I use a few affiliates at linkshare and haven't really had to many problems. Payments can take a while but they do come (I only use premium). You definitely have to do the new login/tax thing or they will not send you a cheque. It did state this on the join now screen. My one issue is that there site is not very user friendly. I find it very hard to find things on their site. Just the other day I tried to add a new website to my portfolio. Well, I found out that there is a new way to do this (after a 1/2 hour of screwing around). What was confusing was the old way to add a site is still there but you can't do anything with it but delete old website links. That's fine if they actually had an explanation about it with a link pointing to the new location. In my opinion I find CJ to be the best followed by linkshare and then shareasale (don't get me started with them).
I question the acquisition by Rakuten, Japan's internet portal, and it's effect on the North American market. I believe LS was sold for something like $425 million back in Sept 2005
Actually, it's not Linkshare that sucks it's some of the merchants. You can't blame LS for late payments, if the merchant doesn't pay LS, then LS can't pay you. Rule of Thumb - Try to stay with the merchants designated as 'Premium' and you won't have too many problems.
Just letting you all know, they still suck (yes, I know this is an old thread). When I log in I get a page full of commas. Very useful. Damn you Apple! Why choose Linkshare! Anyone got any other suggestions for affiliates for my site? I review music, and would like a "buy it here" button...
Not sure what you are talking about, commas? I login there several times a day and I also use .Mac, Apple Store and iTunes, I don't see any problem?
Linkshare is pretty bad, but it's mainly (at least in my experience) due to their horrendous website and stats tracking and displaying. Here are a few examples... My account will show no sales etc. whatsoever - sometimes for months - but within that time period I may receive checks for several hundred dollars. The dollar amounts and that stupid graph with the green bars never match sometimes one precedes the other in total amounts. Also, new sales are sometimes never displayed in stats and charge backs are never represented. Also, their stats get updated sporadically at best (log in today to see what todays problems are). Linkshare used to have an older version of their website that was more user-friendly and somewhat accurate, but they got rid of it (figures). Also, I have never had an issue getting paid, but I am very suspicious that I am NOT getting credit for many of my sales (this is mainly Match.com sales I'm talking about and if any of you promote Match.com through Linkshare you KNOW what I am talking about). For those of you who see sales, but haven't received checks most likely its their stats that are incorrect and either 1) you didn't really make those sales (I actually made about 700 bucks total last year, but I can bring up a report that shows I made 7 THOUSAND dollars last year, for example, and I'm trying to get them to pay me the 7k since they wont admit that their stats are bad/wrong so PAY ME A-HOLES)) or 2) You had some type of chargeback for the product but they never represented this by reducing your commissions owed. So, yeah overall Linkshare is pretty bad and their website is one of the WORST I've ever seen as far as accuracy and user-friendliness.
There's one merchant that still pays me about $100/month so I leave their links up and spend a little time to update. the other 50 or so merchants I tried to promote, didnt get squat. Even from test purchases.