There is a lot of talk about “Branded Links” recently. Also known as direct links, these are Affiliate tracking links that do not go through an Affiliate network’s tracking servers and redirects. Rather, the link is direct to the merchant utilizing added parameters to track and credit the sale accordingly. Here is an example of a branded or direct link URL:
http://www.merchantname.com/?network=1611_cl_0_trac
It’s interesting how many merchants are starting to ask the question “Do you offer direct Affiliate links?” as one of the first orders of business when we begin talking about a possible partnership. The answer I give is no we don’t offer branded links, and if we did, it would be the Affiliate’s choice on whether they used them or not. I then go on to explain exactly why we don’t and why that’s not a good idea. In nutshell, building link popularity and pagerank is not the job of the Affiliate. Nor should it be. The Affiliate’s job is to send the merchant their qualified customers. There are many other techniques a merchant can use to build their backlink count.
Most merchants new to the game have an open ear so once I explain everything they look at the whole picture and start to think more reasonably about the Affiliate/merchant relationship. They have to figure out what they want. Do they want inbound links, or do they want sales volume from many highly productive and savvy online marketers.
There is quite a bit of discussion these days on this issue, as the big 3 networks, as they’re known, are all offering branded links. Here is a lively discussion at ABestWeb about just this:
Similarly, we’ve started to see cases in which the network and merchant have cut the Affiliate out altogether! Downtown Ecommerce Partners, an interactive services firm specializing in ecommerce consultancy, recently posted a great blog article about this. In many ways, it’s similar to networks using the selling point of Affiliate branded links to attract merchant business. They have it all wrong, though. Merchants go where the Affiliates are, not the other way around! Interested parties (Affiliates, namely) should have a look at this write up. Here is a quote:
The negative impact to our business is not the point. What is more relevant to the Affiliate Marketing Industry is the dynamic of the traditionally three way relationship. This dynamic is changing and Affiliates and Merchants will have to choose their partners wisely. The former “three-way” pie is rapidly consolidating to just two hands - the Affiliate Network (soon to be renamed as simple a “Network”) and the Merchant.
Read the full article: Affiliates Beware - You may be next
Let us know what you think..
Gary & AvantLink
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1Kevin Delaney on Aug 15, 2007 at 1:16 pm:
I concur that this is a very negative trend. The merchant is wanting to get something from their affiliates that they did not buy. The point of this trend is for the merchant to undermine the affiliate. Affiliates are wise to avoid direct link programs.
2Blake on Aug 17, 2007 at 11:15 am:
I’ve had some recent experiences with exploitational networks that taught me that ‘times indeed are changing.’ But I didn’t realize this attempt to milk less savvy affiliates has gone as far as it did. I appreciate the heads-up, and the link to the article and ongoing discussions.
At this point I guess I am down to two networks I will work with, period, with avantlink being the Cadillac choice. I can only imagine what it feels like to deal repeatedly with new merchants “trained” to look for this type of relationship with their affiliates.
3Ben on Aug 19, 2007 at 9:43 pm:
There’s quite a few things going on here:
1. We can’t cut out affiliate management programs; otherwise coordinating merchant payments to affiliates is too complex to keep track of for publishers.
2. A link should NEVER show an error, even if a merchant has stopped making payments to the affiliate management program and the affiliate will not get paid for a referral. Affiliates should be notified, and should be required to choose whether to remove their links or not. Having links that produce errors is equivalent to broken links, and reflects extremely poorly on the affiliate.
3. Direct links remove a lot of the real tediousness of creating affiliate links To have to choose from a list of static links that run through the affiliate management website, rather than simply appending some simple querystring argument to any URL on the merchant site that you wish to publish to is silly. There’s much more power and simplicity in direct links.
And now, the question is, what’s the solution. Well, it’s not that hard:
Affiliate management sites simply need to provide the merchants with small software applications which record and transmit traffic and sales from the merchant site to the affiliate management databases. That way,
- direct links are ok
- affiliates can still use the affiliate management sites for simple reporting
- search engines give hte proper ranking to merchants (which is a very fair point).
and,
- affiliate management sites can have simple scripts which look for changes in reported numbers. Such changes could indicate “cheaters” who are trying to circumvent paying out or reporting sales or traffic by hacking scripts.
This is the right kind of solution; a solution like this makes things cleaner for merchants and affiliates, and puts the onus of managing the connection between the two in the hands of…. the affiliate management sites–squarely where it should be!
Anything along these lines would be a big upgrade for the interaction between merchant sites and my site. We are creating ~50 affiliate links dynamically a day, and having a simple scheme such as direct linking is a HUGE win for us.
Ben Cipollini
http://www.dodtracker.com/
4Scott Hazard on Aug 21, 2007 at 9:55 pm:
Merchants using these branded links in an attempt to game the SEO results will only lead to the search engines taking additional steps to discount the value of an affiliate link.
We have enough obstacles already.
5Ben on Aug 25, 2007 at 1:42 pm:
Another reason that branded links are good is that many browsers and spyware block access to affiliate link servers, as they consider them as malware sites.
For us, that issue is the biggest loss of revenue. And the inability to create an affiliate link to any destination is the biggest technical challenge. Branded links solve both those issues. Bring ‘em on!
Ben