Today at 18:36 was when Cashback Shopper received its 11,000th member. Although sales have fallen off somewhat (probably due to the usual January hangover & current economic situation), I’m still hopeful that the site will still keep growing & that Cashback Shopper USA will take off as well.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its affiliate marketing council (AMC) have established a code of best practice for the use of online Voucher Codes.

To come into effect on 1 January 2009, the Code has been created in response to a growing need for stricter guidelines in the area, and following reports that some voucher code sites are not adhering to best practice and are putting brands’ affiliate campaigns at risk.

At a meeting of the main UK networks held on 5 November, agreement was reached on a set of key criteria which will make up the Code, with an ongoing commitment to tighten these as the industry grows. Networks signing up to Voucher Code best practice agree that they will jointly enforce the code of conduct by not working with affiliates who do not comply with the following:

• Using ‘Click to Reveal’ when there is no valid or current code present is not permitted of affiliate publishers including using ‘Click to Reveal’ to show any deals/offers/sales instead of vouchers.
• Voucher code affiliate publishers must clearly detail the voucher offer that will be revealed by the click.
• A valid code is defined as a code that has been legitimately issued by a merchant for use online. This code will have an activation date and where necessary a deactivation date.
• Voucher code directories must contain clear categorization and separation between deals/offers/sales and discount codes.