Affiliate Programs - Good Or Bad?
By Leon Brickey
Posted Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Affiliate programs are very popular these days despite the fact that some of the so called "gurus" have recommended that you not join other folks' affiliate programs, but create your own. After thinking about this long and hard, and doing some investigating I've come to a conclusion.
HOGWASH!
I just can't see it that way.
Here is what I've discovered. I didn't find one single webmaster that stated this opinion in their articles, ezines, or websites that was not promoting an affiliate program of their own, someone else's affiliate program, or both.
Now don't misunderstand me. Your own affiliate program is a great idea if you've got a new/updated idea, you have at least moderate technical knowledge to set it up properly, and some cash to promote
it aggressively. ( A few hundred dollars a month minimal.) Otherwise, I'm convinced you are better off promoting a well-established affiliate program of someone else's that pays a generous commission.
Allow me go into more detail to show you why this is true.
- Credibility
Not meaning to talk down to ANYBODY, but most of us don't have the credibility in business to make hundreds, much less thousands of people feel compelled to join our organization. There are so many scams online that I often wonder if ANYBODY gets a paycheck in some of these fly-by-night programs. I'm sure most marketers who have been online for any length of time have the same thoughts as they read some of these advertisements. If there is one thing that has been exploited "to the max" on the internet is the anonymity that it offers; especially if you have any technical expertise. You just can't tell who you are dealing with often times.
However if you are involved in an associate/affiliate program from a company like AIS Media, PrePaid Legal, Amazon, Corey Rudl, Internet Marketing Challenge, E-bay, Virtualis, or dozens of others they actually
lend you THEIR credibility. Then you can make make bold, attention grabbing statements as you advertise with confidence!
Why?
Because the above mentioned companies have the credibility, finances, technical expertise, and staff to make good on their promises. A new affiliate program from a struggling new marketer usually doesn't have
these resources when starting out.
- Your own affiliate program could make a SLAVE out of you!
IF IT'S YOUR BUSINESS; YOU HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF IT!
That means you answer the phone.
Sort and respond to your email.
Set-up and update web pages.
Take care of team mailings.
Maintain your merchant account.
(ie. see that you and your organization get paid, ON TIME.)
Support and troubleshoot questions and problems from your organization.
AND advertise/market your program.
Which of the above tasks does your business pay you to do?
Only one I'll bet!
Your business pays you to ADVERTISE/MARKET. This is what draws traffic; thereby generating sales and recruits.
Now why would you want to take on all these other tasks when you can have a great company pay you to advertise and that's all.
If you think you are going to make $100, 000 a year online by promoting/ advertising your business 5 or 10 hours a week think again. And to be honest, if you have all the above tasks to do by yourself, you may not
even have that much time for marketing your business.
See what I'm saying?
If you have a good, solid affiliate program all you have to invest in it is your actual advertising time and money. Whether you invest 10, 20, 30, 40, or 100 hours per week you are doing what your business pays you to do.
When promoting a well-established affiliate program you can focus your efforts toward promotion right from the start, thereby making a profit your first month or two.
With your own affiliate program you will most likely not see a profit for yourself the first few months unless you are fortunate enough to recruit Jim Daniels, Sanford Wallace, Dr. Jeffrey Lant, or someone like that.
(Good luck!)
But Leon! Won't I make more money with my own program?
Maybe, or maybe not.
Certainly NOT if the program doesn't succeed.
But Leon, if I have my own affiliate program I get paid on what everybody in my organization sells. Right?
True, but if you are in someone else's affiliate program or MLM (they're all really considered MLM by the people that monitor these companies)you get paid your sales as well as your organization's sales. The depth to which you get paid on can vary tremendously from two tiers below you to INFINITY! Really no different than your own program would pay you but, with a small fraction of the headaches.
One more quick point as I prepare to close this article out.
- Commissions
This is very, VERY important.
If you join a typical two-tier affiliate program make sure you get a sizable portion of the ticket price for what you are selling.
If you are selling a $29.95 item and you can make 25-30%, you will only make about $10 at most on your sales and less than that on your sub-affiliate's sales. You're going to have to make thousands and thousands of sales to make any significant money. However if you've got a program that will pay you $50-$75 or more on your sales and $20-$30 on your sub-affiliates sales, it's MUCH easier for you to
make an appreciable amount of money.
To be honest, I've tried quite a few affiliate programs and I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not going to send anyone from my website or ezine to someone else's website for the hope of a $10 commission. Nothing personal, but I'm just not going to do it.
The larger MLM pay plans that pay deeper are more complicated. You can learn to recognize the better ones to an extent, but I've never talked to anyone in one of these larger programs who understood every
single aspect of the compensation plan when they first started. Often these include pay variations for training, promotions, override bonuses, etc. You can see the money, but you just don't understand where it all comes from. Hopefully you are dealing with a company with good credibility so you can have a little faith in them.
Your own affiliate program is a great idea especially if you meet the criteria mentioned earlier in this article.
But someone elses affiliate program can be equally or MORE profitable if you choose one:
a) offering products and services home business owners want.
b) with excellent credibility.
c) that offers at LEAST a $40 to $50 commission on your sales.
Then place 100% of your efforts into marketing and team building. And leave the headaches to someone else.
BEST OF LUCK!
Leon Brickey
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