Any experience with this affiliate program?

by Pam M
7 replies
Hi guys,

Does anyone here know anything about this affiliate program?

Save Big By Group Buying - TogetherSave

I've never seen one structured like this and I'm wondering how it can work. Just curious if there are any members here and if you can explain it or give me more insight.

Thanks!
#affiliate #experience #program
  • Profile picture of the author Barry Walls
    HI Pam

    I'm the CEO of TogetherSave, a venture capital funded demand driven group buying platform...the first of its kind and a huge opportunity for marketers with vision.

    It does have a unique affiliate model...one in which affiliates get a monopoly and build resale equity in the lowest cost supply model possible for millions of the most popular products.

    You can find out more in .

    The video is an hour long, but it has chapter headings at the start so you can navigate to the part that interests you.

    If you have any more questions, please fire away. I'm happy to answer them. Also please note we are still in BETA at this point and have just started the process of bringing in sellers.

    Users are already converting into buyers very nicely!

    Regards

    Barry
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9950506].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author carnaby
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9953075].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Barry Walls
      Hi Carnby

      This is the most frequent question I get from affiliates...so well done for spotting it.

      I have a stock answer prepared for this because I've been through this explanation so many times already with our existing affiliates.

      Getting paid on Amazon is like hitting a bullseye, but getting paid on TogetherSave is like owning a money funnel. Let me explain...

      On Amazon.com, you might get paid a higher percentage, but you get paid less over all.

      1. You don't get paid on sales occuring after 24 hours...the "cookie length" issue
      2. You don't get paid where a coupon site hijacks your hard work and steals the customer (more frequent now than ever)...the "last click" issue.
      3. You don't get paid for the SEO value you add to Amazon
      4. You don't get paid when your customer shares the link with their friend
      5. In a market where you are competing with millions of affiliates, high producing strategies are trade secrets.

      Compare that to TogetherSave

      1. You OWN the product page monopoly on a first come, first served basis with pages allocated in an auction starting at $1.
      2. You get paid on SEO traffic
      3. You get paid on social referrals
      4. No cookie length. You get paid on sales
      5. You own the page and can re-sell it, so you build equity
      6. Users are strongly incentivised to share their pages (more buyers leads to lower prices)
      7. Lower prices usually mean higher conversion rates
      8. By cooperating with, rather than competing against, other affiliates, you can quickly discover the best strategies to drive your income from search, social media and other sources higher

      Lastly, when a product page reaches the point where the OEM is supplying the product direct, you own a portion of every sale through the lowest cost supplier online. They win, you win, the customer wins. It's the end of the process of dis-intermediation.

      On Amazon, you are a small fish in a big pond. On TogetherSave, you own the whole pond which grows over time.

      Regards

      Barry
      Signature

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9953127].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author oniram
    A word about Amazon and SEO -Google ranks Amazon Associates ver very low for product keywords. Google ads and big box stores get top listings and that includes Amazon. I gave up selling Amazon stuff
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9953188].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Barry Walls
      TogetherSave has solved that issue for affiliates by allocating them a monopoly on their product pages.

      Its equivalent to owning a commission stream for a particular product on Amazon...so your pages over time appear high in SERPS.

      It doesn't matter if the traffic comes from search, social or anywhere else, you get paid on all sales through your product pages...with no cookie length and no click hijacking by coupon sites.

      The deal for affiliates has been designed very carefully to make it a no-brainer for them...but its unlike any other affiliate program that's ever existed, so not all affiliates will immedialtely grasp the implications of this model...which is great news for the ones who do.
      Signature

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9957917].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Pam M
    Hi Barry,

    I'm sorry I'm late in thanking you for your response to my question. I appreciate
    your thoroughness and you and the video answered many of my questions.

    I know some people are making a killing on Amazon but I'm not one of them.
    I've had some success with affiliate marketing but frankly, whether it's because
    I'm floundering around (and I've bought 3 "how to be successful as an Amazon
    affiliate" programs) or because of the issues you outlined (the cookie issue, the
    insider affiliate secrets, and especially the outrageous competition) my time has
    been better spent doing other things.

    But...as you can see, I'm still hoping I can figure things out. So, thank you again
    for explaining your program to me.

    Like you said, this is very different so just a few more questions:

    How many of your current product pages are already owned by affiliates?
    Are there plenty of good money-makers left or have they been picked over?

    Do you already have all of these sellers on board? Are the affiliates
    responsible for marketing to the sellers?

    How much longer do you think you'll be in beta? Are you getting a good flow
    of buyer traffic tom the site?

    Do affiliates need to create their own landing pages (product review types) and
    do you supply any marketing tools?

    Let's say I own the monopoly on a smartphone. Is the monopoly only good until
    next year's model is released?

    How are buyers responding to the Automobile category? Would love to get one
    of those productpages. Have you tested the waters with this?

    I have more questions but this post may not be the best place to ask so feel free
    to pm me with answers if you want. Or direct me to where I can read more. I
    appreciate your time and I look forward to your reply.

    Best,
    Pam
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9959073].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Barry Walls
      Hi Pam

      About 500 or 600 product pages are already owned by affiliates. There are new blockbuster products launched every day of the week. Amazon has 100,000 category nodes, each with hot selling products. The supply of great product pages never runs out and has barely begun to been tapped.

      We are still in BETA, at least until we get sellers covering the site. We started that process last week and are in talks with multiple US based retailers and some of the larger eBay sellers. We will be in BETA for many more months I think. It takes some time to integrate the sellers into our systems.

      Affiliates aren't responsible for marketing to sellers. They just drive traffic, like always. We attract sellers through an external and internal broker function.

      The landing pages already exist. Affiliates don't need to build them. We have almost a million product specific landing pages as I speak. They already convert well into orders and we will increase that rate as we move forward.

      As a general rule, if the new edition of a product has a new "unique product code" (UPC), then we will auction it to the highest bidder unless the incumbent affiliate has reached certain performance metrics. We want to reward high producing affiliates. Think of it as our internal "quality score" for the affiliates pages.

      We haven't been marketing specific categories yet, just benchmarking the performance of the site and reaching out to some potential vendors.

      Regards

      Barry
      Signature

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9960449].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author rrakausk
        Hi this intrigues me. Are you saying I can pay to bid to get an exclusive placement on your platform.

        So if I was the Iphone guy and gave you hundreds/thousands for exclusive placement, I am the only Iphone guy on the setup?

        What kind of cost will I pay per product sold, and how much traffic will you guys drive vs what I send myself as a store owner?

        thanks

        Rick
        Signature

        Dominate the front page of Google and local search,
        then explode conversion rates with multivariate testing ...
        http://seoprofitengineers.com
        Spend your ill-gotten gains on a real adventure ...
        http://livehistorytours.com

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9976393].message }}

Trending Topics