# Hiring an Affiliate Marketing Company



## Miguel V (Jun 6, 2013)

Hi all,

So I decided to give affiliate marketing a try. One of my best friends was the person who for more than 10 years built and managed the entire affiliate marketing program of Tiger Direct / Comp USA and he just recently became independent. They sold millions of dollars through affiliates (of course they had the big name company and products to make this numbers). 

He was cool enough and offered me to include my t-shirt site on his program and of course how can I not trust a person I consider a brother. So I'm going to see how this works out but before I begin, I need to improve my site, do a very good photo shoot of models wearing my clothes that my target audience can relate too. *I don't want to make this big move without being ready first, I'll appreciate any advices from you guys to make my t-shirt site, designs and products better*. 

If all of this works out and bring me positive results, I'll share my friend's affiliate program with all of you guys if it can help you sell more. Please send me some good advices to be fully ready for this step I'm taking. Thanks!


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## mmoguls (Mar 9, 2009)

Is "affiliate marketing" another name for "network Marketing" like amway?


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## headfirst (Jun 29, 2011)

mmoguls said:


> Is "affiliate marketing" another name for "network Marketing" like amway?


No it's not. Affiliate marketing relies on independent website owners who create content to drive visitors to your product. You pay them a flat fee or a percentage of the sale. 

It can be a great way to drive sales but to work with an affiliate network or an affiliate broker can require larger marketing budgets than many small businesses have.

You'll need to modify your website to work with their tracking system and you may be required to pre-pay the network for X amount of sales to get started.


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## mmoguls (Mar 9, 2009)

Thanks for the clarification. Is that what you do with your phone cases? Others set up sites and sell product, and you fullfill the orders?

I converted one of my sites to a colorado timberline site. It got zero sales, and the traffic died. Switched it back 90 days ago, and it makes the phone ring again. Guess it wasn't what folks were after.


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## headfirst (Jun 29, 2011)

mmoguls said:


> Thanks for the clarification. Is that what you do with your phone cases? Others set up sites and sell product, and you fullfill the orders?


We do that for a few distributors, but most have their own sites and just send us PO's to produce and ship or they are selling programs and we're producing them in bulk.



mmoguls said:


> I converted one of my sites to a colorado timberline site. It got zero sales, and the traffic died. Switched it back 90 days ago, and it makes the phone ring again. Guess it wasn't what folks were after.


The problem with those canned affiliate sites is that they get penalized by the search engines for duplicate content, amongst other things. 

A better example of an affiliate program would be if I set up a system where you could just send visitors to my website and every time they bought a phone case I would send to $12 or something.


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## Miguel V (Jun 6, 2013)

headfirst said:


> No it's not. Affiliate marketing relies on independent website owners who create content to drive visitors to your product. You pay them a flat fee or a percentage of the sale.
> 
> It can be a great way to drive sales but to work with an affiliate network or an affiliate broker can require larger marketing budgets than many small businesses have.
> 
> You'll need to modify your website to work with their tracking system and you may be required to pre-pay the network for X amount of sales to get started.


Correct headfirst, the only good thing is that I'm doing this based on their direct sales only. My initial investment is $550 then after that I only pay a percentage of the sales created by the affiliates and I'll also pay my friend (The Affiliate Marketing Manager) an extra percentage of those generated sales instead of paying him directly for his services. Something I also like it's that I don't need to pay commissions on repeat customers. I pay one company a check every 30 to 45 days and they pay all the affiliates directly. Let's see how this works, first time I ever do this.


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## codyjoe (May 6, 2013)

"Prepare for the worst but hope for the best."

If this affiliate marketing goes well for you then it could change your business forever. But you need to remember this is just a calculated risk. If this venture fails you wont really lose anything except for a little time. So with that said, don't get your hopes up with this idea because it could be a complete flop.

Now in regards to "preparation", I would ask you this, are you able to handle up to 4x your current work flow? I'm not saying your business will improve that much but if it were to happen you need to have enough supplies to print the shirts, the right connections to buy the shirts right away, and equipment that can handle running all day long at good speeds.

We handle orders on a monthly basis where we'll need to get rush orders of 3,000 shirts done in under 24-hours so it's all about making sure your equipment is set and ready to print when you come in the next day.


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## Miguel V (Jun 6, 2013)

codyjoe said:


> "Prepare for the worst but hope for the best."
> 
> If this affiliate marketing goes well for you then it could change your business forever. But you need to remember this is just a calculated risk. If this venture fails you wont really lose anything except for a little time. So with that said, don't get your hopes up with this idea because it could be a complete flop.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the wise words codyjoe!

You are right, this is something that can work really good or not work at all. I'll find out in the near future. 

In case destiny sends my way unexpected large amounts of sales  We print with a good On Demand (DTG Printing) company. I pay only what I sell and ship. My printing and garment costs are a little higher but I think it's worth the operational and storage costs that I'm saving. The only thing I need to do at the moment is design and market. The printing and fulfillment warehouse that I print with can handle the volume and they have been very effective and professional for the most part. The garments are purchased On Demand as the orders come in. I mostly print on Canvas and Bella Garments. There are a few styles that I have to print on Gildan (Regular fit and tanks), Anvil (baseball tees) and Independent (Mid weight Hoodies). 

I'm a newbie in the business. I did a lot of re-search and my due diligence before launching. With the initial investments limitations, DTG On Demand Printing made the more sense to me. At the moment is giving me the flexibility and results I was expecting. Slowly but surely


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## codyjoe (May 6, 2013)

Is your printing facility able to handle rush orders as that could be something you encounter. I also hope this printer is fairly close to you so you're able to pick-up orders as they're completed.


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## Miguel V (Jun 6, 2013)

Because we decided to go with the On Demand Printing route, we can't offer rush orders. Our customers wait an extra 2 or 3 days for their orders but having the flexibility to choose from different garment styles and a hole bunch of color options makes the little extra waiting time worth it and so far we have received no complaints (knock on wood). 

We are in Miami, FL and our printing facility is in Chicago. We ship directly to the customer from the Chicago facility to save time and make it more cost effective.

For future reference what's your printing facility info? We will eventually print some hats and bennies and if you can do that, I'll love to have your info.


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## codyjoe (May 6, 2013)

Actually if you're shipping straight from the facility then you're good to go.

As for printing/shipping out beenies and other items for you and others within the industry, we actually don't specialize in that. We strictly print for our contract clients and anyone locally/online looking for sets of shirts with custom designs. We're not far from Chicago (Grand Rapids) so you're best to just stick with your current printer.


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## Miguel V (Jun 6, 2013)

codyjoe said:


> Actually if you're shipping straight from the facility then you're good to go.
> 
> As for printing/shipping out beenies and other items for you and others within the industry, we actually don't specialize in that. We strictly print for our contract clients and anyone locally/online looking for sets of shirts with custom designs. We're not far from Chicago (Grand Rapids) so you're best to just stick with your current printer.


The thing is that they don't print Hats and Beanies on Demand. I might have to find a new printing facility to print those. But those items will not be on demand, we'll have to pre-order, print, storage and then sell them.


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## codyjoe (May 6, 2013)

Yeah that could be a pain until you find a proper printer for that sole purpose as unless there's a guaranteed bulk of items, many printers will shy away from doing such work.


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