Should Merchants List Expired Codes On Their Own Sites?
"Purple" (Martin Warn) pointed out that BuyAGift was #1 for "Buyagift Discount Code" which got me thinking ...What would happen if merchants started creating pages about the avaliable discount codes on their own site, but maybe didn't make a big play of it on the site itself? How many merchant sites would appear 1st for "[merchant name] discount codes"? And what impact would that have affiliate sales driven by the discount code mechanism?
Also to prevent unscrupulous affiliates knowingly promoting expired codes as a cookie-cutting excercise, should merchants list all the codes and optimise for them on their sites?
I reckon tonnes of commission could be redirected back into merchant coffers this way - but would it be a good thing? Personally Thortons' 15% discount code helped generate bucket-loads of sales for me and I would probably had lower conversion rates without it.
So, a question for all you affiliates, merchants, networks etc; should merchants use their own sites and optimise for expired discount codes, and in the process redirect a degree of relevant discount traffic away from affilites as a by-product?
Or should we view the situation that this is just another sales-mechanism us affiliates use that will ultimately be closed down by merchants for their own use?
posted by getvisible @ 20:52
3 Comments
3 Comments:
If I'm having to compete with the merchants to promote them, I don't see the point.
I discussed this with John Lammo last night he made a good point in that if merchants did promote discount codes, then this would open them out to the general public.
Some merchants would want to restrict codes to just a few affiliates, they could not do this if they advertised these on their own site.
I've seen a few merchants highlight codes in their terms and conditions, which appear in the search results, perhaps deliberately
gc
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