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Shutterstock.com / Have shutterstock done the dirty on us with their affiliate scheme?
« on: December 04, 2012, 21:00 »
Seems that shutterstock have done an istockphoto on us by closing their current affiliate program and making everyone signup with a new one:
http://affiliate.shutterstock.com/pdfs/new_affiliate_platform.pdf
Various things annoy me about this:
- seems the new program only pays for purchases but not for earnings by referred programers. looks like 'lifetime earnings' from the old system end at the end of the year - so if you are like me and earn from photographer you referred that will all disappear (it seems - not sure on that?) http://affiliate.shutterstock.com/faq.mhtml still mentions that but I fear it's out of date?
- you have to signup again, they already have all your data but its you that has to jump through all the hoops to re-apply wait for approval etc.
- payment only via EFT if you are outside US, and ACH inside?
After getting my fingers burnt with istocks change that took a fairly modest amount of earnings down to zero over night I'm certainly not planning on changing existing buyer targeted links with shutterstock over to their new outsourced program, DT or FT seem like a much more stable better bet(!). I might test on one site but the others will go elsewhere.
I did write the email below to my contact at shutterstock, but it seems "they're not working there any more"...
===========
Hi Matt
can you let me know a little more about shutterstock motives regarding moving their affiliate program?
having signed up for a couple of affiliate accounts following our discussions last year I'm really not looking forward to moving my existing shutterstock links to new links via this outsourced platform you are migrating to. It seems like a lot of unnecessary work, and I'm hoping you can explain the reasons why this is happening?
it's not rocket science to forward current affiliate links somewhere, nor can it be that hard for you to migrate the data you already have to the new platform transparently? surely? why is it up to me to signup again, wait for sites to be re-approved, modify the code on my site etc?
I can't think of a single time in nearly 15 years of online marketing experience where a website has gone down this road
and it's not ended up with the eventual closure of the affiliate program, moving it elsewhere again or moving it back in house.
Can you also clarify if the payouts for existing referred photographers will end (clearly they are not part of the new program
going forward) but there was a lifetime payout of 3 cents on referred photographers' sales. Is this included in the "Any referrals from the legacy platform are considered invalid after December 31, 2012."
thanks in advance
steve
===========
http://affiliate.shutterstock.com/pdfs/new_affiliate_platform.pdf
Various things annoy me about this:
- seems the new program only pays for purchases but not for earnings by referred programers. looks like 'lifetime earnings' from the old system end at the end of the year - so if you are like me and earn from photographer you referred that will all disappear (it seems - not sure on that?) http://affiliate.shutterstock.com/faq.mhtml still mentions that but I fear it's out of date?
- you have to signup again, they already have all your data but its you that has to jump through all the hoops to re-apply wait for approval etc.
- payment only via EFT if you are outside US, and ACH inside?
After getting my fingers burnt with istocks change that took a fairly modest amount of earnings down to zero over night I'm certainly not planning on changing existing buyer targeted links with shutterstock over to their new outsourced program, DT or FT seem like a much more stable better bet(!). I might test on one site but the others will go elsewhere.
I did write the email below to my contact at shutterstock, but it seems "they're not working there any more"...
===========
Hi Matt
can you let me know a little more about shutterstock motives regarding moving their affiliate program?
having signed up for a couple of affiliate accounts following our discussions last year I'm really not looking forward to moving my existing shutterstock links to new links via this outsourced platform you are migrating to. It seems like a lot of unnecessary work, and I'm hoping you can explain the reasons why this is happening?
it's not rocket science to forward current affiliate links somewhere, nor can it be that hard for you to migrate the data you already have to the new platform transparently? surely? why is it up to me to signup again, wait for sites to be re-approved, modify the code on my site etc?
I can't think of a single time in nearly 15 years of online marketing experience where a website has gone down this road
and it's not ended up with the eventual closure of the affiliate program, moving it elsewhere again or moving it back in house.
Can you also clarify if the payouts for existing referred photographers will end (clearly they are not part of the new program
going forward) but there was a lifetime payout of 3 cents on referred photographers' sales. Is this included in the "Any referrals from the legacy platform are considered invalid after December 31, 2012."
thanks in advance
steve
===========
