# What makes a great affiliate program?



## LadyFingers (Feb 20, 2007)

So, my friend has a great t-shirt site (big surprise) and he wants to have a great affiliate program. I know most affiliate programs are pretty much the same. They offer either a percentage or a flat $ amount from each shirt you sell. They offer a second tier if you refer somebody else who becomes an affiliate, you get a piece of their sale. I'm really looking for your insight into what would make an affiliate program stand out to you, what do you like about affiliate programs you currently belong to, or what has worked for you in your affiliate program that you run. I'm open to everyone's comments but I'm especially interested in people who are using affiliate programs or running them. I know one thing I always like is when they pay me on time!


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

On time payments are good  

When the merchant site is good at converting traffic to customers, that's a big bonus. Some sites are more "affiliate friendly" than others. 

In general, if the site has streamlined its website to make the shopping experience as quick and easy as possible, it's more likely that I'd want to link to them, since they know not to clutter the page with things that will distract the shopper.

Ability to create deep links directly to products is a big plus. If the merchant site makes it crazy easy to link to a product, all the better. Like cut and paste affiliate links to every product in their catalog.

The amount the merchant pays the affiliate is good. 5% isn't great for a t-shirt site, but 15% and up is nice.

Coupon codes for specific affiliates to promote is nice. That way the affiliates can post timely messages/newsletters, etc.


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## LadyFingers (Feb 20, 2007)

Thanks Rodney. All really good suggestions


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## TickTac (Jul 3, 2007)

Flash sites make deep linking difficult, maybe stay away from that. 

Possible incentives to push the product more than any other ( tier structures)


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## JohnnyMo (Jun 14, 2007)

I have used Post Affiliate Pro to construct my site affiliate program and it is a great little PHP package. You can set flat rate or percentage payments, provide real time stats, and do a whole host of things with it. 

As to implementation, I have had good success offering a flat $5/tee sold, with a second tier referral of 10% on any additional referred webmasters. I added the standard requisite banners, and direct links to products, but PAP also allows HTML banners and I am working up one piece of code that will offer a "T-Shirt of the Day" so affiliates can paste the code and have a different t-shirt from our catalog show in the same space on the site every day. 

Good luck.


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## TShirtReview.com (Jun 5, 2007)

I'm a member of a bunch of affiliates, and here's my outlook on it. 

Shareasale is my favorite to work with. It's nice for someone to be able to join your affiliate program just by clicking "join" instead of having to register with your site and you having your own personal affiliate program. It takes too long to get $50 or so from just ONE small site, as compared to getting paid monthly from all the Shareasale sites at once.

It also turns off big advertisers to have to join your own homemade affiliate program due to security. I don't like giving out info to small sites. Small sites also tend to not pay that well with their own programs, I rarely see checks even after repeat emails about payment.

Shareasale is my favorite, followed by Consumption Junction, but there is not enough good sites on their network. T-Shirt Hell is the only site that has their own affiliate program that I actually like working with. They pay, and sales are high.


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## besttshirtsever (Aug 18, 2012)

Another vote for Shareasale. They have a great selection of affiliate programs available. Never had a payment issue with them. They allow custom commission structures and have pretty good support.

In terms of selecting individual affiliate programs, number one is always the quality of the product. Then I look at things like commission rate, how well it converts, if they ever go offline, if they are open to custom commission rates for top affiliates.


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## besttshirtsever (Aug 18, 2012)

Oh and the ability to create deep links to product pages are a must.


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## headfirst (Jun 29, 2011)

Great affiliate managers make a great affiliate program. 

Invest heavily in hiring a great affiliate manager and empowering them to recruit high quality affiliates and resolve problems those affiliates might have.

I see lots of posts about affiliate systems and on-time payments, but these are givens. These things are basics, not things that make it great. 

Affiliate marketing is about relationships. Professional online marketers are a fickle bunch and the majority of affiliates that sign up to promote your product or program will never sell a thing. The pareto rule comes in to play here. 80% of your affiliate sales will come from 10-20% of your affiliates. 

You need a great affiliate manager to take care of that small group of affiliates to nurture those that are sending the sales and make sure the resources are available to help the non-performing affiliates.

To sum it up, the best thing you are going to do for your affiliate program is to hire an experienced affiliate manager. It shouldn't be you. 

To do it right takes too much time, energy and resources you do not have and cannot get. Hire a pro!


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