Do private affiliate programs earn your trust?

I think it comes down to what you have heard from other people about the owner of that product. You can't really ever be sure that they will pay you, so there is always a risk.

But for me, I promote products using private affiliate systems all the time. I may not know the marketer personally myself, but they have either been recommended by someone else, or I can see that if they do not deliver, it won't look good on them.

That's the other issue, I would "assume" most marketers would care about their reputation, so that itself would help me to feel better in promoting their product.


Hope that helps,
- Joel Osborne

more than some 'mainstream' ones

I trust instant-payment scripts like RAP and 7DS far MORE than I trust Clickbank, CJ, and many others. They pay you IMMEDIATELY.

(Use the search function here to learn more.)

I've had lots of credits through CJ get "lost", and it seems like every few months people here are documenting problems with Clickbank failing to credit sales properly.

If that's what you call "Safe", then stick with it.

Anyway, the shopping cart itself isn't the issue. There are lots of vendors who fail to pay affiliates now and then.

If you're getting paid instantly, then you have to agree to issue refunds when requested. It's not a big issue. The alternative is to wait 60-90 days to get paid for today's sales.

What works best for you?

-David

Lisa, we use private affiliate programs a lot, yes.

What we are looking for is:

(a) payout timeframe - everything over 6 weeks is a definite no-no

(b) are they reachable (we email first + also call if a phone number is available [a big plus]

(c) are there any negative reviews on the web? (if no reviews, that's okay, negative reviews though... warning sign)

(d) also, have we tried the product?

It just gives you an idea, but is hopefully helpful.

Good luck with your promotions!


PS: We pay our affiliates twice a week - it's how we would like to be paid as affiliates (fast), so we do it. No problems (with only a few exceptions), we trust our affiliates and they trust us in return.

Lisa,
When I set up Affiliate Buddha, I was initially a greedy S.O.B, who wanted to get paid for setting up the system.

I would never not pay an affiliate on purpose, but I do realize that there are going to be some things beyond my control, which may affect payouts. Specifically, the script I am using is Fantasos, and it has been known to have one or two hiccups from time to time, and since I do not own the server, I can't always guarantee up-time, or that a referral will be "counted".

That being said, if any such problems ever came up, I would do my best to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Still, nobody knows me. I have been online for some time now, but I have barely made any ripple in the public consciousness.

So, what can I do to overcome the natural skepticism? Especially when something as important as making money is involved?

I decided to forget about trying to make it a paid membership site first of all. A failed WSO cured me of that real quick.

I decided the best way to go about it, would be to make it a free site, and to offer 100% commissions when I could.

I also set up a system where people could promote opt-in pages, and re-brand those pages with their Clickbank ID's. Then we could share in the money made on future promotions to that list.

I also realized that full transparency would be the only way to overcome the trust barrier. I am completely open and honest about my intention to make my income from the back-end of the affiliate sales, and that way I can "afford" to give 100% on the front.

And yes, it was that transparency which compelled me to create additional items where the affiliates also get a share of the back-end. I did not want to be accused of throwing open the curtain, only to say "No, you are not allowed behind the curtain."

Yes, sharing potential income with people makes me sick to my entrepreneurial stomach. But what else am I going to do? Become a misanthropic miser?

The last element, is that the system is set up, so that if a person has a Business or Premier Paypal account, they can set things up so they get paid directly. The sale itself will go through their account, and as mentioned above, as long as the affiliate agrees to honor any legitimate refund requests, everything is basically "hands-off" on my part. (Once I have added the product or membership site to the system.)

Thus, full transparency, plus giving away as much as possible, plus the ability to earn 100% commissions, plus immediate direct payment to the affiliate, are how I have answered your question.

Even though I have a number of different items, and I am adding more all the time, I think those same things would apply to the owner of a single product. The single product owner would perhaps not be able to offer 100% commissions to their affiliates, but if they were to offer as much as possible, and then set it up for instant payments of any commissions earned, that would go a long way towards creating trust.

That, and follow through on all their promises.

If you remember that you are not dealing with affiliate programs, but rather the people behind the programs, and see whether or not they measure up to your criteria, you can't go very wrong.

Very good posts so far.

Calvin

Thank-you for all the posts so far. I've really learned a lot about the mindset behind what people are looking for in affiliate programs.

It seems a recurring theme is to pay-out early and not wait past the refund date and that makes sense. Awesome so far, if anyone else has opinions please add to these.

Thanks,

Lisa

This is a great question. I find it depends on the relationship to the company that you have. For larger, more established businesses, one would want to use a third-party to broker affiliate payments and tracking to ensure integrity. On the other hand, there's also processing time to receive those payments.

Just my opinion, though. I don't have any numbers to say otherwise.