Considerations before creating an affiliate program for my software products.

7 replies
Hey all

My website AllRound Invoice - small business invoice software has been up for a few years now. at the moment there is around 500 unique visitors/month and 1500 downloads/month

My advertising consists of uploading PAD-files to various software download sites. this is why there are a lot more downloads than visitors.

Now for the sad news. I see almost no conversion. only around 150 sales total.

This is why I have been considering a number of things.

1. Do a complete redesign of the website, in order to increase conversion rates
2. focus on the web copy already on the existing website. all of which is my own writing and probably not the greatest.
3. joining an affiliate network (perhaps shareasale) but normally I would think my offer of 30-50% affiliate deal would be completely meaningless if I am unable to improve conversion.
4. just let it be and find another product to advertise. a lot of my business have disappeared since the introduction of cloud computing services and mobile apps etc. I still believe that my product is vastly better at the price than any solution available, but it does look a bit outdated and it is stand alone software made for windows only.

Does anyone have a few words of wisdom for me on this subject, or are you able to point me in the right direction as to who would be knowledgeable in my area?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely Henrik Poulsen
#affiliate #considerations #creating #products #program #software
  • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
    Personally I think the site looks nice.

    I'd go and get some affiliate program running first.

    I also think if you compare the unique traffic of 500 to the 150 sales per month that those are actually really good numbers.

    Get some more traffic by getting some affiliates.
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    • Profile picture of the author HenrikPoulsen
      Originally Posted by Jill Carpenter View Post

      Personally I think the site looks nice.

      I'd go and get some affiliate program running first.

      I also think if you compare the unique traffic of 500 to the 150 sales per month that those are actually really good numbers.

      Get some more traffic by getting some affiliates.
      Hi Jill

      Im afraid that the 150 sales was the total. the monthly sales volume were at around 10 last year, but now its more like 4-6 sales/month.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
        Originally Posted by HenrikPoulsen View Post

        Hi Jill

        Im afraid that the 150 sales was the total. the monthly sales volume were at around 10 last year, but now its more like 4-6 sales/month.
        Oops, sorry.

        Perhaps some split testing of some landing pages are in order.

        Where is the traffic coming from btw?
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        • Profile picture of the author HenrikPoulsen
          Originally Posted by Jill Carpenter View Post

          Oops, sorry.

          Perhaps some split testing of some landing pages are in order.

          Where is the traffic coming from btw?
          Perhaps

          Most of the traffic actually comes from the software itself. it contains links to the website.

          This in turn indicates that most of the downloads happen through various websites such as tucows, and download.com etc.

          I would love to see more direct traffic though.
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  • Profile picture of the author HappyLuke
    did you read the article recently posted about the guy doing 1 million a month from his product? might read that one up to see how he is doing it. was on tim ferris blog and someone posted here like 2 days ago.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daryl Green
    Site looks good. I'm not sure what the product has got over an open office invoice template that is free. Eg. Why would someone pay for yours. Need to convince the reader with some extra green tick points. For example: Professional Presentation gives your business the edge. or Better Looking than free templates or something similar. Have a think about what gives this the edge over a free version in a spreadsheet or wordprocessor.
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    • Profile picture of the author HenrikPoulsen
      Originally Posted by Daryl Green View Post

      Site looks good. I'm not sure what the product has got over an open office invoice template that is free. Eg. Why would someone pay for yours. Need to convince the reader with some extra green tick points. For example: Professional Presentation gives your business the edge. or Better Looking than free templates or something similar. Have a think about what gives this the edge over a free version in a spreadsheet or wordprocessor.
      Great advice Daryl

      I'll definitely have to go over the copy on the site (or probably have someone much wiser than me do it )
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