[Robert Drumm]

Again...about the same as AC Lens with a few changes for the industry. Let me know if you have questions.

Bob
bdrumm at baseballrampage.com

PS - Found here: http://www.baseballrampage.com/ppc.asp

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Baseball Rampage Pay Per Click (PPC) Bidding Rules

1. Allowed Search Engines

a. Bidding is allowed on Google, Yahoo, and MSN with a few restrictions listed herein.

b. Bidding on all other search engines is permitted with no restrictions.

c. Clause 3. below (Competitor Terms) in the PPC Policy must be followed on all Pay Per Click search engines and advertisements.

2. Baseball Rampage and Manufacturer Trademarks

a. Affiliates may bid on Baseball Rampage trademark terms on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The maximum bid permitted on trademark terms is 50 cents USD ($.50).

b. There are no trademark restrictions on other Pay Per Click search engines including ASK, Find What, etc.

c. Affiliates MAY NOT use www.baseballrampage.com in the display URL at any PPC search engine. Alternative spellings of our domain name are also not permitted . Such misspellings include but not limited to www.baseballrampages.com, www.baseball-rampage.com, www.baseballrampage.net, etc. See Direct Linking policy below (section 4) for additional information.

d. Affiliates are permitted to use Baseball Rampage trademarks in the URL to the right of domain in the display URL. Example: www.yoursite.com/baseballrampage.

e. Affiliates may not include “Official Site” or make representations that your advertisement is Baseball Rampage in anyway.

f. Affiliates may bid on Baseball Rampage + “term” on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Example – “baseball rampage coupons”, “baseball rampage coupon codes”, etc. There are no bid amount restrictions on trademark + “term” phrases.

g. You may bid on manufacturer specific terms although some manufacturers have blocked the use of their terms on various search engines without prior permission.

h. Baseball Rampage terms include all of the following and any potential misspellings not shown here:

www.baseballrampage.com
baseballrampage.com
baseballrampage
baseball rampage
baseball rampages

3. Competitors Terms

a. Affiliates may not bid on competitors name or trademarked terms. Such competitors include but are not limited to the the following and all possible misspellings not included:

Baseball Express
www.baseballexpress.com
baseballexpress.com
Baseball Exp
www.baseballexp.com
baseballexp.com
Baseball Warehouse
www.baseballwarehouse.com
baseballwarehouse.com
East Bay
www.eastbay.com
eastbay.com

4. Direct to Merchant / Landing Pages

a. Direct to Merchant bidding is permitted on Google, Yahoo, and MSN so long as our domain is not used as the display URL. Direct to Merchant is defined as any PPC advertisement that goes through an affiliate link direct to www.baseballrampage.com instead of to an affiliate landing page.

b. Domain misspellings are not allowed in the display URL for direct to merchant advertising including but not limited to www.baseball-rampage.com, www.baseballrampages.com, www.baseballrampage.net, etc.

c. Affiliates bidding on Baseball Rampage trademarks may not use a landing page that includes advertisements for competitors. Example – An affiliate bids on the term “baseballrampage.com”. The landing page must be entirely dedicated to Baseball Rampage and must not have “other offer” type marketing verbiage showing competitor offers.

5. Geo-Targeting

a. Geo-Targeting is allowed on all search engines so long as all policies regarding display URL are followed.

b. Geo-Targeting to avoid enforcement of the Baseball Rampage PPC Policy is strictly prohibited and grounds for immediate removal and reversal of all commissions up to 30 days prior to the date of the PPC violation.

c. International Geo-Targeting is not allowed under any circumstances. Baseball Rampage only ships product to the United States at this time.

d. Affiliates may not use international extensions for Baseball Rampage in their display URL on any search engine including but not limited to www.baseballrampage.ca, www.baseballrampage.co.uk, www.baseballrampage.jp, and any related misspellings.

6. Ad copy restrictions

a. Truth in advertising – All affiliates are required to be truthful about any advertisement representing Baseball Rampage including information related to rebates, coupons, and sales offers.

b. Do not represent your advertisement as an official Baseball Rampage endorsed advertisement or site.

c. Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) – Some manufacturers represented on BaseballRampage.com have a MAP policy in place. Affiliates must have correct prices listed in all advertisements at all times to avoid any conflict with these manufacturer policies.

d. Demo Equipment – In some cases, Baseball Rampage will sell “demo” equipment at discounted prices. Demo Equipment is not considered “new” by the manufacturer and does not include a full warranty like the same model equipment would in “new” condition. Affiliates may not represent “demo” equipment as new in any advertisement.

7. Exclusions, Penalties, and Notifications

a. Baseball Rampage reserves the right to exclude any or all of our PPC policy for individual affiliates at our sole discretion.

b. Excluded affiliates will be required to agree via signed contract to any exclusion permitted herein. Do not assume exclusion via verbal or written communication.

c. Affiliates will receive one warning and be given 48 business hours to comply with any PPC violations. A 2nd violation will result in termination of the affiliate relationship and may be cause for reversal of past commissions earned up to 30 days prior to the 2nd violation. See section 7D for exceptions to this policy.

d. Affiliates found using Geo-Targeting features at search engines to avoid enforcement of the Baseball Rampage PPC Policy will be immediately removed from the Baseball Rampage affiliate program, have all commissions reversed up to 30 days prior to the violation date, and be immediately reported to the Affiliate Network for investigation.

e. From time to time, Baseball Rampage may review the PPC policy for changes in the way search engines operate or changes in Baseball Rampage’s philosophy. Any changes made to the PPC Policy will be announced via the Baseball Rampage affiliate newsletter and posted on the Baseball Rampage website. Affiliates will be given no less than 7 business days to comply with any new PPC terms before a 1st violation will be cited on the affiliates account.

Reporting Violations

a. Violations of the Baseball Rampage PPC Policy may be reported to affiliates@baseballrampage.com. Please have all applicable proof in your email including but not limited to screen shots of the ad, geographical location of the ad, URL/Network tracking information, and search engine where the ad was found.

Updated 7/09/08

[25trees]

Nice and clear.

[Robert Drumm]

Nice and clear.

Thanks...that was the whole goal.

Bob

[harry1970]

wow, thats a lot of restrictons. Good luck finding affilaites who can work around those conditions.

[25trees]

I think these terms are fair. Almost all merchants have a similar ToS and they all have plenty of affiliates.

[Robert Drumm]

wow, thats a lot of restrictons. Good luck finding affilaites who can work around those conditions.

I would have to disagree. It looks much worse than it really is...to summarize:

-Don't use BaseballRampage.com or misspellings in the display URL on Yahoo, Google, and MSN.
-Don't bid on our competitors terms.
-All advertisements must be truthful including prices.
-Don't geo-target to avoid the PPC policy.

That's about as open a PPC policy that a company can offer in my opinion.

Bob

[Sueyep]

Hi,

I have few more questions on the PPC policy. I am in the process of having our PPC policy made and I have few doubts.Just wanted to know the advantages and disadvantages of the following prohibitions.

1 Prohibiting the affiliates from using the merchants name in the display url
2 Prohibiting the use of merchants name and trademark on adcopy
3 Prohibiting direct linking
4 Prohibiting from using the word "official store" and "official site" in the search ad campaigns
5 Prohibiting them from distributing the links to other affiliates in their own network
6 Prohibiting from using Coupon Code, % or the sale price in the SEM

Cheers :)

[Robert Drumm]

Hi Sueyep,

Here's my opinion on the positives and negatives:

1 Prohibiting the affiliates from using the merchants name in the display url
We allow our affiliates to use our name in the display URL so long as it's something like this: www.mysite.com/baseballrampage. I see no problem with allowing it because most likely their site will be set up to include our name in the URL. The only reason I can see restricting it's use would be if you're hyper sensitive to the use of your brand and trademarks.
2 Prohibiting the use of merchants name and trademark on adcopy
Again, hyper sensitive companies who want full control of their brand and trademark will prohibit it. We've chosen to not allow it because we don't want to confuse a client who may think they're going to BaseballRampage.com instead of an affiliate site.
3 Prohibiting direct linking
We don't allow this because we do our own PPC. If you're looking to use affiliates as PPC or have no problem with affiliates overwriting your own PPC ads then this isn't really an issue.
4 Prohibiting from using the word "official store" and "official site" in the search ad campaigns
Since we don't allow direct linking, the visitor would be landing on a page that isn't our website so it's not the "official site" or "official store". I suppose if we allowed direct linking, this would not be an issue.
5 Prohibiting them from distributing the links to other affiliates in their own network
In a sub-affiliate relationship you have no control over who is promoting you. I'm sure there's many positives but the negatives can be major negatives so we don't allow it.
6 Prohibiting from using Coupon Code, % or the sale price in the SEM
We do allow the term "coupon code" or sale prices in SEM. A coupon site offers coupons so there shouldn't be any reason they can't say "Baseball Rampage Coupon Codes" or other various terms. Again hyper sensitive companies probably don't want it. You also have those who don't want coupon sites ranking high for their terms costing in both commission and a discount from a client who most likely has shopped with you, or will shop with you.

Restricting the use of sale price is even worse. As long as they're promoting an accurate price, I don't see why anyone would want to stop someone from advertising a Widget at $19.99.


Hope that helps. Good luck to you.

Bob

[Sueyep]

Hi Robert Drumm,

Thanks for answering all my queries, it was definitely of great help.Now I am clear and would now go ahead and have our policy done as per our company's requirements.I understand that PPC policy vary from merchant to merchant.

Great insight,thanks once again.

Cheers :)

[Robert Drumm]

Your welcome. Good luck with the program.

Bob