David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

Lately I've come across many topics where merchants and agencies have moaned that getting in contact with affiliates is hard work. Some managers are longing for some interaction with affiliates but never get the love.

There could be a simple explanation though. Make yourself more contactable by a) actually supplying direct contact details and b) making sure they are correct.

Here's a few cases in point:
 
You're Off The Program

I received a generic email saying "thanks but no thanks, we no longer want you". All good and well but my tracking links still work so I wondered whether this was site specific.

Who sent the email? "No-Reply" did. Ah, lovely. No way I can query this without setting up a support ticket with one of the worst European affiliate networks going for contact response.

This Is Such A Great Offer

It was. It would have been nice to email back and say "wow, you're right, it really is good". This is a case where I would have responded to an email, thus interacting with the merchant.

Who sent the email? Not even a "No-Reply" this time - merchantdomain.com sent this one - that's not even an email address. Contacting them via the network's contact form would have been more effort than it's worth.

Application Received?

I've applied for a few new programs recently. They have each taken around a week thus far with no response. I've emailed each of them through the network's contact form to no avail. Surely merchants like this have no grounds for complaints when they can't get a response from affiliates?

Anyhoo, insult to injury, one of the emails bounced back so there's no way for a lonesome affiliate to get in touch. There's a way to boost sales.

In Summary

Merchants, please check your contact details, make sure your are accessible and make sure us affiliates can get in touch with you. Encourage the networks to use a real "From" email address rather than "No-Reply" as it stifles communications between you and us.

Oh, and try to approve applications and reply as soon as possible. I'm sure that would go down very well.

Treat affiliates how you would like to be treated yourself.