POLL: When Affiliate Programs Change - What do you do?

[Guard Dog]

I created this poll in response to affiliate programs changing names over recent times. What do you do in this scenario?

Many times, affiliate programs will require you to update all your links because now they are changing URLs in response to their 'new program name'. It is difficult for affiliates, but what does it do for them? Well, it gives them a crapload of free promotion in some cases.... in other cases, it gives them a bad reputation in the eyes of surfers because: When players click a banner to go to a site and it goes NOWHERE, they look like a shoddy organization that may have gone under.

For the affiliate - it looks like their site is unkempt and probably inaccurate.

Ugh... anyway...

 

[Guard Dog]

I am allowing 'write in votes' on this one. Feel free to be creative... I wouldn't mind a good discussion of this.


For programs that REQUIRE URL changing: I remove the banners completely and stop promoting them (caveat: Unless they are a proven program on my network).

For programs that DO NOT REQUIRE URL changing (i.e., they did their due diligence and created code to auto-redirect to the proper location based upon their old set of links - YAY! - I keep promoting them. I do not make it a priority to update links, but eventually get it done.

 

[dominique]

I assume sometimes this can't be helped.

It does bring the program in question under review... and if it's not performing it may get taken down.

 

[bonustreak]

As Dom said sometimes it cannot be helped and at other times it is for the good of all affiliates so we just make the changes BUT then there are times when a program does this once a year sorta like the always going out of business furniture sales. When this happens it is completely clear to me it is done to ditch affiliates that don't promote their program anymore.

 

[Engineer]

I agree. It the program seems to have a legitimate reason for changing, then I'll follow them if they haven't messed around with the T&Cs. But if they change every year for the purpose of screwing affiliates with new T&Cs, new tracking links that must be changed, then I don't bother with them.

 

[TheGamblingGuru]

I agree. It the program seems to have a legitimate reason for changing, then I'll follow them if they haven't messed around with the T&Cs. But if they change every year for the purpose of screwing affiliates with new T&Cs, new tracking links that must be changed, then I don't bother with them.

This reminds me of the recent Absolute/Slot Power change over and then one more to the new one, First Gaming Partners.

 

[dominique]

Well, the story there was that oddly the affiliate program (EM) owned the domain and when Slotpower decided to contract another place for running the aff program, they ran into a snafu with the name.

 

[WCD Admin]

I hate the name changes. Sometimes, correct, they are necessary. But LuckyAcePartners -- didn't they just change? The only reason I can see that happening is because they want a fresh start after spamming us the first two years. so it irks me.

I was thinking would be cool if you keep a record of name changes on AGD. And next to name change, give a reason.

Euro Partner AKA Casino Partner on the programs "profile" page or somewhere.

When a program changes their name, I'm always suspicious

edited to add: I just saw your other thread there... about Lucky Ace.... I still believe my theory. Why does the affiliate program need to change names? Casino name change / new casino is not a reason to "rebrand" the affiliate program.

 

[Guard Dog]

I hate the name changes. Sometimes, correct, they are necessary. But LuckyAcePartners -- didn't they just change? The only reason I can see that happening is because they want a fresh start after spamming us the first two years. so it irks me.

I was thinking would be cool if you keep a record of name changes on AGD. And next to name change, give a reason.

Euro Partner AKA Casino Partner on the programs "profile" page or somewhere.

When a program changes their name, I'm always suspicious

edited to add: I just saw your other thread there... about Lucky Ace.... I still believe my theory. Why does the affiliate program need to change names? Casino name change / new casino is not a reason to "rebrand" the affiliate program.

That was the reason First Gaming Partners changed too... they are soon adding more casinos. It might make sense from a branding perspective. If you saw 'Slots Power Affiliates' you would expect to be promoting Slots Power, not anything else. Unless you dug deeper, you may not even be aware that they offered multiple casinos. First Gaming Partners may warrant a deeper look because the name is not tied to one of their casinos.

As far as name changes, I like that idea (as usual). I will put it in my list of things to get done I have several projects coming first, though!

 

[Renee]

Just wanted to add a side note to the discussion..

Back in 2005 we changed our name, but not to be dodgy or for any malicious reasons, and no links needed to be changed.

Basically, we used to be Casino Rewards Affiliates and changed to Rewards Affiliates. We thought this would be a better name and that we should start to brand it as the affiliate program name because Casino Rewards Affiliates is far too generic. It tells people the name of the group, but we found a lot of people got confused between the group and the program.

As another side note, I'm in the process of updating linking codes so that if we do ever need to change them quickly, you guys wont need to do anything. All the work will be done on our end. This will require replacement of current codes ONLY if you wish to carry the codes that you wont ever have to change again, otherwise the existing ones will still operate as usual. The only difference is that if they did ever need to change you would then need to change them manually if you kept the existing codes.

I think doing this is a better step towards making promoting our program hassle free for the affiliate and I'm looking forward to making more changes towards this in the future

Any questions let me know

 

[Adrian-LiveCasinoPartners]

This is a good poll for operators to look at.
I would be discouraged by an affiliate program changing links just for SEO reasons. For me that would be the "deal breaker".

When LiveCasinoPartners was being launched, we decided to have links to the main affiliate program and not the casino itself. It's more affiliate friendly, but not SEO friendly. Another reason was scalability. It's easier to add more properties from a main affiliate program and not have them re-branded later down the road.

So, hopefully, affiliate links will not have to change any time soon.

 

[sipka]

There could be reasons when the affiliate program needs to change URLs (see the Kentucky issue last year - I think it was inevitable) in that case I change the tracking URLs in my redirect files - not a biggie since I don't have to change hundreds of pages just the scripts in some files.

Affiliate program name changes make me a bit suspicious, but of course there could be instances where it is needed (one brand program takes a road of launching more programs, obviously the one brand name would be confusing).

I think at the end of the day it all comes down to trust (again), if I trust the program and the reason of the change is communicated well, then I have no problem changing things on my end.

 

[inspiration]

As another side note, I'm in the process of updating linking codes so that if we do ever need to change them quickly, you guys wont need to do anything. All the work will be done on our end. This will require replacement of current codes ONLY if you wish to carry the codes that you wont ever have to change again, otherwise the existing ones will still operate as usual. The only difference is that if they did ever need to change you would then need to change them manually if you kept the existing codes.

I think doing this is a better step towards making promoting our program hassle free for the affiliate and I'm looking forward to making more changes towards this in the future

Sorry If I am not on topic but I have to change the codes of the banners you supply because of the nofollow attribute and the title tag.

It would be cool to supply us with a page with the codes of the banner images + tracking links seperately , most of us change the links anyway with a redirect.

 

[Renee]

Sorry If I am not on topic but I have to change the codes of the banners you supply because of the nofollow attribute and the title tag.

It would be cool to supply us with a page with the codes of the banner images + tracking links seperately , most of us change the links anyway with a redirect.

Sorry to derail Andy.

You can find linking codes on a separate page by going to marketing tools > linking codes. There you will find links for casino, poker, special, splash pages, etc etc. No banner code there. Just raw links.

Let me know if thats not what you meant.
Cheers

 

[bonustreak]

No need to be sorry about derailing Renee this forum is for helping affiliates and that is all your doing Would be nice to see more affiliate managers take an active roll in posting at AGD and helping affiliates.