Sep 24, 2007 - Networks    10 Comments

The Perfect Affiliate Network

If I had the money, the contacts, the time, the resources…. oh and a time machine to go back 5 years, I would be the proud owner of what I would imagine to be the perfect network. Affiliate Marketing has progressed at a rapid pace, however I do feel that some of the networks haven’t kept up with the speed of changes we see and we require.

What would my Network provide you, as an affiliate?
Well the simple way of describing my network is “A network that works WITH affiliates”. Below I’ve listed what I consider to be some of the most important and fundamental selling points from an affiliate perspective. Some of these areas are already available from a handful of networks, but as far as I know, there isn’t a single network that ticks all the boxes. I’d be interested to hear what other affiliates would expect from a perfect network.

Improved Communication
Firstly you would tell us your preferred method of communication and the hours.
Any problems with the network, tracking, or a merchant would be communicated to you depending on your preferred method. We would provide communication updates by phone, email and text message as well as being active in forums. If constant problems are experienced by a large number of affiliates with one particular merchant, we will arrange a face to face meeting with select affiliates and the merchant in order to resolve the issues. If problems continue, the merchant will be terminated (not literally!).

Payment
You would be paid twice monthly. Some networks currently offer this yet others continue to live in the dark ages.

Referring URL’s
A simple point raised by Rob a couple of days ago on his Monetise This blog.
You would see, where possible, which page, website, search string or referring URL made the sale allowing you as an affiliate to better position your adverts, deliver content accordingly or improve your keyword campaigns. It’s a simple an analogy of your (affiliate) marketing strategies.

Qualified PPC employees
Employees would be qualified PPC’ers (by which I mean exams passed and most importantly, experienced gained) and would work closely with those affiliates who are active in the PPC sector. This would ensure my network would fully understanding the different matching techniques across the different search engines. We would NOT pretend to be an expert in an area we are not!

Any changes to PPC restrictions will be automatically emailed and posted in forums. Affiliates will be given 7 days to either implement changes or contact the network with explanations if 7 day deadline is likely to be missed.

Support hours and mechanisms
My network would understand where the self employed affiliate started from, and why. Many go full-time in order to choose their own hours in order to fit around their personal lives, and this is something we would respect. The Internet is open 24hrs a day, affiliate websites are open 24hrs a day and merchants take orders 24 hours a day. It is therefore only right that the network is open 24hrs a day.

We would provide different communication mechanisms including Instant Messenger, Email and Phone but most importantly would provide you with a fully trackable ticketing system. This system would allow you to raise an online issue and track exactly what has been investigated, the current status, and the ability to add updates yourself. This would provide you with the ability to obtain updates to your issue without having to phone, email or MSN someone. Ticketing issues will only be resolved once confirmation from all parties involved has been achieved.

We would adhere to ITIL practices meaning that proceses will be documented and followed for ALL incidents, problems and changes. Achiving of all previous entries will be available for 2 years+.

Faster Application/Pending/Accepting
You would apply to partner a program and would either be automatically accepted or be referred to the merchant to manually confirm. This manual route would allow all merchants 72 hours to check the affiliate to ensure their website fits your preference of advertising. Once the 72 hours has passed, the affiliate will be automatically accepted and any sales/leads generated will be honoured.

Negative keyword matching
My network would insist that affiliates do not bid on brand names or trademarks, but we would not insist that you use negative keyword matching.

No closed groups
We would be an open, honest and transparent network.
All closed group programs would be viewable to any affiliate. We would not automatically select our favourites the people who have performed well in the past on another closed programs, but would request that anyone wishing to be included apply. We would not automatically accept Affiliate#1 who is great pushing mobile phones, as they may not be as good as the small, quiet, angler when it comes to pushing a Fly-Fishing program.

If we ever introduced a closed program which every affiliate could not see or apply for, we would never claim to be open, honest and transparent.

Be Pro-active
Merchants joining my network would be given the option of attending a small introductory training course during which we would point out, for example, that Christmas for affiliates begins in September. This means that for merchants it should begin in July or August in order to make the most of seasonal online buying times. We would also explain the benefits of offers, updated banners, feeds etc.

Hard Faced
When joining a network as an affiliate, you would stick to our rules and if broken you will be warned twice before being removed. By breaking the rules, although you may be generating the network extra money, you are not playing on a level playing field with other affiliates and it will not be tolerated.

Merchant Payments
We would insist merchants prepay x amount, to ensure guaranteed affiliate payments on time. The prepay figure would be based on previous history, sector averages and seasonal changes. Any late payments will be penalised and additional charges applied.

Basics
Before a new merchant goes live, we would ensure that the basics are in place. The basics include 1 banner of every standard size, a text link and information on the program.

Detailed Reporting
My network would provide an export facility for approved and declined/rejected commissions including reasons why sales were rejected. This would be provided in CSV and other formats for your own reporting and manipulation.

Widgets & Content Units
We would provide tools to assist with the building of widgets and content units as well as datafeeds where applicable/available.

Merchant vs Merchant
Upon accepting a new merchant we would show them what their competition are already offering affiliate in way to help drive sales and leads. This will give the merchant a real indication that they too have to invest time, money and effort to help affiliates achieve sales on their behalf. Affiliate Marketing is NOT a magic bean!

New Additions
As well as producing a comprehensive searchable catalogue of merchants we would strive to keep Affiliate Bounty up to date on new merchants added to our network.

That’s pretty much it!
Would you join my network?….. ignore that I am a scouser for this question! ;)
What else would you expect from the perfect network?

  • http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=2110418 Trump

    I’d join your affiliate network! Too many networks have just settled with where they are at and do not continue to update their services as fast as their affiliates would like. I’d like to be able to export my sales reports/commission reports from each period as well as tracking information.

  • Butters

    I’ll come and work for you mate!! what are you paying?? ;)

  • http://www.webpublishingblog.com Andrew Johnson

    The 24 hour a day thing I agree with. Referring URL’s, and qualified PPC experts, not so much. The less data that your affiliate company has about your traffic, the better. Your affiliate manager may not steal your keywords personally, but you bet they are going to tell their other affiliates!

    Who is the middle man, the affiliate network or the affiliate? If you don’t have proprietary data and tools then you are. The future of the middle man is not looking so bright right now (take a peak at Google’s Conversion Optimizer if you have access to it in your Adwords account.)

  • http://www.affiliatemarketingblog.co.uk/ Clarke

    Great post, will post a reply to it in my personal blog as it will take a while. However sad to say your vision of a perfect network has a flaw, this is called Affiliates and Merchants in the real world all with different views and then you have other Networks that will do anything to land a brand leaving your perfect network without big names as you asked them to pay commission up front and the other guys have said they don’t need it. A few of the points you have said are something Networks can do something about so I am going to review them all and deliver some more of them (or something better or close) to what you are after at Paid On Results. As you probably know many of them Paid On Results are doing already but sadly not 100% of them so lets see what we can do to get even closer to that 100% perfect network your after.

  • Nick

    While lovely from a publisher’s perspective, many of these points show the classic too-big-for-your-boots attitude of many affiliates.

    You may think your weekly check for $1000 from a specific merchant is biggish. It’s absolute peanuts to a large Merchant. Yes, affiliates are important as a channel for Merchants. But they are often a tiny sliver of the big picture.

    72 hours until auto-accepted? Do you realise how many applications some Merchants get?

    Merchants pay the bills. You don’t get to dictate terms. A major Merchant will never be kicked from a program. Who do you think PAYS FOR THE PROGRAM?!?

    Put it this way: there’s a reason the UK is on Eurovision every year, regardless how crap. We pay for it.

  • http://www.webaffiliate.co.uk Chris Frost

    Clarke
    Look forward to your post. Appreciate that this is a wish list and there is no way every wish will be fulfilled, even if they were all possible.

    Nick
    I don’t like shouting so please, Caps Lock off :)

    This post was what a perfect network, in my eyes, would be. Its quite obvious to me, and many others who have read it, that this level will never be achieved, however it shouldn’t stop networks from striving towards it. This thread isn’t a ‘too big for your boots post’ as you mention, it is merely a personal view, of what I would have implemented if I had setup a network with unlimited cash and unlimited technological know-how.

    I would love to know which of the ‘many points’ I have mentioned show the ‘classic boots’ syndrome too. Maybe you could expand?

    OK, just to correct a few points;
    - I don’t get paid by check, its all BACS over here (oh, and it’s a Cheque too!)
    - 72 hours was merely a figure picked out of thin air. What I think needs to addressed are those merchants that will check applications pending every couple of weeks at most.
    - I am not dictating any terms to any merchants and I am not sure why you have asked me, who I think pays for the program. Who do you think? Personally, it’s the sales and leads so in the long run, the end customer pays for the program.

    Oh, and as for the Eurovision every year, I think its because we are part of Europe… the clue is in the name! ;)

  • http://www.shine-marketing.co.uk Stephen Pratley

    Hi Frostie,

    You might want to have a look at a network we’re working with at the moment. Tradetracker, based in the Netherlands have just launched their first UK campaign – shoestring.co.uk. Early days yet as far as the relationship side goes (though what I’ve seen so far has been very quick to react to whatever we’ve asked for).

    The reporting side and general ease of use is really nice though. All the referrer URL’s whether it’s a sale or not are there, and a nice and clear ticketing interface for any support issues. I even managed to figure out how to pick up deeplinks while it was all still in Dutch!

    Go have a poke about and let me know what you think?

  • Nick

    I wasn’t aiming at shouting. Just having a groan!

    I agree it would be a lovely network indeed. But it’s a long long way from realistic.

    I’ve worked on both side of the fence: I’ve run an affiliate campaign for a large company, and also run my own publisher network. The problem with many affiliates is this idea that Merchants almost owe them a living. Affiliates are a great ROI for Merchants….but for 95% of companies, they’re mainly a “side project” – the vast majority of new customers are brought in through their own PPC/SEM, or off-line techniques.

    Affiliates have to appreciate that they’ll never be No.1 priority…. Ideas like pre-paid floats, to ensure prompt affiliate payment (such as with Paid on Results) are not viable in many companies, when they can just choose a network where that money can be in cashflow until needed. £50,000 floats aren’t to sniffed at (and are what a lot of major companies would require)

    And as for Eurovision….most countries have to either come in the top 20 the previous year or get through a system or rounds. the UK, France Germany don’t. Because we pay ;P

  • http://www.webaffiliate.co.uk Chris Frost

    Nick

    Thanks for the clarity. I agree with almost everything you say, especially the fact that we are a long long way from the perfect network, however, it is something over the coming years we may one day achieve.

    Whenever I have meetings with networks, they are always receptive to my suggestions on how they can improve their service to me, as an affiliate. Nowadays the level of service from one network to the other differs and its easy enough for me to switch my links, for the same program in many cases, to another network.

    Why should I use Network#1 for MerchantA who pays monthly, is late chasing invoices, when I could use Network#2 for the same Merchant, who pays twice monthly? This is available to me as an affiliates, and its something that some networks need to realise and look at offering the same if not better service.

    I agree that affiliates count for a small proportion of sales (when looking at well established companies such as Tesco), however many merchants see us as an ever growing channel as onlines sales continue to increase. Other merchants see us as a major part of their revenue stream (such as ASOS) and without the affiliate channel would not be where they are now.

    This post wasn’t meant to be a ‘networks take note and change’ type of thread. After years of being in the industry and seeing how its evolved, it was a case of how I would introduce a new network having had lots of experience and exposure. Hindsight… wonderful thing…

    Eurovision – without it, lots of online gambling sites would miss out on some substantial income…. therefore its a good thing ;o)

  • Nick

    I agree with you.

    I certainly wasn’t suggesting you were one such affiliate – who doesn’t grasp their place in the grand scheme of things – as affiliates who write quality blogs are rarely unaware of the “big picture”. It is however, a prevailing attitude that really puts a damper on our industry. When I ran Big Company X’s affiliate scheme, some of the communications from even our top 20 affiliates (many of whom earned £10,000+ weekly) were flat out rude. For every professional business person, there was a “product X is missing a photo….get it sorted….and get your act together you idiots” when one image in a data feed of 50,000 products was missing for 48 hours.

    Do we issue a first strike to someone who brings us in £80,000/week? Or just accept that some very successful people, running one-man shows, have never been through the interviews that weeds those with no social skills out of the “bricks and mortar” workplace?

    Of course, hitting a gold mine in affiliate marketing by finding the under-exploited niche can change a lot of people….going from a £22,000 a year office job to suddenly realising you made triple your previous salary in a month working 3 days a week in your pajamas can make some think they’re Rupert Murdoch.

    I just wish so many wouldn’t act like it.