Staffing Affiliate etiquette

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

5 hours ago, Honorem said:

So I have something more to add. When you request affiliation, and wait for over a month. When you get tired of waiting and take their banner down, they will finally check your request and leave a remark in your CBox like 'hey our banner is not up, please put it up before you apply for affiliation'. Yeah it was up, for a full month, and you finally checked on the day I took it down? -Rips hair out-

 

SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS, THIS.

 

It's part of the reason (the main reason?) why I don't often request affs at other sites. They'll be ridiculously active in the c-box and all over the site, except for the affs. And yet, the updated thread is pretty obvious.

 

I usually wait a week before I take down their banner, at which point -- they finally come back to check. WTF, mate.

8 hours ago, Rune said:

 

Ugh, the READING.

 

My static spots require you be active for at least 2 months because of our limited number... There's one site that pops up every six months or so, that first month they request affiliation (with purely static affiliates, see above) and then die within the month. Maybe a jerk move on my part (probably is) but  I don't even bother telling them I'm not adding them anymore since they clearly can't read and apparently didn't get the message the first time.

 

Another weird thing I've seen pop up in the past: Sites that add you as an affiliate... But don't request it, you didn't request them. You just so happen to go to that site and there's your button, trucking along.

 

Ahaha, that's special. I've got at least one site that comes back to advertise, not affiliate, but they're on a server that technically, I can get into trouble for posting on: TOS conflict with 18+ sites. XP And yet, this site keeps coming back to advertise.. a lot of these boards don't even want 18+ sites anywhere near their own rpgs, so I don't get the logic there. 'You' don't like a certain genre or rating or fandom, yet you go out of your way to advertise on them?

 

It takes me 2 seconds to delete them. There's hundreds of other games out there, why not spend  your time elsewhere? Aaaarghfuck.

 

I've also got maybe 2 affiliates who have me, but I don't have them, and have never requested affiliation. The more, the merrier?

[VirusZero 176]

I've applied at other sites before and truth be told, I'm pretty strict for times on them. I'll wait maybe 4 days, if I'm feeling generous, on their site. Though usually I will only wait 3 days.

The way I see it, I'm on their site... if they can't bother to check their affiliates section when it's quite literally on their own site where they should be most active then I doubt they're actually that interested in affiliating. I'm not going to give them free advertising for weeks upon weeks if they can't be arsed to check their own site. Sorry, not happening. 

 

I could understand if it were a directory, where I'd be a bit more lenient, and give them a week to reply (since hey, maybe they aren't as active on that directory). But on their own site? Not a chance.

[Lusitano 0]

On all my sites, I have two lines of affiliates on the footer. If no one else fits, then I'll try to make a third line. Always in the footer. If a third line breaks my layout, then it's time to activity check the affiliates. If I ever find my button missing from the main index page (or footer, somewhere displayed on at least the main page), I'll remove their affiliate and leave them a note as to why. It's that simple. It sounds harsh, but seriously I've got everyone in the footer which is usually displayed on every page, if not just the main landing page. If you can't show the same courtesy, then it's time to go.

[Death Kitten 200]

The impression I get is that anyone who has an affiliate page, instead of a static front page or footer option, is just going for quantity over quality. They are making the half assed minimum effort needed to get their link out there, and if some of them don't stick in the end, there's another hundred sites they can spam instead.

 

I personally don't have any affiliates, but the directories I've listed in are in the footer of the site's skin, so they're on every public facing page of the site. I actually need to take one of the directories listed down, because I can not find my listing in their site, no rules explaining why I'm not there, and no contact from the staff over two months after submission (I probably should have followed up sooner, but been busy, you know, running my game and living my life).

[Coley 2]

I like a neat little row (or two) of affiliates and I try to affiliate with people who like the same. I actually don't even have affiliates open for people to come to me on my board because I'm a bit of an oddball when it comes to picking them. Each one is for a reason a bit like when I first started rping and those little buttons marked a site of an admin you were friendly with. I don't know most of the people I affiliate with now but I like their site for one reason or another. Sometimes its a small reason, sometimes its because I find the whole thing amazing. To the original question, it drives me batty when one affiliates randomly hides my button all of a sudden. Or just randomly closes.

[Orchid 12]

I've had the interesting problem of they post to affiliate, but they don't include code, nothing. Just, 'please add us!'. Not even a link. It wasn't until like three days later when they came back and asked why I hadn't added them, that I pointed out I couldn't as they left me literally nothing.

 

They reposted their info of course, but still. The initial info... poof. gone. No idea where it went, if it was there at all.

[Marcella 2]

I've never actually run across the problem of sites putting up on a second page. But if that was what they did I would affiliate with them. All of our affiliates are static and the bottom of every page and our site will only affiliate with those who do the same, except resource sites. I dont even like affiliating with people who had 5-10 or more rows of affiliates. You seem to get lost in the shuffle.

 

I agree that it's really disrespectful and one-sided advertising. The whole point of affiliates is to draw attention both ways. If people have to hunt around for it then it's not going to draw the attention that it deserves. 

Edited July 16, 2016 by deserted_phoenix

[rex 0]

Ive also not seen the second page thing. Though ive seen pages without affiliate buttons at all. I dont go out of my way to affiliate, weve done fine mostly without it and the whole advertising/affiliating thing has always made me a little anxious. Though I've started doing it more recently

There was one board that i had no issues with at first, but they kept coming in and advertising like every other week. So I eventually just banned the IP.

[Marcella 2]

On 7/17/2016 at 0:16 PM, rex said:

Ive also not seen the second page thing. Though ive seen pages without affiliate buttons at all. I dont go out of my way to affiliate, weve done fine mostly without it and the whole advertising/affiliating thing has always made me a little anxious. Though I've started doing it more recently

There was one board that i had no issues with at first, but they kept coming in and advertising like every other week. So I eventually just banned the IP.

I hate when they just keep coming in and posting. Every once in a while is fine. Once a month or every few months I think is acceptable. But every week or every other week just gets to be too much. It doesn't bug me as much when they repost in First Links sections (though it still bugs me) but I've noticed a few sites that just keep coming by and dropping Link Backs. So they advertise multiply times but you can only advertise once. If I see that it's a pattern and not just a mistake I'll delete all but their first one and block the IP.

[Honorem 219]

 

On 7/21/2016 at 1:43 AM, Marcella said:

I hate when they just keep coming in and posting. Every once in a while is fine. Once a month or every few months I think is acceptable. But every week or every other week just gets to be too much. It doesn't bug me as much when they repost in First Links sections (though it still bugs me) but I've noticed a few sites that just keep coming by and dropping Link Backs. So they advertise multiply times but you can only advertise once. If I see that it's a pattern and not just a mistake I'll delete all but their first one and block the IP.

Agreed. First Links is fine since you can get em back. Link Backs is a dick move on their part.

Kinda related, but when a site might have say three staff members, and none of them realize that the other has already posted their ad on your site. So you get three people posting the same link back. Mildly infuriating.

[Sekah 0]

I prefer all static affiliates. I have a nice, simple table, and that's really all you need. But yeah, I hate sites with slow, long marquees, and hiding an affiliate is just rude.

[Space_Rogue 0]

I did an affiliate with one guy from another directory forum. He insisted his had to be on my home page fixed. Which I did. When I looked at his forum, nothing on his home page. I had to search through his damned forum for a while to find it....right down the bottom of his 'Forum' page in a section titled ' affiliates' then buried in there under alphabetical order. No one would ever see it? I removed his immediately