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So I wonder who as an affiliate would take a £15 less commission per item (ie as in Play.com example) to save their cumstomer £3.95 delivery charge
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Luckily I've only made a handful of sales with Play.com on the Pleo front.
I don't order my products by "free delivery" or not. However, if I see there's free delivery, I'd normally label a merchant as such.
When merchants have come in stock I'd put them straight to the top of the page if they pay sufficient commission. I'd also send emails to my userbase as soon as they come in stock - but only (I will say ONLY again) if they offer sufficient commission.
I promoted Gadget Shop and Findmeagift heavily because they offered high commissions. I promoted Hamleys a fair bit because they offered a decent commission and knew they'd convert.
However, I look further than the commission rate. As an
seo affiliate I was in the fortunate position to get traffic all the time and didn't have to be as anal about conversion epc's. My "opportunity cost" was completely different to PPC affiliates. I had far greater flexibility with who I promoted.
Whe the high paying merchants had no stock - what should I do? Well my view was, with such high demand it was to my financial benefit to send them to Play.com / Dixons so they could order there than for them to reverse out the site and buy from a retailer with no affiliate programme.
I hope many of you get the point. I was (
am) number 1 in google for most of the search terms related to the Pleo, hence which mercahnts I choose and how I promote them would be totally different if I was a ppc affiliate or one with mediocre exposure.
I've said on your blog paul, that IWOOT didn't convert for me because they'd missed the boat. The boil has gone off the product, and whilst I'm still making sales, I've moved on to other products that don't have as many later-comer affiliates.
But there was one thing I noticed. There were many affiliates ppc'ing when no merchant had stock. On the Pleo I believe many affiliates must have severly reduced their ROI because they were too lazy to find out when the product was in stock. I'd sell shed loads in a space of an hour, and then they'd be gone. With this sort of product I feel it very dangerous to bid direct to merchant, or have a site that will keep people coming back if they use their site as the landing page.
I think affiliate marketing is a lot more complicated than just choosing the the merchant with the highest commission rate. I look at other areas too:
1) conversation rates
2) historic epc
3) responsiveness of account manager
4) ease of buying process
5) "reminder" systems
6) likelihood of catching other sales
7) cookie length
8) reliability of merchant
9) likelihood that if anything does go wrong the merchant / network / agency will respond positively
10) bonuses / incentives
Iwantoneofthose.com Price £249.00 : Commission 10.00% - 15.00% = @ £25 to £37.50 : Delivery £3.95 : You Can Pre Order
Gadgetshop.com Price £249.95 : Commission 7% = @ £17.50 : Delivery £3.95 : Out of Stock But In Feed : No Pre Order
Play.com Price £249.99 : Commission 4% = @ £9.99 : Delivery £3.95 : Delivery Free : You Can Pre Order
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