39 replies to this topic

[Chemo]

Does affiliate marketing work for you? If so, what have you learned about it? If it doesn't work for you why not?

For those not familiar with affiliate marketing it is a very simple concept. You recruit a virtual sales team that will sell your products for a commission on each sale made. All affiliate services will let you set that sales commission. The biggest benefit is that your virtual sales team (affiliates) only get paid when a sale is completed. Unlike AdWords or other marketing / sales service that charge a fee for each click or referral an affiliate is paid for performance only.

If your business has a large profit margin per unit then you will have the most benefit. The general rule is that commission offered will ultimately determine the quality and quantity of affiliate marketers.

I highlighted the above to draw your attention to a universal fact: you get what you pay for. I have webmastered for several high volume clients and it is especially true in the affiliate networks. Listen, here is the inside scoop on affiate marketing -> the best online marketers available are affiliates. This is their full time job. They sell other people's wares online for a commission. The pool of talent ranges from novice and just starting out to experts making in the 6 digits monthly range in commissions. It is a classic Bell curve of their effectiveness...the majority will be average but there will be some above and below. What you offer in terms of commission will determine whether you attract low, medium, or high effective marketers.

There are industries that do not have a tremendous profit margin. In this case affiliate marketing would be hard to finance since there's not much profit to throw around. However, if you can spare 10-15% of your profits wouldn't it be worth it to have a sales team working for you? I would rather make $1,000 more per day and paying $100-$150 for those sales than not to have them at all.


With that I'll turn it over to those store owners that have more experience with affiliate networds than myself...

Does affiliate marketing work for you? If so, what have you learned about it? If it doesn't work for you why not?

Bobby

Edited by Johnson, 31 March 2005, 12:12.

[burt]

My thoughts about Affiliations are at http://blogs.oscommerce.com/burt/index.php...howentry&eid=91 but I'll summarise here:

If you can afford to give away a good portion of your profit to your Affiliates then you should do so. It's basically a "paid on results" sales force..and played correctly can be a goldmine.

I should mention that 10 - 15% is on the low side to get top notch affiliates. 30% or more is the norm...

Edited by burt, 29 March 2005, 18:25.

[Chemo]

The natural drawback to using the osC-Affiliates contribution is that you would have to attract your own affiliate network. Did you use the affiliate contribution or did you go through a 3rd party to connect with these affiliates?

30% is hefty indeed! What kind of quality would you attract at 30% versus 10% or even 20%?

Bobby

[burt]

I offer 33% - what I get for this is people who proactively go out and get me sales - the average order for the site I am talking about is $40, so an Affiliate generally earns around $13 per buyer...with a visitor to sales ratio of 1 in 6 on my site, an Affiliate only need send around 50 visitors per day to earn $100 (which is great pocket money!)

I think that offering less than (say) 20% will only attract the people who want to add a link to a website, then sit back and do nothing...these sorts of Affiliates are great, but I'd prefer to offer more and actually have people who will pro-actively seek out new customers...

I actually don't use osCommerce on this particular site (so therefore don't use the osC-Aff contrib) - but your point is 100% valid. To run your own network does take some extra work, but it also means that you are in charge of your own destiny...if at all possible I like to run my own schemes - even to the extent of writing my own Affiliate log-in and reporting system (which I did for the previous incarnation of my site)...

[giftmaster]

Thanks for bring this topic up. I am interested in using a affiliate service but had no clue. I look forward to more posting.
Raymond

[burt]

..

I just paid out a bunch of my affiliates. That's the only downside, having to pay out

Edited by burt, 31 March 2005, 11:57.

[airolg]

I actually have enough profit to share and have been thinking about doing this for some time. I'm not at the level of sales that I would be attractive to cj or linkshare so I'd have to go with an osC-aff program nor could I probably afford their fees (Their fees weren't posted the last time I looked, but I'm assuming they are not within my means.)

Is there anyone out there that is using the osC affiliate program and is getting results that they would share their site URL to give us newbies a look-see.

I'm not sure I want to sustain a 30% discount, but maybe the first 50 get that amount or put up a deadline???? I'd really like a few guinea pigs to work out the kinks and 30% would be an okay deal. If it were to become a well-oiled machine, I think I'd back off to 15-20% so I wouldn't have to raise prices.

Questions that come to mind are:

Do text links work or are banners or image links better?
Do you automatically accept all applications?
What information do you actually need from the applicant?
Has someone written a how-to for this?
Does someone a "rules" or "terms" they could share?

I'm just brainstorming here...I'd love to hear some stories of the successes and failures of running your own osc-affiliate program.

[matbennett]

Couple of notes from our experience

The percentage that you offer makes little difference, apart from as an attention grabber. What is more important is the earnings per click that affiliates achieve from your program. You can offer 95% commission, but if the customers affiliates refer don't buy they will drop you like a fresh turd.

This means that conversion rates, average sales prices etc all factor in. We do offer a hefty commission (tiered between 12% and 20% based on performance), but it is the overall performance of the program that makes a difference.

Some of the best affiliates around will be more than happy towork on 5% commission if the product and earnings are right.

Text / Banners
The best affiliates will have their own linking systems in place and just want to know the correct format for tracking links. Most of our sales come from the product feeds that we offer. Our rule is to offer as many link formats as possible.

Networks
If you are new to affiliate marketing I would really recommend at least talking to a network. The main benefit by far is that many affiliates will only use programs that run via a network. Some networks charge very low standing fees, and make on the override - so they are well worth talking to. There is a lot involved in running a succesful affiliate program that goes beyond being able to track sales so having an extra resource to hand it a good thing.


Hope that this helps a little.

Edited by The_Bear, 01 April 2005, 12:59.

[toyicebear]

Hi,Hi,


We have been using affiliate marking with good success for most of our clients, so yes it works......

But we have mostely done it together with our clients or they have taken care of it themselves......

The results vary, but always positive.


What we would love to have some feedback about is....have any of you used external affiliate companies?

And if so, who did you use and what were your results?

Sharesales, cj, tradedoubler, linkshare..osv....

Edited by toyicebear, 01 April 2005, 13:02.

[matbennett]

We use Affiliate Window (www.affiliatewindow.com).

Quite happy with the choice to use a network, although I must admit that I think that they could work a bit harder for their override. More than happy to answer specific questions via PM.

[Farrukh]

I would say, Affiliate Marketing is a MUST !!!

It has really helped my Business to grow

[spayce_girl]

I'm offering 30% to my affiliates once I get rolling. I've been reading up on this and many "super affiliates" or people making a lot of money through affiliate programs only want to work with companies that offer at least 30%. These guys employ advertising on your behalf so I think it's absolutely worth it. It's important to note that most affiliates will not be active but just getting a few super affiliates by offering a great program and good commission is what I'm after. I'd be interested to hear more ideas on how to attract some serious affiliates to a program...What are some of the techniques you guys have used?

[need_help.php]

Question: How do you pay out and when you do does it remove the balance?

burt, on Mar 31 2005, 11:56 AM, said:

..

I just paid out a bunch of my affiliates.  That's the only downside, having to pay out

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[burt]

need_help.php, on Apr 18 2005, 06:58 PM, said:

Question: How do you pay out and when you do does it remove the balance?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I press a button - payment goes to their Paypal Account. They can also elect to receive payment by Check/Cheque if they wish, but I don't advertise this

Once paid, there is a reporting history of payments made, and balance goes to zero.

[hiveuk]

I originally setup as an affiliate of many companies. Got a reasonable ROI from them. I am just at the point now where i am looking to either stay but incorporate deeplinking via a csv file to be supplied by the merchants or look for dropshippers so i can actually sell something!! I will keep this UK based for the time being.
Darren

[h2oguyofnh]

Just opening up my well water supplies shop and would consider paying 15% commissions for the traffic. Who would you recommend that I contact? PM me if you think it violates any forum rules.

[thelingeriestore]

I own 2 websites with OSC stores, and I am thinking of adding some affiliate links to one of them. I would be going for companies that sell products that compliment my own but are not direct competitors. I have looked on the net and found a few programs including Tradedoubler, Affiliate Window and Paid on Results (I'm in the UK). Does anyone know if I can register with all of them, or do I have to choose just one to work with?

[bobbins]

thelingeriestore, on May 19 2005, 10:47 AM, said:

I own 2 websites with OSC stores, and I am thinking of adding some affiliate links to one of them.  I would be going for companies that sell products that compliment my own but are not direct competitors.  I have looked on the net and found a few programs including Tradedoubler, Affiliate Window and Paid on Results (I'm in the UK).  Does anyone know if I can register with all of them, or do I have to choose just one to work with?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You can join as many as you like, and often have to get the range of clients.... signing up only take a couple of minutes and your up and running with the linking code.
I have an affiliates system on affililates future and find them very good as a merchant and affiliate.
For more infor on affiliates systems, including comparing them, you could try this forum http://www.a4uforum.co.uk it is the best I've seen for affiliates.

Good luck
Sean
http://www.toys4me.co.uk

[thelingeriestore]

bobbins, on May 19 2005, 12:49 PM, said:

You can join as many as you like, and often have to get the range of clients.... signing up only take a couple of minutes and your up and running with the linking code.
I have an affiliates system on affililates future and find them very good as a merchant and affiliate.
For more infor on affiliates systems, including comparing them, you could try this forum http://www.a4uforum.co.uk it is the best I've seen for affiliates.

Good luck
Sean
http://www.toys4me.co.uk

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thank you for the link Sean, I'll definately check that out. I had a quick look around the three I mentioned, I couldn't see anywhere that said you had to be with them exclusively, but I didn't want to sign up and then find out that I couldn't go to any other programs!

I'm quite looking forward to choosing some complimentary sites to link to from mine, I think it will be a good thing to do. I would like to consider running an affiliates program for my own site one day, but I can't afford to at the moment, as I already give my customers 5% off RRP and free shipping in the UK, plus discount vouchers, so there's not enough profit left at the moment for affiliates. We've only been open for about 6 months, so it's early days yet.

[FlyingKites]

This is a really interesting topic to which I have nothing to add but I hope some more people do.