ShopNBC Switching to Linkshare

Just got an email that ShopNBC is moving to Linkshare.

We are excited to announce that the ShopNBC Affiliate Program will be launching in the LinkShare Network tomorrow, Tuesday, May 2nd!



We want to give the opportunity to get a head start on updating your ShopNBC links, so we’ve included a selection of our new banners and text links below. **Please Note:  These Links will not track referrals until May 2nd at 7AM EDT. 



Once our LinkShare links go live, ShopNBC will not track any new transactions through Commission Junction. To ensure that you receive credit for all your referrals, you must switch out your Commission Junction links with LinkShare links after ShopNBC goes live at 7 AM EDT on May 2nd.

Now I haven’t been paying attention to my ShopNBC emails, but this isn’t exactly what I’d call a “head start”. I hope they gave earlier notice than 14 hours to affiliates through the BFAST system.

And let me get this straight. At 7am on May 2nd, LS starts tracking and BF links stop tracking? That’s not exactly allowing for a smooth transition.

Linkshare has me all pre-signed up with the ShopNBC program. That’s because merchants can get all their affiliate contact information out of BFAST. Linkshare will pre-load all affiliates for a program that’s migrating over and attempt to match up the information in accounts. In the past, if they couldn’t match an account,they’d create a new one. As a result, I have several Linkshare accounts (as I’m painfully reminded each time they send a newsletter). I wonder how many of their “millions” of affiliates are dupes created by migration scripts.

Of course, the real story here is that this is one of the big’uns from the old Be Free days. And they’re moving to Linkshare instead of to the CJ platform. It’s these old-school Be Free retail merchants who are going to be the tough ones. They’re used to full access to affiliate information, private relationships, and extensive reporting, and I’m sure Linkshare has the full-on sales pitch to leverage these hot-buttons.

As CJ winds down the BFAST platform, it’ll be interesting to see where the merchants go. I consider this one a bellwether.

UPDATE 5/2: They did it. Talk about ripping off the band-aid!

We are excited to announce that the ShopNBC Affiliate Program has launched with the LinkShare Network today, Tuesday, May 2nd!

ShopNBC will not track any new transactions through Commission Junction. To ensure that you receive credit for all of your referrals, you must switch out your Commission Junction links with LinkShare links immediately.