Affiliates who have T&C's for merchants??

[CDM]

Can anyone explain the rationale, from the merchant side, on why we would sign a T & C from an affiliate, for them to promote our products?

I've had a couple affiliates sign up to our program. Then after they've been reviewed and approved, they email me with something like "by the way, you need to sign off on our terms and conditions for us to promote you".

I assume the affiliate wants some type of protection, possibly they have been burnt in the past by a bad merchant. We're not exactly selling viagra. To be honest, a lot of cons are coming to mind. First of all, we'd need to have their terms reviewed by our attorney to make sure it doesnt conflict with our terms, and regardless, we risk being sued by an affiliate if they are so inclined.

What are the pros here? Are other affiliate merchants actually doing this?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi CDM,

This is the 1st I've heard of it. Is it a big affiliate, like a corporate affiliate. I can imagine some of them do.

Are they asking for anything excessive or out of the ordinary?

If not and if you think they'd be good I'd do it.

When you think about it, affiliate marketing is supposed to be a 2 way partnership but the merchant makes the terms and the affiliate has no say or protection. Affiliates get burned all the time by merchants. So I actually applaud the affiliates for turning around and having their own T&Cs. Providing their terms are fair and equitable.

 

[CDM]

Well the bottom line is that I am not familiar enough with contractual law to be signing off in the name of my company. It would have to be reviewed by an attorney, without question.

The whole idea is a bit bewildering to me so I havn't more than skimmed the document.

 

[Ron Bechdolt]

CDM,

Please let us know what you discover. In the 10 years I have been in this business this is the first I have heard of this as well from an affiliate. Some super affiliates I've worked with have certain terms, but we've never been required to do anything contractually. It's in our best interest to follow through with whatever agreement we made to keep them promoting the program.