patient2all - 3:10 pm on Dec 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

Thank You, as usual, Qui for your refreshing comments.

Quite a contrast to the latest from the ex-mod who thinks this is just a big joke:

ok, i put my hands up i made it all up for the sake of it go order those ferraris boys, aff

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Here is a post from a more serious board by an affiliate manager quoting an email he received from one of his merchant partners. It appears that the merchant partner hasn't been privy to anything either, but is attempting to take a proactive approach with their affiliates:

We received an e-mail yesterday from one of the large merchants, informing us that they suspected that google would be changing their affiliate policy in the near future. Here's the e-mail, with names edited out (replaced with AAA): "Dear, Alert: AAA continues to hear reports that Google will make a radical policy change soon that may affect all Affiliates who use Google to promote merchants' products and services. Although only speculation at this point, AAA is advising all its Affiliates to take a proactive response that would mitigate the effects of such a change. Specifically the new policy is likely to ensure: 1) the visible URL on any Adword must match the ultimate destination domain of that ad; and 2) no two Adwords with the same visible URL will be served at the same time (prevents double-serving) Why this is important: If you are promoting AAA in Google using www.AAA.com as the visible URL,you are likely to get these campaigns disabled as soon as Google's new affiliate policy comes into force. You should start to replace the redirects to us with actual landing pages that mirror our landing pages now. For instance, you should buy a domain like "AAA.com", or one that is complimentary to the AAA product that you are promoting, and promote that domain in the Google ad copy. Or you can use an existing AAA domain name that you currently own. The user must land on "AAA", in this example, but that page can look exactly like our normal AAA landing page, but have your normal affiliate tracking links available for the user to click on. Your Google PPC campaign cannot be a straight re-direct. If you have any questions, please email AAA"

Note the bolded portion, perhaps that is how Google will inform the "bottom feeders" of this change.

patient2all