Advice needed: affiliate for Beijing Olympic package

Olympic Affiliate, China travel affiliate

[avrilhn]

Thanks very much for all reviews and suggestions.

I am new and in charge of the affiliate program for a top Chinese hotel booking and travel planning website, the website has been in the market for 8 years and caters for international travelers to China.

The commission is 5% per sale, for Olympic Packages, 5%-8% per sale is guaranteed.

I think our program should be attractive, however, during one month, there are only 4 websites shown interest in. I got a little disappointed and really hope some one can offer me advice:
1. Is there something wrong with the affiliate program?
2. How to make it widely reached by affiliate seekers?

Sincerely Thanks.

[edited by: eljefe3 at 1:25 am (utc) on June 20, 2007]
[edit reason] specifics edited out [/edit]

[vincevincevince]

As someone always looking for affiliate programmes to try, I am put off your programme particularly because it is only for a specific event. I would end up putting in a vast amount of work and after the olympics are over it would all be useless. An affiliate site is a serious investment in terms of the amount of work required to promote something in more than a half-hearted way.

I don't know your specific programme, but more generally, the number one thing which puts me off a given programme is poor user experience when they reach the program's website. If I don't think that it is polished and likely to convert, then there's no point in me pushing traffic at it.

Finally, commission can counterbalance other programme problems, but the tiny percentages you are offering are not going to make up for anything at all. You need to be offering double digit commissions at an absolute minimum, I would suggest 20-40% range, given how particularly niche and time limited your products are.

[IanTurner]

Commissions tend to be small in the travel industry as margins on some items are vary small due to the price competitive nature of the market place.

[idolw]

8% for a start is not bad at all.

[vincevincevince]

Perhaps I should note why I suggest the commissions could be increased, to avoid causing confusion with other travel affilates. Although commissions are lower in the travel sector, in general, these are speciality packages which always attract much higher profit margins. Something like the olympics opens the door to massive profit margins due only to locking in rates with suppliers.

[avrilhn]

It is so kind of you to give me such suggestions, however, I am afraid I have more to ask:

1. The profit for travel website is really small, in order to maintain competitive price, we get only 10%-15% mark up. So please take this into consideration, how will I improve the commission rate for our affiliate partners? As I know, Affiliate programs offered by expedia or travelocity, the commission will only be 3% per sale.

2. For Olympic Holiday packages, it is only part of our affiliate program, i use it as "selling point" to affiliate websites because in the market, there has no such products as ours can guarantee accommodation as well as event tickets, however, it seems that it is over emphasized that website owners won't pay attention to the long term products such as China hotels and China tours but only the Olympic Packages.

How will I deal with such situation, I mean highlight our advantages but never overdo that?

3. How can i make my affiliate program known to those who are interested, we get the affiliate program page only a few weeks ago, so it has no PR though our website seems very good for Google search.

Sorry for any inconvenience..

[eljefe3]

>>3. How can i make my affiliate program known to those who are interested, we get the affiliate program page only a few weeks ago, so it has no PR though our website seems very good for Google search.

Why not just contact those sites which right now rank for anything related to your business? It will take time and you will get rejected, but you will also get some quality sites which can deliver you sales and traffic.

[gmac17]

I would never buy an olympic travel package online - too risky.

(that is the attitude of consumers you will be dealing with)