Year end affiliate manager bloopers

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Some Affiliate management companies just dont get it. Well really there is one in particular that just RUBS me the WRONG way. I get constant recruiting SPAM from them, even though I know the pres and have asked to be removed numerous times.

This email below kinda takes the cake though. I just got a BUNCH of welcome emails from them for programs I never even joined.

So then I get this email about one of the programs I supposely just joined 3 days ago. (Never did!)

Dear Linda,

My name is ___ the affiliate manager for ____ _____. It is my accountability to ensure affiliates get the service they deserve. I am writing you today because in an evaluation of our program we have noticed that since the date of your sign up, 2005-12-12 , we have not been able to verify your link becoming active. We are working to increase our active affiliate ratio, so I would like to offer you my assistance.

In order to get our metrics and conversion numbers more accurate, we will be deleting any affiliates that are not active by December 16th 12:00 PST and contacting them again to try and help get more affiliates active.
So I get an "activation" email for a program I never even joined, threatening me after 3 days, that if I'm not active 4 days after joining I get deleted??? Crazy!


But I'm curious... what are some of the other crazy things you have had managers do? Change links right before Christmas? Send you coupons that are good for one week? Send you a newsletter about specials that are already over? Still have Christmas banners up on Valentines day?

Come on, even though this part of the forum is not that active, I know there are some affiliates that lurk that must have some good end-of-year affiliate manager bloopers to report. :p

Thanks, Linda

[Marcia]

One LS merchant just sent out a notice that they are completely revamping their site, and that effective December 19th, affiliate links will no longer be tracked for several weeks. Of course, that leaves people no time to remove all their links, so what it means is that they'll be getting all that traffic without paying any compensation.

There's no excuse for that, a REPUTABLE, HONEST merchant recently did a total, major redesign of their site and tracking didn't skip a beat, not for one second. The redirects were handled from the backend so no one would lose a penny in commission. Same network - Linkshare. That's the kind of thing a good affiliate manager sees to well in advance, as well as giving plenty of advance notice, and that's why some have a loyal, dedicated following.

Send you coupons that are good for one week? I just got an email about a one-day-only sale, and often get them where they're only for 3-4 days. I guess it's OK for those who run coupon sites and/or use coupon feeds that update automatically, but for the rest it really is too much bother unless it's a proven converter with very high, consistent return. Even a special run for a full month can be hard to keep up with, but some merchants are clever enough to have those coupons update automatically through their back end.

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Thanks Marcia,

I knew I could count on you for a couple good ones. :)

[rustybrick]

This can be a fun thread, anyone else have stories?

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Thanks Barry - we tried! Maybe some more stories will come in this week so you can blog about this thread.

[danay]

There are a couple of networks that constantly sign up as advertisers via our site. It's funny. I think we received like 10 apps in 6 months from one of them.