3 Mobile Affiliate Programme Sucks Like A TurboCharged Dyson Hoover

It's been a while since I posted anything on this crazy blog, and this is mainly because I haven't had anything to moan about. However, thanks to 3 Mobile and their damn affiliate programme I am now wasting 20 minutes of my life to bitch about these BLOODY THIEVING BITCHES (ummm, am I allowed to say that? Ah well, too late.)

I've been working with 3 Mobile for the last 18 months or so, and if you are contemplating signing up on their affiliate programme here's why you shouldn't bother:

1) They have the worst customer approval rate in the industry. Ever.

In the mobile affiliate industry the average decline rate for customers is around 40-50% for (i.e 40-50% of all sales sent through to a merchant will be declined due to a customer not passing a credit check or whatever). From my own experience, 3 Mobile's decline rate is as high as 75-80%! How can this be possible??

If the likes of Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and E2Save can approve half of all applications sent to them, why on earth can 3 Mobile only approve a quarter? What's so special about 3 Mobile? (Um, nothing - their network coverage is crap, and they tell their India-based customer service staff to introduce themselves with fake English names in an attempt to convince customers that the call centre they are ringing to moan about crap network coverage is located in England).

The only reason why 3 Mobile's decline rate is so high is because they are stealing from affiliates and not paying out for valid sales. Yes really.


2) They take upto 4 months to even validate any sales.

3 Mobile started using some kind of 'deduping' process which was introduced so that affiliates were correctly allocated a sale, ensuring that no other sales channel attributed to that particular transaction. Now this is all fine and well, and whilst the idea is sound (even though hardly anyone else has this system in place), why on earth does it take upto 4 MONTHS for 3 Mobile to dedupe transactions? With the tracking technology in place these days, it really doesn't take that long for a merchant to identify if the last cookie that was dropped was an affiliates or not.

And even when you've waited 4 months for them to bloody dedupe your sales, surprise surprise, a percentage of these sales will be classed as failed duplicates and you won't be credited for the sale. Even the ones that do manage to pass the deduplication process, 75-80% of these will then be declined anyway.

Was this deduping process introduced so that 3 Mobile had another excuse not to pay out valid commissions to affiliates?

Seems to me that its the affiliates that are being DUPED, not the transactions.


3. They do not track valid sales.

It's not just me that has a problem with 3 Mobile's affiliate programme. Those of you who visit the stuffy Affiliates4U forum will recognise that there is an existing thread about 3 Mobile and how crap they their programme is.

Some affiliates have actually bought handsets themselves from 3 Mobile's website (through their own affiliate link) and have noticed that these transactions are not even tracked and validated! If that's not proof that 3 Mobile's affiliate programme is dodgy and corrupt I dont know what is.

Here are some random quotes from other disgruntled 3 Mobile affiliates:

Top Banana -

"When on the in-house programme I had a lot of pending sales which were over 3 months old, when i asked for them to be processed, they were and all were declined, funny that. I dont trust their in-house programme at all."

Norras -

"I'm getting over 98% of sales rejected (via Buy.at) and most are for Pay-as-you-go, therefore presumably no credit check to pass. It looks to me like 3 Mobile are simply stealing our commission."

Affiliate Marketing -

"when i had my mobile site i actually had a person contact me so i know they bought a phone but funnily enough 3 havent paid out .. and it was a PAYG phone too, so im well aware that they do cherry pick what to pay."

Moshin -

"I had about £3000+ in commissions pending accumulated since August for sales I delivered to 3 Mobile. I wrote a few emails and support tickets every other week and waited patiently to get this resolved. Now I just logged in to my account and I'm shocked to see someone has finally bothered to cheer me up by sending only £58 my way out of the £3000+ in pending, the rest has vanished. I wonder what happened to the rest of the balance?"

Brucey Bonus - "

decided to use a cashback website when making a purchase from 3. The purchase was for a PAYG USB modem back in September. The cost was £50 and the cashback/commission due would have been £11. The sale has today been rejected. The product has been used everyday since its delivery. From day 1, I've been applying top-ups every month - so far £65 worth. This month, my top-up expired whilst I was at my parents for Christmas, so I'm waiting until I get back home to top-up. The rejection happened two days after the third top-up expired - coincidence?"

Tan11 -

"when i had my mobile site i actually had a person contact me so i know they bought a phone but funnily enough 3 havent paid out .. and it was a PAYG phone too"

The only reason I am writing this bloody post, is because I sent an email to 3 Mobile asking them them about their abysmal decline rates and I didnt even get a bloody response. I pointed out to them the existing thread on the Affiliates4U forum and asked them what they were going to do about it. Guess what? I haven't even received a response. That was 5 weeks ago. Perhaps my email is going through their 'deduping' process?

The thread in question is still ongoing and can be view here. Someone from 3 Mobile did get round to posting a response in an attempt to clear things up, but nothing was ever resolved.

Interestingly enough, that particular person Adam Knight, has now left 3 Mobile and now works for BuyAt. If you're reading this Adam, I would be grateful if you could spill the beans about 3 Mobile's affiliate programme.

Here is what you missed!

That's right affiliate peoples - The Bitches are back!!! You can even follow us on twitter - http://twitter.com/affiliatebitch

For some reason the A4U blogroll hasn't been picking up everything us Affiliate Bitches have been writing, and you will be surprised to find that not everything is negative! Have a look at everything written so far below;

Affiliate Future - Are they really that bad???
Voucher Code Use - Is there really a solution?
Why Newbees are afraid to talk
Too many cooks, spoil the broth
A4U Awards 2009 - Stop Begging!!!
Is Xmas all it is cracked up to be?
A view on click to reveal
The term 'super affiliate'
A4U Bitches
Cocky Newbee Affiliate Managers
How to be the perfect agency
How to be the perfect network
Affiliate Managers ringing for no reason
How to be the perfect affiliate
How to be the perfect merchant
Morals and ethics - Yeah Right!
Networks on a vetting spree...
When is too much enough?
I never have the time = i'm not making any money and dont know how
I never have the time!!!
Sorry, who are you?
Affiliate Inbreeding
Cookie stuffing voucher code sites - genius!
What part of the clique are you?
This whole Quidco thing
The waiting game
You're all bitches really!
You dont get something for nothing
Do affiliates demand the world?
Bonus, bribe or blackmail?
Dear Affiliate Bitch
Promises promises
Hello... Is anybody there?
Affiliate Marketing is 24/7
Get over yourself - It's only money
Affiliate networks spamming
Look at me, look at me
Wot no stats summary shocker
Networks who dont pay affiliates cause merchant not paid
Ask a question and get a real answer
Boo hoo im not making any money
He/she isnt talking to me
I dont think my account manager is ever there
That affiliate wont push my scheme
Merchants email me too much
Affiliate Bitch Takes No Prisoners

Affiliate Future - Are they really that bad???

Affiliate Future sure have been receiving some stick recently, late payments, broken interfaces and lies lies lies. But are they really that bad? In my opinion, no. They have always paid me on time, and have always been incredibly helpful with any issues I may have found. You will always find Pete, Steve or James on msn late at night, ready to help out, this I do not see from any other network, but do we applaud them and thank them for that? So what are the issues?

Late Payments
So you didn't get paid on time, yes this is annoying, but as Shane points out, it isn't an issue compared to being owed thousands by people from months ago, a few days is just a drip in the ocean really. Yes it is annoying, but really with the regular payments you should have enough in the bank to tide you over a few days.

Broken Interfaces
We have all suffered with the log in issues, and various issues with both the old and new interfaces over the past few months. Pete and team are the first to admit this. The thing is what most people do not realise is that they are constantly striving to improve this and fix and flaws, nagging them all the time doesn't speed the process up. So why not take a screen grab and send it to them so they can actually SEE the error rather than just moan about it.

Lies Lies Lies
There have been a few posts recently about the AF team members being liars. Well, what do you expect... You speak to someone in IT about a finance issue and you expect them to know the ins and outs of your financial status? Speak to someone in sales about an IT issue and expect them to know how to fix an in depth technical problem? Come on, be realistic!

There was a time when we were all moaning about CJ or TD, and although those niggles still remain, as an industry we don't seem to be happy unless we are moaning about one network or another. Can nobody do anything right for us affiliates?

AB

Voucher Code Use - Is there really a solution?

It seems like the whole industry is currently fixed on voucher codes. People using them, mis-using them and choosing not to use them at all. In this post my aim is to go through a few solutions and a few issues to voucher codes, you never know there might be something useful here;

Issues

• Content Affiliate writes content, customer looks for code, cookie dropped, no commission for content affiliate.

• Affiliate lists merchant, customer looks for code, code used, no commission for affiliate (or less commission)

• It seems with the credit crunch and poor planning from merchants they are suddenly cancelling codes, clawing back commissions and cancelling affiliate sales. Many have begun re-writing terms and conditions to protect themselves from lowered profits and the supposed misuse of codes.
  

• Voucher code affiliate loses commission for having voucher codes listed.

Solutions?

• Stop all rules, terms and conditions - make it a free for all. Every man for himself!

• Change the position of the 'enter voucher code here' on the merchant site. It could go after the main section of the cart. Perhaps some tracking on the first stage of the cart so the correct affiliate is awarded the sale. Perhaps after the sale is complete and the merchant finds some clever way of refunding the difference.

• Reduced commissions where codes have been used to account for the lessened margin for the merchant.

• Stop all discount codes and instead have freebies, like a free gift worth a couple of quid (obviously merchants need to check their margins)

• Merchants list codes on their own site to prevent cookie dropping on organic sales

• Content affiliates putting clear bold red flashing instructions on their site saying 'oi customer, no matter how hard you try you will not find a better voucher code than this, i looked on your behalf. So write this one down to enter when you buy your item'

My Views
I don't think the voucher code debate will ever end without an Internet wide change. Voucher codes are mentioned all over the Internet and not just in affiliate marketing, because lets face it many people and merchants still do not realise what us grubby lot actually do.
I would love to see some genuine results on what voucher code sites are doing. Do they actually add incremental sales, after all most do their own SEO and PPC. Do voucher codes cost the merchant as much as they make out and if so, is this due to them not properly planning and monitoring their codes.
With the current financial situation being splashed about by the tabloids effectively scare mongering customers into searching high and low for the best deals. If it isn't voucher codes it will be something else. Will cashback sites begin to cannibalise content sites and voucher code sites or will reviews and content become king?
We are all customers and we shouldn't forget that. We are all looking for the best deal, and in many cases we get better than your average. Cashback, a code and an affiliate commission. Maybe we should all club together and make a film or a series of advertising to explain to the whole of the UK what it is we do, and why it is important they don't aimlessly click around when shopping online.
Perhaps we should all take some time to help the merchants budget correctly and think about their voucher code campaigns to make sure we are all working from the same page and people don't get shafted.
There isn't a definitive answer to this issue. The IAB have worked towards putting some rules in place which has worked, and got some peoples backs up.

There is alot more to say on this subject, but the whole voucher code debate has gone on for far too long now.

Why Newbees Are Afraid To Talk

There have been a few posts on the forum recently from people who are brand new to affiliate marketing. They just pop in to say hello and introduce themselves, yet not many people seem to respond. It must be incredibly daunting to log into the forum for the first time see all the big names and faces, recognise affiliate sites who they aspire to be like. Would it really be so bad for everyone to say hello back and wish them well?

We all started somewhere and it it hadn't been for the support of those around us would we really be as successful as we are? There was a time when the forum was a place for friendly banter and getting to know people. Learning from other peoples mistakes and successes. Yet now we seem to ignore those desperate to learn and to be part of the industry we all love.
It really doesn't take long to just write "hello" or "welcome to the forum" on a newbee post. We are all busy, especially in the run up to Christmas, so answering long posts with many questions may not be feasible at the moment, but its not hard to say "bit busy right now, but private message me in a week and we can talk"

Common courtesy costs nothing.

Too Many Cooks, Spoil The Broth

There are many affiliates with sites who work with one or more other affiliates, on some form of rev share, or a 'you put your links on what you write and i'll put mine on what i write'. For some people i am sure this works really well, but it doesn't always work and here is why;

They forget
Busy with their own sites, they forget to update the joint site, meaning you have to do all the work, yet are still paying them on a rev share, or for people sifting throught the site and clicking through on one of their links.

What they write is utter tosh
Some people, and yes that includes me, have poor spelling and grammar and will often forget to spell check. This means all the effort you go to writing decent content which looks professional is lost by the shoddy workmanship by your fellow affiliate.

You both write the same thing
If you are copying/altering content from other sites, you may end up both writing about the same thing. This can work well if the content is truly unique, but will just look plain stupid if you both copy the same content.

The Solution
This is pretty simple. Just make sure you have clear expectations from each other. Realistic expectations, so if someone has commitments that take up a Tuesday night, make sure you write the content or update the site that day.
Be fair with the money, if one of you is writing more and it is clear to both or all parties involved, then be honest and fair and pay them their dues. You would expect to receive the most money if you were doing the most work.
Have some form of plan that you can all work to. This will make sure you all write different and varied pieces of copy, or update different parts of your site.

All these scream out 'this is common sense' but you would be suprised to see and hear just how many affiliates are taken for mugs by other affiliates, or how many are taking the pi$$ of others.

AB

A4U Awards 2009 - Stop Begging!!!

There has been alot of buzz this past week about the next A4U awards. The Categories can be found here.

Now I personally think the awards are a great way of recognising the hard work and dedication each individual member of the affiliate marketing community put in to our industry. It is also a chance to get together (in a less grubby form) and have a good knees up. Last year we even made the telly!

What I don't like about the awards are the beggers, the ones who are so desperate to win an award they bombard msn, facebook and the forum itself with begging pleas of why they should be voted for. To be fair, I understand why, an award is recognition from all your peers for you exceptional work throughout the year.

By begging you are going to create the following;
a) you are going to really piss people off. Me for one. The more you beg me, the more I think you have too much time on your hands for begging, and the more annoyed I get.

b) you dilute the others. You may think this is a good thing, I see this as unfair. There are people in the industry who work incredibly hard everyday, but choose not to brag about it. Instead they remain modest and get on with their work. By diluting everyone available to vote for you, you are blocking people who *actually* deserve the award. Don't worry though, your time may come.

What I would like to see is a ban on begging. Although this cannot be policed on msn or email or phone calls, I would like to see the A4U forum owner and moderators put rules in place to stop the bullying tactics and begging and bribery which is sure to go on the closer we get to the awards.

Let's make the awards truly anonymous and let the true stars shine though...