Is This The End For Voucher Site Affiliates?

anon / 8 years ago

I would strongly suggest that you do a bit of background reading before writing such a negative piece. The IAB guidelines have been in place for 2 full months and 96% of affiliates generating revenue are now compliant with these rules. The piece you've listed above is simply an extension of existing rules. With regards to how much enforcement the IAB has, one affiliates has already been suspended from all major networks until compliant. Every major network in the UK is signed up to the IAB and enforces these regulations on their affiliates. Long gone are the days of searching for codes that don't exist. It's also worth pointing out that no cookie has been dropped on to your computer until you click on an affiliate link - these links are refined to valid codes and consequently the voucher code sites are not making money unless you interact with their site.

Mark / 8 years ago

Hi, thanks for the comments, you certainly raise some interesting points. I'll try and tackle them in order. In regard to my research on this piece, I was purchasing a domain which offered a voucher code, to which the top Google result gave me a site with "reveal voucher code" - much to my annoyance, one did not exist. This experience was quickly followed up with the updated guidelines, which caught my interest as they specifically mention the reveal voucher codes which I had just encountered. As for research, the post was mainly based around personal experience from running affiliate sites (and enjoying the highest bracket for top performing affiliates on Amazon Associates), as well as perspective from running campaigns from both merchant and agency sides. The post was certainly not meant to be negative in regard to affiliate networks or the IAB, simply some observations from my personal experience and those of fellow affiliate marketers. Which are you from by the way? It is a shame that you decided to post anonymously, as it would be interesting to get different opinions from various sectors. I would though have trouble believing that 96% of affiliates, over all major networks are actively sticking to these rules. Especially when it comes down to how these affiliates are split between the commission they earn. While I certainly do not want to tarnish all affiliates or affiliate networks with the same brush, there is a hardcore of "career" blackhat affiliate marketers who are generating vast quantities of money through various techniques outside of these guidelines. Perhaps 96% of affiliates "say" they are following guidelines, keeping in mind even a blackhat who knows they are going to break terms of service, still check the box and sign up anyway. You only need to talk to experienced affiliate marketers, or some of the guys on a4u to find out about affiliate networks turning a blind eye to cookie stuffing or merchants scrubbing affiliate cookies to see what a lot of people have hands in each others' pockets. I would disagree with the days of "reveal code" voucher sites being long gone. A quick Google search for voucher code sites turns up: vouchercodepicker.co.uk myvouchercodes.co.uk or a whole host of massive sites, which still all actively use the "reveal code" system with their vouchers. If you keep a close eye on your cookies while browsing these sites, you will see it is not uncommon for you to be delivered the affiliate cookie *before* you have visited the merchant's website. It's a blackhat tactic that has been around for quite a few years. Shawn Hogan, owner of Digital Point is currently in a legal battle with ebay are allegedly running a cookie stuffing system that was bringing him in excess of $1,000,000 a month revenue from ebay. Some of these sites are quite clever, delivering cookies via images or Flash, which can make them very difficult to detect. This technique is so widespread you can see people posting images that drop cookies on forums and other websites (even the ebay forum) to grab commissions. Yes, these affiliates will only be paid if the user then buys, but don't forget these cookies have a life of 30, 60 or 100 days, combining with the fact someone is looking for a voucher code, suggests they are in the final basket stages and very likely to buy. While personally, I fully support the IAB guidelines and think it's great affiliate networks are cracking down on rogue affiliates, it simply isn't happening on a big enough scale to impact career blackhats. For instance, you've said there was an affiliate banned from all major networks. It's likely you've banned one account, but when you're making four or five figures a day from commission setting up another company name / bank account / paypal isn't much trouble. As I mentioned earlier, it would be good if you could let us know who you are and get some more feedback from your side of the fence.

Darren / 8 years ago

Mark this is an interesting post. I've made a similar one recently based around my gripes with discount code affiliates. It seems a shame to me that the IAB even had to step in here. Most affiliates are keen to clear there name and prove that they are an amazing sales force (which is a reputation they absolutely deserve!) but it's the odd few who ruin it for everyone else and keeps that dark cloud hanging over the affiliate industry. Lets face it, "click to reveal" is little (if anything) short of cookie stuffing, which is frowned upon across the industry and would see you kicked off of all major networks in a flash.

Jamr0ck / 8 years ago

I can't help but assume that the initial comment on this article is right from the keyboard of someone that makes a living or at least some significant spending money from the practices you describe in this article - essentially tricking the consumer into clicking and stuffing cookies in exchange for a voucher code. From my perspective, I’m surprised it's lasted as long as it has done - The practise was against most affiliate network rules, but not enforced, presumably as it increases network revenues. Unlike organic search, which is a minefield of un-controllable content and publishers, Affiliate marketing has a certain degree of control over who can and can't be an affiliate, and the practises they can use to achieve sales or conversions. From the perspective of those running affiliate programs, they ideally look to capture sales in markets that their traditional marketing efforts may not reach (or that they aren't exploiting to their maximum potential), and to encourage additional sales that wouldn't have occurred otherwise. This kind of voucher code cookie stuffing simply means that commission is being paid on a sale that wasn't initially instigated by the affiliate. If that visit arrived via a PPC ad, the cookie stuffing voucher site essentially takes the commission for the sale. The vendor is paying for the traffic via PPC, and then paying an affiliate for no additional benefit to themselves - vouchers are added after the basket total has been calculated, so the shopper won't even add extra products to the basket to make up for the saving made.

Mark / 8 years ago

@Darren, Thanks for your comment, I agree affiliates can make an absolutely amazing contribution to a business. Having affiliates and merchants motivations in parallel and policed by networks does generally lead to great results. As to cookie stuffing - I found 4 voucher sites on my initial investigation that were delivering cookies before any clicks, but I didn't think it right to start outing sites. It's a tricky thing to catch affiliates out for - I personally know people that have cookie stuffed for periods in excess of a year without being caught. Interestingly, I saw someone get caught for cookie stuffing on CJ and he just got a warning from them, which I found surprising. Somebody clearly and intentionally gone out of their way to break the rules and only get a slapped wrist. Personally, I think if you want to stop cookie stuffing (whole other discussion), I think networks will start having to try and claw the money back through legal action and dish out permanent bans

Andrew Smith / 8 years ago

All good niche's come to an end, it's the pr0s thats keep them going. I don't for a second believe that 96% of affiliates are following the "rules". As prior comments have stated that stat may reflect the number which have ticked the "i agree" box. But if that were true surely those which did not tick wouldn't have an account at all, so it would be 100%? Perhaps only 4% are caught breaking the rules. But I too will vouch (pardon the pun) for Mark's observations. I often find myself on a wild goose chase trying to track down a code for a 2 pence saving (tight scotsman at heart) only to be stuffed with cookies galore. Affiliate marketing is just like SEO... 60% WH = rulemakers 30% GH = rulebreakers 10% BH = lawbreakers Ands thats because there will always be more n00bs than pr0s in this world. That's evolution. Try being on the other end of a BIG affiliate system and you soon realize how oblivious people are to the holes in their systems....

frank / 8 years ago

www.retailmenot.com seems to be very popular, and they dont use that 'click to reveal'