Affiliate management systems

[movietub]

I have a hosted cart/shop and want to sell via affiliates.

I had a look at webgains, however they appear to be very expensive. £500 to setup the account!? Doesn't exactly suggest they are confident I will be a long term customer if they want to make a quick killing just to sign me up! Originally they wanted £900 which is crazy.

Who do other people use? There must be some affiliate network programs out there that are easy to add into your site and use.

We have a high conversion rate so I would assume that affiliates would be keen to sell our products.

Not just about extra sales either. I though affiliate marketting would increase our brand exposure also.

 

[Nickdavis87]

I thought exactly the same when i looke "Hooow much!?"

 

[TechFox]

I recommend http://jam.jrox.com/

 

[Astaroth]

Most are easy to set up subject to how integrated into systems it needs to be, if they are guaranteed etc (ie commission isnt clawed back if sale is reversed)

There are almost always high setup costs and significant management fees and that is on top of the significant proportion of the pay away that they keep. Depending on the volumes it is certainly possible to reduce or remove them but that was when I was dealing with significant insurance companies

 

[cycloneuk]

I'm with Webgains and they are excellent, some of the other companies like AffiliateWindow charge around 2k setup. If you install your own affiliate software then you will really struggle to get any decent affiliates sign up, they prefer the security of knowing that the stats are not being fiddled and they will be paid ontime.

Webgains and other affiliate companies like AffiliateFuture already have a large database of affiliates who are waiting to promote your products. Running an affiliate program is still no easy task and can take months to really get off the ground but is certainly something you should consider.

 

[Silent Web Solutions]

If you are using a hosted cart solution then you might want to ask the company that you purchased your cart from what is possible to integrate as you might find yourself paying an affiliate network a few hundred only to find you cannot integrate it into your cart.

 

[movietub]

I'm with Webgains and they are excellent, some of the other companies like AffiliateWindow charge around 2k setup. If you install your own affiliate software then you will really struggle to get any decent affiliates sign up, they prefer the security of knowing that the stats are not being fiddled and they will be paid ontime.

Webgains and other affiliate companies like AffiliateFuture already have a large database of affiliates who are waiting to promote your products. Running an affiliate program is still no easy task and can take months to really get off the ground but is certainly something you should consider.

I don't mind spending money for a quality service providing it is effective. Webgains were helpful on the phone.

My only issue with paying up front is that I don't see why a great company would need to charge up front. Getting me on board and proving how indespensible they were would seem to be worth more.

Do you have time to swap a couple of PMs to give me a fuller idea of your experience using them?

Cheers

 

[Gforster]

I don't mind spending money for a quality service providing it is effective. Webgains were helpful on the phone.

My only issue with paying up front is that I don't see why a great company would need to charge up front. Getting me on board and proving how indespensible they were would seem to be worth more.

Do you have time to swap a couple of PMs to give me a fuller idea of your experience using them?

Cheers

I too am with webgains and have found them very good.

In terms of the setup costs it works both ways, why should they invest lots of time and money to get your program off the ground and working only to find that your service is terrible to the end customer and you keep asking for reversals on commissions etc. If affiliates can't get traffic to convert they will stop using you and ultimately only promote programs from rival affiliate companies, therefore webgains would lose out big time.

Most affiliate companies vet the business before accepting you and several of the larger players who charge £2k plus will simply turn you away.....

 

[movietub]

I too am with webgains and have found them very good.

In terms of the setup costs it works both ways, why should they invest lots of time and money to get your program off the ground and working only to find that your service is terrible to the end customer and you keep asking for reversals on commissions etc. If affiliates can't get traffic to convert they will stop using you and ultimately only promote programs from rival affiliate companies, therefore webgains would lose out big time.

Most affiliate companies vet the business before accepting you and several of the larger players who charge £2k plus will simply turn you away.....

If it works we both make money on an ongoing basis. If it fails then niether of us do. So my point is why should one party pay for the costs of setting that up.

Setting up their systems costs time and money at my end too - which I pay. It costs time and money at their end... Which I pay.

We make money - we share it... There is an inbalance there surely? Not that I care that much. The bottom line is, sod the prinicipal! I am more than happy to play ball off the back of other peoples experiences if they are good.

If I spend 1k and make an extra 2k each month then why would I care if they got the cheeky 1k up front?


I think with our conversion rate and focus on service the affiliates willl do pretty well. Webgains have agreed to reduce the setup costs to £500 from £900 as well.

What has your actual experience been with webgains? Can you give any sort of figures I may find useful?

Cheers

 

[Gforster]

If it works we both make money on an ongoing basis. If it fails then niether of us do. So my point is why should one party pay for the costs of setting that up.

Setting up their systems costs time and money at my end too - which I pay. It costs time and money at their end... Which I pay.

We make money - we share it... There is an inbalance there surely? Not that I care that much. The bottom line is, sod the prinicipal! I am more than happy to play ball off the back of other peoples experiences if they are good.

If I spend 1k and make an extra 2k each month then why would I care if they got the cheeky 1k up front?


I think with our conversion rate and focus on service the affiliates willl do pretty well. Webgains have agreed to reduce the setup costs to £500 from £900 as well.

What has your actual experience been with webgains? Can you give any sort of figures I may find useful?

Cheers

Because if webgains / affiliate companies took on every single website for free that wanted affiliate sales then they would go bust tomorrow setting up and managing new accounts and only get sales from 10% of them.

They make a commitment to the affiliates to only introduce programs that will be profitable and good to promote, hence attracting more top end affiliates.

If you look at it the other way around they accept 90% of affiliates to the program and when you join within a week you might have 200 affiliates signed up to your program but only 2 or 3 actually making sales / sending you traffic.

 

[movietub]

Because if webgains / affiliate companies took on every single website for free that wanted affiliate sales then they would go bust tomorrow setting up and managing new accounts and only get sales from 10% of them.

They make a commitment to the affiliates to only introduce programs that will be profitable and good to promote, hence attracting more top end affiliates.

If you look at it the other way around they accept 90% of affiliates to the program and when you join within a week you might have 200 affiliates signed up to your program but only 2 or 3 actually making sales / sending you traffic.

Hold on...

It would cost me a fortune if I spent a day quoting for a water feature everytime someone shows interest. But I don't charge to put off anyone that not serious. I ask questions and try and present up front estimates as a way of deterring those that are not. They already reviewed my site and apparently its 'ideal' for them.

Are you saying webgains can only avoid non serious clients by charging them £900 to get started?

And as I said, the setup effort is the same for webgains and us, albeit in different ways. We both have to implement a new system.

We both have equal potential to go on and make money long term. If they are so confident I will love their service then why not split the setup costs? They pay for their setup of the new account, I pay for setting it up at this end. The way the sales person talks, he is more confident than I am that it will work!

I setup a whole shop to sell products from ONE supplier. I did not charge them my costs to setup their shop on the basis that I was doing them a favour.

 

[Gforster]

Hold on...

It would cost me a fortune if I spent a day quoting for a water feature everytime someone shows interest. But I don't charge to put off anyone that not serious. I ask questions and try and present up front estimates as a way of deterring those that are not. They already reviewed my site and apparently its 'ideal' for them.

Are you saying webgains can only avoid non serious clients by charging them £900 to get started?

And as I said, the setup effort is the same for webgains and us, albeit in different ways. We both have to implement a new system.

We both have equal potential to go on and make money long term. If they are so confident I will love their service then why not split the setup costs? They pay for their setup of the new account, I pay for setting it up at this end. The way the sales person talks, he is more confident than I am that it will work!

I setup a whole shop to sell products from ONE supplier. I did not charge them my costs to setup their shop on the basis that I was doing them a favour.

Charging £900 isn't just a way to deter non serious or rubbish sites but it helps !

At the end of the day you require a service from one of these companies and each has set out the amount that they want for that service. They already have done much of the work to attract the very best affiliates to promote the programs they bring on board.

There are free alternatives but none will provide anything like the sales that you will get from just one very good affiliate attached to one of these companies.

I don't suggest for one minute that Webgains is the best out there or even that this model will work for you (I have no idea what you sell even) the point is that they work hard to bring the right affiliates to the program and generate sales and in order to do that they want £500 up front.

 

[movietub]

Charging £900 isn't just a way to deter non serious or rubbish sites but it helps !

At the end of the day you require a service from one of these companies and each has set out the amount that they want for that service. They already have done much of the work to attract the very best affiliates to promote the programs they bring on board.

There are free alternatives but none will provide anything like the sales that you will get from just one very good affiliate attached to one of these companies.

I don't suggest for one minute that Webgains is the best out there or even that this model will work for you (I have no idea what you sell even) the point is that they work hard to bring the right affiliates to the program and generate sales and in order to do that they want £500 up front.

I quite agree that the charge is not unrealistic from a business point of view. My decision to pay would be based on nothing more than end of day gains. I don't care if/how they can justify it really. Not my business!

I was just suprised, I expected the token £200 admin charge but not nearly 1k. At least they negotiated.