Merchant with GSOH looking for.....

[BiddyBiddy]

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Hi All

I am very new to the internet marketing world and would love some advice on how to get affiliates on board. I have read a lot of the posts on here and you guys obviously know your stuff. So how do I attract affiliates to get some good leads?

My website is going to go live at the end of October and apart from adwords I have very little else up my marketing sleeve. As my site is new and not blue chip I have had several refusals from the affiliate networks.

Any help will be appreciated.

[BiddyBiddy]

Also does anyone know why my signature does not get added to my postings?

[Mogga]

Got to be 50 words or less and not entirely sure if there's a minimum number of posts before it'll show anyway.

[BiddyBiddy]

Thanks for the advice Mogga, I will check the length to make sure its adequate ;-)

[Mogga]

It can be really hard sometimes to even try and stretch out a reply to that many wordss! What did I say it was? 50? Something shockingly long but it's supposed to stop spammers from getting free links.

The best way to get affiliates on board is to send me chocolate and I don't know what works for everyone else but I've heard ferraris mentioned once or twice

No, but serously.
Have a great product, a website that is (or can be) affiliate friendly, great commission, great customer service.
If your site is really new then you've got to make sure it converts for your direct customers before you ask affiliates to send you traffic.

More site specific advice needs a URL

[BiddyBiddy]

Thanks for the advice, what sort of chocolate is the usual currency?

What would make a site more affiliate friendly? I have a couple of IT guys that work on the site for me so any suggestions that would make me sound like I know what I'm talking about to them would be great!

Also at the risk of sounding really stupid, what is the URL? I thought that was just the Bargain Products, PS3, iPOD, laptops at BiddyBiddy

Cheers

Tony

[Mogga]

Absolutely any

Affiliate friendly means no ways of stealing commission (ie: phone numbers to play orders with that don't track to the affiliate who got them there)

URL is the address

Affiliates like easy to keep updated thinds - like auto-updating banners or content units that make it easy to tempt people with the latest offers.
Or at the least regular emails about what's new etc.

[BiddyBiddy]

So would you say at the moment its best to see what happens on the site first before getting involved with an affiliate? Or should we look seriously about getting one on board now?

Also I have set up some campaigns in adwords (paused at the moment) and will be charged on a per click basis, do affiliates work on a per click basis? I was hoping that it would be like a commission for a sale?

Apologies for all of the questions, but it's a whole new world to me!!

[Mogga]

From an affiliates point of view I'd want to know the site worked as is.

From a merchant point of view you might see the "free traffic" as a way of testing out the site.

[BiddyBiddy]

Site mechanics are definitely working, just needs a bit of a tidy up. We did a user test with family and friends from all over the uk. No hitches, which was certainly a weight off of my mind and the IT guys.

So from an affiliates point of view as the site works it would just be confriming the levels of commission and ensuring that is friendly, so that they get paid promptly. Would that be a fair assessment or am I being too naive?

Also not sure what you meant by free traffic? Do you mean if we pay on a lead basis people will come to the site, may be not buy anything and then move on. So it hasn't cost us anything or are there other ways to get traffic to the site?


Tony

[Mogga]

I think I meant if you don't know the system works 100% then you're using affiliate traffic to test it out and that might not result in the best results for affiliates.
But if you've done all the testing then it's good to go... and commission - do you know what similar sites offer?

[kier]

So would you say at the moment its best to see what happens on the site first before getting involved with an affiliate? Or should we look seriously about getting one on board now?

Get your site sorted first, it's much easier to turn on an Adwords campaign than it is an affiliate program. This is absolutely crucial and far too many companies rush into launching an affiliate program without fully realising what's needed to make it a success. Asking somebody to promote you as an affiliate is asking them to take a risk, there are already hundreds of companies out there with well established affiliate programs so there is a significant opportunity cost for an affiliate in working with a new merchant.

It really depends what you want out of the program. It's not too hard to launch a program which will do OK and tick over. However, if you are looking for sustained long term growth in sales and customers then you need to ensure that you can attract, convert and retain affiliate traffic. The following areas are what you should be considering and working on before launching your program:

1) CONVERSION - to my mind this is the foundation of the whole program and indeed the business. You can have the best commission in the sector but if you don't convert no one will care. This is a wide ranging area and necessitates large amounts of testing, tweaking and ongoing optimisation of the site but it will positively affect everything you do from affiliate marketing through to paid and natural search.

2) Commission/reward - do your margins allow you to offer an attractive reward to affiliates? By this I mean will you be competitive in comparison to competitors? As mentioned above the return an affiliate will get from their traffic is based on the conversion and the commission rate, as such you need to factor both of these into your calculations. Do you have the budget to run regular incentives for your affiliates to get them involved? Do you have the leeway to also offer strong customer promotions as well?

3) Resource - do you have adequate technical, design and support resource to work effectively with affiliates? If you want a program to really flourish then you need to have a dedicated (and preferably trained) point of contact for affiliates. This can be an inhouse affiliate manager or an agency. Having a development and design resource (preferably inhouse, not an external agency) that are able to respond to issues with the site and help develop new ways for affiliates to work with you (apis, content units etc) is also a massive bonus.

[BiddyBiddy]

Hi Kier

I like your straight talking, it save time and energy. I am a newbie and I definitely do not want to waste both an affiliates or my time on something that may not deliver for both parties.

I have thought about commission and resources and believe that I can deliver on both, but as you say commission is great but if there is no conversions then no one wins.

In terms of resources I am doing this full time and am committed to making it work, I have 1.5 IT guys working on the site (one full time and one part time) and a part-time graphic designer. I obviously have a lot to learn about the world of affiliates, so that is why I am here. But we are committed to making this work, either with an affiliate network on board now or not.

I had hoped that we could set up an account with a network and build up a relationship over time that would be mutually beneficial. I thought that both parties would be in it for the long haul, not a smash and grab. I would like to achieve a sustainable and attainable level of revenue plus an element of growth and although I think google would play a big part in this, I think that an affiliate program would be both complimentary and probably a necessity.

Coincidentally, a member recommended Webgains to me and I was in the process of looking at you guys on the web. Do you think that this is something that you would potentially look at, I know that you are currently promoting another similar site?

Cheers

Tony

[BiddyBiddy]

Mogga

Not sure what other sites are offering, but was looking to offer a commission on first purchase followed by a smaller commission for all further sales within a 30 day period (suggested by another a member).

Do you think that this would be attractive?

[Mogga]

I think that sounds interesting.
Have you considered life time commission on all sales?