Affiliate Window Experiences

[shanga]

Hello,

I am curious if someone has experiences with Affiliate Window and their merchants. Right now I don't really want to name the merchant by name but if it continues, I surely will.

Why? We've posted 2 banners 3 months ago, on our site. It has generated, according to the Affiliate Window link performance statistics, an overall clickthrough percentage of 4,5 % which is pretty good. More than 3500 clicks tracked. Now, you would probably think that this is gonna pay you some good money, since the commission is £ 100, per sale.

Here it comes; the emotion I've felt, its almost as day trading on the futures market. One day its up 1700 £ the other day its down to £600 and you can even end up on zero.

I realize that everything is possible, but still it keeps my mind busy. One of the articles where the merchant banners are put on, is even republished and used by Microsoft, attracting in average 400/500 visitors per day. You could again imagine that you can only get positive about these type of statistics but still no pay. It has been over 3 months now and somewhere it doesn't feel right.

Does anyone know what to do, is there another way to control or verify these type of procedures. You want to stay positive, not really ban the merchant because of the good performance and possible high commissions. So, any suggestions are welcomed and highly appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[flanok]

Hi,
Is this merchant a finance company that pays only per sale, rather than lead?
I learned the hard way with loans. They only convert aprox 1 in 10 leads and then they have to wait until paperwork is signed and processed etc. Until you get your commission.
You have a click through of 4%
Only 2 0r 3% of that fill out the lead.
Only 1 in 10 of that actually takes out the loan.
Then the time it takes process the whole thing.

Mark
www.shopbam.co.uk

[shanga]

Hi,

No, the merchant isn't in finance but in training. Pretty straight forward business I think. You register for a course, you pay and you'll get lesson materials.

Sure it will take time to process the whole lot but hey, 3 months and still no commissions?

Thanks

[Linda Buquet]

shanga,

There could be numerous issues going on. 1) The merchant does not convert. 2) The software is not properly tracking. 3) The merchant is not honest. 4) The merchant's tracking pixel was disabled by accident by a programmer and they don't even know it's not working. 5) There's a leak of some kind? Maybe for this type of merchant or training people have questions and call or email then order later without you getting credit.

There are other possible options too but those are the main ones I can think of. So my BEST suggestion is email and/or call the company to discuss your concerns. If you don't get a response or adequate attention to the issue, threaten to pull your links and all your traffic. If you still don't get resolution, pull the links and find another merchant.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

[shanga]

Hello,

As advised, i've got in contact with them and they were quiet defensive. Telling me that their product isn't a product bought 'overnight' and that it takes lots of time and patience before it matures. Certainly, I can imagine this myself what still left me with the question why i first had pending commission allocated to my affiliate account and then saw them to be declined and secondly, the logic thought of maybe every site owner, aren't they taken the mickey out of us and can i still trust this program. On the end of the day, we've advertised for over 3 months their name, product and services. If a merchant want to go bad, they can and this is my real worry. They should just provide you with these kind op securities.

They responded with an answer to my first question, that the pending commissions were actually their clicks and cookies they confirmed as part of the banner testing and affiliate verification procedures. So basically false information and making you as an affiliate feel like you earned money which you actually didn't. The response to the second question was one with anger and annoyance, the contacts person started raising her voice and to moan about, why there previous explanation wasn't sufficient. I've finished the phonecall, hearing the merchant say, but if you don't like it anymore, just take the banner off. Also this is arguable since than its really obvious that a merchant has enjoyed free advertising.

Thanks