Referral Program vs Affiliate Program

by 10 replies
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With so many online marketers here, I wanted to know which one you guys preferred over the other.

Referral program - one time payout for new referral.
Ex: $100 one time check for each new client you bring on board.

Affiliate program - residual commission that you receive on a monthly basis
Ex: 25% of each transaction, every month.

Which do Warriors prefer, and why?

I'm personally new to this, but I want to make sure as I get into online marketing that I get into the right field.

Help a new girl out
#main internet marketing discussion forum #affiliate #program #referral
  • I hate to say it because I hate to hear it, but: You will probably have to test between the two.

    I used to promote Poker sites back when it was legal. It all depends on the "staying power" of the subscription model. I tried the monthly for a while and it seemed like the players didn't play very long. They either got bored with it, ran out of money or lost too many times so they decided it was rigged and quit playing. I should have stayed with the sign on bonus.

    I would go with the one time bonus. The first link in my sig is an affiliate program that pays both. It is nice to build a residual income.
  • The answer for me depends on the product. Does the shine wear off quickly, making cancellation likely? If so, definitely referral program.

    If the offer gets people wrapped in so it's a pain to cancel or transfer service (like many autoresponder services), then affiliate is the way to go.

    If it's two options for the same product/service, use your best judgement or see if you can get any recurring sales stats. Hopefully, you can adjust later if needed.
  • Thanks for the responses! Looks like the referral program is taking the lead, anyone doing an affiliate program want to chime in?

    Would like to definitely get feedback from both sides.
    • [1] reply
    • I do both quite heavily, because they each have specific advantages, and can complement each other in a fully integrated money making machine. For example, building niche lists is easy using affiliate products, then adding recurring payment affiliate products for stability, and finally promoting high end referral products into the mix for maximizing income. There is no reason for promotions to necessarily be mutually exclusive of these types of programs.
  • I read a "stat" somewhere, so this is unsubstantiated as I can't prove it with a nifty link, that said the average 'member' stays for 5 months. But it is product dependent.

    I think I prefer to take my money and run, the residual stuff only works for some products.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      I prefer whichever one pays me more, and I'd want to see evidence of how many months the average customer stays. Not that my customers would necessarily be "average customers" at all, but you have to start from something objective and verifiable. (And for myself, if it were something not yet old enough to know that, I wouldn't be able to assess it well enough to promote it at all).

      My only knowledge of this comes from ClickBank products/services with recurring monthly payments, where the average is certainly far less than 5 months. (I'm not suggesting that "makes your information wrong", needless to say).
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  • Sounds like the consensus so far has been referral program over affiliate program?
  • I've been running the recurring option on a lot of my sites and it seems to be the most popular. It ends up making them more over time and people really like getting paid repeatedly for one sale initially. Plus it allows you to not have to start at zero every month which is nice.
  • So affiliate if you can count on residual / one time shot if you don't feel like the clients will stay is what I'm getting.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      As an affiliate, I want to know - before deciding whether or not to promote it and get my reputation (my business's most valuable asset) attached to it - how long people stay subscribed for. If they drop out quickly, then I won't be promoting it at all, obviously, because the customers aren't perceiving its value well.

      If they are, then depending on how long, and what the payments are, I'd want to work out which is more profitable, I suppose. Most affiliates would, surely?

      In reality, we don't have a choice, and either accept what the vendor's offering or find something else to promote.

      But a "recurring" product/service with people mostly dropping out and failing to renew quite quickly is certainly very off-putting, however you look at it.
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