Back in late 2009 I ran a poll which revealed that only 38% of affiliates, generally, pay good attention to affiliate program agreements before submitting their application (24% always, 14% often). Here’s that pie-chart: Based on the above data, I’ve been strongly recommending merchants to include a Summary of their […]
Affiliates Do Not Always Read Program Policies Before Applying Read More »
Remember my PPC Display URLs and Affiliate Direct Linking Are Interconnected post two months ago? In it — being guided by Google AdWords policy — I argued: Permitting “direct linking” (or Direct-To-Merchant (DTM) paid search bidding), however, implies that affiliates are allowed to link their paid search ads (through their
Bing Allows Anything for Display URL? Read More »
Every time I buy something I try to do it through an affiliate link (my modest attempt to ensure affiliate marketing does grow to $4 billion by 2014). That is why you’ll often see me tweeting out requests for an affiliate link to this or that merchant… So, prior to
Concise Example of Solid Affiliate Program Policy Read More »
Yesterday I have once again touched on the subject of affiliate compliance with rules, and how merchants are or aren’t policing it. As I wrote in my FeedFront article: …to begin with, you want make sure you have an affiliate program agreement in place. Not to be confused with the
PPC Display URLs and Affiliate Direct Linking Interconnected Read More »
An affiliate program manager who is working on her affiliate program agreement wrote: I was looking through your site and the sample TOS you provide and came across paragraph 8.4. Two quick questions: Should we not allow our affiliates to have popups/popunders (even surveys)? Should we allow our affiliates to
Unwanted Affiliate Behavior To Watch Out For Read More »
One would think that it is common sense to have a separate section prohibiting parasitic affiliate behaviors in your affiliate program and your program agreement. However, even larger online merchants sometimes do not do so. First of all, this makes them significantly more vulnerable to rogue affiliates. Secondly, it makes
Walmart Affiliate Program Now Prohibits Parasitic Behaviors Read More »
It isn’t unusual to see the following affiliate paid search policy set out and enforced by a merchant: In the vast majority of cases the above PPC policy is one of those best practices that every affiliate program should implement. The reason is obvious: such affiliate activity adds no value
Affiliates, Domain Names and Trademark Violations Read More »
A merchant has just asked: I have an affiliate that just registered “trademarknameproducttype.com” and is going to start marketing our new [trademark name] product line. Is this acceptable? I know he’s doing marketing for us, however he’s using our trademarked name. The intent of the above-quoted affiliate is obvious —
Trademarked Names in Affiliate Domains Read More »
In one of the newly launched affiliate programs (where specific types of affiliate promotion are explicitly prohibited in a short and easy-to-read program agreement), we have observed that over 38% of affiliates who apply into this program do not read that agreement. Yes, there is a mandatory requirement to agree
38% of Affiliates Do Not Read Program Agreements Read More »
When doing research for my affiliate program management book, “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing”, I looked at 100 affiliate programs in the same vertical, and analyzed their program agreements. The results were literally shocking: 51% of the merchants lacked Terms of Service agreements altogether, 36% had extremely generic ones,
Affiliate Program Agreement (Terms & Conditions) – Facts & Template Read More »