A week or two back, iFrogz sent out an email alerting affiliates that they no longer allow them to bid on their brand name in PPC search engines. They, as are so many other programs, were feeling the crunch from those poaching their trademark by paying commissions on sales that should not have been commissioned.

Earlier today they sent another email expressly disallowing affiliates to bid on “ifrogz coupons”, “ifrogz reviews” and other terms containing their name and long tail terms.

It always strikes me as funny when a merchant does this, because it does nothing to reduce affiliate commissions. All it does is hurt the PPC affiliate while those fortunate enough to be above the fold on these terms get all of the traffic. Amazingly enough, those sites are often not the best at representing the merchant and their brand in a professional light. I often see coupon sites in the top SERPS positions for a term with expired or invalid coupons.

Apparently, after some discussions, iFrogz saw the error of their ways and fixed this issue by lining out a specific set of terms regarding their trademark. They sent yet another email regarding the issue.

While I might consider three emails on the same topic in a week or two to be a bit much, KUDOS to iFrogz for fixing it and allowing their affiliates to grow with them and represent their fine company and their unique niche products.

If you have not tried the iFrogz program, give them a try. They convert well!

Think Tank 2007 at the Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona is in the books and was a huge success. The event was considerably larger this year than it was last year. There were just under 90 affiliates, merchants, vendors and OPMs at the event and it was an information powerhouse.

The merchants who presented their programs were (in no particular order):

• ChineseLaundry.com
• Store.Redskins.com
• CelebrateExpress.com
• CSNStores.com
• LandofNod.com *more on LandofNod.com
• TFAW.com
• JonesSoda.com
• Restockit.com
• TinyPrints.com
• TheNerds.net
• Hocks.com
• JensonUSA.com

Each merchant brought something different and interesting and there was lots of feedback from the pool of affiliates, managers and OPMs for each merchant.

Brian Littleton and his team at Shareasale outdid themselves with this event. It was perfectly run, flowed very well, was well-planned and came off flawlessly. There was plenty of time for networking, partying and learning.

The Gainey Ranch is beautiful and I found the staff there to be wonderfully attentive and willing.

Shareasale Think Tank is a new event on the affiliate circuit, but it is growing and getting better and more informative every year.

I recently published a blog with my thoughts on the trademark issue as it relates to affiliates. Of course I received some heat over this as it is a hot topic in the affiliate world right now.

Amazingly, I run in to merchants who do not bid their own trademarks and allow affiliates to do it.

My thoughts on this:
You have an affiliate program with the hopes of getting incremental traffic. This means traffic, and sales, that you would not have gotten if you did not have an affiliate program. Allowing an affiliate to bid on your domain name and on your pure trademarks means that this affiliate is only claiming sales that were already your sales to start with.

Again, affiliates are supposed to drive new traffic. When you calculate what you can afford to pay your affiliates, you should factor in the value of a new customer as that is what you should get from your affiliates…new customers. If you pay someone who only bids your trademark a 10% commission (the same as the other affiliates), and another affiliate goes out and gets a new customer who has never been to your site before and you make that sale, that sale has a MUCH greater value to you so you should pay the affiliate in the second scenario 2x to 3x as much as you pay the one who only camps out on your trademark.

My Proposal to You
If you are absolutely against using paid search and want an affiliate to cover your trademarks, I will do this for 50% (1/2) of your posted commission percentage. I will use my own funds to pay for the ads covering your trademarks. You will save money this way and you will know that you have a professional covering your trademarks and protecting the image of your company.
Your part in this arrangement is to forbid all other affiliates from bidding your trademarks and enforce this policy. Know going in that you will likely have to remove some of those who you have considered top producers. Also know that by removing these affiliates you are helping your company’s bottom line by paying 1/2 of what you once did to keep these terms covered in the PPC landscape. You will not lose any overall sales by doing this. Many of the affiliates who infringe on merchants’ trademarks will refuse to stop and will ultimately have to be removed from your affiliate program. Again, this is a good thing.

So there you have it. I will cover your trademarks for 1/2 your posted commission rate. Contact me if you want to discuss this further.

At the request of some, I am offering a site review service for merchants who either have an affiliate program or do not have one and are surveying the landscape in starting a program.

My review consists of a thorough 25-point evaluation on the web site, all of your policies, potential problems affiliates might have as well as a complete transaction (up to $25, including shipping) and a full analysis of the customer side of your site as far as the site itself, your post-transaction email communications and the fulfillment experience.

Many of my consulting clients are having me do this work twice a year or so. If you do not have a regular affiliate manager or an outsourced firm managing your program, or even if you do, an outside, unbiased eye on your operation is a good thing to have once in a while.

This service is $595** and the work commences within 2 business days of the order being placed with me (see payment links below) and is completed within a day or two of the time the test purchase arrives. The initial work is done, the order on your site is placed and the process is completed when the order arrives.

My credentials to do such an evaluation are listed below:

• I am a Super Affiliate with over 5 years in Affiliate Marketing
• I am a CJP (Commission Junction Performer). This represents me as in the top affiliates at Commission Junction in volume as well as in ethics.
• Named Affiliate of the Year by Affiliate Summit in January, 2006
• I attend many affiliate-related functions each year and keep a pulse on the affiliate marketing community
• I have been involved in online commerce full-time since 1998. This includes launching a commerce site from the ground up in 1999 as well as several other sites that were launched and later sold.
• Was featured in Revenue Magazine in 2006.

If you have any questions at all, please contact me.

What they’re saying about this service:

- Randy Stocklin - One Click Ventures LLC

“Scott’s review was extremely thorough. It covered everything from site navigation to checkout to order fulfillment. Many of Scott’s suggestions were easy-to-implement tweaks that did not require expensive design or programming costs.

We implemented Scott’s suggestions in Q3 of 2007. We saw a significant increase in our conversion rate after we made the changes. Our 2007 holiday season was our best to date. We can’t thank Scott enough. He is worth every penny and more!”

- Melissa C. Murphy - CrazyForBargains.com

My intention is not to manage your affiliate program or your web site. From time to time a trained outside eye can help your business. In a startup environment this kind of third-party evaluation is a must. I really enjoy analyzing a web site or an affiliate program and finding ways to make them better and more productive. I have done this for a long time now and know what to look for from the affiliate perspective as well as from the consumer perspective.

Use the button below to sign up, then contact me via email upon completion. I will be in touch to discuss my services and answer any questions before I get started. The charge will post as Brightside Media Inc. on your statement.

Use PayPal or Google Checkout for payment.

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** - This is an introductory price for the service and is subject to increase.

When I started Cooperative Affiliates Inc., I sold shares of stock to investors and used that capitol to get things rolling. This was just as much an experiment as it was anything else.

I am happy to announce that as of August 31, 2007, I am the sole stockholder of Cooperative Affiliates. All shares were purchased back and my investors enjoyed a very real 37% + gain on their money in less than a year’s time. This made me happy to see that this model can work in the affiliate environment. It also made me happy to cut those checks because the people I cut them to trusted in me and were well rewarded for their contribution.

Here’s to the future of Affiliate Marketing and online commerce in general.

Scott Hazard