Posts Tagged Merchants
Buyagift – Extra Long Life Cookies
Posted by Fraser Edwards in Affiliate Marketing on November 16, 2011
I’ve posted before about this but take a look at these stats
Two sales from the same cookie which was placed on the 1st October 2006! More than 5 years ago I sent this visitor through and earlier this month they earned me £15. Now I know all the stats probably say that a huge majority of sales take place within the standard 28 day cookie but this shows that it’s certainly not all of the sales. Also note that the same click and cookie led to two sales. Not all programmes will have a cookie which is valid for multiple events. Many are for the first sale only.
Can anyone beat that time between click and sale? Most people would have been through a few computers in that time nevermind not having cleaned out your browser cache and cookies.
I used to have a lot of traffic that worked well for Buyagift and it seems I really should be trying to get that back again instead of chasing single action 28 day cookies. Just to be clear the cookie length for the Buyagift program is 9999 Days 
Buyagift are on Affiliate Window and have an impressive Christmas incentive running at the moment.
Simples
Posted by Fraser Edwards in Affiliate Marketing on April 6, 2011
Perhaps the merchant isn’t quite fully appreciating affiliate marketing or perhaps they just have really really good banners?
Fair Terms?
Posted by Fraser Edwards in Affiliate Marketing on September 30, 2010
I was surprised to read these snippets from some new terms & conditions that The AA is planning to implement for their breakdown cover program.
Only the first purchase made by the customer will be paid out on, and only if they buy the product related to the link that they clicked through.
On the 15th of each month a verification process will go through the system and any sales that don’t meet the above criteria and/or were de-duped against another of the AA’s marketing channels will be deleted from your account.
The first one surprised me more. The second is perhaps more widely spread but I still don’t think it’s reasonable. I’m not active with this merchant but do others think these terms are fair? Would be interested to hear opinions below.
Free Links to Merchants or Try and Monetise?
Posted by Jason Dale in Affiliate Marketing on May 23, 2010
Affiliates are often asked to put themselves in the position of the merchant (or their agency) and take into consideration what they want from the relationship. For this blog post if you’re not an affiliate, climb into our shoes for a change and see whether you think differently.
Let’s say you have some content on your site. You have a link to Retailer X that you’ve given them for free. You’ve never misrepresented that retailer and you have a (hopefully) decent reputation. The retailer also has never complained about that link and in fact they (and many of their peers) seek you out to use the service you offer.
Retailer X then launches an affiliate program. This means that you can potentially monetise that link on a paid on performance basis. You’ve now gone from officially earning nothing to potentially picking up a few bits and pieces sales wise.
Now, you know that it’s unlikely that big potatoes are going to come your way from this relationship. However now that you’ve got Retailer X as a “favoured link” it means that they get extra promotion, possible newsletter coverage and inclusion in your offers/codes sections as well as, provided you have time and the offer is good, stuck in front of your community.
So the question is this, bearing in mind that your focus is quite simply generating revenue for your business, so that you can continue giving your users the free service they enjoy and offering many sites a free service they enjoy….
… would you leave the link as “free” or stick on the affiliate link and go for the hope to earn from it option?
Now let’s flip that over to the merchant (or their agency). They’ve now gone from paying definitely nothing to potentially paying something for a few sales that they may or may not have gotten from the traffic you’ve sent. Sadly no one will ever be 100% sure.
Should they be upset or bothered by your actions?
Is it right for an affiliate to try and monetise their free traffic to a merchant site?
This is a follow up to my last post – Will Our Conversion Rate Ruin Your Affiliate Program – II and the comments within. Whilst I don’t like arguing with merchants publically (honest guv) sometimes needs must as no one else will fight our battles in AM. In this case a number of interesting points have been raised which are worth exploring, so thanks to those who have commented.
Prezzybox Does It Again
Posted by Fraser Edwards in Affiliate Marketing on October 3, 2008
I was going to write a post about how well Prezzybox had planned their affiliate Christmas promotions but it looks like John has beaten me to it so I’ll just link there instead 
The summary is that you should read here about what you can win and then read here about the tools provided to help you win.