Rakuten account terminated - possible to reverse?

[sarahw1979]

Hi everyone,

I am newbie to affiliate marketing. I signed up to Rakuten to see which programs they offered. I am in the process of building my site but it asked me to provide the URL so although it isn't finished AND didn't have any affiliate links on it yet, I shared my URL as I thought I wouldn't be accepted without having a website. Today I have received an email saying my account with Rakuten has been terminated for not meeting FTC guideline. I have sent them an email explaining it didn't have ANY links on it yet and it would be compliant before publishing any links. I have now unpublished the site till it is ready. As a beginner I have obviously made the mistake of publishing the site before it is legally ready. My questions are:

1) Is it likely Rakuten will reconsider terminating me after hearing there weren't any affiliate links on the site and that the relevant disclosures were going to added before publishing the links?
2) If not, how can I successfully register with Rakuten again? Will I need to pay for a new URL or am I simply terminated as an individual and I now cannot register with them? This would be a real shame as they offer a lot of programs I would like to join.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Sarah

 

[Graybeard]

WELCOME ABOARD ...

━━━●──────────────
That's really the 'what came first conundrum': The chicken or the egg?

Trying to SEO a website and establish a traffic pattern today takes at least 6 months or a long as forever --depending on your efforts, knowledge of your content's subject --either by experience or empirical research results; and yes, Just Plain Luck and Timing.

What is the point of all that work when you have no way to monetize your effort?

Buy traffic to test your offer or presentation website, blog, other

Traffic Sources - General

General Traffic Sources

www.affiliatefix.com

You can learn a lot about your web presentation's affinity:

• Do *real people* like it and stay to use it
• Caveat: Cheap traffic is infested with bots sometimes

I would possibly go as far as to testing fake offers of the sort you are interested in using, with the links leading to survey forms --to get some site feedback from the viewers.

However, only a few percent will opt-in to a survey. Maybe offer some sort of an incentive to participate.
Even something as simple as a free e-book might work. Or the links can be dead ends --just count the link clicks.

1. example.com/link_page.html?a=3 will track,
2. example.com/link_page.php?a=3 (with a dynamic page title <meta>) will be easy to track.

Building traffic on a new website is a job in itself. GA4 (Google-Analytics v4) can help in your study of a website 'property'.

You need traffic to do this --an ad budget is the way to get the volume you need to test.

So all this work to do; so some affiliate program offer-owner aggregator will allow you to work CPA on the basis of a pass-through commission --with no guarantees is worthwhile? Sometimes it can be.

You need to develop a plan to present quality content that will be acceptable to a mainstream program like Impact, Rakuten, Affise, et. al if you are going the SEO; SEM PPC (read: search engine ads); Social Media ads or posting route.

You can try Share-a-Sale or ClickBank if you want to populate a mainstream website with real offers, so you can apply to a higher grade network. At least it shows you are really *in business* and accepted by someone. The programs are not so picky --you can start here.

 

[sarahw1979]

Thanks for replying. Sorry I realised I wasn't clear with the questions I was asking so I have edited my original post to make them clearer.

 

[T J Tutor]

Hi everyone,

I am newbie to affiliate marketing. I signed up to Rakuten to see which programs they offered. I am in the process of building my site but it asked me to provide the URL so although it isn't finished AND didn't have any affiliate links on it yet, I shared my URL as I thought I wouldn't be accepted without having a website. Today I have received an email saying my account with Rakuten has been terminated for not meeting FTC guideline. I have sent them an email explaining it didn't have ANY links on it yet and it would be compliant before publishing any links. I have now unpublished the site till it is ready. As a beginner I have obviously made the mistake of publishing the site before it is legally ready. My questions are:

1) Is it likely Rakuten will reconsider terminating me after hearing there weren't any affiliate links on the site and that the relevant disclosures were going to added before publishing the links?
2) If not, how can I successfully register with Rakuten again? Will I need to pay for a new URL or am I simply terminated as an individual and I now cannot register with them? This would be a real shame as they offer a lot of programs I would like to join.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Sarah

Simply put, you did not have all your ducks in a row. Why in the world would you apply anywhere when you and your site(s) are not ready? That is not professional. We turn down vendors here daily for the same reasons.

It's a business and if you are not prepared properly then you will have these difficulties return over and over. These companies want you to be a professional, they don't want to have to chase you to conform to rules, regulations, and laws governing our businesses. It puts them at risk as well as you.

 

[Graybeard]

1) Is it likely Rakuten will reconsider terminating me after hearing there weren't any affiliate links on the site and that the relevant disclosures were going to added before publishing the links?

I am in the process of building my site but it asked me to provide the URL so although it isn't finished AND didn't have any affiliate links on it yet,

You had an unfinished website without traffic or any real propose.

2) If not, how can I successfully register with Rakuten again? Will I need to pay for a new URL or am I simply terminated as an individual and I now cannot register with them? This would be a real shame as they offer a lot of programs I would like to join.

Not sure but you can try to resubmit your "application"

If you had no links, from any affiliate program --why would you need to have any disclosures? --there would be nothing to disclose --would there? Sounds like boilerplate #2 rejection to me.

 

[sarahw1979]

Simply put, you did not have all your ducks in a row. Why in the world would you apply anywhere when you and your site(s) are not ready? That is not professional. We turn down vendors here daily for the same reasons.

It's a business and if you are not prepared properly then you will have these difficulties return over and over. These companies want you to be a professional, they don't want to have to chase you to conform to rules, regulations, and laws governing our businesses. It puts them at risk as well as you.

Hi, I hadn't applied to any specific programs, I simply wanted to register on the site to see which programs Rakuten could offer me and it asked for my website. Do you think I can apply to re-register with Rakuten again when my site is ready or do you think that them terminating my account means I am no longer able to have an account as an individual?

 

[affiliatebetul]

Hi, I hadn't applied to any specific programs, I simply wanted to register on the site to see which programs Rakuten could offer me and it asked for my website. Do you think I can apply to re-register with Rakuten again when my site is ready or do you think that them terminating my account means I am no longer able to have an account as an individual?

Hello could you take back your account?