New merchant seeking advice

**conquermaths** · 31-08-06

Hi,

I've recently set up a fairly basic affiliate scheme on our website http://www.conquermaths.com but the software I'm using is a bit limited. Could I have some of your experienced opinions on what's available at the moment? I need to be able to offer different commission levels to different affiliates and it would be nice if comissions could be scalable.

I don't have much experience in this area so your advice would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks
Richie

**steveaich** · 31-08-06

Hi Richie

You will probably be told that it is best to set up with one of the networks as initially this gives affiliates more confidence that they will get paid, it also gives you less hassle in running the scheme, and access to the networks software which should allow you to offer a more complex scheme to your affiliates.

With a site like yours it will not be worth going with one of the large networks as it is unlikely that you will ever make back the joining fee. Speak to a few networks about their charges and fees before making your decision.

I only have experience of affwin, which do have large fees, so I couldn't honestly recommend them.

Perhaps Affiliate Future or Paid on Results would be worth looking at, although I've not used either and I'm not sure what their charges are.

**asr_guy** · 31-08-06

Hi Ritchie - you need to decide if you want to go in-house and build your own affiliates or go with an existing network.

You can check out the software vendors on my site, but I don't have much to offer re UK based affiliate networks.

I've approached a couple to get listed on my site but they're slow to respond. Pity as I have several UK and European merchant visitors on my site daily.

Cheers,
Peter

**conquermaths** · 05-09-06

Hi steveaich and asr_guy thanks for your comments and sorry for my slow reply... the end of the school holidays means it's all go for us education providers!

At the moment I'm slowly building up my own affiliates which is proving to be fairly successful. I'm working directly with some educational suppliers and also allowing visitors to my site to sign up as affiliates (working on a slightly lower commission).

asr_guy, your site seems incredibly useful... but unfortunately I couldn't get the compare function to work... no matter have few boxes I ticked it told me I'd tried to compare more than the maximum! I'm just about to launch a US version of our site which is more likely to rely on affiliates than the UK/International equivalent. I hope to see your site in all its glory soon as I reckon it's going to be most helpful!

Thanks again for your assistance!
Richie

**asr_guy** · 05-09-06

You can compare affiliate tracking systems and networks side-by-side up to 10 and also search them if you are logged in. I am currently giving away a free "canned" site account so people can log in to get the account. Just subscribe to the free newsletter to get it.

Regards,
Peter

**DreamPrints** · 12-09-06

As far as I know idevaffiliate.com has good references. It has a number of useful features: you can set multiple tiers, PPC, PPS, or PPL, etc Though you won't have SEO friendly links.

Still most people recommend http://jam.jrox.com/.