Free merchant set up?

[markhall]

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Hello

I'm very keen to start an affiliate scheme for my site. But everyone Ive spoke to has asked for £1k and up to set it up.

Are there any companies who can set up a scheme for free ?

Sorry if this is in the wrong place , I'm new here

Mark

[sgpratley]

Hi Mark,

I don't wish for this to be negative but if you don't feel confident that you'll get payback from that sort of outlay then you are possibly not ready for an affiliate scheme. A network will save you a considerable amount of time and money in recruiting affiliates and managing payments, the set-up process is never as simple as the sales guys would have you believe, and if you're not 100% confident on making your money back within 6 months you are probably not doing enough business that your programme will be very attractive to affiliates.

Affiliates want to see businesses with demand for their products and strong conversion rates to get excited about so you need to be quite well established to achieve that. A lot of the networks will give high quotes for setup because they don't expect to see returns from the commission based fees from your programme. A big site will usually have the strength to negotiate these away.

There are networks that will do free set up, but they are usually new networks, desperate for business and with low numbers of quality affiliates, not all, but most.

I don't work for a network, but we manage a number of programmes in different sectors,and I've run programmes myself at more than one business when I was client-side so the advice above is borne from hard-won experience.

That said there are exceptions to every rule, and if you want to drop me a note with details of your site I can steer you in the right direction if I think there's potential there.

Email to info at shinemarketing dot com if you're interested.

[deadgoodundies]

Don't know which affiliate networks you've looked at and I don't know which ones do free setups but when it comes to the networks that want to charge you a set up fee there is one word

"HAGGLE"

If they think your program will do well for them then there is usually some room for movement on the set up fees.

Plus not all of them charge anywhere near 1K set up fee.

[smingle]

Don't know which affiliate networks you've looked at and I don't know which ones do free setups but when it comes to the networks that want to charge you a set up fee there is one word

"HAGGLE"

If they think your program will do well for them then there is usually some room for movement on the set up fees.

Plus not all of them charge anywhere near 1K set up fee.

Fantastic advice

[hpops]

I'd agree with both of the above posters. However haggling is only really possible if you have something to haggle with. A recognisable brand, good conversion and in demand products (not to mention a little bit of "trading off") can pay dividends.
However Stephen is bang on, Affiliate Marketing requires resources, both financial and time based to succeed. A grand is a very small price to pay for a quality network if you have the rest of the ingredients.

[sgpratley]

"HAGGLE"

Good advice, and actually the things you've got to haggle with are the same things as will often motivate affiliates.

• Known brand
• Active marketing calendar through other channels
• Proven high sales conversions
• Good margins or being price competitive on products with high demand
• Exclusive brands with strong demand
• Strong set of marketing assets already in place (product data feeds, banners, email creative, tested landing pages)
• Access to good development resource for quick integration and other improvements to the programme
• Experienced affiliate manager on board
• Low returns rate or no reversals

There are probably a fair few more, but if you're drawing a blank on all the above then you're going to have a tough time of it.

I'd far rather negotiate on the fixed monthly fees than the setups any day, that way I can take my time recruiting the best affiliates on to the programme without pressure to just get sales from any quarter to cover the numbers each month.

[kcheung]

being both an affiliate, and an affiliate manager and working for a digital agency with its own network,

I have to agree with all the above, at the end of the day - affiliate marketing is an investment, just like any other, sure it might be closer and more pegged to ROI than other channels, but just like hiring new staff or sales people, you still need to allocate budget and have a clear idea of how long it will take to recoupe your investment.

at the end of the day, tracking takes time to install, on more than one occasion i've had to personally go down to a clients office, sit with their techs and get tracking sorted out, now for a day of my time as you'd expect its gonna cost the company money, and rightly so, its going to cost the client money for that kind of service.

You've got to consider that for a network/agency to reduce their monthly fee or their setup fee they also need weight up the likely profits vs time they spend on a particular client. Just like Steve mentioned the setup is more important than the monthly.

A network will save you a considerable amount of time and money in recruiting affiliates and managing payments, the set-up process is never as simple as the sales guys would have you believe, and if you're not 100% confident on making your money back within 6 months you are probably not doing enough business that your programme will be very attractive to affiliates

ultimately this is where your setup fee and monthly fee go - tracking installation, recruitment, ensuring that there is no fraud, manageing payment and so forth, you can't expect a team working on your account to work for free.

[benfriedman]

I spoke to the nice people at Affiliate Marketing - EuroAds, Thye are doing free setup but do not offer anything for product feeds atm...

[markhall]

Thanks for the advice. As a new start my pockets are empty so I best get saving

[Hero]

As a new start my pockets are empty so I best get saving

I appreciate where you're coming from, however the short term gain from the setup fee might be a long term loss in program performance.

Without trying to suggest that networks who don't charge anything won't do a good job nor that those who charge £5k will do a better job, I do think that the setup fee alone should not be the deciding factor.

[markhall]

I've spoke to a few today, they all wanted £800+ to set up and a monthly fee of £200-£300.

!! Grr

[Chuck_Hamrick]

In the U.S. Shareasale.com is the 4th largest network and has a low cost of setup. Not sure if they can handle your currency.

If you are interested in hosting software yourself the latest version of Post Affiliate Pro if excellent and I run 10 programs through it.

[markhall]

In the U.S. Shareasale.com is the 4th largest network and has a low cost of setup. Not sure if they can handle your currency.

If you are interested in hosting software yourself the latest version of Post Affiliate Pro if excellent and I run 10 programs through it.

Thanks i will look into this. I f i went down this route the problem i would have then is contacting the 1000's of sites that could promote our service, and of course managing every aspect of the campaign.

We are pushing ahead with Euroads, who seem to be very nice folk, I would still be interested in a UK partner though.

Thanks for everyones replies all very helpful