Linkshare Announces Weekly Payouts

I wonder if they asked affiliates if this was important to them. At CJU a couple of weeks ago CJ revealed that something like 95% of top publishers did not want more frequent payouts because their systems / processes had been built on net 30. A large percentage of merchants thought affiliates wanted this, but it seems they actually didn't. I would assume this would be better for smaller affiliates and search publishers, but curious what folks think.

I think their competitors should just keep doing it the way they've been doing it.

CJ pays once a month and on time.

SAS pays once a month and on time.

Performics twice a month.

Linkshare used to do twice a month which was fine.

Not a big deal to me, I just care that I get paid at least once a month. And I don't remember any threads or affiliates crying out for this. There are other issues they should address that affiliates have posted about. Get rid of that pointless legal message that many still see. Get better support and answering inquiries.

What I really would like to see is some real time sales reporting/or close to it that all their competitors have. SAS pretty instant, Performics pretty instant, CJ within a couple of hours unless it's a batch merchant. Linkshare, whenever the merchant decides to send in the data. And with Linkshare, click reporting and other reports just once a day.

The needs of superaffiliates can be very different than the needs of the average affiliate so I suspect CJ's merchants were right if based on the number of affiliates as a whole. This is a good move by Linkshare whose payment system works differently than CJ's. With CJ, most merchants pay timely which means the affiliate is paid 20 days after the end of the month. Linkshare merchants, however, typically take well over a month to pay. At any given time, most of my Linkshare merchants owe me for the previous 2-3 months so if Linkshare can do their part to speed this process, it's definitely a benefit. If you don't care to be paid any more frequently, you can just put a high payment threshold on your Linkshare account.

"At any given time, most of my Linkshare merchants owe me for the previous 2-3 months so if Linkshare can do their part to speed this process, it's definitely a benefit."

Those 2-3 month and sometimes more merchants will still be the same. So from every other week to every week, at most you'll get it a week faster from those merchants than you're getting them now. This isn't going to help make those merchants pay Linkshare faster, just Linkshare getting out the check to you when they finally do.

Now if they do something as far as getting payment from those merchants, which would speed up things, I'm all for that.

LeadPoint has had net 7 payouts since we were started 3 years ago… ’bout time the “traditional” networks caught up…

I put up a poll on ABW, and it looks like more than 50% of larger affiliates (rather than 5% quoted by CJ) would like to see more frequent payments:

http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=95136

At this point, more frequent payments from CJ wouldn't make much difference. Just about all merchants are on the old locking schedule (locks on the 10th of the following month) and that's still the default for new merchants. If they paid twice a month, one payment would likely be $0 unless you happen to work with one of the few merchants with different locking schedules.

LinkShare's payment delays come from three areas. The longest is typically due to slow payments by the merchant (often 30-90 days). Part is due to the payment cycle (up to 16 days before, dropping to 7 days max with weekly payments). Part is due to processing of the payment (4-5 days).

No offense, Michael, but is 7 small affs, 8 medium affs, and 10 large affilaites a big enough sample to draw any conclusions?

Did Rebecca from CJ mention how large her sample was?

I don't want payments any more frequently than monthly. I do want payments on a regular schedule (net 30-40 is fine) and not at the whim of the merchant with lots of extra delays added in.

No offense taken. It is a small sample and it's not a scientific poll. But still, it shows quite a bit more interest (over 50% from the 25 votes so far) than the 5% (I thought she said 3%?) that Rebecca found. She never said how big her sample was.

Although it's not a large sample, I think the percentages will remain fairly close as more people vote. Even if you say +/- 20% (which is about right with a sample of 25), the real number should be between 30 and 70%.

I do think more frequent payments would be an excellent option, because there seems to be a good mix of affiliates on each side of the fence.

fair enough. I don't like seeing percentages without sample sizes. Anecdotatally, the information is very valid.

Also, look at the context of your poll (not LS specific, but certainly in the wake of the LS announcement) vs Rebecca's poll (CJ-focused and in comparison to other priorities).

When I think Linkshare, I think unpredictable payment, sometimes slow. In fact, I don't ever really have a good idea what I'm going to get in any given payment.

So of course more payments sounds better, even though in reality it doesn't really mean the money's going to come faster in most cases You've pointed out clearly that the problem isn't Linkshare running their process even more often but it's the merchants funding the payments in a timely fashion.

When I think CJ, I think clockwork. I do just fine knowing exactly what I'm going to get paid and that it's going to arrive within a 3 day window if only once a month. It's a few days after my credit card bills are due and well within my grace periods. I'm even comfortable relying on that payment to cover a credit card bill on months with extra big spend. I just know it'll come. And if something goes wrong, I know that CJ will do what they can to expedite it. I don't think I could trust that to LS.

So when Rebecca asked me the question, I said, nope, not important. Expecially when compared to other priorities.

Therefore, the discrepency in these two polls doesn't really surprise me.

Scott said:

"When I think Linkshare, I think unpredictable payment, sometimes slow. In fact, I don't ever really have a good idea what I'm going to get in any given payment."

I can't argue with that but it's not a Linkshare issue per se. I feel the same way about CJ.

"And if something goes wrong, I know that CJ will do what they can to expedite it."

Not my experience with CJ. They have been woefully inadequate in recent months. They've allowed one merchant to go since April without paying affiliates a penny while allowing that merchant to be a premium sponsor of CJU. CJ allowed this merchant to recruit affiliates when they don't even pay their existing affiliates. They allowed another major travel brand to stop paying completely and deactivate them and never send a single communication to affiliates, even after the deactivation.

You're lucky things have worked as well as they have for you, Scott. It hasn't been the norm for me with CJ.

I sure do love Linkshare, I really do. I have always used this great affiliate network and love it. I have also always known that you have to wait a long time to be paid by Linkshare. Usually it is well into the month and a half to 2 months area before the money comes.

Recently they announced that they were changing to a weekly pay system for affiliates, so I really did get excited. I thought it would be such an improvement for us affiliates to get paid weekly. But I wondered at the time (several weeks ago) when they announced this change just how this would really work!

OK, so I got paid for all of my August commissions by Linkshare on 10/05

Then I got paid for all of my July commissions by Linkshare on 10/12

(( If this isn't confusing I don't know what is ))

I have not yet received my September payment, which I thought would start coming in weekly installments, but heck no. No sign of it and I am on direct deposit too.

I just do not understand when big companies announce stuff, why it just don't happen?

Does anyone understand why Linkshare pays so late, and why the weekly payments have not really happened yet?

As I said, I love the network. I am not bashing the network. I just want to be paid, so when I wrote to them they wrote back and said that I cannot be paid until the merchant pays the network.

OK, so why bother with all this weekly payment stuff? We won't receive it for a month of Sundays anyway!

I sure do love Linkshare, I really do. I have always used this great affiliate network and love it. I have also always known that you have to wait a long time to be paid by Linkshare. Usually it is well into the month and a half to 2 months area before the money comes.

Recently they announced that they were changing to a weekly pay system for affiliates, so I really did get excited. I thought it would be such an improvement for us affiliates to get paid weekly. But I wondered at the time (several weeks ago) when they announced this change just how this would really work!

OK, so I got paid for all of my August commissions by Linkshare on 10/05

Then I got paid for all of my July commissions by Linkshare on 10/12

If this isn't confusing I don't know what is !

I have not yet received my September payment, which I thought would start coming in weekly installments, but heck no!

I just do not understand when big companies announce stuff, why it just don't happen?

Does anyone understand why Linkshare pays so late, and why the weekly payments have not really happened yet?

As I said, I love the network. I am not bashing the network. I just want to be paid, so when I wrote to them they wrote back and said that I cannot be paid until the merchant pays the network.

OK, so why bother with all this weekly payment stuff? We won't receive it for a month of Sundays anyway!

I don't know how the Linkshare makes the payment. I was able to get commission $15 in my linkshare account at the mid of Sep but I am not getting this amount in terms of check to this date. I don't know why. If you have any suggestions please help me out. Thank You.