Calendar sales - Affiliate program

[Laker]

Hi -- I think a couple of my parked domains would do well with a redirect/url-forward to a site offering calendars (targeted to a specific niche).

Does anyone know of any calendar affiliate programs?

I did find calendar.com, but my thought was a 10-15% commission on a low ticket item was "too low". <-- maybe I'm too much of a newbie to know better ;-)

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

[LifeinAsia]

my thought was a 10-15% commission on a low ticket item was "too low".

Well, most low ticket items tend to have very thin profit margins. So it's doubtful you're going to find high commission percentages on those.

Amazon also has calendars, but you're apparently not going to be happy with their commissions.

[Laker]

Amazon also has calendars, but you're apparently not going to be happy with their commissions.

'ya know, I think I probably (still) have the bricks-and-mortar store markup mindset.

My only real e-commerce experience is with parking revenue numbers ... and some wildly high commissions I've seen from ClickBank (who as digital-only offerings, have no calendars ;-)

So, books, calendars and the like would have a 40%+ discount in the bricks-and-mortar world (in my experience)... I think I may need to adjust to the virtual-world commissions.

Thanks, btw, for the suggestion of Amazon ... I *still* only think of them as selling books ... until I *remember*!

[edited by: Laker at 11:08 pm (utc) on Aug. 23, 2007]

[CatLady]

All Posters has a really decent selection of calendars to promote - and they pay 30% :)

[Laker]

All Posters has a really decent selection of calendars to promote - and they pay 30% :)

Thanks CatLady !

[markwelch]

As an affiliate, I drove nearly $100,000 in calendar sales during the "2007 calendar season," mostly through Calendars.com, but I don't expect to participate significantly during the 2008 season.

As noted, there are three merchants with suitable affiliate programs to sell calendars: Amazon.com, Calendars.com, and AllPosters.com. (If anyone is aware of another viable competitor for my traffic, please let me know.)

Since Calendars.com sells its products at list price, it has the traditional retail margin available, so presumably they could pay more (but of course, consumers may be less likely to buy a calendar at list price if they know that Amazon sells calendars at a discount). Calendars.com also rotates a series of promotions (currently 15% off orders over $20, more often free shipping on orders over $20).

AllPosters also sells calendars, mostly at list price, with a 25% commission rate, BUT charges more for shipping than Calendars.com ($4.99 vs $3.99), and more important, the AllPosters site is much less "professional" than Calendars.com or Amazon, and offers a much smaller available inventory. A quick search at AllPosters turns up only 591 calendars for 2008 (Calendars.com lists about 5,000 in its datafeed, though many aren't yet in stock). And AllPosters has NO DESCRIPTIONS of the calendars, nor size info. In short, I think AllPosters would have the lowest conversion rate of these three merchants, and I did some testing last year which supports that theory (after brief testing, I excluded AllPosters from my calendar promotions).

Amazon.com pays the lowest commission rate (by far), and it has a large inventory selection (over 4,000 calendars for 2008). But Amazon sells calendars at a discount (both directly and through its Marketplace merchants) -- while lower prices plus plus "free shipping for orders over $25" plus Amazon's reputation are likely to deliver better conversion rates than the other merchants, the lower prices combined with a MUCH lower commission rate will mean lower earnings for affiliates.

Of course, it's always important to recognize that you can "ask for" a higher commission rate from ANY merchant. Sometimes you can get a higher rate just by asking (this is especially true for smaller programs with a "tiered" commission system), but other times you must either "prove yourself" by driving some sales at the lower rate, or explain your plans and make clear that you won't include the merchant at the lower rate.

Finally, there is another key factor to be aware of: for the past several years, Calendars.com has been using the Kowabunga/MyAP affiliate-technology platform, but because of Kowabunga's ongoing "implosion" or "death spiral," Calendars.com is in the middle of a transition to two other platforms (CJ and Performics). Unfortunately, affiliate can't get datafeeds through CJ without paying a fee ($250), and both Performics and CJ are incompetent and essentially hostile to affiliates. Based on my experiences with these companies, I simply won't do business with CJ or Performics (nor LinkShare), nor with Kowabunga after the Calendars.com program ends there.

The result, as noted above, is that I expect to ABANDON the calendar market entirely this season.

[jcoronella]

Great detail Mark, but I'd just add that for most, choosing not to do business with the top 3 affiliate networks, and top affiliate software would have a serious affect on revenue, and would probably have to spend more time over in the adsense forum.

>> and both Performics and CJ are incompetent and essentially hostile to affiliates

They have both been very good to me and many affiliates I know.

[jatar_k]

>> would probably have to spend more time over in the adsense forum.

hehe, too true

[Laker]

Thank you, Mark for the time, talent and energy you put into your response. It is exceedingly helpful.

and more important, the AllPosters site is much less "professional" than Calendars.com or Amazon

I was not impressed with the AllPosters site. As I recall, I couldn't find any info on shipping charges, even with the site search.

[markwelch]

Laker, you've certainly identified one of my personal "tests" for affiliate merchants: shipping info. As a consumer, if I can't find information about the COST and TIMING of shipping, I won't order from a site. Often, the only way to get shipping-cost information is to add an item to the shopping cart and enter name/address/etc. which is what I did to determine AllPosters' shipping charge.

Certainly, if the site asks for my credit card before showing me the TOTAL CHARGE (including shipping & sales tax), I will not submit my credit-card info. (To its credit, AllPosters didn't do this.)

Every merchant site should have a "shipping" link on every page, along with links to "About" "Contact" and "Privacy." If ANY of these is missing (or if any of these pages lacks meaningful information) then I wouldn't buy from the company as a consumer, and I won't work with the company as an affiliate.

As someone notes in this thread, I set some pretty high standards in my affiliate relationships, and there are many successful affiliates who work successfully with affiliate-technology providers that I exclude from my efforts. When I choose not to work with CJ or LS, I am really acting on the belief that long-term, I will make more money by working only with the most ethical companies; I am also reducing the risk of defaults or disputes, and seeking business relationships only with firms that will actually "work with me" when questions or problems do arise. I strongly believe that while I may have "left some money on the table," I've also substantially reduced both the risk and the stress level of my affiliate-role work.

[CatLady]

That's a great analysis of the big 3 for calendars, Mark - many thanks for sharing your research with us. FWIW, I feel the same way that you do about CJ and generally try to avoid signing on with any program that forces me to use CJ. To their credit, All Posters has been a satisfactory independent affiliate program to work with in my experience (although I don't sell calendars, but occasionally dabble with other goodies through AP from time to time).

[Beagle]

art.com has a decent selection (not as big as amazon's) and a good commission structure.

[Laker]

Mark, amen on reducing both the risk and the stress...

Beagle - thanks for the art.com suggestion. They also have the particular calendars that would work for this very niche site.

[markwelch]

FYI, art.com and AllPosters.com are now the exact same company. I'm not sure if their site inventory is completely synchronized, but I'd be surprised to find a substantial variation in their calendar inventories.

[Beagle]

They're kind of an interesting "couple" in that they cater to different audiences. So even though they work together on some things (such as their affiliate program, BTW), in some ways they're different. I hadn't looked specifically at calendars, so I just compared a couple of subject types and was surprised at the similarities. Who your audience is might be more important than the specific inventory when deciding what ads to use - at least for calendars.

[Edited because I first wrote the post before I looked at the two sites together.]

BTW, both sites have a "shipping calculator" table, but it's a lot easier to find at AllPosters.

[edited by: Beagle at 11:35 pm (utc) on Aug. 30, 2007]