Affiliate Terminated Me

Crap...

[hdpt00]

I got an email today that I used a trademarked term so I was terminated from their program. I couldn't find any agreements between us that said I couldn't, but I still respect their decision.

I made them and me a lot of money, will I still receive it? I spent a lot as well and don't want to be out a few grand. In CJ and on their site there was no operating agreement, I really hope I don't lose the commission I did drive in. Anyone know what will happen?

[tsinoy]

oh dang! is this the $150/day product...

I don't have a similar experience... my 2 cents though you can probably plea with a professional tone that you didn't know about it and you are willing to work with them so that both of you can continue to benefit from your affiliation.

[Chef_Brian]

Hey Guys and Gals,

Yes I tell ya companies are really clamping down on trade mark names and slogans. In fact I got an email the other day telling me to stop using such words when I had not! I told them I did not even use ppc and they sent an email back saying they had found the person doing this.

I agree with the above poster, first thing you should do is get on the phone asap. I always try to find a contact when working closely with a company, that way if anything comes up on my end or theirs I will have someone to try to reach.

Also send an email and plead with them telling you sure would like to make them so more money "within their guideliness".

Good luck ... that must sting bad!

Hang in....

Cheers,

Brian

[hdpt00]

That has all been done, I'm crossing my fingers that they let me back in, it has been a good program and one of several revenue streams (in refernce to the first reply).

[Jesse_Smith]

I made them and me a lot of money

You would think that if they were smart, that they would just ask you to stop using the TM, and give you some time to stop using it. That way you keep making them money and you keep making money.

[plumsauce]

The web as la-la land.

Imagine Ford telling their dealers that "FORD" could not be used in any form of dealer sponsored advertising.

[veroxii]

You're not the person they're referring to in this thread, are you?

[webmasterworld.com...]

[hdpt00]

I doubt it. Mine was a one word phrase, he says his is two words.

[veroxii]

I personally feel merchants should not put any such restrictions. It's just greediness from not wanting to improve their ad-copy and compete.

And considering the much larger profit-margin they can afford, they should be able to outbid just about any affiliate.

[hdpt00]

Very true, in my case I was #3 pulling in about 4-7% CTR and they were in the premium spot. Been a week and they still haven't responded to my email asking if I still get ym commissions, seems all their resources are spent looking at logs and finding affiliates that use their name.

[graywolf]

Any chance you can turn it around and promote his competitor? Costs should be pretty minimal if nobody is allowed to bid on the term. Your wording has be clever if it's a trademarked term.

[itisgene]

hdpt00, I didn't see this posting before. As I mentioned in another thread, you are not the affiliate I was referring to.

We are bidding on our brand name on Google and overture. Affiliate program is just small part of the whole business. When it comes to brand terms, we don't want to compete with our own affiliates, because those brand terms are OURS. We are driving the same traffic from search engines anyway, right? We want affiliates to drive traffic from their own sites not from the same search engines.

If we can get the brand term traffic from Google or Overture at lower CPC, why would we want our affiliates to drive the traffic that way? It is much more cost effective for us to do it directly.

[Automan Empire]

Plumsauce wrote: >>The web as la-la land.
Imagine Ford telling their dealers that "FORD" could not be used in any form of dealer sponsored advertising. <<

I think a better analogy is Ford telling everyone EXCEPT authorized Ford dealers that they can't use the trademarked word "Ford" in their advertisements or business name, which they DO even if you buy six figures a year worth of repair parts from them. Newspapers, once warned, could also get in trouble for running ads that contain unauthorized instances of trademarks, so like web businesses they will cancel such ads posthaste.

A lot of money is at stake. A large repair facility I know spent over $100,000 in legal fees but lost the fight to use the vehicle name "Dr. AcmeWidgets" Now their shop is simply called "The Dr." but they are able to follow that with "Independent AcmeWidget Repair."

Hopefully you will be able to come up with a similar creative solution.