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LinkShare

When I first started in the affiliate business I had LinkShare on here and the links were doing well alongside other affiliate marketing companies.

Later things went wrong and there was no proper response, so LinkShare was phased out here. (see below).

Now (late 2007), things have taken a turn for the better, and it may yet be that LinkShare can be restored on this site! That would be great! (The main sticking-point is the contract, which would need to be resolved).

So, we live in hope! WATCH THIS SPACE!

The old review continues below this line:

Once upon a time there was an affiliate marketing company named Linkshare. I promoted their merchants and I promoted them alongside other affiliate marketing companies such as Commission Junction and UK Affiliates and other affiliate marketing companies. Things seemed ok for a while and I used to say "If you are are interested in making money from advertising on a website, LinkShare may be worth learning about". But after a while things started to go wrong and I added "...But there are problems, and these need to be sorted out". The main problem was the CONTRACT. Now although most affiliate marketing companies have a contract, they are usually reasonable and are to help to avoid the worst excesses of affiliate marketing gone wrong. In contrast, Linkshare's contract was a very lengthy and verbose litigious tract which had some clauses which were a severe infringement upon personal liberty. I pointed this out at the time and asked the people at Linkshare to get a friendlier contract. After all, most affiliate marketing companies survive perfectly well with a sensible contract.

As no update occurred I started to phase out Linkshare promotions but continued promoting Commission Junction merchants, together with many others at many other companies. Affiliate Window, Tradedoubler, Affiliate Future, Buy.at, ClickBank, and many others. It was much easier creating dedicated pages for companies whose affiliate marketing arrangements were not in question. Take a look at some dedicated page linked from the Shopping Portal and the Famous Names. Meanwhile, Linkshare affiliate programs dwindled at this site. I always held on to the hope that Linkshare would reform and would produce a sensible reasonable contract which I could honestly sign up to. But sadly, no such contract was forthcoming. In early 2005, Linkshare produced a new contract which was terrible. I refused to sign it. It forbade gambling, various kinds of political allegiances, and other things which are considered a right of the individual. I pointed this out to Linkshare, but nothing much happened. So now I have closed down all the Linkshare links at this site. No more will Linkshare be promoted here. At least, not unless they make some drastic improvements to their policy on freedom and personal liberty!

I feel a bit sad for the merchants, as their pages are having to be bunged up until some new arrangements have been made. Also, it's very sad for Linkshare, as,while their merchants' pages languished here, pages for other companies' merchants did very well and continued being improved. During the intervening period, I have been paid tens of thousands of dollars in commission by CJ and tens of thousands of pounds by UK Affiliates. Compare this with the few tens on dollars on the few remaining Linkshare programs. Yet, hypothetically, had Linkshare reformed their contract I would have been happy to expand the portfolio of merchants I was promoting there and the profit there would have very likely been similar to that at CJ! I run an international website which helps to sell millions of dollars worth of stuff, mainly in the USA and the UK but everywhere else in the world as well. I am paid on a commission basis, so as you may guess the sales have some proportional value to the commission. Commission made at this site is in excess of a dollar per unique hit on the front page. This is made possible by the fact that there are thousands of pages within the site. It's my feeling that Linkshare have failed to understand this and that may be why they've not heeded by candid comments about their awful contract.

So, what's wrong with Linkshare?

Initially there was the problem of the lack of a proper central accounting balance, but that has been sorted out now. Well done!

The main problem was the things expected to be signed up to in the contract. Plus things merchants insisted on. Some of the things were really none of their business! To draw an analogy, it's a bit like you entering a building and there's a sign up that says "no smoking". Fair enough, so you extinguish your cigarette before going in. The people who own the building have a reasonable right to expect you to not smoke in their building. But supposing instead the sign told you that you must sign a pledge to give up smoking and never smoke or drink alcohol again, you might reasonably refuse to sign up to that. The building owner has no right meddling in your business telling you how you can run your life after you have left their building! This is an example of attempting to legislate beyond the scope of their jurisdiction. The Linkshare contract had many clauses which were of a similar notion.

In the "Terms and Conditions", Linkshare's legal contract was one of the worst and most bureaucratic and litigious contracts of any affiliate company anywhere! It's a pity, because apart from that, other aspects of Linkshare seemed ok. They had a lot of good merchants, helpful support staff, and profitable opportunities. I advised Linkshare to improve the contract, but they didn't. So I left them. Pity I'll not get paid. They are refusing to pay me money I have already earned unless I sign the contract. However, I take the view that my FREEDOM is worth more than any commission they could ever pay me!

There are plenty of other affiliate companies. I'm afraid in the case of Linkshare they're losing money because of that contract putting people off.

I could go on about the specifics, but among the many problems with the LinkShare contract are the constraint that you have to be a company not an individual, the requirement to keep the contract secret (which rings alarm bells in the mind), and the silencing of free speech. Political aspects to the contract are prejudicial to various beliefs, and there are other things where they are meddling in things which are none of their business. Gambling is legal in most of the world, and it's not Linkshare's business to tell you you're not allowed to promote it. Sending of spam is obviously inadvisable, but it's not for any company to tell you you are not allowed to do it, except for merchants within their affiliate programs. Also, it severely undermines the confidence someone might have in investing in being an affiliate if Linkshare are threatening to CHARGE THE AFFILIATE. As a rule of thumb, if you're an affiliate you should never have to pay to join any affiliate program. (Also avoid pyramid schemes!)

I don't agree with the contract, and I don't agree with the perverse altering of the contract and the assumption that everyone is automatically assumed to agree with it. This sort of thing is bad for business!

I tell the TRUTH and don't just do what I'm told to! So, if it says in the contract in effect "You shall not say anything bad about any company" then that prohibits honest comment where a company has good and bad aspects about it. This undermines impartiality. Customers will respect a site better if it is free to say bad things as well as good. Customers trust a site better if it has freedom of speech. Imagine if film critics were only allowed to say good things about films! How could you trust them?

So, what's to be done about it?

I've tried persuading Linkshare to improve their contract, and I've been nice about it. But now I'm simply closing down all the programs and bunging up all the pages and I'm recommending merchants to MIGRATE! How about to Commission Junction? Ok, they have contracts, but mostly reasonable, short, and understandable. And they have a proper centralised payment system so affiliates don't get shortchanged! Other points like this are shown on the Guide to Good Affiliate Marketing. Also well liked in the USA market are Share-A-Sale, ClickXchange, and others. If you are a merchant, you can SHOP AROUND!

Meanwhile, here's a checklist of those merchants we used to promote with Linkshare, and who we're trying to get moved so we can continue to promote them:

10 Dollars.com (An amicable arrangement was reached)

Adventurous Traveler (affiliate program moved somewhere else!)

Biztravel (the affiliate program has GONE, but we aren't sure if the company still exists)

Clik Vacations (affiliate program moved away)

Continental Airlines (affiliate program moved away)

Delta Vacations (affiliate program moved away)

eVineyard / Wine.com * emailed

Golfballs.com * emailed

Hotwire * page bunged up waiting for new arrangement

I Debt Help * page bunged up waiting for new arrangement

Linkshare * terminated

McAfee * Successfully moved to Tradedoubler

Music Yo (seems to have mysteriously vanished)

Museum Shop (seems to have DISAPPEARED!)

Nova International (Gone, and people are asking for their money back)

Priceline We like Priceline! Already moved and are happily making money via a different set of links!

Ritz Camera (already discredited through non-payment)

Sessions.edu (Gone!)

Snowtraders * page bunged up waiting for new arrangement

Sony Music Direct * Successfully moved to Commission Junction

Text Books at Cost * page bunged up waiting for new arrangement

Merchants, please tell me if you move so I can join your affiliate program somewhere else. I get on well with almost everyone, and it is only because of the unreasonableness at LinkShare that has caused me take such an extreme line on this.

Linkshare, please get a better contract, and don't keep adding stupid restrictions. It alienates good business and makes no sense. It also loses money, so please don't do it! Learn from the Guide to Good Affiliate Marketing

Remember: My freedom is worth more than any commission Linkshare could possibly pay me. Besides, other affiliate marketing companies have paid me very well and have not attempted to force me to sign away my liberty.

To sum this all up, good affiliate relations pay well, and having unreasonable contracts doesn't. We pointed this out last year and it still wasn't resolved. In the meantime, while Linkshare have been falling into disuse here, Commission Junction have done well and have sold millions of dollars of stuff through this site, and paid us tens of thousands of dollars in commission on various affiliate programs. The bank statements speak for themselves. Just think, if Linkshare had gone for a reasonable contract they'd have been selling a similar amount of stuff. We could have discussed this and got it sorted out long ago!

This page is pending update. We live in hope! WATCH THIS SPACE! If the contract is considerably improved, this page will be updated to reflect a much more positive situation.