Do Any Outsourced Affiliate Managers work on Straight Commission?

[bigdreams]

I have Affiliatewiz installed on my web site and plan to run a preliminary affiliate program myself. However, I would love to outsource this whole project to an affiliate manager. I interviewed a few people who were referred an industry leaders but the problem I had is that they just wanted to tap in to the existing affiliates at something like shareasale.com When I checked out shareasale and most of the other places that have a lot of affiliates, I don't see anything ( or very little) of anything to do with real estate investing. Neither the affiliate manager nor the affiliate had a "ready to go" source for potential buyers for my product.

Shouldn't my objective be to hook up with affiliates who already have a large list of people interested in real estate investing as opposed to affiliates who market linens and things?

In real estate, as you know, you pay a commission to the person who brings you a buyer. No commission is paid until the job is done. The listing agent is responsible for doing a lot of marketing to attract attention to the property. I

It seems the job of an affiliate manager is similar - yet some of them expect to be paid $1000 a month PLUS a commission.

Not much of an incentive to get results when you're getting $1000 a month no matter what. I don't care for that plan.

Are there affiliate managers who are paid strictly on RESULTS?

Thanks for the advice.

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Jackie,

In affiliate management as in most things - you get what you pay for. I know all the top affiliate management companies in the industry and only a couple are in the 3,000 a month range - most are in the 5,000 a month range.

I don't know anyone good that only charges 1,000 a month and no one that know anything about affiliate management would work on straight commission.

Why? A couple reasons.

1) There is a lot of upfront work that goes into properly setting up and growing an affiliate sales channel. The sales grow gradually and it takes some time to get them rolling. Even if you set up on CJ, the biggest network with thousands and thousands of affiliates - they tell you in takes a full 3 months to get a program ramped up. So if you are an indie (in-house program - no network) and a no name brand AND a vertical niche at that, it could take much longer to build up momentum. Any manager worth their salt knows this.

If you get someone that will work on commish I ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE it will be a waste of your time and cost you! Even if you arent paying them except on results, your program won't be set up and won't grow the way it could with an experienced manager, so you won't generate the revenue you would with a pro.

2) The other reason seasoned managers don't work on commission is that conversions are up to you. They can set up the program right and drive lots of affiliates to your offer but if the product isn't good or the site isn't optimized for conversions or the pricing is off affiliates won't make money so neither will the manager.

Done right an affiliate program can be your best ROI sales channel, but success depends on how well it's executed and how successful the recruiting is.

Hope this helps!

[Rob_TID]

Listen to Linda.

Also remember that many affilaites build a site around an offer. Not incorporate an offer into an existing site (although it can be done both ways). The chances of you finding someone with a lot of real estate affiliates on file who are looking for a program like yours is virtually zilch.

A professional affiliate can market any niche if the figures are right.