Dear Apple, it’s OK I don’t want to join your affiliate programme because it’s too unfair
So, I wrote a review of the iPad. I wasn’t motivated by money to write the post, I didn’t plan to monetise it, I just wanted to put down some thoughts on the iPad. Then after the review started getting a lot of traffic I thought that out of interest I would replace my standard links to the iTunes store with affiliate links. With the apps in my review costing between nothing and £3.99 I didn’t do this to raise a lot of money but more of an experiment, to see if people would click through and buy/preorder these apps.
Anyway, I knew the Apple affiliate programme was on the TradeDoubler network so I hunted it out to see if I could put some links up. However once I got into the TD system I got an odd error message saying I couldn’t apply for a closed programme. Confused, I emailed TD support and was told it was a closed programme and they would ask the account manager to get in touch to see if they could help. Fair enough, there are lots of closed programmes on all networks and I don’t have a problem with that. To their credit TD came back promptly with an email asking for the following:
Please get back to me me the following details:
1. Site Name
2. General site description
3. Why your site is a good fit for the Apple program
4. Unique users per month
5. Page impressions per month
6. Estimate monthly sales you can generate
Hmm, so I was just contemplating if I could be bothered to answer these questions and especially pondering if they would accept 0 - 100,000 as an answer to question 6 when I came across Jason’s blog post entitled: Apple Not Paying Commission on iPads. Now I wasn’t planning on actually promoting the iPad via affiliate links but this attitude of Apple’s really annoys me. They seem to think that affiliates are good enough to promote all of their other products but when it comes to something as hot as the iPad then they don’t have to pay us commission because it will sell on it’s own without our help. Then I remembered that it had happened before, and before that, and before that. And it will probably happen again.
At this point I was about to go into a rant about treating affiliates unfairly and only giving commission on products that aren’t “hot” items such as games consoles, iPads, iPhone etc. is grossly unfair but I just haven’t the heart any more. It happens every year and it unlikely to change.
OK maybe I will a little bit…While writing this post I’ve been tweeting about this very situation and a couple of people have said that Apple will still sell a lot of iPads without affiliates so it won’t harm them commercially. Well yes and no. Yes they will still sell a ton of them but it’s about respect. It’s like saying, hey affiliates we want you to promote all of our other products but just not the iPad. It will sell a stink load without you guys so just back off OK? Not OK. I think it’s grossly unfair to treat your “partners” like this. Either we’re good enough to promote all your stuff or none. Make your mind up. People were also arguing whether or not my post (or others similar) will bring in incremental sales. Yes they will, I’ve listed some tweets below that I received in response to my review. Sure this is only anecdotal evidence but it’s the best we’ve got.
So, Apple, I won’t be joining your programme thankyou very much. To be blunt, I think you’re unfair for not offering commission on the iPad. Just so you know, more than one person has today told me that they pre-ordered the iPad as a direct consequence of reading my review. My review that cost you nothing.
Some tweets about my iPad review…
What I’m listening to right now: “Cool, groovy, soulful music” - awful name but brilliant playlist.
Post from Kieron’s Blog
Dear Apple, it’s OK I don’t want to join your affiliate programme because it’s too unfair
Original post by Kieron