Forum Moderators: skibum
I just applied to ashford.com as an affiliate and can find nowhere anything mentioning cookie duration Anyone know anything about that?
Also, I got an auto confirmation email that started with Happy New Year! Not exactly inspiring.
If anyone could provide info on their program I'd be much obliged.
Cheers
Nick
Earlier this year, Ashford was acquired by Golbal Sports which let the affiliate manager go. The program has seriously deteriorated since then. Among others, Global Sports runs FogDog.Com, also not a stellar affiliate program. There are lots of complaints from affiliates about Global Sports.
With any BeFree merchant, unless its stated otherwise, you can assume there is no cookie, or at best a one day cookie.
While they say they pay monthly, payments have been seriously delayed. They're at least two months behind now. They were that far behind perviously, but did pay.
I love the product lines and have stuck with Ashford, but am dismayed at their current performance. Consequently, I'm putting very little time into it and my Ashford revenues have fallen significantly. There are much better fish to fry IMO.
They sell a lot of a particular line that I've only found a half dozen merchants for. And of those half dozen, each carry a limited amount.
Ashford are almost a must for me. You say they are behind, but are still paying?
In my rather unique situation do you think I should take the chance?
Thanks...
Nick
I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and believe they'll pay. I don't think Global Sports holds affiliates in high regard. I feel they are much more interested in the branding effects affiliate sites can bring. I doubt that affiliate marketing is a major feature of their business plan as it once was. I suspect corpotate gifts is where the focus lies.
Why not go ahead with Ashford for now, and see if things improve.
I cntacted sales, asking for the affiliate mgr's details and they told me to contact Scott Reynolds and/or Jarret Embry.
They only gave me a phone number but I've asked for emails and job titles...
Nick
I've corresponded with Scott Reynolds, but its been some time now. If you do manage to strike up a dialog, could you get their current BS about when and how often affiliates are being paid? They've used several different excuses in the past. They owe me quite a bit, and I'd just like to hear what the latest version is. Again, I don't think it means they won't pay.
1. Payment Pending Approval -- the payment process has been initiated and you're marked for receiving a payment this period.
Next step: merchant must review all of the outstanding payments and mark them as approved.
2. Payment Approved -- The merchant approved your payment.
Next step: Yours was approved, but the merchant is still approving payments. When they're done, they submit them for payment.
3. Awaiting Funds -- The merchant has initiated the process for submitting funds to Be Free.
Next step: Merchant arranges to have the funds sent (by check or wire) to Be Free.
4. Submitted to Processor -- Be Free has received funds and have started the check writing process.
The transition from Be Free receiving the funds to 'Paid' typically happens in 2-3 days, and almost always within 5 days.
5. Paid -- Checks have been sent.
Unfortunately, for some merchants, there are things that slow down the process (lots of payments to approve, lengthy accounting process to get money transferred, etc.)
Among other things, BeFree allows scumlords like Gator to purlion commissions from smaller affiliates. A majority of merchants at BeFree offer no cookies or only one day cookies, and that is not disclosed.
There is no way to contact BeFree by phone, and finding an email address for affiliates is next to impossible.
In short, if you can avoid it, stay away from BeFree, IMO. Don't be enticed by seemingly benign statements made on BeFree's behalf.
Again, I stress that this is only my opinion, and others may well love BeFree.
Obviously, our members have benefited from having industry reps like GoogleGuy at WebmasterWorld and we'd like to have that here in the affiliate forum. We recognize that any industry rep has his job at stake if he divulges too much here, so we don't expect the same information that's delivered to BeFree's CEO or VP of marketing. OTOH, we don't want pure promotional BS, either. That said, the rules of engagement swing boths ways. As moderators, we aren't interested in having and endless stream of "fix-me" posts or special "tell-me-what-happened-with-this-merchant" requests, and, certainly, no flamefests. None of us have the time for that noise, folks ...that's why we're here at WebmasterWorld and not wading through all that junk elsewhere.
> and others may well love BeFree.
In a nutshell, I don't think BeFree has pressed its merchants enough on the cookie duration issue. But, I can say that I have some no-brainer affiliations (not ashford) in BeFree that pump out 2-digit$/day and the check has come for well over a year now. It isn't love, but I use them.
One of the things that makes this board great, is we discuss as professionals, with little or no emotion. That's how it should be - this is business, it's as simple as that.
I think sharing information about networks is great, but problems specific to you should be addressed directly with the network.
In respect to things like the Befree/Gator situation, which is truly a difficult one, it is really beyond the scope of this forum.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
There is no way to contact BeFree by phone, and finding an email address for affiliates is next to impossible.
This used to be a fair comment. Very fair. I'll be the first to admit that Be Free hasn't done great in some areas in the past, mostly on the affiliate side, but things are changing.
More recently, it's quite easy to get help directly from Be Free. In the generic area of reporting.net, there's a "Help" button. That takes you to a kbase to weed out the easy questions, but from any page in there you can escalate to a real person. Service levels dictate a 3-5 day turnaround time, but they typically reply more quickly than that. And there is an email address, help@befree.com, visible if you're having trouble logging in (and can't get to the kbase) and in the "contact us" page on befree.com.
I don't think BeFree has pressed its merchants enough on the cookie duration issue.
Another fair comment. More return days is in Be Free's best interest as well. The reason that Be Free hasn't been able to have much affect on the cookie thing is really a technical one. Traditionally, the tracking is done by the merchant, not with conversion tags. So, instituting return days or a change to them is a technical project for the Merchant. Be Free has pushed, and in many cases prevailed, but in other cases not.
Earlier this year, Be Free added a conversion tag to the tracking repertoire. For merchants using that method, the default is to have 30 return days. Most merchants implementing new programs use this tracking method and do keep support for return days.
Now can you see return days info anywhere? Not really, unless you dig into the merchant agreements or if the merchant sneaks it into their tag line or something. Another shortcoming. Yeah that stinks and we're working on it.
While I think the Gator issue is critical, I'll refrain from commenting further on it except to say that without a discussion airing affiliates' concerns about Gator its sort of as though there's an elephant in the the house busting up the china and we're all ignoring it. But, so be it, leave it for BeFree to address this issue if it so chooses. 'Nough said.
Welcome BeFer, and lets see what can be done to improve the affiliate's lot with BeFree and its member merchants. Your willingness to come in here can only be seen as a very positive move. Your promise to dispense with BS sounds downright musical.
I have some specifics with regard to, say, reporting, for starters, but am a little hesitant to address these sorts of concerns without some further parameters as to how wide ranging these discussions may be.
Also, may I suggest that another thread be started by BeFer to introduce himself/herself and to kick off some reasoned and constructive dialog.
I for one am all ears, and open to hearing it all. Again, Welcome.
If your question is about reporting in general, give it a try as a new thread. We mods are a little more nervous when it comes to naming specific merchants and, frankly, haven't quite decided how that should go.
I'll cogitate a little on some topics and post accordingly in the next day or so.
Thanks. If we set this in motion the right way everyone will profit. (yes, I know, a lousy affiliate pun. Apologies, couldn't resist.)
Anyway. I have a lot more confidence that we'll be able to address some issues here in a way that BeFer can carry them back to the office and perhaps get our point across. The other way, howling at the moon, doesn't work.
