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Is This Acceptable, Or Stingy, For A Merchant?

by Dominican
8 replies
Basically, a merchant client of mine, gets most of her traffic from affiliates. As a merchant, she sends out a "welcome" email after each sale, which contains the download link to her products/up-sells- once people have confirmed/opted in.

This particular merchant has quite a few up-sells, which affiliates get a 100% back-end commission on. I have tested the conversions, and found that there is a very high conversion rate for up-sells, with this merchants' products, compared to other products in the same market niche/industry.

That being said, the conversion is 10%, for the sales letter, and over 50% in email- so we are not dealing with a poorly executed product either. I have noticed that a lot of her affiliates are extremely happy, and often comment on the conversions they get, especially with the up-sells.

What my client is thinking of, now, however, is to create another selling tier- where on the welcome email, she gives the links to download the products purchased, but *ALSO* pitches another product opportunity, which in this case is going to be a 30-Day Challenge course.

She wants to take 100%, of the sales, for this course, at this stage; but she doesn't want to tarnish her relationship with her affiliates, because she has worked hard to keep them happy with her product sales funnels.

I personally, would not really see an issue with this- because at this stage, the mail-out would be going to people who are on on her list anyway- as in this is now HER list.

However, would an affiliate think that this is stingy and greedy- for a merchant to take 100% of a further up-sell, in a "welcome email", with download links?

Is that tacky? I am thinking of both sides here, however, from a selling angle, a further tiered up-sell, does not sound bad to me- but that's just me. I'd like to know what the masses think, yay, or nay?
#acceptable #merchant #stingy
  • Profile picture of the author Willie Crawford
    I don't see it as stingy, but it depends to an extent what promised
    and expectations she has made/set with affiliates. If past actions
    and testimonials lead affiliates that they will benefit from followup
    emails, then that should probably continue to happen????

    Willie
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    Originally Posted by Dominican View Post

    She wants to take 100%, of the sales, for this course, at this stage; but she doesn't want to tarnish her relationship with her affiliates, because she has worked hard to keep them happy with her product sales funnels.
    If her affiliates are getting her the traffic, I think that every sale that is made should be shared with her affiliates.

    If they find out that she will keep all the commissions to herself with one particular product, there is a good chance that they will look elsewhere and tarnish the relationship that they have with her.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dominican
      Originally Posted by talfighel View Post

      If her affiliates are getting her the traffic, I think that every sale that is made should be shared with her affiliates.

      If they find out that she will keep all the commissions to herself with one particular product, there is a good chance that they will look elsewhere and tarnish the relationship that they have with her.
      Are you, in essence, stating that- every single sale that comes from a buyer, that an affiliate has sent a merchant- should be split between the merchant and affiliate? Even if, the affiliate has done no more work, except to bring the initial sale- and any future sale, actually came from work that the merchant did, to keep this client as a long term buyer?

      I disagree with this. Quite a few people here, agree more with the idea that the initial sale, is probably what the affiliate should be paid for, and I do agree with that- I also agree with a back end, that gives an affiliate a chance to earn more per customer they rake in.

      However, it does start to sound a bit odd, if a merchant has to start giving out a percentage of other sales they make in the future, from their own lists.

      Something that sticks out strongly in my mind, is that the buyer is STILL purchasing the merchant's service/product/course at the end of the day... this is not the affiliates' product.

      This is the merchant's product. This is therefore the merchants' buyer/audience, once they make a purchase... not the affiliates' audience. If the affiliate wants the audience, then they too should be working on opt ins, before they even send a sale over.

      But if they convert that audience member over to the merchant, does that audience not then become the merchants' to do with, as they now wish?

      How does this audience still remain the property of the affiliate, at this point? The affiliate is there to drive the traffic, and get the front end sales....

      ??
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  • Profile picture of the author joaquin112
    I would never do that to my affiliates, but I have found that many ClickBank vendors do it. It's definitely not unethical or stingy as the vendor never mentioned that all the revenue from all the upsells and promotions would be shared with the affiliates. On the other hand, I think she's missing from more long term revenue by not sharing more money with her affiliates. As Willie Crawford mentioned, it also has to do with the expectations that she set with her affiliates.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dominican
      Originally Posted by joaquin112 View Post

      I would never do that to my affiliates, but I have found that many ClickBank vendors do it. It's definitely not unethical or stingy as the vendor never mentioned that all the revenue from all the upsells and promotions would be shared with the affiliates. On the other hand, I think she's missing from more long term revenue by not sharing more money with her affiliates. As Willie Crawford mentioned, it also has to do with the expectations that she set with her affiliates.
      What I find interesting about this, is that she is already giving them a majority of the front end, then on the back end she's giving them 100%- so then for the third tier, if she wants to start taking this for herself, for a list that she will be selling other things to, outside of the affiliates anyway... why does that suddenly become a bad thing?

      She has more than treated her affiliates well, especially since she constantly works on upgrading her sales pages, and up-sells, to ensure that the conversion rates stay consistent and with the times.

      I personally have only heard good things from the affiliates as noted, but she is paranoid that if she finally rakes in her list to sell something directly herself, now, that this will cost her the relationships she has with affiliates.

      I however, think that affiliates are pretty flexible, and they have already stated that they are happy with the funnel as it is. I know that other merchants sell to the buyers affiliates send in, so I had a little giggle, at just how serious she was taking it.

      But again, her affiliates mean a great deal to her. She does want to do both know, she wants to direct sell, but still keep her affiliates.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    If it's in the welcome emails then I don't see a problem. Plenty of products nowadays do this exact same thing. Affiliates get their cut of the initial funnel meaning the front end products and any upsells/downsells. Any sales that take place after that the vendor gets to keep.

    There are ofcourse some exceptions to the rule, those who pay lifetime commissions on every single product they release. But they are the minority not the majority. So long as she is clear in what the affiliates will be getting a cut of then she is fine to sell whatever she likes to her customers after the initial sale. That's why we build lists and give away commissions so we can make our money on the backend products.
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    • Profile picture of the author bretski
      As an affiliate, I wouldn't have a problem with it as many above have stated. It's a lot more honest than what many vendors try to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author zeroaffiliate
    I don't see any problem to this. As mentioned from WillR, the affiliate had took their cut. The list is her for her to do anything with it. Of course, the affiliate will be happy if there is additional revenue , this will push the affiliate to push more people to you. I think it up to the business model you had in mind.
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