I mentioned earlier this week that Cafepress is going through some...well...crazy times.
I'm not even sure where to start.
Maheesh's recent post on the Cafepress message boards at least conveys what he's going through.
And numerous posts on Great Gear sum up a lot of us shopkeeper's opinions on the matter.
So what is the matter?
The recent announcement by Cafepress that they would be terminating their existing in-house affiliate program and replacing it with an outside network called Commission Junction.
It's been a messy few weeks since the announcement. I've had more time to digest this because I heard rumor of this in Jan (Apparently it wasn't a secret at Affiliate Summit). I, too was a little shocked to hear that Cafepress had made the decision to go with Commission Junction. Why? CJ doesn't have a great reputation in the affiliate world because of their practices, mainly loyalty programs and parasites. Here's just one thread on A Best Web Affiliate marketing forum discussing Cafepress' migration to Commission Junction. I admit I still have a lot to learn about affiliate marketing, but I have yet to learn why Cafepress thinks CJ is a better choice than, say Share-A-Sale, an affiliate network with a stellar reputation and loyal members who will tell you all about it. The only reason I see so far is the traffic CJ will pull in. But at what price? I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Cafepress had a couple online chats recently to try and answer questions from shopkeepers, but discussions on Great Gear will reveal all the tough questions were avoided completely and most questions were answered vaguely, at most.
Complaints of poor communication between CP and it's shopkeepers and affiliates is prevalent and for good reason. Many of us felt there was no warning of this in time to even react. Cafepress pulled their forum discussion board from A Best Web with little explanation. And, true, Cafepress has the right to make whatever business decisions they feel benefit their business and I respect that, but this could've been handled much better. There are affiliates who built many sites around the old program as well as newbie shopkeepers who are now very confused.
The one good recent change they made last week is to allow shopkeepers to cross link to other stores, including their own and still participate in the affiliate prgram. As someone who is a shopkeeper AND affiliate through Cafepress, this is important to me.
So, I'm staying open about it for now. I can't make a final judgment until I've given the new program a try. I'm entering it with caution...I've been warned (thanks, Loxly!) and also encouraged (thanks to various CJ affiliates). I've been asked to be a beta tester for the new program and will let you know how it goes as events unfold. Stay tuned...
