New Merchant Advice

[fantasticals]

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We are looking to launch a program soon and have been carrying out a lot of research and reading through forums to ensure we get our programme right first time.

I just wondered if iget some feedback from affiliates on the following:

1) Inhouse Program: I get the impression that affiliates prefer to deal with merchants belonging to networks. If an inhouse program is well run, well communicated and the relevant resources provided does this become such an issue ?

2) Affiliate Software: We are currently looking at a number of solutions to administer our program. We have tested Jrox affiliate manger which seems fairly user friendly. Any affiliates had any experience with this, any comments on usability ?

3) Order Line Leakage: Understandably affiliates get annoyed with this, whats the best way for a merchant to prevent it ? we can hide the order line from customers coming through from affiliates anything else we can do ?

[John Jupp]

An in house program can work yes. However put yourself in an affilite's shoes.

100 programs advertised - 1 to 4 networks Total of 4 Invoices and 4 platforms to monitor.

100 in house programs advertised - 100 separate platforms. Total of 100 invoices to chase.

[moogie]

Hi Fantasticals

Keep it simple safe. Use a network first and then review after 12 months.

Yes, you will have your override fees but most affiliates prefer tp promote you through a network as like John pointed out it is less hassle for them to get paid on time.

No telephone numbers on show, promotions, work with affiliates on branding and as much communication as possible = happy affiliate, more sales!

Lee

[gallito89]

I only use independant programs if they are very reputable, I know companies like ClickBank won't scam me, etc.

[fantasticals]

Thanks for the feedback,

I fully understand the preference for affiliates to work with merchants that are part of networks and can see why this is more beneficial.

What ive got from your feedback is that you prefer merchants in Networks but independant programs can be succesful if run well, affiliates paid on time, good communication, promotions and support for the affiliate.

[Quaytickets]

We have set up an independant scheme and it is going well. We make sure everyone knows when the pay dates are and when they can expect to get the money in their accounts, offer a better commission than they would get with other merchants in the same field, try and offer special offers that they can promote, get them tickets to use for giveaways, offer a lower booking fee to our customer so they can use this as a selling point on their site, add new products to our site so they have more to promote.

Many people prefer a network but if you can create a scheme where you have a few unique selling points over the networks, offer them a better commission & make sure they don't have to chase payments or do paperwork to get their money.

[Rollerblader]

One other thing to think about or make sure to do is to add in nofollow tags to your links in case affiliates call you out on trying to get free backlinks for SEO purposes. If you do decide to not include those, then maybe offer a higher commission structure to make up for the SEO boost.

Best of luck with the program.