BCL Performance Marketing: Ethical Affiliate Marketing Australia: How do you choose an affiliate network?

How do you choose an affiliate network?

So you've decided to join an affiliate network to promote your site and they all claim to have thousands of affiliates and websites waiting to bring you sales. How do you choose between them?

Here are some of the features that we would look for...

1. Reliability - You'll only find this out by asking other merchants and affiliates, and even then you could get varied answers. Many affiliate networks pay for referrals. That is not necessarily a bad thing and can be a recognition of services provided, but it does mean that the person recommending any particular network may have a vested interest.


2. Quality of affiliates - Anyone can set up an affiliate network and get thousands of hopeful affiliates to join. However, experienced and successful publishers are often more selective. Look around at the sites that you want to see your advertisements on and see which networks they use and ask them which they prefer.


3. Trust - Affiliate networks promote themselves as third parties you can trust. That can mean trusting their technology and trusting their ethics.


4. Quality of reporting - As well as helping you and your affiliates measure results and build sales, comprehensive and transparent reporting helps build and maintain that trust.


5. Flexibility - If you want something more than a straight % of sale or pay per click program, check that the network can provide the service you require. Sometimes this requires custom coding which only some networks can provide.


6. Reasonable terms and conditions - Naturally, networks have terms & conditions for both merchants and affiliates. Some networks provide the facility for you to set your own additional terms and conditions to affiliates restricting ways they promote your site (eg bidding on your trademarks). Most agreements in affiliate marketing are non-exclusive - that means if the network does not provide good service, you can easily move to another.


7. Sign up fees - These vary according to networks and can range from setting up a "float" to pay commissions, to paying seperate setup and annual fees to networks on top of commission.


8. Network fees on sales - Networks charge a fee on top of the affiliates' commission. That is how they make their income to provide their technology, support and software development. Usually this is a set percentage.


9. Communication with affiliates - Some networks provide a feature that allows you to send individual or broadcast emails to your affiliates, and even prospective affiliates. Others try to restrict the communication and place themselves firmly between you - which makes it very difficult to build productive business relationships with key affiliates.


10. No wild promises
- No network can get experienced affiliates to promote you unless you provide adequate compensation and a website that is designed to convert sales. Affiliate fraud is an ongoing problem and no network can monitor all of their affiliates, all of the time. Good quality reporting makes it easier for you to monitor your affiliates and you can take on some of the responsibility yourself by being as selective about the affiliates that you pay to promote your business as you are about any other form of advertising.

Posted by admin at February 26, 2006 2:24 PM

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