[teezone]

Just thinking aloud after receiving communications from merchants over the holidays..

I send my traffic to stores to (hopefully) convert to sales, otherwise my work is for nothing. My traffic is sacred to me, it is the bread & butter of my business.

One merchant has recently asked that affiliates add @merchantname when tweeting about anything relates to the store.

Many more have launched sign-up deals that they are pushing on affiliates, and want us to actively promote.

When my reader signs up for a store newsletter or enters a contest using a link on my site... how exactly does that help me commission-wise? Yes, I realize that I may still keep my reader, but it does give the merchant a direct relationship before I've made a dime.

I'm all for merchants looking for more traffic, but perhaps they need to consider additional compensation to publishers for this type of free traffic.

I'm curious if any other affiliates feel the same way..

[Sarah Bundy]

Hi Teezone,

Interesting point. How would you consider tracking the compensation of conversions through those means? You can always include your affiliate tracking link in TW or FB when you post, but if just a mention, any ideas?

[mailman]

Good Post Teezone! I was checking out the no of Merchants at Shareasale and was amazed at how many there are and thats just one network. Without affilates I wonder how successful they would be. Affilate sites are a form of advertising as we give them exposure that otherwise they would not have,similar to TV,radio and printed material. Can a merchant place ads in these Medias on a commission basis? No! An impression & click to me falls into this. We have given them the exposure and whether a viewer buys something or not that is not completely up to us.
"I'm all for merchants looking for more traffic, but perhaps they need to consider additional compensation to publishers for this type of free traffic."
You are correct,I think sites that generate a lot of views should be compensated by clicks and even impressions. Without affilates how would they get exposure?

I predict that it's time for merchants to start appreciating the value of the affiliate channel, they just need to have appropriate expectations and policies right from the start. "
Loxy says it right.

[ladidah]

This is a timely topic for me too.

The day you posted this I got an email from my CJ acct mgr and was ready to help me negotiate a commission increase and talk to another CJ acct mgr of a certain merchant. So he hinted that perhaps if I wanted to give the merchant more exposure they would accept the proposal.

Exposure would be perhaps:
(1) Homepage banner placement
(2) Social media promotion (newsletter, twitter, facebook, etc. etc.)
(3) Perhaps banner placement on each page
(4) Perhaps tiered sales per month.

So if you are going to give them more exposure, I would perhaps ask for a commission increase or a paid banner placement. Currently I don't use newsletters but if I did, I would place affiliate links in them as well. No free traffic though to the merchant unless it is a store that does not have an affiliate program that I absolutely truly love and think that would help my visitors/readers. And I do have plenty of those links on my site.

Side note: I also see that CJx Beta is also being offered on CJ. Anyone tried this? I believe it is similar to OpenX but not sure. This would be a good way for merchants to gain exposure and allow affiliates to get paid.

[Decorative Ceiling Tiles]

I agree, no freebees! When I think of this I always think of my customer going directly to my suppliers and this method always lets me know that I would not like to be treated that way.

[ProWebAddict]

Is my avatar still the same?

[thomasv]

I completely agree...they should pay for the traffic...especially if you send regular traffci to their sites.

[Rexanne]

Another peeve along the same lines is merchants asking for link exchanges. I tell them I don't offer free links to commercial web sites. BUY AN AD!

[CluckCluck]

Originally Posted by ladidah

This is a timely topic for me too.

Side note: I also see that CJx Beta is also being offered on CJ. Anyone tried this? I believe it is similar to OpenX but not sure. This would be a good way for merchants to gain exposure and allow affiliates to get paid.

I've been running CJx for about a month now, and I tell ya, it's pretty much worthless. Of the 300 or so clicks I've gotten from the ads, I've received about $0.45 TOTAL!
CJ has to pull the plug on this project, especially since the ads that are being served as not relevant to my site's content.