Re: Affiliate Commissions - Multiple Visits

From: Glenn Sobel <YourWebURL_at_aol.com>
Date: Wed 03 Oct 2001 15:19:11 -0500

NICOLE LEBLANC <nileblanc_at_home.com> WROTE:

> 'We will not pay referral fees on any products that are
> added to a customer's Shopping Cart after the customer
> has re-entered the site (other than through a link from
> your site), even if the customer previously followed a
> link from your site to our site.'

Nicole LeBlanc quoted a common affiliate agreement
clause and asks if this means that no cookies or other
tracking methods are used to track and credit the referring
affiliate for sales that occur after the original customer
visit to the merchant.

First, for background purposes for those who don't yet
know me, I'm a director and contract expert for Affiliate
Union and have done a lot of consulting for merchants
on drafting their affiliate agreements.

Second, the answer to your question Nicole is "yes."
This clause is a carefully worded way of saying that
unless the customer completes a purchase on their
first click through from your site you will NOT receive
a commission.

Now for some programs I would possibly consider
this reasonable, but ONLY for things such as a free
sign up or something similar that requires little in the
way of thought or commitment. In most cases though
I would consider this extremely anti affiliate and not
worthy of joining or promoting the program offered.

Having recognized about 3 years ago that too many
merchants are using tricks like this I have been on a
mission to warn affiliates about carefully reading the
agreements, etc. BEFORE they join programs.

I have built a list of Programs to Avoid on my site
AffiliateAdvisor.com based on programs that have
unfair contracts, tracking, etc. Remember, no
matter how high the commission rate is there is
no way you will make any money if you can't
qualify under their tracking and contract requirements.

Affiliates, please read and understand the program's
contract and tracking methods before you decide to
invest your resources to promote it.

If you want to see an example of an agreement that
covers all the important issues in a fair way, take a
look at the DatingTech.com partner contract. I wrote
that one to meet all Affiliate Union requirements and
to be something that every affiliate can feel safe with.

Glenn

Glenn Sobel, J.D.
AffiliateAdvisor.com
Consulting to merchants and providers.



Received on Wed Oct 03 2001 - 15:19:11 CDT