Affiliate networks, anyone had any experience

[tim thompson]

Afternoon All,

I'm after some recommendations for a good affiliate network to use, I have been speaking to some of the people at affiliate future, but i could use a few word of mouth recommendations.

I'm approaching this from the persepective of a merchant, so if anyone else has been through this process i would appreciate any advice.

While i'm on the topic, are there any other ways of offering an affiliate scheme or reseller scheme without using the big affiliate networks, i'm expecting not, but someone may have a cracking idea :D

Many thanks

Tim
Sense Creative Ltd
08450 580 579

[StartUp]

I use 1shoppingcart. Its not the cheapest but I have my shopping cart, autoresponders, database and affiliates all together in one place and all linked up. Plus there is good reporting.

I know various people use different schemes and I must admit I can't remember all the names, I know someone using one based on php links I don't know who runs it though, they may have set up their own.

I guess it depends how big you want to go and how easy you want it to be. Mine is totally automated, I only get involved if I choose to.

Julia

[tim thompson]

Just had a quick look at the software on google, i've had a ststem set up on the site for taking orders using worldpay to process payments, it's more the leads that i'm looking to generate.

Thanks for the advice though.

cheers

Tim

[gary]

I use Paid On Results http://www.paidonresults.com and it's been pretty hassle-free. You may want to have a look at the Affiliates forum as http://www.a4uforum.co.uk for some recommendations.

Gary

[SillyJokes]

Ditto what Gary said.

Networks vary a lot in charges and some are a LOT of money. You can create your own independent scheme but see the A4UForum for discussions on the pros and cons of these.

One thing you need to be aware of is so called adware and do not deal with networks who allow adware affiliates - you will end up paying for sales which you would have made anyway and your site will be promoted in ways which you may not agree with (ie software which installs itself when your kid downloads games and hijacks your browser and is impossible to be rid of)

Also, if you plan to promote your business via Pangora, Kelkoo et al make sure the network you choose is used by them as Pangora for instance does not deal with independents.

[ARTzWeb.net]

Depends on your budget really. The most reknowned affiliate network in the world is with no doubt commission junction (http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-681636-1470371). However a significant investment is needed on your end. There are maybe a few others which are so significant.

Commission junction also offers its services for UK businesses and has a huge webmaster base. In terms of ROI and also taking account the boost you will get in the search engines, commission junction is one of the best results driven affiliate network.


There are far more benefits to use cj over any other solution, even if it is UK based. Reporting tools, manually accepting webmasters, affiliate program marketing and much more are the good tools provided by them.

[SillyJokes]

ARTz you say it will give you a search engine boost, but I do not think this is necessarily the case.

Can you show how this is possible - remembering that the links from the affiliate websites have to go via the network itself and are not direct links.

[gary]

Commision Junction may be ok, but as far as most UK affiliates goes they don't seem to be the network of choice. Also, as the post by ARTzWeb.net above contains an affiliate link to Commission Junction, the evangalising of that network can hardly be taken as an independent view...

Tim, you say you're approaching this from the perspective of a merchant - I would recommend looking at it from the perspective of the affiliate, as you will see on the A4UForum I mentioned before. There are a lot of gripes about some networks and merchant practices and if you make sure you avoid those you'll get more affiliates and more sales. Don't just go for the cheapest option, you may well regret it and have to change, which is a real hassle and you may lose a lot of affiliates like that as well.

Gary

[ARTzWeb.net]

SillyJokes, if you do a search on www.searchenginewatch.com I am sure you will see this written over and over again. As you already know, search engine robots are jumping from one link to another. Even affiliate links are being followed.

Many sites have links to external websites wrapped up with a url on their server which is the same as an affiliate link if you think about it. Well in my opinion this will provide you with more hits from the search engine bots.

After generating a network of affiliates, it will start showing off.

Personally I have been marketing websites on the Internet for over 5 years now. I have experience on managing the affiliate program of some of my customers.

[ARTzWeb.net]

Commision Junction may be ok, but as far as most UK affiliates goes they don't seem to be the network of choice. Also, as the post by ARTzWeb.net above contains an affiliate link to Commission Junction, the evangalising of that network can hardly be taken as an independent view...

I would strongly disagree with what you say about CJ. Tell me of a single affiliate network that provides the tools that CJ provides. I think the networks you are talking about in your post do not require something like a couple of grand just to get you started. This is their major difference. You need to make a significant investment.

Also the webmasters who have joined CJ outnumber by far any other network. I am an affiliate with AffiliateWindow which is UK based. The interface/features are much less than CJ. You could check it out by visiting www.cj.com if you don't want to follow my affiliate link.

Don't think that I did something I wasn't supposed to when I included my affiliate link. My main business is web hosting and not affiliate marketing :wink:

Regards,
Pavlos

[SillyJokes]

If you check the back links on a site with affiliates you will not see the affiliate sites therefore having an affiliate program will not in itself contribution to your link popularity.

Also, you have not explained why you put an affiliate link in your post. In my opinion this action compromises your post.

There are loads of very good UK based networks

http://www.paidonresults.com
http://www.affiliatewindow.co.uk

are just two and I can think of about 4 more.

True, commission junction have a good stance on adware and do not allow it which is a plus, but I'm not going to argue the pros and cons or each network. The a4uforum has loads on this.

Suffice it to say that there are plenty of choice in networks and CJ is one of many.