A fellow domain investor pointed out a few weeks ago that there was a change in the Godaddy affiliate program at Commission Juction regarding their aftermarket domain program. It looked as if they no longer paying out for their aftermarket domains because it now said ZERO as the percentage paid. Sure enough, I noticed CJ sales at Godaddy of $3650 and my commission is a hefty $0 dollars.
Evidently Godaddy wants everyone to go their THEIR affiliate program but the links work very differently and are only good for that particular auction. Secondly, I like the live stats at CJ and Godaddy’s doesn’t have any results until 24 hours lately. Finally, I get incredible service from every department at Godaddy except for one, the affiliate program. It took over 2 weeks just to get that aftermarket code. I had to send countless emails. I have friends that it took a month. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all affiliate programs that help me make money but I am sure going to miss Commission Junction’s.
So now I lose Namejet and Commission Junction’s affiliate programs from my Daily List. It’s a loss of thousands of dollars per month despite sending perfectly targeted traffic to both of them and proven to help them sell names that wouldn’t have sold without the mention. As I’ve said before, I do the list because I scan it for hours a day anyway so why not share. And I can still use Godaddy’s direct affiliate which is better than nothing. It’s just a reminder that when you set up a business and it’s completely based on the sales of their products, you are completely at their mercy. They can pull the plug at any time. Another reason to diversify your income and sales.
That totally sucks Shane. And I think you said Google and meant GoDaddy?
I sent Paul Nicks an email and am looking forward to his reply on what’s up. It would have been nice to hear something from CJ/GD about the change if it isn’t an error.
Shane, email your account rep and tell them this story. Godaddy is an industry leader and they will understand after you explain your model to them. You are ‘spotlighting’ auctions that would otherwise recieve very little exposure. Thousands everyday end without bids. Show them the names that you have promoted, and tell them you want enhanced reporting and a premium commission level. Like an upgrade to a suite in a Vegas hotel; just ask for it!
Bummer. I’ve bought a few domains from Go Daddy based on your blog posts.
Paul is very busy working on Patents for common knowledge applications. He doesn’t have time to communicate and look into real issues surrounding Godaddy.
Hi,
I had the exact same experience 4 or 5 years ago when I signed with their in house affiliate program for ClosingAuctions.com
It started with an horrible discrepency on the number of clicks, continue with a conversion rate that has no sense for our ultra targeted traffic and the fact visitors had all the needed information to take a decision before access the GoDaddy auctions… And worst than all it taken months, dozen of emails to all the upper staff to get paid my miserable commission owed. The truth is I have to make a “BIG CLASH” involving their marketing director to succeed to get paid.
My experience was so horrible I prefered to earn zero dollars better than live again the hassle, stress and frustration. They are lucky my main priority is propose to the reader all the auctions closing from the main actors otherwise I will have definitively dropped GoDaddy from the ClosingAuctions.com feed.
Reading you I see that unfortunately there is no change.
@Jamie: It is no error. I asked the Godaddy support about it and the answer was clear!
I do not think there is a difference in using the direct affiliate program. On the affiliate homepage you can find this: “* The following items do not qualify for commission: premium domains …”. My guess is these are the tdnam domains.
Godaddy also lowered their affiliate commissions from Ebates and Fatwallet from 15% to 7% in the last week.
Shane,
Keep writing your daily lists, or the puppy gets it.
Anthony,
I told my daughter that the puppy went to a farm in the country and got her a cat so it’s all yours now…..but I’ll still keep doing the list
once these companies get so big they no longer need the smaller people that helped them achieve their goal. amazon did something with their free kindle ebooks that people build their businesses around. multi streams of income is how to keep floating… good luck shane
So now I am confused, was this just a big mix up from CJ?
http://www.dnexpert.com/2013/05/31/dropping-cj-com-tdnam-commissions-was-oversight-says-godaddy/