My Mail Chimp account was suspended yesterday evening. It seems their terms of service state they do not allow businesses that offer – affiliate marketing services.

I did receive a response and my suspension was lifted, yet their terms still don’t clarify their definition of affiliate marketing, causing me to hesitate to build all of my client and partner correspondence within a system that could still  ‘technically’ pull my service at any time.

So I followed up with Mail chimp asking their Business Dev tam to review their use of the term ‘affiliate marketing’ in their terms of service. Here’s my letters …

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—–Original Message—–
From: Kay Mcfarlane [mailto:kay@heraffiliatemanager.com]
Sent: June-10-10 12:28 PM
To: ‘Compliance’
Cc: kay@heraffiliatemanager.com
Subject: RE: Mailchimp Compliance Terms of Use Violation (LTK143*****205**)

Hi Liza,

I was reviewing your terms last night and I understand you state users may not use the site for ‘affiliate marketing”. I was thinking that you should have your business dev team look more closely at that.

Affiliate marketing (legitimate) is a tool used by TOP BRANDS such as home depot, the gap, best buy etc to run CPA advertising with approved partners usually through a legitimate cpa ad network such as Share A Sale, Google Affiliate Network, or PepperJam (and many more). It is not MLM – it does not cost a publisher anything to run an affiliate program. Affiliate marketing promotes an actual tangible product or Internet service through online advertising.

In fact Mailchimp HAS an affiliate program – you call it a referral program – but you allow your members to promote your company  with a tracking URL in exchange for the compensation of credit. This is the definition of an affiliate program.

Network marketers(mlm) have grabbed onto the ‘terminology’ used in the CPA advertising Industry (Performance Marketing) and unfortunately, as a result real legitimate affiliate managers , merchants, and partners are suffering when services such as Mail Chimp don’t differentiate the difference.

CPA advertising, Affiliate marketing, Performance marketing. Three terms used to describe one advertising/marketing concept used by brands throughout the USA, Canada, and globally.

“Performance marketing is a comprehensive term that refers to marketing and advertising programs in which marketers — also known as affiliates or publishers — are paid when a specific action is completed, such as a sale or lead. Advertising rates are only paid if and when a consumer makes a purchase or completes a lead form.” http://performancemarketingassociation.com/ -

As a member of the Performance Marketing Association I am expected to follow the guidelines and ethics established for Industry Professionals.

By so loosely using the term ‘affiliate marketing’ you would be also preventing large networks running ANY CPA advertising media or CPA/hybrid advertising buys (such as GOOGLE, 24/7) from using your service. Or any web publisher who runs CPA ads in their ad server, or even Brands who promote their product online using CPA media buys or ‘affiliate programs’.

I hope you will take a second look at your Terms of Service to clarify your definition of affiliate marketing.

In the mean time I would appreciate some assurance from someone to approve my use of mail chimp in regards to the “performance marketing” services I offer as an Outsourced Affiliate manager in writing before I continue to use it for all of my growing needs to communicate with my clients, their partners, and the users of my website.

Thank you for your help.

Karrine McFarlane
Outsourced Affiliate Manager

http://www.HerAffiliateManager.com

http://www.twitter.com/hermedia

Helping Internet merchants reach parents & women online.

CC: Performance Marketing stakeholders

—–Original Message—–

From: Compliance [mailto:compliance@mailchimp.com]

Sent: June-10-10 8:57 AM

To: karrine waddington mcfarlane

Subject: RE: Mailchimp Compliance Terms of Use Violation (LTK143039442052X)

Good afternoon Karrine,

Being a self-serve service, MailChimp doesn’t have a sales or support team on staff that can provide phone calls. All requests are managed through either email or live chat.

I believe there was some confusion in the content being affiliate marketing which we don’t support, however upon review of this, it seems that you’re sending affililate content but not using affiliate lists but rather people who have subscribed to your updates, etc.

I’d like to apologize for this oversight and for the trouble, I’ve added 1000 free credits to your account. Feel free to email us back if you have specific questions or comments beyond this that we can assist you with!

Regards,

Liza W.

Compliance Manager

MailChimp Abuse Desk