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CORKED!

Remember, it's not the merchants' fault if Buy.at have fouled up the continuance of affiliate links.

If you're wondering why this page exists, here's the explanation: A while ago, Buy.at was a reasonable company in the affiliate marketing business, and many companies were promoted at this site via Buy.at affiliate links. Things were going well until Buy.at got Bought.out by AOL, and then they went all corporate and tried to impose the new Buy.at Contract. I'm very fussy about what I'll sign, and I have my own code of honour, and there are various things in contracts which I am very wary of. The Buy.at contract was in my opinion unreasonable, so I refused to sign it.

I suggested to the people at Buy.at that they change the contract to make it fairer to ALL affiliates, but they didn't seem to think it mattered. Well, I can tell you: IT DOES MATTER. Affiliates can't be herded like sheep and forced into things they won't agree to. See Good and Bad in Affiliate Marketing. Anyway, with no agreement, Buy.at proved to be the weakest link in the connection between the good marketing here and the desire for good marketing at the merchants' companies. When this broke, a vast set of merchants here (whom we had taken the time and trouble to promote via dedicated pages), were left STUCK.

Quite quickly, other affiliate marketing companies took advantage of the gap in the market, and the page of merchants at Buy.at soon got picked over and the affiliate programs moved to other companies. This Abandoning of Buy.at was a continuing work in progress, and in the meantime as this site is LIVE it was appropriate to explain to customers what had happened, and why the links didn't go through.

If it had been the merchants' fault, like it was with MORE THAN, then of course the pages would have duly and appropriately embarrassed them. However, in the case of the Buy.at problem, it's not the merchants' fault! In fact, we feel a bit sorry for them, missing out because of Buy.at's fault. So, a set of pages were created which explained to the customers what had happened, pointing out whose fault it was and wasn't, and suggesting practical alternatives in the meantime.

It's important to understand, these pages are not BUNGED UP, where the affiliate program has been lost and the pages are expected to remain bunged up unless something good happens such as a new affiliate program for the company in question (this often happens!). Indeed, in the case of CORKED pages, it's more like the sort of situation where you're enjoying a bottle of wine and you decide not to finish it all off, but instead to put the cork back in and then come back later to continue enjoying it on a later occasion. In a similar way, with pages that are CORKED, the intention is clearly that they are expected to be UNCORKED, preferably soon!

To see a full list of corkings of Buy.at affiliate programs, see the page of Abandoning Buy.at . In most cases, just an extra paragraph was enough to explain the situation and leave the page on hold ready to be uncorked as soon as the merchant got a new affiliate program somewhere that had a fair contract!

However, some of the situations were either more complicated, or more explanation was required, or the amount of traffic was sufficiently high that it merited a special page to say about the specific corking. For example, some groups of merchants shared the same cork-status, and some were missing out on so much business that I felt it only fair to publish the truth of the situation so folks are left in no doubt about what had happened.

As time goes on, the pages will be UNCORKED. Here is the current status list of those companies who merit a special page regarding their corking:

The AA corked - like a resourceful motorist with a spare tyre, The AA were not stuck for long. The fact that their previous affiliate program had gone flat did not leave them stranded.

Virgin Media corked - the communications company Virgin Media soon had an alternative routing connected up, so their page is now back in business too!

Next corked - the famous fashion store Next is now back in the shop window, the new arrangement including Next Flowers and Wine

Superdrug - welcome back!

Co-operative Travel - welcome back!

Salon Skincare - welcome back!

Angels Fancy Dress - welcome back!

Butlins corked - welcome back Butlins! now with Affiliate Window. The folk always seemed to be cheerful at Butlins, and was commented here that it would be good to get the show back on the road again. For a long while it was a continuing mystery why those nice people at Profero hadn't got back to us and got this resolved! But in the end, news came in independently that Butlins had reappeared at Affiliate Window

Hillarys corked - the three blinds pages (Hillarys Blinds, Blinds Supermarket, and Web Blinds) were shut, but after some discussion they were all opened again, as easily as pulling a cord! They are now at Affili.net . Welcome Back! Also well done to those helpful people at Mediacom!

Financial Times - in the Credit Crunch, the financial news might not be good, but people are very keen to read it! So, the Financial Times should be selling even better than usual! Anyway, things have moved on and the market went through its worst point in the slump and is now back on the way up, and the FT is out of the slump thanks to DGM PRO! The lack of liquidity in the mobility of the affiliate program is now part of past history, just like 1929.

Littlewoods Direct corked - it is especially important that this high profile merchant LX Direct be reconnected via a decent affiliate marketing company. We're on good terms with the people there, and hope they can get something sensible and workable soon. I'm afraid this is in a way a cautionary tale, a warning to other companies: Don't Have an Exclusive Contract! Such things can become a problem.

Aviva corked - surely with the resources of Aviva, the insurance company formerly known as Norwich Union, it would be expected that they'd be back up and running with OMG or TradeDoubler without delay? Surely the RAC can get their affiliate program rescued in a jiffy?!

Saga corked - this is especially poignant, as Saga have been messed about by Buy.at in a way which just beggars belief!

Nokia corked - for a phone company, Nokia are difficult to contact.

Asda corked - come on Asda! Don't lose out to Tesco!

Ryman - the famous stationers. They should have a new affiliate program!

Shearings Holidays - Travel, originally on coaches, but later diversifying into other modes of transport. A new affiliate program would be a good idea.

Neat Ideas - yes, but what would be a really neat idea would be to get an affiliate program with somewhere that we can sign up to.

Others - Yes, there are others that are corked, but often the corking consists of a discreet paragraph on the end of the page, rather than having a separate page about the corking. To see the full list, see the page of Buy.at merchants which is gradually being depleted.

= recovered and uncorked

As time goes on, it is expected that this page will gradually be depleted of outstanding cases of "corked" status. The pages will still remain, but will be adjusted to say "they are no longer corked" etc.

If you work for one of the merchants on this list, you can help to get your company's situation resolved! Get a new affiliate program with one of the many other affiliate networks! Then let us know. We'll be keen to get the links back up and the page updated!

If you work for an affiliate marketing company, you may be interested in seeing about recruiting some of these companies as well as those on the Buy.at Abandoning page. It's all good for business. For any enterprising affiliate marketing company it's become a bit like the great opportunity provided by the BUNGED UP page which lists hundreds of merchants whose dedicated pages are here online ready to resume being good for business.

Let's get this in perspective: You're reading this at Zyra's website Zyra.org.uk which has over six thousand pages and over two thousand pages of merchants being promoted. The loss of Buy.at is a bit sad, but it represents barely a fifth of the site's total income. If Buy.at can't get their act together and treat affiliates properly, we can do without them! In contrast, it's questionable whether they can do without the good publicity provided here, the absence of which has resulted in influencing some quite high-profile merchants jumping ship and abandoning them! The Buy.at contract has been held up to public ridicule. We weren't the first to publish it, but as far as I know, we were the first to write a critique of it online. Let this serve as an example to other affiliate networks not to think they can push affiliates around. All this corporate litigious stuff with "catch all clauses" doesn't wash well with Freedom on the Internet, and we the affiliates will not put up with it. We'll be chucking the tea overboard and declaring our own independence from the tyranny of our oppressors.

Whether it be companies or countries, we don't put up with such nonsense. The UK is also being abandoned. See the rats leaving the sinking ship! Squeak... Splosh! ... UK 50% tax? You have got to be joking. No? Then it is the country itself that has become a joke.