Please get back to me me the following details:
1. Site Name
2. General site description
3. Why your site is a good fit for the Apple program
4. Unique users per month
5. Page impressions per month
6. Estimate monthly sales you can generate
Hmm, so I was just contemplating if I could be bothered to answer these questions and especially pondering if they would accept 0 - 100,000 as an answer to question 6 when I came across Jason's blog post entitled: Apple Not Paying Commission on iPads. Now I wasn't planning on actually promoting the iPad via affiliate links but this attitude of Apple's really annoys me. They seem to think that affiliates are good enough to promote all of their other products but when it comes to something as hot as the iPad then they don't have to pay us commission because it will sell on it's own without our help. Then I remembered that it had happened before, and before that, and before that. And it will probably happen again. At this point I was about to go into a rant about treating affiliates unfairly and only giving commission on products that aren't "hot" items such as games consoles, iPads, iPhone etc. is grossly unfair but I just haven't the heart any more. It happens every year and it unlikely to change. OK maybe I will a little bit...While writing this post I've been tweeting about this very situation and a couple of people have said that Apple will still sell a lot of iPads without affiliates so it won't harm them commercially. Well yes and no. Yes they will still sell a ton of them but it's about respect. It's like saying, hey affiliates we want you to promote all of our other products but just not the iPad. It will sell a stink load without you guys so just back off OK? Not OK. I think it's grossly unfair to treat your "partners" like this. Either we're good enough to promote all your stuff or none. Make your mind up. People were also arguing whether or not my post (or others similar) will bring in incremental sales. Yes they will, I've listed some tweets below that I received in response to my review. Sure this is only anecdotal evidence but it's the best we've got. So, Apple, I won't be joining your programme thankyou very much. To be blunt, I think you're unfair for not offering commission on the iPad. Just so you know, more than one person has today told me that they pre-ordered the iPad as a direct consequence of reading my review. My review that cost you nothing. Some tweets about my iPad review...
What I'm listening to right now: "Cool, groovy, soulful music" - awful name but brilliant playlist.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
You’re right, of course. Not only is TD an absolute nightmare to work with, but Apple are not playing fair here. I’ve pretty much given up on Apple too, although Skimlinks include them as a merchant, so will just be doing “naked” links where editorially justified, and let Skimlinks monetise if possible, but not really worry about it!
Was going to promote the iPad on my site here is Australia but the local Apple affiliate program states that any pre-orders on iPads pay 0 commission. Once 28 May comes along they pay there generous 2% so I guess i’ll wait till then before mailing my massive email list….sigh, agreed Apple treats affiliates like crap.
It’s laughable that an affiliate manager would fire back an email like that, without realising here is an affiliate that could potentially generate a lot of sales. They probably should have done their homework.
I thought I was already an Apple affiliate on TD (programId 2554), but I just checked and I see the status ‘ended’. meh :/
Offering £0 on iPads really takes the piss
Are you an iTunes affiliate via TD Kieron? I link to them on my sites – but it hardly seems worth the effort spending 5-10 minutes trying to construct a deeplink for 4p per Pound. I guess ShareMyPlaylists would send enough traffic to make it worthwhile, but 4% is pretty measly
Its just as bad for official apple resellers, they are not allowed to take deposits or pre-orders!
I agree with your stance. Merchants that pick and choose when they want us simply don’t get my support. The Affiliate/Merchant partnership should be seen as a long term relationship.
Doesn’t any company invest it’s marketing budget where it will get the best value? I’m not sure Apple needs our help on selling iPads! They seem to have won the crowd over quite well themselves. I’m not sure that’s unfair, just common sense? By all means protest, but will they notice? Probably not – and that’s the point!
i ended up shutting down my DJing sites because of the crap from itunes and Apple, really not impressed by their attitude. this being said, there’s always amazon, not the best but at least you get something for your efforts.
also trying the skimlinks route.
I’m not sure you understand the point. An affiliate partnership should be just that, a partnership. Not a case of “you sell these because they’re slow sellers but we can sell the rest on our own thanks.” That’s just like a kick in the teeth for hard working affiliates who let’s remember work on a performance basis. We market merchant’s products at our expense and our risk. So when something like this happens it’s just an insult.
Whilst I can see the fustration an affiliates point of view. From a merchants perspective affiliate marketing is just one channel of generating sales and as Blogercise said you would always look to use your marketing budget in the most cost effective way. So why would you pay for something that you simply don’t need to.
Apple don’t need affiliates to sell the iPad so why should they pay out to them?
Dave, as I’ve said before it’s just not best practice to run an affiliate relationship this way. What’s even more unfair is that once the initial iPad hype as died down they’ll probably introduce affiliate commissions against it. We see retailers do this every Christmas when things like the Nintendo Wii prove popular. They remove commission over Christmas, and once it’s over they reinstate it. Again, as I mentioned above, affiliates work on a commission only model and in many cases spend hundreds of thousands of pounds building up websites, traffic, communtity etc and then they promote affiliate merchants on a commission only basis, shouldering all of the risk. Relationships between affiliates and merchants are always biased commercially towards the merchants and this is just an example of merchants flexing their muscles and once again hoping we’ll just accept it.
I really want one too, but then again I always want every new thing that comes out. Sally
That makes alot of sense what you are saying Kieron. I too read your in depth review of the iPad, a device that previously I had shrugged off, and your review of it in your previous post has been tempting me as a good deal. Previously as I said I shrugged it off as a useless little thing. I am sure that eventually they will have the iPad available for sale for affiliates to promote but by then it will be too late as you say. Come to think of it… I am sure Apple could generate ALOT more hype for the iPad had it given its affiliates the commission for the iPad.
Apple has earlier done same with iPhone in UK. Released on Vodafone network but the Carphone and Vodafone communicated to affiliated for no commission for iPhone sold by them. Apple is just unfair on these type of decisions.
I remember seeing the same kind of emails around the iPhone 3GS, I thought it disappointing that no commission was being paid, but then they also said about refraining from promoting them – which from an overall business perspective I thought was completely bizarre!
Hi,
I did a search of “Apple” on TradeDoubler – and no programs can be found – are you sure it’s on there…?
As I mentioned in my blog post, it’s a closed programme so not available to everyone. Contact TD direct for details.
I don’t think it is fair that apple does that. Yes they can still sell a bunch of them but it wouldn’t be as readily accessible.
Well Kieron, I don’t blame you. I did answer the questions in great detail with *THREE* sites that couldn’t be more perfect for a range of Apple products. I was approved by Denise and then eight days later I was removed from the program. The reason I was given was that my sites hadn’t fulfilled my sales quota. I didn’t even know I had been allotted one. The links had only been live for three days!
For 2% of the meagre fair that Apple actually pay on, I really couldn’t be bothered with the hassle.
On a wider TradeDoubler note. You’re right. They are a nightmare – particularly the requirement to re-apply for every program you’re in just for the ‘privilege’ of using the same links on additional sites. The latest episode was giving affiliates two working days notice of the end of Vodafone’s programmes and a terse suggestion to move links over to AWin.
You’re also right about the fact that it’s *all* about the long term relationship. We, like many other affiliates, spend considerable time and expense promoting merchant’s wares and expect a professional, *mutually beneficial* relationship in return.
I no longer bother with merchants that mess about. I left ad agency life to steer my own ship and escape the constant ‘meddling’ from insecure and creatively bankrupt marketing departments full of lame ducks more interested in steering campaigns to hobnob with their favourite c-list celebrities and lunch at The Ivy etc than creative and marketing excellence.
I hope this rant against Apple gets as much traffic as the iPad review did! It sucks that these double standards get applied. It really doesn’t instill much of a sense of cameraderie, now does it?
I think apple think tey are too big to fail and that if they build it customers will come, maybe that’s true today, but we all know what happened to IBM.
Unbelieveable arrogance and lack of respect! I love Apple products, but am not overly surprised this attitude is filtering down from the brand to the very people keen to promote their products. As you say, it’s not likely to have too much impact on the ipad sales, the more they adopt this attidude, future product launches could suffer, if Apple ever lose focus on their PR, and ensuring there is a huge mismatch between suppy and demand….
Apple products are so popular and they actually sell themselves thats why the company do not count with small vendors. The same situation is in Germany
We have to find another way to make money.
Don’t think this is unique to Apple. I used to make some good money off Amazon Associates, and then they kept changing all the rules – “Oh, you want to promote iPods? Well, they sell pretty well on there own so we’re just going to give you a really low commission for those. But thanks for helping us out.”
It’s laughable that an affiliate manager would fire back an email like that, without realising here is an affiliate that could potentially generate a lot of sales. They probably should have done their homework.
I don’t think it is fair that apple does that. Yes they can still sell a bunch of them but it wouldn’t be as readily accessible.