Companies need to be careful when allowing affiliates to use their trademark in domain names.
I do a lot of “affiliate arbitrage” by promoting affiliate programs through paid search platforms such as Google Adwords. This used to be really easy. But then Google decided to limit identical “display URL” for each search term to one. So if you were promoting Orbitz.com then you had to use a different domain name to direct traffic to the landing page. If you used Orbitz.com, your ad wouldn’t show if someone else had an ad with the same domain.
That creates a sticky situation for companies with affiliate programs. Ideally, these companies let affiliates bid on their trademarked terms, but what display domain name can the affiliates use? One simple approach is to allow affiliates to register similar domain names, such as OrbitzSite.com. Web surfers will click these ads and know they are going to Orbitz. But then the company is essentially giving permission for people to register domains with its trademark, which will make any lawyer uneasy.
I was reminded by this when I recently received an email from LifeLock. The company basically said “Thanks for all of your help. Now get lost.”
First and foremost, LifeLock would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued dedication and success as a LifeLock CJ Affiliate. As of April 2008, LifeLock has over 900,000 subscribers, a number that could not have been achieved without your help.
Today, due to exponential growth within the Affiliate program, we would like to communicate new compliance guidelines for all Affiliates. The following outlines changes in how to market LifeLock specifically through the use of Domains/URLs, and Keywords. These changes have been put into place to protect LifeLock’s brand and trademarked terms and help our partnership’s continued success.
LifeLock won’t let affiliates use any of LifeLocks trademarks in domain names they own. The company also won’t let affiliates bid on LifeLock’s trademarks.
There’s a problem with this policy that LifeLock doesn’t understand. Before implementing the new policy, a Google search for “LifeLock” would return a list of ads promoting the company. Sure, LifeLock had to pay an affiliate for referring business if the searcher didn’t click directly on LifeLock’s in-house ad. But at least competitors weren’t getting the business. Now if you search for “LifeLock” you’ll see all sorts of competitors’ ads. These competitors no longer have to bid against LifeLock’s affiliates. LifeLock is losing business.
But that doesn’t mean companies should just give free reign to affiliates. A while back I promoted an online content site that required me to use an alternative domain name for my landing page. I asked the company if I could use “mydomain.com”, and it approved. About a year later I received an anonymous offer on the domain name and sold it for $1,500. It turns out the buyer was the company I was promoting. It had given me permission to register the domain name, and then bought it from me because they wanted to launch a new product using the domain.
There’s an important balance with affiliates and domain names. Going 100% in either direction can cause headaches. Here’s a suggestion: companies should register and set aside 10 domains for affiliates. The links can lead to any of these domains, making it easier to promote them through pay-per-click marketing.
LifeLock says
This is an official response from LifeLock.
LifeLock does appreciate the Affiliates’ help and values each and every one of them. We could not have grown 1600% in 2007 without them.
LifeLock is spending tens of millions of dollars in marketing and advertising in the form of radio, television and print media and many potential members have the tendency to not go right to the “.com” listed in the media but instead to the search engines first. As a result, many affiliates were taking advantage of this massive traffic driven by our offline media and in turn were taking credit in the form of commissions from sales they were there merely to “catch.” In turn, the cost per sale for customers on the search engines exceeded true value and affiliates were not working to sell in other areas.
The point and purpose of affiliate programs is to allow vendors to extend their grasp to areas and people currently beyond their reach. From insurance vendors reaching their customer base to social clubs and everything in between, the LifeLock Affiliates have the very strong opportunity to sell a product to which many people are already familiar. Familiar from massive television, print and media marketing.
LifeLock will continue to support affiliates and looks forward to continued growth together in 2008.
Andrew says
@ LifeLock,
Now when someone searches on Google for LifeLock based on hearing your commercials, they will click on ads for competitive products.
I wasn’t promoting LifeLock recently, so it’s no biggie for me. I just think this will end up hurting you. I guess the proof will be in the numbers 🙂
LifeLock says
We appreciate your point of view and are sorry we lost you as an Affiliate. By no means do we ever want to tell an Affiliate to “get lost.” Their value is too big and the opportunity is too large.
Regarding the competitors, we are taking action with them and working to protect our brand and trademarked terms accordingly.
Jeremy Duffy says
I’m glad to see lifelock do this. I’ve been tracking the vast amount of affiliates for lifelock online and the deceptive practices they employ. Ditching lifelock domains is a good start, but Lifelock really needs to handle the deceptive “reviews” which are actually just adspeak. That practice is also hurting Lifelock’s reputation.
Andrew says
Let me know how far you get with getting your competitors to not bid on your keywords…seems that most lawsuits in this area are found in favor of Google allowing trademark bidding (at least in the U.S.).
It seems a lot like those grocery store checkout coupons I get. I buy Coke, they print out a coupon for Pepsi.
GB Mann says
Hey guys, don’t worry, they probably will not be around much longer, after the law suites and a few law agencies get their hands on them