Quick Tip: Sending already built web pages as html newsletters.

This is a great resource for those of you with a library of articles already created, or perhaps a deals page that your trusty web team keeps updated for you.

With a few clicks you can re-use that web page and send it as an email message.
The caveats: you have to setup your Outlook Express using the instructions I posted on 09/09/03 and you have to be on a PC.

So here's what you do...
Open Internet Explorer and navigate to the page you want to send.
File... Send... Page by Email

This will create a new Outlook Express message with the chosen web page as the content of the message.

BE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU'VE PROPERLY SET UP OUTLOOK EXPRESS OR YOUR RECIPIENT LIST WILL RECEIVE AN ENORMOUSLY LARGE EMAIL MESSAGE WITH TONS OF ATTACHMENTS AND THEY WILL BE VERY VERY UPSET WITH YOU.

BeFree: A View From The Merchant's Side
If you're looking for an affiliate management tool, keep looking!

A while back I wrote about affiliate programs from the side of the affiliate wondering why they are considered so unimportant in the provider's world. While those words were written in the frustration of the moment, I still stand behind them today. The big affiliate programs don't care about the affiliates because they collect big monthly fees from the merchants. That's where the game is, and where my next story begins.

I am now a merchant on BeFree, managing an affiliate program for a client. After looking through all of the options out there, we chose an entry level package with BeFree of $500 a month - or $6000 a year for the privilege of being a merchant on the BeFree network. Not bad considering that the next package up was $1500 a month for a total of $18,000 per year.

What do I think of BeFree?

I was once a fan and now... not so much.

The reporting tools are TERRIBLE, slow and have an interesting feature of having no headers so you get a huge table of numbers with no context for their meaning. ISN'T THAT WHAT I AM PAYING $500 A MONTH FOR - REPORTING?

They hold your FAQ page hostage and charge $100 to make edits to the page. That's right!! As you get smarter about your affiliate's needs and want to use that page to save yourself answering the same questions, you'll have to cough up $100 for the privilege. THIS IS JUST BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE.

They make it hard to get all of your affiliate data in one place. Want to have a nice grid you can run pivots on? Maybe do a broadcast email to your affiliate list? Keep notes on conversations with your affiliates? NOPE. You have three key pieces of info on an affiliate that you need and they are stored in three different places, so you have no easy way of pulling it together. This is, in my opinion, because they want you to use their email system at 3 cents per email to communicate with your affiliates. But as your affiliate list grows, 3 cents per can add up!

None of the features work on a Mac - not even basic java scripts for things like 'download to pdf' or 'download csv' for reports. IN TODAY'S WEB CLIMATE OF CROSS-PLATFORM FRIENDLY DEVELOPMENT, THIS IS JUST BACKWARD THINKING.

My two cents on BeFree. Maybe this post will keep some of you from some merchant heartache. If I had it to do again, I would choose differently.

-Kimberly

Another note to add: the search tools on the merchant side don't work either, so don't plan on being able to search for an affiliate by name or URL.