What is your percentage of DECLINED transactions? Mine is about 70% (2 approved, 9 pending, 19 declined.) I tried to communicate with Melissa Witt (Program Manager, Microsoft Affiliate Network from Kowabunga - it seems like they are either absolutely clueless about this business, or Kowabunga is a fraud. This is what microsoftaffiliates.net site promises you on their 1st page Real-time traffic reporting powered by industry-leading affiliate tracking and management technology this is from their FAQ Real-time traffic reporting I asked Melissa to provide me specific information about every declined transaction (I wanted to know what is exactly going on - one of my customer's signed up, used full credit and then some... Her transaction marked as "declined". I never got what i needed, and have been recieving pretty much the same nonesense in different variations). Those are quotes from her emails: (4.4.2008) (4.18.2008) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- INCIDENT #2 A week after i signed up their site broke. It stopped generating coupon codes.. It took Kowabunga more than a week to fix it. I got my first sale 2 weeks after my signup. 4/7/2008 | adCenter Affiliate (NEW) | Approved | $35 My first sale happened when the site was broken .. Also it wasn't clear what has been sold because there is no product that pays $35... I asked Melissa for clarifications.Melissa replied: 4.18.2008 ( note: the program has beenterminated in February, i signed up to this Affiliate program in April. ....But $100 was better than nothing) 4.21.2008 (I did not do anything and had no idea how links from February could look like. I double checked everything - all my links were exactly like on their site) 5.8.2008 (no $100, then i turned into glitch) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- INCIDENT #3 Since the number of declined transactions grew daily and Melissa refused to profvide me information I asked her (I wanted to know specifically what caused so my transactions to be declined), i started investigating myself. I downloaded excel spreadsheet for all transactions and discovered an extra column called "CampaignID" which wasn't displayed inside my account. In this XLS All declined transactions had "CampaignID": 10 All approved and pending transactions had "CampaignID" "7" All my affiliate links had cid=7 Kowabunga uses absolutely primitive tracking system, that it doesn't require any specs in order to figure out how it works.. hxxp://www.microsoftaffiliates.net/t.aspx?kbid=5668&p=http%3a%2f%2fwww.startadcenter.com%2fgetstarted%2f&m=16&cid=7&i=42 There is not doubt in my mind that "cid" stands for CampaignID, so i asked Melissa -Why all declined transactions have been marked with CampaignID 10? Is it something you also update manually? 5.23.2008 - First they blamed me for sending traffic to campaign which ended in February; - then they told me that "campaign ID" is irrelevant; Does anyone know whom Kowabunga reports inside Microsoft ? I want to verify few transaction and find out why this nonsense happens. Please post the % of your declined transactions. Thanks
Hi dotbeyond, Thanks for posting this issue. I followed up with the Microsoft Affiliate program and they shared the following info. I hope this helps – please let me know if you have further questions and I’ll work to find the answer for you. In the meantime, someone from the affiliate program will be following up with you directly about your issue. We at the Microsoft Affiliate Network know the reports for the adCenter Partner affiliate program are confusing for our affiliates and are taking steps to clear things up. The main problem is in how the transactions (or new subscriber signups) that trigger a payout event are presented in the Affiliate Account Center. When a new adCenter subscriber is referred in by an affiliate, our tracking pixel sends a confirmation to the affiliate’s console in the Affiliate Account Center showing a transaction occurred (i.e. a new adCenter subscriber account was generated). However, the new subscriber hasn’t yet met the conditions of the offer to be approved for payout so unfortunately it records it as a declined transaction. Once a week we receive reports from adCenter that confirms a new subscriber meets some or all of the terms of the offer. Once that happens, the affiliate’s reports in the Affiliate Account Center are updated and these declined transactions move to either Pending (qualifies for payout if subscriber meets minimum spend level) or Approved (subscriber met minimum spend level). The only time a transaction remains declined is if it doesn’t meet the terms of the offer. We are working to fix this reporting system so it is less confusing for our affiliates and in fact, we are closing the current offer June 30th in order to rebuild the system. All affiliates participating in the current offer have been notified of this. We are also talking with every affiliate directly to make sure they understand the breakdown of total transactions (declined, pending, approved). adCenterRep
The program is still in beta, so you can expect some hiccups. I've been in the program for quite a while and I have no serious complaints. Melissa and the other staff I've dealt with have always come through for me. Melissa's newsletter last week said that the checks would be in the mail on June 17th.
Yes Rapidrobert, Melissa was always helpfull, I'm just talking about the payment, she told me that it supposed to be Monday and it's Wednesday today. anyway we're waiting
I've already cashed in a check from them, but it was for the sales I've sent before that $35/sale ended in february. So they DO pay. And I haven't been promoting them since that time. If anyone else is willing to share his new DECLINE RATE. It will be very useful, since I was thinking of starting to promote them again.
Hey haniadel, My comments about Melissa were aimed at the prior posts. Also, my check arrived on Friday. Did you receive yours yet?
Did anyone use their Sub_IDs to track referrals? please contact me ------------------ Regarding Melissa: She used to be nice, but she could answer simple question. Being nice is enough to have a drink or see a movie, but if you run big corporate account - you should know at least something ... Well, if they loose this account, i wouldn't be surprised.. Judd Boone is also nice . Instead of providing information about declined transaction he suggested: If you don't filter by program, you'll see lots of declined transactions which is a glitch in the reporting system. This is one of the reasons we are closing this program at the end of the month, so we can fix that glitch. but after i explained what is broken he simply stopped answering my emails.. ______________________ Still no one posted their ratio of declined vs. approved+pending transactions. Please share. I will really appreciate it. Thanks!
I am still being ignored by Microsoft Affiliates. What Microsoft doesn't understand yet is that outsourcing their advertising program to all kinds of Vega Consulting and Kowabunga only hurts their brand (Kowabunga messed it up, but Microsoft affiliate program is one that sucks) I am not judging Microsoft - it's their money and they can afford it. But what Vega Consulting and Kowabunga do not understand is that Microsoft has money, I can find people who are ready to spend money and they have absolutely primitive script to track affiliate campaigns, which they had - no idea how to use (see their explanation about CID variable in my previous posts) - no idea how to fix (so they run it until the end of campaign) - no understanding of affiliate marketing (traffic doesn't just appear from nowhere and when someone asks why they declined transaction - the question must be answered)What is interesting is that they had a few "glitches", but i am the one who lost money after spending days either helping my customers to set up their AdCenter or testing and trying to figure out what went wrong with their system. I had 90% of my transactions declined. I reduced the number to 60%. because I did finally figure out what was broken and told them how to confirm it. I haven't heard from "nice people" since that moment... Everyone gets a chance... some prefer to blow it. Enjoy New Microsoft AdCenter promotion
I did noticed that they have something wrong going on when I used to advertise them, but I managed to get some money out of this affiliate program. Thanks for warning us.