Next: A Disappointing Day
Last Friday Next, iLevel and Buy.At held a voice conference in order for them to explain the recent ‘behaviour’ of the Next affiliate programme, allowing affiliates with concerns about the programme, to be heard. As many know, I have been somewhat outspoken about my recent concerns and despite no longer being involved with the merchant, decided to join to hear what they had to say. The intention wasn’t to stir up a hornets nest, but to hear from all 4 corners (affiliate, agency, merchant, network) and what they proposed for the future of the programme.
I have to say that once on the voice conference I was disappointed by the turn out from fellow affiliates. I know some were unable to make it due to prior commitments as a few apologies were read out at the beginning, some like myself work fulltime and therefore were never going to make it and some people had no intention of joining, for which I whole-heartedly respect their decision.
BUT… 2 affiliates – myself being 1 of them?…. and I’m no longer an affiliate of theirs!
My blog post got 112 backs, Next was blogged about by many other affiliates in the following days, and a simple search on the A4U forums shows that Next threads are by far the most hotly debated. This was a chance for affiliates to hear what Next propose to do in coming months, why they took certain decisions in the past and a chance to raise any issues. Yet no one took the opportunity?
I’m not going to blog about what was discussed in detail, as iLevel will be producing minutes which I’m sure will be made available shortly to anyone wanting to read them. Sadly I came away feeling that Next and iLevel heard what I said, but with some of the counter arguments, I am not too sure if they listened.
An example of this was when I stated that a 7 day cookie was being poor. My gripe was countered with the argument that M&S also offering a 7 day cookie. Granted, however M&S however offer 5% flat rate commission, somewhat more than what we have come to expect from Next. There was however mention of the introduction of tiered commissions, similar to Dixons, where it’s dependant on the product purchased.
I just wish more affiliates had been on the voice conference, even those that still believe the programme is acceptable as it is. I honestly believe this was a chance where the industry really opened up for the good, and I think it’s a prime opportunity that’s been missed by many to raise concerns, and hopefully steer a merchant in the right direction.
Anyway I also wanted to thank Next, Buy.At and iLevel for the chance of having the discussion. Whether I agree or not with what was discussed, it was a move in the right direction.
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I do feel bad about not being able to take part – unfortunately not being able to see my computer screen had to take precedence, so a trip to the opticians was unavoidable. I do hope that the points I made to Fiona were brought up and discussed, and I do look forward to feedback and hopefully a change in attitude, if not commissions.
I took part in a similar teleconference with Next and affili.net on Friday – not quite sure why they had two separate teleconferences for each network but maybe they were expecting higher numbers. I think there were 3 affiliates taking part in the affili.net one.
I won’t comment on the content of the meeting until i-Level have published their minutes of both meetings as there may be things covered in one that weren’t covered in the other – but as a whole I would agree with you Chris on the poor level of number of affiliates taking part – as seems to happen all too often, when push comes to shove, apathy rules – obviously there will always be some like Elaine in this case (hope your eyes are better now Elaine) who can’t attend for pressing reasons on the day but it would have been good to see more affiliates in general make the effort.
The lack of affiliates is probably due to the fact that so many have given up on Next and have simply moved on. Effort in has got to equal reward out.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your input on Friday. I agree turn out was a little disapointing, none the less communication lines were opened and we came away with a lot of food for thought – and some great ideas on how to move the program forward for all involved.
I’ll issue the minutes as soon as I can and I’ve already started to put in place some of the ideas discussed.
Thanks again to all who took part and I hope to see a few of you at the event on the 25th
Onwards and upwards.
It’s always the case that people love to moan and gripe about what’s wrong with affiliate marketing but when the opportnity comes to put things right they just aren’t interested. Shows me that these people (not you Elaine) are just in it for a fight and aren’t really interested in advancing the interests of the affiliate community.
Nice one mate for taking part in the call.
Was with a network and merchant who’d invited us out for the day on Friday, and them vs Next was a no contest, but tbh I had forgotten about this.
What I will say though is Next aren’t that important to me as an affiliate. I got involved in the a4u thread – and offered suggestions to them in that discussion and therefore don’t require another one – plus backed you Chris because of how you were treated at the time.
Whilst yes it’s disappointing only a few affiliates got involved in this conference call, in reality that was what was always going to happen.
Apathy? Possibly, but on the grand affiliate scale of things are Next that important to all affiliates – no (sorry Next people) – especially when compared to supporting a fellow affiliate who chose to speak out.
The merchant made mistakes imo, and they’re remedying them – great stuff, but personally I’d love them to just get on and “do it” – just like the other good merchants that manage AM day to day without the issues and discussions.
Gadget pretty much summed up my feelings.
Frankly i’d rather spend my time promoting merchants who deserve my time and attention.
It’s a real shame that there wasn’t 20-30 affiliates banging the drum – that would have really made Next sit up and take notice. Now, they’re probably thinking “what was all the fuss about”.
I agree with a few sentiments above – Apathy tends to rule the day unfortunately.It’s a real shame as I see this as an opportunity missed for affiliates to voice their opinion en masse.