What is an affiliate scheme?
An affiliate scheme allows website owners to earn income. This is achieved by placing links to participating merchants on one's website, and if a visitor to your site clicks any of those links, goes to the merchant's site, and then makes a purchase, you will earn a commission. Usually this is a percentage of the sale value. Most affiliate schemes are run by 3rd party affiliate companies who look after the technical side of the special links needed, and administer the commissions earned.
For some reason, many people have given this concept a negative image, yet it is a perfectly legitimate approach to improving online sales for companies, and helps customers to find what they want without any extra cost to them.
Sometimes the affiliate companies themselves run their own schemes to help generate business, and the banners below are affiliate banners linking to affiliate companies:
If you are assessing this website for possible inclusion in your own merchant's scheme, then the following points sum up this site's features:
- The artwork on this site is in the fine art style, featuring clothed women, although a few are in swimwear or lingerie, tastefully depicted. This site is for family viewing. If any other directory or search-engine has listed it as "adult", then they are wrong!
- A large section of this site forms a clothing directory for plus size ladies' fashion, that has proved immensely popular with online shoppers
- This website does not indulge in any dubious practices: No pop-ups, no mis-leading of visitors, etc. It is made clear what this site and its individual pages are about, so that visitors know if they want to spend time on this site or not.
- PPC. At the time of writing (March 2010), this site is not involved in any PPC marketing. Previously this was tried, but only ever bidding on generic terms and no trademarks whatsoever.
- This site caters mostly to visitors in both the UK and USA, with separate sections of clothes directory for each market. There are also international sections too. The art gallery central to this site, also receives mostly UK and USA visitors, but with a few visitors from all over the world.
- Feedback to this site suggests that there are more female than male visitors and that most are in their 30s and 40s. However, experience shows that male admirers of larger ladies are less likely to get in touch, and there are probably a lot of boy friends and husbands of plus size ladies also visiting this website.
Most merchants happily accept this website onto their respective schemes, and many of these schemes prove to be mutually profitable, and all seem happy to work together.
Amazingly, a significant number of businesses go to all the trouble of setting up affiliate schemes, and then do all they can to avoid improving their sales! Firstly they insist on vetting applications and assessing each website. Rough guides to what they may be looking for show just how very subjective this process is. For example, checking that one's website is nice looking. So, if the individual person looking at my site hates red, then I'm out of the running! Or if they have some prejudice or other. Or if they think a glimpse of ankle counts as nudity?
They may also reject sites that don't have a large amount of visitor traffic. Again, this is very foolish and short-sighted. They have nothing to lose by including more sites that generate few sales, but they might lose a great deal by rejecting low traffic sites that later become high traffic sites. My goodness, what an unforeseen concatenation of events!
The most utterly stupid reason for rejection (that is not so common now) was to reject website owners who reside in a different country to the merchant. The merchants reasoned that they don't export, but it had not occurred to them that through the wonders of the world-wide web, site visitors could be in a different country to the webmaster!!!
Some companies take weeks or even months to assess applications, and moan that this is because they can't cope with the volume of applications. Talk about making their own problems!
Quite a lot of companies appear paranoid about not wanting to be associated with websites that they think are dubious in some way. Again this means a subjective assessment, but they are missing the point that getting referrals from a "poor" quality website, does not reflect on the quality and ethics of the merchant. However, that approach by the merchant *does* reflect badly on them! As to what might constitute an unsatisfactory website, can bring in both snobbery and prejudice or perhaps even bigotry may be involved, as there are some people who dislike those who are different (or live differently) from themselves.
Happily, those more sensible companies accept affiliates automatically, and thus don't waste their resources on assessments, and get on with improving their sales and success. It's so simple when you do it right!
Rejecting potential affiliates creates even further problems. As well as losing earnings potential for all concerned, it creates bad feeling. It is rare for merchants to give their reason for rejection, and every time I've politely written to ask, they do not reply. That leaves affiliates not knowing if there is some improvement they should be making to their sites, or if the merchant has made poor judgement. Discussion may help to improve matters for both sides. That bad feeling can make it backfire on the merchant too, if the aggrieved affiliate applicant decides then to write bad things about the merchant. And there is little the merchant can do as the rejected person is not bound by any affiliate agreement!
I don't plan to insult any merchants here, but will list some of the most memorable rejections and the facts surrounding them, for you to draw your own conclusions:
Marks and Spencer (UK). They took months to respond, while I had an old, free link to them in my directory. Frustrated at waiting, I removed the link. They finally replied with a rejection. Several months later, they asked me to add a free link to them, and repeated this request a few months later still!
Zappos (USA). A footwear supplier with ranges of wide fitting shoes and wide calf boots, apparently thought my BBW related site was unsuitable.
Junonia (USA). This was bizarre! They vetted my website, accepted it, and then just a few days later, terminated our association giving their reason as "website contains inappropriate material"! The material content had not changed within those few days, and the nature of the main site has never altered. As a specialist in plus size active-wear, one would have thought a fashion related BBW portrait site would be highly appropriate. What's more, I've seen rival BBW art websites that are affiliated with Junonia. If "inappropriate" was meant as a suggestion that the material here is in poor taste, then there is something wrong with the person assessing this site!
Lane Bryant/Catherines (USA). Another plus size specialist that did not want a classy art/fashion, BBW related site.
Big Cupid (later became BBW Cupid) (USA). International dating site for BBWs and admirers. Why they would reject this website is beyond me!
Curvaceous Chic Woman (USA). No surprises that this is a plus size specialist. Again, amazing to be rejected for this site.
Ulla Popken (USA branch). I used to be on their scheme but had to leave because the affiliate company involved was so appalling. Once that company got its act together, I re-applied and am automatically rejected without any vetting. They don't bother to reply to any emails. I was happily on the UK Ulla Popken scheme, but that sadly closed down.
Duo Boots (UK). A specialist in wide calf fitting boots. Perfect for my website, one would think? Apparently not what they thought! They had had a free link on this site and no doubt benefitted from that for a few years before showing their gratitude.
Another point concerns merchants who terminate affiliations. No reasons given, but they seem to happen where few sales appear to have been generated. Most of these terminated schemes have involved contracts with very short cookie lives. Cookies are often used to track sales in case a customer returns at a later date to actually make a purchase. That way, the affiliate can still be credited. The longer the life of the cookie, the better the chances of an affiliate getting a commission. But some merchants offer cookie lives as short as 1 day. That means any customers returning to buy something more than a day after clicking the affiliate link, will not create a commission for the affiliate. That gives the merchant the full sale amount, leaving the affiliate who helped them unrewarded. If that wasn't bad enough, some merchants then kick affiliates off their scheme, presumably because there is no record of the affiliate creating many sales. But they don't know how many sales are created outside the cookie period, and if that affiliate was generating plenty, then they are killing off their own sales - and ones they did not have to pay out commissions on!
Other problems with merchants have cropped up only very rarely. One that was most unusual concerned Always For Me (USA). I had been on their scheme for a while, and then joined their second scheme through another affiliate company. That was because the second company offered large and clear product photos for me to use, while most of the best offer banners came through the first company, so I retained both. They ran smoothly together for over a year before Always For Me kicked me off the second scheme without warning or any discussion. Then they told me that 2 commissions (probably one customer?) had been duplicated. Well, it takes a real fluke for that to happen, but they also told me that affiliates were not permitted to run both schemes. But their second scheme's terms made no mention of this and in fact automatically accepted applicants as well, so it was a problem of their own making. Worse still, it was the second scheme that was earning almost all of the commissions for me, so I was left with virtually nothing. Unimpressed at this treatment, I returned the favour and kicked their first scheme out of my portfolio. I have better relationships with many other merchants that I can concentrate on.
The moral of the story may be that merchants should choose their affiliate staff wisely and not waste time in assessing applicants based upon subjective issues. The majority tend to achieve their objective, but a significant minority manage to bring silliness into disrepute!
Affiliate merchants checking out this website
Rejecting websites, by affiliate merchants
