HELP!! lots of affiliates no sales or refferals

[grahamT]

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High, people.
My site has about 50 affiliates but alas after 3 months and 1K in expenses I have not had a single referal, what could be wrong.
is 5% enough of a commision the average sale value is between 200-700 UKP.

I would love if someone would tell me if the site is good or bad

also are affiliate futres good to be with.

Many thanks for any comments

regards
Graham

[Retail-Therapy]

Graham, is that your site? pc1.co.uk

I'm guessing its not, because theres nothing for sale on pc1.co.uk

So, whats your site?

Tony

[grahamT]

oops!! no its www.nationalplastics.co.uk

thanks
Graham

[SillyJokes]

Is it the combination of riveting subject matter and prominent FREEFONE number?

[Darren]

As an affiliate I wouldn't promote your site because:

a) your free phone number is too prominant and it's likely your affiliate's traffic is being leaked through to that.

b) with my knowledge of the plastics market, 5% commission isn't enough.

The question shouldn't be 'is 5% commission enough', you should be asking yourself 'am I compensating my affiliates fairly'. If you could afford to give affiliates more, give them more! Affiliate marketing isn't a 'cheap' form of marketing. It's a means of paying commissions based on performance. If you allocated, say, 10% of your funds to other forms of marketing, offline print media or whatever, then that's the level you should be paying to affiliates.

Is your affiliate program with a network, or is it run in house? Either way, I can't see any information about it on your site?

[Mogga]

Can't find details of affil program on your site.

[grahamT]

Okay so looks like I have got this wrong!!

I have 50 affiliates through affiliate futures this has cost me 500 for the set up and 2.50 per day, my main competitor is only paying 3% commision and is turning over 330K per month I have seen payouts to his affiliates of at least £100 per month.
I am getting 38%gp at the moment with out the cost of ppc and management.
considering my average sale is between £200-£700 I thought 5% was okay as I have a scheme to agree higher rates for better affiliates.
To be honest the affiliates who signed up were a waste of time
and I had to remove most of them as they were unsuitable,

I have let the scheme lapse for a minute as I have given it 3 months and not a single sale or referall.

To be honest I epected the affiliate marketing company to help more,
the freephone number has only been added recently and I would take it off, or make it less prominent.

I should make it clear though I do not own the site I just built it, but now I have been summoned to a meeting to discuss the marketing,

The good thing for them is they are backed up by 17 national branches and are owned by a large plc so money isnt really the object, but like all thins results are.
So considering comments I will take them on board and make the changes.

Thanks for the feedback
Graham

[Darren]

Hi Graham,

If they're looking for someone to consult with and want someone with experience to manage their program, I'm open to offers.

Let me know either way

[SillyJokes]

OK I was a bit cheeky before - I wondered how many affiliates would promote plastics but I dare say there are loads if they knew they could make money.

What I meant was that plastics are not as easy to promote to a wide audience as gadgets, books, casinos and mobile phones.

50 affiliates is not very many. It tends to be only 10% of your affiliates who ever make any money and this figure is based on having 100s. With only 50 the chances are that only 3 or 4 will do anything.

Three months is not very long although you might expect to get some sort of result. It may take much longer than that to get good results.

You don't say who your affiliate marketing company is, but they haven't helped. I wonder if they are one of the main ones or a smaller one or perhaps a US based one.

Have you been out on the net trying to recruit affiliates yourself? This might be necessary, especially with such an unusual offering.

Do you write to your affiliates to encourage them, let them know about new products etc?

You might be wise to talk to someone on a consultancy basis here who can turn this around for you, because if there is money to be made in the plastics industry then some one here can make it, I'd say.

[Freebie]

I wouldn't buy from this site. I have set criteria for any site that's suitable for buying from, i don't believe they are uncommon rules, and your site fails.

Criteria 1: I must be able to find some explanation of delivery charges, even if it's only a paragraph explaining why you can't give prices up front - before adding to cart, or even checking if you sell the items i want

Criteria 2: I must be able to see when my order will be delivered if i order today - before adding to cart, or even checking if you sell the item.

If i ignored the above, and tried to buy anyway. I wouldn't complete the purchase....

Criteria 3: When my personal details are asked for (address etc)after asking to complete the checkout, i expect to see the server secure icon. I realise it does go secure for cc details, but i'd have left by then.

Criteria 4: I live at a personal residence, and that costs me an extra £7 on top of the already high dlivery charges. What's that about? I bet the % of abandant shopping carts at this point is v high - i've certainly never been charged extra cause i live in a house before....

There are a few other things i din't like, but they might not stop me from buying.

Sorry, but as a customer i would not buy from your site, and as an affiliate i would not promote your site (phone number etc) - which is a pity, cause it's a good site in many ways.

Carl

[grahamT]

Freebie, thank you for the constructive approach.

I think your points are very valid, and I shall put them right,

Sometimes I cannnot see the wood for the trees.

Cheers.

thank you everbody else, suggestions about commision seem contrasting though. Having a look at what is on the market there arent many if any as far as I can see that offer anywhere near 10% on typical sales of 200-700. I think that if I spend close to 100K on advertising + another 50K on TV promotion to throw 10% commision at an affiliate they would have to be producing a substantial amount of business

Thanks for tips
Graham

[B1gJo3]

Don't know if it just me, but I found national plastics, very slow to load .

[ianm]

Originally posted by grahamT
I think that if I spend close to 100K on advertising + another 50K on TV promotion to throw 10% commision at an affiliate they would have to be producing a substantial amount of business

For your 150K advertising how much business do you think you will actually get? It will give you brand awareness but how many people that actually see the ad will be wanting a new U Bend or think to themselves 'actually I could really do with a new trap for the kitchen sink'. On the other hand each visitor that an affiliate is sending you is a potential customer and is a targetted lead.

If you pay 150K to affiliates (don't just think of a single affiliate think of the channel as a whole) then you have actually got sales of 1.5m is the same spend on print & TV going to guarantee you that?

Every affiliate program has the affiliates that sign-up and never make a sale or even a referral, you need to make sure that you are attracting those few affiliates that can. If you can't afford 10% for everyone then look at a tiered scheme

[mibut]

Looking at the photos of the products on your site and sorry but I would not buy anything from you.The quality is appalling
and there is not any detail in them.
No facility to make larger.
No close ups.
Click for more details and all you get is colour options.
Examples:Shutters talk about true mortise and tenon joints (on plastic..........) but where are the photos of the joints.
Gates, does it come in a frame, what locking system is there,how strong are they,what fixing system is needed.
Sorry but your site just does not appeal to the consumer or even in my experience to a trade user.
If you want to "sell" something you have to do just that, "SELL IT".
Instead of a few lines of hints and tips, put a step by step guide with photos or even a video.Get a professional photographer and take lots of photos from all angles and get some detail close ups.
All you have is a few crappy pictures and line drawingsand blame your affiliates.
Look at your site and ask yourself would you buy from it.
Be honest.

[B1gJo3]

I agree, your problem isn't affiliates, it is marketing. May I recommend 2 good books, that are very cheap:

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How to Out-sell, Out-market, Out-promote, Out-advertise, Everyone Else You Compete Against, Before They Even Know What Hit Them Click Here>>>http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...397107-1645455

These are not affiliate links, I am not a spammer!