Affiliate Management Software for Non-Digital Products

[BradCarroll]

I've got a client who has his own line of supplements and other physical products, who wants to set up an affiliate program. I honestly don't know much about non-digital affiliate management programs/software.

I'm going Googling to see what shows up, but that still won't give me any personal experience with the software.

Can anyone with experience with affiliate management software for non-digital products give me their opinions or recommendations?

[Catalyst eMarketing]

Hi Brad,

A couple of the lower cost affiliate tracking programs that get recommended here with good reviews are iDevAffiliate and PostAffiliatePro.

Has your client considered an affiliate network? There are LOTS of advantages and it's much easier to get affiliates to join. The lowest cost, yet most respected affiliate network is Shareasale.

Let me know if you'd like me to go over the pros and cons of a network vs an Indy (in-house program). Don't want to bore you if you already know or if he's already decided for sure to go with an Indy.

[Catalyst eMarketing]

Brad PMed me a couple days ago and said he wanted me to come back to discuss the pros and cons of network vs. in-house. So here goes.

PROS of Affiliate Networks
(I'm talking retail product, non digital networks like CJ, not CPA networks)

1) Trust - Affiliates may not know or trust your company, but they hopefully consider the network they are already used to working with, a trust 3rd party.

2) Payments - a) The network pays the affiliate, which overcomes a big trust issue. b) The fact they issue payments is a time and headache saver for the merchant. c) Affiliates get consolidated commission checks. So even if they only made $20 from your program and 30 from another they'll still get a check. They like that!

3) Time Savings, Convenience (FOR AFFILIATES) - Networks are a HUGE advantage for affiliates. Instead of logging into a bunch of merchant sites each with different logins, different software, different reports - they can login to one network pull links, banners, run reports all from one interface they are already familiar with, for ALL the different merchant they are partnered with.

4) Time Savings, Convenience (FOR MERCHANTS) - Set up is much easier with networks. Commissions are handled for you. Some support issues could possibly be diminished.

5) RECRUITING - the biggie in my mind. I think it was Brian Tracy that said, "find out what your customers want and GIVE it to them". Well I say the same goes for affiliates. "Find out what they want and GIVE it to them!"

Lots of affiliates are on networks because they want to trust they'll get paid and want the convenience of a network. So it's MUCH easier to do recruiting on a network. (I do affiliate recruiting for a living, so I know.)

Thousands of affiliates are already there. You don't have to go out and find them all, many will find you. You still need to do proactive recruiting, but affiliates are much more likely to join if you are on a network.

PROS of Indy's (In-house programs)

1) Transparency and Control - The primary reason some merchants want an in-house program with their own software is to have more transparency and control. So if that's really important to you then in-house may be an option.

NOTE: Brad, now you see why it took me a couple days to answer. Sometimes I get long winded. But I hope this helps your friend.

Anyone else have anything else to add? I'm sure I forgot something.

[BradCarroll]

Wow this is excellent, thanks much! While this client would probably really like the control available with an in-house program, I'm betting they'll want to opt for a third party program.

[Catalyst eMarketing]

You are very welcome Brad!