Affiliate Tracking Software

**charlton** · 01-08-05

A friend has a website promoting a niche product and wants to experiment with affiliate marketing as a merchant. His site is fully developed and uses Paypal and shopping basket to handle the sales.

What is the best method of tracking sales from would-be affiliates? Is it best to purchase software to load on to his server or is there an inexpensive online system.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

**eliteshops** · 01-08-05

Hi

My advice would be to go through a network.

There are quite a few to choose from but if he is just starting out paidonresults.com or Affiliate Future are well worth a look

**asr_guy** · 15-10-05

See what the competition is using for affiliate tracking. If they are all using an in-house system (script or other) then most likely there are not enough affiliates in that niche via the networks.

Regards,
Peter

**Steve Jennings** · 28-10-05

Murray

I've got a couple of sites using Idev and its not bad but reporting for affiliates is not that great and support can sometimes be slow/unhelpful.

More recently I've used Post Affiliate Pro and I can't fault it. Reporting is as good as any network, support is excellent and they are willing to do any customisation needed (though I doubt any would be the system is very flexible straight from the box).

I know from experience finding the right product can be a nightmare so feel free to PM/email me if you want any more info on either product.

**gadget** · 02-11-05

having been an affiliate (a major sports website) and now an affiliate, I'd definitely suggest going through a network. The biggest ones in the UK are CJ, TD, Buy.at and probably Affiliate Window.

Using a network will be a low-risk way to learn the ropes. From a merchant point of view I always found Buy.at to have the best conversion ratio (5%) but one of the lowest traffic volumes whereas CJ & TD had better volumes but lower conversions (2%).

Good luck.

**asr_guy** · 04-11-05

Other suggestions are payloadz, which supports paypal and has an affiliate network. Clickbank might be an option if it's a digital product. Also regnow supports digital products and has an affiliate network.

Cheers,
Peter