A few months ago I had it out with a VP at DirectTrack on here about how shitty their software is, and we kinda exchanged swings at one another.
Anyhow, I thought the debate was over, but at SES NY one of the guys at their booth tried to tell me that I was banned from their booth and not allowed near it, haha. I spoke to him for a bit, he seemed to not be the total douchebag that he came off as at first.
Fine.. thought all was really settled then...
But no! Here at Affiliate Summit East in Miami they are taking it to a whole new level, and it also seems that they REALLY hate me for what I said during our first round.
The same VP who took a beating on here (I really don't remember being THAT harsh on him either!) decided to talk shit about me in front of WickedFire members either on the bus to the ShareASale party or at the party. To sum up what I was told... he said he wants to "fucking kill Jon from WickedFire".
How professional. Being that I do get death threats for being outspoken about certain topics, I'm not sure how serious he was when he said it. But the guys (more than 4 of them) who he said it to, all agreed that while he may not KILL me, he was definitely angry and seemed like he would at least try and beat my ass if he had the chance to do it.
DirectTrack is owned by Digital River, and they've been around for a long time. Now while this seems like an isolated incident, it does make DirectTrack and their parent company look like shit when a VP at their company says something like that to affiliates. I'm not trying to play the holier than thou act either. I've definitely said some really stupid things to and about people, but I know when to draw the line.
Well, since that VP will read this post and probably cry, he can always swing by our booth here at ASE - booth #67 in case you're blind (we're literally 5 feet away from the badge registrations, and our logo is pretty tough to not recognize). Want to kill me there? Go for it. If you think talking shit to members here will make me apologize to you for whatever you think I picked on you about then you are indeed very deserving of it, and you should be fired over what you said. But that's not my call. I would hope though, that DirectTrack gives a shit about their image and what their high ranking executives do and say on and off the field, just like all the other companies seem to do and watch out for. If nothing is done about it too, I don't really care and I certainly won't make a big deal about it, but VP boy, at least say what you are so pissed about to my face, or call me up and tell me, or email/IM me, I'm not exactly tough to get ahold of... unless of course, you just want to shut up and let it die out the way it should have months ago.
Now let's step away from the drama and look at WHAT DirectTrack needs to fix/change and WHY it's so goddamn important that people should know. Consider this your wakeup call DirectTrack. If a former affiliate comes out and tells people about it, imagine what your clients are going through?
When I said that DirectTrack's stats/reporting system sucked, I wasn't trying to come off as a prick or bad ass about it, I was being completely honest. I was also saying it because it's true. Not in my eyes even, but in EVERY.. yes EVERY single affiliate network/program that uses them has had serious reporting and tracking issues with them. Some are as often as every day, while others experience them often enough but not everyday.
I also said it because I was hoping they'd take it as constructive criticsm and fix the issues or make some much needed upgrades and changes so to remedy the issues. But according to this VP dickhole, I did it to be controversial and to profit. Explain how exactly I would profit off of it? I don't own or promote any of their competitors' solutions, and how would it benefit me in any way if it weren't true only to be proved wrong and potentially set myself up as a liar.
Also, the reason I came out and spoke about it publicly is because I am NOT a client of theirs and in a sense I don't have much to worry about or lose if they'd disagree or choose to drop me as an affiliate program, merchant, or network, whereas their other clients would most likely never come out and say something about them while still using them.
I've spoken to ex-employees about it, security people, affiliates, network/program owners, current and former clients, affiliate managers, developers/programmers, and industry people alike. And every single time, I shit you not.. They all said that the DirectTrack reporting and tracking system was EXTREMELY flawed.
How so? Well, for one (affiliates will not want to hear this) did you know that the DirectTrack pixels misfire at an average rate of 20% on quite possibly EVERY offer? That means 20 fucking percent of the time the networks and affiliates get dicked because DirectTrack's pixels that are supposed to be tracking and reporting results for campaigns accurately. 20% may not sound like all that much, but consider the fact that from every $100 earned as an affiliate or network, you are losing $20 of what should be yours, but instead aren't.
Now, are they deliberately doing this? I doubt it. Do they know about the problem? I would assume so, since they feel that they can charge so much based on "results" then that would mean that EVERY network/company that's a client for DirectTrack's system is most likely being overbilled, and from what I know, that's pretty damn illegal. Whether they are just not fixing the issue (this is the biggest issue with their software -- and has been going on for YEARS.. not months or weeks.. but YEARS!!!) because of their monopoly over the industry (perhaps Kowabunga, Linkshare, or ShareASale can use this to their advantage?) knowing that they've been established for so long, and they seem to have a pretty good sales pitch, that the issue is unnoticed to the majority of their clients and therefor not worth the time, effort or investment to fix until perhaps someone actually makes it public? Who knows..
But the bottom line is that this NEEDS to be addressed, and NEEDS to be fixed. This is NOT the affiliate's fault. This is NOT the advertiser's fault. This is NOT the networks/merchants fault. This is 100% DirectTrack's fault, and if you guys continue to ignore it, you can bet your ass people won't stay quiet about it for much longer, and instead of proving yourselves to be the industry leaders in tracking and reporting services for the affiliate marketing industry, you'll just lose a shit ton of market share to your competitors (who by the way don't seem to have these issues on this type of scale either) and by the time you do fix it, it may be too late, or may take years until people trust your system again!
Take this as a wakeup call or a kick in the ass to do something about a very serious issue that NEEDS to be fixed asap. Stop denying it. For your sake, the sake of your clients, and the sake of the industry itself.... FIX THE DAMN PROBLEM! Until then, and don't take this personally, the only type of services you're leading the industry in is mis-reporting and mis-tracking to the tune of TWENTY PERCENT!
That's all there is to it. Also.. let this be a wakeup call to the industry in saying that there needs to be some type of 3rd party regulations and inquiries being done on not just DirectTrack, but ALL of the custom and commercial software solutions that we depend on, and while they may not all be 100% accurate, it would make everyone sleep a lot better knowing that while not everything in their business is perfect, it's being monitored for them, and it's pretty damn close to perfect.
Anyhow, I thought the debate was over, but at SES NY one of the guys at their booth tried to tell me that I was banned from their booth and not allowed near it, haha. I spoke to him for a bit, he seemed to not be the total douchebag that he came off as at first.
Fine.. thought all was really settled then...
But no! Here at Affiliate Summit East in Miami they are taking it to a whole new level, and it also seems that they REALLY hate me for what I said during our first round.
The same VP who took a beating on here (I really don't remember being THAT harsh on him either!) decided to talk shit about me in front of WickedFire members either on the bus to the ShareASale party or at the party. To sum up what I was told... he said he wants to "fucking kill Jon from WickedFire".
How professional. Being that I do get death threats for being outspoken about certain topics, I'm not sure how serious he was when he said it. But the guys (more than 4 of them) who he said it to, all agreed that while he may not KILL me, he was definitely angry and seemed like he would at least try and beat my ass if he had the chance to do it.
DirectTrack is owned by Digital River, and they've been around for a long time. Now while this seems like an isolated incident, it does make DirectTrack and their parent company look like shit when a VP at their company says something like that to affiliates. I'm not trying to play the holier than thou act either. I've definitely said some really stupid things to and about people, but I know when to draw the line.
Well, since that VP will read this post and probably cry, he can always swing by our booth here at ASE - booth #67 in case you're blind (we're literally 5 feet away from the badge registrations, and our logo is pretty tough to not recognize). Want to kill me there? Go for it. If you think talking shit to members here will make me apologize to you for whatever you think I picked on you about then you are indeed very deserving of it, and you should be fired over what you said. But that's not my call. I would hope though, that DirectTrack gives a shit about their image and what their high ranking executives do and say on and off the field, just like all the other companies seem to do and watch out for. If nothing is done about it too, I don't really care and I certainly won't make a big deal about it, but VP boy, at least say what you are so pissed about to my face, or call me up and tell me, or email/IM me, I'm not exactly tough to get ahold of... unless of course, you just want to shut up and let it die out the way it should have months ago.
Now let's step away from the drama and look at WHAT DirectTrack needs to fix/change and WHY it's so goddamn important that people should know. Consider this your wakeup call DirectTrack. If a former affiliate comes out and tells people about it, imagine what your clients are going through?
When I said that DirectTrack's stats/reporting system sucked, I wasn't trying to come off as a prick or bad ass about it, I was being completely honest. I was also saying it because it's true. Not in my eyes even, but in EVERY.. yes EVERY single affiliate network/program that uses them has had serious reporting and tracking issues with them. Some are as often as every day, while others experience them often enough but not everyday.
I also said it because I was hoping they'd take it as constructive criticsm and fix the issues or make some much needed upgrades and changes so to remedy the issues. But according to this VP dickhole, I did it to be controversial and to profit. Explain how exactly I would profit off of it? I don't own or promote any of their competitors' solutions, and how would it benefit me in any way if it weren't true only to be proved wrong and potentially set myself up as a liar.
Also, the reason I came out and spoke about it publicly is because I am NOT a client of theirs and in a sense I don't have much to worry about or lose if they'd disagree or choose to drop me as an affiliate program, merchant, or network, whereas their other clients would most likely never come out and say something about them while still using them.
I've spoken to ex-employees about it, security people, affiliates, network/program owners, current and former clients, affiliate managers, developers/programmers, and industry people alike. And every single time, I shit you not.. They all said that the DirectTrack reporting and tracking system was EXTREMELY flawed.
How so? Well, for one (affiliates will not want to hear this) did you know that the DirectTrack pixels misfire at an average rate of 20% on quite possibly EVERY offer? That means 20 fucking percent of the time the networks and affiliates get dicked because DirectTrack's pixels that are supposed to be tracking and reporting results for campaigns accurately. 20% may not sound like all that much, but consider the fact that from every $100 earned as an affiliate or network, you are losing $20 of what should be yours, but instead aren't.
Now, are they deliberately doing this? I doubt it. Do they know about the problem? I would assume so, since they feel that they can charge so much based on "results" then that would mean that EVERY network/company that's a client for DirectTrack's system is most likely being overbilled, and from what I know, that's pretty damn illegal. Whether they are just not fixing the issue (this is the biggest issue with their software -- and has been going on for YEARS.. not months or weeks.. but YEARS!!!) because of their monopoly over the industry (perhaps Kowabunga, Linkshare, or ShareASale can use this to their advantage?) knowing that they've been established for so long, and they seem to have a pretty good sales pitch, that the issue is unnoticed to the majority of their clients and therefor not worth the time, effort or investment to fix until perhaps someone actually makes it public? Who knows..
But the bottom line is that this NEEDS to be addressed, and NEEDS to be fixed. This is NOT the affiliate's fault. This is NOT the advertiser's fault. This is NOT the networks/merchants fault. This is 100% DirectTrack's fault, and if you guys continue to ignore it, you can bet your ass people won't stay quiet about it for much longer, and instead of proving yourselves to be the industry leaders in tracking and reporting services for the affiliate marketing industry, you'll just lose a shit ton of market share to your competitors (who by the way don't seem to have these issues on this type of scale either) and by the time you do fix it, it may be too late, or may take years until people trust your system again!
Take this as a wakeup call or a kick in the ass to do something about a very serious issue that NEEDS to be fixed asap. Stop denying it. For your sake, the sake of your clients, and the sake of the industry itself.... FIX THE DAMN PROBLEM! Until then, and don't take this personally, the only type of services you're leading the industry in is mis-reporting and mis-tracking to the tune of TWENTY PERCENT!
That's all there is to it. Also.. let this be a wakeup call to the industry in saying that there needs to be some type of 3rd party regulations and inquiries being done on not just DirectTrack, but ALL of the custom and commercial software solutions that we depend on, and while they may not all be 100% accurate, it would make everyone sleep a lot better knowing that while not everything in their business is perfect, it's being monitored for them, and it's pretty damn close to perfect.
