Your thoughts on our affiliate program

[webit]

Everyone.

We’re just planning our affiliate program for theShoppersBible.com (integrating iDevDirect http://www.idevdirect.com ) at the moment and I’d be interested in your thoughts.

In a nutshell I was going to offer a 2 year cookie giving the referrer 20% of the spend over that period. A possible 2nd tier if they generate sufficient business to say 30%.

We also have the option so that if one of those that are referrer themselves becomes an affiliate the original referrer can take a percentage of their sale (say 10%).

We are going to offer this so that referrers can have a choice of box advert, banner, text advert etc and I see it also appealing to the following distribution channels:

- Those who have their own sites
- Those who send out mail shots to their clients
- Magazines publishers (printed and eMagazines)
- Forum owners
- People who run networking groups

My guess at this stage is that an average spend by a company will be in the region of £40 to £50 pa.

Also, I’m looking at the feasibility of offering those who sign up through an affiliate a discount of 10% on all spend for the first year as a further incentive.

I’d be very interested in your thoughts on this and if this is a program that you’d be interested in participating in.

Thanks
DC

[webit]

Zzzz...

[Jayne]

I still don't get how this affiliate thing works?


Right... Say you put an ad on my site and people clicked on it, to your site and bought something from you, i'd get paid for it and visa verse. Is that right?

Jayne :D

[coxadmin]

Hi Jayne

My understanding is that each affiliate has a unique code that appears in the link on the ad on their site. If a client clicks the link and then buys the product, the affiliate gets their commission in whatever form has been agreed.

[SillyJokes]

I don't understand how you are going to monetise this site.

With my usual degree of respect it looks like another affiliate commission based shopping directory albeit one that you have made a bit of an effort on. I see about 6 of these a week join my affiliate program and ony a very few indeed make any commission.

I just don't see it giving the average surfer any benefits over somewhere like
comparestoreprices, kelkoo, pricerunner, in fact it doesn't even offer a price comparison.

As such I think you will find it hard to recruit affiliates outside of the generous members of this forum.

[webit]

I still don't get how this affiliate thing works?


Right... Say you put an ad on my site and people clicked on it, to your site and bought something from you, i'd get paid for it and visa verse. Is that right?

Jayne :D

Exactly right. You have an advert or a text link on your site. If some one visits our site through that link and spends some cash signing up, you get 20% of the spend!

The link looks just like any other link, just like the ones you see on this site for example.

You have your own area where you can see how much money you have (and you get an email when you have money waiting) and it pays either through Paypal or by Cheque each month.

I don't understand how you are going to monetise this site.

With my usual degree of respect it looks like another affiliate commission based shopping directory albeit one that you have made a bit of an effort on. I see about 6 of these a week join my affiliate program and ony a very few indeed make any commission.

I just don't see it giving the average surfer any benefits over somewhere like
comparestoreprices, kelkoo, pricerunner, in fact it doesn't even offer a price comparison.

As such I think you will find it hard to recruit affiliates outside of the generous members of this forum.

I’m glad you asked. I hate shopping sites that when you go to them are just a front for reams of affiliate links. I never use them and this certainly is not one of them. I think most smaller traders find them complicated and hard to understand (and don’t get me started of trying to explaine PPC to your average trader!)

This is not an affiliate site. We make no profit when we send a user to your product. Our profit is from the item listing and advertising. All the other shopping sites we viewed were based on the affiliate model.

The strength of theShoppersBible is that the content comes from real shopkeepers in real towns. If for example I was visiting Whittlebury I could just find the real shops in that area or search by postcode NN12… This is focused on shops and people selling rather those larger product shifters. Also the ability to find out what shops are in my local area, what the’re selling and when they open!

The benefit to the shopper is that they get to see shops they can visit as well as buy from online.

Sorry the explanation is a bit rushed.

DC

[SillyJokes]

OK, I can see this is a good idea, but don't you already get all that 'shops in this postcode' with Yell.co.uk or Thomspon Local?

In any case I don't want the general public coming here for products, I want them to order online. So maybe your directory is not for me.

I am not prepared to pay for directory inclusion and prefer to use my affiliate program to pay any directories I am in. In this way I don't pay for a site that fails and if the directory takes off then the owner gets more money than they would have asked for. They get paid on results.

Besides I have 3000 products and couldn't afford to advertise each one on your site.

I am still not seeing a compelling reason for people to shop through your site, but I've had my say now. You are up against cashback sites who do work the affiliate angle and share any commission earned with the shopper, greasypalm being the first one that springs to mind.

If I just want to chat about shops I'd go to DooYoo and Ciaou

[webit]

OK, I can see this is a good idea, but don't you already get all that 'shops in this postcode' with Yell.co.uk or Thomspon Local?

True but they don’t give you the shop or a list of items it’s selling, just an advert, map etc.

In any case I don't want the general public coming here for products, I want them to order online. So maybe your directory is not for me.

What we go is provide a buy it now link that takes the public to a page on your shopping cart so yes, if they like it they can buy it.


I am not prepared to pay for directory inclusion and prefer to use my affiliate program to pay any directories I am in. In this way I don't pay for a site that fails and if the directory takes off then the owner gets more money than they would have asked for. They get paid on results.

Besides I have 3000 products and couldn't afford to advertise each one on your site.

Agreed – I have been working some bulk listing options which work well but in general it’s not for that purpose (that function is more than catered for in the marketplace (as well as requiring a degree of technical skill by the vendor in many cases)

DC