One thing I’ve forgotten to do regularly is check why some commissions get cancelled. In general I’ve just assumed that there’s probably a fair explanation as to why something has been turned down plus I’m also a tad too busy to go and do a detailed check (or playing just one last game of Bejeweled on Facebook). However, after checking a report on Affiliate Future last week OLD’s top tip of the week is…

Make Sure You Check Your Commissions Cancellations!

The reason behind this is quite simple (1) you may well find that a merchant is cancelling your commission without a valid reason and (2) you may come across some explanations like this one…

Not an authorised affiliate – please unsubscribe

Now at some point we were an authorised affiliate as we were able to pick up links for this Holiday Merchant. As far as we’re aware no one has bothered to indicate at any time that we’re not authorised plus as the links still work you’d kind of assume all is fine and dandy with the merchant.

Perhaps communication has failed somewhere along the line but we’ve asked for an explanation regarding the cancellation.

If there’s not been a notice of removal of links from the merchant then the commission should really stand. If we’ve been removed from the program at some point and missed a notification then you’d think links would be shut off so we’re not wasting our time.

Either way it just shows you need to be checking all reports and keeping an eye on what’s happening with your commissions.

The one plus point is that AF do allow their merchants to explain, albeit glibly, why a commission has been declined. A quick look round other networks and I can’t see anything that offers a reason for rejection in the reporting from any other network apart from Paid on Results.

Most certainly I think that merchant explanations is something more networks need to implement so as to increase transparency regarding commission cancellations.