Hi,
I hope this is a good place to post this as it's a general issue. Firstly, let me say that I run some websites and partake, as an affiliate, in various networks. I have no complaints, as an affiliate, about what they do for me.
However, I'm about to set up a new website from which I will be selling a single product. It's a fairly niche product which will retail for about £150. I'm looking to pay affiliates on a sale only basis a commission of about £25. Oh, and my product is pretty well UK only, which does limit the market a bit.
My problem is that I'd like to do this via a network (just to keep my life simple). When I investigated the networks in the UK they all seemed to charge upfront fees, for which in most cases boil down to them giving me a couple of lines of code to put on my site. Secondly, they then want to charge me a fixed monthly fee (why, I do not know). Thirdly, they want to charge 30% on top of the monies I pay to affiliates. Fourthly, they then want me to promote my site to potential affiliates.
Because I have US contacts I had a look at some of the networks there. Firstly, almost none charge an upfront fee. Secondly, almost none charge a fixed monthly fee. Thirdly, in some cases the 'on top' fee was less than 30% and fourthly,
they promote my site to potential affiliates.
Am I missing something? It seems to me that I'd be better off getting some sort of affiliate management software and doing it myself. But then I'd, presumably, have a credibility problem.
Anyone have any suggestions? Comments? Or is this just another part of UK rip-off culture?
Phil