I replied with basically what you said and they sent back this:
"To assist you further, kindly provide a brief answer to the following questions. Your responses will be submitted to the account manager and along with a request to reconsider your application. Also, please provide test logins if your website requires one.
- How do you plan on driving traffic to the iTunes Affiliate Program?
- Where exactly on your page do you intend to place iTunes links?
- What is your business plan/how does your business work?
- Do you have any traffic/revenue projections for iTunes?
Thank you for contacting LinkShare!"
I have some idea what they are looking for; but anyone have any wording suggestions? This is total BS; I'm an iPhone app developer; what do you think my business plan is; promote my apps on my site which link to iTunes; duh!
Asking for the place where you would put the link is understandable, but whats with the business plan etc?? an iphone developer business is selling Lamborghini cars? WTF?
I think they are targeting big developers only, hence the questions like projection etc. If we only get 10-100 sales per day, surely our website hits are like.. <100. so that does not give them any gain.. perhaps.. not sure.. just speculating here.. hehe
Yeah; I sorta get it in general; but not for my specific case. The description page for every one of my apps clearly has a "purchase on iTunes" link; and my website gets 200+ unique visitors daily, my daily sales are surely respectable....that's surely good enough right?
I know many devs that have gone through this successfully without hassle; some with less successful app store presence and one page websites...I don't know what gives
Not to mention the website is only a small part of this; I (like everyone) would be putting affiliate links on forums; in my apps, etc... this doesn't make any sense.
I sent in some info; they said they are "escalating the matter".
Any updates? Who where you talking to? I've dealt with LinkShare a lot and typically if you are polite and keep with it they will let you in. I am sure they are getting hundreds of requests a day and it's a challenge to weed out what is just spam/fake and who is legit. Good luck and keep us posted.
You can definitely have the link in the app itself, but it opens safari instead of going directly to the app store.
You can also build a "short URL" that goes directly into the iTunes Store with the right affiliate information attached to the end. This eliminates the jump to the safari.app but also doesn't report clicks (as you have to bounce off linkshare's servers first). The PartnerID and your SiteID seem to be the two important pieces that get sent through. I'd play with Charles or HTTP Scoop and see what sort of stuff you need.
You can also build a "short URL" that goes directly into the iTunes Store with the right affiliate information attached to the end. This eliminates the jump to the safari.app but also doesn't report clicks (as you have to bounce off linkshare's servers first). The PartnerID and your SiteID seem to be the two important pieces that get sent through. I'd play with Charles or HTTP Scoop and see what sort of stuff you need.
Hmm, I'd be interested in hearing more about how to bypass Safari but still get affiliate info...
Although the main reason I'm posting is to say that I just got accepted as an iTunes affiliate!
Seems like this should not be a big deal, but I went through a couple rejections first (and there is that 15 day period between submissions). The first time I think it was because the main landing page for my website had nothing on it, other than a link to the page that had my app description. The second time I think it was because Squarespace had major issues on the day I re-applied (lots of missing graphics, timeouts, error pages... for apparently all Squarespace accounts, including the main Squarespace site itself).
So after the second rejection (January 15), I sent a reply asking for clarification why I was getting rejected. Got a response a couple days later asking for my LinkShare id (which I'd already included in my initial reply, but whatever). I replied with it, and then got an almost immediate response saying "your application has been approved".
Great! Except LinkShare still showed it was rejected. Waited a day, still rejected. So I sent another email saying I'd been told it was now approved... but their response indicated they had no record of that. So I ended up having to go through it all again. I was told right away that they would "escalate" the issue, although then yesterday, four days after my last response to them, I finally got an email saying "I have escalated this to the account manager..." Talk about escalation, huh? I'd hate to be on the non-escalated queue!
Well... so it took quite a while, but I just got an email a few minutes ago saying I've been approved, and checking LinkShare confirms that (whew!).
All in all it took me nearly 30 days to get through the approval process. But at least it's done now!
__________________ Recall It!Tag your notes. Tag your photos. Tag your thoughts. Tag your life.
You can also build a "short URL" that goes directly into the iTunes Store with the right affiliate information attached to the end. This eliminates the jump to the safari.app but also doesn't report clicks (as you have to bounce off linkshare's servers first). The PartnerID and your SiteID seem to be the two important pieces that get sent through. I'd play with Charles or HTTP Scoop and see what sort of stuff you need.
Jackpot! You got it but remember when you bypass Linkshare in the redirect (opening the safari.app) then you loose out on your clicks tracking. Sales will still be tracked (in theory) but your clicks will not.
"I am writing in reference to your application to the iTunes Affiliate Program. Unfortunately, your application is still declined. The iTunes program manager has determined that the overall look and feel of your website is not a good fit with their marketing campaign at this time, and thus their decision to reject is final.
Thank you for contacting LinkShare!"
I'm starting to get pissed now; they made me write like this two page essay on how I plan to implement linkshare (most ways not even involving the web site) and then I wait a week and get the same stock reply I first got, not even making mention of any of the things they made me write. I sent another reply again kindly asking for specifications on what exactly they are looking for so that I can implement it. I indicated that I have money set aside for a site redesign, and they just simply have to tell me what to do and I will do it. If I don't get some kind of informative reply this time I'm really going to be pissed.
"I am writing in reference to your application to the iTunes Affiliate Program. Unfortunately, your application is still declined. The iTunes program manager has determined that the overall look and feel of your website is not a good fit with their marketing campaign at this time, and thus their decision to reject is final.
That does suck! I hope you get some sort of resolution on this... either an approval, or at least some helpful feedback.
They definitely need to give you more info than just a canned response.
__________________ Recall It!Tag your notes. Tag your photos. Tag your thoughts. Tag your life.
Unfortunately, we cannot provide marketing advice as Linkshare merely manages relationships between affiliates and advertisers. The content of your site determines whether or not an advertiser will approve you into their program.
Affiliate marketing can be hard going at times, but these quick tips will hopefully will make things easier for you.
1. Try to send targeted [relevant] traffic only. Many times affiliates buy advertising and send clicks that do not convert. This can be both expensive and frustrating. Please avoid traffic exchange programs as they generally always result in extremely low quality traffic.
2. Target advertisements to your customers that match the content on your site.
3. Refresh the content on your site regularly so that your visitors return again and again."
Halfway specific I guess....its seems from this like the fellowship is a black mark?
Can anyone give me some examples of websites that fulfill the above criteria so that I can emulate them, especially any of you that have affiliate accepted pages; thanks!
Can anyone give me some examples of websites that fulfill the above criteria so that I can emulate them, especially any of you that have affiliate accepted pages; thanks!
Well, my site (linked in my sig) just got accepted a couple days ago, although I did have to jump through a couple rounds of email threads requesting clarification on my previous denials, which took right around two weeks to resolve.
And honestly, my site is lame! Bland, not much content, etc. Definitely needs spiffing up... plus some content activity. Need to do more blogging, maybe some relevant product reviews, that sort of thing.
But please don't point my site out the iTunes Affiliate manager; they might re-review it...
__________________ Recall It!Tag your notes. Tag your photos. Tag your thoughts. Tag your life.
Unfortunately, we cannot provide marketing advice as Linkshare merely manages relationships between affiliates and advertisers. The content of your site determines whether or not an advertiser will approve you into their program.
Affiliate marketing can be hard going at times, but these quick tips will hopefully will make things easier for you.
1. Try to send targeted [relevant] traffic only. Many times affiliates buy advertising and send clicks that do not convert. This can be both expensive and frustrating. Please avoid traffic exchange programs as they generally always result in extremely low quality traffic.
2. Target advertisements to your customers that match the content on your site.
3. Refresh the content on your site regularly so that your visitors return again and again."
Halfway specific I guess....its seems from this like the fellowship is a black mark?
Can anyone give me some examples of websites that fulfill the above criteria so that I can emulate them, especially any of you that have affiliate accepted pages; thanks!
We signed up finally a few hours ago, and were accepted without problem a few minutes ago.
I've been hard at work redesigning my site (still going...); and I got some google ads up and running now. Think I'm ready to try to apply to linkshare again or is there more to do? Please check it out and give me your input...tired of being rejected; thanks!
Edit: The linkshare ads would run down the right hand side and sporadic other places.
Thanks. I'll apply as soon as I finish redoing all the sections; just got my blog up!
Well...I just reapplied; wish me luck! I've broken my back the past couple of weeks to completely redo my site. Any last comments are still appreciated; thanks again!!
I just took a look at your revamped site... don't see why you should get a "look and feel" rejection from it (well... but then again it's hard to imagine why you should, ever, at least from a site that has the content yours has always had); hopefully it will go smoothly this time!
__________________ Recall It!Tag your notes. Tag your photos. Tag your thoughts. Tag your life.
Linear Mode
