Ocean Finance Join Numpties Not-So-Anonymous

Do you have to have an IQ test to become an affiliate manager these days?

Thanks to Keith on the A4UForum he's made us all aware of the Ocean Finance Affiliate T&C's which read:

“ZERO TOLERANCE for any web pages appearing in natural listings via the Ocean brand or derivates thereof “

You're kidding me right? Even if I were a finance affiliate I'd not be allowed to build pages promoting your offering? I'd not be allowed to casually build a paragraph or create an imaginitively crafted link like "Ocean Finance"?

You've really got to be chronically anal about your brand if people can't even mention it.

Michael Anthony even commented:

One of our memebers even had an email from Ocean's PPC company asking him to stop bidding on any terms including the word "Finance"!

Elena at TD then replied that Ocean had ammended their T&C's to:

ZERO TOLERANCE for any web pages appearing in natural listings via the Ocean brand or derivates thereof (logo images are available and must be used)

So now you can create copy around them but you can't mention their brand textually but you'll take the effort of putting a banner up.

I know it's not Elena's fault but she did make me chuckle when she remarked:

I believe what they are trying to avoid is having affiliates listed above themselves in the natural search results.

It's understandable why they're worried though! They don't even have "Ocean Finance" in their [Title] tag and they've got dodgy doorway pages linked to from their homepage.

I may even just take up finace affiliating to teach them a lesson.