After receiving few dozen of e-mails via the contact page on this blog, from affiliate managers to join their “in house” programs, I added an entire paragraph on that page. Trying to explain that any one who in the future attempts to use the contact form for the similar purpose, maybe in fact wasting their time. This post should serve as a further explanation why I am not interested in any “in house” affiliate programs, as I plan to link from the contact form back to this article.
So here are just few reasons why many affiliate marketers may not be interested in your program. But all of my reasons can be summed up in the following statement: “Give us a brake, and join one of the networks!”
I am not sure what keeps you from joining one affiliate network. Many of us, affiliates, have accounts at least with major affiliate networks. I personally have publisher accounts with six affiliate networks: PepperJam Affiliate Network, Commision Junction, LinkShare, LinkConnector, ShareASale and Google Affiliate Network (formerly Performics). Surely one of these can satisfy your needs.
- I want to know I will get paid. Yes I know you have a wonderful program with “unmatched” commissions and perks. But at the end of the day all of it means nothing to me if do not get paid. I am not saying that you will not pay me. The above listed networks have been working with merchants and affiliates for decades and have established their reputation. Why not to build your own reputation on it?
- It is quiet a task to learn how to navigate the interfaces of each network. Do you really expect me to learn every interface in the universe?
- Let the networks do the recruiting. They have it down. They also can do much better job than you can. It will free your time for developing relationships with your affiliates instead.
- Lastly, it is has to be said that a few hundred dollars script you have which allows you to implement your in house program is probably good. But is it good enough to match the linking and reporting capabilities of the affiliate networks?
Yes, joining a network may not be as cheep as implementing your own affiliate program. However if you care about the future of your business, this investment is well worthed to undertake.
I know some of those networks can be quite expensive to join so I can see where they are coming from. On the other hand, I like the ability to only log into one network and have all my merchants in the one spot. I use CJ most of all because its just easy to use. And you're right, I don't want to have to learn to navigate yet another affiliate network. I find it annoying when a merchant in CJ moves to another network. Oftentimes I will just drop them and find something else in CJ if I can. It's just easier in the long run than signing up and registering with a new network yet again.
Paula,
Thanks for stopping by. I find extremely annoying when a merchants leaves one network to another. Currently CJ merchants are responsible for most of the income. I do however like very much what PepperJam Affiliate Network has done. I can believe I am saying this but I just started to really like Google Affiliate Network.
At least as far as major networks are concerned, there is a lot of similarity in their interfaces. I am not sure how expensive for merchants really is to be in a network. But I think that potential of recruiting more affiliates may offset the costs. At the end of the day I also would like to know the merchant has a wested interest in me, it is not convincing when they use some crappy few hundred dollars script to run their affiliate program.
Agreed. _So_ much easier to join a network. More chance of getting paid too.
So you get spammed also. Have nothing more to say, except that could be flagged as spam only. If you wanted to join some network you would do it by yourself and withing your research or by some reccomendation, not by one contact form spam.
You nailed it Vlad!
I absolutely agree on your points as I still have commissions outstanding from some of those networks. I find it especially annoying when they set payout limit and than when you done promoting from them and have an amount left unpaid than less than what they set as minimum – you are screwed!
And its not an exception but a rather disturbing norm.
Thanks Alex,
I actually wrote this post to serve me as a reply to all the invites I get.
Thank you for listing the affiliate programs. There are some here I did not know of. I use to have a account with Commission Junction, but found there new site confusing.
I think CJ is still the best affiliate program
so far the only money in online marketing i have made, is with 1 in house affiliate program.. all the other big name networks i'm still working with, but i have real money in the bank from a in house, not all are bad, it depends on the companies standing, and the feedback from consumers who shop there also.
I’m in the process of re-establishing our own affiliate program. We were with CJ, and I too thought (as a publisher) that it was easiest just to advertise CJ merchants. However – The other day I took a look at some others – such as ‘Paidonresults.com’ and clixgalore. I was particularly impressed with ‘paidonresults’ – especially their feeds. If you haven’t done so already – take a look at http://www.affiliatestore.com which is an e-Commerce comaprison site – out of the box. Try it with an affiliate feed – and I think you’ll be amazed.
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