A suitable affiliate program

[devinrayolsen]

Hi I am not an expert when it comes to affiliate programs. I do however have a client that would like to find a new affiliate program.

Currently they offer a sign up to by an affiliate with them through their web site and if a visitor meets certain requirements then too can become an affiliate.

Once a new affiliate is approved the affiliate can log in and grab my clients product images and or banners (as many as they want) and begin placing them on their site. Now this current affiliate program is a one way street meaning they do not want or allow their affiliates banners or image floating around their site.

My questions is how hard is it to find a inexpensive affiliate program that allows the following:

1. Link tracking from their affiliates sites.
2. No required banners on my clients site from the creators of the affiliate program or affiliates them self.
3. Monthly payments are handled automatically based of the amount of traffic each of our affiliates have driven us.
4. Each product image or banner can have its own unique URL to its specific product or topic of interest.

Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Devin R. Olsen

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Devin,

I moved this post from newbie affiliate to the affiliate manager forum.

What you are asking for does not look like anything unique.

Pretty much any program like post affiliate pro or idevaffiliate will work, as far as inexpensive software programs you can buy.

HOWEVER to get #3, automatic payments, I think then you are talking about having to join an affiliate network instead of just buying software. A network does all your banner serving, reporting and also pays affiliates for you.

Which network is best could depend in part on the type of product. Can you give me just the general product category, not specifics???

 

[devinrayolsen]

Hi Linda Buquet,
Thanks for the move, I was little unsure where to post

The clients site sells organic products for pregnant woman and new born baby's.

the site is earthmamaangelbaby dot com.

As long as we can find one that:

• Allows our affiliate product images and banners to have a unique URL that links back this product or topic or interest.
  
• Preforms the payout's to our affiliates automatically as well as track all the click throughs for us
  
• They are not required to have banners an ad's of other companies and / or affiliates anywhere on their site.

Now I know they are losing out on a great opportunity to gather extra revenue with having banners and ads on their site. However they have a unique site design with no good real estate for such things. Also they just don't want to draw the visitor away from the site with such ad's and banners.


Devin R. Olsen

 

[TrishaLyn]

I've worked with a program that went from in-house (powered by DirectTrack) to on a large network (CJ) and I wholeheartedly vouch for the network approach.

It's less time spent on your end worrying about the technical aspects of the program and ensuring that your IT department gets things right. The networks make it much easier. Also in terms of recruitment and exposure, being on a network makes a lot of a difference in terms of attracting affiliates who are on the network and casually browsing for new merchants to partner with.

Being on your own leaves you out in the cold sometimes. Don't get me wrong, there are big programs that are independent of a network, but they're also huge brands like eBay and Amazon (and even eBay used to be on a network until last year). I'd recommend at least starting out on a network to grow your affiliate base and recognition and then reassessing the situation if you're really leaning strongly towards building something in-house.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Devin,

I'd recommend Shareasale.com. They are the lowest priced GOOD network and lots of affiliates like the network better than some of the big networks even. SAS is 550 set up and some of the others are 5,000 - 10,000 set up.

None of the major networks make the merchant put any banners or ads on their own site at all so you don't need to worry about that.

 

[devinrayolsen]

Linda Buquet & TrishaLyn, you two are life savers!!

If anyone else feels like they have one to suggest that would be awesome cause my client likes to have choices in matters pertaining to this, but I think we all know what one I am going to push the hardest.

On a second note, I should of found you guys last week when I was trying to figure all this out... would of made my weekend a lot more enjoyable lol.

btw found you guys through google. "affiliate program forums" and you should be darn proud of that rank!

Devin R. Olsen

 

[Linda Buquet]

Glad we could help and yes we are pretty happy that Google loves us!

 

[Ron Bechdolt]

I'll throw in another recommendation for SAS. I have opened four programs there over the years and they were a good fit for all of them.

 

[devinrayolsen]

Ok now I feel the stupid question's coming on.

Lets say my client wants to go with these guys... uhh what service from the above talks do I want run with these guys?.?.?. affiliate or merchant?? I assume merchant... right? I am a merchant that will be setting up my own affiliate program with them and my affiliates log in to their sites affiliate end??

Told you it was a stupid question


Hey also I run my own web site that teaches beginner to advance web development and SEO topics, I would love to link back to this site free of charge if you guys provide any banners?

Thanks again!
Devin R. Olsen

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes that's correct. Merchant is the retailer, affiliates are like the independent sales reps.

 

[Linda Buquet]

You can hire someone to do everything for you - setup the program and manage it. Many times you'll be further ahead than if they try to do it themselves, don't know how and waste time and money doing it wrong.

We know good people we can refer you to. Good ones like Ron.

 

[devinrayolsen]

Hey also I run my own web site that teaches beginner to advance web development and SEO topics, I would love to link back to this site free of charge if you guys provide any banners?

Thanks I am sure I will be able to get the inns and outs of the program with not problems, just needed to get that dum question out of the way.

Also any information about the above quoted?

I am off with my findings to my client.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry, don't have any banners with the new logo. Most people just link to us with text links. If you need an image to link here is one (attached).

 

[Linda Buquet]

Or here's a better one maybe.

 

[devinrayolsen]

That will do, I don't do text links cause its keywords that may or may not pertain to a pages topic of interest so I always like to give all my endorsed sites a chance to sum up their site visually

Thanks so very much everyone.

 

[devinrayolsen]

Hi I am back

Looks like they are considering both ShareASale.com and now Google's affiliate program.

So between the two we have shareasale.com who requires you to go and find your own affiliates and bring them on in.

Google I guess drives affiliates to you but the setup costs and monthly fee's would require my clients to have to more that 4x the amount of affiliates to make google pay out.

So my new question is do you think Google can give them this 4x amount of affiliates turn over or would this just be a bad idea?

If Google is just all hype and lots of money throwing is their a middle level affiliate program that is between the two that will drive affiliates to us with the above requirements still in place that you could recommend?

Thanks again.

 

[WebAffiliate]

Along the same question line, how many networks is too many networks to be in. I have found several smaller networks that will pick up our offers with no set up fees, I've even been able to negotiate no required deposit. We are a 2 man affiliate management team. We currently have an internal and 3 programs on CJ. Does anyone have any experience with trying to managing thier offers on a large number of networks? How much is too much?

 

[ETRdahir]

How about using your in house and SAS together. Will this cause a problem using your in house and a network at the same time?

Regards,