So frustrating!

[Chalkie]

I got so frustrated with people in business - especially this business.

The amount of times i have emailed affiliate managers with clear concise details who then ask a question that has been clearly answered in my original mail of clear concise details is so annoying.

The amount of affiliate mangers that take 3,4 and 5 days to answer an email.

The amount of affiliate managers that dont even answer an email at all.

We affiliates are your bread and butter! You should jump at our every beck and call! Or am i just an old cantankerous fool?



Right i feel better for getting that of my chest!

[arkyt]

We affiliates are your bread and butter! You should jump at our every beck and call! Or am i just an old cantankerous fool?

Are any of those programs you are referring to paying 10s of thousands on marketing via online forums?

If so take a deep breath and smile; everything will work out for you in the end.

[Chips]

One of my pet peeves too, I give a reasonable amount of time for response, as I realize that there may be reasons for not getting back to me, on holiday, at a conference, sick, etc. But if no reply comes in a week, then it is forget it. I do not, will not beg to affiliate with a program, if they want my business, they earn it, not the other way around.

The flip side is the programs that pester the living hell out of me even when I reply "no thanks". I do repsond to many queries as at least the person who sent it know the mail was delivered. I bcc myself and file a copy, if I get another "invite" I pull up the bcc I have, fwd along with some "select" content. Like, "What part of NO did you not understand?" DO NOT MAIL ME AGAIN.

99.9% of the time it works (except c-dontpays of course) they just go right to the trash.

[Renee]

I could probably list about 1000 reasons why this happens but here are the main things i can think of from the top of my head:

- Over a weekend.. some aff managers (like myself) dont have access to emails outside the office.

- Spam? A lot of emails get filtered into my spam box, and going through 10,000 spam emails per day we are sure to miss one from time to time.. if you haven't heard back in 2 days and its not a weekend, you should probably write another email, blank with just the words "Just checking if you received my last email" - it will be pretty hard for this to get caught in a spam filter and i have found it works when my emails land in your spam filter.

- Our emails landing in your spam filter. I had an affiliate once who was emailing me regarding payments and I replied every time but still kept getting emails every 2 days or so saying 'why arent you replying. im going to the forums etc'. in the end I emailed them from my personal address to tell them that I have been emailing back and that they should add me to their whitelist.. This still didnt fix the problem but at least i was able to tell them what was going on. So make sure their email is on your whitelist.

- AOL/other emails. I find that my emails only get through to aol and comcast emails etc about 2% of the time. So try to send us an email from an email address thats not one of those. These tend to work in the way that they only accept emails from servers that will ping them back or something.. cant remember exactly what the deal is but basically comcast and aol accept emails from very very few servers.

- Other means of contact.. I personally have msn, icq, yahoo, aim, phone, email, postal address on the moon listed in my details, as well as 2 other affiliate managers details. If one doesn't work, try the other. There is no excuse for not being contactable if all of those things are listed and you have tried most of them with no luck.

I hope this helps

[Chalkie]

LOL

Thanks Renee, for taking the time to reply to this and very well answered too!

Comical thing is, i actually got an email back off one affiliate manager this Sunday, 5 days after i contacted them! Good on them for working Sundays I suppose!

Me use a spam filter? Never! I like as many emails as possible, makes me feel important!



How is the queue of guys going BTW?

I could probably list about 1000 reasons why this happens but here are the main things i can think of from the top of my head:

- Over a weekend.. some aff managers (like myself) dont have access to emails outside the office.

- Spam? A lot of emails get filtered into my spam box, and going through 10,000 spam emails per day we are sure to miss one from time to time.. if you haven't heard back in 2 days and its not a weekend, you should probably write another email, blank with just the words "Just checking if you received my last email" - it will be pretty hard for this to get caught in a spam filter and i have found it works when my emails land in your spam filter.

- Our emails landing in your spam filter. I had an affiliate once who was emailing me regarding payments and I replied every time but still kept getting emails every 2 days or so saying 'why arent you replying. im going to the forums etc'. in the end I emailed them from my personal address to tell them that I have been emailing back and that they should add me to their whitelist.. This still didnt fix the problem but at least i was able to tell them what was going on. So make sure their email is on your whitelist.

- AOL/other emails. I find that my emails only get through to aol and comcast emails etc about 2% of the time. So try to send us an email from an email address thats not one of those. These tend to work in the way that they only accept emails from servers that will ping them back or something.. cant remember exactly what the deal is but basically comcast and aol accept emails from very very few servers.

- Other means of contact.. I personally have msn, icq, yahoo, aim, phone, email, postal address on the moon listed in my details, as well as 2 other affiliate managers details. If one doesn't work, try the other. There is no excuse for not being contactable if all of those things are listed and you have tried most of them with no luck.

I hope this helps

[Renee]

One thing I should also add is that sometimes after the conferences or after a holiday its hard to catch up on all the emails you got over the break quickly. Please refer to the mention of 10,000 emails above.

You may not use a spam filter, however some ISPs impliment a spam filter on their end and you have to email them to remove it from your account.. Of course they don't tell you they have it, you just wonder WTF your emails are going.. yes this has happened to me.

*cough cough* Queue?

[Chalkie]

What amazes me is that when an affiliate manager emails or phones me and i reply i get an almost instant response.



Just thought i would add to this!

2 weeks now for 2 affiliate managers, both of whom represent firms that are sponsors on here.

6 weeks for an approval of at least 2 new affiliate accounts, 1 of whom is a sponsor on here!



If i see them at CAC they can look out! (or buy all my beer)

[arkyt]

2 weeks now for 2 affiliate managers, both of whom represent firms that are sponsors on here.

6 weeks for an approval of at least 2 new affiliate accounts, 1 of whom is a sponsor on here!

Thats disturbing - VERY disturbing yet its not really surprising!

These companies purchase their certifications / seals / forum space to recruit / advertise etc then they never show up to offer any legit support/service for the community they are using. It does absolutely nothing to help this community or its members and it surely does nothing to help the industry as a whole!

I'm not a private member of this organization, but I would love to know of all the programs here how many of those affiliate managers post on a regular basis?

[Chalkie]

My point is not aimed at the members here representing their specific companies or their posting on here either. However, pointing out that whether they are here or not, they are in the main flipping terrible at responding to people.

In all fairness, only one of the replies i am waiting for is actually from the representative of a firm listed here. The others are from other people listed here as sponsors, but not the representative who represents them here.

I am beginning to get the feeling that either they do not want my business, am scared off because of the "rakeback" bit in my address or that most of these firms need to up their stafffing levels.

My next move forward on this will be to make contact via pm on here and i am sure that i will be answered then!

Thats disturbing - VERY disturbing yet its not really surprising!

These companies purchase their certifications / seals / forum space to recruit / advertise etc then they never show up to offer any legit support/service for the community they are using. It does absolutely nothing to help this community or its members and it surely does nothing to help the industry as a whole!

I'm not a private member of this organization, but I would love to know of all the programs here how many of those affiliate managers post on a regular basis?