UK Affiliates for Merchants

[skatewarehouse]

Hi

We are looking to adopt an affiliate scheme as a merchant. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has used a UK affiliate program (affiliate window, CJ etc.) on how sucsessful its been? What sort of results you got? etc.

Thanks

James

[Linda Buquet]

Hi James,

We have alot of people from the UK here, so I am hoping they will give you some advice. But additionally you may want to check the UK affiliate forum at http://www.a4uforum.co.uk. It's a wealth of info.

Best of luck!

[rybo]

Hi James,

My company is UK based and last autumn I set up our affiliate program.

I spent the better part of the summer researching into affiliate programs, especially focusing on the benefits/pitfalls of in-house V's external programs.

I decided that the best way to go for my company was in-house, as though slightly more labour intensive it allowed us to offer more commission, develop closer ties and be more supportive to our resellers/affiliates.

Also, I was conscious that although these external programs may have 1000's of members you have to consider who and how many of these members really will be interested in and/or 'sell' your product.

There are many programs out there that do have a good reputation and I have spoken directly with a number of them myself and found them to be very helpful.

I guess what I am trying to say in a nutshell is:
1. Do your research on whether in-house or external is the right way to go for you
2. Create a list of questions and contact all the companies directly with this - monitor how quickly and throroughly they come back to you.
3. Obtain further feedback from the forums

If you require further info on running an in-house program, feel free to come back to me at any time. You can also take a look at the program I've put in place for my company at http://www.depositit.com/reseller.shtml

Good luck and enjoy the rest of the long easter weekend!

Anthony

[skatewarehouse]

Anthony

Thanks for the advice, I hadnt even considered administering it ourselves.

How did you find affiliates? Did you contact them direct or set up advertising for them to contact you?

Id be interested to know.

james

[rybo]

Hi James,

"How did you find affiliates? Did you contact them direct or set up advertising for them to contact you?"

That's a very good question, we're now up and running really well with 100's of affiliates signed up and an average of 20 or so joining every week, so I'm now trying hard to think back six months to when we started and had none!

Here's what I did:
1. Put the program in place and made sure it was *very* attractive (I.e paid high commissions and offered good support).

2. Advertised the program in the top affiliate directories (this was taken care of for free by the company we purchased the tracking software from).

3. Used the search engines

4. Lots of telesales & networking!

Now, most of our affiliates arrive from:
1. Telesales/networking.
2. Word of mouth (viral marketing)
3. Many of our *customers* have joined the program - they like the service so much they wish to promote it and make something at the same time

We also have in place a 2 tier program, which means many of our affiliates endorse it to their friends/colleagues.

I am in regular/constant contact with the majority of our resellers (those doing the business) and have done some fantastic deals with some of them & even managed to reciprocate a couple of times by passing business their way. Bear in mind that the resellers we now have on board range from students trying to earn an extra buck to billion dollar a year corporations (these are via networking).

Regardless of which approach you take, do your research and make sure you get your offering correct.

The only thing I have against the networks is - how hard do they actually promote your program? Will you be just another one amongst 100's or 1000's? Perhaps I am a control freak and at some point I may have to let go a little but for now I prefer it this way and enjoy developing the relationships.

I'm around at any time if you want to chat further, email me direct at anthony @ depositit.com and I'll forward you my details etc.

Regards,

Anthony