Is this product suitable for an affiliate program?

Niche market product

[wheel]

My supposedly base product is webhosting and a CMS for a niche professional market (say realestate agents - it's not, but that type of thing).

As all my customers wanted 'to be in the search engines', I ended up doing affiliate marketing for many of them. It's going well enough that I'm probably making more money doing that than by base product.

Now I'd kind of like to get back to basics and get a bigger push on my niche websites. The niche is OK sized, but it is definitely a niche - of no interest to the general public. I'd be thinking about $50 payout on a $375 sale (of which $175 is my hardcost). The entire product is relatively unique.

Is this suitable for an affiliate program? Perhaps more specifically, as an affiliate marketer is this the type of thing you'd investigate? Is it worth me spending thousands to get set up with CJ or something?

[Michael Anthony]

I think you're going to have to be more specific to get any meaningful answers here, which is a shame because your post would probably then contravene the TOS and get edited or deleted!

[wheel]

It's quite simply a template based website+hosting, specific to a niche professional industry. I know the product is saleable, and I believe I can pay decently; what I'm really not sure about is if affiliates will take on a product where they have to target a narrow group of professionals.

[chrisgarrett]

You do not need to use CJ - try it with simple homebrew scripts and a small group of affiliates first to iron the bugs out, work out commissions first. There are plenty of affiliates on this forum and similar without needing to use CJ to attract them right away :)

[Edwin]

The payout sounds far too low for a webhosting product. Many low-cost hosting services are paying commissions in the $60-90 range on CJ and other affiliate networks, and their package cost is much less than the price point you're talking about.

Of course, if the niche is filled with companies wanting to get online and your service offering includes clear, easy-to-explain "no brainer" benefits that generic template/hosting services simply can't match, that might be a different story, but based purely on the limited info you've been able to provide it doesn't sound too good.