New affiliate service on dyxum

It is about a month since I added (as a trial) a new affiliate service to our forums.
Since the service is working quite well I have decided to keep it rolling and let you know about it.

But first, let me apologize for not letting you know about it before; I didn’t done it for any selfish reasons; I was wrong in thinking that by going in public (our admin/mod team is informed about it since the first day) with it I would violate terms of usage. It actually turned to be the opposite and I’m actually encouraged to make it public (something that i'm sure will significantly increase the efficiency anyway).

Anyway, dyxum is now using VigLink service.
In short, what VigLink does is intercept all links posted in our forum and if it is a known and supported merchant or affiliate site it connects that click to dyxum affiliate account.

In simple words, if one is posting a link to an ebay auction for example that link will be counted and hopefully “monetized”.

The list of supported merchants, web stores, affilate sites etc is very, very long but all major sites are supported; ebay, amazon, B&H, adorama .. and finally .. Sony Style (the only company that provides affiliate programs i have contacted that has explicitly refused to partner with dyxum directly btw.)

It is very important to me that no "damage" is done to our members in any way, the service is helping earning some money from links that would otherwise be just a sale potential to merchants and stores.

Furthermore, if you follow the link i provided to VigLink you will find a way to opt-out from the service (along with VigLink privacy statements) and dyxum so that your links will not be affected by VigLink service (personally i don't mind if you have any reasons to do so although it is fair to say that i would never use any service that i find a risk for our visitors).

With all the above said, i do invite you to support dyxum by entering proper html links when posting (VigLink cannot work if links are posted as text only and one is copy-paste them).

No special task is necessary to help us gaining something than linking properly and the easiest way to do so is to use our link button



For example, if i'm about to post a link to a site, rather than just typing a plain text like

http://www.dyxum.com

i will use the link button and make a link like

this is a link to dyxum website

That's all.

Also, you are encouraged to post links to various deals you may find on line and you are willing to share with others (ebay seems to work particularly well)... as long it isn't a spam!!

Now, that's important too ... i'm not inviting you to spend your time in finding links that could work for the purpose. That's not necessary (i could earn too much money too fast and invest in a a gibson guitar or even worst in a nikon d3x :)).

This invitation is only in cases you found some interesting deal and want to share it with others (so the link is shared to help other members and not dyxum !!!)

This is probably currently the best way to support dyxum financially.



Happy clicking :)


Edited by Kiklop - 25 March 2011 at 15:51

I think it's great, anything that helps Dyxum helps us all.
How about we start a new thread in the Buy/Sell forums titled 'Look at what I'm going to buy'? Once you decide on what you're going to purchase and where, post a link to the item in the thread and then proceed with the purchase from the link.

Good stuff.

ConfuciusTse wrote: Great idea! Fantastic way for us members to help support this great forum. Can't believe Sony declined, they should be paying for this site 100%!

Sony declined?

Excellent solution, so do I understand correctly that it only counts links to catalog items of a given online store? Or would it also count for example a link to a free download in a customer support section of a software/hardware store or manufacturer?

Maybe Sony is reluctant because we tend to complain a lot about the lack of seriously discounted in-stock items in SonyStyle online & good sales/service support at SonyStyle locations

pdeley wrote: Excellent solution, so do I understand correctly that it only counts links to catalog items of a given online store? Or would it also count for example a link to a free download in a customer support section of a software/hardware store or manufacturer?

To tell the truth, i don't know how exactly this works. Affiliate links are often unreliable and it is not rare that trough such process referral links are lost and no commission is validated. And not all stores/sites do work the same neither; some do pay per click, some pay for purchases only and some aren't paying at all :)

pdeley wrote: Maybe Sony is reluctant because we tend to complain a lot about the lack of seriously discounted in-stock items in SonyStyle online & good sales/service support at SonyStyle locations

i don't think so .. i don't believe there is any intention to "ban" us .. it is just that their business policy is significantly lacking in sensitivity for their userbase communities. It is not bad intention .. just ignorance IMHO.

Kiklop wrote: With all the above said, i do invite you to support dyxum by entering proper html links when posting (VigLink cannot work if links are posted as text only and one is copy-paste them). Also, you are encouraged to post links to various deals you may find on line and you are willing to share with others (ebay seems to work particularly well)... as long it isn't a spam!! This is probably currently the best way to support dyxum financially.

Like has been said, anything that helps is good so well done :)

Simple question, just to make sure I'm typing things in correctly... What do you mean by html links? <a href=link>link name</a>? I didn't think that worked on dyxum, so I'm guessing that's not what you mean, but if you could let me know what we're meant to do it would be appreciated