No Credit for SBI Referral

Jazzy · #1 (**permalink**) 04-21-2008, 07:13 AM

I just contacted someone who expressed interest in SBI (not anyone from around here) to see how they were coming along, and they already bought a package and got started.

I did not get any credit. I know that happens and I just expressed excitement and wished them well, but I wanted to scream "AAARRRGH!"

I specifically told the person (nicely) to use the link so I could get credit. Sigh...

What kind of wording do you use to get people to follow your affiliate link?

Carletta

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 04-21-2008, 10:37 AM

Did you contact support about this? They can research this. The only reason I could see is if the person clicked on another affiliate's SBI! link before making the purchase so their cookie overwrote yours. That's happened to me many times because people often explore other SBI! sites before making the purchase. I do wish they would remedy this because it does make you feel slighted. Maybe they can have a form where the person can enter your name as a referral to make sure this doesn't happen.

Jazzy · #3 (**permalink**) 04-21-2008, 03:08 PM

I am going to suggest on the SBI forums that they add some type of "Who referred you?" spot to their sign up form.

I didn't contact site support because in the past, they have said no retroactive credit will be given.

lisa · #4 (**permalink**) 04-21-2008, 06:23 PM

Oh OK, good idea. But the reason I said to ask was just to see if it went to another affiliate or no affiliate at all and was credited completely to SiteSell. Because if the latter is true, then there could be an issue.

Jazzy · #5 (**permalink**) 04-21-2008, 09:00 PM

Oh that's true Lisa. I will talk to them. Thanks!

Lajocar · #6 (**permalink**) 04-21-2008, 11:39 PM

this is not nice especially if your hard work don't get credited with a sale

Do what Lisa said, contact supprt and do an enquiry

West · #7 (**permalink**) 04-22-2008, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jazzy

I am going to suggest on the SBI forums that they add some type of "Who referred you?" spot to their sign up form.

Jazzy, I went to the SBI forum to vote for your idea but I didn't see it. Did you post it yet? I looked in the wish list forum.

Rick-SiteSell · #8 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 03:33 PM

Jazzy as Lisa suggests contact Support. If you can verify the sale I bet they will help.

Also are you aware of the http://refer.sitesell.com page. It lets you enter up to 100 of your "prospects." If they buy during the next 90 days you will get the commission (of course this is assuming they don't already have someone else's permanent cookie).

But to try and answer your larger question. Yes it never seems fair when someone else gets a commission that you feel you deserve. But without knowing the actual click path your prospect followed it's very hard to know exactly what they did before buying. Often they may not know themselves.

In the long run though I think you will win many that you don't necessarily deserve too. I think it all comes out in the wash. It may not sound fair but the cookie does cut both ways. Perhaps Lisa can share if that's the way she feels.

At any rate we do our best to come up with tools to help you "close the sale" especially if you have an offline prospect. Besides the refer.sitesell.com page we also have a Remote Order Form that lets you place an order directly for your customer. I don't think there is ANY other program that offers anything like that. Please tell if you know of any.

Also it's a great idea to offer an incentive to your "intimate" prospects to make sure they come back to you. An e-book or an hour's worth of help can go along way to "lock-in" that prospect to you... but only if they verify that they used your links or let you place the order for them.

At any rate definitely contact Support Jazzy. They definitely want to be fair if they can.

All the best,

Jazzy · #9 (**permalink**) 06-11-2008, 04:39 PM

Lisa, it happened again. This is the 2nd time and it was very disappointing, especially since I am so new with the company. It kind of stalls the momentum.

I know Sitesell believes we will win some we didn't deserve, and I'm sure that is true, but I'm not sure how that could happen with a site as new as mine.

Do you have any tips for making sure you are credited correctly?

I am going to try to find a way to capture e-mail addresses using the e-mail lock in form, but I am looking for other suggestions as well.

For instance, I have a person I was talking to via online forum private message who was interested in SBI. I e-mailed her through the forums (they're related to my niche) to see if she would reply so I could capture her address, but she didn't respond. I don't know how to get her e-mail address without outright asking for it which to me is creepy. Some of the "hard sell" techniques turn me off and I don't want to "turn off" visitors and drive them away from my site.

I am working on a section of my site which I think will bring some sales, and I want to promote SBI in a way that will maximize my chances of being credited accurately. I'd love any suggestions you may have.

Thanks!

lisa · #10 (**permalink**) 06-11-2008, 06:00 PM

Jazzy, that bites. I'm not sure what to tell you because I don't do anything special to make sure the cookie doesn't get overwritten by someone else. I don't use the remote order form or anything. I just link to them just like you've been. So I'm sure the same thing happens to me too, but due to volume I just don't track everything closely. As you know, that's what happened when I referred Erika, but the only reason I found out was because I knew her personally and I knew to look for her name. Most people that buy SBI! from my links don't contact me first so I'm at the mercy of technology like everyone else. Unfortunately, it would be impossible for me to know how many sales went to other affiliates.

You might want to try only using the links that have a no-overwrite in place. That means if they visit your affiliate link and then accidentally buy from someone else's site you still get the sale (unless they've cleared their cookies or something, but of course you have no control over that.)

You'll have to go to the Promotion Center to find out which links have that (I can't remember) but I know affiliates.sitesell.com is one. But they have to join the affiliate program first. This will ensure they are tied to you forever. I think http://mycps.sitesell.com is another landing page with no-overwrite status.

And speaking of cookies, I'm wondering if that's what has been happening. More and more computers have those automated "clean up" systems where cookies are cleared on a weekly basis (I know mine is setup to empty my cache once a week, but I leave the cookies alone). So I wonder if that is coming into play here.

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