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Do affiliate systems work on all types of products?

by Ryan Butz
8 replies
I'm looking for some advice on selling products online with or without putting an affiliate system in place. A pros and cons type.


Here is my dilemma. I just opened an eCommerce store a little over a month ago and with back linking, adWords, and doing SEO the results aren't converting into much sales for the $$. When I opened the store we did a lot of research on pricing of competitors on over 400 products so I know it's not our prices, but with how long the competition has been around I'm worried it's hard to convert.

I have been looking into affiliate programs such as iDevAff. and think it would be a great way for others to earn commission on selling our products and get repeat customers. My drawback is what if the affiliates make our product or service look like a scam and or negatively impact the branding of the company.

Also my concern is with big sites like clickbank, how easy is it to get new affiliates. Maybe I just don't know of places to promote that your product has an affiliate system to make money on. I did see WF's Affiliate Program Database and was wondering if anyone has had any success with that.

Just looking for everyone's opinions for and against putting your product/services into an affiliate system.

Thanks
#affiliate #affiliate marketing #affiliate systems #branding #ecommerce #products #systems
  • Profile picture of the author RobCopywriter
    Well, It depends on how big of a scale it is on... If your product Is already rather large then affiliates wont really be needed, but with a smaller product then affiliate is a great idea and because the product is only small you don't need to worry about the affiliate promoting it in negative ways.
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  • Profile picture of the author Willie Crawford
    If you are getting traffic to your webpages and it's not converting,
    then your problem probably won't be fixed by getting affiliates. Most
    would send traffic for a short while that wouldn't convert, so they
    would stop.

    I suppose a few affiliates in your niche could generate sales based
    on the strength of their name, regardless of your presence, but it
    sounds like you need to work on your branding or positioning.

    A good copywriter should be able to help you there.

    Look at WHO you are going after as customers and ask if
    that makes sense. Perhaps you should go after a different
    segment of that same market.

    Willie
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    • Profile picture of the author Ryan Butz
      Originally Posted by RobCopywriter View Post

      Well, It depends on how big of a scale it is on... If your product Is already rather large then affiliates wont really be needed, but with a smaller product then affiliate is a great idea and because the product is only small you don't need to worry about the affiliate promoting it in negative ways.
      The product I'm selling is remanufactured toner cartridges. We recently bought the business online as we had been selling the old fashion way of cold calls, sales reps, etc. The margins are good but the prices online are much more competitive. So I guess I would consider our product large. My statistics show that our average order is 279$ with 15% margins. If we put an affiliate system in place at 10% commission that's almost $30.

      Do those statistics help at all?

      Originally Posted by Willie Crawford View Post

      If you are getting traffic to your webpages and it's not converting,
      then your problem probably won't be fixed by getting affiliates. Most
      would send traffic for a short while that wouldn't convert, so they
      would stop.

      I suppose a few affiliates in your niche could generate sales based
      on the strength of their name, regardless of your presence, but it
      sounds like you need to work on your branding or positioning.

      A good copywriter should be able to help you there.

      Look at WHO you are going after as customers and ask if
      that makes sense. Perhaps you should go after a different
      segment of that same market.

      Willie
      I'm not getting that much traffic to my site just yet, but the traffic I do get is converting pretty well. So right now the problem is getting the correct targeted traffic. My thought was affiliates would be able bring in the correct targeted traffic and repeat customers.
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      • Profile picture of the author RobCopywriter
        Okay, I see.. The affiliate program may help you with sales but that is a rather large chunk of money lost because of it meaning it may not be worth it.. I would probably say Don't bother with it unless your desperate, there are much more effective ways of spending the money to get you more sales, good luck.
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      • Profile picture of the author Willie Crawford
        Originally Posted by Ryan Butz View Post

        The product I'm selling is remanufactured toner cartridges. We recently bought the business online as we had been selling the old fashion way of cold calls, sales reps, etc. The margins are good but the prices online are much more competitive. So I guess I would consider our product large. My statistics show that our average order is 279$ with 15% margins. If we put an affiliate system in place at 10% commission that's almost $30.

        Do those statistics help at all?



        I'm not getting that much traffic to my site just yet, but the traffic I do get is converting pretty well. So right now the problem is getting the correct targeted traffic. My thought was affiliates would be able bring in the correct targeted traffic and repeat customers.

        Study your competitors affiliate programs, commission structures,
        etc. and look for weaknesses.

        You don't want to compete on the basis of price... that's generally
        a losing proposition, so also look for ways that your product is better.

        REFUSE to allow it to be perceived as a commodity. Mabye you
        have faster shipping, better customer service, more reliable
        cartridges, etc... but identify some differientiator.

        If your can be better and have a better affililiate program, use
        this free software to identify and recruit your competitors best
        affiliates: http://timic.org/Spider

        Just enter your competitors url into the software and see who
        is linking to them.... often using affiliate links.

        Also, ask if there are ways you can PARTNER with your
        competitors... things that you offer to the same market
        that they don't and vice-versa.

        Willie
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        Click To Go BIG!

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        • Profile picture of the author Ryan Butz
          Originally Posted by Willie Crawford View Post

          Study your competitors affiliate programs, commission structures,
          etc. and look for weaknesses.

          You don't want to compete on the basis of price... that's generally
          a losing proposition, so also look for ways that your product is better.

          REFUSE to allow it to be perceived as a commodity. Mabye you
          have faster shipping, better customer service, more reliable
          cartridges, etc... but identify some differientiator.

          If your can be better and have a better affililiate program, use
          this free software to identify and recruit your competitors best
          affiliates:

          Just enter your competitors url into the software and see who
          is linking to them.... often using affiliate links.

          Also, ask if there are ways you can PARTNER with your
          competitors... things that you offer to the same market
          that they don't and vice-versa.

          Willie
          Thanks for your guidance. Based on my research, none of the competition is using affiliates. Mostly all have tens of thousands of backlinks. It's hard to beat the big players when their advertising budgets are so deep. I thought this would be a different way to get an edge on them that they weren't trying.
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  • Profile picture of the author ephame
    I generally believe that offering an affiliate partnership is generally a good thing and so long as you can offer enough of a commission or incentive would work well, but because you are on an already pretty low margin i.e- 15% I wouldn't suggest it as most companies dealing in affiliate sales and commissions can offer a min of 10-20% as i intend to do for my service.

    As Willie has said focus on something that makes you better there will be something especially seeing you are smaller than your competitors you may be able to offer faster shipping turnaround etc etc..

    Good luck hope you do well
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    • Profile picture of the author Ryan Butz
      Originally Posted by ephame View Post

      I generally believe that offering an affiliate partnership is generally a good thing and so long as you can offer enough of a commission or incentive would work well, but because you are on an already pretty low margin i.e- 15% I wouldn't suggest it as most companies dealing in affiliate sales and commissions can offer a min of 10-20% as i intend to do for my service.

      As Willie has said focus on something that makes you better there will be something especially seeing you are smaller than your competitors you may be able to offer faster shipping turnaround etc etc..

      Good luck hope you do well
      Thank you for your reply, this is a late response but I just saw it.

      I think that we do have a great product with great services like free same day shipping, free shipping over 75$, and a great refund policy on defective products (with less than 1% defective rate). With all of that said, would you suggest focusing all of my efforts on SEO and Adwords campaigns? Or social? or a mix? Just trying to get some advice on best tactics for promoting good products that can't pay afford high commissions.

      Thanks again!
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