Bizarre O2 affiliate marketing tactics rumour demise of some handsets in favour of iPhone 3G
I received some emails last week from a couple of affiliate marketing people suggesting that O2 was going to stop selling the Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Samsung Tocco and Sony Ericsson C905 from 25th July until further notice, in favour of selling the iPhone 3G.
One was particularly odd as it addressed me as an affiliate member, even though I've never sold phones on behalf of any mobile handset in my life, advising me to remove all affiliate links referring to the above four phones by 25th July.
I even told Tech Digest about the story, but it seems that this "scoop" may well have been a poor excuse at promoting the web site in question.
Three of the four phones mentioned are still available to buy on the O2 web site today (the C905 isn't available yet anyway!), and the "breaking story" has disappeared from the marketing site in question, breaking one of the cardinal blogging rules of not removing articles (particularly ones you've duped people into linking to) once you've published them.
In fact, the site itself is still promoting the Nokia N95. What a con! No link love from iPhonic, Omio.
Update: I've received this statement from the site owner "Unfortunately due to pressures from O2 regarding commercially sensitive data, we were forced to remove certain elements of our news stories. We apologise for the negative impact doing this might have had, but bear in mind that we are a retailer as well as a blog site. We appreciate your understanding regarding this matter, and are sorry once again."
My level of wrath has been somewhat reduced, but there's such a thing as editing rather than outright deletion. It still feels more like a marketing exercise, given that the original affiliate information allegedly came from O2 itself.
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