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Uninteresting affiliate programs
If you’re a web publisher, you’re already aware that several online services offer to match you with merchants who wish to commission you for every sale you generate, affiliate-style.
That’s a wonderful proposition since prospecting relevant merchants to advertise on your site can prove somewhat exhausting, especially if you have to keep you web destinations updated, in the meanwhile. So lots of web publishers have turned to Commission Junction (CJ), LinkShare, Performics, ClickBank, Advertising or even Google’s Affiliate Network to dip their toes into these revenue generating systems.
For a few, usually those who operate very niched web sites, the experience has been successful enough to continue using it but judging from the sheer volume of forum posts against these affiliate networks, the pay (if any) is just not worth the trouble.
It’s a well known fact that many affiliate networks have frustrating membership rules that go against the normal business flow of a web publisher like, for instance, the fact that every ad space is handled in a granular fashion instead of dynamic ad zones driven by keywords and other criterias.
Even if that adds a heavy advertising management load on the web publisher’s shoulders, it’s the money (or lack, thereof) that proverbially breaks the camel’s back. I won’t name the merchant but it exemplifies how it shows its level of appreciation for the web publisher’s work. That particular merchant sells monthly memberships ranging from $9,95 to $99,95 a month and the commission to the affiliated web publisher, in the event a sale occurs within 30 days, is a measly 15$… one shot! So there you have it, the merchant can make hundreds of dollars over the course of several months while the affiliate is left with very little to pay his (or her) rent with.
The merchant’s monthly memberships paying “one-time commissions” would probably be that much better if they actually got paid because over and above the fact that these amounts don’t equate the amount of work on the part of the web publisher to “convince” a new customer (to try the merchant’s services), it seems many web publishers never get paid… at all!
The roar in forum threads, for what it’s worth, clearly indicates there’s a very serious problem in the payment of owed commissions. Often times, the affiliate just vanishes without paying anything to anyone or it lacks peer reviews of its statistics engine and ends up not crediting the affiliated sale to the web publisher — and these situations are rampant.
Even industry leaders like Amazon has been reported to not even credit the book sales purchased by the affiliates themselves, using their properly setup affiliate links. Since so many web publishers have experienced this severe technical deficiency with Amazon (assuming it’s not outright bad faith), serious web publishers have completely exited the seemingly flawed program. In this example, Amazon gets paid 100% of the money of the referred sales and affiliates get nothing. And trying to talk with Amazon about it is nothing short of impossible so if web publishers want to know if they’re respected by the giant book selling outfit, well, they pretty much have their answer right there.
If you must absolutely find yourself a merchant to be an affiliate for (whatever the reason), look for fully independent ones, like SecureNetShop that handle everything in-house. By doing so, you cut the “network” intermediary and deal directly with the merchant which yields higher revenues while reducing the hassle.
The majority of web publishers are rapidly coming to the conclusion that the best way to monetize their advertising space is through either intelligently implemented pay-per-click programs, preferably Google’s AdSense or better yet, to sell the space directly to selected advertisers (more work but a much better pay).
The affiliate networks need to reinvent themselves, from a technological standpoint while arranging for the affiliate commissions to be more inline with the efforts needed to produce a flow of qualified customers or else, they risk being permanently labeled as uninteresting.
Tags: affiliates, affiliate networks, affiliated, revenues, money, ads, advertising, ppc, pay-per-click, cpa, cost-per-action, cpl, cost-per-lead, clicks, visitors, qualified customers, buyers, commissions, sales, pay, getting paid, ad codes
2 Responses to “Uninteresting affiliate programs”
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After so many weeks I am able to find a blog providing good information about the affiliate programs. I am glad to see that there are still few persons on the internet who are NOT using auto blog posters. Creating a blog like yours and maintaining it are difficult tasks but you managed it. Ok! Come to the point. However, you have tried to give good information about affiliate programs but I am still against affiliate programs. I mean fault is not in the affiliate programs but in the people. They do not want to work hard and leave the programs after some time. Now, you might be thinking, if I am against affiliate programs then why I am here at your blog. Actually I am doing some sort of research on affiliate programs and when started reading your blog, I sticked to it and could not stop myself writing comment. I am not so much against affiliate programs, but my nature is a sort of experimenting. I keep on doing experiments for making money in new ways. If you visit my website, clicking on my name in this comment then you are bound to get amazed. If, I write more about my site then you will think that I am spamming and I do not want to get my comment considered as spam. So, again from the begining, you have done a very good job! Hard work is appreciated! Well done! Thanks for providing such a nice detailed information. Keep it up!
The Amazon Affiliate Program pays much better than other affiliate programs out there.