Why Affiliate Programs Suck

I’ve never been happy with affiliate programs. They are a lot of hassle, and I never made much from them (except for the early days of Amazon). I’d have to have ten of them to make any money, and how much time would that take and pain would it involve?

The person that looked at your application must not know you very well, then, unfortunately. I’d try talking to them, Chris. Perhaps things will turn out better if you talk to the person personally and find out what’s up!

I never really got into affiliate programs before, but that sounds crummy. At least you’ll still drink Peet’s coffee, and not discriminate it! I might look into affiliate programs more, and actually see the ins and outs of them.

wow chris, wow thats somthing but yet all true but next time please try to explain what affiliate programs are because i had to look through a couple dictionarys.

Chris Pirillo »Why Affiliate Programs SuckPosted 36 minutes ago

i guess Peet’s don’t know the “Power of Pirillo™”.
like, i wouldn’t even heard of them if it wasn’t for you. but hey… it’s their loss.
time will come when they will accept you.
they are truly missing out.

Amazon Goes (Stealth) Social from Mashable!, 5 Hours Ago.Why Affiliate Programs Suck from Chris Pirillo, 6 Hours Ago.

I dont understand it fully, but as far as i get it. they complane about the “How to make coffee” Video right ?, i think its a shame. people need to tink before the act. all over the world you see this things, and im sick of it to.. people need to think and know the benefits out off some things.

I am an Amazon affiliate, and I never made a single cent out of my ad placement. But the google ads I have on my site have generated a few dollars for me. To be fair, my blog is not well known and my hits are in the low thousands, but I have it up for fun.

I dont like affilated advertising as well. Mainly as you say because its akin to free advertising. If you have a high traffic social website CTR goes down. And then convertions go down even more.

However, if somebody sees the advert for peets coffee they are likely to buy it in the supermarket.

Same goes for adverts on TV a few examples:
What was the last drink?
Cell phone?
Computer Advert?
Computer shop?
Food?
Fast Food?

so on and so forth, likely the answers are:
coke cola,
apple iphone
dell
pc world(in my case)
cant think of one right now
mc donalds

but still you seen the adverts and you were influenced. I dont know why the internet is any different? Why dont all advertisers pay CPM based? Just because you can track clicks/conversions doesnt make it a good metric to base ad revenu on!

Pierce

I totally agree.
The commission is awful and the majority of the time serves only as a billboard rather than a ‘click here (only) for special offer’. Clicks almost always result in initial research but probably not a sale until the visitor returns directly to the site at a later date.
In my opinion, affiliate programs should all be pay-per-click or should record the IP address of a person following an ad and then apply a referral fee to the referrer if that IP address ever purchases from the site.

YES. YES. YES. That is the problem with affiliate programs. I had a simillar situation with gotomeeting. I was a current customer and was building a site for a side business. They turned my site down. This was 3 weeks before my subscription was due to renew, I let it expire. Their affiliate manager cost the company $500.

If you are going to commit to putting an affiliate program out there you need to be aware of who you are turning down. In college we were tought happy customers tell 3-5 people. Angry customers tell 50. You just told 20,000.

Chris PirilloWhy Affiliate Programs SuckOkay, if I asked you what brand of coffee I liked most… you’d know the answer. I’ve been proselytizing it for several years now. I’ve sold more of it to people without ever taking a bounty or asking for something in return. I just …

It seems there is a difference between Peet’s Coffee corporation and something called an affiliate program, and you got stiffed on some bucks, boo hoo; share your beef with the world. Business is risky, profit is not certain. I applaud your right to complain; caution about many things can be beneficial.

There is also a difference between Peet and Peet’s Coffee which is IMO much more important to publicise. Peet started out in Berkeley CA selecting the coffee and supervising the roasting, so customers would have the best he could find and offer. Back then the coffee and tea were truly worth raving about, no lie or exaggeration. An interview with him before he died stated, if he could, he would go back to what he did at that early time and just open a local store to provide the best he could arrange. Peet’s Coffee has become a big outfit and by no means is the coffee always or mostly very good, in fact I have had it suck repeatedly (so what is the benefit over $tarbu¢ks?). So to be a Peets booster without qualification is IMHO being a shill, paid or not. I share that with the world here.

One last comment. Caffeine is a drug, and perhaps not appropriate for all–or even for Chris. You are responsible for your own behavior. Coffee is hard on the liver and gall bladder, so may not be appropriate for some. Yes, coffee supposedly has antioxidants, but that is not a reason for guzzling (in many cases, addiction) if other aspects are not favorable. What some fail to think through is, if antioxidants in food are *actually* good for one (which has been theorized, indicated, and likely, but not “proven” to any substantial degree of scientific certainty), then one does not have to buy *expensive* items like blueberries (which BTW don’t taste like blueberries anymore), chocolate and coffee (both lessened in flavor because of overproduction, and disease distroying favorable strains (because of unnatural means of production) causing less good stuff being available, and the original strains no longer available, all due largely to human avarice for profit–coffee and chocolate “ain’t what they used to be”–and that is no lie or exaggeration), but from common, inexpensive items like black, pinto, and red beans, red cabbage, garden and roadside weeds (yes I know no dog pee or pesticides please), etc. There are risks and opportunities in all things.

So keep your eyes and minds open, exercise moderation in all things, and don’t overestimate second rate products, whether they be affiliate programs, Peets Coffee (the substance or the corporation), or red cabbage at your local high.price.emporium.

Thank you for your site and its open posting opportunities, Chris.

Ms. Olice