How much is too much ?

[Alex_PlayAttack]

Hi Guys,


Thanks for such an interesting thread, of course it's not a surprise to know cold-base emailing could be annoying. Just my two cents about aff. manager's side of the coin: for us emailing is another way to reach our target audience (you guys actually). We don't like this way but we can't skip it as well.
As for me, world would be better if not interested recipient replied "don't touch me" and a sender immediately canceled any further efforts.
But unfortunately, there is still not much place for politeness and intelligence in the world we live in, so if we swap our places, I'd rather block and ignore than take risks to face another objection overcoming robot.

[DaftDog]

Hi Guys,


Thanks for such an interesting thread, of course it's not a surprise to know cold-base emailing could be annoying. Just my two cents about aff. manager's side of the coin: for us emailing is another way to reach our target audience (you guys actually). We don't like this way but we can't skip it as well.
As for me, world would be better if not interested recipient replied "don't touch me" and a sender immediately canceled any further efforts.
But unfortunately, there is still not much place for politeness and intelligence in the world we live in, so if we swap our places, I'd rather block and ignore than take risks to face another objection overcoming robot.

The op wrote:

Now - I don't want to do business with either of these groups - I just want to get rid of them ... but currently I cannot get of these people either by ignoring them, or even telling them that I am not interested and to delete my email from their list.

Seems a simple "don't touch me" doesn't always work and that the lack of politeness and intelligence is not exclusive to affiliates only.

[TheGooner]

As for me, world would be better if not interested recipient replied "don't touch me" and a sender immediately canceled any further efforts.

As DaftDog has mentioned ... the OP explains the issue.

I understand cold-calls and I attempt to reply to most AMs even if it is to say NO.
Unfortunately only about 10% of AM's take NO as the answer ..

I am then bombarded with daily mails because the AM thinks they've "lucked" into a live email address and won't let it go.
So this is an attempt to find ways to "outprice" myself and get off the list ...

[Luke Affalliance]

Since this topic was raised, I have 2 questions for you.

1) What is your attitude if, for example, an affiliate manager, whom you`ve refused and for whom your traffic is relevant(!!!) contacts you in a month or two with a polite question whether you do have any free spots coming up in future?

2) If you are refusing every affiliate program who is trying to reach you, how do you update your websites with new brands? I understand that you may not do it on the regular basis, but I assume you still do it once in a while.

[PROFRBcom]

Since this topic was raised, I have 2 questions for you.

1) What is your attitude if, for example, an affiliate manager, whom you`ve refused and for whom your traffic is relevant(!!!) contacts you in a month or two with a polite question whether you do have any free spots coming up in future?

2) If you are refusing every affiliate program who is trying to reach you, how do you update your websites with new brands? I understand that you may not do it on the regular basis, but I assume you still do it once in a while.

1) Contacting me once a quarter wouldn't be terrible. But once a month? They'd end up spam listed for sure.

2) We are a part of our niche. We participate and follow social media, forums, and talk to our customers. We tend to hear about options relatively soon after they are created.

[Luke Affalliance]

1) Contacting me once a quarter wouldn't be terrible. But once a month? They'd end up spam listed for sure.

2) We are a part of our niche. We participate and follow social media, forums, and talk to our customers. We tend to hear about options relatively soon after they are created.

Coming from that I assume that you prefer to reach the program you are interested to promote rather than having program reaching you to offer you a deal?

[Miles_Videoslots]

I have to agree with you in most respects and ultimately it's your business and you get the choice of who to tell to F off and who to work with for sure and for one who was lucky enough to work with you in the past.

I have always found that your frank upfront and direct approach was always a good one.

You have always been honest and truthful and I feel you should stick to that approach rather than a trick , lie or be deceitful in what you tell affiliate managers just be YOU! it's your business.

Just want to say that persistence is a trait I know all too well and it has done well for me personally its what makes me good at what I do and it is part of an affiliate managers job to keep hunting deals if we didn't we wouldn't be doing our job in saying that ... there should 100% be a limit and NO is NO .

if you can't find a good medium and an affiliate just does not want to negotiate then well its time to close that chapter and move on. you have every right to choose your partners and discard those that you don't need or want /

My gut feel is if you start telling programs that you want $xxxx listing fees etc then this is just inviting them to keep coming back as they may feel if they offer enough they will turn you .. Just be Gooner and tell them how it is you work.

[xecutable]

The internet is no excuse for poor approach etiquette. You wouldn't just meet someone and right away ask them how much. Then why do it over an email. I'd gladly reply to an email that starts with "Hi, my name is ..... and I work for ...... . Would you have the time to discuss a potential partnership?" and end it there.

I've never received such email, in one affiliate manager letter, you get their name, the program they work for, how great their program is, what you get and what %, how much money they'd make you etc etc, 500 letter message that I guess most just delete before they even read the 2nd sentence.

Why would you assume a copy-pasted message that has been sent bulk to 50 sites will get you anywhere?

I personally delete and move on. Takes me 2 seconds, which means that I'd waste 1 minute every 30 messages, rather than 2h 30min, if I took the liberty to reply (around 5 mins) per message. So go ahead Paul, check how fast you can delete a pile of link sales/aff offers within a minute

[Partnerama]

The internet is no excuse for poor approach etiquette. You wouldn't just meet someone and right away ask them how much. Then why do it over an email. I'd gladly reply to an email that starts with "Hi, my name is ..... and I work for ...... . Would you have the time to discuss a potential partnership?" and end it there.

I've never received such email, in one affiliate manager letter, you get their name, the program they work for, how great their program is, what you get and what %, how much money they'd make you etc etc, 500 letter message that I guess most just delete before they even read the 2nd sentence.

Why would you assume a copy-pasted message that has been sent bulk to 50 sites will get you anywhere?

I personally delete and move on. Takes me 2 seconds, which means that I'd waste 1 minute every 30 messages, rather than 2h 30min, if I took the liberty to reply (around 5 mins) per message. So go ahead Paul, check how fast you can delete a pile of link sales/aff offers within a minute

Totally agree with above, the frequency and tone of "affiliate acquisition emails" is key.
Keeping it short with a closing line: ...."our proposal is simple: have a look at Casino XYZ (URL) and let me know your initial thoughts?"... usually works well. If it sparks an interest, it opens the door for a more detailed conversation.

However spamming the life out of affiliates is sometimes encouraged by certain operators, in the past I have witnessed an appraisal for an AM who created a fake Facebook profile (of a very aesthetically pleasing young female) to re-target an affiliate who failed to respond to his previous emails.

[WagerX]

Good question.
If I had an epic site like yours I would so the following:

For affiliate programs.
Most are probably using an automated bot. How about a contact form with an advanced captcha? A high price point would be €1000 cpa with minimum of €10000 per month. First month up front. lol..

For links.. charge €10,000 per month on the homepage and €2,000 on an internal page. Tell them that it is a no follow link, of the url of their website only. This amount is super high, and not sustainable. That should scare them away and shouldn't be a burden on your site's SEO profile if they accept.

If any of these guys say "yes" please post here. .. and factor up to 2X..

[Luke Affalliance]

Good question.
If I had an epic site like yours I would so the following:

For affiliate programs.
Most are probably using an automated bot. How about a contact form with an advanced captcha? A high price point would be €1000 cpa with minimum of €10000 per month. First month up front. lol..

For links.. charge €10,000 per month on the homepage and €2,000 on an internal page. Tell them that it is a no follow link, of the url of their website only. This amount is super high, and not sustainable. That should scare them away and shouldn't be a burden on your site's SEO profile if they accept.

If any of these guys say "yes" please post here. .. and factor up to 2X..

Most of the affiliate managers don`t use automated bots for contacting affiliates. Or maybe it`s just me using outdated manual work when it comes to sending emails to potential partners...

[Renee]

Most of the affiliate managers don`t use automated bots for contacting affiliates. Or maybe it`s just me using outdated manual work when it comes to sending emails to potential partners...

Judging by the number of affiliate managers who email me asking for space on our affiliate program website because they think we are affiliates, I'd say they are still either using automated bots or have no attention to detail whatsoever.

[Cash Bonus]

Hello Renee, most likely, they are only automated bots or just people who have way too much time on their hands.

[superme]

Just invest time to prepare Media kit with insane prices - say link 100K, entry fee to list new program - 300K etc... template it and then just reply with it. Works great for me.

[baldidiot]

Judging by the number of affiliate managers who email me asking for space on our affiliate program website because they think we are affiliates, I'd say they are still either using automated bots or have no attention to detail whatsoever.

Or they just buy lists of affiliate emails and bulk email or outsource the initial contact.

I once had an email from an AM pitching for business where they said a lot of fairly generic but specific stuff about the site they were emailing through (eg: I like the recent changes, nice logo or whatever). Thinking it was a legit direct contact I actually replied to their "personal" email and they said "what site are you from?".

I think that was the last email I ever bothered replying to.

[baldidiot]

As DaftDog has mentioned ... the OP explains the issue.

I understand cold-calls and I attempt to reply to most AMs even if it is to say NO.
Unfortunately only about 10% of AM's take NO as the answer ..

I am then bombarded with daily mails because the AM thinks they've "lucked" into a live email address and won't let it go.
So this is an attempt to find ways to "outprice" myself and get off the list ...

Yeah exactly. A response (any kind of response) just leads to a massive badgering of contact from the person. And also often an increase in the number of new people contacting so they're probably giving it to their mates to try as well.

Why not charge a review fee - say £1,500 - which you outsource to someone that produces a detailed report on the brand to your specs. Give the report to the brand at the end and base your decision to list/not list on the outcome of the report. No refunds on the report if they fail and you may be giving the program useful feedback.

And the chancers probably wouldn't do it anyway.

[Triple7]

As DaftDog has mentioned ... the OP explains the issue.

I understand cold-calls and I attempt to reply to most AMs even if it is to say NO.
Unfortunately only about 10% of AM's take NO as the answer ..

I am then bombarded with daily mails because the AM thinks they've "lucked" into a live email address and won't let it go.
So this is an attempt to find ways to "outprice" myself and get off the list ...

This.

Any reply or comments about the casino is usually an open sollication to an endless discussion.

[Luke Affalliance]

Yeah exactly. A response (any kind of response) just leads to a massive badgering of contact from the person. And also often an increase in the number of new people contacting so they're probably giving it to their mates to try as well.

Why not charge a review fee - say £1,500 - which you outsource to someone that produces a detailed report on the brand to your specs. Give the report to the brand at the end and base your decision to list/not list on the outcome of the report. No refunds on the report if they fail and you may be giving the program useful feedback.

And the chancers probably wouldn't do it anyway.

I`m 100% sure that my opinion will not be popular over here, but this sounds like a fraud to me. It`s pretty much the same as an affiliate program saying that you need to push us that much of traffic and if we like it, we may consider paying you. No guarantees.

In that case it`s better to ignore the manager rather than to offer this, since some beginners in the in the industry may, in fact, pay £1,500 considering it normal.

[baldidiot]

I`m 100% sure that my opinion will not be popular over here, but this sounds like a fraud to me. It`s pretty much the same as an affiliate program saying that you need to push us that much of traffic and if we like it, we may consider paying you. No guarantees.

In that case it`s better to ignore the manager rather than to offer this, since some beginners in the in the industry may, in fact, pay £1,500 considering it normal.

I wouldn't consider it fraudulent. Not if they're actually getting a proper review of the program out of it and they actually could get listed if they pass the review.

So maybe it wouldn't work in gooners case if he has very high thresholds, but if you are actually listing people who pass it I don't see the issue. I believe there are a few affiliates that do this, has been discussed a few times on the forums.

[Luke Affalliance]

I wouldn't consider it fraudulent. Not if they're actually getting a proper review of the program out of it and they actually could get listed if they pass the review.

So maybe it wouldn't work in gooners case if he has very high thresholds, but if you are actually listing people who pass it I don't see the issue. I believe there are a few affiliates that do this, has been discussed a few times on the forums.

Yes, I know such model of affiliation, but first of all, the cost is ~6 times lower and secondly, for this money, a review is still being listed with all the pros and cons. In this case, it also would also be fair to have all programs go through this and not just ones that have not impressed you with their cold email pitch.

It is a business if you pay for something.
It is gambling if you pay for possibility of something.