I understand that some (not all, but some) affiliates don't like to use products of shopkeepers who have html in their product descriptions linking back to the creator's shop. If that's the case, do you have a link somewhere on your affiliate site to the shop whose designs you're using? Such as in the "partners" page of a 4th click site?

quote:

If that's the case, do you have a link somewhere on your affiliate site to the shop whose designs you're using? Such as in the "partners" page of a 4th click site?

On my affiliate sites I will remove any of these types of products. Reasoning: If I have coded the link with the affiliate ID etc, and I am displaying it on a site I am paying money to host, I want the buyer to "click that link" and earn a commission for it. I don't want the buyer to click the link a SK has added to the description because that link wouldn't contain any of my affiliate PID's etc.

No, I don't have a partners page.

As an affiliate my job is to serve my customers, not to support a shop keeper. I feel no obligation to send people to a shop keepers shop. I will only link directly to a shop when I feel it will serve my customers to do so. And the "hope" that they "might" find something they like isn't enough. As an affiliate the reason why someone would use me as a source, instead of going directly to a shop or marketplace, is because I can do the dredge work for them. Now, if it should happen that the shop shares a theme I'm promoting then that could be a good thing.

1. Some of the time I'm not selecting a particular product. I'm creating pre-configured searches and I care about the search results, not whose shop gets picked up in the results. Thus no link.

2. If I visit the shop and it has links off site, and especially other advertising, no link. I'll forgive links my target audience would appreciate (like support of rescue dogs).

3. Often a shop keeper will have limited designs of interest to my audience. I'm interested in giving my audience the best experience, which means not sending them off to look at stuff not in the theme. If so, no links to the shop.

4. In most cases I won't link to shops organized by product. My value added is to be able to point my audience to designs in theme and not have them wade through stuff that isn't.

5. The more clicks, the less likely I am to link to the shop.

6. Most likely to get linked to: First class designs that properly fit the products AND wide range of products AND well organized by design and themes AND nothing offensive.

Hmm. Your answers weren't what I expected. Thank you both for your responses!

Addendum: If you don't allow links, are you also averse to including shops who have as part of their description something along the lines of "See more at Bob's House o' Art"? In other words, if the un-linked shop name appears, is that good or bad?

Bad...

again...our goal is to keep them in our shops...not to send them to yours

Hugs
Susan

Well, my whole question has been rendered pretty much moot by Teesed's post, but thanks all the same.

Not really Wontar... A lot of affiliates DON'T use the green version but use your actual shop.

In my opinion, if it is just text and not a link - affiliates wont mind. HOWEVER, they would prefer you use that valuable and limited space to better describe your design.

Shawn, I could be horribly wrong, but I would guess that many affiliates don't use the green version because they didn't know it existed. In fact, if I were an affiliate, I would probably clamor to make that post a sticky because it does exactly what an affiliate needs: strip away all the extraneous stuff, links and whatnot, and get right to the product and description. No leaks, nobody wandering away from the affiliate's page, no problems!

I look at the whole issue differently than an affiliate does. My descriptions have my shop name and link to my shop in them in addition to a description, and I'm not going to change that. If it costs me some affiliate sales, so be it. As you say, and as I've seen, there are affiliates who don't mind the shop name in the description.

I wouldn't say rendered moot. I'd rather link to a very nice leak-free looking shop than the green version of the shop. It's a better experience in my opinion. I could have a mall full of very plain looking stores, or I could have a mall full of experiences, each focused on getting the customer to purchase. I didn't mean in that post that you no longer have to worry about links. I will go clarify that. It's just that it's an alternative. Back when the affiliate program (first one) started, some shopkeepers would place links in their affiliate sections showing how to get to the "leak-free" version of their shop.

This worry over leaks is NOT the only way to operate.

I take a different approach. I don't even look to see if a shop has outbound links. I don't care at all.

My affiliate pages, which are very concise, topically coherent and thus "easy" to promote; are keyword dense beyond the boundaries; are built primarily of images and consistently return a 5% or better ratio of sales to clicks.

I almost ALWAYS link directly to shops at the design or section level. I never link to the Marketplace and almost never to a specific product. I am equally interested in potential buyers staying in the shop they have found through my pages, as I am in their staying on my page. Well, all my links open in a new window anyway, so my opportunities are not over till they actually close my page.

My goal has always been to establish a cooperative relationship between my affiliate pages and the shopkeepers I represent. Represented SKs are able to contribute to the pages' advertising budget, if they wish. This guarantees placement on the pages at all times.

I see my affiliate pages as promoting individual shops, as advertising for shops with a limited budget, as contributing to shop page rank in the same way that a directory or top T-shirt page works. I can hardly turn around and then be concerned about shop leaks.

This whole process has worked well for me now for over a 18 months and for well over 500 individual shops.

So, Wontar, there is more than one way for affiliate marketers to see the issue of leaks. I believe that buyers who enter a shop through my affiliate sites are there specifically because the like the design that they saw displayed on my page. Only those with severe ADD will run off because they happen to encounter a new link to elsewhere. It is possible that they will explore the shop they find themselves in more deeply, or move on to discover Cafepress, but that is fine with me and my cookie.

By the way, Wontar, what is your shop URL?

BD

Well as a Shopkeeper its hard to figure out the right thing. I just changed my product description so they dont' reference my site. Even though someone going to my homepage would still see wacksack.com. Don't know if that will hurt or help gaining affiliates to my overall shop but I am learning as I go...

BabyDave - Thank you. I know that not every affiliate shop owner does business the same way, and I'll admit that the responses I initially received were a little disheartening to me. I'm glad to know that your way of affiliating is working well for you! Oh, and I sent you a PM with the shop URL.

Bearman - Learn as you go, do what you think is best, try stuff and see what works and what doesn't... can't really ask for more than that, can you?

Teesed - Don't worry about changing your post because of me. As I said, if I were an affiliate I'd probably make use of that link you posted. It's a good tool, just not for me.

I don't mind linking to a shop that has products that say something like:

"An adam original."

It's when they say this that annoys me"

"An adam original buy more from adamoriginal.com"

The whole leak thing annoys me on this board. Some people just haven't grasped it.

You shouldn't link out period to anything that discourages the visitor from making a purchase.

You shouldn't be an affiliate if you are being the merchant. You shouldn't have affiliate links in your shop if you are encouraging affiliates to link to you. You shouldn't have them in there period.

Be professional about it. Convert your own sales and the traffic an affiliate sends you will convert as well.

If you are linking out everything which way but loose you are lowering your conversion rate hence lowering your sales and of course wasting an affiliate's time.

AMEN!

***bows down to the wise one***

hugs
Susan