I think I speak for most affiliate support people when I say ...
 

Please for the love of all things - keep your email address on your sponsor accounts up to date!

We can't alert you to any problems with your account if your emails keep bouncing. That is even apart from just contacting affiliates to offer general support.

I have people that I could really use to contact and just can't because even though I see that they are building new pages their email address on their accounts hasn't been changed in years.

Please..please..if you change the email address you use also change it on your sponsor accounts!

(p.s...yes I have posted this on more than one board..such is my desire to actually help accounts when I need to talk to them!)

maybe they dont want to be got ahold of? sure downtime notices and stuff is nice but most affiliate programs spam the fuck out of you with stupid shit..

if i want a affiliate rep to email me and ask how im doing ill email them first and ask for help otherwise leave me the fuck alone and stop filling up my email box :P

(not directed at you)

From our standpoint- we would like to contact affiliates.
From their standpoint, they are weird shut in social rejects who don't like being talked to.

many affiliates put in fake email addresses sarah they dont wanna be contacted weekly with "spam" as they call it when we are trying to update them on info about the programs.

That is a point I get. However, what if there is an actual problem? For example, on my own adult work, I recently had a major problem with my bank alerted to me BY an affiliate support worker for a sponsor.

Also, a lot of people will be quick to say that affiliate support doesn't offer 'support' and 'reach out' but then give us no way to actually contact them.

I second that notion.

:thumbsup

Yeah..that I know and I sort of understand. Largely, I am talking about people who have email addresses on their accounts that did once work. In those cases, I think largely it is forgetting which email address is on an account. I really understand that when you have been signing up for sponsors for years. I am not 'mad' just trying to alert some people to how if they hadn't updated account info on their sponsor accounts in a while it might be time to check.

Also, on the 'spam' thing. A lot of affiliates set up email boxes for each sponsor. Often, I see '[email protected]' type addresses when they sign up. That way then filter them off into boxes and see who does what with their addresses without getting is all mixed in with their 'normal' mail.

What if I am a social reject in need of contacting an affiliate?

Which, again, I get. However, if we saw something going wrong with your account and couldn't contact you wouldn't you wish we had?

Good luck then I say. :)

It's a hard game being a manager in this industry. In mainstream I notice people WANT to hear from you. They want to know what the latest trends are and what they can do to increase daily volume. I talk to my mainstream affiliates constantly.

In adult everyone wants to sit in a basement, make TGPs like it's 2002, and make rent.

Hint Hint..:2 cents: :thumbsup

Its amazing how many people will NOT ask for help, but if they are approached, they will take all the help they can get, and start asking questions.

Yeah..the folks that come to adult from mainstream and sign up with us are the ones that give me every contact detail possible.

thanks for the tip .... fixing email now

But without a way to approach them you can't give them that help. So many I have actually reached out to help almost are afraid to ask for any help but are happy to be offered it. It is as if they think support is only for whales.

Thats cool, but it is hard to work successfully with an affiliate if you can't get in touch with them. Any suggestions: How about a weekly board post, (monthly whatever) a board inside Max Cash, where folks can check on their own time? Any thoughts would be helpful.

There are a bunch of cool things coming from Max Cash shortly, and we just want to make sure folks making money with us know about it!

I think it is actually a smart thing to do. Plus, if you want to quickly reference something from that sponsor you have it all right there in one box.

My pleasure :) I hope one of those email addresses is on a Max Cash account but glad to be of help either way!

Holy shit! How do you know all this! That statement is 100% correct! :thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

lol...now, now..some just have bad memories.

Totally Agree..

I talk with at least 50 people a day, and its amazing how many dont have the right info in their accounts.

But if they kept their email addresses up to date, they wouldn't be able to bitch and moan that you were trying to cheat them!

Yeah and I don't know about you (but I am fairly certain, having dealt with you)..but I don't want it to 'spam' people. I just want to know I can grab somebody when it is actually needed. That and not writing an email to have it bounce back right away would be a nice improvement to my days too.

Oh and while I am at it..if you do have a sponsor you want to communicate with (and I get that some people don't want to do so) then please take them out of your spam filter. That goes especially for those using gmail accounts for their sponsor account details. All I have to do is send any mail to a gmail account and I bet it is in the spam filter. If you do want to hear from your sponsors when required take them out of that filter and create a folder like mentioned above.

How about the ppl who signup using their spam arrest e mail addy. Dumb, very dumb.

I hate getting emails that I don't ask for... I check the "Do not send me newsletter, or contact emails" box in the control panel, but some sponsors ignore that and still feel the need to send me daily emails telling me that they changed the pixel gif to a png file instead of a gif, to make sure it's fluid with all colors. :eek7

Along with that, I've talked to people who do that, and if they start getting spam to that address they just send it back and ignore any emails from the sponsor period.

Hint: Don't sell your mailing lists. :thumbsup I don't know how many times I've posted an email address all over boards and sites and haven't received a single spam message from it, but within days of submitting one to a sponsor I get nailed with hundreds daily.

good tip, I always do

That has never stopped anybody from bitching and moaning if that is who they are anyway.

yep, i dont need to know everytime you add a banner lol

fake emails for thw win!

Yup, have had that too but really that is just a mistake.

We don't and yeah I agree that is annoying when it is done. It happens a lot with webmaster boards. I have addresses that are only used for boards and I get a ton of spam to them even if I have never posted there. Sure, some of that is bots grabbing mails from profiles but for others it isn't.

Just set up filters like that and find out without missing something that could actually be important.

a Simple contact notice within the affiliate account would suffice if there where something wrong with their acc. surely they must login to check stats once in a while atleast. Have them contact you.

Right..but you would want a sponsor to try to contact you if there was a trouble with your payment, right?

We've had checks returned to us but nobody to contact to see what is up and if they need a reissue.

We have had people that a year down the line then pop up and contact us asking why they haven't been paid. You ask and turns out they moved and so their mailing address changed but never came in to update their contact info so the checks are going to the old address.


You would appreciate a sponsor contacting you if they noticed something strange going on on one of your domains even if it is one you don't use much any longer?

We have had people that clearly have been hacked but no way for me to contact them and give them a heads up. I know if a sponsor saw weird things going on on my pages I would really smile a lot if they reached out and gave me a heads up EVEN if I already knew about it.

So..yeah..fake emails are great until you actually need something.

I think i speak for many affiliates when i say "many sponsors send way to many emails, and way to many sponsors either sell their email lists or let them be stolen resulting in thousands of spam emails"

Think outside the box. many sponsors have "alerts" they send affiliates that pop a layer over the stats area with any important messages for you. Others have message systems built into their affiliate area

We do that but people often just don't do anything about them (obviously I see the reasons given). Also, with a program that has been around as long as Max Cash a lot of people don't log in as much as they should (and they SHOULD..great new things here!) and just keep cashing the checks they are used to getting on clockwork.

I am probably more guilty of not sending out enough 'group' mails to my affiliates rather than too many but I like to do one on one emailing when I see a point to it. Can't do that without a way of contacting the person.

And make sure that your sponsors are not flagged as spam!

Yeah..that is why I threw in the bit later in the thread about gmail in particular.

good words!

Thanks :)

Plus, when I think about it, I don't see why a program is out of lines for wanting valid contact details for those people for which they send out payment.

Most affiliate reps are failed webmasters

look, you needed an "affiliate related" thread to make, I just dropped my two cents in here. Not trying to offend you reps... but not all of us want/need you contacting us.

I have NEVER needed an affiliate "rep" or whatever to contact me. Any problem, I make the contact, I INITIATE the fix. I can fill out my payment info without typos :) LOL and when I move, *drum roll* I update address... not all of us are that dumb.

The examples you use are user related ignorant person errors, not someone who updates their contact and especially payment info

Forgive me, but I have never needed affiliate reps emailing me updates or "we just iuploaded 400 galleries" lol , and never will. Not trying to be rude, but really, some of my best sponsors ive never even been contacted by a rep, never needed one.

:winkwink:

Ive been trying to get ahold of a webmaster for about a month, all I wanted to do was give him a payout increase. emails just bounce, domain emails go unanswered....

So yea, update your fucking email addys you lazy bastards. :upsidedow


It also great when your payout checks get mailed back to me, then you dont get the email from me requesting a new address.

And I was simply addressing your point. It also wasn't an 'affiliate' post I needed to make but born out of one bounced email too many today ;)

Congrats on being the perfect affiliate that never needs any attention. You will understand that not everybody is at such an impeccable standard and may have just thought 'hey, yeah..I need to update my info'

I was speaking as much as 'your sponsor needs up to date information' than as a rep wanting to drum up more sales. Though, I won't deny contacting affiliates for that too sometimes but always targeted. It is after all, part of the job. It honestly is more about just being able to contact somebody when you need to do so for a real reason.

Oh and..while we don't do it - I get affiliates actually coming to me asking why we *don't* send out gallery links every time we update. Some people want that in their box and without a current email they aren't going to get it for the sponsors that do it. Again, we don't.

Anyway..sparring aside..is it strange that I thought of you and your lovely wife when I was making my vegan evening meal today? I have been trying to eat vegan all week to see if I can. I usually am mostly veggie anyway these days and am lactose intolerant so it isn't really that hard for me.

Exactly..thank you for backing me up on that such a thing happens. Then you are bad for not contacting them even though they haven't given you any way to do so.

hehe i like the sound of all that

i wasnt sparring with you, i just do not consider myself in the same league as idiots who cant type their own payment info out correctly.

And honestly, any real sponsor I make good money with, has my true contact. but I still have never needed an affiliate rep to CONTACT me, if i need them, i know where they are. Thats all I meant rly.

But i have put fake ones in programs I didnt plan on having long relationship with...

Not all but I understand the basis of your opinion and that it isn't an isolated one. Though, I would also say that most webmasters would probably fail at affiliate support. It is nice when the two skill sets are combined, I agree.

That said, it doesn't change the necessity for a sponsor to have valid contact information.

Spend a day as affiliate support (not repping for sales but actual support role) for a decent sized sponsor and you will see that there are all sorts of 'leagues' in this business. It has not much to do with who sends the most sales either. I have big hitters that simply don't have the best organizational skills and need to be prompted to update their information or who I have arrangements with to email or icq them reminders for things because they admittedly forget.

Then, there are the very clueless but that is also part of the job.

Allow me to add, why?

because ive signed up for hundreds of programs over the yars and guess what, even though I dont push them, I may have signed up to see if you have good promo tools etc, and my mailbox ges filled with your "promo emails" re spam

so as a webmaster, I started dodging the programs tactics, if anything, affiliate reps are whats caused webmaters to start avoiding them.

how many times has someone tried to get ahold of me, even posting to me on gfy, and I get on icq with them and guess what,... its "hey how can i get you to put up more links" crap.

Sorry, but i avoid that shit like i do any spammers

They better provide up to date contact info, if there's a payment issue and they want paid...

well i try to get all my payments going to epass or electronic so i dont worry about mailing addy too much :)

ive even had a program from GFY deny me as affiliate, then continue to spam me with "Hi Affiliate" emails lol I replied, "remove me i am not an affiliate" LOLz

and you wonder why we avoid you guys? lol