Affiliate Software - Advice Needed

[s0347688]

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Hi

We run property investment courses for people, and we have just setup our affiliate program with Idev Affiliate.

But for our prouduct structure I think we may need something a little more sophisticated.

Basically an indivdual can attend a free 'try before you buy' session and then decide whether to book a course or not - or they can go straight ahead and book a course without the free session (taster session we call it).

The problem we're having is the commission settings.

Basically, what we want is to have someone click through an affiliate link -

if they decide to book a free taster, the commission in the affiliates account will be set to pending. If the individual books, the affiliate will recieve 5%

if they go ahead and book straight away through an affiliate link, the affiliate will recieve 10%

The reason for the difference in commission is because it costs us money to hold these taster sessions.

Idev will only allow us to set each affiliate on one commission level.

Is the logistics of having such an affiliate software work like this possible? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Our current website (which is getting a big makeover soon!) is www.RealityExpansion.com

I have of course contacted Idev Affiliate with the same query - waiting for an answer.

Thanks!

Fraser

[pricethat]

The idevaffiliate software looks the cleanest out of all the cheapy affiliate tracking scripts, though like with anything the serious affiliates may not take you even half seriously using merchants own tracking unless of course they have no choice for the project they are doing.

To get it modified is not too much hard work. go to scriptlance, treat it with the same caution you would with ebay but you can get it modified for probably less than 200$ so it is perfect for what you want. Not to be racist at all but i always had nothing but problems from the indian programmers, i am sure there are good ones. The Russian and Ukraine programmers seem the best. I would give you a few names but im busy using them myself so you dipped out there

Otherwise you can be other cheapy scripts but they look god awful and you will spend just as much making them look nice. To be honest for the $200 or so why do you not just speak to webgains or affiliate future, they will give you some pointers as to what you have to do to "come up to affiliate marketing level" and they are people we trust to make sure its all done right. With respect i do not trust you, i do not know you, nothing will ever make me inclined to ever give you much of my time and no offence, from looking at your site it certainly isnt good enough in terms of getting huge responses. If you speak to the networks then they can put you on the right track, of course they are not there to be abused as consultants but it is in their interest to start programs that work, not ones that sit there so they are going to tell you what to do to get it right, that kind of information is worth thousands, just like your seminars and courses you should eat some of your own words and do the same you see? It would certainly show you are serious, it would save you all that hassle on tracking problems and at the end of the day more affiliates than you would get doing it yourself for sure and i would guess at least a year leap into the future in terms of perfect conversion rates.

Affiliate marketing is much much more than just pointing a user to you site, if you put some investment into using a network then you will reap the rewards, a bit like your courses would'nt you say?

I do hope that is some help to you

[s0347688]

Hi

Thank you for taking the time to reply, excellent advice!

OK when you say speak to the networks, what does that mean exactly? I'm quite new to viewing affiliate marketing from the merchants point of view.

As for our current website, it's getting completely revamped - the company has changed alot over the past few months.

OK from what I've heard from others, to get your on affiliate program near enough 100% working, you need to have around 10k to invest.

What can you get for your money, is basically what I need to know while doing my research - what will $200 get you, $1000, $5000, or $10,000?

Any input appreciated.

Thanks!

Fraser

[Stuart]

Hi,

My 2 cents worth

Affiliate Marketing is still one of the most cost effective advertising mediums therefore any company should consider the set-up of such schemes as a long-term investment, just as your affiliate partners do and will.

Invest in the program, by that I mean use a network that is and can be trusted, there are plenty to choose from, a couple have been mentioned above by pricethat.

Employ or have someone to run/manage the program, look after your affiliates, this can be either in-house or outsourced to an agency or individual affiliate-marketing consultant. Ensure you have banners/creative’s, incentives, promotions and content for your affiliates, these are the basic (what I would call the sales tools) that your affiliates/partners would use to promote your site and offering. In addition, invest in the site and products, it needs to convert visitors to sales, affiliates will not spend hours promoting you and sending you hundreds and thousands of visitors if these do not turn into sales. As pricethat said, some of the networks can also help advice on this before launching a program

I am sure some of the Networks would also be happy to look at how they can set-up different commission levels, hold commissions/sales on pending until they have booked this then becomes a real sales.

I guess it is like a pre-order. I am sure some DVD/Games companies must have something similar, when a DVD is pre-ordered; the sale is pending and does not become a real order until the DVD is released.

This method could work for you, if I have understood your product correctly

Good luck

Stuart

[s0347688]

Thanks for your replies - just one thing:

If I wanted someone to custom build me an affiliate program to fit my product, what sort of prices would I be talking? Where would I look?

Also, do all of the networks take a commission out of every sale you make, because I know affiliate window do. Thank you

Fraser

[pricethat]

Some networks charge a setup fee some do not, some charge a monthly management fee, some dont. Some require a larger prepayment of comissions than others. You have to call them and find out.

Yes of course they charge, generally the rule of thumb is 30 percent of what you pay the affiliate. You may see that as a charge you do not want to pay but i will be frank, with your type of product you will be lucky to get any affiliates want to even look at you with your own "custom" solution. Even with the consideration that an affiliate might get more directly most of the affiliates in here would rather it through a network so they can track it with their other campaigns and would take a lower amount.

[s0347688]

thanks for your reply - yes I do understand for our product things have to look better than normal - thing is I'm only looking at all options for the moment

So would you be able to recommend me to any custom programmers, or what prices Iyou'd be expected to pay for our product described above? Many thanksd

Fraser

[asr_guy]

Why go custom when there's so many solutions out there already? You may be re-inventing the wheel.

-Peter