So what is the perfect program? Lets not go overboard with unrealistic demands but what would constitute the perfect program? I'd say it needs a variety of different ways to generate revenue, free to join, not be too intrusive on your current site, for the vendor to pay you on time!
What does everyone else think?
www.AltaHit.com
Giving Traffic A Value
100% Guaranteed and Targeted
mjames posted this at 23:58 — 20th July 2001.
They have: 2,064 posts
Joined: Dec 1999
On top of that, a company that cares about it's publishers and listens to them. A company that is honest and truthful.
Marc James - marc@sports-central.org
Sports Central - Beyond the Scores
Sports Boards | Sports Newsletter | Spy Cam
Dans Best APD posted this at 01:05 — 23rd July 2001.
They have: 44 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
1. Good and fast pay out. And in cash.
Avoid merchants that demand high minimums or that only pay quarterly. Over $50 is too much. And forget merchants that cannot afford to pay you monthly. If a merchant only pays quarterly, it is a good indication that the company is financially unstable.
Also ignore merchants that don’t pay you money but flight miles or bonus points or virtual money you can only spend on their sites, etc.
2. FREE to join.
No set up fee or ‘small investment’, thank you. Associate Programs are the natural evolution of MLM marketing: they take the best part out of it (the profit) leaving the bad one to history (taking money out of people’s pocket).
3. EASY to join.
No endless surfing through the advertiser’s site searching for an hidden ‘sign up’ link, no unreadable Terms & Conditions, no fax or email sending, immediate approval.
Also beware of Terms & Conditions that don't allow you to modify affiliate codes: nobody likes to loose commissions just for adding target="_blank" to the code...
4. Fast response to email inquires.
You have a doubt. You send an e-mail. You wait 10 days for a response. Do you think this is serious? If a company needs more then 48 hours to let you know that they care about you, they will probably need a month to ship the order to your costumer. Or half a year to send you your check.
5. No discrimination.
Some merchants (not many, thank God), require that you have a certain number of visitors or that you own your own domain before you join. Except in few specific cases, this is unaxceptable. To limit the number of affiliates to reduce maintanace expences is obsolete, since with most affiliate tracking software and affiliate networks, it doesn’t cost more to have 100 or 100,000 affiliates.
And of course to set such limitations is for merchants true harakiri: a site having 50 hits a month today, might easily have 1,000 - 10,000 or 100,000 hits a day within one year!
6. Good products.
Price and commission rate don’t matter much. Good Products = Good Sales.
7. Good site.
It has to be easy costumers to find out how much a product costs and to find the "order" link. Sounds obvious? Well, you'll be surprized to find out how many "online stores" don't follow this elementary rule...
8. No big #800...
...right at the top of the page. #800 are useful, of course, but costumers don't have to be clearly invited to order through it.
Of course the better way is to join a program that double-tracks commissions - to avoid the trap of non-acceptance of cookies - and possibily also tracks #800 sales. Unfortunately there are still too little of them around...
8. Program available world wide.
Many still think that Internet is just USA. It is true that the States are the main market, but there is a big and growing world out there!
9. Two-tier.
A single-tiered program is like a race car running on 3 wheels. If a merchant doesn’t understand that…
Did I forget anything?
Dan
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http://www.dansquickshopping.com
Dan's Best Associate Programs Directory
pLoKeNgOp posted this at 02:55 — 16th September 2001.
They have: 27 posts
Joined: Sep 2001
things I dont like seeing
the terms and conditions that go on forever
'you must be over 18 or send a written and signed permission slip to ...'
'you must have 10,000,000,000,000,000 pageviews a month' Okay, that one was exaggerated
'you have to print out the form, sign it and return it to this address ...'
well thats my flame for today
I like pizza and donutz
mjames posted this at 02:07 — 17th September 2001.
They have: 2,064 posts
Joined: Dec 1999
I am a minor myself, but I don't find anything wrong with that. I am not saying we should be required to do this for everything online, but in some cases, I am saying, it is very appropriate.
Marc James - marc@sports-central.org
Sports Central - Beyond the Scores
Sports Boards | Sports Newsletter | Spy Cam
pLoKeNgOp posted this at 09:23 — 17th September 2001.
They have: 27 posts
Joined: Sep 2001
yes of course thats true!
but one time is when I found commision junction. I read throught the terms and everything, then bookmarked the site to sign up later. Then a few weeks later when I had unsold ad inventory, I decided to sign up, and then when I re-read the terms, they added the 18 policy. Also in their form they added a warning about being over 18. I thought this was pretty unfair seeing as though a few weeks before they didn't mind what age you were.
I like pizza and donutz
Cube Technology posted this at 09:45 — 18th November 2001.
They have: 14 posts
Joined: Nov 2001
i just get the checks written out to my dad, just as security. im gettin a $230 check soon(next month)
Cows are cool.