H Samuel – Affiliates and Brands

Posted by Mercury Thread | Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Sites, Pay Per Click, SEO, Search Engine Optimization | Posted on 24-10-2008

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I was reading through the terms and conditions of some affiliate programs the other night. During this I noticed that if you’re an affiliate on the H Samuel or Ernest Jones programs you’re not supposed to be targeting misspellings of the brands . Why strong highstreet brands such as H Samuel and Ernest Jones should really have to worry about aspect of their brand online is beyond me. If you’re an affiliate you shouldn’t be attempting to rank for phrases such as:

  • H Smauel
  • H Samuels
  • H Samul
  • H Samel
  • Ernst Jones
  • Ernet Jonew
  • Enrest Jonew

H Samuel Vs H Samuel Misspellings

Affiliates are allowed to attempt to rank for brand terms (high conversion, high volume) but not the misspellings (lower volume, good conversion). Rankings for misspellings is I suppose a way forward but Google says did you mean at big bold letters at the top – do a search for h samuek and it asks if you meant H Samuel). I could probably get a top five ranking for H Samuel in less than a year (new generic domain with no history) – on the front page you have ciao and a voucher code site. I would get a higher class of customer pre-sold into the brand stolen off the back of the brand and if I did it kinda cleverly I could start picking off the long tail of the brand search and get the sales that way by building around the brand. you go after the terms likely to deliver buyers, rather than browsers and make the affiliate revenue that way.But when you do the KWR things get a bit more interesting: according to Overture ‘H Samuel’ is searched more than ‘H Samuels’ but in WordTracker this is reversed (and reversed heavily). WT Count is 2,596 for “H Samuels” and only 785 for “H Samuel”.

Is anyone breaking these H Samuel Misspelling Guidelines

Eh well TBH yes. the guidelines specifically list that no one should optimise for misspellings. It goes so far as to specifically mention ‘the use of misspelled terms in metatags, page titles and so on.’ One quick search in Google and ta dah – very few websites ranking for H Samuels (there was one affiliate on here with title tags that’d break the T&C’s).

I’m not picking on H Samuel here. I’m just looking to make a wider point.

Every company needs to protect their brand online. The brand space delivers the highest ROI, lowest costs and greatest repeat custom. Its the basis of many succesful companies online. But you need to own that space. Using affiliates to do it would seem like a pretty cost effective strategy – they mop up sales at lower cost than developing in house microsites. If you’ve got competitors bidding on your brand why not let some PPC affiliates into the space and get them to knock out the competition. Affiliates are a tactical device – they help you out of problems whether it be sales, brand protection what ever. Affiliates should always be thought of as friends.  All friendships have limits. But remember to set the limits on your relationship that are fair and dont expect more of your friends than you would of the people who work directly for you.

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