Contact Info - Agree
Also select what hours you prefer contact and by which means.

Creative - Disagree
I would make it more than 7 days. I am one man band and if I go away for 14 days, I don’t want to be having to stop halfway through to check things otherwise it’s not really a 2 week holiday.

Paid Search - Agree
Especially about not being forced to add negative words. By simply NOT bidding on brand names is fair enough.

SEO - Agree
Agree

Forced clicks - Agree
Agree and I think the important wording here is “the user may not be aware of”

Software - Sitting on the fence
Delivering advertising about my site is acceptable, but direct advertising to merchant is unacceptable.

Content - Sitting on the fence
You can only use a certain amount of measure for forums. Also, its fine to use adult content if you are advertising adult advertisers. Common sense here I think.

Domains - Disagree
If the company hasn’t got it, and its not their trademark then more fool them.

Discount Codes - Sitting on the fence
Unless stated in T&Cs then I don’t see any rules being broken

Confidentiality - Sitting on the fence
Agree that if its “commercially sensitive information”, but I do not expect a gagging order.

Overall a very interesting post Fraser, always interesting to hear other affiliates POV’s

The comments from Chris apply 100% to me too.

Thanks for the feedback Chris & Joe. I really do value both of your opinions.

Creative
I know what you are saying here but if we ignore holidays then is 7 days reasonable? I know there may be times I wouldn’t be able to meet this but it’s a target for the rest of the year.

Software
What sort of advertising did you mean Chris?

Content
Yes I agree it depends on the site. I suppose that one is more specific to an individual and would be my rule but wouldn’t suit everyone.

Domains
I know what you are saying but I still think this is the kind of thing that can damage the reputation of affiliate marketing. Any merchant who finds an affiliate has bought a similar name isn’t going have a warm fuzzy feeling towards the industry

Discount Codes
I included this one as I remember seeing merchants complaining about this happening. I agree though that not all would be unhappy with it but thought it might be a more proactive step towards making sure merchants aren’t unhappy.

Confidentiality
Yes I see what you mean - maybe this one is just assumed at a reasonable level and isn’t needed.

Hi Fraser,
It’s a good code of conduct, but I had to raise an eyebrow at your Content policy.

http://www.lovehoney.co.uk is an adult retailer and has a program that converts well and pays good commission - does your code preclude you from being an affiliate?

Why is “adult” content necessarily bad? Correctly targetted it’s entirely appropriate.

I’m guessing that by “adult” you really mean “pornographic” - or wouldn’t you even promote a site that sells condoms?

But what’s more worrying for me is that you mention “adult” in the same breath as “illegal” - what has the latter got to do with the former?

Cheers,
Richard

Hi Richard, thanks for your comments. This is definitely why I thought it would be interesting to put out a draft and see what mistakes I have made

I suppose the issue is over the use of the word adult and I think you are right that I meant pornographic.
However it’s interesting that looking at the T’c & C’s of a network like AW and the same term “adult” is prohibited.

Personally speaking I wouldn’t promote either which is why I wrote it as above but I see your point and the same point that Chris made. It’s all about context so if this code was to suit anyone else then that line wouldn’t be suitable and then it would be down to common sense and correct targeting.

I was just thinking that most high street brands probably don’t want to appear next to any type of adult content and that would provide reassurance to them but am I letting my personal point of view cloud the judgement there?

“Adult” just ended up in the same sentence as “illegal” because I was trying to keep to one or two lines for each area to keep things short and clear but I take your point on this and I’m not making a link between the two. When I do a redraft I’ll make this part clearer.

Cheers

Fraser

Adult content means different things to different people. I have no problem selling condoms or vibrators on our directory style sites and given Ann Summers shops are on the high street I can’t see why high street brands would have a problem either - the world moved on - in Essex at least!

Creatives will always be a grey area, because out of date banners should automatically update, however generally we want more than just this & often the creatives produced though generally in abundance are not of suitable standard to result in an action, thus relying on one self to produce our own, generally content units

WRT to adult content, I’ll have to generally agree with the above comments, I mean Fleshlights has an affiliate program, so I guess adult content should maybe mean pornographic content where adult toys doesn’t fall into this category.

WRT Forced Clicks, how about covering post impression cookies.

Re discount codes you can still offer these via sponsored listings & not via affiliate links thus still earn.

Affiliates should also have the freedom to write whatever reviews they like, if it’s factually correct.

Fraser, I think as general rule of thumb, the comment below is no longer applicable;

“…most high street brands probably don’t want to appear next to any type of adult content…”

As a few have already pointed out, Ann Summers are already in the high street and are located next door to other well known retailers. They can also be found in shopping centres such as Manchester Trafford Centre, again next to your grocery shops etc. If you pop into Tesco you can buy condoms and lubricants, go to Love Honey and you can buy the items which the lubricants Tesco sells are designed for.

Attitudes have now changed and adult toys and such like are no longer something to shy away from for many people. There are parties taking place every day, although I think sometimes it’s just an excuse for a girly night with wine more than anything else.

I think the problem lies in the terminology. Ann Summers, Love Honey etc are adult orientated which I personally class as being completely different to Sex Shops. Sex Shops to me, sell R18 DVD’s and AFAIK Love Honey and Ann Summers dont. These type of shops are still located off the high street and as such they should not be on an affiliates website where non adult merchants are listed.

I think when you go shopping in the high street, Ann Summers tend to only display lingerie in windows as everyone knows what will greet them once inside. I think the same should be applied on website, i.e. don’t show toys or explicit material on a non adult website.

I’ve got to say that I think your approach to PPC restrictions are a little impractical from a merchants perspective - if you are in accidental breach of restrictions
you will modify your campaign within 7 days?

If it’s your accident (your fault) by not reading restrictions properly then I think you should respond far sooner than that.

Merchants allowing you to promote their brand to the public leave themselves within your trust as an affilaite - if you contravene any guidelines or restrictions you should make it a priority to make the changes as quickly as possible.

I also think that your refusal to add in negative keywords will limit your ability to generate additional commissions. As an experienced search marketer will probably tell you there are often very high converting multiple word phrases that an affiliate can use periphery to brand that convert well, surely a strategy to ignore these is a cutting your nose off to spite yourself, just because a merchant had told you to add in negatives.

There seems to be an ever growing gap between affiliates criticising programme restrictions without putting any thought in to why they are in place. Merchants don’t just put them in place to stop affiliates getting rich – put some thought in to it please.

It’s great that your getting a code of conduct together but I suggest you put some thought in to how realistic it is from a merchants perspective.

Mongoose - I’ll start by saying that I’m not comfortable at all with anonymous comments, care to add a real name to give the discussion some context?

I take your point about PPC but maybe I’ve just been on the wrong end of it too often. I’ve been kicked off programs for breaching terms that were due to be introduced 24 hours later!

Perhaps I should say that I’ll respond to properly communicated changes in terms and conditions within 7 days and any breach of established & documented terms sooner than that.

Negative keywords - I think we’ll have to disagree on this one. Of course I’ll use them where it helps my campaigns but I’m not going to implement lists dictated to me by merchants. Once I start this with one merchant how does it scale up? how would I maintain negative keywords lists from 50 merchants for a general shopping site?

I guess we have quite a different perspective on things purely by which side of the industry we are on. You say “Merchants allowing you to promote their brand to the public” I say: “affiliates choosing to take the risk up front and put in time and effort to get you sales”
I don’t consider that a merchant is doing me a favour just by letting me on the program.

Thanks for your comments though - that is exactly what I was looking for when I posted. I didn’t claim this was the perfect set of terms and it’s up there for discussion.

Joe, Moose, Chris - point taken on “adult”. I would change that on a redraft.

We opened an adult shop in Nottingham 6 years ago, the community was in uproar along with the council. Eventually we took the decision for a full licence to appeal and won. Now after 6 years of trade we are a landmark in Nottingham. Times have changed, along with this we launched our on line store http://www.barbarakelly.co.uk - HSBC bank turned their backs on us for a period of time, then they saw the potential of adult stores on line and supported us. They are now proud to be associated with us and have allowed us to use their logo on our home page. The times they are a changing!