What do YOU want from an affiliate network?

I hope I won't sound an evil "give me money now"-affiliate after listing these... I really don't choose what products I promote based on their affiliate programs, but based on the product itself!

Let's just say that these are features that I would want to implement on my own affiliate program.

• Life-time commissions on all of your products
• All of your products tied into one affiliate program
• 2-tier affiliate program (affiliates recruiting affiliates)
• Lots of promotional material and tools (graphics, rebrandable ebooks etc.)
• Beginners would probably appreciate training
• Proof of conversions
• Product variety (low-, mid- and high-ticket products, single payment and memberships etc.)
• Fast payment
• A user-friendly UI
• etc.

As a vendor I'd like:

• Comprehensive tracking and performance stats
• Ability to mass/autopay affiliates
• An escrow/holdback function for potential refunds
• Ability to integrate multiple sites/products
• Easy to set up single sales or recurring sales
• Central administration area
• Template driven system for all pages
• List management/segmentation integrated with aWeber etc.

As an affiliate I'd like:

• Secure/accurate link tracking and stats
• Ability to protect/cloak affiliate links
• Access to affiliate tools and resources
• Ability to offer my own bonuses through the system
• Prompt and timely payments from vendor
• Excellent affiliate support
• No Spam - Keep me on an affiliate list only

John

Affiliate perspective:

• Ample marketing material with a good variety of colors and styles
• Long cookie retention and options for coupon codes
• If there are approval processes they must be quick and allow me to list specific sites for specific products (PITA with GAN)
• Accurate tracking and the more detail the better
• Products search with support to filter by type, commission, time in market

Not a lot I can add really to the above,

I think minimum payment threshholds can be a bit unfair, if you've made a sale, then you should be paid for it no matter how much it is

Also some of the affiliate scripts out there are a bit fiddly, something nice and simple to use (with no bugs), would be good for me

Kim

All of the above is great and I would like to add a few more.

I would like access to communicate with my sub affiliates so I can train them or at least help them out to make money. It helps my earnings in the long run. Most are new and don't have a clue what they are doing. We can pick up the slack in that arena.

I really need to track my referrers. It helps me strengthen my traffic streams or terminate non producing ones so I can focuse my efforts for better efficiency.

The ability to track each link individually so I can find weak spots in my traffic streams.

Custom graphic design if requested.

Custom landing pages if requested. I ran into this with a sponsor who had a killer product but the landing page sucked. They had a lifetime recurring comission model. Their competitor was converting 5 times better but only paid on initial sales. I tried to get them to give better choices on landing pages to no avail. It killed me to see all that money turned away because someone was in love with their design and wouldn't listen to affiliate input.