ServiceMagic?

Zero commission "sales"

[Teshka]

Is anyone here an affiliate for ServiceMagic through LinkShare? I signed up with them a couple days ago, have sent 100 some clicks and had 2 people fill out the little contractor forms which count as a sale (or lead, I guess). I earned squat from them. After a closer look, it seems that ServiceMagic only pays for some of its leads, depending on the type of service the visitor requests. This seems... messed up. They're basically getting free advertising. It doesn't matter what link you put on your site apparently; it just depends on what the user eventually fills out a request for.

Does anyone else promote them? Do you make enough off the paying leads to justify these zero commission ones? I'll probably let it run for a month or so and reevaluate because it does tie in well with my site, but... like I said, it seems messed up.

Thoughts?

[BriGuy20]

Teshka:

I'd say dump them. If they don't want to give their affiliates money for traffic, then they should wither away and die or just get stop adding affiliates altogether. There's no reason why you should waste space on an ad that doesn't make you money.

[noustie]

I don't use their affiliate program, but I do know quite a bit about it (how should become obvious). They do provide a couple of options to increase the conversions - for bigger sites or more promising affiliates, this includes adding the consumer request form to your site. That can really increase conversions. Some affiliates send over 5000 requests per month. You do the math - that can mean a lot of money. The leads they don't pay for are generally very small and rare anyways - things like building a yurt. The reason is that there are no contractors paying for those leads, and if there are the leads cost almost nothing, so there is no money left to pass on to affiliates. It rarely matters. Focus on promoting the high paying leads and you can do well. Oh - just a tip - if you are only doing a small banner or something similar on your site, it rarely works at all. Few people click and the ones who do don't expect a form to fill out when they do. Make sure people know what they are clicking on, and connect them to the appropriate page on the ServiceMagic site and you should be able to convert between 1 in 10 and 1 in 20. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer. If you're really unhappy, you might look into NeedContractor.com. They pay out pretty well, and have a nice little form you can integrate into your site.

[iblaine]

Yet another reason why I chose to avoid Service Magic whenever possible. Many better alternatives exist with more attractive payouts. PM if you need help finding one. Also - 100 clicks isn't much of a test for any advertiser. Let the traffic run for a few weeks or increase your traffic and generate a more accurate test...or just find a new advertiser.