Associate Programs Newsletter #175
CONTENTS:
1. Thanks for spreading the word on scumware
2. Sign this new anti-scumware petition
3. Another way affiliates can be robbed of commissions
4. Referral program boosts subscribers fast
5. Newsletter lets you include referral links
6. iWon treats affiliates badly, and other news
7. More merchants fight scumware
8. Search Engine helps feed the starving
9. Useful free resource: Use RoboForm instead of Gator
10. Thought for today: Education or catastrophe?
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1. Thanks for spreading the word on scumware
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Letters have been pouring in on scumware. Let’s hope the main affiliate networks have the sense to recognize that there’s a lot of ill feeling out there.
Many thanks to everyone who wrote congratulating me for sticking my neck out in my recent articles:
“BeFree turns blind eye to Gator’s dirty tricks”
Beware of Gator dirty tricks
“Outrage spreads over scumware”
How to stop scumware
Very special thanks to several newsletters which have republished my articles.
It’s wonderful to see people in positions of influence willing to spread the word about the unethical and possibly illegal tactics used by the predatory advertising companies such as eZula, Surf+ and Gator.
As Jim Wilson of https://www.scumware.com fame reports in JimWorld Gazette, amazing progress has been made by those fighting scumware.
Pay-per-click search engines have severed their links with Surf+ and nearly all eZula’s TopText advertisers have dropped their advertising campaigns, which is fabulous news.
It’s wonderful to see thousands of web site owners collaborating to help make the Internet a better place.
The main target left now is the disgusting Gator, an application that blots out ads on your site and replaces them with its own advertising.
I’m researching the attitudes of LinkShare and Commission Junction, and hope to have something to report next week.
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2. Sign this new anti-scumware petition
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Aesop.com CEO Mark Joyner has joined the fight against scumware with a bold plan – a massive petition whose first aim is to persuade Microsoft to modify Internet Explorer so that scumware applications do not function.
It’s a simple and elegant solution, he says.
Mark says there’s a broader issue at stake – the freedom of web site owners around the world.
When I signed the petition today it already had 10,135 signatures. See how many it has now.
webmasterfreedom.org
[UPDATE: This site has changed.]======================================================
3. Another way affiliates can be robbed of commissions
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There’s another threat facing affiliates which doesn’t get much publicity, says Ellery Coleman of HotWays.com.
Here’s his letter:
Hi Allan,
I applaud your efforts to help eliminate scumware as mentioned in your latest newsletter.
I just wanted to let you know that our pay-per-click search engine, HotWays.com, has also joined in by inserting an anti-scumware clause in, not only our affiliate agreement, but in our terms for advertisers as well.
You are welcome to check these out at
https://www.hotways.com/cgi-bin/start.cgi/terms.htm and
https://www.hotways.com/cgi-bin/start.cgi/afagree.htm
There is another threat facing affiliates that doesn’t get much publicity that we are taking a strong stand against.
We protect your commissions by not allowing affiliates to sign up for our service under their own affiliate ID. This prevents your customers from deleting your cookie and signing up under themselves in order to make the commission on their own signup and depriving you of your commissions.
Most affiliate programs allow this but it is very short-sighted since it only saves money on one customer but can potentially lose you thousands.
Protect yourself. Refuse to sign up with affiliate programs that allow this.
Keep up the good work. I enjoy your newsletter very much.
Best regards,
Ellery Coleman
https://HotWays.com
‘Hot Ways to Find Things’
Search for websites, pictures, definitions, books…
Pay-per-click Advertising on Keyword Searches
(HotWays is promoted via multi-level marketing. I don’t normally discuss such programs in this newsletter but I’m publishing Ellery’s letter simply because it makes excellent sense.)
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4. Referral program boosts subscribers fast
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One of the newsletters which republished my recent article “Outrage spreads over scumware” is Webmasters’ Ezine –
webmasters-ezine.com.
I noticed that it has more than 345,000 subscribers – a remarkable achievement – so I asked its editor, Ryan Jensen, why it’s so popular.
“The original owner set up a unique referral program for other webmasters,” Ryan says.
(The newsletter is now owned by Thomas Leonard, CEO of Ezineville.com.)
“If a member of the referral program sent a subscriber to Webmasters’ Ezine, that referral partner received two classified ads in following issues. For example: if you send Webmasters’ Ezine 20,000 subscribers, your ad would be run in 40,000 e-mails. Most of our new subscribers come from this program.”
The growth in subscribers has been achieved very fast. Ryan says the newsletter had only 12,000 subscribers in June, 2000.
Such a referral program will work only if you have a newsletter distribution system capable of doing split runs.
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5. Newsletter lets you include referral links
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If you’re looking for a newsletter which publishes articles that include your referral links, try Webmasters’ Ezine.
“Our authors have had a lot of success with affiliate programs by incorporating them into full-size informative articles,” says the editor, Ryan Jensen.
“While Webmasters’ Ezine does not accept ‘advertorials,’ we do accept articles that teach and/or inform and subtly include the author’s affiliate links. If any of your readers would like to submit an article for possible inclusion, have them write to ryan AT webmasters-ezine.com . No attachments will be accepted. See webmasters-ezine.com/old/3401.html for an example.”
If you’re submitting an article to a newsletter or web site which DOESN’T allow you to include referral links, don’t despair.
Here are two things you can do to help achieve a sale:
Write a shortened version of your article and at the end say something like this: “For a fuller, more detailed discussion of this issue, see my article here…” and include a link to your article which DOES include referral links.
Add a five or six-line source box at the end of your article inviting people to sign up for your newsletter. Once they’re readers, you can have multiple opportunities to achieve a sale.
[UPDATE: Webmasters’ Ezine has vanished.]__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
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6. iWon treats affiliates badly, and other news
===============================================
iWon has treated its affiliates badly, giving them only about 24 hours warning before dumping its affiliate program on August 31. Then iWon went on to say that it hopes to launch a new program soon. Guess who won’t be interested?
Someone at iWon hasn’t learned one of the most important rules of affiliate marketing: Treat your affiliates well.
eBay has begun selling banner ads to some of its top sellers and plans to expand the program. The sellers’ ads will appear on the company’s search results and category listing pages.
https://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-7057720.html
Greater Good, the affiliate-driven shopping mall which donates a percentage of its earnings to charity, is back online under new management.
https://www.greatergood.com/
Tig Tillinghast argues that the best defense against Gator is to support the Department of Justice’s case against Microsoft. https://www.clickz.com/media/buy_101/article.php/876451
What real super affiliates need to know today is the effective CPM of their programs, says Declan Dunn. Hybrid deals are very powerful, and even more powerful if you know your numbers. https://www.clickz.com/aff_mkt/aff_mkt/article.php/876471
LinkShare has added a Non-Payments Alert Form to its site, allowing affiliates to tell both LinkShare and the merchant of late payments.
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7. More merchants fight scumware
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ScamFreeZone and eHealthInsurance are the latest affiliate merchants to join the fight against predatory advertising, or scumware.
Neil Shearing of the ScamFreeZone has added the following section to his affiliate agreement:
“You also agree not to use any predatory advertising methods in the promotion of Scamfree Ltd products, services or affiliate program. Predatory advertising is defined as any method that creates or changes links or banners on web sites without the expressed permission of that web site owner. Participation in predatory advertising programs will be cause for the affiliate’s immediate termination.”
Well done, Neil!
Affiliate merchants who are inserting anti-scumware clauses in their affiliate agreements include:
LeadCrunch
ListChannel
Affiliate Announce [UPDATE: This business has been sold.]SiteSell – https://www.associateprograms.com/ken
eHealthInsurance – https://eHealthInsurance.com (uses BeFree)
ScamFreeZone – https://www.associateprograms.com/scamfrees
Predatory advertising is unethical, possibly illegal. It has been aptly called “scumware”.
If you want to find a good affiliate merchant who cares about things that matter, have a look at these companies.
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8. Search Engine helps feed the starving
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Would you like to help make the world a better place without leaving your computer?
If so, read on… (It won’t cost you anything.)
Try using a new meta search engine, SearchToFeed.org . While you do so, you can be happy in the knowledge that you’re helping relieve world hunger.
SearchToFeed returns results from Goto.com, Google, HotBot, AltaVista, AOL and Yahoo, as well as several pay-per-click search engines which pay it commissions for searches.
“Every time you search the Internet by using SearchToFeed.org, a cup of food will be donated (distributed by Mercy Corps to where it is most needed),” says co-founder and CEO William Sutjiadi.
“As a non-profit organization, we plan to give all the commissions minus our operating expenses, and hopefully when we get some corporate/foundation sponsors or underwriters, we will be able to give 100%,” William says.
Non-profit organizations usually keep from zero to 40% for operating costs. An organization is considered very efficient if it can keep 25% or below for operating costs. SearchToFeed aims to be highly efficient.
“My goal is to really try hard to make a difference in this world and to save some lives by providing a mechanism to relief world hunger.”
William says that every day 34,000 children die from starvation.
You can help just by using SearchToFeed.org .
“Ways to help” page:
searchtofeed.org/help.cfm
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9. Useful free resource: Use RoboForm instead of Gator
======================================================
If you don’t want to use Gator any more – and I hope you don’t – there’s another “fill-in-the-blanks-remember-your-passwords” program you can use. Try RoboForm – https://www.roboform.com/ . It works with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4 or later, all browsers based on IE, and Netscape 6. It’s free.
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10. Thought for today: Education or catastrophe?
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“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” – H.G. Wells.
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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