Death to All Affiliates - Miva User Forums in Flames!
Wow! I guess it was inevitable, but I didn’t think the flame wars would get that testy on the new Miva User Forums. Some of the most helpful people in the Miva Merchant community also happen to be affiliates for Miva Merchant module websites including Miva’s own MivaCentral.com. They can continue to help end-users over and over again whether the solution requires a module or not including how to do many things without modules, but certain individuals in the community with hidden agendas keep attacking them including myself. They allege that the only reason we recommend certain modules is because of the affiliate commission.
Who are these people? Are their claims valid or are they hypocrites? Without naming names, lets analyze the type of people who have a problem with end-users hearing opinions other than their own if it includes an affiliate link.
- Module developers who frequently promote their high-priced and overkill modules to end-users whether they need them or not and also spread misinformation to get purchases. If I sold modules, I would try and market them to the best of my ability, but I wouldn’t mislead people or constantly attack those who suggested less expensive alternatives.
- Modules resellers who only promote the modules they resell at their site regardless of the end-users’ best interests. If I resold modules, I would have an interest in getting people to purchase modules at my store, but I wouldn’t be a hypocrite and flame others of promoting modules for financial purposes only.
- Anti end-users who have a history of being against anything that greatly benefits the end-user like the OpenUI and also have no problem with promotion of module resellers other than Miva themselves. Many end-users would be shocked to hear about the dark side of Miva Merchant. Working professionally in search engine optimization since 1996, specializing in seo and Miva Merchant since 1999, having the only publicly-available newsletter on seo and Miva Merchant since 2002, maintaining the largest module comparison directory for over three years, and running unofficial Miva regional user conferences for end-users from across the US for three years now, I have been privy to user horror stories that would make your blood boil.
The funny thing about these anti-affiliate hypocrites is that they all promoted the first module comparison directory which had affiliate links and was run by an anti-openui module developer. I created my Miva Merchant module comparison directory because the other one listed only certain developers, had no free module section, horrible search, and only partial descriptions. People continually complained that they didn’t know about all the modules available and which ones were the best because of this directory, so I have tried to make this possible with my directory and Miva discussion lists since then. Turns out that it isn’t in the best interest of certain people, but I’m not going to let that stop me.
June 13th, 2006 13:36
They are fighting over 5%? If module sales as as good as they all say, especially with the super-awesome-configurable Miva Merchant v5, then why in the world are they worried over 5%???