Is This How Some Merchants Play Cricket?

I hate cricket. On the very few occasions that I played it as a kid, I was the one stood out on the boundary, hoping that the ball would go anywhere but near me so that I wouldn’t have to risk breaking my fingers catching it.  But I thought I’d talk about cricket today because for many it epitomises fair play, not just on the cricket pitch, but in other walks of life too.

I’ve been busy putting things in place to secure a place to Monaco courtesy of Buyagift’s Christmas Affiliate Incentive.   To be honest things aren’t going as well as they might for me and I was hoping to have sold more experience days by now, but I’m hoping that things will improve (dramatically) as Christmas approaches.

Whether I win a trip to Monaco or not, I enjoy promoting Buyagift because they are a pleasure to work with.   Their website converts well, they offer discount codes so that affiliates can dangle them in front of potential customers, and I’m not alone in thinking that their affiliate marketing manager, Graham Keen, is one of the very best around. I’m a small fish in what must be a big affiliate pond, but if I need anything, Graham has never failed to deliver.

I was also hoping to win a trip to Thailand courtesy of I Want One Of Those.  A bit greedy I know wanting two holidays, but in my defence I can honestly say I would be going on neither. If I win a holiday, my partner in crime and unsung hero of many of the sites I work on – my wife Rhona – would be going, not me.

Indeed, this year I had decided to devote most of my energies to promoting Buyagift and IWOOT in the run up to Christmas.  Win or not, a decent affiliate incentive adds a bit of spice to an affiliate’s day and if you do happen to win it can make your year.

That’s changed now though because as far as I can see IWOOT are just not playing cricket.

First, IWOOT have decided to withdraw current discount codes without notice.  So a 5% discount code that should have expired on the 31st of December this year has simply vanished. This leaves me having to go through every page I’m currently promoting IWOOT on so that I can remove any mention of this discount code, work that I can do without at this time of year. Obviously IWOOT can run their business any way they choose, but it would have been much better for me and other affiliates if the existing discount codes had been allowed to run their course and then never replaced.

But then I came across something else that I’ve noticed other merchants doing too.  Linking to newly created websites from their main website, thus drawing traffic from one to the other. Again this is business and I’ve no problem with it per se, but as far as affiliates are concerned it does create a problem because the newly created site pays no commission.  So I spend my time delivering traffic for one site, hoping for a commission if a sale results – when that visitor may well end up on the newly created site where no commission is payable.  The result could be that I provide IWOOT with a customer, but receive nothing in return.

To be fair to IWOOT, the newly launched site is for gift experiences and so it could be argued that it is a completely separate entity.  But the main IWOOT site sells experiences too. Only now the main IWOOT site has banners for the new site saying “For loads more exciting and exhilarating experiences go to . . . ”

IWOOT aren’t the worst offenders.  Take Brastop for example. They sell bras and have launched a spin-off site called Love Bras that sells – wait for it – bras too.  The screenshot below is from the main Brastop site.  So again if I send someone to Brastop and they end up buying from Love Bras instead, I don’t earn any commission.

Whether it’s a deliberate ploy to deprive me and other affiliates of commissions, I doubt it, but that’s the effect nonetheless.  To me it’s no different than sales that don’t track or sales that get “rejected” because the merchant re-routes them via another sales medium.  It’s no different because I’m losing out.

There is a solution.  Just like some merchants offer an affiliate specific site without phone numbers, merchants who want to syphon off visitors to sister sites should do the same too by offering an “affiliate friendly site” that doesn’t seek to redirect traffic.  Not that I expect this to happen.

That leaves me to do what every affiliate should be doing.   Concentrating my efforts on those sites that do know how to play cricket.