Why Was My Affiliate Application Declined?
I hear a lot of affiliates ask this question, wondering why their applications to some affiliate programs are declined. As an affiliate manager, there’s a lot of reasons why I might decline an affiliate application. I’m a very responsive affiliate manager, and will always answer this question when asked, however I know there are many managers out there that are, shall we say, less than stellar in the communications department. In an effort to bridge this gap, here are some things affiliates should consider when they come to ask an affiliate manager, “Why was my affiliate application declined?”
Are my website URLs correct?
I’ve seen instances where affiliates have misspelled their domain names accidentally, added an extra http://, left off the extension (.com? .net?). Many affiliate managers are, of course, savvy enough to just omit the extra http:// or try adding the .com to see if a website comes up, but I know some are not so diligent, so it’s best that you make checking your websites as easy as possible for the affiliate manager.
Have I been declined a lot?
There may be a bigger issue at hand, like your website’s hosting company being down or your pages not loading correctly. If you’re having your affiliate application declined a lot, you should check to ensure that all your sites are up and running and displaying properly. Try viewing your website in different browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc) to see if something isn’t loading correctly. Some affiliate programs are very sensitive to the content and look of a site where their advertisements will potentially be seen.
Do I have any unprofessional or questionable content on my website?
Some brands are much more sensitive when it comes to the content on a website where their ad will appear. For example, the Apple Store has very strict guidelines relating to website content and where you can and cannot place the banner advertisements for the Apple Store. Larger brands tend to have more guidelines regarding their advertising, and may choose to decline you if your websites do not convey a likewise professional image that is on par with the brand. You can consider changing your website, removing the possibly unprofessional content, or finding an alternative merchant with more lenient standards on the website content.
Are all my websites listed in my profile?
Of course, some networks like LinkShare and Google Affiliate Network give you a separate profile to apply per website, so this isn’t necessarily a blanket issue. But in other networks, this may be a detriment not to list all your sites. Often affiliate managers are checking the affiliate’s websites and looking for a good niche or category fit. If you’re applying for a sports gear affiliate program and only have your knitting website listed, the affiliate manager may not see a good fit and choose to decline you. Having all your websites listed shows the affiliate manager that you work in different verticals and they can see more potential for appropriate promotions. Personally, I don’t know why an affiliate would ever not list a website unless it was less than ethical, but please comment if you have a good reason for not listing all websites.
I’m sure there are hundreds of other individual reasons why you might be declined. Some affiliate managers really check content for a good niche fit, while others allow multiple categories in. It all ultimately depends on the merchant and if their product would appeal to a wider audience or a more narrow audience of customer. Always attempt to reach out to the affiliate manager if you’ve been declined for a program you really want to promote. Most of the time you should receive some kind of response, either explaining why you were declined or giving you a chance to promote the program.
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Read MoreDo You Poken?
Poken seems to have taken over the techie space as the next big thing in conferences and networking. Don’t know what a Poken is? Well, it’s basically a USB drive with a cartoon character for a cover. The drive has software installed on it that automatically connects to the Poken website when you plug it in. It also has a sensor on the hand that flashes when you “high 4” with another poken, effectively exchanging virtual contact information.
I first learned of this product at Affiliate Summit East 2009, thanks to Peter Shankman mentioning them in his keynote. It seemed like everyone wanted a Poken after that – and many people bought some from Peter before the conference was over. Peter has obviously identified these cute little virtual business cards as a significant advance in sharing contact information, a “game-changer”, even.
But are Poken really the wave of the future?
It depends who you are. If you travel and network a lot, they could be incredibly useful as they pick up popularity and more people are available for you to “high 4” with. Shelly Good-Cook says of the device, “I bought one a couple months and other than my twin sister, for whom I also bought one, I haven’t found anyone to “high five” mine with. I took it to a networking event I attended in Arlington, VA recently where most of the attendees were young, hip and computer savvy, but none of them had heard of it yet. I even met a reporter who covered that beat and it was new to her, so I gave her the scoop on it, hoping she covers it. They may have won a Tech Crunch Award in Europe, but they still have work to do in the U.S. before they get wide spread adoption. For me, this is like the early days of the fax machine. I have one but there isn’t much value in it until a lot more people get one. Most of the people I talked to about it at the networking event thought it was a great idea, although some of the men were less than thrilled with the limited design options. Most thought $20 was reasonable for the functionality although a few balked at the price point, stating it was much too high.”
Poken has responded to the cartoon complaints and come out with a more professional looking Poken, the Poken Pulse, that looks much closer to a traditional USB drive and boasts 2GB of space and traditional USB drive functionality in addition to the Poken networking features. At a higher price point, I actually expect more professionals will go with it over the cartoonish regular Poken as it does have that added functionality. Most of the feedback I get about Poken are from my contacts in the affiliate marketing community, and I wonder now that there have been a couple more conferences if they’ve gotten more use. Elizabeth Hannan said of her Poken, “I have had a experience with Poken at SXSW 09 where I was first introduced to Poken. It was incredibly helpful and made awkward introductions into easy conversations.”. I can definitely see how that is beneficial for those of us that are friendly but not incredibly extroverted.
Whether or not these are the wave of the future, time will tell. The buzz has seemed to died down in the last few months, but they’re not being tossed aside with that m100 Palm Pilot just yet. Do you Poken? Share your story!
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 17: Coming Soon – Black Friday!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
Well, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Schedules have been ca-razy lately and Mike & I just haven’t been able to get together to record. So, welcome back as stand in co-host Eric Nagel! We got back to our roots in talking strictly from the affiliate vs. affiliate manager discussion. We come in at a cool 42:50. In in this episode we discuss:
- The new Retweet function on Twitter – meh.
- Holiday affiliate contests
- Paulson Management Group’s “A Jingle for your Jangle”
- ShareASale’s Fourth Quarter Frenzy
- Increased communications from affiliate managers during the holidays
- Still more emphasis on Black Friday than Cyber Monday
- Happy Monday: The Importance of Mondays this Holiday
- Affiliates buying products through their own links
- Debate: Affiliates Buying Clickbank Products
We promise not to go this long again!
Read MoreVSEO – Ranking Factors Behind YouTube
Guest Post By Ryan Sammy.
Everyone knows the importance of video marketing as well as the tremendous potential YouTube offers in creating a strong presence for your brand and company image. However, does everybody know how to use YouTube optimally to gain the desired advantage and leverage for your videos and thereby your company?
Just creating a good video of your company, or a video containing information intended for your target customers and uploading onto YouTube is not enough to get the desired results. There are many ranking factors behind YouTube that you should know if you want your video to score high marks in the popularity charts. Good VSEO takes into account these ranking factors to help build a good brand image and enhance the reputation of your company.
Apart from creating quality video content that information seekers will be willing to watch, there are other important factors that you can use to optimize your videos for YouTube and get higher rankings in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The first and foremost is not to be just a passerby, but a player. Create a presence in the YouTube community for yourself. Listen to others and be heard. The rankings on YouTube depend on various factors, just as the factors behind organic search results on Google or any other search engine. YouTube in itself is a major search engine now, and it adheres to its own algorithmic parameters to decide rankings.
YouTube ranks videos that are watched most number of times rank very high on its SERPs. So you need to make videos that have a strong viral capability to bring in more viewers for your videos. The more people your videos can bring in to watch, the higher in rankings your video climbs. Now, this does not mean that by simply uploading a video that will be watched by many people can get you top spot in rankings; the videos have to be acceptable and engaging to make people vote for the videos. The more times your videos get viewer votes; the higher the chances of you getting top billings in the rankings! Another factor that could push your videos up is the number of times your videos are bookmarked for attention. These are the basic factors that can help your videos to get maximum visibility, and your attention when making videos should be to make them in such a way that they satisfy all the conditions stated above.
Having good titles, meta-descriptions, tags, comments, flagging, shares, comments, channel views, subscribers, inbound links, and latency do matter, but if you stick to the ground rules and include some, or all the above factors, there is no reason why your videos should lag behind. That said, being an active member of the community will help tremendously, and using video analytics such as “YouTube Insight” and “TubeMogul” should help make your videos better and to stay constantly updated on developments. Make good videos and stay engaged; that should drive you to the top spot very soon.
Read MoreAffiliate Marketing Fanatics 16: Wade Tonkin & Blog World Expo Guilt
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Affiliate Marketing Fanatics – A Publisher (Mike Buechele) and an Affiliate Manager (Trisha Lyn Fawver) talk about all things Affiliate Marketing. From blogging to branding, social media to search, video and more!
This week we are FINALLY joined by Wade Tonkin of GTO Management and the man behind the Christian Affiliate Marketers Association. We had a fine conversation, accidentally recorded in Mono instead of Stereo since I forgot to switch the defaults on this new computer. I think the sound quality is good though, but welcome any feedback. Since we’re all busy people, I opted for no intro music this week and we come in at a sultry 34:25. In in this episode we discuss:
- Who Wade is, i.e. a partner at GTO Management
- Blog World Expo and their affiliate program (which GTO Management professionally manages)
- The events put on by and the Christian Affiliate Marketing Association
- SponsoredTweets and how that’s going to Mike & Trisha
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