Private Internet Marketing Contract

[openearth]

Hello,

So I was approached to be a private internet marketer for a relatively big and successful company with very little internet presence and I had a question.

The deal is that for every new customer I bring in I will get 3% commissions from this customer for life. I will be selling hard products in the health supplement niche, so I think this is pretty fair...

I will also have a beginning budget of about $100,000, so I won't need to spend any of my own money.

My main concern is that since I will be working with the company's main site which is not very SEO friendly... And as I improve the SEO of the site I end up competing against my own work translating into a conflict of interest.

Anyone have ideas on the best way to handle this? I thought about constructing a completely new site, but this seems like a waste of time and money. I'm thinking more along the lines of requesting a salary on top of the commissions.

Thank you in advance for any ideas you might have...

DJ

[Ron Bechdolt]

Most outsourced affiliate managers work on salary plus commission. Some work on commission with bonuses for meeting certain sales goals.

Some merchants are hesitant to pay a salary before they see results, but if this firm has dedicated $100K for this and reached out to you, then that should not be an issue.

I would be cautious about the 3% for life. That can be a hard bonus to offer during slow times for the company. I'd get it in writing and that if the company ever sells, that agreement continues on to the new owners.

Just my thoughts....

[openearth]

Hi Ron,

That's great advice. Any idea on how I would come up with a figure for a salary? Obviously it would be based on performance and time commitment.

My first idea is to figure out roughly how much profit I can make the company and figure 10% for my salary as a start. Is this reasonable?

Cheers,

DJ

[john43]

3% is not a large percentage at all. It would sure help if the figure was higher. The more SEO friendly the site is, the better. You say you have a budget of $100,000. It would make sense for you to buy an existing site for some very cheap price, instead of making your own site yourself from scratch. Good luck.

[Ron Bechdolt]

Sorry, I missed your last question. Often what I do is determine what percentage of the sale the merchant is willing to pay out. That would be the total part of the sale they are willing to spare. Then, I divide that up basically three ways:

How much goes to the network running the affiliate program.
How much do we really need to pay the affiliate to make this program competitive with similar programs.
What's left for my company to promote and manage the program.

If you come up short for you or for the affiliate, then the merchant is not able to pay out enough and it may be wise not to manage the program.

Hope that helps some.