Thesis theme is a one of the best affiliate products I have ever come across in my life. I like the way they show all the affiliate stats, sales details in one account. Their support system also works brilliantly and they have replied to all my queries with proper suggestions.
Today, I checked my mailbox in the morning and saw an email from DIYthemes about the change in affiliate program. Later on, I checked Brian Clark’s post on Copyblogger for more information.
They have suddenly decided to switch the affiliate system to other company, ShareASale.com(SAS). After reading email and article, I registered on new website to check out their system. There are certain things I didn’t like about new affiliate system and their registration process.
1. Registration Process: You can’t use your old account details with new site! It doesn’t matter whether you’re an old affiliate or new affiliate; you’ll have to sign up for new account. On top of that you have 5 boring registration steps to follow. In these steps you’ll have to give personal information like your home address, website ownership proof and much more.
Well, if you’re thinking that it’s easy then here’s something more interesting. Non-US residents will have to sign some tax related documents and fax them to the given address. Once you follow all these steps, you’ll be able to receive your payments.
2. Payments: There is no alternate option for check delivery. The old program had PayPal option which was much convenient for many bloggers and marketers, but unfortunately you’ll have to follow their rules!
3. 60 Days Time Limit: Do you think registration process and payment system is too much? Wait, one more thing is there to ruin your hard work. You will have to change all Thesis affiliate links with new links in next 60 days; otherwise you’ll not get commission on those links.
These are few things which will affect most of the Thesis marketers, and I personally feel that the old system was much better than new system. Brian and his team should have asked views of all the users before taking this step. He has mentioned Tracking, Support and Trust to justify his move, which is not convincing for me at least. You were doing your job very well with old system and there was no need to make this big change.
I have been using thesis theme and its affiliate program for almost one year. I was happy with its performance, but now I have decided to quit their program.
Note to my readers: Although I have stopped using Thesis affiliate program, I’ll keep writing tips and tricks for Thesis theme.