[Blair.com]

I said I would no longer post here, but these violations were SO unethical, I figured I should clue in other AM's.

As I'm sure most of you are aware, Blair.com has a no bidding policy on our Brand terms. We do have separate contracts with a couple of upstanding affiliates to do so. Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Blair.com did a big promotion. And... as expected, two non-approved affiliates were bidding on our terms.

But... that's just the tip of the iceberg. The promo ran Friday thru Monday. They didn't bid during business hours on Friday and Monday. They only bid in the evening hours, and on the weekend. And... they were sending the traffic straight to Blair.com. I think that's bad enough right there. But... they even went a step further.

These two affiliates COPIED our Google ad boxes completely, along with the circle R trademark logo, and the words "Official Site".

So... on the weekend late at night before I went to bed, when I checked Google looking for cheaters, I saw what I thought was my ad, though it was actually an affiliate ad. The only reason they got caught was because they were stupid enough to use copy for an expired offer. The copy actually said "Exp. 4/15".

I've kicked the violators out of our program and have reversed their sales. If you would like to know who the two violators were who were doing this, send me a message. Due to the hostility usually surrounding my posts, this will be my only post in this thread.

[Caseyfern]

Originally Posted by Blair.com

The only reason they got caught was because they were stupid enough to use copy for an expired offer. The copy actually said "Exp. 4/15".

Darwin Awards for Affiliates.

[Jim Guinn]

Darwin Awards for this "only" post.

Jim

[MNSandy]

Really dislike such practices.

I guess there is room for automated trademark monitoring to be implemented.

[Blair.com]

Get this...

Go to Google and type in blair.com. Do you see the first ad that states: Blair(R) Official Site?

That's not my ad. Once I threw out one of the offenders, their sister site decided to take over.

[MNSandy]

I'm in UK, so I don't see any ads except one for Tony Blair which is for UK newspaper.

[Thomas A. Rice]

I don't see any, but perhaps you have removed them already. At google, if I search for 'blair', two coupon sites pop up.

Have you ever contracted out with AFP to give your proogram a once over?

[Rollerblader]

Also, if you try doing your search in MSN you'll find 4 more, 1 which you mentioned already and 3 which you did not who are also notorious for this behavior....you may also want to check aol, miva, ask and the others and you'll keep finding more and more.

[Adam Ward]

>>'m in UK, so I don't see any ads except ...

Try this tool https://adwords.google.com/select/Ad...ingPreviewTool

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

Well ... When You Lay with Dogs You Get Fleas!

That said, it would behove you to out the offenders so that other programs can take approrpiate action.

[Thomas A. Rice]

Not sure where Kanoodle.com gets traffic, but they have 2 advertisers bidding on "blair.com"

[Blair.com]

One of the offending affiliates wrote back to me after I sent the letter telling him he'd been deactivated and that his sales were being reversed. He apologized and said that he had been having trouble with "negative keywords" recently.

Well that explains it. Now I feel bad for being quite so harsh. Hey... wait! What does negative keywords have to do with copying my Google ad exactly, and sending the traffic directly to Blair.com?

[MichaelColey]

I think what he meant to say was that he forgot to filter based on your IP address.

[Donuts]

Originally Posted by MichaelColey

I think what he meant to say was that he forgot to filter based on your IP address.

Bahahaha. I wet myself a little right there, maybe some new drawers in my future, Depends.

[BurgerBoy]

Originally Posted by Donuts

Bahahaha. I wet myself a little right there, maybe some new drawers in my future, Depends.

You want an affiliate link to buy them??