In November of 2005, Lee Gientke, the affiliate manager from ProHelth, submitted a guest blooger article to GoYaMi detailing his experience making the transition from CJ to Linkshare.

We have received some emails asking us to have Lee update us on how everything went and give us a follow up article on how things went and how their affiliate program has done since the switch. Here is his update:

As the Carpenters song goes, breaking up is hard to do. As I reported here last November, migrating from one network to another can be a bit challenging. I can only sympathize with the agony of the affiliates and affiliate managers who run programs on the BeFree/Reporting.net platform and with almost no notice have to migrate their programs instantly to what many say is a lesser platform. Negotiating contracts, convincing affiliates to swap links and implementation takes time and a ton of effort. In our case breaking up with CJ and starting our affair with LinkShare has been a resounding success.

Now if you’ll excuse my use of percentages and a certain level of ambiguousness -- this is only for competitive reasons and not because I’m hiding something – I’ll get on with the scandalous details of our affair with LinkShare. Some of my favorite metrics include:

• The number of affiliates with orders has tripled.
  ProHealth operates in a niche within a niche. We attract the big affiliates that everyone has but we also have a ton of affiliates who will have one or two sales a month. Because LinkShare gives me an affiliate’s direct contact information, I can give that little affiliate the white glove service they need to turn impressions into clicks and clicks into impressions.


• There was a minimal revenue drop during migration.
  This is a big concern from people considering making a switch. Our numbers were at the lower band of September’s historical trend but do you really expect to set a record when you’ve just culled 80% of your program? By the time the holidays came, we were fully back and in fact, the program had record holiday sales with an increase of more than 20%. Successful migration simply takes planning, organization, and execution – all skills that an affiliate manager worth their bonus has.


• Sales continue to improve.
  The first quarter of 2006 was a tough one for the supplement industry, with sales generally down between 3-5% depending on whose numbers you look at. We posted close to a 4% increase in q1 2006 versus q1 2005 when we were with CJ. If things continue as they have we will continue to post significant growth as compared to previous years.


• Having an account representative has been invaluable.
  My account representatives have been my wingman. Stephen and Tim tell me when the beer goggles are on and I’m about to commit a party foul. They have proven to be knowledgeable about their system, responsive to my questions and when they don’t know an answer they find it and get back to me usually the same day.


• I love LinkShare’s Reporting.
  Yeah, so the brass at LinkShare are trying to set a record by keeping Synergy Analytics in beta but their reporting in general is better. Without having to rely on my backend system or using complex Excel formulas, I can tell you what I sold, who is selling it and when it sold usually within 2 clicks. Oh, it also doesn’t time out or take forever for basic reports to load.


• My relationships with my affiliates are significantly better.
  I think it is almost daily that I hear an affiliate manager with a CJ program say something to the effect, “I’ve been trying to communicate with my affiliates using the tools CJ gives me but they are unresponsive.” At LinkShare, I have a phone number or an accurate e-mail address within 2 clicks so when I want to give someone a coupon or an increased commission, I simply call them. As a result of this personal communication, I have personal relationships with my affiliates. You simply can’t put metric on this on any level.

I know by now you are thinking, gee LinkShare must have paid him to write this because I don’t mention any problems. No, I haven’t been paid but they can make the check payable to Lee Gientke and mail them to the address they have on file. But to be fair, there are a couple complaints specifically:

• Communicate better with your merchants.
  I’m reading the forums, talking to colleagues and attending the conferences all the time but the last place I should hear about a new initiative from is an affiliate. LinkShare Signature is a classic case here. I had an affiliate call me asking me to explain how to use it. I had no clue what it was or how it worked and had to scramble to find out. How about an e-mail once a quarter letting us know what’s up?


• Talk to the folks at Google about search.
  Sometimes finding an affiliate within my database is a bit quirky if I don’t have an encoded id or an id number. I rarely am able to find anyone by their URL, which if someone is using a scripted redirect for their links, getting an encrypted id number is a bit hard.

So our affair with LinkShare is much like a license plate frame I saw today, “I miss my ex but my aim gets higher.” LinkShare has proven to be a better platform in many ways. I certainly am looking forward to the full release of Synergy Analytics, the refinement of Athena and the many other things that LinkShare has on tap in the coming months. And lastly, I’m always happy to answer questions if you have them – just drop me a line.

Lee Gientke
Affiliate Manager
www.ProHealth.com/shop
805/564-3064x212
lgientke@prohealth.com