How We Created Our Affiliate Program and What You Should Consider

If you are an affiliate attempting to select an incorporation service to market, how do you choose with so many different companies out there? Since we obviously want affiliate to select our service, we started asking this question ourselves when we were designing our affiliate program. We tried to put ourselves in the affiliate’s shoes and began looking at every affiliate program that was available as though we were going to market one on our own website. Some of what we found was very interesting.

Here are the things we considered as we reviewed affiliate programs:

Money
1. How much could we earn for one sale?
2. How fast can we move into a higher paying bracket?
3. When we reach the higher paying bracket, is the new dollar amount applied to all sales or just the sales from that point forward?
4. How often will we be paid?
5. Is there a minimum amount that needs to be earned before we can be paid?
6. Will my commission be dependent on which product or package the customer purchases?
7. Complexity
  1. How many restrictions are put on us related to our sales efforts?
  2. How is commission calculated? Will I be able to calculate it myself or will I need to rely on the incorporation service to tell me what I have earned?
  3. Is the affiliate agreement full of language meant only to protect the incorporation service or does it have the best interests of both parties in mind?
  4. Transparency
    1. Does the service tell me everything I need to know up front or will I learn details later in the process?
    2. Will I have a direct contact with the company or not?
    3. Support
      1. Again, will I have a direct contact that can answer questions and assist me when I am uncertain?
      2. What types of ads are provided for me to use on my site?
      3. Will the company make changes based on suggestions or not?
      4. Profile
        
        Is this a top company or a mom & pop type of affair?
        
        Has the company been around or is it new?
        
        Are they successful?

This seems like a lot of information to consider, but it is really important because it determines whether you can be successful marketing another companies products or not. We learned that the answer isn’t always easy to get to.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly…

Some programs were cut very quickly when we evaluated the money.

For example, if our payout was to be determined by any measure of profitability, we cut it. After all, how could we determine what we would be paid if our payout would be based on how much money they were going to make? Several programs were this way. They very carefully explained that a $100 sale would pay a 15% commission, but the commission would be paid on the profit from the $100, not from the sale amount itself. No good, you’re out!

Another problem was programs that promised to pay very high commissions at the top tier; however, that payout was reserved for only the sales above that level. This meant that other sales would still be paid at a lower commission. This method of calculating the payout lowered out overall yield and had to be calculated very carefully. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but worth considering.

We learned to look for minimums, also. Several programs would not cut a check until some minimum threshold had been met. Only one sale this month? No check. We didn’t like this idea.

The complexity of the programs was also a concern.

We have lawyers on staff, but we admit that it was hard to really understand some of the affiliate agreements. Why was it so difficult? Is something hidden in all that legal wording? That didn’t always make us comfortable.

Some also actually spelled out how we could and couldn’t sell their products. I’m not quite sure why they would ask for affiliate help and then tell us how to do our job.

Transparency and Support.

One of the largest companies and the one that I thought would be the most difficult for us to challenge was actually the least transparent. They gave very little information and seemed to indicate that we would be just another gear in their huge machine. No personalization. They made it obvious that if we want to sell their product, we should just take it as it is. Why would we need a contact with the company? Isn’t the contract enough?

Profile.

Surprisingly, we found most of the companies to be reputable. There we some that we wouldn’t want to do business with, but they were the exception.

How did this effort shape our affiliate program?

We took everything we liked and everything we didn’t like and tried to create a program that would create a good partnership between us and our affiliates. Once we felt we had a good program, we rolled it out to some of our existing partners for testing to see how they felt about it and the results were pretty mixed. Even though we felt we had put our best foot forward, our partners didn’t like everything. We went back to the drawing board several times until they felt good about what we were offering and the result of all of this is what you see today. The final result focuses most on money. It’s simple enough that anyone can understand what they are being paid and has almost no restrictions. Second only to money is support. We give our affiliates a single point of contact that can answer questions and make decisions. Our test group basically let us know that if we did these two areas well, the rest works itself out.

Take a look at what we offer. Let us know what you think. We know from how fast this program is growing that we have a good formula and we would love to have you on board!

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