Types of Affiliates

[pepo]

Dear Linda,

Thank you for this forum and for the opportunity to ask a question!

I am an affiliate program manager of an online niche gift shop. I have a question that I would appreciate your advice on. It may seem a bit of a long question, but I do feel that it comes up to a single question :-) I feel that it may be of interest to other affiliate managers too. My question has to do with "Affiliate Types" and with affiliates several applications that I received recently through one of the networks.

Recently we have applied to one of the affiliate networks, and have our affiliate program listed there. Since then, we received, very quickly, several affiliate applications. I checked the affiliates' websites, and I think that I can divide the websites/affiliates into these groups:

1. Sites that present a collection of banners and links, with little or no original content.
2. Coupon sites - focusing on sales promotion.
3. Rebate sites - focusing, as well, on sale promotions.
4. Shopping and comparison search engines, using a combination of a web crawler, artificial intelligence techniques, and a data extraction algorithm to seek out product information from online retailers.

What should be my attitude toward applications of such websites? Here are my thoughts and questions:

1 - My feeling that it would be better to reject these applications.
2 - I am not sure what should be my attitude toward coupon site. First, our site does not offer any coupons, so it puts in a question mark our compatibility with these sites, right? Anyway, adding coupons to our marketing plan can be something to think about... How do you feel about coupon affiliate partners? What is their effectiveness? How would you categorize them with relevance to the "Affiliate Types" described on your book'?
3 Here as well, I am not sure what should be my attitude toward these applications. Is it worthwhile to work with rebates site? Are they effective? Do you have any experience with this regards?
4 - What about shopping search engines and shopping comparison engines? I wasn't aware that these engines work with affiliate links. One thing to note, is that I can already see listings of our products and shop, as well of those of competitors (that do not have an affiliate program) on the relevant search engine. It seems, then, that products are listed there without relevance to the question if the merchant has or doesn't have an affiliate program. What is the benefit, then, from the merchant's point of view, to allow these search engines to approve these engines' affiliate application? Do these search engines provide special benefits to their affiliate partner? Do you have any experience or knowledge with this regards?

I have heard people saying that maybe it is best to approve all applications. I prefer to be more careful with affiliate applications. What is your opinion?

Thank you very much, Linda!
All the best!

[Linda Buquet]

Hi pepo,

Welcome to 5 Star. Great question!

I need to get a sick cat to the vet, but can give you
some ideas later today after I play catch up.

[Linda Buquet]

Hi again pepo,

This is a much bigger question than you know and my carpal won't let me write a book about it, which is what it would take. So here are a couple quick thoughts...

1st of all I think every HONEST affiliate deserves a chance, but merchants for various reasons sometimes need to be more selective.

2ndly realize that an affiliate may have a couple sites listed with the network, but may have a site perfect for your niche, that they forgot to list. Also a newbie with just a banner farm (your example #1) could possible grow to be a good affiliate. Also some affiliates will sign up with whatever site, but after they test to be sure you convert, could end up building an entire site just for you.

2. coupon sites - many are super strong affiliates, some are shady. So I would just carefully look to be sure they are on the up & up.

3. rebate sites - this is the type of site you need to look at very closely. Some rebate sites are considered "parasites" and steal commission from your honest affiliates. The thing to be on the lookout for is any type of download application. Like a shopping rewards toolbar, that notifies consumers of sales or rebates.

Affiliate fraud is a big issue too, so read this thread and be aware of it. There are affiliates that will join pretending to be shopping.com, bizrate or even 5staraffiliateprograms.com. They'll use the real company name and address but are typically fraudulent affiliates from China. Here is a bunch of info about screening for fraud apps. Be sure to see the latest article I just posted on page 3.
Fighting Affiliate Fraud - Put Your Detective Hat On

There are lots of great, honest affiliates out there so just need to
try to allow the right ones in and screen the bad out.

[Julia]

Hi Pepo,


Great questions, and like Linda said they're pretty huge so it's hard to address them all in detail. I just wanted to add my two cents about scenario #1 - I would recommend contacting the affiliate to get more details. Perhaps they are planning to add more content, or maybe they have more sites that would be better suited to promoting your product.

As for coupon sites, these can work very well, again depending on your product, in our network we partner with a lot of coupon sites in our retail programs. Also in my experience some top coupon affiliates are willing to take a slightly smaller commission amount in exchange for an exclusive coupon to offer their site visitors.

Cheers,