View Full Version : Newsletters and Normal Affiliate Windows Banners
I've just sent the following message to a merchant this afternoon:
Hi there, I keep on receiving all the nice newsletters from merchants, such as the one I recieved from XXXXXXXX this morning, however i'm being sent the same standard newsletter that would be sent to every other customer, which is infuriating me as some merchants are putting in the effort of making these newsletters into proper useable promo emails which include the relevent affiliate codes, which can be posted by the affiliate to increase sales. I'm not interested in none affiliate linked material, if I want to buy XXXXX from you, I will go direct to the XXXXXXX website and info bit via my account control panel in Affiliate Windows. I want a promo email which I can actually use to increase sales for XXXXXXX and benefit from myself at the same time, which includes the relevent affiliate codes and not just straight links which would earn me nothing for my part.
Please work on this, as a promo email in the form of the newsletters you send with affiliate links is something that I could seriously do something with and it would be far more practical and useable than a plain email newsletter with no links.
At the same time, I am also trying to encourage merchants that I deal with to start producing 728x90 banners and to try and get Affiliate Windows to build a banner pool tool like Tradedoubler has. My personal biggest return always comes from that size banner, but Affiliate Windows are currently making it very difficult to use banners of that size and even harder by not being able to pool the banners.
It may not make a huge deal fo sense to anyone, but having thought about it, along with the minefield of merchants opening and closing faster than I can keep up with, emails informing me that traccing is down, always just after i've posted promotional codes for the merchant and then being dumped by merchants for not having reached unrealistic threshholds for their program, by any means necessary, etc. I realised, I love working with Affiliate Windows, but at the moment there's more reasons than I need or want to be really frustrated and annoyed by it all.
Virtually every single day I am recieving newsletters from merchants, yet only a tiny percentage of merchants are bothering to embed affiliate codes or make the email available as a promo email. I'm at the point of almost claling it spam advertising. I've not asked to be sent none affiliate related material from merchants, that's not what my relationship is about, yet i'd be delighted to be spammed to death with affiliate coded material that i can actually use without having to manually change every single url in the code to a deep link myself.
At the same time... When the heck is Affiliate Windows going to make a proper 728x90 banner section instead of them all being shoved in the "others" section. It's a logistical nightmare trying to wade through thousands of banners trying to find one which I can actually use and even when I have found one a few I can use I'm then infuriated that there is no pooling system with Affiliate Windows, yet Tradedoubler, CJ, DGMPro, Zanox and i'm sure a few others, all have a banner pool system in place.
Who the heck do I have to speak to to get these things actioned and in place...
Confuscius
05-12-07, 18:03
Hi Amoochi
I have to agree with most of your sentiments but can also appreciate the the 'one email fits all circumstances' approach is not designed to deal with very specific requests. There are many ways that I can think of to improve the efficiency of various sub parts of Shop Window but the likelihood of seeing them actioned is, I would say fairly remote.
Your issue on the 728x90 ads is a fair one but I could equally say that I have a need for some 500x500 ads (I do actually!) and having spent about 30 minutes opening and closing merchants and having found none do you think I went through every merchant?
On some of my sites I set up the ability to attach a specific offer to a specific merchant / merchant Category / merchant product but to keep track of everything that changes is impossible so I tend to be selective and post specific offers on merchants that achieve sales without the offer!
I also use 468x60 banners as part of any page of products from a single merchant so it seems sensible to me that (as what appears to be the most common format used) it would be really nice that instead of sending me countless email offer codes that are sent to hundreds and hundreds of people then IF they produced their latest offer as a banner with a predetermined banner name ( the same one to be used by all merchants) then all of my merchant pages would feature the Merchants current 'BEST' 468x60 banner (even if they did not have an offer for me!) and they could update it whenever they wanted and it would be featured accross the Shop Window network and they would not have to send emails and I would not have to read them!!! Etc,etc.
Great plan eh? But it fails because not every merchant produces a468x60 banner so until DIGIwin take the initiative to set up some better ways of working then we all run round wasting time going round the twist trying to work out what is going on, who is live, who isn't what offers are live when did that one finish, they had an offer running but they have been shut down, etc, etc.
Or take someone like Screwfix who put the offers in the product image - brilliant idea in my view and their images stand out from everyone else's. So why don't more merchants do this?
So my solution is simple - lose sales because it is too much aggravation trying to improve sales. So I could get better sales IF there were easier methodologies employed accross the board. Just an observation and minor gripe as I cannot complain given that my basic sites are starting to earn money with little or no extra work after set up.
Paul
I'm a relative newbie when it comes to affiliate marketing - my sites were only a few months old when SW was launched at which time I converted them to use SW and never looked back.
I don't have years of experience with affiliate programmes, their managers and their methods of communication but it struck me from day one (late 2006) that email was a pretty poor way to inform affiliates of anything. Firstly let me say that some are better than others but on the whole the majority of the emails I get infuriate me for one or more of the following reasons:
1) I don't know which merchant they're talking about! (I have to scroll to the bottom of the email first to see the "you're signed up to" text. I don't know who joe_bloggs@someplace.com is! Either send the email from the merchant (it's not rocket science setting up a forwarding address) or put the merchant name or logo at the top of the damn email!
2) I get a voucher code or offer, great. But when does it start? When does it end?
3) I get a voucher code or offer that started a week ago and expires tomorrow. Really useful. Why not give us a few days notice and put a start date on the voucher?
4) I get an email reminding me about something that I didn't get an original email about, with no further details.
5) I get an email about something that was said or posted on the A4U forums. I don't use these forums, never have, and no one from AW has ever suggested this is an official channel of communication.
6) I get an email containing 20 deeplinks. Who uses these? Anyone? Are people really still copying and pasting deeplinks from emails to their sites every few days? If these products are so great why not flag them as hot picks in SW???
7) I get an email from joe_bloggs@somewhere.com on behalf of john_smith@random.co.uk with a reply needing to go to jane_doe@nowhere.net. Real slick.
I could go on but I won't, suffice to say I'm not that impressed with email communications. To end on a positive I think their are more efficient and more professional ways to disseminate information:
1) RSS
2) A forum that we all know about and don't have to stumble across
3) Product and Merchant offers feed integrated into ShopWindow
4) Banners feed integrated into ShopWindow (with best converting banners being displayed more often a la Google Ads "show better performing ads more often"
5) Create a standard, template email for merchant news with KEY information at the top of the email that comes directly from merchant-news@affiliatewindow.com or the merchant with a meaningful subject line like OFFER, CLOSURE, NEWS, UPDATE etc.
Sorry for the rant but I think Amoochi might have opened a can of worms there :)
Or take someone like Screwfix who put the offers in the product image - brilliant idea in my view and their images stand out from everyone else's. So why don't more merchants do this?
I'm not so keen on this approach. I cache images and never check for updates (rarely does a product look different before it gets removed) so these offers would never appear or would stay forever. I also use my own image overlays to display offers and these would interfere with each other. Finally, my sites compare products from different merchants and I don't like some images to stand out from everyone else's because I think it detracts from the consistency of my site.
It's all personal preference of course but I hope this doesn't become the norm.
Confuscius
06-12-07, 11:43
Nice set of suggestions, Steve.
My perspective was from the point of view that I could not cache images because I know things like the Screwfix images existed! BUT if Digiwin ever sort out the image sizing and display issues previously discussed OR implement say 24 hour cache refreshing capabilities for EVERYONE then they could be a nice way to put up instant offers for example (like some merchants like to do!).
Anyways, there are clearly some issues that need to be addressed as it looks like a few of us no longer read what is sent to us as we perceive what we are sent of little or no value in most cases. Perhaps, merchants do not understand what Shop Window is all about - if they did, then I think they would wish to communicate with SW affiliates in a different way in future.
Paul
chartfieldconsultants
06-12-07, 14:00
6) I get an email containing 20 deeplinks. Who uses these? Anyone? Are people really still copying and pasting deeplinks from emails to their sites every few days? If these products are so great why not flag them as hot picks in SW???
These are, for us, the most useful emails of all as they make nice easy blog posts (assuming they have our ID in when they're sent - they make fiddly, difficult blog posts otherwise) and frankly the blog posts are about the only thing we do that generates a sale. No reason not to make them SW hot picks too, of course. And yes, we too get *really* teed off when we receive an HTML email designed for customers not affiliates.
There's a difficult line to define here - some of the issues raised in this thread do read a bit like people complaining at having to do some actual work for their money but, set against that, I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the only way to scale up as an affiliate and achieve serious success is if you can adopt economies of scale - use the same script each time with data supplied in a standard format, for example - so things like banner pools and standard promo email templates would be very useful. But, of course, you'll never get them as no merchant will ever want to look exactly like the rest and there will always be some bright spark somewhere who decides the way to stand out is to subvert the format and use 81x125 banners and a main headline at the bottom of the page...
These are, for us, the most useful emails of all as they make nice easy blog posts (assuming they have our ID in when they're sent - they make fiddly, difficult blog posts otherwise) and frankly the blog posts are about the only thing we do that generates a sale. No reason not to make them SW hot picks too, of course. And yes, we too get *really* teed off when we receive an HTML email designed for customers not affiliates.
There's a difficult line to define here - some of the issues raised in this thread do read a bit like people complaining at having to do some actual work for their money but, set against that, I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the only way to scale up as an affiliate and achieve serious success is if you can adopt economies of scale - use the same script each time with data supplied in a standard format, for example - so things like banner pools and standard promo email templates would be very useful. But, of course, you'll never get them as no merchant will ever want to look exactly like the rest and there will always be some bright spark somewhere who decides the way to stand out is to subvert the format and use 81x125 banners and a main headline at the bottom of the page...
I agree completely with the first bit regarding emails, that's exactly why I like them ready made, because I have a forum section on my site that I can put them on so that both me and my regular community can benefit from merchcnt offers, Currys manage to send promo emails every week with the codes in and everything, making it a simple copy and paste job, which is perfect. What I consider a lot of other merchants to be doing is basically spam emailing me with their newsletter treating me like just another basic customer. If I want to sign up to a companies standard newsletter i'll register to their site and tick the send me a newsletter box, what I expect to come through from the email address they have with Affiliate Windows, is affiliate related newsletters, newsletters with some form of content that I can actually use for my business.If I want to make a purchase through one of the merchants i'm not going to do so without using one of my own paid links, that simply wouldn't be logic and wouldn't make sense.
I also partially agree with what your saying with the second bit, i'm sure a lot of people would like all of the work doing for them, on the other hand though, I certainly do not consider myself as one of those lazy people, the simple fact with me is that over 5 of different networks that I deal with, including AWs, Tradedoubler, CJ, DGMpro and Zanox I deal in total with around 4,000 merchants and trying to keep on top of that amount is nigh on impossible, without having to spend valuble time redoing code that could quite easily have been done nicely by the merchant, in just the way Currys and a few others manage.
Regarding banner pools, AWs is the only affiliate network I deal with that doesn't have a banner pool system, every single other one does and successfully. It's the same as AWs is the only affiliate network I deal with that doesn't have 728x90 banners as one of their default banner settings, every other company I know from Tradedoubler, right throught to companies like burst.net valueclick advertising.com and any other I can think of uses them as a standard industry banner size as much as they do 468x60 banners, 120x600 banners, 125x125 banners and the every handy 88x33 banners.
This morning i've gone through roughly 580 merchants on Affiliate Windows looking at which ones offer proper promo emails and it horrified me at how few do and out of those that do most of them were dating back to things like valentines day or even back to 2006 since they last bothered doing on that affiliates can use. The main reason I as going through all my accepted merchants was to see which ones had in place 728x90 banners and out of the whole lot I found around 18 that were actually upto date and usable. Conseqeuntly i've contacted a few merchants that I value and asked for one to be added and plan on contacting a few more to to do the same, but all of this is taking up valuble time.
Out of all the affiliate networks i have and do deal with, my favourite network is Affiliate Windows, but damn someone really needs to get things working in unison and get the merchants all reading from the same page, cause at the moment things are all over the place regarding the weird and wonderful banner sizes some are offering and as I've already said, the email system and how merchants deal with affiliates and the likes.
Oh and authcode, I completely agree with what your saying about emails, I just didn't go into quite so much detail when I posted this thread as I was a little angry at the time. :P Regarding emails with 20 hotlinks, damn right I use them, I make far more money by posting them to my forum than I do from any other area of Affiliate Windows.
Confusious, I agree to an extent, yes i'm making an income from the system as it is, but banner advertising and shop window only make up a part of my Total Format website as the site currently has around 6,700,000 pages to it, so for me i've already got a pretty hectic and demanding workload, so when it comes to updating banners, adding offers and codes and special promotions I need it to be organised, simple to use and easy to get hold of, otherwise I tend to skip past it.
Ok, a few more thoughts from me on the subject... This is by request, i'm not just a perpetual moaner, honest. :p
In my opinion, the following banner sizes should be the standard ones:
728x90, 468x60, 120x60, 88x31, 120x600, 160x600, 100x100, 125x125, 300x250 and possibly 234x60 although i've no idea how popular that last sized banner is as i've never personally used it.
These are the standard sizes on virtually every other network i've ever used and the easiest to be integrated into existing websites.
All these weird and wonderful sized ones i've seen like 768x90, 420x50, 150x30 and weird stuff like that should be put into a "other" type section, but not just all together, "other" should be made into a sub menu where these sized banners are still available by specific size, as trawling through dozens of weirdly named banners can and often is a logisitical nightmare.
I also think there needs to be some kind of search function for banners, something where you can select a size of banner and which sectors it should display the banners for, then upon clicking search, it will actually display actual banners, unlike the current search function which only allows you to search for companies.
Someone needs to inform some of the merchants that some of their bizarre sized banners are a complete waste of time and resources for both them and us affiliates, I mean just looking at the first company I come across with "other" banners, which is 1st4PhoneCards and that their "other" banners consist of things like 96x56, 80x80, 172x66, 188x103, 336x280 and the likes, surely instead of all these weird and wonderful sized ones, they'd be better making a nicer quality of standard sized banners, which would be far more useable and easier to integrate into existing sites.
Another point is the age of their banners, i've looked through a couple of dozen merchants banners in the last few minutes and it is amazing how many still have old banners in place for things like last years Valentines Day and the likes, banners which nobody can use, so surely should be replaced by up to date banners. Surely it wouldn't take much for AWs to put a simple little system in place where merchants are informed if they've had the same banner in the system for X months and that they should consider replacing it with newer banners. From all my time on the net, i've come to know very well that freshening up advertising catches the attention of the consumer far better than the same old stale looking banners they've always had. A good example for a merchant hording old banners is ActivityGifts.co.uk , they have 19 banners in their "other" section, 10 of which are last years valentines banners. If they are keeping them in place just so affiliates who are lazy and haven't updated their banners on their sites don't get broken images, why not just replace old banners with an updated banner using the same name so it doesn't break the image...
Regarding a banner pool system. My obvious example for one which works and works damn well is the one TradeDoubler have in place. You can set up as many pools as you want, giving each one a unique name and each one using a specified sized banner, all you do is simply go through the list of banners of that specific size, by doing a simple search and pick the banners you want to each pool. The system allows you to add 100 banners and set a control for the banners weight that regulates how often each banner will show up. Commission Junction runs a similar system, just with only 20 banners which isn't enough in my opinion. DGMpro also runs a similar kind of system too.
Regarding the newsletters being sent out, did anyone get the newsletters from GadgetShop, ToyShop, Currys and TheBeautyRoom yesterday? Nicely formated graphical design, each url within the newsletter nicely linked using my personal affiliate ID and best of all, upon going to the merchants "static" banners bit, there they are, promo emails waiting to simply be copied and then pasted into which ever publication is prefered. They are perfect for anyone wanting to use them on blogs, or paste them direct into webpages, not just for newsletter marketing campaigns. The companies i've mentioned can manage to do it and do it well, why can't others... Surely a prod in direction of these companies and how well they are managing to do this would lead to other companies being able to produce this type of newsletter too...
On a side note, having contacted a couple of dozen merchants in the last couple of days, I now have around 30 or so 728x90 banners to choose from. It's taken a lot of time to achieve though, something i'd have much preferred to have spent trying to get sales for the merchants, not nagging them.
Confuscius
08-12-07, 11:29
It looks to me as if two different sets of needs are emerging, one for use outside Shop Window Pages and one for use inside Shop Window pages.
728x90 ads - Amoochi - could you share which 30 merchants have this size of ad? If they are not available within AW interface then if enough SW affiliates pester them then they may get the message!
I am quite surprised that no one from DigiWin has chimed in yet. Also I would not mind a few Merchants' perspective on this matter.
Paul
It looks to me as if two different sets of needs are emerging, one for use outside Shop Window Pages and one for use inside Shop Window pages.
728x90 ads - Amoochi - could you share which 30 merchants have this size of ad? If they are not available within AW interface then if enough SW affiliates pester them then they may get the message!
I am quite surprised that no one from DigiWin has chimed in yet. Also I would not mind a few Merchants' perspective on this matter.
Paul
Yeah, i'm definately talking more for general website use with my comments on this thread rather than Shop Window purposes. Although I use Shop Window on 2 different sites, I also do a lot of promotional work that doesn't bring Shop Window into it at all.
I do believe from communications i've had, that AWs are looking at the banner system now to see which ways they can improve it, so hopefully 728x90 banners will become a standard at some point. I'm sure if they see enough good ideas from us they will implement them, because happy affiliates make for more sales, more sales make for happy merchants and happy merchants makes for merchants sticking with AWs and AWs getting their share of the cut for longer, so we all win if we all do our bit in my opinion.
I'll go through my script at some point over the weekend and dig out the list of which merchants have either provided me with or already had 728x90 banners that i've used.
The one that has stood out for me most has been TheBeautyRoom though, I asked them for a couple of banners and within a few hours Ellie had replied and informed me that 2 had been made for me and fine banners they are too. That kind of great cooperation makes me want to go full out to promote that companies products.
What AWs need, is to encourage more affiliates and merchants to actually use this forum and for AWs to have a far great presence on here themselves. It could be a fantastic resource if utilised right, not just for Shop Windows, but for the whole AWs system. I keep getting spammed about Affiliates4u or whatever it is, that's all fine for general affiliation network stuff, but thats not what we need, what we need is a AW network specific forum and we have one sat right here if utilised right. It simply needs breaking down properly into sections, so that normal AW stuff is in one bit, Widgets in another and Shop Windows stuff in another and a place on here where merchants can come on and mention offers and discounts and the likes directly and where affiliates, AW and merchants can discuss stuff directly with each other such as banner requests, stuff like all the crap with consoles offering 0% commission and stuff like that, kind of like a think tank.
chartfieldconsultants
08-12-07, 20:36
I keep getting spammed about Affiliates4u or whatever it is, that's all fine for general affiliation network stuff, but thats not what we need, what we need is a AW network specific forum and we have one sat right here if utilised right.
Completely agree - this forum was never intended to be a general AW one, but it's developing usefully in that direction, and I for one would be happy to see it continue that way.