Thanks Linda. I've used a different affiliate software product in the past and it was horrible, but since you mentioned idev, we'll definitely check that out.
As for whether or not to build it in-house: As an owner of a Custom Software Development firm, I could debate this ad-nauseum.
I think Word isn't the best analogy because it's a generic product for a very matured industry, where affiliate market software is a not nearly as matured. Think of it this way: yes, I would definitely use Word to write a memo, fax, short-story, or white-paper, but there are other products out there that lawyers use to compose contracts, and publishers use to manage content. And some law firms and publishers custom build their own software so it's tailored perfectly for their businesses (we just created a 30K newsletter creation tool in fact). The main argument against custom software is the expense, but since I have a team of 5 custom software developers on my payroll, it's more an issue of priority, rather than expense for my firm.
That said, yes, getting a huge cheap code-base for free is great, but either you have to (A) use it as is, with all the unnecessary features, to enjoy the benefits of what has been fully QA'd or (B) tweak and adapt it and, believe me, it goes to s--t sometimes then.
A final element to the whole decision is this: Our main product is billing and tracking software, so the affiliate data can actually be loaded into that system. Using our system for the affiliates themselves is a marketing boost for us because it will expose our product to a very desirable audience.
Thanks for you advice on idev. Would you recommend we check any other products in particular?
-Aaron
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