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Things We Need to Fix
September 29, 2009 – 2:28 pm by Brian LittletonToday we launched a new mini-site to allow everyone to drop us anonymous feedback … called “ShareASale Needs to Fix This“.
As part of our “Fix It” campaign - we will be posting some of the things we fix as suggested by everyone here as comments on this blog post…
Check back often or subscribe to the RSS feed at http://blog.shareasale.com/feed/ to keep track. We’ll also be posting some of the larger fixes on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/shareasale
If you enjoy reading our posts, you can 
17 Responses to “Things We Need to Fix”
RE: Reapplying to Merchants
As promised, I’m going to post some thoughts here on the requests that have come in… Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful suggestions and commments so far - we really appreciate it!!
We had a comment about re-applying to a Merchant program if an earlier application had been denied. My recommendation here would be to visit the Activity Summary page, where you can “Quit” an individual program.
At that point you’ll be able to re-apply.
Please be sure to be respectful to a Merchant’s decision on this as well… if they decline you, there is probably a reasoning behind that and it isn’t ok to just continue to quite/reapply over an over again. I’ve posted a screenshot of how to “Quit” a program here:
http://blog.shareasale.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/quitprogram.jpg
Screenshot of how to “Quit” a program
By Brian Littleton on Oct 1, 2009
RE: Deals Database Content
We had a request involving the Coupons and Deals Database, specifically that some of the content was not really a “coupon” but instead centered around continuing sales, or shipping deals that were everyday, etc…
I agree that the Deals Database should be kept clean of things that truly aren’t consumer focused … but I’m not sure I agree on “sales” not being coupons. If I were a consumer on a deals related site I would want to know about sales and promotions. With a database of that size we have to rely on each individual affiliate to make a business decision as to whether or not do display a merchant’s coupon… An affiliate could even remove that Merchant entirely if they decided that the content continually was not to their liking.
I do agree that the Deals Database is occasionally misused by Merchants who either flood with marginal content or just flood in general.
We’ll start working on a feedback system to discourage this - we do want the Deals Database to be full of great content - and the feedback system is a good way to encourage Merchants to act in good faith.
Thanks for the comment - it’s a good one and one that we’ll start working on.
-Brian
By Brian Littleton on Oct 1, 2009
RE: US Based Affiliates
There was a request for more information on US based affiliates - as to whether or not they are truly located in the US or if they are using P.O. boxes or mailing services.
We’ll take a look at it we may be able to provide a little more information there such as whether or not a true US Tax-ID is on file for that specific affiliate, or if there is a non-US tax form, etc…
Thanks!
By Brian Littleton on Oct 1, 2009
RE: More information on Applications
Along those same line we had a request for more information about an Affiliate at the time of the application. Requests were made concerning network data such as how many programs they are part of… how long they’ve been a member of ShareASale, etc… I’ll take a look and see what more we can provide there…
By Brian Littleton on Oct 1, 2009
RE: Tracking Referrals on Sales
We had a question about not being able to track a referral for every affiliate sale… I am guessing that this is in reference to the “Page Banner was Clicked From” field on each affiliate sale…
Unfortunately, this isn’t one that we’ll be able to correct easily. That data comes directly from a users browser and some Affiliates like to hide that data. There are also some circumstances where the data is hidden with no fault to anyone… In the cases of links coming from email, new window links, and other types… the data can simply be blank in a users browser.
If you need help on this issue further, please email me brian @ ShareASale and I can explain some more technical detail - as well as give some ideas to you on how to effectively police your affiliate program even if this data is not present in some of your sale transactions.
By Brian Littleton on Oct 1, 2009
XML Product Feed Upload
We had a request to be able to upload an XML based product feed (as opposed to the current method of a pipe-delimited flat file.
A lot of our technology has been built out on the flat file upload … I wouldn’t want to go backwards there… but it is possible we could write a tool to take an XML file and turn it into a delimited file.
If you want to work with me on some brainstorming on this one, email me brian @ ShareASale and we’ll try to come up with a plan.
By Brian Littleton on Oct 1, 2009
RE: Banner Performance
A request was made regarding the banner performance page and lack of conversion statistics… Thanks for the suggestion - it is something that we are working on now and hope to have a solution for soon. As q4 started today - I would expect something on this more towards q1 of 2010
By Brian Littleton on Oct 1, 2009
RE: Toolbars
A comment came through regarding affiliates who utilize toolbars and how they are allowed to operate within ShareASale.
For clarification - we do not allow Affiliates to utilize their toolbar in order to display any type of ShareASale creative, or to display any type of notification to the consumer that might divert traffic away from one Affiliate - and towards the Affiliate using a toolbar.
If you would like any further clarification - please feel free to email me Brian @ ShareASale … obviously it is a complicated issue that is an industry wide issue, but we do feel that our policy protects Affiliate traffic, and their commissions both earned and potential. If you feel differently, I would love to hear more from you.
By Brian Littleton on Oct 1, 2009
“RE: More information on Applications
Along those same line we had a request for more information about an Affiliate at the time of the application. Requests were made concerning network data such as how many programs they are part of… how long they’ve been a member of ShareASale, etc… I’ll take a look and see what more we can provide there…”
Be careful here. An approval or rejection based on the fact I belong to 100 programs - or just one that pertains to my niche - can be made for the wrong reasons.
Same with how long I’ve been with SAS. I could be a 20 year successful veteran in affiliate marketing and just joined SAS this morning because they have a merchant I need. Again, a wrong decision can be made because I only belonged to SAS for one day and have no other SAS merchants.
How I do with another merchant or another Network should be irrelevant to joining a particular merchant’s program. The decision should be based on 1. I applied and therefore I’m interested. 2. I supplied a website that the merchant can peruse to see if I’m a good fit or not. 3. I don’t have a lot of negative comments in the merchant interface.
By Billy Kay on Oct 2, 2009
Billy Kay,
I agree with you on the fact that the information isn’t always relevant… but we do try to give Merchants as much information as we can to let them make a more informed decision. That decision may not always be correct… but we would want it to at least be informed.
Track record on a network can show that you know what you are doing, so to speak… no?
By Brian Littleton on Oct 2, 2009
If the Deals database is supposed to be just for coupons, then I would suggest you create a separate feed for just coupons. I have managed and do manage merchants that use the deals database to post true deals that do not use and do not plan to use coupons. The Deals Database links convert *very well* for these merchants, or they wouldn’t put the time into adding the deals. I have spent a lot of time educating affiliates that deals work as well as, or sometimes better than coupons. I would hate to see that education go to waste, and those merchants suddenly not have a way to advertise their date limited deals to affiliates.
By Deborah aka Loxly on Oct 4, 2009
Deborah aka Loxly, I agree that sales and deals are, and should be, part of the deals database.
By Brian Littleton on Oct 7, 2009
RE: Custom Commissions
A request came in that there was “No easy way to create different commissions for different affiliates” …
There is actually a way to do this - as well as set different “Return Days” or “Cookie Length” for individual affiliates.
If you are looking at your Affiliate List, click on an individual affiliate that you want to edit. That will take you to an Affiliate Detail page for that specific Affiliate.
About 3/4 of the way down the page there are settings for different custom commissions and cookie lenghts… I uploaded a screenshot as well.
http://blog.shareasale.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/customcommission.jpg
By Brian Littleton on Oct 7, 2009
RE: Downloading Merchant List
We had a suggestion regarding downloading the Merchant list of programs that an individual participates in. We added an additional report which shows your Merchant list, as well as some interesting data to look at such as your commmission, any special commission being given, as well as a list of holidays that the Merchant may be advertising on within the ShareASale interface.
Screenshot: http://blog.shareasale.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/downloadlist.png
By Brian Littleton on Oct 9, 2009
Is there a location as to what my url is for promoting the different companies.
RE:123ink. What I would like to do is get a business card with 123ink and on the back have my url for the people I meet on the street that is interested in getting a better deal on ink. I am a buyer from this company and have 2 companies that buy from them. I just need to know what url to send them to so I get credit for the products they buy.
By steph on Oct 24, 2009
RE: Group Reporting on the TimeSpan and Weekly Progress Reports
We had a request come in to add the ability to view certain groups within the Affiliate TimeSpan Report, and the Weekly Progress Report … both on the Merchant Interface.
Those have been added in. Enjoy.
By Brian Littleton on Oct 31, 2009