Adwords Power

Some of you might have noticed that Microsoft Adcenter Affiliate Program has closed according to newsletter emails from the program manager in Kowabunga, effective as of february 29th, 2008.

In the account, however, the offer remains and is still active…..active to June 30th, 2008….telling that you will be paid $100 USD per Adcenter signup with activation ansd suggests you to sign up to their Microsoft Affiliate Network;

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Offer your customers $75 in free* search advertising credit, and for each new U.S.-based Microsoft adCenter customer you generate, you’ll receive a cash reward of $100**.

*Does not include the one-time, nonrefundable $5 fee required to open a new adCenter account. **You’ll receive $100 for any customer who spends $50 of their $75 credit within 90 days.

Promotional Guidelines:
Offer valid through June 30, 2008 (11:59 P.M. Pacific Time)…..

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The manager for this program didn’t want to give any explanation nor reason for this closure for some reason when asked…

Shawn Collins have a method to handle this kind of changes in regards to affiliate links sent out and is described on his blog. I didn’t know that it was allowed to redirect the affiliate links actual at all as far as I can remember but this may be possible for mere advanced entrepeneurs.

From an affiliate perspective, I do not like the way this was handled in line with others. Of course it was a Beta but they could have been better to inform and present the progress especially when regarding the size of the businesses involved. No press release here…

They use and take advantage of a lot affiliates and many is disappointed for natural reasons. Many affiliates have made sincere efforts in time and costs for advertising just for to find everything is gone.

I remember when 5star affiliate program network actively promoted and recommended it throughly enough in december last year through imnews and other sources. This is one example from their official blog:

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“This program is a clear win-win for Microsoft and affiliate marketers.” said Linda Buquet, President of 5 Star Affiliate Programs. “Having an adCenter affiliate program will help expand Microsoft’s reach in the advertising community and will offer affiliate partners the opportunity to share the revenue. We are proud to have Microsoft join the 5 Star family of high integrity affiliate programs.” she said.

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In their forum I can found just one notice about that they have launched this program and how big client it was. 

Hmmm…..what to say…..this was the first and the last time following their recommendations if they have advanced consulting and marketing management coming out with these kind of offers. I do not know much about them, however, I have changed my mind about their capability and reputation to judge and select good programs to promote meaning I would not take their suggestions into consideration anymore than this made. One time is enought especially when it come to bigger companies like this actual.

I couldn’t find any way for cancelling my account to this microsoftaffiliates.net. No way for it within the affiliate account, nor in the welcome mail, nor in the newsletter emails received. And their manager wrote first from this net address and then from Kowabunga….I have requested a cancellation of my account, however, nothing have been done about it for some reason….

I am still wondering how was it all going and what was the reason for the ‘closing’. Was it a smart move to draw attention to their program so other people could promote them? Did they receive a lot of revenue? A lot of traffic? Bet they did. The video in december shows on the other side that they were looking for partners and bigger search engine partners. What was the output from that campaign? How was the interests from the public in general?

I can find in my trash bin inbox that they sent me a new offer as of feb 8th 2008 about;

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The Microsoft Affiliate Network (MSAN) has launched a Windows Live Spaces account as a new resource exclusively for our affiliates to keep you informed of all the latest news, promotion tips and offers.

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The link in the bottom of the email goes to Kowabunganews which is not possible to cancel.

Without responding to that offer I was automatically into it anyway as it seems. I received an email today named ”Welcome to Windows Live Spaces” now from livecom and nothing about Kowabunganews.

So who have earned most from all this do you think? Microsoft? 5star affiliatenetwork? Kowabunga? Who have turned up the efforts driving traffic to this adcenter?…….

I have tried to search for any valid reason, however, I cannot find anything of content as of yet. Just messages from the email and some reflections and reactions and of course 5star yet only the statement nothing more. I do find a lot about the launch but missing the information about the closing process. Why cannot Kowabunga explain as they are their manager? It is all about being communicative and informative in good faith.

It is more the way it is handled and managed than everything else….

Do I need to say that I will not use any of these three services anymore. It’s a shame.