NEED ADVICE: I am a product owner - debating to start an affiliate program (5)
NEED ADVICE: I am a product owner - debating to start an affiliate program
hi guys
I have my own set of keto diet ebooks, and have been selling the on my site using my own traffic methods. But its been 3 years of steady sales, but been debating to start an affiliate program now.
WHO ELSE HERE OWNS A PRODUCT AND DID THIS? I would love from feedback of learnings, not sure WHY I am worrying but I am. I maybe too attached to my work perhaps.. not sure.
Thanks for your time guys!
- make sure to start with one or two networks first - you will face some difficulties at the setup/start (tracking, pixel etc) and best to solve this communicating with one or two parties instead of 10 at a time
- aim for the long run, yes you can add your products to all kind of networks, but try to filter the premium ones and start with those
- avoid cowboys (networks, but also pubs)
- make sure your product has certain USP's which stand out from the rest - both for consumers and affiliates (monthly promotions, payout ranges - > volume ranges, kickback fee's etc)
- don't scrub/throttle/squeeze or whatever you want to call it, the payouts must be pure so CR stays consistent, an affiliate can only scale when CR is consistent (at least not fluctuating too much on daily base)
- make sure you always pay on time, it's number one reason for me (and others too I know from experience) to cancel/avoid/ban a network or campaign if they pay not as agreed on
- addition to upper remark; grow step by step, so your cashflow won't be in danger. you know affiliates can scale like hell and if you dont cap (from start) big chance your cashflow will be shit after a while
- try to find a network which is transparant, preferably give you possibility to interact with affiliates directly (although you still run through a network), makes life easier for all three parties (make clear to them you are not looking for direct pubs)
- work with a few only, give them seperate/unique content, landers, links etc. this wat competition between eachother will be less which results in added value of all networks, not just one. you don't want to start a CPA/CPL battle with all kind of tricks to attract affiliates to run your products.
- write down a clear and tedious policy for affiliates to stick too (no usage of celebs for example) - but most important make sure the network doesn't allow these kind of things. despite all agreements I have seen in the past, networks are under high pressure and try all kind of tricks to gain volume!
- reward affiliates out of the blue if you are happy with their volumes and quality, everybody is happy with some extra bucks in their account, a new iPad or a Zalando voucher
- do a decent quality check - not only look at names, email and adress and if "they seem oke" you increase the cap. there are some cleaver guys in the market who can create fake leads which look very promising!
Hey man,
I've got experience with this. I'm one of the co-owners of a company called Look After My Bills.
The other two owners were big with business strategy etc but lacked a true understanding of marketing. They gave me shares in the company in return for running the digital marketing strategy.
A huge part of this has been setting up an affiliate program that does around £500,000 in sales per month. With such a huge volume of sales, I've learnt a LOT! From fraud through to relationships and everything in-between. Might be worth us connecting and I'll spill some of the learnings. I'm on Skype sam.frost93.
Hit me up bro 
It may be easier to work through an affiliate network instead of trying to set up your own, there is not much downside as long as you have a good handle on your numbers and know how to manage fraud. It will be challenging for you to compete with a network if affiliates don't know who you are.
What cmdeal said above is very true in my opinion.
You will loose part of the margin, as the network has to make money too. But at the same time, they will take care of the communication with the affiliates and more importantly, every solid network has a large pool of affiliates that they are working with, which means way faster possible start than doing it all on your own.
On top of that, you can still do both, many product owners have their own affiliate program, but still work with other affiliate networks to increase their reach and volumes.
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