Linden Lab quietly launched an affiliate program over the past week, giving Web site owners the chance to earn $5 for each person that signs up for Second Life (edit: and converts to a premium account within 30 days). The program, accessible from a link at the bottom of the Second Life home page, is part of what seems like a quiet effort to ramp up the promotion of Second Life towards increasing the number of users, and comes on the heels of ads for the virtual world that have appeared on youTube.
The program is managed through LinkShare and provides Web site owners with banners and link URLs. According to the terms and conditions, users earn $5 if a referring link leads to a new registration to Second Life during the same session:
“3.2. A “Qualifying Link” is a link from Partner’s site to Merchant’s using one of the Required URLs or any other URL provided by Merchant for use in The LinkShare Network(TM) if it is the last link to the Merchant’s site that the Customer uses during a Session where a sale of a product or a service to Customer occurs. A “Session” is the period of time beginning from a Customer’s initial contact with Merchant’s site via a link from the Partner’s site and terminating when the Customer either returns to the Merchant’s site via a link from a site other than Partner’s site or the Engagement expires or is terminated.”
The agreement doesn’t seem to place any particular limit on the number of commissions that can be earned, at least at first glance, but I haven’t had a chance to parse every sub-clause. What’s also unclear is whether community gateways could also benefit from the program. It seems like community gateways, which are ‘landing points’ in Second Life for new users and managed by organizations separate from Linden Lab, might have been cut out of the revenue stream as the Affiliate Program currently leads new registrants to the Second Life sign-up process. For gateways, this would lead users away from their sign-up Web pages and could deprive them of the chance to earn a few books for attracting and registering new accounts.
Upon registering for a LinkShare account, Web site owners are informed (if they can find the Second Life program, which isn’t easily found in the LinkShare search system) that their site must be, well, ‘aesthetically pleasing’:
Approval Guidelines
We encourage all interested sites to apply to our program. However, before you can participate in our program, we will need to approve your site. Mainly we look for sites that:
* Are aesthetically pleasing
* Do not display content that may be deemed pornographic or offensiveThese are only general guidelines, and we reserve the right to make exceptions. Please note that while we try to respond to approval requests quickly, we receive a high volume of approval requests every day. For this reason, you may not hear from us immediately. However, if you do not hear from us within a reasonable amount of time, or you have questions concerning our program, please let us know.
Please note that if you fail to meet the terms of our agreement we may remove you at any time.
The banners you can select leave something to be desired but may only be a start. In fact, the listing on LinkShare itself has the look of something that was cobbled together before the holidays – maybe the gnomes will be back at work in early January giving us something more than a few ‘Go 3D’ buttons or whatever and something a little less SL-circa-2005 looking.
The program could be a nice bonus for bloggers and others that cover virtual worlds like New World Notes, Koin-Up or other shopping/information sites. Whether the program is picked up by a broader range of blogs, news or tech sites that reach those who aren’t already converted to the idea of virtual worlds might be left to the broader on-line in initiatives hinted at by the recent youTube ad.
It’s unclear how this affects the ‘resident referral’ program discussed August 2006 –
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2006/08/15/changes-coming-to-the-second-life-affiliate-and-resident-referral-programs
At the time, they mentioned an affiliate program was coming. Took them, um, 3 years? Or has there been a Web affiliate program in place before?
the resident referral program mentioned in the comment above stopped working “some time” ago. without official announcement, but i saw it discussed on “some forum”
According to JIRA, the refer-a-friend program has been broken since July 23rd, 2008 (http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-841). With that having been broken for a year and a half, I suspect this system is a full replacement for the old referral program.
I would do it.
On my “real life” commercial site.
Except for one thing.
That has been mentioned before.
“Second”
“Life”
It sounds ludicrous to anyone uninitiated. we are used to saying this and it rolls off the tongue easily for you and I: “Second Life”. But think about it, think of how utterly silly it sounds: “Second life.”
It sounds like a *game*.
I am a graphic designer for a training company that uses cutting-edge webinar formats and all that. I have been trying to get my boss to look into “virtual worlds” as a training means and so on.
But come-on!
“Second”
“Life”
???!?!!!
Ummm… nope.
Not on my professional web site, anyway.
I’ve been following that JIRA – hopeing they would say *anything* about what happened and/or what was being done about the Refer a friend program. Glad they got something back in place finally – here is hoping it actually works.
Ari – I can’t help wondering whether they’ll end up with two ’streams’ including one that’s more professional – but it doesn’t change the fact that it will still be Second Life, even if Second Life Work or whatever.
And those banners are pretty lame. No ‘white’ option? I’ve always hated the black background, but maybe that’s just me.
“for every new premium membership sale made within 30 days of clickthrough.” (That’s off the SL web page, the first link in your article.)
I wonder how many people go for a premium membership within 30 days? It’s probably a fairly small number at the moment.
I think LL new Linden Home program was designed to help improve new user->premium conversion, in theory I think it should.
This is a positive development for LL and web owners/developers who are also residents with invested-interest in the Second Life ™ platform.
It will be interesting to see various different implementations of this program on the NET in 2010.
[...] Linden Lab quietly launched an affiliate program over the past week, giving Web site owners the chan… [...]
I appreciate the Linden effort to increase user-base proactively. But at the same time, having this affiliate link banners tends to cheapen the look of websites. And if you’re like us who serve more than one platform, it seems a bit biased to push for SL alone. $5 per account is a sweet incentive though.
[...] to Dusan for posting about this in his blog. By Chenin in Articles .::. You can follow any responses to this entry through [...]
Are you sure this is new? I saw this a little while back and thought it had been around for quite some time — though I could, of course, be mistaken.
[...] … the Second Life home page, is part of what seems like a quiet effort to ramp up the promotio… [...]
Um… to register, you need to give them your social security number. Imo, seems like a huge risk for little to no return.
Bonus if we can also send the new users to our own SLURLS.
I think it’s good that things like this exist. Why not?
Not everything has to favour resident gateways, either. As a private individual I can say that not everything is dollars and cents; some things are done for fun and the joy of sharing something you like, and believe in.
I have a lot of interests, but one of my biggest interests is Second Life, and I expect it to remain so for years to come. Not every move has to be in my favour. Keeping my pre~ Nov 2006 regions at reasonable rates was significant, and hey, if they want to run a premium referral program, that’s great stuff. Good for residents too.
I hope they succeed, and bring a lot of new people into Second Life that way.
Outsourced? Yet another ISP for me to trust will not reveal my RL identity.
Tateru – I asked the same thing, but when I searched back I couldn’t find any previous mention of it. What’s new for certain is that the affiliate button on the home page was recently added.
Desmond – thanks for the comment and I agree.
Angela – the social security number was an optional field.
http://helpcenter.linkshare.com/publisher/questions.php?questionid=33
*snip*
In the event that LinkShare sells or transfers ownership, operation or control of any or all of its Networks or engages any subcontractor or agent to operate any Network or provide any service related to any Network, LinkShare reserves the right to transfer or disclose all of its data to the buyer, subcontractor or agent.
*snip*
We may use and disclose the information we have or acquire about any Publisher as provided in the Publisher Agreement, which such Publisher enters into with LinkShare. The template form of Publisher Agreement gives LinkShare broad discretion in using and sharing the information that Publishers provide to us, including the right to furnish any or all of that information to Advertisers or other third parties. LinkShare is not responsible or liable for any use or disclosure by any Advertiser or other third party of information about any Publisher that we furnish.
*snip*
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, LinkShare reserves the right to change or replace this Privacy Policy at any time and from time to time without prior notice to or the consent of any person. Any changes or replacement will be posted at this site.
the aforementioned Publisher Agreement:
http://helpcenter.linkshare.com/publisher/questions.php?questionid=30
*snip*
8.2 Use of Your Name. LinkShare shall have the right to refer to You by Your name in connection with any LinkShare Network and/or the performance or provision of any LinkShare Offerings, including in communications sent to actual or prospective participants of the LinkShare Networks in which You participate.
8.3 Disclosure of Business Relationship. Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent LinkShare from making any public or private statements about Your business relationship with LinkShare and/or any Network Advertiser and/or Your participation in any LinkShare Network.
I got initially excited by this, but when I thought about it I couldn’t see how it would generate revenue for the blog owner. I suspect I’ve got something wrong, but my hand waving analysis is here
@Neil
To put a finer point on it, the original deal (”Refer-a-friend”) was $L2000 (~7.72USD at current exchange rates) per premium conversion without a limit on how long it takes the newcomer to convert to premium. The new deal is 5.00USD with a 30-day conversion countdown.
There are other differences, most notably that the software behind refer-a-friend had persistent faults, but in terms of the money promised, it is not much less than before.
Hey Dusan,
I felt some of the same confusion that you and Miss Tateru speak of–it seemed like this had been around in some form…or maybe not. It strikes as a little odd that they would put something like this in place without a certain level of hoop-dee-do about it. But then I tend to miss a lot of what the Labsters are doing on the marketing and communication end of things, simply because it’s usually irrelevant to my interests and concerns.
Even so, when I saw this a little while back, my first thought was, “hey, this looks interesting….a way to make some nickles and dimes…I like nickles and dimes.” I was almost set to sign up and then I got to thinking, “wait a dang minute, if I get in bed with the Lindens, is that going to have some kind of impact on what I write about them?”
I mean, hell, I try to be fair to them, but I can also be kinda mean and cranky when I feel like it’s what needs to be said. If I am putting up advertising for them and taking their nickles and dimes, will I somehow–maybe even unconsicously–be inclined to pull my punches?
I have had a conversation with Emilly Orr about the fact that there is verbage in the agreement for this (clause 2.2) that can be construed as meaning that they expect to have some control over what you say about the “product.” We finally concluded that’s probably not what that clause actually means (it may be more about making promises and representations that the Lab can’t keep). And in fact, Miss Emilly decided she’s going to sign up for the program and see if she gets accepted…and if she does, she’s taking bets on how long it will be before they look at the kind of stuff she writes and then dump her from the program like your proverbial live hand grenade.
I love experiments, and I am curious to see how Emilly’s particiaption turns out…but I’m still not going to sign up myself.
Even if clause 2.2 doesn’t mean that you can’t bash the Labbies now and then, it just don’t feel right.
I think that for me–and probably a some other bloggers–being able to maintain the sense that we remain independent voices on SL issues is more important than the possibility of some minuscule largess.
Dio – I really have this feeling that the program has been around for a while but has been spruced up with new images and a new page on the SL site. The shift, if it is a shift, or the launch, if it’s new, is represented, I guess, to its activation as a main button off the SL home page.
I agree with you on clause 2.2 – but I think the proof will be in the enforcement not the wording.
Also – I wonder, does the Lab itself approve affiliates do you think? Or LinkShare? I need to go back and read all the clauses or something, but who has the time LOL
Regardless, I personally won’t accept ads on this site…maybe Metanomics but we’re saving the banner slots for, um, Apple or someone.
Hey Dusan,
yeah, I think in a lot of ways the preferable thing is go that route and not have ads at all–I will most likely stick with what I have now, which is just some Amazon widgets that I can fill up with books that are related to what I am writing about, sort of like your bookshelf element you have here
I saw this ad about 3 weeks ago, from some web ad somewhere, was it Facebook? I clicked through all the screens, and concluded I probably wouldn’t qualify because I don’t have Pollyanna content. I also just couldn’t get the registration on the link system to work, it kept telling me my browser wasn’t accepting cookies but of course it is set up to do that. I finally gave up.
But this *is* different than the refer-a-friend program which was simply quietly discontinued. For awhile, it went haywire, paying out over and over for the same referral. I kept filing a ticket about this, but there wasn’t a lot of interest. When it happened about 6 times, after about 6 tickets I got a cryptic reply that said when it was fixed, they would not tell me that it was fixed. Odd, eh? So the system was probably glitchy and shut down. There is no way to refer a friend now except through this new affiliate program.
And you’re right, it does cut right into the revenue stream of those community gateways, but hey, since when does Linden Lab worry about pitting one set of customers with perks against another set of customers with perks!
I think everyone is missing the big, scary point right smack in front of all of us. Even the Lindens are missing it.
These blogs, forums, our personalities, you name it…*are* ostensibly the banner ads, even if we don’t intend it to be so.
Actually having a link to click on, just saves the effort of tracking down the ‘join now’ button, really. Maybe that’s important, maybe that’s not.
Desmond – agreed. But I have to say, sending someone from this blog or Metanomics, say, to land in Help Island or whatever the heck counts as the new orientation experience isn’t my idea of doing a service to people. Maybe if it lands at the new ‘work’ hub or you could somehow have it specify a community gateway or in-world SLURL I’d be a lot happier to consider it. Mind you, the money won’t be much until premium accounts mean more than a new home and a little plot of land, but I have a feeling the Lab has more up their sleeves on that front.
P.S. Are you saying the Lab should pay blogs regardless seeing as we’re one giant PR arm for them? hehe
If I understand the program, this may be exactly what they are trying to do?
I bet Prok’s blog alone would generate a fair number of happy Linden Home residents, regardless of the text next to the link. You know what they say in theatre about a bad review, but *with* a picture in the paper…
I agree, actually, this is ideal for a blog like Prok’s, Shopping Cart Disco, etc…but don’t you think that for it to REALLY work they need to get affiliates outside of the circle of SL and VW-related blogs? I see this as something for some kind of consumer game site or something. Whether they can attract affiliates in order to attract ‘new streams’ we’ll see – although maybe that’s what those youTube ads were all about (a test with more to come?)
Needless to say, it would be useful if the Lab actually told us. It’s frustrating to be guessing their intentions yet again.
We at Koinup applied for the affiliate program and we’re already running some display banners.
We’re also discussing with LL for having more banners and more sizes. They kindly told us that new series of banners are forthcoming.
Basically, I think that affiliate program make sense for websites that are about virtual worlds, but not specifically on Second Life. As Koinup, AvatarsUnited, Virtualworldsnews.com and many others
It also make sense for other websites based on specific vertical demographics: machinima, steampunk, architecture, etc….
If you have a SL blog, probably your readers are already all Second Lifers and its not by clicking trought the banner on your website that they’ll become premium. So it’s not for all service.
Regarding the results, I’ll tell you something in a few months. 5US$ for any Pro. It make sense and has good traction for website owners.
As affiliates, we ask LL a clear statement on what they’re planning for making premium membership more appealing to members and how they want to promote such features.