The other side of affiliate marketing

Has any of you ever promoted their own product thru an affiliate program? I have a product that I am selling with quite a nice profit (considering the work it takes for me) To get more orders for this product I'm moving it to a dedicated website and will do some marketing for the new site.

While thinking about how to promote the site, affiliate marketing came up. Since the profit is quite good, why not give some of it to others for promoting my product... The nice thing about the affiliate marketing is that if they don't bring me customers I don't have to pay.

CJ and LinkShare come to mind, since this is not a downloadable product clickbank can not be used here.

Yeah that could be a good option if you can pay the entry fees that these networks require (or with the competition that came latelly they don't?)

You can also talk with azoogle too.

BTW what is this product you are talking about?

Looking at the policies it looks like most affiliate programs would not allow me to join. You have to be quite a big company to promote your product this way, also signup fees can be quite high. I think I'll just have to create my own affiliate program for this.

The product are decals (I'll send you a pm with the website)

I don't think you need to be a big company to enter an affiliate network, and in any case you should try that before creating an in house affiliate system, as it is really difficult to gain the trust of the people who want to promote your business, while being a member of a well known affiliate program makes this process easier.

Another problem is that the product is not my own, I'm just a reseller... and resellers are not allowed to join the affiliate program...

I would be interested in what you come up with - I currently have an empty category Decals & Transfers that is just waiting for someone to submit a site. <end of shameless plug>  :-\

I had also been thinking about making some of the links into affiliate links, so I am interested in what you come up with - assuming the decals you are selling could in some way be used for crafting.  ;)

Offtopic : Michelle your google ads at this site are against adsense TOS. You have to remove those images


I don't think that is a problem when the product you sell is not available online.

offtopic: I thought we couldn't use images that are "misleading". It does say in terms of service that you can identify ads with "Sponsored Link" on this page: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&ctx=en:search&query=sponsored+links&topic=&type=f


I thought with the simple stars it would be OK, you think I should email them and make sure?

better be safe here and email them!

Sent email. Will share what they say.

of course you an always ask them to be sure, but anyway you placed them there to let people click the ads, right? ;)

For anyone wanting to start their own affiliate marketing site, how would one begin? What software is available? And does it require a dedicated server and lots of money?

There are plenty of scripts for that job, and every ecommerce software has a solution (built in or not)

I guess a dedicated server is not needed, but of course it would be better :)

IMHO The real problem when you want to start an affiliate program is the people. Check yourself as a publisher. How many times you haven't registered to an affiliate program because you didn't knew the company, or couldn't find feedback on them. Now if you try to find out what you need to make your program "trusted" you understand that things are not so easy....

I believe before you start an affiliate program you need some money for promotion and public relations.

What are we talking here? A few thousand?

It depends. Business has no specific price for each thing you do. You define the price. There are affiliate programs that made with $500 budget while other have a few millions ;)

You can check out our network as we charge a minimal fee compare to CJ or Linkshare. Visit our network at www.affiliatebot.com for more info.

I've heared of affiliatebot before but I can't say I know enough about your company.

If you want start a thread about affiliatebot here and we'll be glad to take you an "interview" :)

I would try JAM by jrox.com.  They have a free version of their afifiliate software.

I think once you have absorbed the initial cost for setting up your website, hosting and any cost of joining your affiliate network and but the time in being a merchant you can make it profitable.

Os Commerce and Cre loaded carts have affiliate software in the back office/admin area and they're a doodle to setup and maintain.
worth a look
Stu