Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketer, Blogger, and Consultant

I Was a Cookie Stuffer (and Didn’t Even Know It)

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Affiliate Marketing Cookie Stuffing

This morning I got an email from ShareASale with the subject line “Sunshine Rewards: Urgent Compliance Issue.” That’s the kind of subject line that makes you stop in your tracks and drop everything else that you are doing.

With my heart racing, I immediately opened the email and read it as fast as I could. Skimming through I found the words “compliance team,” “forcing clicks through an image tag,” and “against the Terms of Agreement on ShareASale.” Holy crap! What have I done?? I’m a rule follower. I’ve been outspoken in our industry against cookie stuffing, cheaters, and even people who walk the line. Did I all of a sudden become one of them? I literally felt sick to my stomach. Like I had been called to the principal’s office for cheating. Only much worse.

Guilty As Charged

Thankfully Brian wasn’t vague. I’ve gotten the dreaded Google emails before that basically say “You broke the rules. We’re shutting you down.” Not only do you know you are in trouble but you can’t even figure out what you did to get there or how to fix it. In this case, I was directed to the page with the offending image. I knew which merchant was the problem. I didn’t know exactly what I had done to screw things up, but I also knew in my brain (and my heart) that no one in my company would have done it intentionally. [Read more…]

What To Do Now that Google Affiliate Network is Closing

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Google Affiliate Network ClosingWord has spread like wildfire that the Google Affiliate Network is closing and I am seeing responses that range from “Hurray!” to “Oh Crap!”. What do you need to do now that the announcement has been made? First, PANIC. Just kidding. Don’t panic. It’s going to be okay. Even if you do a lot of business with them or your favorite merchant runs through them. It’s going to be fine. We have seen huge changes in affiliate marketing and this one is probably not even going to rate in the top 10 by next year.

What do YOU need to be doing now that you have read the announcement?

First, understand that this is not happening tonight. You do not need to have all of your links changed by tomorrow. However, you do need to make a plan of attack.

Second, start running some reports in Google. Find out which merchants you have made any money through them with in the last year or even two years. Sort that report in order of commissions.This will not only help you figure out just how much money is at stake for you but also an order of priority for changing links. The problems may be bigger or even smaller than you are thinking right now.

Third, start looking for those merchants on other networks. Some of them are already on Linkshare, Commission Junction, ShareASale, Impact Radius, Affiliate Window, AvantLink, etc. Those will be the first ones to move your links for.

Fourth, start reading emails. I know we tend to ignore a lot of emails that come from merchants because we get to many. But it’s imperative that you read them to figure out where the merchants are going. I would guess that pretty much all of them that are actually making money with their affiliate programs will open on another network. If they are not making money with their affiliate program, you don’t have to worry about it because it means you are not making any money with them either.

Fifth, if you do not hear anything from your key merchants in the next couple of weeks, start reaching out to them. In particular if you have merchants you send a lot of sales to you might want to actually suggest which networks you would like them to move to and tell them why.

Lastly, do anything that you can to make the link transitions on your sites easier. If you are not already using something like Pretty Link on your blog to manage links, now might be the time. Putting in a little extra time now may save you a lot of time down the road if the merchants end up changing networks again for some reason.

A lot of us have seen the writing on the wall for GAN for some time but tried to hold out hope. They had invested in some interesting new technologies but their platform just never got to the level of the other major players. I wondered if something was going on when I saw Dan Greene leave, because he always seems to be on the winning side. The tracking issues last year angered merchants and affiliates alike, and GAN didn’t seem to be in a big hurry to deal with either the tracking issues or the PR problems they caused.

What are your thoughts on GAN closing? Do you even care? I have to admit that I have had my ups and downs with them. I hate to see what might be perceived as a “loss” in affiliate marketing but over time I don’t think it truly will be a loss at all.

More Reading: Eric Ewe wrote an interesting article on What To Do Next as a Merchant. Exactly the type of advice that merchants who are on GAN need right now! In addition, Greg Hoffman just wrote a piece on Migrating Affiliate Programs from Google that should be food for thought for a lot of merchants looking at this as an opportunity to make their programs better.

Edited to Add: Some of you will get a kick out of this image that Greg Hoffman Consulting just posted on Facebook:

Affiliates Take Note: New FTC Disclosure Guidelines

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(Updated 6/29/23) In 2013, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) first updated its guidance for advertising disclosures in a guide called .com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising. The original guidance from 2000 left open many holes including advertising on mobile devices and places like Twitter and Facebook. Since then, the FTC has clarified much of what it originally wrote. The most recent update was June 29, 2023.

This is a short summary of the Guidelines but for a full understanding, keep reading for the various updates listed below over time. As affiliates, we have already been advised that disclosure must be “clear and conspicuous.” The new documents go even further. In fact, it specifically states that disclosure at the end of blogs posts is not acceptable. Here are some of the highlights from the guidelines:

  • Affiliates and Influencers (“endorsers”) must disclose any “material connections with an advertiser.” This includes commissions, free products, placement fees, etc.
  • Disclosures must be “clear and “conspicuous” and “unavoidable.” This includes being placed at the top of any blog posts and not hidden on a privacy or disclosure page. The customer must not have to click to read the disclosure. Pop-up disclosures should not be used.
  • Using hashtags for disclosure is okay but MANY are not adequate including “affiliate link.”
  • Disclosures on social media follow the same rules and cannot be buried.
  • Disclosure effectiveness will be evaluated based on the target audience of the endorsements (e.g. children or elderly).
  • Affiliates, influencers, agencies, and advertisers can all be found liable when disclosures are not done properly.
  • Advertisers and agencies are responsible for instructing endorsers as well as monitoring and correcting compliance.
    [Read more…]

Should Affiliates Have Business Plans?

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Affiliate Business PlanAffiliate marketing is my full-time job, and I think that I treat it like one. I have an office in my house devoted to work and I spend most of the normal business hours in it. I have an EIN that I use instead of my SSN. I have a P.O. box that I use for business correspondence. But I have lacked one crucial thing: a formal business plan.

I set goals. I hold myself accountable. I make plans on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. But a true business plan is more than that. It’s about making your business profitable. It’s about tracking revenue. It’s about figuring out where you can find new opportunities.

I first heard an affiliate really seriously talking about a business plan when I heard Sabrina Malone from WorkingMom.com talk about it at Affiliate Summit. It interested me because my business is in many ways similar to hers. I liked what she was saying about treating our websites as true businesses with projections and accountability.

I next heard about affiliate business plans from Todd Farmer when I joined AffPlan. In addition to explaining business plans with an outline and guide, he includes a number of templates that I never would have even thought to draft for myself including:

  • 12 Month Cash Flow
  • Projected Balance Sheet
  • Breakeven Analysis
  • Opening Day Balance Sheet
  • Profit and Loss Projection
  • Profit Projection
  • Sales Forecast
  • Startup Expenses
  • SWOT Analysis

I’m partial to AffPlan because of my role in it, but the Business Plan portion is 100%  Todd’s and amazing to me. If you are not treating your affiliate websites like a business, you owe it to yourself to investigate putting together a business plan.

The AffPlan cost is currently $17 for everything you see above plus AffPlan Express, information on how to build affiliate sites from scratch, and much more. The price is about to go up in the next couple of days (and may already be increase by the time you even read this).

Take it from someone who thought she was running a business but realized she was missing some crucial pieces. Going through the process of creating your business plan will open your eyes and get you thinking more creatively about how to grow and manage your websites.

Do you currently have a business plan? Have you considered creating one?

Amazon Changes for eBook Promoters

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Amazon Affiliate Program ChangesIf you are a member of the Amazon Associates Program (the real name of the Amazon affiliate program), you need to be sure that you keep up with the changes to their terms. In particular a major change was made on March 1, 2013, for those who promote free Kindle eBooks. If you are not in compliance, you may lose your commissions completely.

What Are the Changes?

Effective this week, Amazon is limiting your overall commissions if you are promoting too many of the free Kindle eBooks. The text reads:

“In addition, notwithstanding the advertising fee rates described on this page or anything to the contrary contained in this Operating Agreement, if we determine you are primarily promoting free Kindle eBooks (i.e., eBooks for which the customer purchase price is $0.00), YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO EARN ANY ADVERTISING FEES DURING ANY MONTH IN WHICH YOU MEET THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
(a) 20,000 or more free Kindle eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links; and
(b) At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks.”

While this does not impact all affiliates, it will impact those most who 1) primarily promote deals and free products, and 2) those who promote eBooks. In fact, I have seen a number of affiliates who primarily promote the free eBooks.

Why Is This Change Important?

A lot of deal and coupon sites/bloggers use the promotion of these free Kindle eBooks in order to set cookies in the hopes that the readers will also purchase other items while at Amazon. This change will force Associates to no longer rely on that cookie setting method and instead promote the regular priced products as well to ensure that they do not tip the scales on the 20,000 eBooks at 80% free limit.

The limits that Amazon put in place do allow for the average blogger or deal site to mention free Kindle eBooks now and again. However, affiliates will want to keep an eye on their accounts if they promote them regularly. It’s also possible that even if you are promoting the free eBooks in order to set the cookies that customers are not always downloading them but are, in fact, making other purchases. That will likely depend on your audience.

Are the New Terms Fair?

Amazon is just essentially closing up a loophole here, although it will likely impact the way that many affiliates promote the free eBooks (which isn’t a good thing for the authors of those eBooks). Amazon recognizes that a certain percentage of sales made through their affiliates are purchases that the customer only made through an affiliate link because they had clicked on the free eBook link. I can’t fault Amazon for that, but it does make promoting the free eBooks less desirable.

There are certainly other merchants where the same holds true but the case is particularly strong for Amazon because they have such a loyal shopper base that can find anything from DVDs to Cheerios to yoga pants after one generic affiliate click. I do think it’s harsh that affiliates would lose their entire monthly revenue because if they have a really popular deal site, they may hit these minimum numbers every month that they promote any of the free eBooks. I also wonder if upcoming changes might also target Associates who promote the free mp3s or various free credit offers that they run.

Will you be impacted by this change? Do you think Amazon was fair in making it? Either to Associates/affiliates or to the authors of the free eBooks?