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!
As most people who know me could verify that the one aspect of affiliate marketing that really pisses me off (big, big time) is a lack of transparency on closed BBG. Last night and this morning there seemed to be an influx of blogs about the new promotion form DFDS Seaways, a very nice paid trip to Affiliate Summit in Boston. Hmm, I think lets have a looksie at this and what do I find, a brand bidder sitting on the DFDS and DFDS Seaways brand - fine think I, I’ll not waste my money pushing this program to any extent (as I hate to line anyone else’s pockets) and look at it again later / tomorrow. Anyhow, I’ve checked the program details at both Buy.at and TradeDoubler only to find there is no mention of a closed bidding group. I called TD to confirm that and was told - yes, there is a closed bidding group on the program. Transparency - where is it? Am I alone in my anger when these things happen and to be honest it’s not a once in blue moon occurrence it’s getting to be an every day thing.
New rule here, every time this happens I’ll let you all know about it.
Today whilst browsing through the blogs on A4U, I came across this Dodgy Bidder - Name & Shame? I, being me, put me 2 pence in. Almost immediately I was pinged on MSN with a ‘have you seen this?’ re the blog, ‘Yes, I have I’ve commented on it’ was my reply, ‘why do you ask?’ I was absolutely horrified at the answer - ‘because the word is it’s you’. Now, I know I’m not perfect but for one I’m female and this quite clearly is about a bloke - he mentions the word ‘him’, two - I’m not sure I’m high profile, three - I tend not to break the rules where brand bidding is concerned PROVIDING I’m given all the information when signing up for a program and the merchant or agency doesn’t change the goalposts without adequate notice or in some cases no notice at all and four - I can categorically state that I do NOT ‘gripes about “dodgy affiliates” bidding on brand terms and giving the industry a bad name - my pet hate is Closed Bidding Groups that are not disclosed on Networks (but that’s something I’ve bored you all with before and I’m sure I will again. Within 15 minutes I receive an email from TD saying the usual stuff - take it down or within 24 hours we’ll stand you against a wall and shoot you, so confused as at this point I don’t know it’s me, I log into TD and check the program information. This is what it says :
Sponsored Keywords/Adwords:
Important: We allow affiliates to buy sponsored keyword terms relating to the Jessops brand including miss spells, but excluding the exact term JESSOPS.We allow affiliates to buy sponsored keywords/adwords on search engines, so long as they are clearly marked as affiliate links (”affiliate” or “aff” in the supporting text). However, we DO NOT permit affiliates to buy keywords relating to our competitors brand names or trademarks. e.g. “Dixons”, or “CamerasDirect”, etc. Any affiliates who do so will be removed.
Okay - I’m sticking to the rules on this program and even have the word -[Jessops] in as negative exact match, why do people think it’s me, why have I just received the email from TD saying it’s me and why is Rob B now seemingly back tracking on what he had earlier said.
The moral of this story is ‘Get the facts right before you accuse people of wrong doing’ Several times we have been wrongly accused of deliberately ‘Brand Bidding’ but never have the accusers been proved right. Please don’t shoot yourself in the foot with comments like these :
It isn’t really my style to do this, but why should this affiliate get away with these dodgy tactics while pretending to be white as white at the same time?
RANT ALERT - RANT ALERT
Been monitoring Woolworths for the past couple of weeks and I’ve noticed my epc has taken a nosedive. Upon further investigation it would seem somebody has been BNB on the program, we’ve asked Awin and they’ve told us that yes, a trial has started on a closed PPC group.
I’m intrigued that no-one has told us that has been happening, I don’t want to line the pockets of other affiliates thank you very much. I don’t want to be in the closed group, but I reserve the choice to not be in competition on PPC with a closed group. I’m very surprised and disappointed that Awin haven’t notified affiliates that this is happening and I look forward to their response.
I’ve posted the above on the A4U forum and I await Awin’s response with baited breathe - somehow I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with it!
Rant over, back to work.
