What Bugs You Most about Affiliate Programs?
So tell me… what bugs you most about affiliate programs? Is it…
- Chicken Scratch Commissions - How do you feel about making a $1.00 a lead when you know the merchant is ultimately earning hundreds, if not thousands, from the targetted customer you sent to their site?
- Rejection Notices - Are you tired of those “We regret to inform you that ____.com has chosen not to accept you into their affiliate program at this time” that don’t include any specific explanation or where it is obvious that the merchant didn’t bother to look at your FABULOUS site.
- Lack of Ability to Contact Merchants - So, you’re not a CJ performer. Is that any excuse to have to write several emails and make several telephone calls before you get a reply to a valid question?
- Lack of Information - What about those programs that do approve you and send you a welcome letter that doesn’t include a link to the site, the manager’s name or your affiliate details? I especially love those that send info from some obscure company name that you’ve never heard of — so you have no clue to which affiliate program they’re referring.
- Clunky Affiliate Interfaces - Surely you have some experience with an affiliate interface that is almost impossible to use. It takes forever to drill down and find a graphic or copy that you want and when you do find one, the interface bogs down and then crashes before it generates your link.
Oh, my list could go on - but I want to hear about your beefs.
Go on - get it off your chest. Leave a comment and tell it like you see it — the ultimate goal being that this information will help affiliate managers and merchants IMPROVE their programs and networks. 
Popularity: 11% [?]
Yahoo! Affiliate Program Changes
Yesterday Yahoo! announced that they are combining all the products and services that Yahoo! offers affiliates into a unified Yahoo! affiliate program.
So, if you were promoting Yahoo! Search Marketing, you’ll have to join the Yahoo! Affiliate Program and change your links by March 1st, 2007. Furthermore, search affiliates will find that they are limited by new restrictions under the unified program.
Here are all of the Yahoo! Properties:
- Yahoo! Search Marketing
- Yahoo! Small Business
- Yahoo! HotJobs
- Yahoo! Personals
- Yahoo! Music
- Yahoo! Autos
- Yahoo! Games
Oh, Yahoo! Thanks a LOT! :-/ One must wonder why they had their programs split out in the first place??? Grrrr.
Popularity: 13% [?]
ID Kits and Animal Lovers
The February issue of Secrets to Their Success features Debra LaPorte who took a small idea and is now earning $500,000 in annual revenue by selling ID kits on the ‘net. Animal lovers, Dan and Christine Millar are also featured, having generated over $100,000 in sales on eBay in only eight months. This month’s site review winner is an affiliate site for herbal health and beauty products.
Get monthly motivation - Get “Secrets to Their Success“. That link gives you one month’s FREE access (and on the homepage you get to see what I looked like six years ago).
Popularity: 18% [?]
Dying Days for Yahoo! Keyword Suggestion Tool
According to discussions at WebmasterWorld and elsewhere it appears that the Yahoo! Keyword Suggestion tool has frequently been unavailable and causing errors with software that rely on its data. Speculation is that it may not be much longer for the world.
How sad. I’ve been using the Keyword Suggestion tool since it was first online and haven’t had any problems connecting of late. It has however been SLOW as molasses for a long time.
On the bright side Wordtracker just introduced their new Keyword Suggestion Tool which like Yahoo!’s is free to use and better yet - it’s lightning fast.
Although Wordtracker estimates search volume differently than Yahoo!, the data seems reasonably comparable.
For example, I searched for the term ‘personals’ at Overture, which reported 288,953 searches for the term in December 2006. I then searched the same term at Wordtracker which estimated 10,044 daily searches. Dividing 288,953 by 31 days in December gives you 9,321 searches per day — a difference of 723 searches.
Good enough for government work - is it good enough for you?
Popularity: 24% [?]
