We received an email yesterday from Jason Baker at Commission Junction begging for money. No, he’s not hit the skids and fallen on hard times - he’s running the marathon! After talking to him on the phone just now I told him he should put the link on the forum and ask people to donate to his cause, Whizz-Kidz - a very worthwhile charity, unfortunately as he works for a Plc he can’t, so as a favour to him (and to stop him harassing me by phone) I said I’d write a quick blog and put the link up here for him. This is the forth year running he’s done this and he’s a bit behind on his target, please dig deep. Thank you - end of sermon!
A little bit of information on Whizz-Kidz :
Whizz-Kidz aims to improve the quality of life of disabled children and young people in the UK through the provision of customised mobility equipment such as wheelchairs and tricycles. It is dedicated to providing help and advice to the children and their families and raising awareness of mobility-related issues through national campaigning.
After the whole debacle with Next.co.uk you don’t think it could get any worse, well really would you? Of course it can because Next now come out of the woodwork with The Facts.
Hooray, this is what we’ve been waiting for - the facts! The facts about why they reduced their commissions to 1% on sale items and 2% going forward (wtf does ‘going forward’ really mean?), the facts about why they changed from a very good agency MVI to i-Level (?), why they went from a very good Network - Awin - to buy.at and affilinet, why they’ve tried to gag affiliates from mentioning Next.co.uk in a negative way. Now they actually put in writing what they really think about us affiliates.
It is Next’s wish not to partner affiliates who pollute natural search space with negative comments about the brand.
Pollute? Pollute? How to make friends and engage in friendly banter the i-Level (or was it written by Next) way! Really? What can I say except for what a pile of tripe.
I would also like to point out Shane’sblog and the fact that Next.co.uk have been competitor brand bidding. I suppose all’s fair in love and retail! Also, what about the affiliate that is Brand Name Bidding at night? Do they care? Are they monitoring the situation? I doubt it, they’re too busy trawling the internet looking for blogs and forums for people who are ‘poluting’ the space with their honest thoughts and opinions.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, I wouldn’t promote Next.co.uk with a ten foot affiliate poking stick even if they upped their commissions to 10% and it all came gift wrapped. As Duncan says ‘Any pollution relates to the actions, not the comments.’
So, affiliates how to do you feel now - not only are you grubby, you’re also a pollutant!
