OK, I dont know exactly where Im going with the title (tried to come up with a good one for Valueclick but really couldnt.)
For those of you whove been following SEJ (Search Engine Journal), Im sure you’ve seen my post on ValueClick and my experience with them as an advertiser. The story still gets me because every time I talk to a potential client about generating leads, 90% of the time, the client has had bad experience and I blame companies such as Valueclick for this conception of the industry. In no way am I saying they are the only ones to blame, but they are part of the problem. Am I the only advertiser who had this bad experience with them? Probably not. You can probably figure that out for yourself just by looking at a class action lawsuit against ValueClick for unethical way(s) of generating leads.
A new story just broke out by Pepperjam’s CEO, Kris Jones, regarding Commission Junction and Pepperjam business relationship. I cant get into the details of this story because it is long, but you can read the full story here.
My point, for this post, is this. Ive never understood a company who places monetary value over good, ethical business relationships. Of course, it all comes down to money, thats why we are in business right? I believe me, and Im sure most of you will agree, good/ethical ways of doing business will take you further in the long run.
If Valueclick would have acted differently with my company, I could have given them thousands of dollars in business, and if I decided not to stay with them but they would have acted the way they should have towards the situation, I would have given the company a good name, a good reputation. Thats what new clients go by, right?
Same with Pepperjam, they have given Commission Junction a lot of business over the years and now acting what seems to be un-fairly as described by Kris Jones in his latest post recapping the story.
As he says in this blog post, and I do feel this way, we dont blog to give companies a bad name (well, if they really p*ss us off, I guess) but as bloggers, at least many of us, we have a duty and responsibility to share these stories with our community to know what goes behind the scenes, and we would love to hear everyones experience with these companies so we all could learn from them.
