If you would like to review or add a program agreement to your account, go to the “My Account” menu item and click on the “Edit Settings” icon (https://shareasale.com/m-account.cfm). The link to your program agreement is located just below the Program Bio and above the Search Keywords.
Great points, Sarah! Yes, “without an agreement, your program technically and legally speaking has no restrictions” and technically you have no grounds to enforce anything. Too many ShareASale merchants (including some on the Top 100 PowerRank list) don’t have any program agreements in place. Many mistake the affiliate network’s agreement (aka “Affiliate Service Agreement”) for the program agreement. It is NOT one. It doesn’t (and isn’t meant to) cover all merchant-specific restrictions and rules. This is what affiliate program agreements are for.
What most merchants don’t understand is that by having a program agreement in place it makes it easier to get rid of affiliates that are trademark bidding and doing other shady stuff.
I’m actually amazed at the experienced and established affiliate programs that do not have a program agreement in place. When we consult with any prospective client we immediately recommend that they get a program agreement in place before we go any further. Our upcoming training will have an entire section dedicated to creating an appropriate program agreement, with sections for each type of affiliate so that they think about things they may not know about or that they have heard about and weren’t aware how to put controls in place.
I laughed when I read, “will likely result in your friends packing up and finding a new friend to play with.” I like the way you put it. Though I laughed, it’s really a serious matter. I think some merchants aren’t taking the necessary time to put comprehensive agreements in place. Sort of like some of us affiliates who take the time to read and understand agreements. True enough the process can be tedious and time consuming, but the results in the end will be to everyone’s advantage in the end. There are so many merchants and programs available to affiliates today, that it becomes very easy to pack up and go play with new friends.
Agreed, And have to admit when Jill and I started our checks program we were naive about having a program agreement. We just went with the basic “netowrk” agreement. We wanted to allow wide open PPC because a year ago we had no “brand” – and felt some folks bidding on our name might help “spread the word.” However, now that we are a bit over a year old and are beginning to “play with the big boys” – our brand is developing nicely and we do need to adjust our terms. Our program agreement is now together and will be added to our SAS account in the morning. Sarah, thanks for the heads-up. And may it serve as a reminder to other programs out there.
While we have an affiliate agreement in place we too realize that it needs to improved in several areas including PPC bidding and more importantly coupons. We want to work with the coupon sites but only if they initially bring the customers to the site. We are seeing a transactions where the coupon site provides the customer a coupon code at the last minute once they are already checking out. This is not fair to the affiliate who sent the customer in the first place. I just read about the leapfrog feature and look forward to learning about it. My question is how to handle these issues in the affiliate agreement? Do you have a good example of an agreement that addresses these issues? Thanks so much for your informative blog. It has been a great resource for us.