affiliate quality, and type

[Rob P]

So we just launched a program with SaS and are in the process of getting data feeds and content up. We already have good conversion with a few of our affiliates - be it in the early stages of our program.

We've had what I consider a swarm of about 60 affiliates sign up. About 20ish I've had to turn away for the following reasons:

1. Their site doesn't load
2. Their site is a generic page, no content on it
3. They are clearly coupon only (not what we?re looking for)
4. Affiliate doesn't respond to email

Is this typical?

On number 3 and 4 are the most surprising to me. We stated coupon sites were not what we were looking for and not responding to emails seems ridiculous.

A few of the replies from affiliates have been incredibly unprofessional in nature. Poor spelling, formatting and structure of their emails.

Any thoughts on the matter?
Is this to be expected from affiliates?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Rob,

1st of all congrats on your new program!

Is this typical?

On number 3 and 4 are the most surprising to me. We stated coupon sites were not what we were looking for and not responding to emails seems ridiculous.

A few of the replies from affiliates have been incredibly unprofessional in nature. Poor spelling, formatting and structure of their emails.

Any thoughts on the matter?
Is this to be expected from affiliates?

Well there is a lot to that answer. But in a nutshell what I would say is that when you 1st launch an affiliate program on Shareasale and if you don't do any proactive recruiting, you tend to mainly get the lower end affiliates, the ones that just try to join every new program and probably a lot of foreign affiliates, hence the poor quality emails.

Also many affiliates are notorious for not reading and responding to emails. Some of those affiliate you emailed may not be very professional and others just may get so many emails from merchants that they tend to ignore them.

Getting the GOOD affiliates on Shareasale (and there are lots of good ones) takes a little work and time. Many of those affiliates for instance wait until they see you achieving a certain level of EPC. Also many of the best affiliates for you, the ones that may already have a site that's well targeted to your offer, probably just don't know about your program yet.

Are you set up on Auto Deposit? Many of the good affiliates have been burned and will only join merchants who are set up on auto deposit.

Feel free to ask any other questions as they come up.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

[Rob P]

Hi Linda,

That sounds reasonable, if they're foreign I understand; these seem to be American sites too though.

Yes, we're auto deposit. Only logical.

I want to target content rich sites. Are there many of those out there?

Right now we're only getting price focused sites. Which I'm not a fan of on principle.

Rob

 

[Linda Buquet]

I want to target content rich sites. Are there many of those out there?

Yes there are tons of content rich affiliate sites. A large percentage of affiliates focus on content sites. Just need to try to find the ones that are in your niche on SAS.

 

[Rob P]

Yes there are tons of content rich affiliate sites. A large percentage of affiliates focus on content sites. Just need to try to find the ones that are in your niche on SAS.

Great. We're almost ready for prime time. Our current convt rate is 3.5% 30 day and 6.5% 7 day.

I figure with banners and a product feed we should be ready to go soon.

We've got a lot of written content in the form of articles. Do affiliates like this? How do we offer it to them?

 

[Renee]

Hey Rob

I have a couple of tips that I share with some aff managers in my industry on getting affiliates to reply to emails... I hope this helps, and I think affiliates not replying to emails is common in all types of affiliate industries.

The first thing that will make the world of difference is how you address them.. Since they've joined your program, you should already have their name, so that part is already done for you... I notice that if I mention their name and who I am in the subject, the response rate is far higher than if I don't. I usually write something like "Hey Rob its Renee aff mgr".

The other tips I usually give are not really relevant to your issue, but more for when you go searching for affiliates without waiting for them to come to you - make sure you do as much research on their site as possible. Tell them what you like about it, why you think they should promote your product over the others, and sometimes it helps to offer them an extra incentive for their first month. The biggest thing is to make sure they are actually an affiliate and not a competitor.

I cannot tell you how many emails I get from competitors (even though I'm one of the most well known affiliate managers in our industry) asking me if I want to advertise their brands on my site (i.e. the site of our affiliate program). They don't do any research and can't even address me by my name, even though they have it - it's right there in the email address! Actually just recently I've had 2 emails from the same person, with the 3rd one being extremely rude telling me if I'm not interested then I could be courteous enough to let them know (the words used were not as nice as those)..

When I replied telling the guy that if he had researched my site a little he would see I'm not an affiliate and to remove me from his list, I got a pretty abusive email back telling me i was a bisexual donkey and to stick my finger somewhere to do with my mother... So it's not just you that gets the unprofessional emails.. And I gotta say that's not the worst one I've received..

Anyhow, keep going.. If you ever have any questions I would be happy to help

Cheers
Renee

 

[yogi1981]

So we just launched a program with SaS and are in the process of getting data feeds and content up. We already have good conversion with a few of our affiliates - be it in the early stages of our program.

We've had what I consider a swarm of about 60 affiliates sign up. About 20ish I've had to turn away for the following reasons:

1. Their site doesn't load
2. Their site is a generic page, no content on it
3. They are clearly coupon only (not what we?re looking for)
4. Affiliate doesn't respond to email

Is this typical?

On number 3 and 4 are the most surprising to me. We stated coupon sites were not what we were looking for and not responding to emails seems ridiculous.

A few of the replies from affiliates have been incredibly unprofessional in nature. Poor spelling, formatting and structure of their emails.

Any thoughts on the matter?
Is this to be expected from affiliates?

Yes, This is common.

People think that affiliate marketing is an easy way to make quick money without efforts.

Now a day, every persona want to do it. They register a domain, look for free hosting, copy contents and creates a banner farm.

Even in big networks like CJ, you will find lot many craps.

To get targeted affiliates, find them from wherever you can find them and contact directly.