Affiliate Software - Marketing

If you're selling products and services on the web you've probably considered recruiting affiliates.

But should you go with a third party solution or install your own software on your website? As an experienced marketer and PHP programmer I can give you some guidelines that will make your decision easier.

Open Enrollment or Application Required?

I've run into trouble in the past by tapping into a big network of affiliates that could promote one of my products without any approval on my behalf. It wasn't long before an overly aggressive marketer started claiming that he and I were "business partners" and I found myself trying to repair relationships strained by extravagant promises made on my behalf.

Requiring affiliates to meet your requirements not only protects you, but it also adds a feeling of exclusivity to your affiliate program. Any good affiliate software system will let you screen and approve your affiliates manually or open up the system completely.

Third party services like Commission Junction and Link Share allow a vendor to restrict enrollment but other services like ClickBank do not.

Are You Selling Digital Products?

If so, then perhaps you should consider ClickBank. The startup fee is just $50 and you get access to a huge network of affiliates that have signed up with the ClickBank service. You don't have to worry about setting up a merchant account, paying your affiliates, or tracking sales. All of those functions are performed by ClickBank.

On the downside, some buyers will shy away from ClickBank products because of the hype involved with marketing some of the top products on the network.

Direct Communication

If you want to be able to communicate directly with your affiliates then using a third party service like CJ, LinkShare, or ClickBank makes it more difficult to gather the vital stats of who your affiliates are and how you can communicate with them. Affiliate software systems can be customized to make it mandatory for affiliates to sign up to your email newsletter service. At the very least, you can always export your list of affiliates into a spreadsheet and upload the list to your newsletter service.

Tiered Commission Structures

When I worked as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch I heard the phrase: "Feed the eagles, starve the turkeys." Simply put, give the best performing salespeople more pay, more training, more attention, more resources. With affiliate software it's much easier to set up a tiered payment structure and reward your top affiliates with higher payouts.

Many third party services make it difficult or impossible to pay higher commissions to top affiliates. One innovative way around this is to marry a custom affiliate software system with the third party service so that "VIP" affiliates can be paid an extra percentage through the private affiliate software tracking.

For example, you could have an affiliate software system that pays just 5 to 10 percent of the sale and tie this in with existing sales pages. Then you would invite your top producers into this system to increase their payouts privately.

Fees

Third party services can range from a $50 setup at ClickBank to thousands of dollars. On top of this are monthly fees and percentages. Using a third party service is extremely expensive but it gives you access to large pools of talented affiliates you might not otherwise know how to find.

Most affiliate software available on the web today costs $100 to $200 with some packages requiring a much bigger investment. But the top two most popular packages run just $100 currently and work on almost any web server.Auto Click Profits is a complete solution as far as the traffic is concerned , you can try it Click Here!