What do you do ...

.. when affiliates hate your industry?

[internetheaven]

I work in a legal sector which is currently hated by the UK public. Unfortunately all firms that work in this particular industry are labeled as being the same even though they are not. Our firm in no way contributes to the problems associated with the type of work we do.

(It would be much simpler if I could just state the industry but I assume that is against TOS? You'd probably all go "Oh, yeah ... that!")

Anyway, I have an affiliate program with <snip> and it has been awful. No-one will sign up and every day I get email-heckels about the damage I am doing to the country.

How can I get the information out there that I am not the same? Or am I doomed to fork out thousands for poor ROI Adwords?

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 6:35 pm (utc) on Oct. 12, 2004]
[edit reason] please leave out the specific programs. [/edit]

[superbird]

Can you do a bit of a PR campaign and get in the papers as the "new face of ambulance chasing" (joke ;)) Or you could write some articles for popular webmaster sites.

If this sector is hated by the public here, then there must be plenty of customers for it or else no one would care. I can't imagine e-heckling someone though whatever I thought of their industry so I must be quite mellow!

[internetheaven]

Can you do a bit of a PR campaign and get in the papers as the "new face of ambulance chasing" (joke ;)) Or you could write some articles for popular webmaster sites.

Ah! So you managed to guess the industry then! Can you recommend any such sites that would accept an article and which is frequently read by affiliates?

I've interacted with a few on the <snip> which went well (in the end) but its a very limited reach.

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 6:36 pm (utc) on Oct. 12, 2004]
[edit reason] please leave out the specific sites. [/edit]

[Brett_Tabke]

>Or am I doomed to fork out thousands for poor ROI Adwords?

No - build a site that people want to visit and depend upon and return too.

[internetheaven]

No - build a site that people want to visit and depend upon and return too.

That's irrelevant to my site. People who are looking for my site will only ever be looking for it once in their lives (generally speaking). If I do convert that visitor, they will not be returning to perform another action.

Take divorce for example, if you're looking for a divorce lawyer you'll generally only be doing it once (maybe twice in the States, I'm not sure of your stats) so I how can I build a site for a divorce lawyer "that people want to visit and depend upon and return too"?

[aleksl]

Is it...can it be... funeral homes? One sure goes there once and for all :)

Twist it, and create a content site. Think of a term "life insurance" - when in fact it is "death insurance".