how soon to go affiliate

[jules]

Hi,

I have a small site just a week old, it hinges on selling one family of products,
however to sign up to affiliate scheme I need the 2 or 3 companies supplying it online to view and approve website. There is nothing controversial about site but it only has 4 blog posts so is thin on content but you can see potential already. It is also ranking quite well on google and getting some natural traffic.

Should I wait until it has lots of content and more users before attempting to sign up to affiliate scheme for fear of the key players rejecting it and snookering the whole idea from outset - or in general do they look for potential and would rather just get more affiliates asap as long as site isn't clearly unsuitable.

j

[fairestcape]

There is a brilliant affiliate software program available called JROX JAM, and though it is quite detailed to set it up to work with your website, it gives you FULL control over your affiliate project.

Once set up, it offers every facility (and more) offered by 3rd party affiliate organisations (eg: Affiliatewindow, etc)

We use it very effectively on several of our e-commerce sites, which run on zencart.

[serendipitybusiness]

Personally I would contact them before hand to explain your situation. It is worth a try and you may get a better response. I have been dismissed out of hand for affiliate projects on the other side out of hand recently. However after emailing them to ask why and explaining that the site is about to launch and I will be contacting over 7000 of my existing customers regarding the new site so their decision in this case doesn't seem to make good business sence as they will be loosing a lot of potential revenue in acting this way, they have quickly turned around their decision. If you can show them a way that the are loosing money by not accepting you it is only the most stupid of companies that won't make an exception and lets face it you don't want to partner with a stupid company anyway.

Thanks for the affiliate system pointer I will look into that.

[serendipitybusiness]

A system I have been looking into is

http://www.qualityunit.com/postaffiliatepro/post-affiliate-pro-software-demo

Has anybody used this?

[Subbynet]

Hi,

Many Affiliates won't choose to promote programs run in-house, because of the chances of no payment, late payment and the fact in general the Big Affiliate Networks normally provide a better service.

(If you have a minimum payout, say £100, or even £20, its easier to make the payout min if you're promoting more programs from a one network.)

Also, if you go the in-house route, its harder to find affiliates as you'll have to do all the promoting, but if you use a Network, they can list you and their entire database of Affiliates will be able sign-up.

You should perhaps look at one of the smaller networks to start off, as the charges are lower and chances of acceptance higher. I personally would go the affiliate route straight away.

A good site for affiliate information is http://www.affiliates4u.com which I highly recommend.

[fairestcape]

A system I have been looking into is

http://www.qualityunit.com/postaffiliatepro/post-affiliate-pro-software-demo

Has anybody used this?

As mentioned earlier, I use JROX JAM, which I believe is absolutely great.

But I have heard very good reports about PostAffiliatePro.

[t1000]

i used to use ROeye last year, not that i want to diss them in anyway but it was an expensive shambles of an experience, since which we have never ventured down the affiliate route again. however i am now keen to go back into the mix knowing more about it, does anyone have a good or bad experience with zanox?