new advertiser to CJ- need suggestions

[goldjake]

We are putting up a new site on tuesday with a lot more features. Its a small company connected to one of the largest manufacturer of [widgets] in the united states. We sell to everyone through retail. We have a good range of prices and nobody seems to be selling [some of our products]. THe new website will have a coupon maker and specials. We are also launching cj the same day. Our starting commission will be 13% but we can probably go all the way up to 17 to 20% and our Gross Profit would not be hurt too much. Any suggestions would be great. We sell many millions of dollars retail so we have the money to invest in CJ. We have great ads and i am here 24/7 to work with people. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you

[edited by: jcoronella at 2:10 am (utc) on July 8, 2006]
[edit reason] specifics / url removed. Thanks [/edit]

[gamiziuk]

You might want to visit #*$! dot com.

[edited by: eljefe3 at 4:40 am (utc) on July 8, 2006]

[jimbeetle]

Just to touch on one point:

We have great ads

That's so 1997 ;-)

I have to assume that since "great ads" is the only thing you mentioned, it's the only the you have.

If you want to run a successful affiliate program you have to decide right off the bat if affiliates are just going to be plopping banners and buttons all over their pages -- advertising your company -- or if they are going to be actively pre-selling your product and driving some fairly qualified traffic to the site.

What options do you have for affiliate integration? What kind of linking? Can affiliates pick and choose specific products -- the ones they are best able to promote -- and link directly to those pages?

Do you have a feed? Do you have a private label option? Can affiliates link their own cart into your site?

Sorry to be so critical but you really haven't trumpeted anything that a serious affiliate would be interested in. Great ads alone don't cut it in today's affilite market. A succesful affiliate sponsor gives affiliates the tools they need to be successful.

<added>Sorry, I missed the "coupon makers". Yeah, maybe for a freebie site, not for serious affiliates.</added>

[goldjake]

no thank you thats great- we have product feed, we have a whole range of products. We have about 100 skus. I am using whatever commission junction will allow me to use. I am not sure- this is the first affiliate program that i am working on. We have a very high commission for our products and we are the manufacturer so it will be easy to get people the best price. let me know what else i should integrate with commission junction

[edited by: eljefe3 at 4:01 am (utc) on July 9, 2006]

[skibum]

CJ just announced their switch to JavaScript links which seems to have a lot of affiliates up in arms and looking for non-CJ merchants to work with or merchants that offer programs on a second network in addition to CJ. That switch is supposed to happen in 07 sometime. We'll see how that goes.

They've already made it much more difficult to bulk generate the type of links that have worked so well for so long and are pretty much standard in the industry. If you see slow adoption of your program among a broad base of affiliates that could be why.

Aside from that. Payouts are important as is the site conversion. I'd suggest you have at least 2 different 468*60 banners and some other ones. Those are mostly for decoration on affiliate sites, it is likely to be the text links that affiliates tailor to their sites that really drive sales.

Make it possible to create an affiliate link to your site in as many different ways as possible - different products, different sort orders, different search criteria, etc. Currently CJ support this for merchants who enable the capability and it is often used in affiliate sites as well as for specific links for PPC search campaigns. Again, it's not clear how the planned changes at CJ will affect this stuff, especially when it comes to paid sarch if you choose to permit that in your affiliate program.

Personally, I think CJ has been a great network to work with for quite sometime but going forward the future is unclear given their latest initiative to switch to all JavaScript links - especially since it appears to have been a surprise to both affiliates and merchants in their network.

Welcome to the wild and cazy world of affiliate marketing. :)

[edited by: skibum at 6:15 am (utc) on July 10, 2006]

[MarkWolk]

We sell many millions of dollars retail so we have the money to invest in CJ.

In that case, my advice is: stay away from CJ and start your own program. CJ are dropping [webmasterworld.com] affiliates without warning and reason; they are not a serious company in my experience.

[Anish]

"start your own program"
well MarkWolk, thats a good idea but you need to note that starting your own programme is not that easy. Finding webamasters interested in your affiliate program, pitching them, setting up an affiliate program either by buying a software or self built software, providing the publishers the requisite tools for promotion, Payouts and the list is never ending.
For a company to run its own affiliate program is not that easy. Any thoughts?

[SAHover]

For an affordable program, very attractive to affiliates, especially now with CJs insanity, you might look into Shareasale.

A great way for smaller companies to test the water.