Hello, advice required

[troy]

This looks to be a respectable forum, so I come to you all for advice.
I am not going to drop any links, but our team have developed a software package for small business, and we are thinking of creating an affiliate/reseller program. We have never dealt with affiliate programs of any kind, but we believe this is a real winning. The businesses that have tested the product have nothing but praise for it.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW: A simple internet content management solution, where no IT skills are required to install, deploy and monitor, plus more.

COST: USD$90 - USD$259, dependent on level of support/upgrades/database access required, but product has no time bomb, except for trial. We will be selling 3months(90), 1yr(179) and 2yr(259) products.

AFFILIATE: USD$30 - USD$90 (Unconfirmed) 3months(30), 1yr(55), 2yr(90) plus a percentage of all renewals for life.

Software Product will be released next week, with thoughts then beginning on affiliate program.

We have tested the market to "off the street cold calls", 6 out of the 10 business we walked into said they would buy it while we where there. The others - either management not there, or they would think about purchase after trial.

We believe it would be an easy product to sell for sales people who visit small business regularly, but are unsure about internet sales.

We would appreciate any ideas or thoughts any of you may have that could guide us in the right direction. Also thoughts on what we are proposing would be welcomed.

Look forward to your feedback.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Troy,

Welcome to 5 Star and thanks for asking for our advice.

My best recommendation is to 1st test your new site and product through PPC ads to test and tweak your conversion rates. Talking to someone is one thing. Getting them to buy unassisted through a site is another. You need to get your online conversions up to a respectable level before even considering an affiliate program.

You could offer 75% commish but if no one buys affiliates won't make money. Setting up, running and recruiting for a STRONG successful affiliate program is tough. Last thing you want to do is get affiliates that can't make any money with your program due to the cart issues, marketing copy or price. So conversion testing and tweaking with your own money by investing in PPC - before launching an affiliate program is crucial.

Hope this helps. Let us know how it's going!