What Affiliate Tracking Software Should I Use?

Looking for recommendations

[benives]

I want to run an in-house affiliate program. I want an affiliate script I can install on my site...not a hosted solution.

Any suggestions?

I have found plenty of vendors through search, but I have never heard of any of them. Open source is always nice but I do have a budget for the right solution. I prefer C#, but PHP also ok. Only interested in MSSQL or MySQL solutions, and it must run in a hosted environment on IIS 7.

If not a direct recommendation, I would appreciate a list of must-have features I should be looking for.

[klempit]

We use Post Affiliate Pro - it is well documented and supported. You can see its front end on our affiliates link at the bottom of the home page (click through as if you wanted to be our affiliate). I can't stress how good the support is for a low-cost product; PAP4 can be purchased for a range of $200-400 or $20 a month or so for hosted. Idevaffiliate seems very similar and has a lot of on-site resource to help with evaluation. Hope this helps. Ken

[edited by: eljefe3 at 12:56 am (utc) on Feb 26, 2010]

[benives]

I looked at iDevAffiliate and it is a no-go because they require ionCube, which is not supported on my hosting account.

I did review Post Affiliate Pro and it looks pretty good. They only required ionCube for their Rebrand PDF feature, which I don't need. I'll take another look at it.

[eljefe3]

Any particular reason why you can't switch hosts benives?

[benives]

I have been with this provider a long time and am happy with them. It would be a lot of work to move all my sites .

I would consider moving for the right reason, but the limitations of an affiliate software vendor would not justify the move. This is the first time I have ran into a script that would not run on my host.

[klempit]

Didn't know about idev and ioncube. we needed it for other encrypted s/w so not in our decision matrix. PAP really has been a solid platform and I would recommend it.

[benives]

I bought PAP after chatting with their support. Setting it up now. Thanks for the advice.

[Dinkar]

As an Affiliate I don't like Post Affiliate Pro. Too slow loading and hate to see how merchant use their directlink feature (I don't have any trust in this feature).

[Dinkar]

I have been with this provider a long time and am happy with them. It would be a lot of work to move all my sites .

No need to move the site. Just buy new hosting and host your affiliate software there. You can use yourdomain.biz or some other extension for your affiliate program.

[benives]

I have PAP setup and working. I am not going to use directlink for now, but I may reconsider later.

Anybody else have an opinion on directlink? I can imagine affiliates don't trust it.

[chaimarket]

I've received your request for additional tracking ids for your Associates account, but before I can provide you with new tracking IDs, I'll need some more information from you. Please write back to give us a detailed description of how you'll be using these additional IDs. Keep in mind that we can create up to 1,500 tracking IDs for an Associates account. Once we receive this information, we'll be happy to review your request. Please note that we do not permit Associates to send users to the Amazon Site through paid search advertisements, and that if you are requesting additional tracking IDs for this purpose, your request will be declined. Also, if you would like any special name or numbering convention used for your tracking IDs, please let us know, otherwise we can also create your tracking IDs using your Associates ID followed by the number 1 – x. You may contact us back by visiting the following link to ensure that we receive your message: