and full contact details is staggering. I used to try making the point by addressing replies to “Dear ___” or “Dear Your Affiliate Team,” but I am not in the business of teaching basic email etiquette, so they too now get a canned TYBNTY.

I’m also not in business to research offers that are not only unsolicited, but which are also apparently a secret. I don’t really care if you have a “ground-breaking opportunity which will make affiliates a lot of money.” So does every other merchant, and Sherlock Holmes I am not.

Tell me what the product is, and include a link to the specific offer’s sales page. Also, if the offer is restricted to a U.S. audience, please provide a link that does not redirect my Canadian IP address to Classmates.com. Please apply the same technology within your network interface so that non-U.S. affiliates can view all merchant landing pages. I asked for that feature at MaxBounty and they were only too happy to oblige, so we know it’s doable.

Then there are those pitches for products that are completely irrelevant to my audience. If I find those before Joel has a chance to send a TYBNTY reply, they are summarily deleted. Seriously, why waste your time trying to get me to promote George Foreman grills on my dating service review site?

Do your homework and check out my sites before you contact me with your offer. Find the page on my site where your offer should be placed for the greatest impact and don’t bother to suggest that it should be placed on my home page.

Answer the question, “What’s in it for Ros?” If the offer is available on several other networks or directly through the merchant’s own affiliate program, the commission rate you offer has to beat them all, or any chance of further discussion will stop right there. Furthermore, be specific about how much more you can offer than each of the other guys.

Better yet, if the product is an online service or piece of software, kindly provide me with a username and password so that I can assess the product for review purposes. Doing so costs next to nothing, and if I really like the product and continue to use it, your product will receive a stellar review and subsequently many more sales. On the other hand, you could provide me with time-limited access, but then there is no guarantee that I will make time to review the product by your deadline.

Best of all, if you have a real product and are inclined to send samples, hit me up for my mailing address. It’s unlikely that such a request will be denied. You can be sure that affiliate Colin Mc- Dougall promoted the heck out of the inflatable boat that he was paddling around Vaseux Lake last summer.

We super-affiliates also work harder for merchants and managers who go the extra mile to get to know their affiliates. For example, while attending a conference in Los Angeles, two of my Australian- based merchants went 1,568 miles out of their way just to take me out for dinner. By result, I have been promoting their product for almost nine years and don’t intend to stop anytime soon.

If you’re not inclined to visit Beautiful British Columbia, then chat me up at a conference. Make it your job to learn that the super-affiliate you wish to recruit prefers beer over wine and dark beer over light. Super-affiliates eat too; so an invitation to lunch is always a good segue to doing business.

Having shared a belly laugh or two over lunch, you by now have my business card and telephone number. Do a follow-up call. Propose your best offer and have the name or number handy of the offer that you want me to look at.

Next, follow the call up with an email (yes, by now you also have my private email address) and include a link to the offer along with a list of keyword suggestions. Consider sending unique copy targeted to my audience and which I am allowed to edit. Barring long copy, a bullet list of product benefits and features is also very much appreciated. At this point, your job is done. Now just sit back, relax and watch for the sales spike.

There are many ways to get my attention and me working for you as a super-affiliate. Plaguing me with spam, however, is not one of them – especially when I’m already affiliated with your network!

This article by Rosalind Gardner was originally published in the May/June 2007 Issue of Revenue Magazine.

Cheese me. I was in the Linkshare interface the other night getting Allzine links for blog posting about on the Roamsters.com site. Thirty magazines were returned in the Travel & Leisure category. I grabbed about ten of them, creating ten draft posts with magazine pictures and titles and planned to write descriptions of them later.

Well, good thing I clicked on some of those links. More than half of them no longer exist in Allzine’s product database. Really, when I searched the Travel & Leisure category within Allzines itself, only 9 magazines were returned, meaning that 21 TWENTY-ONE!!!! of the Linkshare links were no good.

Of the nine that WERE good, some of them had broken graphics.

Lesson to affiliates: Check the merchant’s site first to see whether or not the product is still offered. It’s a hassle, I know, but better than wasting your time putting up product links that don’t work and thereby frustrating your visitors.

Suggestion to merchants: Kindly make sure your product links are up to date!