how to run wso without making affiliates mad?

by 60MinuteAffiliate

Posted: 13 years ago 13 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi there everyone,

i just have a relatively simple question. I have a lot of affiliates that promote my wordpress review theme. I've not run a permanent wso for the theme in a very long time, however, I would like to be able to without annoying my affiliates.

I'd love to hear suggestions for how I might be able to do that?? my main site is Wordpress Review Theme | Niche Review Themes

it's been downloaded over 1100 times and people really love it. If there's a way i could run a permanent wso without annoying anyone I'd love the opportunity to do that.

regards and thanks for your time

Colleen

#affiliates #mad #making #run #wso

Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago

Hi Colleen,

I see the problem.

I think there's an inherent conflict, because the WSO rules require the price here to be lower than elsewhere, but clearly no serious affiliates want to promote a product which has an alternative sales page elsewhere, let alone one asking a lower price than they're promoting it for? I admit I'd be pretty appalled, as an affiliate, if the vendor tried undercutting me, certainly.

I imagine most would?

I think you can have affiliates for a WSO, if you do it through DigiResults, for example? But I don't see how this solves your basic problem ... :confused:

Will be interested to see others' replies!
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- oneplusone 13 years ago
  
  Well you could run it as a WSO, but offer only a 1 or 2% discount or something.
  
  A discount that nobody (including affiliates) would be that bothered about.
  
  As far as I know, there isn't any rule saying you've got to have a minimum discount to run a WSO.
  
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- Kay King 13 years ago
  
  Seems like one of those cases where you can't have it all. A long running WSO will have you underselling your own affiliates and that may not go over well.
  
  I can only speak for myself but if a seller undercut the price I was allowed to offer as an affiliate - I would no longer be an affiliate for that seller.
  
  If affiliate sales have gone flat - it might make sense to stop the affiliate program for the product and run the WSO instead.
  
  kay
  
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oda 13 years ago

As an affiilate that has raved about vendors doing this before I would like to throw in my 2 cents to this discussion.

I have been on the end of a few products that are suddenly discounted or an alternate sales page shows up at a discount price. Its a real pain in ar$e

In My opinion as long as you keep your affiliates informed of whats happening and also give them the opportuntiy to join in the action and make some sales and commissions.

I will assume most of your affiliates make very few sales regularly so they would relish the opportunity to promote such a great product at a discounted rate and have more opportunity to sell and make commission.

They need to be told that yes the commission per sale would be lower but the opportunity to incease volume is way better than losing a few bucks per sale.

walk the affliate through the launch process and give them some time to get ready for the launch so thay have maximum opportunity to run with it. make them a part of the entire process and they will love it. (I would)

If your using Digresults then that won't be hard as you can create a variant and let the affiliates get there own link and promote that. WSP pro affiliates are already paying thier small fee so they can get on board easy just by grabbing the link from thier affilaite area.

In short, You can do this as long as you keep the affilaites informed and give them first bite of the cherry and the opportunity to join in the fun.

Communication is key I believe and most affiliates will be happy for the chance as long as they know about it.

Yes some will get P'd off and leave, that is inevitable when you change anything. I have put prices up and been abused, I have put prices down and been abused.

The majority though in My opinion will jump on board.

Even have a small affiliate competition or rewards program that they can get excited about and I believe you will be fine.

On a side note, I can't believe who I just gave advice too, Please don't hurt me.... LoL. Admirer of your work and products and it was pleasure listening to you speak at TNM a coupla weeks ago. Its nice to see more and more aussies out there.

ODA
Justin
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CraigRC 13 years ago

1+1 has the only solution that's I can think of off-hand, just offer a slightly lower discount in the WSO versus retail, -20% max, and no affiliate will have a problem with it.

You sound like you're wanting to go for a massive price decrease, likely -50% or more, which of course is abolutely necessary for a WSO to be successful at the prices you sell the theme at, but I can't find a way to make that happen without alienating your existing affiliate base.

Even if you use the direct communication tactic Oda mentioned above, it's still going to create a problem if the price break is as big as you're hinting at.

Tough one.
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Alex Frei

13 years ago

I would repackage the product.
Add something or remove something and slash the price.
The products will not be identical, so there should be less problems with affiliates.
I would do that if I absolutely had to sell a WSO.

Or I would do as oda suggests

Thanks
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AllanWard

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alex Frei

This is exactly what I'd suggest. Make the two offers different.

Either:

Create a stripped down version of the product to sell as a WSO, or
Add more to the 'standard' product. If you selling a theme are there other products / guides etc you can add for free to customers introduced by affiliates?

Another idea - it wouldn't hurt to have a conversation with your key affiliates. Find out who your biggest affiliates are and see how they feel about your WSO ideas. Maybe an option is to run the WSO at a 20% discount, but also offer your affiliates a 20% discount code for a limited time to promote to their lists. The other question to ask is whether the WSO is reaching the same people that your affiliates are targeting. If they're different audiences and you'll pick up new customers that your affiliates would never have reached, there may not be a problem.

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CDarklock

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alex Frei

I would repackage the product.

This.

Let's say you have some great WP themes with the PSDs included for, say, $30.

Put up the same themes WITHOUT the PSDs as a WSO for $20.

Have an upsell on the back end for the full-blown theme with PSDs at $30.

Continue to run all of this through your affiliate program so your affiliates can still drive traffic and make commissions.

Everyone is happy, nobody gets mad.

Thanks
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Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Continue to run all of this through your affiliate program so your affiliates can still drive traffic and make commissions.

Everyone is happy, nobody gets mad.

Apart from customers who buy both, not knowing that they're the same thing in different wrappings?

The ones who want a refund will naturally want a refund of the more expensive version, and by definition that's the Clickbank one, which, again, is bad for affiliates.

But this is still probably the least bad suggestion for the vendor? You just have to be willing to pay a refund or two, and make appropriate placatory noises if anyone complains? Far from ideal, but maybe it can work. I wouldn't fancy it, myself, I admit.

Thanks
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AUKev 13 years ago

Great responses here. Another thought would be to come up with a bonus or multiple bonuses to give to your affiliates. You offer a WSO, for a 25% discount without any bonuses and your affiliates sell for full price with bonuses. If a potential customer sees both offers, they can decide which route to take.

I do like the idea from CDarklock of offering a stripped down version for the WSO with an OTO for the additional parts to make it full price. I think everybody wins in this case.
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CDarklock 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Apart from customers who buy both, not knowing that they're the same thing in different wrappings?

Given that I'm talking about WP themes, and that I'm doing so because that's what the OP is known for, I expect that there will be preview screenshots of the themes.

And if the customer doesn't know he already has it from the screenshot, I suspect he won't realise it after buying, either.
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"The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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- Michael Shook 13 years ago
  
  Without presuming on OP original reason for having affiliates, a common reason for ahving affilaites is to make more money for your business. I suspect there are other reasons for having affiliate programs, branding, helping other people get started with an existing successful product.
  
  If the goal is to make more money using systems instead of one off sales, maybe an idea other than running a WSO would work as well. Raising the price of the product, offering a special incentive to affiliates who maintain a particular volume, or maybe even eliminating the affiliate program altogether.
  
  I suspect. though, that any change will result in some folks doing something different in their affiliate businesses.
  
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  AFI 13 years ago
  
  As one of your actual affiliates who makes HUNDREDS of dollars a month actually selling this theme for you....yeah I'd feel a bit slighted if the actual vendor cut me in price on the deal.
  
  I've already got people who just go right to your site after I tell them the name of the theme and buy it without using my code. I don't need them running to your WSO too.
  
  Anyway I still love you Colleen. We're good.
  
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how to run wso without making affiliates mad?

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