Bonuses, commission adjustments and compensation

One of the things that I find frustrating with *every* UK affiliate network is the process of adding bonuses, commission adjustments and compensations to your account.

Let's take bonuses for example. Now don't get me wrong, bonus incentives are great as they give us reasons to push particular merchants with the promise of extra cash for doing so. But what I find very frustrating is that there are lots of merchants now who have a tiered pricing structure in place. Let's say its £10 per sale or £20 per sale if you achieve over 100 sales in a month. Now why is it that *no* networks tell you that you have achieved/missed this bonus once the month is over. Not only that but they don't tell you that (a) it has been paid into your account or (b) what the bonus is actually for when you do hit it the following month. When you promote literally hundreds of merchants across many websites it really can become a challenge keeping up with payments.

So back to a real life example. I logged onto TradeDoubler (sorry guys, not singling you out) 2 minutes ago and discovered over the last 2 weeks that I have 9 transactions totalling just over £2.5k that I didn't know where there. Nor do I understand why some of them are there

Wouldn't it be great to receive an email from the network's saying something like "congratulations Kieron, you have achieved 180 sales for merchant X in December which means you have earned £20 per sale instead of £10, therefore we have applied a £1,800 bonus in your account today".

This would be fantastic as not only would you be motivated to push this merchant more but you could actually know what the bonus is for. At least TD offer some text in the description field for the bonus amounts. DGM for example just lump the amount into your account with no explanation.

What's worse is when you have to chase networks for bonus payments. Or worse still, if the bonus payments are incorrect. This has happened to me more times than I remember.

Now I know what I am suggesting is not a simplistic process to build into a networks functionality. But neither is it rocket science or brain surgery. And personally speaking it would save me so much time every month where I am either chasing bonuses up or querying them to see what exactly that payment for £x relates to.

Just an open suggestion to all affiliate networks.

What I'm listening to right now: Jaheim - "Ghetto Love"