In the comments of my previous post I pledged to do something in August to increase my activity in each of Performics and ShareASale. Performics has renewed efforts to become more focused on their affiliate business. ShareASale has always been great for affiliates. And here I am doing most of my business in the networks that are squandering their affiliate loyalty with difficult to use interfaces, stagnant features, and worse, “features” that make our lives more difficult.
This got me to thinking, what is it that makes it so difficult get over to those lesser-used, but promising, networks and get something going with their merchants?
To help answer that question, I paid close attention to my habits during the day and my experience as I interact with the different affiliate networks. Here’s what I found.
The first thing I do in the morning, is log into Commission Junction. That’s the only one I log into every morning first thing. In fact, I can’t wait to log in to see what happened the previous day, even though I have a pretty good idea from looking before I went to bed.
And then I log in several times a day as their stats update continually. Since I’m always in there, it just makes sense for me to keep doing business there. (this is a key point that I think others don’t seem to get. It’s as much about mind-share as anything.)
I’ll usually log into Adsense as well, not because I make a ton of money there, but it’s reports act as sort of my consolidated stats for all the sites that are sort of just sitting there catching natural traffic. If some search engine change has happened, I can usually spot it in my adsense reports. And their reports update all day long (see a trend here?).
I rarely log into Linkshare. I’ve got plenty going on there, but it’s just such a hassle to log in, and their stats only update daily.
Compare CJ’s login process to Linkshare’s:
Commission Junction
type cj.com (I’m a keyboard navigator and a horrible bookmark user)
username/password fill in automatically
since the cursor is in the form already, I hit enter and I’m in.
I can do all that with my eyes closed.
Right away, I’m staring at my running balance at the top (I have developed photographic memory for the previous value) and a dashboard of statistics in the “Login Manager”, it contains the prior day traffic and commission information for two CJ accounts and my dying BeFree account. The login manager is the last lifeline into BeFree. What a great feature. Who’s idea was that anyway?
Linkshare
type linkshare.com (again, I just don’t have a bookmark habit.)
click on the login link
type in username and password (they disable auto-complete)
type in the captcha check (damn this captcha check)
What am I greeted with? That foolish legal message, “We are unable to validate one or more pieces of your profile information at this time.” Yeah, I know. You’ve been telling me this for over a year now.
In order to see any useful information, the report is still a few clicks away. Or worse, that crazy java-based reporting system that I’ve used once in my life…once.
I’m sorry. I’m getting sarcastic. Linkshare does that to me.
Performics’ login isn’t great. What’s with the turning off of auto-complete with these guys? Come on, let me worry about my security. You’re not doing me any favors.
ShareASale’s login is unfortunately behind a link on the homepage, and the only other thing it needs is for the cursor to be in the form so I can just hit enter.
Otherwise, good stuff: Running balance on the homepage (currently $0.00, but we’re going to change that) and a quick link to today’s stats.
As I read what I just wrote, it all seems terribly picayune, but every little thing matters. Granted, once I’m earning big bucks somewhere, I won’t be so picky, but I think these things are keeping me from getting there. I have only so much time in my day. I don’t need to spend it fighting with user interfaces.
OK, now to do something with these guys. Starting with ShareASale this week…
I’ve got a shoe price comparison site and SaS has got a good shoe merchant, LoveMyShoes. Good EPC. Product datafeed. But their feed is missing some critical data. I contacted Brian, the owner of ShareASale (what other network can you do that on?) and asked him what my chances were for getting that data fixed. He immediately introduced me to their affiliate manager, who was also very accommodating. Long story short, 48 hours later, the datafeed is updated with additional data. We got what we need, the datafeed is improved, everybody wins. The data is loaded and traffic is flowing through ShareASale.
Oh, and look at that, as I write this, sale #1. There’s nothing like that first sale. And even though I’ve got Sub ID tracking set up to get this info from my own tracking, ShareASale even tells me which page that the sale came from. How cool is that? ( it was from here: Clarks Twill)
Mission Accomplished (running balance: $7.67. It’s a start.)
Next stop…Performics.
I leave you with some relevent H.D. Thoreau
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
