Inexperienced Merchant, in need of advice.

[davefish]

Hi everyone, my name's Dave and I've signed up here as it seems to be a really thriving community and I could do with some help/advice.

I am building a site to sell a PDF download and access to an online tool (both of which are my own products). The problem I face is that I don't have money to launch a marketing campaign, hire a sales person etc... so my plan is to incentivise other website owners to promote my page and pay a 50% commission per download. I'm sure this isn't a new concept to you guys but I have no prior experience.

As part of my sites design/development, I am building in a custom affiliate program (member sign in, monitor revenue etc..). I have no problem with this from a technical point of view but my BIG issue is I just don't know how to attract other site owners and getting them to push my product.

So my question is…What inexpensive methods can I use to tell people about this revenue generating opportunity and get them to sign up and start sending traffic to me? I am looking to target experienced affiliate people who have an existing/attentive audience etc.. rather than "Joe Blogs" who will put a banner on his site that nobody sees.

Thank you
Dave

PS. I hope this thread hasn't come across as an "advert". I know forums can be used as a tool for free promotion, hence why I've not put in any specifics. I am not looking to promote anything, I am relatively clueless and genuinely in need of guidance.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for joining and asking some good questions. We're happy to try to help. Please see our merchant and affiliate manager forum for lots of good answers to your questions. I'm moving this post there too.

As part of my sites design/development, I am building in a custom affiliate program (member sign in, monitor revenue etc..). I have no problem with this from a technical point of view but my BIG issue is I just don't know how to attract other site owners and getting them to push my product.

While you may not have a problem technically developing, affiliates may have a problem TRUSTING your homemade tracking solution. Affiliates already have trouble trusting that new merchants will pay them and they have all worked with tracking systems that didn't work right. So something to consider!

So my question is?What inexpensive methods can I use to tell people about this revenue generating opportunity and get them to sign up and start sending traffic to me? I am looking to target experienced affiliate people who have an existing/attentive audience etc.. rather than "Joe Blogs" who will put a banner on his site that nobody sees.

Please see the other posts in the affiliate manager section about recruiting affiliates. One free way to try to do it, is to post an announcement here and on other affiliate forums that allow ads about new programs.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

[davefish]

Linda, thanks so much for the reply and sorry for posting in the wrong section. Typical newbie lol.

Interesting point about the lack of trust with a custom solution. I know it will be 100% reliable but I guess that's not the issue. Convincing people it is will be the problem. Hmmm, would serious affiliate marketers (full time), ignore me...? Do they/you use a large single affiliate network and track all campaigns under one roof? In other words, would they be prepared to log into my system to track performance for my site only or would this be perceived as "too much effort" and "inconvenient"?

I really would prefer to manage it myself as I will cut out the middle man fees and know it will work perfectly from a technical pov. If this really will put a lot of affiliates off, who would you recommend I use to integrate my site with? I presume this will be a service where they provide the "promoter" with all the data... PPC, PPL, PPS, conversion rates etc...

Cheers
Dave

 

[Linda Buquet]

Well actually you don't need to go with a network and FYI networks don't include a promoter or manager, they just provide the tracking, banner serving, exposure to affiliates in their network and some networks even pay affiliates for you. In general I feel affiliate networks offer a lot of benefits, but for lower cost products which I think is what you have, probably would not be cost effective.

Since you have digital products you could go with Clickbank which is kinda like a network, but different than a traditional affiliate network.

But the solution I was going to recommend for you, is an off the shelf affiliate tracking program. Then you don't have a pay a network fee. Important thing though is your software, even if it works, can't be as good as off the shelf software that has been tested and improved over the years by thousands of affiliates.

An off the shelf solution affiliates are used to increases ease of use, decreases reluctance to join another new program with an unfamiliar platform and increases trust that it will work.

iDevAffiliate and PostAffiliatePro are 2 low cost solutions that get fairly good reviews.

 

[davefish]

Thanks again Linda.

My product will indeed be low value (est.. $20-$30 one off payment) and as I am venturing into the unknown, I want to test the water with minimal setup fees (apart from my own time). Techncially, my solution doesn't need to be complex. A person would register as an affiliate (simple web form) which will give them a log in and unique tracker id. The site will grab that id and hold onto it (even if the user removes it from the URL) until after they check out. The affiliate will get an auto email notification and be able to log in to view stats. I want to do it purely on sales conversion, not PPC or any other method. So if the person buys the $30 product, the affiliate gets $15. If they don't buy, it hasn't cost me anything. I appreciate that if my landing page sucks at converting, the affiliates will leave very quickly as there is no incentive but I am confident I will convert (bet you've heard that a few times lol). Will affiliates be put off if they are paid only on a sale and not click through?

Also... I've spotted some of the sticky articles so I'm going to grab a coffee and spend some time reading ;-)

Dave

 

[unitminer]

Dave,

You don't need to be afraid, that affiliates will leave you if will you pay them just per sale (keep an eye on conversion of your web site).
We have same situation in our affiliate program and we have about 2500 affiliates in our program.

I would suggest you just 5 advices, which works for us to hire and keep motivated affiliates:
1. motivate your affiliates to signup to your affiliate program and pay them e.g. $50 just for signup (we did it and within very short time we had about 300 new affiliates) ... if you will setup minimum payout e.g. to $150, your investment is safe.

2. put your affiliate program into multiple affiliate program directories - in last days it is not the most effective way of promotion, but every affiliate you will find is valuable

3. Try to pay adwords to get new affiliates

4. Pay multi tier commissions - your existing affiliates will search for new sub affiliates alone, because they will get payed for their recruiting work too.

5. Implement Split commissions feature - in such case every affiliate is payed, which worked on sale and not just last one - all your "working" affiliates will be satisfied (own experiences), because they will get commission much more often as before.


Last advice: from all of your affiliates will be active maybe just 5% of all of them. Don't expect, that every affiliate in your affiliate program will sell

 

[davefish]

unitminer, thank you very much for the advice!

1. Great idea! I presume you pay them the $50 signup once they have created x number of sales? And not $50 upfront as I would presume this is a big risk... joining just for the $50 and not intending to sell etc...

2. Do you have a few links to these directories please? Also, what would you suggest is the most effective way of promoting?

3. I may try this on your advice but I'd rather keep spend to a minimum. I'm not work shy so don't mind hitting a lot of websites... doing the donkey work and saving money.

4. Another great idea! I hadn't thought of incentivizing affiliates to recruit affiliates.

5. I'm not sure I understand this concept, could you explain further please?

Thanks again, this forum is great!
Dave

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Dave, I have some answers to a couple of your Qs

1. Great idea! I presume you pay them the $50 signup once they have created x number of sales? And not $50 upfront as I would presume this is a big risk... joining just for the $50 and not intending to sell etc...

No he's saying offer the bonus upfront. Many companies do, but I'm not sure it's needed or wise in your case. He's saying too that if you set your minimum payout at 150 and the affiliate never makes any sales you'd never have to payout the 50. Not sure I like that either.

2. Do you have a few links to these directories please?

Here you go, the top Directories according to Google PR.

Only the top 10 or so are worth submitting to. AffiliateTip is no longer around, so skip that one and 5 Star is not an open directory so skip it.

5. I'm not sure I understand this concept, could you explain further please?

No he can't explain further because that would lead to him trying to promote his own software.
His software is the only software to do this and I don't really feel it's a necessary feature, especially for your situation.

 

[unitminer]

Affiliate Directories: In the past I saw a lot affiliate directory submission services, you can try some of them. Try to google them, I can't write here names or links.