HELP-new "indie" needing direction

[Drof 13]

Morning all,

I have been studying and trying to get up to speed on the "affiliate" picture as a whole. My first website was back in 98 and I have been in and out of Internet marketing since. I have been drawn back to it over the last 4 months like a bee to sugar.

I'm guessing I'm a "merchant" according to my studies. We are getting ready to launch our site and I want to put together a affiliate program but have no clue where to start. Can anyone point me to an outline on the "do's and don't" of building a affiliate program? What we are offering is far reaching and can be sold everywhere. We offer free samples of the program and it is quite well designed from the marketing side. Now I need to find partners (affiliates) to start the spider webbing. We will be pre-launching later this week.

I'm aware of the big partners (CJ or LinkShare) but we are offering a product under $5.00US and don't want to 3 step our commission structure. I feel it will "water it down" too much.

Please...someone take my hand and point me. As I mentioned in my intro, I'm a very quick study so you don't need to hold my hand that long. Thank you all.

Drof 13

 

[vereecjw]

I would suggest talking to linda, you can chat with her and she seems to be online 24 hours a day.

There is a link on the right "YOUR Program HERE!":
advertising-recruiting.5staraffiliateprograms.com/recruitment.html

She is the person who put together the forums (I believe, please correct if I am wrong).

If you want to get affiliates to trust that you will pay, and to try the project out, you need some sort of reputation boost. Going in without a known name is tough to accomplish.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much vereecjw! (Yes I'm the one that started and run the forum.)

Hi Drof13,

Shawn Collins has a free video series about starting and running a successful affiliate program.
He also has a good book and lots of other resources at that site. <a href="http://www.affiliatemanager.net/videos.shtml">Affiliate Manager Videos</a>

Geno Prussakov also wrote a book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-Affiliate-Marketing-Reference/dp/0979192706">A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing: Quick Reference for Affiliate Managers &amp; Merchants (Paperback)</a> (not affiliate link)

Or you can email me to set up time for a free consultation and I can give you some pointers.
<a href="http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5staraffiliateprograms.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&amp;noquote=1&amp;p=53757">Free Phone Consultation</a>

 

[Drof 13]

Thanks vereecjw,

?? Reputation boost... are you suggestion a partnership with CJ or LinkShare would be the way to launch? It's my understanding that these two organization are nice to partner with due to the payment structure (YOU GET PAID BY THEM). Is that correct? Who else is out and new in the market that has a reputation?

Is it possible to launch without having to share my "lunch money" with the big boys on the playground? I would rather give a larger commission to a small and hard working "affiliate marketer" then having them pick up the crumbs that fall off the table at CJ. Better question...why would someone partner with these "big boys"? What are the PROS and CONS? Anybody???
Drof 13

 

[vereecjw]

Yeah, CJ, Pepperjam, Linkshare, Advaliant etc all bring a bit of reputation that you will pay the bill.

Even with them, the hard part is getting the affiliates that can actually drive sales. (Super affiliates).

The real reason is that pretty much every affiliate already has an account with all of them. So it is easy for them to deploy. They also provide the tracking and reporting (minimally though). They then provide Affiliate management where they try to help on the recruitment. Your best bet is to find an affiliate manager that can recruit top affiliates, and go with their preferences. If they are a person I know and have worked with, I will use whatever network they are using without issue. Custom systems can be used too, but I personally have to really trust the affilaite manager to trust their conversion data.

 

[Linda Buquet]

If your product is under $5 it would not even make sense to go with CJ or Linkshare. Their set up costs are $5,000 - $10,000 just to get started. Plus they are very selective and may not even accept you unless you were a fairly big merchant.

There are lots of advantages to going with a network however and I would recommend Shareasale. $550 set up instead of 5 - 10K. The ongoing fee is just 20% of whatever you pay affiliates and well worth it for all you get!

Going with SAS will give you some credibility and extra trust, since they pay the affiliates. It's also MUCH easier to find a get new affiliates if you are on a network.

 

[Drof 13]

Hey vereecjw,
Wonderful insight. Thank you. Is there advantage to belong to all of these partners? Where does someone go to find an Affiliate Manager and who know's who? I don't have time to make a mistake nor do I want to hire a manager (THAT DOES NOTHING) and then "make his/her year". What we have is special, can be niche marketed anywhere, and I have been blessed with with the ablity of getting "ink" (PR). The PR by itself will drive traffic but I wantt to two phase market this project.

Again, Thank you.
Drof 13

 

[vereecjw]

Take her up on the free call.
Just know that even affiliate marketing takes money to get started.

You will need cash for:
1) Paying affiliates (you should have a wad ready pre-sales)
2) Custom landing pages
3) High quality hosting (Pages need to load fast)
4) Paying your Affiliate Manager (not sure how everyone else does this)
5) Cash for network setup fees
6) plenty of other stuff

 

[vereecjw]

Sorry, responded before your last post.

It doesn't matter what networks. All affiliates that I work with have accounts with all of them.

You don't hire an affiliate manager and make their year. You generally pay them based on results (from what I understand). Finding an affiliate manager is probably very tough. I have never been on the merchant side.

I would chat with linda. There are probably a thousand active affiliates on this forum. There are atleast 100 super affiliates on here. That is massive. She has reach to all of them, and can point you to other manager who do as well.

 

[Drof 13]

Hey again,

Just saw her posting. As you know...I'm new and working my way around this site is getting easier (somewhat). Sorry but a few more questions on your 1-6 reply.
1. Pre-sales??? You pay in advance?
2. Landing pages... I design, pay and host?
3. Should not be a issue. My questions may sound like I'm a high schooler but I'm quite good at marketing.
4. Again-in advance?
5. Network set-up fees. Now I feel like a grade-schooler. What the He-- is that?
Drof 13

 

[Drof 13]

Would Like to talk

Hi Linda

How do I set-up a phone conversation?
Drof 13

 

[vereecjw]

You won't pay in advance of a sale, but you will deal with delays in getting cash from credit card processors, etc. You may need to pay before you have received the cash from them. Also, many netwroks require a deposit by the merchant to cover payments.

Yup. Atleast with me, I have told affiliate managers that these are their expense.

No worries, just pointing out that I test the speed from the target market regions.

Retainers I would assume go in advance to cover expenses.

You pay 550 bucks to ShareASale to get on their network.
You pay 5 - 10K to CJ to get on their network etc.

On top of these, you pay a percentage of your payouts to the netwroks, as Linda said.

 

[Linda Buquet]

We offer free phone consultations to merchants, by appointment only.
Please email us for an appointment.

Please provide your name, company name and URL.
Email: linda AT 5staraffiliateprograms DOT com

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for contacting me. I wanted to share part of my reply here to help others that read this thread.

I did not realize the site was new and was not even launched yet. Recommended strongly not setting up an affiliate program until significant conversion testing with PPC had been done. It would be a waste of money to start a program without conversion testing 1st and not fair to affiliates who are sending traffic to a site that has not been tested and may not convert well.

Please read this for in-depth information about why I say this.
<a href="http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5staraffiliateprograms.com/merchant-affiliate-manager-discussions/11650-merchants-do-not-start-affiliate-program-til-you-do.html">Merchants Do NOT Start an Affiliate Program Til You Do This</a>

 

[Drof 13]

Thanks Linda,

I'm not going to launch today and sign affiliates on Friday. We will Beta test the site first and have a PR campaign up and rolling before I reach out to this market. I'm studying and R & D(ing) this now so when we are ready to implement, I will know the steps.
Drof 13

 

[Linda Buquet]

OK good to hear.

Wanted to address one other topic that came up. Affiliate Management.
(FYI I don't do it any more, but could refer someone.)

Most of the affiliate managers I know, the good ones that really know how to do it charge $3,000 - $5,000 a month. There is no one that is any good that will work on straight commission. So again to run an affiliate program right and hire experts to make it happen is a marketing expense you don't want to get started on until you know the sales are going to be rolling in because you've already done the conversion testing.

 

[Drof 13]

Thank you Linda,
That is a straight 5K and no commission...correct? What does 5K buy now a days? What is a good bench-mark between the 3K and 5K hire? Comments anyone?
Drof13