Sadly as has already been pointed out, AM isn’t the only industry who treats “partnerships” in this way. However other industries don’t rely on email as a way of communicating. Its bad that companies think when they send an email – it’s going to be read instantly and therefore impose stupid time lines.

@ Gav I can appreciate the other side of the coin, but merchants rarely get dropped unless something is up with the programme or the affiliate loses the ability to drive traffic. I’ve never gotten up in the morning thinking, “you know what… I just can’t be assed to promote that red hot revenue earner any more. Sod it!!”

Plus how many times have affiliates actually been sued beyond the loss of commissions for breaking rules? Essentially the penalty for breaking T’s and C’s is $0 as you just lose something you weren’t entitled to in the first place.

Just putting the other side of the coin in view!

“How many industries treat their valued business partners like this? How many could?”

Plenty. Its horrible that you got burnt like this, but it happens, and im sure now you’ll be a lot more cautious in the future but think of it like this, if im an agency setting up a closed group and getting a lawyer to create a contract. The lawyers charging me £XXX per hour to do this and I want them to cover me thoroughly – to be honest, I don’t want them spending an extra half day making sure your covered as well.

If your serious about creating long term partnerships with people then both parties should put the time in, create a contract thats mutually agreeable and then sign it, and make them sign it.

If its done like this then your covered, they’re covered and because your equally covered you’ll find information flows a lot more freely. If they aren’t open you’ve got them, if they do something like this, you’ve got them, likewise if you step outside of their lines, they have you.

Everyone learns the hard way, i’ve lost a lot of mullah through this sort of thing (in my affiliate roll) and now only work with a few merchants, very closely, and have a very open trusting relationship.

I also think that while the network facilitated this agreement the contract was ultimately between yourself and the merchant. Networks have their own obligations and we do the best possible given our circumstances. By that I mean merchants ultimately pay the bills so we have to prioritise (yes I know we need affiliates to drive sales!).

As competition in this industry continues to heat up networks cannot afford the luxury of taking a hard line with a merchant because they could simply migrate to an all-to-eager rival if worst comes to worst. Networks are seen as commodities.

From their perspective (if their brains are working, which in the case of many is not clear), they’re paying to help us develop a marketing strategy that we get to take with us whenever we so desire, so there’s the imbalance on our side…you can now go support their competitors. Or better yet, have you looked into drop-shipping or another option to be a “merchant” yourself?

They stand to lose more long-term by pissing us off than the other way around.

Sadly it is all too common in affiliate marketing. We lose tens of thousands of pounds every year through advertisers changing their rules after an agreement has been made and we’ve put in hard work from our side. The wild west nature of this industry and the fact that a few – not the majority – advertisers don’t treat affiliates with the respect a business partner deserves is the number one reason I would want to leave this industry. Sadly, little has changed in years.

When they know they’re going to be named and shamed, and held publicly responsible for their actions, by people whose opinions are listened to and who carry credibility. People like you. If you feel you can’t name them then I can respect that, but it’s a shame.