182 New Posts Today

[webworker]

If sales are generated via feeds, LS may get a cut of the revenue generated for the merchant via the feeds. With charging $250 for the feeds, LS gets 100% of that revenue, whether even one sale is made or not. Do the math from their POV.

Sorry, but it smacks of MLM, where you have to pay to even sign up or get started with a program.

[lstolze]

I agree. Tryed to not get into this whole argument, but honestly, if someone needs me to do a job for them (marketing their goods) then I should get paid for my work, I shouldn't have to pay them for their promotional tools. I need to pay for and upkeep my equipment as an independent contractor, but I sure as heck don't (shouldn't) have to pay them for their product list so I can market it for them. I agree webworker - MLM.

I know of course this isn't the fault of the merchants. Some AMs I've talked to are under the impression that they can only provide feeds through LS's merchandiser. They say their LS liasons say things like "It isn't cost efficient for you to offer a feed outside of merchandiser." And being technologically clueless, they buy that. Can you tell I've lived this situation??

[leeann]

With the new free program at Linkshare, do you get charged if you move your website to a different host?

[johnm]

I'd have gladly paid the $250 to set it up, instead of going to the merchants free feeds, or getting the data via other methods. The benefits to subscribing are straight-forward: all of your feeds consolidated, in one spot, in the same format, always available, and so on. The problem is the fine print for me:

Investment
There is no set up fee if you meet the following criteria*:

* You have been active in the Network for at least 3 months, AND
* You have generated at least 50 orders in the most recent calendar month

If you do not meet the above criteria, there is a one-time, upfront investment of $250 to cover the set-up and ongoing maintenance of your individual and secure LinkShare Merchandiser FTP account. The cost covers any IP changes that you may need to make to your account in the future - once we have established your account, you may receive all merchants feeds for which you are approved.

*Once approved, if you generate less than 50 orders in any given month, LinkShare reserves the right to charge a one-time maintenance fee of $250 or discontinue access to the Merchandiser product.

... if I generate less than 50 orders in any given month, they can charge another $250 or DISCONTINUE access? If I pay $250, or $500 if I have a slow month, not to mention the cost to implement the feeds (which is going to be more than $250!), only to then have my access taken away --- I'd rather invest time in going to my best affiliate managers and asking them for a feed directly.

And, you know, if that proves impossible, I can always offshore and have somebody do data-entry for me. I hate that option for a number of reasons, but at least I won't have a "chance" of major data-sources that provide a backbone of information for my sites going down in flames.

[LinkShare Moderator]

Leeann,
You don't get charged if you move your website to a different host.

Johnm,
Under no circumstances would you be charged the $250 more than once. If you pay $250 up front because you don't meet the volume requirements, you will never pay it again. It's a "one-time" fee. If the initial set up fee is waived (the footnote at the bottom only pertains to this scenario), it is highly, highly unlikely that we would ever remove access to the feed or charge you the $250 fee at a later date. We are simply reserving that right in the case of some very unusual or extreme circumstances.

Kelli

[leeann]

Originally Posted by johnm

... if I generate less than 50 orders in any given month, they can charge another $250 or DISCONTINUE access?

Oh wow...I really need to learn to read small print. So in a bad month you not only have to deal with a bad month but you will also be out an extra $250 with the new plan. That is good information to bring up front. I missed it before now.

[AddHandler]

Originally Posted by webworker

If sales are generated via feeds, LS may get a cut of the revenue generated for the merchant via the feeds. With charging $250 for the feeds, LS gets 100% of that revenue, whether even one sale is made or not. Do the math from their POV.

Sorry, but it smacks of MLM, where you have to pay to even sign up or get started with a program.

I am doing the math..

If I don't use the feeds at all because of the $250 fee.. then they get niether
the revenue from the feed sales or the $250..

If they gave it out FREE then they would get the revenue from my feed sales.. over time that could add up to tens of thousands of dollars.. right now their not getting anything from me.. The good merchants usually have them available for free anyway. Since that is the case it seems ridiculous for the networks to charge for access.