Building An Affiliate Network
| Category: Affiliate Marketing - Development | Date: 2003-04-28 |
I believe it was several months ago Jim started to hound me about the need to set up an affiliate program for some of the software products we sell. Although I saw the value in doing such, it was not until a couple days ago that our program went online.
Why the big delay? Very simple actually. I could not find an affiliate system that met all my qualifications, that would do everything I wanted it to do, that I had complete control over, and that would not give me permanent brain-damage trying to get it set-up and working properly.
Sure, I used the fact that we were in the middle of a complete and total redesign of our primary web site as an excuse to put the affiliate project on the back burner. But after we were down to the final testing stages of the site redesign, I realized I had better find what I needed.
In its simplest form, an affiliate program allows other web sites to promote yours (usually through banner displays) with a special affiliate link. Then, all visitors to your site coming from an affiliate link are tracked and the affiliate is then rewarded in some manner.
However, there are many other considerations when evaluating a system for your site. Several of these considerations are obstacles I ran into while evaluating such systems.
In house control: There are several other companies/web sites out there that host affiliate systems. You sign-up with them to run your affiliate program on their server. The ones I looked at were fairly expensive - although flexible. But, I did not want to have my entire affiliate program dependant on an outside company - the old saying "Here today - gone tomorrow" is especially applicable to the Internet.
Zero-wait startup: There is one thing I have learned about my own habits when it comes to responding to emails or finishing projects. If I dont respond to an email as soon as it comes into my box - within a few days it is pushed so far down that I might not get back to it for weeks. The same applies to projects - I cant begin to count the stacks of unfinished projects piled up on my desk. The reason they sit there uncompleted is I am still waiting for something I need to finish them. I needed an affiliate system that would enable my affiliates to sign-up, receive their ID and everything else they needed to get started immediately - not days later.
Customization: I dont like "cookie-cutter" solutions. An affiliate system should be customizable. Can you assign different commission rates? Can you customize the tracking system? Can you change the look and feel of the interfaces?
Reporting: I wanted a system that allowed my affiliates to check their statistics in real-time - without me having to do anything.
Processing: This one factor was the biggest downfall in most of the systems I evaluated. Granted, my situation is rather complicated. I wanted to offer not one, but 10-12 different products to my affiliates. To further complicate matters, each of our software products can be ordered by 6 different methods (secure online credit card, credit card by FAX, secure online Vcheck, Vcheck by FAX, phone and mail). How in the world was I going to find a system that could track orders via all those ordering methods?
Nirvana: Finding a system that would do everything I needed and having someone else install, configure and test it for me before "giving me the keys."
Being reassured that I must have some good karma left in my account, three weeks ago I literally stumbled upon a new start-up company offering a new affiliate system. I think I came across this company when I misspelled a URL in my browser. Anyway, I looked at their online information then gave them a call - yes, they actually listed a phone number. After explaining all my needs and the complexities of my site, I was assured the system could do what I wanted, although the US representative I spoke with was not intimately familiar with the exact technical details. A few hours later I was contacted by the actual programmer of the system and we exchanged a dozen messages working out the final details.
One week later, my affiliate system was installed on my server, tested and ready for customization - for less than half of what the other programs cost. It took me less than an hour to make minor alterations to my existing order forms (including the creation of a new Phone Order form). Then I splurged and spent another hour or so doing some heavy customization to the HTML output pages to fit the new site design.
Here is what I ended up with: A completely CGI based system (available for NT also) that handles the entire process. The only actual editing required is in a couple of text files to set commission rates and such.
Now, when someone wants to become an affiliate for our software products (our affiliates are eligible for commissions on 10 of our best selling programs), all they have to do is complete a simple online form. Upon submission, the CGI instantly generates a page in their browser containing their affiliate ID number and full instructions on how to link into our site. They are also directed to another section on the site where they view and download all our eligible products banners. I decided to go a step further and wrap up the 50 available banners (5 different sizes for each product) into a self-extracting .exe file so a new affiliate can download that file and have all 50 banners and full instructions on their hard drive. In other words, someone can join our program and start earning commissions literally within a few minutes from submitting the sign-up form.
On the order processing end, the system is flawless. The package included two order processing scripts that embed the affiliate number into both online transmitted forms and into any page you wish - such as "fill in and print this form to FAX" pages. Each time an order is submitted online, the total of that order is immediately added to the affiliate database allowing each member to go to a special URL to check their current sales and estimated commissions.
All in all, I could not be happier with this system (OK Jim, I guess I owe you for finally talking me into doing something about this) and although it has only been live on the site for a couple of days, the number of affiliate members seems to grow by the hour.
I would like to invite you all to stop by our completely new site at and check out the redesign. If you follow the "Reseller Programs" button you can get a good general idea of how this particular system works. If you are interested in a great affiliate system for your own site, you can follow the "Our Friends" button and click on the link for The Affiliate Zone - it is directly above the link and logo for the Gazette.
23 October 2000
About the Author
TJ (Timothy John) Walker is a trainer, speaker and consultant with a 20-year media background and 15 years coaching experience. Walker is a media coach who has trained more than 1000 candidates, authors, CEOs, executives, financial analysts, and civic leaders.
:To contact see details below.
tjwalker@tjwalker.com
http://www.tjwalker.com/
Why the big delay? Very simple actually. I could not find an affiliate system that met all my qualifications, that would do everything I wanted it to do, that I had complete control over, and that would not give me permanent brain-damage trying to get it set-up and working properly.
Sure, I used the fact that we were in the middle of a complete and total redesign of our primary web site as an excuse to put the affiliate project on the back burner. But after we were down to the final testing stages of the site redesign, I realized I had better find what I needed.
In its simplest form, an affiliate program allows other web sites to promote yours (usually through banner displays) with a special affiliate link. Then, all visitors to your site coming from an affiliate link are tracked and the affiliate is then rewarded in some manner.
However, there are many other considerations when evaluating a system for your site. Several of these considerations are obstacles I ran into while evaluating such systems.
In house control: There are several other companies/web sites out there that host affiliate systems. You sign-up with them to run your affiliate program on their server. The ones I looked at were fairly expensive - although flexible. But, I did not want to have my entire affiliate program dependant on an outside company - the old saying "Here today - gone tomorrow" is especially applicable to the Internet.
Zero-wait startup: There is one thing I have learned about my own habits when it comes to responding to emails or finishing projects. If I dont respond to an email as soon as it comes into my box - within a few days it is pushed so far down that I might not get back to it for weeks. The same applies to projects - I cant begin to count the stacks of unfinished projects piled up on my desk. The reason they sit there uncompleted is I am still waiting for something I need to finish them. I needed an affiliate system that would enable my affiliates to sign-up, receive their ID and everything else they needed to get started immediately - not days later.
Customization: I dont like "cookie-cutter" solutions. An affiliate system should be customizable. Can you assign different commission rates? Can you customize the tracking system? Can you change the look and feel of the interfaces?
Reporting: I wanted a system that allowed my affiliates to check their statistics in real-time - without me having to do anything.
Processing: This one factor was the biggest downfall in most of the systems I evaluated. Granted, my situation is rather complicated. I wanted to offer not one, but 10-12 different products to my affiliates. To further complicate matters, each of our software products can be ordered by 6 different methods (secure online credit card, credit card by FAX, secure online Vcheck, Vcheck by FAX, phone and mail). How in the world was I going to find a system that could track orders via all those ordering methods?
Nirvana: Finding a system that would do everything I needed and having someone else install, configure and test it for me before "giving me the keys."
Being reassured that I must have some good karma left in my account, three weeks ago I literally stumbled upon a new start-up company offering a new affiliate system. I think I came across this company when I misspelled a URL in my browser. Anyway, I looked at their online information then gave them a call - yes, they actually listed a phone number. After explaining all my needs and the complexities of my site, I was assured the system could do what I wanted, although the US representative I spoke with was not intimately familiar with the exact technical details. A few hours later I was contacted by the actual programmer of the system and we exchanged a dozen messages working out the final details.
One week later, my affiliate system was installed on my server, tested and ready for customization - for less than half of what the other programs cost. It took me less than an hour to make minor alterations to my existing order forms (including the creation of a new Phone Order form). Then I splurged and spent another hour or so doing some heavy customization to the HTML output pages to fit the new site design.
Here is what I ended up with: A completely CGI based system (available for NT also) that handles the entire process. The only actual editing required is in a couple of text files to set commission rates and such.
Now, when someone wants to become an affiliate for our software products (our affiliates are eligible for commissions on 10 of our best selling programs), all they have to do is complete a simple online form. Upon submission, the CGI instantly generates a page in their browser containing their affiliate ID number and full instructions on how to link into our site. They are also directed to another section on the site where they view and download all our eligible products banners. I decided to go a step further and wrap up the 50 available banners (5 different sizes for each product) into a self-extracting .exe file so a new affiliate can download that file and have all 50 banners and full instructions on their hard drive. In other words, someone can join our program and start earning commissions literally within a few minutes from submitting the sign-up form.
On the order processing end, the system is flawless. The package included two order processing scripts that embed the affiliate number into both online transmitted forms and into any page you wish - such as "fill in and print this form to FAX" pages. Each time an order is submitted online, the total of that order is immediately added to the affiliate database allowing each member to go to a special URL to check their current sales and estimated commissions.
All in all, I could not be happier with this system (OK Jim, I guess I owe you for finally talking me into doing something about this) and although it has only been live on the site for a couple of days, the number of affiliate members seems to grow by the hour.
I would like to invite you all to stop by our completely new site at and check out the redesign. If you follow the "Reseller Programs" button you can get a good general idea of how this particular system works. If you are interested in a great affiliate system for your own site, you can follow the "Our Friends" button and click on the link for The Affiliate Zone - it is directly above the link and logo for the Gazette.
23 October 2000
About the Author
TJ (Timothy John) Walker is a trainer, speaker and consultant with a 20-year media background and 15 years coaching experience. Walker is a media coach who has trained more than 1000 candidates, authors, CEOs, executives, financial analysts, and civic leaders.
:To contact see details below.
tjwalker@tjwalker.com
http://www.tjwalker.com/
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