[Dynamoo]

Here's an easy way to play dirty with WhenU - if they're stealing our traffic we can play hell with their software downloads on CNET and others by giving them a rubbish rating and slagging off the product.

We need to track down all the sites that offer it for download and post 'em here - whaddya thing?

Here's some URLs:

ZDnet
CNET
ZDnet India
Rockdownload
Agent Land
Agentland France (Use the translate tool at AltaVista if you don't speak French!)
Affiliate First (!!!)

Post any more here

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Dynamoo ]

[erninator]

Here's the response I received from Petsmart. I'll be posting as they respond.


Dear Ernie,

Thank you for being a PETsMART.com Affiliate, and for contacting us today.
In response to your concerns, we are investigating this situation. In the
meantime, please let me know if you have further questions or concerns.

Best wishes,

Jodi
PETsMART.com

[ecomcity]

Funny that someone at CashPile or Revenews hasn't made these and their ilk into front page topics. CJ's linkjump is in the same category without a budget to embed the scumware portion...just a bunch of their own coded links to steal affiliate traffic on everypage. Netflip and Gator even gets PR releases from BeFree to pump up stock prices so insiders can sell out. The networks cater to these guys as "super affiliates" with preferred status. Go figure.

[dhelle]

Great idea Dynamoo ...

Post to heck outta of em ... I believe half the thumbs up posts are from WhenU.com :eek:

Dave

[thecontractorsgroup.com]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dynamoo:
Here's an easy way to play dirty with WhenU - if they're stealing our traffic we can play hell with their software downloads on CNET and others by giving them a rubbish rating and slagging off the product.

We need to track down all the sites that offer it for download and post 'em here - whaddya thing?
[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Dynamoo ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Excellent idea !! Also, as an aside, I did contact CNET about the fact that they allow WhenU.com to carry the CNET image and *award* that they do. Here's the letter I sent them:

Hi!

I have recently been made aware of a site, WhenU.com.
I am told that this site is able to *steal* commissions
from affiliates who belong to the same affiliate program
that WhenU.com belongs to. Apparently, after one of my
site visitors clicks on a link at my site, a link that
introduced the surfer to the product/company. When the
surfer arrives at the page that carries my affiliate id,
apparently if WhenU.com belongs to the same affiliate
program, they have a pop-up window that pops up and offers
a coupon. If my site visitor, who clicked through from
my site, clicks on that pop-up window, I lose that commission.

I am in the process of contacting affiliate programs I
belong to, to find out if WhenU.com belongs. If WhenU.com
belongs, I will drop the program. I am also going to put
it very prominently at my site, exactly what WhenU.com is
doing.

The reason I am writing you guys is because when I went to
WhenU.com, I saw "CNet pick, WhenUShop is a must have". I
am hoping that by making you aware of their practices, that
you will stop promoting WhenU, and not let them carry the
title of a "CNet must have". As more and more people become
aware of the practices of WhenU.com, I expect that anyone
affiliated with them will be looked at somewhat sideways
also. CNet is a great site, and I hope that you guys decide
to drop your affiliation with WhenU.com.

Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Diane Dennis

Here is their first response:

CNET/ZDNet has no affiliation with WhenU.com, we only list their
software. CNET/ZDNet also no longer reviews or rates any software
submissions.

The CNET/ZDNet download sites will continue to offer unbiased editorial
reviews/coverage through weekly and daily newsletters as well as user
reviews & ratings. We'll also continue to offer key editorial features,
such as Preston's Picks, Download Deathmatch, etc.

Dave Trowbridge, CNET/ZDNet

Here is my next response:

But you're okay with WhenU.com having an image on
their site that states that CNET considers their software
a must have ??

Diane

And here is their final response:

I've forwarded your message on to Download.com's Feedback staff and you
should receive a response from someone there if one is necessary.

Dave Trowbridge, CNET/ZDNet

Okay, if anyone else wants to pursue this angle, here is the email address I have been using to communicate with Dave Trowbridge:
CNET Bugs Extermination Team bugs@cnet.com

Diane

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: thecontractorsgroup.com ]

[Guffy]

Hmmm
Rockdownload's post your own review seems to be Temporarily Disabled.
I wonder why that might be. :rolleyes:

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

MileHiMall,

Welcome! <IMG src=http://www.abestweb.com/smilies/welcome.gif>

Good work<IMG src=http://www.abestweb.com/ubb/icons/icon14.gif>

Haiko

There is a product I usually do pretty well with and have been at my wit's end trying to figure why I haven't seen many sales the last week or so even though it is currently on sale w/free shipping.....now I think I know. I've added the following to the text on my product page....

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>The sale price and FREE Shipping will automatically be added to your order, you aren't required to use a "Coupon" or "Code", nor do you need to click any pop-up ads to receive this offer!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll post if I see more sales showing up.

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: MsMarySunshine ]

[MsMarySunshine]

O.K. this could be a coincidence but....I just had a sale...., just a few click throughs today and already a sale. Will continue to monitor closely and if this seems to make a difference you can bet all my pages will be edited!

[MsMarySunshine]

Just to update this....three sales today!!

[thecontractorsgroup.com]

Hi Sunshine!

Thank you, I am going to edit my pages also. Something I was thinking, I'm wondering about going one step further and actually cautioning the reader about clicking on any windows that might pop up.

I read a post from someone who went into Amazon after loading the WhenU.com and clicking on one of her links, the offer that WhenU.com popped up at Amazon was an offer that was not even available to other affiliates to promote. So, feasibly, they would need to click on the window to get the special that only WhenU.com is promoting. If they don't click on the window, and don't get the special offer, they may be upset. I am thinking that maybe we caution people that those popup windows are not always accurate, will waste your time, will take you away from the site you wish to shop at, etc., etc. I see a benefit in this, in that when merchants popup their own little window to offer a special deal (a deal that would track to pay us commission), with any luck the visitor will ignore the popup window and just go through to make their original intended purchase. If merchants start losing on their own special deals, they may get together to help stamp out the scumware. Frankly, because it seems that this type of dealing is not going away, I think that every single affiliate should have some type of notice on their affiliate pages about this whole deal, whether it be a gentle notice or a full-blown scream ad, about scumware programs. Each time we find out about a new program, we oughta add that name to our notice, on each page. Not only does this let our own visitors know about these problems, but imagine how cool it would be if someone typed WhenU into a search engine and up popped one of our affiliate pages that contains info about the dirty practices of WhenU. We could actually stop a few people from ever even downloading it. Also, I saw some instructions the other day on how to remove WhenU and SaveNow from your computer. This would also be a good posting for our sites, to tell everyone how to get rid of it. I will get those instructions and post them.

Sorry this post rambles on like it does, we are headed out of town tomorrow and as usual I am at least three days behind....

Take care!
Diane
www.thecontractorsgroup.com
diane@thecontractorsgroup.com

[MsMarySunshine]

I agree, this won't work for all things. In this instance, I was concerned the visitors were getting a popup for free shipping - which I state is available already on my site. I think they thought they had to or click the pop-up in order to get the free shipping deal.

For "private" coupons where WhenU may have negotiated w/Amazon or others - we have few options to defeat it.

One thing I have learned building sites is that most (60-70%) of people want to be told what to do! I had a page comparing prices on a product and just had buttons by the merchants to click through and it did ok, but, when I added --We recommend you purchase from -merchant name- because they have the best price, fast shipping, and blah-blah-blah --- sales went up substantially!

So, I think we need to do whatever we can to let our visitors know they don't need to or shouldn't click any pop-ups.

[thecontractorsgroup.com]

Boy, we have a long haul ahead of us, don't we... Hey, we could be considered pioneers of sorts!

Take care,
Diane

[buckworks]

"when I added --We recommend you purchase from -merchant name- because they have the best price, fast shipping, and blah-blah-blah --- sales went up substantially!"

I'm going over all my pages to try and beef up my copy that way. Some of it's pretty good already but there's still a lot of dud stuff.

I also found that conversion rates went up when I started putting my name on my site. I know that has a potential downside, but I've never had problems, and people like to know that it's a real person out there willing to put her name on on what she says.

Elisabeth Archambault

[cyber-punk]

hey look at this, agentlands top 10 downloads include kazzaa/toptext at #01 and gator at #7, makes me wonder about the rest of that top 10, are these guys exclusively promoting scumware or what? click here

oh yeah, i nearly forgot, rockland have deactivated user reviews

[link fixed]

[ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: austin powers ]

[MsMarySunshine]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I'm going over all my pages to try and beef up my copy that way<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Let me know if it works for you....and errrrm, the "blah-blah" may not prove very effective

I still need to update all my pages the same too! I've mainly been focusing on two sites that have rocked lately.

[MsMarySunshine]

Update -- 5 sales of that product today after adding that text to my page! hmmmmmm

[Leader]

"One thing I have learned building sites is that most (60-70%) of people want to be told what to do! <snipped>when I added --We recommend you purchase from -merchant name- because they have the best price, fast shipping, and blah-blah-blah --- sales went up substantially!~MsMarySunshine"

I've said that ALL ALONG! People need REASONS to click and buy!

[Gordon]

This is my attempt to stop people using the popups and highlighted links. It can be seen working here

This is a warning to all our visitors and potential customers

There are certain programs out now namely Ezula, WhenU and Gator to name just a few, that are downloaded and installed on your computer without your knowledge. Some cause a popup to appear and some highlight the text. This is a link that looks like an Ezula link clothing
They in effect are stealing the commissions earned by affiliates like me and others that bring to you the choice of products you have enquired about.

Please do not click on any popups or colored links. This site does NOT use popups as a selling aid. All genuine links on this site are just text with no background ie: like this. All the links on my site lead to genuine merchants who sell the genuine articles and give a genuine guarantee..



click here to close popup


I would like to ask
A/ do you think a popup would be better than the popunder?
B/ do you think the wording is ok?
c/ does anybody know the code to close the popunder using a text link (click here to close popup) please?

[MsMarySunshine]

alright, I'm trying to post it, but it won't let me, duh me I feel silly asking but - what do I need to do to have it let me post the code??

[Gordon]

I think this will work, just replace the <>'s or the {}'s with x's eg
xfont size=+1x text x/fontx

[cowcool]

deketed

[ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: cowcool ]

[MsMarySunshine]

substitute <> for the x's

xinput type="Button" VALUE="Close Window" onClick="self.close()"x

[thecontractorsgroup.com]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gordon:
This is my attempt to stop people using the popups and highlighted links. It can be seen working here<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Gordon, I checked it out, this is an excellent idea!! I would think that a pop over (on top) rather than a popunder would be best for this warning, because you want them to see the warning BEFORE they click on any links, but with it being a popunder, they won't necessarily see it until after they have left your site. (I think?).

I am going to definitely add this to my pages, too bad I don't have time before I leave but thank you so much for the excellent idea, I will do it when I get back! A thought, If we all make the warning look about the same, people will become familiar and trusting of the warning (because they will feasibly see the warning at more than one site), as opposed to if we all make them different looking. Any thoughts on that anyone?

Diane

[Guffy]

@Gordon

How about this.
Not exactly a pop up but a self closing warning. Currently set for 15 seconds.