Comments on: How Long Will the Exodus Continue? http://www.cooperativeaffiliates.com/2008/05/09/how-long-will-the-exodus-continue/ Scott Hazard on Affiliate Marketing Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:38:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 By: Leo p http://www.cooperativeaffiliates.com/2008/05/09/how-long-will-the-exodus-continue/#comment-125 Leo p Tue, 20 May 2008 20:42:08 +0000 http://www.cooperativeaffiliates.com/2008/05/09/how-long-will-the-exodus-continue/#comment-125 Point well taken. I have seen several companies have no idea how online marketing works. Ask an easy question and you somehow feel you are speaking to a stonewall - and judging from the responses, you almost conclude that the question you asked - wasn't even understood correctly. For these companies, it is better to have their affiliates do the whole slew - including bidding on trademarked names and registering related domains - only because this is the only way their affiliate program is ever going to get off the ground - what are your thoughts on this ? Point well taken. I have seen several companies have no idea how online marketing works. Ask an easy question and you somehow feel you are speaking to a stonewall - and judging from the responses, you almost conclude that the question you asked - wasn’t even understood correctly.

For these companies, it is better to have their affiliates do the whole slew - including bidding on trademarked names and registering related domains - only because this is the only way their affiliate program is ever going to get off the ground - what are your thoughts on this ?

]]> By: Scott http://www.cooperativeaffiliates.com/2008/05/09/how-long-will-the-exodus-continue/#comment-126 Scott Tue, 20 May 2008 21:00:56 +0000 http://www.cooperativeaffiliates.com/2008/05/09/how-long-will-the-exodus-continue/#comment-126 You asked: "For these companies, it is better to have their affiliates do the whole slew - including bidding on trademarked names and registering related domains - only because this is the only way their affiliate program is ever going to get off the ground - what are your thoughts on this?" My thoughts on that are that the merchant is foolish to allow affiliates to do these things. First off, you can't build a store next to K-Mart and call is K-Nart. Registering sound-alike domains, mis-spelings etc. is not doing any favors for the merchant. As for the merchant allowing affiliate to cover their trademarks, setting up an Adwords campaign covering your domain name, trademarks and general variations takes 5 minutes. When a merchant allows an affiliate to bid on their domain name <b>and use the merchant's URL as the display URL</b>, they are simply paying an affiliate for a customer who was looking for them by name to start with. In my consulting endeavors, I have not met any merchants who have a recognizable brand who disagreed with this. For a company who just launched a web site, has no traffic, no customer base and is starting from scratch, the trademark bidding issue is pretty much moot because nobody is searching for that merchant by name. Allowing an affiliate to bid on your domain name and/or trademarks and send that traffic to their own site is another issue all together. I can see benefits to that and I can also see the positions some merchant's take in not allowing this. At the end of the day, affiliates camping out on merchant's domain names and trademarks in order to snag an easy commission adds no value and is the reason that so many quality merchants are exiting the space regularly. You asked:

“For these companies, it is better to have their affiliates do the whole slew - including bidding on trademarked names and registering related domains - only because this is the only way their affiliate program is ever going to get off the ground - what are your thoughts on this?”

My thoughts on that are that the merchant is foolish to allow affiliates to do these things. First off, you can’t build a store next to K-Mart and call is K-Nart. Registering sound-alike domains, mis-spelings etc. is not doing any favors for the merchant.

As for the merchant allowing affiliate to cover their trademarks, setting up an Adwords campaign covering your domain name, trademarks and general variations takes 5 minutes. When a merchant allows an affiliate to bid on their domain name and use the merchant’s URL as the display URL, they are simply paying an affiliate for a customer who was looking for them by name to start with. In my consulting endeavors, I have not met any merchants who have a recognizable brand who disagreed with this. For a company who just launched a web site, has no traffic, no customer base and is starting from scratch, the trademark bidding issue is pretty much moot because nobody is searching for that merchant by name.

Allowing an affiliate to bid on your domain name and/or trademarks and send that traffic to their own site is another issue all together. I can see benefits to that and I can also see the positions some merchant’s take in not allowing this.

At the end of the day, affiliates camping out on merchant’s domain names and trademarks in order to snag an easy commission adds no value and is the reason that so many quality merchants are exiting the space regularly.

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