Gotta give a shoutout to all the Affiliate Networks that sent me a gift this holiday season.

Convert2Media sent me a nice little box of goodies.  It included chocolates, crackers, smoked salmon and more.  I wasn’t expecting anything from these guys as I’m not a super affiliate and this a helluva network.  Anytime I’ve got questions I always hit up my AM over there, Mike.  He’s always letting me know of new offers that they’re getting that I might do well with. I’ve included pictures of the assortment below.

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Profit Kings Media also sent me a nice little Dockers wallet.  Yousif is the man. Just re-read my previous posts about them, Free MacBook Air from Profit Kings Media and Another $1,000 from Profit Kings Media.  I can’t say enough about PKM. There are pictures of the wallet below.

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So, again thanks C2M and PKM for the Christmas gifts.  They’re much appreciated!

Yousif is the man!

He held another promotional contest from October to November.  When he first started this contest I wasn’t runnign a lot of traffic, but damn, I wish I was because there were some really nice stuff I wanted to win, such as a Breitling if you hit a certain amount of revenue.  I believe in this contest you had 45 days to try and reach your goal.  I caught on during the last 2 – 3 weeks an wasn’t able to get what I wanted, but I did generate enough revenue to win $1,000!

If you wanna win cash money and other baller as prizes, sign up to Profit Kings Media.  Yousif is around 24/7 to help you out and will personally help you with any campaign you might be struggling with.

So I was recently in my first promotional contest ever with a network.  Profit Kings Media put on a promo saying if you hit $x in revenue, you would get a free MacBook Air.  Me being a noob to Mac’s and always wishing I had one decided I was gonna hit the top tier and go for the Mac.  They had all kinds of cool other prizes such as cold hard cash, flat screen LCD’s to name just a couple, but I wanted a Mac damnit.

Yousif even gave everybody 45 days to hit their target revenue for the contest unlike the 30 day limit most networks give you.

Yousif has gone out of his way to make sure I was making money and even offers free tips and advice anytime I’ve ever asked.  He’s also online 24/7 it seems and is always around to help.  The quickest way to my heart is great customer service.

Aditionally, when I got my Mac and opened it for the first time I was expecting it to be the cheapest Mac out so I check otu their website and not only did he send me a MacBook Air, he sent me the best one they had listed on their site!  Fucking awesome!  I’ve included some pictures below of the Mac.

Not only do you get all these great features, Profit Kings Media will even ACH you weekly.

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In regards to my previous post, I feel I need to make a follow-up post.  I obviously made a post before thinking.

I received a phone call from Azoogle wanting to make sure we’re on good terms.  I mean I’m pushing some traffic their way, but I’m not a 6-figure affiliate by no means.  The phone call was mainly to make sure I wasn’t have any problems with my affiliate manager and I’m not.  I was just a little upset at the time and should’ve never made that post.

However, I won’t delete it.  I feel that if mistakes are made, that person should own up to it and say I’m sorry.

So to the network owners, my AM and the fellow I just got off the phone with, I wanted to give an official apology to say I’m sorry and that previous post was made out of haste.  There are no hard feelings towards you guys, I will continue pushing traffic your way.

P.S. For those wondering, I’m leaving names out of this for a reason.  I never wanted to call anybody out.

My affiliate manager at Azoogle really pisses me off.  I contact them saying hey, I’m pushing volume with a certain offer with another network.   Can you beat their payout?  I only asked this because I had ran a decent amount of traffic their way with this same offer a couple months ago.

Her reply was show me your creatives, tell me how you’re promoting it, etc…  I politely tell her to fuck off.  I know this advertiser has their own in-house marketing team and that’s the last thing I want to do is show them my creatives.  As you can guess I didn’t get my payout bump.

A week passes and a few thousand dollars later she emails me saying the advertiser wants to know the exact details of my campaign so I give her something a little similar but not even close to what I’m running because they want to make sure I’m promoting it legitimately.  I felt like I had to do this considering its my best offer right now so I did what I did. Of course her replies were very prompt here.

Then an hour passes and I remember our past conversation where she asked for my campaign details in order for me to be given a substantial payout bump.  So I remind her about getting that payout bump now that I’ve revealed my campaign details.  Haven’t heard from that bitch since.

I fucking hate Azoogle.  But if them bitches pay me, I’ll push traffic their way.  Talk about a cut-fucking-throat industry.

Jon Fisher, the forum fuhrer over at WickedFire just dropped a bomb on the entire industry today.  Read the entire post here.

As much as I like the folks at Hydra, I think you need to let them know that if they don’t pay you, you’re going to sue them, and then follow through. Affiliates need to start taking legal action against networks when the networks decide they aren’t going to pay. If a network’s terms clearly state that they won’t pay you because of issues on the advertiser’s end, then DO NOT WORK WITH THEM.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY.

To all affiliates:

From now on, get in WRITING (can be an email too) that YOU as the affiliate will get paid as long as you follow the rules.

The whole fucking point of a network’s existence is to be the middleman between the affiliate and the advertiser. If networks keep pulling shit like this (which they have been since the beginning) there should be some sort of affiliate uprising. Unless affiliates start taking action against the networks, the networks will just keep screwing you guys over.

I really don’t get it.. As an advertiser, we get leads that we wish we didn’t have to pay for, but we do it anyway. Why? Because that’s what the contract states. We pay for specific actions, once those actions are completed, its up to us to turn them into customers, not the affiliate’s job. The affiliate’s job is simple. Follow the rules and promote the offer, that’s it. Once their job is done, its our job to complete the rest.

So if Hydra doesn’t pay you, boycott them. Sue them. Cause so much unrest until they fucking pay you. This goes for ANY network out there. If you as an affiliate, followed the fucking rules, and a network says they aren’t going to pay you because the advertiser didn’t pay them? Well, too fucking bad. As a network its their JOB and sole existence to pay you for what you did.

For the networks:

Don’t you think it’s about goddamn time you start making your terms, rules, contracts tougher for the advertisers? You guys bitch and moan about how bad some affiliates are, well what about how bad the advertisers are?!

How about requiring deposits or suing the shit out of advertisers who don’t pay? Or tacking on heavy fines/fees for advertisers who don’t pay? You guys are supposed to have a considerable amount in cash reserves to be able to pay the affiliate first before getting paid by the advertiser, that’s the way the business worked for years. That’s the whole fucking point of being a network, is so affiliates go through you guys instead of directly to the advertiser, and you guys take care of TRACKING and quicker PAYMENTS. Networks who can afford it, pay out quicker than the standard NET 30. If you can’t fucking afford to pay out weeklies or less than NET 30… DON’T FUCKING DO IT!

I’m getting so sick and tired of hearing about affiliates who do follow the rules and don’t get paid, and then about affiliates who don’t follow the rules but do get paid.

Hell, WickedFire will even help you guys by creating a database of delinquent advertisers so other networks don’t get fucked and so you networks run into these issues less and less. (see affiliate manager section)

You know what, instead of bitching about all of this let’s see if we can get a network to change right away:

Here’s an incentive for you networks to change the way you do business…

To the first TWO networks that change their Terms of Service to address this huge issue mentioned in this thread and hereby agrees to finally back the affiliate more than the advertiser, and agrees to pay the affiliates in FULL, I’ll give you guys 3 months free advertising on WickedFire (728×90 leaderboard RON AND your own section for six months – worth over $35k total). — You MUST change your rules and prove so, don’t just email me and say “we already do this” because it’s a fucking lie. NO network I know of takes the side of an affiliate and pays them in full (full amount they are owed) and acts the way a network should act anymore and its a fucking disgrace.

Don’t do it for the incentive, do it because it’s about goddamn time one of you steps up and does something for the affiliate, the guys who make and break you sons of bitches. You’ll not only win a boatload of free advertising, but the respect and trust of the hardworking affiliates who DO follow the rules.

I made a post over at WickedFire asking what everybody’s expectations of their Affiliate Manager is. I’ve copied my exact post below and I’ve also linked to it here.

What are your expectations from your affiliate manager?

Mine are simple.

1. Timely responses. I HATE waiting a few hours for a response, let alone 24 hours. Anything over 4 hours is unacceptable in my opinion. And I hate waiting for anything longer than 2 hours when it comes to this business.
2. Network/AM as a whole. I want to hear any changes from them concerning the campaigns I’m creating leads for, such as payout changes, rules/requirement changes, etc… BEFORE they happen. A few hours notice would be sufficient so I can make changes accordingly.

I don’t feel that’s too much to ask.

What are your expectations?

I know many network owners and affiliate managers have read this post. Chime in on the post or in my comments if you would like your thoughts to be read.