Thread: Buy.at

I voted 4 however it is not a simple as that, several factors would have to be considered before promoting them including competition in that area, commission rates and how user friendly the merchant site happens to be.

Keith

Hi,

Some good feedback so far I wish a few more people had voted but I'm interested in the results.

I think your comments are very valid Keith. The poll was meant to be vague so I am aware there will be other issues to consider outside of buy.at as to wether a merchant would be suitable for your site.

What is nice to know though is that so far no one has picked number 2 on the poll. I was hoping this would be the case as it reflects on us greatly as a network.

Ok this is getting even more interesting now then.

Thanks for all who are helping us by filling in an answer on the poll .

It seems there are two people who don't know what buy.at is.

The simplest answer from a prospective affiliates point of view is that buy.at is an affiliate network.

In the same way you would link to a merchant on Tradedoubler or Commission Junction you can link to a merchant in buy.at.

We don't yet have a really juicy exclusive merchant to the buy.at network but we have more than a few coming soon , which is the main reason to see what a development like this would mean to affiliates.

When they arrive all you need to do is join buy.at as an affiliate and get the links to the merchant you would like to have on your website.

Simple - much like all the other networks.

Our point we wanted to prove was that affiliates follow programs more than they follow networks.

ie you may have a favorite network for reporting and linking or paying on time :-)

This being said as long as you had no major gripes with a network and that network was the only one to have a great brand with a good offering , then a large proportion of the UK affiliates out there would join the network and promote the merchant if their sites were matched with the merchants products and the merchant was competitive in the area of business.

So dispelling the myth that each network has its own set of affiliates and shedding light on the truth which is that most affiliates will use most networks - so the value to a merchant of joining one in particular to gain their affiliates is lessened and maybe comes down more to cost rather than the networks ability to deliver 1000's of unique affiliates.

Having said this I feel personally that in buy.at's case that the brand of the merchant would have to be strong enough to attract the affiliates.

Maybe if someone like Comet who we deal with for the causes side of things was exclusive with us that level of brand and offering would see a migration of affiliates to the buy.at network.

We have had some very positive feedback privately from board members recently on how easy we are to deep link with.

Our program does not have the advanced reporting elements which some of the more established networks have but what it does have is the backing of our flagship offering to merchants which is the buy.at shops. This means we can attract some very large names to us. In turn offering affiliates a chance to work with these companies to.

Just to put everyone in the picture , if a merchant say Comet for instance joins our network of buy.at shops which belong to Charities and Schools etc then that merchant also has the option to have individual affiliates such as yourselves sign up to them.

Now the buy.at shop network is huge and growing at an alarming rate so you can imagine the bigger it gets the better it is for merchants to join.

Couple that with the dawning on the merchant that as a side order which we don't actually sell them ie added value - the technology that they have bought into when they joined up for the buy.at shops also supports a fully functional affiliate program.

What we wanted to show is that if buy.at had the exclusive then the merchants would very likely to get the affiliates they would have got through joining another network and the inclusion in the buy.at network of shops like www.buy.at/poppyappeal for example.

Looking at it like this merchants are laying out a lot of money to join buy.at to be involved in our shops - they can also without spending a penny on top of their commission gain access to a network of affiliates.

The words no brainer spring to mind

I know its just a small poll with not enough entries to be conclusive , but as a marker it definitely leans towards supporting our theory.

Sorry to put the Cat among the pigeons. :-)

and Thanks for the feedback so far

We cant wait to unvail our new merchants and we hope we all make lots of money from them.

Hi again,

Thanks to all helping with this poll.

We noe have 2 poeple who have chosen response number 2 this is good as it means we can get down to the nitty gritty.

If everyone had voted for the other things then how would we grow.

Granted we think we are very good , but you can always be better so if the poeple who have voted for number 2 wouldnt mind coming forward on this thread we can find out what would put you off using us as a network and let us know what would change your mind maybe we can implement your suggestions.

Thanks

Hi,

We now have five people who are still unsure what buy.at means to them as an affiliate.

This would be a lot easier to clear if up if the people here would come forward maybe by e mail , if they do now want to post.

It is easy to go from not knowing to knowing it just takes you to make the plunge and send me an e mail

Please get in touch and I will be glad to fill in any blanks.

Thanks

Well no news is good news as they say

One thing I was wondering is if anyone has had any experience promoting online trainging companies such as Learn Direct?

I dont know of any who have affily programs but we thought it might be a nice one - any comments as always more than welcome.

Still not worked out how I would sign up
users.buy.at/gsignup.php
None of these apply to me

999GI I can see your problem, same one I had (have as not joined yet) you go to users.buy.at/bmerchants.php and sign-up to a merchant.. I think you only need to sign-up to one and then can sign-up to others inside the CP, but don't know for sure, one for Malcolm to clear up.

Hi 999GI

Glad your coming on board

The page you went too is for our Causes which is a separate side to our business with affiliates.

The link for affiliates to follow is on the bottom left of the home page www.buy.at

if you want to go direct too the page to sign up to a merchant

click users.buy.at/bmerchants.php

Then just choose a merchant you would like to link to

There is an application form to fill out which is a little tedious but once you have done that its happy hour as you just click on which ever merchant you want and it signs you up to them automatically.

Then its links in and earn money time

If you need any more help or just want to run some ideas past me please feel free to e mail me or give me a ring

Cheers