What questions are expected from Affiliates

What to do and what not

[jimbo_mac]

I have a website in a niche area which is receiving decent traffic for a few months now (Thanks to everyone here), I have decided to give the affiliate game a go and see what the outcome will be.

I am in the process of approaching a few potential clients (affiliates)

The questions I have which I am sure a lot of people here already know:

- What sort of questions should I expect from the affiliates.
- What sort of information would they expect from me (eg: demographics, number of visitors)

I am new to this area so please, any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated.

[DrCool]

1. What is the payout?
2. How long are the cookies set for?
3. What is the standard conversion rate for other affiliates?
4. Is there any payout escalators?
5. What can you offer that others can't?
6. Can I see orders and commissions in real time?
7. When are payments made?
8. Can I link directly to specific products?

These are a few questions I have asked in the past. I am sure you will get more from others here.

[edited by: DrCool at 9:22 pm (utc) on Sep. 4, 2002]

[vibgyor79]

Some of the questions which your affiliates might ask -

1) What is the conversion rate of your website/affiliate program? (Number of sales per 100 visitors)
2) What is the cookie duration?
3) Do you offer a link directly to the credit card signup page? (This will allow your affiliates to use their creativity and create their own sales page)
4) When are checks sent? What is the minimum payout?

um.. that's all I guess.

Ashwin

[vibgyor79]

Oops.. looks like DrCool beat me to it.

[jimbo_mac]

DrCool,vibgyor79 - thanks,some good ones there.

what i am trying to figure out is that I will approach "car dealers"as I am listing their "car dealerships" on my website.

I am interested in advertising their special offers through my site for a % of sales through my site.

any more advice???

[Travel]

Great questions so far
also
-Can your branding be supressed?
-Can you pay by direct deposit?
-Open to which countries?
-How often are stats updated?
-What is minimum payout?

[vibgyor79]

Mac,

I see that you intend to be really proactive in promoting your business. I have an idea -

1) First, make sure your website gets atleast 300 unique visitors per day. This can be done using pay per click search engines. Cost - Around $25 per day. If you are already getting 300+ visitors/day, great!

2) Sign up for free website stats service like OneStat.com. This gives website visitors info in a graphical format.

3) Reserve some prominent space (one at the top and the other at the right hand side, for example) for dealership ads. The ads should give an impression that it is content (text only, no banners)

4) Contact the dealers regarding advertising opportunities on your website. For example, a Toyota dealer maybe offering free one year insurance. Offer to post an advertisement at the top of each page for, say, $500 per month. (I repeat: It should sound like content. No banners. You can probably give a title to it like "Special Offer" or something like that)

You can offer less prominent ad space at lower prices. You can show OneStat graphs to show that your website does get good hits. If a website stats service offers state-wise reports, then you should definitely sign up for it (the car dealers would be really interested). This is more profitable and less complicated than the percentage sales idea.

What do you think?

Ashwin

[jimbo_mac]

Ashwin,

Thank you for your reply, I have tried approaching a possible client a few weeks ago and encountered a hostile response.

That is why I started this thread to get alternative ideas and questions I can expect to be asked by prospective clients, from fellow webmasters.

Your idea sounds good - will give it a shot and see how it goes.

thanks again.

jimbo_mac