Toolbars are a very touchy issue in our industry because some toolbars overwrite the honest, deserving affiliate’s link or replace their cookie and take the commission that was rightfully theirs. Yet toolbars in themselves are not ‘bad’. They are a tool. Like a hammer – it can be used to build a house and that’s it’s purpose, but you can also use it to kill someone.

So the issue is how to allow and control “good” toolbars and keep out the “bad.” OR due to the potential for misuse do you prohibit toolbars altogether in our industry – or in other words – ban the use of hammers, even though they have the potential to do good?

One of the inherent problems with toolbars, is that since they are software that is installed on the users computer or browser, settings can be changed on the fly. So a compliant toolbar, could be quietly changed over the Holidays for instance and start stealing commission.

Toolbars are a very heated industry topic and I applaud Brian Littleton from Shareasale for taking the issue head on and creating a roundtable discussion about the topic. Details below.

ShareASale and Toolbars / Call for Participation on Guidelines

“ShareASale has traditionally allowed no software related affiliates to participate on our network due to interference and potential interference with site based affiliates. We plan to modify this policy, with the help of the community, to make sure that we are allowing for legitimate customer service concerns – while also protecting site based affiliates and their clickstreams/commissions…

We will host a “Toolbar Roundtable” (possibly more than one) – with the first session coming on Tuesday February 3rd at 3pm Central.” More…