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Pros and Cons of different payout methods (18)

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I'm curious what payout methods (e.g. how you get paid by the affiliate network) other affiliates are using?

I'm sure affiliates have though quite deeply on how they receive their money and if they could please share the what payment method they are using and why?

Specifically in term of speed of payment, fees and risk.

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To mention the most common and known payment methods, this pops in mind!
*quite general assumptions ofcourse, but based on experience.

CPC

Pro's:
- your EPC/income is always static, that gives rest and a certainty of revenue (up to you to optimize on your side to get the lowest CPC)
- quick payments possible, since quality check is quite real time for advertiser
- you don't really have to worry about conversions, which make this quite easy to monetize and come profitable, BUT don't aim for the lowests CPC only, make sure the assumptions you do in the ad/textlink are true and not misleading or irrelevant to the prelander/offer

Con's:
- quality needs to be absolutely marvelous for advertiser
- limited budgets often
- possible extra effort needed to avoid bots and other shitty traffic
- very little advertisers offer these kind of methods, so not a lot of campaigns available (mostly direct)
- a lot of traffic sources are not allowed

CPL

Pro's:
- no payment needed for consumer, so quite low key campaigns which gain conversion quite easily (depends on vertical ofcourse). but this "first conversion" feeling is golden and keeps you motivated
- works on almost all traffic sources
- often quite subtle pages and trafficsource-"friendly" campaigns
- quite newbie friendly, IF you take care of quality checks regurarly

Con's:
- quality again can be a big issue here. communicate often with network/advertiser how quality is, and work towards a certain dissapproval % so you can calculate this within your cost/revenue
- often CPL offers are attached to a callcenter, so again limited budgets/capacity. there is a limit what call centers can follow up
- variety of campaigns isn't that big
- limited traffic sources can be used for CPL (more than CPC tho', less than CPA)

CPA

Pro's:
- if no fraud, quality is "always" good. people did a deposit so advertiser is having the money instantly
- scaling is much easier in general, since no caps often (CC submit offers have caps tho' often, since advertiser wants to keep an eye on possible chargebacks)
- payments toward affiliates are faster often
- huge variety of campaigns
- works on almost all traffic sources, and allowed on most
- high payouts, it gives you more time and room te test properly

Con's:
- hitting a first conversion cost time/energy, so it can be really demotivating
- since the offers are mostly high-end, you need to optimize on bidding, targeting, placements etc much more
- a lot of variety and amount of offers. it can give you a feeling you are missing out, or you switch quicker if no results in short time, whilst specialisation and go more indepth is quite key in many cases
- often a lot of (high quality) competition, not a newbie friendly payment method to start with I would say
- copywriting is essential here, since you need to sell a story and convince people to pull their creditcard or whatever
- higher budgets needed, compared to CPL/CPC

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@stickupkid I guess he rather means how affiliates get paid and not the different payout methods

I can only tell from the methods I used myself.

Paypal

Pro:
- Money is fast available
- You can also pay trafficsources with Paypal

Con:
- Several people have problems with Paypal that the account gets frozen or so (I didn´t have problems myself)
- Paypal fees (can add up very fast when you work with high payouts)

Wire

Pro:
- Direct to your bank account

Con:
- Several networks offer wire only for higher payouts
- Can also have a service fee

Payoneer

Pro´s:
- Money is fast available
- You can get the money on ATM with Payoneer cretid card
- They offer virtual bank account

Con:
- Not everywhere available

Cheque

Pro:
- Often available when everything else fails

Con:
- Can take very long for the money to be available (for foreign cheques I sometimes had to wait for almost 3 months until the money was available for me)

I mostly use wire, next is Paypal.

There is also Bitcoin but I never used Bitcoin myself and have no idea how it works so I can´t tell anything about it.

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Need another coffee I guess! I really went for it lol

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I also use Payoneer, Payoneer also has less fees than PayPal, hopefully they can be available as deposit options on more traffic sources.

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Shouldn´t Payoneer work for all sources that support Mastercard?

Then you could just use your Payoneer credit card.

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I don't have their Card, yet. Maybe I should try that and see if we can bang the system

Just so you know, If you receive payments to paypal and then also deposit from it to traffic sources, I think it can be up to about 10% fees?

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Paypal has high fees indeed, I remember how they charged me $400 for a $5k payment from an affiliate network, that was the last time I used paypal as a payment option in the business. I do use them to deposit funds to networks from time to time, some absorb the costs. But for payments, I stick to wires and occasionally I take a check if there is no other option, since they take a long time to cash. I also have a paxum account that I use with some adult networks, its a popular choice in the adult world.

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Yes, Paypal fees can be very annoying.

That´s why I stopped using Paypal for affiliate payments as well and why I prefer wire payments.

When you receive 5 figure payments but have to pay $X,XXX for Paypal fees it´s absolutely not funny anymore.

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Update: I just ordered a Payoneer Prepaid card yesterday (Mastercard)

Let's see how it goes.

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I am using Payoneer since 2009 or 2010 and never had any issues there.

I also have to say that I didn´t really use them for some time now because I didn´t need to.

But so far I also didn´t hear anything bad about them so I guess they are still doing good

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Got their prepaid card and everything was going good until this happened:.

As you may have seen on the news, Wirecard AG filed for insolvency on Thursday. Your Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard® Card is issued by its subsidiary, Wirecard Card Solutions Limited (WCSL) in the UK. Today, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which regulates WCSL, issued requirements on WCSL, freezing all prepaid card activity for the time being. We believe that cardholder funds are properly safeguarded and that the freeze will be temporary.

What does this mean?
The FCA has communicated that they have taken these measures with the primary objective of protecting the interests and money of consumers who use Wirecard. Pending further actions from the FCA, you will temporarily be unable to withdraw the funds on your card, nor receive new payments onto your card.

Any funds that are in excess of the maximum balance of your card are held by Payoneer and are therefore not impacted by the FCA’s temporary freeze.

How can I get paid during this time?
Any future payments that you receive from marketplaces, platforms and clients will not be affected by the freeze. These funds, and any others already on your virtual currency balance, are available for bank withdrawal.

We are actively working on other solutions for you and your patience and understanding are highly appreciated. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we’ll update you with more information as soon as we have it.

(yes it says wirecard is resuming regulated activity and I can pull my funds out but Payoneer says they're not working with that card until further notice)

Anyone got an alternative? WebMoney?

Our nations bank limits is having a turnover of ~30k USD per month, so I like the idea of using Payoneer and only withdrawing the profits at the end.
Also, our nation (Israel) requires registering a business after 30k yearly revenue and I'm scared to do that

Btw, I'm no big numbers boy yet, but with 3k revenue a month I can easily achieve that, plus they start asking me questions like where the money from.

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Why does this scare you? It's not like we're doing anything illegal by running affiliate campaigns... it's pure online marketing. Most of us here have companies registered for the sake of running campaigns, and several forum members are from Israel. I don't see a problem here

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I am with matuloo, affiliate marketing itself is no dirty shadow business.

You are basically like an online ad agency who runs campaigns (more or less) completely independent.

Nothing to feel ashamed and nothing to hide there.

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To be fair, I think he was just saying he’s scared of doing all the paperwork and jumping through hoops required to register a business.

Since most people never do it, it seems like a daunting task. So it can seem scary.

But with the internet and all the services that will do it for you, it’s relatively painless these days.

Unless you’re in Japan. Then it still sucks. It’s cheap to start for the first 3 years (aside from the fact you have to pay minimum commercial taxes no matter what your income! fuckers). But everywhere else, painless

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Yep that was abit more of that. Pussy motherfucker @roiter123

Payonner says they looking for a solution to find a new card issuer instead of wirecard, but for now... anyone got more ideas and shit?

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At some point, I was using Paxum heavily, not sure how much of a viable solution they are for you since they are not as commonly offered as a payment method, but some networks do support them.

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For receiving payments: wire transfer or BTC (if possible) least amount of fees, especially from bigger networks. I think I get charged $1 from ClickDealer for wire transfers. Monetizer will cover half your wire fee, but their BTC option is free (plus, it deposits usually on Mondays just before it pumps )

For topping up: wire transfer big amounts seems risky at first, I still don't do it. But I want to switch to it. Because you save a shitload on fees overall. 3.5% fee on $5000 top ups adds up fast ($175 that could have been spend on ads). No commission fee other than the banks fee is charged (like $25-40 per xfer) when doing a wire.

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