Bigger Is Not Always Better in Affiliate Marketing

[Linda Buquet]

For Affiliate Marketing Programs, Bigger Is Not Always Better

Feb. 13, 2004

By: Brian Morrissey
Senior Editor
bmorrissey@dmnews.com

NEW YORK -- Though affiliate marketing has thrived in recent years, top practitioners caution that businesses need to keep a tight rein on affiliate programs to avoid potential legal issues and brand damage.

Speakers at the Direct Marketing Club of New York's panel discussion of performance-based online marketing Thursday praised affiliate marketing as a cheap, effective channel.

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[TrafficProducer]

to use its trademarked terms in search marketing, since it would occur even if the company forbid it. The affiliates handle the keyword bidding and do arbitrage between what they pay for a keyword click and the conversions

Affiliated don't allow use of their Keywords....

Problem is that now we can't use any words because an affiliated will treat that Keyword as theirs.

Therefore not possible to sell, (say ponogo), because ponogo is their word. By putting ponogo on your web page could also break their rules. So how can we sell ponogo without even telling any one that is what we are selling?

ponogo is not a real product but this word is used as an example.

[thusmann]

“We want to keep as much control over the brand as possible,”

The best way to control a brand is to not let affiliates use the brand name at all. Instead, affiliates should be able to completely rebrand the service under their own name.

When applicable, affiliates should have the option of providing customer support and billing in order to earn a higher commission.

By allowing the affiliates to promote their own name, their business interest is secured. Otherwise, how does an affiliate know that s/he will get credit for all word of mouth traffic generated by his/her referred customers? How does he know that the cookies wont get deleted, or the customers ip address changed. How can s/he be assured that all repeat purchases are creditted to his/her account?

The answer is branded affiliate program (NOT COBRANDED) and dont forget to build in a commission for affiliates who refer other affiliates...