Robin Majumdar 2.0

Well, after many years of managing the various eBay affiliate programs through Commission Junction, I was one of the first to migrate campaigns over to their new in-house eBay Partner Network at the beginning of the month.

I’ll write an indepth analysis after a couple more weeks of usage, but thus far it’s been working relatively smoothly although eCPM and CTR numbers seem to be somewhat lower than back on the CJ eBay program (which is still running in parallel until the end of the month) … Mind you, the lower performance probably has nothing to do with tracking issues, and more with the cyclical nature of the sites on which some of these campaigns are running. Over at AuctionAds ShoppingAds, which provides the now famous user friendly widget creation system, April was the best month in terms of $ revenue in the last few months.

I just received this notice from the eBay Partner Network:

From: eBay Partner Network Customer Support [mailto:noreply@ebaypartnernetwork.com]
Sent: April 25, 2008 5:10 PM
To: ***************
Subject: Customer Support messaging issues on 4/22 and 4/23

Our Customer Support system experienced issues on Tuesday, 4/22 and Wednesday, 4/23.
If you submitted a question on those days, our system might not have logged it. Please resubmit your inquiry to ensure a prompt follow up.

Our apologies for the inconvenience,

The eBay Partner Network team

OK, so their service desk software is having a few glitches… no worries guys. Migrating such a complex affiliate program over from a third-party provider to your in-house system is one major project!

Hopefully my eCPM numbers will go up soon on the new EPN

Well, they still have their excellent $275 Cash Back offer for all inclusive service; Internet, Television and the whole works…. but that does not mean it is “unlimited”. All authorised Comcast affiliates were sent the following email from Daniele at Comcast who manages their affiliate relationship network:

From: Comcast.com [mailto:owner-membermessaging@mx5.cj.com]
Sent: April 11, 2008 11:57 AM
To: ***********
Subject: Use of the term “UNLIMITED”

April 11, 2008
Dear Valued Comcast Affiliate:
It has been brought my attention recently that Comcast affiliates and partners have been utilizing the term “UNLIMITED” when referencing Comcast services in ads, landing pages, promotional materials, etc. Be aware that this is a direct violation of the affiliate guidelines. If you are using the term “unlimited” please replace with “all inclusive” or remove completely.

Comcast is being closely scrutinized that they and all of their partners are in compliance with this issue and I cannot stress the importance/urgency regarding this matter enough.

Bridgevine and Comcast are regularly reviewing affiliate sites/ ads and anyone found to be in violation of this guideline will be terminated from the program immediately and permanently. Comcast has an absolute zero tolerance policy regarding affiliate violations.

We appreciate your immediate attention to this matter. Please email *******@comcastspecial.com or call 772-539-0709 for questions or concerns.

Regards,
The Comcast Affiliate Marketing Team

So, be it officially know, the Comcast $275 Cash Back offer promotion is one smoking hot deal to take advantage off, but the Comcast subscriber backlash on DIGG has obviously hit home.

It’s been almost 18 hours since we first noticed that the popular ShoppingAds (and AuctionAds) system has been inaccessible. When trying to login one gets the following error message:

An error occurred.
An error occurred; please try again later.

Hopefully it is only affecting the ShoppingAds publisher reporting system and not the actual ad serving (and tracking!) side of the operation. ShoppingAds has experienced a few hiccups along the way - in particular since parent company Media Whiz acquired the AuctionAds eBay affiliate system from Jeremy Schoemaker.

Hmm Commissin Junction being the premier affiliate program that it is, I was real surprised to see the following trying to log in to the CJ Publisher site:

(I guess Resin is their inhouse system)

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