My company just launched an affiliate program...

[Anncb]

As the affiliate program manager for a newly launched affiliate program, I am running into some problems and I'm hoping that more experienced affiliate managers here can help!

Here's the background story: The company I work for, MerchantWarehouse.com is a credit card processing service provider. We just launched a new affiliate program using an inhouse tracking system that was built from the ground up.

Yes, I know it would have been much easier to manage if it was done through a network. But the reason we built it inhouse was because in the merchant services industry, we found that phone call leads had a much better close rate than web form leads. With that in mind, we wanted each of our affiliates to have a unique phone number and to be able to track and attribute phone call leads (as well as web form leads) to our affiliates. We also have a generous payout to boot!

So the program launched in Oct 2008. It initially gained a lot of traction and we saw tons of new applicants.

BUT!

Even with 80+ accepted applicants since then, only a handful are actually doing anything! I've tried emailing/calling folks to follow up on it, to see what I can do to help, but I barely get a response from even that! its driving me a bit nuts. Also worrisome is that I know my company poured a ton of money in developing this affiliate program, and they are expecting some returns on investment and the pressure is just building up.

I just want to ask other folks who have launched affiliate programs.. is a high applicant signup with low activity to expected?

I do know that we have a fairly stringent payment info requirement and I am suspecting that its the main reason why we are not seeing much activity from our affiliates.

Lastly, the site is located at: (self promotion removed, not allowed in discussion)
Feel free to offer any suggestions or comments!

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Ann,

There are actually several things at play I think.

1) 90/10 rule. Even in good established programs only about 10% of affiliates are active. 90% join and don't even put up a banner.

2) B2B programs are EXTREMELY tough to launch/run/grow since most affiliates have B2C sites.

3) HOLIDAYS Trying to launch any program 4th quarter is almost impossible. Affiliates start their Holiday promotions in Sept and are totally focused on B2C holiday sales the entire 4th Q. Even if you had a hot B2C product that could be a good Christmas seller it would be hard to get any traction because affiliates were busy promoting products from merchants they already know, trust and are getting checks from.

4) Recruiting is hard in general and it takes much longer to build momentum than people realize. You had the B2B plus the holiday launch disadvantage, so it will be even slower to start.

I offer free consultations by phone 1-3 most days. If you want to set up an appointment, just email me at linda AT 5staraffiliateprograms DOT com

[Anncb]

Okay, thank you so much for your reply Linda.. It definitely takes alot of weight of my shoulders!

[Anncb]

I do have another question though, even given the points that Linda listed above that likely affected the outcome of the momentum of the aff program I manage, my collegues and I have been having a debate on the account information requirement, specifically the payout.

Currently, we require banking info for direct depositing as well as a w9 requirement. The only option is to be paid out by direct depositing.

Given Linda's 90/10 rule, the program I manage has a whopping 3% active affiliates.

At the very least, with all the points against a B2B affiliate program, would requiring less info from affiliates help boost activity?

I'm just affraid that being less stringent will open us up to fraudsters and the like.