Anyone out there running an affiliate program?

10 replies
Hi everyone.

My name is Steve and this is my first post here on the forum.

My question is to anyone who is currently running an affiliate program for a product they've created:

I am getting ready to launch a product and would like to incorporate an affiliate program. I was going to use Clickbank because I don't think I can get approved for a merchant account at this time.

My issue is that Clickbank doesn't show affiliates the prospect data collected from forms (email, phone, etc.). Instead they just show the name of the customer after the sale.

Because of the nature of my product, it is imperative that my affiliates be able to access the name, email and phone number of those who become prospects and customers.

Does anyone have any clever ideas how I can make this info available to my affiliates while still using clickbank to sell my product?

Thanks in advance for your feedback,
-Steve
#affiliate #program #running
  • Profile picture of the author KristiDaniels
    I'm about to offer the same thing.

    Remember that Clickbank sends the affiliate ID in the ?hop= variable on the URL line.

    You can use that to set your own cookie for the visitor to keep track of what affiliate sent them.

    Then when they provide information that you want to provide to the affiliate, you can store it in a database associated with the cookied affiliate ID.

    Now on the backend, you can have affiliates register with you so you can give them a password associate with their Clickbank ID (because Clickbank doesn't tell you anything about the identity of your affiliates).

    Then in a private area, you can provide the information you collected to that Clickbank affiliate.

    You have to build it yourself, but Clickbank does pass the affiliate ID to you so you can do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveRodgers
    Thanks for the insight Kristi. Do you think there is a way to automate that?

    What I was thinking I could do is take the info from the form fields on my squeeze page and somehow pass that to a back office that is affiliate specific. So when the prospect does make a purchase, the affiliate can take the new customer's name and match it to the prospect info in that back office.

    However I'm only asking for a first name on the squeeze page, so I may get a little hung-up on clearly indicating if customer "Brian Smith" is in fact "Brian" who opted in and then bought at a later date.

    This could be a big problem.

    My reason for bringing this up is that my product tells my customer to only call those who have made a purchase because all others will not be qualified until they do. That's why it's important that the affilites have access to the customer data. I would hate to have to do all of that manually.
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  • Profile picture of the author mrgoldfinder
    I believe Clickbank does give that information once someone has paid for the product. Check your 'Payment report'
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveRodgers
    Thanks Mr.Goldfinger.

    I am not currently registered with clickbank as a vendor. I contacted their support team and was told that affiliates only have access to the name of the customer. I need my affiliates to have access to contact information as well. If I can't do that through clickbank then I won't use them to market my product.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheNightOwl
    Hi Steve

    Is that actually legal? Is it not a breach of privacy from the vendor?

    I'm not saying it is because I don't actually know.

    My first reaction was that I'd be a bit concerned if the affiliate who referred me had access to all my personal details.

    Is this a normal practice in online business?
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveRodgers
    Nightowl,

    I don't want my affiliates to have access to all of the customer data. Only the contact information. After all, the customer is really the affiliate's customer so I would like them to be able to contact their new customer. After all, they placed the ad that got the click, that got the sale.

    I am actually a member of an affiliate program that allows this. It is very useful. Otherwise I would be the only one with the contact info and that wouldn't be helpful to my affiliates.
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  • Profile picture of the author KristiDaniels
    Most people do look at it the other way around.

    They expect the affiliate to try to get the contact information before sending them along to your site.

    That is the standard way of doing things in the current affiliate marketing environment.

    But, who is to say that is the best way?

    Yes. It could be done automatically. Clickbank passes the affiliate ID as the ?hop= parameter on the URL link. You can cookie that and associate any visitor data you gather with the affiliate ID and give selected data back to the affiliate in a secure area created for affiliates.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveRodgers
    I really like your idea Kristi. Not sure how I would work that out though. I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination.

    Is that a relatively easy function for a qualified programmer to get done?
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  • Profile picture of the author KristiDaniels
    I'm no programmer either.

    I don't know how easy it will be. I'm planning to put it on rentacoder in January.

    My best guess is that it will be about a $400-$600 job.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveRodgers
    I totally understand what you are saying about the affiliates gathering their own contact info. It's actually something I recommend in my product.

    However the people I'm marketing to are not internet marketers. I am kind of giving them a clear path to solve a specific problem by using internet marketing (although they don't know that's what I'm teaching them).

    While they are learning to create their own system from me, I would like them to be able to use my already existing system as an affiliate. That's why it's important for me to pass the customer's contact info to my very green affiliates.

    I want them to collect a paycheck, but more importantly to have a new contact.
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