Forum Moderators: skibum
This post is a spinoff from me reading:
[webmasterworld.com...]
I'm in the process of designing an affiliate program for my site, and I think there are a few Critical Success Factors to make the affiliate program attractive.
In devising my list, I was wondering if anyone has any additional input on what makes a GREAT affiliate program.
My goal in developing my affiliate program is to have the following features:
1. Residual Commissions
2. Payouts based on sales (not on clickthrus or impressions, etc.)
3. Very attractive payouts of 20-30%.... (If a sale is made, the affiliate would earn AT LEAST $20.00)
4. The affiliate's referrals are tied to their account for a 1 year period. That way if the referral decides to purchase within one year, the affiliate would get paid on it.
Are there any other high-level ideas worth incorporating to help make this a better, more attractive program? I'm still trying to figure out if I should offer residual commissions (the residuals would be on an annual basis)
Another suggestion for the wish list: a system to track the referrer for orders that come in by phone, mail or fax so that the affiliate who deserves the commission gets it.
* Make sure your site doesn't have banners etc. for other merchants that would distract traffic and send them off to other sites instead of staying focused on the product we sent them there to check out. If you want to promote other merchants, figure out a way to do it as part of your back-end followup or something.
* Do not deal with programs such as Morpheus, Gator, WhenU etc. that hijack commissions by means of parasitic link placement. That would be absolutely, totally unfair to your other affiliates.
1. Pay at least monthly and on time.
2. Do not prominently display an 800 number.
3. Answer all emails from affiliates personally.
4. Send out a newsletter to affiliates.
5. Update reports daily.
6. Do not change link codes without notifying affiliates.
7. If you sell products, provide links to individual products and categories of products.
I'm sure there are more, but this is what comes off the top of my head.
Your reports for your affiliates should include as much information as possible, not just how much their commission is going to be. This will help your affiliates better promote your products.
Affiliate Program Design [webmasterworld.com]
merchant tricks [webmasterworld.com] (what not to do)
Personally, I like realtime stats. Also, make sure you have no affiliate link "leaks."
Well, these kind of numbers look like you're going to try marketing a scam of some sort. It won't work. Affiliates that can sell won't touch it.
Hmm... we should add attributes like "realistic" and "sustainable" to the list of desireable qualities for the affiliate program. We want to know that the merchant will be around for a long time so our efforts to promote him/her will be valid for a long time.
Also if you check yahoo's what new in the biz and economy/shopping & services section and see which categories get a lot of new listings over the course of a couple of weeks, this should give you an idea of what's making $$ for affiliates.
There are plenty of affiliate programs where you can make this kind of $$ (as mentioned in a prior post) per sale and where good programs pay their top people a good 5 figure income per month.
If all the affiliates of these programs came out and announced this type of information, their market would be a lot more competitive and that's the reason why you don't hear much from successful affiliates :). If you attend the upcoming pub con or whatever it's going to be called, you might just hear about such programs.
"Well, these kind of numbers look like you're going to try marketing a scam of some sort. It won't work. Affiliates that can sell won't touch it. "
Keep in mind not all affiliate programs have to sell products....Affiliate programs can also sell services. Your comment is interesting because it seems as if you think the offer is too good to be true.... That's exactly what I'm hoping for....When I launch the program, I'll try to remember to post an update on our success.
