So I've been using Shopzilla for over 6 months I think, and today I receive this email saying my participation has been terminated. Has anyone else had this happen? I'm not really sure what it is I'm supposed to have done wrong, and the cut and paste email doesn't really shed much light. Now whinging aside, I don't think this is the way to treat publishers at all. If there was a problem with my site I should be told what the problem is and be given a chance to fix it.
I remember you had a previous thread saying that Shopzilla dropped your CPC rates due to a bad conversion rate (clicks to sale). It is possible that your clicks just weren't converting at all. Merchants don't want to pay for something that isn't working (IE: making money) for them. That's my best guess.
You've go a good memory! I can't believe anyone would remember something I wrote 6 months ago! I do understand that conversion is an issue for merchants/advertisers, but by the same token, as a publisher there is not a lot I can do to improve the conversion rate. All I can do is display ads directing people to the advertisers sites/pages, if those clicks/people don’t go on to convert, then that is really an issue that the advertiser needs to take some ownership of. If I send a merchant traffic, and then that traffic doesn't convert, who's problem is that? I've sent someone to their site, and that's about all I can do. It's up to the merchant to close the deal.
I agree with your statement, but this is the state of online advertisement in the current market. On the flip side (just as an example), let's say you tell everyone you know to click your ads. That's a load of people clicking through and not doing anything. I think the conversion rate thing is just a way to stop the majority of click fraud. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you weren't doing any click fraud, but still... The contract does stipulate that termination can be done by any party at any time and Shopzilla is acting according to the contract. Does it suck? Yes, but there are other providers you can move to. I doubt you need me to say "good luck" or anything, but there you go.