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Quality Content Writers Group  »  Yes, I am really down hearted.

Yes, I am really down hearted.

by Arthur Webster Just plain honesty
Arthur Webster Senior   Just plain honesty
It is very difficult trying to set up an on line business and I have been working very hard at it.

As my eye sight gets worse, I find that my faith in human nature (or, should I say, lack of it?) is becoming more and more justified.

I have been running a couple of advertising campaigns with a company that is giving me a free trial because I have been able to help them in various ways.

The company is creating a method to track the activities of people who click on their advertising links but do not sign up. They are not using any radically new software, nor are they claiming to have spent years developing their programme, they are simply using the existing cookie technology available to all.

I allowed my own ads to be used in a beta test (this gave me a lot of paid adwords ads and some superb scriptwriting and keyword research for free) but the ads could not be identified, superficially, as affiliate ads.

What they have discovered is that of 49 clicks on my adwords ads, 27 people actually went, immediately, to the corporate site and bought. 

Of the 734 clicks to my ads on various sites (including Apsense) not a single person who bought the product did so from my affiliate link.

At the moment, the results are so depressing that they are deciding whether there is actually a market for their programme. They feel that the practice of affiliate url stripping is so universally adopted that there can't be an internet marketer who still believes his affiliate url has any value.

It seems that my advertising has created over 100 sales for which I have received the grand sum of sod all euros.

If the product is launched, it will be a freebie because they have realised that their research must now go in a different direction - towards corporate site revision.

Now THAT I want to see. The product will be available soon but whether it will be adopted, I doubt. After all, what, corporate sales site is going to turn down a sale simply because an affiliate found the customer? 
Jun 29th 2008 15:42

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Comments

Jean DAndrea Senior   Retired
This is a problem that has been around for a while, Arthur, and it's not getting
any better. The solution would be for sales not to be made from the
corporate sites, but as you say, who's going to turn down the sale ?

It's getting harder to find those clicks, and sales are even more difficult to
find...... Understand your being downhearted very well.

Take care
Jean
Jun 29th 2008 16:23   
Cheryl Baumgartner Professional Premium   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
The problem is that they allow sales to take place on corporate sites. Sales should only be allowed on the affliliate sites.
Jun 29th 2008 20:58   
Lisa G. Committed   Health Wellness & Wealth Consultant
Yes, that does make things much tougher for the honest guys like we all are!
Hang in there, Arthur. I do know what you mean, some things online and offline, for that matter-in biz-- can be very frustrating.

Jun 29th 2008 21:58   
No longer an active member Professional  
Hi Arthur, well said mate. This is one of the major problems affiliates face when advertising their referral links. Visitors immediately go to the source or corporate website, or go and search for some higher flying affiliate.

And there is a solution as corny as it sounds. Promote yourself, promote your team and then the business. This is something that we are finaly starting to tackle now with a group of experienced like-minded networkers around the world.

Like-minded in that our loyalty is to ourselves, to the team, and not to whatever business we just happen to be involved with at the time.
Jun 30th 2008 01:33   
Arthur Webster Senior   Just plain honesty
Hi, Iñaki et al,

The signature I use at the moment appears to take people to the corporate site and there is very little to show that it is a resell site.

Not many people will spot the small difference in the url unless they are actually looking for it.

The affiliate status of the site shows up two pages (the 'pay now' page) later in the buying process where my affilaite name shows - it is at this stage that the buying process stops!
The company did try without the affiliate name showing (in which case I would not have been paid any way) but the results were the same.

I do not imagine that many corporate sites are going to turn away sales, but I wonder why they can't use the same cookie technology to show that the purchaser had already been to an affilaite site.

The other thing this little exercise has taught me, cookies do a lot more than I thought they could.
Jun 30th 2008 02:05   
David Schupbach Senior   
Arthur I understand your problem, and it is very discouraging.

Have you tried link cloaking, and if so, what have your results been?
Jul 6th 2008 06:06   
Arthur Webster Senior   Just plain honesty
Hi, David,

I use link cloaking quite a lot but the best and most obscurely cloaked link in the system still has to go, eventually, to the home site.

What the experiments by the company have shown is that people who think it is, somehow, clever to cut an affiliate off from his commission, will do it at any stage of the buying process.

Most payment pages have the identity of the payment destination very clearly marked and, as I said, at this point, the purchase stops.

It would seem that spite drives these people (and it does appear to be more than 84% of all the enquiries that have been tracked) to do even more work to buy the product for exactly the same price but send all the proceeds to the principal site - even though there was no involvement in finding the customer.

I suppose we will never know for sure, but I think the gurus started this particular evil trait when they invented a link cloaker and had to justify it in order to sell it. Until the gurus said "You are losing commission with uncloaked urls", I wonder how many people did actually strip affilaite IDs from urls.
Jul 6th 2008 09:47   
Cheryl Baumgartner Professional Premium   Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
My company has a page when you first go to make the purchase that will not allow you to purchase without physically clicking a button to say you are buying from that person. If you don't click it it will send you an error message and direct you back to the that page before you can submit the purchase.
Jul 6th 2008 10:43   
Mike Hunt Advanced   
G`day gang,

been quite awhile since I`ve been here, the problem is not cloaking or lack thereof ... it is cookie stuffing. Many "blackhat" programs have been introduced ... when you have the big GooRoo`s saying to "clear your cookies before clicking my link" ... it`s clear little guys like us stand little chance with most Affiliate programmes ... especially the big launches.

So what is the solution??

PROMOTE YOURSELF. Create your OWN products, it isn`t hard to do ... not as easy as affiliate marketing but the return compared to aff marketing (unless your experienced) is like chalk and cheese ... I`m making good money now I`m doing it.

There are still good Affiliate programmes you WILL get credited with ... I get a regular Paypal payment at the end of the month from some but these are usually closed house affiliate programmes meaning it`s a Membership Site and ONLY Members can promote.

You simply will not make it online if you try getting by with "Free" stuff ... treat it as a business and spend money to make it .... same as any business. Sure I get a lot of "free" stuff but I also spend quite a bit on product development, memberships and buying PLR (which is developed) ... I also spend a tremendous amount of time creating products and learning and learning and ALWAYS learning ... and it`s paying off quite well ... not bad for a "newbie" anyway .. hahha.

I have an excellent link cloaker, it also tracks and is able to determine what Keyword was used to find my site if I so choose .... very powerful, easy to install and very easy to use .... I also have a couple of software programmes that have the cookie stuffer technology but I don`t use them ... I don`t even sell them as I believe in giving credit where credit is due .... pity 98% of those online think different.

Some Stats:

Have a sale running now and am using the tracker to keep tabs on things ..

639 clicks
27 sales ... so far ... : )
Cost $80
Gross $560
PROFIT $480 ... so far ... :-p

Anyway, I reckon I`ve bored you guys enough .. ;-p ... good to see you all ... I got some products to get out tonight!

Christopher J.
Jul 11th 2008 04:30   
Arthur Webster Senior   Just plain honesty
Hi, Christopher,

In another blog I have already mentioned that when I advertised my own programme, here at Apsense, offering a huge discount five people (it is now seven) did not follow the cloaked link all the way but, once they discovered the main site SENT ME AN EMAIL ASKING IF THEY COULD HAVE A DISCOUNT!

Now, since the site has my picture and name all over it, it not only begs the morality of these people but also their intelligence.
Jul 11th 2008 04:52   
Mike Hunt Advanced   
G`day Cootz,

lol ... yeah, the audacity of some people I know ... had some joker email me a couple of months back saying he needed to download the Software he "bought" from me again as he`d changed computers (only works on one computer) ... I have security setup on it so anyone that has bought it is registered.

He supplied the email address he "bought" the software with and was not in my records so after waiting a few days to get the correct email address linked to the copy and getting no reply ... a click of a button and the software is totally disabled ... obviously a mate gave him a copy thinking they could share .. so now they both have a NON-working copy.

Bet they were pissed off! :-p

Nowhere near as pissed off as I get when scum try this BS ... you`ll never stop them, but you sure can make it so they don`t bother to often ... hahha ... if anyone ever wonders why the Software I use costs $2000 ... well it`ll save me much more than that long-term gauranteed so it`s cheap IMO.

Christopher J.
P.S. Most websites still lack even the most basic security needed ... it`s like having a shop offline and not locking up at night.
Jul 11th 2008 05:26   
Not Here Committed  just want my account deleted
LOL....Christopher, I have a 'shop' offline that we do not lock up at night....guess that just goes to show you how far out in the boonies I'm located! Honestly though, I don't know how much longer we'll get away with it, the amount of stupid people out there is getting worse all the time.
Jul 11th 2008 17:49   
Rebecca Beasley Committed   Consultant, Web Designer, Script Set Up
I've found some really good software programs that cloak your links and prevent your affliate ids from being cut off. It also tracks your visitors at the same time. I've been using this for years and so far I've gotten signups and made a lot of sales using this software.
It's been very widely advertised and has won awards for it's ease of use and it has it's own affliatiate program as well. I've used it for long enough that i Have 100s of urls and it is still free.
It works nothing like the conventional "tinyurls" we all know and love to hate.
The programmers who came up with this are very well known, but they do not consider themselves Gurus, they're just normal every day family men who just have a knack for programming and are willing to share their expertise with the world.
Jun 14th 2009 07:46   
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