Paying affliates

A few qs on paying affiliates

[katiej]

Our company are working out the best way to start an affiliate program - and there are a few questions that I was hoping for advice on.

Firstly, if you are paying an affiliate 10% of fees that your members pay as their monthly fee, would that be before or after VAT on your sale?

Secondly, how does one pay out commission to affiliate (either via transfer or cheque) each month, without having to get them to invoice you? Affiliates want the convenience of seeing the money roll in without having to work out how much they earned and sending you an invoice... is there a standard way of doing this?

Sorry to be a dunce but your help is appreciated!

[Dante_Maure]

Secondly, how does one pay out commission to affiliate (either via transfer or cheque) each month, without having to get them to invoice you?

Every quality affiliate solution, whether third party hosted, script, or software has reporting features that will track your affiliate's earnings on whatever schedule you choose. (daily, monthly, quarterly, etc.)

Then, it's just up to you to cut and mail the checks on time. :)

More details can be found about starting an affiliate program here...

[webmasterworld.com...]

[JonnyWales]

Another question I have relating to paying affiliates is can I just use PayPay? We are a UK-based business and most of our potential affiliates are not going to be UK-based and so I'm hoping to set up a paypal account and pay everybody in US dollars. Is doing this going to put off some potential affiliates who for whatever reason do not want a PayPal account and if so should I still offer payment by check if required?

[Dante_Maure]

Offering PayPal is certainly worth doing. Some sites do offer it as their only option, but in the affiliate market this is seen as the mark of an amateur outfit.

Definitely offer payment by check as well.

[JonnyWales]

If paying by check to affiliates from different countries do I need to offer payment in their local currency? If so not sure how I'm going to do that, not even sure how to pay in US dollars as we are UK-based; but I'm sure most afiliates won't want paying via sterling checks. What do others do?

[Dante_Maure]

If you're in the UK, the only other currency you need to worry about is US dollars. Check with your bank to see what their available options are. If you're not happy with what they have to offer, any major bank with branches in both the US and UK will be able to accomodate your needs.

Now that you've taken the plunge in setting up your own affiliate program, you might want to check out the following books...

Successful Affiliate Marketing For Merchants
by Shawn Collins (contributing editor on aff. programs at Clickz)
He also has a number of free articles available here [affiliatemanager.net]

The Complete, Insider's Guide to Associate & Affiliate Programs
by Declan Dunn

Both Shawn and Declan are recognized authorities in this niche and present regularly at the major affiliate marketing conferences.