Singing Pig

Hi

 I am interested in using some sort of web affiliate program to generate leads for my video production service. Does anyone have any recommendations on who and how to best go about this.

I understand the majority of  this type of marketing is more for the selling of products then services? I have come across commission junction ...anygood?

 Thanks Tom
 

Hi

Commssion Junction take quite a large percentage as their "cut" for running your affiliate program. As I understand it, they also have minimum sales requirements but you'd need to check out the details with them. Affiliate Window is a UK based equivalent if you want something more local.

Clickbank would be ruled out because you're not offering a digital product.

It's slightly harder work but you may be better off with your own affiliate program. As an affiliate, I'm a fan of Idev Affiliate, which installs on your server and gives both you and the affiliate excellent stats.

If you're looking for more of an all-in bundle, then 1ShoppingCart is another option.

Hope this helps,

Trevor 

Nice answer Trevor. Great example of affiliate marketing too. You stand to make money out of all three of the recommendations you made!

Tom, I would recommend you pay a visit to http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/index.php (no this is not an affiliate link). Far more advice available there than you can get here.

Hi Tom

No harm in doing that - same price for the customer!

Trevor 

trevord:

No harm in doing that - same price for the customer!

But are they the best recommendations?

Hi Pete

I wouldn't recommend them with or without an affiliate link if I didn't like them. 

I personally use IDevAffiliate on one site and 1ShoppingCart on another.

1ShoppingCart is pretty much industry standard. It has it's ups and downs but is generally recognised as the best "all in" option for autoresponder plus shopping cart plus affiliate.

IDevAffiliate has absolutely superb reporting. From an affiliate point of view, I love it. I get stats that I can look at, with lifetime and drill down options. From a site point of view, I can offer affiliates this plus links that point to exact pages, integration with various carts & payment methods and enough different ways to track the sale that both myself and my affiliates can be sure that the commission gets to the right place. It isn't often recommended as it doesn't pay much (20% from memory).There's also the option to auto or manually approve new affiliates, set up a minimum payment amount, mass pay with Paypal, add a bonus for signing up, pay per click or per sale.

(Same as on outsourcing I'd always recommend Rentacoder over Elance but you'll rarely see that done as Elance pays out better...)

Affiliate Window I use from the affiliate side. They're similar to Clickbank in that you need to join each merchant individually. The merchant can set affiliates up to be auto or manually approved, can set restrictions on affiliates (but I suggest staying away from that as the more restrictions you apply, the less people will be inclined to promote - I just dropped a magazine program that was working OK and getting signups because they changed their terms so I couldn't mention the magazine name in PPC ads. Duh). There's also many different options e.g. text, banner, data feed which are more easily accessible than CJ.

Trevor 

Hi, Tom

I have been using www.b1hosting.co.uk/ for my hosting needs. They are really good providers. Moreover they have shopping cart software of their own. Its shopping cart software will install on virtually any web server, and does not require root access or special modules. I think it will be an ideal choice for your needs.

Good luck!!!

I think if you research the affiliate network you will find some networks out there. It depends on your niche, finding a network that offers the niche that you want to market.

 I have heard some really good things about moreniche.com at the minute.