Forum Moderators: skibum
Just my observations, these are some suggested criteria for evaluating schemes
Do the scheme pay its dues reliably / regularly?
Self explanatory really.
Does it offer good service to affiliates?
Do they care about their affiliates?
Does it offer good linking customisation?
Schemes seem to range from just a link to a site to links to individual products. Some offer look and feel of affiliates site, others xml etc
Can header/page layouts be easily modified?
Some schemes offer affiliates the ability to easily modify page look and feel with customised links graphics etc using the control panel.
Does the company offering the scheme essentially sell the same producs at the same price as their affiliates?
People shop around and see URL's so many will know they are linked to an affiliate page. If the company offers the producs at a discount (eg special offers/loyalty scheme etc) to the price offered by their affiliate then there could be erosiion of sales for the affiliates.
Do they provide good stats?
Fundamental but surprsing how many just provide 'click throughs' whilst others give comprehnesive reports showing page where refferal came from, nationality conversion rate etc etc.
Will they treat reffered customers as 'yours' for a period of time, even if they book through the main website.? Ie the cookie thing, very difficult to monitor.
Do they tell their affiliates who has purchased a product?
Some schemes advise names, emails etc and provide newletters to their affiliates for follow ups. Others provide nothing.
Do they offer affiliates ability to reduce commision to reduce their selling prices? ie if you take 1% less the customer pays 1% less.
Must be lots more than this though.
Just my thoughts but if anyone knows of a good review site please let me know!
Oliver
Delete your URL or the mods will do it for you. Jesus. At least try some subtlety next time. You mind as well have "I'm here to spam your board with my affiliate links" and get it over with. Sheesh.
Welcome to WebmasterWorld ;)
Your list of questions is probably where we all have started out, and what we all have tried to find info on.
From experience, I can tell you that such a site does not exist. Why not? Because the info is too valuable and hard won, for anyone to hand it out.
I am afraid that the only way to get it is, in MHO, in the hard school of life.
In other words, do your research on the programs that interest you. The do your own test by using several of them and seeing what gives you the best return on your time invested.
You can sometimes pick up stuff here at WebmasterWorld, but its quite rare - for example there was a series of posts about one program at Hotel Club, where it transpired that they signed you customers up as members and you did not get any further benefits from referals. You can usually glean info like this by searching for "affiliate scheme" plus "problems", or similar on G.
Things like modifying header and footers and the tech support only come with trial. They all claim to offer support, but very few do. In fact you are lucky to get a reply of any sort out of most affiliate programs.
And finally beware the posts that say something like "I know the affiliate manager at *****, and they are really first class", which tend to be written by the same affiliate manager
Not particularly helpful, but realistic, advice!
But maybe there should be a website for NEGATIVE reviews of affiliates :)... I doubt any such site would be affiliate of affiliates :) I think that would be useful? would anyone here support such a site by posting their gripes with affiliates they have worked with?
(jotting down idea to work on later)
associateprograms.com is good; but the best source of the lot is forums such as this one.
I would value a really objective review site/forum but a purely negative one is probaly inviting people (affiliate mangers etc) to snipe at each others programmes
I don't think this would be the case. Affiliate managers probably have more things to do than to scour the net in order to snipe at other merchant's programs.
OTOH, I'm wondering if any affiliates would purposefully snipe at programs they like in order to discourage people from joining in. It's debatable if anyone would go this route either.
But I think we may be overstating any such nefarious uses of such a feedback site. I mean, trolls abound in any sites, including webmasterworld, but there's no such outcry over a handful of posts here and there.
Just my opinion.
