Affiliate Tracking

[newbie]

Originally Posted by fintan

This can be lucrative if done right, however, it depends on how much experience you have and the volume of sales you can generate.

No small business is going to consider this unless you can bring them in enough sales that covers the time, hassle and expensive of setting up an affiliate programme.

However, in saying that using and setting up something like this is pretty easy:
iDevAffiliate - Affiliate Tracking Software - Affiliate Program Software
As its literally just a tracking pixel on the sale confirmation page.

So the answer is, build up some experience and a track record and then go for it

Fintan,



Isn't that affiliate management software for merchants to place on their own sites?

I think Mike is looking for software to run his own network with an affiliate base of 1.

[fintan]

Originally Posted by newbie

Fintan,
Isn't that affiliate management software for merchants to place on their own sites?
I think Mike is looking for software to run his own network with an affiliate base of 1.

Its all about tracking sales, that software would be an easy for him to do it, just give each company he has a deal with a tracking pixel for their checkout confirmation page.
You could even give each company a login so they have transparency too.

or, he could offer a service where he sets up their inhouse affiliate programme for them and then just become an affiliate.

As he was dealing with small business I was going for cheap and cheerful

[newbie]

Originally Posted by fintan

Its all about tracking sales, that software would be an easy for him to do it, just give each company he has a deal with a tracking pixel for their checkout confirmation page.
You could even give each company a login so they have transparency too.

or, he could offer a service where he sets up their inhouse affiliate programme for them and then just become an affiliate.

As he was dealing with small business I was going for cheap and cheerful

Forgive me if I am wrong but I think that software is licensed on a per site basis.

To achieve Mike's goal, he would need something like directTrack, although I do not think either will financially fit the idea he had in mind anyway.

[fintan]

It is a one site solution, but for $99 (and im sure you can negotiate a bulk discount eg 15% discount through their affiliate programme) its not a huge outlay and will make him look more professional with the merchant.

However, if he is linking to a 100 sites, then yes it is not the right solution (well depends on how much money he makes), so any banner hosting platform with a tracking pixel would also work.

There a number of other ways Mike can achieve his goals, including, separate email / telephone numbers that his referrals will use and promo codes.

However, like I said orginally unless he can generate sales, most small businesses wont be interested as implementing anything like this will be too much hassle, hence, he could sell setting up affiliate programmes for them and then just become a normal affiliate on their brand new programme.

Or as harveyj suggested get a referral fee from one of the established networks.

[bcl]

There are lots of ways you can do this depending on the number of merchants, volumes of sales and what your plans are.

If they use any of the usual shopping carts, most have internal affiliate programs that the owners don't know about so you could just tell them how to set it up.

Or you could sell them the off-the shelf tracking software for merchants.

If you have the volume, you can get your own affiliate network software or a hosted platform - there are a few options about. I think idevaffiliate has a network version. Directtrack is probably top of the range but I've found it more than pays for itself.

Or you could refer them to a network but there is the risk that you can end up providing all the customer support that the network should provide.

[newbie]

Originally Posted by bcl

There are lots of ways you can do this depending on the number of merchants, volumes of sales and what your plans are.

If they use any of the usual shopping carts, most have internal affiliate programs that the owners don't know about so you could just tell them how to set it up.

Or you could sell them the off-the shelf tracking software for merchants.

If you have the volume, you can get your own affiliate network software or a hosted platform - there are a few options about. I think idevaffiliate has a network version. Directtrack is probably top of the range but I've found it more than pays for itself.

Or you could refer them to a network but there is the risk that you can end up providing all the customer support that the network should provide.

The problem with DirectTrack is the "bad neighbourhood" thing. I know one once-major affiliate that has seen more than 50% of their traffic evaporate since they started using it. =))

[bcl]

Originally Posted by newbie

The problem with DirectTrack is the "bad neighbourhood" thing. I know one once-major affiliate that has seen more than 50% of their traffic evaporate since they started using it. =))

The problem with every open affiliate network is the "bad neighbourhood" thing.

Talking of bad neighbourhoods, what about the new clixgalore affiliate who has been bidding on the URLs several major merchants but only out of office hours - even though the merchants in question have terms and conditions which expressly forbid the practice?

[Bamboo]

Thank you for your replies. I seemed to have sparked an interesting discussion. Some I understood and some I will have to study some more. A bit more info seems called for.

My site will be an index of plans on the net for building things. Many plan sites have basket/checkouts. Some do not, but most do. There are many plan sites and many plans on each site. The index will be large and growing over time.

I like the idea of a promo code (as I understood it most easily), but other ideas are worth researching. The seller of the plans could honour a 10% discount to the buyer if they present my promo code and I get paid my commission based on the code.

Does that explain my problem a bit better? Thank you for taking the time to answer. Mike

[newbie]

Originally Posted by bcl

The problem with every open affiliate network is the "bad neighbourhood" thing.

Agreed, that is why I wonder why anyone would use an open affiliate network.

We stick to networks like ClixGalore, DGM, etc instead. At least that way we know who we are being associated with.

Originally Posted by bcl

Talking of bad neighbourhoods, what about the new clixgalore affiliate who has been bidding on the URLs several major merchants but only out of office hours - even though the merchants in question have terms and conditions which expressly forbid the practice?

That is one crazy affiliate you have conjured up there.

Why would anyone invest good money doing that when merchants can legitimately decline commissions from any source they have not approved? How would this night-shift-worker get paid?

I suppose that story goes over great with your average gullible merchant, Gayle, but there are not too many people here who would believe it.

[fintan]

Originally Posted by newbie

Why would anyone invest good money doing that when merchants can legitimately decline commissions from any source they have not approved? How would this night-shift-worker get paid?

I suppose that story goes over great with your average gullible merchant, Gayle, but there are not too many people here who would believe it.

It happens a lot, the affiliate is reliant on the fact that a lot of merchants can be un-sophisticated in how they monitor incoming affiliate traffic and who is bidding on their brand name in ppc. (if you have a merchant on two networks who doesnt de-duplicate properly you could potentially drop two cookies and get paid twice via the same ppc re-direct).

But it very much a short term game the affiliate is playing.

[newbie]

Originally Posted by fintan

It happens a lot

Not here.

On Clixgalore, the Click Source column is between the approval dropdown and the click date. It cannot be missed.

Which networks do you say it happens on? Can you post a reference for that?

[bcl]

Originally Posted by newbie

Not here.

On Clixgalore, the Click Source column is between the approval dropdown and the click date. It cannot be missed.

Which networks do you say it happens on? Can you post a reference for that?

Try searching for adrenalin.com.au and you'll see one merchant who cracks down very quickly on this sort of thing. Then try ryda.com.au and rebelsport.com.au but only at night and on weekends when affiliate managers are less like to be looking.

Dirt cheap to bid because there is no competition so they just do it while they get away with it, and then move on. In this case, they are using a redirect so the click source shows their URL - not that it matters much if the network removes the referrer when it is google.

[bcl]

Originally Posted by newbie

Agreed, that is why I wonder why anyone would use an open affiliate network.

We stick to networks like ClixGalore, DGM, etc instead. At least that way we know who we are being associated with.

You know all the affiliates on clixgalore, dgm, etc, do you? You must be a busy boy keeping track of all those associates of yours.

Originally Posted by newbie

That is one crazy affiliate you have conjured up there.

Why would anyone invest good money doing that when merchants can legitimately decline commissions from any source they have not approved? How would this night-shift-worker get paid?

I suppose that story goes over great with your average gullible merchant, Gayle, but there are not too many people here who would believe it.

Who exactly are you calling gullible?
Merchants with terms and conditions on their affiliate programs?

[fintan]

Originally Posted by newbie

Not here.

On Clixgalore, the Click Source column is between the approval dropdown and the click date. It cannot be missed.

Which networks do you say it happens on? Can you post a reference for that?

I'm based in Europe and have seen it happen on all the main affiliate networks such as Tradedoubler, Commission Junction etc

I've all seen it happen on lots of in-house affiliate programmes, like BCL says particularly in the evenings and weekends.

Evenings and weekends is the prime time for this for 2 reasons:
1) google have gone home and its easy to get around trade mark and keyword policies
2) affiliate managers have gone home.

I'm not familiar with the click bank system, but a way you can spoof other affiliate management systems is by putting a redirect in place so it looks like it comes from the affiliate website (as also mentioned by bcl).

Cheers
Fintan

[bcl]

Originally Posted by newbie

That is one crazy affiliate you have conjured up there.

Why would anyone invest good money doing that when merchants can legitimately decline commissions from any source they have not approved? How would this night-shift-worker get paid?

and once you've checked adrenalin, ryda and rebelsport, try these ones and you'll find some affiiliates who think it is worth investing good money bidding on URLs regardless of merchant's t&c...
(you'll have to put the dots in yourself)
www oo com au (against t&c - same affiliate as ryda etc)
www winemarket com au (against t&c - same affiliate as ryda etc)
www rosesonly com au against t&c)
www cheapacampa com (against t&c)
www timelife com au (against t&c)
www 1cover com au (against t&c)
www gardenexpress com au (against t&c, uses redirect)
and so on...

Night shift worker? You know as well as anyone that advertisers can select their days and times, and also geotarget advertising on google.