[Glumbo]

Originally Posted by Convergence

Agreed. Because I usually don't think like the dark side, I am fond of this set up:

I like that setup as well. Requiring a user to click just to see what offers are available will make them not want to come back.

[Makais]

My take: If a coupon site has a link that says "click to see coupon" and the user of the website does not see a coupon after they click, why would that user ever trust or use that coupon website again? Sure, they set a cookie, but it is a short term gain. The really succesful coupon websites offer a value and and earn trust, and the users come back for more coupons later, which means more cookies & more money.

[CPA Saw Adam]

Originally Posted by OutdoorPlayToys

Our affiliate program is doing pretty well so far and we are existed about the sales that have been generated!

But I did notice this week an affiliate sent a sale and when the customer ordered they said they thought there was a %5 coupon for the product could we apply it.

I visited the site that sent the sale and it is a coupon site that has a button that says "click here for coupon" and then it takes the visitor to our site....I don't like this at all as i find it is misleading....there was no coupon code attached....

We have NO coupons for that product line right now either...so I had to tell the customer that.....thankfully they were OK with it.....

Obviously this one slipped through the cracks because I would not have approved this type of site....

Is it OK to remove a site like this from our program or would that be bad form on our part? This was a nice sale they sent almost $800, but the risk angering customers is too large for me to keep them on...

Suggestions?!!??! How have others handled this......

You gotta crack the whip with affiliates. Once word gets out you allow them to do this, they'll flock to it and take advantage of your goodwill. Give them one warning to follow your tos and if they don't comply - kick them out. Only more bad things can come from allowing stuff you don't want to allow...

[leeann]

Originally Posted by CPA Saw Adam

You gotta crack the whip with affiliates.

Crack the whip with *affiliates?? Ugh... yeah -- we are the enemy!! If you aren't TOO careful some of us might even make money.

* Please don't use such broad terms. This forum, is after all, designed FOR affiliates.

[housebg]

I offer coupons as part of my site, but I only put up the ones that come to me direct from my merchants by email or in my SAS feed. I do find it confusing sometimes that some merchants offer coupons with a code, and others send in a "coupon" without a code - more like an offer.

I use a modified version of a popular coupon script, CouponPress. I didn't like the whole "click to reveal", so I edited the code with a link that says "Visit Website and Enter Code:" and then I display the code right there. If the merchant didn't provide a code, I write *No Code Required* to make it clear.

I could potentially be losing sales, if people don't click my link to go to the site - and just go there later. But for me, the other way just isn't the proper thing to do - and I'd rather lose some potential sales to sleep well at night :-)

However, I don't put all my eggs in the coupon basket - as many folks running coupon sites do. I guess if I did, the temptation would be stronger to try and game the system.

I think there is some value in merchants thinking about their coupons as well. In today's world, users love ways to save money and make ends meet. I think that there are a few things that make coupons more relevant to them:
- Use a coupon code, it makes it feel more "real" and not just a standard offer
- Make coupons expire and bring in new ones. Adds to the feeling of scarcity and encourages consumers to use the coupon.
- Consider giving exclusive coupons to your affiliates. Helps them drive traffic and market their sites as something different from the bad clicktoreveal coupon clones.
- If you have a brick and mortar location, consider working with affiliates that can promote printable coupons to drive traffic to your physical location.

I do realize that some merchants just aren't setup technically with their shopping carts to do true coupons with codes, and that's why we get some strange "offers" without them. To me, that's less of an issue than getting coupons that aren't just set to expire "Never" or sometime in 2016 :-)

Printable coupons can also be powerful to drive foot traffic, and many of these coupon scripts can support printable coupons. I have a nice setup on my site, but alas - nothing yet to promote as an affiliate. I realize that as an affiliate, I probably won't make anything on driving foot traffic, so I wouldn't have a site completely full of printable coupons. But, keeping the merchant business strong keeps my affiliate potential strong - which is a plus. Even if you can go in person to a store, many folks will do both - order online and in person - depending on their schedule and availability.

My 2 cents anyway....

I also agree to contact the affiliate first. I've been dropped from programs before without so much as a "hey, why are you...." and no chance to discuss - and it's really demoralizing as an affiliate, particularly if you don't realize you've done anything wrong.

[Kush@VMInnovations]

Originally Posted by akagorilla

But, not all those couponers are "active". In many of my programs, they have been removed for violations but they remain in search results. They are generally uncooperative in removing landing pages they created because they are still pulling in good traffic for their other monetized offers. In fact, it's stunning how many trademark poachers continue to buy traffic after they have been removed from a program. Once again, they see it as good traffic for their homepage.

+1 I've noticed this as well. Some coupon affiliates were never accepted to our program or have been removed for repeated violations but they still rank high on Google and other search engines for "brand+keyphrases". Just last week I had to remove an unethical coupon affiliate who agreed not to breach the agreement (pseudo-couponing) after first warning but went ahead did it again with other sites that belonged to him.

There are tons of legitimate coupon affiliates that provide real incremental value, unfortunately there are many that don't.

Below is what we have in our program agreement regarding coupon codes, hope it helps:

"Publishers may only use coupons and promotional codes that are provided exclusively through the affiliate program. For our company to offer and pay out the maximum commission possible to our valued affiliates, we will only pay commissions on Coupon Codes that are supplied to the affiliates through the affiliate network. If any affiliate is in violation of this policy, we will reverse any commissions earned on these sales in question:

• Coupon code supplied in VMInnovations’ customer emails
• Promo code from print advertisement or Social Media websites.

Questionable practices to get clicks such as asking visitors to click to reveal a coupon code and redirecting the traffic to our website is not acceptable. Pseudo-couponing and/or asking visitors to click for coupons when there is no coupon are also against this agreement."

[TrishaLyn]

Originally Posted by leeann

Crack the whip with *affiliates?? Ugh... yeah -- we are the enemy!! If you aren't TOO careful some of us might even make money.

* Please don't use such broad terms. This forum, is after all, designed FOR affiliates.

I don't really know CPA Saw Adam and I think his wording is misleading, but I understand & agree with his intent. As an affiliate manager you MUST know what is & what is not allowed - AND how to spot when someone's doing something not allowed - like the back of your hand. If you just allow it to go on, you're not doing your job. If you see rules being broken and can PROVE they're being broken, you need to enforce your TOS.

That said, I'm a huge proponent of reaching out to an affiliate and giving them a warning to open up discussion before a knee-jerk reaction of booting them from a program. Sometimes new affiliates didn't read the TOS as carefully as they should have or didn't realize what they were doing was breaking the TOS if your TOS is worded vaguely.

So I guess the moral of my story here is don't let affiliates who are knowlingly ripping you off continue, make sure your TOS is crystal clear as to what you do & don't allow in no uncertain terms, and reach out to affiliates on a first offense and try to work with them before punishing them.

[bibby]

I'll add that if affilaites are unsure of how to apply a merchant's terms to a specific situation, reach out to the affiliate manager. In my experience many AMs will be recptive to your questions and quide you appropriately.