Affiliate guide to stop your application for programs getting declined
Tuesday 05 January 2010
TAGS: Affiliate marketing
Imagine you are an affiliate who has spent many hours devising an ingenious, original plan for affiliate marketing and you find the ‘prefect merchant’ to promote that could make you and your merchant millions! Now imagine having your application declined preventing you from making as much as a penny. Manual approvals are standard procedure for many affiliate programs and that means the information provided is checked!
Kevin Sung, Client Service Manager at Silverbean presents his ‘what not to do’ guide that will hopefully enable potential affiliates to provide merchant/agencies with enough information to enable them understand how working together could be a mutually beneficial partnership. Therefore getting your application approved.
Below are the 5 ‘infamous’ ways to get your affiliate application declined:
1. Do not list a valid website
Perhaps the fastest way to get your application declined is not to provide a website (unless you are a known PPC/social media affiliate). Below is an example:
The website is where the merchant will be reviewing your suitability for the program when no site is provided you cannot be judged and therefore have very little chance of being approved.
2. Ignore the program's Ts & Cs
Terms and conditions of a program are to be abided by and have usually been consulted and deliberated over for some time. A merchant selling children’s toys will probably have a condition whereby any adult themed sites will be declined so it will be a waste of time and resources for any such sites to apply to the program.
Reviewing T's & C's before submitting an application will save time for all involved.
3. Listing a new website with no content
Start up websites which are used to promote merchants should always have a description of the site with how it operates and the nature of the site (e.g. voucher code, true content, cashback). This way the merchant/agency will be clear on the objectives and purpose of the site and any questions/suspicions about the site’s integrity will be reduced.
Keeping a website text less can do you a disservice as you may have your application dismissed.
4. Not updating your websites' URLs.
Having URLs of old or no longer existent websites listed on your affiliate account is another sure way to have your application disapproved. As mentioned before the website provided is the key review factor. If you are unknown to the merchant/agency having applications with sites that ‘cannot be found’ such as below will almost certainly end up in a rejection for your application:
5. Listing a Non-English website if you are based outside of the UK
If a merchant ships outside of the UK the affiliate program manager usually welcomes websites based outside the UK as they can be a great source of natural traffic that is highly targeted. However if the site listed is in a language that the affiliate program manager cannot read it can probably be assumed the application will be declined.
Kevin Sung is a Client Services Manager at Silverbean. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Silverbean can help you achieve your marketing objectives through affiliate marketing; please contact our resident affiliate marketing agency expert using one of the following.