I’ve written about affiliate networks that don’t treat affiliates as customers yesterday.
In this post, I will write about a related topic and a problem in the affiliate industry; new affiliates being rejected by networks.
I have been rejected by a few affiliate networks in the past without any clear reason. I’ve had some stupid affiliate networks calling me and asking me so many questions before accepting me.
Oh, come on !!! I’m taking my valuable time to sign up with your network, and you either reject me or make me feel UNWELCOMED to your network. What is wrong with you?
Ok, here’s an absurd one; I’ve met the owner of this affiliate network (I won’t name it, but a pretty popular one in the industry) at Affiliate Summit last year. He was a great guy, and we’ve brainstormed during the summit, and hang out at a few clubs. I come back to my office after the summit and complete the application to sign up with the network, and I get a rejection email within a few hours 
I then call them to explain that their CEO asked me to join, probably new, and smartass employee on the phone tells me that they don’t accept international affiliates. Since the blog URL I’ve entered was registered on my brother’s name (who was living in Europe at that time), he assumes I’m an international affiliate without checking my NYC company name, tax ID, and address. Very well done.
I felt sorry for the CEO first, then decided that it’s his fault, because he hasn’t put together proper instructions for his employees about accepting/rejecting new affiliates.
I’ve heard so many stupid/funny stories of affiliates being rejected by networks.
Affiliate networks, please listen up: Rejecting new affiliates without a proper reason is like having a retail store on a prime real estate, and having a totally clueless guy at the door to screen potential customers and making a decision about “who gets in”.
You have to understand that you are a retail store, not the most popular club in town.
Since I’ve mentioned international affiliates, let’s also talk little bit more about them.
Are All International Affiliates Scams?
Most affiliate networks simply reject international affiliates without a reason. They have made their minds up about international affiliates. Affiliate networks need to understand these about international affiliates:
- All international affiliates are not scams. I’ve met so many smart, well educated international affiliates making 7-8 figures a year with affiliate marketing.
- International affiliates also promote US offers. Most networks think international affiliates are capable of promoting only international offers. It’s 2010, and every English speaking person can promote US offers regardless of where they live.
Just because you don’t have the competency to manage international affiliates as a network, you shouldn’t assume that all international affiliates are scams.
How to Treat New Affiliates Right – AzoogleAds Story
I kept talking negative about affiliate networks both yesterday and today. I want new affiliates realize that there are also great networks in the industry. As my readers already know, I don’t name companies on my blog a lot, especially when I have a negative opinion about them.
I wanted to share this short story about AzoogleAds to show the other side to new affiliates, and make an example to other networks that don’t treat new affiliates the right way.
It was a few years ago, a monday, around 4am in the morning when I signed up with AzoogleAds, and it was my first CPA network signup. I didn’t have any expectations, and I was only planning to check out the offers. Even though I had pretty good knowhow about affiliate world, I was so busy running my ecommerce company and wasn’t ready to start promoting offers.
Anyways, I get a phone call from Azoogle about 9.15am same day. After talking about what I’ve been up to for a few minutes, the affiliate manager on the phone invited me to lunch to meet them since we were both in NYC. Keep in mind, I’ve clearly told him that I’m not planning to promote anything heavily. I’ve also made it very clear that I was a total newbie to affiliate marketing even though I was making money online since 1996. So, he knew that I wasn’t a big fish before inviting me to lunch, and then their office.
Long story short, Azoogle has treated me so well since the first day as a customer, I always check if they have a similar offer I’m planning to run before any campaign.
This is my affiliate link if you like to join Azoogle, and let me know if you need any help or point of contact at AzoogleAds.
Have you ever been rejected by an affiliate network? Did they have a reason for rejecting you? I’d love to hear your story. Please share it on the comments below.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Eh, maybe Azoogle has changed. I applied to them recently and received a call asking how long I’ve been in affiliate marketing. I said I started in February. The lady quickly ended the call with they’d be in touch and within minutes I received an email informing me that they were unable to approve my account.
Their lost. If they had bothered to ask anything else, I could’ve told them I’ve done pretty well for myself. It’s still a learning process but still. I won’t be applying again.
J, himm, not good. As I’ve said, my story was several years ago. I’ll have a new post coming soon, and will be asking affiliate networks for comments. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see their take on the issue of new affiliate application process. stay tuned.
“I’ve met so many smart, well educated international affiliates making 7-8 figures a year with affiliate marketing. ”
8 figures is unheard of except Mr. Mark from plentyoffish.com. I guess they operate as a real company instead of one man band if they can generate this kind of money.
wilson, I’ve met the owner of a ringtone company a few years ago in Europe, and his company was making 8 figures. I didn’t ask for his tax returns, but I’ve seen his office with many employees.
Especially in mobile market, Europe and some Asian countries are way ahead of US.
well, i wouldn’t call the owner of a ringtone company an affiliate.
This is not limited to affiliate marketing. Here’s an amusing and somewhat similar story.
A few years ago, while I was still employed, I was interviewed for technical position in a local hedge fund. VERY tough interview. The second interview was even worse, and the third interview was the toughest technical interview I ever had to go through in my entire career. I knew I didn’t pass.
A week passes, I don’t hear anything. I send an email to the recruiter who was my contact person – no response. I send another, no response. I repeat this with my first interviewer – no response. I repeat with my second interviewer – no response. I assumed I did not get the job, but 3 different people ignoring me multiple times by email? That’s extremely unprofessional.
Two months later I get a mass email from some senior guy at the company telling me about their quarterly results (from some reason I was included). I send him an email: “your guys were not polite enough to respond to any of my emails about a job that I probably didn’t get, yet they included me in their mass email list? I think this is unprofessional and impolite”. He responds almost immediately and apologizes. 30 minutes later I get an email from the first contact person, admitting he never got back to me, and apologizing for this.
Later I found out the guy who sent the mass email was the co-founder of the company. I got such a kick imagining how embarrassing this must’ve been for the recruiter, being summoned by the big boss and forced to send me an apology. If he had done his job properly, he wouldn’t have been in that state. Clearly the HR interviews were not as rigorous as the technical ones!