Sposnors Using Intellichat TXT On Join Pages
 

This is somewhat lengthy, but important to detail it for complete understanding. I apologize for the length.

Recently I have had the experience with one sponsor where I noticed little tiny commissions showing up for sales. Wondering wtf was going on... as I don't use trials. I hate trials. I use revshare. So, why then would I start seeing all these little sales for a lousy $1.23?

I looked at my NATS links and saw my code there, just fine. And that's when I noticed the exit code for some company named Intellichat.... who inserts a DIFFERENT NATS code than the one I referred the surfer with.

Naturally my reaction was wtf is going on with my revshare links? Are my NATS codes/cookies getting circumvented by this new code from Intellichat? (Still awaiting answers on this).

A little discussion between myself and the sponsor and it apparently works like this:

Under normal situations, an affiliate refers a surfer and the surfer is cookied and if he joins you are credited with the sale. If he leaves and comes back later, you are credited with the sale for the FULL sale amount commission. This is a "bookmark sale" and is given to you at full commission on the option they joined with. Bookmark sales are the bulk of my sales.

With this Intellichat Interception routine, it seems to work like this:

An affiliate refers a surfer and the surfer is cookied, and then decides to leave before buying, an Intellichat window (a third party!) pops up with a live sales person and convinces the person to stay. In the case of my sponsor in question, this was a 3 day trial of which I was credited a mere $1.23 (whooppee)

Now, here's the rub for me. I do not use trial links, as mentioned. Yet a trial link was inserted in my links via this Intellichat Link Interecption. This site in question does not have sufficient content or video as it is fairly new. As such, you can view this site in its entirely in an afternoon, much less 3 days. A 3 day trial is not worth it to affiliates, it's just that simple.

Based on my own stats, I avg across all of my nats sites, 75% of my sales coming from bookmarks/cookies.

With this Intellichat program intercepting this, allegedly, I am effectively having my chance to make those FULL bookmarked sales taken away from me in lieu of those ridiculous $1.23 commissions since my bookmark cookie is no longer relevant.

I should mention, I am told if the converted person does rebill, I get a normal rebill commission, but that still doesn't erase the fact my ability to convert my own bookmarked traffic was effectively taken from me.

From where I sit, I am effectively having my opportunity to convert my own bookmarked cookie traffic with my own referred cookies, at full price, circumvented by a program that does absolutely nothing to benefit me, except scoop the sale before I have a chance for my bookmark cookie to convert later -- at MORE money. To me, this is 100% unacceptable to insert on affiliate links.

Ultimately in this fiasco, I have earned less money as a result of this intellichat experiment with this particular sponsor and have told them so.

So, my question is this... I would like to know which sponsors are also using Intellichat Exits on their affiliate link join pages.

Disclaimer: I am hardly saying Intellichat is scamming my sales is doing anything wrong. In fact I could see their service as an enormous tool for use on TYPE-IN traffic. But implemented how it was on this particular sponsor with affiliate links using trials, it was a dismal disaster and completely unacceptable.

Sounds like there should be an option to filter this off.

Just because NATS referrals reports referring URL's as cookie/no ref, it doesn't mean they are really bookmarks or type-ins. 90% aren't type-ins or bookmarks, they just appear that way.

Intellichat, should, add sales to your account. 10-20% more sales. It's a back out offer exit. The person was leaving the Website/page and this got them to come back or stay. Converting what wasn't going to be a sale, into a sale.

Qauntum, I agree 100%. An option extended to affiliates to try and see if it works for them or not. I know my traffic and the sites to whom i am sending traffic. i know whether a trial will make me more in the long run or not. Thus the reason I will not use them on this site. An option would have been idea (so long as it was opt-in).

That said, I still expect to be compensated properly for having my sales circumvented for a fraction of what it could have/should have been.

Doc, i know what it is. I just don't appreciate it when my links are circumvented for a trial I never asked for. Neither you, nor I, nor Intellichat can claim the customer they scooped from me would not be back tomorrow carrying MY cookie and buy at full price like the majority of my "cookied / bookmark" sales.

Currently, no easy way to shut them off per Webmaster unless a new program is setup, then things get crazy.

Outside of that... You get compensated. And "Your" sales aren't being circumvented. They are being converted, when you would have lost them.

You would hope.

I think you should read his post again. :2 cents:

How do you know they are bookmarked / cookied sales?

Not even the Admin of NATS can tell that.

Just because NATS referral report says that, doesn't mean that's what they are. Actually, it doesn't mean that at all.

Good luck on that.

"no trial" links should be "no trial" links, simple as that.

Oh I get it.. He was credited sales (ie: paid), correctly and he is bitching about it because he selected choose notrial links, then he thinks he should be paid full on sales he would have lost otherwise.

Simple enough to understand.

No trial links = Main offer is no trial.

After that people, it's MY JOB to convert the person.


You people bitching are crazy, this is what you WANT a paysite to do for you.

never mind

no trial = no trial. at all.

Great opinion.... did you agree to that in the terms?

You = Affiliate
Me = Paysite Owner

You get no say on how I choose to monetize my Website. (as long as you get proper credit)

Intellichat basically intercept a surfer that is not buying any thing on the site and leaving and try to convince them to buy. For this they have to be paid.

So the question is how does the affiliate want to get paid, full amount or part of it. I am in middle of implementing this on a site.

It's my referred traffic. If it converts, I want FULL compensation. More especially if it's a revshare link with NO popups or exists.

Without an option to disable/enable Intellichat on my links, that's one sponsor who i simply won't do work with. There's more options out there with affiliate minded people running the show.

The surfer is just not buying anything right away, so this intellichat tries to convince them and gives them crazy low offer to join now), effectively eliminating any chance of your initially referred/cookied surfer coming back and joining later at a regular price.

Your sales aren't coming BACK from bookmarks and joining.

so your TOS states that your "no trial" links aren't really "no trial" links?

So there's nothing wrong with offering trials on 'no trial' links?... Ok, next we'll have sponsors adding popups to 'no popup/console' links... "Hey, the popup isn't on the entry page... it's on the second sample page or on the join page"....

You don't know that for a definitive answer. 75% of my sales with all NATS programs are Bookmarks (which i am told are predominantly cookied surfers). With the implementation of this Intellichat, my "bookmarks" sales in NATS have dropped to nothing. Are you suggesting this is coincidence?

Incidentally, I am not wanting this to be a drama thread, or name calling and other nonsense. Rather, i am looking to have a civil, business discussion about the effects, negative and otherwise, that something like this implementation could have for both affiliates and owners.

the Intellichat adult version was modeled after UpSellit's adult product Exit-Chat. I do not know how tech savy Intellichat is but if they replicated most of UpSellit's technology then they should offer the same type of affiliate solutions ie: UpSellit would simply individually suppress any affiliate code they were requested to. Ask them to supress your code and see what happens. If they are stand-up (and I have heard that they are), they will suppress and resolve for you immediately.

Aye, I know for 100% sure..


The bookmarked sales you see in nats, could be renamed (Unknown)... Would that help?

It's an error if you would, it means nats has no idea were they came from. IE: No Cookies and no Reffering url. When they go through IT, they change programs, and IP tracking kicks in on returns if no cookie is set.


Some are returns. However, NO site has more than 10% (max 20% on new sites) raw return rate, period.. So thinking you have 75% returns on bookmarks is 100% statistically impossible.


So unless you are doing 'less' sales, you didn't drop any sales.

I was wondering when an issue like this would come up. Here's another scenario...

Joe Blow visits site, looks at first preview page, clicks Join link instead of Continue Preview. He goes, ah shit and clicks the back button to check out more of the tour. Boom, there's the Intellichat window offering a cutrate price, when he wasn't even leaving the site at all.

I'd agree that Intellichat on an affiliate's incoming traffic should at least be an opt-out situation, and there should also be the capability to ONLY have the Intellichat window pop if they either close browser or leave the URL entirely by going to another site, rather than just "always pop if they leave the join page."

I'll have to discuss this with NATS to be 100% certain.

But let's be clear here. I am *not* trying to attack or belittle Intellichat. Not at all (although I realize some of comments appear this way). What I am saying is that i think it could be a beneficial tool for all: site owners, affiliates and Intellichat themselves. We're all in this to make money. But the numbers have to be mutually beneficial. And there needs to be a system whereby those who want to use it, can, and others can choose not to.

And certainly, in terms of numbers, for those not wishing to use trials, these should never be used to sell trials on those links.

My beef here is two fold: #1, I had my surfer intercepted with with a popup enticing him to buy at some ridiculous low price, or which i was given the embarrassingly amount of $1.23. In the process, we'll now never know if this person would have come back and I'd have gotten a credited sale at full rate. Personally, I'd have have like the opportunity to risk getting a full sale later on a return visit versus losing it to some low trial that won;t convert past the 3 days.

Having options is not a bad thing.

On one side we need to keep the affiliate happy and on other site the program owners point which is this is a sales that we are losing so why not use some thing like this to generate a sale. If we have to pay the affiliate and the chat company their will be no money.

In the absence of affiliate opting-in/out, certainly it can be used for type-in traffic.

Now, having said all of this... what sponsors are using Intellichat? Does anyone know which sponsors are using it on affiliate links, and more particularly, on no trial links?

your beef isn't actually with intellichat , your beef would be with how a sponsor implemented it.

however, let's say no trial links, would you be satisfied with them putting in a 9.95 / mo offer, where you would need to make two saved sales, to get the value of the trial, since that trial most likely has a 50% chance of converting to full? and I'm not saying one is better then the other, but trust me, the sponsor could just as easily implement this, even if it's counter-intuitive to their metrics ( which you don't see )

also, if a sponsor uses intellichat and want's to customize how it works, say use the popup chain rules, it's 100% possible ...just put that code in the popup_exit2 or some other template and call that for those that opt.

lot's of ways for a sponsor to control the addons they put in, simply put, most are more comfortable with having that 3rd party dictate how things work because often you're working with people that don't really know how to admin nats' advanced functions.

Thurbs, I understand all this, having worked with NATS at an affiliate backend for quite some time. I have no beef with Intellichat... they offer a service and sponsors either add it or not. This too I understand.

However, what i am attempting to determine here is to just who is now using Intellichat and how it is implemented. Some sites are too small for trials, their content is simply not enough to warrant most people recurring. Thus the reasoning in my opening post. I specifically used non-trial links for that site given it is young, but growing, and it has limited content. There is insufficient content to reliably expect a decent recurring ratio. Thus, intercepting an exit click to offer a three day trial in lieu of a regular revshare conversion on a site you could view the contents of in an afternoon, is hardly worth offering a trial on via Intellichat.

And therein lies my issue. For sites I KNOW will not retain well enough yet due to content limitations, I want the option to NOT have trials exists from programs like Intellichat. I'd rather eat dirt than be given a pittance for a scooped trial sale that won't convert well, if at all.

Instead, I'd prefer to take my chances that the surfer i referred came back later and bought at full price, with my cookie.

great point :thumbsup the most important thing for programs considering all the chat options is knowing what is capable and what is not. asking the right questions so you don't end up surprised later. anything is possible when programming the chat. the "pop on back" issue was resolved by UpSellit the moment it was pointed out by Dirty D's sharp crew. it was just a code issue that was easily resolved but was unnoticed by the group until pointed out. not sure if Intellichat has modified that in their programming but certainly can do it. it's a learning curve like with any newer technology. communication is key with this or any new product you implement into a program.

T, you going to Amsterdam?

If the "pop on back" issue is what I described in my post above, then it's still a problem with Intellichat. I checked a few sites that I know use it right before I made the post, just to make sure it was still there.

What sites? I would really like to know which sponsors this Intellichat on affiliate links, especially those using it to offer trials on no trial links.

I didn't look via affiliate links, I went straight into the test sites as if it was type-in/search engine. So I'm not going to name names. I was only doing it to test if back button popping was still there. That alone is why I don't use Intellichat on my sites. Too easy for people to get the pop way before they should.

Hey - it's important for people to know where the problem stems from :)

I won't be in Amsterdam, too much biz going on here and some stuff we want to get done, and partying in the red light just wont help us with that. :)

Oh yeah, in the exit admin, just hide it from the affiliate.... duh.

I clearly live in the templates far too much.

Hey Guys,

Not sure if you all know me here... I?m Billy from Intellichat Adult, before I address the issues mentioned I would like to outline a few pointers on why we integrated with NATS.

Our system is designed at utilizing exit traffic & increasing your current conversions. The integration allows the site owner to credit the original affiliate whilst paying ourselves (without paying double for the join). If you take a quick look at this wiki file you will see that you can actually determine which traffic you wish Intellichat to interact with.

http://wiki.toomuchmedia.com/index.php/IntelliChat (reseller section)

We are currently are the forefront of automated technology, with offering a comprehensive range of custom settings, anything from how many times the campaign is shown or how the agent is activated. It is the site owners choice if they would like our system to appear when a visitor clicks the back button, if they don?t... We can disable it.

It is also the site owner?s decision on what incentive they wish to push within their campaigns, whether this is a discounted membership or trial price point.

I think part of it comes down to, would you like half of something or all of nothing...

If you have any further questions please contact me on the details below.

is intellichat live people?

and thedoc what program is yours again?

Is it really so hard to set up an opt out for affiliates? What's the big deal?

Nope, all automated :) some of our webcam girlies are pretty hot though!

Check out the wiki file above :thumbsup you can choose :) unless you dont use NATS or MPA3 it would need to be done on the site owners end...