Please advise negotiating affiliate fee with manufacturer
TLDR of entire post: I have worked my way into a good relationship with a manufacturer of a very good product in my niche that I am enthusiastic to represent as an affiliate. They don't have an affiliate program and luckily I was able to build a good and genuine relationship first and then after a while I explained how I could help them get sales, and they like the idea. I don't know their profit margin on the $103 product which ships internationally but need to determine my asking rate for my affiliate fees. Please offer advice for picking a % fee to ask them for. More info below which will help if you have time to read...
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The situation is a bit interesting because I am in the USA and they are in Hong Kong. Also, I am kind of doing a weird hybrid thing which is sort of affiliate but sort of not....I am creating a website specifically for the product (though it's not the "official website") and am going to drive traffic to it via content, social media ads, etc. Then they will drop ship the product. I'm a bit freaked out by this because it's not the typical affiliate system where I would simply refer sales to them, (so I'm not sure of the legal implications) but it's the best thing I could work out under the current circumstances since they don't have or want to build a website or have any idea how to do much of this stuff. I took it upon myself to help them out and they are enthusiastic about the whole thing.
I am trying to decide what affiliate rate to ask for since they are asking me about it. I don't want to ask for too much and risk turning them off, but I don't want to ask for too little and have all of my time and marketing not really be worth it. I am kind of over my head right now but I am pushing beyond my comfort zone and taking chances that could be life-changing. The product is likely to be able to sell quite well if the marketing is done right (I'll do my best)
One other thing I am trying to keep in mind is that there might be other benefits in the future from the relationship, in that they potentially could manufacture some of my own product ideas and I could get royalties - however this is not at all guaranteed and I have no idea if that will pan out, so I don't want to put a huge weight on that factor. It's just something to consider when deciding how much to ask for in the current affiliate deal, since "money now" isn't the only thing that matters.
The product sells for $103 USD and then shipping depends on where the customer is located worldwide - it's usually quite a hefty shipping charge considering it goes international and is a decently sized product. Unfortunately I have no idea what their profit margin is for this product so I can't easily determine how much of a fee would be outrageous vs reasonable
Please help!
Full Post
The situation is a bit interesting because I am in the USA and they are in Hong Kong. Also, I am kind of doing a weird hybrid thing which is sort of affiliate but sort of not....I am creating a website specifically for the product (though it's not the "official website") and am going to drive traffic to it via content, social media ads, etc. Then they will drop ship the product. I'm a bit freaked out by this because it's not the typical affiliate system where I would simply refer sales to them, (so I'm not sure of the legal implications) but it's the best thing I could work out under the current circumstances since they don't have or want to build a website or have any idea how to do much of this stuff. I took it upon myself to help them out and they are enthusiastic about the whole thing.
I am trying to decide what affiliate rate to ask for since they are asking me about it. I don't want to ask for too much and risk turning them off, but I don't want to ask for too little and have all of my time and marketing not really be worth it. I am kind of over my head right now but I am pushing beyond my comfort zone and taking chances that could be life-changing. The product is likely to be able to sell quite well if the marketing is done right (I'll do my best)
One other thing I am trying to keep in mind is that there might be other benefits in the future from the relationship, in that they potentially could manufacture some of my own product ideas and I could get royalties - however this is not at all guaranteed and I have no idea if that will pan out, so I don't want to put a huge weight on that factor. It's just something to consider when deciding how much to ask for in the current affiliate deal, since "money now" isn't the only thing that matters.
The product sells for $103 USD and then shipping depends on where the customer is located worldwide - it's usually quite a hefty shipping charge considering it goes international and is a decently sized product. Unfortunately I have no idea what their profit margin is for this product so I can't easily determine how much of a fee would be outrageous vs reasonable
Please help!
