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Bad Combination: High EPC With A Ghost Affiliate Manager

Started by Vlad Zablotskyy · 10 months ago

If you are new to affiliate marketing or just have started to navigate Commission Junction, you may be very tempted to apply to merchants who’s EPC look very lucrative. I have done it many times myself. I am not saying you should stay way from merchants with high EPC, but you should ... Continue reading »

10 comments

  • Brian Free

    2 years ago

    You are correct in your assumptions. In my experience, programs that dont employ an affiliate manager don't put any effort or thought into their program. Little to no program support is to be expected, and you never know when they will close their program and you get cheated out of your earnings. Every once in a while there may be a diamond in the rough, but for the most part programs without an affiliate manager are destined for failure.
    reply
  • Vlad

    2 years ago

    I think what CJ affiliates should do is to check daily their mailbox. I was fortunate enough not run any PPC campaigns for this merchant. Unfortunately even if your affiliation is terminated, the affiliate links are still lead to the merchant's website but no commission is credited to you. I wish there was a kind of 404 from CJ page for that purpose.

    Thanks for stopping by Brian.
    reply
  • Kirsty McCubbin

    2 years ago

    Unfortunately this kind of issue seems to be too common on CJ's system. I recently discovered one of my biggest merchants was closing. The only communication received was one of those faceless "affiliation terminated" e-mails from CJ.

    Overall, I find CJ's affiliate e-mail system to be poor. I think when affiliates have an issue with a merchant with similarly poor communications you get a bit of a stonewall effect. CJ should be doing more to improve this situation by encouraging merchants to have a dedicated affiliate contact when they open the programme. An affiliate programme with no manager is such an under-utilisation of the affiliate channel surely?
    reply
  • Salvo

    2 years ago

    I don't care how big the merchant is, if you have 5 sales for them, they should be working with you to help increase sales...not kicking you out of the program unannounced!

    Will stay tuned to see who it is :)
    reply
  • Vlad

    2 years ago

    @Kristy
    I hope the merchant in question isn't "closing the doors"... I was wondering about it as well. I have been following closely the industry involved and have not noticed anything indicating such a move. Unless I missed something.

    @Salvo
    Thanks for stopping by. I will definitely let you and other readers know who the merchant is.
    reply
  • Jamie Birch

    2 years ago

    You guys make some great points. Affiliate marketing is about relationships and partnerships. If one side of the partnership is unavailable, AWOL or just silent, how successful is that partnership. I'm sorry to hear that you guys deal with this so often. As an affiliate manager for many years, I learned early to always be available to my affiliates - the people who I rely on to be successful.

    CJ's communication system has always been frustrating, at least from this side of the business.

    There has been a myth about affiliate marketing, I honestly thought had gone away, that you just open a program and it sort of runs itself. As you guys know, that just isn't the case. Programs need that dedicated resource to work with you.

    Another real good post - the more real world examples like this, the more educated online marketers become.
    reply
  • Vlad

    2 years ago

    Hi Jamie,

    Thanks for stopping by. Do you think this is something that can be addressed over at Revenews? I know you guys do not write about such petty things... I just think CJ follows you over at Revenews more than some "Vlad" ;)
    reply
  • Jamie Birch

    2 years ago

    Vlad,

    It's one of the big things that a lot of affiliate managers and outsourced program managers have wanted to address. I'm not so sure that many people read my blog, but I'll see if I can get one out and reference your blog if that's ok.
    reply
  • Vlad

    2 years ago

    Jamie,

    Well, according to Feedburner Revenews has almost 2,000 subscribers vs 50 subscribers here. I am sure (or at least hope) that number of them are affiliate managers like yourself.

    I do not mind at all if you reference my post. In fact I would appreciate it.
    reply
  • Brian Free

    2 years ago

    Consumption Junction is terrible with deserting merchants, they are too big for their own good
    reply

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