Merchants and their 1-800 numbers

by Sapphire (October 12, 2005)

So I’m building product links for all the new affiliate sites I’m trying to have cranked out in plenty of time for Christmas (they were supposed to be done last August, but you know how certain sites were being really difficult to log in to, so I’m a bit behind) and I notice one of my merchants has put a logo with a 1-800 number right into the picture of their product.

Amazingly, it turns out I’m not that stupid. They think I’m going to put a big honkin’ toll-free number on my site for all the internet novices to call? You think people who don’t quite understand how computers get viruses are going to give their credit card to a computer when they can give it to a person over the phone? Never mind that a secure net form is generally more secure than phones - and when you’re talking about cordless or cell phones, it’s wildly more secure. They don’t know that. They’re just people who got a computer out of a box and want to buy some stuff. Of course they’re going to call a 1-800 number if it’s that readily available. They might take the trouble to hunt one down even if your merchant hides it.

It sucks, but it’s hardly a new problem for commissioned salespeople, who sell to people directly in their homes or places of work, only to have the company telemarketing crew come along and try to nab any future sales to that client before they can get to them.

A lot of affiliate marketers go so far as to avoid merchants who have the 1-800 number displayed prominently on their sites. I’m sure that’s a good practice, too - the only reason I’m skipping it is, I try to build large-ish shopping sites and that means I need all the individual products I can find.

There may not be a lot we can do about the fact that most of our visitors would still rather place orders over the phone than the net, but good grief ‘n’ gravy, Merchants: I’m not going to display ads that have your phone number right smackdab in the middle of the image. For that matter, I’m going to start checking the ad text, too.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing
Subscribe to the feed or email updates