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How to set up companies that don't have an affiliate program? (13)

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Hello everybody,

I'd like to approach some companies that aren't a member of an affiliate network and who don't have an affiliate program. What's the best way for me to get the affiliate system set up for them? That is, what's the easiest way for me to create an affiliate link and set up the tracking/payment, etc?

Do they have to join an affiliate network or is there some other way?

Thanks guys, trying to get into affiliate marketing in general

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Following

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In general there are 2 ways - join a network or start an in-house affiliate program.


Examples of networks:

-CJ.com
-Shareasale.com
-Rakutenmarketing.com (use to be Linkshare.com)
-Affiliatewindow.com
-Tradedoubler.co.uk


Examples of software/service for running an in-house program:
-CAKE (pricey - can ask for quote)
-Hasoffers.com (pricing here: https://www.saasworthy.com/product/hasoffers)
-Postaffiliatepro.com
-AffiliateWP.com (for wordpress sites)
-AffiliateTracker (for Joomla)


Hope that helps! Unfortunately I can't do a comparison because I don't have experience starting an affiliate program, but hopefully the above lists can get you started on your research.



Amy

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Thank you @vortex! I appreciate it

No worries, I'll just have to research a bunch

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There is also one more thing to keep in mind here, finding the affiliates.

As vortex mentioned, they can either join an affiliate network that would then list their "offers" or they can basically start their own in-house affiliate program.

If they decide to work with an existing network, they have to integrate with them to some extent, so their backend communicates with the affiliate network's tracking solution, but they wouldn't have to invest into their own full tracking solution.

In case they decide to setup their own affiliate network, they need some kind of a backend solution... for example the mentioned hasoffers or cake, or they can code their own. So it's gonna cost them more.

But now comes the bigger problem, where are they gonna get the affiliates to promote their new program? As a new program, they will face the trust issues too. By going with an established network, this will go away. And on top of that, every solid affiliate network has a ton of affiliates that they are working with and they can simply recommend them to try these new offers. Then again, every network needs to make their margins somehow, so they will take away part of the possible profits

One way or another, I would say it's easier and better to "test the waters" by going with an established network first, before launching an in-house program.

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Hi @matuloo, thank you for your thoughts. Maybe I'll describe more specifically what I'd like to do:

I'd like to approach businesses who have never used affiliates and who don't really have any technical chops. These are small, service-oriented organizations who likely don't have the infrastructure or resources to integrate with an affiliate network.

In that case, is it better to just approach them with some kind of traditional sales contract? I'd like to find a way to do some online marketing for them, while making sure I'm tracking accurately

Thanks again everybody

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OK, so basically you'd like to get them as clients and promote their stuff for a commission, right?

You could use a standard tracker here, in case you can get these guys to incorporate postbacks in their website. For this to work, their coder need to be able to "catch" the click ID and then launch your postback url, once the user reaches the defined conversion point. The postback URL is just a simple url that needs to get launched with the proper clickID embeded, it just takes a bit of custom coding.

So let's say that the goal of your marketing efforts would be to get them email leads. The postback url would have to be launched on the "thank you page" that usually loads once the user enters their email into a form and hits the submit button.

You could also use google analytics for basic tracking, you can label the traffic by using the UTM tags and google analytics is able to track conversion goals. So if they give you access to the GA dashboard, you should be able to see how many conversions you've sent. Many companies are using this method and it works pretty well.

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thanks so much @matuloo! I think GA is really promising - it sounds like a simple and realistic way of setting up basic tracking

on an unrelated note, I've been going through the newbie materials on this site, and i came across your post "Stop dreaming about $XXXX per day, achieve stable $XX first!" I was wondering, is there a guide/tutorial on this site that helps you get to $XX per day? it sounds like a great goal for an amateur like myself

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I would say that the best bet of any newbie these days would be to take Amy's 40-day tutorial and maybe use PUSH traffic instead of POPs. It covers all the steps necessary and literally guides you by hand.

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ok that's great @vortex @matuloo thanks again

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Thanks for the recommend!

I would suggest to run pop first, and THEN expand to push.

Push is trickier to run. Plus, in addition to the offer + landing page, you need to test push ads.

One method is to test offers and landing pages on pop first, then take the promising combinations to push and just test ads.

That way, it may be cheaper, and also easier because then you nail 2 variables out of three (offer+lander) using pop first, then test the 3rd variable i.e. push ads on push traffic.

Hope that makes sense!




Amy

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thanks @vortex whatever you say sounds good to me haha

I'm sure it'll make more sense when I go through the guide

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Not sure you can look at pop as a more newbie ad format, especially if you are looking at the way certain offers are working in a completely different way on push and pop. What is needed to be done here is look at every ad as its own ecosystem and run it on the most appropriate ad format.

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