What to Do with Non-Paying Merchants!

One thing that I hate the most in the affiliate marketing business is non-payments. Many merchants expect us affiliates to bring them leads and spend money in the proces, but when it comes to paying us, they either pay us late or fail to do so. Now, I am not going to get into why not paying your affiliates can serious damage your brand and your business. To be honest, a lot of big brands actually do pay their affiliates under any circumstances. But smaller third-party networks often leave their affiliates open to these issues.

During my time in the affiliate marketing world, I have worked with big networks (e.g. CJ), and some smaller networks (with only a handful of products). And I have seen non-payment in both. The large networks usually protect their affiliates and try to get you the money you have earned. But those tiny networks can be tricky to deal with. You want to read the fine print before complaining to them about your merchant. In many cases, these guys put all the responsibility on you and the merchant to work it out. For instance, I was owed about $500 on one of these networks, but the merchant just refused to answer my e-mails or send me my check. The merchant told me that while they were “sorry,” I know the terms and conditions before I joined the network (meaning that I had to solve things with the merchant myself). It turned out that the merchant had to close its doors, and I never heard from them again.

The moral of story is that you should always track your revenue every month to figure out who’s not paying you. The sooner you figure that out, the better chance you have of stopping them in their tracks. Some folks just love to use poor affiliates to generate some leads and get the heck out. But I don’t like being taken advantage of. Do you?

Memo to Merchants: Do You Got What It Takes?

Most merchants do not have the right idea when it comes to dealing with their affiliates. For some very strange reason, we are thought of as marketing slaves who will abide by the rules set by affiliate managers and are expected to generate leads and possibly settle for lower commissions. I have no problem abiding by the PPC rules and other small things that merchants put forward. But I have a simple test of my own that helps me determine whether an affiliate program is worth working with.

A successful affiliate relationship is a two way street that involves gives and takes. I personally find it appalling when a merchant expects me to give and give without getting in return. Here is the list of things that I expect to get in return for my work:

• Support: don’t ignore my e-mails. I can’t tell you how many affiliate managers I have seen who get back to me after 2 months or sometimes never! To be fair, there are folks who get back to me fast, and that is a big plus for me. If you are not going to have the courtesy to even send me a short note, then you are not worth working with.
• Creative: some affiliate programs put up a bunch of banners and leave the rest to affiliates. I am always impressed with merchants who value the relationship enough to work with me and provide banners that fit my site. This is just an example, but affiliate managers need to be involved and be there to help affiliates succeed.
• Warnings: affiliate managers who have kicked me out without even giving me a warning just upset me. You work for someone for years, and you have a bad month, and nobody gets in touch to see what you can do to improve your results. Next thing you know you are kicked out. No… No… No!
• Conventional Tools: if you expect me to promote your affiliate program, at least be kind enough to provide me with some basic tools. Maybe a report feature. Maybe a link maker. Something to get me started. It’s not too much to ask, is it?
• Unconventional Tools: If you go that one extra step to create an innovative affiliate tool, I am going to go a mile to bring you more leads. That just shows me that you are dedicated to succeed. An example that I use is Dell affiliate program. These guys created a portal for their affiliates to easily promote offers. Now, I don’t have any excuse for not promoting Dell, and why would I not do it?
• Gestures: some affiliate managers are considerate enough to send gifts or just holiday cards to their top affiliates. If I am bringing you a whole lot of leads, the least you can do is send me an e-mail for the holidays. Not doing that for your top affiliates is not a deal breaker, but it just shows that you don’t know how to take care of your affiliates. Kudos to the guys at Aweber for their best practices here.
• Meetings: affiliate managers who go the extra mile to meet with their top affiliates show that they are dedicated in improving and furthering their affiliate relationships. There are plenty of conferences and events that we can meet up, but if you are not going to show, or you won’t have time for me, then I won’t have time for you.

This is pretty much the list that I use with my own affiliate programs. There maybe a couple of other items that differ from one niche to another, but the above list has served me pretty well. Did I miss anything?

Should Merchants Provide Their Affiliates With Benefits?

Dedicated affiliates work very hard to bring more leads to their merchants. It’s true that they don’t do it because they are in love with the merchant. We are all in this business to make some cash. It’s true that the most successful affiliate marketers act as a marketing arm extension for their merchants, but for all the effort that they put in, they don’t get any guarantees or specific benefits (except the commission checks).

I don’t know about you, but I have worked with many merchants who use their affiliates and discard them when times are tough. That attitude would make me feel undervalued. Being undervalued can lead to affiliates putting less than 100% effort forward or just abandoning merchants.

There are really two ways for us affiliates to deal with this issue. One way is to return the favor to merchants. A lot of successful affiliates use merchants to make money and discard their offers once the EPC goes below a certain level. The better approach in my opinion is working with merchants towards building a mutually successful relationship. I personally believe merchants should offer their best affiliates some unique benefit to keep them from focusing on other offers. I know a few companies offer jobs to their top affiliates, but another way to go is providing them with health benefits.

Now many argue that providing health benefits to folks who are not really employees is complicated. But I am sure there is a way around that (e.g. creating a new class of employees). For many affiliates, benefit costs cut into their profits and having merchants step up to take care of them is a big deal. I know I would give 110% to a merchant that is willing to work with me and not just use me as a tool for its own success. Will we see merchants step up to take care of their top affiliates more than before? We might! But with the economy crumbling, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

You decide: should merchants provide affiliates with some employee-like benefits?

Most Innovative Affiliate Program

I know this is old news, but Amazon has officially reclaimed the title of most innovative affiliate program in the world. As someone who at one time considered working for Amazon, I can tell you that these guys have a vast pool of talent, and they have utilized their talent to the maximum by coming up with new features after new features for Amazon Associates Program.

Amazon is all about providing affiliates with tools to make them succeed. They have thousands of ways that affiliates can link to Amazon products. If you are looking for something simple, you can just grab a banner. If you want to go a bit more advanced, you can grab a widget. There are many widgets to choose from, and depending on real-estate on your website, you can have multiple ways of making money.

Let’s not forget that Amazon is one of the best places to shop, which means you can expect to get a lot of sales if you do your homework. Not only that, Amazon will credit you for any sales that are generated as a part of your effort. So if I put a link to a laptop on my page, and you decide to buy a book, I am going to get credit for it regardless.

Amazon’s affiliate program is one of the oldest affiliate programs on the Web, and it has one of the most generous tiers around. Paying 4% of sales to affiliates may not seem that lucrative, but Amazon does offer performance incentives, which means you can get higher percentages on non-electronic purchases. Amazon is not going to make you a millionaire with their affiliate program, but they provide you with enough tools to make your mortgage payments.

How’s been your experience with Amazon Associates Program? Please share them here.

Do You Feel Worthy As an Affiliate?

I have been a fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship for a while now. I have followed their PPV events, and have paid for them in the past 6 months. If you are not familiar with the UFC, it is the top mixed martial arts organization in the U.S. Basically, folks get into a cage and beat each other up until there is a winner. The sport is very hot these days, and fighters are getting paid more for their efforts than in the past. But recently, I read an article about how some fighters did not feel valued by the organization. These folks were claiming that they shed their blood for the UFC, but UFC uses them and discards them as they wish.

This whole thing made me think about my own experience with merchants. There have been numerous times that I have felt as If I was being abused by merchants. For instance, you put your time and effort to create an affiliate portal only to have your commissions slashed in half by the greedy merchants. Some merchants have lousy tracking practices and don’t offer you commission on indirect leads. A few merchants ask leads to call up and by on the phone to avoid paying commission to their affiliates.

My most recent experience was with a financial company that asked me to remove all their business-related solutions from my site. They argued that after careful consideration they had decided to not work with us affiliates. Now, I get the merchant side of the story, but their answer or lack thereof to my complaints was a slap in the face, having worked for months to develop a portal for their business solution.

It’s one thing to kick out affiliates who are under-performing. It’s another to kick out those who are bringing you leads on an everyday basis. Unfortunately, a lot of merchants don’t care about you and I as affiliates. We are just tools to help them reach their goals, and they will discard us as soon as they don’t have any need for us. But there are a few merchants that actually want to build a long-term relationship with you, and those are the ones that you should really give your 100% effort to. Why would you give your 100% to a company that doesn’t value your efforts?

Your take: do you feel undervalued by your merchant? What do you think merchants should do to feel affiliates more valued?