Big problems at Linkshare

a nework going down?

[aleksl]

Wonder why everyone on the web is talking about it - big issues with Linkshare.

Here's my questions:
1. Are you a Linkshare affiliate?
2. Did you get validated in the new Linkshare system? If yes, are you from U.S. or not?
3. Are you owed money by Linkshare? Hunderds, thousands?
4. Did you ever get consolidated check from Linkshare? Was it correct?
5. Can you reconsile new Linkshare reporting - against your clicks, commission earned, check amounts?
6. Have you ever receieved a bonus check from Linkshare?

[aleksl]

Answers to my own questions:

1. Yes
2. No, I am from US
3. Yes. I once collected a 9-month-old due (>$1000) from them, through merchant. Haven't seen a check since late April, 2005 (>$1000)
4. No
5. No
6. No

3 merchants that I affiliate with already left Linkshare and all the mess it created.

[nervo]

Really? pfffft ...
I've joined yesterday lol

[hunderdown]

1. yes
2. yes, yes
3. no
4. yes, yes
5. yes
6. no

[laertes]

1. Yes
2. Yes- I'm in Canada
3. No
4. Yes, yes
5. No, not worth the troubel for the paltry checks I get.
6. Never

[aleksl]

So noone has issues with Linkshare? Or there are just not that many affiliates here?

Interesting, why there are so many thread in other forums on the web about it.

[hunderdown]

Interesting, why there are so many thread in other forums on the web about it.

Since you've been to those other forums, why do YOU think there is more discussion about LinkShare elsewhere? Is it just that LinkShare affiliates migrate to the forums where they find LinkShare discussions? Or are the people posting on the other forums different from WebmasterWorld posters in some significant way?

[ardent]

1. Yes
2. Initially no, eventually yes after a phone call to them and a wait. US.
3. Owed money from last 60 days (normal delay)
4. Yes. Off a small amount (~$70).
5. Mostly
6. No

They have had some trouble recently, but nothing extreme. I don't like their new report tool, but it can be used. We'll see how things proceed from here.

[skibum]

1) Yep
2) I think so (US)
3) Probably something but don't worry about it anymore
4) Got 3 of them, no idea if they are right or not
5) Haven't even tried very hard
6) No

Soley focused on CJ & indies now with a few LS links still floating around.

[aleksl]

why do YOU think there is more discussion about LinkShare elsewhere? Is it just that LinkShare affiliates migrate to the forums where they find LinkShare discussions? Or are the people posting on the other forums different from WebmasterWorld posters in some significant way?

"LinkShare affiliates migrate to the forums where they find LinkShare discussions" - that is probably true.

Because there are Linkshare reps answering the questions there. As well as CJ reps, and a few affiliate managers. Different target audience, I guess. Here we have webmaster discussion, focused mostly on website development, Google and SEO.

skibum: Soley focused on CJ & indies now

Can you elaborate on this?

[skibum]

There are tons of opportunities out there. Lots with longer cookies, higher payouts with direct deposit that comes in at regular intervals & on time, easy data feed access, great reporting systems, support available by IM. There are some great people at Linkshare and they have some great merchants & great AMs, but due in part to the on-going upgrades and things mentioned above, efforts are focused elsewhere right now (for this affiliate).

That old "Don't Make Me Think" book by Steve Krug comes to mind. The marketing part of affiliate marketing takes enough work. The merchant or network in a given market that has the best payouts, cookies, sometimes support (and if things are setup well, there shouldn't be much need for support), and makes it easy to get the job done gets the sales.

[bonanza]

1. Yes, though I hate that I must use it.
2. No, from US.
3. Yes, but not much (see #4).
4. Yes, two so far, just in the past few weeks.
5. I used to be able to reconcile with separate checks, though it took practice. Haven't tried yet because I cannot use their new souped-up reporting very well as I refuse to use IE except under extreme duress.
6. If by this you mean their cutesy affiliate contests, yes, once. $50 for largest sale for a merchant or something in a certain month.

It's true they had some very major issues with the rollout of their "Project Athena", an enormous undertaking, I'm sure. What should have been one of the most impressive transformations made by an affiliate network turned out to be an utter disaster.

I've never seen such a botched rollout of a new feature (since they botched the rollout of their CAPTCHA check on the login, actually.)

[ChrisSanderson]

1. Are you a Linkshare affiliate?
No I'm a merchant

2. Did you get validated in the new Linkshare system? If yes, are you from U.S. or not?
Yes all our test accounts went through fine and we have noticed it is actually easier for people outside the US to get validated.

3. Are you owed money by Linkshare? Hunderds, thousands?
No.

4. Did you ever get consolidated check from Linkshare? Was it correct?
Checks are going out now, I suggest you follow the the threads on places like ABW that detail this.

5. Can you reconsile new Linkshare reporting - against your clicks, commission earned, check amounts?
I believe this is now available in the new reporting system and while not perfect it is functional

6. Have you ever receieved a bonus check from Linkshare?
Missleading question, surely it ought to be
"Have you ever won a bonus check from Linkshare, and if so have you receieved it?

Cheers

Chris

[aleksl]

ChrisSanderson, thank you for your answer. Since you are a merchant, qurious to know your website - PM me if its against TOS. Judging by your website, you otta be an affiliate.

For your comment on #6, no, this is not a misleading question. Actually, it should state:

"Have you ever received any bonuses from merchants outside Linkshare? If yes, have you ever received a bonus from a Linkshare merchant?".

Yes, I've received bonus checks in the past, from CJ and indie merchants, but never from a Linkshare merchant, although several times I had my referral % increased.

As far as "better reporting" with SynergyAnalytics, don't know, I am still unable to login into it, getting this error:

Error Details
Error Codes: OPR4ONWY:U9IM8TAC
Location: saw.threads, saw.threadPool, saw.threadPool, saw.rpc.server.socketServer, saw.rpc.server, saw.rpc.server.responder, saw.httpserver.request, saw.connectionPool.getConnection
File: connection.cpp, Line: 309
State: 08003. Code: 10017. [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: 08003] [nQSError: 10017] The connect operation failed. [nQSError: 10092] The Siebel Analytics Server is not currently running. (08003)

For a network that want's to be #2 - this is pretty pathetic IMHO.

[hannamyluv]

I suggest you follow the the threads on places like ABW that detail this

eheheh, boy if you followed those threads you wouldn't go near LS with a 10' pole.

Sure checks are going out, but admist total chaos. Yep, they were sent, oh wait no, now yes. Um, you did get money but good luck figuring out what you were paid for because maybe our new system will be up or maybe it won't. Well, checks were sent (we think).

[ChrisSanderson]

Hi aleksl

Sent you a PM but not sure if it actually "sent" as it does not show up in my sent mail...

Cheers

Chris

[ChrisSanderson]

"As far as "better reporting" with SynergyAnalytics, don't know, I am still unable to login into it, getting this error:"

It's working for me on the aff interface, you need to use IE, don't work on FireFox etc at present, might just have been down when you accessed it?

Cheers

Chris

[shri]

I'm actually making ok money on Linkshare, with a couple of merchants. I just got about 10 checks from them dated "2004" worth about $1000 in total. Have to go through the hassle of returning them and waiting (and hoping) for them to be reissued correctly.

I like their merchandiser feeds. Slightly better than CJ. Good for pricing comparison type sites.

Don't get me started about attitudes from CJ / Linkshare merchants with regards to non-US affiliates. Some of them are just dumb and the rest are clowns. ( Buy me a drink and I'll tell you about some of them.. )

By the way, I should put a plug in for Chris. Exceptional person with exceptional programs and people around him. Talk to him if you really want to know how much difference a good AM can make for an affiliate.

[aleksl]

Thanks Chris, got your PM. Interesting list, none of our merchants though. WU keeps bugging me once in a while 'cause of a fairly large vertical portal of ours. But so far I was not impressed with what they(you?) offer.

Yesterday was the first day I was able to actually see SynergyAnalytics interface, finally got through the error I posted above. It looks like every time they try to put a bandaid on something there they have to bring the server downs. Hence the error...

[aleksl]

To be fair to Linkshare: a rep called us Thursday, and I told them to check information on our company. They confirmed that I should expect a check, and that whether a company is validated or not doesn't affect sending checks.

I've got a check from them on Friday, generated 6/6/2005, sent out 6/9/2005. Although there are a couple of discrepancies on it - I am still trying to reconcile them, most numbers look within a correct range.

[Jane_Doe]

I just went through and sorted mail that had been piling up up this morning. I found three checks from Linkshare for March under their new consolidated payment system. This was interesting, because I only had sales in March for two different Linkshare merchants. So under their new consolidated system I got three checks instead of the two that I normally would have gotten.

The checks that they sent didn't match up exactly to any amounts due for either merchant compared to their online system.

[hannamyluv]

If you had any commission with any of the merchants previously that was below the threshold, those are now went out. That's probably why you got an extra check and amounts didn't add up. At least that's what it was for me.