New newbie merchant says hi

[jaxta]

Hi all

I've been encouraged by the site admin to introduce myself in here so here I am.

We've recently acquired a profiles/dating site that is already listed on AW and AF. We've updated the site and continue to add some good features to it, made less of it free and generally re-aligned it more towards dating rather than just profiles.

In terms of affiliate returns it hasn't been great in the past as too much of the site was free and there wasn't much communication between the site owner and the affiliates.

I've started to email the affiliates weekly (or whenever there's anything to say but no more than once a week is the aim) and we've updated the creatives. I haven't made much of the fact that we're a stable company with good funding, etc but I sense that this may be something that is an issue for affiliates, in that companies are folding and taking your cash with them.

We're pretty much giving as much as we can in terms of revenue split to the affilaites so I'm open to ideas on how to make our site/proposition more attractive to affiliates. It goes without saying that we're doing all we can to make it more attractive to actual users!

I notice that datafeeds seems to be a hot subject - we could quite easily create something that has the latest people to have signed up or in (we have Instant Messaging as well as standard non-email messaging), random people from the top 10, etc - thoughts?

I'm very open to ideas and any help you can offer would be much appreciated.

Many thanks and great forum - really useful.

Jack

[drivetowin]

Welcome to the forum

Go on then - tell us which merchant you are

Having read your post I feel I've just read a lonely hearts ad - I know everything about you except your name!

[jaxta]

lol - I represent www.partyflirt.co.uk.

My post wasn't meant to come across as a negative one - I'm very upbeat about it all 'cos we've made some fairly substantial improvements (both in terms of revenue and traffic) since we took over.

We're pushing the .co.uk domain name at the moment as we want to make it UK only to give the dating more relevance. We may well launch the .com to the US market once we've got all the extra features on there. We have our own developers working full time on the site and our aim is to create the most feature rich dating site out there which if I'm honest, isn't saying a great deal - I'm quite underwhelmed by most of the other offerings (am I going to get shot for saying things like that...? guess we'll see ).

Obviously the old adage "content is king" is important but we're really trying to give users as many compelling reasons to sign up as possible. The cost to subscribe is very low (£20 for 6 months) due to the age group we're aiming at so it's the volumes game...

Jack

[jaxta]

147 views and 1 reply... hmmm, I feel like one of those generic ebay google ads - lots of people see them but no-one clicks

I guess the lack of interest on my post is due to either there not being enough money in our proposition ...?


Jack

[stevenm]

Hey Welcome to the forum.

I don't think the lack of responses necessarily means there is a lack of interest. I took a look at this post and made a mental note to look at your affiliate scheme when time permitted me to. That might not seem a very polite thing to do and for that I apologise.

Dating is an extremely competitive area and it is good to see that you're keen to make positive changes and listen to affiliates. In terms of advice, I would say that if you take a monthly fee from members you should allow the affiliates to receive a recurring percentage of the fee for the lifetime of the member. More money for affiliates is always good but you can offer all the money you want but if it doesn't convert well, you wont get affiliates. That's why I am glad to see that you are making improvements to site content etc in order to persuade visitors to become members.

I am not a big dating affiliate at the moment but am constantly diversifying into different areas so this is something I may get into.

With best wishes.

Steven
--
Virtual Cards UK
http://www.virtualcards.co.uk

[jaxta]

Hi Stephen

No need to apologise at all - I'm just a bit keen.

Yes, the recurring commission is something we're looking at - it might take us a while as we have some work to do on the whole subscription management side but if it's something you guys will think will work then I'll move it up the list of priorities.

Thanks

Jack

[beeweb]

Hi there, My name is Bee I am Web Marketing Exec. for the Cotswold Co. Like Jack i am keen to really push our affiliate program as i feel it's really important for both us and affiliate. Anytime there is anything new to help affiliates i'll be there! It's a new role for me and therefore any feedback or ideas would be really appreciated.

On TD and AW we are offering a couple of of great incentives at the moment for existing and new customers.

Cotswold are offering you the opportunity to earn an extra 3% commission in April when you achieve £1k sales or more!
Plus entry into free prize draw to win £100 vouchers every time you make a sale of £100 or more!
Plus in April you can offer your shoppers a whopping 20% discount off everything they order!- this is on full price items only.

I'm hoping to make it to the London get together in May would be good to meet people and swap ideas.

[jaxta]

Well guys I'm learning fast. I've just spoken to a certain affiliate network and was told, in no uncertain terms, that I'm an idiot for looking at all of the affiliate networks as their network was the best.

Now I consider myself a reasonable person, open minded, prepared to listen and take advice but as you'd expect, I don't like being called a fool.

He said that everyone said their network was the best network - I pointed out that according to at least one forum (this one) that they weren't and that prompted him to tell me that they reject lots of people. Some sort of threat? I vote with my feet - I don't care if they are the best network out there - I don't do business with a*seholes. I've cut a 10 minute telephone conversation down to 1 par there but you get the picture.

Am I to expect this lack of professionalism in this industry? I've worked in the media business for 15 years and to be honest, so far I'm underwhelmed at the level of professionalism in this industry. I've sent emails to affiliate networks and various other people and the level of apathy has shocked me.

Forgive me if that's unfair but that's how it seems (with some exceptions (Webgains)) thus far.

Sorry for this minor rant!

Jack