This is one of the rare post I actually comment on. Thanks for sharing such valuable information. I am just starting with affiliate marketing and you just gave me plenty to think about. You mentioned many things I wasn't even aware of. Now I will be much more careful when choosing appropriate affiliate products to promote.
Chuggin McCoffee
· 7 months ago
Stealing sales is a serious issue that will turn off any prospective buyer or affiliate company. That checklist is really helpful to clear up any gray areas!
The Agra Indian
· 7 months ago
You have raised some very common issues that happen many of the times in business. And situation is even worse if you are freelancer some times you didn’t get the payment for you hard work in promotion.
NFL Football
· 7 months ago
What products are hot that do not fall under your restricted class?
Dr.Mani
· 7 months ago
Andy, you should take breaks more often. You come back with a BANG! Thanks for two outstanding, informative and brutally frank posts. The industry/niche needs it. And in line with it will be my new manifesto, will DM you a link to it on Twitter shortly. Thanks for what you're doing to "keep it all clean" - for all of us :-)
All success Dr.Mani
drmani (Dr Mani)
· 7 months ago
RT: @Ed "Affiliate Product Launches I Refuse To Promote" Andy's on a tear. Learn: http://is.gd/xRAy
Kevin Riley
· 7 months ago
Ouch! Until I read this (thanks to Dr Mani for sending me here) I had no idea Brightcove videos took a long time to load in Europe. Just started using them at Success Manifesto 2011 to deliver a series of videos. Was impressed with the instant load speed here in Japan. Thanks to your post my eyes have been opened and I'm going to ask some of my friends in Europe to check my load time. Or (hint) if you could leave feedback here :-)
Thanks, Kevin
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
Your videos are quite low bandwidth due to dimensions and all the background/foreground framing that reducing what actually changes on the screen frame by frame.
At the time I was testing again this morning, Brightcove detected my connection as 1600000, which is about right.
Your videos were running fine, but even 10am in Europe on a Saturday morning, the videos currently being used by Launch Tree were constantly having data rate problems.
If someone used Brightcove on videos I was paying for, and didn't provide any download links, I would refund as they are unwatchable for me.
Mikael @ Retire Rich
· 7 months ago
Definitely things that you will need to think about. I can see why you can fail by not paying attention to all of these things when you're on the producing side of things.
Karen
· 7 months ago
It is getting difficult to distinguish between good vs garbage/useless products there are so many people out there creating a new product
solar panels
· 7 months ago
This is a great checklist.I had bad experience with promoting junk products.
Princess
· 7 months ago
very helpful tips, easy to follow yet very consice. Thanks for this very enlightening tips. Keep posting topics like this, you are helping lot of people like me.
Excellent information Andy and thanks for sharing. I had a situation yesterday where significant commissions were just vaporized to your point of "Disappearing accounting data with no explanation". As both an affiliate and affiliate manager I see both sides and if more affiliate managers had practical experience we would see better programs. Tracking is essential and when I was told that my commissions were mis-tracked to my account it really gives foundation for more independent tracking systems. Keep up the great posts and I am not giving up on the $$
Marketing: Product Launch Affiliate Strategy: I am just starting with affiliate marketing and you just.. http://tinyurl.com/r4us7w
Criza
· 7 months ago
Awesome post, it would be very useful a list with the best affiliate marketing programs for people like me whom are beginners in the on-line world. Thanks
Mark
· 7 months ago
Great list. I need to do something like this to weed out the products I want to promote on my site. If it is truly about quality content, then it must be about quality products.
I am curious, what are your thoughts on affiliate products that do not provide cookies? I feel like this is a hindrance because no cookies mean a one shot deal.
Support Our Troops
· 7 months ago
What percentage of offers do you refuse to promote?
Steve
· 7 months ago
I very much enjoyed your list, and thank you for taking the time to put it together. In the deal breakers section "Support tickets unanswered" This is one of, if not the most important thing for a product company to have. So many products do not have the support and help needed and it becomes so frustrating for the buyer. Anyhow thanks again for this detailed list.
Hypnosis Review
· 7 months ago
Thank you for this excellent guide. You make me remembered my first cheque of $3 from travel biz and it's impossible for me to to deposit it because my bank would charge me for $20 USD. LOL
Thanks, Nick
Pimpin87
· 7 months ago
Skimming is a major issue that is hard to prove... but you know that something is going on when you run the exact same offer on 2 different networks with different conversion rates.
Bachus & Schanker
· 7 months ago
"Sneaky changes in payment options bypassing affiliates"
Hi Andy, I'm semi-new to affiliates. Could you please elaborate on this?
Corporate Life Sucks
· 7 months ago
As someone who is just learning about affiliate marketing, this was a good article. It does seem like there's a lot of, er, "shady" things and products out there. It's hard for me, as a noobie, to find legit offers and deals (and affiliates).
Wes Upchurch
· 7 months ago
I've had problems with some advertisers on different sites of mine. I usually email them to get it straitened out. Too often though the bad affiliate programs are going to lie, leaving the publisher with no choice but to drop them completely. The good programs always work with their affiliates.
@Pimpin87 - I just wanted to make it clear to you that different networks can different conversion rates. It doesn't make it fraud for one network to perform better than the other. It could be the quality and relevancy of how the ads are being displayed. Or it could have to do with how long the advertiser places a cookie for. (some pay only for immediate sales, others for sales up to 90 days out, etc.)
Shawn
· 7 months ago
There really are many good affiliate programs out there, but some are just terrible. The good ones are a ncie way to make some extra cash too. I will stay on the look out for the scammy ones. Shawn
Video Production Bir
· 7 months ago
I am just starting with affiliate marketing and this has given me much food for thought.
Thanks for sharing such valuable information.
Jenny at Mail Boss
· 7 months ago
Andy - do you have a price range / limit for products/services that you will promote? Do you steer clear of high price tag items even though there is potential for bigger payouts? Any insight on this would be helpful as we are launching our affiliate program soon and I want to be sure I know what challenges I will be facing in recruiting affiliates.
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
Jenny it is a tough call with hard goods. It really depends on other factors such as whether you want affiliates running PPC campaigns, and whether you will be preventing them bidding on certain keywords, allowing open access to your affiliate program without approval, datafeeds etc. You will probably be better off talking to your program manager in whichever affiliate network you eventually choose. They are likely to offer some sound advice on what their top affiliates will prefer, and the likely consequences/rewards.
Den
· 7 months ago
It's all about trust - you need to trust your affiliate network, your aff manager and so on. You have great example with opt-ins. I could easily send a few hundred people to the merchants landing page and he get all the leads to work on. How many sales will he do later? In my opinion, this is the most difficult part to track.
The stay at home mom
· 7 months ago
Great post. There are far too many people around that don't really seem to care what they're promoting, as long as they get their commission. Fact is, I'd rather promote a great product and take a low commission because I know I can get it to sell like hot cakes :)
Jenny at Mail Boss
· 7 months ago
Andy thanks for the advice. I think I'll stay away from CJ for now but hopefully some leads from ASW09 pan out...
Mike
· 7 months ago
This DO NOT list could be packaged into a nice product and sold to product owners...
Dennis
· 7 months ago
Thank you very much for this useful information. I printed this page. Great post :)
Franck Silvestre
· 7 months ago
Hey Andy, I think you said it all. Awesome.
Franck
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
The sad thing is I left out plenty - lots of things really suck.
Wolf Hudson
· 7 months ago
This is a good checklist, however I think there is one thing missing, and that is overall conversion often outweighs a lot of negative aspects of an affiliate site. I mean I'll deal with some leakage, difficult payment options, etc. . . if an affiliate site converts excellent. My point is that its a sliding scale. These factors all weight heavy, however they must be placed in the overall context of profitability of the affiliate.
I've made more money on scarcity with poorly set up affiliate program than I have with expert data, tracking, etc. of oversaturated niches. Just my 2 cents
This is an awesome checklist. Choosing the wrong affiliate product to promote is the biggest mistake most new marketers make. Even if a product converts well sometimes the negatives will still outweigh the sales. Id rather make 6 sales and get paid on them on time then make 20 and never see a paycheck because of some bad program management. Thanks for the info and God bless!
ms danielle
· 7 months ago
re: stealing sales, it's unfortunate that it's easy for companies to steal leads, but can you ever know what %age are stolen? if there were an "assist" tracking (like ysm does) that would be ideal but not probable. cookies are over-written or max commission durations cut short. blah blah blah... i'm working on creating a product which is why i tweeted this and bookmarked it. i agree junk products is #1 for a lot of affiliates as deal breakers. curious how you would rate a product like acai berry pills that has good customer service, aff service, tracking, and payout schedule? i.e. would love to see your check list of "junk" products!
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
I suppose with many "offers" from the CPA networks, you are being paid per lead, thus the advertisers profit from backend sales, even as affiliate promotions are factored into the price.
What you describe for lead stealing I would collectively group under skimming.
With Acai... hmm, a real tough call - I would be happy promoting it by PPC for keywords like "buy acai" - it isn't an illegal substance. The remainder is the gray zone - it depends on the sales page and health claims, though it isn't something I have researched.
Real junk products are those that just don't do what they say, or are significantly flawed to make them unusable for practical purposes.
ms danielle
· 7 months ago
appreciate all the feedback. i hope product developers find this article, it really is a great list and wonderful food for thought.
Max
· 7 months ago
@ms danielle
Acai - good customer service? Not sure about that when a search for acai on complaintsboard.com shows almost 10,000 complaints (many of which have dozens of comments which are also complaints) and almost every CPA offer for Acai has pushed the weight loss angle of which there is no proof whatsoever. Although the complaints about the hidden negative option (recurring monthly billing of up to $100 monthly) FAR outnumber those about the product not being effective as a weight loss aid.
cures for insomnia
· 7 months ago
It's good that you have some ethics like this. So many people just sell - doesn't matter what it is as long as they get money from it. And that's a good way to lose trust from followers and subscribers. A few people I bought things from have since promoted junk and now I don't believe anything they say.
Franck Silvestre
· 7 months ago
Very good read. Those marketers who are new to affiliate marketing should find your article very useful. It's important to promote what you like, besides if there is demand for these products too.
Jay
· 7 months ago
Thanks Andy really good read. I think that this is powerful stuff for us product owners too. We can learn how to keep our Affiliates happy... And keep them making money
Joseph B.
· 6 months ago
Well, Andy that pretty much sums it up doesn't it, or does it?
Some great material in thier for product owners to improve upon, not to mention affiliate pit falls to avoid. Great stuff!
Two things I would say...
1. If your affiliates are using sneaky tactics (you know what I mean, there are plenty and I won't go into them) don't be afraid to "let them know" sort of speak and...
2. Keep your radar open to what they are saying, they are "marketers" and will have a counter argument to this EVEN BEFORE you thought of it and will slide it into thier sales pitches.
3. O.K. I said two, but hey, I'm a marketer at heart! Ask your self BEFORE listening to the pitch "do I really need this?"
All Comments
All success
Dr.Mani
Thanks, Kevin
At the time I was testing again this morning, Brightcove detected my connection as 1600000, which is about right.
Your videos were running fine, but even 10am in Europe on a Saturday morning, the videos currently being used by Launch Tree were constantly having data rate problems.
If someone used Brightcove on videos I was paying for, and didn't provide any download links, I would refund as they are unwatchable for me.
I am curious, what are your thoughts on affiliate products that do not provide cookies? I feel like this is a hindrance because no cookies mean a one shot deal.
Thanks, Nick
Hi Andy, I'm semi-new to affiliates. Could you please elaborate on this?
@Pimpin87 - I just wanted to make it clear to you that different networks can different conversion rates. It doesn't make it fraud for one network to perform better than the other. It could be the quality and relevancy of how the ads are being displayed. Or it could have to do with how long the advertiser places a cookie for. (some pay only for immediate sales, others for sales up to 90 days out, etc.)
Shawn
Thanks for sharing such valuable information.
You will probably be better off talking to your program manager in whichever affiliate network you eventually choose.
They are likely to offer some sound advice on what their top affiliates will prefer, and the likely consequences/rewards.
You have great example with opt-ins. I could easily send a few hundred people to the merchants landing page and he get all the leads to work on. How many sales will he do later? In my opinion, this is the most difficult part to track.
Franck
I've made more money on scarcity with poorly set up affiliate program than I have with expert data, tracking, etc. of oversaturated niches. Just my 2 cents
i'm working on creating a product which is why i tweeted this and bookmarked it. i agree junk products is #1 for a lot of affiliates as deal breakers. curious how you would rate a product like acai berry pills that has good customer service, aff service, tracking, and payout schedule?
i.e. would love to see your check list of "junk" products!
What you describe for lead stealing I would collectively group under skimming.
With Acai... hmm, a real tough call - I would be happy promoting it by PPC for keywords like "buy acai" - it isn't an illegal substance.
The remainder is the gray zone - it depends on the sales page and health claims, though it isn't something I have researched.
Real junk products are those that just don't do what they say, or are significantly flawed to make them unusable for practical purposes.
Acai - good customer service? Not sure about that when a search for acai on complaintsboard.com shows almost 10,000 complaints (many of which have dozens of comments which are also complaints) and almost every CPA offer for Acai has pushed the weight loss angle of which there is no proof whatsoever. Although the complaints about the hidden negative option (recurring monthly billing of up to $100 monthly) FAR outnumber those about the product not being effective as a weight loss aid.
Some great material in thier for product owners to improve upon, not to mention affiliate pit falls to avoid. Great stuff!
Two things I would say...
1. If your affiliates are using sneaky tactics (you know what I mean, there are plenty and I won't go into them) don't be afraid to "let them know" sort of speak and...
2. Keep your radar open to what they are saying, they are "marketers" and will have a counter argument to this EVEN BEFORE you thought of it and will slide it into thier sales pitches.
3. O.K. I said two, but hey, I'm a marketer at heart! Ask your self BEFORE listening to the pitch "do I really need this?"
Nothing other than that.
Thank You Andy, Great Post