I'll start out by saying that when talking about Linkshare, my basic inclinations are toward sarcasm and criticism. I can't help it. I've got deep-seated, ingrained, visceral feelings about Linkshare that come from my many years of not only competing head-to-head with during my 5+ years at Be Free, but from failed attempts to stand together to face industry issues. These strong feelings have faded a great deal over the years, but if you've read my occasional posts about Linkshare, they do surface.
In fairness, there's a new crew over there in NYC, not only with the parent company, but in the senior management team. I've had some nice discussions with folks over there since I've been out on my own as an affiliate, and they really seem like they're on the ball and want to do right by their clients.
And now, finally, Linkshare is making a move that I feel can be a pivotal one, not only for them, but also hopefully in my own dealings with them. As tonight, it appears that they've taken a major step, if not THE step that resolves my biggest gripe with them as an affiliate. Their interface.
First Looks
I think I may have been one of the first ones in tonight as I feel like as I'm poking around, new pages are appearing before my eyes. 404 errors turning into a web page with a few browser refreshes. I'll surely cut them plenty of slack there.
The overhaul starts with the login page and continues through the entire affiliate dashboard, as they call it. The only remnants of the old interface are a few navigation graphics, and the SynergyAnalytics section.
The dashboard home is just nice to look at. They've finally put the important things front and center, my outstanding earnings balance, some important stats, new merchants, and some action items. There's a "todo" list which, if they use well, can have some good benefits. And I like that I can see at a glance all the recent communications that were sent to me.
There are some problems with Safari on OS X where the trend chart spun forever, so I'm jumping over to Firefox.
Programs
The new interface for locating merchant programs is beautiful. Now it's very easy to find programs to work with, identify new ones, and see the ones that you have a relationship with.
Reporting
I'm very glad to see that they haven't moved entirely over to SynergyAnalytics. It's a bit too slow right now for me to give it a good look, but the reports look nicely done and easy to use.
Links
The link interface has also become much easier to use. I'm not a big consumer of regular links as I tend to build my own and use datafeeds.
Speaking of which, there is a new "data feeds" tab where you can, get this, see what datafeeds you can apply to and have been accepted to receive. You mean I don't need to email Kalia any more? (I'll miss you Kalia.)
Nice Job
It really doesn't take much to make a good, solid affiliate network interface and I think sometimes the networks just try too hard. All it really needs to do is be very easy to get the information we need and then get the hell out of the way.
Until today, Linkshare's web interface has been very much IN the way.
There's a lot more to look at and become familiar with. I look forward to working with this new affiliate network with an old name.
Wow... I have to say I love the new interface. It's kind of strange that two of my merchants have just recently left CJ for LinkShare. Thanks for the heads up!
Posted by Way To Go LinkShare 3 years, 11 months ago
[...] To Go LinkShare Written by Vlad on February 22, 2008 – 3:11 pm If you have not tried the new and sexy LinkShare interface, you are in for a big surprise! In the past I did not have much success with LinkShare merchants. [...]
I was just going to sign up today. There is a particular company I want to be an affiliate for and this is the company I have to go through to accomplish this. I had not heard anything about Linkshare prior to this so I will be curious to see for myself what it is like. I hope they are not dead!
Ya, love the new affiliate side. We just launched a new program with LinkShare so waiting for the clean design to make it's way to the merchant side of things.
Ya, love the new affiliate side. We just launched a new program with LinkShare so waiting for the clean design to make it's way to the merchant side of things.
RSS
In fairness, there's a new crew over there in NYC, not only with the parent company, but in the senior management team. I've had some nice discussions with folks over there since I've been out on my own as an affiliate, and they really seem like they're on the ball and want to do right by their clients.
And now, finally, Linkshare is making a move that I feel can be a pivotal one, not only for them, but also hopefully in my own dealings with them. As tonight, it appears that they've taken a major step, if not THE step that resolves my biggest gripe with them as an affiliate. Their interface.
First Looks
I think I may have been one of the first ones in tonight as I feel like as I'm poking around, new pages are appearing before my eyes. 404 errors turning into a web page with a few browser refreshes. I'll surely cut them plenty of slack there.
The overhaul starts with the login page and continues through the entire affiliate dashboard, as they call it. The only remnants of the old interface are a few navigation graphics, and the SynergyAnalytics section.
The dashboard home is just nice to look at. They've finally put the important things front and center, my outstanding earnings balance, some important stats, new merchants, and some action items. There's a "todo" list which, if they use well, can have some good benefits. And I like that I can see at a glance all the recent communications that were sent to me.
There are some problems with Safari on OS X where the trend chart spun forever, so I'm jumping over to Firefox.
Programs
The new interface for locating merchant programs is beautiful. Now it's very easy to find programs to work with, identify new ones, and see the ones that you have a relationship with.
Reporting
I'm very glad to see that they haven't moved entirely over to SynergyAnalytics. It's a bit too slow right now for me to give it a good look, but the reports look nicely done and easy to use.
Links
The link interface has also become much easier to use. I'm not a big consumer of regular links as I tend to build my own and use datafeeds.
Speaking of which, there is a new "data feeds" tab where you can, get this, see what datafeeds you can apply to and have been accepted to receive. You mean I don't need to email Kalia any more? (I'll miss you Kalia.)
Nice Job
It really doesn't take much to make a good, solid affiliate network interface and I think sometimes the networks just try too hard. All it really needs to do is be very easy to get the information we need and then get the hell out of the way.
Until today, Linkshare's web interface has been very much IN the way.
There's a lot more to look at and become familiar with. I look forward to working with this new affiliate network with an old name.