Is it just me, or are affiliate programs hard to get hold of?

Why is it that affiliate programs never make it easy for you to get in touch with them?

When you click on their CONTACT US links on their sites, you either get sent to an online email form or linked to send email to the nefarious webmaster@ address -- and never get a response. Whatever happened to phone numbers and/or ICQ I.D.s? Sheesh!

Trying to get in touch with webmasters has become increasingly difficult, especially when I'm trying to get in touch with them to review their sites or do press on them. What's up with that??? :)

Good points.

I think the shear volume of spam paysites get now is overwhelming... even when you have spamfilters and spamarrest.

It's so easy now for legit emails to be thrown out.

Then again some people just don't do good business and if they aren't capable of basic communication then perhaps they don't deserve your attention?

From same experience - its amazing how quickly you DO get a reply when you post on a forum board etc ! ;) eg: "Does anyone know how i can get hold of " " from " " etc :)

our "Contact" email goes directly to my email address.

And when someone sends me an email, my reply contains a 1-800 number for them to contact me.

So there.

:thumbsup: :jasun:

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Originally Posted by Jasun

our "Contact" email goes directly to my email address.

And when someone sends me an email, my reply contains a 1-800 number for them to contact me.

So there.

:thumbsup: :jasun:

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Well, I didn't say ALL affiliate programs! :)

It's really bad but true. Alot of programs are hard to get a hold of. Bad support is a huge pet peeve of mine so I always try to provide excellent support. That is probably why I check my email every 5 minutes day and night and have no life, lol.

Mark

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Originally Posted by IntenseCash.com

It's really bad but true. Alot of programs are hard to get a hold of. Bad support is a huge pet peeve of mine so I always try to provide excellent support. That is probably why I check my email every 5 minutes day and night and have no life, lol.

Mark

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Hahahaha.

Everytime I check mine, I think of you.....

Congratulations, you had a signup at IntenseCash.com

The signup was for the site SwallowBoys
Through the biller NETBILLING
This sale was sent by via Program: Per Signup (exit consoles) [$30.00 per
Join]

Another reason why I try to do business w/ the folks we've met face to face at industry events.

Like right now ..

I need some speical sized graphics for the sites we have just added to the hub .. it's nice I have Lee's ICQ#.

:ninja: I'm lookin' for yoooooo

our best sponsor for 2003 and 2004 once took 3 months to answer an email we sent them, and frequently took a month to get back to us. since payments were by ccbill, we were happy to use them but getting content or login access or getting a question answered took major patience.

on the other hand, there are a number of programs who have never gotten back to us and one who wrote back to us last month on an email from - i kid you not - may 2005 *LOLOL*

the small programs sometimes take a long time, but some of the large programs just don't bother to answer.

Hey there. I never leave my desk!!! you can email or call directly.

My phone is 416-703-8186 x 11242.

I don't mind giving it out. After all I'm in the business of always getting more affiliates on board!

Cheers,

PS if you can't get me you can always drop Brent or Mary a line

Brent@sureflix.com
Mary@sureflix.com

No response :turtle:

testing testing one two one two

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Originally Posted by jeffmaleflixxx

Hey there. I never leave my desk!!! you can email or call directly.

My phone is 416-703-8186 x 11242.

I don't mind giving it out. After all I'm in the business of always getting more affiliates on board!

Cheers,

PS if you can't get me you can always drop Brent or Mary a line

Brent@sureflix.com
Mary@sureflix.com

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Yes, SOME make it real hard to contact them, while many, like us, do not.

The EXACT times that I can be reached are clearly posted on our Contact link, as is my two e-mail addresses and our phone number.

We also post our time zone (MST) - not all are on the same clock or TZ.

To be fair, it seems many webmasters and sponsors share the same problem with communication:
Four flipping days ago I sent a reply, to a WM, with a request for his webmaster ID (WID) & password, so I could perform the profile updates, which he requested.
I was met with no reply.
Three day ago, I sent out a second.
Two days ago, I sent out a third.
Today, I will be sending out my last attempt! After it is no longer my concern!

Why is it people in our industry have such a hard time checking their freaking mail? It is part of the game, no?
And I really hate that lazy excuse "spam", because that is literally pure :bullcrap: !
If you've not learned how to deal with spam yet, you need start learning as it is not that hard, and it does not require money!
P.S. I receive more or less all mail (I'm root), for all companies (under our corp), with no wah wahs!

while i do my best to get back to everyone within hours, i receive more than 1200 spam emails a day, and lots of affiliates send emails with subjects that look exactly like spam like "important" or "must read".

it would be SO helpful if affiliates could send emails using subjects like "Muscle Bucks Affiliate" or "Affiliate Question".

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Originally Posted by basschick

while i do my best to get back to everyone within hours, i receive more than 1200 spam emails a day, and lots of affiliates send emails with subjects that look exactly like spam like "important" or "must read".

it would be SO helpful if affiliates could send emails using subjects like "Muscle Bucks Affiliate" or "Affiliate Question".

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LOLOL I had one like that a few days ago.

The message subject was..

'Information you requested'

It was actually a request to get some more free content by the affiliate so, not only did i *not* request the information, the email subject with nothing to do with the contents of the email body LOL

Regards,

Lee

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Originally Posted by basschick

while i do my best to get back to everyone within hours, i receive more than 1200 spam emails a day, and lots of affiliates send emails with subjects that look exactly like spam like "important" or "must read".
it would be SO helpful if affiliates could send emails using subjects like "Muscle Bucks Affiliate" or "Affiliate Question".

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said with the voice of the almighty DragonLady (Sybil): oh, I know!

I still do not understand why programs and webmaster have yet to learn how to write a proper e-mail (includes the subject line).
YOU are one of the only persons that I know who is just as religious or anal as I with this issue!

It only took me a few months to create my routine use of fixed or specific subject lines, as well as my displayed name (not paco@largecash..., or support@...).

Displayed name (from/to): Large Cash - Paco
Subject line: [Large Cash - Paco] Webmaster query; account 'XXXXX' (purpose)
or
[Emit Entertainment - Paco] Website subscriber; member ID 'XXXXX' (purpose)

I simply replace X's as well the "purpose".

I would like to commend you on your efforts (to making life easier) and I would like to award you with this partly chewed, half still in wrapper, Fruit Source bar (veggie).

P.S. I receive mail numbering in the thousands, daily. All sites. All companies. All webmasters. All hosts. All! All! All!

i now drop spnsors and avs's etc who dont reply to emails. i now get wound up less. if they cant answer my email they dont want my business. if we all did this, they would soon get their act together or simply go out of business. either way we would have easier to work with companies.

Sometimes I intentionally don't reply to e-mails, and then that causes the person to get all pissed off and fired up. More often than not I will write the person back to say "Not interested" in a polite way. But sometimes I just don't get around to or feel like it.

I had one person send me a bunch of messages with nothing but "hey". About 8 of those e-mails. No info as to who they were, why they were e-mailing, or anything. Finally they sent a poorly composed, angry e-mail wondering why I'd not responded.

Other affiliates I might not respond to:

- One that, when checking on their site, I find to be running a questionable operation (shady content on the site, stolen content, inappropriate host, so on)
- Unproven, unknown affiliates making unreasonable requests or demands

Another thing I hate is when I do respond right away, but they don't receive it and get all uppity and angry, only to find out my responses had gone in to their spam folder or they'd forgotten what e-mail address they messaged e from so were checking the wrong one, so forth. hehe.

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Originally Posted by marcjacob

i now drop spnsors and avs's etc who dont reply to emails. i now get wound up less. if they cant answer my email they dont want my business. if we all did this, they would soon get their act together or simply go out of business. either way we would have easier to work with companies.

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Cool - I do the exact same to webmasters!

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Originally Posted by Squirt

No response :turtle:

testing testing one two one two

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No surprise there. Maleflixxx people go missing all the time. We waited MONTHS to get a call returned, and the only reason we did was because AJ pestered every single Maleflixx person present at Phoenix Forum.

The commitment to have our product up in May seems like it will finally be honored.... next week. :)

We make our phone number, my ICQ, and an email address available on the Gaybucks site. The emails go into our ticket system, where we can track them and I get a pester email from the system if a ticket is not responded to in so many hours (and then again if it requires further followup.)

Sometimes we're overloaded and it might take time to get whatever the request is taken care of, but we do our best to meet the needs of each affiliate, whether they're sending 1 join a month or 100.

The basic concept of customer service, returning calls and emails, and making sure your affiliate/customer knows you appreciate their business is so incredibly basic, yet it amazes me how few companies really "get it."

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Originally Posted by gaybucks_chip

The basic concept of customer service, returning calls and emails, and making sure your affiliate/customer knows you appreciate their business is so incredibly basic, yet it amazes me how few companies really "get it."

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how true. paco if i was one of your webmasters id feel so valued reading your responce.

i don't drop them if ccbill or epoch is paying me. why drop a sponsor who makes you money? email them and then go on with your life till you hear back.

as i said earlier, our best sponsor for two years took a month each time to answer our emails. but they did answer them - full of apology - and their program made us truly excellent sales and rebills.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by marcjacob

i now drop spnsors and avs's etc who dont reply to emails. i now get wound up less. if they cant answer my email they dont want my business. if we all did this, they would soon get their act together or simply go out of business. either way we would have easier to work with companies.

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because it frustrates me. and angers me. if it was a big money maker id have to think hard. to be honest i only tend to contact sponsors when im in the process of deciding if i want to promote them or im a new affiliate for them, after a while i dont really need anything.

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Originally Posted by gaybucks_chip

We make our phone number, my ICQ, and an email address available on the Gaybucks site.

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I'd like to thank you Chip for taking the time to personally assist roy with your cash program. He said .. in his ever present Okieness ..

Smart guy .. good catch my Wife.

Atta Girls really stroke my ego.

Goodness ... :crazyeyes:

Now I need a Boy Bling Rep ..

Pls say hi to me.

ICQ 206-856-063

YM
dear_madame

Yeah, I HATE when people do not reply to my emails in a timely fashion. That's a MAJOR no-no with me. Honestly, the more people keep dicking me around on responses and pushing me aside, the less likely I am to pitch stories on those companies when it comes time to suggest topics for the next issue of the magazine.

My BIGGEST pet peeve, however, is when phone numbers are not included on the contact page for every affiliate program there is.

People might be running their business out their living rooms and wearing their underwear while they're doing it, but the fact remains that it IS a business, and EVERYONE should have the ability to get through to you in order to do said business. That's just the responsibility you shoulder when you start a business. Anything less, to me, is just shady.

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Originally Posted by XXXWriterDude

People might be running their business out their living rooms and wearing their underwear while they're doing it,

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With some webmasters, that's a pretty exciting thought. With other webmasters... um well... :eek: :eek: