affiliate sales tracking

to track affiliate sales

[nube]

hi, i am affiliated with a travel site, is there a tool that can track the sales or booking to my site, basicaly to find out if the affiliate program is not crediting me sales that i have generated from my site...and i would like to katc them..
thanks g

[Mike_Mackin]

If this is not your # 1-800-295-0326 , you have no way of tracking.

imo, if the affiliate site has an 800# to a call center, you WILL loose sales to that call center.

Additionally, you should be getting Email notification in real time of all sales.

[rcjordan]

>Additionally, you should be getting Email notification in real time of all sales.

That's been discontinued by some booking engines. Reports are online now.

[nube]

thanks for the replies, a friend of mine works for HRN,
he said with sites that make more money its a two for one, here and there in hrns favor, but yes these sites have their own 800#...also, i have two codes i deal with.. one never ever received a email notification of a sale and the other does all the time, go figure.
thanks again
g

[rcjordan]

I'm with TNOW and HG. TNOW dropped email notification in July (caused a huge uproar) and went to online affiliate reporting. I just added HG this past year, so I don't know what their prior notification procedure might have been.

From 01/00 through 06/00 I ran projections of revenues based on the incoming emails from TNOW. To their credit, the checks were always close to my projections.

[missreddy]

I'm an affiliate with a site that uses BeFree.com tracking. I know there have been sales, but they're not showing up. Is anyone else having trouble with BeFree.com? The merchant is saying that is where the trouble is.

[rcjordan]

>The merchant is saying that is where the trouble is.
That's a common dodge. I know CJ was once saying that getting paid by the merchants was a big problem. TNOW also says the same thing about many of their hotel properties. You'll find answers ranging across the scale. Have you 'tested' the system by buying a product yourself?

And glad to have you here at WebmasterWorld!

[missreddy]

Yes. I placed 2 phone in orders for 2 customers. The merchant confirmed order numbers, so I know they were received. Is there any type of policing dept. on this type of problem or is it just not regimented?

[rcjordan]

>policing
None that I've heard. All policing comes from the affiliate, and they are always at the disadvantage. I'd email BeFree with your personal order info and ask them to track it.

[DaveAtIFG]

Nice to have you here at WmW missreddy! I'm in several BeFree programs, none make much money, but I've never had a problem with BeFree paying. They occasionally have a tracking problem, but invaraibly go back into their records and get things corrected, once they are convinced they have a problem. And they never admit to having a problem...

[missreddy]

Is it BeFree that pays or the merchant? I just spoke to them (BF) and they tell me it is the merchants job to report the sales on their reporting page of BF. I see the order button being clicked on this one item 37 times in the last 2 weeks and surely there have been more sales than the 2 I placed. Are we talking about fraud here? This is going to give affiliate programs a bad name. I'm ready to pull the items off my site. We come up at the top of several SE for this particular item. I'm getting miffed!

This is my first experience as an affiliate. You seem to have more. What is your overall opinion of being an affiliate and how long have you been one?

[JamesR]

missreddy, before you pull the products, is there any other affiliate you can get lined up to immediately replace them? It would be a shame to leave up top ranked, empty pages. I am having a bit of affiliate frustrations right now but I am not going to beat to death uncooperative individuals, I will just replace them with another viable option (sincerely hope you have one out there).

[missreddy]

No, James. But, thanks for the reply. We'll give it until next week and then make a decision.

[DaveAtIFG]

missreddy - My apologies, you are correct, BeFree merchants send checks to affiliates. I opened Quickbooks and counted accounts, I'm receiving income from 14 affiliate programs, enrolled in several more. CJ, for example, sends payments for all programs in one check. Sorry!

I've had good luck with the integrity of BeFree merchants but it will obviously be program dependent.

JamesR made a good point, join another program and transition to it, don't just drop the one you have... To that end, I posted this in another thread a few weeks ago, but ClickQuick [clickquick.com] is far and away the best place I've found to explore affiliate programs.

[missreddy]

Thanks, Dave and all of you for your replies. I've enjoyed the discussions and will come back often. You're all so nice! Quite a welcome trait in a world of such animosity, hostility, aggressiveness and competitiveness. Life is too short and stress makes it so unpleasant.

If anyone wants to critique my site, I'd welcome that input. I won't get my feelings hurt, trust me. I'm a tough cookie when needs be, especially in business. Stress has done that to me.

Signing off for the night. Take a peek, if you like: www.ACherishedGift.com

[nube]

ok isnt there a program that can track the surfers path, and should they click into the hotel reservations button and exit your site through it into the reservation site wouldnt it be an exit point?
just thinking
i use webtrends for reporting but i dont know if it goes into this detail..
thanks g

[Billythekid]

CJ seems honest to me though suddenly no more sales though traffic is twice last month which had great sales. It has been suggested to me that I go thru the merchants themselves but who to trust? Frustrating. :(

[nube]

i do hotels with hrn, and even though i have a good friend who works for them,in miami office...
he is not telling me the truth i dont think all of it anyway... i asked him how come my traffic is
double what it was 2 months ago and the sales have dropped... although on one occassion due to our kids going to school together he did mention the fact that they will do a two-three for one in their favor. also i said isnt there a way to track the click throughs into our site on their server because we have a username and password but he says no it cant be done...yesterday i had a big sale in newyork and lord behold he calls me and tells me oh this sale came from this and that page..so to get to the end, they know! just how we can catch them taking what belongs to us ,i dont know, maybe BRETT can give us some insight
thanks g

[DaveAtIFG]

Billythekid - Same here with CJ. I went through and regenerated all my links in Sept, twice, and emailed them suggesting a tracking problem. I suspect they had other complaints and were aware of the problem but admitted nothing. First week in Oct, sales reported were erratic, but better. The last week or two they're back to nearly normal.

And I know they had a problem. I'm an affiliate in another program that offers the same product at a lower comission and pointed my links there for a few days. Sales were just as expected.

[Billythekid]

Thanks, I'll have to try switching to the lower too tocover myself in these cases.