Can affiliates use minisites to sell products?

[digileaf]

I always thought that it would be okay for affiliates to use minisites to sell their affiliate products but now I'm not so sure, as I can't work out how the payment side of things works.

Here's my thoughts so far ...

ABC Co produces Widget which they offer on an affiliate program.

XYZ sells Widget on their own minisites XYZWidget.

Who does the payment link route through to?

The way I see it is that the customer would expect to pay XYX, but as it is an affiliate program surely the payment needs to go to ABC Co, who then pay an affiliate commission (to XYZ) later.

It seems that the expectations of the buyers and the producer are at odds, with the affiliate sort of stuck in the middle.

Is it just that minisites are not really appropriate for affiliate marketing?

Thanks folks.

Kate

[TLTheLiberator]

There's nothing wrong with using a niche targeted mini-site for the affiliate model.

The pages on the site should/can be used to...

- Build your lists with opt-in squeeze pages:

- Presell your prospects with info on the landing pages:

- Generate traffic/visitors via a related blog and/or set of articles attached to the site:

You don't use a payment link, you use your aff link to send your prospects to the merchant's site that will then try to make the sale so that you can get a commission.

Affiliate don't collect payments.

TL

[TheGodfather]

Well usually there are 2 ways you can go about this.

1. you buy the resell rights and you sell the product at some price and earn all the money for your self.

2. you create a minisite/blog/whatever and you write on the topic and insert the affiliate link to the ABC Co. site on payment they set aside a commission for you until you reach the "payable" level of earnings (ususally around $25 or $50)

3. you create your own product/service and you make a living on that

Those are pretty much your options...

[digileaf]

Thanks Godfather

We've created the product and we're now looking at what we should be offering in our affiliate's toolkit.. i don't want to get the strategy wrong right at the start and upset potential affiliates, by offering resources to them that they don't want or that they feel are unfair or unworkable.

[graphicsgenie]

You can never offer too much to your affiliates, what might not be wanted by 90% might be critical to the other 10%

[TheGodfather]

hm... i just noticed that i said 2 ways but wrote 3 things... talk about over delivering content )

[hleeforum]

Good information

[VinnyBock]

Originally Posted by graphicsgenie

You can never offer too much to your affiliates, what might not be wanted by 90% might be critical to the other 10%

I agree...
The More Promotion Tools You Offer, The More You 'Appeal To The Masses'.